Death at Weyburn’s Royal Hotel

Royal Hotel, c. 1910. Source

  

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 14^th 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 249^th 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 13^th, 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 20^th 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

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

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.

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

Royal Hotel, 2006.  Joan Champ photo

 

Joan Champ photo, 2006

© Joan Champ, 2014

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The Bjorkdale Hotel - Good for the Spirit

The Speddings

The Bjorkdale Hotel was built in 1935 by William (Bill) Spedding.  He had emigrated from Blackburn, England to Quebec in 1905, and moved to Saskatchewan in 1907 with his wife Esther, and their two children, John and Nellie. Spedding filed on a homestead in the Bjorkdale district in

John, Esther and William Spedding, c 1935. Source: A Season or So

1910, and became the first postmaster of Bjorkdale the following year. After serving overseas during the First World War, Spedding was the Massey Harris dealer in Bjorkdale before building the hotel. In 1935, the sale of beer was finally legal in Saskatchewan, so Spedding’s plans for hotel included a beer parlour. “The general public regarded this innovation with mixed feelings,” the Bjorkdale history book records. The original hotel had six guest rooms upstairs, and a lobby, small dining area, kitchen, and beer parlour downstairs. Only draught beer was sold – 10 cents for an 8-ounce glass. Source: A Season or So, Bjorkdale Historical Committee, 1983.

 The Bates

In 1937, Spedding sold the hotel to Charles and Esther Bates. The Bates had been travelling around Saskatchewan in search of a small business. Along the way, they met a friend

Sydney Bates with his Grade 1 teacher, c. 1940

who told them there was a hotel for sale in Bjorkdale “It is a good business and I can recommend it to you,” said their friend, who just happened to be a hotel inspector. In 1942, something happened which changed the Bates’ lives forever. Two young ministers were invited to hold church services in the living room of the hotel on Wednesday evenings. These services were well attended. Charles, who was serving as the bartender in the beer parlour, heard the music in the living room. He wouldn’t go in to hear the preachers, but he couldn’t help wondering just what they were talking about. So no one would know, Charles filled the beer glasses in the parlour, and then sneaked out through the kitchen to listen through the keyhole in the door. “On March 17, 1944, while I was putting on a novelty dance (proceeds to go to the Red Cross), Charles thought things through and went into the living room and had a private talk with God.” Three days later, the Bates advertised the hotel for sale, and set off for theological college in Winnipeg. In the early 1950s, Rev. Charles and Mrs. Bates founded, built and served as the superintendents of the Bethel Haven Rest Home for the Aged at Nipawin. Source

The Harpolds

The Harpolds

Fred and Murial Harpold bought the Bjorkdale from the Bates in 1944. The Harpolds had formerly owned the hotel at nearby Crooked River. They turned it over to their son Ernest, opting to run the smaller hotel in Bjorkdale as Fred’s health was failing. After two and a half years, they sold due to poor health.  

 

The Harpold Hotel, 1944.  Source: A Season or So

The Courchenes

Andrew (Andy) Courchene was the son of Joe and Blanche Courchene, hotel operators in St. Benedict, Saskatchewan. He had married a Bjorkdale girl, Evelyn Duchesneau, in 1944, and after serving overseas during the Second World War, bought the Bjorkdale Hotel in November of 1946. Along with their sons Denis and Donald and daughter Diane, their stay as operators of the hotel lasted 27 years.  

Denis, Diane, Andy, Donald, and Evelyn Courchene, 1953. Source: A Season or So

 “Those first five years in Bjorkdale were busy ones, as Highway 23 was being built, and the government opened up the Bjork Lake agricultural project,” recalls Evelyn Courchene, who, in addition to serving as the hotel’s proficient cook, wrote about Bjorkdale events in the Tisdale Recorder for 22 years. “We boarded and fed engineers and surveyors, construction foremen and labourers.” By the standards of the day, the Bjorkdale Hotel was fairly well equipped. Water was the most important factor, with a pump installed at the kitchen sink. “No doubt I was the envy of many women, who had to carry water for all their needs from an outdoor well,” Mrs. Courchene writes. “I cooked on a wood stove for years.” The hotel had always been heated with hot air – one large register above the furnace. “It was necessary for Andy to get up at least once during the night during the real cold weather to stoke it up with tamarack.” Electricity came to Bjorkdale in 1951; prior to that the hotel had a 32-volt power plant for lighting. “Coal oil lamps were kept ready in case the plant failed which it did with regularity!” Food was kept in an ice-box; beer kegs were kept cold during the summer months by chunks of ice cut from the nearby Bjork Lake and packed in sawdust.  

Andy Courchene in the hotel's beer parlour, 1953. Source: A Season or So

In 1961, after the provincial government permitted mixed drinking, the Courchenes built an addition on the side of the hotel to accommodate more patrons. The old beer parlour was converted to a kitchen, bedroom, and private family room. The new beverage room, complete with washrooms and refrigeration space, was called the Dell Room. “The classier surroundings, carpeted floors, attractive

The Courchenes, c. 1970.

drapery, comfortable seating, and softer lighting, created an atmosphere of respectability and congeniality – at last,” the Bjorkdale history book remembers. “The presence of females was not only a novelty but an asset in this respect.” The hotel received a facelift in 1966, with exterior aluminum siding in white and rust, and new sliding windows. Another addition was built onto the hotel by the Courchenes in 1972.  The beverage room could now seat over 90 people, with a pool table, two shuffleboards, and a juke box providing entertainment. By this time, the sale of hard liquor was permitted, as was the sale of sandwiches and packaged foods.

The longer business hours and larger premises created more work for Andy and Evelyn Courchene. They were growing weary after 27 years of public service. “The decision to sell wasn’t easy,” writes Evelyn, “but none of our children were interested in the demanding life of the small-town hotel.” They sold the Bjorkdale Hotel to Jack and Muriel Pearson of Kelvington in 1973. Source: A Season or So, Bjorkdale Historical Committee, 1983.

Bjorkdale Hotel, 1981. Source: A Season or So

© Joan Champ, 2013

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Kindersley's Seymour Hotel

The Prairie Trail Hotel, formerly the Seymour Hotel, in Kindersley, 2007.  Joan Champ photo

In October of 1909, when town lots went up for sale in Kindersley, the Canadian Northern Railway realized sales of over $60,000 – the most expensive of which was a lot on the corner of Railway and Main that sold for $1,200 – the lot for the Seymour Hotel. Source  Construction began on the hotel that year, and by the spring of 1910 there was a fine looking, three-storey wooden structure standing on the street corner.

The Seymour Hotel on the left, Kindersley, 1910 Source

Charles C. Rogers, the former proprietor of the King Edward Hotel in Saskatoon, bought the Seymour Hotel in 1913 for $85,000 – an increase of $25,000 over the price paid for the hotel ten months earlier. Source  The Canada Census for 1916 shows that 60-year-old Charles and his 49-year-old wife, his daughter (age 26), his son Eska (age 33) and his daughter-in-law (age 27) were living in Kindersley's Seymour Hotel. Five years earlier, they had all been living in the King Edward Hotel in Saskatoon. The Seymour Hotel staff in 1916 included a bookkeeper, a chambermaid, a restaurant keeper, a cook, and three waitresses. Fourteen guests were staying at the hotel when the census was taken. Two years later in October 1918, Eska E. Rogers died, possibly from the terrible Spanish Flu that raged through the world that year. His father Charles died in 1923.

The Seymour Hotel in the 1920s Source

In 1944, William Dobni purchased the Seymour Hotel. Originally from Austria, Dobni came to Canada in 1909 and by 1916 was living in Kindersley. William operated the hotel along with his wife Anna and their six sons until his death in 1955. After his death, Anna and her sons continued to run the hotel until 1975 when they sold the business. One of his sons, James Dobni, served on the Kindersely town council for many years, including as mayor for a time. Source  

Main Street, Kindersely, in the 1940s. Hotel on left Source

Kindersley in 1953 with the Seymour Hotel on the left Source

Marvin and Pearl Gilbertson bought the hotel in Kindersley, now called the Prairie Trail Hotel. The Gilbertsons, originally from Saskatoon, had owned the hotel in Meath Park before moving to Kindersely. In 1981, they moved to Swift Current where they bought their third hotel, the Imperial. Source

Demolition of the hotel, March 2011 Source

By 2011, the old Seymour Hotel – known as the Prairie Trail Hotel – was Kindersley's oldest building. That year, a public health recommendation led to its demolition. The building, no longer deemed safe, had been closed for a couple of years. Source

© Joan Champ, 2013

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Unfair Play at the Windthorst Hotel

Windthorst, c. 1910. Hotel in distance on left. Source

In 1907, Albert E. Playfair from Whitewood, Saskatchewan, and John Berglund built the three-storey Windthorst Hotel. It opened in 1908. By 1911, William Williamson was the hotel keeper. He lived in the hotel with his son Finlay, and his daughters Iva and Elda. According to the 1911 Canada census, nine other people lived at the hotel as well, including the bartender, the cook and her three young daughters, two waitresses, a housekeeper, and a chambermaid. Williamson sold the hotel to Tom Henry after Saskatchewan introduced Prohibition in July 1915. 

Windthorst Hotel, c. 1910. Source: Windthorst Memories, 1980.

The 1916 Canada Census shows that owner Thomas Henry, age 58, was living at the Windthorst Hotel along with his 13-year-old daughter, Vivian. There is no mention of his wife, although he is listed as married. Other residents include hotel employees: the Chinese cook Duck Lee, a 21-year-old Polish kitchen girl, a 20-year-old waitress from Russia, a 64-year-old porter, a stableman, a chauffeur, and a Danish engineer, age 33. 

Tom Henry got into some trouble of a personal nature. Census records for 1916 show that 21-year-old Alice Ellen Playfair, daughter of Albert Playfair, the builder of the Windhorst Hotel, was working as the housekeeper at the hotel that year. Alice was living with two of her brothers in a private home in the village. Alice and Tom must have had an affair, because genealogical records show that Alice eventually became his second wife. Source Tom's first wife, Ellen or Nell (Robinson), is listed in the 1916 census as a residing, unemployed, in a separate residence from the hotel with her seven-year-old daughter, Ethel.

Tom Henry also got into some trouble with the law while operating the Windthorst Hotel. In the spring of 1919, he was convicted of perjury and sentenced to a year of hard labour in the Regina jail. This resulted from his appeal of his previous conviction for hiding liquor in with his stock of soft drinks at the hotel in Windthorst - a no-no during Prohibition. Source

In 1918, Jack Johnson and his wife Olga bought the Windthorst Hotel and ran it until 1945. According to the Windthorst history book, Jack had started out building and driving race cars in the early 1900s in Iowa. He came to Canada in 1903 and settled first in Findlater, and later in Riceton where he operated a café. "Mr. and Mrs. Johnston made their hotel business an asset to the community in many ways, opening their doors freely for public functions and making the hotel a gathering place of the district. It was a ‘home away from home’ for the young people who were employed in the village," the town history records. "Social functions which included weekly card parties, bridal showers, and wedding receptions were held at the hotel." (Source: WIndthorst Memories; A History of WIndthorst and District, 1980)

The Johnstons, who had no children of their own, opened their hearts to three children of the Lenius family, following the death of their mother in 1920. Annie, Frank and Joe Lenius were foster children of the Johnstons, who gave them a happy home while they continued their schooling.  

Jack Johnston had many interests. "His main hobby was taxidermy and he mounted birds and animals with an artist’s touch," states the Windthorst history book. "So much so that some of his specimens are in the Smithsonian Institute… and some are in the Provincial Museum in Regina." Johnston served on the Windthorst Village Council for eighteen years. After he retired from the hotel business in the mid-forties, he sold it to Joe Lenius,  He then opened a movie theatre in town called the Johnston Theatre which he operated from 1947 to 1954 when ill health necessitated his retirement. Jack Johnson died in 1957 at age 78. Source

Removing the third floor, 1966. Source: Windthorst history book

Jack's foster son, Joe Lenius and his wife Emmie ran the Windthorst Hotel from 1945 until 1950, when they sold it to Ron and Marg Morrison. The Morrisons renovated the hotel extensively between 1950 and 1976. The biggest change they made was to remove the third storey of the building in 1966. A lunch counter, and later a cafe, replaced the hotel's dining room.

The Windjacks became the owners of the Windthorst Hotel in 1979. Once again, renovations were undertaken, and a steak pit was added. A variety of entertainment was featured in the hotel bar.

Norm and Karen Jones bought the hotel in 1993 and changed its name to Norm's Place Hotel. The hotel was put up for sale by the Jones in 2009 - asking price: $235,000. The price went up to $350,000 in 2013. The real estate listing for the hotel in Windthorst stated that it had a 100-seat beverage room and steak pit; a commercial kitchen on the main floor; eight non-modern guest rooms; and an office and guest lounge on the second floor. The bar featured four VLTs, a lottery kiosk, and offered special promo nights -- wings, steaks, golf, poker, and pizza. The hotel had two full-time and six part-time employees.

Norm's Place Hotel in Windthorst, Google Street View, 2013

 © Joan Champ, 2013



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