Albert F. Canwell

Albert Franklyn "Al" Canwell (January 11, 1907 - April 1, 2002) was an American journalist and politician who served as a member of the Washington State legislature from 1947 to 1948. He is best remembered as the namesake of the Washington legislature's Canwell Committee to investigate communist influence in Washington state, patterned after the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) of the United States Congress.

Albert Franklyn Canwell, known as "Al" to his friends, was born January 11, 1907 in Spokane, Washington.

Canwell's paternal grandfather, James Canwell (1840-1876), was a farmer from the New England state of Maine who served on the Union side in the American Civil War in the 1st Maine Cavalry before being taken as a prisoner-of-war. His father also served in the U.S. Cavalry as a member of the 1st Cavalry Regiment and later of the 4th Cavalry Regiment. He served at various cavalry forts in the Arizona Territory and Territory of Alaska as well as at Fort Walla Walla in Washington state.

His father mustered out of the cavalry in 1900 and with his wife, Ingeborg Christina Espelund Canwell (1876-1967), the Norwegian daughter of immigrants to the United States, decided to settle in a rural part of Eastern Washington near the city of Spokane.

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