Cupar Museum Events

Cupar and District Heritage Museum as part of the town of Cupar's Celebrate Canada 150 on July 1 will be holding their annual Strawberry Social that day 2pm to 4pm at the museum on their new deck. Cost is $5  The band Blue Country from Fort Qu'Appelle will be playing the always enjoyable old favourites.

The Paton Photo Exhibit from the Saskatchewan Folklore Society has been booked for the museum from August 14 to September 15. Make sure to come and check it out. If you come at a time when the museum appears not to be open a list of board member phone numbers are on the door, so give a call and one of us will be happy to open the doors.

On October 7 from 11am to 1pm we will be holding our Harvest Lunch at the Legion Hall.

Our Culture Days exhibit will also be held that day and same time in the Plus 50 Club adjoining the Legion Hall. We will be featuring a selection of Bart Carroll's photographs through the years of Cupar and area. Some are coming from private collections and others are from the museum's collection.

Sask Culture Grant

On behalf of the Cupar and District Heritage Museum Board I would like to thank Sask Culture for awarding us a Sask Culture Museum Grant for 2017-18. 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.

Food for Thought

As small town museums try to be more inclusive we need to think about where we've come from and where we are going. What does Canada 150 really mean to all of us. I found this article in the Cupar Herald dated 11 Jan 1940. It should be considered as food for thought.

Community Initiatives Fund

The Cupar Museum deck was built in 1994. Through the years volunteers have maintained it but just as the volunteers age so does the deck and it is becoming difficult to keep it up. We are concerned also with what lays below the deck and really how structurally sound it is.

 

We are fortunate that we have just had word that we have received a grant from Community Initiatives Fund from the Saskatchewan Government. Now we will be able to install a maintenance free deck. We will all feel much safer hosting community events on the new deck.

Christmas and the cost of living

I found this Christmas ad in the Cupar Herald dated December 18, 1919 . 

World War I, The Great War, The War to End all Wars is over. It appears people have returned to their  concern for spending and saving money at Christmas, at least that is what retailers want to portray.

'Tis the Season

Small towns seem to have many Christmas Dinners. It is amazing how many volunteer, social and church groups exist and of course there is always an overlap to the point one can get confused as to which supper one has actually committed to. The table is well prepared but whose supper is it?

Actually it is the Cupar and District Heritage Museum's Christmas supper not the Legion's although we booked their space as we had over 40 participants. It was the same night as the Lion's ambulance Christmas Dinner. From what I have heard it is possible to have a turkey dinner every night for over a week. 

Jewish Settlers continued

I posted in February 2015 information about Jewish settlers in Cupar. I had very little information at the time. This fall (2016) I received a comment from a G. Paulin which I am including here. I am repeating also the post not including the newspaper ads. Since then a relative of G. Paulin visited our museum in Cupar spending a couple of hours photographing maps etc. Mr. Drabinsky also visited the Jewish cemetery outside of Lipton. I contacted him and he didn't think he would be able to get back this way. Then I gave him contact numbers for the Dysart museum. Now he decided he might make another trip after all. We are all very excited that Mr. Drabinsky is researching Jewish settlers in the Cupar, Dysart and Lipton area and hope he will share what he finds with our museums. I unfortunately have only what I can find in the old Cupar Heralds, sometimes an ad or a reference to an event.

The Cupar Historical Committee made a valiant effort when accumulating information for the Cupar History book to contact Jewish settlers in the Cupar area. Unfortunately the results are minimal, but what they could find was included on page 509.

Since then the internet has come into being and there is information on Jewish settlers around Cupar, Dysart and especially Lipton, but in the future much more needs to be done. Today we are also able to access for free census records of this time.

Small town newspapers can be a wonderful resource, but too often they are overlooked. It requires time. They may contain only a kernel of information, a possible hint, that can lead to something bigger elsewhere. I was not looking for Jewish settlers in Cupar when I found some. They need to be included as part of our 110 years of history.

Sadly there is reference to a news article from 2 March 1910 which attests to the harsh conditions of an isolated farm life, especially for a woman.

I found in the 1911 and 1916 Cupar census a number of Jewish settlers in Cupar who were businessmen. I have included only 4 because I have ads or other information for their businesses. I do not know when they left. Also the census records are rather hard to read. According to the Cupar History book Mr. Nadler was a councillor 1913, and W. Pechet mayor 1921.

From the 1911 and 1916 census records I found the following:

Max Baratz: Roumanian, immigrated to Canada 1902, Hebrew, watchmaker.

William Pechet: Roumanian, immigrated to Canada 1902, Hebrew, merchant.

(for a time Max and William would be in business together)

Leon Nadler: Roumanian, immigrated to Canada 1902, Hebrew, taylor.

(I wondered did these 3 men know each other in the old country)

Samuel Freedman: Russia, immigrated to Canada 1906, Hebrew, liveryman.

Sadly the Pechet and Baratz store would succumb to fire in 1911, and Pechet's store would be destroyed by fire in 1921