Many of us are uncomfortable when discussing funerals and death—and for valid reasons. Examining the history of these events in our community, however, can shed some light on how we conduct them today.

The first colonial death in Lethbridge was a man familiar to most of us through his name; Nicholas Sheran, the first commercial coal miner in Alberta, drowned upstream of his own mining site in 1882. His body was never found, and no funerary processes were recorded; a missing piece of the puzzle that reflected certain attitudes towards death, even early in our community.

By the early twentieth century, Lethbridge’s death rate had reached about six people per month, with “two or three undertakers” working at any given time. T. S. Fetterly, the funeral parlour that would later be purchased by Martin Brothers Funeral Chapels, was a well-established business, and two separate cemeteries (St. Patrick’s and Mountain View) had been founded within city limits.

The reactions and rituals of death for the everyday Lethbridge citizen, however, can’t be measured through documents alone. In A Century of Funeral and Memorial Practices in Lethbridge, Corrine B. Lenfesty theorizes that the English mourning practices made popular by Queen Victoria—those of the “long black dress and longer black veil” variety—weren’t as common in early twentieth century Lethbridge. A total lack of newspaper advertisements for any kind of mourning paraphernalia, relatively plain gravestones (compared to British and even central Canadian monuments of the same era), and quick, matter-of-fact obituaries certainly contrast with the elaborate English death rituals of the time. This August 1906 obituary serves as just one example:

“Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim Dixon are mourning the loss of their infant son who died on Tuesday evening. The interment took place today. Rev. J. E. Hughson officiating.”

Immediately underneath this column is a sale notice for farming equipment.

It is inaccurate, though, to think of this population as a callous one that was unaffected by their loved ones’ deaths. These records of early Lethbridge paint a picture of a people who, while certainly still grieving, simply had too much work to do to mourn fully. Gravestones, as important as they are, will still be there at the end of the evening; one’s livestock, mining career, or hungry children might not be.

However uncomfortable the topic can be, southern Alberta’s unique history and relationship with death is worth analyzing. You can search for more photographs of cemeteries and funeral practices online at collections.galtmuseum.com.