Hoosier farmer donates his collection to Kindersley's museum
By Joan Janzen
A local collector from Hoosier, Sask. has decided to share his prized collection of harnesses and equipment with the Kindersley & District Plains Museum. Bill Pinchin and his wife reside on their farm five miles west of Hoosier, where Bill keeps his vast collection in a tack room in his barn.
The Kindersley Museum allotted space for Bill's collection on the museum's upper floor. "It's only one-eighth of my collection," Bill estimated. "More of it will be coming in the future. Lionel Story brought in the wall to display my harness collection. He took a chain saw and cut 14x7 foot chunks out of a barn for a feature wall."
Bill grew up on the family farm, but when he retired from farming eleven years ago, he realized he needed a hobby. "I enjoyed horses and raised a few horses, so I started a tack room in our barn, and it just blossomed from there," he said. "The land is rented out. We have a few head of cattle and the grandkids use our pasture. I'll be 89 in February, but we love the farm, so we'll stay out there as long as we can."
Bill Pinchin from Hoosier has donated his prized collection of harnessess to the Kindersley & District Plains Museum. Bill said his son-in-law found the antique bridal he is holding in his right hand. The bridal was made by a farmer for his son’s birthday gift. Bill decided to make a new one exactly like it, which he is holding in his left hand. PHOTO BY JOAN JANZEN
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As for his extensive collection, Bill is trying to sell it on the internet. And whatever doesn't sell will be donated to the museum. Some items are more valuable than others. Bill pointed out a bridle with blinkers. "They're supposed to be worth $500 a pair because they're so rare; they fall off the horse and get stepped on and broken," he said. The blinkers were used to keep horses from looking at something they would be scared of while threshing, Bill explained.
"I enjoyed going to auction sales and looking for antiques. I'm disappointed that auction sales aren't like they used to be. That's where you found all the little items; some people called it junk," Bill chuckled.
He would travel over 100 miles to attend auctions, enjoying the social interaction and bidding. He would buy things nobody else wanted because they couldn't identify the items. He recalled one occasion when the bidding started at $100 and kept going down until he bought three items for a dollar a piece.
However, antique harnesses and other similar items are becoming more expensive and more difficult to find. "It's all been destroyed or is in museums," Bill said.
He pointed out several harness traces farmers had made back in the day when they needed to be innovative. They were made out of tires or machinery belting instead of leather.
Every item seems to come with a story. "Someone would buy six old saddles and make three new ones out of the six," Bill said. "I collected harnesses and restored them. I worked steady at it and have no idea how many I made." When Bill went to an auction, he would look for really old riding bridles and then use the pattern to make new ones.
He would purchase leather from Ontario, but the freight was often more than the price of the leather. However, sometimes, he was able to find leather at auction sales or from farmers who had their own tack rooms.
Hanging on the wall at the museum was a unique-looking bridle with a bit made to look like guns, which Bill had purchased privately from someone who was selling a bunch of wagons and bridles. "He had lots of that kind of stuff. Buying all that stuff raised hell with my pension cheque," Bill laughed.
During the past summer months, Bill also donated twenty-five drill presses to the museum. When Bill wasn't working on his harness collection, he was busy making and restoring wagons and sleighs. "I restored a wagon for someone in Rosetown, and you can see it along the No. 7 Highway," he said. "My wagons have my trademark diamond on them."
If you happen to drop in at the Kindersley Museum, be sure to go upstairs and check out Bill's harness collection. It's truly a labour of love.