Patrick, Allan Poyntz
824 13th Avenue SW

1849-1948
Allan Poyntz Patrick was born in Montreal in 1849, and educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto and Kingston Military College. In 1873, at the age of 24, Patrick traveled west by Red River cart as a Dominion Land Surveyor to survey southern Alberta. He was struck by the beauty and potential of the Cochrane area, and shortly after obtained a land grant on the Morley Flats, close to the intersection of the Bow and Ghost rivers. By 1879, Patrick had turned these grazing lands into the Mount Royal Ranch, the first large, private ranch in the Southern Alberta region.

With the coming of the Riel Rebellion in1885, Patrick was pressed into service as a surveyor and had to leave ranching. On his return to the area in 1886, he homesteaded "Plateau Farm," located closer to Calgary and his surveying work, which he carried on in conjunction with ranching. That same year he married Margaret McPherson, a grand niece of Lord Strathcona. The Patrick’s had seven children.

Patrick left government employment in 1888 to launch his own surveying business. Shortly after this, he discovered oil near Alberta’s Waterton area. While Patrick spent most of his time surveying, Margaret and the children managed the farm. After the First World War, the Patrick family moved into a large home on Calgary’s 13th Avenue. Margaret died in 1940, and Allan followed in 1948.

Patrick’s contribution is still in evidence throughout the province of Alberta. During his career he surveyed the original grid for Calgary and all the railway townsites between Macleod and Edmonton with the exception of Leduc.

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