Dear Editor:
Thank you, Terri Lefebvre Prince, for your excellent write up in recent edition of Yorkton This Week columns re: The York Colony, several of it's first settlers and the early history of Yorkton.
A special Thank You about Orkney's first settler - John Flaws Reid and his family.
I personally knew John F. Reid's sons Robert (Bob), John, William and James and his daughter Mary-Alice Reid, Margaret (Peggy-Mrs. H. Thomas), Ida (Mrs. Walter Markham), his other daughter Susie (Mrs. Fred Norman) died in 1920. She was my husband's mother (Alvin Rendall Norman).
Robert (Uncle Bob) told me about the early times. It's from her description that I did a sketch of the first school, built of logs in 1888. This sketch was shown in one of the recent columns. The other family members also told me their personal experiences from childhood to young adulthood.
Mary Alice Reid was the first white baby born in the Orkney settlement 1886.
Sadly, I never met John Flaws Reid. He died in 1943.
Bless you Terri for your hardwork and many hours of research to straightening out our Yorkton history, especially the first 30-40 years.
I sincerely "Thank You". With much appreciation.
Helen A. Norman
Historian
Orkney Historical Society
