Work In Progress

Cupar and area volunteers have spent untold hours, days, weeks and maybe even years compiling a map of the Cupar Cemetery. It remains a work in progress but is still useful at this point. A draft can be found on the Sask cemeteries website. Eventually a completed copy will be housed at the town office, as well as the Cupar museum. A copy will also hopefully be at the cemetery site.

I was searching a family member of my husband: his father's mother's father's brother's daughter.

Now that is confusing. I could say my husband's great grandfather's brother's daughter or my husband's grandmother's uncle's daughter. Did I get that right? I do better with diagrams.

Anyhow the point is I found Annetta's obit from 1914 and wondered if she was buried in Cupar.

Some of the headstones at the cemetery are deteriorating badly, and can only be seen if the light hits it just right, or if you do a rubbing with onion paper. I was fortunate to have the exact location from the map. Although difficult to read it was the correct headstone.

 

 So how did I really get to this point? Well, I was thinking about our finished summer display on the early days of Cupar. There are quite a few photos and items on the early business men, but what

about the pioneers' children? 

What about the ones that died in those early years? How can we remember and honour them? I have found a number of obituaries for these children and have been trying to find their headstones. This is of course an ongoing project that will take time but I have started.

Finding What You Aren't Looking For

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day and I really didn't feel like weeding. My husband and I decided to take a field trip to the Cupar Cemetery. I wanted to photograph the earliest headstones. Then in the winter I would try and find as many obituaries as possible to add to our obituary album at the museum. Well of course we didn't finish but we did get a good start. Today I intended to pick raspberries and weed, and maybe return to the Cemetery. It rained heavily and there was lightning and thunder, so on to Plan B. I started searching the Cupar Herald between 1908-1910 for obituaries. I found 8. 

                                                                                      Cupar Herald 10 July 1908

 

As I was about to crop one of the obituaries to a better size when I noticed an article in the upper corner. It was about St. Mary's Anglican Church's brass lectern. Mr. Swaisland was the manager of the Union Bank in Cupar. We also have his wife's obituary from the Cupar Herald dated 28 Feb 1908.

This lectern is at our museum but no one from the church knew it's history. Now we do. Sometimes you find information you aren't looking for and it can be a real gem.

More Early By Laws

It is unfortunate that the minutes for the village before 1909 are non existent.  I have been told that they were water damaged.  It is fortunate that the early By-Laws were also recorded in the Cupar Herald. Here are By-Laws # 1, 3, 4.  I put up By-Law # 2 in an earlier post.

                                                                                                                      

Cupar Anniversary

July 4^th the morning of Cupar's 110^th anniversary the sun shone brightly in the sky. Okay I'm lying.

The night before we had a lightning thunderstorm and a lot of rain. I did not sleep well as I counted the time between lightning and thunder claps. Our dog barked hysterically at each one. I was up at 6:00 a.m. making morning coffee, which was a good idea as the power went out for 3 hours and it was a drizzly kind of morning. Fire up the barbecue. The pancake breakfast, as part of the day's festivities, I imagine was well attended unless you really like cold cereal and peanut butter on bread. I had a bath and decided it wasn't worth drying my hair as I would only get soaked again.

I took my camera in a waterproof bag and headed down to where the parade floats were assembling. Thought I would get some photos before the next down pour. Surprise it only drizzled through out the parade. The cars lined the main street, all angle parked, which is illegal, but everyone was confident that no one would get a ticket because all the RCMP from Southey were apparently leading the parade.

I had several offers to sit in cars as my hair was soaking wet, right, I forgot about the bath, but I preferred running back and forth taking photos and avoiding the myriad of candies being thrown at the crowd.

Our museum opened it's doors at noon. I was excited about people coming and seeing our displays for the town's anniversary. At some point I wandered off to the sport's grounds to check out other activities. That may have been a mistake as I had to run back to the museum in the pouring rain.

The band, Blue Country, arrived for our entertainment portion of our Strawberry Social. They dumped water off the canopy and started setting up. Now I am not lying, at 2:00 p.m. as the Strawberry Social began the sun came out and it was hot. I discarded my rain coat but for some odd reason had not brought my sunglasses. We ran out of whipped cream. We ran out of plates. Judy ran for more.

Our event was a success. People loved the band and our special displays. People asked many questions. They remarked on how wonderful the museum was and how they must come more often.

We wrapped up at 5:00 p.m. 

  

Later people headed over to the pull pork supper at the sports grounds. In the evening the band Grimstone played. There were fireworks. Our dog barked hysterically at each one and I did not get much sleep.

Special Student Display

The Cupar Museum is pleased to announce 2 special exhibits for this summer by Amelia and Nadia Ermel. The 11 year old twins created their displays initially as school projects. Each received a Heritage Saskatchewan Certificate of Appreciation at the Regina Regional Heritage Fair for 2015.

The displays have been given a prominent position as you enter the main room of our museum.

Amelia's display shows the businesses located on the 100 block Stanley Street in the early 1900's.

Nadia's is a general history of telephones in Canada.

We hope that in the future other students will share their work with us.

Cupar Cyclone 1946

The cyclone that hit Cupar in 1946 was a major event and well documented in photographs, a sampling of which is given below. Unfortunately we were missing the 1946 Cupar Herald about the event

This spring Edwin Schulhauser donated his desk from Lee's Funeral Home in Cupar. In it were a number of miscellaneous papers including a folder which happily contained the missing article on the cyclone. 

CTV Hometown Tour

Today CTV Regina came to Cupar for part of their summer home town tour. The air date for our town will be July 9th. We were fortunate to have Wayne Mantyka visit our museum for a good portion of the day. He stayed for nearly 3 hours. You know you are in a small town when you can flag down a vehicle and they stop and you just get in and show them where the school and museum are.  

Wayne had a lengthy interview with our chairperson Wes Bailey, who has been with the museum since it's inception. The museum has been working on a display for our 110^th anniversary of the town. The deadline to have it up was July 4 so somehow we pulled it off 10 days early.

 Now I can go  back to weeding my garden.

Cupar Museum 20th Anniversary

 

Congratulations to the museum in Cupar on it's upcoming 20^th anniversary June 3. It is difficult to believe how the time has passed. In actuality it took 5 years of hard work, planning and fund raising for the museum volunteers before the official grand opening in 1995. The success of the various fund raising activities could not have happened without the support of the wider community. The Masonic Hall was moved on site and the Town Council gave the old curling rink to the museum. Besides the many hours volunteers spent salvaging materials and gathering artifacts, much appreciated financial assistance was provided by the Cupar Lions Club, The Hungarian Dance Club and The Cupar Historical Society. The museum in 1994 was also able to have a full time employee for 21 weeks through New Careers Corps to assist with final preparations.

 

Masonic Hall 20 years ago                                                                         Masonic Hall today

As we collect information and documentation on various organizations in our towns it is important we do not forget about the development of our own museums.

Oral History Workshop

Somehow 3 weeks have passed since I attended an Oral History Workshop at the Gabriel Dumont Institute in Saskatoon. Does this indicate how quickly time passes, that I was absorbed in other things or I procrastinated? It is in fact a statement of the times we live in. Maybe too busy but actually I felt I needed time to think, to let it simmer, to stew about it. Then I thought will future generations even know what those phrases mean?

 It is in fact easy to go to the net and find information on topics, mechanics, release forms and procedures on conducting oral history interviews so obviously that is not why I went. I enjoy meeting people, hearing their experience with trying to conduct oral history and sharing ideas. Of course many workshops can happen online, but I guess I am old school I like to see people in person, the interaction with each other and the shared environment. (note to self – I must get back to the Gabriel Dumont Institute it was amazing and the people there wonderfully open and helpful)

 We live in a world of immediacy. We have instant access to all kinds of information too often speculation or rumour, but it doesn't seem to bother us. I worry often that something is slipping away.

Oral history has been around since humankind first began to communicate with each other, to pass on knowledge. There was a period when it appeared to be dying out. For some, especially First Nations it was the attempted destruction of their culture by others. Fortunately a concerted effort is being made to save and pass on what still exists. 

For other people it may have simply been changing times. I met a man from Cape Breton who said when he was young the old folks told stories over and over, but that has passed. We live on our computers / i phones / and tablets chained to facebook or what ever other social media you prefer.

 

For the people who remember these stories it's time to record them. Thanks to technology there are a number of very reasonably priced and simple to use recording devices. The Museum Association of Saskatchewan has a very compact kit that they can loan out to member museums. So don't wait for someone else, you can do it yourself while your parents or grandparents or neighbours are still alive.

Visit your local museum

It's time to start thinking of day trips to your local museums. Following are dates and times open for the museums in the Qu'Appelle Valley Network. There are also dates given for special events.

Barnyard Animals Run Wild

I have always been fascinated as to the rationale behind By Laws. I came across a ratepayer's meeting dated 14 April 1908 in which it was moved that no cattle, horses, pigs and poultry be allowed to run at large at any time of the year and that the Overseer be empowered to appropriate funds for the erection of a pound. First offence would be taken before the Justice of the Peace and second offence imprisonment. In the Cupar Herald 20 November of 1908 it was still a hot issue but the actual bylaw listed as By Law #2 was not passed until 18 May 1909. My imagination runs wild thinking of the terror of “the old west” and the desire to impose “ civilization”

Chinese Merchants in Cupar

According to The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan there were 41 Chinese in the province in 1901, and in 1911 there were 957. These immigrants were heavily discriminated against. The Federal Government imposed a head tax in 1885 of $50 and increased it in 1903 to $500 which was equivalent to 2 years wages. One exception were merchants. 

It is a bit of a cliche to say that many prairie towns had either a Chinese laundry or cafe owner. Very little is known about them and therefore it is difficult to appreciate the role they played and the hardship they endured having left their families behind.

In the Census for Cupar in 1916 I found a John Lee, Methodist, Laundryman who came to Canada in 1900. In the Cupar Herald of 1935 I found mention of Sam Lee doing hand laundry and Ben Lee proprietor of the Cupar Cafe.

Why did this come into my mind? Well, as we were reorganizing our displays at the museum we decided to put all our local cookbooks together in the kitchen exhibit. We found a very battered cookbook donated by Charlie Rein with a note saying “came from cafe maybe Jim Lee” 

 I found it sad, that it had been defaced and not treated as the treasure it was. It is more than a cookbook, it gives well used phrases in english and chinese for day to day use, and to this point appears to be the only artifact we have.

Online shopping - old school

Online shopping is becoming more prevalent. Soon we are told that drones will deliver items to our very door. Isn't that so 21st Century.  Is it all that new?  Some people may remember Eaton's. They  of course no longer exist. Sigh, a sign of the times, changing tastes and demographics. I found an ad for the various Eaton's Catalogues available in 1926-27.  You could buy most anything from groceries, bulbs for fall planting, plans for building a house and barns, radios, organs, clothes etc. I also found a 1955 catalogue and it was quite apparent who the company was catering to.

Sask Culture Grant

On behalf of the Cupar and District Heritage Museum I would like to thank Sask Culture for awarding us a Sask Culture Museum Grant for 2015. Our Board and our many volunteers have spent countless hours in meetings, assisting with programming, fundraising , communication, research, social events, and up keep of our building and grounds. These monies are greatly appreciated and will be well used.

We also realize that Sask Culture support is also assisted by Saskatchewan Lotteries.

Thank you.

cupar herald online

The Saskatchewan Archives in collaboration with Sask History Online have started to put on line The Cupar Herald.  At the present 1914 and 1915 are available.  Please understand it will take some time to have them all up, after all Cupar was not the only small town to have a paper. Our paper went from Nov. 30, 1906 to approximately 1954. Unfortunately not all years were saved. Although we have paper copies at our museum they are disintegrating as they were not meant to last.  I have told people that copies exist on microfilm at the archives in Regina, but many people live too far away to access them.  Having these papers online is critical for historical research, for families, for church groups, sports groups etc. 
Please check the Saskatchewan Archives site   www.saskarchives.com for these papers.  Or better yet go directly to sabnewspapers.usask.ca and search the name of the community.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to those involved for beginning this process.

Just an after thought.  I spent a week slowly and carefully photographing  local items out of the 1914 Cupar Herald knowing that it was too fragile to probably ever look at again. We have a sketch of the downtown businesses in 1914 and I obsessively was searching for ones that might not be listed. Sigh.  I think I hurt may back trying to photograph and then label each file.  How wonderful it will be too access them online.