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Leslie & Area
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Leslie is a village of about 20 people located east of
the Quill Lakes.
The following story and poem were reprinted with permission from the 1983 history book, "From Prairie Trails to the Yellowhead". We thank the History Book Committee for their work in preserving our past. VILLAGE OF LESLIE Submitted by John Goodman After the steel reached Leslie in 1908, it made a good start. It now had two grocery stores, and people gradually moved in to build houses and small businesses. Grain was hauled in from the south quite a distance and from the north as far as Fishing Lake. In a few years the following business ventures were established. Besides the two stores there was a hardware, restaurant, machinery sales, blacksmith shop, hotel and a bar. There were two churches, a pool hall and a barber shop. There was even a town policeman and jail and a coffee shop. Dr. Sigurdur Julius Johannsson settled and homesteaded and had a drugstore, livery barn, harness shop, a tinsmith, and a butcher shop. Wilhelm Paulson started a hardware. The Canadian Bank of Commerce set up a bank. A Crown lumber yard was set up with Herman Nordal as manager. W. H. Paulson became' an MLA liberal for several terms and Leslie became quite a social centre. It had a noted choir, led by Bjorgvius Gudmundson. They were noted all along the line from Foam Lake to Dafoe. Leslie used to have a midwinter gathering called 'Thorrablot," an Icelandic feast originated centuries back. It was patronized all the way from Dafoe to Foam Lake. This was the "golden age" of Leslie, and lasted from about the year 1910 until the depression years of the thirties. There was a settlement of Irish north and west of Leslie in the early days. They were more for horse ranching than for cattle, the Icelanders specialized in cattle. There was a story once told in the Leslie Hall. That in spite of the fact that as history relates, the Icelanders are 30 percent Irish dating back about 1200 years. They seemed to be a bit suspicious, or distrusted each other. So much so that if an Icelander had lost a cow, he would say the Irish have stolen it. And if an Irishman lost a horse, they would say the Icelanders must have stolen it. But now the times have changed. The Irish and Icelanders have socialized, and inter-married to the extent that no one can recognize a horse thief from a cattle rustler, and they lived happily ever after. There were two periods of settlement in our district. In the first period, only the even numbered sections were open to entry, and two sections were set aside for the Hudson Bay Co. Sections 8 and 26, sections 11 and 29 were school lands out of each township. But in 1908 and 1909, all the other odd numbered sections were thrown open to homesteading. This almost doubled the population in the districts. This also brought in a better balance of nationality, as it should be. But still an Icelandic community developed in the Leslie district as these names testify. The Sigbjornsons, Soffanias, Johann, Sigbjorns, and Sigurdur, Baldwin Johnson, Pjetur Anderson, Eigill Anderson, Steve Anderson, Hannes Lindal, Paul Gudmundsson, Steini Gudmundson, Mike Magnusson, Halldor Gislason, Larus Sigurbjornson, Rev. Runolfur Fjeldstead, Arman Solvason, Hjalman Josefson, Arthur Hogsden, Eirikur Davidson, Thomas Halldorson. This all led to the building of an active and lively community as many of these people were good leaders. A Ladies Aid lodge was organized that lasted about 50 years, and did a lot of good. Leslie also had a strong baseball team at one time. Leslie was known for having strong competitors to Wynyard in different sports. When Wynyard celebrated their Icelander’s Day on August 2, a national Icelander's holiday, there were many good leaders among the Leslie residents. There was W. H. Paulson, Dr. S. J. Julius, Bjorgvin Gudmundsson with the choir, and talented singers such as Paul Magnusson, Halldor Gislason, Albert Peterson, just to count a few. But there was another side of the picture, not all of those that took homesteads were really farm minded. They had planned to get a patent to the land and sell, and take up something else. Some were single men on the move. So when this happened the population started to thin out. The ones that wanted to farm, mortgaged their farms in most cases, to buy equipment and build better homes. Only those that have been through this can grasp how difficult a position that puts the mortgagee in, when he had no control over the price he got for his product and there was the weather, frost, and rust, drought and low prices. A big percentage lost their farms to the mortgage companies in the thirties. So with the dwindling population and a small trading area, the Leslie village had to shrink too.
LESLIE People came to Canada into the prairie west, They came upon a little creek and settled down to rest. They brought their goods and chattels, they brought their kids and dogs, They waited for the railroad, built homes of sod and logs. In nineteen-nine a town was born, the rails, they came right thru, The people came and settled down, the town just grew and grew. A church, a school, a hardware store, a constable and jail, A smithy, lumber yard and bank, a post office for mail. Leslie progressed as time went by, the elevators came, As prairie sod was broken up, the farmers grew the grain. Water, power and a garbage man were part of the Leslie scene, The power to light the Village up, the man to keep it clean. Dogs were tagged, and owners too, progressiveness abounded, From nineteen-nine to twenty five, the province was astounded. Then early in the thirties, fire struck our town, Twice it rampaged thru the streets, businesses burnt down. It never did recover from this calamity, It struggled thru the following years and did it valiantly. Sixties and seventies we progressed to running water and sewer, We felt quite modern, don't you know, could anything be newer? But now in the nineteen eighties, it's dwindled to a few, Slowly the businesses gave up and there was nothing new. It's just a burg, some people scoff, why have all the fuss? But they can keep their city streets for this is home to us.
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