Telford was born June 19, 1860, in
Shawville, Canada East, to
Irish parents, Robert and Anne (Pratt) Telford. He was educated at public schools in Quebec. In 1880 he went to the United States, but returned to Canada in 1885 in search of adventure after reading an article about the
North-West Rebellion of 1885. He went to
Calgary and worked as a carpenter until July 1885, when he joined the
North-West Mounted Police. That July he built a house, then the largest building between Calgary and
Edmonton; he operated it as a "
stopping house", or hotel, with rooms and board available for travelers, in addition to those for his future family. In the spring of 1890 Telford married
Wisconsin native Sarah Isabelle "Belle" Howard in Wisconsin. She accompanied him to Leduc shortly afterward. Robert and Belle Telford adopted two sons, Raymond and Lorne. Raymond was killed in June 1916, while serving with the
51st Battalion in
World War I. People in small frontier towns often had several businesses. Besides his stopping house, which he moved closer to the railway station when the railway reached Leduc, the senior Telford operated a general store and later a lumberyard. He ran the latter for twenty-five years before selling it in 1919. He served as a postmaster from 1894 until 1905, and was appointed as Leduc's
justice of the peace in January 1897. He was also active with the
Masons. ==Political career==