Looking Back: Banquet for Settlers
100 years ago - Nov. 26, 1925
About 175 people gathered at Sovereign for a banquet for settlers who came to that district before the railway in 1911.
Tables were named after stopping places - Carter’s and Burgess’s on the Hanley Trail and Shell’s and Sutton’s on the Old Bone Trail.
Bob Barr described trying to cut flax with a binder pulled by three oxen and a cow. Alec Isley spoke of bachelor baking, cutting the bread with a buck saw and using bannocks for door hinges when leather was scarce. Dave Aldrich mentioned paying many dollars for a scanty meal, getting no change back and, later, taking the “change” out of the chicken house. John Goodwin, who came west in the early 1880s, toasted the wives and their heroism. Mrs. McCallum of Zealandia said she pitied the bachelors and married one. So did Mrs. Roy Uptigrove. Gains Cameron, who had the first house in Sovereign, and A. E. Young, who, with Jack Gebbie, had the first store, also spoke. “A memorable gathering” ended with singing Auld Lang Syne.
80 years ago - Nov. 22, 1945
Bob Ogle of the convent spoke on the atomic bomb and won the Bryant oratory contest here on Nov. 17. Anglia, Zealandia and Rosetown High School students also spoke.
A parcel mailed here by Mrs. William Plain on July 1944 to her son, Telegraphist Trained Operator Harold Plain of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve, went to Victoria, a U.S. port, England and elsewhere before reaching him back here on the 19th. The parcel contained Rosetown Girl Guide cookies, still in first-class condition.
70 years ago - Nov. 24, 1955
The Rosetown School Unit board had named the elementary schools here Stewart and Smith schools, after long-time teacher Nettie Stewart and late board member J. Smith, said board member R. E. Harvey.
Elizabeth Rolston was helping her brother at Hughton while he built a granary that winter, so she’d asked Mrs. C. Genest to take over as Harris correspondent, she wrote, also commending Mrs. Ivan Britton for her help.
50 years ago - Nov. 16, 1975
The Town of Rosetown hosted a supper for about 45 representatives of nearby rural municipalities. This was to inform them of the cost of town services so they could recommend financial assistance for services their residents used, said Mayor Bob McNab.
Two area women graduated from the Foothills Hospital School of Nursing in Calgary and started nursing in Saskatoon: Diane Lynn Minish, RN, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Minish, at St. Paul’s Hospital; and Brenda Elaine Elliott, RN, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bert Elliott of Herschel, at University Hospital.
30 years ago - Nov. 20, 1995
Eagle Creek Processing Co., which opened east of town, began with an idea Brian Crane and Roy Bailey had in Paris, France in 1992, they said.
The plant was to clean and export 140,000 tonnes of lentils, peas, mustard and canaryseed per year.
20 years ago - Nov. 21, 2005
The Rosetown Central High Royals edged the Lumsden Devils 23-21 here to win the provincial nine-man football championship. Team captains Graham Dahl, Jaret Gray, Justin Houston, Corbin Eskelson, Evan Lloyd and Curtis Dacey, assistant coaches Cliff Walker (intern), Murray Ernst and Gary Paproski and head coach Blaine Barnstable commented on the win and undefeated season.
The high school also won the 2004 blood donor challenge for northern Saskatchewan rural high schools as 13 of 61 eligible students donated. Students Nicole Cross, Kalyn Dunn and Kevin Clayton and teacher Kevin Gawletz received the award from Marie Grumetza of Canadian Blood Services.