The 100-room Royal Hotel in Weyburn has been
struck by misfortune several times since it was built in 1900, but none worse than
the tragedy that occurred in 1917 – a tragedy that continues to defy
understanding. On April 14th
of that year, two Saskatchewan doctors died within hours of each other from
poisoning after drinking wood (methyl) alcohol. For more information, click here and here.
On April 13th, Dr. Harry E. Hamill, a
32-year-old physician from Assiniboia brought one of his patients to the Weyburn hospital,
and then checked into the Royal Hotel. There he met Dr. Neil Roy Stewart, 28 years old. Formerly practicing at Eastend, Saskatchewan, Stewart had recently served overseas as a medical officer for the
249th Battalion during the First World War. That evening, as they sat having dinner in the hotel's café, the two doctors were overheard having a prolonged argument about the effects of wood alcohol on the human
body. For some reason, the two decided
to drink the stuff. Both died of
poisoning in their respective rooms at the Royal several hours later.
Dr. Hamill had obtained what
was known as Columbian Spirits (methyl or wood alcohol) from the night nurse at
the Weyburn hospital in the early morning hours of April 13th, saying
that it was for external application for his wife (who was at home in
Assiniboia).
“A good deal of mystery
surrounds the affair.” - Saskatoon Phoenix, April 16, 1917
That two trained physicians
would take such a risk is astounding. In
1917, the effects of ingesting wood alcohol were well known to the medical
community, and beyond. There had been
hundreds of documented cases of poisoning resulting from drinking this
substance. (For another account of
deaths in Saskatchewan caused by drinking wood alcohol, see my blog post, "Tragedy at Blaine Lake: The Commercial Hotel" here.) Several studies, including Dr.
Casey A. Wood’s “Death and Blindness as a Result of Poisoning by Methyl or
Wood, Alcohol, and its Various Preparations,”1906, clearly outlined the dangers of ingesting or inhaling wood alcohol. Read it here. (Article republished as a 15-page booklet in
1912 by the American Medical Association.) Symptoms included vomiting and loss of
vision, followed by lapsing into a coma. Death occured within 24 hours.
Wood alcohol was developed
for a wide variety of industrial uses, including as a wood varnish. At the turn of the 20th century, a
refined grade of methyl alcohol was developed for therapeutic rubbing purposes. The purification process made the smell and
taste more agreeable, but did not minimize the deadly effect of the poison. Manufacturers gave fancy names to the
product, such as “Columbian Spirits,” Eagle Spirits,” or, for the lumbermen of
the Northwest and Canada, the poetic designation of “Greenwood Spirits.” It
did not help that the packaging of these products often resembled liquor
bottles.
The Doctors
Not much is known about the two doctors who drank, and died from, this poison. The newspapers reported that the jury "returned a plain verdict that the men came to their death from drinking wood alcohol with no qualification or comment as to whether the act was done with intent or unknowingly." Source
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| Dr. Hamill and daughter Elsie, Colgate, 1913 |
Harry Hamill was born 29
March 1884 in Meaford, Ontario. He graduated from medical school at the
University of Toronto in 1908, and married Pearl McLaughlin two years later. Dr.
Hamill was the first resident doctor for the village of Colgate, Saskatchwan between 1912 and 1913. Harry and Pearl had a daughter, Elsie, born in
Colgate in 1912. (Pearl went on to marry Harold Jenkins in 1922 and had
another daughter, Patsy.) Source: Prairie Gold: R. M. of Lomond #37 [including Colgate SK], 1980, pp. 189, 414.
Dr. Neil Roy Stewart was born in 1889 in Emerson, Manitoba. He served as the physician at Eastend before enlisting in the Canadian Armed Forces on February 1, 1917, only a few months before his death. At the time of his enlistment, he named his next of kin as his father, W. B. Stewart of Weyburn. Unmarried, Dr. Sewart had practiced at Eastend. He went
overseas for a very short time - perhaps only a month - as a medical officer during the First World War. According to the Eastend history book, Dr.
Stewart had apparently been granted leave to return and "cover his own district." Source: Range Riders and Sodbusters, Eastend Historical Society, 1980. Stewart's military records do not shed any light on the reasons for his abrupt return to Canada from overseas. Source: Library and Archives Canada, RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 9320 - 40.
A number of questions come to mind. Did Dr. Hamill and Dr. Stewart know each other before they met at the Royal Hotel on that fateful night? Why did Dr. Stewart return from WWI after such a short time overseas? Was the drinking of wood alcohol premeditated? Were the two men on a drinking binge, and if so, would the night nurse at the Weyburn hospital give a bottle of Columbian Spirits to a drunk doctor - ostensibly for his wife? Perhaps.
The alcohol part is a bit easier to figure out. Prohibition was in full force in Saskatchewan in 1917. The only way to acquire booze was from a bootlegger (who often spiked his brew with wood alcohol), or by a doctor's prescription. If a physician was an alcoholic, or if he was battling other demons, wood alcohol might have been tempting, but surely he would have had access to safer sources of liquor through his profession.
History of the Royal Hotel
The first section of the
Royal Hotel was under construction by William Fisher in August of 1900, when seven
inches of rain flooded the town, leaving the building in ruins. The foundations were undermined by the flood waters, and the stone
walls collapsed into the cellar. Fisher
sold the ruins to to Dan Pretty who rebuilt the hotel on the same site. Source: Isabel
Eaglesham, The Night the Cat Froze in the
Oven; A History of Weyburn and Its People. Weyburn: Weyburn Review Ltd.,
1963; 1970.
By February 1902, things were
off to such a good start at the Royal Hotel that owners Tom Robinson and his
brother-in-law Harry Walsh held a ball to celebrate. “The attractive dining room was specially
prepared for dancing, being well lighted and having the floor waxed to
perfection,” the Regina Leader
reported. “An elegant repast was served at midnight and dancing kept up until
daylight.” It was deemed one of the most
pleasing social events which had ever taken place in Weyburn. Source
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| Postcard of the Royal Hotel, c. 1910. Source |
In 1912, the Royal Hotel’s
future looked so bright that the McRoberts brothers, formerly of Moose Jaw,
purchased it for the princely sum of $175,000. Source: Financial Post of Canada, November 30, 1912. The McRoberts had big plans for the Royal, only to have them dashed when
Prohibition was introduced in 1915. When
the Canada Census was taken in 1916, J. L. (Jerry) McRoberts and his wife Lucia
(Lucy), ages 60 and 39 respectively, were living in the hotel along with their
children Ruth (17) and Jerry Jr. (9). In
spite of the devastating impact that Prohibition had on many Saskatchewan
hotels, the Royal must have been doing alright, as, according to the census, it
had fifteen staff members, including four chambermaids, two waitresses, two Chinese
cooks, a waiter, a Japanese porter, two Japanese bell boys, a dishwasher, a cashier, and a
bookkeeper.
The Governor General of
Canada, Duke of Devonshire, visited Weyburn in September of 1918. Luncheon was
served at the Royal Hotel where Lucy McRoberts was a “very gracious hostess.” Mrs. McRoberts sold the hotel to Wilbur
Thompson, who then sold it to Alexander Mrygold and his three sons, Joseph
(Joe) Mike and William (Bill) in 1948. The
Mrygolds, natives of Austria, arrived in Weyburn in 1910. The family operated
the Royal Hotel throughout the 1950s and 1960s, selling it in 1971 to Harry and Irene Winckless from Manitoba.
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| Royal Hotel, 1946. Everett Baker photo. Source |
The Mryglods spent a great
deal of time and money renovating the Royal Hotel. In 1953, they completely remodeled the large
lobby. The hotel was the largest in the city, with 100 rooms. In addition to hotel services, the Royal also
housed 25 to 30 permanent residents in rooms and suites. A number of business places, including several
oil exploration companies, had office space on the premises. Source
Fire of 1954
Misfortune struck the Royal Hotel
again in 1954 when a fire of unknown origin caused $146,000 damage. The fire
occurred just as the Mrygolds were finishing a complete renovation
project. Only two rooms in the entire
hotel had not been rebuilt when the fire struck.
The fire started in a room on
the top floor of the 3-storey stone structure and spread quickly into the attic
and from there throughout the entire building. Initially, hotel staff attempted to put out the fire with hoses stored
in the hotel. Eventually, firefighters
managed to extinguish the blaze, but not before four members of the volunteer
fire brigade were injured in the seven-hour long battle against the
flames.
The Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported that, according to eyewitness
Murphy Polsky, a travelling salesman from Winnipeg, "there was no panic when the fire broke out.
There were few people in the building since many were attending an exhibition
hockey game being played at the time. Mr. Polsky said he was just going back
into the hotel when he saw a woman come down the stairs to give the alarm. He
said this was the second time in a week that he had been staying at a hotel in
Saskatchewan that had caught fire. He was registered at the Kings Hotel in
Shaunavon last Thursday when he was routed from his bed by the blaze. ‘Once
more,’ said the Winnipeg traveler, ‘and I’m going to quit.’" Source
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| Royal Hotel, 2006. Joan Champ photo |
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| Joan Champ photo, 2006 |
© Joan Champ,
2014
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