Register entry 178 - Edmund Wragge
Visited the Bell Farm on June 30, 1885 - Edmund Wragge (1837-1929), Local Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway at Toronto, accompanied Sir H.W. Tyler (Entry 177) on his tour of the North-West and the Bell Farm in 1885.
Register entry 182 - Joseph Wrigley
Visited the Bell Farm on July 24, 1885 - Joseph Wrigley was the Chief Commissioner for the Hudson's Bay Company from 1889-91.
Register entry 183 - Captain Samuel Lawrence Bedson
Visited the Bell Farm in July 1885 - Captain S. Lawrence Bedson selected the site of the Stoney Mountain prison and ran the institution.
Register entry 188a - Bell Farm Visitors' Register - Page 7
Original Signatures: entries 188 to 220: Sept. 21, 1885 - June 14, 1886
Register entry 188b - Gov. Gen. Lansdowne
Visited the Bell Farm on September 21, 1885
Register entry 191 - Henry James Anson
Visited the Bell Farm on September 21, 1885
Register entry 192 - Supt. R. Burton Deane NWMP
Visited the Bell Farm on September 21, 1885 - NWMP Superintendent R. Burton Deane (1848-1930) visited the Bell Farm on various occasions while he was stationed at Regina in the 1880s.
Register entry 194 - Gustave de Molinari
Visited the Bell Farm on September 22, 1885
Register entry 198 - W. E. Jone
Visited the Bell Farm on Sept. 22, 1885 - W.E. Jones lived in Qu'Appelle, and was a cousin of Ford Jones, a Brockville business associate of Major Bell. The two cousins were reported hunting for geese in the Qu'Appelle Valley in October 1895.
Register entry 203 - Thomas White
Visited the Bell Farm on Oct. 25, 1885 with his assistant Lyndwode Charles Pereira (see: Visitor Register entry 204).
Register entry 207 - Dr. James Switzer Freeborn
Dr. James Switzer Freeborn (1858-1937) was born in Bruce County, Ontario, and lived there most of his life.
Register entry 212 - Rev. Louis Norman Tucker
Visited the Bell Farm on June 4, 1886 - Rev. L. Norman Tucker was the Principal of the Sabrevois Mission College,Montreal and later the Rector of Christ Church,Vancouver.
Register entry 221 - Caroline Kirby Chapleau
Visited the Bell Farm on Aug. 9, 1886 - perhaps while visiting friends in the Regina area from the Chapleaus' previous residence there in the early 1880s - possibly including Major and Katherine Bell.
Register entry 221a - Bell Farm Visitors' Register - Page 8
Original Signatures: entries 221 to 253: Aug. 9, 1886 - Sept. 16, 1887
Register entry 222 - Dr. G. Pearson Bell
Visited the Bell Farm on August 14, 1886 - George Pearson Bell was a surgeon in Qu'Appelle (from 1886 to 1895) and signed the Register the year he arrived from England.
Register entry 229 - Joel Cook
Visited the Bell Farm on Sept. 5, 1886 - Joel Cook (1842-1910) was a Philadelphia based special correspondent for the London Times, financial editor of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, author and later a US Congressman.
Register entry 230 - George W.C. Cook
Visited the Bell Farm on Sept. 5, 1886 - George William Childs Cook (1870-1918) was the son of Joel Cook and Mary Edmunds.
Register entry 231 - Frederick Henderson Brydges
Visited the Bell Farm in 1886, perhaps Sept. 5 - Frederick Brydges was the senior partner of F.H. Brydges and Sons, Land Insurance and Commission Agents, Winnipeg, Manitoba and was married to Jean Crawford Allan, the niece of Alexander Allan (Register Entry 282).
Register entry 235 - Mabel (Lake) Belson
Visited the Bell Farm on July 7, 1887 - Mabel Lake (b. 1862) and several Lake family members lived near Grenfell, about 30 miles (53 km) east of Indian Head.
Register entry 237 - Gordon Tyson Legg(centre)
Visited the Bell Farm on or about July 7, 1887 - Gordon Tyson Legg was a British mortgage broker who also worked for the Sykes Farms in North Dakota.
The Bell Farm Visitors Register was printed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was first used in August 1884, a full two years after the Bell Farm began operations. Hence, it is not a complete record of all who visited the Farm, as many early visits are not recorded. As well, historical information from other sources indicates that not everyone who came to the Farm signed the Visitors Register.
This album includes approximately 310 entries. Most of the research on these people was undertaken by Michelle Cabana of Saskatoon. Her ability to decipher the signatures in the Register and to then locate historical information on and photos of those people has been most rewarding. The information attests to the great variety of people who visited the Bell Farm from diverse locations in Europe and North America, and the mixture of ages. Considering the transportation facilities of the late 19th century, it is remarkable that so many people found the time and resources to travel to the Canadian West and to take the time to include a visit to the Bell Farm in those itineraries. Even more remarkable is that so many of those visitors subsequently wrote about their experiences and publish them in newspapers, journals and books.
The Register Entry Numbers correspond with the sequential numerical system that Major Bell instituted. While he carefully numbered each line for the first few pages, he discontinued that process about 1/3 of the way through, at number 128. Hence, later numbers (129 to 310) were assigned by us in the same sequence as the visitors signed the book.
A photograph of each Register page is inserted immediately before the entry number at the top of that page. Click on the page to get an enlargement of the signatures and accompanying information.
There are 268 entries in the Register during the early years of the Bell Farm's operation, when the Farm's fame was wide-spread. However, after the Bell Farm suffered financially in 1885 and 1886, and was reorganized in 1886, the number of visitors dropped dramatically. Between 1888 and 1894 only 42 additional visitors signed the Register.
NOTE: In some instances, where evidence clearly indicates that both husband and wife visited the Bell Farm, an extra entry has been made for the spouse, generally by adding an "a" after the primary entry number, and a "b" after the secondary entry. For example: Entry 28a is for Robert Crawford, and Entry 28b is for his wife, Elizabeth [Miles] Crawford.
RESEARCH BY:
Pimary research was undertaken by Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask, with assistanbce from several others, including: Margaret Hryniuk and Frank Korvemaker, both of Regina, Sask., and Bill Pinfold, England.