Completed with Thanks -Somewhere in Sask - Violet Prutton

[omap]

Looking for Violet Prutton, believed to have died somewhere in Saskatchewan.

Violet Prutton, b. 1928-29 Lloydminster, AB    died: ? somewhere in Saskatchewan.

Violet's parents were Jim Prutton (1885-1977) and Roseann Oliver Prutton (1892-1966).  Violet has two living siblings,  brothers that remember her as an abused young girl that was taken away from the family and ordered into care by a Lloydminster judge in 1944-45.  One  brother was contacted by a care home in Moose Jaw requesting "a walker" for Violet which he sent back in the late 1940s.  The address and other information is long lost.  The same brother, now in his mid 80s, remembers Violet as a mentally handicapped young girl that his Dad always slapped around her head.  Her other brother seems to think that the Judge found someone from Battleford to come get Violet and she was taken off to work on their farm.  Her now deceased sister, Annie, had contact with Violet for several years and then all contact was lost.

Is there anyone out there that has any informaton about Violet Prutton or when she died?  I have been unable to find her anywhere in Saskatchewan.  Does anyone know of any sites that might hold archived court records in Lloydminster in the 1940s?

[susano]

At one time, there were 2 very large psychiatric hospitals in Saskatchewan--one in Weyburn and the other in North Battleford.  I know the one in Weyburn has been demolished but I'm not sure of the status/fate of the one in North Battleford.  This hospital was what I immediately thought of when you mentioned someone taking her to Battleford.

I doubt if the hospital records would be open for public access but it might be worth a try to contact the facility to see what exists and what is public record.

I know that the facility in Weyburn had its own cemetery and I believe there is an online index for it.  I don't know about the one in North Battleford. 

Maybe a google search would turn up some leads.

Susan

[omap]

Thanks Susan....did not know about those facilities.  I will poke around and see if I can find the cemetary and will try and find an address for the other and maybe they will search their records.   I am getting nowhere and it is certainly worth a try.  My husband has been diagnosed with 4th stage dementia and he keeps asking if I have ever found his sister, Violet.  I would like to find her and give him some peace.

MJ

[cosmac]

http://www.weyburn.ca/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=98
Link to Weyburn Psychiatric Hospital information

Debbie

[susano]

Hi MJ

I'm so sorry to hear of your husband's illness and certainly understand the urgency of your quest to locate information about his sister.

With regard to archived court records, the Saskatchewan Archives may be able to answer that question.  Their website is http://www.saskarchives.com/web/services-pub.html

The 2 hospitals in Saskatchewan were huge and self-sustaining (farm land, gardens, livestock, greenhouses, etc.)  They were like little communities in themselves. I did find a reference to Saskatchewan Hospital cemetery but it doesn't appear that any of the records are online.   I've not had much luck finding any online cemetery indexes for the Battleford area.  

I did find some contact info for the Sask Hospital in North Battleford.  The Business Office may be able to give you some information.

SASKATCHEWAN HOSPITAL
Box 39
North Battleford, SK  S9A 2X8
Phone:  (306) 446-6800               Fax:  ( 306) 445-5392

I know there was a facility or institution in Moose Jaw but I cannot find anything online about it.  I had a friend whose sister spent her entire life there but the family didn't talk about it much so I don't remember a name.

I hope I haven't led you down a wrong path with the idea of an institution.  It is possible that she went into foster care or perhaps went to live and work with a family.  Given her date of birth, I suppose it is possible that she could still be alive.

The Saskatchewan Genealogy Society may be able to search cemetery databases but there may be a fee.  Their website is http://www.saskgenealogy.ca/

Unfortunately, Saskatchewan is not particularly research friendly and I think I've exhausted my ideas for now.

Good luck with your search.  I hope you can find the closure that your husband needs.

Susan

[J.J.]

Susano, that certainly makes sense as if it could be the Battlefords Hospital as if she was to work on farm, that perhaps they meant the self-sustainable facilities within hospital grounds. This story says there were around a thousand graves (of 3000) only numbered because they weren't claimed by family...Perhaps the numbers correspond to a name somewhere in their files.
http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Photo+gallery+Saskatchewan+Hospital+North+Battleford/1721042/story.html

The MooseJaw Saskatchewan Training School for mentally handicapped wasn't opened until 1955, and regular care homes didn't facilitate people with mental handicaps back then, I don't think. It is now Valley View Centre, but can't find an address that looks legit. It looks to have been a fantastic facility...They even pasteurized their own milk, wow.. It was huge, but only a third left, and closing may come there soon as well. http://buffalo.blog.ca/2005/08/05/valleyview_centre_moose_jaw_50th_anniver/

...The training school opened much later in Prince Albert...she might also have been moved there eventually, but it was closed many years ago...my father in law worked there. My husband has good things to say about that place, and the happy souls there.

However, even if not there, perhaps Violet may be on record as having been taken to Battleford originally...or at the very least, perhaps they can steer you to a facility from the era, 1940-1940 Moose Jaw.

all the best, J.J.

[susano]

When I woke up this morning, the name Valley View came into my head.  Thanks, JJ, for confirming that this is the name of the facility in Moose Jaw.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, I worked for a Vocational Centre/Technical Institute which occupied a wing of the old Mental Hospital in Weyburn.  By that time it had pretty much been phased out as a Mental Hospital and turned into a Level 3 and 4 care facility with many of the old-timers remaining as residents in the nursing home.  We shared a common dining room with staff from the care facility so got to learn lots about the "old" days and even had a couple of tours into the far recesses of the basement where some incredible paintings done by patients were on the walls.  It was quite the structure and grounds...the huge building and many outer buildings have been completely demolished now.

Sorry, I'm off topic!!

Susan

[omap]

Thanks JJ and Susan.....you guys are a gold mine of leads.... I had no idea any of these places exhisted.  And Susan you are not really off topic...it's memories that tell us so much about people's lives!!  If Violet was in the home you speak of there may still exist something she might have painted!!  I would never have known to ask if I find she was there.

Thank you to both of you.... I had no idea where to even look.  Now I have several leads to follow up on. 

[BSMP]

Whew!  Didn't think I'd be able to figure out how to contact you!  Are you still searching for information on Violet Prutton?  I ask because she was my aunt and I remember my parents discussing her.  I may have actually met her, but I had two Aunt Violets so my childhood memories could be confused on that matter.  However, while my father (George) is gone now, I know (through family reunions and many discussions of our childhood memories) my brothers who currently live in Saskatchewn have much information of the family and I would only be too happy to help you.  Also, there is still one uncle (Joe) in northern Alberta who might have more information.  Let me know anything and everything you need to know and I'll do my best to accomodate you.  After all, we are family!