Raymore, Saskatchewan

According to a collectively-researched 1968 publication on Saskatchewan place name origins, Raymore's modern-day name originates with surveyors working for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway who named towns and stops along their newly-constructed rail lines in an alphabetic manner.[7] The town is said to be named after, "an employee of the railroad who was working on the construction crew."[8]

Among the earliest white settlers in the first years of the twentieth century were: Richard Watt, Headley and Charles Frost, Wilfred Jones, and Archibald MacLean.[7]

Archibald "Archie" MacLean is credited with operation of the first store in Raymore in the early years of the twentieth century,[7] opening on May 15, 1908,[9] however a store is documented as operating on the Poorman 88 Indian reserve during 1874.[10] Harold E. Martin was Raymore's first druggist.[7] Both Archibald MacLean and Harold Martin arrived at the town site in 1908 to start their respective businesses.[11] James Tate and Harry Golden were some of the town's earliest settler merchants.[7]

Raymore Hotel

Originally three-stories tall, the Raymore Hotel was completed in 1911 by Archibald G. MacLean.[8] By 1916, according to the Canadian Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, Americans William Baker (age 55) and his wife Ida (age 48) were proprietors of the Raymore Hotel.[12] William "Bill" Baker, a cigar-smoker, ran the Raymore Hotel, "with the help of two Chinese cooks, a waitress and a porter."[13]

In 1920, William Baker sold the Raymore Hotel to Mah Yuen and Sam Ping who ran the business for over a decade.[13] In 1922, the Raymore Hotel was advertised as "the best hotel between Winnipeg and Saskatoon," and was the site of the "Raymore Moving Picture Show" on Friday and Saturday nights.[14] When, in 1935, the sale of beer became legal "by the glass in hotel bars," Mah Yuen and Sam Ping were unable to obtain the required license because--as Chinese--they were not enfranchised to vote.[13] In August of 1936, John C. "Jack" and Violet "Vi" Morrow purchased the hotel from Mah Yuen and Company[15] and ran it until Jack's death in October 1957, and Vi's sale of the hotel in 1967.[16] Brian Dionne, a past president of the Hotels Association of Saskatchewan, purchased the Raymore Hotel in 1985 and ran it until as recently as 2005.[17]

A fire on February 21, 1956, caused an estimated $40,000 of damage, "gutted the top floor" of the hotel, and resulted in its third storey being demolished.[18]

As a merchant Archibald MacLean began selling funerary caskets as early as 1911 and, upon recognizing demand therefore, subsequently obtained his funeral directing and embalming license.[9] In May 1963, MacLean sold the Raymore funeral home to R. B. Kirkby.[9] R. B. Kirkby renamed the business the Kirkby Funeral Home and operated it until November 1978, when it became a branch of the Regina-based Helmsing-Forsberg Funeral Chapel.