Beiseker's History: T.L. Beiseker and the Founding of the Village

Thomas Lincoln "T.L" Beiseker

I read in the paper this morning that the City of Calgary is doing a series of stories, articles and presentations on the city's history this week.  I thought I'd start a similar thing here in the Friendly Village.  Here goes;

The village was named after Thomas Lincoln "T.L." Beiseker, an American banker and land speculator originally from Harvey, North Dakota.  Thomas Beiseker never really lived in the village named after him - although he and his partner, A.J. Sayer, had an office in Calgary at 809, 1st Street W, in the 'Alberta Block' building that still stands today.

Mr. Beiseker was a director of the Calgary Colonization Company.  The company bought land "dirt cheap" from the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and started selling it around here at quite a large profit in late 1906.   They pretty well had it all sold off by late 1908.

For the future Beiseker townsite, a piece of land which was not much good for farming was chosen.  The land was not a slough, as local myth says, but it was quite marshy in a few places.  The Canadian Pacific Railway reached Beiseker in 1910.  Before that, settlers had to cross the prairie from the railway siding at Crossfield to get to their new land. 

The Alberta Pacific Grain Company elevator was started in 1909 and took its first grain in 1910.