Adrian Paton Photo Exhibit

On Saturday August 12th our museum arranged to meet a fellow from the railway museum in Saskatoon.  The halfway point either Lanigan or Dafoe. Take Dafoe its only 113km from us as opposed to 150km.  And so 2 cylinder containers were loaded up.

Then on Sunday August 13th, 5 of us got together to put it up.  Warning: always read the instructions first and there is always something that seems obvious and isn't, which the manual doesn't tell you.

We are quite excited to have the exhibit as we thought we would not have room for any travelling exhibits, but this one is quite compact at 11ft long by 7ft high.

Our first official visitors will be from Shalom, the seniors home.  We are making arrangements for other groups to come.  We have the exhibit for one month.

Our Summer Student

Meet Colby our summer student for 2017. We have been keeping him busy with a variety of tasks.

He has learned to clean artifacts, catalogue and put them up for display or in storage. He has updated the labelling of storage units. He has been working on putting up donor cards. He has cleaned and repainted our workshop area. He repaired a bookcase from the Cupar Union Hospital and it is now full of books, how did that happen? He greets visitors and helps with senior tours. Of course he has his regular maintenance jobs of caring for the grounds and cleaning inside the museum. This really is just a sampling.

We will be hosting the Adrian Paton Photo Exhibit from August 14 to September 14. Colby has been busy making available a space and either moving artifacts or putting them into temporary storage.

We were donated a 1950's crank wound gramophone. Colby had a chance to check it out and play some music. Our Shalom residents really seem to enjoy the old time music on their visits. I found a record “Mighty Mouse.” Colby was confused because he had never heard of this cartoon character. I said google it.

Canada 150

For the town of Cupar's Canada 150 Celebrations on July 1, the Cupar Museum held their annual Strawberry Social on the new deck.

We were once again delighted to be able to have Blue Country from Fort Qu'Appelle play old time music for us. As a child I remember my parents listening to Johnny Horton so their rendition brought back happy memories and I began to wonder if I had become an old timer. The band is always greatly in demand in smaller communities and so I feel a link to these other places.

The parade in the morning allowed the museum to show off their latest exhibit, a CPR baggage wagon filled with artifacts. The wagon will have a permanent space indoors at the museum. We will be labelling the artifacts and have accompanying stories about each artifact where possible.

Canada 50.

Now that things are settling down after the big Canada 150 celebrations and remembering the 100^th

anniversary in 1967 as a young person, I began to wonder about the 50^th jubilee. It was 1917 and the first world war had not yet ended. I only found one reference in the Cupar Herald dated June 28, 1917.

It appears to have been a much more somber occasion compared to other “Dominion Days “ celebrations through the early years.

Museum book donation to library

The Cupar and District Heritage Museum has donated 5 indigenous /metis books to the permanent collection of the Cupar Library. The museum is only open seasonally and so we felt the community would have better access if the books were held at the local library.

The books are:

Honouring the Buffalo A Plains Cree Legend. for children in English and Cree. By Judith Silverthorne.

Mixed Blessings: Indigenous Encounters with Christianity In Canada. By Tolly Bradford.

Firewater: How Alcohol is Killing My People (and Yours). By Harold Johnson.

The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir. By Joseph Auguste (Augie) Merasty

with David Carpenter.

Stories of the Road Allowance People. Translated and put on paper By Maria Campbell

paintngs By Sherry Farrell Racette.

Pictured with the books left to right.

Diane Dennis ( Library Board Chair), Anne Lucas ( Librarian), Elaine Pain (Museum Board Secretary),

Wes Bailey ( Museum Board Chair). Photo taken by Monna Kish.

A Man and His Tools

Wes Bailey is pictured here putting the finishing touches on our latest exhibit entitled A Man and His Tools. Even though my own father was a carpenter I did not recognize some of the tools so it is helpful to have them labelled. This exhibit has been one of Wes's winter projects and we all appreciate his committment.

A more extensive history of the Ferrier family can be found in the Cupar History book, a copy of which is available at the museum and the Cupar library.

New deck coming

We are getting a new low maintenance deck. The old one is way beyond repair.  

As the years pass and our volunteers age and the thought of our guests falling through or over the railing, it really was time. Pictured here is local contractor Cory Hart demolishing the deck. Volunteers Wes Bailey and Jim Adam are assisting.

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