On To Assinaboia

We took the boat at the Soo the night of the day on which Geo. McKinley drove Ada and me to town. I do not remember much about what Father and Mother did that day, but I remember sister Maggie came to the boat to say farewell and how sick at heart I was at leaving her. Maggie was always so good and kind to me; in fact, she gave me all and the only loving I ever got as a child. I was very fond of William, too, but Maggie was an angel to me always. When it came time to say goodbye, I remember I hid behind Maggie hoping that Mother would not miss one and that I could stay with Maggie. But Mother missed me and began calling me and at last spied me and, of course, I had to say goodbye to Maggie. I remember I cried as though my heart would break; cried for hours and some women watching me shed tears too; they couldn't bear to hear a child cry so.

Strange, I do not remember a bit of that boat trip up to Ft. William, where we then took the train for Regina. Mother, Ada, Harry, Johnny, Reuben and I stayed one night at a Mrs. Pettit's in Ft. William. Mrs. Pettit was a daughter of Mrs. Penman. By the way, the Penman family went West with us. They, too, shipped their worldly possessions with ours, or with Father's and Mother's and their destination was Regina too. They had two children I believe at that time. What a crowd that was to travel together.

Well, we arrived in Regina some time in the night and Father got us rooms in the Lorne Hotel. As I remember it, this hotel was in the west part of Regina. It was a measly hotel but I doubt if Regina at that time had a decent hotel. It was a frame building and poorly constructed. The people who ran it had a little girl much younger than I and every time I got her alone I tried to convert her to my idea of what constituted the right and only way to reach the pearly gates. All at once she kept out of my sight. Came to find out they were Catholics and our folks were Methodists, or at least mother was. Father had been baptized into the Episcopal Church when a young man. The bishop who baptized him was Bishop Osler. One of the old, old bishops in Ontario, and when we were children we had Methodist Church and Sunday School with the Episcopal Church alternately Sundays, or alternate Sundays. Anyhow, I suppose these people who ran the Lorne Hotel felt I was jeopardizing their child's chances for heaven and kept her away from me. This was in July in the summer of 1886, the year after the Northwest Rebellion, of which I shall have more to say after awhile. We stayed in Regina for a few days. I do not recall just how long we stayed but I believe Mother, Ada, Reuben, Harry, Ettie and I came on ahead of Father and John. Mrs. Penman and her children, too, must have come on ahead of Mr. Penman. Father evidently had a carload of household goods, cattle ponies or horses and sundry things. Also Mr. Penman. And if I recollect rightly, we waited in Regina for the men, Father and Mr. Penman, to arrive with their carloads.

Mr. Penman's brother-in-law, who lived back in the "bluffs" came all the way into Regina to meet the Penmans and help truck their goods out to their place. This man's name was Mr. Minty. Mr. Minty and his family must have been living at this place during the rebellion. They lived about 25 miles from Regina, north, and the greater part of the way to their place was traveled on the Albert Street Road, a road running directly north from Regina to the Qu'Appelle Valley. At that time there were no settlers north of the Qu'Appelle

Valley in that particular section, though of course there must have been settlers north of the Valley in some parts, though few indeed.

Well, I remember Mr. Penman couldn't get his goods released for some reason. I heard our parents talking something about "bond" or that his goods were in bond, what it was or why he couldn't have them released, I do not know. But anyway, we had to leave Mr. Penman at Regina for whatever reason it was. I can well remember we started from Regina around midnight and reached the Minty home sometime the next afternoon -- a Sunday afternoon. Reuben and I rode in Mr. Minty's big lumber wagon. We sat up on the high spring seat all that night. Why we didn't lie down in the wagon and go to sleep beats me, but we didn't. It was a long, long night for Reuben and me, and we were glad when the sun rose in the morning, though it rose in the west, to our way of thinking. Mr. Minty at one time sat down on the dashboard and I was so afraid he would tumble off and go down behind the horses' heels.

Reuben was only nine years of age and I only twelve. What a trip for children of that age. How the rest of the family fared on the journey, I do not know. When we arrived at the Minty farm we all were tired and hungry. Mrs. Penman wept all afternoon because Mr. Penman had to remain behind.

Where we all slept is an unsolved mystery. There were four children in the Minty family, six children in our family, two in the Penman family besides the grown-up folks.

For breakfast, Mrs. Minty had oatmeal porridge with skim milk — blue in color - and how I hated it; my stomach just couldn't take it and I remember Mother telling Mrs. Minty she never served her children skim milk, at which Mrs. Minty became very indignant. Mrs. Penman and her children must have gone out to Minty's sometime before we did because she was there when we arrived there Sunday afternoon.

How long we remained at Minty’s has escaped my memory, but it couldn't have been very long before Father found a place for us to live. He rented a farm from the Steeles, who had homesteaded together, each a quarter section, 160 acres each right side by side, and had built their houses one on each side of the line so it was one long house, each being 16x20 and joined together.

Funny, I haven't any recollection of our moving to our home from the Mintys, but I remember how dry and black the ground was; not a blade of grass to be seen. A prairie fire had swept through there a week or two before. There wasn't even enough grass left for the gophers to eat. Every once in a while a bunch of gophers would appear and utter their squeal.

Looking back now I know those were hard days for Father and Mother, but we children didn't mind anything that came along. It's great to be young.

The Gore family lived three miles away and the Petris about three miles on the other side. The Gores, northeast, the Petris, west.

There were no screens on the windows and the big moths (millers) used to come in at night by the thousands.

Our nearest neighbors were the Freethys who lived two and a half miles north. They were good neighbors. They, too, were on a rented place owned by two brothers, Rory and Faulkner McLellan. Rory was a champion hammer thrower. He lived in the east and at one of his exhibitions, he accidentally killed a child with the hammer; he never threw one again.

Faulkner came back to the prairies later after the Freethys moved to their own place. He was a great hulk of a man with a yellow curly beard about a foot long. He was sort of goofy and both sister, Ada, and myself were scared stiff of him. One time some years later after we had a school established, he chased Alice Petrie about two miles across the prairie. Alice was nearly six feet tall before she was 15, and Faulkner was over 6 feet tall and about 25 years old. There must have been some long legs flying over the prairie in that chase. The Petries later kept the Tregarva Post Office but at this time there was no Post Office nearer than Regina and we got mail once a week.

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