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

made about thirty miles away. After returning to Moose Jaw I got a light team and brought a bunch of doctors to Saskatoon. At the Indian Grave, 40 miles out from Moose Jaw, where we made our first camp, one of the doctors dug at a grave and got a hip-bone for a memento. About 1888 we moved to Moose Woods to start ranching. The people located near there at that time ranching were: a'Court, Proctor, Gagen Mawson, Wilson and Brown,-afterwards Lieutenant-Governor. Joseph Proctor was a graduate of Cambridge University. I was later an executor of his estate. He left his property in the Hanley district, 560 acres of about the best hay land in Saskatchewan, to the University of Saskatche- wan; a tablet in memory of him now stands in the Convocation Hall, in the College of Agriculture. After pioneering to the extent of our capital in methods of growing wheat in a new country we decided (1888) that the time had come for a change. On an average the people who came in at that time brought about $4,000 in capital but lost it. There were the expenses of settling. At the time of our arrival and after we paid about $250.00 for a yoke of oxen. Wagons cost about $1OO.00). There were frosts and drought. Then, too, their methods of farming and their implements brought no results. They came in expecting that a great migration would follow them as rail- ways were built, but the Riel Rebellion frightened people and the railways did not come as soon as expected. They were face to face with ruin when fortunately they learned to look to ranching for a living. In 1888, 1889 and 1890 the southern part of the province was practi- cally burned up with drought. That which is now Buffalo Lake was com- pletely dried up, and transportation by wagon was carried on right across it. Consequently, there was a great deal of stock in Moose Jaw and Regina district which was brought north in search of food. In 1886 Mr. a'Court, Mr. Proctor and Mr. Gagen had located a lot of land and started in with an up-to-date ranch. Mr. Mawson worked with them for a number of years. We started our ranch with very little capital, but kept adding little by little, until we had about as creditable a ranch as anyone in the northern part of the country, but it took a lot of hard work and perseverance. The people who first started farming in this country had many failures, and those who came later were able to benefit by their experience. The machinery for farming first used in this country proved practically useless. As late as 1900 it looked as though it would be a great many years before the country would be settled. In 1901 Mr. E. J. Meilicke and his son stepped off the train at Dun- durn. I found them interested in the country and drove them around for two days. Mr. Meilicke would take a handful of soil and go behind some bush or barn and submit it to a test of some kind. He would come back dusting his hands and say: "This is good wheat land." Posters were got out in St. Paul which ran something like this: "You can leave home after Easter, sow your grain and harvest it and come home with your pockets full of money in time for Thanksgiving dinner." As a result in September of the same year two special coach loads of people from Minnesota and Da- kota came to the district and settled with agriculture in view. The follow- ing year people came in in train loads. These people who came into this country had an advantage over the Eastern Canadians, as they understood the production of the soil better, being much the same as in Minnesota and Dakota, and they had better implements to work with. Many of these people went home for the winter, or if specially prosperous, went to Cali- fornia. In the spring of 1902 the Saskatchewan Valley Land Company was formed, headed by Col. Davidson of Duluth. This Company secured from the Dominion Government a large tract of land extending from Lumsden north to Hanley contiguous to Canadian National Railway. This Company proved to be a very energetic colonization agency. As a result of Its ac- tivities a great flow of settlers from the North Western States and Eastern Canada, and the entire tract was settled in a couple of years with a first- class lot of farmers. Up to that time we allowed our cattle to roam at will Page 54

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