Born in Hanley Stoke on Trent, England in March of 1902, one of five, four boys and one girl. Parents came to Canada in 1906; first stop was Toronto where his father had a store. His younger brother Sydney passed away at age 3.
George and Alice moved to the Peace River country in 1911, filing for a homestead on July 13, 1911 on the SW 30-71-7-W6th 11 miles west of Grande Prairie when Edgar was 9 years old. It took the family six weeks to walk up to Grande Prairie from Edmonton. They arrived on August 1. Over the years, the family built a productive farm. They lived in a tent for their first winter, until the log house was built. Edgar attended Wapiti School from 1914 – 1917 and then to Hermit Lake. His father served as secretary of the M.D. of Bear Lake from 1916 to 1923 and in 1920 was appointed Justice of the Peace, an office which he held until 1946. Edgar had two brothers: Colin and Harry (Harry passed away in an boating accident on Great Bear Lake in 1933). His parents passed away in 1959 (George) and 1967 (Alice).
Edgar filed on a homestead at Pipestone Creek in 1921, adjoining A.K. Watts’ place. He worked in several places, working with Bill Feist in the Pool elevator in Wembley and later running the Pool elevator in Dimsdale. Then he returned to homesteading. He met Freda Lewis in 1930 and married in 1935. They had a son, Edmund in 1936, then another son Ken in 1938 followed by a daughter Ellen, in 1940. In 1939 he joined the forces RCE and was stationed at Camp Petawawa, Ontario before going overseas in 1940 for five and ½ years. Returning home in 1945, at which time the family moved to Grande Prairie. In 1946 a son was born, Fred and in 1948 another daughter was born, Joan. Ellen passed away in 1952 at age 12. He had six grandchildren.
Edgar passed away in Grande Prairie in 1983 and is buried in the Grande Prairie Cemetery, his Obituary appeared in the Daily Hearld Tribune on August 12, 1983.
- “Along the Wapiti”, 1981, published by Wapiti River Historical Society c/o Myrtle Diederich, (p. 96 & 97)
- “Pioneers of the Peace”, 1975, published by Grande Prairie and District Old Timers’ Association, (p 177 & 178)