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32X

K J I.I»oN A N CM I H( II,

lliiilt III is:,.: iniiirr tin' ininisU'H nt' livr. John li/oi'k.

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

IN REAL LIFE.A^^^'"'^^

KHV. H. G. MA(Br:TH. M.A.,

Pmtor of A wjuHlhu Ch urrh, Winnipeg.

WITH INTUOI)(<TI(»N liY

HON. SIR DONALD A. SMITH, K.^M.^/\\£^i \

TORONTOK C^/ O \

VVILLIAM BRI

MoNTKEAL : C. W. COATES.

Halifax :V F. lWESj>fs

s ^^ X

M. %'S

Entkkkd according to Act of the I'urliainent of Canada, in the year one
thousand eight hundred and ninuty-Hcven, by WiLiLiam Bkiuom, at the
Department of Agriculture.

PR r: FACE.

In cHiiiiiioii with uthors wln» h.'ive )>vvu inttTi'stt'd in,
ami nmiu'ctiMl with, tho <k>vi'lo|mifnt «»f thu territt tries
foniR'rly uink-r the udiiiiiiistratioii of the Ilu<isitn liay
('oin|>aiiy, I licanl witli much ])k'asui'e of the intention of
my friend, the Uev. K. (J. IMacHeth, M.A., to place <»n
record an accomit of the ;^enesis and (k^vehtpment of the
Selkirk Settlement in the Ivi'd Kiver Valley. The lonj^er
such a work is postponed the more difHcult. must, it \tc to
carry out, an<l it would he a thousand pities if a descrip-
tion of the pioneer attempts at colonization in the j^reat
North-West were not ^iven t(» the world. This is neither
the time nor the place to enter up<»n a discussion of tlie
motives which influenced liord Selkirk in his enterprise.
Ho may have keen somewhat in advance of the times iji
which he lived, but he had the couraue of his convictions.

id his efforts deserve the fullest recognition from those
ho l)elieve in the great future in store for Western

ai
w

Canada.

Looking back to the period when the movement was
initiated, it is not surprising, in view of the then com-
parative inaccessil)ility of the country, ov of the inexper-
ience of the settlers of the climatic and other c(»nditions
then obtaining, and <»f other circumstances, that for

rREFACE.

ni.'Hiy yeurs the |ir(>;^ress of tlio SuttlfjiuMit vvjis rL'tarded.
Tlii'i'i! can l>e no duuht, howevur, that its giJidual «lu-
vi-lopnuMit had an ini|M)i-tant lutaring, hotli directly and
indirectly, on the i!vents uliich led to the surrender of
the Charter of the Hudson Ray ('onij»any, and t«» the
ac(|uisition of Uupert's Land liy Canada, throu^^h the
Imperial (iovernnient.

It has heen the custom to dcserilM! the Hudson Hay
Company as an opponent of individual settlement and of
colonization. To enter into a controversy on this j)oint
is not my purpose, hut it may he proper to state that the
condition of attairs at the time in <piestion in the country
hetween Lake Su|>erior and the Rocky Mountains, d<»es
not apjK'ar to have heen sutHciently appreciated. Owing
t<i the difHculties of access an<l eixress, colonization in
what is now ]*»ianitol>a and the North-West Territttries
could not have taken place successfully t<» any extent.
Of necessity, also, the importation of the connnodities
re(|uired in connection with its agricidtural development
would have heen exceptionally expensive, while, on the
other hand, the c(»st of transportation <tf its possihle
expttrts nnist have heen so great as to render competition
with countries more favorably situated at the moment,
ditticult, if not impossible. The justice of these conten-
tions will beat once realized, when it is remembered that
the Ked River Valley was situated in the centre of the
continent, one thousand miles away in any direction from
settled districts. Events, however, were shaping them-
selves all the time, in no uncertain way, and when the
proper moment arrived, the great North-West was thrown
open to settlement, railway connnunication became
assured, and the country has since progressed, in view of
all the circumstances, in a remarkable manner. Person-

rREl-ACE.

;■/;■

nlly, it is my opinion, that tlu' Jii'iiuisitioii and (li'Vt'l(»ji-
im-nt of tliu Hudson l'»ay Ti'iritory was ini|)ossil)li' juior
to the coiifi'dcration of tlu- Dominion. No loss a liody
than nnitt'd Canada I'ould have ac(|niiL'd ami administi'icd
N«> lar;,'!' a doniain, or havi- undtTtakrii tlu' const rnrtii>n
of railways, without which its dcvi'lojnm'nt could only
have been slow and uncertain. It was not till IHJS, cit^ht
years after till' transfer, that Winnipeg' first receivi-d rail-
way connnunication through tin- I'nited States. Thi'ee
or four more years elapsed hefore the completion of the
line to Lake Su|»erior, and it was only late in 1885 —
sixteen yeai's after the Hudson Bay ('om|»any relin-
quished their Charter that the Canadian Pacific Itailway
was com|)leted from ocean to ocean, and Manitoba and
the North-West Territories were placed in direct and
rej^idar railway connnunication with the ditlerent parts
of the Dominion. There is no (piestion, also, that the
jtolicy of the Hudson Hay Conijtany in reijard to the
Indians, and the inttsrcourse which the al»ori<.;ines had
Iteen accustomed to with its »»tlicers, made the transfer
infinitely easier than would have otherwise been possil)h'.
In fact, it may he said that the Hutlson Hay Company,
v/hile con.servint^ its own interests, as long as was desira-
ble, yet prepared the way for the Dominion, and for the
colonization and settlement which is now takinjj; place.

The record of the real life of the Selkirk settlers will
be especially interesting to the inhabitants of the various
I'rovinces of the Dominion, to the early setth'rs in Mani-
tol)a and the North- West, an<l t<i those millii»ns who are
destined t(t follow them in the future, and establish for
themselves hap])y and comfortable homes on the grand
western j»rairies. Many of the original Selkirk settlers
and their descendants have betui pi'isonally and intimately

PREFACE.

known tonic, includinjjf one (»f the most respeoted of tlie
pioneers, the father of Mr. MaoHetli ; and I hav»^ always
res|)eeted an<l admired their sterlinj^ (pialitiesof head and
heart. I know h(»w they have worked and how they have
lived, and, in my judgment, Manitoba owes more to their
etl'orts and to their example than is generally admittt-d, or
ean well he coneeived hy the present generation of Cana-
clians. One illustration of their simple character and
honesty occurs to me at the moment (»f writing. Nothing
further was re(piired of them, in connect! »n with the
transfer of land, than a personal apjtearance before the
Registrar, an«l an oral intimation (»f the transaction to he
ert'ecteil, N«> deeds or documents were cttmpleted in
such cases, ami no conveyance of the kind was ever (pies-
tioned. L(trd Selkirk is repre.sente<l to have said that in
the lied fiiver Valley alt»ne there is rot»m f()r many mil-
lions of people. More modern authorities claim that the
prairies are destined to provide homes for as many mil-
lions as now inhabit the rnited States. The extension
oi the railways in the diti'erent paits of the country is
opening up yearly more extended tiehls for settlement, is
pr(»viding the facilities for placing families all over the
country, and for marketing the pr<»<luce they will be
enabled to raise. All these results may be traced to the
Selkirk Settlement, and to the Hudson Hay Company,
and they will tend to give additional interest to the
entertaining and instructive volume Mr. MacBeth has
written, for which I venture to predict a wide circulation.

DoN.vLh A. Smith.

Victoria Ciiamhkrs,

London, E.no.

CONTKN rS.

CIIAITKR T.

'•'=7

iNTIHntlTToKY

• •

CIIAlTMIi II.

riKNKSlS (»K TIIK Si;i,KIHK CoLoNY .

CHAlTKIl III.

Skttmn*; inhkk Difkk ri/riKs

CIIAITKR IV.

Skttm:i» and at NVu kk .

CI I APT Kl I V.

HoKSK-UAlSIN); AM» llAY-MAKIN«i .

I'AOK

ir»

. 40

CTIAITKK VI.

Social Lifk

. 50

Vlll

CONTF.M\S.

CIIAITKR VII.
SoMK Pk<'I'mak Local Ccstoms .

CHAPTER VIII.

(-^IVIL AND CoMMKUCIAL LiKK.

CIIAPTKR IX.

KlHMATK>NAL Fa<'IIJTIKS

Paok

7(5

CIIAITKR X.

RKLKilors LiFK

«7

CHAPTKR XI.

Rklkmouh Life — Continued .

(JHAPTKR XII.
Missionary Oi'tposts .

KMi

ERRATA

Page 83, line 10 — after '• Alexander Ross," read "James A.
Murray."

Page 100, line IG— after "long distances," read "on horse-
back."

I'AOK

Vut

TiiK si<:lkirk si:TTLr:RS

7«

IN RHAL lAllL

J>7

<n;

CHAPTKR r.

IXTIlODlU'TOIiY.

Histories oi* Munitoha and the Nortli-Wcst
exist in plenty, and tlic nundter is Ix'in*; con-
stantly addled to as the <:jro\vin«^ importance of
tho countiy attracts the attention of the world.
The work of recordin<^ the leadin*^ Instorical
facts C(jnc(!rnin<^ tlie West has ])een so a})ly ant I
so exhaustively done by such men as Hohh,
Guim, Hart^rave, Bryce, He;^^^ and others, that
the present writer would not, under ordinary
circumstances, attempt to add anythin^ij in the
same line to what has been already written.
But it has for years seemed to him, as the son

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

*»•

of a Selkirk settler, liorn and broii^^ht up amid
tlie primitive life and the simple surrouiidiii<^s
of this " Western Acadia," that very little, if
anything, has been made public of the altogether
unique and peculiar life and customs character-
istic of those who for nearly half a century,
apart from the rest of the world, fought and
coiKjuered the difficulties of settlement in a
wilderness wild. More than once has he re-
solved to essay this unwritten chapter in the
history of his birthplace, and more than once
have friends, old and new, urge<l the task upon
him ; but the fear of failing to do adecjuate
justice to the work has up to this date laid an
arresting hand upon his pen. He feels that this
lost chapter should have been written years ago
by some one to whom the life to be depicted was
less than a memory and more of an actual
experience than it has been to him. But alas!
no one undertook the work, and as the time
goes by, the fear that it may never be touched
at all becomes more real and painful. Hence,
though his actual experience in the life related
was not many years in duration V)efore that

IN REM. LIFE.

nni(|ue life lH'<^an to undorgo a change witli tlio
advent of new conditions, yet those few years,
together witli tales told })y prominent actors in
tlie drama, lead the writer to hope that he may
furnish some facts and sketch some characters of
note and interest. He feels the more encour-
aged to take up the task, because amongst those
who urged him t(j undertake it was one who,
up to the time of his death, took the deepest
interest in the countrv in whose earlier and
later history he himself was so outstanding and
foi'ceful a figure. The reference is to the late
Sir John Schultz, who took such an active part
in the tumultuous troubles attending our entry
into Confederation, and who, when escaping
from Louis Riel and hard hunted by enemies,
found asyhnii in my father's house at Kildonan.
On New Year's eve of 1<S98, Sir John forwarded
to the writer an excellent enoravinfj: of old Fort
(Jarry, inscribed by his own hand (trembling
with sickness) as follows : " F^oi" my esteemed
friend of many years. Rev. R. G. MacHeth, of
Augustine Church, from Lieutenant-Governor
Schult/, Government House, Winnipeg, in grate-

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

fill memory oi' my bravo old friend, the Hon.
Robert MacBeth, and as a souvenir of stirrinf^
events in other days," Accompanying this was
a letter in which the followin*^ sentences occur
in reference to a lecture or paper on the subject
of the early days : " I am entirely at one with
the wish that you may undertake this work —
no one more capable — and I only hope that I
may be granted life and leave to preside at a
meeting when you give the first-fruits of this
most interesting subject. The people, the cir-
cumstances of their comini»; and their surround-
ings were altogether uni(|ue and should be
recorded. There is too much of a desire nowa-
days to ignore the past and the services in it
that men like the Selkirk settlers rendered : s(^
by all means carry out your half- formed design."
Besides this, some time aijfo the Rev. W. I).
Ballantyne, Editor of the dinadd Pvrshyter'mn,
requested an article for the semi- jubilee number
of his paper, and having received one (somewhat
hurriedly written) wrote suggesting a series in
the same tine. After making the suggestion
Mr. l>allantyne says, "It is very impoi'tant, you

/\ REAL I.II'E.

will a^ree with iiic, th.it tliosu c'lrly days, and
the men who llvrd in them, should not he t'or-
^^otten; and you ou;^'ht as I'ar as possihlc, in jus-
tice to the hrave men who toiled and l)ore so
nnich and so nohly kept the I'aith, to help rescue
their nam«'S iVom ohlivion."

With this view then before liim, and with th(^
hope ol" writin<^ some chapters on the inner lit'(;
of the old settlers and a few character sketches
that may be of interest, the writer essays the
a(;*reeable but perhaps too and»itious task which
the necessities of the case, tlu^ n^juests of fi'iends,
and his own desire to be of service in preserving
some record of a vanished life seem to lay before
his hand. .

After writing this chapter and outlining the
others, it occurred to me that it would immeas-
urably increase the interest and value of the
volume if a Preface could be secured from Sir
Donald A. Smith, High Commissioner for
Canada, who has been so long and honorably
connected with the history of this country,
and who, moreover, was a personal friend of
my father, from whom I have had nuich of

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

tlie letter and the spirit of the book. I accord-
inj^ly wrote to the worthy kni^lit (who, it is
needless to say, has not seen this paragraph),
and take this opportunity of acknowledging
the gracious and courtly kindness of his consent
to write " a few words of preface." From one
of Sir Donald's letters the following extract is
made :

*' Your father . . . was one of my most
esteemed friends, and it is indeed well that his
life-work and that of other Kildonan men, who
so materially aided in the opening up of the
great North -West, should be given to the public,
and it is certainly appropriate this should be
done by one so fully conversant with the whole
subject as yourself."

IN REAL UI'E.

fing

CHAPTER 11.

HENESIS OF THE SELKIRK COLONY.

;€

With the laain historical facts leading; to the
])lantinir of a colony from the north of Scotland
in the midst of the American continent, it is rea-
sonable to assume that the most of our readers
are fairly familiar, and it is not the j)urpose of
these papers to ^o at lenf^th or in detail into
such matters. But the drift of events may be
noted in order that the .actual situation of the
colonists may be understood l)efore we pass into
the study of personal life and immediate sur-
soundings in their new home, " The Governor
and Company of Adventurers trading into Hud-
son's Bay," or, as they were better known, the
Hudson's Bay Company, had from about the year
1()70 practically controlled the whole of America
west of the great lakes. We are in the habit

1()

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

now of commiHeniting the Frencli king who,
adopting the sneer of Voltaire, spoke of the
cession of Canada to England as the surrender
of " a few hundred arpents of snow," l)ut there
have been a great many people besides Louis
XV. who looked upon the territory which to-day
furnishes the finest wheat in the world, exports
the cattle from a thousand plains, and holds the
richest mines yet discovered, as a region att'ord-
ing a sphere of operations only to the hunter and
the trapper. But the Earl of Selkirk, who at
the opening of this century practically controlled
the Hudson's Bay Company, though he doubtless
saw in this great region the field for an
immensely profitable fur trade, seems to have
had a more prescient understanding of its future
possibilities. Moreover, all we have heard of the
man from those who knew him leads us to
believe that he was actuated by higher than self-
ish motives for himself or his company, when, at
great personal cost, he brought to the banks of
the Red River the company of his fellow-country-
men known to history as the " Selkirk settlers."
It is true that at the time there was keen and

AV /:eal life.

:'%

*S"'^

soinotinios Moody rivalry between the Hudson's
Hay and the North-Wost companies for the
trade of the retrion, and that the Earl's move in
brin^in<^ out the first <^roup of colonists as abase
of supply in food and as laborers for his company
mi^ht have been looked on as hif^hly prudent
and strate^^ie ; but in re<(ard to the main body
of the settlers, evidence is not lackin<^^ to show
that the Earl, whose name was held in sacred
memory by them, and who spent and was spent
in ettbrts to establish them in a new land, was
<,n-eatly impelled to this by seein<^ these unhappy
people turned out of their homes in Scotland
that their holdings mi^ht be turned into sheep
tracts. The ((Uestion, " Is not a man better than
a sheep ? " is supposed to admit of but one
answer amongst the generality of mankind, but
the landlord of that day and place had a different
view, and hence the man had to give way and
make room for the more profitable sheep. Back
there first of all began the sufferings and pri-
vations of these people. Doubtless their life had
been strenuous and struggling enough under a
system of landlordism which w^e have never

7"//A' SELKIRK SETTLERS

known on tliese free prairies ; but up to tliat
point it was the best they knew, and wlien the
fiat went forth that tlvey imist vacate tluur
homes and holdin^jjs, many a lieart- rending scene
can be imagined. I liave often heard my fatlier
speak of the cruel evictions lie witnessed as a
boy, when whole families w^ere turned out on the
strath with their poor " {^ear " to witness tlie
l)urnin^of their dearly beloved, if lnnnble,c;ibin.
To such a persecuted people Lord Selkirk came
as a rescuing angel, an<l though, as we have said,
he may have had some regard to the advantage
of his company, and thougli some promises he
made to the settlers he did not fulfil, owing to
many entanglements in the conflicts for the fur
trade, yet on the whole his treatment of the
colonists and his efforts on their behalf were such
tliat, when he returned with ruined health an<l
shattered fortune to die in Scotland, in 1820, his
loss was deeply mourned by the settlers, whose
descendants have delighted in giving his name
to points and places all over the West.

The work of bringing the colonists to the
Red River by way of Hudson's Bay was not

L\ REAL I. UK.

1(3

tho siin|»l(' task it would !»(> in tins day of
" ocoan trrevliounds," and even when tlicy were
landed on the shores of the hay it seemed as if
tlu'ii' trouhh's were deei)enin<^ darklv. Of the
hand of colonists that left Scotland in 1813, wt'
are told in Beirir's Historv, "that dnrint' the
voya<jjc fevei" hrokc out ainon<^st the passen<^ers,
and when they arrived at their destination the
party of Scotch eniij^^rants were in a dreadful
condition an<l utterly untit to undertake the
overland journey to Red River. Many of thein
died hefore and after landin<^, and the reniaindei'
were so worn out with sickness that they wei'o
ohli^ed to remain at the hay for the whole of
the followin^^ winter. From all accounts it
would appear that tlu'se poor peoj)le wci'e not
properly cared for by the a<;cnts of Lord Selkirk,
and that the food and shelter provided were
totally inade(|uatc for their comfort or protec-
tion during the severities of the weather. After
spending a most miserable winter at Church
Hill and York Factory, the survivors started
in the summer of 1814 for Red River, arrivin"-
there early in the autun)n. A few days after

rUE SELKIRK SETTLERS

their arrival they were put in possession of lanrl,
but tliere were neither iini)leiiients to till the
soil nor a sutHciency of food to ]»e had. Added
to this, the settlement was on the eve of a
series of disturbances which shortly afterwards
resulted in the destruction of the colony by the
servants of th(^ Noith-West Company." The
protectorate exercised over the settlers l)y the
Hudson's Bay Company naturally excited the
enmity of their rivals, the \orth-West (\)m-
I)any, a^^ainst the unfortunate colonists. The
following extract from a letter written by
]\Ir. Alexander McDonnell, who was one of the
leading spirits in the latter company a^ the
time, will show the position of affairs,

Mr. McDonnell, writing to his brother-in-law,
McCiillivray, says : " Nothing but the complete
downfall of the colony by fair means or foul
will satisfy some — a most desirable object if it
can be etiected. So here is at tliem with all my
lieart and energy."

That the leading spirits of the North- West
Company did go " at them with all their heart
and energy" the immediate sei^uel proves, for

IN REAL f./FF.

anfl,

tlic

Mod

of u

{ir<ls

till'

Tlio

tlio

the

om-

Tho

• the
. the

ill tlir iK'Xt year they broke the colony up and
Hcutterecl the settlers to the four winds. Some
of the persecuted peo])h' entered the service of
the; Hudson's liay Company, some went out for
tlie winter to .lack lliver on Lake Winnipej^,
while a considerahle numher of families were
de})orted hy the North-West (Company to east-
ern Canada, where their descendants are found
to-day at many points. Almost coincident with
this break in<^ u}) of the colony on the lle<l River,
another party of emigrants (amongst whom was
my father, then a lad of sixteen) left Scotland
for this place, setting sail early in June, 1.S15,
in pitiful (but to them, perhaps, l)lissful) ignoi'-
ance of what had hapjiened their predecessors
and of what awaite(l themselves on their arri\'al.

!''

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

CHAPTER III.

s/rrrLixa rxntJii in Frier LTiEfi.

As we cloHod our hist chapter wo huw a \nAy
of colonists leaviiii^ tlu> north ol' Scotland in tlio
carl}' suiinncr of 1815 to join tlie colony on the
i'ai" \iiiy\ liiver. However strenuous and <lifH-
cult their life may have been, and however much
the struo-^le to ^"ain a livelihood was accentuated
l»y the oppressive landlordism of the time, it
i*e<|uires no vivid ima<;ination to see how sadly
they took leave of their heloved stratli. No
people in the world are more stron<jjly attached
to their native land tlian the Scotch, and as
their vessel, outward bound, carried these emi-
grants beyond sio-jit of tlie heath-clad liills, many
a oroup such as the painter of " Locliaber no
more " furnishes us, mi^-ht be seen on its deck
with wistful eyes <^azin<jj back toward the coast-

j;^

/A' REM. 1. 1 IE.

line <>r «l«'ar oM Seotlaiul. IWit as the days wore
oil in that loM<r vova<jr their cxpcctatioii would
tui'ii also to thr rit w land to which they were
iioiiiii'. Sonn> of their kindred liad j^one hefort*
tlu-ni as if to j)i'ej)are the way, and those coining
now looked I'ljrward to tindin;;" their I'riends in
IVee antl liappy homes in the <'olony on a new
cnntiiient. With these IViends thev nii«ji»t well
hojM- to tind a elieei fnl resting-place, renewing
old memories, untd they, too, C(»uhl liave homes
of theii' own in the I'rei; land of tlie West.

lint alas ! how cruelly disappointing to them
would the scene of I'uined homes and desolate
hearthstones he, and liow dejidly a blow would
he given to all their hopes when they would
find their friends scattered whither not even
the few I'emaining could tell ! It is inipossible
to let the nn'nd dwell ui)on scenes like these, and
then on the ultimate ti-iumph of these people,
without thinking of the splendi<l valor of the
Scottish hlood and of the supreme faith in God
which carried them through to the end. As
they landed on the bleak shores of Hudson's
Hay, and after a weary Journey stood amidst

TffE SELKIRK SETTLERS

the snow and ice of November on tlie spot
where they had expected to find tlie homes of
their friends, but wliere they foun<l only a scene
of desolation, the very north wind with freezing
breath might seem to howl across the bleak
plains the old (question of infidelity, " Where is
now thy God ? " But these people had been
from their childhood indoctrinated in a great
creed whose central truth was the sovereignty
of God, and in many a solitar}^ place the wilder-
ness heard from their hearts the old psalm of
the fathers :

. '' Why art thou then cast down, my soul,

What should discourage theo (
And why with vexing tlioughts art tliou

Dis(|uieted in nie i
Still trust in God : for Him to praise

Good cause I yet shall have ;
He of my countenance is the health,

My God who doth me save."

Lest it might be supposed that the s^-mpathies
of the present writer would lead him to picture
too highly the struggles of the colonists, let us
hear what Begg, a recent writer, in his "History

IN REAL LIFE.

I.i

i)i tlie North- West," says at this point : "In-
stead of tindino- a thriving- settlement tlie}'
found only ruins ; but, worse than all, there
was no food to feed them, and they had to con-
tinue their journey, in company with those who
had returned from Jack River, in cold and snow
to Pend)ina, 70 miles farther. Here they set to
work to erect rude huts to shelter themselves,
but in a month or so they had to leave these
temporary houses and journey to the plains in
the hope of securing food, there being a scarcity
of provisions at Pembina, and no means of pro-
curing any near that place. These unfortunate
people had to journey a distance of 150 miles,
and as they were ill-provided with suitable
clothes to protect their persons from the cold
they suftere<l dreadfully. Meeting with a party
of hunters they remained with them during the
rest of the winter, perfoi'ming such work as
they were capable of doing, in I'eturn for which
they were fed and sheltered till spring, when
they returned to Pembina, and from thence
descended the Red Riser to Fort Douglas.
Thev then began to cultivate the soil, and

ttrr*-

77//i SELKIRK SETTLERS

('Voi'ythin<^ scuined propitious to tlii'ir becoininn-
coini'ortably settled in tlieir new home, wlien,
on tlie lOtli of June, ISUi, an event liap])ene(l
whicli (jnce more brouolit descjlation to tlie
colony," That event was a collision ])etween
armed forces of the Hudson's Bay and North-
West conjpanies at Seven Oaks, in Kildonan.
The actual collision was partly the result of an
accident, but it ended in the killinu* of Governor
Scmple, of the former company, and the killing-
or woundino- of twenty -one out of twenty-seven
men who accompanied him. This gave the
North-West Company for a time the upper
hand, and the colonists had to abandon their
homes (juce more, and go out to Jack River,
where they suffered great hardships during the
winter. Next spring, however, the tables were
turned, and the Hudson's Bay Company got
control, Lord Selkirk, on his way back from
Montreal with his hired De Meuron soMiers,
capturing Fort William and afterwards Fort
Douglas from his rivals. Things had become
so bad between these companies that the Impe-
rial Government interfered by connnissioners,

IN REAL LIFE.

and the .settltTH oiiee more returned to tlieir
holdinii-s. Law-suits innuinerabli' ensued l)e-
tween the two companies until after the deatli
A Lord Selkii-k (wh(j liad always steadfastly
opposed union), when a coalition was formed,
tlie Hudson's Bay Company ultimately absorb-
ini»: the others and continuiuLT unto this dav.
Durinii" all this fi<»;htin<'' between the rival com-
panies the colonists endure<l constant hardships,
and experienced one set-back after another.
The historian bef(jre (juoted tells us that " in
the winter of 1817 they were forced to ^o again
to Pembina owino- to scarcity of food, but on
their return to tlie settlement in the sprino-
manaijfed to sow a considerable area ot land
with wheat, etc. The sununer was favorable,
and the helds soon assumed a promisinf,^ appear-
ance, but on the ISth of Julv, 1S18, tlie sky
suddenly bee;ime dai'kened by clou<ls of o-rass-
hoppers, and as the;5([ descended on the eai'th in
dense swarms tliey destroyed every green thing
before them. The settlers manage 1 to save a
little grain, but not a vegetable was left in the
gardens." It seemed as if evervthinn' was ooinii'

i\\

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

ap^ainst them, and onco more tlioy went for
refuge to l^cinbina during the winter. In the
.spring of 1819 tliey returned and sowed again,
])ut the young grasslioppers in swarms hegan to
appear, and devoured everytliing on the fields
and plains. Again they were forced to go to
Pembina, and so continued the struggle, subsist-
ing on the products of the chase, until three
years afterwards, when they gained sufficient
from their fields to keep th<ini from fear of
starvation. This was in 1822, or alxjut ten
years after the first of them had arri\ed in the
country. Things went fairly well to the year
1826, when a winter of great severity and
unusual depth of snow led to great distress in
the country. The plain hunters, who depended
nearly altogether on the buffalo for food supply,
were the chief sufferers, for the storms dro'.e
the buffalo beyond reach and killed the horses
of the hunters. Tlie settlers did all they could
to relieve their brethren on the plains, but in
the spring they themselves suffered the severest
loss in their history. The sudden thaw of the
iireat snow and ice .iccunmlation caused the

IN REAL LIFE.

Rod River to overflow its bjinks and become a
rairintr torrent of wide extent. The settlers
barely escap(Ml with their lives and some ol'
tlieir stock, but their liouses and stables were
swept awjiy in total wreckage into Lake Winni-
])e^. Yet, when th(^ Hood went down, these
undaunted men eanie ])ack and bft^^an all over
aiTfiiii '• «ind thouii'li we have liatl floods and Ljrass-
hoppers, and civil disturbances, since that time
the colony was never .'i<^ain uprooted. When
wt' read over tliis luirried liistorv ol" disastrous
years, we feel that the most sympathetic and
vivid imati^ination cannot conceive the sufl'erin<:^s
these settlers endured, and we know that those
who passed tlirou^di the experiences found no
lan<i;ua^e adecpiate to the task of describin<:j it.

n mv

fath

lers ciosniiT years ne was oiten visi

)ftei

ited

by toui'ists from the Old Country, seekin<;' infor-
mation as to the early days, an<l I recall the
attempts he made to depict the scenes, concern -
inf^ which he could say, with the hero (jf Vir<^n*l,
" Qaoimm magna i)afH fiilJ' I can see him yet,
a strongly-lmilt, massive figure, in the old
wooden chair, on the aiMu of whieli he brouirht

|!fi»7r

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

flown liis liand now and a^ain to r^ive Celtic
emphasis to liis wonls. I can hear the story-
flow on till he felt the inadec^uacy of lant^uage
as recollections rushed upon him, and then he
would stop short, saying, "It's no use talking,
gentlemen, I can't tell you half of it ; but I will
say one thing, and that is that no people in the
worM hut the Scotch could have done it," and
the last party of Englishmen that came to the
old farm-house, seeing his earnestness, applauded
him with unseltish enthusiasm. Whether my
father was unduly partial to his ow^n race or
not ma^i^ be a matter of opinion, but there can
be no two opinions as to the difficulties these
colonists triumphantly battled with, and if you
seek their monument, look around you on the
religious and educational as well as the material
greatnerjs of the North -West.

J < REAL LI IK.

CHAPTER IV.

SETT LEI) AXD AT WO UK.

The <j^i'oat Hood of 182G passed over, and the
colonists at once returned to tlieir farms on tlie
Red River, and settled down to the ret^ular
routine of work. The real purpose of these
papers can now be fairly entered upon, for it
was only after this flood that the settlers were
able to cease from the runnini^ fiiiht for life and
take up in some steatly way the business of
colonizin<^ and the purpose of livin<^. To write
on the lif(^ they were to lead till the advent of
new conditions changed it, to write on this life
as seen from the inner side, is to make an eflbrt
at reproducing on paper scenes \o\\\f since van-
ished, and no more to be reproduced in actuality
on the globe. There is no spot left upon our
continent, at least, where, for well-nigh half a

frpr

THE SELKIRK SETTLORS

century, a colony could remain practically un-
touched by the rest of the world, unvexed by
its artificial troubles, aiid unspoiled by its mad
racing after material greatness. Speaking to
his class one day as to the way in which men
find that some one has ])receded them every-
where, a keenly humorous professor, for illus-
tration, said that, " thanks to the enterprise of
the modern advertiser, the legends of the patent
medicine man now haunted us in the deepest
solitudes of nature;" and that is but one way of
saying that in our time we cannot, if we would,
isolate ourselves from a telephoning, telegraph-
ing, railway and steamshij) travelling humanity.
It was far otherwise in the (hiys of the Selkirk
Colony, for I have often heard my father (who
left Scotland, as we have said, in the opening of
June, 1815) say that they never heard of the
battle of Waterloo until late in the following
autumn. Think of the solitariness such a state-
ment implied, f-n* while the cannonade of " that
loud Sabbath " might have almost made itself
felt through vibrant air across the globe, a con-
siderable number of British subjects remained

IN REAL LIFE.

for months uncertain as to liow the loii^ strui^-
(rle on the battle-ground of Europe had even-
tuated, and unaware of the fact that Napoleon,
the trouhler of the world's peace, was inunured
(^n a lonely rock safely guarded by the restless
sea. From that date onward for nearly fifty
long years that little band of Highlanders
remained shut out from tlie rest of the world,
till through freer communication with " the
States " to the south, and " Canada " to the
east, the tide of a larger life rolled up against us,
and prepared the way for our entry, " not with-
out tumult," into Confederation. It shall be
our effort in the few chapters tliat follow^ to
give those interested an idea of what these
hermit settlers were doing in the meantime.

They chose to settle along the banks of the
Red River on narrow farms (the general width
being ten chains frontage on the river), running
back at right angles from it on the prairie.
These farms extended back two miles, as a free-
hold, with an additional two miles as a " hay
privilege." Ultimately, these "outer two miles"
were given in fee simple to the owner of the

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

frontajifo, except in caHcs where others hy actual
occui)atioii had secured possession of them in
part, in wliicli case the frontage owner n()t an
e(|uivalent elsewhere. Tliese ten-cliain lots,
owned })y the head of the family, were fre-
quently subdivided amon<; the sons, so that
when Ontario people, accustomed to scjuare
farms, began to come amongst us, they were
greatly amused at our " farming on lanes," and
pointed out the disadvantage of having to go to
work on the cultivated plots (" parks," we called
them) at the outlying ends of these ri ver strips.
But there was " nuich method in the madness "
of Ion; narrow farms, or, to be plainer, there
were many good reasons to justify that plan of
settlement. To begin with, the settlers built
along the river banks for convenience in obtain-
ing water, which, at that date, before there were
any cities along its banks, was more drinkable
than it is now. Outside the swamps and
sloughs the river was practically the oidy re-
liable source of steady water supply. Wells
were little known, suction pumps were unheard
of, and I remember that a " chain-and-wheel "

AV REAL LIFE.

|mni|>, wliicli my fatlnT imported from "tlu?
Statrs," wtis one of the stivun wondcrH even in
my time. Tlicn, a<^ain, settlement hy the river
had food as well as water supply in view, foe,
unvexed by the present-day hindrances to fisli-
culture in rivers, lar^a; numhersof fish, from the
" ^^old-eye " to the stur^aum, ottered a provision
by no means to be despised. As to the narrow-
ness of the farms, it can readily be seen that the
colonists settled close together for nuitual de-
fence in troublous times, and for the advanta<,^es
of social life, as well as for church and school
facilities: and if the sons, settlin<; on subdivi-
sions, seemed lacking in ambition, it must be
remembered that to go outside the settlement in
the early days was to exile oneself absolutely
beyond the pale of these advantages.

From the beginning of settlement, farming
was the principal occupation of the colonists.
Buffalo-hunting, fishing, etc., were incidents in
the life of somewhat rare occurrence thereafter.
Some of the younger men did follow the buffalo,
but for the most part the delicacies of buffalo
meat, moose nose, beaver tail, etc., were obtained

.Sf)

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

by tradiii^jj with the liall'-ltrccils ami riuliaiis.
who had no taste for a^nicultnrc l)tit had an
un(|U('iK'liahh' lovi; Tor tlif phiins and rivers.
'I'he I'acihtieH lor rarniin^, as may ))(3 suppoHcd,
wen; not ol* tht^ Ixist. The iniph'Mients (spade
and h(M! for ])hintin<^ and sowing) were ahnost
as ])riinitive as tliose which nii^lit have been
used by the " ^rand old <,'anh'ner," but vvith
tlu'se I>y dint of «;reat toil tlie settlers soon
manajj^ed to make; a liveliliood. The reapint,^
was done with thi; sickle and the cradle. Then
the at]je of machinery came in, and the lioe ^ave
place to the old woocU'n plough, whose oaken
mould-board was pointed with such an iron
attachment as Tubal Cain miLrht liave made
"in the days wl

•th

ous

lien eartn was younj.
sickh; and cradle gave way to th(; first cum
reaper, which had to be jnit in and out of ^jear
by lifting the machine witli a fence rail and
moving the big wheel into or out of contact
with tlu; smaller cogged one. i^ehind the plat-
form of this reaper a stand was placed for
the able-bodied man who "' forked ofi'" the
m-aiu in sheaves as it fell, and to do this with

//V REAL LIFE.

iT;4;iiIarity iiiid iiratin'ss in licavy ci'np.s tostt'd
<'vrii (he ln'jiwMicst Ili<^dihm(l('r ol' tliciii all.

Tlic sjiiiu' cuinl)i"()U.s macliiiic was used for a
tiiiK' ill lin\'-('uttinir, and it

IS sax I III

ic cas*'

ol' tli<' first one iinportnl, lest tlic evident desi;^n
of tlie maker should l>e interl'enMl with, and
lest any dislocation ol' the pai-ts nii^^dit \m\
attended with serious results, the ])latrorin was
retained and the hay " I'oiked ofl"' in the same
manner as wheat. However, the euttin;^^ of
the wheat was only tin; he^^innin;;' of a series
ol' ditficidt processes throu<^h which finally
liread was n^ached. The thn'shinif was carried

at first with flails, with the use of Lfreat

"fans" and winnowin<»' riddles to sepai'ate the
wheat fnjm the chaff', a process which enal)les
us tu understand the scriptural fie-ures of
the fan and the threshin<(- floor. Shortly after
this era of flails the twodiorse tread-mill
was introduced, hy means of which threshin^^
1

)ecame a comnar

atively easy and luieventful
process, the only occasional excitement beine-
caused when one of the horses, f^njwine- wearied
with tlie monotony, wcjuld vary proceediiiJ^^s by

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

breaking his halter-line and turning a somer-
sault on the fannin<^ mill, or wh^jn the band
would fly off the drive-wheel, and the horses
would be forced to run until the ever-useful
and ever-ready fence rail introduced below the
treads brought matters to a standstill. To get
the wheat into flour was the next difficulty.
First of all the " quern " was used, two flat
stones (the upper and the nether) — the upper
having a handle which turned it upon the
wheat and brought the grain into some sem-
blance of flour, not over white, but in the
best degree a health-producing and dj'-spepsia-
obliteratino; substance. We do not know how
far oriental customs prevailed, but it was in
view of such a scene as might be witnessed at
these " q".erns " that our Lord spoke of identity
of occupation and diversity of character in the
words, " Two women shall be grinding at the
mill ; the one shall be taken and the other left."
In time the Hudson's Bay Company sent out
an expert, and built a windmill at Point Doug-
lass, in working at which Hugh Poison, one of
the settlers, took such careful observation of the

IN REAL LIFE.

process tliat ho ufterwcards built one for Iiimself
and several others at different points in the
settlement. These mills did fair work, but
when a long calm prevailed there was always
danger of a flour famine, unless by borrowing
from one another the supply could be eked out
until the wind arose. Next in order came
water-mills, of which we remember Inkster's,
Matheson's and Tait's. Hydraulic engineering
was not in a very advanced stage ; there was
generally trouble with the dam, and except
during freshets that were strong enough to
drive the wheel, the mill-ponds fell into the
somewhat ignominious use of vessels in which
to wash the sheep before shearing. But the
era of steam was at hand, and if the early
settlers grew strong on brown bread with a
marked tendency to blackness, their descen-
dants were to have the doubtful advantages
of the maximum of whiteness with the mini-
nmm of nourishment from wheat whose life
is crushed out by modern methods and the
exactions of the " five o'clock tea."

\\h

t !■

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

CHAPTER V.

UORSE-BAIHINQ AND HAY MAKING.

Western politicians are proverbially fruitful
of phrases, but one of them outdid all the rest
when he introduced in tlie Speech from the
Throne here a year ago the phrase " diversified
agriculture." In the language of the common
people, the phrase was intended to mean " mixed
farming " and was used to describe farming in
which not only the tilling of the soil but the
raising of stock finds a place. Viewed in that
light the farming of the old settlers was "diver-
sified agriculture," and in that, as in many
other respects, the principle on which they
worked is a valuable one to people who desire
to make a good living on western prairies. In
the days before the incoming of machinery the
colonists raised horses principally to supply the

IN REAL IJFE.

buffalo liuntei's, and also to serve their own
amusement and love of simple sport. Splendid
horses they were, as I remember them, imported
from Eno'land an«l acclimatized in process of
further breeding, swifi of foot, stron*; of mus-
cle, deep-chested and niettlesome. The prices
realized for buffalo runners in the early days
were not so large as might be expected, and
I often heard that, when my father sold a
famous running horse for the sum of £14, it
was said of him by some that " he sold his con-
science " when he asked such an extravagant
amount. It was customary when the plain
hunters came in and encamped on the prairies
around Fort Garry, for the settlers to take up
such horses as t ley had to sell. These were
tested with the racers of the camp, and if
the results were satisfactory a sale readily fol-
lowed. A brother of mine once took up a hijrse
of a strain noted for ffeetness to the camp of an
old hunter named Acapot, and though horse and
rider were without special training he easily
outran the horse put up by the hunters. A sale
for £30 immediately followed, my brother

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

KCcarce realizing liow good a horse he had. After
the sale, however, tlie old hunter told my Ijrother
that his horse had outrun the most famous run-
ner in the camp, and though shortly afterwards
Acapot retired to live near Prince Albert, no
amount of money ever tempted him to part with
the horse he had purchased on such easy (though
to us extravagant) lorms.

The " Queen's Birthday " was the great holi-
day of the year (no people were more loyal), and
as soon as we could ride each of us had a horse
(often without a saddle) to go up to the fort
and witness the contests of speed between
the best horses of the settlers and the plain
hunters. The present day gambling of the race-
course was practically unknown, and for the most
part the races were honestly run with utilitarian
ends in view for the speediest animal. Besides
horses the settlers had cattle and sheep on the
farm. Oxen were largely used in the operations
of the farm down to a recent date, and for pur-
poses of hay and wood hauling were " hitched "
sincfle in the Red River cart or sled, both of
which in their primitive state were made entirely

IN REAL LIFE.

4:^

of wood. Sheep were useful in the extreme as
attordin^^ clothiu[^ in " hodden g'*f'y. " The pro-
cesses from sheep-shearincf to the liome-nuide
suit were slow and primitive in the light of
modern machinery, but the article was <40od, as
we know from personal experience.

The other day the writer got word of what
remained of his grandfather's sword in the old
house of one of the settlers who died some years
ago. This settler (Angus Poison Xyy name) was
a famous worker in wood, and amongst other
things was the chief maker of spinning wheels
in the colony. The broken fragment of the
sword-hilt that remains tells an elocjuent and
pathetic story. Doubtless the old soldier (who
w^as one of the survivors of the Black Hole of
Calcutta, and who died at Kildonan, aged 107)
prized greatly the sword he had carried on the
hot plains of India, but to help his fellow-colon-
ists he gave it to the maker of spinning wheels
that the brass basket-hilt might be broken and
used in their construction. The old weaver's
loom, too, was a familiar iigure, and the sight of
the weaver throwing the Hying shuttle with its

^! ■ r

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

croHsint^ threads has always enhir^ed bel'oru me,
as the years liave <^rown, into the vision of Him
wlio sits at tlie " roaring loom of time " and
weaves with warp and woof tlie wel) of liuman
life. Since then I have always understood more
clearly and entered more fully into the words of
the; oreat hynni :

" With mercy Jind with jiulgineiit

My wt'l) of tiiiiu He wove,
Aiiik uye tlie dews of sorrow

Wore histred with his love,
I'll bless tlie hand that <j;uided,

I'll bless the heart that planned,
When throi^ed where glory dwelleth

In Inimanuers land."

After the weaving or the cloth came the "full-
inf^," done in primitive but vigorous style by the
kicking of it by barefooted boys, who found it
one of the amusements of the winter evenings ;
though it is a tribute to the hardiness of High-
land blood to say that after this heated exercise
the moccasin was put on and the way home in
the snow and bitter night was taken scathless.
Speaking of winter-night occupation for the

AY REAL LIFE.

l)oys, I may say tliat anotl.er one was "knock-
ing Imrley," as we called it, preparatory to its
use in soup-making. A large block liewn from
the tree was hollowed out in a somewhat circu-
lar form. This was partly filled with barley,
which we took turns in pounding with a long-
headed wooden mallet, while some one more
daring than the rest kept turning the grain
with a stick or long-handled spoon, to the innni-
nent and constant risk of his fingers. When the
grain was thus well hulled, it wa'5 winnowed
and ready for soup, compared with which some
of the spiced transparencies which now })ass l)y
the name would be tame and insipid.

In the summer time the farm stock of which
we have spoken ran wild on the prairies, horses
especially being out of sight for months at a
time ; and we recall as a great constitution-
builder days spent in the saddle in search of the
wandering bands. In the long winter, of course,
they must be housed and fed, hence " making
hay while the sun shone " in sunnner was a
great reality to us all. Hay-cutting began on
the 20tli (afterwards 25th) July, and the scene

4f)

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

of op(3ratioi.:s was tho wild prairit*. The outer
two iiiilcH of each river fronta^^e ))el(jnge(l, for
liay purposes, to the fronta^^e owner up to a
certain date, hut for the most part cuttini,^ was
done on prairie tliat was free as air to every-
body. The best hay meadows were located in
^ood time before the above date, and on the
nii^ht before people were camped all around
tliem. Each one knew pretty well just the spot
he was goin^ to strike next morninf^, and if
more than one had their eyes on the same spot,
it became the property of the one who reached
there first and made a " circle " by cutting
around the field lie wished to claim. There was
sometimes (in dry years when hay was scarce)
^reat rivalry, and we have seen camps all ready
to start on the stroke of midnight, and actually
starting to mark out circles in a thunderstorm.
We have seen a circle entered by another than
the one who made it, but it was in the case
of someone who had tried to circle the whole
prairie for himself, and in such case the unwrit-
ten law of the camp said that it served him
right. There was rarely any trouble t'- speak

JX REAL I. HE

of, and wo look ])aek to tlic camp on the ])rairio
witli its many tents like a wliite villa^^^c as a
most (k'lii^litt'ul and licalth-iiivinir cxpcricnco.
Practical ioke.s were connnon en(ju<'h, it is true.
We have known some of the boys to stampede
a band of horses throui^h the camp, to the alarm
and even the possible dan<;er of peaceful sleep-
ers in the tents. In the matter of selectinir a
piece of hay -ground we have known a man who
located a choice spot the night before, come into
camp and turn his cart With the shafts pointing
in the direction to which he was to go next
morning, but some wag, suspecting the reason,
got up under cover of the (hirkness and turned
the cart so as to point exactly in the opposite
way. In that case, though the joke was enjoyed
by the camp, the party on whom it was played
was not allowed to suffer. IMutual helpfulness
v/as constant, and when prairie fires swept the
plain and consumed the stacks of a settler, all
the rest helped him out. I remember well
when this happened once in the case of an
uncle of mine, how the neighbors all joined
together and put a hundred cart-loads into his

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

larmyaivl next day. Tlio ridos home on Satur-
day evening aft<'r tin; week's absence were
aiuv^nt^st the most exeitin*^ and pleasinj^ expe-
rienc<'s of hay-making time. Sometimes twenty
or thirty liorsemen were tof|;ether, mostly on
youn;^ horses, and races liere and there were
much in fashion. As we liave observed, saddles
were not ])lentiful, but tliey were improvised for
the occasion. B^'Iat bundk's of hay, witli cord-
line Htirru})s, were considered ^ood, thout^h we
have known a case in which a feint to apply a
match necessitated the speedy removal of such
a saddle — a task, however, not ditHcult, as no
^irth was used.

In the winter the stock, well housed, were fed
from the hay-stacks, out of which the hay was
pulled with a wooden hook. When the hand
" hay-knife " was introduced from the States,
it was an exceedingly popular instrument, and
tlie few that could be had made the round of
t)ie neigliborhood,till it could not well be known
to whom they belonged. It was alluding to this
perhaps that my uncle (from whom we had
borrowed his) one day coming over the snow-

IN REAL I.U'IL

41)

drifts into our luiy-yanl, said facotiouHly to my
V)rother, " Hoy Sandy, would you mind lcttinf(
me liavo the; loan of my hay-knifp?" Hut
Sandy was not to bf (Uitdonc, an<l completely
floored my uncle l»y coolly replying, " All ri^ht,
uncle, but be sure to brinj^ it back as soon as
you are done with it."

THE SELKIRK SETILEKS

CHAI'TKR VI.

SOCIAL LIFE.

The wintcrH on tlw lied River are uiulcniaMy
lon;^, tli()U<jfh UH land cultivation has extended
(so Home state as the reason) they are less severe
tlian formerly, l^ut when people can point to
the maj^niticenee oi' the root and cereal crops as
resultant in somi; measure from the depth to
which the ;L(roiind freezes in the winter time,
they are not <lispoHed to (juarrel with the course
of nature. In the early days th(i problem of
liow to while away the lon<^ winter, when little
work beyond the feeding of stock had to bo
done, was nuich in evidence, but <;enerally found
solution. The m^arness of the houses to one
another was conducive to nuich freedom in the
interchange of social visits, and stands out in
marked contrast to the isolation of people on

IN REAL 1. 1 IE,

scjiian' t'ju'nis in tlir tliiiily itopulatrd ilisti'icts.
" Tho latch-Htrin;; w'jiH alwayH on tlio ()Utsi<l«>,"
and as for locks thcv wen* in-acticallv as niucli

• I •

unknown as in Acadia, " liomr of the Iiappy," ol'
wlioso poo])l(' it is said :

" Neither locks had thoy to their doors, nor burs to their
windows ;
But their dwellings were open as dny and the hearts
of the owners."

Hospitality was unbounded, and as no casto or
color lines wore drawn, not only was the wlnt<'
friend made welcome, but tli" belated Indian,
still far from liis wigwam, was sure of a ^-ood
supper and the warm corner by the chinu'ey as
a couch for his innocent sleep. Such thin|.|s as
calling cards were unheard of, and exciipt in tin;
eveninjjj time even knockin*^ at the door was
dispensed with by near nei<^hbors. The older
people delighted principally in lon<^' talks to-
gether, ofttimes doubtless of the dano-ers they
had passed. Let^^ends of their ancestors far and
near, with the strufj^gles of their Fatherland for
civil and religious freedom, were recounted
proudly and thankfully, and as I, the youngest

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

child of the family, was ^jjeuerally in the " old
folks " t^roiip when these tales were told, there
was " poured into my veins a Scottish prejudice
which shall never cease to boil alonj[^ there till
the flood-^ates of life shut in eternal rest." I
suppose Eutychus found Paul's sermon too lono;
because he took no interest in the sul)ject, but it
was a fa.rew(jll sermcjii, and the last words
between people of kindred heart never seem to
])e enou<j^h. Hence it was that these old people
never seemed in a huriy to })art, and that the
way in which they lingered in saying good-night
sometimes amused the younger folks who could
not enter into their feelings. It is but little
more than ten years gone by since my father
bowed his grey head to meet the coming of the
Lord, and on the day of his funeral one of the
few survivors of that early band stovod with me
beside thec'c.ffin an<l looked upon that worn face
marked Jiniidf t its ma>sive strength with the
deep lines of suffering and toil. And as he stood
there, that aged man (Donald Murray by name),
with tears streaming down his owm deeply
furrowed cheeks, said, indicating the l)ody of

[

IN REAL LIFE,

my fatlier, " It's seventy years since Robert and
I have been friends to<^ether." Threescore
years and ten ! \v'hat a retrospect ! and across
wliat a ru«4'^ed plain of hard experience I I
knew then in the li^lit of that stateinent how
tliose lono- talks and slow leave-takings were to
wear in my memory henceforth a halo of
sacredness, as I would see those two, who had
clung together during the long years and
fought their trials with the splendid va)'-; of
their race and a ncjble faith in God, standinjj;
where the ways parted down near the sunset of
life. Amidst such .scenes as these the old sur-
vivors of the colony waited for the end undis-
turbed by the newer conditions ])eginning to
oljtain around them.

The younger people had in the winter time
their social gatherings juid their litei'ary and
other meetings. The c[uestion of dancing is
nuich discussed in the abstract, and we are not
going to enter upon a discussion here, but the
dancing of those days in a simple and pure state
of society was practically as much an outlet for
the physical exuberance as were the games of

I ;

if^

TJ/i: SELKIRK SETTLERS

ball, etc., in the summer, and no more harmful
morally so far as we know. Round djinces had
not come in, and the reels, strathspeys, etc., were
a test of pliysical endurance as well as of skill,
A special dance known as the " Red River jig "
we have never seen any one but a native of the
countiy do to perfection. The music was always
the violin played to the vigorous accompaniment
of the foot, and we have known men carry with
them an extra pair of moccasins, so that when
one pair was worn out on the rough floor they
miglit not be at <a loss. New Year's Day calling
was much in vogue, and without any impartiality
every house in the settlement was visited. It
was a great day for the Indians, who in bands,
flriiig oft' their shot-guns occasionally, went
from house to house, and were feasted to a
dangerous degree. The New Year's dinner was
a feature \\\ every house, and the skilled makers
of plum-pudding disphiyed their talent with-
out stint. In the evening many social parties
were held as a close to a busy day.

The "oft-told tale" was doubtless repeated in
effective ways, for "marrying and < ving in

,«;»w<^

/N REAL LIFE,

marriage " became tlie order of many a day.
All efibrtH at "surprise weddings" were rendered
futile by the necessity of publishing the banns
in church, and the parties had all the celebrity
that this public disclosure of their plans could
give them. Invitations were given verbally
from house to house, generally by the bride's
father. Marriages were as a rule celebrated in
the church, and all the guests drove there often
to the accompaniment of shot-gun salutes of
honor by the way. This drive to and fro was
"par excellence the time for displaying fast horses,
whose decking in gay ribb(jns called " wedding-
favors," took up more attention than the adorn-
ment of the person. The speediest horses were
secured for such occasions. We have known
men go long distances to secure some noted horse,
and consternation reigned when it leaked out
that some one had secured so and so's '• Charlie "
or " Tom " for the wedding. On the way home
speeding could be indulged in to any extent,
with one well-defined limitation, namely, that no
one was to pass the bridal party on pain of
social ostracism. On the Sabbath succeedino-

,<»w<^

J
1

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

tlie wedding the " kirking " took place, the
bridal party and " best young people " in all
their wedding bravery of millinery driving
together with their gaily decked hoi'.ses to
cliurch and there occupying a special pew.
When the groom brought his bride to his ances-
tral mansion, a " home wedding " was given with
practically the same amount of social function as
had attended the ceremony of the marriage. As
a general thing the dowry was not large when
the people were poor, but in addition to the out-
fitting such as the custom required a few choice
cows were driven over to the bridegroom's
farm as a nucleus for future wealth in flocks and
herds.

IiV REAL LIFE

CHAPTER VII.

SOME PECULIAR LOCAL CUSTOMS.

There are some phases of experience that can
be looked at under the headinj^ of the social
life, though they might possibly be considered
with ecjual appropriateness in connection with
the religious services oi the time, and such may
be the case with the matters touched upon in
this chapter. The wide-reaching import of the
sacrament of Baptism we sometimes think is not
sufficiently understood in some (juarters in our
time, and this may be due somewhat to the lack
of solemnity noticeable in its celebration. In
the early dnys the settlers on tlie Red River, in
their social life and their service of worship,
made nuich of it. Parents, except in cases of
sickness, always presented their children for
baptism in the church at the reguhir forenoon

THE SELKIRK SETTLEKS

II I

service. Of course, tliere was a certain aiuount
ul' preparation ])erorehan(l tliat partook some-
wliat oi* the frivolities oi* this worhl. The
" christeiiini'- robe" Ttlie Wijrd survived from a
former ecclesiastic connection) was a matter of
much C(jncern,and any specially (^ood oni;, hand-
embroidered, etc., was passed around from one
family to another in the succeedin<^- (renerations.
It was well understood that tlie sacrament
meant much more than the <;ivinj^ of a name to
the child ; nevertheless the nanie was not by any
means without great importance. The practice
of naming the child "after " some one was nnich
in vogue, and led sometimes to dilennnas and
difficulties. For instance, when two or more
near relatives on either side were to be con-
sidered, the parents were in serious straits lest
they should give offence to the one or the other,
'i'he difficulty had to be faced, and the danger
braved, or else the child had to be encumbered
with a string of names such as only foreign
princes can boast, and we have even known an
irate friend or relative mollified by the promise,
that on a similar occasion in the future he or

IN REAL IJFE.

she should not bo overlooked. Anotlier of tlie
ditficnlties resulting' from the now (fortunately)
almost obsolete custom of "njimini;" was not
only the duplic{itin<^ but the (|undruplicutin<;' of
names in the one neij^hborhood. 'I'he people <;()t
over that part of tlie trouble by introducing- the
use of " nick-names," derived either from
personal '^ .acteristics or by pretixino- or atlix-
ing some ancestral family name. This was well
enough for the people themselves who knew
locally " Black Sandy " and " Red Sandy," but
since people at a distance did not know these
line shades of distinction, the primitive post-
office or the mail-carrier confronted " confusion
worse confounded" when a letter came addressed
to a name owned by half a dozen ditt'erent
people in the parish. The difficulty was o-ener-
ally solved by some one of the name openin<;* it,
and if it was not for him he passed it on till the
right party was reached. A " cliristening feast "
often followed the " bapteezment of the bairn "
(on a week-day of course), and to this the
numerous relatives and friends were asked.
If we pass over now to the sadder side of life.

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

% !'■

we sliall find tlierc also many customs peculiar
to those early times. Death then, as now,
chiimed its victinis (once or twice in trreat num-
bers, when in the dry years or the locust days
epidemics swept the colony), and many prac-
tices strange to later years gathered around tlie
dying and the dead. To begin with, there was,
without doubt, amongst the people of that time,
a certain dread of the supernatural, which gave
rise to what was well-nigh, in some case.^, super-
stition. Certain signs and portents as to the
approach of death were not without direst sig-
nificance to many ; and the same state of mind
and feeling likely led to the custom of holding-
wakes being persevered in down to a recent
date. There may have been extravagances in
these directions, but does not a vivid sense of
the supernatural imply, where the Bible is held,
a corresponding depth in religious life ? And is
not the effort to eliminate the supernatural, so
noticeable in our day, and to substitute for it the
blind working of impersonal force, accountable
for nmch of the irreverence and even the scepti-
cism prevalent amongst us i Only let men feel,

IN REAL LIFE.

like the Pliilippian jailer, that the Power whose
hand is shakin;^^ the foundations is the innnanent
(}od, and the (|uestion, " What nnist we do to he
saved ? " will come up from hearts that, awak-
ened to a sense of sin, will not rest till they find
the Cross, and will follow tlie li^dit and leading
of Christ into valorous deeds for dlod and for
humanity. If there was a suspicion of super-
stition in the religion of those early people, it
was l)en;otten of a profound reverence for the
Almijjjhty and a deep sense of the mysteries of
infinite things. Like the Puritan and the
Covenanter, thc^y were always listeninj^ for the
voice of God, and feared it with a noble dread
that made them fearless of anything finite and
earth-born.

When the last rites over the dead were to be
observed, invitations to the funeral were given
personally from house to house by some near
relative of the person deceased, and often people
felt much hurt if they did not receive a direct
invitation, without which they did not always
feel themselves at liberty to attend. On the
day of the funeral refreshments were served in

THE Shll.KIRK SETTLERS

the shape ol' hn'ad, cake, cheese, and often
liquoi s. It was tlie eustoni of the time, and even
tlio'iirh in m''i«'nd tliere was not niucli consumed,
the absence of refreshments in the case of people
of nu^jins would have been severely connnented
on, not only as a breach of hospitality, but even
as a maik of injliflerence to the event and to
the memory of tin? departed. Wt; have known
of ])eopl(^ <2jivin<j^ din^ctions as to the conduct of
their own funerals in other ways, but not in
reijrard to refreshments, except in one case.
An old man, a retired Hudson's bay Company
otHcer, on his death-bed sent for my father to
entrust to him the management of his funeral
in this re(jfard, and fearing lest the reputation
for lavish liospitality for which he had been
noted would sutler through the parsimony of
relatives, gave explicit instructions as to the
(juantity of each article of food and drink to
be procured from the Hudson's Bay store at
the cost of the estate, and even urged my
father to exactness in seeinii: these orders
carried out, with suggestions of post-mortem
visitation in case of default.

/.\- REAL I. HE,

The funeral s( rvicM* at the lioiise was gener-
ally of considerable len<^th. Several psalms
were sun^^ in lon^^ and mournful cadence, very
impressivi! in its way : passa<^'es of Scripture
for the comfoi't of thr hereaved and the
admonition of all wei'e i-ead and exj)ounded,
besides a sermon or address. One thini^ especi-
ally noticeable in these services was the absenct^
f)f undeserved eulo^ry, and while, in ren;ard to
any who had been careless of reli<,dous thin;4S,
no limitations were ever ])Ut, expressly or by
im]ilication, on the pardonini^ <^i'ace of (Jod,
no countenance was given to the idea of
salvation for the persistently impenitent. The
religion this im|)lies may have been of a stern
type, but it was the religion of people who
felt tliat God could not beli(3 His attributes,
and must be just as well as loving.

Hearses were unknown in those days, and any
proposal to put the coffin into any conveyance
to be taken to the chui'chyard would have l)een
looked upon as a mark of disrejiect to the
memory of the departed. Hence the coffin,
shrouded, w^as invariably borne (ju a bier by

/7//f SELk'/NK SK'rr/.Iih'S

\ *■

four UM'U, who wi'Vii vvVmvvA hy otiier four
every few iniiiute.s. Tlio order of proceH.sion
WJiH jiH follows: 'I'lu' iiiini.stcn', aeeoiupHnied hy
one of tln^ eMers, led the way : then the hearers
with the coffin, followed hy the chief mourners,
after whom came all who attended, marching in
twos. Four were always walkin<^^ heside the
liearers, and at the word " Relief," spoken at
intervals hy the elder in front, they took the
places of the hearers, who dropped out and fell
into the rear. Exc(!pt in cases wliere the dis-
tance to the njraveyjird was j^reat, none liad to
carry more than once or twice. In order to
show how much tliese early settlers were op-
posed to liaving the dead home to burial in any
other way than that described, it is remembered
that on the death of Donald Ross, a Hudson's
Bay factor, they refused to allow the question
of distance to interfere with their paying this
tribute of respect to his memory, and so carried
his body over eighteen miles, from Little Britain
to St. John's. At the slow pace they would
travel, this took a whole long day, and at noon
they halted where a cart with provisions met

IN REAL LIFE.

them. Here tlioy liad dinner, and Jifjain took
up the line of nuircli. There may be a niediuni
in .such thinfij^s, hut as a Holeiun and respectrul
tribute to the memory of the dead, such a
funeral stands out strongly marked by com-
parison with the confused hurry of people who
seem to have no time even to bury the dead
with decency.

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

CHAPTER VIII.

CIVIL AN!) COMMEIiCIAL LIFE.

To write a cliapter on the civil and commercial
life of the old settlers would be easy if it could
be made purely anecdotal : but if we are to make
it more historical, the task is not so simple. For
it must be remembered that the science and art
of statecraft had made but little progress on the
banks of the Red River, and that laws and the
administration (jf them were primitive enough
in those early days. So far as civil government
was concerned, as soori as they had secured
dominance over all rivals, the Hudson's Bay
Company was the local representati\e and
embodiment of British law in the colony. The
local governor of that company, assisted by a
council of representative men from the English
and French speaking residents (the full title of

IN REAL LIFE.

lie

M
ill

lot'

the conr;l;ive beiiifjj "The Council of Assiniboia "),
enacted such laws as the circumstances de-
manded, and cases left unprovided for in these
local enactments were covered by the common
law as embodied in British jurisprudence. The
criminal law, of course, was that of Englan<l.
and in all respects as soon as sufhcient ma-
chinery was available, the practice and proce-
dure would be that of the courts in the old land.
Most of the real property laws were of local
enactment to suit the peculiar circumstances.
A (]jreat deal of the le^-islation reads stran<^ely
enough now, as it was specially a])plicable to
the surroundinf^s of the time. Foi' instance,
wlieri horses by the hundred were feedinf^ on
the prairie, it was ([uite a common thin^ for
any one to catch, (me and ride him or drive him
till he found his own, or till he reached his
destination, if not too far away. At first, on
the principle of mutual helpfulness, this prac-
tice was little resented bv the owner unless
the horse was abused ; but when the practice
became too (general, and as some not of the
colonist class began to have altogether too

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

i>* '£

loose an idea about meitm and tuum in the
liorso lin«\ strin^^cnt laws were enacted. For
a time it was a settled decision of the courts
that the owner of a horse, finding him in the
hands of another, could not only have such a
one proceeded a^^ainst, but could seize and hold
the saddle or harness, etc., tliat was upon the
horse at the time. The administration of law,
when once a real system of administration was
established, rested with a judge or recorder,
assisted fre(|uently by associated magistrates,
and sometimes these magistrates (appointed
from amongst the settlers) held court them-
selves. Serious otlences were not frecpient,
and those that did come before the magistrates
were disposed of in a summary way. In the
quarrels that sometimes broke out I have seen
my father, who was one of the magistrates,
holding court in the house, and when he con-
cluded that the parties were about e(jually to
blame, he compelled them to advance from the
sides of the room to the centre and shake
hands in the presence of the court, as a
declaration of their intention to live peaceably

! I

IN REAL LIFE.

from that tiini3 I'orwanl. 1 suppose tluit any
})reach of tlie peace afterwards would have been
look(Ml on as contempt of court and i)unished
accordingly : hence the people who had a high
veneration for authority generally kept the
compact. In cases wdiere threats ha<l been
made one against the other, the general practice
was to cause the offender " to bind himself over
to keep the peace," on the severest pains and
penalties if he broke it. I remendjer the case
of a merchant in whose employ, while on a
freighting trip to St. Cloud, a young half-breed
died of fever. The father of the lad held that
the merchant was responsible for the death, and
after partaking freely of stimulant visited the
merchant's store with a hay-fork, <letermined
to put the slayer of his son to death. The
merchant felt decidedly uncomfortable at being-
hunted around the country by a half-drunken
man with a weapon of that kind, and escaping
through the back door tied to my father's house
and invoked the protection of law against the
man-slayer. Not long afterwards the half-breed
arrived on horseback with his hay-fork. He was

€

T/7E SELKIRK SETTLERS

^ivon a l)C(i in the kitchen, while the merchant
passed a perhaps somewhat anxious night in
another part of the liouse ; but in the moi'ning,
wlien the half-breed was sober, court was held,
and after beini; shown liow soundless his view
was, he was bound over to keep the peace under
severe penalties, and that settled it. Nowadays,
()]• then, if enforced strictly, the criminal law
would not deal so gently with a man who was
disposed to prowl after innocent parties with
nuirderous intent and a fork ; but a wholesome
dread of the court, if any breach of the law were
committed, made the plan etiective. Cases did
sometimes occur in which the officers of the law
found themselves comparatively helpless against
crowds, but these were of rare occurrence and
were mostly t result of some cond)ination for
popular right as, for instance, where it was
demanded tl o trade be free to all, instead of
being monopoli/ed by companies.

When we turn to the connuercial life of the
settlei's an e([ually primitivt; state of things
meets us. For many years, of course, the
Hudson's Bay Company controlled the trade

IN REAL LIFE.

af the legion, they alone liaving the right to
ti'affic in furs, skins, etc., and they also supply-
inff the settlers with such articles as they
needed, in i-eturn for such ])roduc(^ as they
could I'aise. So far as their treatment of the
settlers in this retjard is concerned — and we
may say in all other ways — nothiii<j;; could have
been fairer or more liberal. Instead of takin<»;
a g'reat quantity of pro<luce from one, and none
from another, the company appoi'tioned out
what they needed amonost the settlers, and
thus oave all a fitrhtinii' chance for life. The
prices paid for produce were good, as high as
eight shillings a bushel being sometimes paid for
wheat. In regard to the fur and other trade all
efforts to preserve a monopoly proved unavail-
ing, and after several liard-fought legal cases,
and after several popular demonstrations against
monopoly, the principle of trade free to all was
generally admitted and acted upon. Im})orta-
tions of goods were made chiefly from Kngland

hence

colony, and from the United States by means of
cart trains. Goods from Kiiiiland were landed

77/E SELk'I/^k' smri.ERS

at York Factory, and were brouglit tlionce by
row-boats, manned by from eiglit to fourteen
men, who sat on benches and pulled with great
long oars, moi'e like beams than modern sculls.
No (me who knew anything about the extreme
toil of that weary life can fail in seeing the
marvellous beauty of Whittier's " Red River
Voyageui'," and feeling how true it is to real
life. We can see the bent form, the bronzed
face and calloused hand of the boatman as we
read the lines :

" Drearily blows the north- wind
From the laud of ice and snow ;
The eyes that look are weary,
And heavy the hands that row. "

We can see the tired face light up as he hears
the sound of the bell from the cathedral opposite
the fort to which he is coming :

*' The voyageur smiles as he listens
To the sound that grows apace,
Well he knows the vesper ringing
Of the bells of St. Boniface.

hV REAL LIFE. 7.S

" The b«'lla of the Human mission,
That call from their turrets twain
To the boatman on the river,
To the hunter on the plain. "

And we can all, amidst the tu;r and strain of
life, join in the noble alle^roiy at the close:

" Even so in our UKtrtal journey
The hitter north winds blow,
And thus upon life's Red River
Our hearts as oarsmen row,

" And when the Angel of Shadow
Rests his feet on wave and shore,
And our eyes grow dim with watching,
And our hearts faint at the oar,

" Happy is he who heareth
The signal of his release,
In the bells of the Holy City,
The chimes of eternal peace."

Not all the voyacreurs could have understood
the lofty strain of the poet, though they all
knew the toil of the life and the joy of arriving
home. Burly and able-bodied fellows were these
oarsmen of the half-blood, capable of enduring

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

I I

almost .any jiiiiount of labor and fatigue. Light-
hearted and phiyful as kittens were they also,
and at niglit, despite the hihors of tlie (hiy,
they often inchiliiCi' in \}v :r vild danecs l>v the
weird eanip-fires al<ri«.; I he sliorc to tlie ninsie
of tlie evei'-ruady viv i, I-* 'fore they started
for York, and aftei* tliey eanie l»aek, these
boatinim liad special festivities. My father
liad a consi(h'rahle innidirr of I»oats on the
Hne, and amongst tlie scenes of childhood pho-
tographed on my mind I can see the huge camp-
iires on the river ])ank, and 1 can hear the wild
shouts of these semi-savagC! men as they cele-
brated their outaoini^ or their incoming--

The other outlet for the development of com-
mercial enterprise amongst these early settlers
was trade with the United States to the south.
Either to bi'iniji: mjods for themselves or for the
Hudson's Bay Company, or other merchants, the
settlers went every sunnner with trains of oxen
and carts to St. Paul or St. Cloud, Minnesota,
and at so nuich a hundred-weiiiht freiti'htecl the
merchandise thence to Fort Garry. It was a
long and toilsome trip, and at times when the

IN REAL LIFE.

warlike Sioux, retl-lian<le(l from MinnoHota
massacres, were hanging on their trail, it was
a (lant£erous one as well. At such times onlv
the fact of their being well armed and strong in
numbers, prevented the (^\tincti()n of the frciglit-
ers at tlie hands of tlu^ Indians. Conniieree of
the kind describee] called for more physic'd
endurance and skill in crijssing sw.-imps an<i
rivers than for the keen, aggressive »Mlueati«ni
now re(piir<Ml, and hence many who had 1 U
little learning in lettei's came to considerable
wealth and prominence as iVeighters. Many
of the half-bK)od were amongst the latter, and
out of their prominence as freighters, together
with their dearth of education, some amusing
incidents took place. On one occasion a innnber
of these freighters were staying (as the wealthier
of them did) ai" a first-class liotel in St. Paul,
and of course availed themselves of all the
advantan'cs of the read inj*- room, (^te. One of
them, quite a well-to do man, but unable to
read, was not to be outdone in the presence of
strangers, and following the example of others
picked up a newspaper, but unfortunately g(jt

'■%''

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

it npsidr; (l(j\vii. Witli tliL' p<'ip(n* in this position
luH eye caught tlie advertisjMiient of sonic steain-
sliip company, and ol' (course got tlio cut of the
\'t)ssel inverted. Here was sometliing ha thought
he was (juite safe in discussing, for lie made sure
he could understand a picture, and so he held it
up and boldly announced to those around him
that the column contained the account of " a
dreadful shipwreck." Th(; rest may be imag-
ined. Another, who kept a kind of refitting
emporium on the way, was accustomed, in the
absence of ability to read or write, to keep his
accounts in a book by rough pictures, drawing a
horse, or harness, or cu,ic-axle, etc., as required
by the transaction, and also some distinctive
feature of the man to whom he sold them. On
one occasion he was closing accounts with a
settler after the season's work, and gave a cheese
amonest the thing's he had furnished to the
settler. The settler denied having received a
cheese, but the " merchant " produced his book
showing the drawing. The settler still denied,
but looking up some memoranda he had kept,
told the " merchant " that he had not received

IN REAL LIFE.

a cheese, hut had purchased a ^riudstcuio with
which lie was not charj^ed. Tlic "merchant"
at once remembered the ti'ansaction, and coollv
remarked tliat he liad intended the drawin<^ for
a grindstone, but " had forgotten to put tlie liole
in it." The delightfully accommodating proce-
dure thai could change a cheese intoa grindstone
by the addition of a pencil-mark is worthy of
a destructive BiV)lical critic who can make a
Hebrew letter mean anything his hypothesis
demands by changing its vowel point.

And thus in a primitive manner of civil and
commercial life did the early settlers live, near
the spot where the " bull's-eye " city of Canada
now stands, with all the equipment of civic
organization, and with such a tnide as V)elongs
to a place midway along the greatest railway on
the round globe.

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

CHAPTER IX.

El) UCA TIOXA L FA CIL I TIES.

li •

From the (lays of John Knox and his parisli
school, Scottisli i)ooi)k' liavu been noted for their
interest in education and their intense desii j to
secure for themselves and their children the
priceless boon of mental training. The colony
on the Red River would naturally be unable for
some years, amid the strugj:^le for existence, to
^ive nuich scope to this phase of their national
character, but from an early date they availed
themselves of the school established by the
Anfiflican Church at St. John's. It was not
until 1849 that the Scottish settlers had means
sufficient to organize a school district of their
own. The first teacher w^as John Inkster,
brother of the present sheriff at Winnipeg, and
the school was begun in the dwelling-house of

IX KEAL I.IfE.

t-o

John F'lctt, OIK? of \\\(\ Hi'ttk-rs. Tlu' .school, of
course, whh supportjMl hy vohmtary contrihu-
tions, vjiryin<^ accoi'<liii<^ to the incuns of the
people. The amount pai<l for the teacher's
salary averaocMJ ahout Ji^loO a year, an<l the
caretaki!»<^ of the school was done hy the pupils,
who took turns at s\vee])in«;- and li;jfhtin^' the
tires. Text-hooks wer<' not innnerous. After
the tdenientary readin<^ hooks were mastered,
reading and spellin*^ exercises from tlu? l)ihle
were ])rescribed, to<;(!ther with the systematic
study of the Shorter C^itechism. In the wi'itin^^
exercise copy lines were set hy the teacher in
home-made copy-ljooks, and a can; was bestowed
upon this part of the work which makes the
M'ritin<^ of men of the "old school" look liki;
" copperplate " beside much of oiu' present day
scriV)blin<^^ In arithmetic the one text-book
was in the hands of the teacher, who "set" the
(|Uestions for t^e pupils on slates (thick as a
board and without frames) or on the ])rimiti\('
wooden blackboanl, wliere the writin^^ was done
with ungainly lumps of chalk. I'lie children
sat on long wooden benches without backs, and

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

•«,

1! '
I.;

I i.

the classes always stood for recitation of the
lesson. The practice of " goin^ up " was fol-
lowed, and as it was a great honor to be "head "
and much disgrace to be " tail," solid work was
done. Spelling was especially a field of conflict,
and in the rivalry for first place the class must
have revolved before tho teaclier with the be-
wildering changeal)leness of a kaleidoscope. In
the matter of arithmetic, as we have said, the
teacher "set" the problem, or read it out to be
taken down, and the first pupil done had to show
the slate with the completed work. Then fol-
lowed the clattering of pencils like the sound of
runaway horses on a pavement, and we have
seen the face of the teacher in imminent danger
of disfigurement from the rush of frameless
slates to catch his eve. The matter of selectinfj
a teacher was sometimes done at a public meet-
ing, but generally by trustees chogen at such
meeting from amongst the settlers. Certificated
teachers were, of course, unheard of, and besides
oral examinations attended by the whole district,
the matter of the success or failure of a teacher
was decided by the inspection and report of the

/.V REAL LIFE,

|ict,
her

trustees aforesaid. As tliese trustees wei'e for
the most part " plain, ))lniit Tiieii," whose own
advantaixes liad been liniiti'd and whose "dialect"
was more or less att'eeted l»y (Jae-lic, Salteanx,
Cree and Frencli inlluences, tlie lot of the
teacher was not always a happy one. Wlicn
Inkst(n' was teachinij;; in '4!), the trustees came in
to ins})ect, an<l one of them o-avc to the leadinf:^^
class in the school the word "pekilar " to spell.
It had never been heard of up to that time, and
so proved a " poser " for the whole class from
head to foot, whereupon the trustee ^rew some-
what indignant and threatened to dismiss the
teacher whose leadint^ class could not spell
"pekilar." The teacher, however, asked to see
the word, and saved his official head by pointin^r
out that it was pronounced "peculiar," which
latter word was trivnnphantly spelled by the
class, who thus vindicated the scholarly attain-
ments of their teacher.

Shortly after the school was bet^ain in '49, a

log building was erected on the Frog Plain (pro-
perty granted by Lord Selkirk for church and

school purposes), which continued to do duty till
6

TI{E SIH.KIRK Sl-:ri I.IiRS

some fiftA'cii years iif'tcrwanls, wlicii a new stono
buil(lin<j; was erected under ilie super\ isioii oi'
tlie Ivev. .I.-niies Nishet. 'Plie old Iolt l)uildiii'r 1
can I'enieinlter with \\\(\ sliadowv vairiniiess of a
boy who was taken to clnirch IVoni infancy ])ast
its door-way. I can see in a dim way its walls
of loiiiT l<>i:>^ plastered in the chiid\S and white-
wasluMl, and overh(\'id the thatche(] and mortar-
crowned roof. 1 ha\'e a dim i-ecollection of
l)ein«>' within tlie precincts, and of seciiii:- the
lon^ benches down the sides of the room, with
the I'anious "cu|)l>oard" in whicli the mea^'re
scliool snp])lies \\ere kept, as wcJl as the won-
derl'id Ll'lobe for tlie i»voi'rai)hv class. I have
also an idea that 1 recall (perha}is 1 only heard
of it) a meetiniX of the settlers calle(l to <liscuss
the advisability <>f building' a lU'W school, and

low one o

f tl

lem, a powei

•ful

nwm, Lrave ocular

demonstration of the unsoundness of the old one
bv drivinu" his a\e to the liandle in one of its
best remaininix lo<i-s. Not lonu' after came the
0})enin2^ of the new scliool, a relio-ious exercise,
duriiijj: which the children marche<l in tw'os from
the old buildino- to the new, siiio-ino-as they went

IN REAL l.II'K.

S.S

iiss
in<l
liar

its
the

nse,

elit

soiMc ])S}ilm of <I('^a'(M's. 'I'lic new Ixiildin;^- was
<livi(h'<l into two rooms, and it was in tlu> " l)ack
room " that Manitoba ( \)1 lent' took shaj)«-in |S7I
under l)i'. IJryee. U]) oo this era of the colI(M«;t'
th(^ lionor I'oll ol' teachers — sti'oni;' men who
ItattkMl witli dithculties and iVom whose ])U))ils
(3ame many w1h> ha\e nwuh; their impi'css on tiie
Idstoiy ol" the country — is as follows: .h^lni Ink-
ster, Ak*xan(k'r Mathc^son, A(kim Maclietli,
liector Maclieth, Akixaink'i' lloss, .lames llarju-r,
Akwander l*oison and 1), 15. W'himster, some of
vvdiom remain to tlie ])resent time, hut the most
of wliom liave falk'u asleep. Verily " they rest
from their la})ors and their works do follow
tliem." Durin^ail these years many of the])Upils
of tliese men went to eastern institutions of
hi^dier learnin<j^ and took hi;j;'h rank, while the
general result of their labors was such that the
intelligence and culture of the isolateil colony
was a constant surprise to xisitors fi-om the
(Uitside world. From the time (jf the Kev. Mr.
Black's coming in ISoI (with which we shall
deal in another chapter), he gathered out from
the school the most cai)ahle an<l ami)itious of the

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

hoys, *^ivinj^ tlicni iiistrnctioii in classics, inatlic-
inatics and tlu^oloi^y, and tlnis laid tin; i'ounda-
tions of Manitolta College, wliicli is simply the
outgrowth of that pai'ish school and the ctioi-ts
ol" Dr. lilack. On in the sixties the nundter of
vounii' men who seemed anxious to !•() on to a
hiiiher eilucation than the conni'on schools could
give them, hecame so large that tlic mattej- of a
collegH' pressed itselF more and more upon the
settlers. In ISdl) Mr. I). K Whimstei', a gentle-
man of wide experience as a teacher in Ontario,
was sent I'oi', and his arrival, marking a new era
in the history of the parish school, iinally led
to the estaV)lishment of the Manitoha Collei'-e
at Kildonan, thougli it was moved to Winnipeg
wlien that })lace began to assume the lead in the
West as its ])rincipal town.

Besides the school, there existed amongst the
settlers fi'om an early date literary societies fc^r
the discussion of all manner of subjects and for
social enjoyment. These societies were ])rimi-
tive enough and not without their humorous
side. The oVI (|uestion of the comparative use-
ful] )0s-' of the liorse and the ox was the one on

/A' REAl I.II'E. V

which tlio yoiiii^t'i- iiu'iiihers ^^'cnerally cut tlieir
(lc});itin<»' tcctli. \V<' J'ciiicnilx'i", too, how one ot*
them ill a discussion as to tht; comparativt^
(Icsti'uctivcncss of tire ami water, ciitliusiasti-
cally assert('(l the injui'ious superiority of the
latter, aii<l cHiK'he(l his ar^-uuieiit hy iiistanciutjf
liow tlie flood on the lle<l River had carried
their barn down to Lake Winnipeg; and that the
tire had never touched it! Recitations in prose
and ]X)etry were much in voouc, and special
ineetiniis were held sometimes in the scIkjcjIs
and sometimes in private houses for their reii-
• lition. The old " staii'l-hys " were well to the
i'ore, and as hooks were scarce some had to
content themselves with one selection, which
thev iifave aoain and atjaiH. The staiiinesH and
the mannerisms oi' the imitative elocutionist
were all wantin<^, hut a ruoL»t'd and forceful
(;lo(|Uence was oflni developed in these mini.'i
ture lycoums. Not loiii;- ago there a])peai*«d
before the Presbytery of Winnipeg- six members
(jf the Kildonan cont'ret'ation in the matter of a
call to their minister. All these had been
trained in those primitive schools and homely

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

])latf()rins, with whatever julditional they could
h.^ani ])y further observation and experience.
As tliey pi'esented tlieir views in a simple,
manly and straightforward way thei'e was dis-
tinctly noticeable a rich Havorino- of scriptural
pln-ases, a splendid conception of the oneness of
the Church, composed tliouj^li it be of many
C(moTe<:,alions, a tine ideal of duty, a loyalty to
the minister, which caused you to feel that they
were sure that he wcjuld obey the liit^h dictates
of his own conscit'uce as to his course — and all
this witli a natural elocjuence most p; asini^ to
hear. Veterans in the court said afterwards
that they had never lieard such power and
ability evidenced in men of th^nr class — truly a
noble tribute to their native industry, to their
indomitable perseverance, as well as to those
who had been their teachers in the Church and
scliool of the earl}' days.

J 1

/X REAL LIFE.

CHAin^ER X.

UELUnoUti LIFE.

When we write a separate chaptt'i- on tlie
religious life of the early settlers, we would not
imply that these old people severed the KU—ed
from the secular, for never has there been in our
land a more conspicuous conseci-ation of the
whole sweep of life W\xv\ in their case. One of
the strongest points in their theology was their
clear conception of the innnanence and sov-
ereignty of God : lience they never considered
tliemselves beyond His presence or outside His
control. When we write a chapter on their
religious life, we simply desire to indicate the
manner and custom of tlieir religious services as
well as to sketch in some degree the story of
how they kept the faith during the long years
of their isolation. Tt is (piite clear that their

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

traiiiino- in Scotland liad been of sucli a kind as
to lead them to feel that the exercises of
religion must form an inte<^i'al part of life in
tlie new land, for they made spc.'cial stipulations
befo! they sailed for a minister of their own
Churcli, and they arraufred that an elder who
accomi)anie(l them should have authority to
ba})tize and to marry. From that time on till the
day on which John Black, their first minister,
was in their midst, nearly forty years after-
wards, they never ceased to importune the
authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, on the sub-
ject of their <jwn Presbyterian creed, and in their
alle<^iance to that faith they never once failed
or faltered. \Ve are not to infer from the men-
tion of this long period without a ministei* of
theii" own, that they wei'e without settled
services dui'ing all that time. It goes witiiout
saying that with such a people the sacred tire of
worship would ])e kept bui'ningon family altai's,
and that their cottage prayer-meetings would
be held : but in addition, the Anglican Church
(partly through the enterprise of their Mis-
sionary Society, and ])artly because fa\'ored by

/.V REAL LI IE.

cortain ul' tlio Hudson's Hay autlioritii's) had a
minister n])()n tlic t^ronnd as early as l>S20, and
of tlic services of this Church the IScotch settlei^s
availed themselves. J^ut wlule doint:' «<> these
settlers never absolutely oave their adherence to
that Church, nor accepted the situation as a
t'ultilment oi' tlie promise nunle tlu'm as tu
church privi!eo-es. All honcn*, however, oujL;'ht to
be ^iven to the Church ol' Kn<^land tor the
manner in which thev acc(mimodateil their form
ol' service to meet the known opinions of the
colonists on such matters. In their reii'ular
* worship they omitted largely the use of the
Litur<4y and Prayer-book, and the [)salms were
sunj>' in the meu'e and tune to wh'*^'* the settlers
had been aecustome<l. It has been sai<l bv some
that the Anglican Church expected by this
course ultin»ately t(j win these people (jver to
theii' Church, an<l thus become the sole Protes-

tant organization in the counti'V,

but

we cou

have no sympathy with tliat view, for sevei'al
reasons. To be<4in with, it would l)e clear to
any one accpiainted with the nationality and
character of the colonists that any such course,

Tin: SELKIRK SETTLERS

inst(;ii(l ol' wiiiniiiu; tlieiu over, would utU'rly
ostran^N' (lirir Hy?n[)allii(3.s. Moreover, the early
pastors ol' llie Clmreh of l^iu'lainl, iiieetiui;' the
older ])eople in daily converse, \s'onld feel they
wei'e innH()va))le as rock in the matter of tlieir
cree(l, and that ere the yoimj^ei- ^^cneration ^rew
lip there would certainly he a minister of theii"
own faith amongst them. IJesides all this, the
uniformly kind and j^rateful manner in which
the old settU^rs always spoke of the An^'lican
cler<^y leads r«s to feel that those early pastoi's
were <;'odly men who sought unselfishly to u-uide
an<l comfort a she])herdless Hock in the way of
the Cross of Clirist. The settlers were not a})t
to fori^et tlieir own criH'd, because they were
diligent students of its staiuhird theolorrv. The
]il)raries in the old houses, circiilatinn," libraries
truly, were not lar<;e but wei<i^lity. liesides the
Jiible, the Catecliism and Confession of Faith,
there were a few leadinu' ])Ooks of the stron»jjest
Puritan iiavor, and these were pored over and
afterwards discussed witli the ease that many
people seem now abli^ to brino- to ])ear only on
current <j;'ossip. People who thus drank from

\\ \

/.V REAL T.IFE.

tliu fountain -li«'!i(l ^aiiUMl a strcnn^tli which
cimbltMl tliem to eoiKiucr tlio difhcultirs oi' their
vviNhTHcHs lil'c and hold st«!adl'astly tiic tenets of
their own C/hurch with its sini})Ie form of
worship. Many an incident niii^lit be recoith'il
to show the depth and reality of their relinioiis
life, and we relate one in the face of ])resent day
views of Sabltath observance. A small party of
t'leni who had le'ft their families with scantv
supply of fo(jd, and had ;;'()ne out (ju a winte-r
butt'alo hunt, were camping (ai(! Saturday ni(^ht
alon<;' the Pendjina Mountains. They liad their
poor meal of what they l>rought with them, and
;;ave all they could to their faithful ti*ain do<;s.
Then before retirin<( to rest under tlie lee of
their toboiroans, with the doi^s crouched around
them in the snow, they held a prayer-meetin<;' to
ask Him for food who fed Israel with manna.
When thev awoke three ])utfaloes were in the
valley below, but it was not until after another
])rayer-meeting for ouidance as to their course
on the Sabbath day that, in view of tlie necessity
and the evident providence, one of their number
(an elder in the Church) was appointed by the

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'4^'i?r^

33 WEST MAIN STREIT

WEBSTER, N.Y. USrO

(716) 873-4S03

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THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

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rest to procure for tlio pJirty a present food
supply. He approacluMl the Imttaloes vvitliout
difficult}', shot one, and though the others
remained for a time, as they sometimes will in
such a case, he did not shoot a<;ain, holdin<;' that
lu' was only justified in taking what was
actually necessary- on the Lord's Day. Some
people would describe such conduct as extreme,
hut that God approves of action true to con-,
science as the needle to the pole, is evidenced
hy the signal way in which He was with them
through all their trials, even unto a peaceful
and prosperous old age.

We have said that the settlers never ceased
to importune the authorities, civil and ecclesias-
tical, for a minister of their own faith; and any
on(.» who studies the history of the time will see
that they sent petition after petition to the
Church at home (some of them never received),
showered them upon the Ihulson's Bay Com-
pany, and incessantly bombarded every promi-
nent oHicer of that corporation who visited the
settlement with reminders of the promise made
them. At last the Church in Scotland referred

' \ I

IN REAL LI/'E.

O.S

ased

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the

tM),

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tlie

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th(; matter to tlic Kev. Dr. Bums, ])astor of
Knox Cliiirc'li in Toronto: and Mr. Ballondon,
then the local <;overnor of the Hudson's Hav
Company, ur^^ed the matter in the same (|uarter
about the same time, with the result that Dr.
Burns secured the appointme'iit of John Black,
a graduate of Knox Colle<(e, then working as a
missionarv in Lower Canada. After .some hesi-
tation as to his dutv in the matter, Mr. P)lack
finally accepted tlie apiujintment, and after a
long and arduous j(Mirney, via St. I'aul, Minne-
sota, reached Red River in the autunni of 18') I,
and on his arrival three hundred of the Scotch
settlers severed their nominal connection witli
the Church of England and rallied around the
young missionary. Physically, mentally an«l
spiritually, Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Black was the
man for the place. No other than a man of
great ph^'sical enchu'ance could have stood the
strain of frontier work as lie did for thirty
years, and judging from what he was, as I
remember him, his compact and strenuous frame
gave every indication of his physical strength.
Many years after his coming, and when his

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

dark locks were plentifully whitened with the
snows that never melt, we used to supply him
at times with hay for winter use (he always
kept a few horses and cows), and when we (I
wjis little more than a child helping my brother,
or professin<^ to do so) went to deliver the hay,
Dr. Black invariably came out from his stud}'
and took a hand in unloadinf^ the carts to the
stack. My brother always <^ave him the strong-
est fork, for he would snap the handle of an
ordinary one ; an<l it was my delight to see how
the minister would bend the fork-handle, and
when he had " landed " an exceptionally heavy
load, to hear him say that it was a " noble fork,"
and that the handle was "good stuff."

From the beginning of his ministry he was a
man of exceptional mental vigor and of intense
spiritual power. With all this he had a vivid
imagination and the free use of language, so
that his preaching was full of the fire and
eloquence so characteristic of the followers of
Knox. Like Knox, too, he would sometimes
well-nigh " ding the pulpit into blads," for his
strong hand could well emphasize upon the

/A' REM. LIFi:.

boards of the hi^li dcHk the vi<(orous hin^nia^e of
liis discourse. His voice was clear, strong and
full of resonant force, while his accent, once
understood, added a rich flavor to every word.
As to the subject-matter of his preach inu^, my
whole recollection of it is that above all thing's
else the doctrine of the IJlood was made promi-
nent, and that his constant aim was to turn
sinners from the error of their way, and build
up (lu'istians in the most holy faith. There
was no ^lossin<( over of sin, no en<leavor to
blacken into harndess end)ers the thunder-bolts
of God's wrath against inicpiity, and no other
hope of salvation held out but that by way of
the vicarious C^ross of Christ. Boy as I was, and
too little disposed to appreciate their power, I
remember especially his connnunion services,
and to-day I can see his swaying figure and
hear the echoing (piestion, " Who can \y,\y that
debt .'*" as in one of them he elaborated the idea
of humanity's debt under the law, and the
coming of the rescuing Christ to provide for us
a ransom. No one could grow up under that
ministry without a creed, unless he threw away

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

his opportunity and trampled underfoot privi-
le<fes of an exceeding greatness ; and however
little I may have evidenced benefit received
from it at the time, he stood before me as a man
whose righteousness I honored, whose memory
I revere, and whose influence upon his own and
these succeeding days beside the western sun no
man with a merely ethical gospel could ever
have exerted.

1 *■

iHi i

IN REAL LIFE.

CHAPTER XL

R ELK no US LIFE—ContinuciI.

From what we have ah-eady said as to the
life and ministry of John Black, those who know
the type of character such a ministry is calcu-
lated to produce in the people, will be able to
imagine this chapter and much more than it can
contain, even should they not read it at all. But
for many who may not have studied in the
religious sphere the history of cause and eftect,
let it be written for the honor of the pastor and
the people and for the glory of God. When
the missionary came, as we have said, the
colonists rallied around him loyally, and once
the flood of the following year had gone down
and possibilities of permanence became clearer,
they set about the work of building the stone
church that still stands on the edge of the prairie,

Tin-: SEI.KIKK SETI l.F.KS

unlujrt and iinpn'^nahlc a^aiiiHt the warrinjx <>f
\\\\> cKmimmiIn. In tin* huiMin;^ ol' that cliurch
one* t)!' the most notict^al)!*' tlnnj^.s was tlic absence
ol' all adventitious sclicincs lor ])n)vi(lin;;- nu'ans,
for the ]HM)|>1(», thou<:;h ])oor in nionc}', luul a
niintl to woi'k an«i opcniMl tlu» church free of
<lcl)t. Huil(lin«x in those days was no easy or
in(»x]icnsivc (ask. The stones had to bo brought
across the prairie sonu; fifteen nnles, and v/ere
hauled on single sleds with oxen, almost one
stone at a time, while all the lumber for
floors, roof, pews, etc., ha^l to be sawn by hand
ir .e old-fashioned " saw-])it," in which one
man above and another below pursued throuj^h
th(* livelonir<lav their tedious and laborious task.
Yet in due time the church was finished, with
walls between two and three feet thick of stone
" rou<j^h-casted " on the outside : lon^ pews were
made, with a few s<juare ones near the pulpit,
the pulpit and precentors desk were set on hi^h,
a ixallerv was constructed, and the whole work
was of such a thorough if ruti^trod kind that it
stands unimpaired to tliis day, except where some
alterations have been made. A bell was set

/X REM. LIFE

• ' t '

ill tlic liij»i» Ht<'(»|)l«', ami tlnTc lor )ill tlu's** ycjirs
it liMN ruii^ out its Sal)l)Htli Hunmion.s across tin-
])lnin,aini lias tollc*! Wwrrtiu'wvii ovcrtlu' yoini^'
an«l oM wlio lie ))in'i<'(i arouiul tlic cliurcli in the
"city ol" tlir «l(%'i(l." Knowiii^^ Hoincthiu^^ ol* tlic
r>i^^^o<l strcii^^th and ahiiity of many whose
<lust lies there, ami who, had their enviroiniient
l)ee!i <IiHerent, mi^ht have made tln'ir influence!
felt beyond theii-own circle, I nevc^r stand within
the precincts of that (Jod's acre without thitik-
in^ on those lines in (iray's " Ele<^y ":

" Soino vilbij^e H;in)[)deu wlio witli diiuntless brt-iist
The little tyrant of his fields withstood,
Some mute inglorious Milton here nmy rest,
Some Cromwell jjjuiltlessof his country's V>l(»(>d."

To the piMjple whose Ixxlies were l)urie(l the-re
from the homes around, reli<(ion was a real and a
vital tiling. Thonju^hly schooled in the stand-
ards of their Church, the Bible above all was
their Hook, and, undisturbed by any critical
theories, they believed it as the Word of (iod
from the sublime *' In the be^dnnin^ " clear
through to the last triumphal acclaim of the

100

THE SELKIRK SEni.l.RS

Apocalypso. Ilcnco the liook cntcnMl into tlu»,
vory HI)ro of their Itcin;;;. Jiinl i^^ave (hem ai»
uiil)«'ii(lin<x Htren;jth in lit'(; ami infinite eonil'oi't
(hjwn in tlie <leath-slia(h' at the close. In tlu*
matter of theii* (.hinvh an<l their nnnister, tliou<^h
diH'erences of opinion woulil somtitimes arise,
loyalty and <hity had lu'en their ruling ideas,
from church attenihince ri;;ht on to .such material
sup])ort as tlicy were al)h' to «j^ive. Tlie church
services and the ])rayer-m(H'tini,^s were religiously
attendeil, and in all kinds of weather and at all
seasons the minister was sure of a <;oodly num-
ber whenever the time of service came. To the
cotta*jje prayer-meetin<jjs, held in the farm-iiouses
on the winter nijjjhts by the li<jjht of tallow dips,
we have seen men come lon<j^ distances in weather
severe enough to make that mode of travel very
unpleasant. In their midst John Black stood
for all that was true and good, and though the
younger people may have felt sometimes that
his religion was of a stern type, they knew that
lie was sternest of all with himself, and hence he
was regarded by all the people of the district
with a love and reverence almost unbounded.

I*
1

IN AV'.'.// i./rr..

101

Ah an ('XJiiii]>I(' of his ri^^id hcmsv <»!' duty, wr
rccjill once a litrrarv m(j('tiii<r in wliifh sonic
(lialo^Xnc was hcintj rcndriuMl, and in tlio course
ol' wliieli sonic apostroplic to tlic^ods occurred ;
l)u( when it was to l»c rc])catcd Dr. Black said,
"Please omit those profane <>\|>ressions " — an
incident somewhat disconcerting* to the reciters,
but chai'acteristic of a man who felt that homage
should be paid to one only the living and true
Ciod. As an illustration of the way in which he
was reverenced by all, it is worth while to relate
another incident, told by one who was present at
the time. A social tea-meetino- was in progress
in one portion of the settlement, called Little
Britain, when a burly half-breed, a man of
inunense physical stren<^th and, withal, a noted
bully, entered in a mischievous state of intoxi-
cation, and be|^an by word and act to make things
very unsafe for those with wiiom he came in
contact. He was one of those men who become
excited almost to madness by litpior, and so all
attempts to quiet him oidy made matters worse,
and things were becoming serious when some
one thought of Dr. Black being next door. He

\ i

1 02

77//1 SE/.K'/Rk' SF/n/J'lh'S

wiiH at once Hi'iit lor, and comin^ij up to tlu' Imlly
))iit his hand upon liis .sliouldiT and called liini
l>y name. Tlu; man turned fiercely around,
hut when he saw the venenihle face of the min-
ister ol' Kildonan he sank down with the most
pi'ol'use promises that he would he (piiet, and he
lve|)t his word. Verily it nuist have remindetl
those present ol' the fierce demoniac calmed out
of" his violence at the touch and word ol' tin'
CMirist.

In their reli<jjious life the Kildonan people
were not demonstrative, hut the opposite. Reti-
cence is chaiacteristic ol' the Scottish nature in
any case, and the " hodily exercise " and religious
athletics of some present day " evan<;-elistic "
methods they «lid not profess to understand.
We remember the first " revival " service lield in
the old church. Services were heing held in the
nei^hhorino- town of \Vinnipe<^, and when request
was made by those in char<^e to come to Kil-
donan, Dr. Bhick, though not, perhaps, nnich
ac(]uainted with the methods to be followed,
consented, so as not to stand in the way of pos-
sible good to the youn<^ people. The regular

IN REAL IJl E.

ion

Hurvice In tli«^ church was always conduct' X with
the utmost deconnn. At the opcninj^ hour the
niinistiT, in j^own and hands, ca'nt^ sU>wly up to
tlui pulpit, hut I can sm^ tlio liorror and uniazo-
nu'ut of tlu! pt'oph' as the " ('van;;(.'Iist " canre up
the aisle pulling' off a fur coat and talkinjr
vohihly al)out the weatlier, etc., as he went. At
one of tlie ineetin;^s some man from Wiiuiipe^,
after a few words, called uj)on all who w<"ru
Christians to stand up. No one arose, and when
a second and a third appeal were in vain, the
man turned to the old minister and said some-
thing implying that it was strange he had no
Christians there after all those years. An old
elder present could stand a good deal, but he
could not stand anything like a slur on Dr.
Black, and so he arose and addressed the speaker
in words to this effect : " There are Christians
here, but we do not show our religion in that
way. We have not been brought up to it, and
what is more we do not want it. If you have a
u:ood word of truth for us we will be tjlad to
hear it, but if you have nothing better to say
than asking us to stand uj) you had better sit

104

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

down." It is scarcely necessary to say that the
method was not followed at subsequent meetings.
The elder refewed to in this incident is, in many
respects, a type of the character produced under
Dr. Black's ministry. He stood by his minister
ecjually in all the circle of his work. He faith-
fully seconded the minister's efforts in pastoral
visitation, and to this day is one of the first to
be found at any sick-bed of which he lieai-s.
Somewhat brusque in manner and somewhat
unpolished in address, people need to know him
to appreciate him, but where he is best known
he is most loved. At prayer-meetings we have
known him differ from a later minister, a young
man whose staunch friend he was, on the inter-
pretation of a parable (and we are bound to say
the elder was right on the point in our view),
but no minister who appreciated true worth
would resent the opinion of a loving and devoted
helper to whom the Bible was the best beloved
and the best known of all books. I remember
once, in a neighbor's house, assisting a son to
place the body of his father in a coffin which
this elder had made and brought to the house.

bthe

ings.

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ie.

IN REAL LIFE. 10:>

I recall the apparently iiidifiereiit manner in
which the eMer acted and spoke as he was direct-
ing us, but the members of that family knew
well what a bleeding heart he was Jiiding under
his brus(iueness, and how, ere he left their humble
dwelling, he would lead them in prayer so that
the heavens would seem to open above them in
their sorrow.

106

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

i I

\ I

CHAPTER XII.

MISSIONARY OUTPOSTS.

The Indian Mission at Prince Albert, on the
Saskatchewan (where tliere are now several
thriving churches) was an overflow from the
religious and educational life of Kildonan. In
1861 the Rev. James Nisbet came from Oak-
ville, Ontario, to help Dr. Black in the growing
work of the West, and after five years in and
about the colony, where he is still affection-
ately remembered, went 500 miles north-west-
ward and founded a mission, to which he gave
the name of the Prince Consort. With that
mission the old home of the writer was closely
connected, for to it there went at that time two
sisters and a brother : Mary, the wife of Mr.
Nisbet, the missionary; Christina, the wife of
John McKay, then the interpreter : and Adam,

■ n:-?

IN REAL LIFE.

107

who was to teach the school, together with other
relatives and connections. When the whites had
settled around Prince Albert, John McKay went
farther afield as an Indian missionary, and a
few personal recollections of James Nisbot and
John McKay may fittingly close the present
volume.

My earliest recollection of Mr. Nisbet is on
the day of my mother's funeral, whicli took
place on my fifth birthday, but some scenes
of which are indelibly photographed on my
memory. I can see yet the old house crowded,
and then the long procession that carried out
with it the dust of her whose death made a
blank in my life, whose greatness I realized,
not then, but more and more as the years have
flown. My father, who was heart-broken, was
not able to go to the churchyard, but as the
funeral procession passed out he went down a
little way on tlie field to have a last look at
the coflfin borne away on the shrouded bier. I
can see him returning bent and in tears. With
him was Mr. Nisbet, and as they walked Mr.
Nisbet took the Scotch plaid he himself wore

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1 ''

1 ^1^'

fil

:||

1! •

108

T//E SELk'/Rk' SETTLERS

(tor it was early winter) and placed it around
the stooi)in<r .shoulders ot* my father. Even
then it impressed itself on my mind as a
thoughtful, kind act, but as I grew in years
and knew Mr. Nisbet more intimately, I feel that
it was a pre-eminently spontaneous deed, and
thoroughly characteristic of one who to the end
of his days was a " son of consolation." I next
remember him at the carpenter's ])ench, engaged
in making the desks for the present Kildonan
school, one day on which I was sent for him
from his home, failing an elder messenger. I
can see him, hatless and coatless, with the beads
of perspiration on his brow, doing his own work
and directing the other workmen how to follow
the ]ilans he had prepared. Next I can remem-
ber vaguely (for all these intermittent photo-
graphs are not equally distinct) the preparation
for the outgoing to the Indian mission, and on
the day of the departure I recall seeing my
sister, Mrs. Nisbet, in the old home, giving a
glass of milk to their eldest born, little more
than an infant, with whom they were setting
out on a wagon and cyrt journey they knew

IN REAL LIFE.

100

bting

new

not whitlier. There, in tliat Indian mission, Mr.
NisV)et toiled, erectinjjj Imildings with his own
liands, teaehinfij and preacliin»ij as he liad o])por-
tunity, strugf^Hnfr amidst the lit^htsand shadows
of a difficult life, till he and his wife returned
to my father's house utterly broken down by
the strain of their labors, and died there only
a few days apart. During the years at Prince
Albert they made several trips home, and one
winter was spent in Oakville, where his sisters
lived, and where he left two of his children at
school ; but the journeys across the great plains
were more wearing almost than the work at the
mission. It would appear from the experience
of Mr. Nisbet that the best people in the world
are liable to be misunderstood — the servant is
not greater than his Lord — for even when his life
was being slowly worn away by his missionary
toil, certain people, in the press and elsewhere,
made attacks on his method of work at the
mission. I remember well how heavily this lay
upon him, and with what warmth of conscious
innocence he publicly and privately defended
his course and the action of those associated

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

III

with him. Next I recall, his coininj^ back to
liiy father's house for the last time, both lie and
his wife worn out and run down as those who
had worked beyon<l their strenf^th and time.
They had both been ill before they left Prince
Albert, and the long trip of oOO miles across the
prairie in the jolting canvas- covered wagons
was a trying one even to people who were
strong. When they arrived, Mr. Nisbet, though
weaker than any one knew, was riding slowly in
front on horseback, while his wife \v'as in the
wagon just behind. He rode up to the door and
dismounted, and I remember well how he tried
to engage my father's attention, and stood
between him and the wagon when my brother
went and carried from it the frail body of my
sister, who was scarcely able to put her arms
about his neck as he lifted her from that poor
l>ed and carried her into the old home to die.
For her the end was not long delayed, and after
she had lost consciousness I remember how
calmly, to outward appearance, her husband
waited for the end, counting her feeble pulse-
beats with his watch in hand, while all the

IX REAL LIFE.

Ill

while the sword of a <:frt'at sorrow was slowly
piereinn^ throu<^]i his heart. When all was over
the hiisbaiul rose, and as he and my father
stood together I renieiid)er how Mr. Nisbet said,
" I liope you all feel that I acted for the best
wlien I l)rought Mary back home," and the
answer of my father, whose heart had yearned
to see her ere he died, n<HMl not be recorded.
J^onf^ years before he, too, had stood beside a
Mary (that was my mother's name), and had
watched the passing of her spirit into the
unseen, where his gaze was fixed with a
growing home-sickness as the shadows were
lengthening around him and the ties (^f earth
were being broken one l>y one. Not many
days after that Mr. Nisbet gave way before the
brief illness that carried his frail life out also.
His room was in one end of the big farm-house,
and when he fell ill at night no one knew of it
till the daybreak, for all had thought that he
but needed rest to restore him to full strenirth.
In the morning, as he came out to the dining-
room, I recall how he told of sufferinii- durini::
the night, and how he, who always looked for

112

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

op])ortunitieH to onforcc tlic teachin*^ of tlie
Word, said, "I can understand now what the
I'salniist meant when he said, ' My soul waitetli
Tor the Lord more than they that watcli for the
morninf]^, yea, more than they that watcli for
the morninjr.' " A few days later he died of a
diphtheritic trouble, which his weakened system
could not resist, and in the newly-covered j^rave
of his wife his dust was laid to rest. Over
them the General Assembly of 1887 erected a
granite colunm, such as their relatives, poor in
worldly iT'^ods, had never hoped to see, but in
the inHneasural)le inHuence they exerted on
manv^ whose lives have been consecrated to the
service of God, in the noble record of their self-
denying lal)ors, and in the enduring work at
Prince Albtu't, we see their grandest and divinest
monument.

Beside Mr. Nisbet, as we look liack along the
line of our church histor}'^ in the West, we see
the figure of the late Rev. John McKay, at one
time the interpreter and general provider at
Prince Albert, and latterly the missionary on
the Mistawasis Reserve, near Fort C^arleton.

IN REAL LIFE,

113

From my earliest childhood I rememher his
physical appearance and the characteristics
which made him so successful in the Indian
work. A powerfully-built man, with great
breadth of shoulder and immense depth of
chest, muscular and athletic, dark-skinned and
raven-haired, with a(juiline nose and piercing
black eyes — his whole physical make-up com-
mended him to the Indians, who adore physical
strength and prowess. Moreover, he was of
the half-blood — his father Scotch, his mother a
pure Cree — and united in himself the courage
and energy of the white with the skill and
endurance of the Indian. This made him one
of the class whose presence in this country has
been invaluable as, standing midway between
the white and the red man, they constituted a
medium of communication and a guarantee of
^ood faith that led to peaceful solutions of the
questions that arose between them. In the case
of John McKay himself, every one who is famil-
iar with the history of this country knows how
he assisted the late Governor Morris in arranging

the Indian treaties in the West, and in securing
8

&
(

114

THE SELKIRK SETTLERS

i»i <

a peace and j^ood-will tliat would have been
impoHsiblc without his help and the help of
men of his class. Down to the time of death
he retained an unrivalled influence over the
Indians, as witnessed by the fact that in 1885,
thouj^h the rebellion broke out at Duck Lake,
not far from the Reserve, the old chief Mista-
wasis not only resisted the incitement of Kiel's
runners and remained loyal, but with a picked
band of men escorted the missionary's family to
Prince Albert, and there offered his services to
the Government. When John McKay first went
to PrincPi Albert his main duty was to supply
the mission with the products of the chase, and
since he had been used to the prairie from his
childhood, he found this a congenial task. He
was an experienced buffalo hunter and a dead
shot, though I often heard him express his
abhorrence of the way in which the buffalo
were slaughtered for the love of gain by hunters,
who simply took the tongue and hide of the
slain animal. All these qualities, with his in-
timate acquaintance with the language and
customs of the Indians, gave him unbounded

IN REAL LIFE.

11.")

control over them in ways which provt'd of
f^reat .service in all lines of his work. The
possession of courage is always a sure passport
to the respect of the Indians, and that John
McKay had that courage they were tauj^ht in
a j^reat many ways. In the earlier days of
Prince Albert, roving bands of strange Indiana
used fre<[uently to come to the mission an<l
make heavy and peremptory demands for food
on the meagre supply, with threats of extermina-
tion if they were not satisfied. One springy
when preparations were on hand for the sowing
season, and the oxen were tie<l in the hay-yard,
a large crowd of Indians from a distance came
and demanded an ox for a feast. One young
animal was given them, but after a while they
came Vjack, and indicating .\ certain ox, the
choicest and biggest of all, and hence the most
prized for the spring work, they re(iuested
that he be given them. The demand was re-
fused — for to give way there meant, to any one
who knows the Indian, a giving way all around
— and explanation made that this ox could not
be spared. But the Indians " uncoated " their

ti(i

THE SEI KIKK SET 1 1. 1. KS

\V\

;^MiiiH, Htninj; tiM'ir Imiwh, mihI \vi(li vinlnit
ilriiiniisti'Mtioiis (sue)) mm (Im'v calciilah' will
IVi^jhlru people). n.'U'I (liey were ^nin;^ lo take
the ()\ in aiiv case. McKay reasoned witli

(liei

n as

lon<^ as he eoiild. hut in vain, and

when rnrllu'i' parh'V was useless, he steppi'd
witliin his door and retinned rifle in hand.
Indi('atin;jf a certain post hetween the Indians
and the coveted o\. h(> s])ol\e to lluMu as follows:

1 I

lave V(»ur

lilood

ni n»v venis

and

3'ou are my

hrothers; hut I have also th(» hlood t)!' the whit<',
and therel'on* I am more jaiuh it than you are.
We nnist have IVxm! here Tor our families, and
cannot irive awav all our animals, or wc cainiot
si>w our fields. We have always <lone, and will
always dt) our hest for you: hut now, 1 have
drawn a line at that post ; you know my ritle
never misses, and 1 tell you that tlie first man
wlu) crosses that line will drop." None of them
made the attempt, and from tliat time onward
McKay had more influence over them than ever

bef

ore

Si)u>e vears afterwanls, when Prince Albert
lu'came larirely a white settlement, he moved

AV A'/;.// ///A'.

117

out. f(> llir MistMAVJisiM Krstrvc (Tor liis lirarl,
\\i\H in ilir liitliaii woi'In ), whm (M'tlniiird liy
prnniMMinii <»f llir AHMi'iiiMy »i iniiiistiT nl' Mir
< lOHprl, mill ininiMti'i'nl llirir till liiH ilcatli witli
;^n'M.t success, lie WHS a iialurnl-lMini nrnlnr,
ami lia<l all tlir draiiiatic (<I(m|U«'|i<t oI' Mir Iinliari
witli tlir lire ami inlmsnu'ss of Mh' (Vlt, Tlic
oM cliicl' MistawaHiH was liis sworn I'rinul, and
Mic work (lone on the rcscrvi' has on it the
Htain|> of endurin;; reality. An incident I heard
him relate on his last visit to Kildonan has
always seemed to me a striking instanct; of
the way in which the psalmody and hymnolo;;y
of the Church attests its on«'nesH. Aft«^r th(5
18.sr) rehellion a mnnher of th(^ loyal chiefs,
amongst them Mistawasis and his old friend
Star HIanket, were taken to the Kast, and were
i^reatly impressed with the; evidences of power
and ])ro^ress they saw in the haunts of tlu5
white man. On his return, Mistawasis met
John McKay at Qu'Appelle, and tliey spent th(i
iii^ht to«^ether. Mainly, their talk was on re-
ligious WM)rk, and Mistawasis told tluMiiisHionary
how they had attended some gi'eat meetinjr and

^^^

118

77//i SELk'/KK SETTLERS

afterwards wore iiivitud to a roception in the
home ol' one of tlie Christian workers. The
chief said there were many ladies and ^Gentle-
men present wlio san<r and played on " sin^in^
macliines " (pianos), and that finally they asked
him and Star Blanket to sinj^. " I th()u<;lit,"
said M istawasis, "I should have sunk into the
ground for itashfulness, but I said to Star
Blanket that we must sin^jj after all their kind-
ness to us. 1 told liim we would siuij the church
song the missionary taught us, and so we began,
but what do you think { I had scarcely begun
wlien one of the ladies ran to the singing
macliine and began to play, and all the people
joined in the same song, but I was leading the
whole band. Now what ])uzzles me is how these
people there knew the same church song we
sing away out on the prairie." The expla-
nation the missionary gave, and which greatly
delighted the chief, was that Gcxl's children are
everywhere a singing people, because their
hearts are glad, and that the Si>ng was the 100th
psalm which they had leavned in Cree to the

I; ;«!

the

rho

tlu-

»t,"
the
tjir
id-
•ch

uii

)le
lie
se
vo
i-

:*e

/A^ /i'i5-//Z /M'/r. 119

oM tune, and which the people in the East had

learned in English to the sann^

John McKay died a few yeans since as the
r^ult of exposure to the ^reat hardships of his

;^- -n the plains, l>ut Urn inHuence for ^.,o<l
lives on anu,n,.st the dusky trihes of the
oaskatcliewan.