Name of R.M.: Corman Park No.
of R.M.: 344
Name of Cemetery: Osler Community Cemetery
Name of Community: Osler Community
Name of Church and Denomination: Mostly Mennonite Burials
Condition of Cemetery: Well cared for, and preserved as a Heritage Site
Approximate No. of burials: 90, with one unmarked grave.
Ownership: Preserved by the Municipality
Legal Land Location: Se 20-39-4, W3rd inside Osler town.
Submitted by: John P. Nickel
Date: 01 July 1996
Mennonite Historical Society
of Saskatchewan
Annual Meeting, January 19
- 20, 1996.
Osler, Sask.
Brief History of Osler and
District:
Cemeteries are very much part
and parcel of the history of any community, and Osler is no exception.
Here are a few highlights of the history of your community, which I am
sure most of you already know from your massive book, recently published.
The following events are taken from Hella Banman’s booklet, Bits
and Pieces.
The railroad from Regina came
through here in 1890 over land surveyed by the brokerage and investment
firm of Osler, Hammond and Nanton*. A small station was built and named
after Edmund Osler in 1892.
Some of the early Mennonite
pioneers who came here were Cornie R. Driedger, Isaac Loewen, Abe Martens,
Henry Neudorf, Cornelius Hein, the mdwide Mrs. Kasdorf, Johann Neufeld
, J.J. Boldt, and many others. A non-Mennonite German by the name of Adolph
Rostek from East Prussia settled here in 1905 and became a grain buyer
for the next 47 years.
Some of the early businessmen
were:
Isaac Loewen owned and managed
the first general store;
Isaac P. Friesen started a
hardware store here in 1909;
Frank Bergen was a barber in
Osler for 53 years.
Talking about schools, the
first one (which didn’t have a name), was built in the early 1900’s.
Then came Rosalind, Labbase (which was later called Rheinland), Embury,
Renfrew and Neuhorst.
An outstandstanding citizen
of Osler was David Boldt, born in Altona, Kansas who moved here at a young
age to start farming, and married Anne Ens. He successfully ran in several
provincial elections and became minister of Highways under the Ross Thatcher
government, serving as MLA from 1965 to 1971. It was under his ministry
that highway no. 11 was rebuilt from Saskatoon, greatly improving transportation.
Now we came to the part which
I treasure the most - churches and cemeteries. The Osler village church
and the Rheinland church and school were one of the first places of worship.
The Rheinland cemetery is still in use; it had 109 grave sites when I
recorded the names. Unfortunately, only 49 of the graves had headstones.
Many of the burials were infants and young children, and mothers in their
thirties who may have died in childbirth, a fairly common occurrence in
the early days.
Another early cemetery was
Hochfeld, locate about seven miles north and west of Hague. There is no
church there any more, but the cemetery has a sign that says, ESTABLISHED
1897, and is very well looked after. It had 196 graves when I saw it in
May 1994, but like most cemeteries, has only 53 marked graves, which amounts
to only a little more than 25 percent of all graves recorded.
In the early days when there
were no cemeteries, many burials were done in school yards, gardens or
fields. Two years ago I located the family burial grounds of the Fehr
and Hamm families located about five or six miles north off Highway 11,
just east of the highway on Dyck road. When I dropped in at Bill and Margaret
Fehr’s in Hague, they told me a most interesting story. All on his
own Bill cleaned up the cemetery, fenced it in, and erected a large marble
slab with the names of about 25 relatives and famiy members. He even got
permission to build an access road to this little cemetery so it could
be easily visited. I wonder, are there any private cemeteries like this
around Osler? It would be interesting to hear your comments.
John P. Nickel
April 2002 - revisions received.
*From: "Harry Sanders" <sanderhk@cadvision.com>To: mierau,
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 9:52 PMSubject: Osler cemetery
I have a correction for your site on Osler, Saskatchewan. Osler, Hammond
and Nanton was a brokerage and investment firm, not an engineering firm.Otherwise,
good work!Regards,Harry SandersCalgary
