The photo features Henri Rudolph Roosmale Nepveu — the man standing beside the horse, on his horse ranch near Yorkton in 1889. Henri, who was a banker in his native Netherlands came to the Yorkton area in 1888, and within a year, had erected this log house and a horse ranch. He is part of a small group of Dutch immigrants who came from a privileged/prosperous background in the Netherlands, yet chose to settle into a more rugged life in the Canadian West. In 1892, Henri married Katherina, daughter of York Colony pioneers, Joel and Eliza Reaman. He is listed in the 1921 Town of Yorkton Directory as working in the Real Estate business and living at #64 Tupper Avenue. Katherina died in 1939 at the age of 64 and is interred in the Yorkton cemetery. On his retirement, Henri went to live with his daughter, Mrs. W. Whitehead in Winnipeg. He died at the age of 84 and was interred at Brookside Cemetery in that city.
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
heritage@yorkton.ca
