Blenkin, Thomas and Rose Anna - Bell Farm employees
Thomas Blenkin was born in Clinton, Ontario in 1869; Rose Anna Newstead was born in 1868, also in Ontario, likely near Haliburton.
Rose Anna moved West in 1880, eventually settling north of Balcarres, then to the Red Fox District, near Sintaluta, where she met Thomas Blenkin. Thomas Blenkin came West in 1891, settling south of Sintaluta in the Durham District. They were married in March 1892, and began married life working as a couple on the Bell Farm. Their son, Abraham was born on Feb. 5, 1893 - and probably also lived on the Bell Farm. Abraham was killed in a farm accident in 1908, at age 15.
In 1897 the Blenkin family began to homestead on their own land in the Red Fox District, also near Sintaluta.
In 1913 Thomas Blenkin accepted a job as farm instructor at the federal government's Indian Agency on the Assiniboine Reserve, SW of Sintaluta. He resigned in 1918, discouraged with the lack of progress in teaching farming to the aboriginal people.
Thomas Blenkin died in December 1940; Rose Anna lived another 27 years, and died a month after she turned 100.
SOURCES:
"Tales of the Red Fox: history of Assiniboine Reserve, Town of Sintaluta, Districts of Allindale, Durham, Blackwood, Red Fox and Spring Coulee", p. 306-309.
RESEARCH BY:
Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Saskatchewan