During a meeting of the Saskatoon Historical Society, May 3rd, 1922, Frankie Caswell (wife of Robert Caswell) shared some of her memories of early Saskatchewan life:
|
HOMESTEADING
NEAR SASKATOON, 1884-1885
This is the balance of the
letter written by Patience Smith (Mrs. John J.) Caswell. This
letter was addressed to “Abbie”. (We
have not been able to determine who Abbie is. During my correspondence
with the Saskatchewan Archives they had sent a copy of this letter to
me. John was very pleased to receive a copy of it as he was not aware
of the existence of this letter from his grandmother.)
We had so much stuff to
start for the Colony. John hired a car then he bought two cows, a team of
ponies, and three pigs. Well that left Grandma and I to go on the train for
John would have to go with the car.
Albert was born the 24 of
May 1884 so we waited until he was three weeks old then started. My, it is
looking back a long way, he is now one of the Professors in the University at
Eugene, Oregon. He studied at Manitoba College before going to Stanford Jr.
University where he took his Doctors degree.
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 it
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 in the evenings after we moved into our own little house in Winnipeg.
Our house had two good bedrooms and a living room 16 x 16, and a wood
shed. We were comfortable indeed
compared with some people. Lots lived in
tents all winter.
The first day after
leaving Moose Jaw we drove till about six o’clock when a terrible thunderstorm
was all most to us. We turned into a
little shanty to keep from getting wet, put the ponies in the lea side to
protect them. Then the boys took our food out of the little cupboard and made
our evening meal. Brought the mattress
in to keep it from getting wet, 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 left there at two p.m.
the next day.
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. One morning we looked over to the
Northeast to a rise of ground and there stood an elk with great big antlers. What a wonderful sight, he was watching us. He
went on and by and by we came to the elbow of the Saskatchewan River where we
had to ford a rather wide creek. We had overtaken two other wagons with four
men. One of the men walked over to the creek and exclaimed “the noble
Saskatchewan” which caused us all to laugh for if he had looked the other way
he would have seen the real river. The Medicine Hat trail and the trail from
Moose Jaw join at the elbow of the river.
When we got there Riel and his wife with her two children and their friends were just fording the creek. He rode back to take a look at us. He rode a pony and was all dressed up with a white collar, and had a belt on with two rows of cartridges. His wife was driving a pony hitched to a red river cart. She and the two children sitting flat in the bottom.
When we got there Riel and his wife with her two children and their friends were just fording the creek. He rode back to take a look at us. He rode a pony and was all dressed up with a white collar, and had a belt on with two rows of cartridges. His wife was driving a pony hitched to a red river cart. She and the two children sitting flat in the bottom.
It was there I first saw
Saskatoon berries. Riels crowd had some with them and they dropped some, which
we picked up. 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. We arrived safely
on the west side along with three Surveyors and their ponies.
The Rebellion started the
next spring on St. Patrick’s Day. We were two miles north of Clarks Crossing on
the west side of the river, living in a little house 16 x 16 with a kitchen 7 x
8, and a good well just outside the door and a shed for wood. The next week
after the half-breeds at Duck Lake had rose in Rebellion, “White Cap” on the
reservation south of Saskatoon started to join the others at the lake so had to
go by our place. Instead of going on by, the whole tribe camped opposite our
place on the east side of the river. For
three days we did not know whether they would come across for us or not, so I
said if they come I am going to be dressed ready so I slept in my clothes and
so did the baby. In fact we did not know
what they might do. After they had passed on we breathed more freely.
Let me say just here that
I gathered the cream and made the first butter at Clarks Crossing. After I had stirred it with a big spoon, (for
that is how I churned it) when it was already to gather in a lump, Grandma
Caswell said she would take the jar to the tent where we kept our supplies and
gather it. So she picked up the jar, for
it was the jar I kept sugar in, and took it to the tent and I took up the
baby. In a little while she came to the
door and told Mr. Molloy, who was the Telegrapher, and all to come see the
butter. She wanted the honour of making
it. But the honour was snatched away in
a very funny fashion, for she had forgotten to hook the tent door and some
little pigs we had running loose ran into the tent and upset the jar and ate up
the butter and buttermilk. All we could
say was “it was Caswells butter and Caswells pigs”.
Our mail in those days was
brought in from Moose Jaw by anyone coming to the Colony. Then when anyone was going to Batoche they
would put out letters under a big stone and we could see them as they drove
along on the other side of the river.
John would take the rowboat and go across to see what mail we got.
During the remainder of the first summer there were two more very good houses
built in Saskatoon. They were used the
next summer as hospitals.
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.
After the Rebellion the Indians and half breeds used to go driving around with a white flag tied on their carts. Saskatoon never had a real fort; they appointed men to do picket duty day and night while the Indians were in the vicinity.
After the Rebellion the Indians and half breeds used to go driving around with a white flag tied on their carts. Saskatoon never had a real fort; they appointed men to do picket duty day and night while the Indians were in the vicinity.
When we had children
enough in the settlement to establish a school.
I taught until the Inspector could get a teacher. His name was Canon
Flett.
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.
We used to see the big
white jack rabbits stand on their hind feet and have their front feet up on the
hay stack. Thus they would make their supper off the hay. Every fall the wild
geese would come in hundreds to our wheat fields and feed around till they
rested up for another flight south.
In the month of August,
when the ducks lose their pinion feathers, our old water spaniel would go into
the lakes and bring them out by the dozens. We always lived high on fowl during
the summer. John’s sister gave me a goose and gander to start raising
some. One evening they were waiting
for me to let them into the barn when a fox came along and picked up the goose,
just back of her head. Swinging her up
on his back off he went. I ran out and
chased him but I soon saw he was gaining on me so I turned back.
One day I saw a big flock
of geese feeding on the stubble back of our grove. So when John came I told him
and asked him to try and shoot one. So he took old Fan, an old mare that was
out on the stubble with her colt for a blind. The colt was quite a piece away
when he gave her a slap to make her move on so he could shoot. As soon as she
started to go the colt started to follow. But John had pulled the trigger and
the charge of shot killed the colt and three geese. The feathers in one of the
pillows, I told Grace she could have, was from those geese. A few feathers I had in the house. Now that sounds like a fairy tale but it is
true none the less.
Our nearest doctor was the
government doctor on the Indian reservation of Duck Lake and was 10 miles
away. When I hurt my knee and had to
have it lanced we had to send to Duck Lake for Dr. Stewart. R.J. Molloy was the telegrapher operator at
the Crossing as long as the Government had one there and R. W. Caswell was line
repairer. When we had a post office established at Clarks Crossing, J. F. Clark
was our Post Master.
The Government ferry was
at Clarks Crossing until the men in Saskatoon came up to the Crossing, cut the
cables and took it to Saskatoon. They
said it was needed there, so much more than at the Crossing. Well I have written so much you will be tired
reading it, and I suppose you will find lots of mistakes in the spelling. I
have written it in such a hurry. Hoping it will help you to make up your story.
I could write reams more but you have enough I think so will close.
(In another hand) Patience
did not mention the tipping over of the scow and losing a lot of rations by
Middeltons men and they told John he could have all he could rescue from the
river. Of course all the biscuits and
bread stuff was ruined but they saved enough tinned stuff to last them all
summer. They took the hams and bacon and
washed them and peeled off the outside and put it in new brine. When one fall
Patience forgot to put yarn on the list when they went for supplies she had to
ravel out tops of old stockings and knit new feet on others with it to get
through the winter.
