Saskatoon Star Phoenix
March 14, 1961. p.3
By Rupert D. Ramsay
Ninety-three years gives a man time to do some work, to make some friends and to philosophize a little. At this age Dr. Seager Wheeler, now living in Victoria, looks back on a life full of activity and satisfaction. A modest man, he speaks of his childhood on the Isle of Wight, his pioneer days at Clark's Crossing and Rosthern; Marquis, Red Bobs and Kitchener wheat, but one has to ask to learn the details of world championships won for wheat, of honorary doctors' degrees and of the Order of the British Empire.
Nearest his heart are the days of his active farming operations at Rosthern. He talks of long summer evenings in his fields looking for unusually good heads of wheat; of planting, tending, harvesting and preparing exhibits. This little man, rejected by the navy because of short stature, made a startling contribution to cereal grain and fruit production on the prairie, because he liked hard work, had the capacity to take pains and had an observant mind.
He left school at 12 to work in a shoe store to help support a widowed mother and a sister. Later he worked for a bookstore owner. Part of his duties in this latter employment was to care for a garden and it was here he developed his love of plant life.
When he was 17 his family received a letter from an uncle who had gone to Clark's Crossing, near Saskatoon. This letter struck a responsive chord in the young man's nature and he persuaded his mother and sister to come to Canada. They traveled via the Allen Line steamer "Parisian" and in the spring of 1885 arrived at Moose Jaw. Most of the Rebellion was over and after working at ditch digging, house building and various jobs, he worked his way north and took a homestead. Wheeler's first house was a riverbank dugout. To raise cash for sugar and flour he gathered buffalo bones, for which he got $8 a ton. He sold wheat at 25 cents a bushel.
In 1898 he decide his homestead land was too subject to frost; so he bought CPR land about four miles east of Rosthern. Here he lived the most productive part of his life and here is where his mind still loves to return. He nearly lost his farm due to continuous freezing of his Red Fife wheat, but he managed to pull through and he gives credit to the Temperance Colonization Society for a much-needed loan.
In the spring of 1911 the secretary of the Canadian Seed Growers Association sent Wheeler a small quantity of "Marquis" seed wheat. This grain did so well that he showed the progeny at the Saskatchewan Provincial Seed Fair, winning the championship and was persuaded to send it to a World Seed Fair at Madison Square Gardens, New York City.
It so happened that J.J. Hill, the U.S.A. railway magnate, had offered a $1,000 trophy for the best wheat grown in the U.S.A. Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, C.P.R. president, asked Jim Hill to open up the restricted area classes but Hill refused so Shaughnessy offered $1,000 for the best wheat grown in the two "Americas." This was the prize Wheeler won in 1911 and this fired his enthusiasm, paid for his farm and fed his dreams. He won the championship again in 1914 and 1915 with Marquis, in 1916 with Kitchener and in 1918 with Red Bobs. Showmanship was now in his blood so he won top prizes at El Paso, Kansas City, Peoria and Chicago. He also won major prizes with oats and field peas in international competition.
His love of experimental work led him to develop a 16-acre orchard on his home farm, where he raised crabapples, plums, cherries and bush fruit. He is a strong believer in natural selection and he established the possibility of home grown fruits in the minds of many Saskatchewan farmers.
Celebrating his fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1959 with his wife (the former Lily Martin of Maymount) and four daughters, he reiterated his belief that the production potential of Saskatchewan "has nowhere near reached its possibility." Although living in B.C., this man's heart and mind are still firmly rooted to his three-quarter section farm at Rosthern. This farm is still operated by a widowed daughter and her son and Dr. Wheeler would like to return to it.
It is perhaps too early to estimate this man's contribution to the Prairie West. How many immigrants were brought to settle here by the fame he brought to it? How many farmers used better seed because of the gospel he preached? How many customers bought Canadian wheat because of his exposition of its virtues?
