When Allen Janzen discovered an old-looking jar in his farmyard, he found a small piece of Yorkton's history.
The liquor jar, secure in a holder reading "Yorkton Wholesale Liquor Store," also revealed the store's proprietor-H.J. Glass.
Janzen suspected the jar may have been from the early 1900's, and he was correct. A City of Yorkton Historian, Terri Lefebvre Prince, confirmed the origin of the antique liquor bottle.
H.J. Glass was listed as the proprietor of Yorkton Wholesale Liquor Store in the May 1915 telephone directory. The store was located on First Avenue North. However, the business was not listed six months later. Lefebvre Prince pointed out that Prohibition on July 1st, 1915 would have something to do with the end of the business.
"In the early years of settlement in Saskatchewan, the Women's Christian Temperance Union campaigned to shut down the bars," Lefebvre Prince wrote to Yorkton This Week. By 1916, "wholesale outlets were then operated only by the government."
Premier Walter Scott and the Liberal government were responsible for keeping Saskatchewan's bars closed after 7 p.m. by April 1915. Three months later, legislation abolished all bar and club licenses.
Saskatchewan was the first province to outlaw the private sale of alcohol. The rest of Canada joined the prohibition movement by 1917, with the exception of Quebec.
Janzen said he has no idea how the H.J. Glass jar came to be in his farmyard, and is curious as to who left it there.
