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People and organizations

Weekes, Abel Seneca, 1866-1936

  • Person
  • 1866-1936

Abel Seneca Weeks was born February 17, 1866 on a farm in Moss Township, near Glencoe, Ontario. Although in 1885 Weekes passed his second class non-professional teachers' exam, he become employed with the surveying and engineering firm Code [Coad?] and Robertson out of Clinton, Ontario, conducting work primarily in northern Ontario. Weekes apprenticed with the firm for three years from 1887-1890, and would receive his commission as an Ontario Land Surveyor in April 1890. In the summer of 1890, he became an assistant to James Tiernan for his township survey of the Spanish River District, and thereafter Weekes established his own office in Clinton and became an engineer and surveyor for several townships, but continued a working relationship with Tiernan. In February 1892, he received his commission as a Dominion Land Surveyor and in the summer of that year he started as an assistant to Elihu Stewart of Collingwood on a survey of Falconbridge and McLellan on Lake Wahnapitae. Afterwards Weekes moved to western Canada in 1894 and for three years worked as a land surveyor and prospector across the region, including working as assistant to J. L. Foster on subdivision surveys of townships southeast of Wetaskiwin. In 1897, he joined with Albert E. Schaefer (Shaefer?) on travels up the Mackenzie River and proceeded to spend the next five years mining, trading, and seafaring in the north. During this period included working in the Yukon during the gold rush, in the fur trade, lumber industry, spending two summers on the Alaska commercial Steamboat "Victoria" as 2nd Engineer, and serving as an employee of the Fort Yukon store of the North American Transportation and Trading Company. In the spring of 1903, Weekes applied to the Department of the Interior for work and this resulted in an appointment as assistant to Thomas Turnbull who was helping with the location of the Barr Colony and afterwards inspecting surveys with charge of all the work not lying between the North and South Saskatchewan rivers. This was followed in early 1904 by him being awarded a contract for surveying a township of Whitemouth, Manitoba and then a contract for fourteen (14) townships south of Tramping Lake, Saskatchewan. Starting November 21, 1904 Weekes began working as a surveyor on right-of-ways and townships for the Canadian Northern Railway Company (CNoR) and when it amalgamated with Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP) he proceeded to Canadian National Railway (CN) where he worked as chief land surveyor for western Canada until he retired on February 17, 1931. During his career, he was a member of the Engineering Institute of Canada, Dominion Land Surveyors' Association, Ontario Land Surveyors' Association, a member of the executive of the Alberta Land Surveyors' Association (serving as president in 1918), and president of the Saskatchewan Land Surveyors' Association,

Weekes married twice; his first marriage was to Miriam Millicent Smith in December 1906, with whom he had one son (William James) and five (5) daughters (Miriam, Betty, Frances, Mary, Ruth) and her passing in April 1925 led him to marry again to Anna Whiteford in 1926.

Weekes died on April 25, 1936 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Weekes, Mary, 1884-1980

  • PA 444
  • Person
  • 1884-1980

Mary Loretto Girroir was born in Tracadie, Nova Scotia on October 16, 1884 to William and Eliza Jane (Reddy) Girroir. She had one brother and five sisters. Girroir's parents separated when she was nine years old. Consequently, she lived with her mother and with members of her extended family in various locations throughout Nova Scotia. Eliza Jane Girroir later changed her surname and that of her children to Gerrin.

Mary Gerrin began training as a registered nurse at Boston City Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts in 1907 and obtained a Certificate of Professional Education in Nursing in 1910. She was employed as Superintendent of Nursing at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital from 1910 to 1914.

Gerrin married Melville Bell Weekes, a land surveyor from Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1914 and moved to Regina soon after. She established a career as an author, focusing on the folklore and history of Canada. Her published works included Acadian Betrayal; The Last Buffalo Hunter; Round the Council Fires; Painted Arrows; Trader King: The Thrilling Story of Forty Years' Service in the North-West Territories; Great Chiefs and Mighty Hunters of the Western Plains; and High White Beds. Other published works included essays, short stories, periodical articles, songs, legends and poems. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, selected works were part of primary and secondary English curricula in Saskatchewan.

Weekes was actively involved in the Canadian Authors Association. She helped establish the Regina branch of the Association and served as its regional representative and president. She was also involved in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire, and the National Council of Women.

Mary and Melville Weekes had three sons: Henry, John and Richard. Melville Weekes died in Regina in 1958. In the late-1970s, Mary Weekes moved to Toronto, Ontario where she resided until her death on June 1, 1980.

In 1964, Mary Weekes was honoured by the Government of Saskatchewan for her contributions as an author to the province and its people by having her name associated with Weekes Lake, located in northern Saskatchewan. Weekes Lake was originally named in honour of Melville Bell Weekes for his tenure as Controller of Surveys with the Government of Saskatchewan.

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