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Shoal Lake Minute #18
FRANK DOBBS
Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1855, Frank Dobbs came to Canada at age 16 to work on land survey crews in southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In 1874 he joined the North West Mounted Police and went west on their famous trek. During his tour of duty, he took part in the Riel Rebellion in 1885, resigning from the force in 1886. In 1902, he was awarded a silver medal from the Dominion of Canada for services rendered during the 1885 Rebellion.
For his duty in the NWMP, Dobbs received a free half section of land seven miles south of Shoal Lake and started farming. Realizing farming was not for him, Dobbs took up selling real estate and insurance and bookkeeping. Shoal Lake Rural Municipality hired him as secretary treasurer in 1899, a position he kept until 1933. He held the same position for the village from 1909 to 1931.
Frank liked being busy. He was secretary-treasurer of the Shoal Lake Agricultural Society from about 1900 to 1925, Clerk of the County Court from 1885, agent for eight insurance companies, real estate agent with Hudson’s Bay Land Development and a Mason. An ad he ran in the 1905 Henderson’s Directory says in addition to real estate and insurance, Frank has “money to loan” and improved and unimproved farms for sale.
In 1909, Dobbs, as village clerk, received over a hundred applications in response to an advertisement for a constable that appeared in Winnipeg papers. The village’s new constable would be Donald Findlayson.
Frank and Mary Dobbs moved into Winnipeg where he died in 1940, laid to rest New year’s day, 1941. Frank, his two daughters Kathleen and Norah and wife Mary are all buried in the family plot in Shoal Lake Cemetery.
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