Author: Alberta's Historic Places

When the Canadian Northern Railway extended a line through Onoway in 1909, en route to Jasper and Vancouver, much of the rich agricultural land east of Lac Ste Anne was made immediately viable for homesteading.  Even before the railway arrived however, and indeed even before the Dominion Land Surveys of 1904-05, a number of settlers had taken up land in the Onoway area.  One of these was Thomas Sharman, who settled on NW34 TP52 R3 W5 in 1903, in a district soon to be known as Heatherdown.  Sharman was born in Ireland and had come to western Canada from North Dakota, where he had been a stonemason as well as a farmer.  He first attempted to homestead near Camrose, but was unsuccessful.  Near Heatherdown however, he and his wife succeeded in proving up, and eventually they acquired five quarters.

As he cleared and broke his land, Sharman made a point of salvaging pristine stones that inundated his fields.  Being a stonemason, he had an idea that one day these would prove useful.  By the mid 1920s, he decided to use these stones for a new house.  With the help of his youngest son, Lawrence, and local neighbors, he designed and built a large dwelling utilizing the material he had salvaged.  He moved into his new home in about 1927, and lived there with his wife until passing away a few years later.  The house and the farm were then taken over by Lawrence Sharman and his wife, Florence, who died tragically in a fire on the farm in 1936.  The Sharman House then continued to be occupied by Lawrence on his own until he moved to British Columbia in 1947.  It was then acquired by Gordon Stewart, his wife Lenabelle, and their son, Lowell.  With Lenabelle’s death, Gordon and Lowell continued to farm the land and occupy the house as bachelors.

The historical significance of the Sharman House  lies in its representation of the settlement of the Onoway area, and of the richness of the farmland in the district.  It is also significant in demonstrating the inventiveness and craftsmanship of one of Onoway’s early settlers.  Its heritage value lies in the excellent craftsmanship evident in its split fieldstone construction and the home’s picturesque aesthetic appeal.  It is distinguished by its picturesque exterior, which is composed of different shapes and sizes of split fieldstone.  Other prominent features of the home include a hipped roof with intersecting roof ridges, hipped wall dormers, three tall stone chimneys, and a two-storey bay projecting from the southwest corner of the building.  The yard of the home includes a garden and mature evergreen trees north of the house dating from the period of construction. The Sharman House was designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 2007.

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Sharman House. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Sharman House.

During the latter part of the 19^th century, the foothills of what is now southern Alberta were given over largely as grazing leases to several big ranching companies, many of them with close ties to the Conservative Party.  With the election of the Liberal party in 1896 however, more emphasis came to be placed on settling the West with small, independent farmers.  Under Interior Minister Clifford Sifton therefore, many grazing leases, when expired, were not renewed, in order that the land could be subdivided into quarter-sections for homesteading, or given over to the CPR Land Department.

Among the many homesteaders to flock into the region during the turn of the 20^th century were Nellie and Alexander Weir who, in July 1900, filed for SE18 TP18 R3 W5, on the east bank of the Highwood River, some 20 km northwest of High River.  This was on land previously occupied by the North-West Ranch Company.  The Weirs were from Ontario, and, like many of the new settlers, they combined dryland farming with cattle raising.  In May 1905, Alexander Weir received title to his land, and, in February 1906, the High River Times reported that he was erecting a new 26’ x 26’ log home on his ranch.

The Weirs never owned more than one single quarter-section of land, and, with grain prices declining during the early 1900’s, they probably found it difficult to make ends meet.  At the time, their property was surrounded by a large ranch owned by George Lane, which consisted of several sections.  At any rate, as soon as Weir gained title to his quarter, he mortgaged it to the Fairchild Company of Winnipeg.  Two years later, the Fairchild Company became owners of the land, while Weir apparently drifted off to some other form of employment.  Shortly thereafter, the western portion of the quarter-section was sold to an Italian immigrant named George Pocaterra, who turned it into a dude ranch called the Buffalo Head Ranch.  The eastern portion, which held Weir’s house, was acquired by an English immigrant named Owen Royal, who seems to have had business interests in Calgary.  It was Royal who upgraded the house, adding three bedrooms, a kitchen and a porch, while landscaping the yard and planting trees.  Royal named it Alequiers, a name derived from the spelling of Alex McQueen Weir.

In 1939, the Alequiers property was acquired by an artist named Ted Schintz.  Schintz had migrated to western Canada from Holland in the 1920’s, taking odd jobs and cultivating his skills as a painter.  In 1928, he stayed at the Buffalo Head Ranch and developed an affinity for the foothills environment.  In 1931, he married Jeanette Kay from England, and the couple stayed for a while at Algequiers before traveling to Europe.  While the couple took odd jobs, Ted enrolled in the Academy of Arts in Munich, studying under Angelo Yank.  Upon his graduation, the Schintzes returned to western Canada, and, soon, Ted began to sell his paintings at reasonably high prices, mostly to magazines like Country Guide and Cattleman, which were interested in images of the prairie West.  Jeanette was also able to sell some of her work.  Finally, in 1939, the couple had sufficient means to purchase Alequiers, where they lived until retiring to High River in the 1960’s.

The Alequiers Ranch House was designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 2005.  Its historical significance lies in its provision of structural evidence of the homesteading experience on the southern foothills of Alberta after the break-up of many of the large ranches that had dominated the area.  The expanded house of about 1920 is also important as the showpiece home of Owen Royal and, more importantly, the artist Ted Schintz, many of whose works have graced magazine covers with images of the southwestern plains of Canada, and several of which are stored in the Glenbow Museum.

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Alequiers Ranch House. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Alequiers Ranch House.