Homesteading in the Prince Albert area was the topic of discussion at the Prince Albert Historical Museum’s last Coffee and Conversation of the season on Sunday.
Connie Gerwing of the Prince Albert Historical Society gave the presentation.
“I have been researching homesteading in various ways for many, many years,” she said. “My grandfather and great-grandfather were homesteaders, so I was interested in it from a family point of view.”
Gerwing’s family originally homesteaded in the area around Lake Lenore. She researched that history through reunions and other family connections. What she discovered spurred her interest even further.
“I was taking history classes and at one point, just as part of one of the classes, I researched women homesteaders and especially German and Ukrainian women homesteaders, so I’ve just been interested in it for a long time,” she said.
Then she began to research Prince Albert and area. One of the major differences with the area is that it was part of what was called the First Survey.
“After they made the Dominion Lands Act, they started in Winnipeg and came West,” she explained. “They did a little chunk of southern Saskatchewan, and then they came up to PA and they did PA and down into Duck Lake and Batoche.”
Gerwing said this is further evidence of how important the Prince Albert area was in the 1800s.
“They surveyed this area (and) that made me curious,” she said. “This area has some of the earliest (homesteaders). The earliest person I found that completed the whole homestead process and did what is called proving it up was a guy named Angus Cameron.”
Camerson had a homestead in an area called Willoughby, which just south of what is now MacDowall.
“He was the first guy to finish the whole process and get his (homestead), and the Saskatchewan archives were really helpful. I got to hand it to them,” Gerwing said.
She explained that she would ask for information such as the earliest homestead in the RM of Prince Albert, RM of Buckland and RM of Garden River. She said it was fascinating how early homesteading began in the Prince Albert area.
Gerwing also got maps from the Genealogical Society of Saskatchewan.
“Again, it was the archives that put me onto these,” she explained. “These are all the earliest. For example, this piece of land, he’s the first owner. He might have bought it or he might have homesteaded it. They don’t say.”
She talked about one of the first homesteaders in what is now the RM of Buckland named Dionis Lacerte who had a homestead by what is now Wahpeton. In the RM of Prince Albert she discussed Angus Cameron, who also homesteaded land in the RM of Duck Lake, which
was not part of Gerwing’s research. In the RM of Garden River there was a family that went by many names, Kapustinsku, Kapustins, Capustins but they all traced back to one of the first homesteads.
“These Kapustins, they’re all family. Ukrainians It’s families, homesteading, side by side,” Gerwing said.
She also discussed female homesteaders, who under the law had to be widows or inherit the land before women were allowed to homestead.
“This is one of the first women was Mary Zdryl. Now, I’ve known people that are Zdrills around here, but it’s Zdrill,” Gerwing said.
She explained that the two spellings were likely the same family.
Gerwing also displayed maps of each of the RMs she discussed if people were interested.
Gerwing said that she was happy with the crowd who were early for the afternoon discussion.
“I’m happy. Some people were here at quarter after (one). You’d be surprised how early people come,” she said.
This was the final Coffee and Conversation of the season and they will be returning in September.
“I’m the grand finale,” Gerwing said.
Michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
