By the summer of 1882, fourteen settlers had arrived from Ontario and England. They came first in ox-driven carts by way of Brandon, to Fort Ellice near where St. Lazare, Manitoba is located today, via the Carleton Trail. They were accompanied by Managing Director, James Armstrong, who went back and forth between the new colony, Winnipeg and Toronto. John Jeremiah Cook, Vice President was also present in the colony, taking some of the settlers to the Wallace District.
The new colonists were a busy group, making entry on their homesteads and seemingly satisfied according to a letter dated August 1, 1882 and addressed to James Armstrong. Eleven settlers wrote, "The soil is rich clay loam and easily broken - a fair amount of timber and good water. We have already broken considerable land, and are now commencing to cut a splendid crop of prairie hay after which we shall be busily engaged in back setting and building our houses. The oxen and cows we brought with us are in fine condition feeding on the luxuriant grass, which is very abundant."
The group chose a site for the "capital" of the colony - York City that was laid out in Section 13, Township 26, Range 4, West of the 2nd Meridian in October of 1882 by Silas James, Dominion Land Surveyor and Vice President of the Company. The streets were surveyed and numbered, and a market square was reserved in the village centre. The pioneers' dream was definitely to see York City grow into a city. By late fall of 1882, it was decided that four settlers would winter in the colony to look after the cattle and one horse, and the others would return to Ontario until spring. Cosmo J. McFarline, William H. Meredith, from Ontario and William Hopkins and Edward Hopkins of England stayed behind. As best as can be ascertained, our four winterers stayed in a log shack with a sod roof on the William Meredith homestead, SW1/4 of Section 24, Township 26, Range 4 West of the 2nd Meridian, which is just north of the chosen site for York City. As can be imagined it was a lonely existence for the four men; none of them were experienced in wilderness camping. Their food for the winter consisted of flour, oatmeal, syrup, some dried apples, and a small quantity of salted pork. We have no stories about how they entertained themselves. We surmise that they must have had a deck of cards, at least. By spring, out of supplies, they set out for Fort Ellice in oxen driven carts, where they purchased canned goods and other groceries.
The colonists who had wintered in Ontario returned and new ones arrived. They erected a brick-clad building for the land office, which served as a school and for church services as well as a residence for the company agents. Joel Reaman opened a hotel, store and the first post office. General stores were built by John Thornton and by J. Livingstone & Sons. For entertainment, people gathered after mail call at Reaman's place, where they held dances, recitations and concerts. One can imagine the settlers' emotion and pangs of loneliness for their old homes when Mrs. Polly Wrixon sang "Annie Laurie" and William Reaman sang "Home Sweet Home." On bright summer Sundays, people gathered for picnics on the banks of the river. After the company was operating a ferry south on the Qu'Appelle River, a stagecoach started its run Monday morning from the Wallace post office up to Whitewood, with pick-ups at post offices along the way - Armstrong Lake, York City, Boakeview, Crescent City, Forest Farm, Clumber, Kinbrae and then returning Saturday. This service was available until 1888, when the train arrived in Saltcoats. The colony also attracted a doctor for a few years, Dr. J.D. Stevenson of Kleinburg, Ontario who settled on homestead S.E. Section 18, Township 26, Range 3 West of the 2nd Meridian. It would appear that he did not spend much time in the settlement, going back and forth many times to Ontario. Of all the Company officials it was James Armstrong who spent the most time in the colony in the role of general manager.
After the train arrived on the mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Whitewood in 1883, settlers made their way north some 60 miles to York Colony by walking, riding ox-carts or on horseback. There are a number of stories of the hardships of that northbound trail. Folks needed to ford the Qu'Appelle River; some, like Ephraim Boake, Wes Jackson and Francis W. Bull, had to camp out for two weeks with six loaded wagons until a ferry could take them across.
From a recently researched 1884 issue of the Manitoba Daily Free Press we learned the following: "Mr. J. Armstrong, Managing Director of the York Farmers Colonization Company and his wife and family, have arrived in the city on their way to Yorkton, the capital of the colony. The company is reported to be putting up a grist and saw mill, and doing everything possible to make the settlement a desirable one in which to locate settlers. They are guests at the Brunswick Hotel." (Winnipeg, Tuesday, April 29, 1884.)
We know too that John Jeremiah Cook spent several months in the colony for the first years. Among their many duties was the work involved in actively seeking more colonists. N.C. Wallace was also present in the colony more than we thought. This is revealed in news columns of the Manitoba Free Press, recently researched. While the settlers were faring well enough with their new colony, not all was rosy. It was a lonely existence for many single men, as there were very few eligible women. On September 25 of that year, the Company introduced an Agricultural Fair, which became a yearly event thereafter. The settlers exhibited their livestock; the women displayed their handicrafts and culinary achievements. By year's end, however, the colony's crops had been damaged by frost, and some of the 170 settlers had abandoned their homesteads and moved closer to the railway.
The post office department thought "York City" caused too much confusion with the name York in Ontario, so the name was changed to Yorkton, January 1, 1884.
Wallace wrote to the Minister of the Interior in November of 1884 to remind him that maps issued by the government and the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1882 had led the Company to believe that railway facilities would be forthcoming. In December, James Armstrong followed up with a letter complaining about the same issue and further outlined the efforts the Company had made for progress of the colony, such as erecting a gristmill, a sawmill and a brick factory. Moreover, Armstrong pointed out, they had extended funds to a number of colonists; some of them had left the colony. He was asking for a "Memorial" 2 on the Company's contract with the Government. About that time, other colonization companies were not doing well, some of them folding. Also, the very existence of these companies started taking the forefront in debates of the House of Commons. One member of the opposition, Dr. George Landerkin, rose in the House to expose many conflict-of-interest situations and financial fiascos. He outlined railway deals gone bad and colonizing company failures involving Members of the House of Commons. He also pointed out how good lands of the North West were sold much too cheaply to colonizing companies, whose officials were Members of Parliament, including one Nathaniel Clarke Wallace of the York Farmers' Colonization Company.
Such arrangements would not be acceptable one hundred years later, but this was a different time in history and the protests went largely unheeded. The government did provide some relief on their contract and the York Farmers' Colonization Company carried on with their work with the York Colony.
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton, Box 400
37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
[email protected]
