The mandate of the South Peace Regional Archives is to acquire, preserve, and make available for research records of ongoing value to the south Peace River country. The Archives includes a 1270 volume research library, a database of 27 800 photographs, 440 maps and blueprints, 380 sound recordings, 130 film and video recordings, and 470 local newspapers.
 

Showcase Collection

Harry Tuffill fonds. - 1909 - [ca.1935]
327 photographs and 75 postcards

Biographical History

Mr. Harry Tuffill was born in London, England in 1887 and immigrated to Canada in 1906. He worked at various trades in Hamilton and Toronto until 1909, when he was offered a position with Walter McFarlane's survey crew. Their contract, that summer, was to survey portions of the Peace River Country of Alberta.

Surveyor McFarlane's field notes list Tuffill as one of the three "head Chainmen" in the 30-man crew that first year. The survey party traveled with 12 teams of horses and sleighs loaded with supplies and even trailing a cow along for milk. The men slept in tents and bedrolls and did their own washing, but a cook and cook's helper were hired.

Over the next three years the crew surveyed the south Peace from east of the Smoky to the British Columbia border, and from the Wapiti River to the Burnt Hills. Some work was done north of Dunvegan and some north of Peace River. The 1911 party also helped survey nine townships in the Peace River Block of British Columbia around Pouce Coupe.
 

Impressed by the potential of the Peace Country, in 1911 Mr. Tuffill filed on NW 33-73-7-W6th, in the Buffalo Lakes area. His intention was to build a home for his fiancée, Maud Shattock. The First Great War interfered with those plans and Harry joined the 91st Highlanders from Hamilton. He served overseas and returned to his homestead in 1919. Harry and Maud were finally married in 1920. Mr. & Mrs. Tuffill farmed and lived on the land he filed on for the next 45 years until his death in 1965. Maud died several years later.

Scope and Contents

The fonds consists of 327 photographs, of which 110 portray surveying in the Peace Country from 1909 to 1911, and 5 picture life on the Tuffill homestead. The remaining 215 are of Mr. Tuffill's service in WWI and family and photographs from England. There are also 72 postcards from Canada and abroad.

For more information please contact the archives directly or visit the Archives Society of Alberta website at: http://www.archivesalberta.org/