The Town of Brownlee

The Town of Brownlee

        Have you ever gone driving around in southern Saskatchewan? And if you have gone down by Moose Jaw and have taken Highway 2 to Central Butte, then you might have passed a small town called Brownlee. Brownlee is a small, interesting town. It used to be a booming metropolis, but now is mainly made up of senior citizens. The main occupation of people from Brownlee and area is retired, or driving to Moose Jaw to work or farming. Brownlee is like a lot of other little towns in Saskatchewan.
The early settlers came to Southern Saskatchewan for different reasons. Brownlee, Saskatchewan was chosen by some people for their new home. First the land being available and very reasonably priced was good. There was no land suitable at home. There was no timber to clear from the land in Saskatchewan. Land companies and government agencies were actively recruiting for settlers to come live in Saskatchewan. Settlers had contact from family members and friends already there, and knew what it could be like to live there. The lighter land was easier to break and crops matured earlier. And there was the spirit of adventure, the lure of the ‘New World’.
       The early settlers came through Caron via rail from Moose Jaw. Brownlee is on Highway 2 and is about 30 minutes from Moose Jaw, and about 1 hour from Regina. The early settlers came from North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan and even some from the Old World. They came by horse and buggy or sleigh, depending on what time of year it was, from Moose Jaw to Brownlee. The land was vast and treeless, miles and miles of nothing but prairie wool.
      Early settlers Mr. Bob Brown- homesteaded the first quarter section 28-21-29-W2 in latter part of April 1903. He moved onto his homestead, built a shack and stable, dug four dry wells and ploughed eight furrows around the section in the fall of 1903. Mr. Fred Peel- he and his brother came from Ontario and filed on their homestead in 1903. The big hardship for the first settlers was that they had to haul their grain to Caron or to Mortlach, with horses, and stay all night- when wheat was sold for as little as 34 cents a bushel. Most homesteaders were trying to get started, but very few came in with any money, so it took a long time to get anywhere. Mrs. Peter Westlund- her husband arrived in Caron, Sask. in May, 1904. She and five children arrived June 12. Their freight was hauled by team and wagon, 30 miles to the homestead. Most shacks were built of lumber, but some added sod for protection in the winter. The barns were mostly sod. All available land in Brownlee was largely occupied by 1904-1905.
    The homestead filed on by Roy Shrack was purchased for the townsite. Mr. Shrack was paid $2500, and given back his homestead rights to file on other land. The village of Brownlee was named after James Brownlee. He was born in 1859 and died in 1912. He was a CPR superintendent at Moose Jaw from 1903-1907. The original PO was Meedsville (24-21-1-W3, 1906-1907), and that name derivation is unknown. On November 16th, 1907 petition was sent asking that Hamlet of Brownlee to be incorporated in to a village. On May 13th, 1908, application was made again to have Brownlee incorporated as a village. On August 11th, 1908, Brownlee was declared a village.
      Brownlee School- a letter dated Jan. 16, 1907 was sent to Regina asking for a school to be built in the town site. In Oct. 1907, permission was given to build a school in the town site of Brownlee. A building was rented for the school at this time. A wooden school house was built in 1909, a two story brick school in 1920.
     The first grocery store was built in 1907 by W.J. Wallace. It was just a small store with living quarters in the same building. In 1909 he built a new general store, which also housed the post office and the first switch board in Brownlee. C.W built his first hardware store in 1907. The bank of Hamilton opened in Brownlee about 1909. In the year 1907 Dr E.C. and Mrs Chandler came to Brownlee, and built the first drug store. The drug store and the doctor’s office were on the ground floor of the building. Jerry MacRoberts built the hotel in the year 1909. Al Wallace ran the first light plant in Brownlee, from 1914 until 1925, when John Hanna took over until 1930. At that that times the National Light came to Brownlee. The first restaurant in Brownlee was opened by Henry Quamme and John Torgeson. They also opened the first livery barn in 1907. J.E. Sires was the first village blacksmith and built his shop in 1907. Garage and implements- C.E. Kettlewell started a garage in 1931. He also had the Massey Harris agency. K.M. Kettlewell, son, took over the garage in 1945. Then in 1952, he took over Massey Harris agency as well. Sons, Edwin and David, took over the garage in 1978. Some of the other businesses were the newspaper, harness maker, confectionary, lumber yards, barbershop and pool room, and grain elevators. The hardware store burned down in 1929 and the Brownlee Farmers’ Company was dissolved. The CPR came through in 1908.
Organizations- baseball, hockey, band, bowling alley, Odd Fellows Lodge- 1910, doctors and nurses ,United Grain Growers.. The Agricultural society was organized shortly after Brownlee was founded and had a good fair every year until 1921 when cars and tractors took the place of horses.
      The Brownlee Homemakers- organized in 1923- was originally a strictly farmers wife club. Later they did charity work, helping the local church, Community Hall, hospitals, etc. My mom’s grandma was a part of this organization for many years until it folded on October 23, 1997 with only five members.
In June 30, 1929 there was a big fire in the town of Brownlee. It presumably started in the drugstore about 3 to 6 am Sunday. By 12 noon it was all over. The Hotel, Hardware Store, General Store, Odd Fellows Hall, Drugstore, Confectionery, Harness Shop, Butcher Shop, Sheds and ice house were all gone, nearly the entire west side of main street. Only three buildings on the same side of the street escaped destruction and they were two blocks from the fire. They were a general store, doctor’s house and the fire hall. Brownlee never fully recovered. Damage was thought to exceed $50,000.
Also there was another fire in Brownlee on September 23, 2008. The fire was in the grain elevator that was owned privately. It was assumed that a hot bearing caused the fire. The fire department that came to the fire said, “There is not much that we can about this fire, and we will just have to let it burn itself out”. The remaining grain could burn for days and even weeks.
      It is thought that the first church work in the Brownlee district was carried on from the Keelerville Mission station, which was established in 1904 by Presbyterian Church. In 1910 the first church building was erected in Brownlee. As a co-operative community church, the building reflected the faith of the district pioneers.
      The former Premier of Saskatchewan, Grant Devine, was born and raised in Brownlee, graduating in 1962.

Brownlee School
    The year 1976-1977 the Senior Girls volleyball team did not have much success. They had five Senior and three juniors on the team. The girl’s volleyball team got invited to an Invitational Tournament. The coach for the girl’s volleyball team was Mr. Butler. The Senior Boys volleyball team was made for the finals. In the year 1976-1977 they did not have a senior basketball team, due to lack of players here are the players for the junior volleyball team and junior basketball team- Todd Graas, Mark Howard, Jeff Jackson, Tony Guillaume, Morris White, Graham Smith, Wesley White and Brian Smith. Other sports played were badminton, and track and field.
Here is the staff during 1982-1983.
• M. Butler teaches Math and Science Div.III and IV
• C. Kyle teaches English and Social Div. II and IV
• S. Simpson teaches Division II
• V. MacFarlane, teaches Division I
• F. Pottruff teaches Typing
• S. Fournay teaches French
• Mrs. Petrovicz is a Substitute Teacher
• Mrs. Mathieson teaches Special Education


There was a student council during 1982-1983, here are the people that were one it.
Nicky Butler- President
Susan Howard- Vice President
Tammy Inverarity- Secretary
Lorraine Swanson- Division IV Representative
Lori Mohr- Division III Representative

Brownlee was a small school/high school. There was a brick school for the younger grades and a newer high school for the older grades. The high school is still standing today.

Brownlee has affected all lot of people that have lived in Brownlee. People that do different jobs, important jobs, in other cities have come from Brownlee. Former premier of Saskatchewan, Grant Devine, came from Brownlee. It might be small town, but many people have called Brownlee home. The town of Brownlee might not be important to a lot of other Canadian people but to me it is important. If Brownlee had not been founded where would the people be that lived in Brownlee all those years ago or that are living in Brownlee now.