Coleville's story starts in 1905, when the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway surveyed the area for a new line and the promise of rail service drew settlers. The first of them arrived in 1906, many having shipped their belongings to Battleford, where the Dominion Lands office was. With the nearest wood about 110 kilometres away on the South Saskatchewan River, most early homes were built of sod. One, built by English immigrant James Addison between 1909 and 1911, has been lived in ever since.
The village takes its name from Malcolm Cole, who came with his father in 1906 and set up a post office and general store on his homestead. He named the post office Coleville, from his surname and the suffix -ville. His brother Charles served as postmaster from 1908 to 1917. The townsite was bought from Charles Farris and built on his homestead, and in 1913 Charles Cole submitted names to the railway, which chose Coleville for its station and townsite.
The railway grade was built in 1912 and steel laid in 1913 on the Biggar–Loverna line, which became part of the Canadian National Railway in 1923. Grain elevators followed, including those of the Scottish Co-op, Alberta Pacific and the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. The station closed in 1979 and the tracks were torn up in 1998. The Coleville Rural Telephone Co. formed in 1916 and ran local service until the government took over in stages from 1954. Coleville became a village on July 1, 1953. Today oil and farming drive its economy, and it gives its name to the Coleville oilfields.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Coleville, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.