History of Saskatchewan Homemakers' Association

In honour of International Women’s Day, which is celebrated each year during the second week of March, let's take a closer look at the history of the Saskatchewan Homemakers' Club.


In the late 1880s to early 1900s, female settlers to the West were wives, mothers and homemakers. Promotional literature, travel accounts, eulogies, editorials, even women themselves, suggested that the Female Frontier was one in which women were helpmates, essential to the rural development. These sources made it clear that only marriage could end the plight of the bachelor homesteader - a woman would share the burden of work, and she would give birth to the children who once grown would work as well. A wife, mother, homemaker, then, ensured that a man would be successful in his settlement endeavours. Men themselves sometimes sought wives via “mail order” placing newspaper ads. “Getting a mate” was a theme in appeals directed towards women: Come West, fill a badly needed job like teacher or domestic servant, then find a marriage partner, thereby making an even greater contribution to developing this country. Finding mates is what inspired British women to come to Canada – the odds of finding one were much better on the new frontier as there was so much competition for male affection at home. By the eve of World War I, however, Saskatchewan’s gender imbalance was no longer an issue.

But, once these women arrived on the prairies they soon learned that life in this part of the country was hard and these “helpmates” had to be tough. The harsh climate, lack of amenities and isolation soon proved too much for many. For those who stayed, small groups started to form throughout the province as women gathered to, “promote sociability and to provide opportunities to discuss matters of mutual interest”.

From the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, “The Homemakers’ Clubs of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Women’s Institutes, which replaced the Homemakers in 1972, have played an important part in the lives of rural women. Both were affiliated with the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada, founded in 1919, and with the Associated Countrywomen of the World, founded in 1933, and Saskatchewan delegates regularly attended their meetings. The Homemakers and the Women’s Institutes were the first of three main streams of the farm women’s movement in the province, along with the second stream, the Women Grain Growers and its successor organizations that came into being in 1913 and 1914, and the third stream, the Saskatchewan Women’s Agricultural Network, established in 1985 and now inactive. Founded in 1911, the Homemakers’ Clubs were patterned on the Women’s Institutes in Ontario. In Saskatchewan they were affiliated with the Extension Division of the University of Saskatchewan, which was both a strength and a problem for the Homemakers: they were at times constrained by the middle-class male administrators of the University, but on the other hand benefited from their affiliation with the University”.

From their inception, the Homemakers' Club in the province was focussed on the community, especially health, education and recreation. The clubs were not affiliated with a particular political party and were multi-denominational in that they welcomed women of all religious affiliations and ethnic backgrounds. Some of the projects that these clubs undertook in communities were – contributions to hospitals, community halls, skating rinks and other recreation facilities. They were also instrumental in bringing educational films, art exhibitions and craft festivals to their communities. They were often involved the establishment of local libraries and worked closely with the Victorian Order of Nurses in the province.

From the history compiled by Bertha G. Oxner in the Saskatchewan Homemakers' Club Golden Jubilee cookbook, “Homemaker’s Clubs’ have consistently followed this policy [begin where you are with what you have] and from their modest beginnings have progressed until they can look back over a worthy record of achievement and can look forward to working on the problems that lie ahead”.

Historic Places

It has been the backdrop to family pictures and wedding photos, painted by local artists and photographed for its majesty and reminder of days gone by.  You don't have to travel down the Seven Bridges Road very far before she looms against the valley wall with a stone foundation and hip roof that were typical of prairie design at the turn of the century.  This local landmark, now most often referred to as the Wong barn, was owned by Fred Carss, nephew of Ed Carss, the first man to settle in the Lumsden district in 1881.

In the early 1900's the barn and the yardsite on which it was located was the site of the much anticipated Carssdale Sunday School picnic.  A social event which was held annually, attracting folks from as far away as Regina to share a meal and the fellowship of family, friends and neighbors.  In 1923 the roof of the barn was lost in a tornado and had to be replaced.

In 1929 the barn changed ownership as William McNally purchased it and settled on the farmsite with his wife and four boys.  The McNally's ownership lasted until 1952 when Charlie Wong purchased the property.

From 1948 to 1953 Bert Wills lived on the farm with his parents, William and Dorothy.  During this time the farm was a mixed operation in which the family grew potatoes and grain as well as raising cattle and working horses.  Bert remembers milking cows in the barn and he remembers the cats.  Apparently the cats were a bit of a mystery as every couple of years the 30 or so cats on the farm would disappear.  After a season a few cats would appear and slowly their numbers would increase again.

Charlie Wong continued to raise cattle and to grow potatoes on the land.  Charlie and his sons - Young, Tom and Art - added a turkey farm to the operation.  Their turkeys won awards at the Toronto Royal Exhibition.

Time has taken its toll on this local landmark as evidenced by its crumbling foundation.  What once supported a history rich in agriculture now moves artists to photograph, to sketch and to paint a piece of the past.

Photo courtsey Andrew Meredith

Researching Your Roots

The Lumsdens, Bruce and Audrey, from Kingston, Nova Scotia were recently in the town of Lumsden asking some questions, “Which Lumsden was this community named after?”, “Did the family ever live here?”, “Are there any other Lumsden’s in the region?” They visited the town office and the post office before being directed to yours truly.

A Google search of the word “genealogy” reveals that over 82 million individuals have used the word in their searches and 1.4 million have searched specifically for the term “genealogy Canada”. Genealogy, or researching your roots, is one of North America’s fastest growing past-times. For my uncle it was the perfect excuse for yet another vacation to Europe. There was no shopping for my aunt as theirs were trips that consisted of interviewing town elders and officials; searching libraries; perusing Church records; and wandering graveyards. What my aunt & uncle found was that in many cases fires or floods had destroyed the information they sought and in some cases accurate records were not kept of birth dates, marriages and deaths. The lack of historical records made some of their trips were more productive than others.

Small groups of super sleuths have popped up all over the province and supporting their efforts to track their family histories is the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society. The organization describes itself as, “the voice of genealogy in Saskatchewan. It is a non-profit provincial cultural organization whose purpose is to promote and develop the study, research, and preservation of genealogy and family history. The mandate of the society is to preserve Saskatchewan records; provide assistance to Saskatchewan residents researching their heritage anywhere and to people researching their Saskatchewan heritage”.

“But what of the Lumsdens”, you ask? It turns out that the couple was visiting the Regina area because their son had recently relocated to the city due to a job opportunity. Bruce’s great uncle, Calder Lumsden, had moved west over 60 years ago and they had lost contact with that side of the family entirely. They were hoping to discover that the town had been named after their long lost uncle. I would have expected them to be disappointed to learn that Lumsden was named after a surveyor from the East who had never seen the town. But my information simply gave them another lead to follow as they had yet to fit Hugh D. Lumsden into their family history. They left Lumsden happy to have visited and excited at the possibility of following the trail of Hugh D.

The Lumsdens shared that the Saskatchewan town of Lumsden is not the only town of Lumsden in Canada. They have also visited Lumsden, Newfoundland, formerly named Cat Harbour. The eastern community was renamed in 1917 after Rev. James Lumsden who was a United church minister known for his work in the community. Interestingly, Bruce and Audrey haven’t found the connection between their family and Rev. Lumsden either.

. . . And One Last Ramble on the Topic of Siding!

Board-and-batten, which originated in Norway and Sweden, describes a type of siding that has alternating wide boards and narrow wooden strips, called battens. The boards are usually about one foot wide but this varies somewhat. The boards may be placed horizontally or vertically. The battens tend to be about 1/2 inch wide. These battens are placed over the seams between the boards. The same finish is also used in interior design. Reverse board-and-batten has very narrow boards with wide battens installed over the seams.

Shiplap is a type of siding technique in which wooden boards are rabbeted or joined so that the edge of one board overlaps the one next to it in a flush joint. Pine is the most commonly used wood for this type of siding and it is usually rough-sawn or rough cut (unfinished).

Shiplap siding forms a relatively tight seal and is usually used as a siding for buildings that do not require extensive maintenance but must withstand cold and aggressive climates. It is popular for its clean look and because it is easy to install with little material wastage.

As with board-and-batten, shiplap is also used indoors for the rough or rustic look that it creates when used as paneling or for ceilings.

Some of the first homes built in northern Saskatchewan were of log cabin construction, also known as frontier construction. The design originated in Sweden and contained only one room which was about 10 feet wide and measured between 12 and 20 feet long; had at least one glass window; included a loft area for sleeping; and used no nails.

Today, log homes are desired for their look more than economics. There are two main types of construction: handcrafted in which the home is typically made of logs that have been peeled but are otherwise essentially unchanged from their original natural appearance when they were trees; and milled or machine-profiled in which the home is constructed of logs that have run through a manufacturing process which ensures timbers that are consistent in size and appearance.

There are several methods of assembling the logs in this type of construction. The scandinavian full-scribe, or chinkless method, utilizes naturally-shaped, smoothly peeled logs that are custom-fitted to one another. They are notched where they overlap at the corners.

In the flat-on-flat method logs are flattened on top and bottom and then stacked, usually with butt-and-pass corners. Milled log homes are often constructed using a tongue and groove system that helps to align one log to another as well as create a system for sealing out the elements.

With tight-pinned butt and pass method the logs are not notched or milled in any way. They are in a single course and do not overlap, and vertical pairs of logs are fastened with tight, load-bearing, steel pins.

Strictly Utilitarian or Valued for its Aesthetics?

Siding is the outer covering or cladding of a building meant to shed water and protect the interior from the effects of weather. Beyond the utilitarian pupose of siding, it may also act as a key element in the aesthetic beauty of a structure and directly impact its property value.

Siding materials have varied over the years and have included materials like: asbestos, aluminium, vinyl, hardboard composite, fibreglass, cement fiber, stucco, brick, stone, cindercrete block and wood, including cedar shingles (red or white), various types of log, horizontal clap board or weatherboard, vertical board-and-batten, fir beaded tongue-and-groove sheathing and shiplap. In this week’s column I would like to examine wood siding in more detail. Just as a note before we move on though, asbestos siding is not used any more and fiberglass and hardboard composite siding have been largely replaced with more modern siding like vinyl and cement fiber siding.

Cedar shingles

For years the wood from cedar trees has been prized for its beautiful colour, hardness, fragrance, and its resistance to insects, humidity and temperature. In North America, Western Red Cedar is found in British Columbia and throughout the Pacific Northwest in the United States. It is the largest growing cedar in North America and some can reach a diameter of 4.6 metres or more and a height of 61 metres.

When shingles are used as siding they can be applied in a variety of patterns: common coursing is when the width of the course or "weather" varied with the length of the shingle; shadow-line coursing is achieved by doubling each course, setting the outside shingle below the inside shingle, to create the shadow. This pattern, which was common during the 1920s and 1930s, also often employed shingles milled with vertical grooves; and unequal coursing which is associated with the North American Arts and Crafts style, this pattern was achieved by alternating a narrow and a wide course.

Clapboard

Clapboard siding is a type of siding made from wedge-shaped boards which are designed to overlap with each other. Historically, clapboard siding was made by splitting wooden boards into thin strips which could be nailed onto the side of a home to protect it from the weather. The overlapping design allowed the wood to expand and contract with changing weather, and it encouraged rain and snow to run off the side of the structure, rather than penetrating it and causing damage. The word “clapboard” comes from the Dutch klappen, which means “to split.”

When clapboard siding is applied, it is layered like shingles, with the thin side of each clapboard lying under the thick edge of the clapboard on top. Clapboard siding may also be referred to as bevel, lap, or weatherboard siding in various regions of the world.

In the image to the left, the upper part of the house has been finished with an “up down” shingle pattern and the lower part of the house has been made to replicate clapboard.

Rocks in My Head

“And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything” - William Shakespeare

In the forward, entitled Why Stone, of Margaret Hryniuk and Frank Korvemaker’s book, Legacy of Stone: Saskatchewan's Stone Buildings the why stone question is answered, “one simple reason is that stone is beautiful. Whether it is the dolomite limestone called greystone at the University of Saskatchewan or the granite boulders of the Hudson’s Bay Store in Fort Qu’Appelle, the beauty of fieldstone is undisputed. It is a material from this place and this landscape. It looks good in any of our four distinct seasons and in the clear sunlight that is one of the defining aspects of Saskatchewan.”

Stone may be beautiful but in the Qu’Appelle Valley it is also plentiful! A drive through the countryside or a stroll through one of the many communities in the area yields at least one stone foundation – be it on a barn or a house and in some cases the entire building was constructed with the material.

According to the dictionary, a stonemason is one that prepares and lays stones in a building. There were two main types of assembly for a stone foundation, chimney or building: with mortar, a mixture of lime or cement, sand and water used for bonding bricks and stones; and dry masonry, a system for stacking brick and stone without a bonding agent. Most of the local examples of stone buildings utilize mortar – the foundation of the Wong barn, the H. Miller Homestead, the Ron Kidd farm and the J.T. Lauder Homestead in the RM of Lumsden; as well as the many examples in Lumsden, including St. Andrew’s United Church, pictured above.

There were pros and cons to building with stone at the turn of the century. The material was readily available but the construction process was more time consuming than building with wood. Not only was stone fireproof, but as was the case with the pressed metal ceilings discussed last week, it was also chosen due to its durability. Stone buildings were easier to maintain than wooden buildings, but when a repair is needed, it can be a difficult and expensive fix.

Water is most often the cause of damage to buildings assembled with masonry. Rain or melting snow, can usually be traced to roof leaks, malfunctioning gutters and rainwater downspouts. Uncontrolled water infiltration results in deterioration of the mortar, the leaching of salts out of the masonry (leaving white deposits on the surface) and increased susceptibility to damage due to freezing and thawing.

With home builders today leaning toward eco-construction and sustainable living, building with stone has become fashionable again in some circles.

Cheap, Durable and Easy to Install . . . What More Could a Girl Ask For?

In this photo, this week’s architectural element has been repurposed as it is functioning as skirting for a veranda. To see this element used for its intended purpose you would have to travel to what was known as the Balfour building on James St. in Lumsden. Once inside, look up, way up. Tin ceiling tile is this week’s architectural element.

Tin or metal ceiling tile was also known as pressed metal ceiling. Designed in North America in the late 1880s as a cheap alternative to the plaster ceilings found in homes in Europe, it was promoted as a "lighter, more durable, less breakable substitute for cast plaster”. Metal ceilings remained a popular building material until the late 1930s.

Unlike the concrete block industry which specialized in a single product, few sheet metal companies were devoted solely to making metal ceilings. They were more likely to also manufacture other exterior and interior sheet metal items, such as cornices, drain pipes, and roof cresting.

In addition to being cheap and easy to install, a number of other advantages were attributed to pressed metal ceilings: they were fireproof; sanitary; and durable. Of these, durability was the primary selling point. As sales catalogues of the time noted, the initial cost might be more than that of wood or plaster ornamentation, but the low upkeep and the everlasting quality of the material would save the building owner money in the long run. Even though individuals could not fabricate pressed metal in their own backyards, like they could the concrete blocks previously discussed, these advantages, made the new decorative material a popular choice for early twentieth-century architecture. Examples of pressed metal ceilings can still be found throughout the country in heritage buildings like hospitals, schools, community halls, churches, businesses and some homes.

Today, pressed metal ceilings are making a comeback in interior home decorating. Big box building stores carry several different products intended to replicate vintage tile design, from embossed wallpapers to reproduction tiles from polyurethane. It is interesting to note that, as in our example from James Street S. above, even reproduction tiles have been repurposed and can now be found on walls (either above or below a chair rail); adorning the base of an island in a kitchen; or, more commonly, as a backsplash (area between the bottom of the cupboard and the counter).

Did You Hear the One About the Doorknob?

The last time that I wrote about doorknobs was over twenty years ago. Then, it was a satire, loosely directed at the opposite sex, for a Canadian Literature professor who, thankfully, looked past the insult and honoured me with a 97% for my effort. I’ve come a long way! My interest in doorknobs today is quite genuine for as architectural elements go, hardware is often the most overlooked.

In older homes, the original door hardware – including knobs, handles, hinges and levers – often came from Europe and there were some differences in style depending on the country of origin. In France, levered handles were used for doors and windows while the English produced the round and oval shaped handles that have influenced contemporary doorknob design.

Architectural hardware also varied in how it was made. The three main production methods were cast, forged and wrought. The process of sand-casting hardware was popular during the Victorian era and was similar to the process of rusticating concrete blocks that we examined last week. In both instances a mold was made for ease in reproduction. In this case, sand was packed around a wooden model that was carved in the desired hardware design. The mold consisted of two parts so that the model could be easily removed. Molten metal was poured into the mold. Two additional types of casting are lost wax – wax is carved and then coated with metal, when the wax melts the mold remains – and pressed casting in which metal is pressed or stamped with a pattern.

Forged hardware was a process used by early blacksmiths in which metal was hammered or rolled into the desired shape. Wrought hardware was the result of rolling metal into flat strips and then “punching” it or die-cutting it.

Before the 1800s, function, not fashion, determined the design of architectural hardware. By the time that the first homes in the area were being built a shift had taken place in which beauty and detail in hardware were preferred to the utilitarian hardware of earlier days. This was the time of the “Arts and Crafts” era in North America. Celest Cummings of the Arts and Crafts Movement website writes, “to the proponents of Arts & Crafts, the Industrial Revolution separated humans from their own creativity and individualism; the worker was a cog in the wheel of progress, living in an environment of shoddy machine-made goods, based more on ostentation than function. These proponents sought to re-establish the ties between beautiful work and the worker, returning to an honesty in design not to be found in mass-produced items”.

The Arts and Crafts door became a key element in design of the time. These doors were often wider than the standard door and they adopted a rustic, hand-finished appearance. The door knobs were typically brass or copper and featured nature motifs. Hinges were usually brass or iron. The heavy hardware stood in contrast to the natural wood of the door that was often stained to protect the natural colour of the oak or cedar of the door as opposed to painting the door.

“I may not have a practical mind, but it's very fixated on concrete things” - Alma Guillermoprieto

What do the finish on the house pictured below and the flowerbed (also pictured below) have in common?

The answer is: concrete, which also happens to be the answer to the quiz feature question from last week! Says Margaret Hryniuk, co-author of Legacy of Stone: Saskatchewan's Stone Buildings, when asked about the material, “[These are] rusticated concrete blocks, which are produced in a mould that is intended to make them look like stone and also, in the case of the decorative band on this building, to provide just that – decoration”. Frank Korvemaker, who also co-authored Legacy of Stone adds, “Similar attempts were made with sheet metal, to look like stone, brick and wood, all with the idea of no weathering and very low maintenance. For all intents and purposes, those objectives were achieved. Most concrete block structures show very little wear, even after a century”.

Rusticated concrete block - also referred to as rockfaced concrete and, to a lesser extent, sand bricks - were known for their rough-looking surface. The earliest examples of this type of construction can be found in the Renaissance architecture of the 1400s.

Rusticated concrete block construction was not uncommon in Saskatchewan at the turn of the century. The building in Lumsden was likely built around the same time as one on 1503 Victoria Avenue in Regina which is a municipal heritage property. A quick side note – part of the heritage value of the Regina property is due to its past owner, John Kenneth McInnis. J.K. moved to Regina in the early 1890s to become the editor and co-owner of the Regina Journal with Walter Scott, who later became the first Premier of Saskatchewan. City of Regina Bylaw No.7787-HR-B84 states that, “completed in 1908-09, the property features a first storey constructed of locally-made rusticated concrete blocks and a second storey of brick veneer construction. The voussoirs [wedge-shaped stone] above the arched window on the east facade are also of concrete and represent an unusual design element for Regina homes”.

The Regina property may have been constructed of locally manufactured brick but I was unable to determine the source of the rusticated concrete block used in the Lumsden building before this column went to press. I am working on it though, as there are rumours that there is a brick plant in this area’s history.

A Look At Local Architecture

When most people see, or hear, the word architecture they think of the “bones” of the building or the structure. The adornment or ornamentation or decoration, if you like, of the structure rarely crosses their mind and yet these are the very elements that define the architectural style. Over the next several weeks we are going to examine some of the architectural elements found in the area.

The Victorian Eclectic style dates back to about 1850 and its influence can be seen through to the early part of the 20th century. Architectural styles during this time no longer grew solely out of what had gone before in the places in which they originated. Now they were also influenced by buildings that travellers had seen in other countries.

Buildings constructed in the Victorian Eclectic style are highly decorative and exhibit stylistic influences so numerous that they do not fit into any one of the previous single styles of architecture. They are noted for featuring an unusual combination of elements from a variety of Victorian styles. Details from the Queen Anne, Gothic, and Italianate styles were borrowed most often, combining to create highly decorative surfaces. A list of common features follows:

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  Building had a square, symmetrical shape
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  Some featured brackets under the eaves
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  Pediments or the triangular space forming the gable end of a roof above the horizontal corner moulding
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  Gothic pointed arches
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  Sunburst detailing
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  Semi-circular arched windows
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  Oriel window (a form of bay window)
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  Dormers (a gabled extension built out from a sloping roof to accommodate a window)
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  Porches with spindle-work or flat, jigsaw cut trim

Windows of Victorian Eclectic style were typically individual casement, or single-hung windows with wood frames. On some occasions, metal frames were used to replicate the iron- work used on other details in the house. Doors were typically carved wood, or other ornate wood doors. Doors were also stained. In terms of colour scheme, these buildings were typically painted white with a second trim color. Sometime a third color was used on the window frames.

As to the origins of this style in Canada, there are two theories. The first relates to American landscape designer, horticulturist and writer Andrew Jackson Downing. His book, The Architecture of Country Houses, discusses the importance of both functionality and beauty in architectural style. The other theory is that, particularly when discussing homes that were built during the period, few of the buildings in the area were designed by architects. Many were built by local craftsmen adapting plans to meet their own or their client’s needs. Some were built as imitations of what these craftsmen had seen somewhere else and the adornments were a result of their own artistic license.

Any Given Sunday

"You must see them again, all lying in splendor, their summits are stretching up into the sky.  Behind them the peaks illuminated in glory . . ."

- from the poem entitled The Hills of Home by Shirley K. Patience

The Qu'Appelle River has carved a unique landscape out of the seemingly endless plain of the prairies and the hills that form the river valley have offered recreation to residents and visitors for years.  I had a chance to sit down with Bert Wills over a cup of tea in my antique shop as he reminisced about skiing in the 1930s.

Just east of St. Michael's Retreat, the Regina Ski Club maintained a ski shack.  In those days there weren't any of the things that we associate with ski resorts today - a parking lot, a ticket wicket, a ski rental facility, a day lodge, lounge or even ski lifts.  Local ski enthusiasts were joined by folks from Regina who travelled to Lumsden on the train that arrived at 10:30 am.  Some would hike to town for lunch at the hotel and some would suit up immediately.  According to Bert, his mother-in-law, Marg, would feed anywhere from 75 to 100 people any given Sunday at the Lumsden Hotel.

In the absence of a ski lift skiiers would do the "herring bone" up the hill by pointing their toes out and doing a sort of duck walk to the top.  The pattern that was left in the snow resembled the herring bone pattern found in fabric of the day.  Everyone went up in the same spot and then took their favourite route down.  Some chose the steeper terrain of the ravine while others stayed higher up and skiied down on the crest of the hill.

The ski hut was a 24' x 24' structure that was built out of cindercrete blocks and heated by a wood burning stove.  It was a great place to warm up or, for those who had brought a lunch, to grab a quick bite before heading back to the slopes.

In the early 1940s the Regina Ski Club built a ski jump in one of the ravines so that they could host ski jumping competitions.  They also hosted slalom competitions in which skiiers would race through a zigzag course.  The competitions always drew crowds of spectators to the hill.  Most of the skiiers were in their late teens and early twenties but some families spent their Sunday afternoons on the ski slope.

At 5:30 pm the train would arrive to take everyone back to the city.  The train ride took approximately 45 minutes.

The hills of Lumsden that were used for winter recreation then are still used for recreation today, although the skiis may have been replaced by snowboards and tobaggans.

History of the Christmas Carol

One of my favorite things at Christmas is to sing Christmas carols. The first carols, sung in Europe hundreds of years ago, were not Christmas Carols. They were pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations as people danced round stone circles. The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year, usually taking place around the 22nd December.

In 129 AD , a Roman Bishop decreed that a song called 'Angel's Hymn' should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. Shortly after 760 AD composers all over Europe started to write carols. The majority of these early Christmas carols were written and sung in Latin, a language that peasant people couldn't understand so their “carols” more closely resembled the “pagan” songs of Winter Solstice. By the time of the Middles Ages most people had lost interest in celebrating Christmas altogether – whether due to threat or persecution or whether the custom was lost is unclear.

In 1223, St. Francis of Assisi started Nativity Plays in Italy. The actors in the plays sang songs or 'canticles' that told a story. Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin; but normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand and join in! These new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries.

The earliest of the St. Francis Assisi carols was written in 1410, sadly only a very small fragment of it still exists. The carol was about Mary and Jesus meeting different people in Bethlehem. Most carols from this time were very loosely based on the Christmas story and the holy family. They were seen as songs for entertaining rather than religious songs. Thus, they were usually sung in homes rather than in churches! Traveling singers or minstrels started singing these carols and the words were changed for the local people wherever they were traveling. An example of a carol like this is 'I Saw Three Ships' – very generic:

I saw three ship come sailing in,

on Christmas day on Christmas day.

I saw three ship come sailing in,

on Christmas Day in the morning.

When Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans came to power in England in 1647, the celebration of Christmas and singing carols was stopped. However, this time, the carols survived as people still sang them in secret. Carols remained “unsung” until Victorian times, when they rose to popularity again. Carol singing in public was common. Official carol singers were called 'Waits'. These groups were usually led by important local leaders and they only sang on Christmas Eve. This was the time of 'Good King Wenceslas' and ‘Silent Night’.

The candlelight service was born out of the same era as carollers as it was customary to hold a candlelight service in the local church on Christmas. Today, the tradition continues as carols by candlelight services are held in countries all over the world.

One of the most famous carol services, is the service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College in Cambridge, UK. This service takes place on Christmas Eve and is broadcast live on BBC Radio. The service was first performed in 1918 as a way of the college celebrating the end of World War I. It is always started with a single choir boy singing a solo of the first verse of the carol 'Once in Royal David's City'. A service of Nine Lessons and Carols, has nine bible readings, or lessons, that tell the Christmas story with one or two carols between each lesson.

The Trimmings May Differ but the Message is the Same

I recently had the opportunity to thumb through a local family’s scrap book of vintage cards. Each celebration had been lovingly preserved; from birthday greetings, to Easter, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Christmas. I noticed immediately that although visually these cards differed from the ones that grace the shelves of our local retailers, their messages were the same.

Upon examination, there are several differences in the vintage cards when compared to modern ones. In size, the vintage cards tend to be quite a bit smaller. In shape, they are less uniform than the cards that we see today. In adornment, they are decorated with bits of foil, ribbon and cellophane or plastic for windows. In cost, most were under 25 cents each. It is also obvious that the production process of the cards was very different from the today’s mass produced offerings.

Many of the cards that date pre-1950s were produced using a technique called lithography. Lithography uses simple chemical processes to create an image using a method similar to rubber stamping. First, an image is produced by etching it onto a flat surface, and then the etched surface is copied by applying ink, or the equivalent, to it. Finally, another material, like paper, was pressed against the etched plate. Early etchings were done in limestone. By the mid 1800s the limestone was replaced by metal plates. Lithography was used to produce posters, maps, books, newspapers, and cards.

As a collector of vintage cards, these cards were a reminder to me of the role that the printing houses played in settling the Canadian west – you can’t say that about the cards of today! “The first recorded lithograph produced in British North America was the work of Johns Adams on the Royal Engineers Press at Quebec in 1824. The Royal Engineers also had a press at Fredericton only a small number of prints and maps seemed to have been produced”. (History of the Book in Canada: Beginnings to 1840, University of Toronto press, 2004).

With a railway in place and individual homestead plots surveyed, the western landscape was in need of settlers. The government passed the Homestead Act in parliament and then initiated the greatest advertising campaign ever launched on Canadian soil. The medium . . . lithograph posters. In 1896, on the eve of the federal government’s full-scale advertising bombardment, 17,000 immigrants had arrived in Canada. Just three years later, when the program was in full swing, the figure almost tripled to 45,000, and by 1905, it tripled again. In all, two million people arrived in Canada in the period from 1896 to the First World War and by 1911; the Canadian west had been transformed.

Thank you FH for sharing your family scrap book with me. The history contained in the pages of your book extends far beyond the cards that it holds.

They Were Just a Minute Compared to an Hour

Eleven embattled farmers of Lumsden are up in arms over the high school taxation. The swelling school tax is a thorny issue in many parts of Saskatchewan, but the Lumsden Minutemen are the first farmers to hone their axes and strike a blow for tax relief. The Lumsden group is providing their own tax relief. They believe that the current mill rate is unreasonable and inequitable and so they will only pay what they think is right. They feel that the municipal tax is a way out of line too and so they have set the same ceiling on paying their municipal levy. The Minutemen of Lumsden have thrown the gauntlet. The next move is up to the tax collector. The farmers’ position is vulnerable, and they know it! If they persist in their tax revolt they could lose title to their lands. They are also aware that the municipality has the power to enforce collection by seizing grain they might deliver to the elevator but the Lumsden farmers feel that they have a legitimate grievance and this is their way of drawing attention to it. They have watched the mill rate go up and up and the indications are that it will go still higher. The group’s biggest complaint is with the school taxation and they contend that their properties carry a heavier share of this tax than is fair.

The headline: Farmer’s Strike Blow for Tax Relief: Lumsden group stages mild revolt against high school levy.

The date: October 22, 1954

The Lumsden Minutemen: Ernie Dodds; his father, Wilbert Dodds; Earl and Joe McNally; John Czutka; Neal Fitzsimmons; John Kinnon; Eugene Mueller; Mel Burrows; George Kidd and Mrs. Marguerite McRae.

The mill rate that this group was concerned with was 15 mills. The mill rate today, 55 years later, is actually lower at 12.5 mills. By definition a mill rate is the amount of tax paid per dollar of assessed property so one can’t compare the two mill rates without the property assessments. The real issue for the Minutemen was the assessed value of their property. Apparently the Attorney General of Saskatchewan at the time lived just outside of Lumsden and paid a mere $17 in school taxes compared to the over $500 paid by the Minutemen and they didn’t think that it was fair.

Farmers protesting for what they feel is fair was not a new thing. The United Farmers movement in Canada was founded after World War I. The group, which was started in Saskatchewan, was a radical organization established in 1926 that quickly moved into the political arena. The main issue of the day was free trade. Today, that remains an issue nationwide. At the provincial level school closures and taxes have moved to the forefront. With the education property tax cuts promised by the Saskatchewan Party up in the air due to budget shortfalls, who knows what “mild revolts” may be in our future. But what of the Minutemen and why were they named so?

There are two theories as to the origin of the name of this group. The first comes from an old saying, “it is just a minute compared to an hour” which means the same as saying, “they were just a drop in the bucket”. The other theory traces back to the Civil War. Minutemen were soldiers who would fight for the Patriots at a minute's notice. In any case this group decided to take a stand. In the end there was no land seized and they eventually paid the taxes owing, taking small comfort in the fact for one moment in time they had the courage to say what they felt and to fight for what they thought was fair.

History of a Football Team

Football, as we know it, evolved from English rugby. The first recorded game of football in Canada was played at the University of Toronto in November of 1861. By 1884 the Canadian Rugby Union was established to oversee the sport across Canada.

Regina’s North-West Mounted Police formed one of the first Saskatchewan Rugby teams in 1888. Their nearest competition was Winnipeg, where they played games twice a year. In 1907 the Saskatchewan Rugby Football League was formed. Three years later, in 1910, the Saskatchewan Rugby Football Union was formed. Teams from Regina, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Weyburn made up the league.

On October 21, 1911, the Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan Unions formed the Western Canada Rugby Football Union (WCRFU). Winnipeg realtor Hugo Ross donated the championship trophy bearing his name. He subsequently drowned in the sinking of the SS Titanic in April 1912. Only teams registered with the CRU were eligible to compete for the Grey Cup, a trophy donated by Governor General Earl Grey for the Rugby Football Championship of Canada. Since the WCRFU was not a full member of the CRU, the 1911 Western Champions, the Calgary Tigers, were not allowed to compete for the national championship.

The Regina Rugby Club changed its colours in 1911 to blue and white to match the Regina Amateur Athletic Association. The colours were changed again in 1912 to red and black, the infantry colours of the Canadian contingent which fought with Teddy Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War. The team kept these colours for 36 years. The Regina Rugby Club changed its name to the “Regina Roughriders” in 1924. One theory is that they were named after this Canadian contingent that had become known as the “Roughriders.” The other theory is that the name came from the NWMP who were called Roughriders because they broke the wild horses that were used by the force.

The Grey Cup game was suspended from 1916–19 during World War I. In 1921 the WCRFU joined the CRU and the Edmonton Eskimos became the first Western team to play in a Grey Cup game. Although the Saskatchewan Roughriders won the Western Conference Championships seven times between 1928 and 1951, they were unsuccessful in obtaining a Grey Cup victory. The Regina team played its first Grey Cup in 1923, losing to Queen’s University 54–0. The team played its second Grey Cup game on December 1, 1928, in the first Grey Cup game ever covered by radio broadcast. In 1929, Regina’s “Jersey Jack” Campbell made the first-ever forward pass thrown in a Grey Cup game. On December 3, 1932, the Regina Roughriders became the first team to win five Division Championships and play in five consecutive Grey Cup games.

In 1936 the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) was formed with Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Calgary Bronks and Regina Roughriders. A white ball was used at games played under floodlights in western Canada to enhance its visibility for the spectators.

Regina’s Taylor Field opened in 1946. The field was named after Neil J. “Piffles” Taylor, a prominent Regina rugby and football player who left the game in 1916 to serve as a pilot in World War I. After spending a year as a prisoner-of-war he was released in 1918. Despite the loss of an eye, Taylor played as quarterback for the Regina Roughriders and claimed victory over Calgary, winning the 1919 Hugo Ross trophy. Taylor served as president of the Regina Roughriders, the CRU and the WIFU.

When the Moose Jaw and Saskatoon teams dissolved in 1948, the Regina Roughriders became a provincially owned and operated club popularly known as the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a name they would officially adopt on April 1, 1950. Financial constraints prevented the team from replacing their worn out uniforms. In 1948 executive member Jack Fyffe found a set of green and white jerseys at a surplus store in Chicago and the legacy of “Green and White” was born. In 1989 the uniform was updated with the addition of silver and black to the “Green and White” along with a new logo.

Tragedy struck the Saskatchewan Roughriders on December 9, 1956, when Flight #810 flying from Vancouver to Regina crashed into the side of Mount Sleese in the Rockies: 62 passengers and crew were killed including Winnipeg Blue Bomber Calvin Jones and Roughriders Gordon Sturtridge, Mel Beckett, Ray Syrnyk and Mario DeMarco who were returning from the Shrine All Star Game in Vancouver. The families of Mel Beckett and Mario DeMarco donated the Beckett-DeMarco trophy to recognize the Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman in the West.

On November 26, 1966, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, led by coach Eagle Keys, won their first Grey Cup defeating the Ottawa Rough Riders 29–14 in Vancouver’s Empire Stadium. The Saskatchewan Roughriders again represented the Western Division in the 1967, 1969, 1972 and 1976 Grey Cup games. On November 19, 1989, Head Coach John Gregory led The Saskatchewan Roughriders to their second Grey Cup victory on a last-second field goal by Dave Ridgeway, defeating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 43–40 at Toronto’s Skydome in the highest scoring game in Grey Cup history. In the 1997 Grey Cup, Saskatchewan was defeated 47–23 by Toronto, a team they had not faced since the 1930 game between Regina and Balmy Beach. Regina hosted the Grey Cup game on November 19, 1995, and on November 16, 2003. At the 1995 game, the Baltimore Stallions became the first and only American-based team to win the trophy, defeating the Calgary Stampeders 36–20.

Portrait of a Prairie Artist

Illingworth Holey Kerr, born on August 20, 1905 in Lumsden, was one of William Hugh and Florence (nee Nurse) Kerr’s four children. As a child he loved animals and started to draw them at an early age. His mother, who enjoyed watercolour painting, encouraged his art. At 14 he won several awards for work he entered in the Regina Exhibition.

At 18, Illingworth enrolled at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. It was here that he met painters like Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, J.E.H. MacDonald and William Beatty. The early influence of the Group of Seven was evident throughout his life as an artist.

After college he returned home to Lumsden and rented a studio above the pool hall. It is believed that in addition to working on harvest crews and for the railway, he also operated a trapline to earn money so he could continue to paint. Between 1930 and 1935 Illingworth created some of his most famous prairie works including When Winter Comes; Western Theatre; Flood, Lumsden; Straw Stacks; and March Thaw. In 1936 he burned much of his early work and set off for England to work in the film industry enrolling in the Westminster School of Art in London, England.

Illingworth met Mary Spice from Yorkton and married in 1938. They honeymooned in Paris before settling Montreal where he began to work with other Canadian artists on a project for the World’s Fair in New York. 1939 saw the couple return to Lumsden where Illingworth was invited to have his first retrospective (an exhibition of a representative selection of an artist's life work) in 1940 at the Regina College Gallery. Between 1940 and 1945 the couple moved to British Columbia where they lived in White Rock, Cultus Lake and Vancouver. Illingworth joined the British Columbia Society of Artists and the Federation of Canadian Artists, which, at that time, was chaired by another famous Group of Seven artist, Lawren Harris.

In 1946 Illingworth wrote and illustrated a book of short stories about the Qu'Appelle Valley entitled, Gay Dogs and Dark Horses which was short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. In the same year his teaching career began as he took a position at the Vancouver School of Art. In 1947, the Kerr’s headed for Calgary where Illingworth would spend the next 20 years as the Head of the Art Department at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, later known as the Alberta College of Art. Illingworth retired from the Alberta College of Art in 1967. His autobiography, "Paint and Circumstance" was published in 1987. On January 6, 1989, Dr. Illingworth Holey (Buck) Kerr passed away. The Alberta College of Art Gallery was renamed the Illingworth Kerr Gallery in September, 1990, to commemorate the artist lifelong legacy of art.

They Were Not All Eaton’s Catalogue Homes

From the turn of the century to the late 1930's, catalogue homes were very popular in the western provinces. The T. Eaton Company was one of the first companies that provided homes through catalogue order. They were followed by Sears Roebuck; Aladdin Homes; BC Mills Timber & Trading; United Grain Growers Limited; and the University of Saskatchewan and the Manitoba Agricultural College who supplied catalogues of house plans but were not in the lumber business. The main competition to Eaton's in the mail-order house business was the Aladdin Homes company.

The marketing for this industry was brilliant! A few houses were listed in the catalogue as a teaser. The catalogue advertised free plan books that gave complete details about the houses: an artist's sketch, floor plan, and information on lumber, doors, windows, flooring, and hardware. Once a house was selected, the blueprints could be ordered for $2.50 and then when the house was ordered, the cost of the blueprints was subtracted from the invoice. The lumber was shipped from British Columbia and the millwork from Winnipeg. Doors, door knobs, storm doors, windows, cupboards, flooring were all included in the package. A common misconception about the Eaton's houses is that they were prefabricated. Although they were shipped as a single item, they were not prefabricated; in fact the lumber was not even precut. Barns and schoolhouses were also available through catalogue order.

Initially, all Eaton's houses were given a name starting in “Ea” - Eatoncourt, Eastbourne, Easton, Eager, Earlswood, and Earlscourt, to name a few. The most popular type of Eaton's house was the one-and-a-half storey, and of those the most common was the Earlsfield. It first appeared as Plan 68 in the 1912 spring-and-summer catalogue with a list price of $696.50. In 1916, it was called Modern Home #668 and cost $887.50, indoor plumbing was an addition $150.00. My grandparents’ house at the farm near Rouleau was an Earlsfield (with in door plumbing).

The catalogue home industry of the early days had a huge impact on the architecture and design of home building. Many of the houses built in the early 1920’s and 1930’s were what we would call “knock offs” today. In an effort to dissuade individuals from embarking on the task of building a house based on the $2.50 plan and not based on the full blueprints the T. Eaton Company printed the following in their Plan Book of Ideal Homes, “The special purpose in presenting this Plan Book is to simplify the problem of home building for our customers. There are a number of designs that will be found adaptable to any community . . . The problem of building a house only comes to most once in their lifetime, and no greater calamity in a material way may befall an owner than to discover, when the building is complete, that some arrangement or the appearance is unsuitable. This often proves to be the case when houses are built without carefully prepared plans. Never attempt to build without proper plans to work from”. The warning did little to prevent the resourceful pioneers from building homes from an artist sketch with what they had available to them.

Reference - Catalogue Houses:  Eatons' and Others by Les Henry

Spooktacular Tales

It would seem that every generation has its ghost story and in the community of Lumsden this is certainly true. From today’s youth to the seniors and to the in-betweeners there is a tale. The most elaborate belongs to the in-betweeners. As the story goes there is a house on 2nd Ave. that was reported to be haunted in the mid to late 1960’s by a small child that wrote on the walls. On woman in town remembered her brother telling her the story after sleeping over in the house with his friend, who’s parents owned the home. Years later when this same woman and her husband were going to purchase the house on 2nd Ave. she received several telephone calls from concerned citizens regarding the haunting. In an effort to get to the root of the rumours our soon to be homeowner decided to call her brother’s friend’s parents, who were, incidentally, also her previous employers as she had babysat in the home but doesn’t remember anything strange from her visits (bear with me, every good ghost story gets a little complicated at times). Following is what she learned . . .

The house was in fact haunted but not by a small child. The ghost was an older gentleman who wore suspenders. The home owners at the time actually saw this spirit on a couple of occasions. The young wife, in particular, remembers the smell of the gentleman. Apparently it wasn’t a bad smell, it was just the vague smell that is associated with an older person. The wife was not scared by the ghost and somehow sensed that it was a benevolent spirit. The owners of the home contacted a paranormal expert who confirmed that it was the spirit of an old man and that he was looking for something. The expert felt that when the ghost found what he was looking for he would go away.

In the early 1970’s the home owners embarked on a kitchen renovation. Under the floorboards they found some old home made Valentines that looked like they dated back to the turn of the century. That night they left them on the kitchen table and were astounded to discover that they were missing in the morning. There were times after that the wife thought she could still smell the old gentleman but she couldn’t be sure. The paranormal experts later confirmed that the spirit was gone.

Incidentally, it was her next door neighbour who revealed the true identity of the spirit. The neighbour, an “old timer” in Lumsden who had been a farmer from the area, had several old photo albums which he shared with the wife. In one old photo the wife saw the gentleman who appeared to be responsible for the haunting of her home. This neighbour went on to reveal that the home had been built on a farm in the Pense area about 1897 and had been moved into Lumsden in about 1912.

There are certain similarities in this tale that link to the urban legends of the youth in Lumsden today and to the ghost story of the older generation. First the seniors . . .

On the corner of James St. South and Qu’Appelle drive there used to be a Methodist Church. A Lumsden resident by the name of Curly Lickers, used to tell the local children that the Church was haunted. The gentleman who relayed this tale didn’t know whether the story was real or whether they had been told the tale to keep them out of the old church once it had been abandoned. He certainly didn’t remember a ghost but he also said that he stayed out of the Church.

Shortly after we moved to Lumsden my, then 16 year old, daughter relayed the tale of a haunted house just a few blocks from where the Methodist Church used to be. Apparently in the dead hour, 3:00 am, the curtains of this abandoned house are moved by what the youth believe is a small child. Could it be that the child ghost stories from the 1960’s had been reinvented and associated with the house of this legend? For the record, I didn’t know when the “dead hour” was so I “googled” the term and was surprised to learned that I was among 76,800,000 others who had searched using the same term proving that ghost stories are still as appealing to us today as they ever were. Happy Halloween!

Little Church in the Valley

From Lumsden (Saskatchewan), if you were to drive north on Highway 20 to the Russell Hill Road, turn right, cross the valley (and the tracks) and then turn left before you head up the hill you would come to a sign that designates curves for the next eight kilometres. After a very pretty, albeit winding road, you would arrive at a little blue church with a red roof.

The current location of the St. Nicholas Anglican Church is not its original location. The church was first built by Mark Catley in 1900 on the SE 1/4 of 13-21-21 (about 7 kilometres further up the valley).

In 1899 Rev. Marcom got the congregation interesteed in the idea of building a church. Much of the money to build the church came from donations locally but a good portion of it came from abroad. As a result, the church was named after the St. Nicholas estate in England.

The lumber arrived by train in the spring of 1900 and was moved by horse and cart over 12 kilometres to the building site. Construction began shortly after the lumber arrived and was completed by fall. The church seated 50. It was interesting to note that prior to the building of the church the congregation met for Sunday Service in the various homes of the parishioners.

In 1910 Mark Catley's son, Norman, purchased some land from the Canadian Pacific Railway and donated it to the church. That same year, the decision was made to move the church west as many of the original settlers were relocating closer to Craven and Lumsden and there weren't a lot of roads in that part of the valley so getting to and from church was difficult. When the church was taken apart, each board was numbered so that it could be reassembled at its current location.

There used to be a barn in the churchyard in which parishioners could stable their horses during services. In 1940 a tornado took the barn but the church remained unscathed. The barn was never rebuilt.

The church is described in the Our Towns book by David McLennan as, "reputedly Saskatchewan's most photographed church". The church has appeared in numerous calendars over the years. It has been featured in the SaskTel phonebook and in Saskatchewan tourism brochures and pamphlets. In 1982 it was designated a Heritage site.

Today, there is no basement under the church. There is neither power, nor gas, nor running water. However, it remains a popular setting for weddings and over 1600 visitors sign the guestbook annually. Sunday Service is held every second Sunday from the beginning of May until the end of September and although there is no longer a "dedicated" minister to the congregation, there is no shortage of volunteers in the form of visiting and retired preachers. The Catleys are still involved with the church that has seen six generations of the family baptized, married and buried.

Photo courtsey Andrew Meredith

On Reading Jane Eyre

I, like many avid readers, belong to a book club. For the past 3 years the Sisterhood of the Travelling Suitcase has met on a monthly basis for refreshments, fine food and stimulating conversation about our families, our lives and recent reads. The suitcase is our means of sharing books – a sort of portable book shelf. Admittedly we are a little informal but book club gives us a chance to play dress up once a month as we frequent great restaurants and see fabulous plays and movies based on books. At our June meeting it was decided that we would try to read the same book over the summer. This was our second attempt at a “group read”. One of the English teachers in the group suggested Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, assuring us that it was a literary classic. I should have known that I was in trouble when the sales clerk at Chapters, a young lady one third my age and who had piercings in places that I would never, told me that she just loooved it and that all of her Goth friends just like loooved it too!

The introduction by Carol Joyce Oates did little to assuage my fears, “Reader, if you have yet to discover the unique voice of [Bronte] you have a special delight awaiting you”. This sounded similar to the rapture that the Chapter’s employee showed while talking about the book - I wondered if Ms. Oates had Goth friends and piercings too!

For the first 100 pages or so this “special voice” proved an effective cure for insomnia as I could only read a couple and I was sound asleep! I persevered thinking, “oh, but Jane would have been proud of my struggle”! (Jane is a bit of a drama queen). As it turns out the “voice” of this 1847 classic was the problem. I was introduced to words that were foreign to me and sentence structures that caused my eyes to glaze over. Following is a quiz with using just four of the words I found amusing:

1. If someone possesses hardihood, are they a) wealthy; b) stubborn; or c) courageous?

2. A publication that is hebdonadal comes out a) weekly; b) monthly or c) sporadically?

3. Excrescence describes a) rocks; b) mushrooms; c) hair; or d) all of the above?

4. A hierophant refers to a) elephant trainer; b) priest; or c) king?

Hardihood means courageous; hebdomadal is weekly; an excrescence is an outcropping so it may be used to describe rocks, mushrooms or hair; and a hierophant is a priest. It may come as a surprise but all of these words exist in the modern dictionary, and not one of them was on the hit list of the compilers of the Collins dictionary for their obscurity. Incidentally, did you know that the compilers of the dictionary had the power to banish words? Ever wondered where banished words go? I discovered a compendium over 400 lost words – words that were, at some point, used in the English language. Here are a few that relate to writing, they are followed by the years in which they were used:

artigrapher – writer or grammarian (1753)

famigerate – to carry news from abroad (1623 – 1736)

quaeritate – to question or inquire (1657)

snobographer – one who describes or writes about snobs (1848 – 1966)

I did finish Jane Eyre by the end of the summer but you won’t find me giving it a glowing review because as stories go, I thought it was a bit contrived. The best part of the whole experience was that in my frustration with the diction I purchased a very old dictionary in a second hand store. Scratched on the inside cover were the words, “do not steal this stolen book”.

History of RCMP in Lumsden, SK

Imagine my surprise as I, bursting with excitement over my column idea for the history of women in the RCMP, waltzed into the Waterfront Press Regional only to discover that the building where I park my purse for 10 hours a week also had a history with the detachment! After a tour of the jail, the drug room and the interrogation offices I decided to further investigate the story of the RCMP in Lumsden.

Although I received a photo, showing a troop riding in town, dated in the 1930’s from the RCMP Heritage Centre, it wasn’t until 1963 that the detachment was stationed in town. Prior to that time, the town was patrolled by municipal police. The first detachment was located where John Holman lives on 2nd Avenue. Constable R.D. Parsons was the first member stationed in Lumsden. The rental agreement in the R.N Gourlie (J. Holman) house lasted only six months as there were heat and water issues that forced a relocation of the detachment to house where Bev Harbour currently lives on Colbourne St.

In 1967 tenders were put out for a build-for-lease accommodation. Henry Bergen; Carrot River, SK; and Doug Little; Tisdale, SK; were the successful bidders. The pair built the home that is currently owned by Lucien & Jacqueline Chouinard and houses the Waterfront Press Regional.

In April 1974 the detachment, like so many homes in the community, had to be vacated due to flooding. For almost a month the detachment was run out of a portable trailer in the Department of Highways compound.

In 1994 the RCMP moved to their 4th and present location on Hwy. 20. There are currently 9 members, a public servant and a police dog named Maverick stationed in Lumsden.