Just arrived in Sunny Saskatchewan at the Kelly House, 1906.
My father, Arthur Kelly was born in Devonshire, England September 8, 1850. As a boy he worked in the tin mines in Cornwall. I think at this time Cornwall was the only place in the world where they found tin. When he was 17 years old he came to Canada. He worked in the Silver Islet Silver mine just east of the Sleeping Giant, east of Fort William (now Thunder Bay). He worked there until they stopped mining. There was still silver but they were afraid that when they put a charge off that Lake Superior would come in. I understand that just recently the Mine was opened up. After that he went over to Northern Michigan and worked in the Copper mines at Catument and Hechla.
When the C.P.R. was building, he worked rock blasting through Western Ontario. He worked with the C.P.R. until he got to Brandon in 1885, where he started a hotel. He married there but his first wife did not live very long. They had no family. He married Selena Cory (my mother) in 1887. Selena was born July 19th, 1860 at Port Hope, Elizabeth, Ontario. She died in 1941.
By 1892 they had found coal at Estevan, at that time no coal had been found in Alberta, so a railway line was built from Brandon to Estevan. So my Dad came to Estevan in 1892 and had first choice of lots in Estevan. He chose the lots where the International Hotel was, just west of the Empire Hotel, and on the north side of the street a few lots west, just east of the Talbot Hotel. He built a livery barn. The railway at that time had not reached Estevan so the lumber was hauled from Alameda. Not so many years ago I met a
Just arrived in Sunny Saskatchewan at the Kelly House, 1906.
man who did some of the hauling. The Livery Barn was run as a hotel and supplied meals until the hotel was built. They moved to the Hotel from the Livery barn after the snow was on the ground. The doors were not on the bedrooms yet. I do not know if the lumber for the hotel was hauled from Alameda or not but most likely some of it was.
Mr. John Ellis was father of Alton, Arthur, Inza, Clarence, Eddie, Adolphus and three girls. They were cousins of the Perrys, and came from the same part of Ontario. Ellis was living northwest of Bienfait. There was nothing in Bienfait at that time. Ellis' had the biggest sod house I was ever in. I was there lots of times. I think at that time the Perrys and McDonalds were still on their farms. I was only 2 years old and brother Arthur was about 5 weeks old. I had a brother older than I who died in Brandon of typhoid fever. Eva, Eddie and Florence were born in Estevan. Freddie was 3 1/2 years old, and Eddie was the same when he died of black diphtheria. In those days every family lost one or two children.
Estevan boomed and the country all settled up, then came the dry years and most of the farmers moved out. There were only the Walkoms, Olsons, Hansons, Ellis, Gallaways, John Anderson and Mike Carrol on the river and Mr. Tote out at Woodend.
In the meantime, the Coal Company, from Winnipeg, built a big tipple. We could load 3 box cars at once with different grades of coal. The spur ran down near the Section house to the tipple. You can see the grade where the track went down. They made several entries on the north side but the coal seemed to peter out when they got to the Soo Line, so they moved to Roche Percee and the Coalfields. That meant more people moving from Estevan.
As a boy a bunch of us would go down after school and on Saturdays and push a car up the incline to where another entry had been. When we had 6, 8, or 10 cars up and coupled together we would ride down to the tipple which was still standing, and lots of 1 ton coal cars. This worked fine until one boy broke a leg and that was that.
As I got older I remember there was in Town the Yardley's, one older than Marie. Mrs. Jones, Tom, Willie, Athie and Olga. Mr. Whitelock, Perrys, McDonalds, W. & George White, M.H. King, store keeper, P.C. Duncan, store keeper, and Stockwell's Hardware - later Perrys, McLeods, Hobbs, Rooks, Littles and Olsons. Mr. Olson was foreman of the railway car repairs which was later moved to Portal. I can remember when all the U.S.A. Soo line trains came to Estevan, and then Canadian crews would take over. I met a Mr. Witchurch in Minneapolis who was engineer on the Soo Line who was stuck in the snow for 3 weeks at Yellow Grass. The section men shoveled in snow for water as long as the coal lasted. At that time there was no station agents between Estevan and Moose Jaw. There were more farmers left at North Portal so most of the time they got the job plowing the fire guard from Portal to Pasqua. They would plow one side going up and the other side coming down. One night I drove a traveller from Portal to Estevan, saw a prairie fire all the way. The trail led from one farm yard to another. You would see one at one end of the fireguard and another at the other watching the fire, most likely it would be a man and wife. When I got home I found that most of the farmers that had hay on the river west, lost it all. We had a 1/2 section of nice red top. (Now I understand it is fox tail). The McDonald, Gallaways, and others lost their hay. I remember when Buffalo bones were piled up along the track for about 1/3 of a mile. I understand they were shipped to Germany.
I have a $5.00 gold piece with Paul Krugers head on it that Harry brought back with him from the South African Boer War. I think I will sell it now that gold is so high. At that time a man came to town, got drunk, got on his horse without a bridle or halter, and the boys told me it took 5 mounties to catch him. He had to sell the horse to pay his fine, then went to South Africa.
Every spring, Peter McDonald, John Anderson or others would go out west gathering up the horses that strayed during winter. No one kept more horses in the barn in the winter than he could use, and the rest would have to rustle for themselves. I have heard here in the store at Hardy, that a farmer would ask another farmer who lived 10 to 15 miles away, if he had seen his horses lately, so then he would go out to that place to look for his horses only to find them in their own back yard. Horses would be included to lay between the snow bank and a straw pile, a lot of them died because they could not get up again. One farmer lost his pigs in the fall and did not see them again until the next spring. That gives the thresher a good
Store in Estevan, 1892-1908. Archie Kelly in doorway.
recommend. A good separator man those days would get about $20 to $25 a day. Today anyone can go out and run a combine, and you can see the results after the first rain.
My Dad started a grocery store in the Hotel about 1900. About that time the Northwest Colonization Co. of Minnesota bought a lot of the C.P.R. land that had all the odd numbered sections in each township, except 2 sections of school land. They also got the mineral rights with the land and few taxes. They then sold the land with the mineral rights. My father-in-law, Nels Mikkelson, who started the Eureka Brick Company, which is still operating today, bought a lot of this from the N.W. Co. and brought up a lot of settlers from around Willmar, Minnesota. A lot of the descendants still live around Estevan. A lot would also buy land from the C.P.R. because all they got was one quarter of land. A lot of the Scandinavians would make gomelust cheese (strong like limburger), bury it in the bottom of a haystack to give it time to age. Nels Mikkelson kept track of this and generally called around when they were hauling in the stack. Estevan began to boom with all the settlers coming in. My dad built an addition on to the Hotel, finally he sold it to Roe and McCleand from Melita, Man. He also built a larger addition to the store but it was still connected to the hotel, and there were five rooms above part of the store which were rented. We lived upstairs but had a kitchen and dining room in the back of the store. In 1908 a fire took all the buildings, nothing was saved. We bought out Frank Musgrave and in a couple of years Dad was not satisfied, so he and Wm. Hobbs formed a partnership and opened a store at Drinkwater, Sask. The track was not at Drinkwater at the time, our store was in a tent.
I will be 90 years old on the 2nd of September, 1980, so please excuse my mistakes.
I overlooked putting down George Pawson and Wm. Johnson who had a farm down the river. I think both Mr. Pawson's land and Mr. Johnson's produced real good gardens (5 acres) just north of the station and land seekers would see it which helped to sell the land. At one time there were 6 passenger trains a day on the Soo Line, one - called the Spokane Flyer, I understand it made better time between Minneapolis than any of the U.S.A. trains. Another 10 to 15 coaches made the connection with the main train on the main line at Moose Jaw. On the line to Brandon at a daily train then in the dry years one train a week, but Alameda still got 3 trains a week. I remember going with my mother to Brandon on the train, it was a coupling that broke between Oxbow and Glen Ewen, it was the old pin and loop coupling. The engine went quite a way before it missed us. It was a mixed train, several box cars probably coal. I remember the brakeman (Bert Coulter) carrying the new loop and pin up to couple. A lot of brakemen lost their lives as they had to stand between the cars to put the loop and pin in place.
I was in Wesley College the fall of 1911 and 1912, and they were still burning cord wood. I understand that the last Buffalo seen at Alameda was in 1880. After I came to Hardy I met an old man, Jim Chartrand who was knocked off a horse by Buffalo, broke his leg and was three days crawling from the Hole in Wall Coulee over to the Roanmare Coulee, 3 miles. He could not crawl during the day, too many buffalo around. He knew that the Indians were in camp in the Roanmare Coulee. In that Coulee there is a "pound" where the Indians used to drive the buffalo over the Cliff. I have seen it many times. One time I read where 117 men women and children left Winnipeg to get their winter supply of meat and before they got back they had killed 3200 buffalo. No wonder they are scarce now.
Some time after 1900 a man was quarantined for small pox. There was no Doctor in Estevan. Dr. Mitchell from Weyburn came down, going to Portal,
Arthur Kelly's Home in Estevan, corner of 3rd St. and 14th Ave.
and we would all gather at the Station to be vaccinated for small pox. The conductor held the train until all were vaccinated, this train went through at 10 p.m.
I told one person why they lost so many horses each year, if I ever got a chance at the Rotary Club I would ask that question. One time I went out with Willie Yardley and his Dad to their farm and he broadcasted oats, there were not many drills around. I don't know how it got threshed. Ellis' horse power rig did not come until after that.