Other Possible Land Grants for George Henry Scott


The Western Land Grants (1870 - 1930) files maintained in Archives Canada contains additional land grants made out to persons of the name George Henry Scott. These have not yet been investigated to determine if they were taken out by our George Henry Scott and I suspect they were not. They are listed here for possible future investigation. We do know that there was at least one other George Henry Scott in western Canada at this time and these may relate to him.

1. Part Section Township Range Meridian
  NW 24 30 3 W4
 
Reference:
Volume:
704
Folio:
195
Microfilm reel number:
C-6499
Names:
George Henry Scott
Geographic Location: 51° 35' 15" N   110° 18' 13" W
 


This homestead is in Alberta fairly close to Red Deer
2. Part Section Township Range Meridian
  SE 32 37 19 W4
 
Reference:
Volume:
281
Folio:
216
Microfilm reel number:
C-6156
Names:
George Henry Scott
Geographic Location at center of quarter section: 52° 13' 14" N   112° 40' 32" W






This homestead, again in Alberta,  is fairly near the Loverna homestead of our George Henry Scott


3. Part Section Township Range Meridian
  SE 1 12 3 W3
 
Reference:
Volume:
716
Folio:
302
Microfilm reel number:
C-6509
Names:
Geo H Scott the late - James Albert Ireland - John Thomas Scott - R J Irwin the late
Geographic Location at center of quarter section: 49° 57' 52" N   106° 16' 43" W

The location of the Saskatchewan land grant is shown at the red balloon in the  map at right. It is about 45 miles SW of Moose Jaw and about 18 miles ENE of Gravelbourg.

A current satellite map seems to show a very marginal piece of land, which, although cleared is not being farmed.


All three of these records create interesting possibilities. It was not uncommon for a homesteader to take out claims on more than one piece of land. This could occur because the initial land claim was made in ignorance of the nature of the land and its suitability for farming, or for other locational reasons. It is possible that our George Henry Scott filed all these land grant claims. Equally there may be other George Henry Scotts who were also homesteaders.

The third one listed is particularly interesting. I found it not by searching for Geo H Scott (did not think of that!), but rather by assuming that his father John Thomas Scott might have taken out a land claim or have had his son's transferred to him and filed in his name. So in the last one we see that John Thomas Scott is granted the land but that it also has the name of his late son. We can be pretty sure that this is our George Henry and so we can be fairly sure we have found at least one piece of land that he claimed. The map below shows the location of this land grant

Note on Land Grants:

Land grants were made by the Government of Canada in land areas called quarter sections. A section of land was one mile square (one mile by one mile) and so contained 640 acres. A quarter section was 160 acres and was the standard size of a land grant. When a homesteader requested a grant he paid a $10 fee and if suitable improvements were made within a certain period of time he gained clear title to the land. Generally an adjacent quarter section was also conditionally assigned to him and he would get that also if the improvements were made.

The land specifications were related to the land survey of Canada as described by Dave Obee

Land specifications can be converted to geographic coordinates by a converter; the one I used provided a link to the maps shown.

I have included the converted geographic coordinates above in the tables.

At the same time as this appears to be a land grant of our George Henry the information in the index raises some interesting questions. Who was the late R J Irwin. Was this a farmer partner of George Henry? Can we learn more by pursuing that lead? It turns out that R J Irwin was likely 204413 Pte. Robert Jame Irwin, originally of Parry Sound, Ontario who was killed on 10/10/1918, just a month before the end of WWI. He was the son of Son of James and Ellen Irwin, of 211th Avenue North, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as indicated on the war graves record.(more on this later).

On pursuing this further, I contacted the Saskatchewan Archives Board and received the following response from Bonnie Wagner, a reference archivist:

9/30/2010

Our File: Ref. S-18242

Dear Mr. Scott,

Thank you for your inquiry about the homestead file for SE-1-12-3-W3. I searched the online index to the Saskatchewan Homestead Files (www.saskhomesteads.com) and found a file for this quarter section.

File #2681759: According to the information in this file, Frank Wall first applied for a homestead on this quarter section in 1912. He cancelled his entry in September 1913. Then, Robert Irwin applied for a homestead on this quarter section in November 1913. Robert Irwin died in May 1914 and the patent (or title) to this quarter section was given to James Ireland (who was the representative of Robert Irwin). There are 13 pages in this file. I have read through this file and I can't find any reference to either George Henry Scott or John Thomas Scott. I am not sure why they are listed with this file on the Western Land Grants database. Saskatchewan Archives does not run the Western Land Grants database. It is run by Library and Archives Canada. You may want to contact them to see if they can tell you why George and John Scott have been identified with this quarter section. It is possible that it is simply an error.

All that said, I searched the homestead index again and found two files for George Henry Scott that may be of interest to you.

 
File #2604751 (NW-23-31-28-W3): This quarter section is located about 1 mile south of Stranraer, Saskatchewan (northwest of Rosetown). According to the information in this file, George Henry Scott first applied for a homestead on this quarter section in January 1912. He was killed overseas in April 1915. In the Letters of Administration in this file, it indicates that ownership of this quarter section was to be given to John Thomas Scott, his father. John Scott received the patent (or title) to this quarter section in 1917. There are 9 pages in this file.

File #2604304 (NE-23-31-28-W3): This quarter section is located beside the quarter section in file 2604751. According to the information in this file, George Henry Scott first applied for a homestead on this quarter section in January 1912. Again, the file has documentation indicating that he was killed in action in April 1915 and that title to this quarter section was to be transferred to John Thomas Scott, his father. John Scott received the patent (or title) to this quarter section in March 1917. There are 5 pages in this file.

As follow up to this I did order the above files and they are included in the biography of George Henry Scott. I also brought these observations to the attention of Archives Canada but received no answer from them as to what their source was.

Acknowledgments

  1. The Archives Canada Western Land Grants Database
  2. Bonnie Wagner, Research Archivist, Saskatchewan Archives Board.

©Kenneth Scott and others 2011
email: ken at kenscott.com
last revised  13 October 2011