As I do my research, I often come across stories of odd or violent incidents at small-town Saskatchewan hotels. Here is a sampling.
Beating at the Hague Hotel:On March 31, 1910, the Rosthern Enterprise reported that Herbert Henschel, a young Imperial Bank employee, was the victim of 鈥渁 most dastardly assault鈥� while asleep in bed at the hotel in Hague. Apparently, Mark Field, one of the proprietors of the hotel, had broken into Henschel鈥檚 room at 2 a.m. and beaten him over the head with a beer bottle. While protecting his face, Henschel was cut and bruised on his arms and shoulders, requiring medical attention. Mark Field left Hague immediately, but his brother Spencer Field was arrested and charged with being an accomplice in the assault. According to the Rosthern newspaper, the story going around town was that Mark Field had been looking for another man, that the mystery man knew Field was after him, and had asked Henschel to share his hotel room that night. 鈥淲hen the bedroom door was opened, he is said to have rolled quickly under the bed and lay perfectly still allowing the other young man to take the beating intended for himself, and not making a move to assist him. Such cowardice is hardly conceivable but it is common talk that this really happened.鈥�
Guard Dog at the Rosthern Hotel:James Roberge of Rosthern was ordered by the Saskatchewan Hotel License Commissioner on June 14, 1914, to chain up his night porter. 鈥淓vidently the night porter was something of a rough customer,鈥� the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix reported, 鈥渇or on one occasion he had nearly torn the clothes from the back of a man who tried to get into the office.鈥� Roberge鈥檚 night porter was a bulldog. 鈥淵ou see,鈥� Roberge explained, 鈥渢here is not much doing at nights around the hotel, and I just leave the dog in the office. If anyone comes, the dog barks and I get up and attend to them鈥�
Accidental Shooting at the Aneroid Hotel:On Dec. 17, 1914, the clerk at the Aneroid Hotel, Bertrand Gossett, was accidentally shot and killed by an off-duty Royal North West Mounted Police constable, E. S. Buck. Buck, who was in Aneroid on business and staying at the hotel, was about to go into the bar when Gossett asked him to remove his gun, intending to place it out of harm鈥檚 way behind the counter. At the same moment that Buck removed his gun. Gossett was called to the other end of the counter, and while Buck passed the gun across the counter, it accidently discharged. Gossett was killed instantly by a gunshot wound to his head. On Feb. 18, 1915, the Regina Leader-Post reported that, after hearing five witnesses and Buck鈥檚 testimony, the jury鈥檚 verdict was that it was an accidental shooting.
Tar and Feathering at the Langenburg Hotel:On a warm Saturday evening in early August of 1937, Henry Jackson went swimming with a widow, Mrs. Mary Ann Berger, owner of the Langenburg Hotel. When they returned to the hotel, the Star-Phoenix reported that the two were accosted by four masked men who began smearing Jackson with tar. Jackson, 鈥渁dvanced in years,鈥� fought back, ripping the mask off one of the men. Mrs. Berger, who was in her late 50s, went into the hotel and emerged swinging a heavy club. The four men fled and were later charged with aggravated assault. The hotel had been built by Mary Ann's husband Richard Berger, who died in 1916. Mary Ann, who had four children from her marriage to Richard, never remarried.
Off the Rails in Redvers:In 1936, when P.R. and Sadie Johnson bought the King鈥檚 Hotel in Redvers, the place was closed and boarded up. According to the Redvers local history book (1980), no sooner had the couple cleaned the place up and reopened the hotel for business, a disaster 鈥� or perhaps a windfall 鈥� occurred. On May 2, 1936, one mile west of town, a freight train on the CPR line jumped the rails. Twenty-three cars left the track, killing 19-year-old Paul Delbrook of Manitoba, one of the many young 鈥渉obos鈥� who rode the rails during the Depression years. Within hours, scores of railway men from the eastern and western divisional points (Souris, Manitoba and Arcola) arrived to clear the track. As a result, the King鈥檚 Hotel was full for several days, with many of the railway men sleeping on the floor. The Johnson鈥檚 hotel business was off to a good start.
