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Description archivistique
Milo Library Archives Land, settlement and immigration*
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Queenstown collection

  • CA MILO QTN
  • Collection
  • 1887 - ?

Around 1887, an Irish surveyor planned to organize a colonization company in the Snake Valley, and he named his chosen site Queenstown, after his birthplace in Ireland. Of the 3 settlers who came with him in 1889, only Mr William Brown stayed in the area. By 1907, he and his family had been joined by several other homesteaders, including Willard F. Durston, Nels Nelson and Peder Solis, and within a year there was an official Post Office and the area’s first school, Queenstown School District #1798.

When the railway came through the area in 1926, the CPR was unable to make a deal with the landowner of their preferred depot location. The station was instead built a few miles north and west of the existing school, and the community that sprang up beside it became the village of Queenstown. The school building was moved to the south edge of the town site and expanded to two rooms, and by 1931 the population of the ‘unincorporated hamlet’ had grown to 125. The streets were graded and in good condition, and amenities included restaurants, hardware and general stores; a hotel, barber shop, bank, and butcher; garage, lumber yard, and implement dealership. The post-war years saw the addition of several shops and services, including a branch of the Royal Canadian Legion and a small community lending library. An important contributor to the town and the surrounding area was the Queenstown Seed Cleaning Plant, which opened in 1960.

When Queenstown School closed in 1952, much of the town’s industry relocated to Milo and other communities. A few businesses struggled on, but within a decade they, too, had closed. While some of the buildings were repurposed, such as the Bank building which was moved to Rocky Buttes to serve as a school room, Queenstown’s main street became a virtual ghost town. The abandoned buildings fell into a state of such disrepair, in 1971 the Women’s Institute petitioned Vulcan County to see to their demolition. A large hole was dug and the smaller buildings were bulldozed into it, and then burned. The larger buildings along Main Street were burned, with their rubble then bulldozed into the hole. The grain elevators remained in use until rail service was discontinued in the late 1990s; the Queenstown Seed Cleaning Plant continued operating in its original facility until it was rebuilt near Milo in 1993.

The collection consists of minute books, correspondence, financial information, photographs, a hand-drawn map, a photocopied 1931 insurance survey map and report regarding the village of Queenstown.

The collection has been divided into the following series: Community Hall, Hotel, School, Seed Cleaning Plant, Women’s Institute, Maps.

One Room Schools collection

  • CA MILO ORS
  • Collection
  • 2009 - 2013

Since 1908, the area around Milo has been home to 14 one-room schools. School districts were established when a group of three or more ratepayers petitioned the Provincial Ministry of Education, and there generally had to be at least five eligible students within a 4-5 mile radius.

The first one-room schools in the area were established at Queenstown (April 1908) and Pioneer (June 1908), and they were quickly followed by Liberty (1909), Corbie Hill and Willard (1910), Lake McGregor (1912) and Eastway (1913). East Majorville was established in 1917 (though it didn’t open until 1920), then Giffen and Kirkdale (1918), Fawn Hill (1919), Rocky Buttes (1921), Sunny Lake (1922) and finally Robertson (1928). Enrollment at the schools ranged from five to twenty-five students, and occasionally if the numbers dropped too low, a school might close for a year until enrollment increased. Since many of the students travelled long distances each day, schools were often closed when the weather was bad, with the missed time being made up in the summer. Closures due to epidemics lasted anywhere from a few weeks to several months. Most schools offered grades 1-8, after which students who wanted to continue their education had to travel to – or board in – a larger community. In 1926 Queenstown School moved into town and became a two-room school, going through to grade 12.

Corbie Hill and Kirkdale were the first of the one-room schools to close, both in 1937, and in 1938 supervision of the remaining schools was taken over by Bow Valley School Division #43. Consolidation became the guiding principle, and by the end of World War II the only one-room school left in the Milo area was East Majorville, which closed in 1952. A van was used to transport the children from Pioneer, Liberty and Rocky Buttes School Districts into Milo.

The collection consists of Minute Books, Daily Registers, correspondence and Assessments and Tax Rolls from some of the one-room school districts in the Milo area.

The collection has been arranged into the following series: Bow Valley School Division #43, Liberty, Pioneer, Rocky Buttes.

Majorville collection

  • CA MILO MAJ
  • Collection
  • 2009-2013

Majorville refers to an area north east of the village of Milo. The post office that was opened in 1908 on the homestead of WJ Burns was originally called Liberty, and Liberty School served the surrounding community from 1910-1939. Postal services suffered some confusion with Liberty, Saskatchewan, and in 1911 the decision was made to change the post office name. Dan H. Shaw, Post Master at that time, had been a Major in the Cavalry during the Boer War and the post office was re-named for his rank. Unfortunately there was again confusion with a like-named Saskatchewan town, and in 1915 the post office became known as Majorville. Like most rural post offices it was often located in the home of the Post Master, and as the position changed hands, so did the location. Majorville Post Office moved many times during its 60 years of operation, sometimes only from one side of the road to the other. It had its own building by 1919, when it was officially known as the Majorville Store and Post Office. Gas pumps were added in 1928. The building itself was relocated and / or rebuilt several times, with its last ‘new premises’ built in 1958. The Majorville Store remained in operation until around 1975, but Majorville Post Office was closed in July 1970, with a promise from Canada Post to provide regular mail service by rural delivery. Customers in the Majorville and neighbouring Queenstown areas have since used the Milo Post Office for parcels and specialized postal services.

The collection consists of 2 post office registers (1924-1939, 1939-1962) and Registered Letter Bills (1945, 1946, 1948) from the village of Majorville, as well as one photograph of the general store (W. Huskin’s Groceries) ca 1938.