Senator Paula Simons🇨🇦Recognize this streetscape? Even if you are from Edmonton, this bustling image of Jasper Avenue, circa 1910-11, probably doesn’t look familiar. This is roughly where Rice Howard Place, the former Scotia Tower, now stands. This image was taken during Edmonton’s wild land rush period. And here is where young land shark Moishe Cohen - later Two-Gun Cohen - had his first Edmonton office. It’s also where my 2024 Jane’s Walk will begin! #Edmonton #yeg #yegheritage #JanesWalk #JewishHistory
Morris Cohen in about 1913. Born in the Russian empire and raised in London’s East End, where he learned to pick pocket and box for money, he “graduated” from reform school and was shipped by his worried parents to Saskatchewan, where they hoped he’d go straight. Instead, he supported himself through cons & petty crime - till he drifted west to Edmonton to find his fortune- and become an influential political fixer - and form a remarkable bond with Edmonton’s Chinese community. #JanesWalk #yeg
10 years ago, I made this delightful (if I do say so myself!) radio documentary about the life & lies of Moishe Two-Gun Cohen, hero of the Chinese Revolution & bodyguard to Dr. Sun Yat Sen...starring Edmonton actor Mark Meer (known to gamers as the male voice of Mass Effect's Commander Shepard) as Cohen himself. Now, I'm leading a Jane's Walk, focused on Cohen's life and times in Edmonton https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.2914047 #Edmonton #yeg #yeghistory #CBC #JanesWalk #MarkMeer #SunYatSen #Ideas
The Intermittently True Adventures of Moishe"Two-Gun" Cohen
Artful dodger. Edmonton real estate tycoon. Chinese revolutionary. Edmonton writer Paula Simons unravels the unlikely tale of a not-so-nice Jewish boy who went from East End London pickpocket to Prairie con-man to Sun Yat-Sen's gun-running general....
But...my walk in the footsteps of Moishe Two-Gun Cohen is just ONE of many great Jane's Walks taking place all across Edmonton next month. You can register for a free walk now -whether you want to know more about the evolution of Millwoods, or explore the new Indigenous spiritual centre near Whitemud Creek or tour the U of A Campus or explore thriving 124th Street, there is a walk for you! https://janewalksyeg.wordpress.com/ #JanesWalk #JanesWalkYeg #Edmonton #yeg #yegheritage
Chris Begley@Paulatics my grandma was born in a barn in Bruderheim in 1913, left school in 1926 and started waitressing on Jasper Ave! She lived to 100, bless her lovely soul