Fonds F0176 - Alexander Begg fonds

Alexander Begg, 1825-1905, was born in Scotland, where he received a teaching diploma. In 1846, he emigrated to Ontario where he resumed teaching. In 1854, he turned to journalism and established a number of newspapers. He married Emily Maria Luke, ?-1932, in 1858 and they had eleven children. One of their sons, Magnus, became agent at the Blackfoot (Siksika) Indian Agency in Alberta.

For a number of years Alexander was employed by the Department of Internal Revenue and was Collector of Customs for the North-West Territories in 1869. In 1872 he was appointed Emigration Commissioner in Scotland for the Province of Ontario and persuaded thousands of crofters to settle in Canada. He later attempted to promote a similar scheme as Commissioner for the British Columbia government but this was abandoned as impractical. In the 1870s he established a temperance colony at Parry Sound and Beggsboro. In 1881, he visited the West as a Toronto Mail correspondent. He then acquired the Dunbow Ranche near Davisburg and High River, Alberta in 1883.

In 1887 he moved to Victoria where he and three of his sons later formed the Stickeen and Teslin Railway, Navigation and Colonization Co. The following year he was employed by the Dominion Government to assist in defining the Canada-Alaska border. He retired to New York City in 1903.

For further information see Jill Wade's entry, "Alexander Begg", in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. XIII. - Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1994, p. 56-58.

Robert Anstruther Begg, 1864-1942, was born in Quebec City and attended the Agricultural College in Guelph, Ontario. He accompanied his family to Alberta when they purchased the Dunbow Ranche. While living at the ranch he was secretary at the Davisburg Ranchers Society. He later was a cattle buyer in Alberta and British Columbia for the Vancouver-Prince Rupert Meat Company. In 1902 he married Lavinia Frances Golding, ?-1917, and they had three children, Lavinia (Hunter), Nora Marina Golding (Fortune), 1903-?, and G. Alexander. He later remarried.