Stephen Vaughan Kinsey: An Obituary

A recent search of the Google Newspaper Archive revealed another lengthy article about Stephen Vaughan Kinsey of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

The following obituary from "Page Three" of 3 November 1943 Saskatoon Star-Phoenix provides a fine synopsis of his life:

Steve Kinsey Dead at 89

The funeral of S. V. (Steve) Kinsey, 89, Saskatoon oldtimer who formerly lived at the Queen’s Hotel, will be held at the chapel of the Saskatoon Funeral Home at 2 o’clock, Thursday.  Mr. Kinsey died in Wolseley on Monday.  The funeral will be under Masonic auspices, and Rev. R. K. Sampson will officiate.

“Steve”, as Mr. Kinsey was affectionately known to his many friends in the city, came to Saskatoon in 1899 to run a creamery for James Leslie and James R. Wilson.  After service with the creamery, he was employed by the Grand Trunk Railroad as a pump man, and later served as a caretaker of the Masonic Temple, Fourth Avenue and Twenty-first Street.

Mr. Kinsey left Saskatoon in 1940 to live for a time with a brother in Boissevain, Manitoba.  He returned in November, 1941, and went to Wolseley in the late summer of 1942.

One of nine children, he was born at St. Harmon’s, Radnorshire, North Wales, May 21, 1854.  He came to Canada with his parents in 1868, when his father took up farming near Bradford, Simcoe County, Ontario.  Mr. Kinsey moved to Manitoba in 1895.

A life member of three local Masonic lodges, No. 16 A.F. and A.M., Lodge Progress, No. 92, and Imperial Lodge, No. 60.  Mr. Kinsey joined the order as a member of No. 16 lodge in 1903.  He was a tyler for the three lodges over a long period of years.  As caretaker of the Masonic Temple, he took a keen interest in the beautification of the grounds through the culture of shrubs and flowers.

Mr. Kinsey was always an enthusiastic horticulturist and a lover of plants.  His cottage at Eleventh Street and MacPherson Avenue is remembered by oldtimers as one of the beauty spots of the city in the early days.

He was a member of Saskatoon Preceptory and a Shriner, belonging to Wa Wa Temple, and was a member of the Odd Fellows, Saskatoon Lodge No. 29.  He had belonged to the Odd Fellows since 1903 and was a past grand.

A bachelor, Mr. Kinsey is survived by his brother in Boissevain (John Henry Wilson Kinsey) and a sister in Vancouver (Amelia Matilda Cross (nee Kinsey).)