Silas Alexander Ramsay
| Silas Alexander Ramsay | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 14th Mayor of Calgary | |
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In office January 5, 1904 – January 2, 1905 |
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| Preceded by | Thomas Underwood |
| Succeeded by | John Emerson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 27, 1850 Aylmer, Quebec |
| Died | December 5, 1942 (aged 92) Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Political party | Independent |
| Spouse(s) | Jessie Ann Wilson (1876–1925; her death) |
Silas Alexander Ramsay (August 27, 1850 – December 5, 1942) was a Canadian politician and merchant in Alberta, Canada. He served as the 14th mayor of Calgary.
A native of Quebec, Ramsay first travelled to the west with the Wolseley Expedition in a suppression effort to the Red River Rebellion in 1870. Before returning home, he visited the Calgary area and hunted buffalo. This was prior to the initial Fort Calgary settlement, which happened in 1875.
In 1883, Ramsay returned to Calgary and established several businesses. In the 1885 North-West Rebellion, he was a Government dispatch rider. He served eight total years on the city council as an alderman and was also mayor from January 5, 1904 to January 2, 1905, during which time he was a stringent supporter of municipal ownership, working to establish a lighting and water system for the city.
After his retirement in Calgary from his business, he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he died in 1942.
The son of William and Sarah (née Mohr) Ramsay, Silas Alexander Ramsay was born at Aylmer, Quebec in 1850. He attended public schools in his birthplace, completing high school. At the age of nine in 1860, Ramsay would witness the cornerstone lying ceremony of the Canadian Parliament buildings at Parliament Hill. He moved to Almonte, Ontario around 1867 and lived there for three years, when he participated the suppression of the Red River Rebellion in a faction commanded by Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley. During that time he participated in the Wolseley Expedition, travelling through Port Arthur and then embarking westward, in a journey of around three months, to Fort Garry (presently Winnipeg). Being the first trip he undertook Canadian West, he also visited the Calgary area and hunted buffalo, prior to Fort Calgary's establishment in 1875. He would later home via railway through Ottawa after heading through Montana and St. Paul, Minnesota. There he would open up a general store and operate it for around eight years, when he closed up and became a wool merchant for four years.
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