If you should chance to go to Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan, and if the road should lead you west out of town along Highway 18, up a hill and around a sharp, tilted corner that locals avoid in winter, and if you should head north on the first road you encounter, and carry on up the groomed gravel road, you will come to a crossroad where Range Road 3041 meets Township Road 54. And, if you should happen to look towards the southeast corner, you will see a grove of tired trees, standing in a little hollow. You would not know, unless told, that in this little hollow over one hundred years ago the Ernest Fiset family had its tiny beginnings.
The year after arriving in Saskatchewan, Ernest was eager to claim his own land as soon as he was eligible. On December 2, 1913, still three weeks shy of his eighteenth birthday, Ernest travelled to Moose Jaw to apply for a quarter-section homestead at the Dominion Lands Office.[1]
He celebrated Christmas, marked his birthday, and rang in New Year’s; then, on January 2, 1914, exactly one month after his trip to Moose Jaw, he erected a frame 8 x 10 home (worth $65), which he lived in for the rest of the winter, until April 1. Although he didn’t break ground in 1914, he did keep livestock on the land. In the meantime, Ernest continued to labour and farm in the Laflèche area for other farmers and likely for his father, Pierre, returning to his homestead again for the winter, from October to April, to establish residency.
“Well, I worked for 20 cents a day room and board,” he explained to my mom in 1984, then added with a laugh, “You don’t get rich quick, eh?” One of his employers was a Norwegian, an “old guy” who, Ernest explained, rigged his big wagon with a small box on the back, and a big box on his little wagon. “And we were going to town and he got stuck in the crick by his place and I had to pull him out of there” with his horses.[2]
In 1915, he broke and cropped 30 acres of ground; in 1916 he cropped the same acreage, and then in 1917 he broke another 5 acres to crop the full 35.[3]
The Fiset family had moved to Saskatchewan in 1912 at an opportune time. The eruption of World War I two years later created an immediate demand for wheat; as a colony of Britain, the Dominion of Canada immediately became an important source of supplies and food to support the war effort. Ministry of Agriculture campaigns encouraged Canadian farmers to do their duty and increase wheat production, and, through a temporary war measure, created the Canadian Food Board to stabilize prices and market the wheat internationally. This increased demand, along with favourable growing conditions, meant that the farmers did extremely well.[4, 5]
While the government called for increased food production to show patriotism and support the Motherland, it also sought increasing numbers of military volunteers to enlist. When Prime Minister Borden enacted the Military Service Act in 1917, a promise was made to farmers that they would be exempt from the draft. However, in early 1918 Prime Minister Borden was under pressure to provide reinforcements to the troops overseas and he reneged on his promise. Farmers felt betrayed and warned of the negative impact this would have on the 1918 harvest.[6] While there was nearly a 20% decrease in wheat production between 1917 and 1918, the need for conscripts was deemed greater.[7]
It was just at this point, when Ernest had been granted his land free and clear, that he was drafted to the Canadian Expeditionary Forces.
Sources:
[1] Ernest Fiset “Application for Entry for a Pre-emption” No. 73625, December 2, 1913, SW Section 24, Township 5, Range 4, West of the 3rd Meridian
[2] Ernest Fiset interview with Beverly Inkster, August 1984.
[3] Ernest Fiset “Application for Entry for a Pre-emption (3085023), Sworn Statement of Ernest Fiset at Assiniboia, June 22, 1917 (Form No. 158).
[4] “Saskatchewan Wheat Pool” exhibit at Canadian Museum of History. Retrieved from https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/phase2/mod2e.html
[5] Djebabla, Mourad. (2013) “Fight or Farm”: Canadian Farmers and the Dilemma of the War Effort in World War I (1914-1918). Canadian Military Journal, 13(2). Retrieved from http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vol13/no2/page57-eng.asp
[6] ibid.
[7] Canada, Minister of Trade and Commerce. (1919). The Canada Year Book, 1918. Ottawa, ON: J. de Labroquerie Taché, p.xiii.
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