Richard Krehbiel grew up hearing stories of Smithfield – the fieldstone house his Scottish great-grandfather built north of Kisbey in about 1903. The house was the first Canadian home for Scottish immigrant Bruce Anderson Smith and later, for other family members Smith brought from Letham, in Angus County, Scotland, to settle in this part of Saskatchewan and work for what soon became a highly-successful grain and draft horse operation.
Krehbiel, Smith's great grandson, says the restoration of his family's ancestral home is a “labour of love” and he has placed the house's repair and return to authenticity in the hands of stonemason Charlie Pirie of Balgonie's Cap Masonry and his employees, Hannah Jeglum and Fred Heikkinen, as well as carpenter Tony Sengler.
“I have a long-term lease on the house from the owners - the Gordon family - and the R. M. of Brock has designated it an official heritage property,” says Krehbiel. “And they've both been terrific. There aren't many landowners who would let you come and play with their place.”
“My great grandfather was an orphan who was raised by his mother's family in Scotland,” explains Krehbiel, a semi-retired law professor from Prince George, B.C. “Because he was an orphan, he wouldn't inherit any land and besides, Scotland was full. So the family set him up to come here. He built a successful grain and draft horse operation at Smithfield and brought several family members over here to settle in Canada.”
“It was a highly-capitalized grain and draft horse operation, financed by Scottish money,” he adds. “And it wasn't the only one - there were five of these operations in this area.”
Years later, in the wake of the Great Depression, the Smith family left Smithfield and moved north in search of better prospects.
“I grew up near Nipawin,” says Krehbiel. “And I grew up hearing stories about Smithfield.”
“The house eventually passed out of the family and was abandoned in 1988,” he says. “There were several renters until the 1980s. But when it became vacant, there was, unfortunately, vandalism and theft as well as things like water damage.”
“I came here to look at the house in 2005 and it was in worse shape than I expected,” says Krehbiel. “It took a year just to clean up the inside of the house. My daughter and I spent one summer just picking up glass.”
In its prime, Smithfield consisted of the main house, a summer kitchen and a “massive barn,” according to Krehbiel. “The house has five bedrooms - including a maid's room with a staircase going down to the kitchen. Field hands slept upstairs in the (high-ceilinged) attic in the summer. There was a dining room and a great hall and a formal parlour, which wasn't at all like a living room. Instead, funerals and other formal occasions were held there.”
“My great grandparents lived here and died here,” he says. “They had their funerals here and were buried in the local graveyard down the road.”
“The original kitchen was directly accessed via the maid's or in this case, hired girl's room, because that's how things were done in those days,” explains Krehbiel. “She would be the person who prepared the meals, which would be served in the formal dining room, which was located away from the kitchen.”
“My great-grandfather's first wife died in childbirth and a young cousin who had first came to Smithfield from Scotland to work in the house eventually married him, becoming his second wife. The room for the hired girl was just across the hall from the master bedroom and when they married, she just moved across the hall,” he smiles.
“The barn and summer kitchen were also built with stone,” says Krehbiel. “It was a massive barn - two-and-a-half times bigger than the house. It was burned down by one of the house's previous owners and the stone was buried in the yard.”
“But every building was designed and built by Scotsmen,” he says. “It was all good Scottish architecture.”
“They made use of every stone they had,” adds stonemason Pirie. “Stone is great. It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. But it's important to have a respect and understanding with how the wood works with the stone,” a sentiment carpenter Senger shares.
“The stone and the wood work together,” says Senger, who was retired when he was first recruited by Pirie to work with him on a church restoration in Wishart, Sask.
“I was right out of (carpentry) when Charlie got a job restoring a church in Wishart,” says Senger. “I love working with my hands and projects like these are surprising and rewarding, so I couldn't turn it down.”
Pirie - a native of the Ottawa Valley - has worked on restoration projects which include Ottawa's Rideau Hall - the official residence of Canada's Governor General, Queen's University in Kingston and the Saskatchewan Legislature, to name a few.
“I came here in 2008 to do some work on the Legislature,” says Pirie. “And I met my wife - a Regina girl. Since I've come to Saskatchewan, I've worked on projects here and elsewhere – and you can safely say that this is the only project like this in Saskatchewan. It's a complete restoration, top to bottom. And I'll say 'sadly', too – because a lot of these old stone buildings are either crumbling or completely destroyed.”
Pirie says that neglect and vandalism are two factors he sees as hastening the demise of heritage buildings.
“Water damage and melting snow can pose problems,” he says. “But vandalism is pointless and really disappointing and destructive.”
“This house had the windows broken, which isn't really surprising,” says Pirie. “But there were little holes and marks on some of the stone. It seems that someone using the windows for target practice had a bad aim or they decided to shoot the stone, too.”
“This house also had what was called a 'Widow's Watch' which came up out of the attic. It was a wraparound wrought-iron fence on top of the house which acted as kind of a lookout,” he adds. “That was probably stolen.”
“The stone for the original buildings all came out of these fields,” says Pirie. “They all worked up to the surface as the fields were cultivated. The barn alone is 80 by 80 feet and they used every part of the stone. They split them and they made use of every stone they had.”
“Any wood – which was used with the stone in the original construction was fir. It's hardy and will withstand moisture,” explains Pirie. “The window wells in this house are extremely unique and in this case, the lady of the house probably wanted seats at her window.”
The reconstruction team replaces existing elements of the home with painstaking attention to detail and often, using the same types of tools the original builders would have employed.
Hammers, chisels and even an old-time secret recipe for preserving wood are just a few of the tools used by Pirie and his team.
“Often, we sleep at the job site,” he says, pointing to a trailer in the yard. “When the mortar sets, for example, we have to be there.”
The crew has reset many of the stones, cleaned paint from stones salvaged from the former summer kitchen and according to Pirie, this is just the beginning of the process of restoring the house to its former glory.
“What we do is a trade, but really, it's more like an art form,” he says. “The appearance of the stones will 'pop' when we're done, because the face of the stone will really stand out once we're finished (restoring) it.”
“It's one of the more rewarding aspects of this job – seeing the looks on people's faces when we've brought a building back.”
Krehbiel hopes to host a July 2019 open house if the project remains on schedule, adding: “I plan to retire here. I would like to make it useful – perhaps as a reserch institute or even a bed and breakfast, just to make it significant again.”
“Smithfield is a unique property,” adds Pirie. “And the story behind this house and everything in it...There's nothing else like it in Saskatchewan.”
