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

By 1904 business was improving with me and prospects indicating still further improvement, I began to consider the advisability of building a comfortable home for my family. After long consideration my wife se- lected the corner of Spadina Crescent and Nineteenth Street. The corner lot I purchased from the townsite trustees for one hundred dollars, fifty feet by two hundred feet. The adjoining two lots I got from one of my clerks who had bought them intending to build a home, but as his wife de- clined to stay in Saskatoon they returned to Battleford. I paid him one hundred and fifty dollars for the two lots. The next lot to these, seventy- five feet, I bought from Townsite trustees. This gave me a nice piece of ground two hundred and twenty-five feet on the Crescent running back two hundred feet and not too expensive, five hundred dollars in all. In the absence of a local architect, I procured a book of architects' sketches and selecting the style of house we fancied, I proceeded to draw my own plans. I let a contract for the labor, I supplying all the material myself and had a commodious comfortable home erected at a cost of six thousand dollars, which we occupied for some years. In 1911 the Goverment bought the property from me for an Armory paying forty-seven thousand, five hundred dollars for it. In 1901 the Governor-General, Lorne Minto, paid Saskatchewan a visit. The usual address was presented. The school children dressed in white were at the station and sang the Maple Leaf as the train came in. The weather proved stormy, snow falling made it necessary to have the address present- ed under cover. The only place available was my little store. Into this the people crowded and the address was presented. A general election for the Local House was held in April 1902. W. H. Sinclair and James Leslie were the candidates in the Saskatoon district, the former being elected by a large majority, Leslie losing his deposit. The 1901 census credited Saskatoon with a population of 113. Next year the people took advantage of the village ordinance and were incor- porated. It was a hard struggle to count enough houses to effect this, the ordinance calling for twenty houses within a mile square. By counting all the shacks we managed it. Great inconvenience was experienced from having the Post Office on the east side' of the river. A petition was drawn up asking for a Post Office on the West Side, this was granted and Allan Bowerman was appointed Postmaster; it was called West Saskatoon. In the summer of 1902 a special train of American capitalists passed through Saskatoon. This excursion was organized by the Saskatchewan Valley Land Company, of which the principal director was Cal. Davidson. The party was brought from St. Paul, gathered from various centres in the States, were dined, wined and transported free of all charges to be shown what a country there was here awaiting development. I am credibly in- formed that the sales of land on the train were so large that the cost of the trip was covered by fifteen cents per acre of the land sold. A great outcry was made in the Dominion Parliament regarding the deal made with the Company. The fact remains that the enterprise and the push shown by the Company caused the rapid settlement of the tract purchased by them, and did much to develop the village of Saskatoon into the city that it is. I for one do not grudge the immense fortune made out of the speculation. We were quite jubilant when Leonard Norman proposed starting a weekly newspaper in Saskatoon. We gave him every encouragement and on the 17th of October 1902 the first issue of the Phoenix was published. Among the advertisements in this issue appear those of Young and Brown, general merchants, Geo. Sillers, furniture, and Dr. P. D. Stewart, physician, besides my own. It contains a notice of the accidental death of W. H. Sin- clair, M.L.A., member for the district. He had gone out to shoot geese. When replacing the repeating shot gun in the wagon it was discharged and the charge lodged in his breast, killing him instantly. His death was great- ly regretted for he was a live business man and seemed to have a great career before him. I felt it as a personal loss. I had known him for many years and was intimately associated with him from 1884 when he was in Page 58

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