John Ware, Canada’s Legendary Cowboy (1845-1905)
This Article is dedicated to Nettie Ware (1893-1989)
“a man of unquestioned honesty and agreeable nature…[who] boasted the rare distinction of never having been thrown from a horse. At roughriding and roping he was an expert’’ (Turner, 1950, pg. 461).
This is the story about how I first learned about John Ware, a man whom the Blackfoot Indians called “Matoxy Sex Apee Quin” because they thought he was related to the spirit world. He was undoubtedly one of the best cowboys ever to ride on the prairies of 19th century Alberta, Canada. What makes his story even more amazing than his skill is his backstory. He was a freed slave who made western Canada his home and through his legendary skills and character became a hero to many black Canadians.
John Ware was a cowboy who lived in the latter decades of the nineteen century in Alberta, Canada. He was not some Hollywood imaginary gun-slinging desperado. He was a professional, business-like cowboy who was highly respected amongst his peers not only because of his skills but also because of his character and deportment. What made John Ware unique amongst the many cowboys of Alberta was were he was from and what he became in his new home.
Learning about John Ware
When I lived in Calgary, Alberta during the late 1970s, I was honoured to have spent many an afternoon in my landlady’s kitchen listening to Nettie Ware talk about her father John Ware. My landlady and Nettie were longtime friends from Vulcan, Alberta.
That made me realize that sometimes in life, you get to meet the most amazing people. No, I’m not talking about the day I met a former Canadian Prime Minister, which was rather underwhelming. I’m talking about the time I met Nettie Ware. She was happy to share her stories about her father, who as it turned out was a legendary Canadian cowboy.
John Ware was undoubtedly one of the best cowboys ever to ride on the prairies of 19th century Alberta, Canada. What makes his story even more amazing than his skill is his backstory. He was a freed slave who made Canada home and became a hero to many black Canadians. This is his story.
“Go west young man”
When I was a teenager, I heard the call to “Go West Young Man”. Well, it was more a request from my friend to drive him back home to Calgary, Alberta. And so I did.
From 1977 to 1979, I had the privilege of living in Calgary, Alberta during its boom years. The city was thriving. It seemed everything was possible. Living there was like magic to me. I had never seen real mountains. I had never seen a sky as blue and never-ending as I saw there. And I had never experienced how vast and awesome Canada really is. It was a formative time for me as I moved from suburban Toronto to the “wild west” of Calgary. Well, it wasn’t all that wild but it was new and wonderful for me.
I learned I love to climb mountains and hiking in the wilderness.
One day I decided to climb Mount Lady MacDonald in Cranmore, Alberta (shown above). It was exhilarating, adventurous, challenging and fun. That was until I discovered I forgot to bring water with me. Having managed to find some snow behind some bushes, I hydrated myself, sort of.
After reaching the summit and taking a few photos, I literally ran down the slopes using my boots as brakes and finally made it to the base of the mountain. I then ran towards the townsite in the hope of finding some water. Having found an outdoor tap behind a church, I drank as much as I could.
But I digress. This isn’t the point of this article, but its a fun story.
Miss Janet “Nettie” Ware
While living in Calgary, I stayed in a rooming house in the south-west of the city belonging to a very kind elderly woman. She rented out the rooms in the house as well as the basement apartments. I quite enjoyed chatting with her especially as we all had to share the one kitchen (except the basement apartments).
At least once a week she would have a visitor, and as this visitor was there so often, I got to know her quite well. I was often invited to join them over a cup of tea. This visitor was her best friend Janet Amanda “Nettie” Ware. She was an elderly woman who happened to be the daughter of the late John Ware. At that point I only knew her father was a cowboy.
My landlady and Nettie were both retired teachers from Vulcan, Alberta. In time I looked forward to her Nettie’s visit and joined them in the kitchen. I did so because Nettie would tell stories about the early days of Alberta and especially stories about her past.
And what a past she had!
It is through her that I learned about the origin and exploits of her father, John Ware.
In the following photo you can see John Ware and his family with Nettie sitting on her mother’s lap and their second child standing next to John.
I spend three years in Calgary eventually leaving Canada to move to the United States, oddly in the entirely opposite direction as John Ware had done over 100 years before, as we will see. Life moved on and I slowly forgot about this episode in my life as I got busy with new things in Pennsylvania and New England.
In time, I moved back to Canada. For some reason it occurred to me during my University days that I ought to see what had happened to Nettie Ware. Initially, I didn’t get very far. Later on while doing some more in-depth research for this blog post, I was saddened to learn that Nettie Ware had passed away in 1989 on her ninety-sixth birthday. This meant she would have been in her mid-eighties when we had chatted in my landlady’s kitchen. It was then that I decided I wanted to know more about her father.
Who was John Ware?
For those who don’t know the story of Mr. John Ware, he rightly deserves his reputation. His cowboy skills were legendary and contrary to the popular Hollywood image of cowboys, he was a gentleman. He led an honest, moral life and was a loving father. His work as a cowboy was extremely difficult. The working conditions were hard. In those days, if he was injured or disabled he could expect not much in the way of assistance.
A cowboy’s work is never done
What was the work of a cowboy anyway? They were responsible for the well-being of the herd of cattle under their care. They were responsible for taking herds from ranches to ranches, if they were sold to another rancher. They had to keep them fed and protected as they grazed.
Sometimes they had to move them to new pastureland for better feeding. And they had to be tough enough to protect the herds from poachers and more usually from wild animals. In the days when fences were unheard of in the western plains, they had to keep cattle from wandering away from the main herd.
Cattle drive to Alberta
John Ware was born into slavery in 1845 before the civil war. During the emancipation he was granted his freedom and moved to Texas where he learned the tough life of a cattle hand - a cowboy. At over 6 feet tall and weighing a strong 230 lbs, he took to his tasks easily and became very proficient at handling great herds of cattle. He went on cattle drives which were essentially bringing product to the purchasers. Ranchers bought hundreds of head of cattle from suppliers in Texas (presumably Texas Longhorns that could survive long drives through arid land) and it was the job of cowboys to deliver them. In 1882 he made his way to Idaho where at the age of 37 he joined a cattle drive bringing a herd of cattle across the border to a buyer in Alberta.
I learned a few lesser known facts about cattle drives from Nettie Ware.
For instance, part of a cowboy’s job during a cattle drive was to ensure the cattle didn’t stray off or turn back. The herd of cattle is basically running. Depending on the size of the herd, it would have numbered in the hundreds. To keep these cattle going the right direction, it was important that the lead cattle head in the direction the cattlemen wanted them to go. It wasn’t quite like herding cats, but in a wide open land it was not an easy task. One tactic was to fire a shot just in front of the lead cattle to make them turn, being careful not to injure them. If that didn’t work, the cowboy had to run in front of the herd and force them to turn using the horse - a very dangerous and life threatening act if the cattle didn’t behave.
Of course, at the end of the day a cowboy’s work wasn’t done. During the night he had to keep watch for rustlers (people who steal cattle) and wolfs who were more likely to attack the herd as they grazed.
This was the life of a cattle hand. It required someone with stamina, strength and courage and an ability to make tough decisions quickly. This was the life of John Ware as he brought the product to a buyer in Alberta, Canada.
John Ware’s new home in Alberta
At the end of John Ware’s cattle drive north, he arrived in the dusty cattle town of Calgary, Alberta. Having taken a look at the place, the people and the opportunities, he decided to settle there.
This seemed like a good move considering Alberta never had experienced slavery. This territory was just opening up for settlement. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had established “law and order” on the Canadian side of the border on the plains of Western Canada. With fairly good relations between the white settlers and the First Nations (Indian) tribes, he probably faced less racial discrimination there than he would have experienced in the American south.
So, Alberta was his new home.
His reputation rises
What he did in his new home made him legendary amongst cattlemen in Calgary and throughout the Big Sky Country.
He quickly found steady employment at the Bar-U and Quorn ranches which were south of Calgary. In an era where roughness, dishonesty, bullying and lawlessness seemed normal, Mr. Ware showed honesty, skill, hard work and decency. He was known as
“a man of unquestioned honesty and agreeable nature…[who] boasted the rare distinction of never having been thrown from a horse. At roughriding and roping he was an expert" (Turner, 1950, pg. 461).
His skills at bronco busting were legendary. Bronco busting is not for the faint-hearted. It is a bone jarring activity and was a vital part of ranching in those days to prepare a steer for branding. A steer needed to be captured and held so it could be “labelled” by a ranch’s “brand” which was burnt into the hide of the animal near it’s business end. This brand ensured the owner of the animal could be clearly identified if it was rustled or stolen. Most significantly, the brand could not be taken off without killing the animal.
According to his reputation, in an era when the demanding skills of a cowboy were highly valued, John Ware’s skills exceeded them all in Alberta. When John Ware entered an establishment in Calgary, everyone knew him.
The legend of John Ware
Because of his courage and enormous strength, the First Nations people called him “Matoxy Sex Apee Quin” (which means bad black white man) and wondered if he had a connection to the spirit world.
Now, legends being legends, lots of yarns have been twisted making John Ware into a giant like Paul Bunyan. Some of these include:
John Ware discovered Turner Valley oil fields with a flick of a match
John Ware was the last rancher to use a Calgary bridge as a cattle crossing
John Ware was never thrown from a horse
He invented steer wrestling 20 years before the Calgary Stampede
Camp cooks profess to feeding him on over-sized platters and to watch him eat sandwiches the size of a family bible
How much of these legends are true, well, you decide. It is quite possible that they are all true.
Nevertheless, it is true that he was the last to use a Calgary bridge as a cattle crossing. It was forbidden to drive cattle through Calgary - a perfectly reasonable law - except when your new ranch is on the opposite side of Calgary from your old ranch. That was exactly John Ware’s problem. He had bought a new ranch but had to get his herd there. But Calgary was in the way. What to do? He brought his herd to the edge of the Bow river and waited until nightfall and in the middle of the night he charged his cattle across the bridge and into history.
He was the last rancher to use a Calgary bridge as a cattle crossing.
The legacy of John Ware
I should mention that Nettie Ware did not speak much about that the cowboy part of his life. She often spoke about John Ware as father.
Nettie Ware told me that he was a good man and a good father. He had raised his five children in a Christian household and taught them to respect one another and to “treat one another as they would like to be treated”. Certainly, based on my memories of Nettie, John Ware had done a good job of raising his children.
In 1882, John met a woman from Toronto named Mildred Lewis (I knew there was a Ontario connection somewhere). They married and settled on a ranch just north of the village of Duchess, Albert which is along the Red Deer River. Unfortunately, his homestead was washed away in the spring flood of 1902.
John Ware rebuilt the cabin on higher ground overlooking a stream which today is called Ware Creek. By then they had five children. Three years later in 1905, sadly, Mildred Ware died of pneumonia. Tragically, that same year John Ware died when his horse tripped after stepping into a gopher hole. The horn of the saddle killed him instantly. Nettie and her four brothers and sisters were bereaved of both of their parents in the same year. Nettie was only 12 years old when both her mother and father passed away.
I can’t recall what Nettie said had happened to her and her siblings after her parents died. John Ware’s children would certainly have been taken care of, even as he had provided good service to many others. However, I do know that Nettie settled in Vulcan, Alberta. I believe she became a teacher. It was during her time in Vulcan that she got to know my landlady who eventually moved to Calgary to start a rooming house for students.
Nettie remained in Vulcan, Alberta and frequently visited my landlady, which to me was very fortunate.
John Ware and Canada - a hero to Canadians of African origin
John Ware was indeed a legendary cowboy, a skilled bronco buster, and most importantly a gentleman and good family man.
John Ware died 12 days after Alberta entered into confederation with the new nation of Canada. And it does seem fitting. John was a decent man. He was highly respected and a very talented - even legendary - cowboy, and he was black.
His colour did not matter in his new home. What mattered was his abilities and his kindness to others. He became a symbol of the tolerance and decency with which his new home, Canada, has and continues to aspired to. And he has become a hero to Canadians of African origin.
Janet (Nettie) Ware honoured by the Province of Alberta
Eventually, Nettie Ware began traveling throughout Alberta speaking about her father to school children. In 1971 the Province of Alberta honoured her with “Alberta’s Pioneer Daughter of the Year” . Nettie kindly gave me a book about the history of John Ware and she even signed it for me. Somehow, frustratingly, I lost it in my travels. (Update. I managed to find another copy and it sits proudly in my bookcase of Canadian classics.)
As things go, I lost contact with both Nettie and my former landlady but I have often told my story about meeting Nettie Ware and learning about this great Canadian cowboy.
(As an aside, when I lived there, I only knew her as Nettie. I had no idea what her full name was until I found that newsclipping shown below, which is a photo of Nettie Ware at the Glenbow Museum, Alberta.
This story would not be complete without my small memorial to Janet Amanda “Nettie” Ware. She rests in peace next to her sister in Vulcan, Alberta. Another connection that is important to me: the year she died in 1989, I started university; the year I first met her in 1978, I started an adult education program in Calgary for those who had not finished high school.
It is an important story to keep alive. It is part of the heritage of Canada. Canadians of African descent can be rightly proud of John Ware, as can all Canadians. From it’s founding, despite some serious mistakes along the way, Canada has striven to be a home for all people, no matter their colour or nationality. For John Ware, it represented freedom - a freedom from racism and intolerance. And Alberta has been proud of one of it’s own who showed others what decency and honesty and hard work is all about.
Further Reading
Online resources
Here are some online resources for further reading. Googling John Ware will retrieve lots of information on John Ware.
- Find a Grave Memorials: Janet Amanda “Nettie” Ware
- CowboycountryTV: Summary of the life of Nettie Ware
- Wikipedia: John_Ware_(cowboy)
- Canadian Encyclopedia: John Ware
- Youtube: The Canadians: John Ware
Books about John Ware
- John Ware’s Cow Country by by Grant MacEwan. Book written by Alberta’s former Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. This is the one that I lost (with Nettie’s signature!).
- The Story of John Ware by R. Breon, V. Cudjoe, M. McLoughlin (Illustrator) Children’s illustrated book about our famous cowboy.
Author’s Note
A previous version of this article was provided to Oxford University Press Canada for use in their Canadian high school text book Inside Track 1.
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