Graves, Howard Douglas

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Henry C. Klassen, “GRAVES, HOWARD DOUGLAS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/graves_howard_douglas_13E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Farmer, rancher, and businessman; b. c. 1838 in what became Elgin Parish, N.B., of loyalist stock; son of James Graves and Eleanor —, farmers; m., likely before 1864, Caroline Marr, and they had at least six daughters and one son; d. 2 Aug. 1910 in Calgary.
    • All that is known of Howard Douglas Graves’s life before he moved west in 1883 with his wife, four daughters, and one young son is that, like his father, he was a farmer in Albert County. His new farm was a 160-acre homestead on the Macleod Trail several miles south of Calgary. Although it was not comparable to those of such large operators as John Glenn and Samuel Livingston, it enabled him to satisfy his family’s needs. The equipment, horses, cattle, and furniture he had brought with him by rail through the United States and then by wagon to Calgary contributed to an effective start. The North-West rebellion of 1885 did not seriously interrupt Graves’s work, but the time he spent as a night herdsman of some horses used by the military helped make him aware of larger happenings.
    •  Graves typifies the middle-aged man who gained success as an agricultural pioneer in late-19th-century prairie Canada. In the Calgary area, as elsewhere in the southwestern Alberta district of the North-West Territories, there were many opportunities to engage in ranching, and he was quick to recognize this potential source of income. In 1886 he added to the land he homesteaded by purchasing a nearby quarter-section from the Canadian Pacific Railway. This acquisition allowed him to feed more livestock – horses and Hereford cattle – for the local and regional markets.
    • Being a dynamic and imaginative man with a wide range of contacts, Graves diversified his investments during the decade after 1900. He bought and sold city, farm, and ranch lands, and put much money into the Diamond Coal Company’s mine at Diamond City. That enterprise, managed by Underwood, worked a set of irregular seams north of Lethbridge. It soaked up capital but from 1906 to 1909 showed no profit at all. When Graves needed more funds, he drew heavily on banks and borrowed from individuals such as former prime minister Sir Mackenzie Bowell and retired merchant Daniel Webster Marsh of Calgary.
  • Great Grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=2134
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122938364/howard-douglas-graves