Railway & Main: Small-Town Saskatchewan Hotels: “There’s a Fire in the House!”

Sovereign, Sask. prior to the 1915 fire that destroyed the hotel (far right).Source

“Afraid of what?” Inspector A. W. Duffus, RNWMP, asked chambermaid Molly Kelly, a witness at the preliminary hearing of William Shinbane. The former owner of the Sovereign Hotel was charged with setting fire to his own property on March 29, 1915. “I thought there was going to be a fire,” was Molly’s answer, reported by the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix on November 11, 1915. “What made you think that?” queried the inspector. “Oh, it was common talk among the employees that there was going to be a fire at the hotel,” Molly testified. “Mrs Mitchell the cook said that she did not think Mr. Shinbane would set fire to the house until his wife went to Winnipeg where she was expected to make a visit in a few days.” (Mrs. Anna Shinbane was pregnant with her second son, Berel Shinbane, who was born in Winnipeg on June 2^nd, several months after the fire.)

Headline in the Saskatoon Daily Star, Nov. 10, 1915

The chambermaid had been so nervous that she went to bed fully clothed on the night that fire destroyed the Sovereign Hotel . She had only been working at the hotel for two weeks but the gossip among the other employees that the hotel was going to burn down made her nervous. Sure enough, in the early morning hours of March 29^th she woke up to the smell of smoke coming through the transom window of her third-floor room. She managed to rescue her trunk and escape from her room unharmed. The Shinbane’s 4-year-old son, Edward (Ted), was not so fortunate. The toddler was badly burned on his legs and posterior during the fire.

The Shinbanes

Source: Sovereign: Mileposts to Memories, 1981

William Shinbane was born to Jacob and Leah Shinbane in Vilna, Russia in 1886. He came to Canada as an infant, settling in Winnipeg, Manitoba where his father ran a general store. He married Anna Schwartz on January 24, 1911 in Winnipeg. After their wedding, the couple planned to settle in Lemberg, Saskatchewan where William’s brother Morris lived. By 1915, they were the owners and operators of the three-story hotel at Sovereign, built in 1912 by Chris Hoeschen, brother of Ben Hoeschen, manager of the Saskatoon brewery. And, by November of the same year, William was charged in incendiarism (arson) for torching his own property. Sovereign is located 26 km southeast of Rosetown on Highway 15.

Insurance Companies Balk

Saskatoon Daily Star, March 23, 1915

On March 29, 1915, the Saskatoon Daily Star reported that there had been “a small epidemic” of hotel fires in Saskatchewan after Premier Walter Scott announced two weeks earlier that Prohibition was coming to the province starting on July 1^st. These fires on licensed premises were viewed with great concern by the fire insurance companies operating in the province. “Every insurance company has been dreading a general outbreak of fire among the hotels since Premier Scott made his announcement,” a company representative told the Daily Star. “We saw it coming and most of us believe that this is only the beginning. All we can do is to make the closest investigation possible in every case.”

Star-Phoenix, April 22, 1915

By April 22, six hotel fires in the province, including the one at Sovereign, were under investigation by Fire Commissioner R. J. McLean. Several fire insurance companies cancelled all their hotel policies in the province, while others scaled down their risks. “Some [companies] state that under no circumstances will they insure hotels for more than two-thirds of their estimated value,” one insurance company representative told the Star-Phoenix, “while others put the limit at 50 percent. Still others decline in future to carry any insurance of hotels whatever.”

Preliminary Hearing

On November 4, 1915, William Shinbane was arrested in Winnipeg and brought to Saskatoon for trial. His preliminary hearing began on November 10^th, and the testimony given at the three-day hearing, such as that from Molly Kelly, provides a revealing glimpse into the operations of a small-town Saskatchewan hotel prior to Prohibition.

Star-Phoenix, Nov. 11, 1915

Sam Musik, the Sovereign Hotel’s porter and furnace man testified that on the night of the fire, he had made up the furnace fire and tended to two dogs that were kept in the cellar. At about 2:00 a.m., he awoke to sound of his employer calling, “Sam! Sam! Fire!” His room was thick with smoke so he only had time to grab his coat, hat and shoes before exiting the burning building via a rope through the window of his room. When he got to the ground, another hotel employee loaned him a pair of pants. After the fire had done its damage, Musik testified that Shinbane came to him and said, “Sam, you keep quiet, my father has lots of money and you won’t lose a cent.” Shinbane owed Musik over $300 in back pay. The porter also testified that he had presumed the two dogs in the hotel’s cellar had perished in the fire, but that two days later a man named Henry Mitchell told him that he had gone down to the cellar at about 11:30 p.m. and taken out the dogs. When Musik told his employer, Shinbane responded, “Sam, you keep quiet.” Shinbane gave Musik $30 for a train ticket to Winnipeg, but when he asked for the $335 still owed to him in back wages, Shinbane told him he could not pay him until he secured the money that was coming to him from the insurance companies.

Bohemian-American Cook Book., 1915. Source

Mrs. Mitchell, the hotel’s cook, barely escaped the hotel fire with her young daughter. She was awakened by Mr. Shinbane calling to her outside her room. “Mrs. Mitchell, for God’s sake get up, there’s a fire in the house.” The cook had no time to dress as her room was already filled with smoke. She lost all her belongings, including $200 in her trunk. She testified on November 11^th that when she got outside to the street, she heard Molly Kelly accuse Shinbane of setting fire to the place, but she didn’t hear his response. Questioned about how business conditions were at the Sovereign Hotel, Mrs. Mitchell stated that Mrs. Shinbane had frequently volunteered that business was “very bad.” She also testified that for about a week prior to the fire, the Shinbanes “had been busy packing up the hotel bed and table linen and the curtains and that these were stored in boxes on the landing” when she went to bed on the night before the fire. The smoke was so thick as she descended to the lower floor that she could not see whether the boxes were still there, but she did not run up against them during her escape.

Sylvester (Sid) Herrick, hotel boarder and handyman, testified that on the night of the fire he had been in Molly Kelly’s room until midnight. “Was there any talk of the possibility of a fire in the hotel while you were up in Miss Kelly’s room,” P. E. Mackenzie, the Crown prosecutor asked. “Yes,” was Herrick’s answer. He also stated that there was a small tank of gasoline at the back of the building which was used for gas-lighting purposes in the hotel. “We were all waiting for it to explode,” he said. All of the witnesses for the prosecution stated that they could smell gasoline as they exited the burning building.

Henry Thomas, representing the eleven insurance companies who held policies on the Sovereign Hotel and its contents, testified on November 11^th that the total insurance on the building, furnishings, liquor and cigars was $23,900. “He said that since the fire the accused had submitted schedules of the values of the loss which totaled $34,946.25,” the Daily Star reported. “That while the policies were made out to William Shinbane, the losses were payable to the Hoeschen-Wentzler Brewing Company, Saskatoon, and to Jacob Shinbane to the extent of $13,000 to the former and $10,900 to the father of the accused.”

Saskatoon Daily Star. Nov. 11, 1915

Despite defense lawyer Donald Maclean’s statement that there was not sufficient evidence to connect the accused with the fire, Inspector Duffus bound Shinbane for trial at the Supreme Court of Saskatchewan. Duffus said that while there was no overwhelming presumption of guilt, there was, in his opinion, enough evidence for the case to go to a jury.

What Happened?

Star-Phoenix, Nov. 12, 1915

And this is where the case goes cold. So far, I have not been able to find any newspaper story or other reference which can tell us what happened as a result of Shinbane’s trial. (Prior to 1918, there was a Supreme Court of Saskatchewan, but 1915 legislation created a new Court of King’s [now Queen’s] Bench to take over the trial functions of the Supreme Court, which was abolished effective March 1, 1918. Thus, I need to do more digging if I am to discover the Shinbane case records.) Based on what I learned (see below), it looks like William Shinbane got off. Maybe his case didn't even go to trial. His brother, A. M. (Mark) Shinbane, fresh out of law school at the University of Manitoba, attended William's preliminary hearing. Mark went on to have an illustrious career as a lawyer in Winnipeg. Click here to learn more. Perhaps the Shinbane family found a way to maneuver through the court system and help William, Anna, Teddie and Berel get back on their feet again.

William's brother, A. M. Shinbane at U of M, 1915. The Manitoban.

Here’s what I do know. By 1916, according to the Canada census, William and Anna Shinbane and their two boys were living in Swan River, Manitoba, where he worked as a general merchant. In the early 1920s, the family moved to Los Angeles, California. The US census for 1930 shows Shinbanes still living in LA where William worked as a building contractor. Two of his brothers, Hyman and Morris, also lived in LA. William Shinbane died on June 29, 1931 and is buried in Los Angeles.