Saskatchewan Cemeteries photographed and transcribed online

Ron Isherwood October 09, 1946 – August 09, 2017 enjoyed working on his Saskatchewan Cemeteries Project, and he also had enjoyed doing genealogy research.  Thank you very kindly to the many contributions made by Ron Isherwood, and for his dedication to the Saskatchewan Cemeteries Project, indeed.

The Saskatchewan Cemeteries Project which is now restored and operational online after the hiatus between December 2017 and September 2018.  The Saskatchewan Cemeteries Project is not being updated after 2017, but is kept online in an archived status thanks to Ancestry.com Rootsweb.

 

NOTE  There are a large number of organizations who are currently compiling cemetery information online which can be viewed at https://sites.rootsweb.com/~cansk/Saskatchewan/cemetery.html

The Canada Gen Web Cemetery Project – Saskatchewan Cemetery Project is a separate project from Ron Isherwood’s Saskatchewan Cemeteries Project and the Canada Gen Web Cemetery Project – Saskatchewan Cemetery Project features submitted transcripts searchable by ancestor’s name for all of Canada or Saskatchewan or by cemetery! Check out this cemetery transcriptions/photographs online project.

Ancestor Recognition Project – Cemetery Preservation: Online Cemetery Digitization courtesy of the Sask Gen Web Project

Saskatchewan Clouds

By the Saskatchewan.
When the sun has dipt to the westward,
And has reddened the sky with its glow,
When the shadows o’er the soft clouds have deepened,
And the twittering skylarks fly low,
Then I wend my way home o’er the prairie
With a yearning that never does fail
And the mists of the mighty Saskatchewan
Rise, to meet me at the end of the trail.
~ Agnes Krogan

Aerial view of clouds

In the history of this province of Saskatchewan, Canada clouds have heralded both good fortune and terrible, horrendous bad luck.  And as thus, does Saskatchewan receive its apt slogan, “Land of Living Skies”.

For instance, take this example of prosperity in the roaring twenties;
“In 1928, Moffat shared with most of Saskatchewan in the bumper crop of the century. We bought a new car, an Essex super 6, with a plush lining and in a beautiful shade of blue, with a dashboard of simulated walnut. What a car! Most of the early cars in Moffat were Model T Fords, but variety was the by-word in the late Twenties. Bertenshaws bought a Flying Cloud, Wolseley Taylor a Nash, Reads a McLaughlin-Buick and Peter Ferguson a little Whippet. Star, Dore, Chevrolet roadster ~ they all appeared during that era. ^{War years and the Twenties}”

And yet how does one even imagine the decade of drought in the “Dirty Thirties”, possibly best described by novelist Robert (Paul) Kroetsch ;
“I looked back just once and the sky in the west was positively black. AS if a great fist had closed the sun’s eye. As if a range of mountains had broken loose and was galloping straight at me. The whole west was one great galloping cloud of smothering dust. I reached to turn on the lights.

And the the shiver turned to elation. Because I saw the windshield again. A drop of rain had hit the windshield. A drop of genuine water. Even while I was watching, right before my eyes, a second drop hit.

My bowels melted. That’s when I first realized: I had forgotten what a rain cloud looks like.~^{Paustian, Shirley I.} ”

“So, while we learned the most obvious lesson of the Dust Bowl – that is, how to retain soil on dry farmland – we have yet to learn the larger lessons: how to respect nature’s limits, and how to use natural processes to buffer drought’s impacts.” ^Kendy

Another devastation befalling the Saskatchewan prairies in cycles as regular as drought are the grasshoppers as described by Henry Youle Hind,a Canadian geologist and explorer:

“On the second of July [1858] we observed the grasshoppers in full flight towards the north, the air as far as the eye could penetrate appeared to be filled with them. They commenced their flight about nine in the morning, and continued until half-past three or four o’clock in the afternoon. After that hour they settled around us in countless multitudes, and immediately clung to the leaves of the grass and rested after their journey. On subsequent days when crossing the great prairie from Red Deer’s Head River to Fort Ellice, the hosts of grasshoppers were beyond all calculation: they appeared to be infinite in number. Early in the morning they fed upon the prairie grass, being always found most numerous in low, wet places where the grass was long. As soon as the sun had evaporated the dew, they took short flights, and as the hour of nine approached, cloud after cloud would rise from the prairie and pursue their flight in the direction of the wind, which was generally S.S.W. The number in the air seemed to be greatest about noon and at times they appeared in such infinite swarms as to lessen perceptibly the light of the sun. The whole horizon wore an unearthly ashen hue from the light reflected by their transparent wings. The airs was filled as with flakes of snow, and time after time, clouds of these insects forming a dense body casting a glimmering silvery light, flew swiftly towards the north-north-east, at altitudes varying from 500 to perhaps 1000 feet.” ^Hawkes

Grasshopper

On the prairies, it is seen that the collective swarming behavior of grasshoppers is their survival mechanism in times of dry weather and food is scarce. Again, a healthy respect for nature, nourishing the land, preserving water all goes a long way to mitigate ruination, and defoliation of a crop.

However, the plight of the pioneer does not end with clouds of dust, nor clouds of grasshoppers. The early homesteader had to be on the look out for clouds of smoke on the horizon, signalling a massive grass fire approaching. A fire which could range in length for hundreds of miles devouring everything in its path.

“A hazard far less innocent than the howl of a prairie wolf or the wandering of livestock, however, was the menace of the prairie fire. The threat was a serious one during the warm days of spring and fall, when the grass was dry. The fall was a particularly hazardous time, when the September days were often hot and windy, and the whole country was covered by crisp prairie “Wool” and clumps of aspen and willows as inflammable as a vast timber box. Once started under such conditions a fire created its own wind and augmented any that already existed, and the results could often be tragic in a new and sparsely settled country. The most spectacular and dangerous fire in the history of our community….began in the Turtleford area…from a bush-burning operation, and once out of control it galloped wildly across the country at the speed of a race horse, in long, flaming tongues that beggared description. There was little or no defence against such a fire. The almost horizontal lead flames might be thirty to fifty fee long, with flying sparks, and small brands still farther in advance of the main fire. In the face of such an onslaught, the ordinary “Fire-guards” and sounds of men equipped with horses, water barrels, and wet burlap sacks for beating out the flames were hopelessly inadequate. Often during the spring or fall, large areas of the sky would be red with the reflections of grass fires. When the air was cool, moist and quiet, large scale danger was minimal, but especially for children the angry looking red cloud reflections of a prairie fire were always an awesome and frightening sight.”^Wooff

Image of a small grass fire across the fields

In retrospect, those who reside in Saskatchewan welcome the spring clouds nourishing the crops in the field. The horrific and massive dangers of drought, prairie fire, and grasshopper are largely diminished because of adapted agricultural practices and lessons have been hard learned.

As did Joni Mitchell we, also, have “looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down…from win and lose” and from it all, the resilient pioneer had many tales to tell about Winning the Prairie Gamble.

Genealogy hint and tip:  In regards to stories from your ancestors, please peruse the Saskatchewan local history books. To discover which book may be useful, try the Saskatchewan Resident’s Index offered by the Saskatchewan Genealogy Society. Or find your pioneer’s homestead location, locate the legal land location on an historic map. On the map ascertain the closest place name to the homestead and use this information to search an online library database listing. Solicit the assistance of some kind soul on a posting board, a mailing list, or just offering to do a look – up or by wander down to your library and use their reference room. Discover which here ~ ordered alphabetically by SK place name with relevant Sask Gen Web region. Rural Municipality offices or regional museums may know if any local history books of the province’s 50th and 75 anniversary (1955 and 1980) may yet be available for purchase, or if the community wrote a new one for the 100th provincial anniversary of 2005.

~written by Julia Adamson webmaster Sask Gen Web

“The fact that we have a Sahara (desert) is not entirely tragic. The very existence of the Sahara gives to the whole world a highly valuable lesson in ecology. It teaches us what not to do with a perfect countryside. The drifting sands and stony wastes tell us more eloquently than words, what will happen when we break certain natural laws. We cannot remove tree cover without running the risk of losing the blessing of the water cycle. We cannot denude the earth’s surface without creating the desiccation of sand the dust dunes. We cannot permit animals to devour whatever little is left of green growth. Excessive grazing of cattle, sheep and goats is as damaging to the land as a wholesale felling of trees…´ from Desert Challenge ~ Richard St. Barbe Baker

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Hawkes, John. Saskatchewan and its People on Sask Gen Web Volume I, II, III
Illustrated. Chicago – Regina. The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. 1924.

Kendy, Eloise Ph.D.
Water Helping Nature Protect Us From Drought
The Nature Conservancy.

Krogan, Agnes E. Thorbergson. And a church was built.
Mulitgraph Service Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Paustian, Shirley I. (Shirley Irene)Depression, 1929-1939, in the Prairie provinces of Canada.

War years and the twenties. They cast a long shadow: the story of Moffat, Saskatchewan.

Wooff, John. Harbinger Farm 1906-1920 Modern Press. Regina, Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan’s Health Care Evolution Towards Medicare – Part 2

Saskatchewan’s Health Care Evolution Towards Medicare

Part II

Medical Logo with hands

Go to Part I

Tommy Douglas and the CCF

“Tommy Douglas’s Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) government was elected to power on July 10, 1944 with this promise:’ To set up a complete system of socialized health services with special emphasis on preventive medicine, so that everybody will receive adequate medical surgical, dental, nursing and hospital care without charge.'”Greenblat 30 The depression years followed by World War II had placed a strain on the province’s population. The citizen’s were ready for a improvements in the rural health care services, and access to medical care for the general public. The best that Premier William Patterson, Saskatchewan Liberal Party, could do would be to pass The Saskatchewan Health Insurance Act to take advantage of any new federal legislation which may profer funding for health care.

1944, there were now 101 municipal doctors in the province.Houston and Massie p. 34

Dr. Henry E. Sigerist, a professor of Medical History, was appointed as the head of a Health Services Survey Commission (HSSC) on June 15, 1944, and the report was finished October 4 that same year. Dr. Mindel Sheps, (CCF), was appointed secretary of the Sigerist Commission C. Stuart Houston sums up the salient points of the Sigerist Report; “He [Sigerist] recommended establishment of district health regions for preventive medicine, each centred on a district hospital equipped with an x-ray machine, a medical laboratory, and an ambulance. He advocated rural health centres of eight to ten maternity beds, staffed by a registered nurse and one or more municipal doctors. He proposed that the municipal doctor plans should be maintained and developed. He noted that the public must be educated to seek medical advice at the centre, so that doctors would no longer spend a large part of their time driving around the country.”Houston: Sigerist Commission By 1950, the province saw 173 municipal doctors practising in the province.Houston and Massie p. 34

The HSPC continued on with C.C. Gibson, Superintendent of the Regina General Hospital; T.H. McLeod government’s economic advisor; and Dr. M.C. Sheps. As a result, health regions were created. “The Regional Health Services Branch is responsible for the organization and administration of health regions: six of fourteen potential regions are in operation. Regional Health Boards assisted by advisory committees administer general public health services. Health Districts within the Region are represented on a District Health Council. … In many districts within the other Regions, a municipal doctor system is in operation. Medical services are provided under a contract between the municipal authority and medical practitioner. …Hospital care is available to all residents under a compulsory hospital plan, which is financed by an annual tax of $10 for adults and $5 for children, with a $30 family maximum; any further funds needed are provided by the Provincial Treasury.”CYB 1951. p. 212 The Saskatchewan Hospitalization Act was passed in legislature on April 4, 1956.

Dr. Noel Doig relates that when he set up a practice in Hawarden, 1957, “the basic payment from the surrounding township of Rosedale for holding office hours in Hawarden would be $100 per month, and the payment from the township of Loreburn for holding two weekly sessions in a satellite office in the village of that name would be $100 per quarter. …Fees for medical care would be over and above the stipulated contract payments….I’d [Doig] also been able to secure my appointment to the staff of Outlook Hospital, 26 miles away along two gravel high3ways (No. 19 to its junction with No. 15…)”Doig p. 5-6

“The federal government passed the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act in 1957, which offered to reimburse, or cost share, one-half of provincial and territorial costs for specified hospital and diagnostic services. This Act provided for publicly administered universal coverage for a specific set of services under uniform terms and conditions.”Health Canada

In December of 1959, – the year that the “incidence of paralytic poliomyelitis rose in all provinces to tis highest level since vaccination began” – Premier Tommy Douglas “announced that an advisory planning committee representing the government, the university, the medical profession and the general public would be set up to make representations to the government of medical care.” Archer p. 303. J. Walter Erb, health minister announced the names of the Thompson’s planning committee in the spring of 1960.

This committee after visiting numerous countries, -Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland- and examining the structure of doctor sponsored plans submitted their interim report September 25, 1961. November 7, 1961, Tommy Douglas, elected as the leader of the newly formed New Democrat party, stepped down as premier. Woodrow Stanley Lloyd of the CCF party, succeeded Douglas as the premier of Saskatchewan. On November 17, 1961, the CCF party passed the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act. On November 21, 1961, this same government appointed William Gwynne Davies {an initiator of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL)} as Minister of Public Health.

In 1961, Statistics Canada reported that public medical care programs are existant for three provinces. Saskatchewan locally operated municipal-doctor programs cover about 158,000 persons, and Manitoba covers about 28,000. “The Swift Current Health Region operates a comprehensive prepaid medical-dental and out-patient hospital care scheme for about 53,000 persons. These latter programs are subsidized to some extent by provincial health departments.”SYB 1961 p. 236

Provincial Medical Care and Doctor’s Strike

On July 1, 1962, Saskatchewan began operating a provincial medical care insurance program. Following his tenure on Thompson’s Planning Committee, Barootes, as president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) presided over the Doctor’s Strike, July 1, 1962 which lasted 23 days. Lord Stephen Taylor from the British House of Lords arrived to Canada at the request of Premier Lloyd, and negotiated an end to the strike between the medical profession represented by the SMA and the cabinet supporting the Medical Care Insurance Commission.

Before Medical Care locally operated municipal doctor programs in receipt of provincial grants served the population. “Since July 1962, every person who has resided in the Province of Saskatchewan for three months…and has paid…and premium he is required to pay under the Saskatchewan Medical Care Act, is entitled to have payment made on his behalf from the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Fund, for medical, surgical and obstetrical care, without limit, in the office, home or hospital, from his physician of choice…Physicians providing insured medical services may elect to receive payment in a number of ways:

• they may contract for a salary…
• they may choose to receive direct payment from the administering public agency, the Medical Insurance Commission…
• they may bill their patients directly, the patient in turn being paid by the Commission, on presentation of an itemized account (bill) or receipt…
• the physician my practice for private fees, whereby the patient assumes all responsibility for payment of the doctor’s fee….”CYB 1963-1964 p. 273

“Municipal doctor plans formerly operating in Saskatchewan were discontinued with the introduction of the province-wide medical insurance program, but arrangements were being completed in the spring of 1963 to continue, under local auspices, insured medical services for some 57,000 residents of the Swift Current Health Region which as operated a prepaid medical-dental program for nearly 17 years.” CYB 1963-1964 p. 275

“The Saskatchewan medical care insurance program is financed from personal premiums plus general revenue contributions. No premiums were levied in respect of 1962, but an annual premium of $12 per adult or a maximum annual premium of $24 per family has been levied for 1963 for medical care coverage. Special corporation and personal income taxes have been introduced…along with the use of a portion of revenues from a 5-p.c. retail sales tax.”CYB 1963-1964 p. 275

In Conclusion

The federal government stepped in with funding in 1968 to support medical insurance. Leonard Shifrin noted that 8 provinces of Canada modeled health care upon Saskatchewan’s medicare plan by 1979 and the CBC states the entire nation was covered by a medicare plan within ten years of the Saskatchewan Doctor’s strike. Saskatchewan’s motto; “Multis E Gentibus Vires”, Latin for “In Many People’s Strength” represents the great cooperative community spirit, which when combined with “the right person in the right place at the right time” paved the way for Saskatchewan to become a leader in medicare.Houston and Massie p. 143

>
In closing, this brief encapsulation offers an overview of the evolution of health care in Saskatchewan. It is hoped that it may inspire you to reflect on the politics, the health care services, and the effect the various health care systems had on the communities. Please be inspired to comment, compare or contrast how health care impacted their own life experiences. Though this review does not include medical breakthroughs, or technological inventions, nor does it contain the emotions – the hopes and fears – however it does review the history of key events, and some of the key people behind formal legislation paving the way towards medicare. As we are collecting information, comments, feedback, and any reminiscences you may have are greatly appreciated.

Questions:

It is quite natural that Canadians used to medicare are bringing up the controversy regarding the United States Obamacare program in their conversations.
This is an interesting time, observing the reactions, positive or negative that Americans are having with these new insurance policies. We, as Canadians may indeed be wondering how anyone could be against it.

However, in Canada when medicare was introduced, there was in fact, a 23 day strike against Canadian medicare that made international headlines. In contemporary times, few remember the inauguration of medicare, and the strike in health care service that lasted three weeks, a time during the summer of 1962 not to be critically ill.

This experiences are a reminder of the need to preserve personal memories of these events, especially as those who can remember through these times are now are at least in their sixties.


Please take the time to fill out our online survey; https://eSurv.org?u=Medicare Saskatchewan MediCare & Doctor’s Strike – 1962 Survey asking these questions:


What are your memories of the doctor’s strike in 1962? Were you working in the medical field at the time?

What are your memories of life before medicare?

What are your memories of life before medicare?

Where did you live?

How old were you (teens, twenties, etc.)?

How did you get information (newspapers, radio, TV)?

Was medicare or the strike a topic of conversation at home or work?

Were you or family members concerned about your health during the strike?

Were you covered by a municipal plan, MSI or other insurance?

If you worked in the medical field, what was the attitude of co-workers?

Please contact Marilyn Decker, – – granddaughter of Matthew (Matthias) Anderson if you have any memories or reminiscences you could share. 


https://eSurv.org?u=Medicare Saskatchewan MediCare & Doctor’s Strike – 1962 Survey

D-Day, June 6, 1944, 70th Anniversary Commemoration

D-Day, June 6, 1944, 70th Anniversary Commemoration
Are you ready for a trip to France?

On June 6, 1944 – D-Day, the day of the Normandy Landings ~ Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II
Adapted from Library and Archives Canada images on Flickr. Set of images:D-Day

The Canadian Government has organised ceremonies in Canada and in France to honour those who served in World War II. This occasion commemorates the 70th anniversary of D-Day (June 6, 1944) and the Battle of Normandy.

Veterans from all nations and Canadians are all invited to attend the ceremonies. Provinces across the nation will additionally have ceremonies demarking the occasion. Financial assistance from Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) is available to help Veterans attend the overseas events in France.

Postcards for Peace is one method for youth to become involved in remembering the sacrifices made in times of war or in active service. Although Veteran’s Affairs suggests other ways to remember, such as inviting a Veteran or Canadian Armed Forces as a guest speaker to a classroom or to a community event, or to write stories and poems about remembrance for a few of the ideas they offer as ways to remember. Valentine’s for Vets encourages hand made valentines for our Canadian Veterans.

According to A Historical Atlas of Canada from Canada there were 22,817 army fatalities, 2,019 navy casualties and 17,101 casualties from the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) who had served in World War II. The Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial lists 4,952 who paid the supreme sacrifice from Saskatchewan or 11.8% of the World War II Canadian contingent.

The 1952-53 Canada Year Book reports that Saskatchewan as a province had a population of 895,992 in 1941 and 831,728 in 1951, whereas the nation of Canada had a total population of 11,596,655 in 1941 and 14,009,429 in 1951. Saskatchewan represented 7.7% of the Canadian population in 1941, and 5.9% of the population in 1951.

The strategy and planning that went into D-day and the landings in Normandy resulted in the vitally strategic capture of Caen on July 9. According to the CBC, “For Canada, 14,000 soldiers were to land on the beaches; another 450 were to drop behind enemy lines by parachute or glider. The Royal Canadian Navy supplied ships and about 10,000 sailors.” Counting the casualties from the D-Day invasion from all allied forces has been estimated at 10,000 dead and wounded. Veterans Affairs reports that about three hundred and forty Canadians were killed on D-Day on Juno Beach alone. Over 5,000 paid the supreme sacrifice.

Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial presents a Roll of Honour for those from Saskatchewan who paid the ultimate sacrifice during World War II.

“Lest We Forget

 

They shall gow not old, as we that are left grow old, age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

We will remember them

Lord God of Hosts

Be with us yet,

Lest we forget,

Lest we forget.”

Author Julia Adamson

For more information:

1952-53 Canada Year Book Statistics Canada. 2009-06-09. Date accessed May 26, 2014.

Adamson, Julia Saskatchewan Gen Web – Military Resources. Date Accessed May 26, 2014.

Barry, Bill. Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial Date accessed May 26, 2014.
Canada and the Second World War. Canada at D-Day. Canadian War Museum. Canadian Museum of History. Government of Canada. Date accessed May 26, 2014.

CBC D-day The Allied Invasion of Normandy. june 4, 2009.

Kerr, D.G.G., editor. Historical Atlas of Canada. Canadian Historical Associations Committee on a Historical Atlas of Canada. 1960. Thomas Nelson and Sons (Canada) ltd. Library of Congress catalog card number 60-9189.

Library and Archives Canada images on Flickr. Set of images: D-Day

Veterans Affairs Canada >> Remembrance >>
History >>
The Second World War >>
D-Day and the Battle of Normandy

Saskatchewan Genealogy Web : Sask Gen Web E-Magazine

Answering Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

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Is my ancestor’s grave marked with a tombstone?

Tears in my Eyes ~ Bleeding Heart by Julia Adamson

Is my ancestor’s grave marked with a tombstone?

To answer this query, “Is my ancestor’s grave marked with a tombstone,” it is necessary to determine the cemetery used for the burial site. As genealogists start researching by moving from the “known” towards the “unknown” locating a person’s place of burial can be researched in this same method. It is best to consult with relatives, family records, cemetery and church records, newspaper obituaries, professional genealogists and historians. In this way the cemetery can be located, then the next step would be to contact the local infrastructure department, church or private individual who maintain Saskatchewan cemeteries.

Once the internment location has been found, through research it may be that the burial site is unmarked. The plot may not have received a tombstone perhaps due to neglect, inattention, or hard times. The cemetery itself may have a policy of no tombstones such as at Forest Hills Memorial Park in Berks County, Reading, Pennsylvannia. In some cases the family or the person themselves may request no tombstone. Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. founder, has no tombstone. The internment sites of notable comedian John Belushi, and American author, H.P. Lovecraft, remain unmarked, and the family erected a cenotaph in a separate location.

Descendants may decide to erect a gravestone upon discovering this ancestor in their family tree, and honour their ancestor with a memorial. Genealogy societies such as the African Atlantic Genealogical Society (AAGS) joined with the he American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) to honour the unmarked gravesite of Eubie Blake, an African American composer. In researching notable local figures, societies, historians or agencies first must contact family descendants to receive permission to erect a tombstone. A similar project honoured and memorialised the unmarked gravesite of blues guitarist, Tommy Bankhead, by the Killer Blues Headstone Project in St. Louis.

For most of Saskatchewan’s cemeteries volunteers from various agencies have initiated their own cemetery projects to record burials. It is then possible to search internet grave registries to locate internment sites. There are global sites such as Find a Grave, Internment.net, or the Cemetery Junction Directory. In Saskatchewan alone several agencies have come together to compile listings of cemetery burials. These agencies are listed at Saskatchewan Gen Web – Cemetery Records – Obituary Records Just a very few agencies recorded at the aforementioned site are the Ancestor Recognition Project – Cemetery Preservation: Online Digitization, Canada Gen Web Cemeteries Project, City and town infrastructure departments, Odessa Library — a German-Russian Genealogical Library, Doukhobor.org, GRHS (Germans from Russia Heritage Society), International Internet Genealogical Society Library, Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, Rural Municipality offices, Saskatchewan Cemeteries Project, Saskatchewan Mennonite Cemetery Finding Aid, Saskatchewan Genealogy Society and branches.

In Saskatchewan the Genealogy Index Search listing is online by the Government of Saskatchewan eHealth Vital Statistics division providing searchable information on “births registered with Vital Statistics more than 100 years ago, and deaths registered more than 70 years ago”. The burial index is searchable online available from research done by Saskatchewan Genealogy Society SGS members from their volunteer cemetery transcription projects. Many of the SGS transcriptions have been put on microfilm and are held with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Family Search centre.

It may aid the individual to search in the family biography / local history books published locally in the province by various communities during the province’s 50th anniversary celebrations (1955), 75th anniversary, (1980) and 100th anniversary (2005). Indexed books can be searched through the Saskatchewan Resident’s Index SRI or Our Roots Nos Racines to see if there are any family names within these resources. The local history committees who came together to write these books are an invaluable source of information as are the local museum curators and librarians.

If the town or placename that the individual resided is unknown, check the homestead records to determine the legal land location (address) for the pioneering family residence. Pinpointing this location on a map will indicate the closest rural placename and the nearest large centre. Entering these placenames in a library catalogue may assist in finding the relevant local history / family biography book. At times these books will also profer cemetery listings as well as biographies of the local residents submitted by the families themselves.

Locating the homestead on a map is actually very wise to assist narrow down the closest or most likely cemetery for the family to adopt. For instance the Rural Municipality of Excelsior #166 maintains 40 cemetery records and Sliding Hills RM #273 maintains 49 cemeteries. On average a rural municipality encompasses 9 townships each 6 miles by 6 miles square, so the RM itself would be an 18 mile by 18 mile area unless boundaries were altered due to population or natural boundaries such as rivers. Such a cemetery density would offer the family a choice of cemetery locations close to their homestead. They may opt for a church yard corresponding to their religious beliefs, desire to be interred in family plot, or choose a town or city plot if the final years were spent residing in an urban centre near senior’s or healthcare resources.

Without a cemetery transcription nor photographs of headstones available, it may be fruitful to ask the assistance of a professional genealogical researcher or some kind soul on the local mailing list or query board for the relevant region of Saskatchewan to check the cemetery for the ancestral burial site. If this is the case, do not expect an answer during the winter months. Between the months of October and April, snow covers the ground making traipsing through cemeteries difficult, and rendering headstones buried beneath the snow invisible to the sight.

To determine if a person is actually interred in a specific cemetery it would be helpful to consult church records, newspaper obituaries, cemetery burial certificates, census records or perhaps family records.

Cemetery burial records are held by the local administration; city or town authorities usually handle cemetery queries in their infrastructure department, parks and cemeteries. Similarly cemetery plot maps, and internment certificates are held by the rural municipality, the civic administration overseeing private rural farm and ranch lands, unorganised hamlets, unincorporated areas, localities, villages and former towns. Burial registers are held by religious denominations officiating at churchyard burials.

If the cemetery plot is located on private land, it is necessary to contact the private land owners for access to the site. This can be done by contacting the rural municipality office and purchasing an RM map of the area.

At times the cemetery may have unmarked graves, and cemetery owners may indulge in ground penetrating radar surveys to find and document all historic internment sites. If a cemetery has a paper trail, such as death certificates, or obituaries to show that an internment had taken place in the graveyard, then radar technology or grave dowsing may help to locate any unmarked sites.

In regards unmarked older cemeteries, it is necessary to contact the local historians for information and directions to a cemetery. For public cemeteries, a local resident would be able to offer directions to a cemetery currently in use. A rural municipality map purchased from the rural municipality would demark cemeteries, townships, ranges along with current roadways.

If a researcher is fortunate in finding the cemetery gravestones photographed online or the cemetery transcribed on the internet, that may help in locating the gravesite, unless the name is not listed. Such may be the case for the Ogema Cemetery in the RM of Key West 70, located in the northwest quarter of section 22 township 7 range 22 West of the 2nd meridian where both a cemetery transcription and tombstone photographs are online from two different agencies. If the ancestor’s name is not listed from either of these listings, but does indeed show up in the provincial genealogy index search where the Government of Saskatchewan eHealth Vital Statistics division indicates “births registered with Vital Statistics more than 100 years ago, and deaths registered more than 70 years ago”, then it would be wise to follow up with further research.

In the case of Key West 70 there are 27 local cemeteries, which are listed at in at least two sites online; Canada Gen Web or the Saskatchewan Genealogy Society Cemetery Index . Another note to consider is that the town of Ogema is located in the southeastern portion of the rural municipality there is a chance that the family may have chosen a cemetery in a neighbouring RM such as Norton RM # 69 to the east, The Gap RM # 39 to the southeast, or Bengough RM # 40 to the south.

If one encounters such an experience of finding the death certificate in Saskatchewan with the Vital Statistics division, but no record of the ancestral name in the expected cemetery listings, it may be necessary to apply for the death certificate from Vital Statistics and or the burial (internment) permit from the Rural Municipality or in the case of this example, the Ogema town office. Most rural municipalities, cities and towns have their own individual websites online along with their contact information. The Government of Saskatchewan also has the Municipal Directory System online with contact information. MySask.com and Canada 411 are two online phone (and address) directories.

Officially civic registration of births, marriages and deaths did begin in 1905 with the formation of the province, registration did not become a regular practice until 1920. The government system to register deaths began in 1888 when the area was still part of the Northwest Territories. These early records of the Northwest Territories may be included in the Saskatchewan Provincial Archives or Manitoba Provincial Archives (Hudson Bay records) vital records collection. If the family chose to be buried in a churchyard, the church burial registers may indicate where an ancestral loved one may be found. If the deceased were registered under the terms of the Indian Act, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) maintains the Indian Register containing dates of birth, death, marriage and divorce information.

Equipped with a date of passing provided by the provincial EHealth genealogy index search another venue opens up. It becomes easier to follow up on an obituary search in an historic newspaper. However as indicated previously if families did not regularly register for a death certificate in the early pioneering years, they may not run an obituary, especially if the passing occurred in the dearth of winter, 40 degrees below zero, no plowed roads, actually no formal paved roads at all, and only horse and buggy for conveyance, or ox and cart. However, there were newspapers, and indeed some obituaries were run. Newspapers were published in the Northwest Territories in the late 1800s serving all of northwestern Canada. As settlement expanded out west, additional local newspapers sprang up across the province. Some these newspapers can be researched online as a few historic newspapers have been placed online by Google News for instance. Various editions of historic newspapers are held on microfilm in the provincial archives and public library system.

Additionally, with the known departure date, application can be made to the Saskatchewan Law Courts to search for wills, letters probate, letters of administration, estate titles which are held in the Wills and Estates Registry dating back to 1883. If desiring to erect a gravesite marker on an unmarked grave, it may behoove one to check if there is a will to honour any requests made by the departed if they wished to lie in an unmarked grave.

So in this way, by starting with the known, and working towards the unknown, steps can be taken to determine cemeteries in the locality where an ancestor resided. Searches can be made of transcriptions made by local residents to determine if the internment took place in a cemetery in the region. Many of these transcriptions are coming online. It is wise to investigate several regional cemeteries to cover all the bases. Without an ancestor’s name listed on a transcription made from tombstones, local church or civic registries can be consulted for historic burials in unmarked gravesites. Additionally the death certificate can be ordered from Vital Statics, Ministry of Health. Without a primary source document, to show that an ancestor was buried in the cemetery, it may not be possible to erect a tombstone, in such a case, perhaps a bench, cenotaph, a tree planting or commemorative sign could be placed in the cemetery honouring the relative and acknowledging their unmarked gravesite.

Article written by Julia Adamson

Bibliography

Saskatchewan Genealogy Web : Sask Gen Web E-Magazine Answering Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

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Follow on Word Press, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, Tumblr, Live Journal, 500 px, Flickr, and Flickriver

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Recording and Memorialising Cemeteries

Part 4 of a 7 part series.

Through the Rural Municipality office cemetery clean up committees are established throughout the province to care for active cemeteries. Volunteers come together with lawn mowers, weed whackers, and chain saws to maintain active burial grounds to comply with their community standards.

Education is the key, to preserve a derelict cemetery. For historical conservation purposes it is wise to learn what to do, and what not to do. The Saskatchewan Historic Cemetery Manual and the A Graveyard Preservation Primer by Lynette Strangstad outline precautions necessary to increase awareness about cemetery preservation. Use caution in an historic cemetery site near large cemetery monuments, as these too, may break and topple. Trained volunteer cemetery crews, archaeologists or professionals recommended by the Saskatchewan Heritage Foundation are required for preservation work on an historic graveyard in need of restoration. For such work, grants and assistance is available.

Non-invasive methods of reading fading inscriptions is imperative to preserve information for future generations of genealogists. Do no harm is mandated, headstones should not be sprayed with solvents or cleaning supplies as these may enter cracks, and further erode the stone. A simple mirror or plain rain water may help to bring out the shadow play on the inscription. “Rubbings” onto paper should never be made on stone which is soft and may break apart under the process further eroding a delicate stone. For example when attempting to read an eroded head stone, do not make rubbings with light weight paper that the wax or ink colour may bleed through.

Photographing a tombstone from a variety of angles and a tight close up opens up the capability for image enhancement in photo software to enlarge, and manipulate photos to bring out the natural contrasts, and highlights in the photographic image.

Share your photographs or transcriptions with one of the many agencies recording and memorializing cemeteries in Saskatchewan. A kind courtesy to other researchers is to take photos of all the tombstones, and then submit them online to an organisation such as the Canada Gen Web Saskatchewan Cemetery Project

Series:
• Part 1 Cemetery Preservation: Preserving Landscapes of Memories
• Part 2 Cemeteries, the silent historian
• Part 3 Archaeological Cemeteries
• Part 4 Recording and Memorialising
• Part 5 Cemetery Vacations
• Part 6 Save our Saskatchewan Cemeteries
• Part 7 Heritage Cemeteries listing
• Additional Resources

Note: This program (Saskatchewan Genealogy Society ~ Saskatchewan Cemetery Care and Maintenance Program SCCMP ) has been discontinued, however it ws intriguing, so the information is left here in this blog online

Additional Resources:

Links

Canada Gen Web Saskatchewan Cemeteries Project

Network Canadian Cemetery Management September 2010 Vol 24 No 10

Saskatchewan Gen Web Cemetery Resources and Organisations

Saskatchewan Genealogy Society Cemetery Index

Saskatchewan Historic Cemetery Manual

 SCCMP “The Saskatchewan Cemetery Care and Maintenance Program”

Books

• American Cemetery Research
  Genealogy at a Glance by Sharon Debartolo Carmack
• Saskatchewan’s Historic Cemeteries.
  Cemetery Monument Conservation: – National Park Service (bibliography with an emphasis on stone)
• Cryptic Clues in the Bone Yard by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
• Stories in Stone:
  The Complete Guide to Cemetery Symbolism by Douglas Keister
• Landscapes of Memories A Guide for Conserving Historic Cemeteries: Repairing Tombstones, written by specialists in masonry conservation
•  Michigan historic cemeteries preservation guide by
  Gregg King, Susan Kosky, Kathleen Glynn, Gladys Saborio, Michigan Historical Center.
• Municipal Designation of Cemeteries and Historic Places Initiative by Heritage Foundation of Canada
• Mortuary Monuments and Burial Grounds of the Historic Period: A Guide for Conserving Historic Cemeteries By Harold Mytum
• Printed Sources: A Guide to Published Genealogical Records edited by Kory L. Meyerink
• Read Before You Leap ~ SAPIC Cemetery Preservation Library
  of
  Essential Information (Bibliography)
• Your Guide to Cemetery Research by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
• Stories in Stone:
  The Complete Guide to Cemetery Symbolism by Douglas Keister

Victorian cemetery art by Edmund Vincent Gillon

Bibliography:

Links to sources are embedded in text above.

Additionally:

Redfield, Robert, Ralph Linton and Melville J. Herkovits

1936 Memorandum for the Study of Acculturation. American Anthropologist 38(1):149-
152.

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Follow me on Word Press, Blogger, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, Live Journal, Sask Gen Web Ancestry.com and Flickriver

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Moon Fleur ~ Luna Rose by Julia Adamson

Related articles

• Minn. Archaeologist Investigates Vanished Cemetery (minnesota.cbslocal.com)
• Deformed skulls discovered in 1,000-year-old Mexican cemetery (io9.com)

Save our Cemeteries

Part 6 of a 7 part series.

It is with honour and respect that cemeteries which have served communities for decades are recognized and cared for. “Burial grounds are an essential part of a community”, as the town of Herbert says, “the little prairie cemetery, dotted with small bushes, little fences and crosses, perennial plants, flower vases and personal touches really do tell a story of those who have gone before.” Cemeteries do indeed, express the social identity of their communities.

The Saskatchewan Historic Cemetery Manual put out by the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society provides guidance to proceed on conservation and preservation of historical cemeteries, their clean up, repair and documentation. As Don Morgan, QC
Minister of Justice and Attorney General notes, the operation of cemeteries in Saskatchewan falls under the purview of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General….We have an opportunity to protect our heritage and if we don’t take steps to preserve it, it will be lost. As a province and a society we must make a commitment to identify and protect cemeteries.”

Series:
• Part 1 Cemetery Preservation: Preserving Landscapes of Memories
• Part 2 Cemeteries, the silent historian
• Part 3 Archaeological Cemeteries
• Part 4 Recording and Memorialising
• Part 5 Cemetery Vacations
• Part 6 Save our Saskatchewan Cemeteries
• Part 7 Heritage Cemeteries listing
• Additional Resources

Note: This program (Saskatchewan Genealogy Society ~ Saskatchewan Cemetery Care and Maintenance Program SCCMP ) has been discontinued, however it ws intriguing, so the information is left here in this blog online

Additional Resources:

Links

Canada Gen Web Saskatchewan Cemeteries Project

Network Canadian Cemetery Management September 2010 Vol 24 No 10

Saskatchewan Gen Web Cemetery Resources and Organisations

Saskatchewan Genealogy Society Cemetery Index

Saskatchewan Historic Cemetery Manual

 SCCMP “The Saskatchewan Cemetery Care and Maintenance Program”

Books

• American Cemetery Research
  Genealogy at a Glance by Sharon Debartolo Carmack
• Saskatchewan’s Historic Cemeteries.
  Cemetery Monument Conservation: – National Park Service (bibliography with an emphasis on stone)
• Cryptic Clues in the Bone Yard by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
• Stories in Stone:
  The Complete Guide to Cemetery Symbolism by Douglas Keister
• Landscapes of Memories A Guide for Conserving Historic Cemeteries: Repairing Tombstones, written by specialists in masonry conservation
•  Michigan historic cemeteries preservation guide by
  Gregg King, Susan Kosky, Kathleen Glynn, Gladys Saborio, Michigan Historical Center.
• Municipal Designation of Cemeteries and Historic Places Initiative by Heritage Foundation of Canada
• Mortuary Monuments and Burial Grounds of the Historic Period: A Guide for Conserving Historic Cemeteries By Harold Mytum
• Printed Sources: A Guide to Published Genealogical Records edited by Kory L. Meyerink
• Read Before You Leap ~ SAPIC Cemetery Preservation Library
  of
  Essential Information (Bibliography)
• Your Guide to Cemetery Research by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
• Stories in Stone:
  The Complete Guide to Cemetery Symbolism by Douglas Keister

Victorian cemetery art by Edmund Vincent Gillon

Bibliography:

Links to sources are embedded in text above.

Additionally:

Redfield, Robert, Ralph Linton and Melville J. Herkovits

1936 Memorandum for the Study of Acculturation. American Anthropologist 38(1):149-
152.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Follow me on Word Press, Blogger, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, Live Journal, Sask Gen Web Ancestry.com and Flickriver

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Moon Fleur ~ Luna Rose by Julia Adamson

Related articles

• Minn. Archaeologist Investigates Vanished Cemetery (minnesota.cbslocal.com)
• Deformed skulls discovered in 1,000-year-old Mexican cemetery (io9.com)

Steamships “All aboard!” on the Saskatchewan

[Aboard ships]:…the world is far, far away; it has ceased to exist for you–seemed a fading dream, along in the first days; has dissolved to an unreality now; it is gone from your mind with all its businesses and ambitions, its prosperities and disasters, its exultations and despairs, its joys and griefs and cares and worries. They are no concern of yours any more; they have gone out of your life; they are a storm which has passed and left a deep calm behind. ~Mark Twain

Before the advent of railways or roadways, conveyance along the waterways was a welcome alternative to traversing prairie trails on squeaky Red River Carts pulled by oxen or on prairie schooners behind a team of horses. Journey across such Red River Cart trails was difficult, there were streams and rivers to cross without bridges, and often times without ferry crossings. Carts would get bogged down in mud, and passengers eaten by mosquitoes.

The steamship era lasted about fifty years spanning the years between 1871-1918. Early pioneers relied upon these paddlewheelers, these steamers, to transport trade goods and make passenger trips before the rail lines were established. Commercial trade opened up, the steamboat supplemented by stage coach, dog train and ox cart.

River boats in the prairies were flat bottomed, and wide. A stern wheel was driven with boiler and engines fitted on the deck. Upstairs, boasted the salon, engine room and private staterooms or cabins, perhaps a ballroom or saloon deck. Atop these levels was the wheelhouse from which the pilot steered the craft. These sternwheelers were essentially a motorized raft designed to float across the surface of the water, and able to navigate shallow waters.

She was a grand affair. When I stood in her pilot-house I was so far above the water that I seemed perched on a mountain; and her decks stretched so far away, fore and aft, below me, that I wondered how I could ever have considered the little “Paul Jones” a large craft. There were other differences, too. The “Paul Jones‘s pilot-house was a cheap, dingy, battered rattle-trap, cramped for room: but here was a sumptuous glass temple; room enough to have a dance in; showy red and gold window-curtains; an imposing sofa; leather cushions and a back to the high bench where visiting pilots sit, to spin yarns and ‘look at the river;’ bright, fanciful ‘cuspadores’ instead of a broad wooden box filled with sawdust; nice new oil-cloth on the floor; a hospitable big stove for winter; a wheel as high as my head, costly with inlaid work; a wire tiller-rope; bright brass knobs for the bells; and a tidy, white-aproned, black ‘texas-tender,’ to bring up tarts and ices and coffee during mid-watch, day and night. Now this was ‘something like,’ and so I began to take heart once more to believe that piloting was a romantic sort of occupation after all.~Mark Twain

Gordon Errett Tolton in Prairie Warships: River Navigation in the Northwest Rebellion states that steam powered paddlewheelers came to the Red River in the 1860s, and soon the Hudson Bay Company were using steamboats across the North and South Saskatchewan River waterways. Theodore Barris, the esteemed steamboat historian and author of Fire Canoe : Prairie Steamboat Days Revisited , noted that the Cree called the steamships, “Kuska pahtew oosi”, the “Fire Canoe“, the title also of Anthony Dalton’s book Fire Canoes: Steamboats on Great Canadian Rivers

It was in 1874, that the riverboat successfully joined the ranks of canoe, Metis freighter, bullboat, flat bottomed scows and York boats along the inland water routes. Settlers relied upon the steamers to transport coal to heat their schools, homes and business ventures. Timber was hauled for construction as immigrants finding their way to the “Last Best West” needed building materials, household goods, and agricultural supplies. Grain was freighted to market by steamboat and flatboats or scows. Along the way, the steamers offered stopping points for passengers.

The moment we were under way I began to prowl about the great steamer and fill myself with joy. She was as clean and as dainty as a drawing-room; when I looked down her long, gilded saloon, it was like gazing through a splendid tunnel; she had an oil-picture, by some gifted sign-painter, on every stateroom door; she glittered with no end of prism-fringed chandeliers; the clerk’s office was elegant, the bar was marvelous, and the bar-keeper had been barbered and upholstered at incredible cost. The boiler deck (i.e. the second story of the boat, so to speak) was as spacious as a church, it seemed to me; so with the forecastle; and there was no pitiful handful of deckhands, firemen, and roustabouts down there, but a whole battalion of men. The fires were fiercely glaring from a long row of furnaces, and over them were eight huge boilers! This was unutterable pomp. The mighty engines–but enough of this. I had never felt so fine before. And when I found that the regiment of natty servants respectfully ‘sir’d’ me, my satisfaction was complete.~Mark Twain

The “S.S. Northcote” built at a cost of $53,000 was launched August 1, 1874. The namesake of the previous Hudson Bay Comapny’s governor, Sir Stafford Henry Northcote (later known as the Earl of Iddelseigh) who fought for Hudson Bay Company to implement steamboats on the inland rivers and lakes of Manitoba and through the Northwest Territories. The “Northcote” was capable of carrying 150 tons drawing 3.5 feet (1.1 m) of water fully loaded. Her first trip carried mail and supplies for the North West Mounted Police detachment with Bob Louden as one of the pilots. “The “Northcote” made her first run this spring from above the Grand Rapids to Fort Edmonton and return, with a full cargo both ways in 30 days, a full river distance of 2,500 miles (4023.4km),” reported Thomas Dowse, “This I presume was only daylight running.”

Captain Francois “Frank” Aymond piloted the “Northcote” to The Pas with Joseph Favell as pilot, and continued to Fort Carlton on her inaugural journey in the summer of 1874. The press regaled this event thus, “the steamboat just launched on the Saskatchewan is the forerunner of a great fleet of steam craft which is hereafter to navigate this long line of waterways”. Aymond piloted her again in the summer of 1875 completing the trip to Fort Edmonton upstream from Grand Rapids in eighteen days. The return journey, downstream was successful in three days.

Settlements sprung up along the North Branch, Fort Saskatchewan Royal North West Mounted Police post, Battleford and Prince Albert and the “Northcote” was a common site between May and September. James Griggs commanded the “Northcote” in 1877.

These river boats followed in the tradition of the sternwheelers used on the Mississippi River since 1812, on the Missouri River as early as 1819, and the Red River in 1859. Huge loads could be freighted along these large riverways. After steamboats opened the Saskatchewan, fur trade routes were altered, and it was not long before the Athabasca River, Mackenzie River and Peace River to the far north opened to steamship travel as well. Rudy Wiebe notes that “during the summer of 1874, the Plains Cree began to comprehend what a mass of Whites was pouring in upon them. Police troops, surveyors for railroad and telegraph lines, land speculators, settlers trekking their carts along the Carlton Trail from Red River to Pitt and Victoria and Edmonton. The first sternwheeler steamer…filled with passengers and three hundred cartloads of Company freight.”

It was regarded as the highest achievement of mortal conception to be a steamboat pilot, with the exception, perhaps, of being a steamboat captain.” ~ George C. Nichols, an ancient river mariner

Steamer captains from the United States were enlisted to navigate the Saskatchewan with her new steamers. Captain John Scribner Segers (July 3, 1832- April 15, 1909) was one of these riverboat captains fresh off the Mississippi River. “He had a passionate fondness of adventure and a knack of getting into and, more important, getting out of the most impossible situations,” recounts D.J. Comfort, “He had to be one of the more colorful of riverboat captains and tested the waters of more rivers than many would sail in a lifetime.” In 1883, he piloted the “Lily” coursing down the Saskatchewan for the first time. He received his Masters Certificate, Passenger Steamers in the summer of 1901.

When I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman. We had transient ambitions of other sorts, but they were only transient. When a circus came and went, it left us all burning to become clowns; the first negro minstrel show that came to our section left us all suffering to try that kind of life; now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. These ambitions faded out, each in its turn; but the ambition to be a steamboatman always remained. ~Mark Twain

Thus, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Swift Current became port towns linked to Edmonton, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. “It was customary in those steamboat days for young and old, male and female, in every town along the river, at the deep baying sound of the first whistle to gather at the levee to welcome the first boat,” wrote Thomas Hughes, “to the lonely pioneer, the vigils of a long winter in the wilderness were trying, and the arrival of the first boat was an important event in his life, when he heard from his childhood home and the outside world, and when his exhausted larder would be replenished .”

Do you know what it means to be a boy on the banks of the [river] to see the steamboats go up and down the river, and never to have had a ride on one? Can you form any conception of what that really means? ~Mark Twain

The eastern portion of the water route ends at the Grand Rapids, a canyon in Manitoba, where the river drops 75 feet (24 m) along a length of two miles (5 km). This is where the Hudson Bay Company built an inland port and warehouses to connect the lake systems of Manitoba to the river system of the Northwest Territories (later the province of Saskatchewan). A short 3.5 miles (5.6 km) railline, a rail portage, was constructed during 1877 to help portage the steamers from Lake Winnipeg across the Grand Rapids canyon to the Saskatchewan River. This tramway first proposed in 1859 by Simon James Dawson, civil engineer with the Hind Expedition was the first rail of the north west plains.

And where the North branch meets the South branch of the Saskatchewan, the steamers must ply Cole’s Falls, a canyon near Prince Albert 13 miles (20.9 km) in length. Along the North branch, the most common route was (upstream) from Lake Winnipeg to the Forks west of Prince Albert and onwards to Edmonton and back. Steamers which travel the length of the North branch between Prince Albert and Brazeau can only draw less than 22 inches (55.88 cm) of water.

Thomas Dowse explains that, The river as its name implies, viz: “Rapid Running River,” is not to be compared with that of the Mississippi or Red Rivers….the Saskatchewan from Edmonton to Lake Winnipeg, 1,200 miles (1931.2km) by river the fall is 1,783 feet (543.5 m), or three times the rapidity of the Mississippi or Red River currents….This river is one stream for some 450 miles (724.20km) before it divides into its two branches.”

The South Branch leaves Chesterfield House near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border and flows past Saskatchewan Landing, a small prairie port of call. Swift Current became a growing city at the junction of river, Battleford Trail and railway. The South continues to wind its way past Elbow, Moose Woods near the future site of Saskatoon. The river continues on to the ferry crossing established by Jean-Baptiste (Xavier) Letendre, the site later known as Batoche.

I entered upon the small enterprise of ‘learning’ twelve or thirteen hundred miles of the great … River with the easy confidence of my time of life. If I had really known what I was about to require of my faculties, I should not have had the courage to begin. I supposed that all a pilot had to do was to keep his boat in the river, and I did not consider that that could be much of a trick, since it was so wide.~ Mark Twain

The Steamboat “Lily” traveled the North Saskatchewan on regular trips between 1878 to 1883. Built in Glasgow, Scotland in the Yarrow and Company shipyards, she was purchased by Chief Commissioner James A. Grahame of the Hudson’s Bay Company for 4010 pounds. After a long voyage, the steamer Colville brought the pre-fabricated parts along the Red River as far as the Grand Rapids. Construction began here in 1878, and the newly resurrected Steamboat “Lily” overwintered at Fort Carlton. Governor General Lord Dufferin christened her at Grand Rapids. The “Lily” came equipped with a steel hull which was faster than other sternwheelers, she sat lower in the water and damaged easily against boulders lying in wait along the shallow river bottom. It was in the winter of 1880-1881 that whe was renovated with oak panelling along her bottom as a protection against rocks.

Your true pilot cares nothing about anything on earth but the river, and his pride in his occupation surpasses the pride of kings.” ~ Mark Twain

Traveling between Winnipeg and Edmonton, Steam boats at full tonnage were able to convey in one month the equivalent of 150 to 200 ox carts over an entire summer. Steamers were capital intensive compared to ox carts of the fur trade route which were labour intensive. This practice was not only cost effective, but speeded up the turn-around time to ship goods. Lewis H. Thomas writes of what changes the new technology demanded ~ “steam boats in place of boat brigades, flat boats, or canoes; railroads in place of Red River carts and pack ponies; packing plants in place of family butchering and processing plains provisions; and ranching in place of the buffalo hunt.” Longer voyages, rising costs, dwindling labour force and an uncertain European market for furs forced the Hudson Bay Company to change their operating methods. It was considered that the “enormous expanse of grass and parklands of the Northwest was idle and unproductive…a blot upon our civilization.’ as The Globe” would have it. “Man was master over nature…this mastery implied domination and exploitation” coinciding “with the steam phase of the industrial revolution”.

The “Northcote” turned its attention to passenger traffic, renovated to carry as many as 50 passengers along the river route. Freight was shipped competitively with Metis freighters, the HBC charged $6.25 per hundredweight, versus $8.50 and upwards by the cartsmen. However, the HBC received as much as $70 per passenger.

During the week, steamers were great work horses, transforming into excursion boats on the weekend for vacation holidays. Grand pianos and dance floors set out providing a festive treat for passengers willing to pay $35 a day. Such was the sheer grandeur, scale and opulence of the steam ships, that on September 27, 1881, the Governor General of Canada, the Marquis of Lorne was treated to a lavish early morning reception aboard the “Northcote” before sailing away on board the “Lily” that afternoon.

The growth of courage in the pilot-house is steady all the time, but it does not reach a high and satisfactory condition until some time after the young pilot has been “standing his own watch” alone and under the staggering weight of all the responsibilities connected with the position. When the apprentice has become pretty thoroughly acquainted with the river, he goes clattering along so fearlessly with his steamboat, night or day, that he presently begins to imagine that it is his courage that animates him; but the first time the pilot steps out and leaves him to his own devices he finds out it was the other man’s. He discovers that the article has been left out of his own cargo altogether. The whole river is bristling with exigencies in a moment; he is not prepared for them; he does not know how to meet them; all his knowledge forsakes him; and within fifteen minutes he is as white as a sheet and scared almost to death. Therefore pilots wisely train these cubs by various strategic tricks to look danger in the face a little more calmly. – Mark Twain

“Cheyenne“, “Alpha“, “Minnesota” and “Manitoba” were set upon the Saskatchewan Rivers in 1879 by Winnipeg and Western Transportation Company (W&WTC). The “Minnesota” was re-christened the “City of Winnipeg” over the winter months of 1880-1881 and completely re-built. Captain James Sheets at the wheel of the “City” and pilot Robinson sitting at the “Princess” were contracted to tow the “City of Winnipeg” across Lake Winnipeg to Grand Rapids. The newly retrofitted “City” was caught by storms and dashed to pieces. The Winnipeg Free Press wrote, “Had the “S.S. City of Winnipeg” been content to cruise in safe waters and not let her grandeur govern her head, she might have had many years of usefulness on the Red River of the North.” Her sister ship, the “S.S. Manitoba” was also constructed in 1875 by the Merchants International Steamboat Line in Moorhead, North Dakota. “The “Northcote” now sailed under steamboat captain Jerry Webber in 1881, and the Lily under John “Josie” Smith.

The small “Alpha” made the trip between Fort Ellice to Fort Pelly in 1880. This freighter was mainly used upon the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, though she could carry 30 passengers and nine crew members. Her life was short lived, she was caught up in winter ice and there disintegrated in the fall of 1882.

The “Marquis” arrived upon the mighty Saskatchewan in the summer of 1882 under Captain James Sheets. This ship, the largest on the North Saskatchewan, was again commissioned by the W&WTC working for the Hudson Bay Company. Now there were five ships servicing the Saskatchewan, the “Marquis“, “Northcote“, “North West“, “Manitoba“, and “Lily“. Peter McArthur hauled these huge ships up against the white water at Grand Rapids with winches and manila warps to reach the mouth of the Saskatchewan. Edmonton residents relished this rapid transit. In just ten days passengers arrived in Winnipeg. The “North West” took the first leg to Prince Albert which took five days in low water, and only two days when the water was high. “Lily,” manoeuvred the length between Prince Albert and the Grand Rapids and finally a lake steamer finished the route to Winnipeg. During seasons of low water, the “Lily” with a lighter draught would take the first 500 mile (804.67km) run between Edmonton through to Fort Carlton.

I think that much the most enjoyable of all races is a steamboat race; but, next to that, I prefer the gay and joyous mule-rush. Two red–hot steamboats raging along, neck-and-neck, straining every nerve–that is to say, every rivet in the boilers–quaking and shaking and groaning from stem to stern, spouting white steam from the pipes, pouring black smoke from the chimneys, raining down sparks, parting the river into long breaks of hissing foam–this is sport that makes a body’s very liver curl with enjoyment. A horse-race is pretty tame and colorless in comparison.~Mark Twain

The steamships, writes the Winnipeg Free Press, “with their racing and cavorting were the talk of the town”, adventurous, they all sought fame and excitement. “The absolute necessity for every steamboat upon the …
river to maintain its character and reputation against
the willful encroachments and usurpations of any other boat,
was in early days so vital that the racing propensity of a river
steamer has become almost proverbial,” asserted Nichols, “A captain would rather
expose himself to the possibilities of wrecking his boat on an
impediment, or exposing the overtaxed boilers, than allow an
approaching rival to outdistance him. And the pilot was his
right hand in every such encounter.”

Water was the means of travel for the Temperance Colonization Society who settled at Saskatoon. In the spring of 1884, the “May Queen” was piloted by Captain Andrews to Medicine Hat from Saskatoon towing a raft of lumber. However, even though the TCS had high hopes for a fleet of steamers, the “May Queen” could not make it bake upstream as she drew too much water. She was dismantled in Medicine Hat.

The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book–a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day.”~Mark Twain

1881 rates for shipping goods was 6 and 1/4 cents per pound and shipping was available between Fort Garry, Manitoba through to Edmonton, Alberta. (Winnipeg: Established 1738 as Fort Rouge; renamed 1822 Fort Garry; incorporated in 1873 as the City of Winnipeg.) Passengers availed themselves of the service as well. For $70 between Fort Garry to Edmonton) one could travel as a cabin passenger, and for $35, travel as a deck passenger. A shorter trip say Fort Garry to Grand Rapids would set the passenger back only about $12.00.

The North West Navigation Co. headed by William Robinson and Captain Peter McArthur had the “North West” ready in 1881. She could sleep 80 passengers, carry freight, and was equipped with honeymoon suites and a grand piano on the saloon deck. “On the evening of the 22nd, word was passed about the streets that a steamboat was coming up the Saskatchewan and as it had been rumored for some time that a new boat would shortly ply the river, it was not many minutes before a large crowd had congregated at the landing to ascertain whether it was the Northcote or the new one. The moment the whistle sounded, however all doubts were dispelled, as it was a strange voice that awakened the echoes of the valley of the Saskatchewan,” wrote the Saskatchewan Herald in 1882, “The North-West is a fine large steamer with powerful engines and has plied upon the Manitoba streams and now that the “navigability” of the Rapid River of the North has been demonstrated beyond it, with adventure, she has been transferred to this river and is commanded by that veteran of steamboating, Captain James Sheets, whose name and face have been familiar over the years on the rivers of the North-West.”

Throughout the long twelve hundred miles there was never a page that was void of interest, never one that you could leave unread without loss, never one that you would want to skip, thinking you could find higher enjoyment in some other thing. There never was so wonderful a book written by man; never one whose interest was so absorbing, so unflagging, so sparklingly renewed with every reperusal. The passenger who could not read it was charmed with a peculiar sort of faint dimple on its surface (on the rare occasions when he did not overlook it altogether); but to the pilot that was an italicized passage; indeed, it was more than that, it was a legend of the largest capitals, with a string of shouting exclamation points at the end of it, for it meant that a wreck or a rock was buried there that could tear the life out of the strongest vessel that ever floated. It is the faintest and simplest expression the water ever makes, and the most hideous to a pilot’s eye. In truth, the passenger who could not read this book saw nothing but all manner of pretty pictures in it, painted by the sun and shaded by the clouds, whereas to the trained eye these were not pictures at all, but the grimmest and most dread-earnest of reading matter

In 1883 Steamboat “Lily” was lost near Medicine Hat, Alberta. And it was here that Elliott Torrance Galt (son of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt) and Nelson Todd launched the “Baroness” that same year, the namesake of Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts, the patroness. The Fort Macleod boatyard gave way to a boatyard near the Coalbanks mine, and used wood from the Porcupine Plains sawmill. The “Alberta“, another coal carrier, christened after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, launched April 15, 1884. The “Minnow” sternwheeler was loaded upon a rail flat car and shipped to Medicine Hat to be used as a tug boat for the “Alberta” and “Baroness“. Similarly, Captain E. Shelton Andrews, purchased the “May Queen” and shipped it by railline to Medicine Hat, in 1884.

Over the years of 1883 and 1884, first Class passengers with overnight cabin were charged $58.00 to travel Winnipeg to Edmonton. $30.00 was the fare for travel on board the deck, and they needed to carry their own bedding. Children over five and under twelve could travel half fare. Meals were an additional 50 cents. Here, though, “first-class passengers on the upper deck enjoyed fine food and wine, those below beans and biscuits with tea.” tells Bill Gallaher. Luggage and freight were sent at $6.00 per hundred weight, however, generally a paid passenger was allocated a one hundred pound allowance for their baggage. Passengers could board at Winnipeg and travel to Grand Rapids aboard a lake steamer. There, passengers, luggage and freight would disembark to continue on aboard the short railway and be transferred to a Saskatchewan River Steamer to proceed thence the rest of the way to Edmonton. The Prince Albert Historical Society relates that such a trip upstream would take about two weeks. If the steamer met with accident or became grounded, passengers would continue on their journey on their own avails.

All war must be just the killing of strangers against whom you feel no personal animosity; strangers whom, in other circumstances, you would help if you found them in trouble, and who would help you if you needed it”.~Mark Twain

Seven privately owned sternwheelers became active in the Canadian Government’s steamboat navy in 1885 for the North West Rebellion; The steamers “Northcote“, “Baroness“, “Alberta“, “Minnow“, “Northwest“, “Marquis” who pulled 30 separate scows and barges. Even though by this time, steamwheelers had superceded Red River carts as a mode of successful transportation, the riverboats could not be used over the winter months. When the winter ice broke up in this era, the river would churn up huge blocks of ice upon the river banks, some as high as 20 feet. It takes the spring sun and warm weathers of April and May to turn the meltwaters into a navigation water route. General Middleton had to wait until spring thaw in May, and the optimal time was mid June for successful water route transportation of rations, ammunitions, troops and medical service to the battlefield. Thus in early April he brought his troops overland.

Captain Andrews was charged with piloting supplies to the theatre of war. James Sheets was the Captain and superintendent of the journey. And to Captain Segers who had sailed riverboats for the British Army along the Nile River, fell the task of sailing the converted steamer-gunboat “Northcote” up the Saskatchewan River to provide support for the Canadian Government militia. The Metis had strung a ferry cable across the river which sheared off the stacks, spars, funnels, whistle and masts from the steamer leaving the troops aboard the sternwheeler sitting ducks for the Metis sharpshooters.

The Sternwheeler “Manitoba” was to join the steamships of the Saskatchewan River System, the “Prairie Navy“, to aid Canadian militiamen in the Northwest Rebellion. She got stuck at the Sturgeon River north of Prince Albert, and could not be freed, and in the spring ice break up of April 1885, she was destroyed.

In May of 1885, wounded militiamen were carried aboard the “Northcote” from Batoche to Saskatoon to be treated at field hospitals. And it was May 19 when Louis Riel arrived in Saskatoon aboard the “Northcote” on his final journey to Regina.

The shifting sand bars and shallow rivers plagued the steamers. Charles Salyer Clapp, a private with the Canadian Militia, wrote of the trip between Saskatchewan Landing to Clark’s Crossing, a distance of 200 miles (321.9 km) was not rapid. Two thirds of the trip was spent dislodging the river boat off of sand bars each time it ran aground. To avoid the shifting sand bars, the Northcote” employed two men to sound the depth of the river with poles at the bow of the ship and the bow of the raft. Nonetheless the river did not afford a swift flowing channel wide enough for the river boat, and it faltered upon sand bars two to six times each day. It was no wonder, the “S.S. Northcote” was 150 feet (45.72 m) long, and 28.5 feet (8.7m) across its breadth. Fully loaded. the “Northcote” drew 40 inches of water, and with a light cargo it drew 22 inches (55.88 cm). The steamer had a registered tonnage of 290.63. On this voyage the “Northcote” was fully loaded at a time of low waters. Four companies of the First Provincial Battalion were aboard, along with the Gatling Gun, and hospital staff. The “Midlanders” aboard the steamer left Swift Current April 22 and arrived at Clarke’s Crossing on May 5.

Now when I had mastered the language of this water, and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry, had gone out of the majestic river! I still kept in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log came floating, black and conspicuous; one place along, slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water; in another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling rings, that were as many-tinted as an opal; where the ruddy flush was faintest, was a smooth spot that was covered with graceful circles and radiating lines, ever so delicately traced; the shore on our left was densely wooded, and the somber shadow that fell from this forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that shone like silver; and high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun. There were graceful curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft distances; and over the whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily, enriching it every passing moment with new marvels of coloring.

Both the “Marquis” and the “North West” were grounded for a spell when the Saskatchewan jumped its course at the “Cut off” above Cumberland. The river started to cut a new channel developing into a large marsh plain which joined Cumberland Lake draining the river channel, and flooding the countryside with low waters. The years between 1887 to 1896 were very dry, and the prairies suffered drought conditions which waylaid steamship travel considerably.

Captain Richard Deacon, (September 16, 1849-1935) the first licensed Steam Boat captain on the Saskatchewan river. He built his own steamer in 1887 to haul logs along Shell River to Prince Albert. The steamer “Josie” set sail in the spring of 1888. This steam tug was followed by the “Pathfinder” sidewheeler, and the “Marion” steamer. Besides hauling logs, lime and clay for bricks Deacon, and his Son, Alfred.A. Deacon provided excursions for Sunday Schools and Ladies Aids down the river.

The side-wheeler steamer “Glendevon” met a fiery death August 6, 1891, the cook was lost in the inferno but the rest of the crew escaped. At the time of the fire, this little tug was anchored at the mouth of the Little Saskatchewan.

Horatio Hamilton Ross (1869-February 11, 1925) launched the “Assiniboia” on the South Saskatchewan River. By this time rail lines were handling most of the freight overland, so the paddle steamer became a passenger liner and party cruise boat. “But thus
are the ups and downs of life; it may demand a certain degree
of ability to earn money, but a superior degree of prudence is
requisite to retain it,” posited Nichols, “There are said to be circumstances in
each man’s life, which if taken at the flood will lead on to fortune; but there are also circumstances in every man’s life,
which if taken at the ebb will lead on to poverty.

In 1896, the “North West” was offered for sale, commercial river fair was no longer warranted. She was set out near Edmonton ar Ross Flats where she was worn away by the elements for three long years. The flooding of 1899 brought the “North West” out of her moorings, and she was carried in the roaring current crashing into Edmonton’s Low Level Bridge foundations. “The Greyhound of the Saskatchewan” was lost in the North Saskatchewan River.

The tree line of northern Saskatchewan near Prince Albert and Carrot River provided lumber for lumber, fuel for homes and fodder to feed the steamship boilers. The commerce of the fur trade shifted to the logging industry. Upon selling Rupert’s Land to the Dominion Government, the Hudson’s Bay Company retained its most successful trading posts, one twentieth of the best farmland in the region, and was compensated £300,000 ($1.5 million) for the remainder of the purchase transaction. The HBC shifted from a fur trading company to a land development and sales company.

A fleet of nine river boats served the Prince Albert area, “Alice Mattes“, “City of Prince Albert“, “George V“and “The Alberta“. Between 1906 and 1911, the population of Prince Albert swelled from 3,005 to 6,254 persons. The first rail traffic bridge erected in 1909 was built complete with a revolving span which could sing open to allow steam ships to pass through.

I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture. The world was new to me, and I had never seen anything like this at home. But as I have said, a day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river’s face; another day came when I ceased altogether to note them. Then, if that sunset scene had been repeated, I should have looked upon it without rapture, and should have commented upon it, inwardly, after this fashion: “This sun means that we are going to have wind tomorrow; that floating log means that the river is rising, small thanks to it; that slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody’s steamboat one of these nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; those tumbling ‘boils’ show a dissolving bar and a changing channel there, the lines and circles in the slick water over yonder are a warning that troublesome place is shoaling up dangerously; that silver streak in the shadow of the forest is the ‘break’ from a new snag, and he has located himself in the very best place he could have found to fish for steamboats; that tall dead tree, with a single living branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a body ever going to get through this blind place at night without the friendly old landmark?”~ Mark Twain

The pilot needed to navigate the ever shifting sand bars in the river channel, sail through heat, fogs, high winds and thunderstorms, steer around rapids, rocks, wildlife, fallen trees or sweepers, ice jams in spring and autumn. Sudden floods would beach ships, or may rise and carry away docked ships. Most importantly the pilot needed to feel the travel of the boat itself to be award of changes in current and depth of water. Poles were used to take soundings of the changing water levels calling up to the pilots, the depth in feet. To stabilize the sand bars, a pile was driven down into the river in strategic places to collect sand and allow water channels to remain open.

When a steamer ran aground on shoals, sand bars or muddy river bottom, the “spars” were utilized which were stiff wooden poles set down into the river bottom. A wire cable connected the spars to the derrick and then with a winch at the capstan. When the wire was taught, the boat was lifted up and out of the mud and forward towards the river waters. At the same time the paddewheel would churn sand and water, aiming to propel the ship ahead. Such a navigational feat was referred to as the “grasshopper”.
And at rapids, strong cables were fastened permanently at the shore line which would allow the boat to use its winch to climb up the falls.

In 1890, the railway was constructed joining Prince Albert and Regina. Steamboat service was thus complemented initially with railway shipping points. However, the “flyers” and “fast mails” soon outweighed the pleasant features of steamship travel, and it became tedious and unsatisfactory. “With the advent of the railroads the steamboat trade fell off rapidly.”

The history of steamboating must include the lake steamers on Last Mountain Lake (or Long Lake) which stretches 75 miles (120.7 km) in length shortening the freight run between Saskatoon and Regina. In 1885, the Qu’Appelle, Long Lake and Saskatchewan Railroad and Steamboat Company, (later bought by the Canadian Pacific Railway), established a short rail line between the city of Regina and Sussex near the south end of Long Lake. (The community of Sussex, Assiniboia, Northwest Territories is now more commonly known as Craven, Saskatchewan.) Grain and freight could be hauled by lake steamer between Valeport and Port Hyman near Sussex at the southern end around the lake, and to the Last Mountain House trading post on the eastern shore. (The northern end was very shallow and has since become the Last Mountain Lake Bird Sanctuary, and Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area) William Pearson, also sailed two steamers along Long Lake providing cruises and passenger service. The Pearson Land Company and the Pearson Steamship Company was instrumental in bringing settlers to the area between 1905 and 1913. McKillop & Benjafield ran a lake steamer bearing their name, and the Pearson Land Company operated the “Lady of the Lake” (“later named Qu’Appelle“, firstly christened Welcome“) The “Qu’Appelle” met her fate in a blaze of glory as part of the World War I victory celebrations, 1918. These pleasure craft established the beginnings of Lake View Park and Cairn’s Point, now popular tourist resorts re-named Saskatchewan Beach and Regina Beach. Other communities also arose, Lumsden, Watertown, McKillop Landing, Arlington Beach, Taylorboro, Sunset Cove and Sundale Resort.

Pretty soon it darkened up, and begun to thunder and lighten; so the birds was right about it. Directly it begun to rain, and it rained like all fury, too, and I never see the wind blow so. It was one of these regular summer storms. It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby; and here would come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the pale under-side of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they was just wild; and next, when it was justabout the bluest and blackest–fst! it was as bright as glory, and you’d have a little glimpse of tree-tops a-plunging about away off yonder in the storm, hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again in a second, and now you’d hear the thunder let go with an awful crash, and then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling, down the sky towards the under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs–where it’s long stairs and they bounce a good deal, you know. -Mark Twain

During years with a high water table and during spring run off and flooding, the steamers sailed successfully, lowering their smokestacks to squeeze under bridges. However, Saskatchewan cycles between years of flooding and then drought with their incumbant low water tables. Rapids, swamps, rocks, sweepers, and sandbars beleaguered the days of steamboating. Pilots would need to circumnavigate the carcasses of herds of bison drowned in the river. These masses of Buffalo carcasses would eventually become a permanent river island. Where water routes provided an excellent travel system for the fur trader and early explorer, the waterways were not dependable for the steamer.

Boats could speed downstream with high efficiency, yet burn huge amounts of firewood and coal, the cargo it was shipping, on the upstream voyage. It was easy to burn 20 cords of wood per day. If one was to stack one cord of wood it would result in a pile 4 feet (122 cm) wide, 4 feet (1.22 m) high, and 8 feet (244 cm) long. When under full steam, a ship’s boiler could consume one and a half cords of wood every hour. Wood piles or cordwood berths were laid out along the shore line for the steamers until coal became the preferred fuel. Boats could make their way at the end of May, with the river cresting from spring melt off around the beginning of June, the high water levels dissipated by the end of June in some years ending the nautical shipping season then and there.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

The last steamer which sailed into Saskatoon was sundered against the Traffic Bridge (Victoria Bridge) pier in Saskatoon June 8, 1908. Built over the years of 1906-7 by Captain Horatio Hamilton Ross (1870-1925) of the Ross Navigation Company, the luxury ship had a short life. It was the season of most dependable and reliable steam ship travel, the water was high, the the “City of Medicine Hat” came downstream to Saskatoon. The steamer navigated the waters below the Canadian Northern Railway bridge successfully. However, the steamer, caught up by a telegraph cable, was swept against the piers of the Traffic Bridge where it floundered, and capsized losing its tonnage of flour. No lives were lost.

It was this steamer, “the greatest nautical disaster in prairie history” which is documented in the film “The Last Steamship: The Search for the SS City of Medicine Hat.” Nils Sorensen relates that the sternwheeler made front page news, when it sank in the spring flood waters of the Saskatchewan. Then anchor was recovered in 2008, and 1,000 artifacts were recovered in 2012 when a portion of the Traffic Bridge on the south side of the river was torn down.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain”~Mark Twain

Ross, a prosperous Remittance Man did not give up, he went out and bought two tugs, which were so loaded by freight, he needed to buy another boat “O’Hell” for a cruise/party ship. Ross Navigation towed log booms, barges and ships, and hauled freight as well as holding parties aboard cruise ships. “Nipawan“[sic] was a luxury ship which Ross launched in the midst of stiff competition.

The North Saskatchewan afforded travel for a short time after 1908. The rail lines commenced in the southern portion of the province through Qu’Appelle, Regina, so steamers were still valuable in the northern region along the North Branch to convey freight and passengers till the rail line came north.

The lumber industry between “The Pas”, Carrot River, Nipawin, and Cumberland House region continued to avail themselves of boats for the lumber industry up until 1954. The Finger Lumber Company was purchased in 1919 by Charles Winton, David Winton and Alvin Robertson who re-named the operation The Pas Lumber Company. Operating mills at both Prince Albert and The Pas, they employed the steamers “Winton“, the “Emma E“, the “David N. Winton“, and the “Alice Mattes” and barges along both the Saskatchewan River and the Carrot River. In September of 1926, the “Jack Winton” was sunk in shallow water. The ““David C. Winton” and two wrecking barges were discharged to salvage the sunken steam boat out of waters which had risen another five or 6 feet (1.8 m).

The steamboat industry, trying to survive in mounting competition, now offered freight rates of $1.80 per hundred weight undercutting rail line and stage coach rates of 1886 which charged $2.50. For general merchandise, the steamboats also proffered a cheaper rate $2.90 as compared to $4.50 by rail. Copper ore was the next commodity shipped down the water routes between Sturgeon Landing in the north making its way across lake and river to the Saskatchewan route. This ore industry was active between 1917 and 1925.

Soon steamboating in Saskatchewan ceased entirely.

It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs, looking up at stars, and we didn’t even feel like talking aloud.” -Mark Twain

______________________________________________________________________________

For more information:
Bibliography

Steamships All Aboard! on the Saskatchewan

Navigation of the Saskatchewan. Steamers

Saskatchewan Gen Web ~ Transportation

Ballad of the Saskatchewan ~ A Poem

The Aged Pilot Man ~ A Poem

Table of Steamships upon the Saskatchewan

________________________________________________________________________________________

Follow me on Word Press, Blogger, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, Live Journal, Sask Gen Web Ancestry.com and Flickriver

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She is Gone ~ Orchid Phalaenopsis by Julia Adamson

Passionate Embrace ~ Pink Rose by Julia Adamson

Related articles

• How did Saskatchewan Pioneers Homestead? (aumkleem.wordpress.com)
• Wreckage from lost Saskatoon steamship unveiled (cbc.ca)
• Saskatoon announces discovery of S.S. City of Medicine Hat steamship remains (vancouversun.com)
• Between the Rivers: Steamboating in Missouri and Iowa (ahgksmo.wordpress.com)
• Shipwreck from 1908 found in South Saskatchewan River (theglobeandmail.com)
• 1911 Shipwreck IDed Off Fla. Coast (abcnews.go.com)

Table of Steamships upon the Saskatchewan

This table did not have the proper width here, so this is a mirror link

for

Steamships All Aboard! on the Saskatchewan

Bibliography

Vessel	Constructed	Length	Beam	Depth of Hold	Draft	Tonnage	Demise	Source
“First Steamship (S.S.) on Saskatchewan Not Christened”	1873	142 feet (43 m)	22 feet (6.7 m)				1873	*
“S.S. Alberta”	1884 (1904)	100 feet (30.5 m)	20 feet (6.1 m)		12 inches (30.5 cm)	86 tons fully loaded 150 tons (150.07 gross tonnage)	1885 (1916)	* * * *
“Alice Mattes”	1921	96 feet (29.3 m)					1950	* *
“Alpha”	1873	105 feet (32 m)	22 feet (6.7 m)			gross tonnage 180.55	(1882) 1885	* * * *
“S.S. Assiniboia”	1903						1906	* *
“S.S. Baroness”	1883	174.5 feet (53 m)}	30 feet (9 m)		18 inches (45.7 cm)	202 tons empty 320 tons fully loaded	1885	* * * *
“S.S. Battleford”
“S.S. Cheyenne”	before 1879							*
“S.S. City of Edmonton”	1909	132 feet (40.2 m) {136 feet (41.5 m)}	34 feet (10 m)				(1917) 1918	* * * *
“S.S. City of Medicine Hat”	1906-7	130 feet(40 m)			0.6 m (1.9 feet) draft		1908	* *
“S.S. City of Prince Albert”	1907	100 feet (30.5 m)	24 feet {7.31 m)				late 1920s	* *
“S.S. City of Winnipeg”	1881 (Was “Minnesota“)	Re-built lengthened 40 feet (12.2 m) now either: 150 feet (45.72 m) or {170 feet (51.8 m)}					1881	* * * *
“S.S. Cumberland”								*
“David N. Winton”	1920	120 feet (36.6 m)					1954	* * *
“S.S. George V”	about 1911						1918	* *
“S.S. Glad Tidings”								*
“S.S. Glendevon”	1882					80 tons	1891	* *
“Jack Winton”		120 feet (36.6 m)						*
“S.S. John Bull”								* *
“S.S. Josie”	1890				25 inches (63.5 cm)		1914	* *
“S.S. Lady of the Lake”	1906						1907 (Later Qu’Appelle)	*
“S.S. Lily”	Built 1876 reassembled 1877 first work 1879	100 feet (30.5 m)	24 feet (7.31 m)	4 feet (1.22 m)	18 inches (45.7 cm)	75.69 (207)	1883	* * * * * ^
“S.S. Manitoba”	built 1875 launched on SK 1882	190 feet (57.9 m) (205 feet (62.5 m)}	31 feet (9.45 m)		300 tons (195 tons)		1885	* * * * * *
“S.S. Marion”	1907						1914	* *
“S.S. Marquis”	1882	207 feet (67 m) or {201 feet (61 m)}	33.5 feet (10 m)	5.3 feet (1.6 m)	25 inches (63.5 cm)	Two sources: 475 empty, 754 tons loaded (Another source 278.8 tonnage)	Out of service around 1886 or 1889 beached in 1890	* * * * * * ^
“S.S. May Queen”	1884	35 feet (10.7 m)					1885	*
“S.S. McKillop-Benjafield”	1903							*
“S.S. Minnesota”	1875	Either 110 feet (33.5 m) or {130 feet (39.6 m) }					1881 (later “City of Winnipeg” )	* * * *
“S.S. Minnow”	1884 (1885)	About 73 feet (22.3 m) or {75 feet (23 m)}	10 feet (3.05 m)			16 ton	1900	* * * *
“S.S. Nipawain”	1917	90 feet {86.8 feet}					1930s	* * * *
“S.S. Northcote“ North Goat	1874	{150 feet (46 m)} 154 feet (47 m)	28.5 feet (8.7 m)	4.5 feet	30 inches (76.2 cm) (22 inches (55.88 cm) light load, 3.5 feet (1.1 m) loaded 150 tons freight)	170.69 (291/441 tons) (gross tonnage 461.34, registered tonnage 290.63 two sources)	1886	* * * * * * * * ^
“S.S. North West” The Greyhound of the Saskatchewan	1881	200 feet (61 m)	33 feet (10 m)	4.5 feet (1.4 m)	18 inches (45.72 cm)	120.00 tonnage (305 tons) (425 gross tonnage)	beached 1896 / destroyed 1899	* * * * * ^
“O’Hell”	1910						1920s	* *
“S.S. Pathfinder”	1903						1914	* *
“Princess”	1881	132 feet (40.2 m)				gross tonnage 289	1906	* * *
“S.S. Qu’Appelle”	1907 (Was “Lady of the Lake“)						1918	*
“S.S. Roughsedge-Ramsay”	1905						1909	*
“S.S. Sam Brisbin”		47 feet (14.3 m)				18 ton	1930	* * *
“S.S. Saskatchewan”	1904						1913	* *
“S.S. Scona”	1907 (Was the “Strathcona“)						1918	* *
“S.S. Strathcona”	1904	100 feet (30.5 m)					1907 (Later the “Scona” )	* *
“S.S. The Pas”	1910						1920s	*
“S.S. Tobin”	1921						1930s	*
“S.S. Welcome”	1905						1906 (Later “Lady of the Lake“)	*

…all men–kings & serfs alike–are slaves to other men & to circumstance–save alone, the pilot–who comes at no man’s back and call, obeys no man’s orders & scorns all men’s suggestions. The king would do this thing, & would do that: but a cramped treasury overmasters him in the one case & a seditious people in the other. The Senator must hob-nob with canaille whom he despises, & banker, priest & statesman trim their actions by the breeze of the world’s will & the world’s opinion. It is a strange study,–a singular phenomenon, if you please, that the only real, independent & genuine gentlemen in the world go quietly up and down the … river, asking no homage of any one, seeking no popularity, no notoriety, & not caring a damn whether school keeps or not. – Mark Twain

______________________________________________________________________________



For more information:

Steamships All Aboard! on the Saskatchewan

Navigation of the Saskatchewan. Steamers


Saskatchewan Gen Web ~ Transportation


Ballad of the Saskatchewan ~ A Poem


The Aged Pilot Man ~ A Poem


Bibliography


Full Sized Table of Steamships upon the Saskatchewan


________________________________________________________________________________________

Follow me on Word Press, Blogger, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, Live Journal, Sask Gen Web Ancestry.com and Flickriver

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Passionate Embrace ~ Pink Rose by Julia Adamson

Bibliography for: Steamships “All aboard!” on the Saskatchewan

Bibliography for:

 

Steamships All Aboard! on the Saskatchewan

 

 

Table of Steamships upon the Saskatchewan

 

Archer, John H. Saskatchewan A History Page 53, 68, 90, 100, 147. (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Western Producer Prairie Books. 1980. ISBN 0-88333-6 ISBN 0-88833-2)

Brown, Roy. The Mystery Ship of Spruce Woods Forest Virtual Manitoba.

Comfort, D.J. Rivers of Water and Steamboats North
Meeting Place of Many Waters
Part two in a history of Fort McMurray 1870-1898.
Excerpts from pages 170-175

Cousins, Brian. Transportation Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan.
Winnipeg Free Press Page 31. Saturday December 1, 1956. NewspaperArchive.com

Dalton, Anthony. Fire Canoes: Steamboats on Great Canadian Rivers. (Heritage House Publishing Co. 2012. ISBN 1927051452, 9781927051450)

Dalton, Anthony. A Rollercoaster Ride of a Life Horatio Hamilton Ross wasn’t your normal sort of hero, but he established a massively successful business, left a trail of maritime disaster, and was loved by his friends. Scotland Magazine Issue 9. 1999-2012. Paragraph Publishing Ltd. Norwich.

Dawson, Simon James. Report on the exploration of the country between Lake Superior and the Red River Settlement, and between the latter place and the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Lovell, 1859

Dickason, Olive Patricia. Canada’s first nations : a history of founding peoples from earliest times. page 284. (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992).

Dowse, Thomas. Manitoba and the Northwest Territories Publisher s.n., 1879

Gallaher, Bill. The Frog Lake Massacre TouchWood Editions, 2011 ISBN 1926741919, 9781926741918

Hawkes, John. Saskatchewan, Canada Historic Transportation. Navigation on the Saskatchewan. The Story of Saskatchewan and its People. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. 1924. Saskatchewan Gen Web. 2002.

H.B.Co. Steamer “The Saskatchewan” 1907 SAIN Photographs. Saskatchewan Archival Information Netword.

Herzog, Lawrence. When Steamboats Ruled the River It’s Our Heritage. Vol. 22 No. 26. July 1, 32004. Edmonton Real Estate Weekly.

Herzog, Lawrence. A City Called Home – Interpretations. When Steamboats Ruled the river. Edmonton Public Library.

Kerr, Donn and Stan Hanson. Saskatoon: The First Half-Century. page 16-17, 28-30. (NeWest. 1982. ISBN 0-920316-37-9 ISBN 0-920316-35-2)

Kostash, Myrna. Duane Burton. Reading the River:
A Traveller’s Companion to the North Saskatchewan River Coteau Books, 2005 ISBN 1550503170, 9781550503173

The Lumber Industry in Manitoba ~Government of Manitoba (pdf)

Manitoba Photographers Frank Jay Haynes (1853-1921) “Stereoscopic Views along the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Manitoba Historical Society. 1998-2012 .

“Marquis” SAIN Photographs Saskatchewan Archival Information Network.

Massie, Merle.  At the Edge: The North Prince Albert Region of the Saskatchewan Forest Fringe to 1940(pdf) 2010. University of Saskatchewan.

McDougall, John. Alberta, Past and Present, Historical and Biographical Forward by John Blue.

McLennan, David. Our Towns:
Saskatchewan Communities from Abbey to Zenon Park CPRC Press, 2008
ISBN 0889772096, 9780889772090

Mossy Vale, Saskatchewan Steamboats at Mossy Vale. David N. Winton Alice Mattes January, 2012.

Nichols, George C. A Mississippi Riverboat pilot looks back on his career, 1845-1883. Recollections of a Pioneer Steamboat Pilotcontributing to the early history of the Mississippi (La Crosse, Wis. : Tucker & Co., 1883) Wisconsin Historical Society. ©1996-2012

Nipawin Historical Society. Bridging the years : Nipawin, Saskatchewan Nipawin, Saskatchewan. 1988

The “Northcote” (pdf) Musee Virtuel Virtual Museum of Canada.

Northern Prairie Steamboats Manitoba Historical Society. 1998-2012.

Nelson, David. “S.S. Northcote“ 11/10/12.

“S.S. Northcote” SAIN Photographs. Saskatchewan Archival Information Network.

Northern Alberta Railways University of Alberta (doc)

“Northwest” arriving at Battleford SAIN Photographs. Saskatchewan Archival Information Network.

Otter, A.A. Den. Civilizing the West:
The Galts and the Development of Western Canada. University of Alberta, 1986
ISBN 0888641117, 9780888641113

Pelly, David F. The Old Way North:
Following the Oberholtzer-Magee Expedition Minnesota Historical Society, 2008 ISBN 0873516168, 9780873516167

Photo Gallery Index 1898 The Minnow Canadian History Directory.

Photo Gallery 1911 “City of Edmonton” Canadian History Directory.

Picture from the Local History Room Collections Traffic Bridge During the Flood and the hull of the “City of Medicine Hat” steam boat.

Prairie Postcards. Cowles, Frank, Recollections of a traveller, Strathcona, Alta. (c1903) the Canadian Culture Online Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage. University of Alberta © 2003-2009

Prairie Postcards. City Studio. The Ill-fated “City of Medicine Hat. Wrecked at Saskatoon image. Canadian Culture Online Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage. 2003-2009.

Prairie Postcards. Wreck of the steamer “City of Medicine Hat” which lies on its side in the river agains a pier of the Traffic Bridge Canadian Culture Online Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage
Copyright © 2003-2009 University of Alberta.

Prince Albert Historical Society. River Boats. Hudson Bay Co. and other Steam Powered Paddle Wheelers at Prince Albert on the North Saskatchewan. 1994.

The Qu’Appelle, Long Lake and Saskatchewan Railroad and Steamboat Co. has 1,000,000 acres of odd numbered sections in the old settled districts between Regina, the capital city of the Canadian Northwest and Prince Albert … [microform] : Osler & Nanton, general agents, 381 Main Street, Winnipeg Internet Archive Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music and Wayback Machine.

Relic of the Rebellion, Prince Albert. the remains of the “S.S. Marquis” riverboat on shore at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. SAIN. Saskatchewan Archival Information Network.

Sanderson, Ida. “Alpha” Souvenir Westman History Resources Project: Digitally Preserved Articles. Glenboro Gazette. The “S.S. Alpha” A Souvenir.

Saskatchewan’s Top News Stories: Heroes and Outlaws. News of the Week. Batoche Taken. Miscreancy of Riel. Captain Jack French killed 1885. Canada’s Digital Collections by the University of Saskatchewan Libraries.

Steamer “Saskatchewan” at Prince Albert, SK SAIN Photographs. Saskatchewan Archival Information Network.

Saskatchewan Settlement Experience Saskatchewan Archives Board. 2005.

SAIN Photographs Steamer “Saskatchewan” at Prince Albert, Steamer “City of Edmonton” at Edmonton. Saskatchewan Archival Information Network.

Saskatoon City News. S.S. City of Medicine Hat Information and Chronology. November 18, 2012.

Smith, T.R. ^ Editor D.H. Bocking. “The Steamboat Lily” Saskatchewan History magazine. Volume SVII, No. 2, Spring 1964. Saskatchewan Archives Office, University of Saskatchewan. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. 1964.

“S. S. Marguis.” SAIN Photographs Saskatchewan Archival Information Network.

Shortt, Adam. and Arthur George Doughty. Canada and its provinces : a history of the Canadian peoples and their institutions. Volume 10, Section V : the Dominion : industrial expansion, Part II Glasgow, Brook & Company Toronto, Ontario 1914

“S.S. Nipawin “of Kenora on the Saskatchewan River 1928. Sternwheeler “S.S. Alice Mattes” 1920. Community Memories. Sam Waller Museum, The Pas, Manitoba, Musee Virtuel, Virtual Museum.

Steamboat “City of Medicine Hat” sinking at Saskatoon June 7, 1908. Glenbow Museum.

Steamboat “City of Medicine Hat” on South Sasktachewan River, Medicine Hat, Alberta image  Glenbow Museum.

Steamer North-West reaches Battleford and Edmonton. Saskatchewan Herald. August 4. Reprinted Winnipeg Free Press. August 22, 1882

Steamship on the Prairies: wreck from 1908 found in South Saskatchewan River. Canadian Press. November 15, 2012.

Thomas, Lewis Herbert. John Elgin Foster. The Developing West:
Essays in Honor of Lewis H. Thomas University of Alberta, 1983.
ISBN 0888640358, 9780888640352

Tolton, Gordon Errett. Prairie Warships: River Navigation in the Northwest Rebellion (Heritage Publishing Co. 2007. ISBN 1894974301, 9781894974301)

Tolton, Gordon Errett. Navigation in the Northwest Rebellion Heritage House Publishing Co, 2007
ISBN 1894974301, 9781894974301

We’ve had our share of notable disasters. Of fires that ravage grasslands, forests and town main streets, Saskatchewan has battled thousands. Of blizzards that bring the province to a standstill, we all have stories. Ours is a windblown country, with tornadoes an annual summer threat. The Leader Post. October 20, 2008.

Wish you Were Here Saskatchewan Postcard Collections Steamboats – Wreck of the City of Medicine Hat University of Saskatchewan Archives. 2010.

Wish you were Here Saskatchewan Postcard Collecitons Str City of Edmonton, Edmonton, AB University of Saskatchewan Archives. 2010.

Wiebe, Rudy. Big Bear Extraordinary Canadians. Penguin Canada, 2008
ISBN 0143172700, 9780143172703

Winnipeg Free Press. Tuesday August 22, 1882. NewspaperArchive.com

Winnipeg Free Press Saturday, May 06, 1972 – Newspaper Archive Grand “Steamer Marquis” Comes To Ignominious End. 2012.

Wreck of steamboat “City of Medicine Hat” image Glenbow Museum.

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For more information:

Steamships All Aboard! on the Saskatchewan

Navigation of the Saskatchewan. Steamers

Saskatchewan Gen Web ~ Transportation

Ballad of the Saskatchewan ~ A Poem

The Aged Pilot Man ~ A Poem

Bibliography

Table of Steamships upon the Saskatchewan

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