At that time, Queen Victoria reigned over the British Empire. Canada had to get her permission on any major decisions such as the Treaties with the First Nations or other documents defining the formal organization of a corporate body. Important to the Yorkton area was the Charter of the York Farmers Colonization Company regarding the founding of York Colony in 1882 by Ontario businessmen, who would bring farmers from the British Isles and Ontario to settle here. The document outlined conditions, rights, responsibilities and privileges of the Company. However, Queen Victoria never visited Canada, so the charter does not bear her signature, instead Canadian government officials signed on her behalf.
It is interesting to see what was going on elsewhere in 1882, such as in England, Eastern and Western Canada and the USA. One event about Queen Victoria: On March 2, poet Roderick McLean, failed in his attempt to assassinate the Queen at Windsor. He had mailed her a poem and was hurt by her curt reply! August 18: The Married Women’s Property Act passed in Britain, giving women the right to buy and sell property and keep their own earnings. Other events: The Bell Farm at Indian Head was built by Major William Robert Bell. It consisted of 60,000 acres and a 16 room two storey stone house. Future Prime Minster Louis St. Laurent was born at Compton, Québec. He visited Yorkton when he was in power in July 1953. In Ontario, George Weston founded a major public company of foods and bakery products.-In the USA — Old West outlaw, Jesse James was shot and killed by Robert Ford in St. Joseph, Missouri. There was still the frontier vigilante lynching going on across our southern boundary in Montana in the 1880s. Edward H. Johnson, a friend of Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb was first to use electric lights to illuminate Christmas trees in New York.
Note: The Bell Farm’s historic round barn at Indian Head, Saskatchewan has been restored by the Bell Farm Society established in 20
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
