The once-bustling village of Hyde now has an official population of 0
Hyde, Saskatchewan really only exists in history books now. But that could change if the landowner has anything to do with it.
Back in the 1880s — before Saskatchewan was a province — Hyde was a busy little village located in between Grenfell and Neudorf on the floor of the Qu’Appelle Valley, about 125 kilometres east of Regina.
It was founded by and named for George Audley Edward Hyde, a British man who came to the territory of Assiniboia.
Hyde brought a carpenter from England, who set about to build him a grand house and a large barn, and later, began work on the other buildings that would become part of the village. Eventually Hyde had a post office, ice house, bathing house, hotel, store, blacksmith shop, livery stable, church and a log court house, as well as other homes.
The village even had a horse-drawn passenger service to Grenfell and back.
A mysterious history
The village’s namesake came from what appears to be modest roots. To this day, no one knows where George Hyde’s wealth came from.
By 1902, it seems that his money was cut off, and Hyde had to sell. Hyde had married a British woman and together they had four children.
For a time, Hyde managed the tavern in Grenfell and eventually moved his family to the West Coast where he died in 1935.
The farmland surrounding the village changed hands a few times over the years, but in 1999, Hazel Morris bought it.
Falling in love with Saskatchewan
Born in England, Morris had spent all of her adult life in Canada. She ran a cattle operation in Ontario, but land was becoming too expensive to buy. A fellow farmer convinced her to come to Saskatchewan.
It was an idea that Morris didn’t even want to entertain at first.
“My dream of Saskatchewan was crossing the province on the number one. Which is not very inspiring … and then we dropped into the valley, and that was a completely different story,” she said.
Morris fell in love with the Qu’Appelle Valley, bought 485 hectares of land, and moved her cattle operation to the spot where Hyde used to be.
But it wasn’t just the scenery she fell in love with. Morris also fell in love with the history and mystery that surrounds the former village.
She’s been fascinated with who George Audley Edward Hyde was, and where his money came from.
“He was a remittance man,” said Morris, a term used for someone who is sent away with the financial backing of their family.
“Often it was because they were not the first-born male and would not have inherited,” she added.
Sometimes it is because the young man has brought shame upon the family name, and is sent away and paid to stay away.
By all accounts, Hyde’s family was not wealthy, and where his money came from remains a mystery.
“He had some source for getting money, which I haven’t proven yet. His father was a ship’s captain. He wouldn’t have had a lot of money,” she explained.
Morris is still looking for answers to another question: why Hyde’s money stopped coming about 15 years after he came to Saskatchewan.
Hyde’s Future
Morris’s love of the land is driving her plans forward to make the house inhabitable again. Right now, the house is still a shell. It’s been gutted and partially rewired. Morris had it lifted and the foundation was repaired.
She has also had to knock down the original barn and put a new roof on the large barn — built in 1929. All of this while caring for 200 head of cattle and 11 horses.
Unfortunately, Morris, who is 81-years-old, said the house has been really left behind with all her other projects and work taking precedence.
“But I’m go-go again now,” she said. “I like taking on big projects.”
Morris also insisted she will live at least another 15 to 20 years.
Source: cbc.ca/news