Home Sweet Heritage Home - Cross, Alfred Ernest



	Cross, Alfred Ernest 1240 - 8th Avenue SE 1861-1932 Alfred Ernest Cross was born in Montreal in 1861. He attended the Montreal Business College and in 1875 left Canada for three years to study in England. Cross also studied at Guelph’s renowned Ontario Agricultural College and the Montreal Veterinary College. Cross moved to Alberta in 1884 at the age of 23 where he found employment at the Cochrane ranch as a bookkeeper, veterinarian and ranch hand. But in 1885 left to start the A7 Ranche located west of the present town of Nanton and approximately 90 kilometres south of Calgary. The A-7 started off with a quarter section of land but quickly expanded to become the largest ranch in Alberta. By 1919 the ranch consisted of 25,000 acres (owned and leased) of ranchland and several thousand head of cattle. In 1888, Cross was forced move to Calgary because of an injury from a riding accident. During his convalescence, he began searching for a business that he could pour his energy into. At the time Calgary had no brewing company. Most of the locals made do with low-grade rot gut whiskey. Cross thought beer would be an ideal product to produce and market locally. Cross travelled to Montreal to study the brewing industry. In 1892 he opened the Calgary Brewing and Malting Company, one of Calgary’s largest industries at the time. He was constantly studying his new trade, acquiring diplomas in Montreal, Chicago and New York. Cross was a shrewd businessman. He purchased hotels throughout the west to insure a market for his product. In 1899 Cross married Helen Rothney Macleod daughter of the well-known Colonel James Macleod, and they together produced seven children. That same year Cross ran as a Conservative candidate for Calgary East. He won the election, and actively worked in the legislature to secure provincial status for Alberta. Cross was active in the community and supported a number of causes. In 1915 he donated the brewery’s Ogden Hotel to the Alberta Branch of the Red Cross Society for use as a military convalescent home for veterans of the Boer War and World War I. He was also a founding member of the Western Stock Growers' Association, Calgary Board of Trade and the Ranchmen's Club. Along with fellow business associates and friends George Lane, Patrick Burns and Archie Maclean, Cross became known as one of the "Big Four" group who bankrolled the first Calgary Stampede in 1912. Cross was also instrumental in establishing Alberta's petroleum industry. He started Calgary Petroleum Products in 1912, and was a director of Canadian Western Natural Gas. Cross was also concerned with community life, and was one of the founding members of the Alberta Exhibition Association and served as a director of the Calgary General Hospital. Alfred Ernest Cross died in 1932. He and his wife are buried in Calgary’s Union Cemetery. To learn more about Alfred Ernest Cross check out your local library for Braehead: Three Founding Families in Nineteenth Century Canada by Sherrill MacLaren.
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