Red Deer, Alberta - History - Leonard Gaetz

Leonard Gaetz

As a founding father of the city, the Reverend Dr. Leonard Gaetz (1841–1907) is memorialized in the name of Red Deer's major thoroughfare: Gaetz Avenue.

Born in 1841 at Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia, Gaetz married Caroline Blowers Hamilton in 1865. They had a family of eleven children. Gaetz was an ordained Methodist minister, serving the church until 1883. He left the ministry due to ill health and moved to the Red Deer Valley. He decided to homestead on the west half of a section on the Red Deer River, and one of his sons, Halley Gaetz, took up the other half section.

Leonard Gaetz acted as the local land agent for the Saskatchewan Colonization Company and purchased parts of three other sections from his employers. By 1890, the Gaetz family owned vast land holdings along the south bank of the Red Deer River around the mouth of the Waskasoo Creek. The holdings included parts of Sections 16, 17, 20 and 21. Leonard Gaetz's increasing wealth allowed his family to play a central role in the growth of Red Deer.

In 1895, Gaetz returned to the active ministry in Manitoba. Once again, this proved detrimental to his health. He retired back to Red Deer in 1901, and resided here for the remainder of his life. He was a strong promoter of the area, founding the Westerner showgrounds and annual "Westerner Days", akin to the Calgary Stampede. Gaetz also served as Red Deer's first mayor. He died in Red Deer in 1907.