Vantage Points in the Classroom – Turtle Mountain-Souris Plains Heritage Association

The Turtle Mountain Souris Plains Heritage Association provides a regional approach to heritage by working with a collection of towns, municipalities, Métis Locals, and interested citizens. Our membership (illustrated by the shaded portion of the map) includes the Municipalities of Boissevain-Morton, Brenda-Waskada, Deloraine-Winchester, Grassland, Killarney-Turtle Mountain, and Two Borders.

The following information is presented as a foundation document – a resource that teachers and researchers across southwest Manitoba can turn to when they need an overview of the general history of the communities in our region.

About a hundred million years ago southwest Manitoba was part of the Western Interior Seaway. The climate was a lot warmer than today, and huge reptiles called mosasaurs were the toughest beasts around. Then, about 66 million years ago, an asteroid crashed into southern Mexico. The blast was so strong that the dust and debris blocked the sun and slowly cooled the climate. In a short period 75 percent of all species on earth became extinct, including most of the dinosaurs.

About two million years ago we entered a series of Ice Ages. Giant glaciers covered the land, and then melted off. It was a long process and it created the landscape we know today
There were long periods between the visits of the glaciers. We’re in one of them now.

As the ice melted, material that was carried by the glaciers was deposited over Turtle Mountain. By about 12,800 years ago Turtle Mountain was free of ice. As the last glacier retreated it carved many shallow lakes and wetlands and shaped the hills. Many steep ravines were created by streams of run-off waters flowing from the high ground to the low plains.

Turtle Mountain, surrounded by the flat prairie of the Souris Plains, was one of the first things travelers to this region noticed. What is known as the Turtle’s Head, at the western end of Turtle Mountain, is the second highest point in all of Manitoba.

A traveler to the Southwest Corner can see Turtle Mountain from quite a distance. Another important feature of the region, the Souris River, is often hidden in a deep valley and might not be noticed until you are overlooking it.

Here in Manitoba we see only about a quarter of the Souris River drainage basin. It begins north of Weyburn, Saskatchewan. It travels through southeast Saskatchewan and northern North Dakota where it makes a giant U-turn (known as the Souris Loop) before entering Manitoba south of Melita. From the border to Souris the stream is gentle as it twists and turns its way through rolling hills. It then drops 480 meters in elevation by the time it empties into the Assiniboine River, picking up speed as it passes through a deep valley.

On these wide-open dry plains, the river valley offered wood, water and shelter. Plains hunters camped on the banks. They trapped and hunted the animals that also took shelter there.

In recent years, several dams have been built in an attempt to control the flooding tendencies of the Souris River but it has proven difficult to control. In recent years floods have caused a great deal of damage and expense. The Souris River is a commanding presence in Southwest Manitoba. Whether flowing mildly between its banks, or rising to threaten land and livelihood, it continues to be a central feature in the lives of those who live alongside it.

About 10,000 years ago, when the glaciers from the last ice age were melting, huge lakes were formed. Glacial Lake Hind covered the area around present-day Hartney. Huge deposits of sand formed a delta where a river ran into the still body of Lake Hind. Today they are the Lauder Sandhills.

As the climate kept changing, the land was at times marshes, lakes and sloughs, and at other times, sand dunes.
The nearby Souris River and surrounding grasslands made the hills a good place for the bison and for hunters.

Over time, trees and vegetation made this an attractive place to live.

The Lauder Sandhills Wildlife Management Area was established in 1971, originally to protect the winter habitat of the white-tailed deer.

When the glaciers that once covered all of Canada began to disappear about 12,000 years ago, they left huge lakes and rivers. Most of those lakes have disappeared, but Whitewater Lake is the last evidence of Lake Souris, which once covered the region between Turtle Mountain and the Souris River.

It is large, about 20 kilometers long, but shallow. It is fed by creeks from Turtle Mountain during heavy rains and the spring run-off.
Because it is shallow, a dry spell, or a few dry years, can really affect its size. It has gone dry on several occasions. In 1913 the lake dried up, and government engineers surveyed the land, reporting that it should be sold as farmland. But by the next spring it was a lake again! During the “Dirty Thirties” and the 1980’s the lake also disappeared and trails led across it as people made short-cuts.

The plains around Whitewater Lake were well-known to the Nakota, and later, to the Métis as a good place to find bison. The last bison anyone saw in the Turtle Mountain area was spotted just to the east of Whitewater Lake in 1883.

Fur-bearing animals, such as mink and muskrat, attracted trappers and traders to the region. The muskrat furs that came from Whitewater Lake were of especially good quality and fetched a good price.

With the arrival of homesteaders the frozen lake served as a road. Teams of horses transported loads of grain from farms on the north side of the lake to Whitewater village on the southern shore. Firewood from Turtle Mountain was hauled in caravans of sleighs to homes north of the lake, and the road across the ice often became a very busy highway.

Bird Sanctuary

Whitewater Lake was the traditional nesting grounds for the whooping cranes until their near extinction around 1880. Though the number of birds on the lake in modern times does not come close to the numbers found during settler days, it remains an important stopping place during migrations. The south shore is a popular spot among birders.

Grassland is the name of a municipality formed in 2015 when the Town of Hartney joined the Municipalities of Cameron and Whitewater. The name refers to the large prairie, between the Souris River and Turtle Mountain, that is another important geographic feature of Southwest Manitoba.

These plains were a vital resource to Aboriginal Peoples, to Métis hunters and traders, to pioneer homesteaders, and now to modern and large-scale farmers.

In the early 1880’s Killarney Lake, then called Oak Lake, was attractive to a group of settlers from Ontario. A town quickly sprang up there and the residents have always made good use of the lake for boating, fishing and swimming.

After the most recent retreat of the glaciers, humans, who had alread populated most other parts of the world, made their way to Turtle Mountain. It was the first place in the region to be free of ice. It was soon home to both the hunter and the hunted.

The Clovis Culture

The first to arrive were a group we call the Clovis Culture. That was about 12000 years ago.

They came from the south, around New Mexico and Arizona, and would have moved north slowly as the climate warmed and the ice disappeared. We know little about them, but can identify them by the tools they left behind, especially the stone points they crafted for the tips of their weapons.

Clovis points that have been found in Southwestern Manitoba were made of Knife River flint from southern North Dakota, and crafted into sharp points shaped like a willow leaf. Attached to sturdy spears, these points could be used to take down even the huge woolly mammoth.

Taking down a mammoth would take skill, teamwork, courage and the best weapon you could get. These spear points would have been very valuable.

Folsom projectile points

The next “settlers” were the Folsom people. Their spear points were smaller and thinner than the Clovis points. This may have been because they were hunting smaller animals. Mammoths had slowly become extinct. It was pre-historic buffalo that the Folsom hunters hunted.

From about 10000 to 70000 years ago the Plano people hunted buffalo and pronghorn here. Pronghorn are the only large mammals in North America to survive the coming of man. But buffalo were becoming the most important prey.

By about 6000 years ago, agriculture, which developed far to the south, had appeared in Manitoba.

The Pronghorn survived in Manitoba until about 1900, and now prefers the wide-open spaces of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

There was a time when mastodons, mammoths, camels, horses, and huge long-haired bison roamed the Souris Plains and sought shelter on Turtle Mountain.

Traces of them start to disappear at about the end of the last ice age – about 12000 BC, and by 6000 BC two-thirds of the species of North American mammals that weighed more than 60 kilograms at maturity had become extinct.

Could it have been that the climate was getting warmer and drier? The animals that travelled in large herds may have not been able to adapt.

Or the warmer temperatures may have disrupted breeding cycles.

If climate was the problem, why were the animals not able to move to a more suitable region?

Another possibility is that these large mammals faced a new threat – humans.

As the ice retreated, human hunters spread across the continent, continually improving and adapting their hunting practices. These humans, unlike the other predators, were able to organize and improvise. They were deadly enemies.

Perhaps the climate may have weakened the populations and the humans finished them off.

A mammoth tusk found in Southern Manitoba, on display at the Moncur Gallery in Boissevain

A mammoth skull

By about 4500 years ago the climate was similar to what we have today. In Southwestern Manitoba a series of cultures developed great skill in hunting and using the bison.

When the first European traders and explorers came to this land they found that the people here depended on the bison for nearly everything. It was their main food. The hides gave them shelter and clothing. Tools were made from the bones and sinews.

By drying the meat in strips and pounding in fat and they made pemmican – a food that was nutritious and would last a long time without spoiling.

The lifestyle was developed over hundreds of years.

The Oxbow culture were perhaps the first to stew or boil their meat by placing heated stones in a lined pit full of water, meat and bones. It was an especially good way of removing the rich marrow from cracked bison bones. They also left the first tepee rings, and they were the first to bury their dead. They lived in the region for a long time.

The McKean people continued to perfect methods for killing, processing, and using the bison. A well-known kill and butchering site at Cherry Point on Oak Lake has yielded important artifacts left there over 2000 years ago. They would drive small herds into the marsh at the edge of the lake where some would get bogged down and hunters could kill them with spears.

Cherry Point
The Pelican Lake People may have been the first to think of killing bison by driving herds over steep cliffs. They also seem to have perfected the use of the Pound – herding animals into a fenced enclosure where they could kill them with spears. They traded widely to the south and east, and crafted ornaments from the shells and copper they obtained.

The Besant-Sonata Culture was also a trading culture. Remains of their pottery have been found in dozens of sites throughout southern Manitoba, including sites along the Souris River, and at Clay Banks Buffalo Jump site near Cartwright.

The bison you might see in a zoo today would weigh no more than 1,500 kg and have a maximum height of 1.80 metres.

But its ancestors, who roamed the Souris Plains about 10000 years ago, were much bigger. Bison latifrons it was called. It was 2.5 meters high and his head held an antler more than 2.5 meters long.

An artist has imagined what the modern and the Ice-Age animals might look like side by side.

About 5000 years ago the bison cultures became the main residents of the plains. Vegetation and climate stabilized, evolving to what we know today.

Hunting practices probably evolved along with the bison.

From 1000 to 2000 years ago southwestern Manitoba was home to many seasonal camp and bison kill sites for hunter-gatherers.

Elsewhere in North America during those times Inca, Mayan and Aztec civilizations of Central and South America had erected large cities. The Anasazi, or Ancient Pueblo Peoples were building cliff dwellings in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. To the east the Iroquois and Huron civilizations flourished in their large villages.

The north-central plains were one spot in North America were agriculture wasn’t important. The climate wasn’t suitable and the huge bison herds provided nearly everything the people needed.

Of course they took advantage of other available large game, they trapped small animals, and foraged for seeds and vegetables.

They adapted to their surrounding.

The hunter / gatherer lifestyle was the logical choice for the time and place. In other places, and at other times, other strategies were needed.

Over centuries the Plains People found hunting methods that worked for them in their region. If there were steep cliffs or valleys, they might create a jump, by herding the animals over the edge.

If there were no hills they might build a pound – a fenced in area – and trap the animals inside where they could be shot by arrows.

The Brockinton Site along the Souris River near Melita, has been carefully examined and is one of many kill sites in Southwestern Manitoba.

The site was occupied by three different cultures over the last 1600 years. These occupations left behind valuable evidence about how the people lived. For instance, things like the type of pottery they used and the type of material they used for arrowheads tell us about where they traded, and how far they might have travelled.

Bison bones can easily be found today along the banks of the Souris River.

The Awesome Atlati

The spear is used all across the world.

The bow and arrow was created in Africa and the first people to arrive in North America brought them along.

They also brought along the atlati – a powerful weapon capable of sending a projectile over 120 yards and killing a wooly mammoth.

It was the first complex weapon system developed by humans. It originated in Europe over 30,000 years ago and spread wherever humans lived.

The atlatl consists of two parts: the atlatl itself and the dart. The atlatl is held in the hand, and acts as a lever to propel the dart with more force. The atlatl can be made completely of wood, bone, or both and some may incorporate weights made from stone or shell.

Projectile Points

Numerous detachable tips that were used on weapons such as arrows or spears have been collected. Stone points may be unifacial (one cutting edge) or bifacial and may be manufactured by flaking or grinding.
Projectile points are particularly useful time markers for the archaeologist because of members of a culture, often kept to a particular style.

For example, three styles of projectile points are associated with the McKean culture: McKean, Duncan and Hanna. The McKean has a concave base with no side notching, the Duncan has a similar base but includes side-notching. The Hanna point has wider corner notches.

Scrapers

Scrapers were also generally made of stone. They were used to scrape hides to remove hair and fat, and to soften skin. They were also used for cutting skin.

Scrapers are typically formed by chipping the end of a flake of stone in order to create one sharp side and to keep the rest of the sides dull so you could hang on to them.

The Turtle Mountain – Souris Plains area has been home to many cultures, and was on trading routes that connected those cultures to others far distant from here. In the past 2000 years the people living here increased their dependence on immense herds of bison.

The herds were always on the move and roamed a huge territory. To make use of them the hunters had to move with them. Permanent villages were not helpful.

By the 1700’s when explorers from New France began showing an interest in this region, it was often visited by hunters from Nakota (Assiniboine), Dakota (Sioux), Cree, and Ojibway people.

It was the Nakota, whom LaVerendrye encountered on his trips in 1838 and afterwards.

Over the centuries various cultures developed better weapons and sharper tools. They learned to use all parts of a carcass to provide food, clothing, shelter and tools. They developed hunting methods, relying on stealth, marksmanship, camouflage, and finally the mass killing fields allowed by pounds and jumps. They got really good at harvesting and using the most readily available resource on the plains.

A successful society is able to offer its people a fair chance at health and happiness. They were successful.

The Plains People were originally from the east where they had lived in villages, and existed by hunting, gathering and growing crops.

When they moved to the plains they had to be able to move with the bison. They developed portable houses called teepees.

Today we refer to descendants of these groups of people as First Nations. Their ancestors have a long history in this land.

Campsite and Villages

The Souris River and its valley had resources that both animals and humans needed. It offered a reliable source of fresh water, shelter, game, wood and wild fruit.

The river had been witness to the activities of the large-game hunting societies of the Clovis and Folsom people who closely followed the receding glaciers. These and later peoples left evidence of their travels and habitations in the area – tipi rings, fireplaces, medicine wheels, surface graves and stone circles are only some of the impressions that remain.

Turtle Mountain also afforded shelter and resources for campsites, both short and long term.

In 1805 Southwest Manitoba was mainly Assiniboine territory.

By 1877 when this map shows that the Ojibway were the main occupants of this land. The Assiniboine had moved west.

Assiniboine (Nakota) Camp, Manitoba, July 17, 1874

In the summer of 1738 a group of about 100 Assiniboine lodges camped beside Cherry Creek (near present-day Boissevain) had an interesting visitor. A group of French traders led by Sieur de la Verendrye came to them with a request.

He was looking for a route to what he referred to as a Western Sea. He knew of a tribe he called the Mandans who lived somewhere to the south. He wanted help in finding them.

Several of the Assiniboine agreed to travel with him to show him the way to the Mandan villages on the Missouri River.

The Assiniboine were good partners to the Europeans. They gained new trade goods, which made their work easier. In turn, the Assiniboine helped Europeans traders as middlemen, excellent horsemen, and providers of food to trading posts.

From the Lake of the Woods region, the Assiniboine moved west sometime before 1680. It was here on the prairies that the Assiniboine discovered the bison
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They wintered in places like Turtle Mountain where shelter and wildlife were plentiful.

In the long run, the relationship with European traders had a devastating effect on the Assiniboine. Along with trade goods the newcomers brought whiskey, guns and disease – the guns proved useful but the whiskey and disease caused great damage.

One-half to two-thirds of the population died in the smallpox epidemic of 1780-81, before being cut in half again in the 1819-20 epidemic of measles and whooping cough.

By 1865, the Assiniboine were reduced to about one-tenth their original number. They migrated west and this once dominant nation were placed on reserves in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana. Manitoba has no Assiniboine reserves, only individual members living off-reserve.

Only a few hundred remain today and are known by their original name – “Stoneys”.

The fur trade in Manitoba began with the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670, and for nearly a century Aboriginal traders made the long trip to the shores of Hudson’s Bay to exchange furs for European trade goods shipped in from Britain.

In the 1870’s independent traders, and the Northwest Company from Montreal, started to trade in what used to be HBC territory. The HBC had to move out from Hudson’s Bay to compete.

For a time, Souris Mouth, where the Souris River empties into the Assiniboine, was an important centre with up to five trading posts operating within a few kilometres.

Starting in 1795, traders were building trading posts farther west, along the Souris River. Between Hartney and Lauder, four important posts have been identified. These posts were along the river and close to the grazing grounds of the bison. The production and supply of pemmican, was a big part of their business.

Fort Ash (Fort de la Freniere)

The first fur post established on the river was Fort Ash.

Canadian explorer David Thompson spent about two days in the region in December of 1797, on his way south to Mandan country. He recalled passing by “the old trading post called the Ash House from the plenty of those fine trees. It had to be given up from it being too open to the incursions of the Sioux.”

The American Fort

On the north bank of the Souris, almost straight north of Lauder, is a site locals referred to as the American Fort, likely built by the American Fur Company in about 1810. The size of its chimney mounds indicates that it was in operation for some time, but few records have been found to tell us more.

Fort Mr. Grant

In 1824 Cuthbert Grant built Fort Grant on the Souris River, about two miles south west of Hartney. He was encouraged in this venture by HBC boss, Governor Simpson, who expected Grant to keep American and independent traders out of the Souris Valley.

It is on the north bank of the river, perhaps fifty yards from the water. The cellars and chimney mounds were still visible in 1948.

Fort Grant operated from 1824-1861, part of this time as a winter fort only.

Fort Desjarlais, built in 1836 by Joseph Desjarlais, was located on the north bank of the Souris, north of Lauder and very close to the American Fort.

It featured a sturdy oak palisade surrounding a long log building and several smaller ones. The Souris River ran past the south wall. As the site was in the territory frequented by Dakota war parties it was well protected. At its peak there would often be over seventy men at the fort. It operated for about twenty years, and was likely destroyed in the great prairie fire that swept the region in 1856.

The fort was serviced mainly by Red River carts using the Yellow Quill Trail, which ran from near Fort Garry (Winnipeg), up the Assiniboine and Souris Rivers.

It is believed that Desjarlais and his men were also bison hunters – trading buffalo robes and selling pemmican to the Hudson Bay Company.

A Changing Economy

Around 1850 the fur trade was becoming a less important part of the economy of our country.

By 1874 the boundary between Canada and the United States was marked and both countries began surveying the land and dividing it into the section-township-range system – for use as farms.

In addition to the clusters of posts at Souris Mouth and in the Hartney-Lauder area, there were several other attempts to reach out to suppliers.

Lena House

In the fall of 1801, John McKay of Brandon House sent Henry Lena with seven men and supplies to Turtle Mountain along with instructions to “cut off every independent” fur trader in that area.

Lena House is one of two fur trading posts located near Turtle Mountain. It was close to the southeastern shore of Whitewater Lake and some distance east of Turtlehead Creek. It operated from about 1801 until 1802 but was not very successful in its aim of closing down rival trade in the area. The XY Company set up a trading post about a kilometre away, placing themselves directly on the path that the Assiniboine First Nations would take were they to cross Turtle Mountain to trade.

In 1846, Governor Simpson of the HBC informed the Company head office in London that a new post was being established on Turtle Mountain. This fort seems to have operated from 1846 to 1855.

Lena House wasn’t a big success. It did survive long enough, though, to provide the name for one of southwestern Manitoba’s small hamlets. Although there is little left of Lena the village, it is also the name of an international port of entry south of Killarney.

Sourisford Area

A total of 18 posts grew and faded from the Souris River between present-day Souris, Manitoba and Minot, North Dakota. Almost all traces have been erased and few records remain, but we do know that an American Fur Company Trading Post was located near where North Antler Creek enters the Souris.

There is also a record of a post near Melita operated by Peter Garrioch, established in 1843, and at least one other independent operation in the Melita – Napinka area.

Beginning around 1820, large hunting expeditions from the Red River Settlement set out twice a year to supply the settlers and the Hudson’s Bay Company with pemmican and hides.

The hunt was very important to the food supply of the HBC and the settlers at Red River (now known as Winnipeg). The hunt got bigger each year until about 1840, when 1,210 carts were used. The larger hunt took place in summer and a smaller one in autumn.

Wintering Communities

In some cases Metis hunting communities located on the plains in temporary villages. Some were only several families large, while others could have 1000 people. The villages were made up of roughly-built sturdy huts. It often took no longer than a day or two to construct such a hut with the aid of a single axe and a knife.

A wintering community generally consisted of hunters, their families and a few fur traders.

The general locations of the some of the wintering communities that existed in southwest Manitoba.
Buildings were usually constructed in late fall in preparation for winter and abandoned in early spring. Sites of past communities were not generally returned to year after year because of changes in bison wintering ranges, and also due to the fact that rival First Nations would often burn the buildings to the ground as soon as they were unoccupied.

As the bison disappeared in the late 1870s, wintering communities were not needed and most of them simply disappeared from the prairies. Some Métis hunters and their families did stay and become the first homesteaders in the region.

In 1870 Canada made a deal with the Hudson’s Bay Company, and gained control of territory that included most of what today is Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The era of the Fur Trade was over. The plan was to open up this huge new territory for farming.

In 1876 the territory west of Boissevain wasn’t surveyed.

Before that could happen there were several questions to answer.

First: Who really owned this land? Canada purchased it from the Hudson’s Bay Company – but what about the First Nations people, the Ojibway, the Cree, and the Nakota and Dakota who had been living on this land for centuries? Wasn’t it really their land?

Second: Were these dry open lands in the west even suitable for agriculture? Some thought it was too dry and that the growing season was too short. Others felt that it would be perfect for growing wheat – the most important crop of the time. No one was really sure how farming would work here.

Third: How were these thousands of new farmers going to get there – across the thousands of kilometres of the rocky terrain of the Canadian Shield? In 1870 it was a difficult journey of several weeks. And even if they got here and grew crops, how would they get those crops back east where they could be sold?

Fourth: Would Ontario and British settlers really want to come to this cold and unknown land? It would mean leaving family and friends behind. It would mean taking a big chance.

Who owned the Prairies? The Government of Canada bought this huge parcel of land from the Hudson’s Bay Company. The HBC had been granted the use of the land by the British Government in 1670 for the purpose of trading in furs. The intent was to populate the land with farmers.

But what about the Aboriginal people who lived here?

The solution was to make deals called Treaties.

The First Nations communities knew that their old way of life was gone. The bison herds were gone. They were interested in securing a more certain future for themselves and generations to come.

Treaty 1 which covered the central and eastern parts of Manitoba, was signed on August 3rd 1871.

In exchange for certain payments and guarantees of services, the First Nations agreed to give up the use of all of their land except for reserves. They pledged that they and their people would “maintain peace between themselves and Her Majesty’s white subjects, and not interfere with the property or in any way molest the persons of Her Majesty’s subjects.”

Treaty 2, which included almost all of the Turtle Mountain – Souris Plains Region was signed on the 21st of August 1871.

Two other separate arrangements where made with the Dakota in the region. A small reserve (IR #60) was set aside on Turtle Mountain for a group of Dakota families.

Today most people would agree that the deals made with both the First Nations and Metis communities were not fair, and that the First Nations didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter.

The boundary between Treaty 1 and Treaty 2 land is close to where Boissevain is today.

The Numbered Treaties, in addition to the passage of the Indian Act in 1876, marked the beginning of a new relationship between western First Nations and the Canadian government.

Questions arose about whether the deals were fair and whether the Government of Canada was keeping its promises surfaced soon after the Treaties were signed, and in recent decades a series of official apologies, hard fought battles for reparations, and Supreme Court decisions have resulted from a determined effort by First Nations to correct a series of wrongs. Reconciliation is the aim.

In 1869, the area we now call Manitoba would likely have become part of the District of Assiniboia – a large district that would include present day Saskatchewan and Alberta as well. It would have been administered by a Governor and Council, it might well have been some time before it became a province. Alberta and Saskatchewan had to wait until 1905.

What the government overlooked was that there were already people here. The Metis people who had lived here for decades in well-established communities, quite naturally objected when surveyors arrived who seemed determined to re-draw the maps as if they weren’t even there.

For several generations the Metis made up the majority of the population in Red River. The Resistance in 1869 and the North West Resistance of 1885 uprooted Métis families from their homesteads and scattered them in all directions.

The Government promised that each Metis family would get a farm, but the way it was done has caused disagreements to this day, and many people feel that promises were not kept.

The Turtle Mountain Connection

The Métis have a long history of interaction with the landform known as Turtle Mountain. Turtle Mountain and Whitewater Lake to the north were prime hunting grounds.

During the summer and fall hunting seasons the Métis grew familiar with the plains surrounding Turtle Mountain.

Turtle Mountain provided resources from which temporary winter camps could be built: construction materials for simple cabins, firewood, and shelter from the stiff winter winds.

The first permanent Métis settlers moved to Turtle Mountain in 1908. The first group were descendants of the Red River Métis and came north from Belcourt, North Dakota. The following decades saw more families move into the bush land surrounding Lake Metigoshe, Lake Dromore and Sharpe Lake (at the time known as Long Lake). Some European settlers married into Métis families and the community grew.

It is a common perception that most plains Aboriginal peoples were all nomadic wanderers who existed without the use of agriculture.

Though this was true of some First Nations, we know that agricultural activities in Southwestern Manitoba did not begin with European settlers. However the constant movement of the buffalo hunting societies made agriculture difficult, and the abundance provided by those animals made it unnecessary.

The first European “settlements” or communities in western Manitoba were fur trade posts. We also know that they tried to supplement their provisions with some form of agriculture – and reported some success.

But could people make a living on these plains through farming alone?

The Canadian government sent Professor Henry Youle Hind, a Toronto geologist, to explore the region and answer that question. During the summer of 1859 he and his party of 13 men explored southwestern Manitoba. They noted the lack of timber, but found what they were looking for – fertile land.

In 1859 a British expeditions by Capt. Palliser also explored the Northwest Territories to examine the suitability of the region for agricultural settlement. He was impressed with the parkland along the Saskatchewan River but defined the large area south of that, including much of southwestern Manitoba as near-desert, unsuited for settlement.

His opinion was contradicted by a later report by John Macoun that essentially predicted that the prairie grassland would be the breadbasket to the world.

The Boundary Commission Trail

In 1873, the British and United States Boundary Commissioners followed a route along the 49th Parallel as they marked the boundary between the U.S. and Canada.

By 1920 rail lines crossed southern Manitoba.

The National Dream

The Conservative government led by John A. MacDonald had a long-time dream of building a railway that would span the country from coast to coast.

The settling of the west and the establishment of farms would depend on having this modern fast method of travel.

The Government of Canada negotiated Treaties with the First Nations. They had reason to believe that this land was suitable for farming, and had arranged a transportation system that would get people here and get farm produce to market.

One issue remained. Would the settlers come? Would large numbers of people leave their home and travel to an unknown land?

There were reasons to believe that many would take the step,

There were circumstances in Europe and Upper Canada that might cause people to want to leave their communities and consider Manitoba as an option.

Poor employment opportunities and shortage of good farm land might cause some settlers to leave established communities like those in Ontario.

In other parts of the world these reasons might also apply, while famine, war, disease, and a desire for political change might also be good reason to leave a place.

Some might just have had an “adventurous spirit” or ambition.
I’m Hearing Good Reports…..

There were also some good reports from people who had visited and thought the place was great.

The most famous of those was “The Great Lone Land”

How could one resist the land described as follows?

“The great ocean itself does not present more infinite variety than does the prairie ocean of which we speak. In winter, a dazzling surface of purest snow; in early summer, a vast expanse of grass and pale pink roses; in autumn, too often a wild sea of raging fire. No ocean of water in the world can vie with its gorgeous sunsets; no solitude can equal the loneliness of a night-shadowed prairie: one feels the stillness and hears the silence, the wail of the prowling wolf makes the voice of solitude audible, the stars look down through infinite silence upon a silence almost as intense…”

William Francis Butler had visited in 1870 and he was impressed. Many people in Ontario and in Britain read his book.

Others writing in newspapers gave first hand accounts of the great opportunities available in the new west.

In 1880 John and Letitia Mooney and their family came west to a farm near Wawanesa. Their six-year old daughter, whom we now know as Nellie McClung, wrote a good account of her family’s journey from their comfortable Ontario farm house to the Manitoba frontier.

This photo of Nellie Mooney was taken the day before her family left Ontario for their new home in Manitoba.

It started when their son Will told the family about a book he read called “The Great Lone Land” which told tales of the adventure and the beauty to be found in the west.

The family also saw newspaper stories that spoke of the wide open spaces out west. A visitor who had been to the west told of, “wild strawberries … so thick that they stained the feet of the oxen red.”

It sounded great.

The Mooneys were a large family and only had a small farm. There was no future where they lived. Nellie remembers her mom saying, “We have to go somewhere,

“John, there’s nothing here for our three boys. What can we do with one hundred and fifty stony acres? The boys will be hired men all their lives, or clerks in a store.”

Will knew people who had been west and talked of, “a plain a hundred miles wide, and not a tree or stone in sight.” Stones and trees had made establishing these Ontario farms quite an effort. The bald prairie would be easy to plow.

Of course, they also wondered if it was all too good to be true.

John wondered about the cold, about whether apple trees would grow, about mosquitoes and stories about the Aboriginal people who lived there. Would it be dangerous? Would they miss the comforts of their home?

They decided to give it a try.

The Trip

The Mooneys’ trip also followed a well-known pattern.

The quickest, easiest way to Manitoba in 1880 was by boat across the Great Lakes to Duluth, then by train to Winnipeg. From there settlers had the option of riverboat or ox-cart trail depending on their destination. Often there was a stay in Winnipeg while the husband or son scouted for a suitable homestead. Then on the trail there would often be a stop – perhaps at Portage for supplies. Almost all accounts mention both hospitality and hardship as swamps, creeks, mud roads and equipment failure made the trip interesting.

Mrs. Elizabeth Weightman, a widow from northern England, and her children, arrived at their homestead in the spring of 1882 after a fifty-six day journey from Edinburgh, Scotland.

They crossed the ocean on a crowded ship, then took the train to Lake Huron, where they caught a steamboat to Duluth, and another train to Brandon. At Brandon they bought the usual homestead supplies; oxen, a wagon, a plow, a tin stove, a tent and two cows.

They decided to search for land and headed south from Brandon with a few other newcomers. On the second day out, news reached the party about land recently opened for homesteading, so a delegation sped ahead on a horse-drawn wagon towards the Land Titles Office in Deloraine. The rest continued with the oxen and supplies. High creeks and wet ground slowed them down – on a particularly bad day they travelled just five kilometers.

The reward came when the group returned from the Land Titles Office with the papers entitling them each to a homestead. Two long days later the Weightmans found their plot of land. They were home.

As quickly as possible they broke some land and planted a few acres of oats and some potatoes. A sod barn was erected and a modest frame house was built – not quite finished for the coming of the first blizzard, but quite an improvement over the tents that had provided their only shelter so far.

Most of the first settlers started their homesteading life in a sod hut.

Trees were scarce and wood was expensive. Getting that first crop planted was the priority.

“Soddies” as they were called, provided quick shelter until a better house could be built.

Here’s how to build one:

Pick a little rise of land with good drainage to build your home.

Find a bit of lower land, a soggy slough bottom perhaps, where the grass roots are thick and tough – that’s where to find the best sod.

Use a plow to cut a smooth furrow 30 or 40 cm wide, then cut the sod into 50 cm lengths.

Start by laying two tiers of sod side by side, making sure the ends aren’t lined up. , Then lay a second course crossways, this hold it all wall together.

Try to include a few windows and a door by using planks as frames, when the wall reaches the proper height. One door is plenty and glass for windows might be hard to come by.

The Roof

Place strong poles down the centre of the building to support a ridge pole.

Place rafters of poles from the ridge pole to the walls.

Start with a layer of willow (hay could be used if necessary), then top with sod.

If lumber is available, a wood floor is nice, if not, packed dirt will have to do for now.

Interior walls can be smoothed and even coated with whitewash or plastered with clay.

Heavy cotton can be stretched over ceilings and wall to give it that cozy, finished look.

Today a trip from Hartney to Brandon takes less than an hour. In 1882 it could take over a day. Travellers needed places to stop for the night. There were few towns and no hotels, so some settlers who happened to be on well-travelled trails would turn their home into a Stopping Place or Halfway House.

Mrs. E. Weightman, at Westhall, must have noticed that she was about half way between Brandon and the busy Land Titles Office at Deloraine. It was a natural place for a Halfway House.

Often regular travellers to Brandon would plan their trips around the location of the stopping houses.

Even after decades had passed, an early resident of Deloraine remembered Mrs. Fox’s stopping house on the trail from Emerson to Boissevain as having especially good food.

Reservations were not required and there was always a way to squeeze one more in – even if the hayloft had to be used.

Halfway Houses were a combination; restaurant, motel, and livery stable. It was like a bed and breakfast with an extra meal thrown in – plus a gas station to fuel up your horse!

The first stopping place known to operate in southwestern Manitoba was at “Old Wakopa” where Bernard LaRiviere had set up shop in an abandoned Boundary Commission building. The shack erected by Elliott and Gould, the first settlers at Sourisford (further west along that Boundary Commission Trail), was soon recognized as a stopping place, as was the home of William Walker in the Lyleton district.

The John Renton home, within a mile of the Land Titles Office, was a natural place for a stopping place. It was also a natural place to hold church services – guests arriving on a Saturday night would likely have appreciated that.

The earliest stopping houses also acted as informal postal outlets until a proper post office could be applied for and established.

They had everything the traveller needed.

In the early 1880’s the main road from Old Deloraine to Brandon was the Heaslip Trail named for Sam Heaslip who established the trail and used it to deliver the mail.

Each week he picked up the mail in Brandon. His first stop after crossing the Souris River would be his own home, the site of a post office named after him. The home also served as a stopping house and store.

Sheppardvillle owned by Robert Sheppard was the next stop. From there it was on to Nimitaw where Mr. James Rae was Postmaster.

Turtle Mountain, the main settlement in what would become the RM of Morton would be the next stop – a busy one at that.

Heaslip’s route ended at Old Deloraine where mail for more distant spots was picked up by others. Some called the service a stagecoach, which probably meant Sam didn’t mind taking along a passenger or two.

The other main mail route ran from Souris, along the Souris River to Butterfield, stopping at Melgund, Napinka, Menota on the way. Few of these stops were even the beginnings of villages – just farm homes that had a post office.

Wakopa was the first of the villages that were to pop up in the first few years of European settlement – before the arrival of the railway.

Finlay Young’s first house NE 20-1-18

An Englishman named Barneby did a tour of the North American in 1883. He passed through Brandon and then went south. In the book he published he mentioned one of little villages that came and went in those early days.

“On our route we passed a store named Desford, where we watered our horses; but the water was bad. A road comes in here from Brandon. The Turtle Mountains are still to the south.”

That’s about all he had to say.

This map shows post offices in 1884.
The Desford community began in the late 1870’s along the Old Commission Trail about 12 kilometres south-southwest of Boissevain, and was, like Wakopa, one of the first trading centres in the area.

People living where Boissevain would soon be located would do their shopping at Desford. Sunday Church service was held at a local home.

Fox’s sawmill served the district in the early 1880’s and produced most of the lumber that was used for the first buildings in the region.

Like nearby Wakopa, Desford seemed ready to become an important town if only the railway would pass through.

That didn’t happen. The railway passed to the north and the town of Boissevain became the centre of the region.

But the Desford story wasn’t over.

In 1906 the Great Northern Railway was put down through the area and a small village, also called Desford, sprang to life.

In 1908 the hamlet consisted of the water tower for the trains, the Railway Station, elevator, section house, bunkhouse, the Methodist Church, the blacksmith shop, a Community Hall, a General Store and a few houses.

All traces of Desford, once located in this field, are gone. This sign, placed in 1970, is left to remind us

From the Winnipeg Times – May 5, 1881
In 1881 George Morton from Kingston Ontario applied to the government for a huge land grant on the north side of Whitewater Lake under the condition that he settle at least 75 families on the land. His plan was to create 108 dairy farms, 36 stock farms and a cheddar cheese factory.

By 1882 The Morton Dairy Farming and Colonization Company, had about fifty men employed on the farm and everything was said to be progressing as planned

He acquired a sawmill recently established at Max Lake, and built a store at the new community of Waubeesh. Before long equipment and cattle were making their way westward.

Mr. Morton had a very good plan – on paper.

As so often happened throughout the west, the railway didn’t come through with its promise; it actually built south of the lake, and not until 1885. By that time the dairy operation was long gone, for the first harsh winter killed most of his stock, and it was downhill from there.

The city newspapers which had devoted so many paragraph to the great plans, summed up the end result in one sentence

From the Winnipeg Daily Sun – May 31, 1883

George Morton

Mr. Morton however proceeded with his other businesses (stores, sawmills, and elevators) and did very well. The Municipality of Morton is named after him.

George Morton built this store in Whitewater and owned several businesses in Boissevain.

Ads like this one ran in Winnipeg newspapers regularly in 1881 and 1882.

It was a time called the Manitoba Boom. Everyone wanted to get rich by buying land and hoping that the price would keep going up. Then they could sell at a big profit.

These “cities” had several things in common. They all claimed they were going to be the main town of a region. They all claimed that the railways would pass nearby. They all simply lied about what was there.

An early settler was quick to have one such city surveyed on his land. He called it “Turtle Mountain City” and claimed it was “The Banner town of the far-famed Turtle Mountain country”

Turtle Mountain City actually consisted of a store, a post office and a Stopping Place.

By the time the railway arrived in 1885, Turtle Mountain as it was then called was just a post office. The railway passed to the north and the new town of Whitewater was created.

Waubeesh

Nearby an actual village called Waubeesh had been started with stores, a blacksmith shop and even a church. But even with those services, it couldn’t survive when the railway passed it by.

George Morton had a store there, and as soon as the railway came to Boissevain he moved it to the new town.

In 1880 the Dominion government established a Land Titles Office south of Turtle Mountain along the Commission Trail. It was a considerable convenience to settlers and a sure sign that many settlers were expected. George Newcombe came to establish the office, bringing with him his family, a governess, and the first piano to find its way into the area. Before long, in February of 1881, he was father to the first white baby (Louise) to be born there.

Today we call the location Newcombe’s Hollow.

All that remains of “Old Deloraine” is this stone bank vault. The rest of the village’s buildings were quickly moved to the new rail line a few kilometres away.

The location of the Land Titles Office, led, almost overnight, to the creation of a village nearby called Deloraine and before long it had “ two agricultural implement dealers, one general store, a grist mill, two blacksmiths, two ministers, agents of various kinds, a law office and a school.”

When the settlers chose to build their village near Turtle Head Creek they had been assured by the Canadian Pacific Railway that they could expect a railway soon.

But the CPR changed its plans and built the line a bit to the north.

The arrival of the first mixed train into what was called “Track End” on November 8, 1886, meant the end of the original Deloraine. Merchants, implement dealers, blacksmiths and millers all moved to take lots on the new townsite. But they did decide to keep the same name.

James Cavers was the first Postmaster in both “Old” and “New” Deloraine. He named the village after his old home in Scotland.

Southwest of Hartney on Melgund Road, there is a small cemetery at a crossroads. Established in 1887, it was the first graveyard in the region. Across the road, a cairn helps to mark the spot that was home for many people over many years.

Early in 1881 Samuel Long and John Fee came from Ontario to this area. The sod shack they erected that first season, soon known as “The Shanty” or “The Orphan’s Home”, was a stopping place and temporary home to many settlers over the next two years.

Both Melgund and Hartney appear on this map from 1887. There were no towns as yet – the map shows post office locations.

It would be nine years before the railway entered the district and the town of Hartney would be created.

In the meantime it was Melgund that seemed to be where things were happening.

The name Melgund first appears as a Post Office opened in 1882 in the home of W.J. Higgins. Rose School opened in, 1884, one of the first in the area. It was also used as a church before the Melgund Methodist Church was built across the road.

This small building served as the Melgund Post Office – and likely as a residence for a time as well.

Melgund Methodist Church, taken in 1946
When the first settlers arrived they had to build some shelter, break some sod, and plant some grain and vegetables.

Before long they would get together and build a school. They might build a church, and then, perhaps, a general store or a blacksmith shop might open for business.

But most such settlements never did become towns as we know them, with rows of houses and a main street for stores and shops.

In 1885, a 30-year-old priest named Jean Gaire decided to leave France for Canada and help others move to this new country.

By 1888, homesteaders from Eastern Canada, Great Britain and Europe had settled much of the land along the Souris River. Father Gaire, arrived at Oak Lake Parish on July 10, 1888 and set off in a southwesterly direction, in search of a suitable location to start a new community.

They found a large clearing that pleased the young priest. A few Metis families lived nearby.

Father Gaire applied for a homestead. He decided to settle and called the place “Grande Clairiere.”

He described his first church service in his memoirs: “At 9 o’clock my three Metis families were there – six adults and ten children. I have neither choir nor children to serve Mass; I say a low Mass, all the time admiring the simple, open piety of these brave people.”

Soon his new community had a few more Metis families and some settlers from Loire in France. The population tripled in three months!

By April 1889 settlers began to arrive. There were now 43 homes and close to 150 people!!

During the winter of 1889-1890, Father Gaire returned to France for a month as an “Immigration Agent” for the Canadian Government. On March 23, 1890, forty French and Belgian immigrants came to Grande Clairiere.

By 1893, the community had a post office, a church and rectory; and had started building a school.

Father Gaire’s dream was to have more than an ordinary school; he wanted a boarding school where children from distant missions, that had no educational facilities, could be accommodated.

In the spring of 1898, construction began on the first convent. The sisters arrived in Grande Clairiere on August 11, and the school opened on August 18 with 20 pupils registered.

In 1903, his dreams in Grande Clairiere fulfilled, Father Gaire requested a transfer to a new mission in Wauchope, Saskatchewan.

It all started with a river crossing.

About ten kilometers north of where the Souris River crosses the US border, a gravel ridge in the river bed forms a natural crossing that has been used for centuries. Bison herds in their yearly migrations, Aboriginal Peoples on their hunting trips, fur traders and Metis pemmican brigades, each used the site.

The Boundary Commission Trail

Modern use of the trail began in 1873. The British and United States Boundary Commissioners followed a route along the 49th Parallel in their trek across the plains to mark the boundary between the U.S. and Canada.

Sourisford

The crossing at Sourisford was the obvious place for a village. Soon T.B. Gerry set up a blacksmith shop – a necessity for a farming community. The Gould – Elliott Stopping House, was also a store and post office. Another store was operated briefly out of a tent by Warren & Snider. R. N. Graham, already established in Melita, established a branch store at Sourisford.

If the railway line that connected Brandon with southeastern Saskatchewan in1890 had crossed the Souris River here instead of Melita, a major town would have grown and Melita would have faded.

But Sourisford became a rural community with just a post office and store rather than a full village. In 1901 when another CPR branch stretched westward from Waskada and established Coulter a few kilometres away, Sourisford became one of dozens of Westman communities that had served its purpose and was no longer needed as a commercial centre.

Melita is one of many Manitoba towns that had its original location abandoned when a nearby site was chosen by a railway company. In this case, the town of Melita had only a short way to travel.

By 1882 three identifiable communities developed within a few miles of the current site of Melita. Sourisford at the old Boundary Commission Crossing, Menota, a store & post office to the east of where Melita would later be, and Manchester just west of the current town.

In 1881, homesteader Dr. Sinclair had a quarter section of his land on the west side of the Souris River surveyed as a town site. Lots were sold to buyers as far away as Winnipeg. In 1883 R. N. Graham started a store, which was quickly followed by another one, a blacksmith shop, an implement agency and a public school.

This house was the original school and church in Manchester.

The problem was the name they had chosen, “Manchester”. In 1884 when the townsfolk put together a petition to open a post office, they were informed that Manchester had already been adopted by a settlement in Ontario. They got together and chose Melita.

And so the town was born, and as usual the business owners and residents were content to move a kilometre or so east to be alongside the new rail line when it arrived.

Melita pioneer James Duncan started his first Blacksmith Shop in Manchester. He quickly moved to the new location when the railway arrived nearby.

The “Manitoba Boom” hits the Southwest Corner

John Dobbyn – Melita Pioneer and Businessman
Pioneer John Dobbyn had selected a homestead along the Souris River near where Melita would later be located. He, and many of the other settlers expected that a railway line would pass nearby, and that his land would be a good spot for a town. If that happened the land would be valuable.

Across the province there were many people speculating in land. They hoped to buy land that was now empty, but would later be a town, and be worth much more. They hoped to get rich. Knowing this, Mr. Dobbyn had “Dobbyn City” surveyed and marketed.

It was a typical example of the paper city. The ads were just believable enough to be sold, but full of wishful thinking and outright lies.

Apparently they worked… for a while. In March of 1882, The Winnipeg Daily Sun reported the sale of 80 lots at an average of $30 each. How much, if any, of that money made its way into Mr. Dobbyn’s hands, no one knows.

Have a look at the ad from the Winnipeg Daily Sun, March 9, 1882. People in Winnipeg or back east had no way of knowing that no railway would be built for another eight years, or that no real businesses or houses yet existed in Dobbyn City. It didn’t matter – they just hoped it would happen and their $30 lots would be worth ten times that much.

Winnipeg Daily Sun – March 9, 1 882

The railway did eventually come in 1890, but Dobbyn City was long forgotten and the river was crossed about a mile further downstream. Mr. Dobbyn had long since focused on his farm, and became a leading citizen of the new town of Melita.

Butterfield, a Post Office and Stopping Place on the Boundary Commission Trail, was one of the first “places” in the southwest corner to appear on any map.

Until recently, in a pasture a few kilometres southwest of Pierson, one could still see the remains of an old sod building by an old rutted trail.

Before the railway arrived in the southwestern tip of Manitoba, before Pierson was established, the mail came to Butterfield. The first post office was in a sod hut built by Dr. Joseph Dann, on his farm along the Boundary Commission Trail, and operated by his brother Henry’s family.

As often happened the Post Office was a likely spot for a Stopping Place and being on the well-used trail made the location even more convenient. Butterfield received its mail by stage coach.

Before the post office was opened in 1884, one of the settlers near Sourisford used to go to Brandon with an ox team about twice a month for everyone’s mail and supplies.

The exact location of the buildings is hard to find now, and the trails have been worn away by time.

The name Butterfield lives on as the name of the school built nearby.

Page 45: Tisdale

The CPR had surveyed their line through this district, and every one expected to have a townsite of their own, little else was talked about. But it was the Cameron Bros; who did more than talk, they, with the help of T. P. Murray, real estate man of Winnipeg, surveyed the town site of Tisdale on the west half of section 2-4-16, and things developed quickly. A large house of logs appeared. A portable saw mill was brought from Brandon, a Mr. Thomas, of Millford opened up a large general store.T. J. Lawlor also built a frame two-storey store, in which one could buy almost anything from a “needle to an anchor.” E. Machon built a house and shop in which he carried on a blacksmith’s business for some time. The proprietors of this site didn’t overlooked the comfort and necessity of the present and future generations, seven acres were surveyed and laid out for a public park and recreation ground.

Tisdale School
During the winter of 1883 rumors began to circulate that the CPR had changed their plans, and would take a more southerly route. Sure enough they soon began to grade the present line from Manitou, which had been the end of the track since 1882, the steel was laid through Killarney the fall of 1885 and Deloraine the next fall. From this time the town of Tisdale began to fade and the boom was over. T. J. Lawlor dismantled his building and moved it to Killarney.

A cairn marks the location of Tisdale Church

The railway line that now serves Boissevain was put into operation on January 3,1886.

When the line approached the spot then known as Cherry Creek, the CPR announced that they would erect a station there and a town appeared almost overnight.

Local businessman George Morton, quickly moved his general store from the earlier location of Wabeesh, in the Whitewater area, to the new town of Boissevain, where other buildings, stores and houses, were springing up.

The Boissevain CPR Station

Preston and McKay built a large Flour Mill in 1889, which proved to be an important boost to the local economy.

In 1906 the Brandon, Saskatchewan and Hudson Bay Railway, which linked Brandon with the Great Northern Railway system in the United States provided competition for the CPR and additional service. The CPR also provided additional service when it completed its Boissevain-Lauder extension in 1913.

In 1886, the new CPR line bypassed the established community of Waubeesh and created the new village of Whitewater.

The boxcar railroad station that had been established to service Waubeesh became the beginning of Whitewater village. Pioneer businessman George Morton built an elevator in 1888 along with a large general store and boarding house, using lumber cut by the Lake Max Sawmill.

The elevator was the first of five that came to spring up in the town, making Whitewater a very important grain-handling centre.

Until 1894, the children of Whitewater attended Mountainside School, which was about 7.5 km to the south. In 1894 a schoolroom was set up above the general store in Whitewater. Petersburg School was built the following spring at the south end of the community.

The train pulls into Whitewater Station.

A brickyard started up in the late 1880s about a mile northeast of Whitewater which employed between 30 and 40 men. The bricks made from Whitewater Lake clay were of very high quality, and they were used for many buildings in the nearby town, including the Petersburg School.

By the early 1900s the village had a butcher shop, harness-making shop, livery, carpenter, and draftsman. There was also an open-air skating rink complete with a warm-up shack. Rail service was provided regularly by the CPR, with daily passenger and mail traffic.

When the first pioneers came and selected homesteads and village sites they considered several factors. Available wood and water and suitable drainage were important. The railway companies were often more interested in finding a good level route. Towns were located based on the distance between stations.

In 1885, the railroad reached Cherry Creek (Boissevain) and began the last stretch of the line. Instead of angling southwards towards the bustling community of Deloraine they headed almost straight west. The route across flat prairie was certainly easier to build than the path through the hills and valleys where Deloraine was located.

So a “new” Deloraine was created.

Deloraine immediately replaced Boissevain as the grain shipping centre of the Southwestern plains, receiving wheat for the next four years from as far as Pierson and Hartney.
The sites that pioneers chose near water and trees where often quite scenic.

But the railway often selected sites on a treeless prairie. In Deloraine it was Dr. Thornton, whose love of nature, and wide knowledge of horticulture, made him perfectly suited to the task of planting tress and creating parks.

Both the Presbyterian and Methodist Congregations built fine large churches. However in 1917 they united their congregations and only need one building. Both were still standing in 2917 with the Presbyterian Church having served many other purposes.

The railway companies usually put towns wherever they needed them. But in 1889 local farmers heard that the CPR was going to build a town to the northeast of where Hartney is today, settlers protested. They insisted that the new town should be near where James Hartney had established a post office and store on his farm.

Mr. Hartney moved to the area in 1882 with his family. He imported a carload of Red Fife wheat from Minnesota and soon had a good wheat crop. This gave the district a reputation as a first-class wheat producing area. His success attracted more settlers and Hartney’s farm became the centre of a new community. The post office, which he named after himself, and a store, were first operated out of his home. He brought men into the community to operate this business as well as a blacksmith shop that he later established.

When the surveyors did appear they selected a spot within a mile of the Hartney farm and, the settlers, were happy. When the C.P.R named the town Airdrie they made another request. They wanted the new place named Hartney already in use for the post office. Once again, the CPR made the change.

Hartney grew quickly on each side of the new railway track. The Mill and Elevators were important services.

When the train whistle sounded for the first train on Christmas Day 1890, there were already two elevators, a boarding house, a store and post office. Dr. Frank McEown had set up a practice and started work on a drug store.

As the town grew, two brickyards, a flour mill, and a sash & door factory contributed to the economy. In 1902 A.E. Hill built the two-story brick block that still stands on the corner of Poplar and East Railway.

The A.E. Hill store.

A second railway, the Canadian Northern connected Hartney to Virden to the west in 1900. By 1904, in addition to being the home of eight operating elevators and 10 clergy members, 51 businesses were listed in the town newspaper.

Until the railway passed through Hartney on a path to Melita, Melgund was where residents in the Lauder area got their mail. It had a school and church as well.

With the railway came the new towns of Lauder and Napinka. As soon as town sites were laid out there were people on hand eager to set up places of business and Lauder was no exception.

Before the end of 1892 there were numerous buildings and businesses. In 1893 records for the town show seven married couples, fifteen boys and ten girls, with ten children in school.

As was common in all too many of these new towns, there were setbacks. A fire in 1894 did a lot of damage.

The residents didn’t waste any time – they rebuilt.

By 1895 the town layout was firmly established. It had a rink and tennis courts, and its curlers and tennis players were well known in neighboring towns as were its baseball and hockey teams. There was a literary society and a bicycle club. Dances were held in Hamelin’s hall.

Another typical business venture in many new towns was the “Cheese Factory”.

In 1895 the farmers of the area met to make plans. General approval was received and the factory was located just north of town. The rise in the road at this point was known for years as the “Cheese Factory Hill”.

The milk was gathered daily in large barrels and the whey returned to the farmers for feeding pigs. Henderson Directory 1897 lists W. Brigden as manager.

It did not last too long – probably not more than year.

Other enterprises included a mill and a lime kiln just north of Grand Bend School.

In 1892 Napinka was a boom town located at the junction of two busy CPR branch lines.

The first building appeared in July of 1891 before the tracks were laid through the area, and before the townsite had even been surveyed.

A year later after the first railway line (from Brandon to Pierson) created the town, the line from Deloraine was finished to Napinka. Nearby Melita, had sent a delegation to Winnipeg to argue for the junction to be placed in their town but Napinka won.

Trains came in every day from Brandon, Winnipeg, Estevan and the many small towns along the line. To service the trains, the CRP built a water tower and pumped water from behind a dam the railway built on the Souris River.

A coal dock, tool shop, roundhouse and bunkhouse were also built to serve the CPR. The passengers and crew on the trips that stopped overnight in Napinka used the hotels and stores built along Railway Avenue. In 1892, an article in the Brandon Sun mentioned Napinka having “…two general stores, three hardware stores, two butcher shops, one flour and feed store, one watchmaker, two dressmakers, builders, coal and wood dealers, one elevator, two lumber yards, a drug store and a barber shop…”

It also had boarding houses, two hotels, two banks, a blacksmith, doctors, a Massey-Harris dealership, and eventually, with the arrival of the automobile, two garages.

A beautiful two-story stone school now a designated Heritage Site, was built in 1900.

Sports teams, social clubs, and women’s organizations were set up. An open air skating and curling rink was built in 1896, while a newer curling facility was built in 1906, and curlers from Napinka achieved great success in bonspiels across Manitoba.

By the time the current town of Melita appeared in 1890, the region itself had a long and interesting history. Three communities existed within a few kilometres. Sourisford lives on as a location and a part of our heritage. Dobbyn City never really got started, and the district of Menota lives on as a school site.

Manchester, renamed Melita, moved to be along a new rail line, and became the commercial centre of the region.

Before the first train whistle sounded, Mr. G.L.Dodds had moved his Hardware & General Store to the site of the new town and everyone else followed.

Melita’s first CPR Station

More buildings were built quickly from materials readily available via the new rail line. Within a few years they were replaced by more ambitious structures such as the Northern Bank, the I.O.O.F Hall and the Crerar Law Office; all of which are still in use.

By 1892 numerous business blocks lined Main and Front Streets.

As early as 1892, sidewalks were to be laid on Main Street. By 1898 Melita had a population of over 500 people.
1905 saw street lighting by gasoline lamps.

In 1916 permission was granted to R. N. Wyatt to place gasoline tanks at business on Front Street. Garages were replacing Livery Stables.

As the town grew, its selection of businesses attracted customers from some distance

C.P. Holden’s Furniture Store

One of the first homesteaders in what came to be known as the district of Elva was H. J. Archibald and his family. They settled northwest of where Elva was later built. Archibald established a post office out of his home, which received the mail once a week from Brandon.

In 1891 James Skelton agreed to sell some of his land to the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was looking to continue the line west from Melita. An unincorporated village grew on a corner of Skelton’s land. The community was later named after the first baby to be born in the district: Elva, the daughter of James Modeland and his wife.

Elva continued to grow, and by 1904 it had a population of 100 people. Four years later the numbers had grown to 150 people.

Elva seemed to be on the road to becoming a very important town—its elevators serviced farmers as far south as the United States boundary.

This elevator in Elva (the oldest still standing in Canada untill it was torn down in 2022) was built over a century ago.

The Lake of the Woods elevator was built sometime between 1892 and 1899. Before the turn of the century, the Lake of the Woods Milling Co was one of Manitoba’s top companies in the grain industry. Their elevator shared the business with three other elevators, all built near the turn of the century and operated by different companies.

Matt Pedden, Lake of the Woods agent in 1912

The CPR laid tracks through what would be the village of Pierson in 1891 and surveyed a town site. Merchants Alfred Gould and David Elliot from Sourisford were the first to buy lots. They established Pierson’s first business, a grocery store

Pierson quickly became the service centre for the southwest corner.

February of 1892 saw the first train rumble down the tracks. In short order, three grain elevators were built beside the tracks by different companies. In 1900 this number had risen to four.

The usual assortment of services followed in a building boom that provided the shops and businesses necessary to make the community flourish: a blacksmith shop, millinery shop, wheelwright, livery barn, butcher shop, lumberyard, drug store, jewellery store, bank, barbershop, and café, among others.

Around 1900, the businessmen of Pierson, especially J. F. Dandy, saw a need for more accommodations for the travelling public. Dandy owned the first hardware, furniture and lumber businesses. In 1900 Dandy financed the building of the Leland Hotel, which catered to travelling businessmen, doctors, dentists and incoming settlers.

In the fall of 1891 Sherriff’s and Company built a large warehouse, with the lower part housing machinery, sleighs, cream separators, parts and feed and the upper part was used as a hall.

Today it is a private home.

Minto got its start when the Canadian Northern Railway came through in 1898 and it grew quickly.

Farmers were now able to ship their grain and livestock closer to home instead of hauling to Boissevain or Hartney.

The town soon had all the shops that a community needed to thrive. These shops included everything from a butcher shop to a Chinese laundry.

In 1906 a second rail line from the North Dakota to Brandon made Minto and even busier place.

On October 14, 1930, this booming town met a harsh reality that many communities had to face in those days. A huge fire swept through the business section and razed everything in its path.

Like all small towns in the 1930’s, some of the businesses that had been very important in the early days, were no longer needed. People could take their cars to nearby larger towns to shop. So many of the businesses didn’t rebuild and Minto’s “downtown” was no longer as busy. It did however keep its basic services and continues to serve the local people today.

Fairfax

In 1899, after the railway was built, a survey was made of the village of Fairfax and building lots were sold.

The first general store was built in 1900 was operated by Mr. J. L. Hettle, who also became postmaster and Justice of the Peace. Three grain companies were quick to build elevators.

Fairfax school was established in August 1902. It became the Fairfax consolidated school in 1913 when it merged with Crown, St. Luke, and Plainville schools.

Underhill

The A.E. Hill Store in 2016

The ghost community of Underhill took its name from Mr. John Underhill who arrived during the rush of settlement to this part of the prairies in the early 1880s.

Three elevators were swiftly erected with the arrival of the railway. Mr. A. E. Hill, who operated a store in nearby Hartney, opened a general store in Underhill in 1897.

The first school in the area was called the Berber School and was constructed over a kilometre south of the village in 1886. In 1909 it was moved into the village where it stood until 1928. A new school was built on the same site and used until the district consolidated into the Souris Valley School Division.

The school building was always a social centre for the district. Activities such as amateur plays, Sunday School, card games and dances were held.

Passenger service to the Underhill station was discontinued in 1954. Soon the railway line was abandonned and rural schools were consolidated further, shifting the focus from the small community to the larger surrounding centres.

Argue

Argue was known as the “Trackend” for a year as it was the most westerly station on the Winnipeg-Cameron-Hartney Branch of the Canadian National Railway until 1900 when the line continued to Hartney and Virden.

The community was named after pioneer John Argue.

Elgin is another story of rapid growth. In 1898 when the railway came through, there was not a building on the present site. By 1900 the population of the village was about 400, and there were many more families in the district than at present. By 1913, as progress continued, Elgin had a school, four churches, an active band, and 34 places of business.

Most communities – even small ones, had a community band.

In 1912, Elgin Consolidated School was formed when the local school, started in 1884, joined with Alice, Gilead, Maguire, and Millerway Schools. In 1951 a new modern school was built. That school closed in 1986 and a monument now commemorates it.

Built in 1904 this Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce building, to the left in this photo, was originally two stories high, providing accommodation for the bank manager. The second level was removed in the 1950s. After the bank closed in 1995, it became the Elgin and District Museum.

The three-story convent in Grande Clairiere was built in 1906.

The Grande Clairiere community, which was established in 1888, got a new look when the Canadian Northern line from Hartney to Virden passed through in 1906.

The train brought better mail service and better delivery of supplies.

Already known for its large church, and convent, it now became a village with
stores, garages and even a bank.

Store operated by Claude Rey and Marcel Martine.

The Bank of Hochelaga opened as “la Banque Nationale” by Father Pierquin and originally located in the Rectory. Later changed to La Banque d’Hochelaga.

The Bank of Hochelaga has been preserved on a local farm.

The gas station

Settlers in the area of Waskada and Goodlands in southwestern Manitoba waited in great anticipation for a branch line to be built through their communities. It arrived in 1900.

Goodlands

The town of Goodlands was first started in 1899 by Bert and Ernest Goodlands who built the first store. In that same year a lumber yard, boarding house and blacksmith shop were established.

The local school was called Lennox School – it had existed long before the town was created.

Cranmer

In 1928 Cranmer made the news when one of its elevators collapsed. Workers had heard the building creaking and groaning and evacuated in time. No one was hurt.

When a new rail line was built into a region the plan was to have a town about every fourteen kilometres. But as years went by those farmers between Deloraine and Goodlands who still had some distance to haul their grain started wondering if perhaps service couldn’t be better.

In 1906 an extra stop, called a siding, was built, at about the midway point and in 1913 the first of two elevators was open for business.

The U.G.G. elevator collapsed in 1928 and was rebuilt. Both elevators continued to serve the grain trade as well as being depots for the sale of coal. The loading platform was also used for other shipping needs, notably the shipping of cream to creameries.

Farmers to the north and south of the new Cranmer siding appreciated the shorter trips to deliver grain.

A Post Office named Waskada was opened in 1883 a few kilometres south of where the town is today.

When it was confirmed in 1899 that a rail line was coming nearby and that a new town to be was being surveyed they decided to keep the name.

Until this time businesses such as stores, post offices, blacksmith shops and gristmills were operated on the individual properties of homesteaders. The railway brought the creation of towns, and towns then became the most logical place to do business.

When Charles Sankey arrived in Waskada in the fall of October 1899, the townsite was bare prairie. Sankey was a dedicated community worker, and in fact appointed by the municipality to look after general public interests in the town.

Waskada quickly became the commercial centre for the region.

On a walk south of the townsite one day, a vision presented itself to Sankey: a recreational park, surrounded by trees, with space for sports activities and community events. From this initial dream, a combination of hard work, determination and good lick accident brought the Waskada Park into being.

The Waskada Park in 1946, looking southwest.

Over the next two years funds were being gathered for the purchase of trees. In the meantime Chambers planted potatoes and other vegetables in the strips of land. He did an excellent job, and left the soil in good condition for receiving trees.

The first version of the blacksmith shop, now featured in the Waskada Museum is visible on the left side of this photo from around 1909.

Dalny

Dalny was the first stop after the train headed west out of Waskada. Soon two elevators were doing a thriving business and a third was added in 1925.

Coulter

Coulter was the next stop and it did become a busy little village with a school, a church and a large general store.

The Coulter School was built in 1915.

The General Store built by pioneer Alfred Gould.

Coulter in 1959

This elevator, now in the middle of a field is all that is left of Cameron Siding. There were once three elevators and a store here.

In 1902, when the railway branch finally arrived near the Lyleton Post Office, close to the US border south of Melita, another new town was created. In fact that was what they called it at first, “The New Town”. The streets were placed on what had been a field of grain just two months before. Andrew Lyle’s farm home was the first post office; because of this, the district had been known as Lyleton for some time. Soon the town took that name as well.

A comfortable station was provided by the Canadian Pacific Railroad

Before long the town was booming with all the stores and services the region needed.

The foundation of the new Presbyterian Church, which still existed in 2017, was laid and the main street was lined with businesses.

Little towns like Lyleton owed their existence to the homesteads around them and a shopping trip to town was something the whole family would appreciate.

Fire was the enemy of these new towns, and Lyleton had its share. On August 19, 1904, the entire business section portion of Lyleton was wiped out by fire, caused by lightning.

And like other towns before – they set out to rebuild.

The Home Bank
A visitor to Lyleton today might find it hard to believe that it once had a thriving bank and a busy hotel.

Fire was to strike Lyleton again in 1910 and again large portion of the business section was destroyed. The fire fighting equipment of the day could do very little to check its progress.

The improvement in transportation and communication brought large towns of Melita and Brandon closer. There was already less of a need for some businesses. The store, school, church, elevators, post office, garages and lumber yard continued to serve the village for some time. Much of the community life continued to revolve around the church, school, hall and rink.

Wakopa

In 1886 the CPR railroad reached Killarney and Boissevain, and Old Wakopa began to fade. Then in 1905 the Canadian Northern from the east gave it new life.

The Wakopa Village site in 2010 – the village was relocated here when the “Wakopa Branch” of the C.P.R. was build from Greenway in 1904.

Adelpha

Adelpha originated as a post office in the home of an early homesteader, John A. Hurt who settled just to the north of the Turtle Mountain Forestry Reserve, right next to the Boundary Commission Trail.

In 1905, the Canadian National Railway built a rail line heading southwest from Greenway. The rail passed just to the northwest of Hurt’s home. Construction stopped there and the train station was named Adelpha.

Since Adelpha was the “end of the line”, it became busy place for a time. A “wye” was built at for turning trains around so that they could head back east. In 1914 the Canadian National Railways extended their Greenway Branch to reach Deloraine and other villages attracted the business.

Mountainside

In 2017, the Mountainside Store – now used as a house, stands as a reminder of the little village that once served the needs of the surrounding district. At one time, in addition to the store there were nine houses, the school and two elevators in town.

They had church in the school and there was also a public dance hall in the basement.

In 1906 the Brandon, Saskatchewan and Hudson’s Bay Railway, a part of the Great Northern Railway from the U.S., began service from Brandon to the small North Dakota town of St. John’s, where it made connections to destinations across the United States.

The line was important to several communities south of Brandon.

Anything that would reduce the length of those trips to the elevator was welcomed by farmers.
A Ride on the Great Northern

The train departed from St. John’s, North Dakota, just a few kilometers south on the Manitoba / US border.

Charlie Bryant, long time conductor, well-known to folks all along the line, was a man who wouldn’t hesitate to make an unscheduled stop or other accommodation for a good customer.

Before long it reached the border and four kilometers past that was the new village of Bannerman.

Of all the newly created villages along the line, the rise and fall of Bannerman was the most dramatic.

In 1905 it was a field. In 1906 it was a brand new village.
Soon a hotel with large dining room and bar encouraged visitors. A feed and livery barn and a lumberyard were open for business. A poolroom and barbershop, a store and post office, a blacksmith shop, a harness and shoe repair shop, all were built. Soon a second grocery store and additional blacksmith shop were needed, along with two dealerships for the fast growing farm implement business.

Because it was the first stop in Canada it was an official Port of Entry with a Customs and Immigration Office.

When the railway line closed in 1936 Bannerman became a town without a purpose. There were several other towns nearby that till had rail lines. It faded away quickly and is now back to being a field.

Desford

In 1908 the hamlet of Desford consisted of the water tower for the trains, the Railway Station, elevator, section house, bunk house, the Methodist Church, the blacksmith shop, a Community Hall, a General Store and a few houses.
The population exploded to near thirty.

A few kilometres out of Desford is to Fairburn. These “sidings” as they were called were put in place to accommodate local farmers, and were never intended to become villages.

The site of Fairburn School, now a park alongside Highway 3.

To us in modern times It may seem odd that a place like Fairburn was even on the map. It was just a lone elevator on the open prairie.

But although it had no stores or streets it was a community. A Post Office had existed nearby for many years.

Boissevain & Minto

By 1906 Boissevain and Minto were already well-established and already each had one railway line. The new line gave them a direct route to Brandon and another elevator to choose from.

Healslip had existed as a post office since the earliest pioneer days. It got a big boost when the Great Northern began operations in 1906 and the Heaslip community developed into the beginnings of a village, with a station and general store.

A Big Project

Just past Heaslip, the line angled north-westward to Bunclody. Along the way it had to cross two deep ravines that ran into the river from the west.

They built temporary trestles and dumped in earth to create a road-level earth dam, complete with huge pipes designed to let the runoff through. The pipes soon had to be replaced with concrete tunnels two metres square – still quite visible today. Local childhood adventures often included a dare to go through these tunnels.

A concrete tunnel under the crossing.

Bernice

ln I902, the The Canadian Pacific rail line from Lauder to Tilston was surveyed and in about 1905, the townsite of Bernice was established.

In its prime, Bernice had a large general store with a basement hall in which fowl suppers and community gatherings were held. The store also contained the post office.

The town also had a lumber yard, a blacksmith’s shop, implement agency and machine shop, a C.P.R. (boxcar) station, a section house, a railway water tank, an open air skating rink, a church, and at least three homes.

Bede

Bede School
The rail line continued from Bernice westward. The next siding that sprang up was named Ruth and it remained with that name until the Canadian Pacific changed it to Bede in 1925.

The village consisted of an elevator, a school, and a store. The elevator closed in the late forties.

The cemetery, along busy Highway #83, is still in use.

Broomhill

The tiny village of Broomhill never did get very big.

This large old concrete block building in Broomhill might make you wonder: Why such a large building in a tiny village?

Kilkenny’s General Store – Broomhill, 2011

Perhaps when local Postmaster William Kilkenny and his brother John built it in 1908, they expected the village to grow, or maybe they were just ahead of their time.

The Broomhill post office had been established in 1892 on the Kilkenny homestead. When the CPR arrived nearby they moved to the new townsite and build their store.

It was more than a store – more like a shopping centre with a post office, a garage, gas station, and even implement dealership.

Tilston

The first settlers to the region had chosen a site roughly two miles east of the present village of Tilston and established a community they called Eagleton. When the C.P.R. brought the railway through in 1907, they established the town at the current location, and the new name was chosen.

Soon, more settlers arrived and among the early buildings was a boarding house, a hardware, a blacksmith shop, a small school building, and a box car for a station.

Railway Avenue, Tilston

This small building is the former R.M. of Albert Municipal Office. Tilston is now in the Municipality of Two Borders.

In November 1913 the first train followed the route from Boissevain through stations at Sanger, Schaffner, Orthez, Croll, Regent, Hathaway and Dand before reaching Lauder.

The Blue Flea, as it was called, ran a passenger service connected small communities with the big passenger trains out of Winnipeg. The trains also transported hay, grain, milk or whatever was needed.

Sanger, Schaffner, Orthez and Hathaway were sidings with elevators and they never did become villages.

Croll had just an elevator and a store while Regent and Dand had a few other services.

Dand United Church was originally the Chain Lake Quaker Meeting House.

The Regent Store and the home of the owners.

A Cairn marks the location of Croll

Croll

Croll School wasn’t in the village. It was over three kilometres away, where it had been for many years before the village was started.

Regent

Of the many small railway villages that came and went, Regent’s just might be the only one that was named by mistake. The CPR bought the original homestead of John Riley for the town they were creating and proposed that Riley would be the name. Someone along the way made a mistake and Regent was the name used. As Riley was long gone, the locals appeared quite OK with that.

Soon a large store, Post Office, Imperial Oil Dealership, hardware store, blacksmith shop/garage, poolroom, and barber shop were open for business

A Presbyterian congregation used the school for services and built a Manse for the Minister. Later, in 1957 a United Church was built in the village.

West Hall / Hathaway

Back in 1912, it was important for farmers that they have an elevator nearby. Many were still using horse-drawn wagons to deliver grain and each trip took up valuable time. The railway and elevator companies tried to provide the service every 6 – 8 kilometres. There was no real need for towns at every stop. Places like Hathaway, in between the village of Regent and Dand, just had one elevator and used an old railway car as a station.

Dand

The station at Dand was at first known as “Landmark” before it was renamed to honour the Dand family’s role in getting the railway to come through the region.

Thomas Dand found hauling grain to the distant rail line was quite a job, often made worse by blizzards in winter and heat and mosquitoes in summer.

He asked his friends from his former employer, the CPR, to build a railway line that would connect Lauder with Boissevain and the CPR agreed. They were having trouble deciding exactly where to place the route so Mr. Dand, who had experience with railways, walked a line from Lauder to Boissevain and the CPR followed his path.

The End of the Line

After the railway stopped in the early 1960’s, the communities lost much of their purpose. Before long schools, churches, stores and grain elevators began to disappear.

Except for Grand Clarieire, of most of the new communities in Southwestern Manitoba were British in nature for the first twenty years.

After 1900, that began to change as people from other cultures moved here.

The first permanent Métis settlers moved to Turtle Mountain in 1908. Descendants of the Red River Métis came from North Dakota and settled just north of the USA-Canada border on the western end of Turtle Mountain. The following decades saw more families move into the bush land surrounding Lake Metigoshe, Lake Dromore and Sharpe Lake. Some European settlers married into Métis families and the community grew.

The Metigoshe community was a tight-knit group of people. The relatively isolated location of the community meant that neighbours lived, worked and played together.

They pitched in and helped each other in times of need. They created a lifestyle that did not require much money, and many children grew up not knowing, or caring, that they weren’t well off.

They made use of what the land provided, hunting, fishing, harvesting wood, trapping, gardening and farming.

The children of early Metis families around Lake Metigoshe were faced with a trip of up to eight kilometres to Marsden School, which had been established in 1908. In 1938 a second Marsden School, operated by the same board was built to accommodate them.

Student at Marsden School #2

Marsden School #2

While children of European settlers living on the level farmland to the north attended Marsden No. 1, Marsden No. 2 served Métis children living closer to the border. The school, which also served as a community centre, helped local people affirm their heritage.

The first immigrants from Belgium arrived in Southwestern Manitoba in the two decades before the First World War, reaching over 2000 a year by 1906. Lack of opportunity in their overcrowded European homeland, and the devastation of Belgium by the invading German armies in World War I caused many more to leave their homeland.

St. Paul’s Catholic Church
Most of the settlers in Southwestern Manitoba were of Flemish descendent, while the French-speaking Walloons were more likely to settle in Quebec or St. Boniface where they could continue to speak French. For the newly arrived immigrants, language was always an issue. Many of the men that arrived learned both English, and how to farm on the Canadian prairies, from already established farmers. The children of Belgian immigrants would be taught English in small, one-room schools that dotted the landscape, most of which at the time had very few natural English speakers besides the teacher.

Many of the Belgian immigrants would become farmers in Southwestern Manitoba, and would become important members of the community, working with many organizations and community endeavors. They mostly settled around Deloraine and Medora

In the spring of 1917 the Belgian community living on the slopes of Turtle Mountain and their priest, Father P. E. Halde decided to build themselves a church wherein they could pursue their worship of the Catholic faith. The spot they chose was high up on the mountain where it could be seen for miles and miles.

Whitewater Mennonite Church, located by the Cemetery, was built in 1939.
Mennonites are a pacifist group of Christians. Before World War One, the Mennonite colonies in Russia were quite well-to-do with beautiful homes and gardens, plentiful orchards, and rich land upon which they produced good crops.

After the war the Soviet Revolution brought imprisonment, plundering, mistreatment and murder upon the Mennonite people.

This was followed by famine and then the new communist government began to tax the Mennonites very heavily and further harass them.

Groups of refugees were eager to find new lives on the Canadian prairies.

Herman Lohrenz – a teacher from Russia, was one of the first Mennonites to arrive in the Whitewater District.

Some came to southwest Manitoba near Whitewater Lake. Many arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs and Bibles in their hands. Though they had no money to speak of, they managed to secure tens of thousands of acres of land including essential start-up goods without making so much as a down payment. Instead, they promised half of their gross annual income until the purchase price and interest were covered.

Petersburg School – Whitewater
Schooling was very important and two schools in the region, Petersburg and Strathallan were soon filled with children who knew little English. It was a challenge to find teachers who were trained for such a situation.

In their new communities, the Mennonites took pains to preserve their own culture and religious heritage. Church was the hub of the Mennonite community.

The Chinese were unlike any settlers the prairies had seen. They were single men who came into towns and villages in small numbers to run the local laundry or set up a restaurant. They spoke a markedly different language their customs were unfamiliar to the other settlers.

CPR Workers – 1883.

When the Canadian Pacific Railway was being built between 1881 and 1885, Chinese men were encouraged to immigrate to work on the project. As soon as the railway was completed, however, the Canadian government wanted nothing more to do with them and moved to restrict Chinese immigration by imposing a $50 head tax. No other group in the history of Canada has been forced to pay such a tax.

Chinese men continued to immigrate regardless of the head tax. They often faced poverty at home. China had too many people.

For many years the Chinese Immigration Act prevented men already living and working in Canada from bringing their families from China to live with them.

Chinese first began settling in Winnipeg around 1870. Soon afterwards Brandon and rural prairie towns saw Chinese men in their communities as well. Many worked in the laundry or restaurant business. Those with higher levels of education and better English skills could work as travelling salesmen.

In rural Manitoba, the restaurant is most commonly associated with the Chinese as an occupation.

They learned English to make friends with their customers and others in the community. Yet the hard work and long hours made little time available for socializing.

Most towns in western Manitoba had a Chinese restaurant at least until the 1950s. They made important contributions to rural Manitoba and fostered fond feelings among their customers and neighbours.

1

The Turtle Mountain – Souris Plains Heritage Association

The first European settlers in southwestern Manitoba were here ahead of the railways that would link us to the wider world. Because of the great distances between the pioneer farmer and the market, one priority was to find ways to convert local raw materials into essential products.

The settlers brought with them a host of skills and experiences, which served them well.
They knew how flour mills, sawmills, cheese factories, lime kilns, and brickyards operated. Some even came to the region with the expressed purpose of starting industrial operations, others responded to needs and opportunities. Their efforts were a feature of many of the first communities.

Like the communities they served, many, even most, of these first industrial endeavours were short-lived. That doesn’t mean they weren’t important. In rural Manitoba in the 1880’s things were moving quickly. In the southwest corner in particular there was a constant shifting as the railway companies considered options, and speculators tried to predict where growth would occur. Towns sprang up, business enterprises opened, buildings were built. Then they closed or moved.

In presenting the story of pioneer industry, a natural divide is evident. The first efforts, notably flour or grist mills, coincided with the formation of those first villages. The villages, by their very nature, were speculative. Having a service such as a flour mill was one element of making a village viable.

The second wave of industrial effort came with the creation of the railway towns. These weren’t speculative. They were intentional, created by the decision of a railway company to build a station, which would immediately attract and elevator, which would guarantee traffic, as the region’s farmers needed a market for what they were producing. These towns wanted business enterprises of all kinds. Every new service gave them a competitive advantage over the next town down the line.

From the late 1870’s until the ultimate expansion of rail networks around 1910, local production was essential to growth.

Industries By Location: An Alphabetical List

Boissevain & Area

Flour Mills
Preston & McKay: 1889 – 1902
Turtle Mountain Milling Co. Ltd. : 1906 – 1920

Sawmills
Max Lake
Fox Sawmill

Lime Kilns: Johnstone, Hicks (Ninga) & McRuer

Cheese & Butter Factories
The Morton Dairy
Carriage Maker: Butler and Frith
Concrete Block Maker

Deloraine & Area

Flour Mills
Old Deloraine: William and Thomas Sheppard: 1882 – 1887
Ontario Milling Company:1897 – 1906
W. R. David: 1894
W. Barker – Whitewater: ca. 1890
Carriage Maker: The Deloraine Carriage Factory: Mr. B. Steele: 1894

Elgin – Minto Area

Lime Kilns: Bunclody & Riverside
Flour Mill: Gregory’s Mill: 1882 – 1894
Brickyard: Souris City: Freek and Coupland: 1882
Flour Mill: Souris City

Hartney & Area

Flour Mills
Hammond and Leckie: 1894 – 1911
Lauder Flour Mill: Giddens and Campbell Flour Mill: 1894
Brickyards
Payne, (1895) Sackville (1898) & Kirkland (1901)
Pump Factory: H. C. Pierce 1893
Sash and Door Factory: Alex Mains: 1900
Carriage Makers: Edouard Isabey: Victor Duchesneau
Clothing: Edwards Sisters / A.E. Hill Co.

Cheese Factory: Lauder: Hobert Sibald: 1895
Lime Kiln: Lauder

Melita & Area

Flour Mill: Melita Milling Co. – 1892
Brickyard: The Melita Brick Co.  1905
Concrete Blocks
Manufacturing: Antler River Steel Works – Coulter

Millford
Flour Mill: R.Z. Rogers: 1881 – 1885
Sawmill: R.Z. Rogers: 1881 – 1885

Napinka
Flour Mill: Roblin & Armitage: 1893
Carriage Maker
Lime Kiln: L.J. Phinney

Plum Creek and Souris
Flour Mill: G. McCulloch and William Herriot: 1882

Pierson & Area
Lime Kiln: Robert Fanning and Andy Lyle
Concrete Blocks: Lyleton

Wakopa
Flour Mills: Harrison: 1878 – 1887
Sawmills: Harrison Brothers: 1878 / The Fox Sawmill – 1880
Cheese Factory: Hettle: 1885

Waskada / Goodlands Area

Line Kiln: William McGill Poole and Harry Morningstar
Concrete Block Making

Introduction

First… a word from wikipedia…

A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding.

We will use the terms gristmill, grist mill and flour mill interchangeably because al three are used in the source material.

The European settlement of Southwestern Manitoba followed a process that had already been established elsewhere, across North America. People were here before services, before roads, before stores and towns

They really were starting from scratch. Slow transportation and long distances made self-sufficiency a must. They came to farm, and they already knew that wheat and other grains were to be the primary crops. The prairies were opened to agricultural settlement for one main purpose – to grow wheat. The problem with that was that it was so far to market that there was little profit to be made.

That was okay, they all knew that. Eventually rail lines would cross the land and everything would fall into place.

In the meantime, subsistence was a starting point.

Having a gristmill nearby, where one could at least exchange wheat for flour was a crucial advantage in making a homestead sustainable until a railway would arrive.
Turning wheat into flour represented Manitoba’s first step in becoming an industrialized society. Flour milling was practised by the province’s aboriginal peoples long before Lord Selkirk’s settlers engaged in the activity. When Manitoba gained provincial status in 1870, most flour mills were concentrated in the vicinity of the rapidly emerging city of Winnipeg. Flour mills supplied flour for the practical consumer needs of the district residents.

The early mills operated on the millstone process, utilizing wind and water as a power source, with steam power being introduced around the time Manitoba became a province. The development of the gradual reduction process, using chilled iron rollers, revolutionized the milling industry in the world and in Manitoba. By 1890, a roller-process flour mill was considered an essential asset for the continued growth of every community, serving as a tangible symbol of new-found prosperity and progress. To increase their chances of becoming the service centre for their district, many villages and towns offered bonuses to millers to establish plants in their locale.

A Trip to Gregory’s Mill

This excerpt from a letter to the Manitoba Review by Cartwright pioneer, A.E. Steel, takes to back to those days.

Our first grist of wheat was taken to the flour mill at Glenora and a farmer got his own wheat ground into flour and got all the flour, bran and shorts that he owned. After that we went to Wakopa flour mill owned by Harrision Bros., and again I havemade a number of trips to the Souris mill. The mill was equipped with the Hungarian Patent process and made an excellent grade of flour. Each round trip took four long days to go and return with oxen. The mill was kept running day and night, and if we were fortunate our gristing was done right away and we would be able to start for home without losing any time. The mill was owned by a man by the name of Gregory, and anyone that had to stay overnight was accommodated at his house. He had plenty of stable room and feed for the teams and the charge for man and beast was very reasonable.

I remember Bob Blackwell and myself going with our grists to the Souris mill with the oxen and wagon after the freeze-up. The weather was lovely so we travelled until quite late the first day and then camped out for the night. We had plenty of  with which to keep us warm. The next morning we hitched up early and got to Dunlop’s for breakfast. (The town, Dunrea, is situated on that place now, or at least part of it). The townsite is on part of two farms that were owned by Dunlop and Ray so the town was named after the two farmers.
Leaving Dunlop’s, we entered Lang’s Valley and travelled it for a few miles, then crossed up the other side and the next valley we entered was the Souris and then on across the river to the mill. This time there were a lot of grists ahead of us and that meant staying at the mill two nights instead of one. We could get our meals at the house but there wasn’t sleeping accom- modation for all, so a number of us slept at the mill above the engine room which was nice and warm.

Gregory’s Mill – along the Souris River between Margaret & Wawanesa

We got loaded up and started for home before daylight on Saturday morning and travelled a good distance be- fore we stopped to feed our teams. After giving them a good feed we got going again. Bob said he intended to stay that night at a friend’s and he would not resume the journey until Monday morning, but I decided to go on home after feeding and resting the oxen. I passed through the north end of Killarney late at night, and after a while began to feel sleepy so I wrapped a quilt about me and lay between the bags. I knew the oxen would keep to the trail so I dropped off to sleep. I don’t know how long I slept, but when I awoke, I found the oxen both laying down. I got them going again and finally reached home before daylight on Sunday morning.
*Cartwright & District History Committee, Memories Along the Badger Revisited, 1985 p4

The First Mills

In a sense the early mills were services that hoped to become towns. Places like Wakopa, Old Deloraine, and Plum Creek had mills very early, some time before the railway. With the coming of the railway links we saw the creation of more lasting towns. These towns wanted a gristmill and would often offer what was called a Mill Bonus to attract such a business. Interestingly the second wave of railway town, those on the second and third branch lines, like Waskada, Medora and Minto didn’t have establish flour mills, or many other industries for that matter. The first wave of town had those services and more. Some flout mills in the larger towns had already closed. There was no need.

The period from 1881 and 1882, known as the “Manitoba Boom”, saw intense speculation in land sale – especially in town lots. Everyone knew that the population of rural western Manitoba was going to explode. Towns would be built, businesses established, and money would be made.

The problem was that nobody was sure where all these new towns would be located. It all depended on where the railway lines would run, and where the railway company would decide to put a station. Although some railway surveys had been undertaken and some lines had been planned, no one knew where the stations would be. So some enterprising landowners decided that a piece of land they owned might just be a good spot for a town.

Speculating in town lots was a bit like participating in a gold rush. You stake a claim and hope it pays.
Exaggerations and outright lies were the tools of that trade.

To sell the lots the promoter had to assure prospective buyers that the rail line was a sure thing. Another selling point was having a mill.

Winnipeg Times, March 9, 1882
The claims made in the following story could easily have been set to rest by checking with any local resident.

Winnipeg Daily Sun, Dec 23, 1881

There never was a building of any sort at Moberly, and the “nearest Mill” was indeed much closer than Clearwater. The mill at Wakopa in fact, had been up and running for some time.

Flour Mill Locations

Pre- Railway Sites
Wakopa

In 1878 Matthew Harrison built a flour mill in the settlement that would soon become Wakopa.This historic industry was the first in Turtle Mountain municipality.
To accommodate the settlers who brought their wheat from afar by oxen to be ground into flour, the family built a boarding house and large livery barn.
Later the Harrisons built a gristmill at Holmfield that would serve the area for over a century. On the second floor of that historic building one can still see the rough cut 2 by 6’s that were sawn at the old Wakopa for the Harrison’s next enterprise.

Millford

The town northeast of Wawanesa, was the brainchild of a Major R.Z. Rogers from Grafton, Ontario.
In 1881, His gristmill, which was once described as a “small portable” one, was up and running, and farmers were hauling their grain to him.

Souris City

At its birth, Souris City, just south of Wawanesa, was one of many speculative “cities” that came with the Manitoba Land Boom of 1881-82. The gristmill, which was steam powered, was located along the river on the east side of the flats.

Waubeesh

Another casualty of the Manitoba Boom was the settlement of Waubeesh, west of Boissevain. A gristmill, whose wheel was to be turned by the water from Waubeesh Creek, was built by Robert John Hurt, and a huge celebration was held at its completion. Local histories tell us that, for unknown reasons the mill never ground a kernel of grain.

Gregory’s Mill

John Gregory’s built a mill on the Souris River about 12 kilometres south if Wawanesa in 1883. It was the most important mill south of the Souris River for over a decade. Fortunately, enough evidence of the site remains for one to visualize the whole operation. And we have a few photos.

Plum Creek and Souris

In 1880 William Henry Sowden, Thomas Gillespie Kells and John Nesbitt Kirchhoffer, members of the Millbrook Colonization Syndicate, acquired the property on Plum Creek near where it enters the Souris River. They did this because of its suitability for a mill site. The mill would justify the establishment of a settlement at what is now the Town of Souris.

Old Deloraine

In 1880, when the government decided to place a Land Titles Office along the Boundary Commission Trail in the Turtle Mountain district, it put the new village of Deloraine on the map. In November 1882 brothers William and Thomas Sheppard built one along Turtlehead Creek adjacent to the new and growing village.

Railway Towns
Boissevain

In 1889 Preston and McKay built a substantial structure of local sandstone on the west side of Mill Road just south of the CPR track.
In 1902, when the operation was consumed by fire there was no hesitation. By May of 1905 the Turtle Mountain Milling Co. Ltd., a consortium of local businessmen, had purchased the site and was beginning to erect a new building.

Melita

The establishment of the Melita Mill was voted on December 17, 1891, and first annual meeting of the Melita Milling Co. was held on January 26, 1892.
The building was 36′ x 48′ in size and was four stories high. The engine house, also 36′ x 48′ was a solid structure to be lighted with electricity and fitted with all modern conveniences.

Deloraine

When Old Deloraine’s buildings were moved to the railhead, it was proposed to move Sheppard’s mill as well. The lack of an adequate water supply there, however, made this plan unfeasible. A new mill was built by the Ontario Milling Company in 1897.

Hartney

Hammond and Leckie, who operated a successful lumber yard and grain elevator in Hartney, entered the flour milling business. A substantial structure was erected, machinery installed and by 1894 it was in full operation. Coal from Estevan and water drawn by tank from the river, provided the steampower.
Napinka

In 1892 the booming town of Napinka offered a $5000 bonus to start a mill. Someone took the offer, built the mill then skipped town. (Sun April 26, 1975)

Lauder

May of 1892 a meeting of ratepayers took place to vote on the issue of bonds to raise money to assist the establishment of a mill. In 1893 an agreement was signed between the Municipality of Winchester and Giddens and Campbell of the London Engine Supply Company. This agreement called for a fifty-barrel mill that was to run full time and be operational by September 15, 1893.

Conclusions

The establishment of the rural milling industry was a direct result of the confidence demonstrated by those entrepreneurs and farmers who invested their fortunes, toil, and tears in the development of the province’s agricultural resources. The conversion of wheat into flour for practical consumer purposes provided evidence to investors that the region was worthy of future development. The agricultural sector provided the engine for the growth of the entire province. Four milling played an important role in this achievement.

Even though many settlers had milling experience, and there was a definite need for the service, they weren’t prepared for the seasonal nature of prairie rivers and soon learned that water power wasn’t reliably available. Thus it was more costly here than in the east, and making a profit was more difficult.

The decline and extinction of small independent flour mills across Manitoba can be largely attributed to the uncompetitive position in which these mills were placed by the large milling companies after the first World War. Consumers of flour gravitated toward the more inexpensive product produced by the large mills. Lack of business suffocated the independent millers and most were driven out of the business.

The large milling concerns could not only undercut the price of flour that independent millers offered, but they operated at a distinct advantage because of their large reserves of capital. The large mills also had greater funds at their disposal for advertising.

Over the course of the twentieth century, Manitoba’s rural population base began to decline; rural residents migrated to urban centres.

All these factors played a part.

Although the flour milling industry in rural Manitoba faced its perhaps inevitable decline, the role it played in that short period of transition to an agriculture based economy was both important and interesting.

Even if standing timber was available, no area in Manitoba could be successfully logged for commercial use unless it lay near a waterway system, or later, a railway. Therefore tracking the chronology of the development of lumbering in the various regions of Manitoba is relatively simple: follow the lakes and railways systems.
In the southwest corner, however, there was also the fact that timber was scarce.
There was a reason that so many homesteaders began their farming life in a sod hut. The scarcity of trees meant that the open prairie was easy convert into productive cropland. The downside was it was a long way even to get firewood, let alone building materials. Turtle Mountain was one place that was well wooded. That allowed early settlers in that vicinity the option of using locally sourced wood.
The era of locally milled lumber in the southwest corner was short, as rail service allowed for an easily accessible supply of milled lumber in most areas. Some local sawmills continued to make use of Turtle Mountain timber for rough lumber, even after most building materials were shipped from elsewhere.

Locations

Wakopa

Wakopa was the first village in the region and home to the first sawmill.
The Harrison Brothers and Mr. Williams built a sawmill in Wakopa in 1878 or 79. It was on the banks of Long River, where a dam was constructed to make use water power.

The Fox Sawmill

In 1880 the Fox family acme to the Wakopa area. Thomas and his oldest son Alfred set up a sawmill two miles northeast of Lake Max. People came from many miles around to use the lumber that was produced from this mill.

Private Operations

It was not uncommon for a farmer to own a small portable mill. Such operations continue to this day. In the Mountainside area, Sam Smith had a steam sawmill operating In the fall of 1882.

Mr. Morton’s Mill

The Max Lake Sawmill also known as the Bolton Sawmill, it was built on Lake Max in 1881. It was bought by George Morton, then later owned by Hugh McCorquodale and then Bill Harvey.
The mill sat on the northern end of the lake, just west of a stream that flowed into the lake from a slough a couple hundred metres back from the shore.

Conclusion

The Max Lake sawmill was an exception in that most sawmills only operated for a short time when settlement preceded railway links. The supply of timber on Turtle Mountain meant that locally produced lumber, rough cut for farm use, was marketable into the modern era,

In the same way that grist mills or flour mills were an obvious way to convert local product into food, butter and cheese factories were an early attempt to process milk locally. Most of these were small operations focusing on the local market.

The Morton Dairy

The most notable effort however was much more than that. George Morton was dreaming big when he purchased a large tract of land north of Whitewater Lake. He had his eye on a national market.

He came with the right experience. He had earned the title Cheese King of Canada while working as a cheese factory owner in Kingston, Ontario.

When he came to the Turtle Mountain area in 1878 he saw the potential for large-scale cheese production in this the rich hay land that borders the shoreline of the lake.

Locations

Wakopa

A more modest attempt to process milk into a value-added form was also short-lived.

John Hettle came from Ontario. After starting a successful farming operation he formed a company in 1885 with T. A. Sharpe and the Young brothers to operate a steam-powered butter and cheese factory on Sharpe’s Creek near Wakopa. HettIe brought the dairy herd from Ontario. Later the herd had to be destroyed because of disease and the factory was dismantled.

Lauder

In 1895 the farmers of the Lauder area met to discuss the idea of a cheese factory. June 1 was set for the start of cheesemaking. The factory was located just east of the village.

Deloraine

Not much is known about the Deloraine Cheese Factory, but an item in the local paper in 1894 notes that: “5100 lbs. of milk were received at Deloraine Cheese factory on one day. Deloraine cheese was shown at the Winnipeg fair.”

Conclusion

It would appear that cheese making, which appeared to be a logical was to add value to local products, and which had seemed to work well in the Ontario homeland, was not a winning idea the southwest corner.

Some time ago, while visiting at one of Hartney’s fine brick homes, I was shown a portion of the wall that clearly displayed the paw print of a cat. The owner explained that the bricks came from a small local brickyard, and, yes, the owner’s cat must have roamed the facility during the early stages of the brick-making process.

Only in Hartney – cat’s paw bricks! Limited edition.

Manitoba is geologically blessed with thousands of clay deposits, hundreds of which have been exploited over the past 150 years for brick manufacture. The “Golden Age” of this aspect of Manitoba’s building history was from 1880 to 1912. There were about 60 major clay sites and about 175 brick manufacturing plants that provided the billions of bricks that were required for Manitoba’s major building boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The details of industrial operations were not often covered in local newspapers and so it is only possible to provide a sense of typical operations. The work was hard and the days were long. The pay was modest, about $2 a day, but it was steady, at least for the duration of the season, usually from May (when the frost left) till August or September. Even small yards had up-to-date technologies such as steam-power. A typical operation featured the large covered drying sheds that new bricks were laid into. It was the final stage of the brick-making operation that usually distinguished a major from a minor yard: whether the brick was fired in a scove or beehive kiln. The scove kiln. Most likely used in most operations in the southwest corner, was a less sophisticated technology, but one that was still effective enough to produce good quality brick.  Burnings lasted about seven to eight days, and when the outer shell of bricks on a scove kiln was removed, workers discarded the disfigured and discoloured bricks nearer the fire source.

The Brick House

The first settlers often built a sod hut for those first few years. Logs were hard to find on the open prairie, but those living along the Souris River or in the vicinity of Turtle Mountain might start with a log house.

If logs were available someone might set up a sawmill, but otherwise milled lumber was expensive and involved some difficult hauling. Settlers who arrived with a bit of cash in hand might opt to bring in building supplies, but many had to wait for that first frame dwelling.

Brick was desirable as a building material, but was even more expensive to ship than milled lumber, so it was some time before brick buildings became popular.

What helped that process along was the fact that some of those new settlers came with some experience making bricks, and they kept an eye out for deposits of clay that would serve that purpose.

Locations

Souris City

The first bricks made in the southwest corner were likely produced by at Souris City, the village that preceded Wawanesa.

A brickyard was established there by Mssrs. Freek and Coupland. It produced a low quality type of brick used for the lining of wells.

Whitewater / Deloraine

Perhaps the earliest brickyard in the Turtle Mountain region was located a near Whitewater, on the N.W. quarter of. 17-3-21.
In 1894 the factory was sold to W. R. David and the brick machine moved to Deloraine next to the Racetrack.
Hartney
The most extensive brick-making operations in the southwest corner were located in Hartney and involved three enterprises.

The most important practitioner was William Kirkland. At the height of his ten years of brick-making, in 1913, he was firing bricks for the new Saskatchewan Legislative Building. Harry Payne and George Sackville each had moderately successful operations in the 1890’s

The Melita Brick Co. 

In 1905 Mr. John Dobbyn (80 years of age) discovered a red brick clay just west of the river and south of today’s #3 highway. He purchased the land (31-3-26) and ordered a modern brick making plant. The Melita Brick and Tile Co. was formed in April 1905.

Conclusion

Virtually all brickyards in southwestern Manitoba ceased operations before or during the First World War. In some cases brickyards functioned until the deposit of clay ran out, in other cases competition and declining demand were factors. By 1910 most productive land had been taken and the building boom was over.

The story of manufacturing in Manitoba’s small towns is story of individuals starting by meeting a local need. A surprising number of products that, in our modern world would tend to be coming from far away, were made right here at home.

The fact that there was a local need for products that, other wise would have to be shipped from some distance and at some significant expense, spurred efforts to improvise and create. The good news was that the people coming to these new communities brought with them an array of skills. Many had worked in factories and trades and gained skills that could be readily out to use in this new context.

In the history of Souris City, one of the first villages in the Southwest Corner we learn that, “A Mr. John Harris found his niche in the manufacture of axe and hammer handles.”

Why not? How complicated could that be?

Locations

Hartney

As towns grew, both the demand for goods and thus the possibilities for industry expanded.

In 1893, when H. C. Pierce began making pumps, he quickly supplied one thousand pumps for the local market. But soon everyone had a pump, and business slowed down pretty quickly.

Alex Mains, and his brother set up a Sash and Door Factory, in 1900, and added a planing mill to provided materials for the many new homes which were built in this and other communities, the need for such materials was a little more ongoing.

Another common example of small town manufacturing focused on another vital need.

Victor Duchesneau arrived in Hartney about 1901 and in 1904, along with his blacksmith business, he started a carriage and wagon factory. He could turn out “buggies, wagons, carriages and all fine lumber work with city style and finish.”

Edouard Isabey who opened a small machine shop in about 1893, also made and repaired carriages.

In a listing of Hartney’s early businesses we also find an entry for “Shore and Co. carriage makers.”

Deloraine

The Deloraine Carriage Factory run by Mr. B. Steele was for a short time “ one of the largest of its kind in the Province. Six men are employed, four blacksmiths, a woodworker and a painter.

Melita

In 1891 when the town of Melita started, Mr. Richardson built a carriage shop which he sold two years later. Also in Melita, George Lea, was a carriage maker, and D. Lamont’s shop build buggy wheels among other things.

The Holden Furniture and Funeral business had a glass paneled hearse on wheels, which could be changed to specially built sleighs for winter use. It was built by a carriage maker in Napinka some time before 1910.

Elsewhere

In Boissevain, Butler and Frith were carriage-makers and blacksmiths.

Some years ago, while walking along the high riverbank overlooking the Souris River near Bunclody, I found what appeared to be an old well lined with fieldstones. I gave it little thought until I learned about the small lime kilns that settlers often constructed to make mortar for the many stone buildings that dot the southwestern corner.

They are another example of small, local, do-it yourself, prairie enterprises.

The remains of a kiln, near Bunclody

Early settlers used it to purify and freshen damp basements, in the henhouse, in cement and plaster and for whitewashing walls and ceilings. Part of the spring housecleaning ritual was the whitewashing of the interior of the little building with the half moon cut in the door. The only “accessory” in that little building was a nail and string to hold the previous year’s Eaton’s catalogue, which was used to the very last page.

Locations

Angus McRuer describes one located near his Desford-area farm…

“This kiln was on a rise of land sloped to the north. A hole eight feet deep by ten feet across was made at the top of the slope. A trench three feet wide by thirty feet long was dug, starting at the bottom of the hill, up into the bottom of the big hole. It was like a big clay pipe. The trench acted as a damper.”

To prepare for a burn, stones were placed in the kiln leaving an arch at the bottom to hold the fire. The process took three days to reduce the limestone to powder. In addition to using it for making mortar, people used it to purify and freshen damp basements, and in cement and plaster and for whitewashing walls and ceilings.

There were several of these small local enterprises in our region. Many are small and barely recognizable. They are usually on the side of a creek bed or hill to allow access to one side of the kiln to feed the fire and to provide the necessary draft to create a hot and steady burn.

Like so many of these local initiatives, with the improved train service, the availability of a reliable and ready source of products in the local lumberyard saved local builders a lot of time. Most kilns had ceased operations by about 1900.

At first glance this attractive house on a farm near Boissevain looks like it might be one of the many fieldstone homes in the region. A closer look tells us that those building blocks are concrete.

For a few years in the early 20th century, many buildings in southern Manitoba were built with locally cast concrete blocks. Much larger than bricks, the blocks were hollow, and were typically flat on the interior face but variously patterned on the exterior face.

Because these blocks did not require high-temperature firing like bricks, there was no need for the substantial infrastructure used in conventional brick-making. They could be made on the building site with portable equipment.

Cement Block Manufacturing on the farm of W.J. McKinney, 1904 – Photo courtesy Mrs. Ina McKinney Beckoning Hills, page 73.

It all began with the patent in 1900 for H.M. Palmer’s block machine. Within a few years, this new technology really caught on. It appears that the firm of Laird & McGarvey of Deloraine were one of the first in the region to purchase a machine to make the bricks.

Aside from the advantage of making your building material on site with locally available materials, by using a variety of molds one could produce an attractive and durable exterior. By altering the type of sand used you can get a bit of variety in colour and texture.

Some builders used unique designs for effect and emphasis.

How Blocks Are Made

The cement is poured into a mold arranged with the outside surface (in various patterns) at the bottom. Depressed end pieces are put in to make the blocks partly hollow. When the mold is half filled, a metal block known as the “core” is placed in position. The mold is then filled to the top and tamped. It hardens quickly under the pressure and may be taken from the mold at once. The “core” is then removed, leaving the blocks hollow.

A supply of Concrete Blocks in Napinka.

Many of the buildings are still standing and looking good in towns across our region. They range from fine heritage homes, old schools, and commercial buildings like this one in Lyleton.

An example in Lyleton

Historians aren’t sure why the use of concrete blocks was popular only for a short while, with most examples being from 1904 to 1910. Perhaps with improved rail access, the availability and quality of both wood siding and bricks were a more attractive option? Perhaps the uniform grey colour was not as appealing?

Note the date stone on this Telephone Office in Waskada. Although there are examples of concrete block buildings from later in the century, they are rare.

More ExamplesIf we take a look at how so many of these buildings have survived in good shape we can see it was a good practical choice for the times.So if you are passing though our southwestern Manitoba towns, look for these examples.

Union Bank Building in Waskada – built 1906

The Crerar Law Office in Melita, as it appeared in 1904 when it was built. Still used today.

Wakopa

The development of the grain business began in Wakopa long before the railway was built through Boissevain and Killarney. In 1878 Matthew Harrison built a flour mill in the settlement that would soon become Wakopa. It was powered by a water wheel and used grinding stones brought from France. George Bennett, freighted those stones from Emerson to Wakopa with a team of oxen. These stones are very heavy and are in various places. One is in the Cairn at Wakopa and one is in the museum in Boissevain.
This historic industry was the first in Turtle Mountain municipality.
To accommodate the settlers who brought their wheat from afar by oxen to be ground into flour, the family built a boarding house and large livery barn.
In 1881 Bill Harrison joined his brother, and in 1882 another brother George came west and joined the company.
These businesses, along with B.B. Lariviere’s Store and Stopping Place established Wakopa as an important place. People came to Wakopa, bringing grain to be ground into ﬂour, or buying lumber at the sawmill. Meals were served at the Harrison home, at La Riviere’s, and at Mrs. J. Melville’s boarding house.

Fire destroyed that mill in 1883. The Northwest Farmer reported that

“Williams and Harrison Bros., who ran an extensive grist and saw mill business…., at Wakopa, have had the misfortune to lose their mills by fire. A quantity of grain was burned.”

“It is estimated that the loss by the burning of the mills at Wakopa will amount to at least $8,000.”

Winnipeg Daily Sun, April 28, 1884

The mill was re-built but functioned for only a short time.

In May 1887, The Northwest Farmer reported that. “Wm. Harrison, proprietor of the grist mills at Wakopa, Man., will put in roller process machinery.”

The coming of the railway to Killarney and Boissevain doomed this busy centre.
The mill ceased operation; buildings were taken down or moved away, until other than a few basements, the site once more became part of the original landscape.

Later the Harrisons built a gristmill at Holmfield that would serve the area for over a century. On the second floor of that historic building one can still see the rough cut 2 by 6’s that were sawn at the old Wakopa for the Harrison’s next enterprise.
A visitor to the Turtle Mountain Flywheel Club Museum in Killarney can see the machinery from the original Wakopa gristmill on display.

Harrison Sawmill

There are, or were, two Wakopas. Many people refer to the first one as Old Wakopa.

The first entrepreneur in the Turtle Mountain district was a fur trader, Bernard B La Rivière.

The story of “Old Wakopa” begins with Mr. La Rivière who, in 1878, established a store and stopping place on the Boundary Commission Trail near the east shelf of Turtle Mountain. Surveyors and travellers already venturing westward and soon there would be to a steady stream of homesteaders. There would be many of them and they would need supplies. It became the first village in the region. It was home to the first sawmill.

The Harrison Brothers and Mr. Williams built a sawmill in Wakopa in 1878 or 79. It was on the banks of Long River, where a dam was constructed to make use water power. Soon the first sod and log homes gave way to buildings of milled lumber. The first frame house in the Turtle Mountain area was built in 1880. It operated for only a short time, but it was an important service and helped make Wakopa an important village.

The Fox Sawmill

In 1880 the Fox family acme to the Wakopa area. Thomas and his oldest son Alfred set up a sawmill two miles northeast of Lake Max. People came from many miles around to use the lumber that was produced from this mill.
In 1881 Tom decided to take a homestead nearby and settled (on 10-2-19) several miles west of Wakopa in the Adelpha area.
In 1884 Tom moved his sawmill west where it was used to cut lumber for the growing CPR. The mill was dismantled and hauled to Brandon where it was shipped to Calgary. Tom went along with his mill while his family stayed behind and his son Frank took over the homestead.
A more modest attempt to process milk into a value-added form was also short-lived.

The Hettle Cheese Factory

John Hettle came from Ontario. After starting a successful farming operation he formed a company in 1885 with T. A. Sharpe and the Young brothers to operate a steam-powered butter and cheese factory on Sharpe’s Creek near Wakopa. HettIe brought the dairy herd from Ontario. Later the herd had to be destroyed because of disease and the factory was dismantled.

Old Deloraine

In 1880, when the government decided to place a Land Titles Office along the Boundary Commission Trail in the Turtle Mountain district, it put the new village of Deloraine on the map. Settlers seeking homestead in a huge area we might now call Southwest Manitoba had to travel there to get title to their new homes.

A village quickly grew and as was common with all new settlements, settlers soon wanted a mill. In November 1882 brothers William and Thomas Sheppard built one along Turtlehead Creek adjacent to the new and growing village. It also made use of a Gouldie-McCulloch steam engine.

This enterprise supplied the flour and feed needs of both local and North Dakota residents.

The region in 1884, with Postal and Stage routes.

Waubeesh

Another casualty of the Manitoba Boom was the settlement of Waubeesh, west of Boissevain. Settlers had big plans. A gristmill, whose wheel was to be turned by the water from Waubeesh Creek, was built by Robert John Hurt, and a huge celebration was held at its completion. Local histories tell us that, for unknown reasons the mill never ground a kernel of grain. A special edition of Northwest Farmer from 1883 indicates that:

“The new grist mill at Waubeesh, Turtle Mountain, owned by Messrs. Brondgeest & Hurt, started up on the 19th of March, and is now in full operation. The mill structure in 36 x 64 feet, two storeys high, two run of stones, and is run by a twenty horse power engine.”

(S: Nwfmm, Special Ed., 1883, p.20.)

As often happened, especially in the era of the Manitoba Boom, the press tended to relate positive settlement stories, while lacking the resources, and sometimes the inclination, to fact check.

We know for sure that the mill didn’t last long.

Perhaps the progress in nearby Wakopa stifled the prospects of Waubeesh or the attention of speculators was turned towards the competing “Boom Town” of Turtle Mountain City, only a few kilometres away.

Mr. Morton’s Sawmill (Max Lake / McKinney / Conroy Sawmill)

The Max Lake Sawmill also known as the Bolton Sawmill, it was built on Lake Max in 1881. It was bought by George Morton, then later owned by Hugh McCorquodale and then Bill Harvey. Then in 1910 Fred McKinney decided to buy the mill for him and his sons Doug, Bill, and Elson to run. They ran the mill till 1968.

There are stories of men from all over going to the mill to get wood, men willing to go through days of travel and fighting a battle with the furiously cold weather. There was a bunk house where they could stay at night with a fireplace in the middle to keep it warm.

The mill sat on the northern end of the lake, just west of a stream that flowed into the lake from a slough a couple hundred metres back from the shore. Cut logs were dumped into this slough. Afterwards, they were sent down a man-made channel to the lake where they were chained at the entrance to the lake from the stream. They were held here until there was room in the mill for them to be cut. The mill’s boiler stack was guyed up to a majestic oak tree by a long bolt that went straight through the tree.

The sawmill on the edge of north shore of Lake Max, while it was owned by Mr. Morton.

The machinery included a planer and shingle-mill.

In about 1910 Harvey sold the sawmill to Fred McKinney, who moved it from Lake Max two miles north to his property. They used the mill to do a limited amount of custom sawing until the timber reserve was opened up again in 1930. Bill Eaket soon joined in the operation, lending the use of his gas-powered tractor to run the mill.

Everything except for the actual sawing of the lumber was up to the customer to do. Trees were felled (by hand), trimmed and hauled (by horse) to the mill where they were sawed. The cost of this service was $10 to $12 per 1000 board feet.

Sawmill in the Turtle Mountain region. Photo courtesy Charlie BaldockThe sawmill generated copious amounts of sawdust, which was put to use by the Municipality of Morton during the early 1930s. After being hauled to town the sawdust was mixed with arsenic and molasses and churned in a small cement mixer. This mixture was then spread along the road allowances to kill grasshoppers.

In 1938 Bill Eaket dropped out of the operation and Bill and Doug took over the business from their father. They ran the mill for an additional 25 years. During this time they were mostly sawing for local farmers who needed lumber to construct buildings, corrals and hay shelters.

Old Deloraine

In 1880, when the government decided to place a Land Titles Office along the Boundary Commission Trail in the Turtle Mountain district, it put the new village of Deloraine on the map. Settlers seeking homestead in a huge area we might now call Southwest Manitoba had to travel there to get title to their new homes.

A village quickly grew and as was common with all new settlements, settlers soon wanted a mill. In November 1882 brothers William and Thomas Sheppard built one along Turtlehead Creek adjacent to the new and growing village. It also made use of a Gouldie-McCulloch steam engine.

This enterprise supplied the flour and feed needs of both local and North Dakota residents.

The region in 1884, with Postal and Stage routes.

Waubeesh

Another casualty of the Manitoba Boom was the settlement of Waubeesh, west of Boissevain. Settlers had big plans. A gristmill, whose wheel was to be turned by the water from Waubeesh Creek, was built by Robert John Hurt, and a huge celebration was held at its completion. Local histories tell us that, for unknown reasons the mill never ground a kernel of grain. A special edition of Northwest Farmer from 1883 indicates that:

“The new grist mill at Waubeesh, Turtle Mountain, owned by Messrs. Brondgeest & Hurt, started up on the 19th of March, and is now in full operation. The mill structure in 36 x 64 feet, two storeys high, two run of stones, and is run by a twenty horse power engine.”

(S: Nwfmm, Special Ed., 1883, p.20.)

As often happened, especially in the era of the Manitoba Boom, the press tended to relate positive settlement stories, while lacking the resources, and sometimes the inclination, to fact check.

We know for sure that the mill didn’t last long.

Perhaps the progress in nearby Wakopa stifled the prospects of Waubeesh or the attention of speculators was turned towards the competing “Boom Town” of Turtle Mountain City, only a few kilometres away.

Mr. Morton’s Sawmill (Max Lake / McKinney / Conroy Sawmill)

The Max Lake Sawmill also known as the Bolton Sawmill, it was built on Lake Max in 1881. It was bought by George Morton, then later owned by Hugh McCorquodale and then Bill Harvey. Then in 1910 Fred McKinney decided to buy the mill for him and his sons Doug, Bill, and Elson to run. They ran the mill till 1968.

There are stories of men from all over going to the mill to get wood, men willing to go through days of travel and fighting a battle with the furiously cold weather. There was a bunk house where they could stay at night with a fireplace in the middle to keep it warm.

The mill sat on the northern end of the lake, just west of a stream that flowed into the lake from a slough a couple hundred metres back from the shore. Cut logs were dumped into this slough. Afterwards, they were sent down a man-made channel to the lake where they were chained at the entrance to the lake from the stream. They were held here until there was room in the mill for them to be cut. The mill’s boiler stack was guyed up to a majestic oak tree by a long bolt that went straight through the tree.

The sawmill on the edge of north shore of Lake Max, while it was owned by Mr. Morton.

The machinery included a planer and shingle-mill.

In about 1910 Harvey sold the sawmill to Fred McKinney, who moved it from Lake Max two miles north to his property. They used the mill to do a limited amount of custom sawing until the timber reserve was opened up again in 1930. Bill Eaket soon joined in the operation, lending the use of his gas-powered tractor to run the mill.

Everything except for the actual sawing of the lumber was up to the customer to do. Trees were felled (by hand), trimmed and hauled (by horse) to the mill where they were sawed. The cost of this service was $10 to $12 per 1000 board feet.

Sawmill in the Turtle Mountain region. Photo courtesy Charlie BaldockThe sawmill generated copious amounts of sawdust, which was put to use by the Municipality of Morton during the early 1930s. After being hauled to town the sawdust was mixed with arsenic and molasses and churned in a small cement mixer. This mixture was then spread along the road allowances to kill grasshoppers.

In 1938 Bill Eaket dropped out of the operation and Bill and Doug took over the business from their father. They ran the mill for an additional 25 years. During this time they were mostly sawing for local farmers who needed lumber to construct buildings, corrals and hay shelters.

By 1879 some Ontario settlers came by Assiniboine River steamboats and embarked where the Souris River entered near where Treesbank later was established. Two villages grew, one close to the Souris Mouth called Millford, and another near where Wawanesa is todayl, called Souris City. Both these settlement were important in that they were staging areas for settled venturing south to the Turtle Mountain region and south west to the Hartney area. Both places were surveyed as towns and lots were sold on the markets in Winnipeg. Both grew with confidence and established important business services. Both had stores, blacksmith shops and hotels as well flour mills and sawmills.The most unique flour mill wasn’t in a village at all. John Gregory bypassed the existing villages and selected what he thought was the best riverside location in terms of the potential for water power.

MillfordThe town was the brainchild of a Major R.Z. Rogers from Grafton, Ontario. He happened to have a brother-in-law, Mr. E.C. Caddy who was to lead a team of Dominion Surveyors to southwestern Manitoba in 1879. He asked him to keep an eye out for a site for a sawmill and gristmill. His dream was to start a new community and to profit from the next wave of expansion to the west. [5]A warehouse constructed by Major Rogers near the junction of the Assiniboine and Souris met a similar fate. His plan to capitalize on the location and establish Millford as a trading centre for the region was underway quickly. His gristmill, which was once described as a “small portable” one, (2) was up and running, and farmers were hauling their grain to him. Percy Criddle thought his prices were a bit high compared to Brandon but appreciated the convenience of dealing locally. He needed storage near the waterway but high water carried it away in 1881. He rebuilt and in 1882 again lost it and it’s considerable contents down the river.

Millford as it looked in about 1883.

The Millford region.

Souris CityAt its birth, Souris City was one of many speculative “cities” that came with the Manitoba Land Boom of 1881-82. In this case it almost paid off.

Winnipeg Daily Sun, Jan. 26, 1882
The survey plan, which was ambitious even for these times of wild speculation, included parts of to sections of land and planned lots on both sides of the river. but the actual settlement was in the southwest corner of that deep loop in the river, and at its best was a somewhat scattered village with its buildings strung out along the river bank.The gamblers in this case were William Scott and his son William J. They arrived sometime after October 1880 and bought land from the CPR. Early in 1882 the Winnipeg Daily Sun reports that, ”Mr. Scott, Manager of the Toronto and Manitoba Northwest Land Company, sold last evening by private sale $1100 worth of lots in Souris City.” The next month an ad offered 320 acres adjacent to Souris City for sale.The gristmill, which was steam powered, was located along the river on the east side of the flats. Local farmers had been hauling grain to Millford for this purpose, and for farmers to the southeast the trip to Souris City was shorter and over an easier trail. Some local histories speculate that this mill is one and the same with the Gregory Mill located a few miles upstream, but a report in the Brandon Sun in 1889 contains explicit references to both mills. The likelihood is that the mill at Souris City was not nears as large an operation as Mr. Gregory’s and served a purely local need.

The Souris City plan, as registered in 1881
The town is mentioned often in early newspaper reports, being on a well-used trail south from Brandon and Millford, and the site of a ferry crossing and later a bridge.When Northern and Pacific Railway completed their new line from Morris to Brandon, they decided to cross the river a few miles downstream. The new town of Wawanesa came into being without a great deal of fanfare. Home and business owners wasted no time. During the winter of 1890 most of the buildings were put on skids and dragged them to the new town of Wawanesa

On this map from 1892 Souris City has disappeared and Wawanesa is well-established.
Gregory’s MillThe story of John Gregory’s mill is the story of a mill that wanted to be a town. It is a noteworthy story for several reasons. It was the most important mill south of the Souris River for over a decade. It was the most substantial industrial investment seen in the pre-railroad era in Westman. Although Mr. Gregory did install a steam engine to compensate for Manitoba’s season rivers, his design was the most ambitious attempt to harness the waterpower of the Souris River for industrial purposes.Fortunately, enough evidence of the site remains for one to visualize the whole operation. And we have a few photos.

Gregory’s Mill (Photo scanned from “The Prairie W.A.S.P.)
The story begins in 1882 when John D. Gregory, from Wingham, Ontario, came to Manitoba and began scouting locations for a mill site. In 1883 he took title and settled on a farm that straddled the Souris River about 8 kilometres upstream from were it now passes under Highway #2 near Wawanesa. He built a mud dam to back the water up to ensure a steady flow, erected an impressive stone mill building, set up the necessary equipment and opened for business. At that time he was 40 kilometres from the rail line but he hoped that it would come to him, or he saw the business as viable regardless. The first dam had a head of eight feet of water, and the mill building was said to have the “most improved machinery” and a capacity of 75 barrels per day.Newspapers of the mid 1880’s offer us more glimpses of Mr. Gregory and his mill and help to illustrate their respective places in the local community and its economy.A report from nearby Langvale in 1885 noted that the “flouring mill of Mr.Gregory” had been shut down due to low water, but that a “powerful engine” was being installed and that the mill would be running again in a “few days”. In June of that same year we note that Riverside Municipality had remitted Gregory’s taxes. This is something municipalities did as a way of supporting needed services.

1886 brought more expansion as a letter to the editor reported that ”the flouring mill at Whitehead is running full blast night and day” and that the “energetic proprietor” had just completed an addition to the facility. Also in 1886, rumours persisted that a rail line might cross the valley near the mill as Mr. Nichol of nearby Souris City reported that the railway engineer was coming back to ” try Gregory’s Mill crossing”.The Riverside History reports that the mill offered the latest in technology and that:

“Customers had come to Gregory’s Mill from all directions, some as far south as the U.S. border. The flour, of superior quality, milled by the “Hungarian Patent Process,” was drawn to Brandon by mule team and horse teams, made three trips a week to the flour in a warehouse until a carload was gathered, to ship east by rail. On the return trip, they brought back provisions needed at the mill.”

John MacAulay a member of the Crofter Settlement that arrived near Ninette in 1888 remembers that” At Gregory’s grist mill on the Souris the settlers received 40 pounds of flour to the bushel when their grain was gristed.”

Warren Upham’s 1890 map of the Lake Agassiz is a rare map from the era showing the Gregory’s Mill location. Note that the main communities are Millford, Souris City and Langvale. Scanned from The Historical Atlas of Manitoba

Expansion & Competition

In about 1888 he began a considerable expansion. A higher dam was constructed about a kilometre upstream. The first attempt was cut short when high water “carried away a piece of the west bank” but the work was completed and certainly must have been the foremost feat of engineering in rural Westman at the time. A report in the Brandon Sun described it thus:

“The dam, is 600 feet long, 160 feet wide at its base and 29 feet at the top, is 30 feet high from the bed of the river, and is composed entirely of trees, brush, boulders gravel and earth, intermixed, forming an impenetrable mass, capable of resisting almost any pressure. Behind the dam there is now a body of water with a head of 28 feet, covering 5000 acres, and extending for 6 miles to the south. The race is 4000 feet long and from 6 to 18 feet; much of the material taken from this was used on the dam.” (Brandon Sun, 1891)

There was a moderately sharp bend across which he could construct a “millrace” or channel to direct the flow to the mill. That millrace is still visible today and must be seen to be appreciated. One has to marvel at the engineering, and just sheer work, that must have been required. What equipment would they have to move that amount of earth? Where would they get such equipment – before the municipalities had even begun to plan the grid of gravel roads that were to appear with the advent of the automobile? Some stretches are gouged out of the hillside, while in other places the sides are built up like dikes. The whole enterprise must have involved a substantial effort – in time and money.

The cost was 15000 dollars, an amazing amount of money for a local enterprise, but Mr. Gregory projected that he now had enough water backed up to allow for three month of operation during times of low water flow, and could boost his capacity to 125 barrel per day in the winter.

But this expansion came just as there was bad news on the railway front!

The End of an Era

By 1889 not one, but two railways were about to cross the district. One was angling up from Morris to Brandon, and destined to cross the Souris River at Wawanesa while the existing line from Winnipeg to Glenboro was finally to be extended to Souris.

The region had two rail lines by 1891. The siding at Elliott’s was the closest railway link for Mr. Gregory’s flour, about eight kilometres away.

The mill race, a 1000 metre long ditch built to divert water from the Souris River to the mill wheel. 120 years after it was abandoned the mill race is quite visible today, even from Google Earth!

The mill was towards the bottom right corner of the picture and 10 metres up the bank. I believe that the first dam was here – likely designed to direct the flow to the right bank.Perhaps Mr. Gregory was going to remain viable. The mill was obviously thriving in 1891 when we see a report from Belmont where they were “agitating for a good grist mill” noting that “almost every day” teams passed through on their way to Gregory’s which was 40 kilometres away. Despite the fact that a closer rail line would have provided better access to export markets, the mill was providing a valuable service to locals who continued to patronize it.In 1892 a notice by the Oakland council appeared in the Sun advising that there would be a vote on a bylaw to “grant a bonus of $1000 to John Gregory’s mill”. The article notes that:“Mr. Gregory intends increasing capacity to…250 barrel during the next year if he succeeds in getting better shipping facilities. At present he is five miles from the nearest railway station, but he is confident that he will be able to overcome that difficulty before long.”Well that “difficulty” never was overcome. The site of the Gregory’s Mill, today, as it was then, is still eight kilometres from what is now an abandoned rail line.As it turned out it likely wasn’t the lack of access to the export market that sealed the fate of Gregory’s Mill. It was the establishment of mills in the new population centres that sprang up along the new railways that spelled the end.For example, Glenboro got its mill in 1994. At Holmfield to the south, a mill was serving the Killarney and Boissevain district. Wawanesa soon offered a bonus get one started in that new village.There were no notices in the media of the day regarding the closing of the mill. Reference to it just ceased to appear, in much the same way that references to the abandoned towns of the settlement era just disappeared. Instead, what we learn from the newspapers is that mills were springing up elsewhere. And so was Mr. Gregory.By 1895 both Nesbitt and Wawanesa were interested in having him relocate to their towns. Later that summer he was hospitalized for a problem with his foot, which eventually led to amputation, and June 21 of the following year he died.When John Gregory bought his riverside property and started his operation he must have been a wealthy man. He is said to have died broke, having lost a hundred thousand dollars.
The sight is now difficult to find. Trees have surrounded what is left of the foundation making it virtually invisible to a passer-by on the river. The large stone that once served as a doorstep for the mill now rests in the Minnewawa Cemetery near the junction of Highways Two and Ten. A huge gear from the mill itself is in on display at the Sipiweski Museum in Wawanesa, and a few other scattered remnants of the machinery have found their way into private collections. Plum Creek and Souris

The story of the mill at Souris is another example of a gristmill being the catalyst for the growth of a town. Long before the town of Souris got its long – promised branch line, it was a prospering village.

In 1880 William Henry Sowden, Thomas Gillespie Kells and John Nesbitt Kirchhoffer, members of the Millbrook Colonization Syndicate, acquired the property on Plum Creek near where it enters the Souris River. They did this because of its suitability for a mill site. The mill would justify the establishment of a settlement at what is now the Town of Souris. During the spring of this year, some 14 men, including Arthur Rose, were employed building a dam at the proposed Mill site on Plum Creek. The first house in Souris was built to accommodate the men who built the first mill dam.

G. McCulloch and William Herriot were co-owners of the 1882 mill on Plum Creek. They thus established Souris as a trading centre

At one time grain was hauled from as far away as Estevan to the mill. The flywheel from that mill still runs in the museum at Austin, Manitoba

The building was completed by December of 1882, the machinery installed in February of 1883, and their enterprise in operation cleaning seed for the settlers of a wide area by the spring of 1883.

In 1898, McCulloch and Herriot had become so successful at milling that they opened Western Canada’s largest yellow brick flour mill. They shipped three brands of flour, independently, to eastern Canada and overseas: Ladies’ Choice, Prairie Lily and Strong Bakers.

The Souris, with the mill prominent in the centre. Photo available in the Prairie Towns Collection.

1903 World markets recognized the quality. Wheat became the economic driver of the prairies. “Prairie Lily” flour produced by the McCulloch and Heriot Mill was exported to Europe, was significant not only locally but also on the world market.

Railway Towns / BoissevainFlour Mills

The story of milling in Boissevain begins shortly after the town was established as an important commercial centre on the new CPR line. In those days a progressive town needed a mill. In fact, smaller communities would often offer a “Mill Bonus” of several thousand dollars as an incentive to get one started.

In 1889 Preston and McKay built a substantial structure of local sandstone on the west side of Mill Road just south of the CPR track. It housed the latest in mill technology; steel rollers rather than the large millstones, and a steam engine, which replaced reliance on waterpower.

The Preston / McKay Mill 1889 – 1902.

Through the frequent downturns of the agricultural economy, a farmer could now at least use a portion of his crop to help feed his family by convert- ing wheat to flour. The mill kept a share of the grist and no money needed to change hands.
The mill was soon also exporting flour. In 1894 four carloads were sent to Liverpool, England, and total pro- duction was 400 sacks per day.

The First Fire

In 1902, when the operation was consumed by fire there was no hesitation. By May of 1905 the Turtle Mountain Milling Co. Ltd., a consortium of local businessmen, had purchased the site and was beginning to erect a new building. By March of 1906, the new mill was in operation. This one had an electric generating plant, which also supplied the first electricity for a few businesses and the town’s street lights.

Turtle Mountain Milling Co. Boissevain: 1906 – 1925.

But changes in commerce and transportation began to take effect, and after a few years, business declined. The mill had ceased operations when the onset of World War I revived it.

Flour was urgently required for the war effort and a retired miller, George Dow, soon had the mill up and running again – with its entire production of 600 bags per day being shipped over- seas. This wartime use of Boissevain flour created a peacetime market and after 1918 most of the flour still went to England, Scotland, and Holland.

The reprieve was short-lived how- ever, and by the 1920’s a network of roads was creating even stronger connections to urban centres. The second mill was still thriving when fire struck it down, but the writing was on the wall.

Sources: Boissevain History Book Committee. Beckoning Hills
Revisited. “Ours is a Goodly Heritage” Morton – Boissevain 1881 – 1981. Altona. Friesen Printing, 1981.
Photos: Boissevain Community Archives. P64 A1, P69 A32

Natural Foods

Miller George Dow may have an- ticipated today’s concern with the åœadditives and methods employed in modern food processing. He was an early advocate for un- bleached flour, believing that the bleaching process was harmful in that it removed the wheat germ oil. Although there was a strong demand for bleached flour locally, the government required that all flour for overseas should be un- bleached. Several chemicals used for bleaching have now been banned by the government as dangerous to our health.

The Boissevain Roller Mills Building

The main building is 30×40, 50 ft. high from the basement, built of stone, with cut stone corners, arches and sills. The engine room is also of stone, 20×30, finished off in the same manner as the main building. Both buildings are roofed with tin. The building cost over $5,000, and is said to be one of the finest mill buildings in Manitoba.

The basement of the mill is 11ft. high, and is excavated about three feet, the other eight is above ground. It is largely used for bran, flour and wheat storage and contains the boots of the elevators, the line shafting for driving the rolls, and scouring machine.

The grinding floor, also 11 ft. high, contains five double sets of Allis rolls 9×24 and 9×30, a wheat separator, power packer, chop roll and scales. Next is the purifier floor, on which are their Smith purifiers, one Richmond shorts duster, two gravity scalpers and three cyclone dust collectors. The wheat and flour bins are on this floor, the stone walls being lined with ceiling to protect the wheat from frost and damp. The next floor, called the rolling floor, 18 ft. high, contains ten No. 1 George T. Smith Centrifugal Reels and Inter. Elevator bolts, one Eureka Horizontal Scourer, the elevator line and heads, etc….

A Brown automatic cut off engine runs the 125 barrel mill without a tremor or jar.

From— S.Kerry M. Abel, Morton-Boissevain Planning District Heritage Report, District Planning Study, November 1984, HRB, pp. 121-129, with sources.

Some notes from the Northwest Farmer..

S: Commercial, April 20, 1886, p. 609.
“The residents of Boissevain are raising a bonus to assist in the erection of a roller flour mill at that place.”
S: Nwfmm, April 1889, p. 100.
“The prospects for a mill at Boissevain, Man. Are good. The people have subscribed $1,500, Deloraine municipality gives $2,000, and it is expected to raise between $5,000 and $6,000 altogether.”
S: Nwfmm, June 1889, p. 162.
“Preston, of Stradford, Ont., will erect a 100 bbls. Roller mill at Boissevain, Man. It will be stone, 30 x 48, 40 ft. high.”
S: Nwfm, December 1889, p. 340.
“On recently leaving Stratford, On., to take charge of his mill at Boissevain, Man., Wm. Preston was presented with an address and purse.
S: Nwfm, May 1890, p. .

Sawmills

The Fox Sawmill

In 1880 the Fox family acme to the Wakopa area. Thomas and his oldest son Alfred set up a sawmill two miles northeast of Lake Max. People came from many miles around to use the lumber that was produced from this mill.
In 1881 Tom decided to take a homestead nearby and settled (on 10-2-19) several miles west of Wakopa in the Adelpha area.
In 1884 Tom moved his sawmill west where it was used to cut lumber for the growing CPR. The mill was dismantled and hauled to Brandon where it was shipped to Calgary. Tom went along with his mill while his family stayed behind and his son Frank took over the homestead.
Private Operations
It was not uncommon for a farmer to own a small portable mill. Such operations continue to this day. In the Mountainside area, Sam Smith had a steam sawmill operating In the fall of 1882.

Mr. Morton’s Mill: Max Lake / McKinney / Conroy Sawmill.

The Max Lake Sawmill also known as the Bolton Sawmill, it was built on Lake Max in 1881. It was bought by George Morton, then later owned by Hugh McCorquodale and then Bill Harvey. Then in 1910 Fred McKinney decided to buy the mill for him and his sons Doug, Bill, and Elson to run. They ran the mill till 1968.

There are stories of men from all over going to the mill to get wood, men willing to go through days of travel and fighting a battle with the furiously cold weather. There was a bunk house where they could stay at night with a fireplace in the middle to keep it warm.

The mill sat on the northern end of the lake, just west of a stream that flowed into the lake from a slough a couple hundred metres back from the shore. Cut logs were dumped into this slough. Afterwards, they were sent down a man-made channel to the lake where they were chained at the entrance to the lake from the stream. They were held here until there was room in the mill for them to be cut. The mill’s boiler stack was guyed up to a majestic oak tree by a long bolt that went straight through the tree.

The sawmill on the edge of north shore of Lake Max, while it was owned by Mr. Morton.

The machinery included a planer and shingle-mill.
In about 1910 Harvey sold the sawmill to Fred McKinney, who moved it from Lake Max two miles north to his property. They used the mill to do a limited amount of custom sawing until the timber reserve was opened up again in 1930. Bill Eaket soon joined in the operation, lending the use of his gas-powered tractor to run the mill.
Everything except for the actual sawing of the lumber was up to the customer to do. Trees were felled (by hand), trimmed and hauled (by horse) to the mill where they were sawed. The cost of this service was $10 to $12 per 1000 board feet.
The sawmill generated copious amounts of sawdust, which was put to use by the Municipality of Morton during the early 1930s. After being hauled to town the sawdust was mixed with arsenic and molasses and churned in a small cement mixer. This mixture was then spread along the road allowances to kill grasshoppers.
In 1938 Bill Eaket dropped out of the operation and Bill and Doug took over the business from their father. They ran the mill for an additional 25 years. During this time they were mostly sawing for local farmers who needed lumber to construct buildings, corrals and hay shelters.

The Morton Dairy

The most notable effort however was much more than that. George Morton was dreaming big when he purchased a large tract of land north of Whitewater Lake. He had his eye on a national market.

He came with the right experience. He had earned the title Cheese King of Canada while working as a cheese factory owner in Kingston, Ontario.

When he came to the Turtle Mountain area in 1878 he saw the potential for large-scale cheese production in this the rich hay land that borders the shoreline of the lake.

Map from Beckoning Hills

He persuaded businessmen in Kingston to invest in the Morton Dairy Farm Company and received (via his business connections with John A. MacDonald) the right to purchase 72 square miles (184 kms2) of land west of Whitewater Lake. He also received a confirmation from the CPR that a railway would be built through his land.

Each settler involved in the venture occupied one-quarter section of land with a small herd of dairy cattle supplied by the company. Morton bought the Lake Max Sawmill already in operation to supply lumber for his settlers, and he laid out a townsite on the northwest corner of Whitewater Lake to become a business centre and community base. It seemed that everything was in readiness and the venture was destined for success.

There were two problems. He wasn’t the only investor to have made plans on the basis of the promise of a rail connection. The railway wasn’t built past Whitewater Lake until 1886, and then farther south than Morton had been told, missing his land by a few miles.

And then there was the weather. Raising cattle through the vicious winter was trickier than expected. During the summer of 1882, dairy colonists brought 1,000 head of cattle from Emerson and Brandon and built corrals walled with tightly packed swamp hay, open to the sky. During the winter, instead of being let out to generate heat by movement, the cows were tightly packed in their corrals. As the sub-zero temperatures and storms of a prairie winter set in, hundreds of cows froze where they stood. Such a heavy loss ended the cheese project, but Morton had not lost faith in the agricultural potential of the area. He pressed on with his other enterprises and is now recognized of course as the founding father of Boissevain – Morton.

Carriage Maker

In Boissevain, Butler and Frith were carriage-makers and blacksmiths;

Lime Kilns

Angus McRuer describes one located near his Desford-area farm…

“This kiln was on a rise of land sloped to the north. A hole eight feet deep by ten feet across was made at the top of the slope. A trench three feet wide by thirty feet long was dug, starting at the bottom of the hill, up into the bottom of the big hole. It was like a big clay pipe. The trench acted as a damper.”

To prepare for a burn, stones were placed in the kiln leaving an arch at the bottom to hold the fire. The process took three days to reduce the limestone to powder. In addition to using it for making mortar, people used it to purify and freshen damp basements, and in cement and plaster and for whitewashing walls and ceilings.

There were several of these small local enterprises in our region. Many are small and barely recognizable. They are usually on the side of a creek bed or hill to allow access to one side of the kiln to feed the fire and to provide the necessary draft to create a hot and steady burn.

In the Beckoning Hills account of the history of the Johnstone family we learn that: “He built a log house, a log stable for his oxen and a dugout. Later he had a lime kiln on the bank of the creek where he slacked lime to white wash his house and those of his neighbors. “

Local histories give us glimpses of several sites…

“At one time there was a lime kiln on the southeast corner of the Hicks homestead one mile south of the Ninga Cemetery. There was no building. It was just a stone structure set into the side of the hill, about eight feet deep and ten feet in diameter. Limestone was plentiful in the surrounding area. Once it was started, the fire in the kiln was kept going day and night. Wood was used for fuel. Once the man responsible for keeping the fire stoked got drunk and let the fire go out. That batch of lime was spoiled! The intense heat reduced the limestone to powder.”

Concrete Block Construction

At first glance this attractive house on a farm near Boissevain looks like it might be one of the many fieldstone homes in the region. A closer look tells us that those building blocks are concrete.

For a few years in the early 20th century, many buildings in southern Manitoba were built with locally cast concrete blocks. Much larger than bricks, the blocks were hollow, and were typically flat on the interior face but variously patterned on the exterior face.

Because these blocks did not require high-temperature firing like bricks, there was no need for the substantial infrastructure used in conventional brick-making. They could be made on the building site with portable equipment.

Cement Block Manufacturing on the farm of W.J. McKinney, 1904 – Photo courtesy Mrs. Ina McKinney Beckoning Hills, page 73.

In this general overview we have mapped the locations and listed the enterprises.
For an introduction to the general nature of each industry see, Part 2
For more information on the individual enterprises, presented by Community, see Part 3

Flour Mills Pembina Region – East

Altona

Mill owners Isaac and David Fehr

Blumenort: 1877

Darlingford

Findlay Brothers

Emerson

Charles Borrow – 1876

Gretna

David Peters – 1889

LaRiviere

Flour mill started by Cary and Grant, burned. Ca. 1887

Manitou / Manitoba City

Manitou Roller Mills 1883
In about 1885, the McIntosh Mill from the abandoned village of Norquay

Morden

1885 – Ritchie and Lundy’s completed a flour mill and had it in in full operation.
1890 Morden Flour Mill established

Mountain City

Nelson Milling Co. moved from Nelsonville

Nelsonville

Adam Nelson – 1879. Nelson Milling Co. – 1879 Mr. Fraser – renamed Belmont Mills.

Pembina Crossing

1882 William P. Hutchinson

Pilot Mound

George White operated a grist mill and McDonald and Band built another mill.
Cheese Factory

West Lynne

1883 – HBC & Stuaffer’s Flour Mills,

Winkler

Dyck and Peters built the Winkler Grist Mill. Winkler Roller Mills replaced that service.

Flour Mills Pembina Region – West

Cartwright

In 1889 R.A. Sheppard, John Gimby, John Wallace, George B. Wray, A. Davidson, T.S. Mennary and E.D. Coates, planned to build a small mill at Cartwright, Manitoba.”
Clearwater

William Coulthard and his brothers John and Tom came to “Old” Clearwater in 1881, and built a gristmill on the river

Crystal City

1883 Crystal City mills commenced operations
Glenora

In 1882 by Blaine & Reid were operating a busy flour mill at the “old” site of Glenora

Holmfield

The Harrison Mill opened in 1897 and thrived for decades
Killarney

Finlay Young and Tom Buck built a flour mill in Killarney in 1893

Neelin

The short-lived Pembina Crossing mill was given a new life in Neelin, at the western edge of Rock Lake. Watson and Cowie, set up both a sawmill and a gristmill in the valley.

Preston

Between Rock Lake and Pilot Mound a saw and grist mill was built by James Preston in 1879.

Wakopa

The Harrison Brothers opened the first Flour Mill in the Turtle Mountain region in 1879.

Sawmills Pembina Region – East

Darlingford

Bolton’s Mill and Woodwork

Emerson

1881 Carney & Watson
Noble and Follis
Pembina Crossing

Watson’s Mill 1882

Pilot Mound

George White – 1881

Sawmills Pembina Region – West

Cartwright (Rock Lake) – Jim Waugh

Glenora

1882 by Blaine & Reid – 1882

Neelin

The Pembina Crossing flour mill was moved to Neelin by Watson and Cowie,
Preston

In 1879 a saw and grist mill was built by James Preston

Wakopa

Harrison Brothers 1879

Food Processing Pembina Region – East

Pilot Mound

Oatmeal Mill -0 George Dow

Manitou

Creamery and Cheese Factory
Soda Water Works, Oatmeal Mill, pump factory
LaRiviere

J. Rockett – cheese factory beside Mary Jane Creek.

West Lynne

Brewery, Pop Factory, Cheese Factory

Food Processing Pembina Region – West

Cartwright

Before the 1900’s, a cheese factory was started by W.G. Robinson it operated for only a short time. Oscar Beach began making cheese at his farm home.

Crystal City

Alexander Taylor managed a cheese factory at Crystal City.

Killarney

1889 Cheese factory – Isaac Wood manager. Nathan Clark also had a Cheese Factory.

Mather

Soft Drink Factory

Mather was one of a few communities that produced soft drinks. John Davie and Walter Small had a soft drink factory beginning in 1913.   The product was called “Jersey Cream”. They started on their farm, but moved in to Mather.

Neelin

William Coutts promoted a Cheese Factory which operated successfully in the district for several years.

Wakopa

John Hettle – Cheese Factory – 1885

Brickyards     Pembina Region – East

Darlingford

About 1898 Whalen’s Brick & Tile
Darlingford Brick & Tile Co. Ltd. ca. 1910

LaRiviere

About 1902 a brickyard was established with a payroll of about thirty men, including W. Carmichael as manager. He was followed by G.W. Dellar. The brickyards stayed in business for about five years.
Morden

MacGregor’s brickyard was south of the townsite and its products were used to erect several substantial brick buildings, including the Dominion Post Office.

Pilot Mound

East of the Mound ca. 1880

Brickyards Pembina Region – West

KillarneyChurch’s Brickyard 1884- 1903
Manufacturing Pembina Region – East

Manitoba City / Manitou

Pump Factory, Carriage Maker, Sash & Door Factory

Emerson

Noble and Follis manufactured common lumber, doors, sash, blinds. They employed about twenty-ﬁve hands.

Edward Sabin & Co. were general carriage, sleigh and cutter manufacturers.

Manufacturing Pembina Region – West

Cartwright

The Lightning Rod Factory
This flourishing industry was started by Munro Brothers and Ferris in 1910.

Pump Factory
Patrick Crawford McKibbin started a pump factory using logs from the area.
Albert Stillwell blacksmith and carriage maker.

Lime Kilns Pembina Region – West

Glenora

Preston Lime Kiln

Killarney

A lime kiln operated one mile south of the Ninga Cemetery.
Neelin

Several lime kilns in the region

Pilot Mound

There was a lime kiln on the east side of the mound.

Introduction

First… a word from wikipedia…

A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding.

We will use the terms gristmill, grist mill and flour mill interchangeably because all three are used in the source material.
………

A Trip to Gregory’s Mill

Cartwright pioneer, A.E. Steel, writing in the Cartwright local history, Memories Along the Badger Revisited, tells us this story of a trip he took in the early 1880’s. The mill in question was some distance away, outside of the Boundary Trail region, but we include as an illustration of the forces that prompted the establishment of local mills, and as a slice of life from the times.

Our first grist of wheat was taken to the flour mill at Glenora and a farmer got his own wheat ground into flour and got all the flour, bran and shorts that he owned. After that we went to Wakopa flour mill owned by Harrision Bros., and again I have made a number of trips to the Souris mill. The mill was equipped with the Hungarian Patent process and made an excellent grade of flour. Each round trip took four long days to go and return with oxen. The mill was kept running day and night, and if we were fortunate our gristing was done right away and we would be able to start for home without losing any time. The mill was owned by a man by the name of Gregory, and anyone that had to stay overnight was accommodated at his house. He had plenty of stable room and feed for the teams and the charge for man and beast was very reasonable.

I remember Bob Blackwell and myself going with our grists to the Souris mill with the oxen and wagon after the freeze-up. The weather was lovely so we travelled until quite late the first day and then camped out for the night. We had plenty of  with which to keep us warm. The next morning we hitched up early and got to Dunlop’s for breakfast. (The town, Dunrea, is situated on that place now, or at least part of it). The townsite is on part of two farms that were owned by Dunlop and Ray so the town was named after the two farmers.
Leaving Dunlop’s, we entered Lang’s Valley and travelled it for a few miles, then crossed up the other side and the next valley we entered was the Souris and then on across the river to the mill. This time there were a lot of grists ahead of us and that meant staying at the mill two nights instead of one. We could get our meals at the house but there wasn’t sleeping accommodation for all, so a number of us slept at the mill above the engine room which was nice and warm. We got loaded up and started for home before daylight on Saturday morning and travelled a good distance be- fore we stopped to feed our teams. After giving them a good feed we got going again. Bob said he intended to stay that night at a friend’s and he would not resume the journey until Monday morning, but I decided to go on home after feeding and resting the oxen. I passed through the north end of Killarney late at night, and after a while began to feel sleepy so I wrapped a quilt about me and lay between the bags. I knew the oxen would keep to the trail so I dropped off to sleep. I don’t know how long I slept, but when I awoke, I found the oxen both laying down. I got them going again and finally reached home before daylight on Sunday morning.
*Cartwright & District History Committee, Memories Along the Badger Revisited, 1985 p4

Mills Were a Priority

The European settlement of Southwestern Manitoba followed a process that had already been established elsewhere, across North America. People were here before services, before roads, before stores and towns

They really were starting from scratch. Slow transportation and long distances made self-sufficiency a must. They came to farm, and they already knew that wheat and other grains were to be the primary crops. The prairies were opened to agricultural settlement for one main economic purpose – to grow wheat. The problem with that was that it was so far to market that there was little profit to be made.

That was okay, they all knew that. Eventually rail lines would cross the land and everything would fall into place.

In the meantime, subsistence was a starting point.

Wheat and oats and barley were edible, even sought after, as a food supply… with a little processing. Many of the settlers from Ontario and Britain had no farming experience. Many were especially unprepared for the difficulties prairie farming would present. That wasn’t their fault – even for those with agricultural expertise, prairie farming was a whole new game. But most of the newcomers were pretty smart and self-sufficient. All of them kniew where flour came from, and that it could be used to make bread. The same with oats and oatmeal. They knew about flour or grist mills. Every community back home had one. Quite a few of them even knew how they worked.

Having a gristmill nearby, where one could at least exchange wheat for flour was a crucial advantage in making a homestead sustainable until a railway would arrive.

Turning wheat into flour represented Manitoba’s first step in becoming an industrialized society. Flour milling was practised by the province’s aboriginal peoples long before Lord Selkirk’s settlers engaged in the activity. When Manitoba gained provincial status in 1870, most flour mills were concentrated in the vicinity of the rapidly emerging city of Winnipeg. Flour mills supplied flour for the practical consumer needs of the district residents.

The First Mills – Pre-Railroad Settlements

In a sense the early mills were services that hoped to become towns. With the coming of the railway links we saw the creation of more lasting towns. These towns wanted a gristmill and would often offer what was called a Mill Bonus to attract such a business.

This map shows postal routes and pre-railroad communities as of about 1884.

The period from 1881 and 1882, known as the “Manitoba Boom”, saw intense speculation in land sale – especially in town lots. Everyone knew that the population of rural western Manitoba was going to explode. Towns would be built, businesses established, and money would be made.

The problem was that nobody was sure where all these new towns would be located. It all depended on where the railway lines would run, and where the railway company would decide to put a station. Although some railway surveys had been undertaken and some lines had been planned, no one knew where the stations would be. So some enterprising landowners decided that a piece of land they owned might just be a good spot for a town

Speculating in town lots was a bit like participating in a gold rush. You stake a claim and hope it pays. Exaggerations and outright lies were the tools of that trade. To sell the lots the promoter had to assure prospective buyers that the rail line was a sure thing. Another selling point was having a mill.

Conclusions

The establishment of the rural milling industry was a direct result of the confidence demonstrated by those entrepreneurs and farmers who invested their fortunes, toil, and tears in the development of the province’s agricultural resources. The conversion of wheat into flour for practical consumer purposes provided evidence to investors that the region was worthy of future development. The agricultural sector provided the engine for the growth of the entire province. Four milling played an important role in this achievement.

Even though many settlers had milling experience, and there was a definite need for the service, they weren’t prepared for the seasonal nature of prairie rivers and soon learned that water power wasn’t reliably available. Thus it was more costly here than in the east, and making a profit was more difficult.

The decline and extinction of small independent flour mills across Manitoba can be largely attributed to the uncompetitive position in which these mills were placed by the large milling companies after the first World War. Consumers of flour gravitated toward the more inexpensive product produced by the large mills. Lack of business suffocated the independent millers and most were driven out of the business.

The large milling concerns could not only undercut the price of flour that independent millers offered, but they operated at a distinct advantage because of their large reserves of capital. The large mills also had greater funds at their disposal for advertising.

Over the course of the twentieth century, Manitoba’s rural population base began to decline; rural residents migrated to urban centres.

All these factors played a part.

Although the flour milling industry in rural Manitoba faced its perhaps inevitable decline, the role it played in that short period of transition to an agriculture based economy was both important and interesting.

Sawmills

After treking half way across a continent in crowded lake boats, slow river boats, poorly appointed trains; after finishing the journey in ox carts, open wagons, or even on foot; the thought of building your first home on the prairie must have been appealing, to say the least. If the recent stretch of your long journey took you through the thriving town of Emerson or the well-populated city of Winnipeg, both appearing to have been visited by civilization, you might have some expectations that your new home might be similar to the ones you stopped in along the journey.

Welcome to the prairies.

Even if you could afford a nice frame home, perhaps forgoing the picket fence, the building materials were hard to come by. This new country didn’t seem to have lumberyards. Shipping lumber from the bigger centres was expensive and time-consuming.

In much of southern Manitoba, timber was scarce.

The scarcity of trees meant that the open prairie was easy convert into productive cropland. The downside was it was a long way even to get firewood, let alone building materials. The Pembina – Manitou area was a bit of an exception in that, the along the Pembina Escarpments and along the Pembina River and Rock and Swan Lakes, there were well-wooded spots. That allowed early settlers in that vicinity the option of using locally sourced wood.

If there was timber nearby, one of the first businesses set up in those pre-railroad settlements was a sawmill.

Some of those sawmills were small and temporary, not necessarily designed for commercial use, but set up to get a few buildings up.

Pioneer J.E. Parr describes the first sawmill in the Rock Lake area…

“Two posts were out in the ground about twelve feet from the precipitous bank, with timbers from the top of the bank to each post, far enough apart to roll logs out on.

“ The saw mill machinery consisted of a long pit-saw and two men. When a log was placed over the pit, the bark roughed off, and chalk-lined from end to end, with lines one inch apart, one man would stand up upon the log and the other in the pit , and operate the mill. Mr. Thos. Sandow’s house, built on section 18-2-11, was the first raised in the district, and the roof was sheeted with lumber from this mill” (McKitrick)

An unidentified sawmill site

The era of locally milled lumber was short, but important. Most of those first sawmills were in villages that would disappear when the railway arrived and new towns were born. That rail service also allowed for an easily accessible supply of milled lumber in most areas.

Brickyards

Manitoba is geologically blessed with thousands of clay deposits, hundreds of which have been exploited over the past 150 years for brick manufacture. The “Golden Age” of this aspect of Manitoba’s building history was from 1880 to 1912. There were about 60 major clay sites and about 175 brick manufacturing plants that provided the billions of bricks that were required for Manitoba’s major building boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The details of industrial operations were not often covered in local newspapers and so it is only possible to provide a sense of typical operations. The work was hard and the days were long. The pay was modest, about $2 a day, but it was steady, at least for the duration of the season, usually from May (when the frost left) till August or September. Even small yards had up-to-date technologies such as steam-power. A typical operation featured the large covered drying sheds that new bricks were laid into. It was the final stage of the brick-making operation that usually distinguished a major from a minor yard: whether the brick was fired in a scove or beehive kiln. The scove kiln. Most likely used in most operations in the southwest corner, was a less sophisticated technology, but one that was still effective enough to produce good quality brick. Burnings lasted about seven to eight days, and when the outer shell of bricks on a scove kiln was removed, workers discarded the disfigured and discoloured bricks nearer the fire source.

The Brick House

The first settlers often built a sod hut for those first few years. Logs were hard to find on the open prairie, but those living along near the Pembina Escarpment or in the vicinity of Rock Lake might start with a log house.

Settlers who arrived with a bit of cash in hand might opt to bring in building supplies, but many had to wait for that first frame dwelling.

Brick was desirable as a building material, but was even more expensive to ship than milled lumber, so it was some time before brick buildings became popular.

What helped that process along was the fact that some of those new settlers came with some experience making bricks, and they kept an eye out for deposits of clay that would serve that purpose.

Food Processing

In the same way that grist mills or flour mills were an obvious way to convert local product into food, butter and cheese factories were an early attempt to process milk locally. Several of these were small operations focusing on the local market.

In the same way that grist mills or flour mills were an obvious way to convert local product into food, butter and cheese factories were an early attempt to process milk locally. Several of these were small operations focusing on the local market.

The Archives of Manitoba has this photo of a Cheese Factory in Pilot Mound

Other less common enterprises include S.S. Mayers Stock Medicine Company started in Cartwright. It was so successful that he moved to operation to Winnipeg in 1910. A rather unexpected initiative was the establishement of soft drink manufacturing in Manitou, Mather, and West Lynne.

Then, as now, there were obstacles to overcome in trying to operate a manufacturing enterprise in small town. The bottom line was that many of these enterprises were just getting underway when the explosion in transportation technology, the extension of rail lines, and beginning of the automobile age, changed everything.

Lime Kilns

Some years ago, while walking along the high riverbank, I found what appeared to be an old well lined with fieldstones. I gave it little thought until I learned about the small lime kilns that settlers often constructed to make mortar for the many stone buildings that dot the southwestern corner.

They are another example of small, local, do-it yourself, prairie enterprises.

The remains of a small kiln.

Early settlers used it to purify and freshen damp basements, in the henhouse, in cement and plaster and for whitewashing walls and ceilings. Part of the spring housecleaning ritual was the whitewashing of the interior of the little building with the half moon cut in the door. The only “accessory” in that little building was a nail and string to hold the previous year’s Eaton’s catalogue, which was used to the very last page.

Angus McRuer describes one located near his Desford-area farm…

“This kiln was on a rise of land sloped to the north. A hole eight feet deep by ten feet across was made at the top of the slope. A trench three feet wide by thirty feet long was dug, starting at the bottom of the hill, up into the bottom of the big hole. It was like a big clay pipe. The trench acted as a damper.”

To prepare for a burn, stones were placed in the kiln leaving an arch at the bottom to hold the fire. The process took three days to reduce the limestone to powder. In addition to using it for making mortar, people used it to purify and freshen damp basements, and in cement and plaster and for whitewashing walls and ceilings.

There were several of these small local enterprises in our region. Many are small and barely recognizable. They are usually on the side of a creek bed or hill to allow access to one side of the kiln to feed the fire and to provide the necessary draft to create a hot and steady burn.

“This kiln was on a rise of land sloped to the north. A hole eight feet deep by ten feet across was made at the top of the slope. A trench three feet wide by thirty feet long was dug, starting at the bottom of the hill, up into the bottom of the big hole. It was like a big clay pipe. The trench acted as a damper.”

To prepare for a burn, stones were placed in the kiln leaving an arch at the bottom to hold the fire. The process took three days to reduce the limestone to powder. In addition to using it for making mortar, people used it to purify and freshen damp basements, and in cement and plaster and for whitewashing walls and ceilings.

There were several of these small local enterprises in our region. Many are small and barely recognizable. They are usually on the side of a creek bed or hill to allow access to one side of the kiln to feed the fire and to provide the necessary draft to create a hot and steady burn.

Once it was started, the fire in the kiln was kept going day and night.

Most of these operations ceased in the early 1900’s as commercial building supplies became more readily available.

Nelsonville

Sometimes opportunity knocked and a pioneer responded.

In the accounts passed down by the first settlers in Manitoba’s southwestern corner the name Nelsonville keeps popping up. It was a stop along their trek westward from Emerson. It was where they were able to buy their last supplies before heading into a land that didn’t yet have stores or other services.

It sounds like it was an important place, but you won’t find it on any modern map.

It is perhaps the best example of a Manitoba boom town.

It is fitting that the first gristmill west of Emerson was built there.

The region in 1884, showing Postal & Stage Rotes.

When the Adam Nelson homesteaded in the area north of present day Morden, starting a mill wasn’t part of the plan. Mr. Nelson was one of many who had selected a property sight unseen. When he arrived, he was at first a little concerned by the stands of trees on what he had hoped would be typical open prairie – ready for the plow.

So one of his first projects was to build a grist and sawmill on Silver Creek. Mr. Pugh – ran the sawmill. A shingle mill is also mentioned. The village followed, and soon it was a busy place. It was incorporated as a town, now officially named Nelson, in 1882. Choice corner lots were selling for as much as $1000. A substantial brick town hall was erected with rooms for the Land Registry Office, a County Court, and a Council Chamber. A full range of stores and services lined the Main Street. The Dominion Government had virtually promised that the CPR would run through Nelsonville and proceed westward.

By 1880 the Nelsons had moved their mill to the rival boomtown Manitoba City.

Rival communities, Nelsonville and Mountain City. The Land Office located at Nelsonville is another indication of its importance.

In 1879 a second operation was started at Nelsonville. It was built by the Duncan Brothers, and a Mr.Stevenson, under the firm name of the Nelson Milling Co. Mr. Fraser purchased the operation in 1881 and called it the Belmont Mills. By 1883 the press reported that, “having recently re-fitted and improved, (the mills) are now in full blast.”

And finally, in January of 1886, we learn that Mr. Nelson’s flour and saw-mill, was burned to the ground.

At that time the mills, which were considered old landmarks in Southern Manitoba, were the leading mills of that section of the country and commanded the trade of 100 miles of fair farming country.

The insurance amounted to $2,500, and the loss was estimated at $10,000.

An advertisement in Nelsonville’s Manitoba Mountaineer newspaper of 7 September 1883 advised that the Nelson Brick and Tile Manufacturing Company was offering 30,000 “First Class Hard Bricks” for sale, along with a “large quantity of Soft Bricks, at $10 per thousand.”

Mountain City

Mountain City, was also vying for the right to be seen as the commercial centre of the region. The Nelson Mills appeared to thrive for a few years. On Dec. 2, 1880, a news report from Mountain City, reported that: “Messrs Nelson and Pugh have to keep their mill running night and day to fill orders and yet cannot supply demand.”

In what was to become a familiar story across western Canada, the railway surprised everyone and passed between the two towns and created Morden, in a bare field along Dead Horse Creek. The first two towns in the region just disappeared, their buildings moved or dismantled.

This ad from April 27, 1881 goes on to list the gristmill and sawmill as features of the town. Unlike the many exaggerated claims made for boom towns, these services were indeed available in Mountain City.

Press Clips

S: MFP, March 2, 1881, p. 1. “Nelsonville News” – “Mr. Fraser, of the late C.P.R. firm of Fraser, Pitblado and Company, has purchased the mill and is coming to reside here at once.”
S: Nwfmm, November 1883, p. 277. “The Belmont Mills, at Nelson, owned by James H. Fraser, Esq., having recently been re-fitted and improved, are now in full blast.”
S: Nwfmm, January 1886, p. 354. “The Nelson, Manitoba flour and saw-mill, owned by Mr. James Fraser, was burned to the ground lately. The damage was $10,000 with slight insurance. The cause of the fire is unknown, the mill having been shut down nearly twelve hours when the fire was discovered.”
The flour mill contained three run of stone and the saw mill had a daily capacity of 10,000 feet of lumber. They were erected by Messrs. Duncan Brothers and Stevenson under the firm name of the Nelson Milling Company in 1879. Mr. Fraser purchased them in 1881, the price paid being about $8,000.
The fire was discovered about 5 a.m., but having made considerable headway, resulted in a total loss. The cause of the fire is unknown, but is supposed to have originated in the engine room. The insurance amounted to $2,500 and the loss is estimated at $10,000.

Glenora

Glenora can lay claim to being the first “town” in the RM of Argyle in that there was a half-hearted effort to promote the original site of Glenora by the usual method of selling lots to speculators. The site, unlike the many other wonder towns, did have both some potential and some actual commercial activity. That commercial activity included a sawmill, a store, an implement dealer and a grist mill built in 1882 by Blaine & Reid (SE of 20-3-l3).

It was the grist mill that is credited with providing Glenora with its name. It was named after an Ogilvie Co. mill near Montreal that was called Glenora Mill, and produced “Glenora Patent” flour.

Winnipeg Daily Sun – Sept. 13, 1881

Winnipeg Daily Sun – Dec 3, 1884

Interestingly, although the ad in the Winnipeg Sun from September of 1881 has clearly identified the townsite of Glenora (without giving the exact location!), at least one pioneer recalls that “I never heard any name except “Mill and Store” for that village”. Named or not, it was the commercial centre of the region for a short time and is recalled in several pioneer reminiscences. Alex Rankin from Killarney recalls traveling to Glenora “for grists”. A Clearwater pioneer remembers that the first trip for “grists” was to Glenora. The mill burned in 1885 and it appears that the store may have closed soon after, but the name was well enough established to be resurrected when the railway finally arrived a few kilometers to the northeast. The millstone from that mill has been carefully placed on grounds of St. George’s Anglican Church, in Glenora.

Glenora Press

S: Nwfmm, Dec. 1885, p.313.
“The Glenora saw and grist mill at Rock Lake, owned by Blain and Co., was burned to the ground at 4 o’clock in the morning of Sunday, 28th Oct. The damage amounts from $8,000 to $10,000 without insurance.”

S: Commercial, December 18, 1883. “A new grist mill is being erected at Glenora, by Messrs. Blain and Reeves. It is expected to be in operation in a little over a month.”
S: Commercial, May 3, 1887, p. 654. “The settlers in the Glenora district, Turtle Mountain, are agitating for a roller flour mill, and a bonus by-law may be submitted.

S: Nwfmm, December 1885, p. 313. “The Glenora saw and grist mill at Rock Lake, owned by Blain and Company, was burned to the ground at 4 o’clock in the morning of Sunday, October 28. The damage amounts to from $8,000 to $10,000 with no insurance
The Preston Lime Kiln

There were about 12 lime kilns in the region. For years, the Cooper Bros. operated a lime kiln east of the top of Victoria Hill, near Neelin.

The most notable was operated by the Preston Brothers and Herman Davis on the steep north shore of Rock Lake not far from Glenora. It started in operated from1893 until 1903 and was one of the largest kilns in Western Manitoba. It was one of two Preston family lime kilns. This one had a 20 bushel capacity.

It is one of the best-preserved examples of a lime kiln in the region.

Small kilns are common throughout the region but the Preston kiln was larger than most.

Like many kilns it was located on a slope, allowing access to the bottom level where the fire was tended. Rock Lake is in the background.

The view from below.

Pilot Mound

A curious elevation of land a bit east of Rock Lake was a reliable landmark for generations of Aboriginal and Metis hunters, Canadian fur traders, and early European settlers who travelled in the Pembina Mountain country.

The mound and the vault left behind when buildings were moved to the “new” village of Pilot Mound.By 1879 there were quite a few homesteads being taken in the area and a spot on the eastern slope of what was then known as “Little Dance Hill” was chosen for a village. The first general store came in 1880, and was followed by more stores and services. One of those services was a gristmill built on the banks of the nearby creek by T.P. and Ben White. There was a sawmill on the east side of the mound run by McIntosh and McKenzie, by the brickyard At first a Mr. Carson made bricks by hand. Later Harry Steadman operated the yard, and later still Tom Dearlove provided a horse-power machine. R.J. Duncan provided a steam engine in trade for bricks.
There was a lime kiln on the east side of the mound, by the brickyard. It was operated by Mr. Beveridge.

Once again the “old” town was replaced with the arrival of the railway.

The Cheese Factory in Pilot Mound

In the early days of the new town, George White operated a grist mill and McDonald and Band built another mill. This last one was sold to Dow and Will, and burned down.

In 1893 “Great West Oatmeal Mills” was built by George Dow and Adam Curry. A large building was erected and it was a quite a success for some time. They shipped their product far and wide, including to Britain.

Press Clips

S: CH, Memories of Pioneer days at Pilot Mound, William Reid, 1903, p. 15. “A flour and grist mill was built on the banks of the creek by T.P. and Ben White.” – c.1882.
S: Nwfmm, May 1889, p. 133. “T. McKay, J.B. Barid, Jno. Hiebert, W.A. Donald, Jno. M. Fraser, Jno. Knox, W. Carson, J.B. Gordon and W.C. burns, of Pilot Mound, Manitoba, are applying for incorporation as the Pilot Mound Milling Company, with power to carry on at Pilot Mound and elsewhere in Manitoba, a milling, flour, grain and elevating business. Capital $16,000. An American firm offer to supply the company with machinery for a roller four mill. The price asked is $7,327. In addition the engine will cost $1,575, without boilers. The mill to be 75 barrel capacity. Another firm at Minneapolis offer to provide all the machinery required, including engine, for $10,000.
S: Nwfmm, July 1889, p. 187. “Letters patent have been issued incorporating T. McKay, [et al.], as the Pilot Mound Milling Company Limited. Capital $16,000.” - “The new roller process flour mill at Pilot Mound, will leave the old one unused for making flour, and as there are the building, stones and machinery “
S: Nwfm, January 1890, p. 372. “A public meeting was recently held at Pilot Mound, Manitoba to consider the proposal of Mr. Messner to move the St. Leon mills there. It was stated the buildings and machinery would be moved to Pilot Mound if farmers would assist with their teams in the removal. A bonus of $1,000 would also be required. The well and ground owned by the Pilot Mound Milling Company would be taken as part of the bonus. The establishment consists of a stone flour mill, a barley and oatmeal mill.”
S: Nwfm, April 1890, p. 461. “Pilot Mound was one of the earliest places in the province to have a grist mill, and has always been a first rate centre for such a business. The mill from the old town was moved over among other buildings when the new town was started, but was behind the requirements of the times, and business difficulties prevented its being successfully operated. At last Mr. Frazer, the pioneer of the settlement, made an arrangement with Mr. Whitelaw, of Woodstock, Ontario, to move his flour mill from Darlingford and the oatmeal mill from St. Leon, to be located on the site provided by the joint stock company last year. Besides giving a site and well free, the town gives $500 bonus when the machinery is laid down, $500 more when the mill is completed, and $700 more in March, 1891. The roller mill will make over 60 barrels of flour a day, and the oatmeal mill will have the same capacity. Stones for chopping will also be put in, and as fuel is reasonably low and the district well settled a first-rate business may be relied on . Farmers have been busy hauling the oatmeal mill machinery from St. Leon, a distance of 25 miles, and the work will be pushed rapidly to completion.”
S: Nwfm, June 1890, p. 522. “R. Whitelaw of Woodstock, Ontario is having plans prepared for the new mill which he will erect this year at Pilot Mound, Manitoba.”
S: Nwfm, October 1890, p. 639. “The new engine and other machinery for the Pilot Mound, Manitoba flour and oatmeal mills has arrived. Millwrights from Ontario are placing it in position.”

Wakopa

A Cairn marks the general locality of Wakopa

The first entrepreneur in the Turtle Mountain district was a fur trader, Bernard B La Rivière.

He settled in Nelsonville, a would-be boom town, that quickly disappeared when Morden was established. On a hunting trip to Turtle Mountain in 1876, he saw an opportunity. The Red River valley was already dotted with farming communities. Everyone knew that European settlers would be pushing westward soon. Treaties were being signed and railways were being planned. Homestead regulations were being formulated.

He decided to be ahead of the crowd, to have a stopping place and store up and running for when the trickle of traders, surveyors, and travellers already venturing westward gave way to a steady stream of homesteaders. There would be many of them and they would need supplies.

Just as a would-be gas station owner in later times would prefer to be on a highway, La Rivière had the same plan. The Boundary Commission Trail was the highway. He selected a spot on the Long River, just east of the slope of Turtle Mountain, a spot once used by Assiniboine hunters as a camping place.

They were quickly followed by the Harrison Brothers and Mr. Williams who built a sawmill and gristmill powered by water wheels and using grinding stones brought from France. Soon the first sod and log homes gave way to buildings of milled lumber. The first frame house in the Turtle Mountain area was built in 1880

The development of the grain business began in Wakopa long before the railway was built through Boissevain and Killarney. In 1878 Matthew Harrison built saw and flour mills in the new village. The mill was powered by a water wheel on the banks of Long River. George Bennett brought the first gristmill stones to Wakopa, imported from France.
A water wheel also powered the family sawmill. To accommodate the settlers who brought their wheat from afar by oxen to be ground into flour, the family built a boarding house and large livery barn.
These businesses, along with B.B. Lariviere’s Store and Stopping Place established Wakopa as an important place. People came to Wakopa, bringing grain to be ground into ﬂour, or buying lumber at the sawmill. Meals were served at the Harrison home, at La Riviere’s, and at Mrs. J. Melville’s boarding house.

Winnipeg Daily Sun, April 28, 1884The coming of the railway to Killarney doomed this busy centre. The brothers disassembled their mill and built Killarney’s first grain elevator. Later they built a gristmill at Holmfield that would serve the area for many decades.
On the second floor of that historic building one can still see the rough cut 2 by 6’s that were sawn at the old Wakopa for the Harrison’s next enterprise.
And a visitor to the Turtle Mountain Flywheel Clun Museum in Killarney can see the machinery from the original Wakopa gristmill on display.

Mill stones are in various places. One is in the Cairn at Wakopa and one is in the museum in Boissevain.

Cheese Factory

John Hettle formed a company in 1885, of which T. A. Sharpe and the Young brothers were directors, to operate a steam-powered butter and cheese factory on Sharpe’s Creek on NE 26-1-19. Later the herd had to be destroyed because of disease and the factory was dismantled.
Press Clips
S: Nwfmm, August 1883, p. 218. ”It is estimated that the loss by the burning of the mills at Wakopa will amount to at least $8,000.”
S: Nwfmm, May 1887, p. 838. ”William Harrison, proprietor of the grist mills at Wakopa, Manitoba, will put in roller process machinery.”

Pembina Crossing

The Boundary Commission Trail crossed the Pembina River in a broad valley south of present day Manitou. Crossings were often likely spots to establish a Stopping Place and other services. As always, good crossings on the Boundary Trail were not necessarily chosen by the railway.

Pembina Crossing, south of Manitou (no date)
Source: Ed Grassick

This item from the media at the time sums up the vitality of the community in 1882.

“Pembina Crossing 1882. (From the Manitoba Mountaineer, Nelsonville, Manitoba)

This city is known as the Pembina Crossing and this is written at the Pioneer’s Rest, and William P. Hutchinson, proprietor – a first class host who boasts a billiard table, a sample room, a new organ and organist, with lots of good singing every night, a splendid bill of fare, and all for $4.00 per week. Ten regular boarders, besides his own family and hired help. Is furnishing wood for grist mill that is running here. It is grinding for fifteen cents per bushel. Take that, ye extortionists. The town boasts a general store, post office, a blacksmith shop, two hotels.
William and his sister, Jeannette, established a Stopping Place and a butcher shop at Pembina Crossing in the early 1880’s for the benefit of the homesteaders who were using that route to enter Canada from the United States.

Some other press clipping from the era provide additional details…

June 2, 1881. The Queen’s birthday (May 24) was royally celebrated here by a large assembly in the following manner: foot races, horse race, pony race, a lively game of baseball was much enjoyed by the boys. We were also glad to see a grand turnout of the much- needed sex in Manitoba. (Emerson International.)

“Mr. H. H. Black, a dentist by profession, arrived in the Pembina Crossing district from Emerson by team, in June 1880. He had married in Halifax, NS, and afterwards traveled through the United States as far as Colorado. His father (George C.) and his elder brother (George) lived in Winnipeg. H. H. Black did not wish to be a dentist and he loved “the outdoors.” Therefore he took up a homestead (SEI/4 24-2-9W), but due to an injured foot, Mr. Black was unable to carry on with farming.

Old St. Luke’s Pembina Crossing Anglican Church (Archives of Manitoba)

Originally a general store, post office, and saloon, built in May 1880, this log building was in use until 1920 when it was replaced by a new building, which opened on 26 September 1920. The following year, by an unfortunate accident, it burned down although most of the furniture and fittings were saved. In 1922, it was replaced by the present structure, a municipally-designated historic site as of 2011.

St. Luke’s Pembina Crossing Anglican Church (August 2018)
Source: George Penner

Clearwater, Neelin & Preston

At the time this map was drawn in the early 1890’s, Neelin (near the site of Roseberry) was not yet created, an Glenora was just a Post Office south of where the town would be located.

Clearwater

The village of Clearwater existed for nearly five years in the valley below where the current village sits, and only had to move a short distance to be on the line. It was a busy little place with a few stores, a boarding house and a hotel. There was a blacksmith, a tailor, a shoemaker, and a doctor.

William Coulthard and his brothers John and Tom came to “Old” Clearwater in 1881, and built a gristmill on the river. Locals report that it made “very fair flour, but if the wheat was badly frozen it was out of the question to get good bread from the flour.”

There are very few other mentions of this mill, but one press report indicates that it was being upgraded in 1893. Proximity to other towns may have made it unnecessary.

Neelin

Mill machinery was valuable. When one closed the machinery was generally moved elsewhere. The short-lived Pembina Crossing mill was given a new life in Neelin, at the western edge of Rock Lake. Watson and Cowie, set up both a sawmill and a gristmill in the valley, using water power from a fast flowing spring. By damming up the spring in the evening, there was enough power to run the mill all the next day. Eventually this mill was changed to steam power, and the spring just used to wash away the sawdust.
The mills were destroyed by a prairie fire. There are two reports as to just when that happened. One says, this mill, along with the other two in the valley, was destroyed in the big prairie fire of 1886.

Another report offers different details…”In 1893, a prairie fire swept through and left devastation in its wake. It was not checked until it had reached J. Brinkworths. Trees, logs for buildings, game and stock were not spared. It burned the Cowie and Watson Grist and Sawmill. They did not rebuild.“

Prairie fires were common, sometimes with tragic results, but generally property damage was the main concern.
John Montague had two sawmills, one on the Neelin farm and one at Kelly’s creek.

Lime Kiln

The Cooper Bros. operated a lime kiln east of the top of Victoria Hill. Roseberry Lime Kiln was on the W.W. Sexsmith farm at 2-4-14.

Bricks

Mr. Rossom and W.W. Sexsmith made some sample bricks at the Roseberry Lime Kiln on the Sexsmith farm (2-4-14) intending to produce if orders were places.

Cheese Factory

William Coutts , who homesteaded about three kilometres north of Neelin ( 36-3-15) was a outstanding teacher, and also deeply interested in the affairs of the community. Largely through his efforts a cheese factory was established which operated successfully in the district for several years.

Preston

On several maps from the 1880’s one finds Preston, west of Pilot Mound. In 1879 a saw and grist mill was built by James Preston on 13-3-12, a store too was built at this location. The machinery for the mill was brought from Ontario and freighted from Emerson in 1879 by neighbours with horses and oxen.
A short article in the Winnipeg Free Press in the winter of 1880 commented:

“in Preston which takes its name from three families who moved in there one year ago. Being enterprising businessmen. they already have a sawmill in operation, and are making active preparations for a grist mill. They are offering free building sites to business men and mechanics who will become permanent settlers. “

Lumber from the Preston sawmill was used in the first church west of the Pembina at Crystal City in 1879.

R.S. Preston During 1881 the mills were burned down. The sawmill was later rebuilt in the valley, but only operated for a short time as Mr. Preston had the misfortune of having his arm cut off by the saw.

A plaque at the site of Goudney School (SE 14-3-12) reads.

“This steam boiler is the only remaining artifact of the sawmill that was built by James B. Preston on the creek a short distance west from the bridge, ¼ mile north of this site. The sawmill operated from 1879 – till destroyed by fire in 1881 and supplied lumber for much of the first construction in the area. Placed her by Goudney Memorial Committee A.D. 1980.”

Press Clips

S: AM, March 1, 1884, p. 137. “Watson and Cowie are establishing a mill at the head of Rock Lake, Manitoba, the machinery for which is brought from the grist mill at Pembina Crossing, which is now dismantled.”

Cartwright & Mather

People these days tend to forget the extent to which things were manufactured locally. Perhaps this is because we are so far removed from the site of the production of many of the goods we consume that we haven’t thought about how the process isn’t always difficult to create on a small scale.

Cartwright

Before the 1900’s, a cheese factory was started by W.G. Robinson it operated for only a short time. Oscar Beach began making cheese at his farm home. Mr. Beach made good cheese and supplied nearby towns, as well as local trade, for several years.
About 1902, S. S. Mayers started the S. S. Mayers Stock Medicine Factory, and the remedies became quite renowned. By 1905 this company was shipping up to 179 boxes and pails of their preparations a week. There were agencies for these medicines in over two hundred other towns. In 1910, he moved the business to Winnipeg.
Press Items
S: NWFMM, April 1889, p. 100. “A stock company comprising R.A. Sheppard, John Gimby, John Wallace, George B. Wray, A. Davidson, T.S. Mennary and E.D. Coates, will build a small mill at Cartwright, Manitoba.”

Mather

Mather was one of a few communities that produced soft drinks. John Davie and Walter Small had a soft drink factory beginning in 1913. The product was called “Jersey Cream”. They started on their farm, but moved in to Mather. They made deliveries to the neighbouring towns of Clearwater and Cartwright.

Crystal City

Crystal City, as the name implies, was created by optimists. It was, in a sense a planned community, established by Thomas Greenway who toured the region in 1878 and returned with settlers the following year. It was the site of the first registered Church building west of Emerson. It would naturally have been the site of a flour mill.

Although local history volumes offer scant details about the mill. We do find mention tha the son of Thomas Greenway worked in the Rolling Mill in town. Another report has a flour mill “south of the elevators” that burned down.
The press however offers a sort of timeline of events – the outline of the story. From it one sees a familiar pattern. Ownership changes were routine. Moving and starting elsewhere was common.
Press Clips
S: Nwfmm, November 1883, p. 299. “Crystal City mills commenced operations on the first of this month.”
S: Nwfmm, February 1884, p. ____. “The Louise municipal council at their recent meeting, held at Rock Lake, decided to relieve the grist mill at Crystal City, and Clearwater, from paying taxes.”
S: AM, June 1, 1885, p. 302. “The grist mill at Crystal City, Manitoba is to be moved to Snowflake, Manitoba.”
S: Nwfmm, June 1888, p. ____. “I have just finished changing a mill from burrs to roles for Cochrane and Manson, Crystal City, Manitoba on the short system of three reductions of wheat and three on middlings – Millwright.”
S: Nwfmm, April 1889, p. 100. “Mr. Crawford, of the Crystal City, Manitoba mill, will build another one at the station, larger than the one he owns at the old town site. A bonus in wheat, to be delivered next fall, is offered him.”
S: Nwfm, December 1889, p. 340. “The roller mill at Crystal City, Manitoba is now running.”
S: The Commercial, 1893, p. 634. - Owner J.W. Cochrane with 125 barrel capacity per day.

Cheese Factory
Alexander Taylor managed a cheese factory at Crystal City.
Some ads placed in a promotional publication in about 1911 remind us the custom made clothing was an option in Crystal City, a sort of manufacturing on a small scale.

Promoting Industrial Growth
Crystal City was probably not alone in actively seeking out manufacturers. The ad offers a perspective on what a “progressive” town would see as important.

Emerson

In 1876 a steam grist mill, with two run of stone, was built in Emerson by Mr. Charles Borrow. Press reports indicate that the HBC renovated a large Flour Mill in 1884 . At various times a mill called the Stauffer Mill, and ones owned by Fraser & Co. and Pocock & Sons were in business.In 1881 Messrs. Carney & Watson built a sawmill which had the capacity of turning out 25,000 feet of lumber per day, using hard wood taken from their own timber, located on the Red River, a few miles south of town. Noble and Follis manufactured common lumber, doors, sash, blinds. Their factory was located on Main Street, and consisted of one building 24×54 feet in area, with two ﬂats; also an, addition of 16×50 feet. They employed about twenty-ﬁve hands.Edward Sabin & Co. were general carriage, sleigh and cutter manufacturers. In connection with their manufacturing they conducted a general blacksmithing, shoeing and repair shop.Press ClipsS: Commercial, September 4, 1883, p. 413. “The Hudson Bay Company have decided to reopen their large flour mill here. Water is to be supplied the mill from a drain from the river up which water will be forced by windmill power. A warehouse with a capacity of 12,000 bushels is to be built alongside the mill. The company will also build a 20,000 bushel elevator at the station.”S: Nwfmm, October 1883, p. 254. “The HBC are building a large grain storehouse next to their mill at West Emerson.”S: AM, January 1, 1884, p. 28. “The addition to the Hudson Bay Company’s mill at Emerson, Manitoba, is nearly completed. It is proposed to convey the water supply from the Red River by means of a trench to a reservoir beneath the mill.”S: Commercial, July 8, 1884, p. 805. “The Emerson steam grist mill commonly known as Stuaffer’s Mill, was sold on the 2nd inst., under a foreclosure of mortgage, and was purchased by Mr. Curran for $4,220. It will be put in operation of Monday the 7th.”S: AM, August 1, 1884, p. 430. - “Stauffer’s Mill”, at Emerson, Manitoba, was sold July 2 under a foreclosure of the mortgage. It was purchased by Mr. Curan for $4,220. It was put in operation July 7.”S: AM, April 1, 1885, p. 194. “At Emerson, Manitoba, on Mach 30, James Watson was killed by the bursting of the fly-wheel of a grain crusher, and Mr. Van Wert was wounded in the arm.”S: Nwfm, January 1892, p. 24. “Fraser and Company’s grist mill at Emerson, Manitoba is running to its fullest capacity.”S: Commercial, 8th Annual Supplement, p. 634. - Owner: Fraser and Company with 300 barrel day capacity.S: CMGE, March 1910, p. 75. - “The German Milling Company has bought Pocock and Son’s mill at Emerson, Manitoba.”West LynneWest Lynne Charter for the incorporation of West Lynne was granted in l882. The town was laid out twenty four blocks long and three and one half blocks wide.West Lynne boasted of four general stores; six hotels and a brewery, where a six quart pail could be purchased for ﬁfteen cents. They also had a pop factory and a cheese factory.Press reports indicate several flour mills operated for a time.Press ClipsS: HBCA, D.20/16 – 1880. - J. Ogden Grahame to J.A. Grahame, May 5, 1880, fo. 139 – mentions memo regarding new mill to be built there. - C.J. Brydges to J.A. Grahame, May 6, 1880, fo. 141 – regarding erecting mill and granary: “I am satisfied it is better than letting anyone else do it and it will materially help your store and the place and surroundings generally.” - J.H. McTavish to J.A. Grahame, July 5, 1880, fo. 441 – laid out sites for mill and granary at West Lynne: “the same as those chosen by yourself ;” Kenway received only 1 tender for $5,000 which shouldn’t be accepted until estimate made.”S: HBCA, D.20/23 – 1882 Ronald McLaren (St. Boniface) to J.A. Grahame, June 15, 1882, fo. 144 - offer to move “flouring mill” at West Lynne and Erect same on a new site about 300 feet from its present position as specified in advertisement;” 20 feet addition to end of building; new engine room; sink well; for $8,860.00. - fo. 149 – copy of call for tenders Charles Esplin to J.A. Grahame, June 17, 1882, fos. 150-155 – tender - D. Matheson (W.L.) to J.A. Grahame, June 20, 1882, fo. 164 – Emerson mill offering 95 cents per bushel; Ogilvie Company paid $1 for 2000 bushels delivered at Emerson station.S: HBCA, D. 20/25 – 1883 D. Matheson to J.A. Grahame, January 5, 1883, fos. 6 and 6d - This fall when the mill was being re-erected I had two wells sunk to the depths of 24 and 30 feet, getting water in both cases at 12 feet but not in sufficient quantity to run the mill and I have not the means of going deeper. A supply could have been brought from the River at an expense (before frost set in) of $700.00, but as you were absent I did not feel at liberty of going to the expense.” - mill is idle; feels bad grain would prevent profitability in any case; “and now that grains are being run on the Pembina Mountain Branch of the C.P.R. all the Western grain hitherto sold here, will be marked at Smuggler’s Point and other stations along the line.”S: G.F. Tennant (Mayor, West Lynne) to J.A. Grahame, March 20, 1883, fos. 266-267 – urges Company to operate mill or leave it; present mill prevents others from operatingS: HBCA, D. 20/31, 1884. D. Matheson to J. Wrigley, November 10, 1884, fo. 24 – took possession of mill on a “landlord’s warrant”; to be put up for sale; engineer wishes lease transferred to him, “but he thinks the conditions are too exacting and the rent too high.””It is reported that the Hudson’s Bay Company’s mill, at West Lynne, will be remodelled to the roller system.”Manitou & Manitoba City

Manitoba CityManitoba City was yet another ambitiously named community. By 1883 it had become a roaring town with six licensed hotels, two liquor stores, five livery stables, three lumber yards, a Medical Hall which housed the drug store but also held offices for out of town doctors and other businessmen to set up appointments, an undertaker, and numerous grocery, hardware and implement outlets. Seven Justices of the Peace were appointed in an attempt to keep the boom town under control.

Alas a bit of a turf war, worthy of a modern industrial intrigue movie, ended with Manitoba City giving way to its rival Manitou – a competing village located just on the other side of the new railway line.The story, involving, land speculators, sharp lawyers, crooked CPR managers, and a general assortment of shady deals, is well told on several of the Manitou local histories.Like quite a few boomtowns – it had a grist mill – but the life of the town, and thus the mill, was short.ManitouIn 1881 John McIntosh started a small mill at Norquay, north of Swan Lake and in 1893 moved the mill to Manitou as Manitou Roller Mills.The building was a black, two story, box-shaped structure. On the second floor were a track and push-car and a storeroom. The bags of feed and flour were placed on the moved to the chute on the south side o f the building. The customer’s vehicle backed under the chute and the bags slid down. The local newspaper reported: “Any institution that is a means of drawing trade to a town is of necessity an important factor in the prosperity of that town.“ Business from a wider radius gravitated to Manitou. Farmers could deliver wheat to the mill, drop milk off at the cheese factory, exchange eggs and butter for groceries at the store of their choice, have a square meal at the hotel for a few cents, spend an afternoon catching up on news around the stove at the livery barn, then late in the day pick up flour ground from their own grain. They usually took home the bran and shorts to be made into mash for the livestock. Screenings from the cleaner provided fuel for the mill along with cordwood brought in exchange for milling services. Often no money needed to change hands.Revisions included a new seventy horsepower boiler, all that was needed to keep the mill up to date.An ad from 1899 stated: Manitou Mills – Grinding done promptly, Chopping on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Best Hungarian Flour – $1.80. Best Strong Bakers Flour – $1.60.A Mr. Whiteford operated it until the early 1920’s when it was closed.

This ad appeared in the Manitou paper in 1885. We don’t know if John McIntosh bought it, or whether it had already ceased operation. Either way, the name lived onThe Manitou Creamery and Cheese Factory CompanyThe cheese factory was managed by Mr. Story and Mr. Boyle. After initial reluctance of Winnipeg outlets to pay a fair price, the superior quality of the product was eventually recognized in Winnipeg and good prices were offered.Pump FactoryIn January 1885, the Manitou Mercury reported that Mr. Lane had a pump factory, which had been a successful operation for some time.In 1889, H. C. Pierce also opened a pump factory. He sold out to C. R. Gordon in 1891 and went to Hartney to set up another pump factory.In the fall of 1888, John C. Findlay opened a wagon shop on Ellis, adjacent to Waldie and Scott’s implement business. It became a steam pump factory for which he imported Tennessee white wood, apparently, the best material to use.Sash and Door FactoryTwo sash and door factories once operated in Manitou.Carriage MakersAlfred Morris and Jonathan Hughes were both carriage makers who operated out of Manitoba City, after starting out in Archibald.In 1908 Joe Cumberland has opened a general carriage and repair shop.Allan and Pilgrim Soda Water Works;Messrs. Allan and Pilgrim began the bottling of Cream Soda 1885. Mr. Pilgrim died in December of that year while Mr. Allan continued to operate the factory until April of 1887.ArchibaldOne route settlers might follow to get to the area near Manitou, was the Brandon House Trail, one used by fur traders at based a Pembina. In 1878 Alexander Bethune travelled this way to his homestead. He opened a store and a Post Office was opened in the home of neighbour, Mr. Davidson. Although that was the extent of the buildings in the “village” of Archibald, there were a few businesses nearby, including a second store. J. Hughes was listed as a carriage maker, as was A. Morris.Press ClipsS: Commercial, April 8, 1884, p. 545. “Mr. W. Thompson and Mr. Brown, have undertaken to erect an oatmeal mill, at Manitou, of 125 barrels capacity, for a bonus of 10,000 bushels of oats, to be completed and running by the 1st of November next.”S: Nwfm, December 1889, p. 340. “A meeting was recently held at Manitou to discuss the advisability of trying to induce A. Watts and Company, of Brantford, Ontario, to move their grist mill from Norquay to Manitou. After discussion and conference with the representatives of A. Watts, and Company, a committee was appointed to canvass the town and district for subscriptions for a bonus of $600 to pay the expenses of moving the mill. The mill can be in running order by May 1 next.”S: Nwfm, March 1890, p. 433. “The building at Manitou, into which the machinery of the Norquay Grist Mill is to be removed, is about completed, and the mill will soon be running.”S: Nwfm, April 1890, p. 461. “The boiler for Manitou, Manitoba grist mill has arrived there from Brantford. Work on the Mill is progressing rapidly under the management of George Ullyott.”S: Nwfm, June 1890, p. 522. “The new mill being built at Manitou will have five set of rolls. J.D. McIntosh has purchased an interest in the mill and with his brother will manage the business.”

Darlingford

Along the old Boundary Trail, at a point just west of Calf Mountain, there was a conveniently flat spot on the Little Pembina that made a good crossing. As often happened at crossings, a small village sprang up. This one was called Darlingford. Like so many other villages it started at one spot and re-started at another when the railway arrived. In the meantime it served the needs of travellers and settlers, providing some necessities. Along with stores, stopping places and a post office, there was a saw and grist mill was run by thye Findlay Brothers.

Darlingford 1909The new site of Darlingford grew quickly along the railway line. Along with the usual stores and services there were two brickyards. About 1898 Whalen’s Brick & Tile operated just west of the village. It must have been quite an operation for the CPR ran a spur out to the site, and he employed about ten people for a time. Although the bricks were of a good quality, the operation didn’t last.

A photo shows the brickyard location.Another promoter opened the Darlingford Brick & Tile Co. Ltd., south of the railway tracks. This operation was quite successful, and on August 4, 1910, the Darlingford Comet reported that: “Manager Lewis Coc has, at present, 90000 bricks at his disposal, with orders for at least 200000 in demand. Hinds and Mitchell, contractors of Winnipeg, have already ordered one million bricks and the Hanbury Manufacturing Co. of Brandon have ordered 1200000 bricks”Despite this, it was tough to compete when a Winnipeg producer lowered its price in an effort to capture the market. Apparently this was a factor in other small yards.Lime KilnLimestone, which was abundant in the Pembina Ridge, was another resource processed nearby. A lime kiln produced hundreds of ton of lime for mortar and for the mixture of lime and sand used to coat the inside of log houses.SawmillInfluential pioneer James Bolton established Bolton’s Mill and Woodwork, a large building which housed a power-driven saw and a large grain grinder for custom seed grinding.

Bolton’s MillManufacturingAs was usual, blacksmith William Sheilds did more than just repairs, he made things as well. Sleighs and wagons were two of the products he produced.Press Clips

S: Nwfmm, Special Ed., 1883, p. 20. “Darlingford, one of the rising towns on the south-western railway, is to have a $100,000 company to erect an elevator, mill, and warehouse. The elevator will have a capacity of 50,000 bushels, while the mill will be similar to that of the Assiniboia Milling Company at Portage la Prairie.”S: AM, October 1, 1884, p. 543. “The grist mill at Darlingford, Manitoba, at present under the management of H.N. Fleming, has been purchased by Joseph Ritchie, of Nelson, Manitoba, who will put it in thorough working order.”S: AM, June 1, 1885, p. ____. “The burr mill now at Darlingford, Manitoba is about to be removed to Morden, Manitoba.”S: The Darlingford Saga, p. 24. “There were a number of business places a saw mill and grist mill was run by Findlay brothers. Circa 1875-1882 in Old Darlingford.”S: CH, Darlingford, p. 39. - Photo 1908 of Bolton’s Mill with commentary; burned May 1912. Morden, Winkler & Altona

Morden, Winkler and Altona were railway towns, part of the second wave of community building. As such, the emphasis on gristmills, cheese factories, brickyards and sawmills was not as pronounced. From the start they had links to supplies and to market that made these local enterprises less of a priority. While gristmills did thrive in these larger communities, they did so on the basis of commercial viability, not in terms of essentials for subsistence. Of course a time went on other industries, more associated with modern and urban communities, did thrive.Their respective histories are well documented and we will present here a sketch of the early operations that did exist.MordenThe first mention of a mill comes in when Anderson and McLean accepted the bonus offered by the district and to erect a mill. In August of 1885 we learn that Ritchie and Lundy’s had completed a flour mill and had it in in full operation.In 1886 James H. Fraser, the proprietor of the Nelson flour mills, decided to erect a roller mill in Morden. Mr. James Pye superintended the starting of the machinery in December. Mr. A.E. Hughes, formerly with the Hudson’s Bay Company, Winnipeg, Manitoba, was the head miller.

The Morden Flour Mill, built in 1900
MacGregor’s brickyard was south of Morden and its products were used to erect several substantial brick buildings, including the Dominion Post Office.

Press ItemsS: Nwfmm, February 1884, p. 36. “We understand that Messrs. Anderson and McLean, two practical men, have accepted the bonus offered by the district and will erect a mill at that point, which will have three run of stones and four sets of rollers.”
S: Commercial, August 11, 1885, p. 905. “Ritchie and Lundy’s flour mills, at Morden, has been completed and is now in full operation.
S: Nwfmm, January 1886, p. 355. “Mr. James H. Fraser, the proprietor of the Nelson flour mills, decided last summer to erect a first-class roller mill in Morden, Manitoba, and for that purpose contracted with the Pray Manufacturing Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a complete outfit for a mill of 75 barrels capacity, and in the mill as completed, this well known firm have more than sustained their reputation as builders offirst class mills. Mr. James Pye superintended the starting of the machinery on the 17th December. Everything moved off in a smooth and satisfactory manner.”The mill will be run to its full capacity night and day, there being a large local and western trade for flour of all grades.S: Nwfmm, February 1886, p. 387. “Mr. Ritchie, the proprietor of the stone grist mills at Morden, Manitoba, has taken a partner. The firm is now Ritchie and McIntyre.S: Nwfmm, April 1889, p. 100. “J.H. Fraser, of Morden, Manitoba, is adding new machinery from Minneapolis.”BricksWinklerThe “West Reserve”, established in 1876, was a treeless plain similar to the Russian steppes from which the Mennonite settlers came. These settlers established themselves in small villages of twenty to thirty families. In December of 1882 the Canadian Pacific Railroad line from Winnipeg to Manitou, created the town of Winkler.Dyck and Peters built the Winkler Grist Mill. I find no records of the fate of that mill, but it seems likely that the Winkler Roller Mills replaced that service.Judging by the several photos in “Winkler, A Proud Heritage”, it existed for decades.

The mill in Winkler
Press ClipsS: CH, Winkler: A Proud Heritage, 1982, Friesen, p. 78. - 5 photos of Winkler Milling Company Limited: 1) 1933 and 2) 1946 with the three others not dated.AltonaThe mills don’t play a big role in the Local History volumes of Altona but they are mentioned.

Mill owners Isaac and David Fehr in the ”machine room”, which housed a steam engine and this large pulley which drove the mill’s various cleaning, grinding, and other machinery.

The Altona mill in its heyday in the 1905 was the town’s main industry. This photo shows the mill built by Peter Braun before the turn of the century, when it was owned by David and Isaac Fehr, after the large three-storey addition had been built.

Friesen Flour Mill around 1900. Owned then by Jacob. P. FriesenA report in the Altona History tells us that:“Activity around the Friesen & Sons Flour mill was hectic. Around the clock shifts were needed to keep up with the demand placed on the mill by farmers and others who were getting ready for winter. Up to 3300 bushels of Wheat were ground daily.”La Riviere

The La Riviere townsite was laid out in 1886. It became a divisional point for the railway, so had a roundhouse and water tank.A flour mill was started by Cary and Grant, burned. J. Rockett built a cheese factory beside Mary Jane Creek.About 1902 a brickyard was established with a payroll of about thirty men, including W. Carmichael as manager. He was followed by G.W. Dellar. La Riviere Press Brick & Tile CompanyAdapted from:A History of Brick Manufacturing in Manitoba 1860-1990David Butterfield 2018, Heritage ManitobaIn 1902, when tests made on local clay and shale deposits proved positive, and the Press Brick & Tile Company, Ltd., owned by Elisha Frederick Hutchings was established just to the east of town. A manager was found in Minneapolis in May, and by the following month local workers were being hired. By July, men had installed a brickyard dam, and a railway spur to the site was nearly complete.Early in September the plant made its first bricks and was running “full blast” by mid-month, with a kiln of 250,000 bricks being burned and another 250,000 awaiting the fires. The following season (1903) saw the firm invest $10,000 in erecting four new beehive kilns and other improvements. Eleven cars of machinery were ordered, including an engine, numerous castings, a blower, 100 dryer cars, and other equipment. By late May the kilns were nearly complete, including an arched subterranean passage linking all four. The large dryer with its numerous brick divisional walls only lacked a roof at the time, but had a 40-foot high stack.Four more kilns were under construction by mid-June. During mid-July, shale was being taken from the hillside source by night blasting, and then put on a carrier that took it down to the crusher where it was pulverized into clay. Reports from the spring of 1905 show most of the old employees back at work, and improvements included a remodeling of the oldest kilns and the construction of a “lofty and strong” trestle from the mill across the creek to the shale ledge.In January 1905, a number of men were at work at the brickyard, sorting out and shipping the one million bricks on hand at the plant in preparation for the coming season. But something had happened with the firm’s financing, and the plant was suddenly up for sale . William Brydon acquired control, and the next six years of the plant’s operations are somewhat shadowy. In 1910 samples of brick “of a beautiful colour and finish” were on display locally, and an advertisement in July 1910 showed that the plant had acquired a new manager— James Johnstone—as well as a new name: The Phoenix Brick-works. In April 1911 it was noted that the plant machinery was being fitted up, and a kiln was filled; given that there were at least eight kilns, this appears to be a modest production schedule. It is not clear if the plant was in operation in 1912, but it was sold in 1913, to a Mr. Martin, who intended to renovate the complex, install new machinery, and place it on a sound footing. But that did not occur, and the plant was abandoned by 1914, as so many Manitoba plants were with the oncoming war.

A view, ca. 1903, looking west showing the mixing and pressing building on the left and the kilns of La Riviere’s Press Brick & Tile Company. (Courtesy Turning Leaves. A History of La Riviere and District, frontispiece)

The La Riviere Brickworks, seen here ion 1907, was a large operation involving a substantial investment in infrastructure.The shale deposits on the hillside were drawn by rail cars down to the mixing and brick-pressing building and then burned in one of the eight beehive kilns. (Courtesy Archives of Manitoba)Killarney

In the early 1880’s, Hugh and Dougald Cameron were so confident that their land would be chosen for a station on the new The South Western Colonization Railway that they engaged a surveyor to lay out a townsite and gave it the name Tisdale, after the chief engineer who had surveyed the proposed route. The route changed, and the first work train reached Killarney in December of 1885. The line had been purchased by the CPR by this time. When the news came that the railway was to follow the southern route, T.J. Lawlor promptly arranged for his store at Tisdale taken down and had the lumber transported to Killarney. He found out where the station was to placed from the Land Commissioner and located his lots on the southeast corner of Railway Street and Broadway.Flour MillIn 1893 elevator owners Finlay Young and Tom Buck built a flour mill in Killarney. Woodruff and Sons of Ontario built and equipped it. The Municipalities of Riverside and Turtle Mountain issued debentures to bonus the mill, Turtle Mountain pledging $4,000. The mill was up-to-date in every way and could handle a hundred barrels of flour a day. Young and Buck built an elevator on a spur track which made it possible for them to handle great quantities of grain. Lime KilnAt one time there was a lime kiln one mile south of the Ninga Cemetery. There was no building. It was just a stone structure set into the side of the hill, about eight feet deep and ten feet in diameter. Limestone was plentiful in the surrounding area.Cheese FactoryIn 1889 Alex David set up a cheese factory, bringing Isaac Woods from Ontario to run it. He had up to fifty cows on his own farm, employing three married couples and several single men, and he bought all the milk the neighbours brought. Not much land had been broken then, but there were lots of cattle so the cheese factory provided a cash return for the neighbouring farmers. When he bought a Babcock Milk Tester in 1892, some of his suppliers were highly indignant about this new contrivance, which could determine whether their milk had been diluted. Some of the cheese was sold locally, some shipped to Brandon where it was sold for 6 cents or 8 cents a pound. It took three days to make the trip to Brandon, sell the cheese and return. By 1899 more land had been broken and the farmers had fewer cattle, so he sold his herd and the equipment.Nathan Clark is mentioned as having a Cheese Factory.Church’s BrickyardRobert Church came with his parents to North America in 1858, first settling in New Jersey, where Robert, who had learned the brick-making trade at home in England. After serveral stops he settled near KillarneyAs he was beginning to establish his farming operation his brick-making experience came in handy when he noticed that the texture of the clay on his land was ideal for making bricks.Lacking capital, I took some pioneer ingenuity and a lot of hard work to get things started.The necessary equipment had to be made by hand, and the wood for firing had to be hauled from Turtle Mountain with a home-made sleigh. He had to creat his own lime kiln to made the necessary mortar for building.Within a year he had made 20000 bricks. By 1884 as settlers began building “real” houses, and each one need a brick chimney or two. From that time until 1903 his bricks were used in most of the brick buildings in Killarney and area.Source: Personal Reminiscence: Church Family
Press ClipsS: Commercial, March 2, 1886, p. 1. “The people of Killarney offer a free site and exemption from taxation for nineteen years, to the part or parties who will build a roller flour mill at that place, of not less than 100 barrels capacity.”
S: Commercial, 1893, p. 634. “At Killarney, on the Deloraine Branch, a new mill of 100 barrels capacity, has recently been put in operation by Young Brothers and Buck.”S: MFP, Saturday, April 18, 1903, p. 18. “Young and Buck, Millers. One of the most important institutions in an agricultural country is the flour or grist mill. The town of Killarney is fortunate in possessing one of the best country mills in the province. The mill, which is a full roller process one, was erected in 1892. The leading brands of flour turned out are Peerless, Comfort and Strong Bakers, and these have established for themselves a reputation as high-class products throughout the district. The surplus stock is shipped to distant points. The firm also does a large business in chopped feed, bran, shorts, etc., and shipping wheat and other grain. Young and Black are regarded as one of the solid concerns of the province.” - Mr. T.H. Buck – moved from Boissevain in 1892 “where he was engaged in milling and farming.”Holmfield

The Harrison Mill has been preserved, and in 1991, was the only fully operational roller mill remaining from the 1890s still intact, in Western Canada.

The Harrison Mill, prominent on the skyline of the small village of Holmfield.
Plans for a flour mill in the emerging village of Holmfield were first considered in the spring of 1897, when the village council approved a by-law granting a bonus of $2,000 for the construction of a mill at Holmfield. Brothers, William and George Harrison would build and operate the mill. Unlike other mills built during this time, the Council committee in charge of raising money for the $2,000 bonus had little trouble raising the capital. From the outset, the mill was not burdened with the handicap of an operating deficit, which might have hampered its chances of survival. Instead, Harrison’s mill operated on a sound financial footing, thanks to the support of the local patrons and the commitment to the district’s farmers by the Harrison family.In August of 1897, the frame of the mill was raised and the stonework had commenced.Mr. C.W. Avery of Toronto was hired by the Harrisons to install the milling machinery. The engine in the elevator was connected to the boiler in the mill so that one firebox would run the whole plant. Mr. Avery completed this work by December 1897 and the mill began operations either in the same month or in early 1898. As part of the building program, the Harrison brothers constructed three new warehouses in 1899. The mill was a booming business during its early years of operation. A 1901 observer noted, “Harrison Bros. are kept busy with the mill day and night to fill orders for car loads of flour.” Renovations during the following year, including completion of the stonework on the engine house and the erection of a new smoke stack. Also, the mill’s power was boosted with the addition of a second boiler, and a new gangway was guilt to the entrance of their elevator.
Harrison’s Mill was the site of a spectacular robbery attempt during the spring of 1905. Thieves forced their way into the office and blew up the big safe. The work was evidently done by professionals. Fortunately all of the money in the safe had been removed the night before and the thieves received nothing for their pains. No one was ever caught.Like all rural mills, it experienced a major surge in business during the Depression, and some renovations were undertaken in 1934. The steam power plant was replaced by a diesel engine and “new elevating and flour tubing” was installed. With the exception of the substitution of electric power for diesel in 1947, no other major changes in the milling equipment have been undertaken at the mill since 1934. During the evening of July 26, 1934, a fire, which was confined to the roof of the east wing, was put out after about an hour. It had originated from overheating in a box above the boilers. Thanks to a favourable wind direction and the yeoman efforts of the bucket brigade, the mill was saved.During the 1930s the mill worked at maximum production. In exchange for the continued benefits of high quality, locally-produced flour and the production of by-product livestock feed, the residents of the district agreed to pay four bushels of wheat for one hundred pounds of flour, in lieu of cash. This informal arrangement was put into practice because the owners were deeply committed to the welfare of the district. As residents of the district, the Harrison brothers operated their mill during tough economic times largely as a public service to the people of the district. The farmers fulfilled their end of the bargain by paying amounts owed. Storage facilities in the Harrison Elevator made it possible for the mill owners to buy grain at low prices and hold it for later milling a practice utilized by large milling firms.During World War II, flour mills both big and small across North America were pressed into action with a mandate to produce flour for the Allied troops and civilians needing scarce foodstuffs. At its peak during World War II, the Harrison Mill produced about 50,000 bags of flour. During the early 1950s, overseas contracts were available while the European economy and landscape were under reconstruction. Harrisons shipped 4,000 bags of flour overseas in 1951. The overseas market slowly disappeared as Europe recovered and the Wheat Board denied small milling firms the wheat needed to operate.During the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and into the 90s, the mill gradually scaled down its operations to concentrate on a purely local market. The flour was distributed locally under the brand name “Turtle Mountain Maid” and available for purchase in local retain outlets.

Interior view of the mill showing part of the elaborate drive system. (Harrison Family Photo)

The mill, shortly after construction, ca. 1897. (Harrison Family Photo)

And in summary….

As the population of rural Manitoba grew rapidly in the 1880’s, thousands of small businesses, designed to service their needs, sprang up across the province. Many of these efforts were very useful in the conditions prevalent in those days when importing goods was expensive and, perhaps, not even an option.

In an era, and in a geographical situation, whereby a homemade product was the natural answer to a shortage of consumer goods, it was only logical that those with an entrepreneurial turn of mind would venture into manufacturing. Many of those ventures failed to turn a profit, many others existed only for a short time. Is that any different from the world of small business today?

The first big change happened very soon. By 1900 the larger share of communities were serviced by a railway. With this came increased consumer choices and lower prices for many goods. Improved transportation brought convenience. When you could just ship your wheat crops to the elevator and pick up a sack of flour at the grocery store, you saved time, as well as money.

Then, as now, consumers gravitated toward the more inexpensive product produced by the large urban factories.

The large urban companies also had the advantage of large capital reserves, greater access to credit, and greater marketing budgets. Brand names became a thing.

At present, the same forces of economy of scale and cheap transportation have changed manufacturing across Canada.

In addition to those forces, rural Manitoba faced another challenge. In a process that continues to this day, in many regions population is in decline. The twin forces of faster transportation and ever improving, labour-saving technology, meant that the family farm kept growing in size, while even the size of the farm family kept shrinking. There weren’t enough customers to go around.

What seems interesting today is that there is a new-found interest in local production that echoes the forces that made it necessary in 1880. Concern about climate change leads to concern about the effects of our long supply chains on carbon emissions. Concern about standards and about quality is reviving an interest in knowing where our food is produced, and how it is produced. Events like the pandemic we are currently facing renew an interest in food security. Artisans and craftsmen sometimes find a niche in small towns where the lifestyle reflects their values.

Who knows where it might lead?