Far left: Postage stamp of John Ware in honour of Black History Month, issued February 1, 2012. Photo courtesy of Canada Post. Left: John and Mildred Ware with children Robert and Nettie, circa 1896. Photo: Wikimedia.
John Ware By Margaret Evans Reprinted with permission from Canada’s Equine Guide 2018, a special edition of Canadian Horse Journal.
T
hink cowboy and images come to mind of a rugged man riding a horse across the landscape of a bygone era. While those alluring images and the iconic cowboy lifestyle were glamorized in books, television shows, and movies, the fact remains that cowboys were part of the indelible fabric of the opening up of the Canadian and American west.
But one man stands apart from so many others. He was black. He had been enslaved. He was tough and a hard worker. In his day, he was the best cowboy that ever sat a bucking horse. He was good-natured in a time when such social graciousness was seldom extended in return to a black man. He became a successful rancher despite the white-centric society of 19th century Canada. And in 2012 he was celebrated on a commemorative Canadian stamp during Black History Month. John Ware was born in the mid-1800s and grew up in slavery. The exact details about his early life are not entirely clear. He was freed at approximately age 20 when slavery was abolished with the ratification of the 13th Amendment of the American Constitution in 1865. Leaving the plantation, he travelled to Texas and pursued a cowboy life, then worked his way north driving cattle to Montana. According to the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, because of prejudice against black 14
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people, Ware was given the lower level jobs on cattle drives, such as being the cook’s helper or riding drag. A drag rider rode at the back of the herd in the dust and dirt, pushing up the stragglers, but Ware took it in stride. Good fortune led him to cross paths with a man named Tom Lynch in Idaho, who in 1882 hired him to drive 3,000 head of cattle to the North West Cattle Company, which would become known as the Bar U Ranch in Alberta. The story goes that he was given a somewhat mediocre horse to ride. But one day Ware asked an innocent question that would cement him in cowboy folklore. He asked his boss for a better horse. He may have had a sense that the horse he’d get wouldn’t prove to be “better” in the way he wanted. But he was used to people joking around at his expense and he would prove his worth. The “better” horse was an ornery bronc that had bucked off every cowboy who’d
tried to ride it, but Ware sat securely, anticipating every spine-jarring twist, turn, buck, and leap. By the time he dismounted, his companions’ scorn had been replaced by admiration for his skill and courage. That became Ware’s hallmark. He built an enviable reputation by proving his skills with horses and the use of a lariat, staying on task no matter what was given him, working hard, and remaining true to his principles. He quickly discovered that skilled, experienced cowboys were in high demand in Canada and decided to stay, finding work on ranches, including the Quorn Ranch west of Okotoks, Alberta. He deflected prejudice and planned to one day have his own ranch. As the story goes, one day in 1882 Ware’s horse smelled something amiss and refused to drink from Sheep Creek. Apparently, John looked hard at the scum on the water, dismounted, and cautiously tasted it. He definitely agreed with his horse. That scum was oil. Thirty-two years later in 1914, Dingman No. 1 well produced the first oil in Turner Valley. According to Glenbow Museum, in 1887 Ware started his ranch on the north fork of Sheep Creek in the Alberta foothills. In 1892 he married Mildred Lewis who had come to Calgary with her family from Ontario. They would have six children, one of whom died at age two. Ware continued to earn respect among ranchers and cowboys, and that admiration was further endorsed when, according to the Canada Post website, he pioneered steer-wrestling and won his first competition at the Calgary Summer Fair in 1893. It set a precedent for what would much later become a highlight of the Calgary Stampede. In 1901, Ware sold his ranch and resettled northeast of Brooks on the Red Deer River. But life began to take a tragic turn. The following year his home was destroyed by a spring flood. Undaunted, he rebuilt
