SASKATCHEWAN AND ITS PEOPLE
1924

         
PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE EARLY EUROPEAN IMMIGRANT.  
    
GALICIANS AND BUKOWINANS.

SETTLEMENT EAST OF SALTCOATS.

and was a good business man. This official trustee was Mr. Samuel J.
Mugford. At first there was almost a revolution fomented by the disap-
pointed Secretaries and both Mr. Mugford and I were in very bad odour
for a while. However debentures were issued and good school buildings
went up much more cheaply than they otherwise would have done. Teach-
ers were engaged and there was a good attendance of children from the
first. Confidence in the schools was soon established and it was not long
before the attendance increased very rapidly.
Mr. Mugford and I attended the first annual meeting. It was shown
that the schools and the equipment were all paid for and that there was
still several hundred dollars in the bank to the credit of each school dis-
trict. The teacher was~paid up and yet not one of the people had paid one
cent of taxes up to date, while all of them had earned some money hauling
lumber or stone or working at the erection of the school buildings. On
this showing Mr. Mugford and myself were returned to public favor, and
the people themselves voted for retaining Mr. Mugford at least for one
year more, with a committee (unofficial) of three to consult with him.
There was, however, an exception in one case. Since then the schools
have progressed, and will compare favorably with any other rural schools
in the Province.
There is now a branch railroad from Russel to Yorkton and Canora
which runs through the heart of the original settlement, which now con-
tains the three small towns of McNutt, Calder (named after Mr. Calder,
once Minister of Education and provincial member for Saltcoats) and
Wroxton, as well as a number of smaller shipping stations.
	The Railway lands have been purchased and settled on, principally by
Americans.
	Another settlement of Ruthenians was located in the Beaver Hills in
a somewhat similar country to that I have described. These were settled
by "Nitchie" Hill, who has few superiors as a land guide. These Ruthen-
ians have done well, and have extended beyond Sheho. Others located in
the vicinity of Devil's Lake, as before stated, near to what is now Bu-
chanan on the C. N. R. I think the first to settle in the was~in derision
called by some, Sifton's pet~were of those who in the nineties, perhaps
in 1895, settled in the Edmonton country, and who have I believe done
very well Indeed.
	Perhaps I may add the following. I once asked a Ruthenian how it
was so many of them (in such a great contrast to the Doukhobors) ap-
peared in the courts on various charges up to murder. He replied that
very few of the criminal class came from the rural districts of Ruthenia.
These offenders came originally almost entirely from the large city of
Czaernowltz and located in towns and cities here and would not go on
the land. The Ruthenians, however, are all more or less excitable, es-
peclally if strong liquor is obtainable, and very apt to quarrel. As a rule,
however, I found them law-abiding and inoffensive.



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