Submitted By: Frank Korvemaker

The ‘old’ Bell Barn located outside of Indian Head.

Submitted By: Frank Korvemaker

The ‘old’ Bell Barn located outside of Indian Head.

Submitted By: Frank Korvemaker

The original homestead including the Bell Barn in the late 1880’s.

By: Darcie Thom

In all but one late afternoon, history unraveled itself in the office of The Kipling Citizen. Bette Klein, a Kipling local, brought a small piece of her family’s history in the form of a letter, better yet a real pioneer story, to our attention in the newsroom.

Just as luck would have it, Klein had a piece of history that would date back to a time when some of Saskatchewan’s biggest history was made. This particular memoir was written by Klein’s grandmother (Marion Dash) about her father (Klein’s great-grandfather) Walter Merryfield, an English immigrant but more importantly, a true Saskatchewan pioneer who took part in the Louis Riel trials, pioneer farming and ironic to this story, the building of Bell Barn.

Walter Merryfield was said to be a man of few words and like many of the other men working on the Bell Farm, didn’t realize the history that was to become when building the round Bell Barn. His daughter, Marion, wrote memoirs of the many years spent at this particularly large farm located near (present) Indian Head. The Merryfield family, along with over 20 other families, were supplied with small gardens, a small barn for their horse(s) and resided in cottages that Major William Bell had built for his hired hands.

Over 125 years ago, the Bell Farm was established as a working farm to approximately 20 or more families that were hired to work and ‘break-up the prairie land’, just north of Indian Head along the northern edge of the Great Plains. This area was originally used as a corporate farm experiment supported by the federal government of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald and was originally named the ‘Qu’Appelle Valley Farming Company’, later to be known as Bell Farm. Major William R. Bell, a shareholder from Ontario and former soldier, came west to fill the general manager position in the company.

In 1882, Major Bell decided to ’stake’ land close to the newly developed railway that was being built through the Indian Head region. Under the direction of Arthur J. Osment, the 10 mile by 10 mile farm known as the present ‘Bell Farm’ began its year of construction. Over 100 buildings were carefully constructed by A.J. Osment across 53,000 acres (332 quarter sections) along with portable round grain bins, the L-shaped house and infamous round ‘Bell Barn’. This land was large enough to divide into 25 parts, which Bell was able to supervise and personally direct while providing families with work, homes and shelter for the cold Canadian winters. Among his Board of Directors was the Hon. Edgar Dewdney, Lieutenant Governor of the North West Territories.

During the first two years of business, the company disbursed almost $250,000, a remarkable amount for a farm in its day. This business was such a success that Major Bell also made another form of history when he embraced the newest and latest invention of his time, the telephone (which was ironically made by another visionary, Alexander Graham Bell). Major Bell established the telephone into his business by providing 25 manager’s residence with phones that linked to his personal line at headquarters.

Sadly, the farming industry would be hit with the untimely North-West Rebellion of 1885 and became subject to the predicaments that affected all prairie farmers. In 1889, the corporate farm disbanded, a few years later in 1896, Major Bell departed from the ‘Indian Head’ community and the farm gradually sold sections of the farmland.

Contractor A.J. Osment would later build throughout the new town of Indian Head to support the surrounding farming activity. A grain elevator, hotel, flour mill and other buildings were built for the new town location which was laid out at an angle to the rail line so that the primary streets led people directly from the new railway to the Bell Barn site.

By the early years in the 20th century, most of the farmland had been sectioned and sold to various farmers, making homesteads that are much like the common-day farms. During the 1920’s, the homestead area of the farm had been sold to the Holden Family and during their time there, they managed to convert the barn from horse use to cattle use by installing 12″ windows where the small air vents once were. This provided the added light source for the dairy cows.

By the mid 20th century, the majority of the buildings and wooden barns located near the Bell Farm homestead, were demolished due to their aged and decrepit state. The main house was demolished sometime in the 1960’s leaving behind the round, crumbling stone barn and the few cottages and buildings that somehow managed to withstand the quick-changing Canadian weather into the 21st century.

A non-profitable organization, called the Bell Barn Society, bought the original Bell Farm homestead and donated it to the town of Indian Head. They also purchased land north of the old barn (in the same farm yard), 200 feet away.

The round Bell Barn, originally a ‘Qu’Appelle Valley business used to stable horses, was not built as strong as it should have been. After numerous attempts to re-build this magnificent architectural piece of history which was in a bad position of ruin and was far beyond repair.

The Bell Barn Society, demolished the old Bell Barn, saving five original pieces of wall, in April 2008. The Bell Barn Society has raised over $330,000, in the past two years, towards the structure of the new Bell Barn, which is in its first stages of construction 200 feet away from its original position.

The Bell Barn Society plans to have the new round replica completely built within the next year or so. The building will be built as closely as possible to the original barn with 35 windows and metal roof, excluding two stalls that, for unknown reasons, will not be built.

“This is something that we are very proud of,” says Gerry Willerth, Vice Chairman of The Bell Barn Society. “We are looking forward to the future of this historical barn, and all of the upcoming events that will take place there”.

There are plans for the Society to meet with the Bell Family representatives to document the historical records, perhaps allowing a Bell Family reunion to take place at the same time.

There are plans to have the new barn open to the public as well as a gathering place for springtime and summertime events.

The Bell Farm has been recognized in a variety of publications including ‘Saskatchewan and Its People’ written by Provincial librarian John Hawkes. In the 1950’s, the Department of Natural Resources wrote about Bell Barn in the ‘Guide to Historic Sites of Saskatchewan’ after erecting a Provincial Historic Maker at Indian Head.

With all of the funding and best efforts put forward, the chances are a new history is in the making by an old memory.