Heritage in the Hat: Smith’s Riverside Heritage

By Medicine Hat News on March 3, 2018.

In 1912, retired school teacher Abram Smith had a new home and stable built in a brand-new Riverside subdivision known as Altawana. The new subdivision became available as a real estate district after the opening of Finlay Bridge in 1908. Smith’s house was one of the first to be built in the new subdivision, once part of a 40-acre tract of land owned by James Hargrave.

Abram Smith was born in Ontario on July 17, 1843, the son of Irish parents who came to Canada in 1834. Abram taught school in that province for well over 40 years. In the late 1890s, Smith’s sons Allison and William along with Thomas Lokier purchased ranch property near Chappice and Rush Lakes, located between Medicine Hat and Schuler. With his sons’ encouragement, Abram Smith, his wife and other family members, joined the brothers to homestead. Abram taught school in Walsh at this time. He later home-schooled his grandchildren, Altha and Bill Lokier.

Smith was 69 when he moved into the Riverside residence. Daughter Annie and her husband Fred McClain, proprietor of the City Stables (once located on Maple Avenue), lived with them. McClain used the Smith barn as a commercial livery and feed stable. In 1913, a year after the Smith house was built, work began on St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, soon providing Smith, a Presbyterian, with a commanding view.

After the Smiths and the McClains relocated in 1916, the buildings were used by H.B. Browne & Co., Live Stock and General Auctioneers, the house as Browne’s residence and the barn as a sale stable for the company.

Abram Smith passed away at Neepawa, MB, on April 17, 1925. Son William Cunningham Smith, once a teacher, a dentist, and a soldier (2nd CMR in the South African War) continued ranching at Rush Lake (Vale). He served as MLA for the Empress constituency from 1923-1935. Son Dr. Allison Smith, a highly qualified dentist, practiced in Medicine Hat until his retirement in 1949. Daughter Eliza Smith Lokier, continued to contribute to the Lokier family’s successful River Bend Ranch with her husband Thomas, until it was expropriated in 1941 for the Suffield Experimental Station. Daughter Annie Smith McClain returned to the Hat in 1952. Her husband Fred McClain had been the first chief of police for Neepawa in 1929, a position he held for 22 years.

The Smith house, located at 61 Third St. N.E., opposite the Zucchini Blossom, still exists. It is one of the oldest residences in Riverside still standing and once stood almost alone in the new subdivision.

Malcolm Sissons is the Chair of the Heritage Resources Committee. This column was researched and composed by Committee member Sally Sehn.