John Ware

John Ware was born around 1845 to 1850, most likely on a cotton plantation near Georgetown, South Carolina, into slavery, although on his marriage certificate he gave Tennessee as his birthplace and the historical record of his early life is far from clear. After the American Civil War he left his family and made his way west to Texas, where he found work on a horse ranch near Fort Worth and learned the skills of a rancher and cowboy.

Ware joined cattle drives from Texas northward. In the spring of 1882, in southern Idaho, he met Tom Lynch, who had come from Canada to buy a foundation herd for the North-West Cattle Company, known as the Bar U ranch. Lynch hired Ware to help take the herd of more than 3,000 cattle north to its new range in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and John Ware is credited with helping to bring the first cattle to southern Alberta.

He worked at the Bar U and then the Quorn Ranch on the Sheep River, and was famous as a roper and horseman who always won first money in the competitions he entered. He registered his own brand, the four nines, and in 1887 established his own ranch near Millarville. He became a legend in the region for his strength, skill with horses and good nature, and crossed racial lines to win the respect of his neighbours.

In 1892 Ware married Mildred Lewis, a Black schoolteacher born in Ontario, in Calgary. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy. In 1900, as settlement increased, he moved the family to a new ranch along the Red Deer River east of Brooks, where he rebuilt their cabin on higher ground overlooking a stream, now called Ware Creek.

In late March 1905 Mildred died of pneumonia. Only months later, on 11 September 1905, Ware was killed when his horse tripped in a badger hole and fell on him. His funeral in Calgary was attended by ranchers from across the region, and he was mourned as one of the ranching community's most respected members. Mount Ware, Ware Creek and John Ware Ridge are named in his honour, as are a Calgary school and a building at SAIT, and J. Grant MacEwan wrote his biography, John Ware's Cow Country.