The Durr family homestead was built by William Durr (Stanley Durr’s father) in 1904. It measures 12 feet by 14 feet, and it’s made of cedar wood. Cedar wood is lightweight and was able to have been hauled from town to the homestead site in 1 load by horse and wagon.
William Jasper “Jay” Durr left Lenox, Iowa in 1903 and traveled to the North West Territories in search of new opportunities. After arriving in the Estevan area, he selected a homestead and filed his claim before returning to Iowa for the winter.
In the spring of 1904, Jay returned to begin establishing his farm. With the help of a neighbor, he borrowed a team and wagon and traveled to Estevan to purchase lumber for his first homestead shack. The journey home was difficult; when his wagon became stuck in a slough, he unloaded and carried the lumber by hand until the horses could pull the wagon free, then reloaded it and continued home. He completed the small shack before returning to Iowa again for the winter.
During that winter, Jay gathered the essentials needed to build a life on the prairie, including horses, a wagon, farm equipment, chickens, and roots for rhubarb and peonies. Back on the homestead, he broke and seeded land, planted a garden, and constructed a sod house. The sod home provided better comfort through the prairie’s harsh seasons, staying cooler in summer and warmer in winter than the wooden shack.
As his first crops matured, Jay harvested his flax and stored it in the original homestead shack while making the sod house his residence. Through determination, hard work, and resourcefulness, he transformed a bare piece of prairie into the beginnings of a successful family homestead.
Stanley Durr sits in his father’s homestead shack, which was the first wooden building built on his farm south of Bromhead. It served as the hired hands’ bunk house and a granary before Stanley restored and furnished it.
“That the past may live again….”
— Stanley durr
Moving the Durr family homestead June 18, 1985
This house would be the bedroom, kitchen and living room for the family. There was no bathroom. They used an outhouse which was located outside. Baths were taken once a week, and the water was used by all family members.
This type of home was very common on the prairies during this time. It was common to have 12 people living in a house this size, which was only 1 room.
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