Is there any consolation in the fact that we are only five weeks from the shortest day of the year! With the upcoming Christmas bustle, that will go fast.
On Thursday, Nov. 8, a piece of this community’s history was to be no more. Due to its stage of advanced decay and its potential for public danger, the Buckingham house was burned to the ground. This house was located about a mile northwest of Mullingar. Mal Buckingham, grandson, decided that the icon had to go. According to Mal, the house was built in about 1906. It was quite a structure, being two storeys and built all of log. Prior to the fire, some of us peered in to catch a glimpse of what it might have been in its prouder days. A tongue and groove pine or fir ceiling, tongue and groove wainscoting and a pretty impressive set of stairs still tried to tell their story. It would seem that in 1905 John George Buckingham gave up sailing the seas with his father, Captain Buckingham, and chose to settle at Mullingar. Some say that the prairies are much like the sea with the wide expanse to the horizon. At any rate John came and homesteaded. He was followed in 1910 by his father, Captain Buckingham, and Nellie Weller, John’s soon-to-be wife. At that time there were no services closer than North Battleford, a small town 50 miles away, so I imagine there were times of homesickness and despair (112 years later there are again no services closer than 50 miles, however obtaining them is considerably easier). John, who went by George, and Nellie had 10 children all raised in the house on the farm. Captain Buckingham remained with his son, vegetable gardening, until his death in 1936.
The Rabbit Lake and District Museum Committee organized a program of remembrance on Nov. 11. In commemoration of the centennial of the signing of the armistice in 1918, about 40 people gathered at the museum church where, at 5 p.m., the bell was tolled 100 times. The roll call of veterans of the district was followed by a time of silence, and the laying of wreaths at the Cenotaph. Mary MacDonald, a member of the Spiritwood Branch of the Canadian Legion and spouse of a veteran John MacDonald, and Randy Aumack, Reeve of the RM of Meeting Lake and son of Veteran Frank Aumack, laid the wreaths. A short program and a time of coffee and fellowship continued at the Senior Sunrise Circle.
Hoffnungsfelder Mennonite Church Ladies Aid organized a games night which took place on Nov. 15 at Rose Gill Lodge. This was a time of fun and fellowship with the residents.
