Looking Back: 100 years ago, Albert Kessel’s best horse was found dead
110 years ago - April 20, 1916
W. B. “Ben” Brookbank was finishing a 28-by-30-ft., two-storey house at Fortune for him and his family. The ground floor had a reception room, a parlour, a dining room and a kitchen with a dumb waiter. The second storey had five bedrooms and a bathroom. It was to have a six-ft.-by-30-ft. verandah and balcony and a 10-ft.-by-10-ft. porch. The house was to be heated by hot water from a plant in the basement and lighted by electricity from a gasoline generator.
100 years ago - April 15, 1926
Albert Kessel’s best horse was found dead that morning. It was thought that it had eaten something that caused its death, wrote the Marriott correspondent.
The breaking up of the ice on Eagle Creek kept several men busy for a time breaking up large pieces to avoid a jam which would sweep away the bridge south of town, wrote the Anglia correspondent. The water rose almost five feet in 12 hours.
The high water did wash away the private traffic bridge which connected “Herschel proper with Fairview, which contains the home of O. Pruden and Harry Woods” on April 9, said the Herschel correspondent.
70 years ago - April 12, 1956
Coach Denny Bechard took the Rosetown bantam hockey team on a tour of Saskatoon. They visited Intercontinental Packers and the CFQC radio and television station, went to a movie and had lunch. J. Driedger, Reg Johnston, Walter Legge and Bernard Brennan drove the players: Bob Johnson, Dennie Gillies, Wayne Legge, Roy Haddock, Bob Madden, Bob Holler, Bob McDonald, David Driedger, Peter Driedger, Laurie Grothe, A. B. Fenson, Andre Oullette and Robert Castagnier.
Three local people took part in the Telephone Employees of Saskatchewan bonspiel in Regina. Debbie Dodds and Shirley Rienwald curled on the rink that won second prize. Bob Storey was on the rink that won the “Last Champs” event.
R. Gordon Thrours died at his home in San Diego, Calif. Thrours had lived in Fiske for many years where he ran a hardware business. His widow, daughter and three granddaughters, all of San Diego, and a brother in Vancouver survived him.
50 years ago - April 14, 1976
Largely due to rearranging the workshop area, clients of Wheatland Regional Centre had tripled their production of cedar patio furniture. They’d also begun making trellises.
A “good representation” attended a meeting in Dodsland with the Hall Commission on rail line abandonment. A committee from Duperow, Springwater, Ruthilda and Downe presented a brief opposing the abandoning of the Biggar - Loverna line. The committee also recommended retaining the entire Dodsland subdivision; adding to it a west-end link-up to eliminate backhauls; and for joint running rights.
30 years ago - April 15, 1996
Zealandia postmaster Lynn Farquharson held a 90th birthday celebration for that post office. An aunt, Dorothy Farquharson, told how her father, Thomas Forrest, ran the post office from 1946 until the late ’60s.
The postmaster knew everyone in the district, said Doreen Dumaresq who did the job from 1968 to 1983.
That meant if senior persons haven’t been seen for a while, people would ask Lynn Farquharson if they’d picked up their mail. She kept track of birthdays and would remind husbands to get cards for their wives. Visitors wanting to trace their roots would stop first at the post office, she said.
20 years ago - April 17, 2006
A photo showed Rosetown’s Sweeprite 4400 street sweeper with its rear wheels stuck in soft ground on Second Avenue East. A front-end loader got it out.