| Name | Arthur Edmund McKAGUE |
| Alias/AKA | Art143 |
| Occupation | Streetcar Conductor, Drayman, Farmer30,144,143 |
| Birth Date | Oct 14, 1877143,27,28 |
| Birth Place | Cramahe Twp, Northumberland Co. ON Canada |
| Death Date | May 5, 19572,143 |
| Death Place | Regina SK Canada |
| Burial Place | Ogema SK Canada30,144,2,143 |
| Burial Memo | Ogema Cemetery |
| Education | Mount Pleasant School30,144 |
| Religion | Baptist, then United Church143 |
| Father | Robert James McKAGUE (1836-1920) |
| Mother | Caroline EAGLESON (1846-1925) |
| 1 | Edith Mary KNIGHT |
| Birth Date | Oct 17, 1877143 |
| Birth Place | ON Canada |
| Death Date | Jan 21, 1944144,2,143 |
| Death Place | Regina SK Canada |
| Death Memo | Regina hospital; stroke |
| Burial Date | Jan 24, 19442 |
| Burial Place | Ogema SK Canada |
| Burial Memo | Ogema Cemetery, from Ogema United Church |
| Occupation | Homemaker144,143 |
| Religion | Baptist, then United Church143 |
| Father | William KNIGHT (1854-1921) |
| Mother | Martha BONNEY |
| Marriage Date | Apr 9, 1902144,143 |
| Marriage Place | Winnipeg MB Canada |
| Children | Mable May (1903-1945) |
| Frank Russell (1906-1976) | |
| George Kenneth (1915-1985) | |
| Audrey Grace |
When he was a small boy, his arm was burned accidentally with hot maple syrup spilled by his mother while they were tapping trees and making maple syrup. The arm was bent at right angles, but his mother made him carry a pail with sand in it to straighten his arm, gradually increasing the amount of sand30,144 Later in life he always wore long-sleeved shirts, so only his immediate family knew of the injury. He later carved his initials on a tree near the swamp, and they could still be recognized in 1979.144
He went to western Canada about 1900, perhaps as a stowaway in the freight car used by Charles May to ship his belongings west.30,144He ended up in Winnipeg, where he got a job as a streetcar conductor. Then he wrote to Edith and aked her to come west. She did, and they were married and had their first two children.144
In 1908 the family moved to Saskatchewan, taking the train to Moose Jaw, which was then the end of the line. Arthur probably worked as a drayer for a while. Then they set out for their new land, SW 5-7-21-W2145,144,30, in the Norton Municipality, about 80 miles southeast of Moose Jaw. They travelled on a hayrack pulled by a team of horses, with a cow tied behind and all their possessions piled on the hayrack.144
Audrey McKague Leonard's recollections:
"Yes, my parents were true pioneers. They lived in a sod house lined with boards and whitewashed walls. In 1911 my Mother with the two children took lunch out to my Dad in the field. Coming back she saw smoke and by the time she got home there was very little of their home left. She was unable to save anything. They had acquired another quarter of land N.W. 31-6-21 in The Gap Municipality. It was directly south of the land they already had. They built a small home on that property as it was closer to water. All of this land they acquired was virgin soil. The terrain was slightly rolling and almost treeless. What a difference from the area in Ontario where they came from. From then on it was work. My Dad farmed with horses. His brother Hedley came out to that area after my Dad did. They had land adjoining one another and so did a lot of work together. My parents finally had a section of land. This land was in three Municipalities: Norton, Bengough and The Gap. My Dad had a love for horses. At one time he helped break horses. He had one team that he raised from colts, they were Maud and Prince. He was very proud of them. Over the years they had cattle. That was a lot of work but provided them with all the milk and butter they needed. My Mother raised chickens and turkeys. They hadn't lived in their second home very long when a cyclone lifted the roof off and carried it out into the field. Then the rain poured in. It must have been heartbreaking."144
"In the early years of homesteading they got their mail at a small village called Forward about 35-40 miles away. My Dad would put a box on a stoneboat, hitch up the team and away he would go for staples and the mail. Needless to say they would go quite a while without mail. In the early years of homesteading there was a trail called the Willowbunch Trail that went right by my parents' home. That meant people that had quite a distance to go would stop over for food and sometimes the night. I am sure my parents would be glad of visitors once-in-a-while. Settlers gradually came to the area from different parts of the world. Their closest neighbours in time were still a mile away. Hedley [Arthur's brother] and Florence were two miles away. Somewhere in the middle twenties they got a tractor and for awhile farmed with both the horses and the tractor. I remember the water barrel sitting by the cook stove (the only source of heat) and my Dad would keep filling the barrel with snow or bring in pieces of ice cut from the nearby lake (really a slough) so there would be water for washing, bathing or whatever. We did have a well that provided drinking water. Some days the weather was so cold the windows were completely frozen over and the bedpan would be frozen too, but it was sure better than using the outhouse. One of the outstanding things I remember was the big garden my Mother had. Oh yes, Dad tilled the soil and when there wasn't enough rain he would haul barrels of water from the well for the garden but Mother worked and worked in that garden and I am sure it was a labour of love. I don't think there was a garden to equal it, not in that area anyway. Of course this is what kept us nourished the year around what with so much storing vegetables and preserving. That was called mixed farming, a far cry from the farming done now in 1966. It was a rewarding style of living. Before that, after the town of Ogema was formed, we would go in a buggy or democrat drawn by horses. It was 8 miles to Ogema but we didn't mind as it was a way of life and we didn't know any different. In the winter we travelled in a sleigh or cutter drawn by horses. We would heat stones, later charcoal, and put them in a foot warmer for our feet. Usually we had fur robes to cover the rest of us. Oftentimes there would be frost around our faces. The horses would prance along and usually they had bells on their harness, so really it wasn't as much of a hardship as some may think. We got our first car about 1927, a Model T. When we got it, Mother tried to drive but, the only time she tried, she hit the gatepost and that was the end of that."144
"Most of the children were brought into the world by midwives. Doctors were non-existent during the early years when my parents came to Saskatchewan and for many years more. When a Doctor did come, he traveled for miles and miles to the homes by horse and buggy in summer and by cutter in winter."144
"In 1915 [Note: possibly 191491] the Lyons School (named after our neighbours) was built. Mable and Frank were two of the first pupils. It was only one room with one entrance for the boys and another for the girls and separate cloakrooms as well. It was heated in winter with a pot bellied coal and wood stove. There was one teacher for eight grades of 35-40 pupils. There was a barn for horses as some students came from as far as four miles away. Oh, yes, there were two outhouses. I can still vision the snow piled on the seat and at times you could hardly shut the door. For toilet paper Eaton's catalogue came in handy. The school was less than a mile from my home. The teachers boarded with residents in the area, mostly with Meads to start with and then at the McKague home. I would walk to school with the teacher and he or she had to start the fire in winter. Some years holidays were taken in the winter rather than summer because of the cold weather and also because some children were needed at home to help with the work. The school was the central point of the community. Church services were held there as were other gatherings. Christmas concerts were a big highlight. I remember my Dad acting in a play 'Here comes Charlie.' He was hilarious. My Dad helped to get the school started and was on the [Lyons] School Board for years. Both my parents were raised in a Christian home and they helped establish church services in the school."144
"In later years my parents joined the Ogema United Church. They had hoped over the years there would have been a Baptist Church established in the area but that didn't happen. Saturdays were busy at my parents' home as we had to prepare meals and do baking as Sunday was the Sabbath at their home. It was a day for church, rest and sometimes visiting the neighbours. Many years when Christmas and New Years rolled around we would alternate celebrating those days with the Hedley McKague family. They had three girls, Dorothy, twins Margaret and Marion, and one boy Stuart."144
"In 1929 my parents had a new house built. Mother designed it with a big kitchen and dining room combined, a pantry and washroom off of that, a good sized front room and master bedroom on the main floor plus a glassed in verandah. Upstairs were three bedrooms and a sewing room. Quite a palace for us and I am sure some of the neighbours envied us. I was nine when we moved in. A few farmers had bigger barns than houses. Not us. Our barn was nothing to be proud of. One day a storm came up and it picked up all kinds of boards from the barn and they flew past the corner of the glassed in veranda. Not a window pane was broken. Many times we would hold pillows against the windows to keep them from breaking when there was a hailstorm. My Dad used to say if we could get past August 4th we would be safe from a hailstorm damaging the crops."144
"I am not sure how many parents were able to get a piano in those days. All four of us children had an opportunity to learn to play, but I was the only one that really took an interest. I was fortunate enough to take music lessons and for several years went to Ogema where there was a music teacher. At first the lessons were paid for with eggs and butter. I was the only one at the school that could play and so it was my job to sit at the old pump organ and play for the Christmas concerts. As I pumped, mice would scurry out from around the pedals. My Mother loved music and encouraged me. Nearly every Sunday I would play hymns and we would both sing. My Mother sang alto and I soprano. Many times when I was practicing, my Dad would go out to the barn to smoke his pipe or chew snuff."144
"As Mable and Frank were so much older than Ken and I, it was difficult to believe we were brothers and sisters. Especially with Mable leaving home first to go to Normal School in Moose Jaw and then a couple of years later Frank did the same. Ken and I probably were as close as a brother and sister could be. I really got to know my sister Mable better after she was married. Her husband Jim Stillwell was a teacher, had a B.A. Degree which was quite something in those days. Well, he would go into Regina every summer to mark exam papers and Mable and the children would come home for the summer holidays. They had three boys, Ben, Murray, Mark and a daughter Emily. I was the baby sitter then. My brother Frank taught school in the surrounding area and married a school teacher, Mabel Ranson. Frank had lived at home for a few years while teaching and commuted to work. That was when I got to know him better."144
"My parents were farming in the 1930's, called the Dirty Thirties. Many farmers left seeking a better place to live. My parents stuck it out and I don't ever remember a day that we didn't have enough to eat. It was hard to keep stock because of the lack of feed, but somehow they managed. Their garden always produced something, many didn't because they didn't work as hard. To help the people survive, apples were shipped from British Columbia to the prairies and dried cod fish came from the east coast. A family by the name of Wyatt would have starved to death and practically gone naked if it hadn't been for my Mother. I hadn't seen anyone so poor. She fed them at our place twice a week and usually sent garden produce home with them. Mother sewed and sewed, making over clothes for the girls from garments I had outgrown. It seemed as though they couldn't do anything right to help themselves, even when other farmers were getting fairly good crops. In those years there were a lot of gophers and we could sell the tails for one cent a piece. One cent meant a lot in those days. Rabbits were caught and skinned and the hides sold for next to nothing (5� skinned frozen rabbits). We did anything to make a few cents."144
"This would not be complete without mentioning how much my Dad loved to curl. In those days each curler had to purchase his own set of rocks and my Dad's got lots of use. My Mother belonged to the Sunny South Homemakers Club. She was the one who thought up the name for the Club. Dad and Mother had a very small home in Ogema. Some winters we moved to town and a hired man stayed on the farm and did chores. Since the Lyons School was often closed for two winter months, my parents moved to town so that our education would go on. That was when my Dad did his curling and Mother was able to socialize with other women. Kenneth was doing most of the farming by 1943, so Dad and Mother permanently moved to Ogema to live in the little house. I don't think my Mother was ready for that as the house was so small compared to the one on the farm. That was the fall of 1943. I remember Mother trying so hard to have a nice Christmas in that small place, she even had some of the furniture moved to the barn to give us more room. [She died less than a month later.] Dad continued to live there for 13 years. When he felt he could no longer live alone, he encouraged us to move back to Regina from Sardis, B.C. so he could live with us. Since some of his old friends were in Regina, Dad thought he would know people there. As it turned out, his friends of the olden days had established a life of their own and he felt let down. He actually lost the desire to live and died seven months after coming to live with us."144
BIRTH: The year of Arthur's birth is confirmed.2 He is shown as 13 in the 1891 census.20
MARRIAGE: The date of Arthur's marriage to Edith is confirmed.144 It is also given simply as Apr 1902,6 2 and as 1902.30,84
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1891 census entry:
McKAGUE, Robert 55 farmer, Caroline 44, William 20, Ida 15, Arthur 13, John 10, James 8, Charles 6, Ella 520