Additional Images

Provenance:

Collection of John Gaddis Tipton, Alberta
By descent to the present Private Collection, British Columbia

Note:

The present pipe bag is closely related to an example held in the collections of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian (Cat. No. NMAI 1150).

Relatively little information is readily available about the early life of John Gaddis Tipton. Born in Fairview, Illinois in 1849, he was admitted to the bar in 1874. Entrepreneurial and enterprising, family lore has it that Tipton was engaged in horse and fur trading. He moved north to Alberta in 1894 to pursue opportunities in the Territories, eventually establishing a homestead near Big Island. Like many early residents, Tipton dabbled in an array of professions, including mining, real estate, insurance, loans, and auctions. In 1904, Tipton was admitted to the Alberta bar, a year before Alberta became a province of Canada.

Taking an interest in municipal politics, Tipton was elected alderman of Strathcona, and served from 1908 to 1911, a key advocate for the amalgamation between Edmonton and Strathcona. A brief sketch of Tipton was included in the 1913 biographical dictionary Men and Makers of Edmonton.

Alex Mair, “Who Was Tipton”, News from Old Strathcona, (Edmonton: Old Strathcona Foundation, 2000), Vol 6, Issue 2.
Edmonton Public Library, Biographies of Mayors and Councillors: John Gaddis Tipton, accessed 18 August, 2026, https://web.archive.org/web/20110705052643/http://www.epl.ca/edmonton-history/edmonton-elections/biographies-mayors-and-councillors?id=T
Men and makers of Edmonton, Alberta, (Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 1913)