SASKATCHEWAN AND ITS PEOPLE
1924
Volume II

         
EVOLUTION OF TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
  


MEMORIES OF QU'APPELLE.
1883.



"The Canadian Pacific Railway was anxious to call the Station Qu'Ap-
pelle, but the people of Fort Qu'Appelle for a time strenuously opposed
the same and it was called Capel, but shortly after both the Station and
the Post Office received its present name, while the old Hudson Bay Fort,
sleeping peacefully in the valley, did not for sometime wake up to realise
that their much revered name was pre-empted by a more wide-awaketown.


"In the Spring of '83 began the real development of the district. The
Settlers who selected their land in '82 returned from Ontario with their
stock and effects, and began their homestead duties in earnest.  Many
new settlers also arrived and there was much activity around the town in
those days.


"This year the Methodist Church was built and the first Pastor was
Mr. Thomas Lawson.


"In June, '83, Daddy McCarthy, a settler, was murdered in his shack
on his homestead by two half-breeds, John and George Stevenson.  He
did not come to town for a few days and his friends became alarmed and
Austin English and George Hudson went out and found the shack spat-
tered with blood. They searched the premises and found the body of
Daddy McCarthy in a bluff nearby.  Through the efforts of the N. W.
M.P., assisted by Peter Hourie, interpreter for the Indian Department,
the murderers were brought to trial, found guilty, and hanged at Regina.


"This murder caused a great deal of excitement. Daddy, as he was
called, was a fine character and during the winter of '82-'83 with his
bright and genial manner, did much to cheer the lives of the young men
of the village.


"An English Company with W. R. Sykes as Managing Director started
farming on a large scale at Edgeley, a short distance north of Qu'Appelle,
in '83. They purchased eighteen sections of land and began operations
with the first steam plows introduced into Western Canada.  The cost
of engines, plows, harrows and packers laid down at Qu'Appelle, includ-
ing freight and duty, was $32,OOO.O0.


"The plowing outfit consisted of two steam engines one on either Bide
of the field, and the plows were operated by steel cables attached to gang
plows, one at the side of the field and the other in the centre. One engine
worked at a time winding the cable on a cylinder until plow in the centre
of the field came to the engine and the other plow to the centre. The
plows were then reversed and the other engine put into action. This
was found too expensive to operate owing to the cost of coal and they
were abandoned and horses and oxen substituted. W. C. Cameron was
Farm Manager and Robert Brown, Secretary.


"With the development of the country the town began to grow and
many buildings were erected and new businesses established, the chief
of which were


"General Stores.-General Store and Post Office, S. H. Caswell, Prop.;
Gould's Store, John Gould, Prop.; Parker & Dickson, John Lamb, Mgr.;
Goldstein & Zinkin (Goldstein shortly afterwards sold out to J. P. Beau-
champ), A. S. Empey, W. S. Munnis.


"Flour and Feed.-G. H. Bulyea.


"Drug Store.-James McIntosh.


"Hotels.-Qu'Appelle, R. McMannus, Prop.; Commercial, R. Shore and
W. Grey, Props.; Central, W. Denny, Prop.


"Livery Stables.-Johnston & Paterson, Joe Doolittle, L. W. Mulhol-
land.


"Billiard Hall.-Love & Raymond.


"Bakery.-A. McLane.


"Blacksmiths.-J. McLean, J. Irving.


"Lumber Yards.-A. Brittlebank, Thomson & Neilson.


"Butchers.-George Russell and W. Y. Davis.


"Tinshop.-A. N. Weismer.


"Law Firms.-Jarvis & Jackson, Leslie Gordon.


"Doctor.-Dr. Charles Carthew.
"Harness Shop.-J. B. Millikin.


"Implements.~Massey Harris, A. Cowan, agent; John Elliot~, G. H.
Bulyea, agent; Watson, Allan McGill, Maxwell, Mathew Snow, Cowan &
Robins, Duncan McDonald.


"Forwarding Agent.-George Hanwell.


"Immigration Agents-A. Baker and Z. Miquelon.


"Newspaper.-Qu'Appelle Progress, Jas. Weedman, Prop., sold to A.
C. Paterson in '90, who was editor until 1893.


"G. B. Murphy joined the firm of J. B. Milliken & Co., Hardware,
Harness and Saddles.


Bibliography follows: