William Cameron Smalley is my grandfather.
He married Margaret Alice Cowell. My mother was their only child, Margaret Cowell Smalley. She married Christopher Hampton Smith and they settled in Camrose, Alberta following WW II where my father joined the medical practice of his father, Percy Frank Smith and his brother Frank McNeil Smith. "Peggy" and "Hamp" have four children.
My grandfather and grandmother retired in Edmonton and then Victoria. He continued working as a Baptist minister in Edmonton and Victoria well after his retirement. In the later years they moved to Camrose where both died. Both are buried in Edmonton.
Excerpts follow:
1. JAMES1 SMALLEY was born 1844 in Haslingden, Lancashire. He married JANET. She was born 1841 in Scotland. Baptist Minister
1881 Census listed occupation as Baptist Minister (without church & proprietor of lands
Address:23 Hoghton St, North Meols, Lancashire
Age: 36
1901 Census:
Age 56
Notes for JANET:
Age 39 in 1881 census and 59 in 1901 census
Children of JAMES SMALLEY and JANET are:
i. MARGARET SMALLEY, b. 1871, Brisol.
Birth date based on age 10 in 1881census
ii. ALICE A. SMALLEY, b. 1872, Gloucester Bristol.
Birth date based on age 8 in 1881 census
School mistress on 1901 census, age 28 on last birthday
iii. JAMES SMALLEY, b. 1875, Ross, Hereford, England.
Birth date based on age 5 in 1881 census
25 on last birthday in 1901 census, joiner cabinet maker
iv. HELENA SMALLEY, b. 1878, Littleborough, Lancashire.
Birth date based on age 2 in 1881 census
1901 census 22 on last birthday, assistand Mistress Infants
2. v. WILLIAM CAMERON SMALLEY, b. December 1880, 40 Burlington Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, England; d. 1972, Camrose, Alberta.
vi. THOMAS R. SMALLEY, b. 1882, Liverpool Lancashire.
1901 census: 18 on last birthday, apprentice joiner
Generation No. 2
2. WILLIAM CAMERON SMALLEY was born December 1880 in 40 Burlington Street, Blackburn,
Lancashire, England, and died 1972 in Camrose, Alberta. He married MARGARET ALICE COWELL September 04, 1913 in Baptist Church, Montague Street, Blackburn, daughter of JOHN COWELL and CLEMENTINA NALMSLEY. She was born December 17, 1881 in 47 Nensley Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and died in Camrose, Alberta.
1881 Census says born in Southport and was age 3 months
1901 census says 20 on last birthday, born Southport, Lancashire, assistant shool master
Notes for MARGARET ALICE COWELL:
listed as cotton winder on 1901 census
Marriage Notes for WILLIAM SMALLEY and MARGARET COWELL:
Entry #55 in register book of marriages #185 for the district of Blackburn in the counties of Lancaster and Blackburn CB
Child of WILLIAM SMALLEY and MARGARET COWELL is:
3. i. MARGARET COWELL3 SMALLEY, b. November 25, 1919, Winnipeg, Manitoba; d. April 22, 1994, Camrose, Alberta.
Generation No. 3
3. MARGARET COWELL3 SMALLEY (WILLIAM CAMERON2, JAMES1) was born November 25, 1919 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and died April 22, 1994 in Camrose, Alberta. She married DR. CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON SMITH January 1943 in Edmonton, Alberta, son of PERCY SMITH and ELLA JOHNSON. He was born October 28, 1917 in Camrose, Alberta, and died October 25, 1992 in Camrose, Alberta.
More About MARGARET COWELL SMALLEY:
Burial: April 27, 1994, Camrose, Alberta
More About DR. CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON SMITH:
Burial: October 29, 1992, Camrose, Alberta
Children of MARGARET SMALLEY and CHRISTOPHER SMITH are:
JOAN MARGARET.
DOUGLAS HAMPTON.
PATRICIA LOUISE.
IAN WILLIAM.
William C. Smalley born in Lancashire, England, 1880, was baptised at Blackburn, England, November 1890. In 1903 he immigrated to Canada: Settling in Calgary and worked as a carpenter. In 1905 he started his ministerial studies at Brandon College, Manitoba; he was a student in pastorates at Shoal Lake and Strathclair, Manitoba. He graduated from Brandon College. He was ordained in 1912, in his church at Shoal Lake. In 1913 he left for England; he returned, newly married to Margaret Cowell , to be minister at Portage la Prairie Church.
Dr. Smalley held many positions, apart from being a pastor, during the next 41 years. Some positions were: district secretary for south-western Manitoba, superintendent of Home Missions in Manitoba at Winnipeg, and in 1924 became the minister of Fourth Avenue Baptist Church, Ottawa.
He travelled much: attended the Congress of the Alliance meetings in Toronto, Berlin, Atlanta, Copenhagen, and London and in Rio de Janeiro. These conferences were in addition to the meetings of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec and of the United Baptist Convention of the Maritime Provinces.
In 1929 he became general secretary of B. U. W. C., 1939 a member of the Executive Committee, World Alliance; he also became a life honorary vice- president of B.W.A. He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, Northern Baptist Seminary, Chicago in 1945. He was an initial supporter of the B.L.T.S., Calgary. In 1951 he retired as general secretary of the B.U.W.C. In 1952 he became the first minister of Highlands Baptist Church; remaining until his retirement in 1954. However, he also served as president of the Northern Alberta Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society of Canada for two years; served as vice-president in 1960. On December 3, 1972, he passed away in Camrose, at the age of 92.
