York Colony was one of the earliest settlements in the area then known in 1882 as The District of Assiniboia, North West Territories. Its community centre, York City (changed to Yorkton in 1884) had been surveyed by Dominion Land surveyor, Silas James showing the names of streets and avenues. The Orkney Colony — settled mostly by Scottish people, was also part of the York Farmers Colonization Company project. From the very beginnings of the York Colony the theme of farming was at its roots:
1. It is stated very plainly in the title of the colonizing company: York Farmers Colonization Company of Toronto, Ontario.
2. A number of the Company investors were York County Ontario farmers.
3. The Company erected a building on the new York City/Yorkton site to house the Dominion Lands Office.
4. The Company had “Land Agents” to administer quarter sections which were free homesteads, pre-emption quarters, school lands, railway land grants, and quarter sections the Company had purchased from the Dominion Government for re-sale.
5. The Company was interested in assisting their farmers: offered loans to them; provided guidance and innovations re-latest agricultural news.
6. The Company encouraged the formation of an Agricultural Society/Exhibition.
7. They advertised the free homesteads and their lands to Eastern Canadian farmers, British and American farmers. — The Canadian government used the American system of land surveys and the American Homestead Act of 1862 as models, using a different name: The Dominion Lands Act which came into effect in 1870. At first, Prime Minister Laurier and his Minister of the Interior, Clifford Sifton advertised in the United States and welcomed American farmers. These farmers knew how to farm the quarter sections of the Great Plains, and they could quite easily bring much needed farm machinery, household goods and money across the border. In 1896 Clifford Sifton advertised for farmers in Western and Eastern Europe. The Company did not bring in settlers from any country outside the Commonwealth. The Company was finished with their charter in 1888, but the officials maintained contact with the settlers, and continued to lobby for the railway to pass through Yorkton.
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince, Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722 [email protected]
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