Forest Prairie Edge

by Merle Massie

  11 Military historian Kent Fedorowich has made a detailed international study of soldier settlement, including the Canadian context, in Fedorowich, Unfit for Heroes.

  12 According to the Prince Albert Daily Herald, many of the soldier settlers looking for land in the area were from “the southern part of the province.” 16 January 1919, “Settlers are coming into North Country.”

  13 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 1 August 1919.

  14 McManus, Happyland, 34.

  15 These numbers are estimates at best, derived from census statistics and other sources. See Jones, Empire of Dust and McManus, Happyland.

  16 See Jones, Empire of Dust, 212–3.

  17 Permits to ship hay to the south, or stock to the north, were common as early as 1914. See Saskatchewan Farmer 8, 12 (1918): 1. In 1918, using the provisions of the War Measures Act, the dominion outlawed the burning of straw stacks. The feed situation was so important for the war effort that it became a criminal code offence to burn straw stacks left over from harvest. See Saskatchewan Farmer 9, 1 (1918): 17.

  18 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 1 August 1919.

  19 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 21 August 1919. The term “Rush to North” was also used, alluding to the Great Land Rushes of the southern prairie.

  20 Ibid.

  21 Ibid.

  22 See Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry Into Farming Conditions, Province of Saskatchewan, 1921; “Federal Government Gives But Little Hope of Relinquishing Control of Natural Resources,” Regina Morning Leader 16 December 1920.

  23 As noted in Marchildon, “History of the Special Areas of Alberta.”

  24 Regina Leader, 2 October 1919, “140 soldiers settled at Swift Current.”

  25 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 1926, 5.

  26 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 28 January 1919.

  27 Greening, “Arne Jacobsen and Family,” Tweedsmuir, 86.

  28 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 22 February1919. “Paddockwood Area Shows Great Activity in Attraction of New Settlers from Prairie Districts.”

  29 See Morton and Wright, Winning the Second Battle; see also Morgan, “Soldier Settlement in the Prairie Provinces”; McDonald, “Soldier Settlement and Depression Settlement.” The head of the Soldier Settlement Board, E.J. Ashton, wrote a contemporary account, Ashton, “Soldier Land Settlement in Canada.”

  30 Morton and Wright, Winning the Second Battle, 146. Reserve land, on the other hand, had to be purchased by the dominion on behalf of the Soldier Settlement Board, once it was surrendered by the First Nation band.

  31 Fedorowich, Unfit for Heroes, p. 106.

  32 Murton, Creating a Modern Countryside. For an explanation of the liberal order framework and its usefulness as a lens through which to view Canadian history, see McKay, “Liberal Order Framework,” 620–3.

  33 Murton, Creating a Modern Countryside, 43.

  34 See, for example, the full-page advertisement from the Soldier Settlement Board, 6 April 1919, Prince Albert Daily Herald. See also stories in Saskatchewan Farmer, particularly “Farm Training for Soldiers,” 7, 1 (1916): 17; “Land for Soldiers,” 7, 9 (1917): 13; “Land Settlement Plans Announced for the Soldiers; For Experienced Men,” 9, 3 (1918): 9.

  35 The Canadian Pacific Railway had also developed an extensive land settlement scheme to sell their immense land holdings. In some cases, they partially developed farms, with irrigation, houses, or other improvements, and sold the land to incoming settlers. Typical mortgages were twenty years. See Saskatchewan Farmer 7, 6 (1917): 15; Hedges, Building the Canadian West. The Soldier Settlement Board scheme no doubt drew from these ideas.

  36 The Soldier Settlement Act may be found online at http://laws.justice.gc.ca/S-12.8/text.html. It is the consolidated version which includes all the additions and changes made to the act up to 1946.

  37 Three examples of block settlement schemes on forested Crown land are: the Kapuskasing Colony in Ontario, the Merville settlement on Vancouver Island, and the Porcupine Soldier Settlement in Saskatchewan north of Yorkton on the old Porcupine Forest Reserve. See Wood, Places of Last Resort; Murton, Creating a Modern Countryside; Harris, Book of Memories; Morgan, “Soldier Settlement in the Prairie Provinces,” and MacDonald, “Soldier Settlement and Depression Settlement.”

  38 Fedorowich, Unfit for Heroes, 70. Geographer J. David Wood, in Wood, Places of Last Resort, provided the best example of the argument that northern settlers were duped.

  39 Murton admitted in his Appendix that “Perhaps the LSB did have some success in helping people to establish themselves as farmers.” Murton, Creating a Modern Countryside, 198.

  40 See Morton and Wright, Winning the Second Battle, 146.

  41 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” Report of the Soldier Settlement Board of Canada, 31 March 1921, 90. In Saskatoon, 76 had been recommended for training, 114 in Regina, for a total of 230 for Saskatchewan; 244 in Edmonton and 167 for Calgary, a total of 411; 378 in Manitoba, 508 in Ontario.

  42 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 10.

  43 SAB, Micro S.183 Records of Premier William Martin, Soldier Settlement files.

  44 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 10.

  45 See “Land for Soldiers,” Saskatchewan Farmer 7, 9 (1917): 13.

  46 Dunn and Stoddart, Cordwood and Courage, 186–7.

  47 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 10.

  48 For these quotes, see “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 11–12.

  49 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 11–12.

  50 There were individual instances of soldiers being granted land or loans to develop specialized farms (such as poultry, fruit, or market garden [“truck”] farms), but these were in cases where the soldier had extensive previous experience.

  51 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 13 February 1919.

  52 “Land Problem,” Prince Albert Daily Herald, 17 January 1919.

  53 See “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 28–30.

  54 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 13 March 1919. It was understood that a settlement railway would be built following the north bank of the Saskatchewan, through Meath Park and the White Fox plain, following the White Fox River, where other soldiers were settling the land. The spur to Paddockwood was finished in 1924; the eastward line, from Henribourg to Nipawin, was finished in 1929, just in time to carry Depression refugees and their effects.

  55 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” Prince Albert board report, 89.

  56 SAB, Micro S.183 Records of Premier William Martin, Soldier Settlement files.

  57 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 1921, 13.

  58 See statistics for Prince Albert, Saskatoon, and Regina, “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 88–9, 95, and 105.

  59 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 2 June 1919. The story was a reprint from the Toronto Times.

  60 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 93.

  61 A map prepared by the Information Services Corporation (ISC) on Dominion Land Grants in what later became the RM of Paddockwood No. 520 listed 130 quarters of land positively identified as Soldier Settlement land. Many other quarters may have passed through the Board after being homesteaded, and their records may be hidden in Dominion Land files, destroyed, or otherwise unavailable at the time the map was made (c. 2005).

  62 SAB, Department of the Interior files, R-183, I. 290. Report on surveys completed in 1920. M.D. McCloskey, Dominion Land Survey to E. Deville, Esq., LL.D., Surveyor General, 30 March 1921.

  63 Such reports, on a quarter-section level, were not published for the general public as they would be out of date almost immediately, as quarter sections were taken up faster than printing could be accomplished. However, it is possible that the report may have been kept on hand at the Dominion Lands Office for reference.

  64 LAC, RG 10, Vol. 7766, File 27107-4, Pt.1. Alingly Grain Growers Associatio
n to Indian Affairs, 3 April 1918. The idea to open the reserve was reported in the Prince Albert Daily Herald, 1 March 1919.

  65 LAC, RG 10, Vol. 7766, File 27107-4, Pt.1. W.B. Crombie, Inspector to the Secretary, Department of Indian Affairs, 27 June 1918.

  66 See Chapter 4.

  67 By this time, the Lac La Ronge band had split into two bands, making the legal ramifications even more complicated.

  68 For an overview of Soldier Settlement and reserve land, see Carter, “Infamous Proposal.” See also Dawson, “Better than a Few Squirrels.”

  69 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 17.

  70 A favourite book on women and the western frontier remains Rasmussen, Rasmussen, Savage, and Wheeler, Harvest Yet to Reap; others include Silverman, Last Best West; Strong-Boag, “Pulling in Double Harness or Hauling a Double Load”; Sundberg, “Farm Women on the Canadian Prairie Frontier”; Strong-Boag and Fellman, eds., Rethinking Canada, 95–106. Recent work includes Rollings-Magnusson, “Hidden Homesteaders”; Cavanaugh, “‘No Place for a Woman.’”

  71 Chapman, “For the Soldier Settler’s Family,” in the section “Women and Their Work,” edited by Ethel Chapman, MacLean’s Magazine, c. 1920.

  72 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 38.

  73 Ibid., 39.

  74 See ibid., 39–41.

  75 Ibid., 91–2.

  76 Chapman, “For the Soldier Settler’s Family.”

  77 “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 92.

  78 Chapman, “For the Soldier Settler’s Family.”

  79 Muldrew, “Home Management.”

  80 Ibid. See also “Soldier Settlement on the Land,” 92.

  81 Chapman, “For the Soldier Settler’s Family”; “Land Settlement: Sixth Report of the Soldier Settlement Board of Canada, December 31, 1927,” 12.

  82 For a delightful narrative version of the work of these clubs, including the Junior Red Cross, see Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside.

  83 Glenbow Archives, Canadian Red Cross Society, Alberta-North West Territories Division fonds, M8228 Series 6a pamphlet collection 224, “Nation Builders: Are You One? Red Cross Campaign, November 5th to 11th, 1922.”

  84 Glenbow Archives, Canadian Red Cross Society, Alberta-North West Territories Division fonds, M8228 Series 6b-226, “A Brief Summary of the Work of the Canadian Red Cross Society Since the War.”

  85 For an overview of the Red Cross Outpost network, including a list of all Saskatchewan Red Cross Outpost hospitals, see Massie, “Red Cross Outpost Hospitals,” Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, 680. See also http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/red_cross_outpost_hospitals.htmlin. For an overview of the Paddockwood hospital, see Massie, “Ruth Shewchuk: A Red Cross Outpost Nurse.” See also Elliott, “(Re)constructing the Identity of a Red Cross Outpost Nurse”; Elliott, “Blurring the Boundaries of Space”; and Elliott, Dodd and Rousseau, “Outpost Nursing in Canada.” For other stories from Red Cross nurses and outpost hospitals, see Miller, Mustard Plasters and Handcars; Martin, Red Cross Nurse on the Bay Line.

  86 Crawford-Petruk, “Memoirs of the Paddockwood Red Cross Outpost Hospital,” Cordwood and Courage, 12–17.

  87 The first overnight patient at the hospital was Nellie Hambleton, who was admitted 29 September 1919. Her baby son was born the next day, and they greeted visitors at the official opening ceremonies. See University of Saskatchewan Archives, miscellaneous fonds, “Paddockwood Red Cross Outpost Hospital record of patients 1920–1947.” See also Prince Albert Daily Herald, 2 October 1919.

  88 University of Saskatchewan Archives, Paddockwood Homemakers fonds, “A History of the Paddockwood Homemakers Club,” c. 1980.

  89 SAB, R-183 I.290. Reports of M.D. McCloskey, Dominion Land Survey, 1920.

  90 McCloskey report, Township 51, Range 25, West of the 2nd Meridian.

  91 Ibid. The village of Paddockwood was (is) in this township.

  92 A young Swedish mother was quoted in a Red Cross campaign: “I am engaged to my husband five years. He is out here, my people won’t let me come—no good place, no doctor, no nurse. Then one day he write, ‘The Red Cross has come, they have hospital.’ We know Red Cross. I come by next boat.” Glenbow Archives, Canadian Red Cross Society fonds, M-8228-226, “The Story of the Red Cross.”

  93 “From Ox-Team to Combine,” 5.

  94 Ibid.

  95 See Saskatchewan Farmer 8, 8 (1918): 9, “Bad Year Ahead in Forest Fires”—“Settlers’ fires continue to be the very worst source of forest conflagration, although campers and careless smokers are close competitors.”

  96 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 15 March 1919, “Paddockwood.”

  97 Ibid.

  98 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 25 July 1919. “Start Survey North Line in About Two Weeks. Canadian National Railway Wires Board of Trade.”

  99 SAB, Department of Agriculture files, B11 13. PA Board of Trade. “Report of Meeting Held at Empress Hotel.”

  100 The coming of the railway led to the erection of elevators and a huge spike in the local cordwood industry. See Cordwood and Courage, 10, 26–7.

  101 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 25 January 1919.

  102 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 1 February 1919.

  103 SAB, R-183 I.290. Report of M.D. McCloskey, Dominion Land Surveyor, on Townships 54, 55, and 56, Ranges 23 through 27, west of the second meridian, August 1920.

  104 At least fifteen men from Mozart, Saskatchewan, of Icelandic descent, filed on land in this township. It would have been a large colony, but only a few of the men who filed actually went to their northern homesteads, and none of them stayed. Any outstanding homestead entries not actively worked were cancelled in 1927 in preparation for the new National Park borders. See SAB post-1930 settlement files, R 2004-220, S43, File S10140.

  105 SAB, Department of the Interior files, R-183, I. 290. Report on surveys completed in 1920. M.D. McCloskey, Dominion Land Survey to E. Deville, Esq., LL.D., Surveyor General, 30 March 1921.

  106 See Prince Albert Daily Herald, 1 April 1916; 8 March 1919.

  107 SAB, Department of Agriculture files, AG 2-7, General File. Application for Free Shipment of Settler’s Stock and Effects from points in Dry Area, 1923.

  108 Prince Albert Historical Society, Bill Smiley Archives, “From Ox-Team to Combine,” unpublished history of the Buckland district, 5.

  109 Quoted in Martin, “Dominion Lands” Policy, 167. The original legislation can be found in the Statutes of Canada, 13-14, George V, c. 44.

  110 “From Ox-Team to Combine,” 5.

  111 Fedorowich, Unfit for Heroes, 81.

  112 Determined demands for re-evaluation were heeded. The first loan writeoffs occurred in 1922, and a massive re-evaluation was completed in 1927–1928. See McDonald, “Soldier Settlement and Depression Settlement,” 41.

  113 Globe, 28 September 1922, “Land Settlement Plans.”

  114 SAB, R-183, I.290, M.D. McCloskey, Report on Twp. 52, R. 25, W. Of 2nd Meridian.

  115 An advertisement in the Prince Albert Daily Herald June 1919 read: “Be Sure and See the LAND CLEARING DEMONSTRATION at the same time and place as the P.A. Agricultural Society Annual Plowing Match. THE MACHINE USED WILL BE A KIRSTIN, CLUTCH TYPE, ONE-MAN STUMP PULLER.”

  116 Fedorowich, Unfit for Heroes, 83.

  117 Ibid. Fedorowich references the work of McDonald, “Soldier Settlement and Depression Settlement.” See also Wood, Places of Last Resort for many anecdotes of the problems of northern settlement.

  118 See “Land Settlement,” 22, 23. By 1929, the soldier settlement statistics for the Prince Albert region were, from a total of 3,876 soldier grant entries, 1,657 had been abandoned or cancelled, leaving 2,219 active entrants and just under 43 percent cancellations.

  119 I calculated the homestead entries between 1904 and 1914 to be 288,782; cancellations in that same period, 108,678, almost 38 percent. These sta
tistics were from the document “Saskatchewan Homestead Entries 1905 to 1943 by Land Agencies.” Soldier settlement abandonments, at 40 percent, were far less than overall Saskatchewan abandonments between 1911 and 1931, which economist Chester Martin calculated at a horrifying 57 percent. See Martin, “Dominion Lands” Policy, 174. In comparison, the soldier settlement scheme in Prince Albert was a resounding success.

  120 Globe, 28 September 1922, “Land Settlement Plans.”

  121 Morton and Wright, Winning the Second Battle, 153. See also Fedorowich, Unfit for Heroes, 102.

  122 The 3000 British Family Scheme was seen as a way to bring British people to Canada, to combat the floodtide of immigration from non–English speaking eastern European countries. See Kitzan, “The Fighting Bishop,” and “Preaching Purity in the Promised Land.” Although the Prince Albert area was not as popular as other places, it nonetheless had over 200 families come to the region through this scheme.

  123 There has been scarce academic work on the 3000 British Family Scheme. See, for example, Schultz, “Canadian Attitudes Toward Empire Settlement.” More information can be found in the annual reports of the Soldier Settlement Board throughout the 1920s.

  124 For an excellent overview of the work of the Canadian National Railway and its Department of Colonization and Agriculture, see Osborne and Wurtele, “The Other Railway.”

  125 Julius Androchowiez was a colonization agent for the CNR, working to establish families along the Prince Albert-Paddockwood line. He was interviewed by the Saskatchewan Royal Commission on Immigration and Settlement, 25 April 1930, in Prince Albert. See SAB, R249, Vol. 35, 87–103. See also the interview with A.J. Hanson, also a CNR colonization agent, same evening and venue, 65–83. Mr. Arthur William Hilton arrived under the British Family scheme in 1928; he testified to the Commission on the same evening.

  126 SAB, R249, Vol. 35, 113–5. Testimony of E.T. Bagshaw, managing director of Bagshaw-Holroyde Agencies Limited, General Financial Agents, Prince Albert to the Royal Commssion on Immigration and Settlement, Prince Albert hearings, 25 April 1930.

  127 Such work-for-taxes prevailed in the north Prince Albert region well into the 1940s. See “McGowan, Sargent Hugh and Muriel,” Cordwood and Courage, 355.