Goodwater incorporated as a village on May 8, 1911. Goodwater's first village council was held on August 7, 1911. In 2011, Goodwater celebrated its 100-year anniversary from July 22–24 with a three-day event that included singing, two pancake breakfasts, an antique machinery show, and a performance by the BAD Boys.
Name According to several sources, Goodwater was once called "Juell," prior to the arrival of the
Canadian Northern Railway Company, 1909–1911. Families named Juell were among the first homesteaders in the area 1902, immigrating from Norway by way of the United States. The creek south of town is known as Juell Creek. Citing research undertaken using the database of Canadian federal ridings since 1867, the genealogical website project
Saskatchewan GenWeb states: "There were a few homesteaders living near here under the name "Juell": George L Juell, NE 16-5-13-W2; John Juell, Jr., NE 20-5-1-W2; Chris Ceverian Juell, NW 20-5-1-W2; Sigurd John K Juell, SE 20-5-1-W2; and, John Peter Ludwig Juell, SW 20-5-13-W2." The
Saskatchewan GenWeb project highlights a 1914 reproduction of a Canada Department of Mines map of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, which clearly shows a town "Juell" in the same general area as current-day Goodwater. The Albert and Edith Lyons entry by "family members" in the 1980 community history,
Prairie Gold, recounts the family's 1904 relocation from Boissevain, Manitoba: "The Lyons family sought greener pastures and migrated further west to Jewelltown, North West Territories, later known as Goodwater, Sask." Like many Saskatchewan place names, the straightforward explanation of Goodwater's current-day name originates with
Canadian Northern Railway surveyors. According to a collectively-researched 1968 publication on Saskatchewan place name origins, CNoR surveyors encountered difficulty in finding water while approaching Juell, but when they eventually did, "they struck it at 12 feet--good water and in abundance."
Early businesses The village was first surveyed in 1910, however several businesses already existed, including: Kelly and Hobbs general store (a tent); Ralph Graville's cafe; Mr. Pepper's blacksmith shop; and the Stirton and McIntyre hardware store. As early as 1914, a branch location of the Standard Bank of Canada existed in Goodwater; by 1936 the bank closed.
General store Arthur Kelly (b. 1850,
Devonshire, England) and William "Billie" Hobbs first established their general store in a tent in 1910, selling "everything from needles to threshing machines." In 1925, Arthur Kelly sold his interest in the general store to Billie Hobbs who, in 1933, sold the general store to Kelly's son, Arthur Kelly, Jr.
Stirton and McIntyre Hardware Store The Stirton and McIntyre Hardware Store was begun in 1910 by US immigrant Edward McIntyre, Percy Speers, and
Boissevain tinsmith Arthur Stinton. By 1912 Stirton and McIntyre handled farm insurance and loans, and dealt in farm implements for John Deere and the International Harvester Company.
Donald Mann and
William Mackenzie, both former employees of the
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), purchased the defunct LMR&CC and rebranded it as the
Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) with the vision to compete with the CPR by consolidating and constructing alternative "branch lines" serving communities outside the CPR's transcontinental lines. Construction for a new branch line from Luxton to
Ceylon, serving Colgate and Goodwater along the way, was authorized in 1908. This branch line was initially begun in 1909 from the main CNoR line at
Maryfield, Saskatchewan, just west of the Manitoba border, and is sometimes referred to as the "Maryfield Extension." According to train historian Adam Peltenburg, the CNoR rail line branch through Goodwater was part of, "major developments in the prairies" that began around 1910. The Luxton to Ceylon branch line through Goodwater was reportedly a "busy line" with numerous trains daily, including passenger trains in both directions running six days a week (except Sunday) from 1914 to 1921. In one published community history anecdote, CNoR train engineer Dalrymple made the Carlyle-to-Radville segment in "a record time of a little over two hours...[making all the stops]," during which his "trainmen on the back of the caboose nervously held on to the "air" and in chorus, uttered a prayer on the Goodwater hill." The
Canadian Northern Railway was absorbed into other railway interests of the Canadian federal government on September 6, 1918, when mounting debt and the realities of profit-lean
World War I caused
Donald Mann and
William Mackenzie to resign as CNoR directors. On January 22, then-general store merchant, and future Goodwater Postmaster, Clair Archibald Kelly stated that the shortage of coal would be "serious" if Goodwater were forced to wait another day for supplies. The only road open in southern Saskatchewan was the road between Regina and Yorkton, and no trains passed through Goodwater from January 11 until January 24.
Canadian National Railway ultimately decided to abandon the Radville to Goodwater line, and on December 13, 1979, the final train left Goodwater.
Post office George William Thackeray operated the Thacker Post Office located at Sec. 35, Twp. 5, R. 14, W2 as early as December 1907. This post office closed on November 27, 1911. Thackeray hauled mail from
Halbrite, Saskatchewan. The Goodwater Post Office opened in 1911 and closed in 1985. The following table of postmasters is taken from Library and Archives Canada's Records of the Post Office. By early 1938, it was reported that 30% of horses in the Goodwater area were "either sick, dying or dead of starvation," and an examination of horse corpses revealed that, "dirt, sand and sharp
Russian Thistle had been consumed by the animals, and internal organs were as delicate as "tissue paper,"." A petition signed by Goodwater farmers was submitted to the
United Farmers of Canada, appealing to the provincial government to supply feed, oats, and hay to affected communities. == Agricultural industry ==