MOONEY, William Thomas - Bell Farm employee
William Mooney was born in 1871, and moved to Indian Head from Ontario in 1892. He married Mary ________, and they had five children: John, Alice, Henry, Elizabeth and William Donald. John died on Christmas Day, 1903; and William Donald died at 3 months old in 1905. Both are buried at Indian Head.
William homesteaded SE of Indian Head, near the SE corner of the Bell Farm. His immediate neighbours included brothers Samuel and George Mooney, possibly relatives who homesteaded in the 1880s, and were the reason William settled in this region.
A report in the 1955 issue of the "Regina Leader-Post" provides this history for William T. Mooney: “William Mooney was born on a 100 acre bush farm in Huron County, Ontario, in 1871. He first came west on a harvest train in 1889. He was impressed with the west, but was unable to remain permanently until 1892 when he arrived at Indian Head with a team of horses, a little furniture and enough lumber to build a 12 x 18 shack. He plowed for a month on the Bell farm (a large farm development undertaken by a group of Englishmen) for $2 per acre, and was able to make a small payment on a quarter of C.P.R. land where he built a shack. When he began to break the land it proved to be extremely stoney.”
SOURCES:
"Regina Leader Post" - Feb 26, 1955 - pg 13
1901 Census - http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/1901/z/z004/jpg/z000180840.jpg
Regina Oil Refinery: “People and Progress: A Co-op Story”, p. 144 – ref. to Mooney as a founding member
“History of Indian Head and District”: p. 118 – Mooney on founding board of Indian Head Methodist Church, 1898
Grand Coulee / Pense history, p. 126 – “Early history of Saskatchewan churches (grass roots). Book I “– Mooney on Methodist Church board, c.1905
Indian Head Homestead Map: William T. Mooney: SW 10,Twp. 18, Rge 12, W2m
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon., Sask. and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask.