Parry is a hamlet in Saskatchewan, believed to be named after Sir William Edward Parry, a Royal Navy officer who made several voyages in search of the North-West Passage.
People began settling the area around 1905. Some came from the United States, and others were British, Danish and German. The Krauss family opened a post office and store in 1907. When the Canadian Northern Railway was laid in 1911, the townsite was created, and a grain elevator was built that year by the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company. Reliance Grain Company added another in 1912. Both eventually came under the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and were merged in 1954. The first school opened on September 30, 1913, and by 1916 Parry had a hardware store, livery, gas pump, pool room, blacksmith, restaurant and train depot. One source puts the village at about two hundred residents then.
Community life grew in the 1950s and 70s. A United Church from south of Weyburn was moved into town in 1953, a curling rink was built the same year, and a joint recreation centre and bowling alley opened in 1977. A new school replaced the original one, which closed in 1956.
Decline began in the 1960s. Older students were sent to Pangman, and the Parry school closed in the late 1970s. Canadian National abandoned the rail line to Radville in the same years, and the curling rink and station depot were torn down in 1975. The line north to Moose Jaw was bought by Southern Rails Cooperative in 1989, but part of it was damaged by a storm in 1999 and never repaired. The last elevator closed in 2000.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Parry, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.