ALLAN, Sask. – On this central Saskatchewan farm that is older than the province, the sweet pea flowers are lush, the 74-year-old barn is a sharp red and the driveway freshly graded.
All was tidied for the July 26 party that was to celebrate the farm’s 100 years.
A neighbour made and erected the century farm sign for Jack and Jessie Nicholson, who were expecting 180 family and friends to join them for the celebration.
Jack’s father registered the original homestead in 1903 with the District of Assiniboia, trekking to the area with his team of oxen. He had left Liverpool, England, for Canada, working on various farms until he got his own.
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By 1905, when the province was created, he had broken 70 acres of land and added four cattle. Marriage in 1915 to an Irish woman working in Canada ensured the farm stayed in the family.
The farm prospered by raising Shorthorn cattle and growing cereals and hay. Jack’s father helped organize the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Jack did the farm work with horses until 1945 and maintains he had more leisure time then. He remembers stopping the plowing one hot day by the slough to give the team a break and stripping down and jumping into the water for a swim.
“You don’t hear many tractor guys do that,” he said with a grin.
The soft-spoken bachelor changed his life in the early 1950s by marrying Jessie, a widow with three sons, that he had met in a flower shop. They added more kids and had eight by the time they were done. Most of those children stayed nearby and two have taken up farming with their father.
They changed some aspects of the farm, adding sheep and pigs to go with the laying hens that Jessie, a farm girl, had added. Also, the farmyard has enlarged with three houses popping up. The old house that Jack and his sister were born in still stands. Surrounded by lilacs, it is mainly used as a storehouse and a spot to pluck chickens.
These days the senior Nicholsons’ favourite part of the farm is swishing flies in the corrals near their house. An Arabian stallion called Magnificant and a filly called Lonesome Beauty are the latest in a 35 year venture into breeding horses.
Jessie knew Jack admired the Arabian breed even though he had always worked with heavy horses. So she secretly bought him a white Arabian stallion called Moonshiner. The purebred white horse was good for riding, working cattle and breeding. Jack, who said his gift had “the look of eagles,” found people wanted foals off the showy horse so much that they were sold before they were born.
The stallion was delivered to the Nicholsons via a half ton truck with no sides. The big horse calmly walked off the truck and into the Nicholsons’ hearts. When he died too early at the age of 19, the family got a chestnut stallion and kept going.
While at one time the family had 20 horses, it has reduced that number to 10. Lonesome Beauty is one of those. Born prematurely to a mare that died, the two-year-old filly was nicknamed Nana’s Girl. It was bottle fed by Jessie, who also sewed the tiny filly into an old blanket and knee socks to keep it warm. The attention hasn’t stopped and the two horses are more like pets than investments.
A basement room full of trophies, ribbons and photographs is a tribute to wins in the show ring by the Nicholsons and their Arabians. While Jack, at 84, hasn’t ridden in a couple of years, at Christmas he was driving a team giving sleigh rides to his city grandchildren.
He has also turned most of the fieldwork over to his sons, but still has regular chores. And his son Harry said he would never make a decision without consulting his parents, wife and brother.
Harry and George keep the century farm going, although the drought changed some of their practices. They culled their commercial beef herd to about 100. They also stopped grain farming and went out of pigs when the government began subsidizing the large barns.
Jessie is pleased that she and Jack were able to work out a land transfer with their children that essentially puts the land in trust with a majority of them. Harry said when the time comes, he and his siblings hope to do the same with their children.
The family is careful with its investment. Jack remembers his father having to choose between buying a quarter of land or building a barn in 1929. The barn got built. Jessie recites the family motto – “If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it.”
Harry laughed and said that’s why they are still a small farm at six quarters. He can see a future of small farms amid some super-large ones, but no mid-sized farms.
As a councillor for the local rural municipality, he made a presentation to the provincial commission studying education tax on farm property.
The RM has dropped in population to about 250, half what it was 20 years ago. The biggest growth surge came with the recent establishment of a Hutterite colony.
Harry praises Jack for always being willing to hear his input even if sometimes delivered with “his Scotch temper.” Jack in turn responded that life with an instant family of three stepsons was “kind of hard” at first but it got easier over the years.
Harry said there is one other element to the family’s good fortune.
“On Sunday I’ll say a bit and thank the Lord for his provision for us … I don’t think we’re here by accident.”
