By 1884, almost 2 years into settlement, the York Colony settlers had looked forward to seeing the Manitoba and North Western Railway train arriving soon at York City /Yorkton. It had not yet happened, but they did not despair. They kept on planning their lives with the confidence in the York Farmers Colonization Company to do their best to lobby for a railway. We have already seen enough evidence of their energy and work in the previous History Corners dealing with the corporate history of Yorkton. I have found more testimonials with recent research in the Manitoba Daily Free Press, which sought out news of all new and growing localities of the Northwest, and which also had arranged for a local Yorkton correspondent. The following are a few more testimonials which provide important details of the work of the colonist and the company. One event in particular was the official organization of their annual agricultural exhibition. We have details in the news clip of the Manitoba Daily Free Press dated October 8, 1884.
Prosperity on the Proposed Line of the Manitoba & North Western Railway
The York Farmers colonization company held their first fall show at Yorkton, York Colony on the 25th of September, and considering that the settlement of the district only commenced a little more than eighteen months ago, there was a large gathering of settlers, and a splendid show of livestock, dairy products and roots. The show of cereals was fine indeed, as the area of land as yet under cultivation is limited. Mr. George McCulloch, miller of the Souris (Manitoba) was one of the judges on grain, and after a careful examination the first prize for wheat was awarded to W.H. Meredith, late of the County of Simcoe, Ontario, for a fine example of Red Fyfe. Messrs. Hargreve, Fergus, Moore and others had very fair example of wheat, oats and barley on exhibition. In dairy products, the show was large and the quality excellent.
Mrs. Langstaff, of Bloor Street Toronto, was one of the judges on butter and explaining her admiration of the quality as "sweet, nice-colored, creamery butter," succeeded in securing a large amount for her family. Mrs. Bull took first prize for fresh rolls, and Mrs. Livingstone for furkin butter. (Furkin -is a wooden vessel of varying measure). The other exhibits looked just as nice and one is surprised on how the judges could distinguish between the products.
In roots and vegetables, the show was simply admirable, particularly in potatoes, turnips, carrots, and pumpkins. Miss Smith, lately from Cheshire, England got first prize for a collection of garden produce, the most remarkable of it being a half bushel of potatoes, exactly thirty, weighing as much, and one potato not varying more than two ounces from any of the rest. Cabbages, cauliflowers, rhubarb, green peas, radishes, etc. were well represented in this collection. Messrs. Fawcett, Boake, Dunsmore, Reid, and others also had fine exhibits in this department.
The livestock exhibit is worthy of special mention in cattle only, the settlement being too new for horses, sheep and swine, although there were five teams of horses and two brood mares with colts. In cattle, both quantity and quality were excellent. The fine condition of the animals, the result of an unlimited supply of rich prairie grass, was the universal comment.
There was a long string of what is currently the right hand of the pioneer farmer, namely working oxen, the exhibit very large, the competition work and the judging was difficult. Mr. Donald Livingstone, lately of the Highlands of Scotland, carried off the lion's share of the prizes. Mr. Livingstone is direct from the old country, and his four sons have settled here after residing in Minnedosa until they gathered up most of their fine herd of cattle. Messrs. Boake, Snell, Hopkins, Reid, Fergus, Newlove, Lowery, McKercher and many others also exhibited herds or single animals of fine promise and carried off many prizes.
There was only a small exhibit of ladies work as there were no prizes offered for anything except that manufactured in the colony. Some bouquets of natural flowers and grapes were very pretty.
A splendid dinner prepared at the Queen's Hotel being disposed of, Mr. James Armstrong, the Managing Director of the Company, presiding called upon the gentlemen present to fill their glasses (with lemonade*) to toast the Queen and the ladies, very loyally and heartily drank and were responded to, and fully three hours of the most pleasant and profitable time spent, terminating the first agricultural exhibition in the North West Territories, being north and west of the Qu'Appelle and Assiniboine River and east of Prince Albert. It is understood that this Colonization Company are going to offer, at the show to be held next year at Yorkton, on the last Thursday in September, a ladies fur coat for the best loaf of bread made out of flour ground at the Yorkton Flour Mill being the product of wheat grown in their colony during the season of 1885. Dated at -Yorkton, September 26, 1884.
(The York Colonists likely all abstained from alcohol beverages, being in great majority Methodist and Presbyterians.)
We were unable to locate a news column on the results of the 1885 Agricultural Fair, and to find out who made the best bread and won the ladies' fur coat! The newspaper was announcing in August and September that the Fair would be held on October 1, 1885.
We do know that the festivities took place, as a news column dated April 6, 1887 tells us the following: The York Farmers Colonization Company received a handsomely engraved diploma and a large bronze medal suitably engraved from the Commissioners of the Colonial Exhibition, London, England, as prizes for the magnificent exhibition of grain sent by the settlers of the York Colony to the colonial (exhibition) last year.
THE YEARLY FAIR - EXHIBITS
Bread
I never saw the field of wheat
From which the flour came
I did not watch the farmer reap,
Nor do I know his name.
I did not hear the mill wheel's sound,
Nor watch it as it churned,
I did not see men lift the sacks
Of wheat to flour turned.
And yet, somehow, this loaf reflects
The whole bright harmony,
Of wheat and men and turning wheel,
In one grand symphony.
The above is a poem written during World War ll, part of an ad for the Yorkton Milling Company, as well as a tribute directed to the Yorkton Agricultural Association for organizing the yearly fair since the days of settlement and to the "fighting men" on overseas fronts.(Yorkton Enterprise Jul. 6, 1944).
Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher
City of Yorkton Archives,
City of Yorkton, Box 400,
37 Third Avenue North,
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722 [email protected]
