John Peter Pruden
This information comes from James M. Reed of Toronto in 1955. Mr. Reed is a descendant of the Prudens.
John Peter Pruden, the great-grandfather of Mrs. Herman Tiedemann and Mrs. Frank Kortzman was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, England in 1778. (Pruden's birthplace, Edmonton, is now part of greater London). When he came to Canada he brought with him the name for the future capital of Alberta - that of his own birthplace.
Pruden entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1791 as an apprentice; later, at York Factory he became a writer for the Hudson's Bay Company.
In 1795 he was clerk for George Sutherland, the factor at the H.B.C. post on the banks of the North Saskatchewan. In 1807, this fort was destroyed by fire, but in 1808, it was rebuilt twenty miles downstream from its original site. Here it was to grow into the City of Edmonton, a name suggested by Pruden to the Chief Factor.
From 1808 - 1824, Pruden was in charge of Carlton House where, in 1821, he was made Chief Trader. In 1825-1826 he was placed in charge of Norway House but later returned to Carlton House where he was promoted to Chief Factor in 1836. In 1837, Pruden retired and lived in the Red River Settlement where he served for a time as a member of the Council of Assiniboia. He died on May 30, 1868, at the age of ninety.
John Peter Pruden had seven children: William, Charlotte, Peter, James, Cornelius, John and Caroline.
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The third son, James, the grandfather of Mrs.Tiedemann and Mrs. Kortzman, was born in the Northwest Territories in 1820. He married a woman from the Peace River district who is recorded as Geneve; she was born in 1821 and died in 1914 at the age of ninety-three.
James Pruden left for the Oregon Territory early in the 1850's with a group from the Red River Settlement, led by James Sinclair but later returned to the Edmonton district where he filed on a homestead on the west side of Beaverhill Lake, thus becoming one of the first settlers in the Tofield area. James Pruden died on January 13, 1902 and was buried in the St. James, the Apostle-Newton-Logan cemetery seven miles northwest of Tofield. This was the Anglican cemetery usually referred to as the Logan cemetery; the land for the cemetery had been donated to the Anglican Church by Mr. Pruden.
James Pruden had ten children: The oldest boy John Edward, was born June 3, 1852. He married Eliza Rowland and they had nine children - Flora (Mrs. Kortzman); Bill, who died during the 1918 influenza epidemic; Ned, killed in action in World War I; Archibald, who died in 1958, leaving a reputation as a boxer during his service in the Armed Forces; Carrie; Walter also killed in World War I, Emma; John and Joe.
Charles, another son of James Pruden, was born Feb. 7, 1856. He had four children: One of his daughters, Annie, married Lawrence MacKenzie of Tofield.
Maria, James Pruden's daughter, was born Nov. 22, 1857 and died in 1955, aged 98 years. Married to George Kennedy, she lived in the H.B.C. house in Edmonton, near the site of the Legislative Buildings in Edmonton.
A news item from the Winnipeg Free Press of Monday Nov.3, 1935, states:
"Edmonton pioneer traces her roots back to another Edmonton, Fort Edmonton was named after her grandfather's birthplace in England. Her husband named Grand Prairie. Her home may be the oldest dwelling in Edmonton. It was built 68 years ago by her husband, the late George Kennedy. This pioneer of pioneers is 97 years old."
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Another of James Pruden's daughters was Margaret Ann, born Dec.31,1859. She married Henry Fraser, fur trader for the H.B.C.; she died April 16, 1956, aged ninety-six.
A third daughter, Elizabeth Jane, (born Dec. 18, 1861, died July 13, 1952) married Joseph Norn (1862 - 1914). They had five children: Adeline who married Roy Foss in the little St. James-Newton-Logan Church on Oct 31, 1907, Frank, and Sophia, who married Steve Hafner; Alice who married Martin Hafner, and Lily who married Herman Tiedemann. The Tiedemanns had five sons, Walter, James, Marvin, Joe and Floyd.
Another son, Frank., born May 1, 1865, married Annie MacKenzie and had four children: Olive, Marvin, Ivy and Holden.
The fourth daughter of James Pruden, Caroline, born April 25, 1869, married George Pace Jones, a former member of the R.N.W.M.P. They had nine children: Harry, Lillian; Mary; Albert (Bert) who farmed north of Tofield until his death a few years ago; Maude; Grace; Maggie, Elsie; and Vernie.
Still another daughter, Sophia Maria, born Sept.15, 1871, married George Norris. Their five children were: James, Henry, Rose, Beatrice and Clara. Frederick, the youngest son of James Pruden, was born June 1, 1876 and died at the age of twelve.
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