Ethic diversity in Lethbridge's red light district 1880s to 1944.

Crowson, Belinda

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many western settlements had a Red Light district. The large number of single men, the anonymity of the frontier, dangerous work, boredom - all of it worked together to make social vices such as gambling, drinking, and prostitution a significant part of the social climate of that time.

The stories a community tells of its heroes, its great people, its first families, tell part of the story. The stories that are rarely discussed fill in the blanks and give a more complete understanding of the social mores, beliefs, and ideas of a community. Researching the Red Light district and other associated social vices helps to explain all of the community--all social levels, not just the wealthy and middle class; all businesses, not just the prosperous and long-lasting; and all stories, not just that of the men but also of the women and children of the community.

The story of the Red Light district across the West is related to the economy of the community, Canadian divorce laws, the rise of organizations such as the Travellers' Aid Society, changes to the police force, the fight for women's rights, and dower laws and much more.

Where Lethbridge was different from many other communities is that, while it was illegal, the Red Light district in Lethbridge remained in place relatively unmolested until 1944, making it one of the last cities in North America to have an openly recognized Red Light district. The Alberta government finally told the City of Lethbridge it had to either close down the Red Light district or the Lethbridge City Police would be replaced by the RCMP. (1) One of the reasons given for this decision was the high rate of venereal disease in the city.

According to Police Chief James H. Carpenter, The houses of prostitution in Lethbridge, until approximately 1920, were located on the "Point" where a coulee hill extends westward from the present location of 3rd Avenue and 2nd Street South. By 1930 most of the houses on the Point had disappeared; some had burned, some had been moved to locations with sewer and water services and the remainder were torn down. The madams and girls moved to the area centred on 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue South; this part of the city became known as the red light district, except in civic government circles where it was prudently known as "the segregated area." (2)

Lethbridge's Red Light district (and this may be a myth told by the people of Lethbridge to salve their collective conscience) seemed different in that it played a more important role in the social life of early Lethbridge than did other communities across the province and across the West. According to the stories, some of the first reading rooms in the community were located there where one could learn to read from an ex-teacher. There was a piano where one could learn the newest dances. (3) While these stories may or may not be myth, what is a reality is how ethnically diverse Lethbridge's Red Light district really was.

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There is an assumption that one sometimes comes across in the minds of people that early prairie history was white and that most settlers were homogeneous. This is definitely not the case but the stories of the settlement of ethnic groups are often difficult to find for a wide variety of reasons. When it comes to ethnic diversity and the Red Light district, it is even more frustrating to find the answers.

While all of persons working in the Red Light district were similarly affected by social ostracism from the community at large, racial barriers still remained in place. In Red Lights on the Prairies, James Gray notes that Japanese brothels in Lethbridge were forced to remain in the river valley and in the old brothel area on the west side of the river. (4) Gray also states that when men were having bad luck at the tables, they would head to the Japanese brothels.

The location of the Japanese brothels indicates their lack of acceptance even within the Red Light district. When prostitution started in Lethbridge, it was originally in the river bottom because that was close to where the community started as Coalbanks and where the coal mines and miners were located. Within a few years the settlement had moved up to the prairie level and it was not long before the brothels moved up as well. That is, most of the brothels. If a prostitute ran afoul of the law, was starting out in the business, or was near the end of her career, she would find herself in the river bottom brothels--better known as The Bottoms. (5) It can be deduced, then, from the location given for the Japanese brothels that they were considered outcasts even from the other brothels.

This is the only reference specifically to Japanese brothels found to date. In the 1906 census, there is a mention of one household in Lethbridge where three single Japanese women were living together. One of them was listed as the head of household and the other two as maids. While it would be easy to conclude that, because in a city of less than 2,000 people, there would not be many Japanese households, there are no corroborating facts to connect this home to the Japanese brothels. It is interesting, though, that considering the relatively small size of the city at the time, there was reported to be more than one Japanese brothel in Lethbridge.

In Lethbridge and elsewhere in Canada during the early 20th century, crime and other social problems were often blamed on the so-called "foreign" element and the poor. The underlying assumption was that these two groups did not know how to behave properly. Where prostitution was concerned, much of the blame was directed to the Americans. Canadians of that time period often decried the fact that Americans had lax morals. According to many Canadians in the early 20th century, relaxed American divorce laws were a clear evidence of the low quality of American morals. The worry of many Canadians was that this type of morality was corrupting Canadian society and that it was the duty of Canadians to be on the watch for any encroachment of American-style morality into Canada.

Americans, therefore, were blamed in part for the prostitution that was plaguing Canada. It certainly seemed to be true that many of the earliest prostitutes in Lethbridge were Americans who moved up from the cattle towns in Montana. Two of the more famous women of the late 19th and early 20th century were Cowboy Jack and Swede Alice. Little is known about Swede Alice though she had one of the larger homes in Lethbridge at that time. While her name raises questions, it is impossible to know whether or not she was truly Swedish.

A great deal more is known about Cowboy Jack, whose real name was Carrie Maclean. Cowboy Jack came up from Montana and had worked previously in Havre. Her house catered mostly to cattlemen and those in the ranching industry and was once the best known bordello in Lethbridge.

Cowboy Jack was not the only madam with an American connection. In the 1906 census, Roy Foster was identified as a head of household, female, single and thirty years old. The census indicated that she had entered Canada from the United States in 1903. There are two other members of the household: Stella Clark, a single female of nineteen years old who was listed as a friend, and Jim Lee, a male servant, who was forty years of age.

The next reference to Roy Foster appeared in the 1907 Lethbridge Herald with the report of her death in a house fire. She was identified as "a fallen woman" who kept a "resort" on the east side of town, just outside the city limits, and was killed in the fire. She was identified by her false teeth and, as a member of the police force reported, the "deceased was a morphine fiend but not a drinker." It was believed that her death was accidental and not suicide. No record of anyone else living in the home was given at that time. (6)

As the estate is being settled in the later months of 1907 and the early part of 1908, documents provided more details about her. She was listed both as Roy Foster and Nita Campbell, the last one perhaps being her legal one. She was married, her husband being W.S. Mallory. He came forward after her death and said that they had been married in Wallace, Idaho, in August 1897. The story gives credence to the belief held by people of that time that much of the problem was a result of American influence on Canadian society.

While Americans in general were held responsible for a lot of the problems, specific groups of Americans received even more condemnation. The following newspaper item gives a hint as to another group involved in the Red Light district: About midnight Saturday fire broke out in one of the much discussed houses near the isolation hospital and before the flames were extinguished the house only recently erected for the colored lady named Sexton was burned to the ground and Dorothy Davis was badly scorched, the gable being burned. At one time the Isolation Hospital was in considerable danger. The fire alarm system did not work perfectly and it was some time before the brigade was on the spot. The fire was exceedingly hot and the hose was burnt in several places that it burst causing further delay. A considerable quantity of booze was saved from the flames and was not allowed to go to waste. (7)

There was an almost casual mention that the owner of the house was a "colored lady named Sexton." Newspaper accounts in early 1909 report that Sexton was trying to build a new house to replace the one lost in the fire. At that time the house was under construction at a site west of the Isolation Hospital, which would place it in the traditional Red Light district on the Point. The house was worth $1,500, a considerable amount of money for that time. (8) It also appears that the house Sexton was building in 1909 was larger than the previous one, which suggests that she was building to accommodate a larger business.

If Americans were blamed during this time period for the moral problems, worse than them as far as the legal system of the time believed, were Black Americans. For example, in August 1910, Fred Rhodes was arrested for being a frequenter of houses of ill fame. Rhodes was a black man and admitted to be from Chicago. As part of his court case he "denied that his colored wife was leading a life of shame in the city, but admitted that his sister was." (9) When Rhodes pleaded that he not be deported as he had money invested in a business in town, the magistrate said he would consider it but said "There's mighty few of you people that come to the country who are any good. This kind of thing seems to be bred in most of you and I guess it never will be bred out. If I had my way about it I would not allow any of you in the country." The magistrate's remarks to

Rhodes clearly demonstrate the attitude of the court and, it can be deduced, of many people of Lethbridge at that time.

Another group blamed for prostitution, particularly luring young, innocent white girls into prostitution, were the Chinese. There was a great fear of white slavery - a fear that appears to be unfounded. The autobiography of a woman who called herself Madeleine provides evidence that white slavery was an illusion and not reality. Madeleine, who after her "retirement," wrote about her time as a madame in Alberta. She gives a false name for the town and while not possible to substantiate, there is reason to believe that the place was Lethbridge. She wrote, I met the public prostitute, the clandestine prostitute, and the occasional prostitute. I met the trusting girl who had been betrayed, and the unfaithful wife. I met the college woman, and the illiterate child of the slums. I met the deserted wife and the wife of the profligate; the girl from the sheltered home and the girl who had been allowed to run wild; the girl who had sold her honor for bread, and the girl who had sold it for luxury and fine clothes. I met the girl who should have been a nun, and those others who were 'predestined by ancient conditions' for the life of a harlot. But the one girl I never met in all these years and in all the cities and the countries that I visited was the pure girl who had been trapped and violated and sold into slavery, and held a prisoner unable to effect her escape--the so-called 'white slave.'" (10)

Madeleine's analysis of the situation, that white slavery did not exist, at least at that time in her area, gives a very different perspective from the following editorial from the Lethbridge Herald in 1909.

PROTECT THE GIRLS

One of the most regrettable things noticed in the towns and cities of Western Canada is the presence of young girls working in semi-respectable restaurants and boarding-houses. These places, very often, are the breeding-places of crime of the worst kind against society. It is noticed particularly that in the Chinese places of the lower order young girls, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years of age are employed and it is known that their position there is anything but it ought to be. This is not as it ought to be. These girls, and society, should be protected, even if against their own wills. The difficulty is to know what sort of legislation to pass that will not lose its power by being discriminating or will not cast reflection on people and places eminently respectable although in the same lines of business. There is one thing sure, no girl under eighteen years of age should be allowed to work in these places, which are fatal to their moral well-being and therefore create and maintain a menace against society." (11)

Fear of the Chinese was shown time and again through police, City Council, and newspaper reports. In November 1909, Lethbridge Police Chief Joseph Gillespie made a report to City Council regarding Chinese restaurants employing white girls. This report was referred to the City Solicitor and Council requested that the solicitor see if a law could be written to prohibit white girls from working for Chinese employers. (12) It was considered improper for a white girl to work for a Chinese employer well into the 1930s.

And, if a Chinese man and a white woman wished to marry, the police investigated the relationship assuming that it had to be related to prostitution or was in some way immoral.

In September 1911, a Scottish girl working as a waitress for a Chinese employee had her relationship investigated when the two of them wished to marry. (13) The feeling of the community regarding such relationships was clearly expressed in a newspaper article. The article starts with a discussion on how there had been the need for quite some time (across the country) for legislation to deal with this evil because "for that it is an evil has been established beyond the shadow of a doubt three times during the past few months right here in Lethbridge. The two previous cases are well known to the public, and the third case just came to light yesterday."

The article stated that a Chinese man named Mah Wing applied at various offices for a marriage license but was repeatedly turned away and this led to an investigation. It showed that Mah Wing was living in the Vendome Hotel with a young woman named Janet Given. The two were taken in by the police at which point it was discovered that Janet had been working for Mah Wing in Diamond City (a small community 15 minutes from Lethbridge) for the past several months and the two now wished to be married. At the time of the arrest, Acting Chief Leslie Silliker thought that Janet was under 21 years of age and intended to charge Mah Wing with the "charge of procuring a girl under the age of 21 for immoral purposes." However, evidence showed Janet was 25 years old and refused to press charges. The article does not say anything about whether or not the couple did get married. The article ends with this statement "Sordid cases of this nature are becoming altogether too frequent in this community, and there is no doubt that the police department would welcome any legislation which would give them some ground for persecution in similar cases in future."

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There was, then, a great deal of worry that Chinese men were corrupting white women. But were there any suggestions that Chinese women were also in the Red Light district?

In 1908, Mah Wing Chung was charged with running a brothel; eleven Chinese women were charged with being inmates and nine were convicted of prostitution. A raid was done on the house because it was believed that a white girl, Dora Milestine, was being harbored there. The press carried several articles about Dora, the investigation into what was happening to her, attempts to get her back with her family in Manitoba, and the fate of Gee Lee, the man accused of corrupting her.

The Dora Milestine/Gee Lee case provides a great deal of information about how the Chinese were viewed in Lethbridge. The newspapers revealed in the early part of December 1908 that Gee Lee had to admit he was not married to the "French Girl." (14) Gee Lee was then charged and convicted of living off the proceeds of Dora Milestine and given three months hard labour?5 Gee Lee appealed and had the conviction overturned. The Lethbridge Daily Herald finally had to admit in January 1909 that the evidence given by Dora was "not tending to make the case against Gee Lee as black as at first appeared." (16) It is also interesting to note that the charges against Gee Lee garnered the front page but when the evidence turned in his favour, he got only page six coverage.

Mah Wing Chung appealed the charge and the appeal was upheld in February 1909 when it was said that as long as he was receiving rent from inmates, "it could not come under the name of a disorderly house." (17)

While it was the foreigners who were blamed, as much as the good citizens of Lethbridge and Canada did not want to hear it, there was plenty of evidence that at least some of the prostitutes were Canadians and, some, possibly, from local families.

In 1929, Wilhelmina Whitney was charged with keeping a bawdy house. (18) Seven years earlier she was fined $10 and costs for being intoxicated; she also slashed Constable Harry Washford across the face with a whip at that time. (19) Who was she? Wilhelmina's obituary in the 1930s, a very short obituary to be sure, states that she was born and educated in Lethbridge. Was Wilhelmina the exception or were there other women working in the Red Light district who were from the local area? As it is difficult to get much in-depth information on people working in the Red Light district, it is not possible to answer this question.

Because of the lack of information about ethnic minorities in general in the early 20th century, details on ethnic minorities in the Red Light district have been almost impossible to obtain. However, it does seem that the Red Light district was as diverse as the community around it. Women and men from various backgrounds, cultural groups, and countries of origin all worked and lived together in the segregated area.

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NOTES

(1) Alex Johnston and Andy den Otter, Lethbridge, A Centennial History (Lethbridge: City of Lethbridge and Whoop Up Country Historical Society, 1985), 148.

(2) James H. Carpenter, The Badge and the Blottec Lethbridge: Whoop-Up Chapter Historical Society of Alberta; 1975, 81.

(3) James H. Gray, Red Lights on the Prairies (Calgary: Fifth House Books), 175.

(4) Ibid., 188.

(5) Johnston and den Otter, XXX

(6) Lethbridge Daily Herald, 10 October 1907.

(7) Ibid., 14 December 1908.

(8) Ibid., 27 February 1909.

(9) Ibid., 27 August 1910.

(10) Anonymous, Madaleine: An Autobiography (New York and London, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1919), Book II, Chapter Xl.

(11) Lethbridge Daily Herald, 8 November 1909.

(12) Lethbridge City Council Records, 1909.

(13) Lethbridge Daily Herald, 14 September 1911.

(14) Ibid., 7 December 1908.

(15) Ibid., 18 December 1908.

(16) Ibid., 30 January 1909.

(17) Ibid., 17 & 18 December 1908.

(18) Ibid., 29 October 1929.

(19) Ibid., 17 February 1922.

Belinda Crowson is employed by the Galt Museum & Archives in Lethbridge. She is the 1st vice-president of the Historical Society of Alberta and president of the Lethbridge Historical Society.