Interview with Fran Rowand: The Rowand family of Fort Edmonton, and their descendants
I am speaking to Fran Rowand and she is telling me a little bit about family genealogy, I believe it is April 11. Tell me what intrigues you about the family's history?
I think being back here in Edmonton and the fact that John Rowand was such an important person in the history of Edmonton. It just piqued my interest and I did it mostly because of our family. Our kids, you know, were born here and I thought that it was a great heritage for them and they do appreciate that. They're, you know, not into doing a lot about it now, but I think they will be. I hope to leave them all copies of the stuff that I have.
Can you tell me a little about the genealogica l research? Did you begin by immediately going to the Saint Boniface records or did you start here?
No, I started here and really with Czar of the Prairies... what's the name of that?
Jim MacGregor's book.
Yes, and then I started verifying, I think that's a very honest... I think he did all the research you know. I took a course in genealogy at the museum but it wasn't very comprehensive. There was a man, I am trying to remember his name, he had done so much research on the family but I didn't get into it until many years later.
Did you find that Czar of the Prairies in your own research? Did you find any mistakes in the original book or did you find it pretty accurate?
I really don't know that, because I verified all the dates, like I've done and redone and redone it.
You went to Saint Boniface to some of the research?
Yes.
Was that the most helpful source of information about the Rowands?
Well, I really haven't researched, you know, just from the stuff that has been written and the things that I have handed down, I have gone to the archives in the city here and just picked up a couple of things.
When I look at your material I see a wealth of information that should be in the archives somewhere. Can you tell a little bit about your husband, what brought the two of you back to Alberta in 1959? You said he became a paraplegic about the same time?
We came back in 1956 because a family friend (Jack Weber)... a friend of his dad offered him a job in his firm which was Weber Brothers Real Estate. Three years later Eddie got Polio and was in the hospital for about seven months.
Did you always live in St. Albert?
No, we lived in Dovercourt when we first came here, always in the West end of Edmonton. We built this house in 1975 and Eddie drew up the plans because he was in a wheelchair by then.
You moved in here and have lived here ever since?
Yes, we got the house and the kids all left home about two years later. My husband was a great sportsman as was his Dad before him and his Dad before him.
What kind of sports were they interested in?
Hunting, bird hunting, big game hunting.
Did he have any interest in horses?
No, that's a Rowand trait. His sister did but my husband never did.
As you did this research did he become more interested?
No
When you look through the family history is there anything that strikes you as particularly interesting or worthy of further research?
I think it is all interesting but I don't know about further research because most of the research is done as far as I am concerned by the books...
The founding mother of this family, Louise Umfreville, is buried at Rossdale. Do you have any personal reflections on how you would like that area to be preserved? I ask that question of all of the descendents
I am glad they left it alone but I wouldn't have made a huge fuss if they have gone ahead with it.
You are talking about the expansion of Epcor?
Yes
It looks now as if there's going to be a commemorative plaque there and they are going to reroute the road and things like that.
I would never have made a big fuss about it if... I said I was happy that they decided not to go ahead with it.
I would like you talk perhaps a little bit about what you have here in your documents. You've done genealogy on every branch of the John Rowand Junior family. Would you like to expand this at all?
Well I don't know how to correlate all of that. I am interested in the stories that go with them, not just the facts, and so I decided to do a loose leaf on each one and put the information that I have in there, to sort it, because this stuff that I have on Ed's father... he was a fascinating man. He was a wonderful sportsman, all kinds of things.
124 This is [Edward John Dawson] Rowand?
Yes
Can you tell me a little bit about him? He would have been a grandson of John Rowand Junior, right?
Yes. He was married in 1927. He was transferred to Calgary and Calgary was where my husband was born. Then he went back to Winnipeg in 1931.
What did he do for a living, Edward John?
He joined [Black and Armstrong] in 1921. In 1938 he was appointed Coach and Manager of the Canadian Boxing Team competing at the British Empire Games in Sydney, Australia. He was in the Halifax explosion. He was a great rower. He won the [Henley] and the Canadian Welter Weight Champion Boxing. He played for the Victoria Football Team, and for runners of the Winnipeg Bluebombers. He just was a very interesting man.
He sure sounds like one. Perhaps I can have a photocopy of that. Did you know him?
Oh yes. They moved out here in 1982 because by then all three kids were here and John and Mary... we brought them out because they were getting on in years and there was nobody there to care for them. That was 1982 and he died in 1986.
Did it mean anything to him to come back to Alberta?
He spent a lot of time here, he used to come out and go hunting with his son and my bother, four or five of them went.
[conversation looking at pictures]
He was a great curler at [?Granix] Curling Club. He had two eight enders which made the paper. He was a very well known sportsman in Winnipeg...
[conversation regarding papers and photos they are looking at]
They had their fiftieth wedding anniversary and he belonged to [?Wye] for over 75 years and there was a big...
He was called Don?
Yes
[Conversation regarding photos that they are looking at]
Do you know how each of these people made their livings?
He was in the insurance business and this is the sister, his only relative, and she came up here for the unveiling of the Rowand's.
And do you know her name?
[Edna Marguerite Tannis] again, she was married about four times. I didn't know that her name was Tannis when we...
When you named your own daughter.
No, and she was so thrilled and apparently it means first daughter in Cree or something.
She wouldn't still be alive would she?
No, she died many years ago.
[Conversation around photos they are looking at]
When John Rowand Junior died he was a very wealthy man. After his death his wife, Margaret, married Captain [Donaldson]. Together they were large holders in the [?Raportag] Lumber Company Saint Boniface, which went bankrupt. It was not a limited company, which resulted in absorption of the Rowand [Donaldson boardships] Lord Strathcona and Archbishop [Tashee].