THE CASWELLS, SASKATCHEWAN PIONEERS

Saskatoon - Founding Temperance Colony 1882

     The year 1883, marked a shift from the dispersal of the Caswell siblings to the forming of a new cluster, this time out in the Northwest Territories, where the Saskatoon Temperance Colony was seeking colonists.
   As mentioned in Patience Caswells letter, the visit to their home in Winnipeg by George Grant, agent for the Temperance Colony resulted in most members of Andrew Caswells family again pulling up stakes in order to settle on land the Temperance Society had secured in Saskatchewan.

     The idea of coming to the northern portion of the Great Plains appealed to many.  There was adventure, a new challenge, free land and ownership of 160 acres of fertile soil, with no rocks and no forests to clear.  It was a dream and a golden opportunity.

“Saskatoon’s founders dreamed of creating a temperance colony.  The government of the time, in a hurry to develop the country, was offering large blocks of land to colonization companies.  Many in Toronto’s Methodist community saw this as an opportunity to escape the evils of the liquor traffic.  They formed the Temperance Colonization Society Limited (TCS)”.

     The first Colony Trek took place in wagons heading out from Moose Jaw.  Two of the youngest Caswell brothers, Joseph and Robert, were part of the second group to travel to the Temperance Colony.  

     The next year their brother John brought his wife, his mother and his baby son, Albert, to the homestead which his brother Joe had claimed on his behalf.  John built a cabin on his homestead.  Joseph, who had been living with Rob, went to live with John.  In August Rob brought his bride home and his mother moved in with them.  (She had been with John & Patience).

In 1883 the names of the following appear in the Minutes of the Temperance Colony Pioneers' Society as members without having been entered as voted into the Society.(A pioneer settler is defined as one coming in by trail and before the railway in 1890   The presumption is that they are charter members from its inception on March 1st, 1884, and therefore came into the settlement during the previous summer (1883). However, as all the minutes are not embodied in the Minute Book, there is some doubt in the case of names only appearing in and after May, 1884. When there is substantial corroborative evidence of their coming in in 1883 the names are placed here as charter members.  1883 Charter Member: Caswell, Joseph The following also came in 1883: Caswell, Robert W. 1885  Others were Caswell, J. D., with wife and children, Mary, Martha, Jennie, Andrew, John. 1888 From the Minutes of the Methodist Mission: Donnan, Hugh, with his wife and children.