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A Short History of Western Canada was written by Grant MacEwan.  This book was first published in hardcover under the title \'West To The Sea.\' A Short History of Western Canada
Copyright 1968 McGraw-Hill Company of Canada Limited
163 pages,
ISBN 0-07-077787-X.

The Railways and the Land Rush

The Rush of Settlers

After purchasing the West, the Government of Canada acted promptly to put the newly-acquired property to use. One of the first needs was for a land survey. A start had been made in 1869, but it was suspended rudely by Louis Riel and his followers. In returning to the job after the trouble, however, workers were able to profit from earlier mistakes.

When William McDougall, as Minister of Public Works in the John A. Macdonald government, directed Col. J. S. Dennis to proceed with a survey prior to the insurrection, the land unit was to be a township consisting of 64 sections. That township would be nine miles by nine miles in size, and each section would contain 800 acres.

The Métis were opposed to any survey differing from the river lot plan with which they were familiar. They made their dislike for the new plan very obvious, and in the recess created by the insurrection, government officials concluded that an 800-acre section was too big anyway. When the work was resumed in 1871, the survey was along the lines of the now familiar pattern in which the township unit consists of 36 sections, each of the latter containing 640 acres.

Surveyors required base lines. The international boundary, the 49th parallel, offered an east-west line while north-south lines called meridians were marked to provide bases at right angles to the boundary. Township rows would be numbered from the international boundary northward, and range rows would be numbered from meridian lines. Thus a land description like N.W.23-31-18-W2 would identify the northwest quarter of Section 23, in the 31st row of townships north from the boundary, and in the 18th perpendicular row of townships west of the second meridian. With such a description, it was possible to locate a piece of land on the map or in the field.

The government instructed that the survey was to proceed with all possible dispatch. The Dominion Lands Act was formally passed on April 14, 1872, and later in that year, 40 survey parties were in the field. But the survey was not a job to be completed in a season or two. The peak of field operations was not reached until 1883, and even then there were problems in staying ahead of the growing flood of incoming settlers.

The new land regulations invited homestead applications from adults prepared to pay fees of $10 per quarter section and willing to meet five-year residence requirements in order to qualify for titles. Nevertheless, there was no immediate rush for homesteads. Most prospective settlers wanted more assurance that a quarter-section farm in some remote part of the continent was worth the time and trouble. They also wanted the benefit of a railroad.

A few groups were still willing to brave the uncertainties of a frontier. The Mennonites, looking for religious freedom, came from Russia and were the first of the immigrants from Europe to arrive in numbers. Their choice of location had a special significance. Having engaged in farming on the Russian plains, they had no fear of the treeless country and went boldly to the prairies south of Winnipeg. There they established themselves in colonies. Many of the young Mennonites obtained good educations and became Manitoba leaders.

Then came the Icelandic people who settled mainly on the west side of Lake Winnipeg where they could combine farming and fishing. The earliest groups tried Wisconsin and eastern Canada, but in 1875, most of the Icelanders were moving on to Manitoba where they founded the town of Gimli and an enterprising community. An epidemic of smallpox added to the hardships of the first winter in Manitoba, but the people persevered and gained the reputation of being thrifty and resourceful. In the years that I followed, many of them became leaders in business, the professions, and politics.

It was perfectly clear that somebody would have to pay for the construction of the railroad. The small population, only 66,000 in Manitoba and not many more in the entire Northwest in 1881, could not be expected to do it. The obvious need, as both the Government of Canada and the C.P.R. saw it, was for settlers, and it was hoped that the attraction of free land coupled with the conveniences of the new railroad would bring them.

After granting 25 million acres to the C.P.R. in 1881, homestead regulations had to be changed. The railway company was to receive all odd numbered sections in townships lying up to 24 miles on both sides of the railway, and the change of policy in 1882 restricted homesteads to even numbered sections, exclusive of school land and sections 8 and three quarters of 26 which were reserved for the Hudson's Bay Company. The same entry fee of $10 was charged, but residence requirements were reduced to three years.

As the flow of land seekers increased, the gateway city of Winnipeg boomed. Its population reached 10,000 in 1881, and local people obtained their earliest vision of a great metropolis. Many of the newcomers halted at Winnipeg to buy equipment, horses, oxen, wagons, flour, and anything else likely to be needed. The Winnipeg merchants were delighted.

Both the government and railway companies became increasingly anxious for land settlement and various schemes were tried. What was known as halfbreed scrip, intended originally to settle a debt with the Métis people, was given out fairly freely. A scrip was good for any crown quarter open for either sale or settlement, but it was transferable, and many of the certificates were exchanged for guns or whisky.

For a while, colonization companies seemed the most promising instruments in gaining rapid land occupation. From 1882 onward, a properly constituted company could obtain a tract of land beyond 24 miles from the C.P.R. main line and branch lines, or beyond 12 miles of any other projected railroad. The even-numbered sections were reserved for homesteads and pre-emptions, but the company could buy the odd-numbered ones at $2.00 per acre while undertaking to place settlers at the rate of two per section within five years. Having fulfilled their part, the company men might qualify for a rebate on the original purchase price from the government. Colonization companies flourished for a time, and at the end of 1883, at least 26 companies holding 2,973,978 acres of land were actively engaged in settlement.

In many cases, immigrants remained in ethnic communities where they could enjoy the company of their own people. The Cannington Manor Colony, south of Moosomin, was the dream of Captain Pierce who thought of it as a settlement in which Englishmen coming to the frontier might remain close to their own folks, living as Englishmen like to live, with time for cricket, fox-hunting, and tea at 4 o'clock. The Pierce family arrived to take up residence in January 1883 and drove the 45 miles from Moosomin when winter weather was at its worst. The Barr Colony at Lloydminster was started some years later, and it, too, was intensely English in character. Just as Cannington Manor attracted Englishmen and Gimli attracted Icelanders, the Temperance Colony in which the city of Saskatoon had its origin was for those, and those alone, who shunned strong drink.

With the rising tide of settlement, it seemed that all countries in Europe and some outside Europe were represented. Many Jews came to Canada in the eighties, some of them settling in the West. Hungarians came to Manitoba in 1882, and four years later, more were assisted by Count Paul d'Esterhazy in settling around the village now bearing his name in southeastern Saskatchewan. Germans found the West about 1890, many of them following Father Bruno and settling around Humboldt. Scandinavians became fairly numerous and proved excellent citizens. Settlers from the United States may have outnumbered any other nationality.

The Mormons, who arrived in 1887, accounted for part of the influx from the south. Charles Ora Card, son-in-law of Brigham Young, left Utah to search for a new location and arrived at Calgary late in 1886. There he bought a team of horses, wagon, and plow with which to test the soil. After examining the High River area, he went to Lee's Creek where he found what he wanted. In the next summer, 12 families came by covered wagon and settled where the town of Cardston stands today.

Ukrainian settlers from southern Russia made their first appearance in the West in 1891 and came in larger numbers in 1898. They were the men in sheepskins, choosing parkland locations where they built thatched homes, outdoor ovens, and made various kinds of equipment to prove their resourcefulness.

Also from southern Russia came the Doukhobors, who were pacifists and vegetarians. Some of the earliest arrivals were assisted by Count Leo Tolstoy and took land around the village of Veregin. In 1899, seven thousand came to what is now northeastern Saskatchewan.

The most important date in the history of immigration and land settlement was 1896, when Clifford Sifton became Minister of the Interior and set about to attract more immigrants than ever before. The annual entry rose steadily to reach a peak of 400,870 immigrants in 1913. Not all the immigrants became homesteaders, but many did adopt the land. It must not be overlooked that even in the heaviest years of immigration, the United States was a big contributor of settlers. In the first decade of the present century, 44 per cent of the homestead entries made in western Canada were by immigrants from the United States.

In this way, the West was settled by people of many nationalities, each bringing their own cultural distinctiveness, each finding fresh loyalty for their land of adoption.


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