by Merle Massie
16 One of the best reports regarding the cash nexus on grain farms was Britnell’s Wheat Economy, particularly Chapter 5, “Income and Expenditure,” and Chapter 7, “Standards of Living.” See table, 167.
17 See Clark, “Settlement in Saskatchewan.”
18 Russell, “Subsistence,” 19.
19 Mavor, “Economic Results,” 670–1.
20 One of the most accessible overviews of the battle between mixed farming and wheat monoculture was presented by Voisey, “A Mix-up over Mixed Farming.” A similar version is found in Voisey, Vulcan, Chapter 4, “Crop Selection.”
21 McInnis, “Changing Structure of Canadian Agriculture.”
22 Ibid., 191.
23 For short biographies of prominent men who promoted mixed farming, see Spector, Agriculture on the Prairies, 7–11; 217–49. See also Dyck, Farmers ‘Making Good’.
24 See Voisey, “A Mix-up over Mixed Farming,” 179.
25 Although some particularly fervent advocates touted mixed farming as the easier path to riches. See Voisey, “A Mix-up over Mixed Farming,” 180.
26 See Spector, Agriculture on the Prairies, 48–58; Ankli and Millar, “Ontario Agriculture in Transition.”
27 For an examination of the moral and intellectual ideals of farming, see Nesmith, “Philosophy of Agriculture.”
28 Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy, 370.
29 For the most severe indictment on such practices, see Thompson, “‘Permanently Wasteful,’” 193–206.
30 For a correlation between social consequence, investments, and the rise of the ranching industry, see Breen, Canadian Prairie West; Elofson, Cowboys, Gentlemen, and Cattle Thieves; Morgan, “The Bell Farm.”
31 Clark, “Settlement in Saskatchewan,” 36–7.
32 An investigation of the “wheat boom” of 1880–1910 through the perspective of economics can be found in Ward, “The Origins of the Canadian Wheat Boom.”
33 Clark, “Settlement in Saskatchewan,” 36–7.
34 As an example, see the extensive publications of John Lehr on the Ukrainian communities of western Canada. In particular, see Lehr, “Rural Settlement Behavior of Ukrainian Pioneers in Western Canada”; “Government Coercion in the Settlement of Ukrainian Immigrants in Western Canada.”
35 Hawkes, Story of Saskatchewan, 732.
36 “Mixed Farming is Need of West,” Saskatchewan Farmer 2, 3 (December 1911): 30.
37 See some of the recent work by Sandra Rollings-Magnusson on the role of women and children on prairie farms: Rollings-Magnusson, “Necessary for Survival”; “Canada’s Most Wanted.”
38 Spector, Agriculture on the Prairies. For a detailed look at the homestead and general land settlement policies, see Martin, ‘Dominion Lands’ Policy.
39 “Efficiency” became a byword of the modernist movement during the twentieth century. For a forestry analysis of wise-use and efficiency in the United States, see Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency.
40 An excellent analysis of trees on the prairie can be found in Rees, New and Naked Land, particularly Chapters 8, “The Cult of the Tree,” and 10, “Gardens, Parks, and Shelterbelts.” For a view from the United States, see Drake, “Waving ‘A Bough of Challenge,’” 156–8. For a narrative look at the challenge of growing trees on the open plains, see Ingalls Wilder, First Four Years.
41 For an overview of this period, see Abrams, Prince Albert, Chapters 1–7.
42 See ibid., 101–3.
43 See Prince Albert Times, 14 September 1872. For stories of the Earl of Southesk, see Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains.
44 Lorne Agricultural Society, “Prince Albert and the North Saskatchewan.”
45 Clark, “Settlement in Saskatchewan,” 90.
46 See, for example, “Overland Route to the Klondike,” London Times, 23 October 1897. See also “Yukon via Prince Albert,” pamphlet c. 1898, CIHM 15253.
47 An anonymous pamphlet, “Prince Albert district Saskatchewan” was published c. 1891. It reiterated much of the same claims made by “Prince Albert and the North Saskatchewan” in 1890, particularly the connection to mixed farming. CIHM 30434.
48 Prince Albert Times, 7 February 1907.
49 West of Prince Albert, the north branch of the Saskatchewan bends toward the south. As a result, Shellbrook is west of Prince Albert but on the north side of the river.
50 For an overview of the creation of Wahpeton for the Dakota Sioux who came to Prince Albert in the aftermath of their victory over Custer, see Elias, Dakota of the Canadian Northwest. For a description of the Dakota Sioux at Prince Albert from a missionary perspective, see Byers, Lucy Margaret Baker; SAB, Lucy Margaret Baker fonds, F375 S2005-15, Speech by Lucy Baker.
51 LAC, RG 10, Vol. 7766, file 27107-4, Prince Albert Board of Trade to T.O. Davis, 30 April 1904: Melfort Moon, rpt. in The Saskatchewan Times, 20 April 1905.
52 LAC, RG 10, Vol. 7766, file 27107-4, Prince Albert Board of Trade to T.O. Davis, 30 April 1904.
53 LAC, RG 10, Vol. 7766, file 27107-4, pt. 2. J.B. Harkin to Mr. Pedley, 15 March 1906.
54 Ibid., Wells Land and Cattle Company Limited of Davidson, SK, to the Minister of the Interior, 4 July 1906; W.J. Perry, Napinka, Manitoba to the Department of the Interior, Lands Branch, 1 October 1906. Such letters were important as the dominion homestead and timber permit applications were based on a first-come, first-served basis.
55 This entire story is found in LAC, RG 10, Vol. 7766, file 27107-4, pt. 2, T. Eastwood Jackson, Acting Indian Agent, Carlton Agency, to the Secretary, Department of Indian Affairs, 20 August 1907.
56 Ibid., J.A. Mackay to Frank Pedley, 31 August 1907.
57 Ibid., Borthwick to Frank Pedley, 27 September 1907; no. 314903, John Macdougall to Frank Oliver, 30 September 1907; no. 315293 handwritten surrender agreement for 106A signed by Borthwick and members of Lac La Ronge and Montreal Lake bands; Borthwick to Secretary, Department of Indian Affairs, 7 October 1907, regarding homestead promises to settlers on 106A.
58 See LAC, RG 10, Volume 7766, file 27107-4, pt. 2, no. 324178, Montreal Lake and Lac La Ronge bands to Frank Pedley, 9 April 1908.
59 Ibid., no. 335082, W.J. Chisholm to Secretary, Department of Indian Affairs, 16 December 1908.
60 For an investigation of surveys and settlement in the western interior (particularly Manitoba), see Tyman, By Section, Township and Range.
61 At the time, the Surveyor General had already commissioned nine townships to be subdivided, including those lands recently opened by the Galician settlement. The Board of Ttrade was asking for even more land, a total of fifteen townships. SAB, R-183, I.352. Telegram, Prince Albert, 16 July 1906, Prince Albert Board of Trade to Hon. J.H. Lamont, Ottawa.
62 Quoted in Abrams, Prince Albert, 124.
63 SAB, R-183, I.352. Memorandum, Surveyor General to Deputy Minister of the Interior, Ottawa, 21 July 1906.
64 SAB, B11.10, Richmond Mayson fonds, Histories of Prince Albert. “Prince Albert Board of Trade,” transcript of broadcast over CKBI by R. Mayson, 7 May 1954.
65 Historian Joe Cherwinski has made a special study of that brutal winter. Some of his findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association in Toronto in May 2002 as “Cold Comfort: the Brutal Winter of 1906–07 and the Defining of the Prairie Regional Identity”; another essay, “The Rise and Incomplete Fall of a Contemporary Legend: Frozen Englishmen in the Canadian Prairies During the Winter of 1906–07,” was published in Canadian Ethnic Studies/Études ethniques au Canada 30, 3 (1999): 20–43. Many thanks to Dr. Cherwinski for sharing these papers with me.
66 Cherwinski, “Rise and Incomplete Fall.”
67 For a detailed analysis of the strike, see Baker, “Miners and the Mounties”; Baker, “Miners and the Mediator.” See also den Otter, Civilizing the West, 282–304; McMan, “Trade Unionism in District 18,” 49–
57; and Seager, “A Proletariat in Wild Rose Country,” 208–17.
68 Writer Joseph Kinsey Howard, in Montana: High, Wide and Handsome, reported that it was so cold, railway tracks snapped.
69 See Cherwinski, “Rise and Incomplete Fall,” and “Cold Comfort.” The Killarney Guide called it the earliest, most violent and longest storm in living memory, 23 November 1906, quoted in Cherwinski, “Cold Comfort” and Waiser, Saskatchewan, 56.
70 Prince Albert Times, “Sugar and Spice are Scarce,” 17 January 1907.
71 Prince Albert Times, “The Fuel Situation,” 7 February 1907.
72 Prince Albert Times, “Telegraphic Notes,” 7 February 1907.
73 Historian Jim Wright concluded, in discussing that awful winter: “people who lived in the Parklands and Forest regions were thankful for the native trees which meant shelter from windchill and firewood for their stoves.” Wright, Saskatchewan, 129–30.
74 Taché, Sketch of the North-West of North America.
75 See announcements in the Prince Albert Times, 7 February 1907.
76 Abrams, Prince Albert, 130. For an overview of the drawn-out process of bringing in the second railway and the frustrations of the city, see pp. 125–30.
77 Prince Albert Times, 16 May 1907.
78 Prince Albert Times, 28 February 1907.
79 Prince Albert Times, 7 March 1907.
80 The notes of Archie Ballantine, the timber inspector who made an inspection of the proposed route of the railway from Prince Albert to Beaver Lake in 1914, contain a superb map. See SAB, 102, Ra.220, Department of Railways, “Petition General Prince Albert.” The rail line was completed to Shellbrook in 1909, north to Big River by 1910, and west to North Battleford by 1914.For a history of the Hudson Bay Railway scheme, see Fleming, Canada’s Arctic Outlet; Bickle, Turmoil and Triumph; Pratt and Archer, Hudson’s Bay Route. The popular version remains MacEwen, Battle for the Bay.
81 Canada, Senate Debates, 24 January 1907, 138.
82 Prince Albert Times, 31 January 1907. See Waiser, New Northwest.
83 See Waiser, New Northwest, 9–11.
84 Ibid., 23. The name “The New Northwest” had variations in Manitoba and Ontario. In Manitoba, whose borders were pushed north in 1912, the non-prairie North became known as New Manitoba. In Ontario, New Ontario was the name given to the Clay Belt region that was being opened for settlement.
85 See Prince Albert Times, 7 March 1907.
86 A typical example can be found in Canada, Sessional Papers, Vol. 25, 8–9, Edward VII, A, 1909. A.L. McClennan, Dominion Land Surveyor, reporting on Township 51, Range 25, west of the Second Meridian.
87 Canada, Sessional Papers, Vol. XLII, No. 12, 4 April 1907. Report of R.S. Cook Agent of Dominion Lands, Prince Albert.
88 Prince Albert Times, 9 May 1907.
89 Canada, Sessional Papers, Vol. 25, 8-9, Edward VII, A, 1909. Report of the Agent at Prince Albert, R.S. Cook, 11 April 1908.
90 More townships were opened to the west of these reserves, in the same township range of 49 through 52, but west of the third meridian, opening the land around what became the communities of Holbien, Briarlea, Crutwell, Wild Rose, and Deer Ridge. Their development is similar to that of the region directly north of Prince Albert, but cross-country interaction was limited and continues to be so. There were few and only poor roads through the Indian reserves running east-west. Before 1912, another township, 53, on the north side of the baseline, was opened for settlement in ranges 24 through 26, to the north of the new settlement at Paddockwood. These surveys completed the northern advance until 1919, when townships 54 and 55 were surveyed in 1919 in anticipation of the press of soldier settlement.
91 SAB, Department of Agriculture files, R-266.IV.40, “Homestead Entries 1905 to 1943 by Land Agencies and Census Divisions.”
92 Stegner, Wolf Willow, Chapter 3, “Carrion Spring.” See also Cherwinski, “Cold Comfort.” For an overview of the winter as it related to the cattle industry, see Kelly, Range Men; Breen, Canadian Prairie West; McGowan, Grassland Settlers; Elofson, Cowboys, Gentlemen and Cattle Thieves; Waiser, Saskatchewan, 57–8.
93 “Saskatchewan Homestead Entries.”
94 McManus, Happyland. The Moose Jaw land office was the only one in operation in southwestern Saskatchewan in 1907–1908, and had to handle the new claims of all the homesteaders pouring into that newly opened region. In 1908 alone, over 8,000 homesteads were filed at the Moose Jaw office, compared to less than 2,000 at Prince Albert. A land office at Swift Current opened soon after to alleviate the demand, and one in Maple Creek in 1912–1913. See “Saskatchewan Homestead Entries.”
95 For an excellent overview of dry farming and the scientists who studied and promoted it, see Russell, “Far-From-Dry Debates.” See also Hargreaves, Dry Farming in the Northern Great Plains.
96 Several pamphlets were published in 1910–1911. See SAB, Morton Manuscript collection, Mss C555/2/10a, “Prince Albert: Europe’s Easiest Way,” Prince Albert Board of Trade, 1910; 10b, “Prince Albert, Saskatchewan: The Ideal Spot for the British Settler,” Prince Albert Board of Trade, 1910; 10c, “Prince Albert, Saskatchewan: The Easiest Way,” c. 1911, and 10d, “Prince Albert Investments: Issued Monthly in the Interests of Prince Albert and Vicinity,” November 1911. Quote from “Prince Albert Investments.”
97 “Prince Albert: Europe’s Easiest Way.”
98 Ibid.
99 Ibid.
100 “Prince Albert, Saskatchewan: The Ideal Spot for the British Settler.”
101 “Saskatchewan Homestead entries.”
102 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 15 January 1916.
103 SAB, Saskatchewan School District Jubilee Histories, Micro S-8.15. “Alingly School District Jubilee History,” 1955.
104 For an example of the physical and economic problems of swamp fever, see Roe, “Alberta Wet Cycle of 1899–1903,” 112–20. McGowan, “Gee and Haw,” Cordwood and Courage, 634.
105 This rule of thumb became particularly entrenched during the 1930s, in the post-1930 homestead records. See SAB, S43, R2004-220, post-1930 homestead records. See also Prince Albert Historical Society, Bill Smiley Archives, Local history fonds, Buckland, “From Ox-Team to Combine,” 4.
106 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 4 March 1916.
107 See Dice, “Alingly and District.” See also Prince Albert Daily Herald, 15 April 1916.
108 The continued delays were most likely bound up in the ongoing financial problems of the Canadian Northern Railway. By 1917, in large part due to the disruption of the war, the Canadian Northern failed. It was bought by the federal government who amalgamated the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk Pacific lines to create the Canadian National Railway. For a history of the Canadian Northern railway, see Regehr, Canadian Northern Railway.
109 SAB, Department of Railways files, Ra 400. CNR plans and construction (b) (20). William Knox to The Honorable Frank Cochrane, 6 May 1916.
110 SAB Ra 220. Department of Railways, General File (2) (a). Petition to James Calder, Minister of Railways.
111 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 15 January 1919; Buckland’s Heritage, 469.
112 “From Ox-Team to Combine,” 5.
113 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 8 April 1919.
114 For a somewhat problematic but still important overview of agriculture during the First World War, see Thompson, Harvests of War.
115 LAC, RG 10, Vol. 7766, File 27107-4 Pt. 1. Letter from Alingly Rate Payers Association.
116 Ibid., “Petition to open up “Hunts” Indian Reserve in Township 52, Range 26, 27, and 28, West of the 2nd Meridian for homesteading.”
117 Ibid., Lands and Timber Branch, file 72,438, 5 June 1914. Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, wrote to Alingly to repeat the same point.
118 Ibid., Office of the Inspector of Indian Agencies, North Saskatchewan I
nspectorate to Mr. Scott, 23 July 1917.
119 Bear was referred to as “that fine young Cree” in both Indian Affairs documents and letters from the local Anglican Diocese in Prince Albert. Since Little Red was owned by the Montreal Lake and Lac La Ronge bands, it did not have its own chief, although most people both on and off the reserve considered Billy Bear to be the leading public figure.
120 See Saskatchewan Archives Office, Index to Material Relating to Saskatchewan Indian Reserves.
121 Dominion Field Naturalist John Macoun is generally skewered by historians as the leading proponent of the wheat boom, and at least indirectly responsible for the disastrous march into the Palliser Triangle. Tyman, Section, Township and Range was particularly critical of Macoun.
Chapter Five: Quality of Permanency
1 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 6 January 1916, “Fuel Boom Follows Close on Cold Spell. Local Wood and Coal Dealers are Having Their Harvest Season.”
2 Dunn and Stoddart, Cordwood and Courage, 186–7; see also O’Hea and Endicott, “Early History of Paddockwood,” Cordwood and Courage, 9–10.
3 The Dominion Lands Act set out rules by which women could apply for homesteads or patents. For a discussion of women who farmed by purchasing South African scrip, see Carter, “Daughters of British Blood.’”
4 See Chapter 6, “Land I Can Own,” in Waiser, Saskatchewan.
5 Land abandonment or cancelling a homestead was not necessarily a “failure,” although many historians and government inspectors have branded it as such.
6 Waiser, Saskatchewan, 105.
7 See Martin, “Dominion Lands” Policy, 172, 174.
8 Jones, Empire of Dust, 80. See also Jones, “We’ll all be buried down here.”
9 See, for example, the story of the McGimpsey family who moved from Hearn, Saskatchewan (near Moose Jaw) to Paddockwood in 1915. Prince Albert Daily Herald, 6 May 1916. Mrs. McGimpsey took patent on her land in 1920, after her husband and daughter died in 1916. See SAB, homestead file 3448546, SW 20-52-25 W2.
10 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 2 June 1919. The story was a reprint from the Toronto Times.
