Jan. 25: Wilfred Bonin hanged; Swan River's Billy Beal; Captain Kennedy died.

January 25, 1890 - Writer, explorer and HBC employee Captain William Kennedy died. His former house on River Road near Lockport is a provincial heritage site. (Also see.)

January 25, 1927 - 24 year-old Wilfred Bonnin is hanged in Winnipeg for the murder of Maurice Garvie (above) during a bank robbery on May 28, 1926. (For more on the robbery.)

Billy Beal's self portrait

January 25, 1968 - Billy Beal died. In 1906 he immigrated to the Swan River area of Manitoba, the first African American to settle in the region. He was a carpenter, writer, photographer and secretary-treasurer of the local school division for nearly 40 years. In 2011, the region's library was named for him. (Also see my Free Press feature on him.)

January 25, 1988 - The A.E. McKenzie Company Building on 9th Street in Brandon is designated a Provincial Heritage Site.

January 25, 1988 - The Trappist Monastery Ruins, rue du Monastére, St. Norbert, is designated a Provincial Heritage Site.

© 2012 and 2020, Christian Cassidy