Brander Blacksmith at Langdon, Alberta
Thanks to historian Shelly McElroy for this local story. And a special thank you to the Brander Family for their donation of artifacts to our museum collection.
In 1913, Jack Brander was on his way from Scotland to Australia, but he said that he would have a look at Canada first1. The southern Alberta he arrived in was a bustling place at the tail end of its first economic boom. Brander’s first jobs included working on a ranch and spending the winter at a lumber company in British Columbia. While Jack couldn’t have known it, the boom was already ending when he arrived in Alberta. Luckily, a blacksmith was recession-proof because horses and the things they needed were everywhere.
For those who remember Langdon, Alberta in the 1980s and 90s, the fact that it had ever been a flourishing settlement would understandably come as a revelation. The Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in 1883. That track crossed over the Blackfoot Trail, an ancient human pathway that had been used by the Siksika for centuries, connecting them with Blackfoot Crossing near present day Cluny. Later, the CPR Acme line connecting northern stops such as Irricana transformed Langdon into a major centre.
A visitor to Langdon could stay at a hotel or boarding house, go to the bank, eat at a restaurant, worship at one of five churches, and do their shopping at retailers that included a hardware, a bakery, and a tailor. There was even a jail.
Jack got a job at a livery barn. His boss was going to Scotland for the winter, and when he told Jack that he didn’t have enough money to pay what had been agreed, Jack worked out a deal to buy the business instead. His brothers George and Alfred arrived to help.
A livery offered many services. Farmers catching the train into Calgary for the day needed somewhere to board horses while they were away. Visitors spending the day in the Langdon area needed to rent a horse. Wheelwrights repaired wheels for buggies and wagons, putting new rims onto wooden wheels.
A blacksmith bent red-hot metal into shapes that would fit perfectly onto a horse’s feet. Clapping shoes onto the feet of a dancing animal that may not be inclined to cooperate could be dangerous. The Branders once had a customer whose horse would not tolerate having its feet handled. George Brander decided to take up the challenge. He had arrived in Langdon via Rhodesia, Australia, Manchester, Detroit, California and finally glamourous Keoma, Alberta. He had extensive experience with horses, having served in the cavalry during the Boer War, and reportedly said that he had never seen a horse he couldn’t shoe. $20.00 was being offered; usually $2 a shoe was the going rate. The horse was shod2.
Seasonal work involved the equivalent of putting on snow tires, with horses being “sharp shod,” giving them traction on snow and ice. And during plowing season, a blacksmith’s hours were adjusted to the needs of farming customers. Rather than replacing the blades as we do today, plowshares would be sharpened and used again. Jack worked through the night and delivered the plowshares in the morning, ready for another day’s work. As if this wasn’t enough to keep everyone busy, Jack’s business also included the Massey-Harris agency and the Sampson rod weeder agency. Evidently, the business boomed because it relocated three times to keep up with growth.
In 1914, Jack paid a visit to Scotland. He married Margaret Clark, a school principal, on 30 September 1914. Margaret did not abandon her skills as a teacher and as an accomplished musician, for at intervals the Strathmore Standard ran front page stories boasting that Margaret Brander’s piano students had achieved high ranking scores in their piano examinations. In 1930, Jack and Margaret’s daughter attained “the highest marks in the Dominion”3.
The Branders were a part of their community. Jack contributed a special $10.00 prize for a graded dairy herd during a fall fair in 19284. Margaret worked with the Red Cross Society during the First World War. Jack was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I. O. O. F.), a social club where members could visit, play cards, and contribute to projects and events. The Rebekahs were the female equivalent of the Odd Fellows and the Langdon ladies wanted to start a chapter. In 1921, they invited a delegation of Assembly Officers to officialise their club. What they hadn’t realized was that five men were needed to form a charter. They interrupted two men in a card game and got a third out of bed. Jack escaped until the next day when he too became a founding member of the Rebekahs5.
However, changes were looming that had implications for blacksmiths, and for Langdon itself. Both would be relegated to history by an upstart invention: the car. The Branders themselves purchased one. Cars and trucks were appearing everywhere, prompting the provincial government to embark on a program of building roads. This program competed with the federal aim to have rail lines connecting small communities. By the end of the 1920s, the cars and the roads were the victors. For millennia, blacksmithing was a core industry. Now, the forges were silenced. Automobiles were a great thing in many regards, but they killed communities. Places near major centres were particularly at risk. Homes moved away, and businesses closed.
The Branders preserved their family’s legacy by donating the tools that Jack, George and Alf Brander used to Pioneer Acres. Housed in the wheelwrights and blacksmith buildings, they are a link to our province’s history and to the story of a family that had a role in its settlement.
As for Langdon, for decades it sat rather blankly, as if amazed to have blazed up out of nowhere, and then faded away just as abruptly again. Until the early years of the twenty-first century, that is, when it made an astonishing comeback. By then, the proximity to Calgary which had originally made Langdon so vulnerable had become an inducement for people who wanted to work in Calgary but do everything else in their own neighbourhood – just like they could have done a century before. Today, Langdon has dentists, a veterinarian, a golf course, batting cages, gas stations, restaurants and coffee shops, grocery stores and other services, including churches, schools, and a library6.
And there are hundreds of new homes, including those located along Brander Avenue.
Citations
1. Langdon Through the Years, The Brander History, Alf Brander (180).
2. Ibid.
3. The Strathmore Standard, 20 August 1930 (1).
4. The Strathmore Standard, 29 August 1928 (3).
5. Langdon Through the Years, Rebekahs (89).
6. The History of Langdon Today, Langdon and District Chamber of Commerce,
