NARRATIVES OF SASKATOON

1882-1912

Genealogy, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, Pioneer,Saskatchewan history, Temperance Colony, Temperance Colonization Society, Pioneers,John N. Lake, John Lake, Saskatoon history, Saskatoon Gen Web, Genealogy, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, Pioneer,Saskatchewan history, Temperance Colony, Temperance Colonization Society, Saskatoon history, Saskatoon Gen Web

and the rest of the day passed as usual among a bunch of young fellows. Our first Literary Society was formed in '84. Mr. Hamilton, father of. Robert Hamilton, was our first president, and a good president he was. We would meet once a month in the Lake Building and pass an hour or two in pleasant discussion on some topic of the day, or someone would read a paper on some subject of general interest. Some of the younger mem- bers would be induced to sing a song, and in such ways time passed plea- santly and meeting day was greatly looked forward to. Mr. Powers was our first editor and publisher of a newspaper. Every week he used to write out a news sheet of the important items of the world news and the local news of the settlement. All through I have spoken of Saskatoon. Until '91 Saskatoon, of course, was only on the east side of the river. In later days Saskatoon was on the west side, and the original re-named Nutana. I could go on writing for a day or two incidents as in the foregoing, probably enough can be gleaned from the mass to be of a little interest to those who may in the future help to build up Saskatoon and Saskatchewan. NARRATIVE OF CAPTAIN E. S. ANDREWS I was hired by the Temperance Colonization Society in the spring of 1884 to bring a steamer, "The May Queen," down the Saskatchewan from Medicine Hat to Saskatoon. The boat was bought at Selkirk in Manitoba. It was a nice little boat, more like a pleasure yacht. It was 35 feet over all and was decked over. It was sharp bottomed and drew about 4 feet of water,--5 feet when loaded. It was shipped on a flat car from Selkirk to Medicine Hat where it was put in the water. The names of the men who came down on the boat in my charge along with "Louis" Gougeou, the engineer, were: Sam Kerr, Sandy Marr, Fred Kerr, Fred Smith, Mr. Hattie, Ed. Maxwell, Ted Keyworth and George Hilliard. We also had Fred Sissons, a merchant of Medicine Hat with 5 supply of groceries with which he intended to open up shop. We left Medicine Hat about the 7th of May with a little coal on board. The trip took us two weeks and we had no sickness. The distance was about 400 miles by river. We saw lots of game on the trip down, antelope, deer, beaver. etc. We would hear the heaver at night slapping the water with their tails. There were lots of mosquitos. There were no houses to be seen between Medicine Hat and here, not even a shack. We saw a few sur- veyors tents. We did see a store, a couple of houses and a ferry at Swift Current Crossing. Though there was only on an average about 4 feet of water in the river and our boat drew about 4 feet we succeeded in reaching Saskatoon chiefly because we had the stream behind us. When we got as far as Saskatoon we knew that the steamer was not suitable for the river. When we arrived here we were very much disappointed. They said in Winnipeg that three or four large stores and two or three hundred houses were to go up that summer. They had a poster displayed there showing the houses and smoke from the stacks of six mills. The poster said that there was plenty of woods at Saskatoon and mills to saw lumber. The Company was afraid someone would have the law against them. That was the reason the sawmill was to be built. It was erected in Idylwyld near what is now the end of the Canadian National bridge. There was a found- ation built just big enough for the engine, about 12 feet long and 5 or 8 feet wide. The building had hewed timbers. The trees about Saskatoon were all so small there was practically no lumber to be got. It took about two months sawing to even put a roof on the mill. The trees were got from the island one mile above the Grand Trunk bridge and from Beaver Creek. It took five or six men to run the mill and it would saw a thousand feet a day. The engine was taken out of the "May Queen" and sent to Prince Albert where it was put in a flat-bottomed boat. The hulk of the boat was left in the river along the bank and after three or four years it ran adrift down Page 45

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