Peter George Benedict

Born: 23 Feb 1877 at Wallaceburg, Ontario
Married: 26 Dec 1904 at Calgary, Alberta to Agnes Roe McPhail
Died: 23 Nov 1948 (age 71) at Calgary, Alberta
Buried: Union Cemetery, Calgary, Alberta, plot Y:14:038
Family Tree: Peter George Benedict in Family Genes
Contributor: Jim Benedict

Peter’s Parents

• Father: Captain John Smedley Benedict
• Mother: Catherine Benedict

The Early Years

Peter George Benedict liked using “Peter” back in Ontario, but switched to “George” in Calgary later on.  He grew up in Wallaceburg, Ontario, a family of one girl and three boys.  His father John Smedley Benedict who was a marine captain and commanded freighter on the great lakes, later being a relief skipper on the passenger ferry to and from Toronto island.  His mother was Catherine Benedict, a first cousin to her husband, through their common grandparents; Smedley and Catherine Benedict.

E. J. Brennan barber shop on 8th Ave.

Wallaceburg is a town in the west end of southern Ontario, straddling the scenic Sydenham River, near Lake St. Claire, likely a convenient locale for his father’s occupation on the lakes.  It was noted for lumber and boat building industries, then later for glass making, becoming known as the “glass town of Canada”.  Peter took up the trade of barber and started his own barber shop.  By mid-1899, he had decided to seek his fortune in the west.  “Mr. Peter Benedict has disposed of his tonsorial business to Mr. Terhune of Detroit, shave a few people around town, cut his acquaintance and left without saying good bye to all his friends.  We number with those that mourn his sudden departure.”¹

Peter (now George) Benedict arrived in Alberta by 1901, showing up as a lodger in Lethbridge by 1901.  He then moved on to Calgary, again taking up barbering.  His first job was with E. J. Brennan, a barber and proprietor on Eighth Avenue East Calgary.  By 1905, he was a partner with Brennan and they had a barber chair installed at the Queen’s Hotel, built in 1893.  Later on, George worked in the Alberta Hotel barber shop for William Brennan, likely shaving and trimming the key business men of Calgary.  George also enjoyed dancing and was a dance instructor with Professor Hepburn, at the Hepburn School of Dance during 1903.  Likely that was the place where he impressed his future bride.

George and Agnes

Agnes McPhail arrived in Calgary in 1903 with her family, survivors of the horrific Frank Slide in the Crowsnest Pass area.  They married on the 26th of December, 1904, at the McPhail residence.

Children

• John Alexander “Jack” Benedict
• William Douglas “Bill” Benedict
• Albert Charles Benedict
• Stanley Gordon Benedict
• George Alexander Benedict
• Dorothy May Benedict/Lamont
• Agnes Marion Benedict/Scott
• Norman Lorne Benedict

Final Years for George

1. Wallaceburg News of 9 Aug 1899 [↩]