Trader Burns

Pat Burns
Cattle King
Copyright 1979 Western Producer Prairie Books
200 pages,
ISBN 088833-010-3 (cl).
ISBN 088833-010-9 (pa).

While contemplating the mudhole obstacles ahead, a message carried by a westbound stagecoach informed de Manbey that he had been appointed to the position of postmaster at Odanah and should proceed to that place with all possible haste. Acting upon instructions, he left Mrs. de Manbey to come on by Assiniboine riverboat to Grand Valley and buckboard to Tanner's Crossing.

John Wake, in due course, fixed upon a homestead and then with the support of four sons - Walter, Henry, William, and John - was soon engrossed in raising and dealing in livestock. Son Walter, who was to spend many years working with Burns and then become a prominent rancher in Alberta, was thirteen years of age at that time.

Having the advantage of moderate capital as an aid in establishing himself, John Wake went to Winnipeg in the summer of 1881 and brought back a herd of breeding cattle, driving it all the way to his Minnedosa farm. He was quite agreeable to Burns' proposal to throw his two Westbourne cows in with the bigger herd, to be cut out after arrival at Wake's farm.

The two young cows sold readily although one, according to local lore, produced a brief spell of embarrassment. It was like this: the homesteader who bought the brindle led her home and tied her in his new log stable, pleased with the prospect of having a family milk cow. Days later, when neighboring wives came together to knit and consume tea and review all local events, the new cow came up for discussion and then inspection. The comment was altogether favorable until one lady, more observant than the others, noticed the total absence of incisor teeth on the cow's upper jaw and concluded that, contrary to the seller's claim, the animal was not a young cow at all but probably an aged one already losing teeth and in decline. The man who would sell her as a young cow was surely being deceptive and Pat Burns' reputation was in serious danger until he was able to convince the skeptical ladies that upper incisors were never part of a cow's natural equipment.

After selling the two cows and counting a moderate profit, Burns went again to the Westbourne man, Stewart by name, with the intention of buying four cows to be brought on with John Wake's next drive from Winnipeg. As the negotiations were related by William J. Wilde of Red Deer and Calgary, a long-time friend of Pat Burns, the Clanwilliam man told the Westbourne farmer that he was prepared to buy four or six cows and added with a sigh of regret that only the lack of money would prevent him from taking fifteen.

"That's all right," Stewart said, "take them and give me a promissory note."

Pat was agreeable and the cattle were selected, but just before the animals were to be driven away, there had to be that moment of accounting and settlement. Pat paid some cash and Stewart instructed him to go ahead and make out the promissory note for the balance.

At this point, Burns was obliged to confess something, saying, according to Wilde, "You had better make it out, Mr. Stewart. I don't know how."

"Neither do I," said Stewart, "so to hell with the note; take the cattle and pay me when you have sold them."

"That," Wilde added, "was the spirit of the West. That was the way business was done.'" Certainly it was the way that most of Pat Burns' early trading was conducted.

Westbourne proved to be good trading ground and Burns went there rather often. He liked to call at the farm of Walter Lynch, a pioneer who had come to Manitoba in 1870, bringing the first purebred Shorthorn cows in the West. Both Burns and Lynch spoke with an Ontario-Irish accent and both would rather trade than answer a call to dinner, and on one visit when Lynch was hard pressed to find something to sell, Burns protested that to meet without making some kind of a deal would invite bad luck. Lynch agreed and Pat finally bought a clucking hen and a setting of eggs to be taken back to his homestead farm. But the transaction failed to generate the luck expected; the hen in transit lost her urge to cover eggs and mother chicks and Burns, to salvage something, cooked the eggs and dressed the unwilling hen for his table.

Another Burns customer living in the direction of Westbourne, Keith MacDonald, was said to have been raised on haggis and whisky. When Burns and MacDonald traded, it was as if the honor of Ireland and Scotland were at stake. In the course of one lengthy struggle over the sale of a three-year-old steer, the contentious issue arose from the estimates of the animal's weight. Burns said the steer weighed 1,280 pounds and his offer was three and one-half cents per pound.

Burns was never a drinking man and not a gambler, but he was not above backing his judgment with his money. The deal in this instance was concluded with a side bet about the weight. If the steer proved to weigh more than 1,280 pounds, Burns would buy MacDonald a new hat, and if the weight was less than that figure, MacDonald would buy a hat for Burns. When the steer finally came to the scales, its weight was shown to be 1,270 pounds, and in due course, Pat was presented with a new hat. But the hat did not fit and when Burns complained that it was too small, the Scot was ready with his reply: "I know it is too small; so was the price I got for my steer."

In the meantime, the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the West, spanning the Red River at Winnipeg and continuing west to miss Rapid City but to touch off real estate booms at Brandon and Portage la Prairie. At the latter point, early in 1882, one-fifth of all places of business were real estate offices. Winnipeg, of course, was caught up in the wildest orgy of property speculation the country had experienced. Building lots were changing hands like marbles at a school recess and Winnipeggers were becoming rich - or thought they were - with most males taking suddenly to smoking long, black, and smelly cigars. A Winnipeg paper late in 1881, told of its reporter counting "forty-seven real estate offices on Main Street between the C.P.R. depot and the Hudson's Bay Company's new store.'" The same paper, while prophesying that Brandon would become "the Chicago of the West," announced the next auction sale of Brandon lots at Skyner's Auction Rooms, "this evening."

Every Rapid City resident was shocked and saddened, like the bride left at the altar. Robert Sinton and James Grassick decided to move and did in the next year, 1882. Minnedosa citizens didn't really expect the CPR route to touch their town and were not greatly disturbed, but the place grew at a healthy rate. After all, a railway depot within 40 miles seemed like a luxury after being 600 miles away when the nearest rails were at St. Paul, Minnesota. More merchants were attracted and then a doctor. And John de Manbey, who entertained the idea of operating a general store until he was appointed to be postmaster, now opened a private office which he intended to use for the practice of law. To him Pat Burns turned rather often with correspondence. The lawyer was invited to read the incoming letters and draft replies for Burns' signature. Making no pretense to being a writer, Burns would sign by printing his name rather than attempting the more advanced freehand style. It was understandable; Burns had not remained at school long enough to advance far beyond the elementary printing.