1911 Courtship: July 19 Dear Ethel

Reaping, Indian Head, Assiniboia, on Canadian Pacific Railway. c1886. Prairie Postcards PC002464. Courtesty of http://peel.library.ualberta

See the Genealogy Note at the bottom of this post for more info on the above photo and the Experimental farm, mentioned by Noah in this letter. 

Author of Letter: Noah Clement Draper (24 yrs old)
Dated: July 19th/1911
Addressed to: Miss E. Nelson, My Dear Ethel (21 yrs old)
Mailed from:  Grand  Coulee, Sask
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer 
Writing instrument: Fine point pen, Black ink, but looks blue-grey in places 
Writing Paper: Thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6.5 inches. Paper is folded in half, written on front and back like a book, but inside, paper is turned sideways and written across short length and down both pages. 

People/Places mentioned in this letter:
- *Joe & Eva - Joe Perrault and Eva Amelia - Noah's sister
- *Parthena - wife of Noah's brother, *Percy Draper
- Parthena's baby - Royden Wallace Draper b Jul 1911 but what date?
 - *Stewart Draper, Noah's cousin, in Indian Head, Saskatchewan
- *Louie:  Noah's sister, Sarah Louisa Nelson, married to Fred Coventry
- Fred's sister in Alberta - Probably Margaret Jane *Coventry

* Regina, Saskatchewan
** Experimental Farm, Indian Head, Saskatchewan
Local - Twice daily passenger train that runs from Regina to Indian Head. Used for excursions such as field trips to see the world famous Bell Farm, etc. 

* Look under the Categories/Labels in the right column for more on posts on the above people.
**More info under Genealogical Notes

Grand Coulee, Sask
               July 19th/11

Miss. E. Nelson,
        huntsville. Ont.
My Dear Ethel;-
     Received your letter last
week and was glad to hear
you were going to get a few
holidays & hope you have
a good time,
     Well we are good and buisy
here just now. just got
the cellar cemented and am
now digging a drain. expect 
the well diggers and carpenters
tomorrow. so will have 7 men
here for a while and a girl
if I can get one but they are

like hens teeth few and far between. 
    Joe. Eva. & I were down to the
experimental farm at Indian Head
yesterday. I went into Regina on 
the morning Local with out any
intentions of going down but I got
through with my business by
the time the excurtion train
came along so I jumped on and
went down. it rained nearly all
afternoon. but we hired a livery
rig and got out to Stewarts before
it started so we didnt mind
it. but there was a good many.
dissapointed people on the train
coming home.
     Osay Ethel Parthena has a baby 
boy. about a week old have not seen
it yet but i hear it looks like
the Drapers. Ha. Ha.
     Louie & Fred went up to his
sisters in Alberta last Saturaday.
to pick raspberries. they said but
I guess they wont get many.
     Say you must be getting old to
be able to say the heat is the worst
for a 100 years back. Eh.

I hear it has been very dry
down there this summer how
do the crops seem. they are
very good here only a little late
but we have had such a
cold summer we will likely
have a hot fall. hope so
any way.
     Well it is getting nearly
time to get out to work again
am writing this at noon
and expect to post this to 
night. Well i guess this is
all for this time so Bye Bye
write soon and a long letter
to your Western Lover. N.C.D.
X X X X X X X 

Genealogy Notes

Genealogy Note 1: Margaret Jane Coventry

Fred Coventry had 2 sisters. Mary Catherine stayed in Ontario, married, and died there. 

But Margaret Jane is shown on the 1901 census where she and her parents are living in Kenlis, Assiniboia - about 10 miles northeast of Indian Head. She is not with them on the 1916 census, though, where they have moved close to Fred and Louie near Grand Coulee. Did Margaret Jane marry and move to Alberta? Or did she just move there because of a job opportunity?

Update! 
- Mary Catherine did NOT marry and die in Ontario - her Aunt Catharine did. In 1911, Mary Catherine and her husband lived in Strathcona, Alberta. 
- Margaret Jane moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada  sometime between 1916 and 1920. She didn't show up on the 1916 census because it was a special one for the prairie provinces only so that the government could keep track of immigrants on the newly opened prairie land.

Genealogy Note 2: The Experimental Farm

The Experimental Farm had it's beginnings as part of the 53,000 acre Bell Farm which started operations in 1882 by the Qu'Appelle Valley Farming Company - before the railroad tracks had been laid on the bald prairie - before there was the town of IndianHead - and before Saskatchewan became a province, which is why the postcard at the top refers to it as Indian Head, Assiniboia. Once the railroad went through, the Bell Farm built a hotel, grain elevator and flour mill and Indian Head came into being. 

Using the most modern farming practices and equipment of the time, the Bell Farm drew  interested people from several countries to see for themselves how farming had/could progress. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) carried tourists and farmers on daily excursions from Regina out to Indian Head to explore the farm for the day. 

The unique round shape of the Bell Farm Round Barn was one of the main attractions of the Bell Farm. Due to having its silo in the centre of the building, the layout provided ample space to stable 36 horses surrounding the silo - a time-saver when it came to supplying feed for the hard-working heavy horses. 

Stable, Major William R. Bell's farm, Indian Head, SK, 1884, by William McFarlane Notman. VIEW-1388 © McCord Museum

In 1887, part of the Bell Farm was sold to create a Dominion Experimental Farm - one of Canada's first agricultural stations. 

Experimental farm, Indian Head, SK, about 1920, MP-0000.25.431, © McCord Museum

A lasting legacy of the Indian Head area is the tree nursery located one mile south of the town which had been established in 1897 to supply trees for shelterbelt purposes to cut down on wind erosion. Called the Prairie Shelterbelt Program, the nursery of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration  (PFRA) supplied seedlings free of charge to all legitimate homesteaders and farmers. 

Although The Shelterbelt Program ended in the Spring of 2013, the PFRA tree nursery is a showcase of tree varieties which is open to the public and a favorite spot for summer picnics as well as information gathering.

Image of a man holding a cloth sack and picking something off of a tree - possibly at PFRA tree nursery. Courtesy of http://saskhistoryonline.ca/fedora/repository/indianhead%3A31270

According to the Indian Head History Page by 1902, the Town of Indian Head was incorporated and had become "...one of the world's largest initial shipping points for wheat." 

1900-1909 Image of ten grain elevators at Indian head that read "Jos Glen No. 1", "Jos Glen No. 2", "Dominion Elevator Co. Ltd. No. 72", "Ogilvie's No. 67" - various structures in between elevators, Canadian Pacific railroad cars next to elevators - man and several cows in foreground on other side of fence. Photographer: Denison Indian Head. Courtesy http://saskhistoryonline.ca/fedora/repository/indianhead%3A31195

And that's the history of Indian Head, Saskatchewan, which Noah mentions in this week's letter and which has been mentioned several other times when talking about Elva Nelson and Will Mitchell, and Stewart Draper and Bertha Hamilton.