Ann Norgan, former Moosomin town council member, former chair of the library board, former teacher, and life-long educator has taken it upon herself to unearth portraits of every single mayor the town of Moosomin has had since 1889 and put them on display at the Moosomin town library.
“I am a former chair of the library board and former town council member for 18 years (1994-2012) and really that is what piqued my interest in the mayors of the past. I discovered a couple of boxes in the basement (of the town offices) that had quite a few, very interesting old photos of mayors, but the frames were broken and some were not in frames, glass was broken, some were water stained,” said Norgan.
The discovery of these photos then led to a restoration project for Norgan. It became clear that as the years went on, less attention was paid to preserving the history of the mayors of Moosomin.
“So, in 2017 I took it upon myself to try and complete all the mayors from 1889 to the present time. (The older ones) Most of them were there but as you got closer to the present, there were quite a few missing, so it took a lot of tracking down family members in other parts of Canada to get a picture and one I never did get,” said Norgan.
With the project not completed for a 2017 school reunion, Norgan took up the project again this year and she found her missing photograph.
“I just worked on the project again this year and I just found a newspaper picture so, that one missing person is included,” said Norgan.
The photo is one of Dr. Sinclair Jamieson who served as mayor of Moosomin in the year 1952. All that Norgan could find was a photo published in a newspaper.
“He was a dentist here for a very long time and I could not understand why I could not find a picture of him somewhere in the community. I am going to try again (to get one) from one of his sons,” said Norgan.
But, for now, the photograph taken from a newspaper will suffice.
Norgan was impressed with the work that went into some of the older photos.
“You will notice somebody went to a lot of work in the past, because some of them have lovely calligraphy of the names and some of the old frames are very nice,” said Norgan.
History comes to the Library
After years of finding and restoring photographs, Norgan approached the library and the display went up.
“About a week ago finally, I could hang in the library all the mayors of Moosomin right up to the present,” said Norgan.
These photos are a record of the people who felt a sense of duty to the town of Moosomin. In the case of the Bradley family, that sense of duty stretched across two generations.
Lloyd Bradley served multiple non-consecutive terms as mayor between 1955 and 1984.
“Mayor Lloyd Bradley who was the mayor for a long time, he certainly brought a lot of improvements and new things to Moosomin. For example, we had a paved Main Street in the early 1960s when, I don’t think any other town of our size, actually had a paved Main Street and he certainly encouraged businesses to come to town,” said Norgan.
His son, Don Bradley, would follow in his father’s footsteps and also serve multiple terms between 1988 and 2012.
Norgan speaks with great admiration about another long serving mayor, namely Gordon Wright who served as mayor of Moosomin from 1936 to 1951 and then again from 1953 to 1954.
“Can you imagine serving (The town) from 1936 to 1951, through the worst part of the Great Depression, the Second World War and into the 1950s. He certainly had a difficult time. Gordon Wright certainly inspires me. As a kid, I knew him as a pharmacist. He was a quiet man he was business like, I can’t imagine him leading the community through all those difficult years. I would say I certainly admire him,” said Norgan.
Saskatchewan history
In some cases, the time some of these mayors spent in office seem short, but Norgan said that could be misleading.
“Now, the old boys, way back, like A.S. Smith seems like he just served as mayor for a year, but this man served three terms as the MLA in the Northwest Territory government and the Saskatchewan government. So, it wasn’t that he just jumped into politics and then jumped right out,” said Norgran.
The one thing that all the mayors seem to have in common, is a vested interest in the town’s well being.
“Some of these men, when you read the Moosomin history, they were very prominent business men and professional men,” said Norgan.
There are also some who serve as a reminder of the sacrifices that were made by the people of Moosomin during certain time periods in history.
“One that I might mention is Dr. A.W. Tanner who lost his life in the First World War. He was a surgeon in the community. The war had a very big effect on a lot of people,” said Norgan.
Dr A.W. Tanner served as mayor from 1911 to 1914 before he went to war.
In the case of the first mayor of Moosomin, Joseph (Jos) Daniel, civic duty was a family trade.
“He was also the first post master of the community. His daughter, Ruby Donald, was the leader of the Girls Patriotic Club who were very involved in raising funds to send things to prisoners of war, they also did the fundraising for the fence around the cemetery and they contributed to the cenotaph. They were a very involved group of young women during the time of the First World War,” said Norgan.
Modern History
Then there were the men that Norgan had the pleasure of working with personally during her time on town council. Norgan was on council from 1994 until 2012.
“The ones that I worked with during my time with council was Mayor Don Bradley. Larry Miskiman (who served as mayor from 2006 to 2009) got on council when I did and (current mayor) Larry Tomlinson was on council with me before he became mayor,” said Norgan.
Norgan joined council as a way to give back to the town.
“Moosomin is a great place to live, and this is where I worked my whole career, we raised our family here, so I thought, well, I want to give back to the community. So, I ran for council not thinking I would get in the first time because I was still working, but I did get in and I certainly enjoyed my time on council and I chaired several committees and I really appreciated working with the members of council all those years,” said Norgan.
Norgan was vice-principal of MacLeod School for the last six years of her teaching career before retiring and subbing in Moosomin and surrounding areas
This being an election year, Norgan felt it was a good time to display the names and faces of the men who have held the office of mayor in Moosomin.
“I thought it was a good time to have it up. So, with this being an election year I thought well hopefully some people will drop by the library and come and have a look,” said Norgan.
The display will be up for a limited time at the Moosomin library.
