W.C. McAusland
In the spring of 1892, W.C. McAusland left Sarnia, Ontario, to "go west." Like others, he was looking for land that his sons could farm. After arriving in Prince Albert, he worked for J.M. Campbell at Flett's Springs during the summer. He took out a homestead on NE 1/4 36-44-19. Later in the fall, his son Bill and stepson Jack Taylor brought out a carload of horses and settlers' effects. In November, his wife, Frances, and the children, Bertha, Emma, Mindana and Selsby arrived after a long and difficult journey by rail. The family was storm stayed in Moose Jaw for one month while they waited for the tracks to be cleared of snow. The youngest son, Crawford, then fifteen, came the following spring, travelling alone in the boxcar with the livestock. It was a lonely journey for such a young boy. Later, Crawford homesteaded on the SW 1/4 2-45-19. Crawford's house was a sod-roofed shack with a board floor under the table and stove. The following summer, they hauled logs from the Star City area to build their house and a granary. In 1895, a small building with a windmill was built to house a wind-powered grain grinder to grind grain for their cattle, and for anyone else in the settlement.
The area around Melfort was lacking in a good supply of timber for buildings; therefore, trips were made to the Star City area to collect the logs needed for building. Crawford remembers hauling the logs that were used to build the first Vaughan school.
With no roads in existence, a trip to Prince Albert required the best part of a week. The trail travelled through the Carrot River Valley, past J.M. Campbell's "Old Fort Farm" on the Carrot River, and then to Fenton near Birch Hills.
Since there were no medical doctors nearer than Prince Albert, Frances McAusland spent a great deal of time as a midwife and practical nurse. People came from far away to bring her to their homes. She never left her home without taking some food for the family, clean sheets, warm blankets, and some of her herbs. Her family remembers waking many mornings to find that someone had come for her in the night, and she would be gone for several days. After Dr. Shadd arrived, her son Bill would be sent on horseback to fetch the doctor to assist the family in need.
In the summer, Frances grew herbs in her garden, and made home remedies for common illnesses. In 1894, Frances was a member of the Carrot River Valley Agricultural Society at Kinistino, and would enter her plants and flowers in the local horticultural show.
In 1898, W.C. McAusland left for the Klondike to search for gold. He and several others chose a route through the north of Saskatchewan and then over to the Klondike. Ill fortune befell them, and they lost their way and were forced to spend the winter in the North. Several died of scurvy but others made it to Edmonton. They then boarded a train headed for Vancouver and went by boat to the Yukon. W.C. McAusland was not heard from and was given up for lost, until, one day, he came walking across the yard in time for lunch. When he arrived home, he said that there was more gold to be found in the richness of the black loam in the Carrot River Valley than in the Yukon.
The family tradition of farming is carried on to this day. W.C. McAusland's grandson Clarance, great-granddaughter Frances and her husband, Art, still farm part of the original homestead.
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