© 2020, Christian Cassidy
On my recent road trip to Swan River, (more about that in a future post), I dropped into Bowsman, Manitoba on a misty afternoon. It is a pretty little village about 20 kilometres north of Swan River with a 2016 population of 262.
On the surface, it would seem to have a lot going for it with tree-lined residential streets and mix of historic and modern buildings. Its amenities include a post office, curling club, library, newer elementary school, Legion hall, fire department, seniors home, and is about a 15 minute drive from a major town with a regional hospital.
Bowmsan has a proud history. Its Bowman Maroons (1948 - 1953) are in the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame for their stellar performance in the Manitoba - Saskatchewan Baseball League. It was one-time headquarters for the the Burrows Lumber Company and to the Henry Stevens Bank, believed to be the last independent bank in Canada, (more on that in a future blog post !)
There's even a cairn in town to commemorate the "Biffy Burn" of 1967 when locals burned their outhouses en masse to celebrate the centennial and the new sewer system !
Unfortunately, Bowsman is a village in decline. Census data shows that it had a population of 315 in 2006. That dropped by 5 per cent by the time of the 2011 census and by another 12 per cent by 2016.
1st Avenue is the main drag that once faced the railway tracks and its accompanying train station and grain elevators, all long gone. In more recent years, it was home to a TD Bank and a grocery store, also now gone. The Bowsman Hotel is up for sale with its price reduced to $345k.
I feel a bit sad, and even frustrated, when I see a town like Bowsman and imagine what it will look like 20 years from now.
With cities overcrowded and crimey, housing prices out of reach for many, and regular news stories of people around the world risking their lives to make a fresh start, it seems such a waste to have fully serviced villages like this - and there are many of them - wither away.
I’d bet 150 people would inject a lot of new life to Bowsman and, in return, it would provide them with a great quality of life.
More photos of Bowsman.
Dear West End Dumplings blogger,
ReplyDeleteHow did my maternal grandfather, Henry Stevens, come to own his own private bank?
During the Depression, in the early 1930's, Henry Stevens worked as the bookkeeper/accountant at the Burrows Lumber Mill, a mile outside of Bowsman. He and his family lived in a company provided house at the mill. My mom was 6. Then the mill shut down. Now, Henry was out of a house for his family and out of a job. He rented a home in town (allowing my mother to finally attend school at age 7).He had to make income. My grandfather was a very trustworthy, likeable "people person." A woman in town told him he should get a job working with people and that he should consider selling insurance. He set up shop in a small ante room in the back of the only drugstore in town and did just that. Farmers were realizing that hail insurance was likely a smart idea to protect against a full crop of wheat getting flattened and destroyed by a hailstorm. Other types of insurance became popular and accepted by the community and his business took off. My grandmother's father then died and left her an inheritance. The local Bank of Montreal was closing up shop in Bowsman. My grandparents used her inheritance to buy the Bank's building and vault. Farmers in Bowsman would come in and ask if they could leave their grain cheques in his vault overnight or so for safekeeping as they did not venture to the bank in Swan River on a regular basis. He agreed to do this and they trusted him. Eventually, the farmers would ask if they could cash their cheques with him. He agreed and this was the start of his own private Henry Stevens Bank. He was a bit of a character, burning down the out houses in Bowsman as his Centennial Year project in 1967 and being written up in some fancy magazine for doing so, but he was an extremely generous and ethical man. He was made a "Golden Boy" of Manitoba in 1863, as a result. (http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/goldenboyaward.shtml) I believe this is the highest award a citizen of Manitoba can get. The golden boy is named after the northward facing statue on the dome of the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg (but being from Winnipeg, you would already know that). The statue is modeled after the Roman god, Mercury (Greek, Hermes) and symbolizes "Eternal Youth and the Spirit of Enterprise" which certainly defined Henry Stevens!
Henry Stevens sold his bank to TD in 1867. He formed an insurance company with one of employees, Cliff Cook; it was called Stevens & Cook Ltd. and Henry worked there until his retirement in 1979.(http://www.cookandcooke.com/history.htm)
But do you really know who Henry Stevens was? He was the man that always told his grandchildren, "Look after your character and your reputation will take care of itself."
Case in point: When I was in vet school in the early 1980's I wanted to buy a car so as to study late in the library, after the buses stopped running. My Grampa, Henry Stevens, was the only one who would loan me the money. I remember the bank manager in Guelph telling me a "Hold" would have to be on my Grampa's cheque for 10 days. Worried the car might be sold to someone else, I pleaded with the bank manager to call the branch in Winnipeg to ascertain that the cheque was good. He reluctantly agreed after I agreed to pay for the long distance call. The Guelph bank manager called Winnipeg branch and said, "I have a cheque here from a Henry Stevens" - and before he could say anything else, the person on the other end of the phone interrupted him and simply said, loud enough that I could hear, "It's good!" My bank manager said, "...But I didn't tell you how much it is for..." The voice bounded back, "It doesn't matter. It's good."
I hope that gives you some colour on the story of that "independent bank" and how it came to be... and how proud I am of my grandfather.
You have made my day, Christian.
Thank you!
Melanie Clarance
typo...he sold his bank to TD in 1967!
ReplyDeleteTypo: Dates recorded as 1863 is 1963; 1867 is 1967 (former Bowsman resident who knew Henry Stevens).
ReplyDeleteThanks for contributing to this post!
ReplyDelete