About June a car drive up to my place. "Your name Battersby, Robert?" asked the man. "Yes" He pulls out a long official looking document. It was a writ for me to appear in the Saskatoon High court within twenty days as the Great West life Assurance Co. was about to foreclose my mortgage. I did not know what to do. I had no money till my crop comes again.
I came to Saskatoon, goes to the Court house, see one of the clerks, explains my trouble. He asked me if I wanted to employ a lawyer to defend me. I said "No, if I could employ a lawyer I need not be here, I could pay the interest on the loan". I says "I can defend myself if I am put in the right way how to go about it." He looked at me, "I would like to help you but --" then a stop "but" again a stop. I could see there was something he would like to tell me but his tongue was tied. He advised me to see the lawyers that had the issuing of the writ and tell them and they might see me out of my troubles.
I saw them, it was D. McLean and Hollinrake of Saskatoon. They told me to write to some lawyers in Regina as they was only Agents for them. I wrote them at once giving full particulars. I did not receive any reply to my letter so I thought they had considered my case and was willing to wait until the second payment was due.
I came to Saskatoon with my garden stuff, I received just double the prices I had got nearer to home, it was a great help for me. My spirits lifted up at once. I spent the money on lumber to board the outside of my log barn then I should have a very good barn for my cattle in winter. I then sent interest and compound interest on the interest I should have paid the year before, it was now November and my interest was not due until the first of January. The reason I paid it at this time was I was in town getting my winter supply of groceries and I would not be in town again until the worst part of winter was over so it was more convenient for me to send it now so that I should not have to make a special trip to do it.
I received a receipt for the same telling me I could pay the balance in any near future. I was pleased, I thought the Loan Company was all right, they was giving me a chance to redeem myself, when behold in the first week of December a couple of men drove into my yard, I was outside of the house at the time. "Is there any land around here for sale?" they asked. "Very little" I replied, "It is nearly all taken up." Next question. "How much is land worth around here?" "Oh anywhere from 10 dollars to 35 dollars per acre." "Oh, what is your name?" "R. Battersby". "Mr Battersby, can I see you alone in the house?" "Well there is nobody in the house but my wife." "I would like to see you alone" he says. "Well! I replied, if you have got anything to say to me that is not fit for my wife to hear I don't want to hear it". All right he said we'll go in".
He then pulled from his pocket a letter stating that my mortgage had been foreclosed and that he was the owner of the farm. "I cannot see how you can be the owner, I have not had any notice of such a thing until now, I have sent the interest on the loan and received a receipt for the same". I showed him the receipt. All he would say "it is strange" but he politely told me that I should be off the place by Christmas.
It was now I realized there was something crooked about the thing. This year I had not received my tax papers as I had done before because I had always done so much work on the road allowances to pay my taxes but this year I had not. There was a Council meeting this week, also nominations for the next years councilors.
After the meeting was over I asked the secretary treasurer for my tax papers as I was there to pay them. I asked him if he had sent them by mail because they generally sent them about July. I know others had got them and I had not. I did not always go for my mail, I trusted one of my neighbors to bring it for me. The post office was 4-1/2 miles away. He said he had. Well I did not receive them I told him to make fresh papers out and I would pay them now. When he said "Your loan company has paid them" I tried to get information from him but he would not tell me anything.
De Winton was the secretary treasurer. This is in Arlee, Sask. there was nothing for it only to come to Saskatoon to find out. I went to the court house inquired of the clerk, he looked it up. "Yes it's here, it has been foreclosed". I goes to see lawyers about it. There was two told me I could do nothing but they would like to write a letter to the Company and see what terms they would let me have my farm back on. To test the honesty of these two lawyers I asked them how much they would charge me for writing a letter although I knew they should charge when I asked them. "5 dollars" they said. "Nothing doing" I said and walked out of their offices.
I thought crooks everywhere.Went to lawyer No. 3 He listened to my tale of woe when he said "I think I can get your farm back but it will cost you about 200 dollars if we win but you will have to pay out the mortgage. How could I do that when I had not got that amount of money. "What stock and implements have you, what's their valuation?" "Oh about 800 dollars". He slaps me on the shoulder "There you have it take out a chattel mortgage and pay out the land mortgage, Rob Peter to pay Paul, don't you see". "Yes I see but you say it will cost me two hundred dollars if we win. You put an 'if' in it and if we lose what will it cost me?" "About 400 dollars".
Yes the crooks have got me hand and foot I thought. "Well I'll think it over" "You'll not have to be too long thinking it over". Leaves his office I ran against a real estate man I had known a long time. "Hello Mr. Battersby, what brings you to town this time of the year?" I told him all. "Have you been to a lawyer." "Yes" I told him what lawyers I had seen and what each wanted me to do. "Darn them, come with me I'll take you to my lawyer that does my business for me. He will give you straight advise what to do and what not to do."
Darn the crooks, the country's full of them". I had all the correspondence with me and the receipt for the interest paid only 6 weeks before. He examined them then he told me he was sorry for me. He could do nothing for me. "I could take all you have got, I could tell you to make an appeal to court but I would not like to say about your chances. Take my advice, stick to what you have, you may throw good money after bad but I would like to write to the company and see what terms they would come to with you." I asked him the same question I had the others. "I will write you one for a dollar." This was more like honesty. "All right I will give you a dollar to know what they will do, although I have very little faith in them." He writes, gets a reply, sends me a copy, the letters runs this: "We have had two thousand five hundred dollars offered for this farm with five hundred dollars down, the balance in five years but we a taking it into consideration that Mr. Battersby was the original owner of this farm. We are prepared to take 600 dollars down, the balance in nine years at 8%"
Now my mortgage was 600 dollars so you see they wanted 1900 dollars more than they had lent me. If anyone changes these statements let them come to me I will produce all the correspondence for I have them and will have them and then hand them down to my children when I pass from this earth. Well I had to leave the home. I had struggled so hard along with my wife to get yes almost costing us our health, yea our lives. Where must we go, that was the next question.
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