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Albert Shaw was a prairie homesteader. He founded
Shaw’s Ranch near McTaggart in Assiniboia, North West Territories (now
Saskatchewan) in 1899.
Albert Shaw was born January 22, 1858 in Hamilton, Ontario. He married Edith Marsh on October 14, 1879. Edith was born in England in 1856. Their only child Clara was born August 27, 1883. She married Will Douglas and brought five grandsons into Grandpa Shaw’s life. Albert’s older brother Elmer Shaw settled at Abernathy, southwest of Indian Head, with his wife Emily prior to the Louis Riel Red River Rebellion of 1885. This was twenty years before Saskatchewan became a province. Albert first came to Western Canada in 1898. He came to Indian Head which, by this time, was a completely settled area. Elmer drove Albert to Weyburn by horse and buggy. Once in Weyburn, George Beischel drove Albert through areas north and west of the city to find the most desireable available homestead.
Albert selected a homestead site north of McTaggart and east of Yellowgrass, legally described as the Southwest quarter of Section 4, Township 10, Range 15, West of the Second Meridian. Elmer, acting as Albert’s agent, actually filed the application for this homestead on May 13, 1899. Albert returned in June of 1899 with a boxcar load of settler’s effects including a team of horses, a dozen chickens, lumber for a 12’x14’ shack and an organ. Albert’s wife Edith and daughter Clara (14) arrived later that summer, traveling by train to Moose Jaw and Weyburn. Hughie Greig met them and drove them 12 miles over crooked prairie trails to where Albert was erecting the shack. At the time, the only house along the trail belonged to Tom Jackson. It was located on the present site of the Howard McTaggart farm. They spent their first few days in a tent, sleeping on bags of grain, until the shack was completed. As the wood dried out in the shack, gaping cracks appeared through which mosquitoes came in hordes. It was a lonely time, even for the chickens. Albert told how the chickens would come down the trail to meet him when he came home.
Church services were often held at the Shaw house because of the organ. Their first Christmas was spent at Charlie McKague’s. Transportation was a horse drawn stone boat with a packing crate as a seat. The year 1900 was so dry very little of the wheat came up but the tufts of grain that did germinate grew so well that the settlers were convinced that it was good farming land. Albert acquired six oxen to pull the farm implements and in 1905 he obtained mule teams from the USA. (Click picture for larger version, BACK to return.)   |
| Later that year Albert
and Edith moved to the Soo Hotel in Weyburn where he lived for 5 years.
Bill Yeo was hired to operate the farm. It was Bill’s idea to get into
sheep ranching so in 1915-1916 they had Roy Carlisle build a large 50’
x 200’ sheep barn.
The split roof barn had 10 windows along each side of the upper portion. On the west side appeared SHAW’S RANCH painted in six-foot high white letters bordered in black. At its peak this barn housed 1500 sheep. This unmistakable barn was a Saskatchewan landmark until it was dismantled in 1976.  |
Bill Yeo and his family
lived on Shaw’s Ranch until 1924 when he was replaced as manager by Lou
Pyers who lived there with his family until 1931.
 Albert, Don and Jack on
Shaw's Ranch
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In the early years all the field work was all done by horse power. The picture below shows two plows each being pulled by an 8 horse team. 
Don is the front plowman, Jack is the back plowman. |
Albert and Edith Shaw
then retired to Long Beach, California. They travelled extensively by car
returning to Canada each summer in their Overland car shown in the picture
below.
 then in their Franklin shown below.  Little is known about Edith. It appears that she took up painting at some point, perhaps later, in her life. Her work is exquisite. A number of her oil paintings are still in the hands of descendants including the one on the left. |
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In 1934 Jack decided to go farming in Alberta. At that time Clara and her husband Will Douglas and their two youngest sons Elmer and Murray came to live at Shaw’s Ranch. In 1936 Don Douglas married Evelyn Donaldson and set up a farm site adjacent to the Shaw homestead. In 1940 Albert Douglas married Christina MacDonald and continued living on the Shaw homestead. Both Don and Albert raised their families there. Clara and Will Douglas
retired to Weyburn in 1940. Elmer left to start farming in Alberta. Jack
later went to Ontario and joined the airforce. Murray studied Chemical
Engineering at Queens University.
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Albert and Edith Shaw returned to Canada in their later years living at 1139 Tattersal Drive in Victoria, BC.
Edith died in 1936 at age 80. Albert died in 1942 at age 84. |
Notes:
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Albert had three sisters:
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"I would like to recognize the prairie pioneers and in particular my ancestors among them for the hardships they endured, and for their perseverance in helping to bring this vast expanse of countryside to the development we have today." ... D. S. Douglas |
| NOTE: 100 years after
Albert Shaw began his homestead, Shaw’s Ranch has been continuously farmed
by descendants making it eligible for special recognition in 1999 by the
government of Saskatchewan as a Century Farm.
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