Station buildings completed — many structures in the course of erection —
This was the opening statement of the Yorkton Column in the Manitoba Daily Free Press of Winnipeg November 12, 1890:
The station buildings including tank, etc. are now almost completed, most of the carpenters having gone east. Among the buildings now in the course of erection at the new town site may be mentioned: Two stores Messrs. Livingstone and Thornton; a stone school, size 20 x 30 feet, inside, the walls are completed; and a livery stable. Several others have stated their intention of building. There is an opening here for a good hotel. Dr. Watson of this place has been attending to the Natives at Fort Pelly, reports a large number of cases of scarlet fever there, but all doing well. Delegates from Dakota, who were here some few weeks back, say that a number of families from that part will settle near here next spring. Several wells have been dug on the new town site, and an ample supply of good water obtained at an average depth of eighteen feet. A number of Danish families are also expected next spring to settle in New Denmark, a settlement about twenty miles from here. Mr. Wesley Jackson of Toronto, late of Wallace, is expected here shortly. He is bringing in a carload of horses. Owing to the exceptionally heavy yield of grain this year, the threshers are making slow progress. Revival services are being conducted at Orkney by the Rev Lawford and McKay. The Yorkton flour mill is running full time. The Yorkton school closes on the 18th instant. (More details next week about the new, second site of Yorkton).
Photos: the stone School on Argyle St., Thornton’s Store moved from the old Yorkton site; the station of the Manitoba & North Western Railway, and one of the Company’s locomotives of the 1890s. The flour mill at the first Yorkton site continued to be used for a few years.
Graphics by Callie Reid.
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
[email protected]
