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Marshall Baydala was born on February 2, 1922 in Vegreville, Alberta to Nicholas and Anne Baydala. He grew up on a farm southwest of Vegreville with his older stepsister Katherine, younger sister Olga, and younger brother Nestor. He came to Edmonton to enlist to fight in the Second World War just after his 21st birthday in 1943. After training in Canada he arrived overseas spending Christmas 1943 in Aldershot, England before joining the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, A Company in Italy. He served with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment until the end of the war. Baydala passed away in Edmonton, Alberta on February 11, 2009. He was survived by his daughter Brenda Baydala, sister Olga Kuzyk, and many nieces and nephews.

The Rochester & District Agricultural Society (RDAS) was chartered on the 21st day of August 1979 and is a non-profit organization that brings people together to celebrate agriculture’s influence on our past, present, and future. The first charter night was January 25, 1980, and the Chairman was Allan Gerlach.
RDAS is committed to promoting agriculture, preserving community spirit, and researching local agricultural history. Hard-working volunteers maintain facilities and run programs and events that bring people together. The facilities include a hall, fair grounds, outdoor horse arena, baseball diamond, beer garden, summer hall, and skating rink with warm-up room.

The Grosmont Community Club’s original hall was built in 1929. It measured 52’10” by 27’7” and had a capacity of 175. The earliest surviving minutes are for the Grosmont Community Women’s Club, dated July 1950 – February 1964. The first president was Pearl Barr. Members met in private homes, and they were involved in hall events and maintenance. Men were invited to join in 1960 and meetings then took place in the hall. By-laws were registered in October 1974, and in 1974, the original building had an addition.

Alex Barr began working in Edmonton around 1925 as a clerk at the Royal Bank. In 1930 he was a clerk at Royal Trust and by 1940 he had moved to the real estate division at the same company. Later he became manager of the real estate division at the Royal Trust in Edmonton until his retirement in the 1970s.

He was married to Dora, and he died in 1986.

Anderson, Robert Thompson 1880-1960
Anderson, Margaret “Greta” McPherson 1890-1979
Anderson, Malcolm Robert 1920-2007

Robert Thompson Anderson was born in Rapid City, Manitoba, on August 2, 1880 to William Anderson (1843- 1925) and Jane Struthers (1840-1907). William and Jane had four children: Clara Jane (1868- ), John (1873- ), Robert, and Walter (1883- ). In 1897, they moved west to Lemon Creek, in the Slocan Valley region of British Columbia. John also moved to the area to work as a druggist. By 1898, Robert had also moved to B.C. and was working in his brother's drug store. Robert became a prolific poet earning rave reviews and by 1900 The Slocan Drill was regularly publishing his poetry. One of his poems, titled The Message of Grief, on the death of Queen Victoria, was praised in both Toronto and Vancouver papers.

In 1905, Robert came to Edmonton and first worked at the W.H.Clark lumber company. By 1906, he joined the Edmonton Fire Department and became the Department's fourth staff member. In 1910, he married Isabella Edith McGhee (1888-1913) and they had one daughter, Clara Edith Anderson (1911-1933). Anderson continued to write poetry and his first book, The Old Timer & Other Poems, was published in 1909. Some of his poems were also published in the Edmonton Journal and Edmonton Bulletin.

Isabella McGhee Anderson died in 1913. Robert enlisted in 1914 with the Alberta Dragoons and served for the duration of the First World War. His attestation papers list his marital status as widower and according to the article, "The Kipling of the Kootenays," Robert's military pay cheques were sent to his sister Clara who was the guardian of his daughter Clara Edith. In 1916 Robert received a military medal for great gallantry when on reconnaissance patrol for pushing forward under sniper fire and when his horse was shot, he carried on dismounted and brought back reliable and valuable information as the enemy position. He was discharged on 20 Apr 1919.

Robert married Margaret ‘Greta’ McPherson Grant, a Scottish immigrant, in May 1919. He also took a position with the City of Edmonton's Health Department as Quarantine Officer. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1947. He then served with the Corps of Commissionaires for eight years.

Many of Robert Thompson Anderson poems were inspired from his work or reflect his activities, family and heritage: The Fire Laddie’s Call Three, De Health Inspector, and The High Hills of Scotland. Anderson had two more books of his work published, Canadian Born & Other Western Verse (October 1913) and Troopers in France (December 1932).
Robert and Margaret had two children, Malcolm Robert and Ailsa Theresa.

Robert Thomspon Anderson died 3 Apr 1960 and is buried at Edmonton’s Westlawn Cemetery.

Richard MacDonald was born at Huntley, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and educated at St. Edward's School, Oxford, and St. Paul's School, London. At the age of 17 he joined the "Artists' Rifles" and fought in the First World War. In 1920 he married Inez Thomson and the couple moved to Canada. He worked with the provincial government until 1934 when he joined the University of Alberta radio station, CKUA. In 1937 he became station manager, a position he returned to after serving with the Canadian army in the Second World War. In 1947 he was appointed coordinator of cultural activities for the province of Alberta. In 1952 he became Director of the Dominion Drama Festival in Ottawa, a position he held until his retirement in 1965. Richard MacDonald and his wife, Inez, were well known in Edmonton theatrical circles, notably the Edmonton Little Theatre and the Edmonton Civic Opera. Richard MacDonald died in 1983.

George H. Stout was born on 22 Sep 1915, son of early Strathcona pioneers Clarence and Jesie Stout. George attended school in Edmonton at Allendale and Queen Alexandra School before his parents moved to Calgary. George attended school in Calgary and worked at both the Calgary Herald and Calgary Albertan newspapers before returning to Edmonton in 1940 for a position at the Edmonton Journal. George enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy in 1942 and served until 1945.

Following the Second World War, George returned to the Edmonton Journal where he worked as Night Editor, City Editor and News Editor. In 1947, he married Grace Moore Piper of Fort William, Ontario. Grace, who had earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto and a Master's degree from Columbia University School of Journalism in New York, began working at the Edmonton Journal as society editor. The couple had three children together: Corey, Janet, and Cynthia. In 1963, the Stouts left Edmonton and moved to Tweed, Ontario where Georgia and Grace owned and managed a local paper, The Tweed News. Grace fell ill and the Stout family returned to Edmonton in the summer of 1964. Grace passed away in October of that year.

George worked with the Provincial Government from 1964 to 1967. In 1968 he became the Communications and Publications Officer with the Edmonton Public School Board. He worked with the Edmonton Public School Board until his retirement in 1980. George eventually remarried to Isobel ?.

George was an active community volunteer. In 1968, he joined the Rotary Club of South Edmonton (later the Rotary of Edmonton South) and from 1974 to 1998, he assisted the Club in its staging of Harvest Fair at Fort Edmonton Park. He became a charter member of the Fort Edmonton Historical Foundation in 1971 and served as its director from 1972 to 1986 and then again in 1990. For twenty-five years, from 1981 to 2006, George spent his summers as an interpreter at Fort Edmonton Park in the Bulletin Building portraying Frank Oliver, Publisher. He was Honorary Chief Factor of Fort Edmonton from 1987 to 1988 and for several years during the 1980s, he was on the Board of Directors of the Old Strathcona Foundation.

George Stout died 18 Jul 2013 in Edmonton.

Elmer Ernest Roper was born in Ingonish, Nova Scotia in 1893. His family moved to Calgary in 1907, where he apprenticed as a printer and worked for the Calgary Herald. He married Goldie Bell in 1914 and the couple would have four children. In 1917 he became pressroom foreman for the Edmonton Bulletin. He started several businesses, including Commercial Printers Limited, Comset Business Forms Limited, and plastic Platemakers Limited.

Elmer Roper was active in the Labour movement. He was President of the Calgary Trades and Labour Council in 1916, and was Secretary-Treasurer for the Alberta Federation of Labour between 1922 and 1932. He was elected to the Provincial Legislature in 1942, and served until 1955 as the Leader of the Alberta Cooperative Commonwealth Federation.

In 1959 Elmer Roper won the Mayoral election, and did so again in 1961. Following his second two year term, in 1963 at age 70, Elmer Roper retied from politics. He and his wife retired to Victoria, British Columbia in 1975, and both passed away in 1994.

Mr. Roper was associated with the Edmonton Community Chest, the Edmonton Rotary Club, the Board of Governors of the University of Alberta, and the Canadian Red Cross Society. He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Alberta in 1959.

Joseph Seely (or Seeley) McCallum was born 9 Jul 1884 to Jane Seeley and Angus McCallum in Renfrew, Ontario. At some point the family settled in Mundare, AB, where other members of his family lived and operated the McCallum Garage. Joseph began real estate operations there and in Edmonton around 1920. His company McCallum Agencies, formed ca. 1927, dealt with real estate, farm lands, insurance, real estate investment and rentals. He also operated McCallum Motors, dealing in Studebaker and Erskine cars, ca. 1928. By 1932 Mr. McCallum appears to have gone bankrupt and he reverted to working as a real estate agent for a local firm, as manager of the Raymond Hotel and an appraiser/collector for the Canadian Farm Loan Board until about 1945.
Joseph Seely McCallum married Catherine Elizabeth? in 1905. They had three children – Bessie, Angus and Randolf.
Joseph Seely McCallum died 22 Jul 1945 in Edmonton.

John Gordon Sinclair was born 25 Jul 1889 to Lilley Lamont and John Sinclair in Middlesex County, Ontario. He came to Edmonton as a teacher in 1912 and eventually became teacher and principal of McKay Avenue School. He retired in 1955. He studied art at the Chicago Art Institute and the University of Washington. He was a member of the Edmonton Art Club formed in 1921.
J. Gordon Sinclair married Irene B. Rutherford in 1924 and they had two children - Donald and Gwen.
J. Gordon Sinclaur died in 1980 in Edmonton.