Fonds F0297 - Leroy E. Brownlee fonds

Leroy E. Brownlee, 1891-1969, was born in the USA, possibly in Washington or Missouri. He came to Alberta in 1911 and homesteaded near Hoadley. During the 1920s he operated a woodsawing and feed grinding outfit. In the 1930s he built and ran a sawmill and shingle mill on his homestead. In 1940 he built his own printing press and started a printing business which he called The Star Press. He wrote and printed four books, which he sold by mail: Farm Blacksmithing, Building Farm Lumber Saw Mills, Building a Shingle Saw Mill, and Circular Saw Hammering. He printed flyers, handbills and posters for local businesses and organizations, and from 1950 until at least 1951 he published a monthly one-sheet newspaper, North Country Times, which covered news in Hoadley, Bluffton and Rimbey districts. From 1949 until at least 1958 he printed a lonely-hearts newsletter, entitled The National Hobby and Trader, which had Canada-wide circulation, and reached the lovelorn as far away as Missouri. He never married.