By Dan Bourgeois
In the last column it was described how Millbrook and the surrounding farming community were thriving in the 1860s.
However, due to an economic depression and a series of local setbacks, including a disastrous fire in the village in 1875, things were no longer looking up. In 1880, a Syndicate of local investors led by the Squire Sowden obtained land grants in the Souris River valley in the southwest of the new province of Manitoba.
Plans for the great trek west were made and families signed up for the migration. The initial group consisted of 43 men, nearly all leaving their families behind to follow in the next year or so. Only Joseph Henderson brought his wife and2 children along. Old family names on the list included Carveth, Deyell, Fallis, Hetherington, Hunter, Raper, Swain, Staples and Winslow.
On April 5th, 1881, the first contingent loaded their earthly belongings, supplies and livestock onto the train at Millbrook station, including food for the trip (no food or bar service was available). They headed out to great fanfare and surely some sadness and apprehension, as most knew they were headed for an uncertain future, leaving their homes and extended families, likely never to see them again.
The railway across the top of Lake Superior was not yet completed which meant the group had to travel south of the Great Lakes through the USA. After switching trains at Port Hope, they travelled through Toronto and on to Detroit. Outside of Detroit, Alice Hetherington recalled “The conductor noticed a dog belonging to William Fallis and demanded it ride with the livestock. Apparently a dog did not ride too well in a crowded car of oxen, and the uproar that ensued was such that…they pulled into a siding…with the ultimatum to do something before the car was completely wrecked. After some hurried consultation, and some peering down into the car, it was evident that someone would have to venture in to rescue the dog. One of my grandfather’s oxen was down…so he volunteered to make the attempt. He succeeded in threading his way to the manger where the dog had taken refuge, and almost reached the ladder again before he was assisted on the last lap of his journey by one of the frantic oxen tossing him (and the dog) through the roof”. Both Mr Hetherington and the dog came away relatively unscathed. The oxen gradually settled down and the journey resumed.
The trip carried on through Chicago to St Paul, Minnesota, stopping only to feed, water and exercise the livestock. They then headed north to arrive on April 12thin St. Boniface outside of Winnipeg, at that time the railway’s terminus. They crossed the ice on the Red River just days before spring breakup. It was then a three day struggle west to Portage la Prairie along trails that were starting to soften up from the spring melt.
According to Mr Hetherington, “Portage la Prairie was a thriving town…Just like Winnipeg, only smaller. It is thronged by Englishmen of very good families, who seem very nice fellows only a little too fond of billiards and sporting of one kind or another.” It appears the remittance men were headed west as well. Remittance men were ne’re do well sons of “very good families” who received regular allowances of money provided they stay away from home.
By this point the trails were becoming too soft and the heavier articles had to be left behind for transport by water once the ice cleared. “They were three days on the road from Portage to (Souris)… Oxen are never swift, and the going was rugged, over trails worn in the prairie sod by Indians, fur traders and explorers…Much of the terrain they passed through was, and is, very rough country.”
On arrival to the junction of Plum Creek and the Souris River, the Land Office and many of the land grants were on the other side of the river. “The ferry across the river was a rickety, insecure affair…one yoke of oxen found that being hauled across the swift stream on a few wobbly planks was more than their wavering bovine morale could endure, so they plunged into the water, almost overturning the ferry. Tom Leith was thrown into the stream but he was able to catch one of the oxen by the horns and throw himself across its back, as the frantic beast struck out for the shore, which they reached safely, cold, wet, and thoroughly shaken but otherwise unharmed.” Which I suppose shows that oxen, while usually reliable beasts of burden, aren’t very good at handling unusual situations.
Once the settlers located their grants of land they set about building rudimentary cabins or sod huts, clearing land and planting some early crops. A blacksmith shop and a few other buildings were constructed on the future village site. Squire Sowden had of course claimed the best site for a mill.
The next year, 1882, saw two more special trains with new and reuniting families from Millbrook, as well as other arrivals from elsewhere. By late 1884 most land grants were filled and there were fifty buildings on the town site, including three stores, four hotels, a school, butcher, shoemaker, carpenter and two blacksmiths. In 1887, the Souris team, with a few temporary Millbrook ringers, won the Manitoba Lacrosse championship. In 2021, the population of the village was 1,970.
So, that’s how Souris, Manitoba became a distant suburb of Millbrook.