Tag: manitoba history

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JAMES FRASER?

When I photographed this house, I never expected to find anything interesting about it. In fact, I wasn’t even going to look but I thought what the heck. Well, the first registered homesteader was James Fraser! Of course I instantly thought of Outlander. James Fraser was recorded in the history books as taking ownership in 1895. Of course, I could find nothing about him. The second owner, purchased in 1901 was from Ivernesshire, Scotland!!

Albert and Ada married in 1903 and this was their land. Together they had 5 children. History says that Albert came to Manitoba in 1889 and worked for the local implement dealer. He became quite successful and retired in 1892. Upon his retirement Albert and Ada bought a fruit farm in Victoria, B.C.

After a few years in B.C. Albert heard of the hard times on the prairies of Manitoba and decided to head back and and “get his farms on a paying basis”. Things were going well until the 30’s and many of their groups were deemed worthless. On top of that, Albert sustained an injury wherein he was gored by one of his bull from his large herd of Hereford cattle. Albert was very proud of his herd but the injury would lead to his death. Albert lived a couple months after his injury but his lungs were so badly crushed that he eventually developed pneumonia and passed away in April, 1932.

Three years later Albert’s land produced good crops from the rains the prairies were receiving. One of Albert’s sons went on to work at the elevator in Elva.

Upon our arrival at this property, we weren’t sure what we were going to see. It was a long walk up the drive and I kind of had a feeling there would not be much to see. There were a gazillion grasshoppers along our route and these were the only two photos I took. I’m happy we stopped and I’m happy that I took the time to find a little bit of history on this place.

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GREGORY

I’ve known about this house for many years.  I’ve shot it from the highway a couple of times.  This winter I asked a hockey Dad if he had info on it and he got me in touch with the owner.  I headed out there early this summer on a super hot, no cloud day!  It was a trek in and Cade came with me, for added security.  He also went to make sure I didn’t zap myself while dealing with the electric fence.

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The current residents are of the beef variety but we didn’t see any actual cows, just patties.  You can get right up to the house but there isn’t really anything to see.

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The house is on a bit of a tilt althought most of the time I figure its just me.  The one thing I miss on the Canon T6i is the level built into my screen.  My Powershot SX60 IS has it but I rarely use that camera anymore.  Like I said, it was REALLY hot out and I didn’t stay here for very long.  This is really a house that should be photographed on a day with stormy skies or a stunning sunrise or sunset.  For me, its just a tad to far from home for that.

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There is no history on this home in any book I could get my hands on.  I am going to assume that the home was purchased many, many years ago for the purpose of farming and the house has not been lived in for a very long time.  The bay window on this old farm house is what always got my attention and I’m happy that I got to see it up close.

 

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ST MARY ST ALBAN ANGLICAN CHURCH

This impressive 28-foot by 44-foot stone church south of Manitou, just passed the town of Kaleida was designed by Winnipeg architect, Charles Wheeler.  Built in 1892 for a cost of $6,500 by W. H. Bowler and the construction firm of Kerr and Magee.

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The church was originally named Winram Memorial Church in commemoration of W.J. Winram.  Born in the Isle-of-Man on 8 January 1838, and the son of shipbuilder, he worked as a mechanical engineer in his father’s shipyard. Upon coming to Canada around 1866 he settled in Simcoe County, Ontario and resided there until May 1878, when he came to Manitoba.

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In 1860 he married Catherine Ingersoll and together they had 3 children.  He won his first seat in the Manitoba Legislature by acclamation in 1879 and was re-elected or acclaimed at the general elections of  1883, 1886 and 1888.  He was also a Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 1888 until his death.

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Upon my arrival at the church which is down a horrid PTH (that’s not surprising in this Province right now) to this well kept church and cemetery, it wasn’t what I was expecting.  When I came around the back I found the headstone of a friend’s Dad.  She told me today that her parents were also engaged at this church and her Mom grew up not far from here.  Her maternal grandparents are buried beside her Dad.

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I’m happy I made my way down here.  Of course I tried to avoid going back down the PTH and ended up in a maze of gravel roads and pouring rain but with Colton’s keen Snapchat mapping skills, we made it home.

 

 

 

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THE DAILY MILK RUN

W.S.S was born in Tyner, North Dakota on December 22, 1881.  He worked on various farms until 1910 when he decided to seek a “non-flooding area to farm” and moved to Canada.

family

He came to this area and purchased this land.  He didn’t live there right away and lived in a rental or “boarded” across the road in a small village.  In 1922 he purchased a house that he purchased from the local blacksmith and moved it onto his property.

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I do not know if this is the original house that was hauled onto the property but I do know from the current land owner that the house was small and as the family grew they added more and more on to it.  It makes perfect sense to me that this could very well be the original house just from the layout of it.

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W.S.S. eventually got married and together they raised 3 children on this farm, not to mention the grandchildren that would also be raised here.  The family pasture was the site of many baseball games.

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W.S.S. and his wife were community minded people and his efforts were instrumental in forming the local elevator, Co-Op and united church.

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The family kept Percheron horses and they jointly owned a Case tractor and separator with another family.

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In 1927 this barn was built and the family ran a dairy cow operation.  The cows were milked in the morning and the children would deliver the fresh milk in little bottles to village members, by cart, on their way to school.

The boys farmed with their Dad for some years until the oldest left and moved to Oregon.  Father and remaining son farmed together until Mr. & Mrs. retired and moved to town.  Mr. passed away in 1968 and Mrs. in 1972.  The son continued farming on the land and married and raised 4 children of his own on the family farm until he moved to town in 1990.  The current landowner purchased the property in approximately 1996/97.

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M & M were very active in their community, just like his parents.  For many years the basement of their home was used to collect, sort and wrap gifts for the Christmas cheer.  Upon moving to town Mr. was very active in establishing the recycling project.