A Prairie Memoir: The Life and Times of James Clinkskill, 1853–1936

Kurt Korneski is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Clinkskill, born in Scotland in 1853, migrated to Canada in early 1882.
On arriving in Halifax from Liverpool, he travelled to Manitoba and
settled in Saskatchewan. In Saskatchewan he, along with his partner,
Thomas E. Mahaffy, set up a merchandise business in Prince Albert.
Clinkskill later operated stores in Battleford and Saskatoon. During his
lifetime, he was not only a success in business, but also served as a
territorial, and later a provincial, politician. He was mayor of
Saskatoon, was instrumental in establishing the University of
Saskatchewan, and served in numerous charitable societies and clubs.

Clinkskill followed what scholars from Alan Artibise to David Burley
have identified as a typical life path for many members of the late 19th
and early 20th-century Western Canadian bourgeoisie. At least part of
what makes this work valuable is that it provides insight into what were
more general qualities of the social reality within which Clinkskill
operated. In terms of the broad structures that informed his decisions
in the late 19th century, the concomitant rise of monopoly capital and
decline in opportunities for social mobility in Britain figured
prominently in his decision to immigrate to Canada.

Clinkskill also provides insight into the gritty details of the life of
a colonizer on the prairies. His account offers evidence that many
immigrants who settled on the prairies in these years were incredibly
chauvinistic. He described the 1885 rebellion, in which he served in the
volunteer Home Guard, as a struggle between the government and “half
breeds” and “savages” and used the term “squaw” to refer to
Aboriginal women. In addition to showing that he shared in what was a
pervasive bigotry among colonizers, Clinkskill’s account includes
invaluable descriptions of the trials and tribulations of pioneering
life. The journey itself was undoubtedly cause enough for more than one
new arrival to question the wisdom of having chosen the country as a
destination for relocation.

The document also reveals something about the mentality of a member of
the Western Canadian bourgeoisie. Despite the fact that he engaged in a
wide range of activities, throughout his life Clinkskill continuously
sought out better business opportunities. In some instances, this led to
his own resettlement. After leaving Britain to take advantage of the
“frontier of opportunity” that existed in Western Canada, for
example, he relocated again from Prince Albert to Battleford and later
to Saskatoon in an effort to grow his merchandising business and partake
in real-estate speculation. In other instances, it led him to attempt to
expand the market to which he catered through inspiring prospective
settlers to relocate to Western Canada.

In terms of the presentation of the material, Clinkskill reproduced
verbatim many documents on which he based and corroborated his 1917
memoir. Thus, we not only get his recollection, but also copies of many
first-hand accounts in letters and diary entries written by Clinkskill
and others. Moreover, Hanson provides both a useful introduction in
which he sketches an overview of Clinkskill’s life and an index that
allows researchers to locate information on specific topics easily.
Overall, he has done an admirable job of presenting a work that will
undoubtedly be of interest to Western Canadian social and political
historians. Readers will likely find that A Prairie Memoir corroborates
rather than inspires a major reconsideration of their thinking about the
history of the elite in this period.