The Town History

𝗥𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗶𝗲𝘂𝘁-𝗖𝗼𝗹. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗵 𝗥𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝘆.

Rowley came into being when Mr. Deering started a little general store. Mr. Johnson was the manager, and the stock was owned by Mr. Drysdale.

In 1911, Mr. George Swallow Sr. bought the store, and in 1912 his sons, Henry and George, joined him in partnership.

In 1913, Mr. Swallow was appointed as the first postmaster. Before this everyone got their mail from Rumsey; for a short time Henry brought it to Rowley for distribution.

In 1912 the first school was built and opened. The first teacher was Miss May McLean. The second teacher was Miss Nellie Cameron, 1913-1914. The third teacher was Miss Harold. In ten years this school was replaced by a two-room brick building with a full-size basement.

Church was held in the homes at first, then in the schoolhouse, and in 1939 the community built our church. One of the first ministers was Mr. Richard Yorke. The first minister in the new church was Mr. Driver.

The railroad was put through from Stettler in 1911 and on to Calgary in 1913. A box car served as a house for the maintenance men and family. A platform for loading and unloading was on the west side of the tracks. Mr. George Swallow Sr. had a scale for weighing loads. It was located in front of his store. For years a box car served as a station until the present station was built.

Around 1914, Jack Thomson donated a piece of land for the Rowley Cemetery.

The Home Grain Elevator Company built in 1915. George Skovmand ran it until 1916 when Frank Swallow took over. This elevator (full of wheat) fell across the tracks. luckily, no train was in. The main track was cleared in a few hours but the side track took days. It was rebuilt and an annex was added. One Sunday afternoon, the annex burst open, covering the side track with grain and splintered wood. Later the whole thing burned down. it was replaced and is now the Searle. The National Elevator Company built in 1917 and the U.G.G was also built. It is now the Alberta Wheat Pool.

Frank and Mollie Swallow built their house in 1916.

Henry Swallow built the livery stable and moved into his house in 1917-1918.

Charlie Jacobson built a general store in 1916-1917.

Fred Jervis and family moved a house into town where they lived for a time, then sold it to C. Jacobson, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Gardiner, and their daughter, Keitha, built a hardware and grocery store in 1920 with an apartment above.

A two-story restaurant was built and operated by Leung Ying in about 1920.

Next, a pool hall and barber shop were constructed. Sam Esplin and Irvin Chapman owned and operated these. Mr. Cowan operated a store and butcher shop in the front of this building for a time. Mr. H. L. McKee built a garage and laid a floor of field rock. Later he put in an electric lighting system, serving the town as well as the garage. Erickson and B. Fales operated the garage and Sam Swenson was the mechanic.

The hardware restaurant, pool hall, and garage burned in 1922 or 1923.

On the corner, Ralph Smith built a two-story structure - the top floor was a dance hall and the ground floor contained an office, machine shop, and living quarters. Smith sold out to a barber, Mr. Locke, rented the front office; the machinery part was used by Walter Jervis, later by George Reynolds and Richardson as a garage. Mrs. A. Allen and two daughters and her mother rented the apartment. Mrs. Allen taught school. Mr. Allen was a butcher.

The second pool hall and barber shop was built by Charley Burchell in 1923 beside the Ramp Smith building. Both of these buildings were destroyed by fire in 1929.

The hall we now have was built by the community in 1933-1934. The kick-off for this project was a raffle - a crocheted doily made and donated by Mrs. Ed Bremer.

A restaurant was built in 1922 by Shorty Leung and Hawkeye; owned and operated by Sam Leung.

The Merchants' Bank built next to Jacobson's store; Mr. Ferguson was the manager, and Harry Edmunds and McLintosh as assistants. These two buildings burned down in 1926.

The Imperial Lumber Yard was run by Ted Dalstrom, and later by Percy Wray. This building was eventually sold and moved away. Crown Lumber Company also operated a yard. Tommy Morgan of Morrin was the manager.

A returned soldier, Dr. A. J. Key, built a hospital in 1918-1920. The nurse was Edna Ryning. David Garland, son of Ted Garland, M.P., was the first baby born in this hospital. In 1922, Dr. Mason took over for a year, This building was then used as a classroom for half a year, since then it as lived in by different families, high school students, and finally as a private home.

Mr. and Mrs. Simonson and their family built and operated the hotel in 1920. Hogan, Larson, and Rutherford did the building. The municipality first had a shack office run by W. F. Richardson. Later they built a new office. S. R. Hooper succeeded Richardson.

The decline of Rowley began when the municipal office was moved to Morrin in 1943.

An office was opened by H. Swallow and Mr. Goodhand in 1917-1918. They handled machinery and ice cream separators. Mr. Getman opened a blacksmith shop next door. Mr. Sinclair took over the shop and built a home east of the livery stable.

There was also a butcher shop and creamery at one time. Mr. and Mrs. John Lundal built a store in 1930, known as the Red and White. After he left in 1942, P. J. Hampton bought the building. He and his family lived in the apartment at the rear and had a pool hall in the front.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Tuck and Wally returned to Rowley after living in Drumheller, Vergreville, and other points, He opened a pool hall and barber shop and had good business for some years.

In 1916, the baseball team held practices at F. Bremer's on Wednesdays and J. Thomson's on Saturdays. The Rowley Sports Day in 1918, sponsored by the Sunshine Club, was the site of the first baseball tournament -Rowley won! In 1920 they formed a league with Rowley, Rumsel, Big Valley, and Morrin. The team brought fame to our little town. The whole community became ardent fans, among them Fred Bremer, who went to Chicago in 1929 for the World Series.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Tuck supplied music for many years for schoolhouse dances. Other community members contributed their musical talents for the enjoyment of the community as well. On special occasions, orchestras were hired from Calgary. An Agricultural Fair was held near Jack Thomsons. It was sponsored by the U.F.A. People drove in from far and wide with their families, exhibits, picnic lunches, and a 'jag' of hay for feed for the animals. While judging took place, sports and visiting were enjoyed. An outdoor pavilion was built for the evening dance, The next fairs were held near the school grounds. An airplane ride was a bus attraction in 1920. The Sunshine Club organized in 1913, and the Ladies Aid in 1915 were ladies' clubs for recreation, assisting church affairs, Red Cross work, and other worthy projects. The ladies would gather in someone's home in the afternoon (small children always accompanied their mother) to hold their meeting, then at lunchtime, the hostess would serve supper for not only the members but husbands and other members of the families that came along. Besides the U.F.A. for the men, a junior U.F.A. was organized and the young people were active in this club for a few years.

In 1939, Abe Shrock took over the grocery store from its former owner, Mr. Gardiner. He and Peggy ran the store for around seven years. When they left the store and moved to Macfarlane's farm to live, Lorne and June Liesemer took over for the next two or three tears. Jim and Gus Clark and their family came in 1950 and were here for twenty-three years until Jim passed away in 1973. The Red and White store, built in the thirties by Mr. John Lundal closed out around 1973. Mr. Tuck closed the barber shop and pool hall sometime in the late 1940s. Sam Leung ran the restaurant, meat market, and store next door to Clark's from 1941 to 1968 when he retired to Rumsey. Mrs. Hovde had the telephone exchange for many years and when they left Rowley, Keith and Arbilla Thomson moved into town and looked after the phone from around 1950 to 1963, when it was moved to Clark's store. In 1966, the A.G.T. began putting in buried cable and a few years later we had direct dialog. In January of 1981, we were hooked up with Drumheller Exchange.

A new school was built in Rowley in 1958. A three-room school grades one to eight. In 1965 they decided to close it and bus the young students to Rumsey and High School to Morrin. The school was sold to a chiropractor who fixed it up as a dwelling place.

Most people had power by 1950, some earlier, and natural gas was turned on in 1975 to everyone who had signed up for it. Wilbur Stewart was running the garage and delivering gas and oil in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Mr. Hovde had the gas and oil before that.

In 1953, the hotel burnt to the ground. Our curling rink burnt in 1958. The railroad station closed in 1965. Jay Pavey, who did carpenter work around the country, came in the 1920s. He lived in a little house near the hotel, and that is where he passed away in 1962. He left some money to the church and with this, we fixed up the basement for a Sunday school room. In 1966, with donations and memorials, we bought an organ for the church. The post office was run by the Swallows for fifty-six years, 1912-1968. In 1968, Jack and Beryl Macfarlane took over the post office and ran it until 1976. Our post office was closed for a few months but reopened in 1977 with Betty Morell as postmistress. After two years the Morells left and the Thomsons ran it for a year, followed by Margaret and Hugh Crossan who came in 1980.

In 1974, a number of fellows from the town and country got together and built an addition to our hall, putting in the water and washrooms.

In 1980 we leased the old C.N. railroad station and converted it into a museum, where we have a number of old antiques. For years there were three elevators; Wheat Pool, Searle, and National. A few years back the Wheat Pool took over all three. The National was sold and is now torn down. Sam's Saloon came into being July 1980, to aid in the celebration of Alberta's 75th birthday. When the Rowley community was 'racking our brains' to come up with something different, the idea of a saloon seemed to fit the occasion. The old restaurant formerly owned and operated by a very popular resident, Sam Leung, was the ideal building. Once the decision was made, there was no looking back. A veranda was constructed, the word, 'Saloon' painted on the windows, hitching rails, wagon wheels, swinging doors, rough slabs, long bar, and artifacts of yesteryears. Everyone got involved.

The population of the Rowley community is small in size, but large in enthusiasm. With three generations working side by side, things began o shape up. The end result was beyond all our dreams. Costumes of the olden times were prevalent, creating an atmosphere that provided the icing on the cake.

Sam's Saloon is still a popular place for special occasions - birthdays, anniversaries, and farewells. In 1984, the Rowley Museum acquired a box car from CN Railway and set it up in Box Car Park. Our local 4-H club at the time dug a hole for a pond, put an arch bridge over it, planted trees, and made a walking path. This was the beginning of "Box Car Park".

A major movie company came to Rowley in 1988 and spent the summer shooting the movie 𝘉𝘺𝘦 𝘉𝘺𝘦 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴, a movie about the life of a wife of a WWII soldier. Numerous movie fronts were set up on Main Street for shooting purposes, and some local community members were chosen for shooting purposes. An agreement was made to keep some of the fronts left standing, which were later constructed into actual buildings. The Bank and Pool Hall (now Funeral Home) are two of these buildings.

The Bank front was deteriorating quite badly, so in 2003 we had it rebuilt. We acquired the Hillsgreen School House around 1990 and had it moved to Rowley. It didn't take long to fill it with an old teacher's desk, many original desks from the 1950s and 1960s, maps, a piano, and a stove. The building also includes the original living quarters (where a family of six actually lived) at the back of the structure. It brings back many memories for the numerous tourists that visit! The desks are all filled with plush students thanks to Joyce Hobbs.

In the early 1990s, public washrooms were erected on Main Street for use by the many tourists. An addition was added to the back of Sam's Saloon and we also built a machine shed which was going to be used for Historical Displays but is now used as a storage area for our museum. A passenger train car was acquired. It was approximately 80 feet long with windows on each side and fully gutted inside. It would have required a lot of work to restore, so we traded it to a group near Sundre for a caboose and a speeder car! In the mid-1990s the train tracks were removed, leaving us a couple of hundred yards of track that run from the train station down past the grain elevators.

The grain elevators were also acquired by Rowley and are now declared Historical Buildings! A grant from Alberta Historical Resources in 2008 gave us enough money to completely restore these wonderful buildings back to their original glory! This work included siding repair and exterior painting, complete shingling of all the roofs, some foundation repairs, and interior cleaning. We are proud of the whole restoration.

Throughout the 1990s, Rowley was a very active place. We hosted the waffle breakfasts each Sunday; Pizza Nites were started and are still going strong (the last Saturday of every month); Rowley Daze was held in July and featured a parade, gopher races, Bessie Bingo, greased pig contest, gopher roulette, entertainment on the stage, and a big BBQ beef supper! In 1999, we hosted the "Premiers Conference" for Canada. White tents were erected up and down Main Street, and a host of chefs from different colleges in Alberta were the cooks for a very special meal for the premiers. A dance hall tent with a floor was set up on Main Street with a live band playing the music. Sam's Saloon was a favourite spot for Ralph Klein and his cohorts. They even had a special beer made for the event and we still have a few bottles of that special brew which can be seen in Sam's Saloon!

The Finance Department of Canada came the next year (2000) with a good display of entertainment on Main Street. Many other parts of movies were filmed here, including The Heart of the Sun, The Magic of Ordinary Days, The Cut, Legends of the Fall, and some music videos.

We had to replace our moose in 2006 due to vandalism.

We erected a new playground in 2009, replaced the cement sidewalks on Main Street with a new boardwalk in 2013-2014, replaced our Lion's Oil Garage on Main Street with a new building in 2013, and an old threshing crew bunk-house was refurbished and is now on display.

We hire students for July and August to give tours through the buildings and help with our ever-growing Pizza Nites.

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