GRAND FORKS AND HERE I STAY

Photo taken c 1899 before Wallace enlisted with Lord Strathcona’s Horse Brigade and left for the Boer War.  Although most family photos were destroyed as a result of the circumstances of Emma’s death, this photo was in my grandmothers (Delle’s) possession.

Front Row: Lucy, Delle, Arthena

Middle Row:  Wallace, Stella, Bert, Bella

Back Row: Emma, Ida

Prince Albert, Saskatchewan

     Mary Jane & Hugh went their separate ways in the early 1900’s.  After at least 40 years of moving – California, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and finally Grand Forks, Mary Jane said “no more”.  Did this also mean the end of their marriage? or more commuting for Hugh?  With his job on the railway he would have had some resources available to return to Grand Forks reasonably or for free.  After retirement, and living as a caretaker in a church, funds would have dried up making travel much less frequent or almost impossible.  Hugh wrote a letter to daughter Bella saying that he may not be able to send anything for her birthday as “the church people have not paid me yet and I don’t know if they will in time or not”. 

        In a letter from Stella Donnan regarding her family she said that Hugh “left home in 1898 and came to B.C., working on the CPR and getting as far as Grand Forks.  In three years’ time he had a house built. We were hardly there when he was transferred to Eholt so was only home weekends. I don’t remember when he was moved to Vancouver but mother said NO! She just got so many homes fixed up with trees brought from the bush, garden going, etc. and us younger ones still in school so we stayed in Grand Forks.”

        “Dad was a dreamer. Everything was going to be better over the mountain. One thing he didn’t drink. He did when they were first married but one night he and two or three others were coming home quite drunk and they thought they would have some fun in a Salvation Army meeting. However one of the girls got them to sign the pledge and from that day to the day he died he never touched it. We never had it in the house.”

Photocopy of a more formal portrait taken about a year after the one above. 

This photo was in Arthena’s possession.

Front Row:  Lucy, Arthena

Middle Row: Delle, Bert, Wallace, Stella

Back Row: Probably Ida, Emma, Bella

TRAGEDIES IN SASKATCHEWAN

       Two very unfortunate accidents occurred while the Donnan’s were living in the Clarks Crossing area.  In “Pioneer Girl”, Maryanne Caswell writes about her brother Andrew Allan Caswell who passed away in Rosthern, Saskatchewan in June of 1887 at the age of 8.

        “We had planted sacks of potato cuttings, mother keeping part of the potato for food.  Uncle John drove a team of black and white steers – that had strayed here – to plow furrows.  We put the cut side of the potato down against the edge of the furrow.  They have to be straight.  Then the next furrow covers the potato.

        While we were doing this at Uncle John’s, Andrew, who has not been well, stood at the end of the garden patch.  Enviously Wallace Donnan (also 8 years old) threw a clod which struck Andrew in the middle.  We had sort of a warm time when Andrew screamed and doubled up.  We took him to where mother was cutting potatoes.  Later he returned.

        Again he was taunted and dared to lift a sack of cuttings.  We yelled not to do so, too late to prevent him trying.  In a few minutes he vomited blood.  Then mother carried him to Uncle Rob’s where Aunt Frankie and mother did all they could within limited medical means.”  A few days later Andrew passed away.”

Some teasing with tragic results.  I wonder if Andrew was suffering from appendicitis.

In April of 1897 John J Caswell lost his second son, Oliver John, who drowned in a pond near Clark’s Crossing.  The family story was that Wallace Donnan had offered to teach Albert (13) and Oliver (11) to swim.  Oliver apparently lost his footing, slipped beneath the water and drowned, his brother and cousin unable to save him.  I wonder though, at this time of year if the pond[1] would still be frozen or at the very least, extremely cold.  Perhaps the activity was skating, not swimming.

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[1] The South Saskatchewan River … “with its grand rhythm of spring break up, high and low water and winter chill…” was a “…central force…” affecting the lives of early Saskatonians that dwelt on its banks.

…AND THEN SASKATCHEWAN AND THE TEMPERANCE COLONY

In 1883 Ontario Methodists, wanting to escape the liquor trade, decided to set up a "dry" community in the rapidly-growing prairie region.  Their organization, the Temperance Colonization Society, first examined this area (Saskatoon) in 1882 and found that it would make an excellent location for their community.[1]

Robert & Joseph Caswell were in the party to arrive the second year of the founding of the Temperance Colony.  The CPR ended at Moose Jaw and from here the settlers travelled by wagon.  On April 19^th, 1883 they left for Clark’s Crossing.”  Hugh Donnan and John Caswell were not too far behind them.

          During a meeting of the Saskatoon Historical Society in 1922, Frankie Caswell (wife of Robert Caswell) shared some of her memories of early Saskatchewan life:

“They called it the City of Saskatoon, but when we arrived there were seven houses, and not one properly finished.  People had told me not to go but we thought since it was called a city, it must be a good sized place.  We expected to find wheat fields, with wheat growing over our heads, and wagons piled up with strawberries.”

Hugh Donnan’s Saskatchewan land application mentions that by 1884 he had broken 5 acres.  Daughter Ida was born in Winnipeg in 1885.  Looks like Hugh preceded his family to Clark’s Crossing and did what he could to prepare a home for his family.  Hugh also mentions on his land application that the family home was built by the summer of 1886.  Daughter Stella was born in Osler in 1887 & Delle in 1889.  My best guess would be that the family joined Hugh in the summer of 1886. 

Although Stella and Delle both give Osler as their place of birth, I think it was probably Clarks Crossing, as Osler did not come into existence until the early 1890’s.  Clarks Crossing and Osler are only about 8 km apart.

The Donnan land was the SW ¼ section of 18, Twp 39, Range 3, west 3rd meridian.  Hugh obtained homestead entry 15 March 1888 and the first mention of the family that I have found is in the 1888 McPhillips Alphabetical & Business Directory listing for Clarks Crossing:

                Caswell, Joseph         w1 39 4 w3

                Caswell, RW              e2 39 4 W3

                Caswell JJ                e 12 39 4 w3

                Caswell JD                n 12 39 4 w3

                Caswell David            w2 39 4 w3

                Donnan Hugh             w18 39 4 w3

Information from Hugh’s land application:

1884         broke 5 acres

1886         20x20 house erected in summer         1 cow

1887         broke 8 acres & cropped 5 acres        3 head cattle

1888         broke 12 acres & cropped 15 acres

1889         broke 3 acres cropped 18 acres 5 head cattle 4 horses

                At one time most of the Caswell siblings gave farming in Saskatchewan a go.  A quit deed registered in Palmerston in 1897 shows the siblings in the following locations:

Palmerston

        Samuel Caswell

Manitoba

        Andrew Caswell, near Neepawa, farmer

Saskatchewan

Robert Wallace Caswell & Fanny Buchanan Caswell, near Saskatoon, farmer

        Mary Jane & Hugh Donnan, near Prince Albert, farmer

        James Dickson Caswell & Mary, near Rosthern, farmer

        Sarah & Ephraim Case, near Osler, farmer

        John J & Patience Caswell, near Osler, farmer

        David Caswell, near Osler, farmer

        Joseph Caswell, near Osler Famer

United States

        Alexander Kennedy Caswell, Philadelphia, Penn. Clergyman

        Thomas and Mary Oneida Caswell, Cherokee, Iowa, Farmer

        William Caswell, Sacramento, California, Carpenter

        Margaret & Robert Styles. Williams Co., North Dakota, farmer

The following is an edited letter written by Patience Smith (Mrs. John J.) Caswell[2], the time period was probably the summer of 1884. Again, I am borrowing a bit of history from the Caswells as they were very good about leaving a written record of the various places they lived and where the Caswells were, so were the Donnans.

“We had so much stuff to start for the Colony John hired a rail car then he bought two cows, a team of ponies, and three pigs. Well that left Grandma (Mary Jane Caswell) and I to go on the train for John would have to go with the car.”

“Grandma had seven canaries to take and a big dog so you see we had some luggage. We went through to Moose Jaw.  Regina had a few houses and the Mounted Police Barracks.  Moose Jaw was not much better, only it had an Emigration Shed instead of the Barracks. Our household goods were all piled in the Emigration Shed and I did not see any of it till the next November. I had the baby clothes and a change of underwear and the dress I had on.  That constituted my wardrobe that summer.

We left Moose Jaw for Clark’s Crossing with the wagon loaded to its capacity. “The meteorological instruments to go to Clark’s Crossing were in the front of the wagon.  Then the spring seat with the bed mattress on and down far enough for my feet to rest on so I would not get cold.  Back of that was the hen and chickens, the canaries, pigs, and any other thing that could be crowded in, even the top of our kitchen cupboard that John made.

The first day after leaving Moose Jaw we drove till about six o’clock when a terrible thunderstorm was almost to us.  We turned into a little shanty to keep from getting wet, put the ponies in the lea side to protect them.  Brought the mattress in to keep it from getting wet and put it down on the ground for Grandma and I to sleep on. Sometime in the night I awoke to find the bed full of water for the rain had flooded the ground and wet our clothes. I had to sit on the end of a box by the stove the next day till my dress dried.

We pitched our tent every day on account of rain till we got to Saskatoon, nine days in all. The prairie was simply beautiful with wild flowers.

When we arrived at Saskatoon “which is now Tutana”, there was one good house, a makeshift of a store, a blacksmith’s bellows on a post and an old scow on the river. The scow was paddled across by four men.

In those days if our coal oil ran out we lit shavings on the hearth of the stove to see to get the evening meal and get the baby ready for bed. The men went to Moose Jaw twice a year for our provisions and clothing. One time the horses got away and it was several weeks before we got our supplies, so we had to do without flour and sugar for two weeks.

We used to take our clothes to the river in the summer time to wash them, and had to melt snow in the winter time.  The water in the well was so hard we could not use it to wash with.

Bert 1891, Ray 1893 & Arthena 1894 were all born in Prince Albert.  “The Qu'Appelle, Long Lake and Saskatchewan Railroad and Steamboat Company (QLSRSC) arrived in Prince Albert in October 1890 as a means to link the three major cities of Saskatchewan through one railroad. For the next few years the line was seldom used, and in order to raise capital, QLSRSC leased the line out to the Canadian Pacific Railway.  The Canadian Pacific soon realized the economic uncertainty of the line, and the lease was cancelled after only a few years of service.”  A job opportunity for Hugh that appears to have fizzled in very short order. 

No wonder the family was on the move again to Grand Forks, Hugh needed a railway and the Kettle Valley & Great Northern Railways were competing for service through the southern Kootenays.

Again a child was left behind in a lonely grave – Ray Donnan only survived a few weeks, born 30 January 1894 in Prince Albert and died 22 February 1894.

        The 1890’s were a time of drought on the prairies.  Although the Caswells made quite a success of their farms, the drought years were hard on everyone.  For various reasons - harsh winters, drought, and general living conditions some of the Caswells brothers moved on to California.  Certainly Hugh’s job with the railway accounted for much of the Donnans many moves, as did, I think, the adventurous spirit of Hugh Donnan and the Caswell brothers. 

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Saskatoon

[2] Copy provided by the Saskatchewan Archives

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