Person Page - 887

EARLY PIONEER WOMAN IS DEAD
Settler of the Tregarva, Sask., district of 1892, Mrs. Louisa Dentin, 81, wife of Frank Denzin, 1843 Retallack street, Regina, died at her home on Saturday.

Mrs. Denzin was born In Germany, moving to Canada when seven years old and settling in the west in 1892 with her husband. They homesteaded In the Tregarva district until 1926, when they moved to Regina.

A funeral service, conducted by Rev. Harry Joyce of St. Andrew's United church, was held in Wright's chapel on Saturday afternoon and on Monday afternoon a service was held at the home of Charles Denzin at Tregarva, Rev. S. P. Rondeau officiating, following which burial took place In Tregarva cemetery.

Mrs. Denzln is survived by her husband; four sons, Samuel, Regina; Charles, Henry and Arthur, Tregarva; six daughters, Mrs. I. W. Sutton, Craven, Sask; Mrs. M. See (sic), Victoria, B.C; Mrs. W. Wallwood (sic), Asquith, Sask; Mrs. S. E. Mam, Gralnland, Sask; Mrs. T. MgTaggart, 1843 Retallack street, Regina; Mrs. H. Clark, Craven; and three brothers, Gustav, William and John Pilgrim, all In Ontario, and two sisters, Mrs. A. Gehrke, Red Deer, Alta., and Mrs. William Buderlck, in Ontario.⁹

DENZIN
     May 24th. at his late residence, 1843 Retallack St.. Frank Denzin. aged 93 years, pioneer of Tregarva district. He is survived by four sons and 6 daughters. Funeral service will be held at the farm home of his son Charles F., Tregarva, at 2 o'clock, standard time, Saturday afternoon. Interment will be in the family plot, Tregarva. For furtner particulars phone J. A. Wright Chapel, 4004. 23433.¹⁰

DENZIN RITES HELD
     Services were held Saturday afternoon at the family residence, Tregarva, Sask., for Frank Denzin, 93-year-old pioneer of the district who died Wednesday in Regina. A large number of friends attended the services which were conducted by Rev. E. A. Rondeau. Burial was made in the family plot, Tregarva cemetery with the following acting as pallbearers, Charles Denzin, Sam Denzin, Arthur Denzin, Henry Denzin, Torn McTaggert and Norman Clark.¹¹

[I assume that Minnie (below) is referring to Frank Denzin and his family - Rick Moffat]

While we were living on Uncle Tom's place, our neighbors across the road, in the summer time kept a flock, or herd, of turkeys, which roamed at will a great part of the time. They became a nuisance to the neighbors in this way. They would get into our gardens, gobble up all the green leaves off the vegetables and ruin the gardens. People complained to Mr. Denzin, and then he commissioned Alice, one of his daughters, then a little girl, and Arthur, one of his little boys, to herd all the turkeys. But, during school days, Alice and Arthur had to attend school; then the turkeys had free run of the prairie and of everyone's garden. They used to come over to our place and get in the horse stable, fly into the mangers and feed boxes. It made George so mad to find them there and find the mangers polluted with their droppings.

One day when the men had come in from the fields with their teams, they found the turkeys had taken possession of the mangers, eating grain and gobbling, gobbling away. George began throwing them out and, I suppose, using some tall language. Our dog - Colonel - was standing there and George yelled, "Sic him, Colonel." Colonel "sicked" him all right, made a snap at one of the turkeys and took his head right off! Why George didn't bring it to the house and have me cook it, i'll never know, unless he was afraid the Denzins would find out. He buried it in the manure pile! Denzins often wondered where that turkey went. George would say he saw a couple of coyotes around such and such a morning and I guess Denzins believed him as it was a very common thing to see coyotes around.

One winter, about this time, Mr. Denzin killed a big fat sow, weighed five hundred pounds, and took it to Regina to sell. The butchers wouldn't buy it because it was so fat so he brought it home. It was frozen stiff, so he brought it into the house to thaw out, so he could cut it up and saw it there. It took up nearly half the kitchen and was a frightening sight, lying there on its back, its stomach, or belly, slit from throat to its feet, and legs spread wide, its mouth wide open and its ears sticking straight up.

Well, when it, as Mr. Denzin said, "t’awed out," he cut it up and stored it somewhere and at meal time, he would say to the children, "Get more of dat fat pork into you dere, and not so much bread," and immediately all the children would have another piece of "dat fat pork."

Amelia, the oldest girl, stayed home and used to do some fancywork, embroidery with silk floss. One day when I was over there, she said, as she worked on her embroidery, "It is so different out here; back home we used to work with pigs and things, and out here we work with silk and things."

...As I mentioned a long while back, Eddie was born July 24, 1895. He was born about five o'clock in the morning. Mrs. Denzin and Aunt Beckie Swartz officiated. ...

Mrs. Denzin went home that day, seeing it was Sunday and George was home to look after the baby and me. I was to have chicken that day and she said she would leave it cooking on the stove and George could serve it; that there would be some nice chicken soup for me. Well, I kept asking George when it would be ready. I was growing very hungry (my lunch of two soda crackers and a glass of water not being satisfactory). George would say, "Oh, it isn't done yet." Finally, about three in the afternoon, to satisfy me, he brought pan, chicken and all in to show me. Mrs. Denzin had never cut the chicken up, but placed the fowl in the pan whole. I was so mad. and so disgusted when I saw the thing lying there with its neck protruding at one end of the pan and its legs sticking up. I didn't ever want to see a chicken again. When, if ever, it was ready to eat, I do not remember.

Somehow I got well. This was the time Mrs. Denzin left and had to go home to "look after the pigs and childer," according to Mr. Denzin. Of course, after a while we forgave the Denzins and became quite good friends. Mr. Denzin used to come over quite often, sit and tell us all sorts of stories about his early life and how he was a small boy; how they came in a sail boat and were eight weeks on the ocean. They, his parents, must have settled in the east somewhere, because he and his family came from the east out to Tregarva to live. They came to Tregarva right after George and I were married and settled right across from Uncle Tom's place. Whether it was a homestead and preemption, or whether he bought, I couldn't say, but I rather think it was the former. He used to talk and talk and it all was in his broken English. He would try to quote saying he had heard and sometimes get things so mixed up. For instance, somewhere he had heard some old copy book proverbs; I say "heard" because I do not believe he could read or write. He had heard "Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today." He would get it twisted like this: "Never do tomorrow what you can't do today." Of course, we would laugh too, thinking we were laughing at his bright wit.

Our collie dog didn't like him and if he (the dog) saw Mr. Denzin coming near our house, it was a race between Mr. Denzin and our dog as to which one got there first. If the dog got to the door first, Mr. Denzin couldn't get in until one of us went out and subdued the dog. It was fun to see them race for the door.

Well, George arrived home a day or so before the wedding, from Moose Jaw and had to go back to Moose Jaw the day after he came home. He didn't want me to go to the wedding! Of all things! He brought me a cute little watch (the open faced one, which you, Irma, are taking care of for me. You and Hunt are to have one watch each when I pass on), but I could have the watch on one condition only; that was, if I would not go to the wedding. I said no thanks, I was going to the wedding!! Well, then, I could go to the wedding and have the watch if I would promise I wouldn't dance with Bill Petrie. I didn't promise, but I went to the wedding, kept the watch and danced with Bill Petrie.

Then Amelia Denzin got married to Will Seed, who was a widower, and whose wife had died a year or so before. It was quite a wedding too, but no dancing. We sang hymns out of little red backed hymnbooks. I do not remember whether Amelia's two sisters, Beckie and Hannah, who were working in Regina, were home for this wedding or not. They were working as housemaids for some wealthy people in Regina - Beckie for Mrs. Marsh and Hannah for someone else. When their pay-day came, Mr. Denzin used to go to Regina without fail and collect their pay until one day Beckie's mistress wouldn't allow him to take Beckie's money. She told him Beckie needed her money to buy clothes for herself. They both were nice girls and pretty too.

Mr. Denzin was the man who when Uncle Tom asked him why he built such a small house when he had such a large family, replied, "I can always ‘tach to." Beckie Denzin later on married Uncle Isaac Sutton. His first wife died in childbirth when their second child was born. They had a little girl a few years before who died from summer cholera - a beautiful little girl named Myra, after Myra McNiece, a sister of George, and who had married some railroad man and lived in the Coronado Hotel in San Diego for years. They were rumored to be quite well off.¹⁵

The registration listed the following official witnesses: Howard Mayhew and Mary Mayhew. Her parents were listed as Joseph Mayhew.^2,7