Settlers first homesteaded around Semans as early as 1904. The village took its name from the wife of a railroad official, and it was one of a string of towns set out in alphabetical order along the Grand Trunk Railway line between Winnipeg and Saskatoon. A photograph of the first station even shows the name spelled "Semons."
Things moved quickly once the railway arrived. An open-air ice rink was in use by 1907, and the first sports day was held on July 1, 1908. By the fall of 1908 the railway station and the first grain elevator were up. In a little more than a year, local businesses could supply almost everything people needed, and the population stood at 48.
The Semans Board of Trade wrote on October 28, 1908, about organizing under the Village Act of 1908, and the businesses signed a petition on November 4. Semans became a village on December 14, 1908. It marked 100 years as a village with a centennial homecoming in July 2008.
Among the people associated with Semans are Sherwood Bassin, a hockey executive in the Ontario Hockey League and with the Canadian national junior team; Gordon MacMurchy, a longtime MLA for Last Mountain; and George Hara Williams, Saskatchewan's Minister of Agriculture in 1944 and 1945.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Semans, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.