Fonds med-225 - Egerton Joseph Robert Walton fonds

Egerton Joseph Robert Walton was born to Robert and Bethamy (nee Lapp) Walton, in 1848. He apprenticed in a local drug store in Peterborough, Ontario, before attending the Ontario College of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. Egerton Walton graduated around 1868. Egerton left Peterborough around 1876, and sold the drug store that he had established there, having agreed to purchase an existing drug business in nearby Lakefield. He operated this business until 1880, when he again went out of business. Egerton Walton was married to Lucinda Jane (nee ?), in 1873. A daughter, Robina (Eva?), born September 6, 1878, later Mrs. Fred Gilroy who married on March 20, 1907 at Medicine Hat, and a son Harold, born ca. 1881. Two more Walton children were later added to the family (dates unknown), a daughter Ferris, later Mrs. James C. Alcock who married December 29, 1903 at Medicine Hat, and a son Lorris. The Waltons then headed west, reaching Medicine Hat around 1883, where he established Walton's Drug Store on South Railway Street, the first drug store in this city, if not the first in what would later become the Province of Alberta. Walton temporarily left Medicine Hat in the summer of 1885, following a disastrous fire which caused heavy losses to his business. Moving to Lethbridge, Mr. Walton built a wooden frame building which he called the Apathecaries Hall (or Apothecary's Hall). This was the first drug store in Lethbridge, but only operated for a few months. He soon thereafter left Lethbridge and returned to Medicine Hat in March of 1886, because of an unexpected opportunity to acquire an established drug business in Medicine Hat, previously run by Drs. Butcher and Haig. There is some speculation that while continuing to operate his business in Medicine Hat, he also maintained ownership of his drug store in Lethbridge, at least until the fall of 1886. Walton eventually sold his drug store in December 1892, to Dan Calder of Banff, who later sold to his brother and Medical Superintendent of the Medicine Hat General Hospital, Dr. J.R. Calder. Egerton Walton was also involved in other ventures within the community. He owned a hardware and harness business at one time, was actively involved in ranching, having acquired land in the Bull's Head district southeast of Seven Person's, and was also in the construction business. The Walton Block, erected in 1900, still standing along South Railway Street, was one of his undertakings. In 1886, Walton was elected Chairman of the first Public School Board in Medicine Hat along with L.B. Cockrane, James Hargrave and G.W. McCaig. He successfully held that position until 1888. From 1891 to 1893, Walton was President of the Medicine Hat Agricultural Society. Tragedy struck the Walton family during a blizzard in November 1891, when two young boys, Harold Walton, age 10, and a friend, Moran Cockrane, age 14, died due to exposure. Search parties, lead by the fathers of the boys, found their frozen bodies the next day. In their memory, two stained glass windows were installed in St. Barnabas Church, and an iron bedstead stood marking their gravesite in the Old Hillside Cemetery in the Seven Persons Coulee, until it was removed in the 1980s. In 1901, Egerton Walton was issued a Commission of Appointment as a Customs Sub-Collector in the Medicine Hat area. Lucinda Jane Walton passed away in Okotoks, Alberta, in 1947, at the age of 97, and at the time of her death, was survived by 2 of her daughters and son Lorris.