THE GRASSICK FAMILY PHOTOS

George and Margaret (Grassick) Beattie









James Grassick (2 Mar 1868-4 Aug 1956)
James Grassick was a very prominent citizen of Regina and there are several articles to be found of him in the Leader Post Newspaper of Regina, Saskatchewan.
Leader Post Newspaper, Regina, Saskatchewan
6 August 1956, page 1
Obituary:
"James Grassick, Regina's grand old man, is dead.
The 88 year old resident for three-quarters of a century was struck down on the highway two miles east of the city Saturday morning as he walked across No. 1 highway to inspect a field of wheat. He died two hours later in Regina General Hospital.
The last original settler of Regina, Mr. Grassick came here when this was a tent and shack town. He lived to see it grow to a city of 86,000; from mud roads to paved streets; from false front buildings to multi-storey structures of brick and steel; from bald prairie to a city of treed boulevards and beautiful parks.
The accident which took his life occurred about 11 a.m., near the site of the family homestead which Mr. Grassick had gone out to visit, a daily practice.
He was struck almost at the identical spot where a man was killed recently while pushing his bicycle on the road. RCMP Const. R. Heywood said according to eyewitnesses, Mr. Grassick parked his car about 30 feet north of the highway on a municipal road and was attempting to cross to the south side of the highway.
He was struck by an east-bound car driven by Dwight Dickert, 74, of 2112 Smith Street, believed to be a close friend.
Harold Zatzman, 2270 Wallace Street, a taxi driver who was stopped on the south side of the highway to discharge a passanger, told police he saw Mr. Grassick watching the west bound traffic as he approached the highway. He stopped to let a car go by, then walked into the centre line. He appeared to by watching a second vehicle approaching from the east and did not look west, Mr. Zatzman said.
TRIED TO SWERVE
Mr. Dickert told police when he saw Mr. Grassick step out in front of him he slammed on his brakes, blew his horn and tried to swerve around him. Several witnesses said Mr. Grassick made an attempt to jump forward out of the car's path after he heard the horn. He was struck by the front of the car. Const. Heywood said Mr. Grassick was alive but unconscious when he arrived at the scene of the accedent. Dr. Albert Hudec, who attended Mr. Grassick at Regina General Hospital said the suffered a fractured skull and concussion and a fractured right arm.
Mr. Grassick died at 1 p.m.
Dr. A.S. Sinclair ordered an inquest to be held August 8 at 1:30 p.m. at RCMP town station.
The funeral service will be conducted Tuesday at 3:30p.m. at Knox Metropolital Church. Rev. Harry A. Mutchmor will officiate and burial will be in Regina Cemetery.
James Grassick, the man who helped to shape Regina over a span of years from 1898 to his death, the white man the Indians called brother and named their Chief Strongheart, had called Regina home since the day 74 years ago when the Grassick family wagon drawn by two slow-moving oxen halted on the prairie grass where Regina stands today. The adventurous young farm lad who arrived that day, left the plains rarely, and later helped to guide the destiny of the province and province's capital from offices of mayor, alderman, member of the legislature, school trustee and from his associations with the farm, the church, his business, community service organizations and sports fraternities.
Born a Fergus, Ont., March 2, 1868, son of a Scottish father and Irish mother, James went with his family to Rapid City, Man., by Red River transport in 1876, a year before the CPR rails reached Winnipeg. four years later, the family went right on spying out the land further west.
OXCART JOURNEY
James Grassick was a boy of 14 when he made the journey in an ox-cart to Regina, finding at the end of the trip a little settlement scarcely more than an outpost of civilization. His father staked his homestead three miles east of the site which Lieut. Gov. Edgar Dewdney of the North West Territories reserved for governmental purposes, and Mr. Grassick continued to farm the land on the rich Regina plains to the time of his death.
He married Jessie Beattie in 1897. Mrs. Grassick died in 1938. Surviving Mr. Grassick are his son, Gordon (Greg), 1254 McIntosh St., two daughters, Mrs. J.C. Malone 3160 Albert Street; Mrs. F.P. Fairley, 2366 Halifax St., a brother George, Yellow Grass; two sisters, Mrs. W.H. Duncan and Belle, Hotel Saskatchewan; nine grandchildren and one great grandson.
Mr. Grassick's formal education was scanty. He attended the first Regina school for four months but money was scarce and his help was needed elsewhere. He took on all types of odd jobs, worked on a ranch and later went into the business of carting, express hauling and conducting a feed and sale stable. In 1906 Mr. Grassick organized the Capital Ice Company.
Mr. Grassick's first election to civic office came in 1898 when he was elected to the town council and he continued to serve during the years to 1903. An alderman of the city from 1915-1919, Mr. Grassick was elected mayor for the years 1920 to 1922. He served on the public school boards from 1928 to 1937.
SERVED AS MLA
He served five years in the legislature as Conservative member for Regina, from 1929 to 1935, and in 1939 returned to civic office as an alderman. A year later he was once again elected mayor for a two year term.
An original member of the old Agricultural society, Mr. Grassick was associated with the provincial exhibition and the annual winter fair for half a century. When the Regina Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition Limited was formed in 1907, he became a member of the board. He served as president, manager and chairman of committees including the grandstand, executive and finance, historical, parks and livestock. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the woman's committee and was a daily visitor to the 1956 exhibition.
A devoted member of the Presbyterian and later the United Church of Canada, Mr. Grassick served as an elder of Knox Church for years and served on the board of managers for more than 35 years.
He was a past president of the Old Timers' Association and a member since its inception, and he was on of the original members of the Canadian Order of Foresters. He was also identified with the Masonic Order, the Sons of Scotland, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Elks and the United Order of Canadians. He was a honorary life member of the Regina Rotary Club and of the Riel Rebellion Veterans' Association.
He was active on the agricultural committee of the Regina Chamber of Commerce and during the 1920's and early 1930's he was a member of the Chamber's council. He was also one of the oldest members of the Canadian Order of Foresters, with 60 years in the order.
A keen sportsman in his early years. Mr. Grassick, played hockey and baseball on early Regina teams. For many years he served on the Regina Boxing and Wrestling Commission and was its chairman for the past five years.
James Grassick's 88 years were full of rich adventure and excitement.
The early years took the adventurous Ontario born youth over the dusty trails of western frontier before the railway went through and his delight in his fellow man won him the friendship of the Indians, the cowboys, the farmers, the Mounted Police, the business men, the government and civic officials, who were his colleagues and about whom his life was entwined. To James Grassick one of the greatest thrills of his long life came in Saskaatchewan's Golden Jubilee Year, when Indians of the Plains Cree tribe at Piapot Reserve made him an honorary chief...Chief Strongheart. They named him well.
Fittingly the ceremony took place on the opening night of the Regina Exhibition, a beloved institution of the chief. No honor delighted the pioneer more. No chief wore his colorful headdress more proudly and no 87 year old wore a blanket more proudly and on 87 year old ever performed the tribal dance more sprightly. The honorary chief had much in common with the elder true blood Plains Crees. He roamed the plains as a youth, finding adventure and he ranched near the Piapot Reserve. His love of the Canadian west knew no bounds.
His westward trek began when the Grassicks, Ontario folk with a stout spirit of enterprise, went to Manitoba in 1876 a year before the CPR rails reached Winnipeg. The family came through the United States to a point in Minnesota and then down the Red River on one of the paddle wheel river boats. At Winnipeg, the Grassicks bought a wagon and team of oxen and drove westward over uncertain trails to Rapid City north of where Brandon was to rise.
There they were to locate for it was common belief the new CPR would be built that way and Rapid City would outgrow Winnipeg.
The Rapid City homestead was close to the 1,000 mile cart trail connecting Edmonton and Winnipeg, and the pioneer recalled the slow-moving "cart trains" going back and forth; as many as 200 ox or horse-drawn units loaded with furs making their way eastward and the same number, loaded with bacon, flour and trade goods moving westward...on to Edmonton. Mail came to Rapit City by stage coach in summer and dog sleigh in winter.
When 1882 brought the realization the railroad would bypass Rapid City, the Grassicks and a neighbour, Robert Sinton ( who also became a leading figure in Saskatchewan) decided to try it farther west, with another chance of being closer to the CPR.
James Grassick, a lad of 14 was with his father when he set out following an ox-cart, to locate some good farm land (the Grassicks had strong views abouth the importance of good soil and on the Grassick wagon was a walking plow to be used to study soils at various points. When they reached a promising district, the oxen were hitched to the plow and some furrows were turned for close inspection.) At 20 miles a day, the oxen progressed and at sundown the travellers erected a tent for night shelter. At one such stop, southwest of Fort Qu'Appelle, an impressive coach drew up and its three occupants joined camp for the night. One of the three was Lt.-Gov. Edgar Dewdney of the North West Territories. Speculating that the lieutenant-govenor was out to find a location for the capital, the Grassicks, loaded up tent and plow and followed.
They arrived at Pile of Bones the day Lt.-Gov. Dewdney pinned a declaration on the flap of his tent announcing that land thereabouts was reserved for use by the government. They hitched the oxen to the plow, and finding the soil in the furrow heavy and rich, the homestead was staked three miles east of the site and to his death Mr. Grassick farmed that land on the rich Regina plains, although today it is adorned with the Trans-Canada highway, the oil pipelines, a service station, a used car lot, a drive-in theatre, the CPR mainline and a branch of the CNR.
Emblematic of his years of farming, Mr. Grassick took part in the official opening of the new Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator at Regina in 1955. He delivered the first load of wheat to the new elevator, but not by truck. He made the delivery by team and wagon, the way they did it when he was farming.
On his 85th birthday, the pioneer recalled "I've seen this city grow a good bit since '82. At that time there wasn't much more than the big piles of white buffalo bones that the Indians and half breeds had brought in and sold." Later the bones were shipped to Chicago, but before they disappeared they had given Regina its first name. Later in 1882, the railroad reached Pile of Bones and when the first train arrived with Canada's Govenor General, his wife, Princess Louise renamed the place, Regina in honour of her mother, Queen Victoria.
The Grassicks were present for the rechristening the next year Regina became the official capital of the North-West Territories an event which brought violent arguments about the suitability of the site. But the Grassicks had faith in the soil and were here to stay.
The lad, Jim, got a little schooling, he attended Regina's first schooling, he attended Regina's first school for four months, but he was needed on the farm and there he worked hard. His first real money was earned by delivering milk, and milking the cows in a corral at the present site of the city hall. For many weeks he guided a hand plow behing slow plodding oxen, breaking land for a newly arrived settler from England. His pay was 50 cents a day. Then came two years employment in the Mowat Brothers' general store, followed by two more years on the horse ranch operated by the Mowat brothers about 40 miles southwest of Regina near the present village of Avonlea. It was while he was a cowhand at the Mowat ranch, he with another ranch hand were sent to Glasgow, Montana to round up 50 horses which had strayed from the ranch leading to a few days in the wide-open gambling town.
When the Riel Rebellion broke out, Jim Grassick was 17 and he volunteered for service. He trained first with the Regina Blazers, a military unit, and then was given leave to drive his father's teams on transport wagons stocked with military supplies. He was the youngest driver in the caravan of 100 teams routed frist from Qu'Appelle to Prince Albert.
SAW WAR PAINT
At intervals along the road war-painted Indians would pass and glare menacingly, but they never attempted to raid. At night the caravan would make camp and it took the caravan eight days to reach Humboldt. Then, with fresh horses and drivers, they continued to Prince Albert. He made other trips from Qu'Appelle to Moose Jaw and one from Moose Jaw to Clark's Crossing, a site near Saskatoon. Frequently troops from the NWMP, the Queen's Own Regiment from Toronto or the 90th Battalion troops from Winnipeg would ride by. The caravan was at Clark's Crossing when news arrived that a truce had been declared and Mr. Grassick returned to Regina.
In 1885, he helped his father deliver wire for a telegraph line, the first in the southwest country from Moose to Wood Mountain where a NWMP barracks was located. Four teams were used to deliver the wire and the pay was $10.00 a day per team.
In 1889, Mr. Grassick decided to stricke out for himself and purchased a dray, cartage and livery from the start and built himself selflessly into it. He spent 31 years in elective office. Mr. Grassick's first election to civic office came in 1896 five years before the city incorporated when he was elected to the town council business. He formed a partnership with Robert McKell and a year later bought out the business.
Social life centred around the NWMP barracks and to the livery operator fell the task of driving Regina's gay young crowd to social functions at the barracks, and Mr. Grassick was one of the gay blades at such affairs, driving the party home at the conclusion of the party. The little park adjoining the barracks property today bears the name of the lad who ran the livery service over 60 years ago. One of the city's streets has been given the name Grassick.
In 1906, Mr. Grassick sold out the business and organized the Capital Ice Company, a business which he operated until recent years.
Grant MacEwan, writing of Mr. Grassick in a farm publication las month claimed: "Though he has lived on city streets for quite a few years, few men have been closer to the soil, the livestock industry and the farming problems of Saskatchewan."
The citizens of Regina, over a period of 74 years, continuously honoured with responsibility the man who helped to build Regina for the following year and continued to serve during the years 1899-1903.
When he stepped down from mayorality for the final time Dec. 31, 1941, bowing out to his successful opponent, Mayor-elect C.C. Williams, Mr. Grassick recalled his first campaign when he ran as the nominee of the Regina volunteer fire brigade, of which he was a member. The firemaen wanted a voice on the council and his election was a foregone conclusion because he had their solid support-sufficient to swing the election in the small town. Women did not have a vote then, which made the number of electors that much smaller.
It was in 1901, when he was a member of the town council, when James Grassick first met the Earl of Athlone when he appeared in Regina as aide de camp to the Late King George V, then Duke of Cornwall and York. Thus when Mayor James Grassick met Canada's Govenor General, the Earl of Athlone on his visit to the city in April 1941, no introductions were necessary.
STEETS UNPAVED
Recalling the earlier occasion on the Govenor-General's visit, Mr. Grassick said in September 1901, there were no paved streets, After a morning of snow and rain, hot sun came out, melting the snow and sleet to convert the town into a quagmire. Mud, he said, flew in all directions, making the cavalcade hardly recognizable and he recalled how the Mounted Police had to keep quite a distance from the carriage conveying his highness from being spattered from head to toe with mud from the horses hooves.
Mr. Grassick returned to an aldermanic seat in 1915 and in 1920 was elected mayor of the city, holding the chief magistrate's chair until 1922. Once again, James Grassick retired from public life, but in 1928, the people of Regina gave him their vote to the public school board and during his 10 year tenure he took the chairmanship for several years. He served on the collegiate board during this time and was also its chairman. In 1929, Mr. Grassick captured the people's vote to make him a member of the Saskatchewan legislature on a Conservative ticket. For the next five years, he represented Regina along with M.A. MacPherson, Q.C., then attorney-general. When James Grassick was approached by many Reginans from all walks of life to urge him to again stand for the mayoralty in 1940, he broght a wide experience in civic and government affairs and his keen shrewd judgment to civic affairs.
The first candidate into the field for the 1939 civic elections, James Grassick avowed his belief: "anyone seeking public office should so far as reasonalby possible dissociate himself from party politics for the simple reason that the civic administration with its limited powers can not hope to accomplish very much without the fullest co-operation from the provincial and federal governments. To have the city a loggerheads with the governments cannot help but be very detrimental."
Referring to some feelings that the previous civic administration was not representative of citizens at large, but concerned with the welfare of a certain class, he said: "I have always, while holding public office, attempted to serve the community as a whole rather than only those who elected me."
During a storm in city council over the question of increasing the mayor's salary from $3,000.00 to $3,300.00, Ald L. McK. Robinson noted: "Never before have the mayor's duties been so onerous and Mayor Grassick's present actual working day is from 10-14 hours, more often longer...The city has been particularly fortunate during the past two strenuous years in having as its chief executive officer a man who has such a long and varied practical experience in municipal affairs. When you add to that chief qualification his gracious, genial and sympathetic disposition, you have a mayor of which any city might well be proud and of whom Regina is proud."
During his final tenure as mayor Mr. Grassick did away with the post of clerk to the mayor, so he could meet all the citizens who came to his office personally, even though it increased his work. He had hoped to be Regina's mayor when the city celebrated its 60th anniversary in 1942, but his defeat in the fall of 1941 prevented it. It was reported he was the first to go in search of his victorious opponent, Mr. Williams, with congratulations. "He took his defeat the way the old timers have shown new generations how to take it: as a sportsman and with a smile," he added, "To be voted into office so many times means that a man must have many friends and supporters. To occupy civic office so long, usually brings enemies, but not to Jim Grassick. He has opponents, yes, but enemies, he has none." it was written at the time.
Mr. Grassick, leaving the mayor's office with one message urging Regina citizens to exercise their franchise commented: "I was not defeated by my oppnents...but by my friends and supporters, those who failed to get out and make use of their vote. For nearly 60 years I have served the people of Regina in various positions, and I hope to be able to go on serving them. I do not intend to retire from public life. I shall continue to be active."
And, at the time he was tragically struck down, James Grassick was still serving his fellow man.
James Grassick was a familiar figure at New Year's levees. New Year's Day this year marked his 74th in Regina and he made his usual visits to the RCMP barracks, HMCS Queen, the army officers' mess, the United Services Institute and the receptions of Lt. Go. W.J. Patterson, Bishop Coleman, the government and the city. His New Year's rounds were made in the car he had won on a 50 cent draw several years ago. A daily visitor to the 1956 Regina provincial exhibition was one of the exhibition board's key members, 88 year old Mr. Grassick who had watched and promoted the annual fair from the city's earliest days. Saturday, the exhibition board's past president and former manager made his last visit to the grounds. At the time, he told his colleagues he was going out to see his farm and would return later in the day. Only death prevented him from being on hand at the fair he had helped to nurture through more than 50 years developement.
Mr. Grassick was originally a member of the old Agricultural Society and when the Regina Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition Ltd. was formed in 1907, he became a member of the board. He served as president in 1923 and 1926. When Mr. Grassick's appointment to the post of manager Feb. 20, 1943 was unanimously acclaimed by 35 board members at a meeting at the Kings Hotel, one writer commented: "Appointment of Mr. Grassick to this post gives the board tried and trusted leadership. Finding a successor to Mr. Elderkin (D.T. 'Dan" Elderkin who died two weeks previously) has been no easy task fro the board. But in James Grassick they felt they had selected a man known in every part of Canada, and one well-versed in the ins and outs of handling exhibitions of the size of the annual Regina event."
Mr. Grassick held the post until 1946 and continued to serve the board on the committee. At the time of his death, he was chariman of the women's committee, a position he had held since 1948. Among the exhibition board committees he steered over half a century were the grandstand committee (1923 &1924); the executive and finance committee (1925& 1926); historical committee (1935 & 1936); parks committee (1938) and livestock committee (1939-1941). In latter years, James Grassick was always in the lieutenant governor's carriage for the opening ceremonies at the light horse show, held in conjunction with the Winter fair-and in a ringside seat he nightly watched with keen interest the jumping and riding competitions.
Last year, at the age of 88, Mr. Grassick mounted a horse to ride into the ring during a ceremony paying tribute to a retiring member of the equine fraternity, the championship jumper, Bouncing Buster. At the opening of the 1953 winter fair, Mr. Grassick talked about the old days of the Regina Light Horse Show: "It was back in March 1914 that Regina had its first light horse show and it was some show. all the entrants were dressed up in silk toppers, scarlet hunting jackets, riding breeches and boots. Even the spectators caught the spirit of the occasion and turned out to the show in similar dress. There has never been another show like that one."
In contrast to the many jumping events of present shows, the pioneer 1914 exhibition concentrated on driving and saddle races, drawing entries from Sir Clifford Sifton's stable in Brandon, and Manitoba Lt. Gov. D.C. Cameron's Winnipeg stables.
Devoted to his church, Mr. Grassick was one of the founders of Knox Metropolitan church. Recently, he took part in a ceremony at which the cornerstone was laid and the new addition to the church was dedicated. In Knowx church, he had been an elder for years and served on the church's board of managers form more that 35 years. He was superintendent of the Sunday school, once again helping the youth he loved.
First a member of the Presbyterian church and after union, of the United church of Canada, Mr. Grassick was considered to be one of the founders of Knox church, which structure was torn down to make way for the new government telephone building.
One of the first things Regina citizens of 1882 did was to establish religious services. The first service was conducted by Rev. Mitchell, a travelling Presbyterian missionary. To hold it, they took the horses out of the stalls and put sawdust on the floor. They used planks on packing cases for seats. This particular group of worshippers eventually emerged as Knox church.

Leader Post, Regina , Saskatchewan
3 Dec. 1956
Lake Named After Regina Pioneer
It was announced today by the minister of natural resources, Hon. A.G.Kuziak, that a lake in the Cree Lake area of northern Saskatchewan has officially been named after the late James Grassick, a prominent pioneer citizen of Regina. Also announced was the naming of an island in Reindeer Lake in honour of a Regina airman, Alexander Watt, who died in the Second World War.


Anne Jane Bell (20 May 1847-6 Oct 1907)
Obituary Leader Post
9 October 1907
"-The funeral of an old-time resident in the West will be conducted from the residence of W.H. Duncan 2074 Cornwall street, this afternoon, by the Rev. E.A. Henry, of Knox church. Mrs. George Grassick, the deceased, died on Sunday at Yellow Grass, at the age of 62 years. The wife of Mr. George Grassick, she resided in Regina since 1883, but left the city three weeks ago for her husband's ranch, whence she never returned. Prior to her arrival at Regina, she lived five years at Rapid City, Manitoba. The following relatives will be present at this afternoon's service: Mr. George Grassick (husband), Mr. George Grassick (son), Yellow Grass, Mr. James Grassick, Mrs. W.H. Duncan, Miss Belle Grassic, REgina; Mrs. W.H. Hargrave, Mr. T.J. Bell, Medicine Hat and Mr. Harry Bell, Edmonton."
(Dates of death conflict-headstone reads 8 October 1907 but death registration (#001173) clearly states 6 Oct 1907)


George Grassick
Leader Post April 9, 1915, p. 12 GEORGE GRASSICK PASSES AWAY
Father of Alderman James Grassick Was Pioneer Settler
George Grassick, aged 72 years was one of the old-timers of the Regina District, passed away yesterday on his ranch in Yellow Grass. Mr. Grassick with his family came to Regina in 1883, from Rapid City, Manitoba, making the trip by ox team. Alderman James Grassick is a son, and Mrs. W.H. Duncan and Miss Belle Grassick are daughters. The funeral will take place Sunday afternoon from Alderman Grassick's residence, 1604 16th Ave.
With the removal by death of George Grassick, one of the pioneers of the West has been removed. He was one of the early settlers and owned large ranches in the province. He was widely known throughout the West as one of the foremost farmers of Saskatchewan.
Born in 1842 in Scotland, he came to Canada early in the 'sixties and settled near Guelph, Ont. He married Ann J Bell of Elora, who prececeased him.
In 1878, the Grassicks came West by way of St. Paul and Winnipeg, coming cross country by ox team to Rapid City, Manitoba, and later in 1883 to Regina. Mr. Grassick took up a homestead on Property just east of the present site of the city. He later went into ranching in the Qu'Appelle Valley. Five years ago he retived and moved to Yellow Grass, where he died yesterday.
Besides one son, Alderman Grassick and two daughters, Mrs. W.H. Duncan and Miss Belle Grassick of this city, he is survived by George of Yellow Grass and Mrs. W.H. Hargreave of Edmonton."

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