This Album includes people of all ages who lived, and sometimes worked, on the Bell Farm during the era that Major Bell was here (1882-1896) and afterwards.
The Bell Farm was a corporate venture, officially known as the Qu'Appelle Valley Farming Company, and included a number of investors, and employed many people, both for farm purposes and for construction and maintenance. Major Bell also employed a large number of Indigenous people to help operate his farm. The images in this Album focus on the people who worked and lived on the Farm. Images of and information on the Investors can be found in Album 300. The following Images are presented in alphabetical order, after the general farming photos and sketches.
RESEARCH PRIMARILY BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask. and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask.
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0001 - Bell Farm Cottage
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1883 - Workers at two of the Bell Farm Cottages
This Album includes people of all ages who lived, and sometimes worked, on the Bell Farm during the era that Major Bell here (1882-1896) and afterwards.The Bell Farm was a corporate venture, officially known as the Qu'Appelle Valley Farming Company, and included a number of investors and employed many people, both for farm purposes and for construction and maintenance. Major Bell also employed a large number of First Nation people to help operate his farm. The images in this Album focus on the people who worked and lived on the Farm. Images of and information on the Investors can be found in Album 300. The following Images are presented in alphabetical order, after the general farming photos and sketches.
SOURCES: A - B Thom, Wpg, photographer croppedRESEARCH PRIMARILY BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask. and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask.
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1883 - Bell Farm employees and binders at harvest time
Photo by: Bingham and Thom, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1883 -
1883 - Bell Farm employees breaking (plowing) virgin prairie soil.
Photo by: Bingham and Thom, Winnipeg, Manitoba, ca. 1883 - Stereoscopic view of plowing at the Bell Farm in the 1880s. Photo by Bingham and Thom, Winnipeg, Manitoba, official photographers of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Stereoscopic cards were popular at the turn of the 20th century to provide a three dimensional view when the card was inserted into a stereoscope. Source: Bell Family Collection - Shelagh Whitaker -
1883 - Plowing the Bell Farm - c1883
Sketch based on an as-yet unlocated photograph - Starting in 1882 men, horses and machinery began to plow the Bell Farm. Over 20 sulky plows at a time, arranged in staggering rows, travelled in one direction all morning, then turned around after lunch and returned to the starting point. Sources: http://ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=485908 – The New West – 1888, image 167 and 168 between p. 104 and 105 Research by: Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon and Frank Korvemaker, Regina -
1883 - Reaping on the Bell Farm - 1883Photo by Hall and Lowe, Winnipeg, Manitoba - As with plowing, harvesting the grain was done with multiple reapers, in excess of 20 at a time, working simultaneously in staggered rows. Everything was done on a large scale at the massive Bell Farm. Sources: Research by: Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon and Frank Korvemaker, Regina
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1883 - Sketch of Harvesting on the Bell Farm - 1883Sketch based on photo by Hall and Lowe - Sketch of Harvesting on the Bell Farm - 1883. The original photo on which this scene was based was taken by the Winnipeg photographic firm of Hall and Lowe (1883-1885). The sketch includes extra people not seen in the photograph, including the man on horseback, but the men on the binders are in the same position as those in the photo. Source: http://ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=485908 – The New West – 1888, image 167 and 168 between p. 104 and 105 Research by: Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon and Frank Korvemaker, Regina
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1883 - Unidentified Bell Farm employees and Major Bell (right), with one of the horses.Close-up view of one of the horses at the Bell Farm, in front of the stone house, with Major Bell on the right, wearing a dark jacket. Photo taken by Hall and Lowe of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Source: Bell Family Collection - Shelagh Whitaker
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1883 - Unidentified Bell Farm employees Harvesting.Photo ca. 1883
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1883 - Unidentified First Nation employees stooking on the Bell FarmMultiple units of men, horses and machinery harvesting wheat on the Bell Farm. Original Caption: Harvest Scenes on the Bell Farm, Indian Head, in the 1880s (Source: Saskatchewan and its People, Volume 2, by John Hawkes, 1924)
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1883 - Unidentified Indian woman on the Bell Farm c1883This First Nation woman is photographed near one of the large wooden barns on the Bell Farm, probably in 1883. Source: Bell Family Collection - Shelagh Whitaker
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1884 - Bell Farm employees plowing a field.Photo: McCord Museum, Notman Collection: V1384 - taken 1884 - Plowing on the Bell Farm in 1884. Nine teams of three horses each pull a single sulky plow through the virgin prairie soil. This form of mass plowing was one of the features of the corporate farm established by Major Bell and his investors at Indian head in 1882. Photo by William M. Notman, Montreal, for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Source: McCord Museum, View-1384 Research by: Frank Korvemaker, Regina
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1884 - Unidentified Bell Farm employees with horses by the south door of the Bell BarnPhoto: McCord Museum, Notman Collection: V1388 - taken 1884 - Source: McCord Museum Image V1388
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CALCRAFT, Joseph & Emma Calcraft family
PHOTO: Joseph Parnham Calcraft (back row, far right) and his parents and siblings in England, about 1899, several years before he sailed to Canada in 1903. Joseph and Emma Calcraft migrated from Hull, England to Canada in April 1903. Joseph was born in 1879, and died at age 77 in 1956. Emma Hammond (1877-1962) married Joseph on 19 June 1900. Both are buried in the Indian Head Cemetery. They had a daughter, Florence, in England, and four sons in Canada: Harold, Cyril, Charles and Francis. The Calcrafts initially lived and worked on land formerly part of the Bell Farm, then owned by Harry Campkin. In 1904 the family moved into town, where Joseph worked for A.M. Fraser, a local architect and contractor. Later he worked as a caretaker for the Indian Head School Board; and then took out a homestead to farm on his own.
SOURCES:
"INDIAN HEAD: History of Indian Head and District", p. 307-308 Marriage Announcement: 28 June 1900: Grantham Journal, p. 6 Calcraft family history: https://www.bottesfordhistory.org.uk/content/category/people/village-families/calcraft-family-at-home-and-abroad
RESEARCH BY:
Bill Pinfold, Sharnbrook, England; and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask. -
CAMPKIN, Harry H.
Harry Herbert Campkin (1869-1941) came to Indian Head in 1885 and started the first school in the community. According to a 1905 Des Moines newspaper article, he also worked at the Bell Farm for a while shortly after he arrived here. In 1892 he married Ida Lee, and in 1903 Harry and Roger Lee (Ida's father) bought the half section of farm land that included the Bell Farmhouse, round stone barn and other buildings. From about 1903 until 1910 Harry, Ida and their three children (Wilbert, Kathleen and Frances) lived in the stone farmhouse and made a number of improvements, including installation of electricity, hot water piping and (again) a telephone. The Campkins sold their interest in the farms, and moved to Regina in 1912, where Harry worked in general insurance and hail insurance. A member of the Indian Head Masonic Lodge since 1890, Harry Campkin was elected Worshipful Master of the Grand Lodge of Saskatchewan in 1906 and 1907. During the time that the Campkins owned the Bell Farmhouse, they also added a tennis court and enhanced the horticultural aspect of the property.
SOURCES:
"History of Indian Head and District", 1984, p. 310 http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=546366) Campkin photo: 1906 Compliments of: Grand Lodge of Saskatchewan, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Regina, Sask. Bell - Campkin Farmhouse photo - http://www.gallery.ca/sva/sk/ind_01/pg_14e.htm Indian Head school - http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=546130 "Des Moines Register" (Newspaper) July 5, 1905
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask.and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask.