Fritz Theodore Colley

COLLEY, SWENSON, CORR

Posted By: Sharyl Ferrall (email)
Date: 8/19/2005 at 18:53:49

Fritz Theodore Colley, the prominent lumber merchant of Stettler, has been identified with this city since it was connected with the outside world by railroad. He has been in the lumber business all his active career, and was one of the enterprising young men who took advantages of the opportunities of a new country and have built up a prosperous business and at the same time aided in the general progress of the community.

Mr. Colley is a native of the United States, born in Forest City, Iowa, January 15, 1880. Both parents were natives of Sweden and are still living in Forest City. His father came to America in 1865, and the mother, whose maiden name was Mary Swensen, came to this country with her parents about the same time, their marriage occurring soon afterward.

Up to the time he was seventeen Mr. Colley attended the public schools of his birthplace, and then for three years worked with his father on the farm. At the age of twenty he began his experience in his present business as the employee of a lumber firm, and he was connected with the business in the States of Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota. In November, 1905, he arrived in Stettler on the very next day after the completion of the railroad to this point. His foresight and preparedness in business gave him a decided advantage and he has since become one of the leading merchants of Northern Alberta. When he established his lumber business at Stettler, his associate in the enterprise was Mr. W.G. Robertson, of North Dakota. He and his brother, O.W. Colley, have since acquired the interests of Mr. Robertson and the brother is now in charge of the branch yard at Castor. The business is known as the Acorn Lumber Company, Limited. It carries about two million feet of lumber in stock, employs ten persons in the conduct of the business, and now has five yards, one in each of the following towns: Stettler, Castor, Munson, Botha and Coronation. They do the largest retail lumber business in the districts about these towns. Mr. Colley has been very successful in business, and has taken an important part in the agricultural development of this country. He owns a section of improved land, which he leases, and since coming to this district he has improved and sold five different farms. He and his wife reside in one of the comfortable homes of Stettler. He was married in July, 1906, to Miss Stella A. Corr, of Kiester, Minnesota.

source - History of the province of Alberta, by Archibald Oswald MacRae, Western Canada History Co., 1912, pg. 906-907

transcribed by Sharyl Ferrall for the Winnebago co. IAGenWeb