Sam Livingston

Sam Livingston (d. 1897) came to Canada following an unsuccessful venture in the Californian gold rush of 1849, and eventually found his way to Jumping Pound, Alberta in 1873 where he opened a trading post. He was going to settle near the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers in 1875 but, when the North West Mounted Police arrived and established Fort Calgary, Livingston and his family moved further up the Elbow River to the current location of the Glenmore Reservoir. When the Glenmore Dam was built and the area flooded, part of the Livingstone house was preserved and now stands in Heritage Park.

Livingston was a great innovator who brought the first examples of mechanised equipment to farming in the Calgary area. Some people call Sam Livingston "Calgary's First citizen", but George Clift King (the first man to marry in Calgary) is also given that title.

Sam Livingstone died in 1897 shortly after the birth of his fourteenth child. His funeral procession was forty carriages long.