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John
Martin MURRAY
(Angus1,
John2)
and
Hazel
Cora SUTTON
John Martin Murray was born at Mount Thom, Pictou county, Nova Scotia on the 9th April 1887
and grew up and received his schooling there.
He
was still at Mount Thom at the time of the 1901 census
along with his widowed mother and sisters and brothers.
By June
1909 he was living in Manitoba.
His brother
Robert F. Murray file a homestead “Entry by
Proxy” on his
behalf.for SW ¼ of Section 7, in Township 23, Range 23 West
of
the 3rd
meridian. The land
is still in the
family.
The
following was written on “Mayfield Station, Man.” Letterhead.
Our
Trip to the Homestead
On
Monday,
October 18, 1909 I
left Hugh
McPherson's, Brandon Hills, Manitoba,
and drove
tweIve miles into Brandon,
took
the 2:30
train
Tuesday morning for Moose
Jaw. I
arrived in Moose
Jaw at
11:20
a.m. Bob met me at the train, so
we both went to
the Dominion Land Office, where I perfected my right to the homestead. Just as we came out of the
land office, we
met Tom Ross, who located Bob in July. He
told us that Westlake Bros. were in Swift
Current, and they were going out to their homesteads in a day or so.
Westlake
Bros. had an outfit of eight horses, and they were going out to within
six
miles of our homestead, so we thought if we could come in contact with
them, we
would be all right. We
left Moose
Jaw
that
night at 6:45
p.m.
and arrived
in Swift Current at 9
p.m. We
went to
the Imperial Hotel, had a good night's rest, and
next morning we went in search of Westlake Bros. We went to all the
livery
stables, but no one seemed to know anybody of that name, so we came to
the
conclusion that they had left town. I must say that we were rather
disappointed. But
that did not help
matters much.
We
went then
to
see if we could hire a team to pull a load out for us, but all the
teams in
town were busy. The only one we could get was an ox team.
As
we had a
distance of about eighty-five miles to go, we did not like the idea of
starting
with an ox team so we decided to stay around for a day or so. As we
were going
up the street, we met a young lad who knew Westlakes, and he told us
that they
were in town yet. As
we were talking to
this young lad one of the Westlakes came along so we made a bargain
with him to
pull a load for us. Westlakes told us that they were going to get their
lumber
in Gull Lake,
as they
could get it eight to ten dollars cheaper there than in
Swift Current so we thought we would take advantage of the prices too. We left Swift Current
about one
o’clock
p.m.
and headed
for Gull Lake, a
distance of about thirty-five miles. There was not one of us that had
been over
the road before, but a fellow in Swift Current told us that the road
kept close
by the railway all the way through so we thought we were all right. We
drove
along until about five
o'clock,
when the
road we were on ended in a large
slough or small lake. However,
we
started around this lake. When we got about half way around it, it
began to get
quite dark. As luck
would have it, we
noticed a hay stack not far off, and we struck for it. We unhitched the
horses,
fed them, and made them comfortable for the night, ate a lunch
ourselves, and
spread our blankets beside the stack, and lay down for the night. When we awakened next
morning, there was a
heavy
coat of white frost on the ground. The sun was shining brightly. We all
jumped
up, rolled our blankets, ate some lunch, harnessed the horses and
started
again. We did not go far, when we got onto the main trail to Gull Lake.
Nothing
else of interest happened until we reached Gull Lake at
11:45
a.m. on
October 21st.
After we had eaten a hearty dinner, we went
around and had
a look at the
lumber yards, comparing prices and decided to buy from the
International Lumber
Company. Westlakes
had two empty
Wagons
[sic]
and another with a hay rack on. We decided to put the lumber for a
shack on
each wagon [sic], and the groceries
and other articles were to go on the rack besides the lumber and they
were to
put four horses to it. We got everything ready that night, except the
flooring and
groceries. It was about eleven
o'clock
that night
when we
rolled in for the night. We
were rather
disappointed the next morning to find that a thick fog had settled
through the
night, and everybody was predicting a blizzard. Some of the people
advised us
to stay in town until the weather would clear. As we did not want to be
caught out
in a blizzard, we took their advice. However, by noon,
the weather
started to
clear and about two
forty-five we
bid adieu
to Gull Lake
and headed
for our homestead.
There was a fellow by the name of Nixon who kept a stopping place about
thirteen miles out of Gull Lake so
we
intended to go
that far for the night. We
had not gone
more than a mile when one of the loads took a shoot side-wise and we
had to unload
it and fix it on better. This was one of our many troubles. We got
started
again and were getting along nicely until shortly after dark. The
false-bolster
of the rack slipped out, and of course, that let the load down on the
wheels.
We were half an hour or more getting it in shape again, thinking that
if things
were going to go like this we would get to our homesteads in time to
come out
in the spring. We
travelled that night
until about nine
o'clock,
but no sign
of the stopping
place could we see. As the night was dark, we came to the conclusion
that we
had passed it. However, there was nothing for us to do but sleep on the
prairie
another night so we unhitched, took the harness off the horses, tied
them to
the wagons [sic], spread our
blankets
and lay down for the night. We
got up
about six
o’clock,
hitched
again and
decided to go for a couple of hours in hopes of finding a place to
water the
horses. However we
did not go more than
a mile when we came to the stopping place that we thought we had passed
the
night before. We
drove into his yard and
asked if he could feed the horses and give us our breakfast. He said he could so we
gave the horses a
bucket of water apiece and were just feeding them sheaves, when we
found out
that he charged ten cents apiece for them.
Westlakes
said they would not pay that for them if they
never got
any. They had quite
a chew the rag, and
then we hitched up and hit the trail once more.
We
went on then until about ten
o’clock
when we came
to a large
hollow. We thought
this would be a good
place for the horses to feed so we unhitched and let them go. Just as we were sitting
down to have a lunch
the horses started away on the run.
As
luck would have it two of the horses were on the opposite side of the
wagons
from the rest. We
caught those before
they got started. One
of the fellows got
onto one of these and started after the rest.
He
managed to get five of them back but could not see the
other one at
all. So when he
came back he took a bite
to eat, and two of them started to look for the horse again. While they were away Bob
and I unloaded the
rack, put in a new bolster and fixed it up in good shape. The fellows came back
about two
o’clock
but no horse could they find. However
there was nothing to do but go on without him.
We
traveled until about four thirty, when going down a
steep rough grade
the reach of one of the wagons broke, and one of the loads took a shoot
sidewise. We
started to put matters
right. By the time
we got the load
straightened up it was getting dark.
While
we were straightening the load up we noticed farm
buildings about
a mile to the north. So
we decided we
would go and spend the night there if they would keep us. Frank Westlake said he
would stay and see that
nothing happened to our loads, so the rest of us started for the
buildings. We
found very nice people
at
those buildings who said they would keep us all night.
After we got our horses in and fed we went
into the house, had a good wash and sat down to supper.
We had fried antelope steak for supper. It was the first meat of
that kind any of us
had ever tasted. We
all liked it immense
and made a good hearty meal of it.
We
thought if we could get one or two antelope we would be well healed for
meat on
the homestead. After
supper we sat
around and chatted an hour or two and then retired for the night. Next morning after we had
eaten another good
meal we got a piece of 2 x 4 and some tools and went to repair the
reach. We then came
to the conclusion that
the loads
we had on were too heavy for the roads so decided to leave one load
where we
stopped the night before. So
we had to
unload the rack and divide the two loads and put them on the three
wagons. This done
we bade our newly made
friends
adieu and started on the trail again.
Twenty
two miles from where we stopped there was a family
by the name of
Pearse, who kept a store and a stopping place.
So
we decided to make there that night. We got along fine
that day. We
reached Mr. Pearse's about four
o'clock.
There was a minister in that locality and he held service at at Mr.
Pearse’s
every Sunday. This being Sunday, the service was just over when we got
there. We got our
horses in and fed, and
had another very nice supper. After supper, we had some very nice
music. Mr.
Pearse played the violin and his wife played the piano, while we all
joined in
singing hymns. Then we retired for the night.
Next
morning as we were hitching up, it started to rain so
we thought we
had better wait a while. However
the
rain did not amount to much. By
noon it
cleared
off so we
started again. We
traveled until about
seven thirty that night when we saw a light about half a mile off our
trail. We
stopped and two of us went to see how
chances were for stopping. Those
two came
back with the good news that we could stop. The man who lived here was
a
bachelor by the name of Syke, a very friendly fellow who made us
welcome to
what accommodations he had. Next
morning, on looking over our wagons we noticed that the side of the
rack was broken. There
was nothing for it,
but to unload it
again, the fourth time since we left Gull Lake. However we fixed this up
in a way which we
should
have done before we left Gull Lake,
and we
would not have
had any trouble with it. We
started out
about 9:30
a.m.
getting
along fine all
day. We arrived at
within three miles of Westlake’s
home. They did not
know what kind of shape things
would be in at their place, having been away about six weeks threshing. The fellow who lived here
was another
bachelor by the name of John Lynch.
We
met him on the road to Gull Lake. He told us we could stop
at his place if we
felt like it. We
put the horses in and
then crawled into his shack through the window.
Next
morning, we hitched up again and got to Westlake’s
about ten
o’clock. Bob and I then went to
have a look at our
land and pick out a building spot.
We
got back about dusk, stayed all night, and next morning we got our
loads pulled
over. We started to
build our
shack. It took us
three days to put it
up. Things went
along nicely since then,
but I don’t think neither of us will ever forget our first
trip out to
the
homestead.
J. M. Murray
Clinworth, Sask
The application for patent was
filed on Dec.
26, 1912 at the Dominion Lands Office in
Swift Current, Saskatchewan and approved by the Dominion
Lands Office in
Maple Creek on the
26th May 1913.
Jack had lived on the land from
24
Oct 1909 to 24th April 1910, from 25th
Nov. 1910
to 16th
May 1911 and from 25th Nov. 1911 to 30 June 1912.
The rest of the
time was spent working in Moose Jaw as a farm labourer. He
lived in with his brother, Bob, until he
was able to build his frame house (12 feet by 20 feet).
He had a sod stable which was 16 feet by 26
feet.
From 1910 to 1912 he had broken
thirty
acres.
On the 31st
May 1926 when
he was thirty
eight years old he was married
Hazel Cora Sutton at 664 – 2nd
Ave. West in Swift Current, Saskatchewan .by. D. Cameron, a
Presbyterian
minister. They had
one daughter.
Jack
died on the
18th
September 1942 at age 55.
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