Descendant of original 16 farmers hopes to revive White Fox history 

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“We’ve had a couple, but we’re still always looking for more stuff,” he said. 

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Descendant of original 16 farmers hopes to revive White Fox history

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Westman came to Canada from Sweden in 1911, Long said, at a time when land in Western Canada was being advertised overseas, and homesteading offered young immigrants a chance to own a quarter section of land. In Sweden, Long said, much of the available land had already been claimed. 

Anton Tornquist right and Oscar Westman left with local Indigenous people. No year was available for the photo or names of the other people in the photo. (Image Credit: Facebook/Thomas Long)

“Out here, it was all open,” Long said. “Some of it hadn’t even been surveyed yet.” 

According to Long, Westman was part of a small group that included the Tornquist brothers and Fred Lundgren. They worked their way west, spending time in Calgary and later on the Hudson Bay Railway before travelling into Saskatchewan in search of land. 

The journey was not easy. Long said the group made it as far as Nipawin, then crossed the lake and continued north. At one point, they used a leaky boat to cross the Saskatchewan River while carrying supplies. 

Despite the hardships, some descendants of the early settlers still live on or near the original homesteads. Long said he lives on Westman’s original homestead, and other family connections remain in the area. 

He will soon talk to one of the original settlers’ sons, now in his 90s, on his father’s original homestead. Another daughter of an early settler is also still living in the area. 

The project does not yet have a firm completion date. Long said he hopes the display could come together this summer, but that will depend on what information, photos and artifacts can still be found. 

“It all just depends on who reaches out and who has stuff,” he said. 

The four Swedish settlers of the White Fox area building a cabin. Left to Right: Fred Lundgren, Oscar Westman, Anton Tornquist, Peter Tornquist. (Image Credit: Facebook/Thomas Long)

Long said some of the original settlers were bachelors, which may make it harder to track down family items. In some cases, cabins may have been destroyed, and the land has long since returned to farmland. 

Anyone with information, photographs, artifacts or family stories connected to the original 16 White Fox settlers is encouraged to contact Long or the White Fox Historical Society. 

Long compiled information on each of the original 16:

1. Henry Roy Wilson, first to file for a homestead in 1913. He never farmed it but rented out the land while living elsewhere. Wilson was a veteran of the Second Boer War and was born in Winsor, Ont.  

1. George M. King, filed six months later. Was born in Holmes County, Ohio U.S. He was a cattleman and built a raft to transport his herd over the Saskatchewan River.  

1. Archie G. Nelson, from North Dakota, came to the area with his friend, John Johnson, in March, 1914. He moved back to the US in 1928, where he remained until he died.  

1. John Johnson, a Norwegian American from Wisconsin who worked for George King at his livery stable in North Dakota. Johnson sold his homestead and moved to California after contracting tuberculosis. During a visit back in 1930, he met his wife, Helga Backstrom and she moved to California with him but they returned in 1935 with their daughter, where they settled on a different homestead.  

1. Martin William Denton of New Jersey found a pamphlet from the CPR promoting homesteading in northern Sask in the early 1910s. By 1912 he was in Melfort and by 1914, six members of the extended Denton family had filed on land, creating a farming block. One of the descendants still lives on one of those homesteads.  

1. Matthew Denton, born in York, England. Moved to White Fox at age 76 after his son Martin began homesteading. He also filed for a homestead.

1. Charles Denton, born in Grey County, Ontario, a Spanish American war veteran, also opened the first post office north of the Saskatchewan River in their home.

1. Harold Denton, born in Westchester, New York, was partially disabled by polio but still worked at lumber camps in Prince Albert, Pasquia Hills and Big River. Once he lived in White Fox, he was known for making toys and sharpening saws.

1. Olof Albert Johanson (Ole Johnson), born in Offerdal, Jämtland, Sweden. He filed for his homestead the same day Pete Anderson, another Swede on the same section of land. 

1. Peter Anderson, born in Sköllersta, Örebro, Sweden, filed for the SW quarter of the section in Oct. 1914. He allowed Harvey Snider and his family to live there while he worked in Star City and they built a store on the corner. That was replaced by a larger building in 1922, again in 1929. The most recent time the store changed hands was in 2025, 105 years after it opened.  

1. Ted Azevedo, born in in England and moved to Canada as a young man and by 1914 was working in the mental institution in Battleford. He and his friend Jack Green, looking for more adventure, ended up on George King’s farm where they met Nelson and Johnson. In November 1914, Azevedo filed for his first homestead, just one mile from where the village is today. That land was relinquished to Green but Azevedo later filed on another ¼ section near Pinehurst School.  

1. Jack Green was born in Lincolnshire England but ended up in Saskatchewan with his whole family. He was 17 when he filed on his homestead in 1914. Like many of the other settlers, Green enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in WWI. Some of his land is now back to being Crown Land. 

1. Per Tornqvist (Peter Tornquist) was born in Arbrå, Sweden and emigrated to Canada at age 20, following his brothers. He was in the group of four Swedes that included his brother Anton who worked on the Hudson Bay Railroad before opting for the homesteading life. He filed for his first homestead on Dec. 1, 1914. His home became a waypoint, known as the Swede Settlement before the village of White Fox was built.  

1. Johan Alfred Lundgren was born in rural Sweden, moving to Canada in 1911. He became known as Fred and worked in logging and on the railroad. He also filed for his homestead on Dec. 1, 1914. His son Milton became the first baby to be born in White Fox. It was an added piece of land he owned that became the village after it was sold to Harol Guloien.  

1. Oscar Westman, the great-grandparent of Thomas Long, was born in  Sweden to a large rural family where he learned the skills he would later use to build a farm in Canada. He emigrated in 1911 first to Calgary but after hiring on to build the Hudson Bay Railroad, he too ended up in White Fox. He was the third Swede to file for a homestead on Dec. 1, 1914.  

1. Anton Tornquist (Anders Tornqvist), was born in Sweden during a time of change in Scandinavia and along with his brother, filed for homestead land in White Fox on Dec. 1, 1914. He remained a lifelong bachelor, giving quietly to his community. He had left a daughter in Sweden, who had a daughter of her own who visited White Fox in 1969, three years after he passed away. His brother Peter’s grandson Curtis Tornquist still farms his land.  

Coincidentally, the original 16 is not related to the beer by Great Western Brewery in Saskatoon.