George Hollenback ~ Waverley's First Reeve

sourced from "Waverley Generations" (2005)

In 1904 George Hollenback along with his wife Dena and two children Myrtle and Gerald moved to the Wood Mountain area from White River, South Dakota. They were also joined by Dena's parents, Anna and Oman Offerson and brothers Turbin and Jack Offerson.

In 1907 they moved a little further west and squatted on land that was the former N-N Ranch and now the present Triple Z Ranch home quarter. The Offerson's first lived in a dugout cellar left by the N-N and later built an adobe house and barn and the Hollenback's squatted just to the north.

Soon after, George Hollenback filed on a new place to the west (Darrel & Katherine Petersen's current home quarter) where he first built an adobe and then later a "big white house". Their third child, Pat, was born after they moved to the new place.

George was a rancher and owned shares of cattle and horses as well as ran a herd of 3000 head of sheep.

In 1913 George was elected as the first Reeve of the new RM of Waverley #44 and upon the request of Dena he had land set aside for the Mountain View Cemetery which she named. Dena's brother Turbin was the first person buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in 1915. Dena passed away in 1925 and was also buried there.

George was also a founding member of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers which is celebrating it's 100th AGM this year. He was also the Indian Agent for the Wood Mountain Reserve as he knew how to speak Sioux.

After Dena's passing George moved to Montana with Myrtle and Pat and later remarried and ranched south of Glasgow on the Missouri River.


**Pictures & Stories Wanted**
If you have any pictures, documents, stories or other items that have a connection to the people or places of the RM of Waverley #44 that you would like to share please contact Kimberley via email (kimberleyeklund@hotmail.com)

Waverley "The Beginnings" - The First Council

The first elections for the RM of Waverley council was held on February 1, 1913 and the first meeting with the newly elected members was held February 15th.

Reeve - George Hollenback

Councillors - John Frost, William Ross, Bert Payne, Walter Guthrie, John B. Falconer, and Ottis Timmons

Secretary/Treasure - Mr. G.B. Wray

According to the "Waverley 44" (1978) history book, some of the decisions that were made over the first year of council included the building of a bridge for $150, the Secretary's salary set at $200 a year, and that the statutory borrowing limit for current expenditures was $1000.

Anniversary Celebration Update

July 20th is quickly approaching and the organizers of the Waverley 100th Anniversary celebration are busy planning all of the details for the day!

Tentative Agenda:

8:00 - 10:00  Pancake Breakfast put on by the Catholic and United Churches

10:30  Parade

11:30 - 4:30 Food & Drink Booth (we are looking for an organization or group to run the booth)

All Day  Historical Displays in the Glentworth Hall

Afternoon  Children's Games - lot's of fun stuff is planned for the kids! There will be 4 bouncy castles, games, balloons, prizes, etc.

2:00  Spirits of the Trail Play presented by the Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society, a live theater presentation about Major James Walsh, N.W.M.P. told by actors and horses. Local riders and wagons are welcome and encouraged to participate.

         Local Talent featuring music from the last century!

4:00  Beer Gardens Open

5:30  Banquet - A catered beef supper! Century Farms, former Reeves, Councillors, Administrators and others will be recognized

        Street Dance featuring Men Without Shame

Tickets for Banquet & Dance

$25 

             $15 10 & under 

To reserve your ticket please contact the RM office at 266-4920

 

Dark - Fireworks

Stay tuned for more updates!

New Year's Giveaway - RM #44 Fire Department Cash Calendar *CLOSED

<UPDATE>
Jan.4,2013

The winner of the calendar is commenter "burn"
with the comment of

"2013 - Making it home more this year, only went there once in all of 2012!"

 You can email tripleplaycattle@sasktel.net with your mailing address and I will send your calendar to you!

Thanks to all that entered!

The RM #44 Volunteer Fire Department has worked hard this past year with extremely dry conditions throughout summer and fall we seen a lot of grass fires. We are truly lucky to have the equipment available to fight these fires as well as the volunteers who are willing to put the time in to learn how to operate the equipment and bring it all out to the fires.

This year the Volunteer Fire Department is selling a cash calendar as a fundraiser as it costs a lot of money to maintain and replace equipment that is crucial to putting out these fires.

It's not too late to get your 2013 RM #44 Fire Department Cash Calendar, just give the RM office a call at 266-4920 and they will get one to you. They are $30 each and all proceeds go to the fire department.

To celebrate the New Year and the 100th Anniversary of RM#44 I am giving away one calendar to a lucky winner!

 

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post answering the question below;

 

What are you most looking forward to in 2013?

 

Bonus Entry: share this blog post on Facebook (be sure to let me know in the comments below)

The winner will be chosen at noon on December 31st.

Good luck!

Early Days - The N-N Ranch

In 1886 the N-N Ranch leased 100,000 acres to run 6000 cattle and 200 horses in the area now known as RM of Waverley. They established a "headquarters" on the Six Mile Creek on the current home quarter of the Triple Z Ranch. The following is a history of the N Bar N Ranch.

Established in 1886 by brothers William F. Niedringhaus and Frederick G. Niedringhaus. The Niedringhaus family immigrated to St. Louis from Germany in the 1850's and made a fortune inventing and manufacturing enameled kitchenware they called Graniteware. The brothers then founded the Granite City Steel Company in Illinois and used part of their fortunes to get into the cattle business.

Frederick G & William F. Niedringhaus

 The N-N Ranch grazed the majority of their cattle on free grazing land in Northwest Texas and also had a northern range based out of Wolf Creek, Montana.When the government reorganized the Texas land the ranch was forced to trail all of their cattle north to Montana. From 1892-1893 they moved 65,000 head of cattle from Texas to Wolf Creek, marking one of the last big cattle drive out of Texas. They would divide the herds into 2500 head and ten cowboys would go with each group.

The N-N Ranch was one of the ranches where famous artist Charles Marion Russell lived while launching his career. The Niedringhaus family were huge supporters of his paintings and promoted them often, they were also the owners of the largest collection ever of Charles Marion Russell artwork and donated many to museums and individuals across the country.

A sampling of some of Charles Marion Russell's paintings:

"A Serious Predicament"

"Worked Over"

"Wagons"

Resources:
Texas State Historical Association
Wikipedia - Charles Marion Russell
Charles Marion Russell The Complete Works 
Six Miles of Local History 

North West Mounted Police Trail

In 1875 the NWMP established Fort Walsh to maintain peace in the Cypress Hills region and to express sovereignty over the newly acquired North West Territory. 

A year later, in 1876 Sitting Bull and about 5000 Lakota Sioux sought refuge from the U.S Army in the Wood Mountain region following the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.

Sitting Bull

General George Custer and his seventh Cavalry were badly defeated after a careless attack on the Sioux and the Canadian government were concerned that Sitting Bull might be dangerous to the Canadians. Superintendent James Morrow Walsh rode into the Sitting Bull Camp with only a handful of constables set on laying down the laws to the Sioux and Sitting Bull agreed to respect them.

Fort Walsh was made a headquarters of the NWMP and a former Boundary Commission depot at Wood Mountain became a crucial outpost of Fort Walsh. Superintendent Walsh and the NWMP stationed at Fort Walsh and Wood Mountain were in charge of maintaining peaceful relations with the Lakota people.  

Superintendent James Morrow Walsh

The Lakota Sioux respected the laws throughout their stay but the Canadian Government never granted them permanent status and by 1879 they were beginning to starve due to fires set in the U.S that prevented the Buffalo to come north. The U.S Government offered them amnesty and food so many of them left, leaving Sitting Bull and only a few hundred of his followers behind in Canada.

A trader from Willow Bunch, Jean-Louis Legare tried his best to provide food to the remaining starving Sioux but could only do so much. Sitting Bull excepted defeat and returned to the U.S with a few of his people. Sitting Bull was promised not to be harmed upon his return to the U.S but in 1890 he was arrested on a bogus charge. His followers tried to rescue him and a fight ensued and Sitting Bull was killed by soldiers and police. 

Between 1959 and 1964 markers were set up to mark the route the NWMP took between Fort Walsh and Wood Mountain Posts. The markers are white with a metal plaque on the top that points in the directions of the trail. Several of these markers are located in the RM of Waverley #44.

A trail marker south of Glentworth

Resources:

Saskatchewan History & Foklore Society - North West Mounted Police Trail

Wood Mountain History

Wikipedia - James Morrow Walsh

Wikipedia - Sitting Bull

Wanted: Waverley #44 Photographs

There are various projects on the go in preparation for the Anniversary Celebration and to make them the best they can be we would love any photographs you would be willing to share! 

~ Old or current picture

~ Prints or digitals

~ People, Landscapes, Events, Buildings, etc

If you have any pictures you would like to share please email Kimberley at tripleplaycattle@sasktel.net

or drop them off at the RM office in Glentworth.

Stay tuned for an exciting "Dear Photograph" project I'm working on for the website! For an idea of what this project is going to entail visit the website Dear Photograph.