February is Black History Month. Local historian Allan Goddard has dedicated over three decades to keeping the memory of Keystone settlers and the history of Breton alive. We sat down with him for a question and answer session to get insight on his journey.
How long have you been involved in the Breton Historical Society?
I became involved with the Historical Society in the fall of 1987.That makes it about 35 years that I have been involved with the Historical Society. At that time Gwen Hooks was President of the Society. Over the years I held the positions of President and Treasurer on the Historical Society Board. For quite a number of years the Board served both the role of the governing body of the museum and also acted as administration to carry out the day-to-day activities of the museum. In about 2009 I resigned as a board member and took on the role of museum manager/curator. The museum was growing, which required more time to meet the administrative duties, also the level of expertise needed to meet the higher standards of the Recognized Museum Program required someone with at least a basic knowledge of museum standards. I have remained in this role since then.
What got you involved in the society in the first place?
I think it was an ad in maybe the Breton Booster, or just a poster around Breton that the Society was in the initial stages of starting a museum in Breton and looking for volunteers to help with establishing the museum. The Society had recently entered into a lease with the then Leduc School Division for the use of the two-room school located on the Breton Elementary school site. The school division had stopped using the building prior to this for school classes, I think the playschool had occupied the building at the last but must have moved from the building as the building was vacant when the historical Society leased it. It needed a lot of upgrades over the years. From reviewing some of the records and minutes of the Society it appears that the topic of establishing a museum had been talked about at various times previous to 1987.
I had always had an interest in history from the time I had been small. Both my father and my mother’s family had been longtime residents of the Carnwood and Moose Hill area. They both had homesteaded in the early 1920’s. As a young child, I can remember asking my mom to tell me about the “olden days”. So when this opportunity came with the Breton museum I thought here is a cute little project that I can volunteer a couple hours a month to help them out. I can paint a wall, do minor carpentry, well it has taken on a life of its own in the years since then. I didn’t know anything about what it took to operate a museum… none of the people involved did. It was a steep learning curve for everyone. It has become clear over the years/decades since then that there is much more to running a museum than putting some old items out in a cabinet or on a shelf for people to look at to be a museum. It’s about having the artifacts help tell a story.
How has black history impacted the Village of Breton and the place it has in Alberta’s history?
The Board of the Society, soon after establishing the museum,received some advice from the Historic Resource’s Branch of the Alberta government about starting a museum. One of the things they talked about was to determine what themes /stories you want to tell in your museum. I believe the Board of the time did a good job in considering this question. While most small rural museums focus on the settlement history of their community and Breton was no different to some extent, the Board settled on 4 themes. They asked themselves what area of the Breton district history can we focus on that will set us apart from the museum down the road.
The first theme determined was the history of the Keystone community, established by African American settlers from Oklahoma and a few other states that migrated to Alberta from about 1909-1912. While this initially followed the settlement story of homesteading it has become a much more complex story that goes beyond just the hardships of establishing a homestead and life at the time in Alberta, and the Breton community. When the museum started documenting this story 30 some years ago the story of black history in Alberta was scarcely mentioned. What I have come to realize and appreciate, there is much more to this story than a small group of early settlers. This is a story about the immigration policy of Canada at the time, and how many segments of society pushed back against this group. It started to become clear that the story of Canada as a kind nation that welcomed all groups of immigrants with open arms has started to unravel as we start to research the topic deeper. There have also been success stories that need to be told. The story of Keystone, and the other communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan settled by this group is more than just local in scope. It is part of Alberta history, as well as Canada’s story, with connections back to Oklahoma and the reason this group was leaving the State.
We try to ask visitors to the museum what brought you to the museum today. A vast majority will say they wanted to learn about the black history of the area. This theme has definitely brought the museum, and by extension the community a higher profile beyond just the local community.
The second theme decided on, was the lumbering industry which played a significant role in the development of the area until the late 1940’s. It was the primary economic driver of the area, once rail service was established in 1926.
The third theme was Agriculture, while this was a more generic theme the Board’s focus was to tell the story of the Breton SoilPlots and the challenges of farming on gray wooded soils. This theme has yet to be fully developed by the museum.
The final theme was Community, this encompasses a lot of different elements and like all the themes is ongoing and can vary from year to year.
Over the years of managing the museum what is the most interesting artifact, or fact that you have stumbled across as it pertains to the black community or the area?
I had to think about this question for a while. There are two or three artifacts that piqued my interest and we can connect to the families that settled Keystone. One is a mule shoe found on the property originally settled by Rolla Ramsey. It was turned up in a field in later years, long after the Ramsey family had moved from the community. We can see from some records that some of the families owned mules which they brought from the US with them. Mules were often used in the south as they were tough, and for their size could pull more.
The second is part of a child’s toy, it is a metal horse that likely had a wagon or something more to the toy. It too was found in a field in later years, on property owned by another black family of the area. While it is only partly there, we can imagine there was a little boy who likely prized that toy.
The third is a small rubber stamp that was found in the Funnell School/Community Centre when they were cleaned up about 10 years ago. The stamp says Keystone. What purpose it was used for we don’t know, but it must have been made for a purpose.
From an archival perspective, I think the minute book from the Good Hope Baptist Mission is wonderful, especially the opening entry. “We the people of township 48 range 4– west of the 5th meridian, met together at Wm Allen’s house at 11 o’clock on September 10,1911 for the purpose of organizing a church.” The museum is very lucky to have these records, thanks to Mrs. Emma King who had a number of records pertaining to Keystone and passed them on to Mark and Gwen Hooks who donated them to the museum when it was established.
The last archival item isn’t something the museum has, but comes from the homestead records held at the Provincial Archives of Alberta. These records show who filed on a homestead, and contain a variety of information about the individual. The first form that every person who filed on a homestead filled out had the usual information you would expect: their name, the land location, if they were married and had a family, their address, their nationality and if they were a Canadian citizen. What I found interesting was that on many of the homestead records filed by the black settlers they listed their nationality as American, which they were, but down in the corner of the form a government official has written the word Black, Colored or Negro. They were being identified beyond what any white homesteader was. Now we don’t know if they were being directed to certain areas for settlement or for some other purpose.
Why do you continue to be involved?
There are days when you wonder if anyone notices or cares what the museum is doing, but then you get the days when you meet visitors and you can help them and the gratitude they have to the museum for taking the time to help. Or people commenting on how much they enjoy the articles I write for the Breton Booster, then you know what you are doing does make a difference. Isn’t there a line in an old Joni Mitchell song that says “you don’t know what you got till it’s gone”.
What keeps me coming back is what I will discover next week or next month that will add to the story. It’s like having a box of jigsaw puzzles and the box contains numerous puzzles, and each puzzle has some of the pieces but not all of them.
Anything else you feel is important to talk about?
This year will mark the 45th anniversary of the formation of the Breton and District Historical Society. While their original purpose was to publish a community history book. I think a lot of credit has to go to the people who were involved in the formation of the Historical Society to have the vision to start preserving the history of the community. If they hadn’t started the Historical Society then, would there be a Breton Museum. The majority of those individuals have now become part of the community’s history.
