Born April 28, 1879, in Akra near Skaanevik, Norway, to Lars and Pauline Alsager, Matt was the second child in a family of seven.  The large family emigrated to the United States in 1895, making their home at Big Grove, Kendal County, Illinois.  Being one of the eldest of the family, we can imagine the responsibility that he would have on the homesteading farm in the United States.  But his spirit of adventure flowed fervently in the veins of Matt Alsager and during the slack seasons in farming, he would go lumbering, logging and railroading in the northern states, venturing farther north each year.  In 1903 he came to Canada, eventually on a homestead twenty-five miles north of Lloydminster in 1906.

In 1911, the apple blossoms of Wisconsin saw him return to the girl he knew and the love he desired in Ida Tomina Anderson. The scent of apple blossoms annually stirred reminiscences in the couple, and in Lloydminster when the crab apples were blooming in George Ross’ yard, Matt and Ida Alsager would come to their hiding place and stand under the apple trees holding hands and looking into each others eyes with the memories of things long ago.  In 1911 they returned to the Leighton District north of Lloydminster to pioneer that district together. Their marriage was blessed with three children: sons Leslie and Glen, and a daughter, Inez, who died in infancy.

In 1911 Matt Alsager began his public-hearted service.  He was instrumental along with others in forming the Jumbo School District and for many years was the trustee on the Board.  In 1912 he was elected to the first Council of Streamstown municipality, became its Reeve in 1914 and continued as Reeve until 1922.  On January 16, 1926, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Lloydminster and District Agricultural Co-operative Association and served ten years as Director.  It was during his term that the Co-op went through its transitional stage from humble beginnings to the major Association it was to become.  He was instrumental in hiring  C. G. ‘Scotty’ Davidson as Manager.  In August 1929 a major portion of the city burned down including the Co-op. and there was the October ‘29 crash of the stock market at the beginning of the depression. T hese were all fundamental events in the life of our community and the world, and Matt Alsager was in the centre of them, providing wisdom, energy and spirit.

His enthusiasm and dedication to public service awarded him the appointment of Justice of the Peace for Streamstown municipality.  He also served on the Lloydminster Hospital Board.

Matt is honoured today because of his contribution to agriculture.  At his Springhurst Farm he developed one of the earliest purebred Hereford cattle herds in Lloydminster and it was this association that brought him into leadership in the Lloydminster and District Agricultural Society.  In 1929 he was elected a Director of the Society, and it was as Director that he became exceedingly active in the organization of the Lloydminster Agricultural Exhibition Association.  In 1933 he became President of the Association and was elected to his 22^nd term as President just a month before his death.

His association with the Exhibition Association led him to become involved with the Western Canadian Fairs Association.  At the Western Canadian Fairs Conventions, he made it a practice to visit with every delegate.  When the fair finally arrived in Lloydminster, he was on hand to personally meet every exhibitor, all the performers on the grandstand show, and as many of the midway personnel as possible.  He served one year as the President of the Fair’s Association, and subsequently, he was made an honourary life member of the Western Canadian Fairs’ Association.

The genius of Matt Alsager lay in his enthusiastic and daring spirit with which he tackled anything he had to do, matched by his insatiable ability to like people. His involvement in public service is evidenced by the incalculable number of meetings that he must have attended.  Coupled with that, the time spent traveling over 25 miles to attend municipal meetings, Co-op meetings, hospital board meetings, Exhibition association meetings, the Canadian Fairs’ Association meetings.  During the winters in 1930-40's many of these trips had to be made with horses.  Only the most enthusiastic and dedicated stout-hearted person committed to his community would make the effort or commit the time.

Matt Alsager was not only enthusiastic and dedicated to public service, but he liked people and could name as friends the officials of practically all the fairs in western Canada, not to mention government representatives - elected or otherwise, both federal and provincial, in the Departments of Highways and Agriculture.  He was extremely well known through Western Canada in livestock circles as well.  Matt’s genius with people was his ability to analyze situations and make difficult decisions with wit and humour.  He was a past-master at pouring oil on troubled waters, preventing many situations from becoming divisive.

In 1950 Matt and Ida Alsager retired from their "Springhurst Farm" at Leighton to "the white house on the hill" two miles west of Lloydminster on Highway 16.  Here he continued developing his beloved Herefords while the two boys, Les and Glen, operated the ranch at Leighton.  It was here on the farm west of Lloydminster that Matt’s great heart failed him on December 21, 1954, and on Christmas Day of that year this once rugged individualist and public spirited man quietly passed away in the Lloydminster Hospital.  His wife, Ida joined him at rest in the Lloydminster Cemetery on June 3, 1975.