NARRATIVES OF SASKATOON

1882-1912

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offering to negotiate for the sale of the general store they were conducting. On the 5th of June, 1899, I went to Saskatoon to investigate' it just took twenty minutes for us to make a deal. I bought the stock at a rate on the dollar and rented the building and on the 20th of the same month returned to Saskatoon with one of my clerks to take stock preparatory to taking over the business on the first of July. My family were to remain at Battle- ford till I could arrange for their accommodation. The store building was twenty-five feet frontage going back about fifty feet with a wooden shed at the back. It was built of stone boulders from the river, was plastered inside and proved in winter to be very cold. The second floor was divided into rooms and had been occupied by the owners as a dwelling (1). The stock was not as large as I expected but was in dreadful shape. The former owners were not trained storekeepers and did not know how to take care of goods. JAMES CLINSKILL, ABOUT 1907 Saskatoon at this time consisted of a few houses on the east side of the River. The original settlement had been on that side. When the railway was built the station was placed on the other side of the river and a few buildings were erected. These were the station house, the section foreman's house, the barracks of the North West Mounted Police, the stone buildings used by me as a store, a stopping house kept by the Kusch family, a "hotel' run by Don Garrison and about six other houses and shacks. Soon after I arrived a building was commenced north of me on First Avenue, which was opened as a store by a firm in Prince Albert, Bradshaw I think the name was. We set to work arranging our stock, cleaning out an accumulation of de- bris that had gathered into the corners and getting into shape to do business as we thought it should be done. After a visit to Winnipeg to purchase goods, it was found the premises were entirely too small to accommodate the stock and display it to advantage. I persuaded the owner, Mr. Leslie, (1) The building now forms a portion of that Part of the Queen's Hotel which fronts on First Avenue. Page 56

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