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The University of Alberta Press
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Copyright 2018 Rod Macleod
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Macleod, R.C., 1940, author
Sam Steele : a biography / Rod Macleod.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 9781772123791 (softcover).ISBN 9781772124330 (EPUB).ISBN 9781772124347 (Kindle).ISBN 9781772124354 (PDF)
1. Steele, Samuel B. (Samuel Benfield), 18481919. 2. North West Mounted Police (Canada)Biography. 3. PoliceCanada, WesternBiography. 4. SoldiersCanadaBiography. 5. Northwest, CanadianHistory. 6. CanadaHistory18671914. 7. Biographies. I. Title.
FC3216.3.S77M33 2018 363.2092
C20189058552
C20189058560
First edition, first printing, 2018.
First electronic edition, 2018.
Digital conversion by Transforma Pvt. Ltd.
Copyediting and proofreading by Brian Mlazgar.
Maps by Wendy Johnson.
Indexing by Judy Dunlop.
Cover design by Alan Brownoff.
Cover photograph : Portrait of Samuel Benfield Steele, Lord Strathcona's Horse, 1901. W.M. Notman & Son Studio. [BPSC 2008.1.3.2.6.1.2] Used by permission.
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This book was funded in part by the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation.
Acknowledgements
I AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL to the people who helped me in the writing of this book. My wife Elaine was my chief research assistant, spending countless hours transcribing documents, especially Maries letters to her husband. Her insights from that work were invaluable in understanding the most important relationship in Steeles life. The University of Alberta Libraries provided me for two summers with an outstanding research assistant, Dan Watson, who cheerfully and competently performed every assigned task. He even willingly took on trying to untangle Steeles business investments, something that Steele himself clearly failed to understand.
Charlotte Gray, Vern Paetkau, and Laura Macleod read the whole manuscript and their comments and suggestions made this a much better book. Their willingness to take the time from busy lives went beyond friendship, or in the case of Laura, family ties. Peter German and Don Smith very kindly read parts of the book.
The staff at Bruce Peel Special Collections, University of Alberta, could not have been more helpful. At times getting through the mass of Steele material seemed like an endless task, but they always made working there a pleasure. When a renovation project closed the library for some months, they went out of their way to ensure uninterrupted access to the papers. Thanks to Robert Desmarais, Linda Quirk, Jeff Papineau, Carolyn Morgan, and Carol Unwin. Lynn McPherson, the archivist for the collection and the person who knows more about Steele than anyone else, was an indispensable resource. All images in this volume are courtesy of Bruce Peel Special Collections.
The book would never have been written if the University of Alberta had not taken the initiative to acquire and preserve the Sir Samuel Steele Collection. Cameron Treleaven of Aquila Books in Calgary alerted Ernie Ingles and Merrill Distad about the availability and importance of the papers and they, with the support of then Vice-President Academic Carl Amrhein, raised the necessary money (approximately $1.8 million) in an amazingly short time. Their foresight and initiative prevented the collection from a likely fate of being broken up or sold out of the country.
I have published a number of books with University of Alberta Press over the years. Peter Midgley, Cathie Crooks, Mary Lou Roy, and Alan Brownoff are always a great team to work with. Brian Mlazgars meticulous and insightful copyediting was a great help. I have the privilege of being the last author signed by Linda Cameron before she retired as Director. Thanks to all.
Introduction
Happy as he was to regale the citizens of Orillia with tales of the world-famous gold rush, Steeles own future was very much in doubt at this point in his life. He had served the NWMP with distinction for twenty-six years and had long hoped to cap his career with command of the Force, but in the fall of 1899 that prospect seemed increasingly remote. The commissioner of the NWMP, Lawrence William Herchmer, showed no sign of being ready to resign. Herchmer was a Conservative appointee and not popular with Sir Wilfrid Lauriers federal Liberal government, but even if the Liberals decided to replace him it was unlikely that they would appoint Steele, whose political connections were also Tory and whose father-in-law was a Conservative insider. There were a few Mounted Police officers with Liberal connections, and although none had Steeles combination of ability and experience, this was unlikely to count for much. In fact, as Steele was well aware, Superintendent A. Bowen Perry was being groomed for the job; to make matters worse, Perry was one of the few NWMP officers he actively disliked.
Steele could certainly have had his choice of the available commands in the NWMP but none were remotely as interesting or important as the Yukon. He had invested in mining ventures in southern British Columbia and in the Yukon, and devoting himself to those businesses seemed a likelier career prospect. Then, just as he was about to make his choice, events elsewhere presented him with a new opportunity. In October, fighting had begun in South Africa between Great Britain and the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. While Steele was visiting Orillia the British seemed to be winning the first encounters but as he was returning to his family in Montreal in early December the situation changed drastically. In what became known as Black Week, December 1017, the British lost three major battles in succession and quickly made it known to the Canadian government that they would welcome military assistance.
Contents