Many of these stories were presented on CBC Information Radio 1995-2000. Private individuals may use any of the written material on this site but must credit George Siamandas as the original author and source of the material. Others must obtain written permission.

THE 1918 INFLUENZA OUTBREAK

The Spanish Flu Panics Canada

By George Siamandas

Is today’s swine flu an echo of the savage Spanish flu that struck the world in 1918? That fall, as our troops returned from WW1, they brought home a silent killer that would afflict one in six Canadians, killing 30,000-50,000 during the winter of 1918. Such pandemics had visited before. In 1889-90 flu affected 40% of the globe.

The Spanish flu hit Canada Sept 9, killing 9 American soldiers in Quebec City. On the same day 400 students in a Quebec College fell ill. By Oct 9, Brantford Ontario reported 2,500,cases. The flu then raged across the prairies. As the troop trains headed west, during that dreadful October, soldiers brought home the disease to their towns, villages and farms. Tens of thousands fell ill. By early October as the death toll mounted communities started to ban public gatherings. Schools, colleges, and universities closed. Across the country most church bells did not ring on Sundays. But Father Trasiuk of Hamilton’s Stanislaus Church, had defied the ban, and was fined $25.

Hudson Bay stores remained open but for the protection of customers, staff wore masks. So did employees of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and telephone workers. In more than 100 prairie towns, passengers were not allowed to de-train unless they promised to stay put for the duration of the epidemic. Some towns like Lethbridge and Drumheller threw up a total quarantine.

HARDEST HIT

The most vulnerable were healthy 20-30 year olds, the dangerous age according to the Regina Leader. Their symptoms? A cold that turned into flu. Temperatures of 105. Dreadful aches. And then pneumonia where victims suffocated in their own secretions. Some, bleeding from the nose. At the greatest risk were pregnant women who miscarried and almost always died.

ABORIGINALS PERISHED IN HIGH NUMBERS

The flu scorched its way through northern communities devastating aboriginal populations. Amongst aboriginals living in tepees and log cabins in the Peace River district, 85% died.

Some became desperate for medical attention. An aboriginal woman whose husband had died, paddled 33 miles down the Kapuskasing River, with a 6 mile portage to find a doctor for her two children. At the Indian Village of Sand Point, near Lake Nipigon, 58 out of 70 were sick. Luckily, only five died. But according to the custom of the day, Indian caskets were painted black, while white victims had their caskets covered in white cloth.

In Calgary they ran out of coffins. And in many rural areas, with no time to bury the dead, corpses were placed on the roofs of their owners’ log cabins, out of reach of animals till spring.

EVEN THE HEROES

After years at the front, returning soldiers could not embrace their loved ones. Anxious wives would meet husbands at the station unable to touch them, or even get near. One, who did, died, shortly after their reunion. Another case poignantly brought home the flu’s cruel irony. Airman Alan McLeod of Stonewall, Manitoba became at 18, Canada’s youngest Victoria Cross winner. Days after returning to his home town, this young hero, who had shot down three enemy planes and survived a burning plane crash, did not survive the silent killer.

MEDICINE IS POWERLESS

At the peak of the epidemic some doctors saw 80 patients a day and one averaged 58 house calls daily. Few charged for their services. Dr James Colliers practising in Vernon River PEI would take his daughters with him on housecalls so they could do the sweeping or wash dishes. Meanwhile scientists looked desperately for a cure. Winnipeggers Major Dr FT Cadham of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, and Doctor Gordon Bell, frantically worked for a vaccine, and found some success. Dr Cadham reported to a national medical conference in 1918 that of their test sample of 528 soldiers admitted to a Winnipeg hospital, no soldier who had taken two doses of the vaccine died. When word got out, Dr Cadham needed a police escort, so desperate were citizens to get the vaccine.

COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS

In 1918 almost everyone was nursed at home. People helped their neighbours in whatever way they could. Women volunteered as nurses. Service club members cooked meals in church kitchens and boy scouts delivered the meals. In Ontario the thousands of women volunteers became known as the Sisters of Service. Throughout the country Christmas dinner celebrations were held to thank the volunteers. But there was a sour side too. In Calgary some women posed as private nurses charging as much as $25 per day, while real nurses worked two shifts for only $2. Meanwhile, druggists in Vancouver boosted the price of camphor used as a disinfectant from 60 cents pound to $6.50. Masks sold for a nickel. Preventive measures included bags of camphor, or garlic. At Toronto’s Union Station, tin drinking cups were replaced by disposable paper ones. Cinnamon, tobacco, alcohol and goose grease and turpentine mixtures were touted as cures.

THE AFTERMATH

Scarcely a family escaped being touched by the flu. Almost everyone lost a mother, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, or a dad. Thousands were left orphans. Others survived to suffer a lifetime of heart and respiratory problems. In 1918, with no national preparedness in place, all the effort had been at the grass roots level. In 1919 the federal govt finally established a health dept. Hospitals were built. Public health improved.

FLU’S ORIGIN

And where did it start? I remains unclear. The Spanish flu is thought to have originated in burning pile of manure at Fort Riley Kansas in March 1918. American troops got sick, subsequently taking it to Europe. It got tagged the Spanish flu because Spain was first to get hit hard and without censorship, the first country to admit it had an epidemic. By the time it was over, influenza had killed 20-30M worldwide. But its cause remained a mystery. In 1933 a British doctor successfully isolated the disease to an airborne virus. Later it was identified as the A type strain. Today the story of the world’s greatest killer is all but forgotten. There is little mention in history books. It’s as if it never happened. But could it happen again? And if it does, are we ready for it? Do we really have an effective vaccine today? And can we develop it quickly enough when needed?

LIQUOR IN MANITOBA
After a long campaign for temperance, Manitoba voters took a hard line against the social costs of liquor and voted to introduce prohibition 83 years ago on March 13, 1916. In the days of the Hudson Bay Co, liquor had been imported from Britain for residents of the Hudson Bay posts. The first provincial Liquor Commission was established in 1878 and it allowed one bar for every 300 people. With a population of 7,000, 23 licenses were allowed.

THE IMPACT OF PROHIBITION
In 1916 there were 196 hotels in the province, with 76 of them in Winnipeg. There were 40 liquor wholesale liquor stores and 7 breweries. Put out of work were 1,975 bartenders. Most were expected to move to wet areas in the US or in Canada. For enforcement officials the job became one of dealing with people who went underground with bootlegging. Prohibition lasted for 7 years till Manitobans had second thoughts. In 1923 by a vote of 107,609 to 67,092 Manitobans reversed themselves and decided to allow liquor sales once again. This time a provincially run corporation the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission would regulate the sale of liquor to Manitobans.

THE 1924 LIQUOR ACT
The act was fairly restrictive. The price had to be the same everywhere. Stores were located in Winnipeg, Brandon, Portage La Prairie, The Pas and Dauphin. Advertising was very closely regulated and had to be approved by the Commission. Billboard ads were banned. There were quotas on sales. One could not buy more than 24 quarts a week or 72 quarts of beer per month. Liquor had to be consumed at home only. There was to be no barter of liquor and no transportation of liquor in Manitoba. Liability for a drunken person’s death was established by the act to whomever had supplied it to the individual. Ten ratepayers could stop the establishment of a licensed premise or a beer vendor. And in fact the Mennonite Bible belt was free of liquor for many years. Today Steinbach remains as dry as it ever was. People, could be banned from buying liquor on the authority of the police magistrate or two justices of the peace. They were termed interdicted persons.

RELIANCE ON LIQUOR REVENUE
As with lotteries today, the question of govt reliance on liquor sales and taxes for revenue has always been a dilemma. Government has walked the tightrope of valuing the revenue from liquor while at the same time trying to balance the social cost of drinking in society.

When the Liquor act was passed in 1924 the average Manitobans spent $20 a year on liquor. By 1930 it was $31 per year. During the depression it fell to $14 rising sharply to $62 in 1946 after the troops had returned home. In 1924 liquor revenues were $1.4 annually, declining to less than a million in 1934. But by 1947 revenues were $6 million comprising 27% of govt revenues that year.

THE BRACKEN COMMISSION
In 1954 a commission to study the Liquor Control Act was lead by ex Premier John Bracken. It conducted an exhaustive 750 page study that has the depth of social research you would expect if done today. In 1954 Manitobans had spent $43 million on liquor. At this time a good bottle of whisky cost $4-$5 and a 24 of beer were $3.27.

The research showed alcohol reduced inhibitions helped contribute to poverty and dependency. It struck a tone for scientific and objective reasons for temperance and not moralistic reasons. It surveyed liquor practises throughout the world and reported a s follows. China has a serious problem with opium. Columbia was suffering serious problems with beer made from corn. Mexico had the same problem with home brewed beer. Iceland had lived with prohibition for 40 years and seemed happy with this.

Russia was endemic with alcoholism. There was a liquor store for every 86 inhabitants: 8 times the norm. It was easier to buy liquor in Russia than to find a newspaper. Germany had once had a problem, but by this time it had gotten it under control. Holland was recognised as having the best policies for treatment of alcoholism, funded by the state but provided privately.

A new liquor act was passed in 1956, which is still in effect. It brought the consumption of liquor into the 20th century allowing a liquor vending system to be established. No liquor advertising was instituted. And it voted not to allow the sale of beer in grocery stores.

William Alloway came to Red River in 1870 at age 18. Winnipeg was not yet a city with about 12,000 people. Alloway worked his way up starting as a tobacconist, veterinarian and shipper. Within 9 years he founded Alloway and Champion which became one of the west’s largest private banks. Alloway’s fortunes grew with Winnipeg and he wanted to give something back. He felt he owed everything to Winnipeg and in 1921 he wrote a $100,000 cheque establishing the Winnipeg Foundation. Later, in 1930, Mrs. Elizabeth Alloway left an additional $2.5 million.

Kathleen Lightcap who was a founding member of the Junior League and a volunteer driver for the Meals on Wheels left $6.5 million in 1986-7. In the 1970s the James and Muriel Richardson Fund gave $1M and the George Hammill McKeag fund gave $1.2M. About 20 people have left more than $500,000. But much of the money is given by people from all walks of life who also want to give something back to their community. For example Joe McCann Transit Supervisor donated $200,000. Others like Janet Boucher who worked in the Holt Renfrew hat department gave $10,000.

In 1922 the first recipients were the Margaret Scott Nursing home set up by Miss Scott who was interested in providing the poor, the Knowles School for Boys, the VON, the Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Aid Society. They shared $6,000.

The Winnipeg Foundation helps a good idea get started and are willing to front end projects. In the Great Depression they helped out the Community Chest predecessor to the United Way. In 1935 they gave a grant to help set up the School for Social Work at the U of M. In 1953 they helped fight polio. In 1955 they helped establish the Age and Opportunity centre.

In 1958 they paid for the first computer that was installed at the Winnipeg General Hospital. In 1964 they helped Meals on Wheels and the VON’s Home Help program. In 1974 as part of centennial year they gave $100,00 for the Museum’s Urban Gallery. In 1976 they helped set up the Manitoba League for the With Disabilities. And in 1977 their annual grants exceeded $1,000,000.

Since then they have helped with Lion’s Manor senior’s housing, Fort Whyte Nature centre, and the Manitoba Childrens’ Museum. In 1994 they gave the largest grant ever, $750,000 to the Health Sciences and Children’s Research Centre.

It has about $92 million invested and has given $62 million to date. It gave out $4.25 Million in 1995. Last year they took in another 2.8 million in new donations. The principal is never touched.

People die leaving part or all of their estate to the Winnipeg Foundation.
Some of it is planned in advance and about half, the time people’s donation to the Winnipeg Foundation is a complete surprise. At least half the donors have no families to leave their estates to.

There is no set budget and the Foundation is able to react to issues and projects as they arise: it can be health, education, and family depending on the time. At times it has been proactive inner city and arts issues. They helped create Winnipeg Harvest. They like to help with projects or capital works.

There are about 60 across Canada, 14 in Manitoba. Some are general, while others are private one donor funds. For example the Thomas Sill Foundation was established by a Winnipeg accountant who was a partner in the firm Sill Streuber Fiske, a firm which exists today. He gave the largest single donation to charity ever in Manitoba leaving $19.2 million when he died in 1986.

Excerpted By George Siamandas

Flin Flon is the gateway to a nature-lover’s paradise. Located at the meeting point of three Canadian geological regions, the EDGE gives you access to an astounding variety of landscapes. The untouched, rock surfaces of the Canadian Shield to the north, polished smooth by the last glaciations, provide a dizzying array of lakes, swamps and muskegs. To the south, one can see the Precambrian-Paleozoic contact, an escarpment rising up to thirty metres above the southern country that boasts the even shored lakes of the Manitoba Lowlands. And, to the west, the Great Plains of Saskatchewan offer a breath-taking agrarian vastness that must experienced to be believed.

Besides taking in the beautiful sights, activities available in the include golf, swimming, fishing in both summer and winter, camping, and even scuba-diving.

The history of Flin Flon and the surrounding region is steeped in romantic adventure, as the entire area was settled by men and women in search of their fortunes in gold. In 1910, a group of prospectors found gold in quartz veins on the West Side of Amisk Lake. Members of this group were Jack and Dan Mosher, Thomas Creighton, and Leon and Isidor Dion – names that appear repeatedly in the history of the region. This deposit led to the development of the Prince Albert Mine that operated in 1937 and again from 1940 to 1942.

By 1913, people were coming from all over Canada to make their fortunes. This was the first major discovery of gold west of the Ontario border since the Klondike gold rush. More than a thousand men, and even two women, came to stake claims. The ‘town’, which sprang up, was called Beaver City, and consisted of a row of tents and log cabins, as well as two cookhouses capable of feeding two hundred men at a time. Commercial fishing was also started on Amisk Lake in 1913. Freight was hauled by York Boat in the summer and by sleigh in the winter.

World War 1 and a subsequent outbreak of Spanish influenza contributed to the demise of Beaver City. When war broke out in 1914, one man was left as caretaker of Beaver City. After three years of looking after a deserted town, Angus McDonald was given the town as payment. Roderick McDermott is the last known surviving resident of the Beaver City settlement. Mr. and Mrs. McDermott still reside in Denare Beach.

Gold prospecting continued through 1914 and 1915. In 1915, Creighton, the Moshers and the Dions discovered the massive Flin Flon copper-zinc orebody and prospecting shifted from gold to base metals. The complex mineralogy of the deposit inhibited its development until the Mandy Mine was established along Flin Flon Lake in 1915. Eventually, the Mandy Mine became profitable and busy enough that no one returned to the gold claims. The community of Flin Flon came into existence as Beaver City disappeared.

Fort Garry’s Wildewood Subdivision

by George Siamandas

The Fort Garry area which was incorporated as a municipality on April 16, 1912 and the Wildewood area is one of its distinctive residential areas. Fort Garry was initially part of St. Vital and was settled by Metis and Quebecois farmers. These early settlers were Metis boatmen who build their homes close to the river’s edge as it was their best choice in transportation. One of the most famous landowners in the area that later became Wildewood was Ambroise Lepine. But after the Riel incident, many French people left the area and were replaced by Anglophones. Over the years it has completely lost its French origins. Only in the south end at St. Norbert will you see what the early Fort Garry was like.

COLONEL THOMPSON’S PLAN FOR WILDEWOOD

But by 1900 virtually all traces of the Metis heritage of the area was gone. One developer after another tried to develop the land starting with Colonel RM Thompson who in 1908 first introduced the name Wildewood. Thompson’s plan was for a very exclusive area just like was developing then on Wellington Cres. They built roads and Col Thompson had a huge Victorian mansion built at the point of the Red River. Col Thompson went to fight in WW1 and never returned. His house was not fully completed and was not occupied for 17 years and was to be demolished in 1933 after suffering years of vandalism. Finally in 1934, it was bought by Ravenscourt School and renovated to become a boy’s school. But the land continued to bounce back and forth between the City of Winnipeg and the Fort Garry municipality. At one time during the 1930s the city was contemplating making it into a park just like Assiniboine Park. But lack of money saw the city give it back to Fort Garry.

HOW WILDEWOOD PARK CAME ABOUT

Enter Hubert Bird. Bird was the owner of Bird construction. Bird had built aerodromes during WW1 and after the war he started the Bird construction company and built Union Station in Regina, and the Swifts plant in Winnipeg during the 1930s. During WW2 he built half the airfields and barracks in western Canada. During WW2 while flying over Radburn New Jersey, Bird saw an example of a new garden suburb with cul de sacs all built around a central shared park. Bird had seen his model for Wildewood and purchased the land comprising Wildewood.

WW2 had given Bird experience in mass production techniques and he had seen the potential of applying these techniques to reduce housing costs in Wildewood. It had never been done before with housing.

The returning WW2 vets needed affordable housing and Bird gave them 5 house plans to choose from. Bird hired the firm GBR (Still active and building the Jewish Community campus) to design the project. They did market research to find preferences for house features like the preferred number of bedrooms. Almost half wanted storey and a half and most wanted forced air heating. Great West Life agreed to finance the project and scale model for the area was placed at Eatons, the hub of the city at the time.

MASS PRODUCTION OF HOUSING PIONEERED IN WILDEWOOD

Then construction began using assembly line techniques after materials had been procured en masse and brought to the site. Lumber had even been salvaged from grain bins. Panel forms were used for pouring basements, and the exterior walls were prefabed. Specialty crews worked on flooring, shingling, and insulation. A US newspaper featured a bungalow and a storey and a half built in just 58 minutes. The realty firm SS Stevensen handled the sales, and it took only 2 years to sell out. Mature trees were spared preserving the area’s main amenity: its heavily wooded quality. The neighbourhood had to do their own snow removal buy hiring a man and buying a horse drawn plough. Cost per resident was $.50 annually. They also bought their own mosquito fogger.

The area had one of the highest birth rates in the country and some dubbed it Childwood and Fertile Valley. Doug Henning the magician is one.

THE TALE OF THE WOLSELEY ELM

Just Elected Mayor Juba Does the Right Thing

by George Siamandas

In 1957, a giant triple-trunked elm stood in the centre of Wolseley Avenue and Greenwood St in Winnipeg. It had been planted by a woman resident a hundred years earlier, and as early as the turn of the century, it was considered a traffic hazard. The area’s residents had fought many battles to preserve it even though traffic planners had long wanted to cut it down. In the summer of 1957 the traffic department decided that the Wolseley Elm finally had to go. It was a traffic hazard. The residents thought that on the contrary it was a safety feature as it required traffic to slow down to go around it.

THE BATTLE TO SAVE THE ELM

The issue immediately became contentious. The Free Press wrote in an editorial titled “Lay That Buzz Saw Down,” that the “aldermen are asking for trouble, when they chop down city trees, and they invite a torrent of criticism when they eye the one that grows on Wolseley. They really should know better. They say it is a nuisance. The truth is the tree bothers some strange civic clique which abhors individuality and has a passion for unrelenting conformity.” Alderman Crawford retorted “Lets grow a big fat tree right in the middle of Portage and Main.” In response Wolseley residents Mrs Wolfram and Mrs McCord began a fight to save the tree.

Mayor Juba who had just been elected mayor responded to the people’s wishes. On September 19, 1957 the Free Press front page headline read “Wild Women Win-Juba Breaks Law to Save Tree” At nine that morning a convoy of civic vehicles arrived to cut it down. A group of women gathered around the tree with their arms folded in defiance. They are going to have to chop us down too if they want to chop our tree said the women. As the city employee approached the tree with his buzz saw, an old grandmother with an axe shouted out “We don’t think you should do this.” A crowd of three hundred had gathered to support the 12 women that were now guarding the tree. Juba then emerged from the crowd and was convinced by the women to find a way out of it. On the premise of public safety, Juba put an end to that day. Mrs Borrowman kissed the mayor on the cheek and invited him to her place for tea.

The issue immediately captured national TV coverage and McLeans magazine did a big feature on the Wolseley Elm and Mayor Juba. But a few days later vandals poured gasoline on the tree and set it ablaze. Grafts were performed by a University tree expert and the tree revived the following spring. But in June 1958 three university students attacked the tree with saws and a crowbar. They were caught and fined $150 each.

Finally on Halloween October 31, 1958 the Wolseley Elm has seen its last season. At three in the morning residents awakened to two loud explosions. It was like two canon blast said a resident. The street lights were blown out and the tree had been blown up. Police suspected dynamite, but despite an enquiry, the culprits were never found. It was thought to be a KKK like warning, because two months earlier the residents had found a rooster on the tree. A psychiatrist said that people who blow up trees a are not mad at trees but at society. By June of 1960 no signs of life were evident. A kind of death certificate was issued and even Mrs Borrowman agreed that the tree should now come down. She asked for a piece of the tree so that she could have an electric lamp made.

Mayor Juba had emerged a hero in the way he had handled his first controversial issue. He had gone with his instincts. It was the first of many public victories.

TUXEDO

The Suburb Beautiful

by George Siamandas

In 1905 Heubach set up the Tuxedo Park Land Co. He found a collection of Minneapolis based investors who had built great wealth in the grain industry. Over the next year the Tuxedo Park Company bought 3,000 acres from Mary and Archibald Wright and other owners for $450,000. The first home in the area an old farmhouse still stands at the south-east corner of Academy and Wellington Cresc.

On January 24 1913 the town of Tuxedo was incorporated with FW Heubach its original developer becoming its first Mayor. But his plan did not immediately succeed due to competition from the Crescentwood development which was much closer to the city. The Minneapolis investors of the Tuxedo Park Co lost their money. Heubach died before any houses were built. Tuxedo was named after the famous New York suburb called Tuxedo. It had previously been the hunting grounds of the Algonquin Indians and was called Taugh Seeder or Duck Seeder which meant “Place of the Bear.”

MAYOR FINKELSTEIN

Heubach died the following year and was succeeded by FL Finkelstein as mayor. from 1911 Finkelstein with an accounting background became a partner with Heubach and Heubach’s son Claude. Finkelstein would serve as mayor and would go on to run the company successfully into the 1950s. The plan for the town had been designed by the famous Frederick Law Olmstead firm, and it became the city plan in 1911. It had combined residential areas, areas of work in the south including the Canada Cement Plant.

THE FIRST HOMES

The first house was built in 1915 by Raymond Carey on the north corner of Nanton and Park. The area was connected by a mud road that became Nanton Blvd. Carey was fairly isolated and had to get the plows out before he could traverse the mud road through the as yet undeveloped aspen wooded area east of his home. Carey married Heubach’s daughter Claire, Carey, a british architect, had come to Winnipeg in 1909 from Detroit and was well known for his Georgian style homes.

In 1923, Frederick Heubach’s son Claude, built a home at the south corner. Designed and built buy Northwood and Carey. Later Claude Heubach moved to Hosmer to one of the first homes south of Corydon Ave. In the 1920s a series of homes sprung up along the east side of Park Boulevard facing Assiniboine Park.

Many homes were owned by grain industry businessmen. In 1925 the first house was built on Lamont. The site originally reserved for the University became Tuxedo Golf Course. The four room Tuxedo Schoolhouse was built in 1926. Many area street names have changed since the original plan. Tuxedo Blvd was originally called Van Horne.

The plan reserved a strip of land just south of the Agricultural College. It eventually became the Youth centre, commercial and public housing and military land. By 1911 the new plan for Tuxedo was complete. It was anticipated that in time the University of Manitoba would be located at Tuxedo but after 1926 when it located in Fort Garry. There are many famous builders like Frank Lount and the Sparrow Brothers that built the area’s homes.

The Winnipeg Planning Commission Announces New Plan for 1912

by George Siamandas

Winnipeg’s Planning Commission had big plans for Winnipeg in 1912. The report of the planning commission recommended moving city hall to Broadway and creating a Mall along Osborne St. Winnipeg was the third largest city. And its leading citizens thought it would still become the biggest in the country.

There was concern that Winnipeg grow in the proper way and provide health, convenience and beauty for its citizens. Winnipeg saw itself as one of the leading cities in North America and wanted to do the right things with its future growth. The committee had some of the city’s leading citizens including distinguished architect John Atchison, the heads of civic departments representatives from the real estate industry, the builders, unions, and academics.

WINNIPEG’S PROBLEMS IN 1912

There was a lot of overcrowding. Very high cases of typhoid. Their 1912 studies showed it was twice as high in Winnipeg’s poor areas. There were not enough parks. Houses were being built on 25 foot lots. And what were once nice apartments were degenerating into tenements rapidly. There was concern that congestion near Portage and Notre Dame would get worse and that the system of roads, bridges and subways had to be improved. They also saw this as the last chance to acquire some riverbank land for public drives before it was all privatized. There was also concern that the health and building inspection department could not do their jobs because they were understaffed.

THE GRAND PROPOSAL OF RELOCATING CITY HALL TO MEMORIAL BOULEVARD AND CREATING A GRAND MALL

The new Manitoba legislature was about to be started on Broadway and would form the south end of a new mall. City hall was to go near Portage Ave. And between them was to be a new mall featuring a town square providing a place for a future art gallery, public library, post office, auditorium, exposition (convention centre) and other such structures such as a new Hudson Bay store. Running through the middle would be a roadway 160 feet across becoming a new north south highway.

NEW BUILDING CODES

To overcome slums they introduced new building standards. Houses were required to have one bedroom with at least 800 cubic feet of space and a window. No more 25 foot lots. At least one room would have to be 150 sq ft. They wanted to see the establishment of a Child Welfare Bureau and education about domestic hygiene and proper child care.

The legislature was built as planned but everything else had to wait for many decades. Of course city hall was not moved or rebuilt for another fifty years. The Bay built their store in 1926. During the depression they did build the auditorium as a relief project, and in the mid 1960s they built the art gallery. By 1962 city planners felt that city hall should stay put to help prevent further deterioration in the Main St. area.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THESE WELL LAID PLANS?

The voters turned a funding by-law for a new city hall shortly after 1912. The economy just did not support the grand vision that the planners had at the time. World War 1, then the doldrums of the 1920s when Winnipeg’s gateway role was supplanted by the new Panama Canal, then the doldrums of the 1930s and then WW2.

The problems of slums, and housing conditions and more recently of the erosion of the commercial base. But what seems to have changed dramatically is the level of optimism. In 1912 Winnipeg was coming off decades of unprecedented growth and progress. They dreamt big with full confidence their plans would be realized. Today we see continuing challenges to the future viability of downtown both in economic and social terms. The original vision of a health, convenience and beauty seems even more elusive in 1997 than it did 85 years ago.

WINNIPEG’S OTHER OLDEST CHURCHES

by George Siamandas

St John's Cathedral

The 1834 cathedral replaced an earlier log church built in 1822 by John West. Construction for St. John’s Cathedral started in 1833. The limestone came from Stonewall and was quarried and hauled to the site during the preceding winter, by oxen pulling sleds. Much of this hard work was done by volunteers from the native and Red River settlement. Total cost was 900 pounds and the new cathedral could hold 500 people.

The site had been selected and put aside years earlier by Lord Selkirk himself. They were proud of their new church and Thomas Simpson called it “better than 90% of the Scotch country churches.” But their pride was premature. The new building deteriorated after just two years and for decades needed constant buttressing.

In 1862 it was replaced by a third church. But once again structural problems plagued the church. By the 1880s they desperately needed a new church. But it was a very long wait for the congregation. It was not until 1926 that the church was replaced by the present St. John’s Cathedral on Anderson Avenue. Andersen was named in honour of Anglican Bishop Anderson who came to red River in 1849.

The first church in Red River was built in St. Boniface in 1818 on the present site of St. Boniface Cathedral. This site has seen a succession of six churches: three were demolished to make way for larger churches, while two were lost in fires. Once again it was Lord Selkirk that had granted the land on the east side of the Red for the French community.

The oldest church is St. Andrew’s on the Red; it was consecrated in 1849. It is the oldest church in the west that has remained in continuous service. It has seen a major restoration of the stonework in the last few years. Its a testament to masonry techniques that old limestone buildings like St. Andrews have survived and can be restored. And all before pilings were commonly used.

One of the oldest churches is St. James Church. It’s located across Polo Park on Portage Ave and it was built in 1852. The oldest downtown church is Holy Trinity church just opposite Eatons which was built in 1882. It is the oldest building surviving on Graham Avenue.

Another interesting old church is St Peter’s on the east side of the Red in Selkirk. It is known as Peguis’ church because Salteaux Chief Peguis and his people helped build it in 1852. Peguis worshipped at St Peter’s till he died in 1864 and Peguis is buried in the church yard.

Nassau in Fort Rouge is a very ecumenical street with at least 7 churches. Starting on the north there is the Christian Science, then St. Luke’s Anglican, Crescent Fort Rouge United, Trinity Baptist, Evangelical Mennonite Conference and ST Francis De Sales Catholic Church for the Deaf.

The first synagogue was Sharrey Zedek originally located at the corner of Henry and King St. Virtually the entire Jewish community turned out on a September day in 1889 to witness the laying of the corner stone. That cornerstone is now incorporated in the Wellington crescent Sharrey Zedek which was completed in 1949.

WINNIPEG’S GARMENT INDUSTRY

Rag Trade Boomed Despite the Depression

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Winnipeg’s garment trade was taking off in 1930 when a garment worker’s strike brought production to a halt on Feb 25 1931. Winnipeg’s Rag Trade boomed, while warehousing declined in Winnipeg’s 1930s. Starting as small family enterprises run by Jewish tailors, by 1970 the garment trade had become Manitoba’s second largest industry.

THE GARMENT WORKERS’ UNIONS

In 1935 Sam Herbst succeeded in establishing smoother labour relations in the trade. For the next 25 years there would not be a single strike in the trade. Before the union, ladies could be fired for talking or for taking too long in the bathroom. Wages were poor at 18 cents per hour. One worker recalled receiving one penny for every 12 buttons she sewed to each army shirt. Some had to work 60 hours a week for part the year and were laid off for several months. Wages went up to 25 cents per hour after the WW2. Today most of it is on piecework, and the going rate is 12 cents per minute reflecting about $7 per hour.

THE GARMENT INDUSTRY ESTABLISHES IN WINNIPEG

How did Winnipeg, originally an agricultural area, grow such an industry? By 1874, a year after incorporation as a city, Winnipeg had two men’s tailors and one woman’s dressmaker. But during the 1880s, 20 new businesses would thrive. They made what prairie people needed, by hand, in small operations. In 1899, Moses Haid, established the first mass production apparel manufacturer “Winnipeg Shirt and Overall Company.” By 1906, 19 firms had been founded by families like Berkowitz, Crowley, Freed, Kennedy, Jacob, Neiman, Nitikman, Shore, Stall, Steinberg, and Waldman.

In the early 20^th century, Jewish people fleeing European persecution began to arrive in Winnipeg. The tailoring skills that had been passed down from generation to generation were activated in the cheap warehouse space sitting vacant in Winnipeg’s warehouse district. The building of the Panama Canal in 1914 sharply cut into Winnipeg’s growth. Now it became cheaper to ship goods west by the canal instead of through Winnipeg, leaving many warehouses empty and abandoned in the 1920s. For the needle trade this setback for Winnipeg marked its opportunity. Apparel manufacturers now had prime space available at bargain prices. And grow they did.

In 1918 Benjamin Jacob and John Crowley were the first to move away from work clothes to producing ladies clothing. And to promote their rapid success, Winnipeg garment manufacturers got together in 1925 to put on Manitoba’s first fashion show. By the 1930s 3,000 people had work in trade. Between 1941 and 1951 the industry grew 213%. In the peak year 1946, 14 new firms were established.

INTERNATIONAL BRANDS

Today the rag trade employs 8,000 people in over 115 factories. And it supplies many famous brands. Names like Calvin Klein jeans, Gap, Northern Reflections, OshKosh B’Gosh, Eddie Bauer outerwear, London Fog, are all manufactured in Winnipeg’s garment industry, and help it gross $700 million in annual sales. Uniforms for everyone in the Canadian Armed forces, specialised sportswear for curling, warm durable outerwear tested in Canada’s north or “Tundra” sweaters for Ronald Reagan. All made in Winnipeg.

THE WADDEL FOUNTAIN

By George Siamandas

Murray Peterson’s book on Winnipeg Landmarks describes it as an example of “high Victorian architecture” …. a “collection of flying buttresses and pinnacles” with water flowing out of lion’s heads. It’s based on a design of a monument to Sir Walter Scott located in Edinburgh. The Waddells had come to Winnipeg in the 1880s. Mr. Waddell was a local leader of the Temperance movement. The Waddells were married for 25 years but had no children. They lived around the corner from Central Park at 457 Sargent and would go for frequent walks into the new Central Park. It was a very fashionable neighbourhood then. The Park was ringed with fine homes, and it had tennis courts and a bandstand as well as winding paths and gardens. Mrs. Waddell’s gift would complete the park which had once been undesirable low lying land that had required thousands of truckloads of fill.

MRS WADDELL’S DEATH RESULTS IN THIS FOUNTAIN Eighty-eight years ago on January 23, 1908, Mrs. Emily Margaret Waddell passed away. Her will contained an unusual provision. Should her husband remarry, $10,000 from her $56,000 estate was to be used to build a public fountain in Central Park. The will was dated 1904. It is not even clear Thomas knew of the provision. It does not look like Mr WAddell complied right away. Maybe he was just a procrastinator. Her will did not come to light till 1911. The will compelled the city to follow up on the provision of a fountain. By this time husband Thomas Waddell was engaged to be married. He just could not perform. He claimed he was desperately in debt due to some real estate investments that went belly up. It took two years for Waddell to find the money, and finally the Parks Board approved a design by Winnipeg architect John Manuel. It was completed in 1914 and cost $9,722. Ten thousand dollars was a huge amount of money then. It would have built one of the finest houses in Crescentwood. A reporter is noted to have said “A truly remarkable fountain could be erected for this sum.” In fact the Conservatory at Assiniboine Park was built around the same time for $15,000.

A WIFE’S REVENGE OR A TRIBUTE TO THEIR LOVE Mrs Waddell loved the park. But building the fountain was required only if her husband remarried. Assuming she suspected her “beloved husband” would remarry as most husbands did, it suggests a wish to see a monument to their life together in the place she seemed to love. I guess it depends on how you see human nature. It might be interesting to invite your listeners to answer the question. I wonder if any of your listeners know more. Parks seem to hold appeal for gifts even today. For example Leo Mol donated 200 sculptures in 1991 for the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden. (June 1991) The other major gift is probably Kathleen Richardson’s donation of the old Richardson property which is now passive park along Wellington crescent. (Jan 19th 1977)

The Salvation Army was started in London England in 1865 by William Booth who wanted to do something to improve the lives of poor people. “General” Booth as he is described in the literature literally created an army to attack poverty and to bring religion to the needy. The Salvation Army still remains very much a religious organization.

They first came to Winnipeg in early 1883. The Frank Vinall family came from Brighton England. They had already been active in a Salvation Army corps in Sussex. The Vinalls were able to persuade Canadian Salvation Army headquarters to establish an office in Winnipeg. And the first Winnipeg corps comprising a 3 man, 3 woman unit arrived in Winnipeg on December 10, 1886 and began to work from a building on Princess Ave.

There was a lot of work to be done in Winnipeg. Red River seemed ripe for salvation and was described by some as a very wicked place. Winnipeg was still a pioneer community. There had been the economic collapse in 1883 after the 1881-1882 land boom. Winnipeg was still very much a place of tents. There were many bush workers, railway men and other tramps as they were called then.

The Vinall’s initial efforts of songs and prayer in front of the post office were not well received. The May 1883 paper noted that “if the morals of the community need correction it will have to be done through some other means.” But the public soon came to appreciate what the Salvation Army did for man’s daily needs. And by 1888, the Salvation Army was also set up in Brandon, Neepawa, Morden, Minnedossa, and Carberry.

The Salvation Army along with other private groups and churches seemed to be working well ahead of government by innovating most social services.
They pioneered outreach work visiting people in their own homes.

In 1890 they founded the Children’s Shelter on Ross Avenue to house destitute mothers and homeless children. In 1906 they established Grace Hospital which became their first incorporated hospital in Canada. It was the idea of Evangeline Booth the founder Booth’s daughter. In 1906 they started the first used clothing depot at Logan and King St.

The SA led the way with by helping house hundreds of returning soldiers from WW1 in two hotels they bought for the purpose. And later during the depression, in a 3 month period in 1931, they gave out 18,000 parcels of clothing, 8,500 meals, and beds to thousands of needy migrant men.

In 1918 Grace hospital’s finances became very strained. Grace refused no one and ran into serious debt. To deal with the financial shortfall they made their first Red Shield Appeal. It raised $60,000 that spring of which $25,000 helped save the hospital.

As well as their good works, the SA has also left us some architecture like the Citadel located at 221 Rupert Ave. This three story brick structure was built in 1900 by J. Wilson Gray who also designed the much more ornate Confederation Life Building.

This building is still standing a block north of city hall in the middle of Winnipeg’s Chinatown, and badly in need of renewal. It once contained a 1200 seat hall and became focus of their spiritual and administrative work in Winnipeg.

The tale of two Winnipeg Police Chiefs

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

It has only happened once in Winnipeg’s history, a Police Strike, and when it happened 81 years ago June 9, during the six week 1919 general strike, it resulted in the firing of all but 23 members of the police and major changes in the careers of two police chiefs. Despite warnings by the Police Commission in 1917, Winnipeg policemen had formed their own union in July 1918. At a meeting of the trades and labour Council the newly formed union voted in support of the general Strike. Yet they stayed on the job at the request of the strike committee. In effect it replaced the city as their control.

It is thought the policemen having just returned from WW1, where they fought side by side with workers were sympathetic to the aims of the workers. On May 19 Mayor Charles Gray, asked the policemen to sign an agreement not to participate in a sympathy strike. Two hundred and twenty-eight refused and on June 9 all but the 23 who signed loyalty oaths were dismissed from the force. To keep order, a special police force was set up under Major Lyall with members of the Army and the North West Mounted Police. Three thousand “specials’ were hired.

FIRING OF CHIEF MACPHERSON

On June 11, Chief McPherson took the fall for the policemen’s actions and was dismissed. McPherson had been chief from 1911 and a cop since 1903. McPherson had a good record and had been prominent in the successful firebug investigations of 1913. Deputy Chief Chris Newton who had been one of the 23 to sign the loyalty oath replaced the disgraced Chief MacPherson who was never given a satisfactory answer for his dismissal.

Hugh John Macdonald a member of the Police Commission fought against MacPherson’s dismissal. A year later MacPherson was still fighting for compensation and finally received $5,000, a year’s salary and a letter of recommendation. On June 21 the strike got ugly as two strikers were killed by Mounted Specials. By June 26 the strike was over and on June 27 the original policemen began to return to their jobs. Newton noted that 39 men several of whom had been active in the union should not be allowed to return to the force. Those that had stayed on during the strike received bonuses.

CHIEF NEWTON

Chief Newton helped build morale within the dept. He helped organize the Winnipeg City Police Athletic Assoc and later the Police Pipe Band. Twenty five years later, at age 63 after a distinguished 33 year career, Newton would face his own crisis of confidence.

It started with a fight after a traffic incident at the corner of Broadway and Balmoral St.

In June 27 1934 300 pound Winnipeg Police Chief Christopher H Neuton was charged with beating up 145 pound Joe Erlicky closing his eyes shut. The Free Press showed the diminutive Erlicky with his eye closed shut. Neuton had the class to resign. After a circus of a trial Neuton was found guilty of common assault and had to pay a $20 fine.

The Canadian West’s Itinerant Chief of Police

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

JC INGRAM

Winnipeg’s first chief of police JC Ingram was hired onFebruary 19, 1874. Ingram had come to Manitoba before 1870 and had worked for the provincial police. He was well known as the man that had arrested Ambroise Lepine (Riel’s adjutant general) after the Riel Rebellion. Ingram was 23 years old and was known to be “a good man with his fists.”

He had been one of four applicants. Perhaps the most deciding factor was that Ingram was a good friend of Mayor Francis Cornish. On Feb 24, 1874 a fourth by-law of the city established the Winnipeg Police Dept. Ingram would receive a salary of $750 per year, and a staff of two constables earning $500 per year. By summer the police force had shirts, whistles, batons, and police badges. But curiously, their engraver got the badge insignia all wrong. Instead of a beaver he had drawn a gopher. (For go for people)

But it soon became apparent that moral was not good. Ingram did not get along with his men. In particular they did not like his habit of associating with the ladies of the night. Despite this and conflicts with several aldermen, with Cornish’s support he kept his job. Ingram’s association with prostitutes continued as Winnipeg’s stock of saloons, hotels and red light districts grew. Winnipeg and Barrie Ontario were known as the two wickedest places in Canada.

On June 7, Ingram’s constables conducted a raid on a Sherbrook St brothel. They were barred entry to a second floor room. When they pushed past and gained entry, they found an unclothed Chief Ingram in the company of harlot Ella Lewis. Cornish had lost the 1875 mayoralty and in his place now was William Kennedy. The next day Ingram appeared before Mayor and Magistrate William Kennedy and was fined $8 and suspended. On the 14^th Ingram tendered his resignation.

WHAT HAPPENED TO INGRAM

Ingram travelled the west and eventually moved to Calgary where he opened up a hotel and bar. When Calgary set up a police Force in 1885, Ingram became Calgary’s first Chief of Police. But he continued to battle with local authorities and in 1888, left for Rossland BC where once again, he became their first chief of police. After a short stint there, he left to work in a mine were he was blown up in a dynamite explosion in 1905.

2^ND CHIEF DAVID MURRAY

On July 1, 1875, David Murray became Winnipeg’s next chief. Murray was a schoolteacher from Nova Scotia. He was a popular handsome man, known for his fine singing voice, which was in high demand at local concerts. Murray now had 5 constables. They worked 11-hour shifts 7 days a week. By November Murray had purchased the famous buffalo coats for $17 a piece, and more equipment including four “wrist snappers,” 3 pistols as well as uniforms for the men.

CRIME REVIEW 1880

Murray would report 749 cases in 1880: 303 were for drunk and disorderly conduct, 212 were for inhabiting, frequenting, or maintaining a house of ill fame, 13 were charged with theft, 14 with assault, and 1 for gambling. In the 212 cases, 177 women listed their occupation as prostitute. While Murray was not accused of associating with prostitutes, future police chief McRae would face the same difficulties as Ingram. Vice was a problem and in 1910 Ingram faced a Royal Commission investigating police toleration of prostitution.

WINNIPEG’S FIRST FIRE DEPT

The trials and tribulations of the fire dept

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Winnipeg dedicated its first fire hall Feb 7, 1875. But for the next 7 years till a permanent professional fire dept was organised, volunteers did the job. There was a time when the new city of Winnipeg had no fire protection. When fire broke out, a chemical pumper would be borrowed from the Hudson Bay Co. In 1875, a by-law establishing a fire dept was passed, with a volunteer brigade providing the labour. Prominent early citizens became members of the volunteer dept: James Ashdown, Thomas Ryan, Stewart Mulvey and Daniel McMillan.

Six fire tanks were built and sunk into the ground along Main St. Water came from an artesian well at the corner of Logan and Main. Labour for digging the trenches was supplied involuntarily by drunks reporting to magistrate’s court. Alderman Archibald Wright telegraphed an order to Silsby Manufacturing Co for Winnipeg’s first Steam Pumper. He was quoted 6 months delivery. But the next day Silsby offered a much better model for another $500 with delivery within 10 days. The engine arrived promptly by the Steamer Dakota but federal customs charges and doubled shipping costs saw the engine under wraps till the extra costs were resolved. The pool of 40 volunteer firemen received $1 per fire and 50 cents for false alarms. If they failed to report at the call of the Grace St Church bell they were each fined $1.

THE FIRST FIRE

The new pumper’s first job was to fill the tanks with water. By early Dec 1874 the brigade was spoiling for its first challenge. It came a month later on Jan 11 1875: fire broke out in the McDermot Block. It was -31 F as the Grace Church bells called the volunteers from their beds. Within 12 minutes water was flowing and within 21 minutes of the alarm the fire was all under control. Surrounding buildings were saved, but the McDermot Block housing the St James Restaurant formerly Red River Hall burned to the ground.

The firemen had to pull the pumper by hand, as horses were not available nearby. Council soon remedied this by having horses stabled nearby. Lombard Ave was the site for the first fire station that stored the steam pumper, 2,000 feet of hose and four hand hose reels. On Christmas Day 1875, the fire hall burned to the ground destroying all the new equipment the dept had proudly assembled over its first year. By February, a new fire engine had been delivered. Local insurers had agreed not to cancel policies. In 1878 a new fire hall opened. At a cost of $7,000 this one was built to be fireproof.

A PROFESSIONAL FIRE DEPT

In 1882 the volunteers decided to disband and to form a full time fire dept. Winnipeg was booming with hundreds of new buildings. And the population was now 30,000. The newly created jobs were highly coveted. One hundred and fifty people applied to be firemen. The first chief was WO McRobbie who served from 1882 to 1889. McRobbie with 25 years experience in the Montreal fire brigade agreed to be chief for $1,800 per year. On start-up the dept hired 36 full time men and bought 17 horses. The force would spend $150,000 over the next 20 years. But it was not until Winnipeg built the high-pressure station on James Ave in 1907 that fire insurance rates dropped.

THE BUREAU OF CHILD HEALTH

Early Efforts to Help Winnipeg Children

By George Siamandas

On Mar 1, 1916, the City of Winnipeg established the Bureau of Child Health. It marked a big step forward. For years councillors and the general public had avoided grappling with the reality of Winnipeg’s alarmingly high child mortality rates. In the early 1900s it was typhoid that ran rampant revealing Winnipeg as the sickest city in North America or Europe: 23 deaths per thousand in 1904, 138 deaths in 1905. An investigation revealed most deaths in the areas without sewers: the north end around the CPR tracks. Winnipeg medical health Officer Dr Douglas likened conditions in Winnipeg’s north end to those of a medieval European city. He noted the squalor in the north end was beyond the powers of description. Also in 1904, untreated water had been pulled into the water supply system to fight a rash of fires.

WHAT MADE PEOPLE SICK?

A combination of ignorance and poverty was making people and especially children sick leading to the highest mortality rates in North America and Europe. Far too many people were living in slum housing conditions. Parents were ignorant of hygienic practices. Children were malnourished. The water was neither safe nor abundant. The 1912-year saw infant death rates soar again: 126 per thousand in 1912 and 199 per thousand in 1914. Clearly it was time for action.

DR AJ DOUGLAS

Leading the effort was Dr AJ Douglas, Chief Medical Officer from 1900 to 1940. Douglas would face numerous epidemics including typhus, smallpox and influenza. Winnipeg was lucky to have an advocate at the job. Year after year his reports to council recommended action to hire more inspectors, ensure all houses were connected to sewers, and to reduce overcrowding. Douglas was particularly forceful in 1914 recommending that if necessary the city should get into the housing business. He urged that the city do more about the health of less fortunate Winnipeggers and in particular to put a special focus on child health. He got results. In 1913 working out of a house at 31 Martha St, Health Officer Tustin began to report on Child Hygiene.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Three years later the new Bureau of Child Health began to operate from a modern building at the corner of Main and Aberdeen. Nurses provided infant examinations and two doctors were available mornings 6 days a week. Volunteering their time to help the sick were Drs RF Rorke and E Richardson.

One major service was the dispensing of baby’s milk feedings. Over 350,000 bottles were delivered in 1916. The bulk of it given free. That year Douglas requested an automobile to help deliver the milk before it spoiled on hot days. They made 119,730 nurse visits in 1916. Each nurse cared for over 400 infants. They encountered many young unwed mothers who knew nothing about childcare. Child health improved as more and more information was dispensed. The health dept issued Monthly bulletins: simple things about hygiene, yet things mothers did not know.

Working with other agencies like the Margaret Scott Nursing Mission and the All People’s Mission, help arrived for Winnipeg’s immigrant poor. Finally a tradition for social justice was emerging in Winnipeg’s early days.

Margaret Laurence

Drawing From a Dreadful Childhood in Neepawa

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Jean Margaret Laurence, Manitoba’s distinguished author of “The Stone Angel” and “The Diviners,” was born Jean Margaret Weymiss, on July 18, 1926. Her mother was Verna Simpson, 6^th daughter of John Simpson. Margaret’s father was Bob Weymiss, a lawyer who had really wanted to become a carpenter. Her dreadful early life in Neepawa became the source of her writings.

DEATH WAS HER EARLY COMPANION

Death was Margaret’s companion in childhood. Margaret lost her mother Verna at age four. Her aunt Margaret returned from Calgary to help care for young Margaret and slept in a back room. After a year of town gossip, her aunt became her next mother. From then on she would call her new mother mum. At age 9 Margaret lost her father. As a little girl she was made to go see her parents’ graves, surrounded by peonies. From then on she hated that flower.

GRANDFATHER SIMPSON

The other major figure in Laurence’s life was her maternal grandfather John Simpson, a successful businessman in Neepawa. He had come from Milton Ontario as a pioneer and had literally walked the 50 miles to Portage La prairie where he got his start. Simpson was a mean, avaricious man who was respected but hated by nearly everyone. He refused to let his wife go shopping with any money, and he later regretted sending Margaret’s mother to Agricultural College as he did not like the idea of paying tuition for her to “learn how to cook.”

After her father died the family had to sell their house and move in with Grandfather Simpson. Margaret later remarked how the house felt like a cage and her grandfather was a tyrant. She was encouraged in everything she did. She felt different from the other children, an outsider. She became an observer of the lives of others. The war took away every boy in her class by grade 12. As a result, all of Margaret’s memories were of Neepawa as a place of death.

ESCAPE TO WINNIPEG

At age 17 she won a scholarship to United College and found an opportunity to meet other budding writers. At age 18 she bought a Remington typewriter for $14 and remarked that her typing course taken at age 14 was the best thing she ever did. She stayed at Sparling Hall and ate at a Salisbury House as well as Tony’s. She had coined the name Minewaka in a short story competition run by the Winnipeg Free, Press.

MARRIED LIFE

She married Laurence in 1962 at age 21 and they lived for a while at 515 William above Anne and Bill Ross. For a while Margaret worked at a communist newspaper without knowing it and later for the Winnipeg Citizen. Her husband and the Rosses did not get along as he disapproved of their causes. Her husband was interested in 3^rd world development work and after a short stint in England he found work on improving the water supply in Somalia. She wrote first about Africa but later after returning to England in 1962, after her divorce. She had two children.

There she began to write about Manawaka (Neepawa). The Stone Angel came out in 1964. In 1974 she returned to Canada living in Lakefield Ontario. She became a heavy smoker and an alcoholic. In later life she did not enjoy the idea of returning to Neepawa even for short trips. On her rare visits, she refused to walk by the old brick house.

This secretive woman who had decided long earlier that “a life without hope is not worth living,” planned the details of her own funeral, including the timing of her death in Jan 5, 1987, during a battle with cancer.

HONEST JOHN BRACKEN

The Man Who Didn’t Want to Be Premier

By George Siamandas

Honest John Bracken, the man who did not want to be Premier, ran the province for 22 difficult years between 1922 and 1944. Bracken was born the son of a dairy farmer June 22, 1883 in Leeds Ont. He loved sports especially football and hockey. He was one who kept his feelings to himself. He went away to high school but failed his final exams returning home defeated. He took on the management of his father’s dairy farm and made into a success. Up at 4:30 in the morning and in bed by 9, Bracken tended the farm 7 days a week. Like farmers everywhere, Bracken had been raised on values of hard work, and self-reliance.

Later he applied to the Ontario Agricultural College where he became one of 300 students. There he applied himself and did well. He would later find a clerical error had occurred. He had in fact passed. He graduated with top marks and took on his first job. He went west in 1905 to head up the Manitoba a section of the Federal Seed Bureau providing better seeds to western farmers. He was then wooed further west to work in Saskatoon by WR Motherwell. He became a specialist in dryland farming writing several seminal texts. In 1920 he returned to head up Manitoba’s Agricultural College. He loved farmers and talking about farming. And he loved to work, taking time out only for his beloved curling.

MANITOBA’S PREMIER 1922-1942

After winning the 1922 election the United Farmers of Manitoba found themselves without a platform and without a leader. After approaching several agricultural leaders they decided on Bracken. Bracken who had no interest in politics and who felt as head of the Ag College he already had the best job in Manitoba, turned them down flat. He gave such a stirring speech why he wasn’t the man that the United Farmers of Manitoba realized they wanted this co-operative non-partisan even more.

The next day they presented him a petition asking him once again to become leader. And once again he refused. On the third try they made sure that they saw him at home with his wife present. Once again he said no. But then Mrs Bracken said: “John you should help these men out.” He agreed.

But first, Bracken who had never voted in his life before had to win a seat. He decided to run in The Pas. Bracken won his seat and won elections for 22 years including some with acclamation. Forty years later, Bracken would tell a reporter a familiar story. After the election, the part aboriginal mayor of The Pas had told Bracken that he had been offered $10,000 by the Conservatives to run against Bracken but the mayor decided not to run.

Bracken was at the helm for the most difficult times Manitoba faced. He introduced income tax and raised the gas tax. He reduced govt spending, fired civil servants, and cut back mother’s allowances. Within three years he was running a surplus. He was seen as arrogant, unable to forget his schoolmaster background and treated MLA’s as schoolboys.

FEDERAL POLITICS

After his long service in provincial politics, in 1942 Bracken was once again persuaded to serve another group’s needs, this time as the leader of the federal Conservative Party. He convinced them to add the name progressive, but he was disappointed in the partisan bickering and his performance was judged lacklustre. He lasted two years. Some saw him once again, as the wrong man in the wrong party.

HIS LEGACY

Bracken gave Manitoba 22 years of unselfish govt. His influence lasted as Brackenism would become the philosophy of the Garson and Campbell govt that would follow for another 15 years. In 1954, Bracken the teetotaller headed a Royal Commission on Liquor. His report recommended the liberalisation of drinking laws. Years later he regretted the increasing rates of alcoholism. He retired to Manotick Ontario to breed horses and died Mar 16, 1969.

JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON

Manitoba’s Controversial 3rd Lieut Gov

by George Siamandas

HENRY MALANIK

The Last Man to Be Hung In Manitoba

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

During a crime of passion Henry Malanak killed a policeman and had to pay the ultimate price. Today we tell the story of Henry Malanik, the last man to be hung in Manitoba 48 years ago this week June 17, 1952. It was 1950 and the City of Winnipeg Police Department would lose another officer in the line of duty. Detective Sergeant Edwin “Ted” SIMS was shot to death at the scene of a domestic dispute at 19 Argyle Street. The murderer, Henry MALANIK, was convicted and was the last man executed in Manitoba.

Malanik had come to Canada as a child in 1912. He had a grade 4 education. He had been convicted of several break and enters at age 17 but had no further troubles with the law till 1950. Malanik began an affair with Olga the wife of Adolph Kafka his childhood friend and best man. It was a fight over Olga’s affections that resulted in a gun battle at their house in Point Douglas. Malanik and Kafka were each fined $50. Tragically, several months later their guns were returned to them.

KILLING OF POLICEMAN TED SIMMS

In July 15, 1950 Malanik was thrown out of a wedding reception for being drunk and disorderly. He went to the Argyle St house to see Olga where he and Adolph got into a knife fight sending Adolph to hospital. The police were called and Detective Sargent Ted Simms along with Det Jack Peachell and Det William Anderson attended the house. Malanik had fled but returned with a double-barrelled shotgun. In a gun fight Malanik killed Simms with a shotgun blast to the abdomen. Detective Peachell emptied his gun discharging 5 shots at Malanik. Three found their target. As the gunfire continued another rookie policemen shot Detective Andersen in the neck by mistake. He would later be fired from the force.

THE TRIAL

In Oct 1950 Malanik went on trial, his lawyer pleading for a manslaughter charge. After 40 min the jury returned a guilty plea, and Malanik was sentenced to hanging. Judge Kelly had reservations believing Malanik may have been too drunk to form an intent to kill. This was enough for an appeal. Malanik was retried in May 1951 and once again found guilty. This time judge Williams had no doubt of Malanik’s guilt. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court where it was denied.

THE LAST HANGING

At 2:00 am June 17, 1952, as 40 witnesses watched, Henry Malanik was led into the execution chamber. Executioner “Camille” wearing a black beret and a Hawaiian shirt pulled the lever. As Malanik hung from the rope, blood began to spurt. His jugular had been severed. Two minutes later he was pronounced dead. It was the last time a man was hung in Canada’s most humane and modern prison, Manitoba’s Headingley Jail. Hangings continued at other provinces till 1962.

From time to time the issue comes up. The Reform Party supports capital punishment, as do approximately 69% of Canadians. In the US capital punishment is available in 38 states, where homicide is ten time more prevalent than in England.

EDITH ROGERS

Manitoba’s First Female MLA

By George Siamandas

On June 29, 1920 Manitobans elected their first woman member of the Legislative assembly. Edith Rogers had been active in soldier’s relief programs, and was seen as woman capable of bringing women’s issues before the Legislature. She is described as having been a true daughter of the north country in that both her mother and father had strong connections with the Hudson Bay Co. Her paternal grandmother had been the illegitimate daughter of Sir George Simpson.

She was born Edith MacTavish in 1876. growing up at Norway House. She was educated in Montreal. In 1897 she met Arthur Rogers who was a wholesale dealer in fruits and provisions, while on a duck hunting expedition with her uncle. Arthur Rogers began a new dairy business in 1905 called crescent creamery with the active involvement of Edith. The dairy was a success because they paid close attention to hygienic conditions during a time when typhoid fever was rampant.

HOW DID SHE BECOME A PROMINENT WINNIPEGGER?

Edith raised four children and led an active life as part of the social elite. Participating in many luncheons, teas, bridge parties and dinners, Edith Rogers took a special interest in the General Hospital and the Convalescent Home. After WW2 she was very involved in veterans associations helping returning soldiers adjust to civilian life. In 1920 the Liberal party asked her to run as a candidate. Manitoba was the first province to give women the vote that year and it was the first opportunity women had had to vote or to run for office. Three other women ran for office that year.

WHAT ISSUES DID EDITH ROGERS PRESS IN THE LEGISLATURE?

She was very interested in social welfare and pressed for the adoption of the child welfare bill. She also introduced a bill for censorship of motion pictures and a bill giving widows increased power over their husband’s estates. She also represented the government on the Social Welfare Council of Winnipeg. She also introduced a bill to incorporate the Winnipeg Foundation. She was also credited by city of Winnipeg officials for always being willing to secure legislation that solved civic problems.

She continued to serve in the legislature till 1932, after which due to declining health retired in her daughter’s home in Toronto. She came back at the outbreak of WW@ to become chairman of the War Council of the Red Cross. In 1942 she decided to retire to her childhood home in Colbourne Ontario. On the eve of her departure for more than an hour and a half a steady procession of people came to pay their respects at the grand staircase of the legislature. She died in 1947.

BALDUR STEFANSSON

THE FATHER OF CANOLA

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Baldur Stefansson is one of Manitoba’s most distinguished plant scientists and the father of the new breed of canola which he derived from selections of rapeseed. Stefansson’s father had come from Iceland in 1910 and settled in Vestfold in the Interlake between Lundar and Inwood. He was a cattle farmer. Baldur was born in April 26, 1917. The area was not very prosperous. The area’s soil lacks phosphates, as he would later discover. It was so bad the cows would chew the 2×4 lumber.

Baldur went to WW2 and when he returned decided against becoming a farmer. Why? Because he saw it as being too competitive. Every one of your neighbours is a competitor he maintains. And to get into farming takes a large investment. In the final analysis, the profit margin is very low. Instead, like many returning soldiers, he went to university, studied agriculture and settled on plant science. He earned an MA and a PhD.

He became interested in finding new sources of edible oil. While hemp was an attractive possibility, Stefansson and his colleagues knew that the govt would not permit research with this plant. Instead they concentrated on rapeseed. He wanted to develop an edible oilseed for large-scale production on the Canadian prairie.

Canola is the bright yellow crop, growing across the prairies. It is an oil seed. It came from selection of rapeseed, which is part of the mustard family. Rapeseed originated 2,000 years ago in India and was introduced to Asia during the time of Christ. It arrived in Europe in the 13th century. It became popular on the prairie because of its ability to grow in cooler climates. Grown for the oil contained in the seed, it was a particularly favoured lubricant because it could stick to metals in the presence of water. In 1936, a Saskatchewan farmer imported some rapeseed from Poland and began to grow it in Canada. It seemed to do well.

Rapeseed had two difficulties in being utilised as edible oil. If it was to be for human consumption the amount of erucic acid had to be substantially reduced. And the by product of crushing which is used for livestock feed, had to be made more palatable by reducing anti-nutritive glucosinolates. Stefansson was able to do both. In 1974 he succeeded with the double low “Tower” variety of canola. And to differentiate it from rapeseed the new name canola was coined from “Canadian Oil.” The other choice was CanAbra, but the name was appropriated by a member of the committee who started an Alberta company with it.

WORK FOR CHEMICAL COMPANIES

After developing the in the double low “Tower” variety, Stefansson then began work for Calgene a corporate plant breeder that developed the round-up resistant variety of canola. Calgene was later bought out by the giant in plant varieties: Monsanto. Stefansson has no regrets about the work and how its value had remained with the companies. He was well paid as were literally hundreds of scientists and support staff for years while the company took the risk. He is happy his canola has allowed some farmers to be a little more productive and to be able to make a slightly better living.

AWARD WINNER

He has won many awards over the years and a room in his modest house in Fort Garry now houses the collection. The Wolf prize from Israel, Order of the Buffalo Hunt, the Royal Bank etc. About two dozen in all. He is glad not to doing his plant breeding work in the corporate “dog eat farmer” environment of today.

SIR JAMES AIKINS

Manitoba’s Two Term Lieut Gov

by George Siamandas

Sir James Aikins who was appointed Manitoba’s 9th Lieut Gov on August 3, 1916, and was the founder of Winnipeg’s oldest law firm Aikins MaCaulay Thorvaldson founded in 1879. Aikins was the son of Sir James Cox Aikins who served in Sir John A Mcdonald’s cabinet and who himself was Lieut gov of Manitoba during 1882-1888. The younger James was born in Peele County Ontario in 1851 and was educated in upper Canada College becoming a lawyer like his father in 1878.

Aikins was drawn to the promise of the west and came to Manitoba in 1879 for just a look and returned only to pack and move to Manitoba’s new west. He took an office in Winnipeg over Richardson’s store and worked on a kitchen table from the corner of Main St and Rupert Ave. Aikins became involved in the temperance movement and was a popular speaker. When he arrived in 1879 there were 17 lawyers in Winnipeg. The great land boom of 1881 swelled the city’s population of lawyers such that in one day in June 1882 79 new lawyers were called to the bar. By the end of 1882 Winnipeg had 213 lawyers.

MOVING UP IN LEGAL CIRCLES

Aikins rose fast in Manitoba legal circles. He was appointed counsel for the CPR expansion in the west. By 1884 he was made a QC. Aikins was considered a gifted speaker and an expert constitutional lawyer. His firm was now known as Aikins Culver and Hamilton and it was handling 1/3 of the city’s legal cases. In the early 1890s as the city was in recession and the city tried to begin taxing the CPR railway from school taxes, Aikins took Winnipeg to the supreme court and won the CPR’s continued exemption from municipal taxation. In 1914 he received a knighthood and he became the first President of the Canadian Bar Assoc and was a noted speaker at many of its sessions. The Canadian Bar seemed his greatest joy and he was considered a master orator. His friends referred to him as J. A. M.

POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

With his many years of participation in the Temperance movement, Aikins was chosen to draft the 1900 Manitoba Liquor Control Act. A staunch Conservative he represented Brandon. Aikins headed the Conservative party in Manitoba after 1915 and they supported women’s suffrage and prohibition. They were snubbed at the polls as the country and Manitoba went Liberal.

BUSINESS

Aikins worked on behalf of major companies such as great West Life for which he served as solicitor for 37 years. He was a director of many other firms including the Imperial Bank. Aikins left his name to the legal firm Aikins MaCaulay & Thorvaldson and Aikins St in the North end. Aikins built the Sommerset Block in 1900 just east of Eatons at Donald and Portage named after his older brother. It was the first concrete building to be built in Winnipeg. He helped get eh Royal Alex and the Main St CPR subway. JAM had been a lavish entertainer at Govt house.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Aikins was active in numerous community organizations including serving as one of the founders of the Winnipeg YMCA, chair of Wesley College, Boy Scouts.

THE SPORTSMAN

He was an ardent golfer and was considered one of Manitoba ’s most skilled marksmen. His first marriage went sour as work preoccupied his time.

AN IRONIC END

Aikins career was to be celebrated in a special reception. In the large program for this special event one hundred and nineteen letters had been written congratulating Aikins for 50 years as a lawyer. They came from the prime Minister McKenzie King, from the Us Supreme court and from every important lawyer in the world. Ironically the day before the celebration was to be held to commemorate his 50 years on the Manitoba Bar James Aikins took ill and died two days later. He left one son and two daughters. He died in February 1929. He left a $6 M estate. His home Riverbend became Balmoral Hall school for girls.

HAROLD AIKINS

His son Harold trained in law and fought in WW1 losing a leg. He became a member of the firm but unlike his dad, he was a most sour personality.

The 1946 Portage Women’s Jail Riot

Unhappy to Have a Woman Warden

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

On April 15, 1946 a riot broke out at the Portage La Prairie Jail for Women. Newspapers reported a combination of bad food, overcrowding, and poor medical care as the cause of the riot. It was a Monday and 15 women refused to go to work. Tear gas was used to bring the women under control but they began to throw furniture around and barricaded themselves. The women demanded to see the Attorney General J.O. McLenaghen while singing “don’t fence me in.”

Attorney General J.O. McLenaghen met with them and heard complaints against female Warden MC Mountain. One inmate said of trying to communicate grievances to Miss Mountain, “you might as well be talking to a little dog.” McLenaghen promised to look into their complaints, ordered they be taken off their bread and water rations and left to a chorus of “he’s a jolly good fellow.”

A DAMNING REPORT ON THE WOMEN’S PRISON

Head of jails in Manitoba Royal Burritt conducted an investigation into the state of jails in Manitoba and found the womens’ complaints had merit. The management consisting of Ed Calder and Maud Mountain was judged as incompetent. Staff was only at half the level required. Maud Mountain was a lousy administrator and showed no initiative. Ed Calder the past warden at the jail had been accused of hitting numerous women with his clenched fist. He ran the place like an autocrat. Burritt suggested that Calder be fired. Yet at the top of the womens’ demands was their wish to see the return of their male warden Sheriff Ed Calder.

Set up in 1931 and made women’s only in 1935, the facility was badly in need of repairs. The colours were depressing, and described by Burritt a “bilious blue” and “dirty yellow.” The windows had been painted over a “hideous green” preventing light from coming into the cells. The food consisted of cold meats and potatoes. The fridge barely worked and the range needed replacement. It would have failed any restaurant health codes in effect at the time. The women were not given toothbrushes even though the cost was only 10 cents. There were no written rules of behaviour. Calder made the rules up as he went. Complainant Edna Burch said Calder beat her for a small infraction of the rules and put her on bread and water for 5 days.

There was no vocational training available, nor any recreational facilities. The library contained nothing up to date. It had a few rotting foul smelling old books. Burritt concluded that there was nothing wrong with the food. “Nothing could start trouble sooner than to provide poor food and we know that well enough” said Burritt. Two years later Burritt seemed to have forgotten the importance of a decent meal.

1948 MEN’S PRISON COMPLAINTS

In 1948 unrest broke out at Headingley Jail. Men complained of not enough variety in meals. Not enough sugar available. No bedtime snacks. An investigation proved the men’s concerns. Meals consisted of a lot of beef stew and steamed or mashed potatoes. On alternate days sliced balogna. Sugar rations were tripled. It was deemed too impractical however to give prisoners bedtime snacks in their cells.

HISTORY OF STEINBACH

“The Automobile City”

by George Siamandas

The village of Steibach was founded in 1874 by 18 Mennonites families that set up a traditional Mennonite village along a creek. The founders’ names included Wiebe, Penner, Reimer, Towes, Friesen, Plett and they are the stock of many Mennonites in Manitoba today. It is an unlikely location as it was away from Winnipeg and on the south eastern edge of the old Mennonites villages. But its success was due to ambitious hard working people. But initially, business was frowned on as an activity.

EXCOMMUNICATING THE FIRST CAR OWNER

JR Friesen brought a 1911 Model N the forerunner of the Model T to Steinbach. He was promptly excommunicated by the church but Friesen was so excited about the possibilities of the car that he did not take the excommunication too seriously. In fact he had the last laugh when several years later the same ministers that had thrown him out came to buy cars themselves. On June 6 1914 he became the first Ford car dealer in western Canada. The cars were brought by rail knocked down in boxes, assembled and delivered on sleighs to their owners. In 1928 and 1929 they were selling 70 cars per year at about $650 each.

To sell cars in the 1930s they offered your money back in three days if not satisfied. They also held Canada’s earliest car auction selling 48 at the Penner dealership which was western Canada’s most modern in the early 1950s. John D Penner in 1950 was the first to take out full page ads in the Winnipeg papers to promote cars.

They tried every inducement including inviting customers and their families over for dinner. One time Mr Penner visited a family on their farm, and while he showed the husband and wife the car, Mrs Penner milked all the cows. The wife was so moved she agreed to the sale on the spot. Mr Penner said he had not yet milked a cow himself but he had done just about everything else in order to sell a car.

SALES LEADERS

Steinbach’s car salesmen were the top of the country in the 1950s selling more than 250 cars annually. In 1960 they held a special promotion where anyone who came to Steinbach to buy a car had his hotel restaurant or other transportation paid for him. People came not only from Manitoba but also from Saskatchewan and Alberta.

LOCAL INVENTION & INGENUITY

Many businesses depended on a local invention. Inventors helped make their work easier, whether grain feeders for threshing machines, bee keepers equipment, bakery ovens and dough making machines, or mechanized dredges used to build drainage ditches.

Abraham S Friesen who was the first village mayor, first postmaster and a mechanical pioneer introduced mechanization to agriculture. He built the first windmill in 1877 and the first sawmill in 1876. It was his sons that later started the first Ford dealership in western Canada. Others like Peter K Barkman set up the first steam powered mill flour mill in 1880.

BUSINESS PROMOTION WAS SEEN AS A PRIORITY

To encourage industry they introduced a ten year tax holiday and so Barkman’s Flour Mill was constructed in 1922. Through the 1950s and 1960s Steinbach had the highest growth rate of all Manitoba communities.

DOING THINGS FOR THEMSELVES

Not happy with the condition of roads in the 1930s, the local transportation committee took matters into their own hands developing and upgrading first the road to Giroux where the nearest railway was located and then east to the Morden Sprague highway. They filled in swamps with corduroy getting help from adjoining farmers. Soon the predecessor to No 12 was formed. They also formed pure bred swine and poultry clubs a legacy for egg and pork production that is making this rural area the fastest growing producer in Manitoba. All the work was don in the depths of the depression with barely any governmental money. They held courses on everything under the sun: bee keeping, hog raising etc.

THE MOST GIVING CENSUS TRACT IN CANADA

According to Statistics Canada, Steinbach and the area around it is known to be the most giving census tract in all of Canada for charitable donations.

Manitoba’s 1950 Flood Relief Fund

by George Siamandas

As the 1950 flood’s impact was felt Manitobans quickly created a relief agency. Manitoba and the world pitched in to help with the creation of the Manitoba Flood Relief Fund.

IMPACT OF THE 1950 FLOOD

$50M damages

Black friday May 5; final crest was May 13

Flood lasted 51 days

40,000 evacuated from southern Manitoba

80,000-100,000 from Winnipeg of a population of 300,000

Some dikes were 18 feet high and 60 feet at the base.

There was a run on linseed which was used to plug the sewers.

2,000 homes were damaged above the first floor (Second floor)

Morris had the worst damage largely because of the poor construction of its buildings. Analysis overall showed that poorly constructed homes faced the worst damage. Those with concrete foundations did the best.

There was a secret plan called Operation Black Boy which would have called a total evacuation of Winnipeg with preparations for mode of transport and everything. Another foot of water higher and the power would have been out. The goods in Winnipeg great warehouses would have been destroyed. As it was the river put most of Lombard Ave under water and there were sandbags at Portage and Main.

Instead of going ahead with Operation Black Boy the red Cross went ahead with Operation Rainbow. This was the Red Cross relief effort which helped people adjust.

SETTING UP THE MFRF

The committee first met on May 12, a week after the flood first hit on Black Friday. The idea came from Mayor Garnet Coulter who was at a mayor’s conference in new Orleans. Within 2 weeks the agency had $400,000. The guy in charge was HW Manning, vice president of Great West Life.

WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM

It came from everywhere in the world. A lot from Manitobans themselves.

On May 14 every radio station in Canada carried a 20 minute new report on the flood and an appeal for donations. The following Sunday May 16 Bob Hope asked for donations to the flood at the close of his show.

Eatons across the country matched its employees donations dollar for dollar giving $307,034. The agency sold a picture book of the flood for $1 called “THE RIVER RAMPANT” Kids shined shoes for 15 cents, Movie Theatres across the country took collections. In Winnipeg people were urged to donate a day’s wages.

In Toronto they held red River relief Rally at maple Leaf gardens. The entertainment which included Giselle McKenzie was broadcast on 800 radio stations throughout North America. The fund insisted on money because it was such a hassle to obtain and move goods around. The British Parliament gave 300,000 pounds. The British were noted for being unwilling to give cash.

It did a great job raising money: $8,897,618 by November. It was a generous group in distributing even though I saw an appeal by residents of the Glenwood area. By the end it had trouble giving all the money away. It was left with $2,000,000 which went to start up the Canadian Disaster Relief Fund. Administration costs were only 2%. They even helped small businesses many whom were farmers to buy new stock.

IMPACT ON MANITOBA

It cost the Manitoba government $42M. That was the equivalent of the entire year’s provincial budget at the time. And how much did the insurance companies pay in the 1950 flood? Almost nothing!

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE

JEWISH COMMUNITY IN MANITOBA

by George Siamandas

On June 10 1882 70 Jewish families arrived in Winnipeg. They were Russian Jews that were being massacred throughout south western Russia because it was thought they had something to do with Czar Alexander’s death in 1881. Years of oppression caused a mass exodus lasting from 1882 to 1914.

Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt Canada’s high commissioner to Great britain became involved in a relief committee called the Mansion House committee whose role was to raise funds and assist emigration from Russia. Galt proposed that they come to Manitoba. By spring of 1882 his proposal was accepted and 400 Jewish refugees left the Austrian Galician city of Borody bound for Winnipeg. Most were small traders and mechanics of various trades. They were expected to become farmers.

About 30 Jews had lived in Winnipeg as early as 1877. Most were of british or german origin and they were of the reform branch which was fairly well assimilated into the larger society. The existing community arranged for use of the immigration sheds and provided food and interpreters. They raised 1,200 in just a few months. The spirit of humanitarianism was strong in Winnipeg and Bishop Machray and Mayor Alexander Logan helped in increasing the donations. The papers were also supportive and helped create a very sympathetic climate.

About 150 became involved in the construction of the CPR laying track as far west as Moose Jaw. Their families lived with them and their observance of high holidays was tolerated. But by fall they fell into great difficulties as a recession fell over Winnipeg. Jobs were impossible to find after the collapse of the real estate boom and there were no places to live.

As winter was approaching efforts were made to move the families east but it did not come about. There were delays in giving them land to farm either in Manitoba or in the Q’Appelle valley. The authorities were just not ready for them and how to plan for them as they had done with the Mennonites and the Icelanders. Temperatures plummeted to

-50, they almost starved because they would not eat food they were offered. By the late 1880s the Jews had already established a multi cultural society. Despite their differences they all share a religion, a history as a people apart and Yiddish.

The newcomers were quite different. Different even than their English and German counterparts. They spoke a different language, ate different food, and kept solely to themselves. They were not interested in farming and had no money to become involved in any new activities. They faced a fair amount of racism and were excluded from elite clubs. Over time the children of the labourers, pedlars and store owners became doctors, lawyers and scientists.

By 1931 there were 20,000 people identifying themselves as Jews in Manitoba. Today the Jewish community numbers about 15,000 to 16,000 almost all urban but as their children seek better opportunities elsewhere numbers are dwindling.

HECLA ISLAND

How an Icelandic Fishing Village Became a Ghost Town Gateway to a White Elephant Luxury Resort

by George Siamandas

MR. PORTAGE AND MAIN, HENRY MCKENNY HELPS ESTABLISH HECLA ISLAND

The first group of Icelandic settlers came in 1876. But they had not been the first. The man that first brought attention to this island north of Gimli was Henry McKenny.

Henry McKenny the man responsible for establishing Portage and Main, is also one of the first to create economic activity at Hecla Island. It was his idea to cut lumber on well forested Hecla Island and ship it to Selkirk for processing on his schooner the Jessie McKenny in 1868. The same year a saw mill and a general store established at Hecla.

MAGNUS HALLGRIMSON

The first Icelander to establish a homestead was Magnus Hallgrimson. He first worked on McKenny’s saw mill and also became the island’s first postmaster from his home. He called his home Hecla and it caught on as the name used by outsiders. The Icelanders actually called the island Mikley or big island. Until a cause way was built as part of the park development, Hecla was isolated during parts of the year. Hecla which is about 18 miles long and 6 miles wide eventually had 500 people. And almost all the residents had something to do with fishing, timber or livestock farming.

THE GOVERNMENT DRIVE THEM OUT

It was in 1970 and 1971. Sixty families had to move out. The land became Hecla provincial Park and the destination resort was named Gull Harbour. The philosophy was that the natural beauty of Hecla would be best be enjoyed without the clutter of people. And parks are easier to run without residents. But the resort failed to realize success and has in fact been a money loser. The lack of people are obvious to a visitor and one just does not feel the pulse of real life there now. People tell stories of visiting Hecla before the park and how take the ferry there before it became a park. It was not fancy, but you got to see a real fishing village.

PLANNING GONE AMUCK

It seems to have started as project to give the Hecla residents economic opportunities. Government studies showed farming was not worthwhile, the fishery had closed and so had the island’s high school. Hecla Islanders initially developed the plan. People would have new jobs. But the plan envisioned the residents staying. They liked it there. Residents say that they would not have lived anywhere else, and that the isolation encouraged a very independent style of living. At the time, government was looking to provide additional recreational opportunities. And to provide a destination for the Lord Selkirk. But as the planning process continued there was a major change. The plan got bigger. Residents found out that they would all have to go.

PRICES THE HECLA RESIDENTS GOT

Some found alterative accommodation, but others feel they go next to nothing. Replacement properties were running three times what they got. Since the early 1980s some of the original residents have been actively lobbying to get the land back.

HOW DID SUCH A MISGUIDED PROJECT EVER HAPPEN?

I spoke to many people, three at length. Two were intimately associated with Hecla Park, while a third was closely involved in related projects. All three, concerned about their jobs and reputations, demanded anonymity. One knew all the details but he could not explain how the plan had changed so radically or why.

Another had an admittedly cynical explanation. He thought Hecla may have happened in a time (early 1970s) when a group of master-planning oriented technocrats thought they knew best what should be done. And apparently in those the heady Schreyer years they pretty well could push things through and get their projects done.

A third said he would come looking for me if his name was used. But he kept talking about it. He left government before it was fully completed. He feels that most of the criticism is ill informed. Yet he doubts it would be built that way or at all today.

MANITOBA’S FIRST LEGISLATURE

A government of peace and reconciliation

by George Siamandas

On March 15, 1871 the first session of the Manitoba legislature met to consider the business of the new province of Manitoba. Adams Archibald the benevolent despot that ran the show had been born in Truro Nova Scotia in 1814. He became a lawyer and politician in Nova Scotia were he served as Attorney general. He strongly favoured the union of British North America and was involved in the drafting of the terms of confederation. In 1870 he became the Lieut Gov of Manitoba. Archibald was the right man at the right time. He had sufficient knowledge of the running of government, had good legal training for the passage of basic laws, was a strong believer in confederation, and he had a genuine stance of conciliation towards those involved in the rebellion. As soon as he got to Red River in Sept 2 1870 Archibald met with local leaders and avoided extreme individuals like Schultz and Riel and his top men. Two weeks later on September 20 1870, he appointed an Executive Council comprising Alfred Boyd and Marc Girard both of whom were relative newcomers.

THE FIRST PREMIER

Boyd is listed as being Manitoba’s first premier and appears as such in the Canadian Parliamentary Guide. But according to Bruce Donaldson the Province’s head of History, Archibald really functioned as Manitoba’s first premier. It was Lieut Gov Adams Archibald who really wielded power and was in effect the premier. Till the first legislature opened on March 15 1871 Archibald and his executive council ruled by proclamation. They arranged for a census set up electoral boundaries and planned the first election for December 30, 1870. While essentially operating as an autocrat, Archibald often consulted with people like Tache and James McKay in order to be made aware of local feelings and personalities.

They met for six weeks and they passed a lot of bills. For the first session Archibald had planned a set of 32 bills in order to keep the new legislators “busy and (to) fend off abstractions”. In short order they set up a court system, a school act, a law society, electoral boundaries and regulations, and laws on deeds, wills and estates. The system of public schools was like in Quebec, while the system of justice and courts was modeled after the one in Ontario.

The election was held Dec 30 1870. The census for Manitoba was interesting. It showed 558 Indians, 5,757 metis, 4,083 half English half-breeds, 747 white natives of red River, 294 canadians and 525 Britishers and Americans. There were 24 constituencies following the old parish boundaries: 12 French and 12 English. During the election Archibald did his best to ensure that moderate candidates made themselves available for election. There were no formal political parties yet.

Some of the same men that had been part of Red River society helped form the first government; men like AGB Bannatyne, John Norquay, and John Sutherland.

The Canadian Party comprised Britishers like Alfred Boyd, and Henry J Clarke. The French community was represented by Canadians like Joseph Royal, Marc Girard, and Joseph Dubuc all lawyers who helped draft Manitoba ’s constitution after that of Quebec. Of the 24 elected to Manitoba ’s first legislature, James A Jackson writes that 17 of them were sympathetic to the provisional government and its leader.

When you compare today it seems the first legislature was meeting right after a coup d’etat. It seems to have been a cordial affair considering the seriousness of the issues of the day. Archibald was a pragmatic fellow. And his actions suggest the freedom a person can exercise who is seeking solutions. There were issues of the Riel rebellion that somehow had to be both forgotten, yet addressed. Joseph Royal was elected first speaker. Manitoba was in transition from a fur trading are to an emerging gateway of agricultural commerce. Awaiting was the complex job of setting up a civil service. There was no treasury or a means of raising taxes. There were no roads or other signs of infrastructure.

Archibald got into trouble with the English press for being too cosy to Riel. The amnesty that had been promised by Ottawa was not forthcoming. But Archibald refused to take any action against Riel or any of the other “criminals”. It made for bad press in Ontario but went over well in Red River.

There was no legislature. That was not built until 1884, so they met at one of the members homes; the home of Andrew Bannatyne. They chose not to use the Council chamber of Fort Garry perhaps because of its associations with Riel and the provisional govt. But they carved a mace from a portion of Fort Garry’s flagstaff and from the hub of a red river cart.

In the fall of 1872 Archibald was replaced by Alexander Morris. He had tired of the heavy pace of the two years at Red River. He became Lieut Gov in Nova Scotia and later won a seat in Parliament. He died in 1892.

MARIE ANNE GABOURY

The First White Woman in Red River

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

It was 1806 when the first white woman is thought to have come to Red River. Her name was Marie Anne Lagimodiere and she came as the bride of Jean Baptist Lagimodiere. She would be further distinguished in the years to come by being the grandmother of Louis Riel.

Marie-Anne Gaboury was born on Aug 2, 1780 in Maskinonge near Three Rivers. On April 29 1806, she married Jean Baptiste Lagimodiere who had returned to his hometown after 5 years in the Northwest. After a few months they returned to Red River. It took to months to complete the 2000 mile trip from Montreal to Pembina; much of it by canoe.

MEETING LAGIMODIERE’S EX

Upon arrival at Pembina, Lagimodiere’s previous Indian wife was very distressed to see Lagimodiere with a new wife. She immediately made plans to eliminate her rival. She prepared a poison and approached Marie Anne disguising her feelings of jealousy and betrayal. Another Indian woman told her white husband who revealed the evil plan. Lagimodiere took notice and moved Marie Anne 25 miles north along the Red. By January 6 she gave birth to first daughter Reine.

COUNTRY WIVES

The idea of taking an Indian girl as a wife had become customary in the new land. Five thousand men had done so by 1777. With no priests, the marriages were informal yet long lasting. The relationships seemed to benefit everyone by forming valuable alliances. But, in 1806 Marie Anne upset the order of things. Gaboury descendants say that due to his wide ranging trips, Lagimodiere had several Indian wives. Other white women like Mrs George Simpson would face the same problem 24 years later. When George Simpson Gov of the HBC at the time cast off his Indian wife, it made everyone else feel discredited and they ostracised him. They stayed only 3 more years.

WELL RECEIVED

Lagimodiere was a hunter and his work would keep them travelling on the plains, wherever the buffalo roamed. Marie-Anne’s white complexion and blonde hair were a marvel to the Indians who called her the white goddess. They travelled to Fort Edmonton where Marie learned to prepare pemmican. Their life was constantly full of danger and excitement.

During a buffalo hunt on the prairies she gave birth to her second child a son she called La Prairie. In the Cypress Hill she had a third child she named Cypress. Marie Anne was left alone for a full year while husband Lagimodiere delivered letters from the settlement to Lord Selkirk in Montreal.

THE FIRST WHITE WOMAN

There is considerable debate as to whether Marie Anne Gaboury was the first woman in the west. She is the first to permanently settle in the west. But it appears a few months before Marie Anne’s arrival another woman disguised as a man had stowed aboard a ship. After giving birth she was discovered and sent back to England.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MARIE-ANNE?

She lived to be 95 (died Dec 7, 1875 in St Boniface) and barely had a sick day. She had 3 sons and 3 daughters. For decades, because she was the only baptised woman, she became godmother to much of the St Boniface population. Her grandson was Louis Riel but her descendants included several other distinguished Canadians.

JEAN-BAPTISTE LAGIMODIERE

The Man Who Walked 1,800 Miles

By George Siamandas

You have heard of the road named Lagimodiere but did you know that the man after whom it was named literally walked 1,800 miles or 3,000 km to deliver a message to Lord Selkirk? Jean Baptiste Lagimodiere, Manitoba’s most famous traveller completed his trip to Montreal 184 years ago on Mar 10, 1816.

The son of a farmer, Jean Baptiste Lagimodiere, AKA Lagimoniere and Lavimodiere, was born On Christmas Day 1778 in St Antoine sur Richilieu, Quebec. In 1800 JB went west, joined the fur trade and found work in the grand Portage area of Minnesota. He married an Indian woman and they had three daughters. In 1805 he returned home and married Marie Anne Gaboury. They returned to work in the north-west travelling around what would become Alberta and Saskatchewan.

In 1811 he set out for the Forks because he had heard that settlers would be coming to the area and he offered his services to the HBC. He was hired by the HBC on a one-year contract paying £30. JB was a great hunter who could keep their hunting parties supplied with food. Lagimodiere was independent minded and didn’t automatically side with the Metis on political issues which explains his work with the HBC.

SETTLED AT RED RIVER

In 1812, Lagimodiere settled in what is now St James where for the next three years Marie Anne would have no neighbour. While they enjoyed peace in St James, 6 miles east in Fort Douglas, what is now Point Douglas, there were a series of violent clashes between the HBC and the NWC. During these difficult times Lagimodiere helped supply the settlers with food. But the Selkirk settlers were evicted from Red River.

HBC agent Colin Robertson asked Lagimodiere to take letters to Lord Selkirk in Montreal, telling of their plight and requesting aid. He set out October 17, 1815 travelling part of the way on horse. A man named Benoni Mairier and an Indian guide initially accompanied him. But later on he was entirely on his own. He carried no food and had to find everything he ate on the way.

The return was even more difficult. Lagimodiere carried back Selkirk’s reply to the settlement. The NWC was determined not to let him through. Amongst his various tribulations including delays, he was robbed at Duluth by Indians and a Negro called Bonga. The rivalry between the HBC and the NWC was at a peak and Lagimodiere feared for Marie Anne’s life. He would return to find the family safely sheltered by an Indian family.

Lagimodiere would continue to serve as a guide and courier. He received a land grant north of Seine along the east side of the Red River. Here he brought up his family of four boys and four girls. Lagimodiere was the first to permanently settle in the northwest. His wife Marie Anne Gaboury would be the first white woman to permanently settle in the west.

GRANDFATHER OF RIEL

In 1844 daughter Julie would marry neighbour Louis Riel Sr. and give birth to the Louis Riel that would make Manitoba history.

FATHER GEORGES ANTOINE BELCOURT

“The Man the Indians Called the Great Spirit”

by George Siamandas

April 4, 1803 marked the birth of Father Belcourt, one of the most popular Roman Catholic missionaries who pioneered work amongst the native people. This outstanding man was called the Great Spirit by the native people of the west. Belcourt was the eldest of eleven children born to Antoine Belecour and Josephte Lemire who were farmers in Yamaska County Lower Canada. He was ordained by Bishop Panet in 1827. Belcourt took the trouble to learn English. Learning he would be coming to the west he spent two months at Oka to learn Algonquin, a language similar to the Cree and Saulteaux languages of western tribes. Together with Bishop Provencher, Belcourt came out to Red River in the spring of 1831. A fastidious writer, Belcourt kept graphic descriptions of his travels from day one in his daily journal.

BELCOURT THE CARPENTER

Father Belcourt was an able carpenter that assisted in the building of Provencher’s new St Boniface Cathedral. He also built furnishings for Provencher’s home and helped establish a workshop that produced prefabricated door frames at St Francis Xavier. Belcourt did this in part because he needed extra money and worked as a tradesman making door frames and cart wheels.

BAIE ST PAUL

Near what is now St. Eustache, Belcourt established a mission and worked to turn the Indians into Christians. But Provencher was always disappointed with Belcourt’s productivity at attracting converts. Belcourt retained the respect of the Indians like no other white man. His facility and interest in learning Indian languages was a big help. He also helped develop native language that helped express Christian concepts and ideas. Indians travelled from as far as the west coast to meet the man they called the “Great Spirit.” Belcourt wrote textbooks and worked to develop a Saulteaux English dictionary.

OTHER NORTHERN MISSIONS

Belcourt made extensive visits to the interlake trying to establish literally a dozen new missions. He was not always welcome by the Indian bands. He also went to Rainy Lake, White Dog, Duck Bay, Swan River, Fort Francis, He travelled by water using a birch bark canoe he built himself.

INDUSTRIAL ARTS

Belcourt had a variety of garden seeds sent out and he tried to establish farms. Belcourt had frequent disagreements with Provencher. It is thought he tried to do too much, too soon, and Provencher felt his work was too costly. His mission was not considered productive enough. Belcourt was considered a wishful thinker. But he was a great persuader. And he received separate funding from Quebec for his missions over Provencher’s disapprovals. Amongst other things Belcourt wanted to start an industrial school.

Belcourt became independent and disagreed with Provencher and his HBC sympathies. Provencher feared Belcourt had gone native. Belcourt started “going to the prairies” or out on the buffalo hunts. He documented the hunt in great detail: how it was organized, their route, and the hunting methods.

POLITICS

He fought to maintain access for the buffalo hunters into the northern US after 1845 when the US became concerned with border crossers. Belcourt also helped the Metis in their trading grievances with the HBC at a time when the HBC was suppressing free trading. Neither the HBC or Bishop Provencher agreed with this action and they had Belcourt recalled to Quebec.

Annoyed by this interference, Belcourt went south of the border and spent 11 years near Pembina North Dakota at St Josephe. In 1859 he left the west and relocated to Rustico, Prince Edward Island where he helped establish the Farmer’s Bank of Rustico forerunner to a Credit Union. He died peacefully on May 31, 1874.

WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS MANITOBA MISSIONS?

His missions did not survive. It is said that several hundred natives left Manitoba to follow him to Pembina. His works suggest that he may have been an early pioneer of the social gospel. Today Belcourt, North Dakota, just south of the International Peace Gardens, stands as the only reminder of this distinguished man who got along better with his parishioners than he did with the church and political hierarchy.

ADAM THOM

PEDANTIC FRANCOPHOBE OR ABLE JURIST

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Pedantic Francophobe or able first jurist? Adam Thom was the man who was named the first recorder or judge of Rupertsland, on Jan 1838. Thom was born in Scotland in 1802. He studied at King’s College where he received his MA in 1824 and later his LLD in 1840. In 1832 Thom came to Montreal and articled to a law firm. He had strong anti French views, which he expressed as a journalist while working for the Montreal Herald. The next year he was teaching classics, math and science at the Montreal Academic Institute. Thom worked with Lord Durham on the issues prior to the 1837 rebellion and helped write the famous Durham report.

In January 5 1838, Thom was appointed to the newly created judicial post of recorder of Rupertsland on the invitation of HBC Gov Simpson who was in London at the time. The pay was good for the time, &500 salary and another &200 living expenses. In 1839 he came to Red River to start his new career. As recorder, Thom’s job was to be a legal organizer, adviser, and magistrate. He was to formalize and organize the judicial system for the HBC’s Rupertsland district. By July 1839, Thom had set up a new system. And by 1841, he prepared a code of laws that would last for decades.

Thom proved to be poorly regarded by many of Red River’s citizens. They knew of his anti-French feelings and were worried about his ability to be impartial given that he was an HBC employee. And even though the post required it, Thom refused to speak French.

Thom tried to uphold the HBC monopoly over trade as early as 1842. He sought to suppress the illicit fur trade by restrictive measures. It all culminated in the May 17 1849 trial of Pierre Guilaume Sayer. Thom found Sayer guilty, but a large crowd of Metis led by Louis Riel Sr. made sure the verdict was not carried out. The Metis presented a petition of grievances against Thom to Gov Simpson and asking for Thom’s dismissal. A compromise was reached and Thom agreed to speak French. Thom was very long-winded and very legalistic in rendering his judgements. Finally in 1850 after repeated opposition to Thom, Simpson revoked his appointment as recorder. Simpson wrote of Thom’s “unfortunate temper and over bearing manner.”

Thom had also exceeded his authority in sentencing a Saulteax Indian to death when it was a case that should have been tried in Upper Canada. He also gave prejudiced evidence in a case and foolishly insulted highly regarded locals such as Cuthbert Grant.

In 1854 Thom left Red River and returned to Edinburgh. He wrote an account of Simpson’s trip around the world. He died in London in 1890 at age 88, leaving an estate of &5,310 to his only surviving son Adam. Early history accounts paint Thom an able pioneering jurist. More recent writings see him as a pedantic long-winded dishonest man, out to be an advocate of the HBC, and a hater of the French. There seems to be enough evidence for both views.

THE ANSON NORTHUP’S

MAIDEN VOYAGE TO FORT GARRY

by George Siamandas

On May 19, 1859 the Anson Northup became the first steamboat to successfully launch on the Red River reaching Fort Garry on June 10. It arose out of a sense of opportunity that St Paul Minnesota businessmen saw in the Red River district and the Canadian North West. They were encouraged by the Hudson Bay company’s interest in pursuing this American route over their traditional Hudson Bay route. In January 1859 the St Paul Chamber of Commerce offered $1,000 to whoever could put the first riverboat on the Red and get it to Fort Garry. When the prize was raised to $2,000 Captain Anson Northup took on the challenge.

RIVER TRANSPORTATION ON THE RED

For centuries the aboriginals had used the rivers for transportation and so did the fur traders. Prior to this north south route most traffic had been through Hudson Bay. But by the 1840s well developed cart trails were active between red River and St Paul. By 1856 half the goods reaching Red River came through St Paul. Brigades of Red River carts were bringing up machinery for a textile mill and agricultural equipment like reapers and mowers. The emerging system of the railroad, the steamship and then the red river cart proved more efficient than the HBC’s Hudson Bay route. Even the HBC saw these benefits and began to be supportive of this north south route. The challenge was out to replace the red river cart with steamboats on the Red as they had been active on the Mississippi since the 1820s.

WHERE DID THE ANSON NORTHUP COME FROM?

It was actually comprised of parts of an earlier boat called the North Star that had been dismantled the previous winter at Crow Wing on the Mississippi. Thirty men worked with 13 yokes of oxen and 17 teams of horses to drag the machinery and fresh lumber the 150 mile distance over the winter’s snows. It was reassembled at LaFayette on the mouth the Sheyene River on the Red and renamed the Anson Northup and launched on May 19, 1859 just as the flood waters were receding. It was 90 feet long and had a beam of 20 feet. It was powered by a one hundred horsepower engine. It was modest example of a riverboat looking much like a house boat with a smoke stack and the paddle wheel on the stern. Only on the second level was there room for a deck. The entire first deck went for the storage of wood, much of which was cut as the boat travelled north along the river.

WHAT WAS THAT TRIP LIKE?

It was truly a voyage of enterprise, and the ship was not lacking in enterprising individuals who wanted to get in on the ground floor of what would later become a boom town. Among the group of first arrivals was the man noted for having begun the corner of Portage and Main and that was Henry McKenny. McKenny went on to introduce lumbering in the 1870s.

HOW SIGNIFICANT WAS THE RIVER TRAVEL THAT BEGAN ON THE RED?

It had its ups and owns. The Red is a shallow river with many bends. The 1860s the first decade of operation were noted as very low river levels making it a challenge to make it to Fort Garry. Along with problems with the Indians in 1861 and 1862 this early venture had its growing pains. Through the 1870s steamships proliferated. Many immigrants came to Winnipeg in that decade. But the competition and coming of the railroad meant the end of these ships. By the end of the 1870s a period of less than 20 years, the steamboat era on the Red was over. Ironically a steamship brought the first locomotive to St Boniface in 1878.

After refurbishment in Nettley Creek the ship was sold to Burbanks and then to Hudson Bay Co in 1861. Unfortunately it sank that year at Cooks Creek just as winter was coming on. Parts were salvaged and its engine is thought to have gone on to power a flour mill at St Francois Xavier.

AMBROISE LEPINE

Was he a man propelled by mission, or loyalty?

by George Siamandas

On March 5 1870, Thomas Scott was executed to death for opposing the Riel provisional government. Presiding over that trial was Riel’s right hand man, Ambroise Lépine. Lépine was Riel’s military commander during the provisional government and directed the tribunal that sentenced Thomas Scott to death.

Ambroise Lépine was born at St. Boniface on May 18, 1840. His mother was a Saskatchewan Metis and his father was Quebec-born Jean Baptiste Lépine, who owned a big river lot in the Fort Rouge area. (Near the King george Hospital). The Lépines were part of the French-speaking elite at Red River. Young Ambroise was educated at St Boniface College and at age 19 married Cecille Marion. They took up agriculture on a farm in the south end of Winnipeg near near Louis Riel. But like a true Metis, Lépine also hunted and trapped with Metis friends and had a reputation as a keen marksman.

By force of physical presence Lépine was destined for leadership and looked it standing six foot three. He is described as having a “magnificent physique with hair of raven blackness, a large aquiline nose and eyes of piercing brilliance.”

HOW HE BECAME INVOLVED IN THE RESISTANCE

Ambroise and his wife were neighbours of Louis Riel. When the initial conflict began, Lépine was challenged by Riel: Was he for or against the Metis? Lépine did not have strong political views of his own. Was it a sense of community loyalty? Almost an impulsiveness that got him involved? He is said to have been a man of action and not a man of ideas. Lépine got into the thick of it by first barring William McDougal’s entry into Manitoba and then by helping Riel and O’Donohue raise the Fleur de Lis banner when they seized Fort Garry on Dec 7, 1869. Scott was tried and executed outside the walls of Fort Garry. The Canadian government later took back the Fort causing Lépine and Riel to flee in August 1870.

WHAT HAPPENED TO LEPINE AFTER THE RESISTANCE?

His brother Baptiste Lépine was murdered in anti Riel attacks. Ironically. Baptiste had been a member of Scott’s tribunal and had argued against executing him. Riel and Lépine hid in the Manitoba countryside and helped quell the Fenian raid. Riel’s good relationship with Lieut Gov Adams Archibald caused Archibald a lot of embarrassment.

Tache gave them $1,600 each to go off to the USA. As a further incentive, a $5,000 bounty had been put on their heads. For the next three years Riel and Lépine were lost in the USA. Apparently Lépine became lonely and returned to Manitoba with his amnesty question unresolved. In the fall of 1874 he was arrested at his farm.

LEPINE FOUND GUILTY AND SENTENCED TO DEATH

On October 10, 1874 Lépine was found guilty of aiding in the murder of Scott and was sentenced to be hung on January 29, 1875. His sentence was commuted to two years in prison by Lord Dufferin Canada’s Governor General. In 1875 Lépine and Riel’s amnesty was approved. But it meant banishment. Lépine had grown weary of politics. He chose to serve out his sentence and avoid banishment.

It is not clear what he thought of the whole business. Lépine withdrew from public life. He had already paid dearly for his political involvement. Lépine had a sense that St. Boniface did not back him up. And apparently on the streets of Winnipeg people would not let him forget the past. Louis Riel believed that Lépine thought him to be mad. Lépine chose not to become involved in the 1884-1885 rebellion. Lépine returned to farming but suffered several misfortunes in several places in Manitoba. In 1907, Lépine left Manitoba and moved to Saskatchewan.

Lepine came home in old age. Lépine returned to St. Boniface in 1923 where he died on June 8. This man who chose to make love instead of war had fathered 14 children. He lived twice as long as Riel, and lies buried next to Louis at St. Boniface Cemetery.

MAYOR R. D. WAUGH

The Mayor That Introduced

Playgrounds to Winnipeg

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Mayor Richard Dean Waugh noted for introducing playgrounds to Winnipeg. Waugh’s efforts resulted in a mass public meeting on May 28, 1908, which led to the opening of Winnipeg’s first playground. Waugh was born in 1868 in Melrose Scotland. He came to Winnipeg in 1883 with his parents after living in Kincardine Ont. for a few years. In Ontario he got an early start working as a purser on steamboat lines.

In 1905 Waugh became a member of the city’s parks Board and its chair in 1907. He worked on a committee that developed cycle paths. Waugh would be a sportsman his entire life and was interested in improving the city’s amenities. He was for good roads and for city beautification. He wanted Winnipeg to become one of the beauty spots of Canada. He was active in curling and head of the Real Estate Exchange.

PLAYGROUNDS

In 1907 as chair of the Parks Board, Waugh tried to convince council to begin to develop playgrounds as existed in the United States. “Small areas of land fitted with amusement paraphernalia. Skilled instructors with the highest moral training.” City Council refused. In May 1908 a meeting of playground enthusiasts met with Mayor James Ashdown. With Ashdown as the group’s chairman he reviewed how best to reach their goal. Ashdown discouraged them from asking the city once again and instead suggested a voluntary association. During the summer of 1908 a model playground was set up at Central School funded by an $800 grant from the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Council of women. It proved a big success. Seven playgrounds were set up in Winnipeg’s north end in 1909 and by 1920, 20 playgrounds were operating. And for winter play, by 1912, skating rinks were being set up.

MAYOR RD WAUGH

Waugh had served several terms on the Board of Control and in 1912 was elected mayor. These were Winnipeg’s glory days with civic growth and prosperity at an unparalleled rate. Waugh proved a popular mayor, but Waugh found that his stint as mayor became an intolerable burden on his private business life. His partner Thompson Beattie who had run the business had perished on the Titanic and now Waugh had to return to private life to rescue his real estate and law business.

Waugh recommended several civic reforms upon leaving. He had seen how being mayor was a full time job. He recommended a 2-year term for mayor and the abolition of a property qualification for those seeking public office. Waugh went to England to help negotiate a loan for Winnipeg, which he discovered, had the best financial reputation of any Canadian City. He also visited his hometown Melrose where he found the towns depleted of young people who had emigrated to Canada. In 1915 Waugh became mayor once again and served till 1916. He left to become head of the new Water District Board. By now Winnipeg’s glory days were nearing an end.

PRITCHARD AVE PUBLIC BATHS

Children Never Swim on Sunday

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

THE GRAND OPENING

Fifteen hundred people attended the opening ceremonies May 6, 1912,opened by Mayor RD Waugh. Waugh a big recreation advocate in Winnipeg had been trying to get the Pritchard Pool built for years. Finally in 1909 ratepayers approved the $50,000 budget. Located at the corner of Charles St and Pritchard Ave, and costing $50,000, the Pritchard Baths tank measured 79 by 68 feet and was 2.5 to 7 feet deep. It had 38 dressing rooms, 72 lockers and 17 individual shower stalls plus 31 children’s showers.

Everyone had to shower going in. A sterilizing machine guaranteed healthy supplies of bathing suits and towels which rented for a nominal 10 cents. Civic planners wanted a modest charge so that the pool would not be seen as a charity. While an orchestra played, a swimming show was given by Mrs Harrison and R Ernest Collins, a man with only one leg. Percy Cox officiated at the first water polo game ever held in Winnipeg. And the Manitoba Swim Club demonstrated scientific swimming. Staff had been hired to teach swimming. Mr J Harris would be teaching swimming to men, while Mrs Harris a bronze medal winner from the Royal Life Saving Society would instruct women.

EARLY SWIMMING SPOTS

There were only two places to swim in Winnipeg at the turn of the century. The only indoor pool was at the YMCA. The city operated an outdoor area with poolhouse along the Red River 200 yards east of the Louise Bridge. Elm Park a peninsula surrounded by the Red was another popular spot. The first indoor pool was the Cornish Baths built in 1909, followed by the Pritchard Baths in 1912. The plan was to set up pools in every district.

PUBLIC HOURS

The sexes were not allowed to swim together. Men had the pool on Mondays. Thursdays were women only days. Strangely children were not permitted to use the pool on Sunday. During the rest of the week men had the pool from 10-12 while women had it from 1-10pm.

INDOOR POOLS WERE NOT AN EARLY SUCESS

Indoor pools proved to be a shallow success. Expensive to operate, they received less use than expected. The Cornish Baths lasted 20 years and were closed in 1930. The Sherbrook Pool was built to take over this function in 1931. In the same year an outdoor pool opened at Sargent Park: the biggest in western Canada.

The Pritchard baths closed down in 1948 and were replaced by an outdoor pool. Never a success the outdoor pool was closed down and the new Kildonan Park pool opened in 1966 as a replacement for the Pritchard Pool. In 1970 a new indoor pool was built on the Old Exhibition grounds as a centennial project. Finally the north end had an indoor pool again.

Winnipeg’s Carnegie Libraries

By George Siamandas

WINNIPEG’S FIRST LIBRARY

Selkirk Settlers and Hudson Bay men like Peter Fiddler were the first contributors to Winnipeg’s libraries. Fidler donated 500 books upon his death in 1822. The Manitoba Scientific and Historical Society was the founder of what later became the Winnipeg Public Library. In 1881 2,500 books were borrowed in Winnipeg. In 1905 the Carnegie Library was built at 380 William Ave at a cost of $100,000. It was opened by Earl Grey on Oct 11, 1905. Built of native Manitoba limestone, the William Ave library was designed by Samuel Hooper. The man that made this and two other branches possible was Andrew Carnegie, the noted philanthropist who donated $75,000 towards construction of the William Library. Carnegie helped with another $39,00 for an addition, and in 1915 paid the total cost of the Cornish and St. John’s Libraries. The new libraries were the result of the initiative of provincial Librarian J. P. Robertson who wrote to Carnegie pleading for the same kind of assistance that had made the Ottawa library possible.

ANDREW CARNEGIE

Carnegie was Scottish born and lived between 1835 and 1919. In a classic rags to riches story, he made his fortune in railroads and oil and steel enterprises. His philosophy was that the best kind of assistance one could offer was to help people help themselves. Of the $330 million that Carnegie donated, more than $56 million went to the establishment of 2,507 libraries around the world. One hundred and Twenty-five were built in Canada at a cost of $2,556,660. He also helped colleges, and supported cultural and research grants. His designs were different from the private libraries in that they were open and accessible. The William Street Library proclaims above its doorway “Free to All.” In Carnegie’s libraries, children were encouraged to attend and you could look through the shelves and find your own books.

STAGNANT DECADES

There was a boom in demand in the 1920s and branch stations were being set up in grocery stores, drug stores and fire halls. Bookmobiles were started in 1953. But in the late fifties money by-laws for the establishment of branch libraries were defeated one after the other. The city instead decided to create four modest branches in the 1960s which cost under $75,000 each: the River Heights, Downtown, McPhillips and the West End. In 1972 the City built the new Central Library on Graham Ave at a cost of $10 million.

IMPORTANTANCE OF LIBRARIES

For both rich or poor, libraries have always played an important community building role in Winnipeg. Libraries have served as neighbourhood information centres. They help create an atmosphere for learning. They are places children can explore their interests, study and be exposed to a wealth of information. As a teenager I can remember many a winter day studying at the William Street Library while the steam heat radiators hissed and popped in the background.

TODAY’S LIBRARY

Today there are 21 branches which last year circulated 5.6 million materials from a collection of 1.6 million items. Three hundred thousand people hold library cards. And last year they answered 413,000 information questions. But their role is changing rapidly with technology. Now the building is not important, nor is going to the building itself necessary. And the book of the future will become a CD Rom, a database or a computer network. TheWinnipeg Library will soon open with major enhancements and renovations.

Ending 60 Years of Bickering

By George Siamandas

THE 60 YEAR DEBATE TO BUILD A NEW CITY HALL

Winnipeg had been slow to renew its ageing gingerbread city hall. As early as 1910 city fathers had planned to replace it but the First World War postponed it. After WW2 there were plans to replace it once again, but it would take another 16 years of studies and planning before they would actually build it. For decades Winnipeg had envied Saskatoon, Edmonton and Vancouver, cities that had finer civic buildings. By the time Juba was elected he was a big proponent of building a new one. And to dramatise the bad condition the old one was in, he took out an insurance policy on himself should the old city hall collapse on him while he was on the job.

But deciding to build it wasn’t easy. Civic voters had twice turned down money by-laws refusing to pay for building another pet project: the Disraeli freeway. A writer in 1957 chided councillors that there was enough paper from research and studies to build the first floor and that they should just get on with building a new one. Finally in 1957 the city was successful in having taxpayers agree to spend $6m on a new city hall. Voters had opted by 79% for a site across from the legislature at the corner of Broadway and Memorial Blvd. A Canada-wide design competition was held in 1958 and 91 proposals were received, some them quite futuristic. Up to date even for the year 2000.

The winning proposal was more conventional and came from Winnipeg’s Green Blankstein and Russell. The plan to build it on Broadway was abandoned, as Premier Roblin persuaded the city to reconsider the location and put it back in the heart of the warehouse district. As a tool of urban renewal, and together with the plans for a new Concert Hall it was seen as a necessary rejuvenating influence for the area.

DEMOLISHING OLD CITY HALL

By now the old 1886 Gingerbread city hall had few supporters. While some called for it to be saved and used as a civic museum, these thoughts were termed the thoughts of “dreamers and idealists.” Alex Clifton-Taylor an architectural critic from England called it “unbelievably ugly” in a Sept 15, 1956 article, and much too small for a city of Winnipeg’s size. Clifton-Taylor observed that the old city hall had been built in the Victorian period, a time in which “artistic taste was low.” And that a “newly rich class (of Winnipeggers) with lots of money and no taste” had built it. Just to check on his credentials, though the Free Press reporter took him to see the legislature, which he liked.

THE NEW CITY HALL

In approving the new city hall, thrifty Winnipeggers had provided for no frills. This was still a prairie town that counted its $6M public dollars carefully. GBR was challenged to create a contemporary Tyndall limestone building over a steel facade with its interior finished in black Quebec granite. And to provide a high level of interior design within.

But clearly there had been no money to pursue the cautionary note at the bottom of the city’s report recommending the GBR design. It had urged that people want “the buildings that represent their social and civic life not to be just functionally fulfilling, they want their aspirations for monumentality, joy, pride and excitement to be fulfilled as well.”

But costs gradually mounted adding another $3M to the cost. To bury this overrun they renamed it from City Hall to the Civic Centre to express the larger project that had been evolving as parkade was added. Alderman Crawford who was in charge of the project proclaimed the new city hall was so well built with 900 tons of steel, that its life expectancy was 200 years. Winnipeg’s new city hall opened Monday Oct 5 1964.

REACTION TO THE NEW CITY HALL

Upon completion it was named the ugliest building in Canada, “a prison, a shoe box, Lenin’s tomb.” And immediately as the 600 workers took their places the staff complained about overcrowding and being “packed to the gills.” It was already too small.

TRANSCONA

Winnipeg’s Railway Town

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Transcaona was built because of the railway shops. And on April 6, 1912 Transcona received its charter. It had been a heady period for businessmen that had enjoyed visions of a second Chicago. Transcona is named for the Transcontinental Railway (TRANS) and (CONA) for Lord Strathcona. It was one of the few places in Manitoba that does not owe its origins to agriculture but to the railway. In 1907 800 acres were acquired for the railway shops. It was soon discovered to be a swamp, part of a natural watercourse running from the Tache municipality to the Red River. As the shops were being built, 4 feet of fill were used to elevate the entire facility. The original town located south of the shops was largely abandoned and a new town was built north for the shops.

MAJOR RAIL CENTRE

There was a wish to create a second national railway at a time when small railways were seeing very difficult days. When the amalgamation finally took place, 3 private, 4 govt and 149 other railways came together to form the Canadian National Railway, complete by 1923. At one time 2,000 found jobs there and the facility was planned to employ 5,000. There was work for trainmen, machinists, blacksmiths, boilermakers, electricians, pipe fitters and upholsterers. Over the years Transcona has had its ups and downs reflecting levels of employment at the shops. Now it employs only 700. It has the second largest Ukrainian community in Winnipeg after the north end. The shop also built locomotives, and No 2747, was the first. Taken out of service in 1960 it has been preserved in a park. Over the years, 37 locomotives were built at the Transcona Shops

BANKRUPTCY

The boom was on. Land that had been selling for 100 per lot was now selling for $100 per front foot. The boom did not last. But hard time in the when rail business was low due to the end of the immigration of settlers to the west and low grain prices. In 1920 Transcona had to face hard facts. Dreams of their future had been unrealistic. When it came time for city council to pay for services it found it had $285,00 in expenditures but only $4,485 in revenues. The town’s affairs were taken over by the province till 1927 when it began to run its own affairs. Till Regent Ave was paved in July 1931, under a depression works program, most Transcona residents would go to the city, Winnipeg, by train.

DUGALD TRAIN WRECK

On Sept 1, 1947, the country’s worst train wreck happened as a train of vacationers returned form Minaki ran into a transcontinental train at the Dugald station a few minutes east of Transcona. It killed 35.

THE INCORPORATION OF ST BONIFACE

Its Struggle to Remain Distinct

By George Siamandas

ORIGINS OF ST BONIFACE

St Boniface incorporated as a city on Feb 25, 1908, and has struggled to remain distinct. Fifty years before Manitoba was even a province, there was a thriving community in St Boniface. In 1734 La Verendrye had reached the Forks and built Fort Rouge. In 1818 Lord Selkirk asked Bishop Plessis of Quebec to send missionaries to care for the emerging Metis population. Upon arrival in 1818, Father Provencher named the mission St Boniface. There were already more than 200 people living at the Forks.

ST BONIFACE: A CITY OF FIRSTS

The first white woman in the west was Marie Anne Gaboury. Her great-great granddaughter, Diane Landry would be Miss Canada in 1967. The west’s first French Radio station CKSB went on the air May 27, 1946. St Boniface was also first to have a railway connection. Since 1844, the Grey Nuns have taken care of educational and health needs, In 1870 they gave 3,000 smallpox vaccinations, and in 1871 the Grey Nuns built the first hospital with 4 beds. Winnipeg had been incorporated in 1873. In 1876 St Boniface considered incorporation as a city but rejected the idea. In 1880 it was incorporated as a municipality as required by a new provincial law. In 1908 with a population of 5,930 it finally became a city.

SERVICES & PUBLIC WORKS

By 1883 St Boniface had a police and fire dept. But financial difficulties in the 1890s saw them cut fire protection services. The first hydro poles were put up in 1890 by the Northwest Power Company. First electrical service went to the Archbishop’s palace and the St Boniface College. Water had initially come from the Red River, but in 1884 they put in artesian wells. In 1905, a water works plant and reservoir were built. Till the first bridge, all crossings were by a ferry near where the Norwood Bridge stands today. And where the ferry operated, so sprang up the first industries.

AVOIDING ANNEXATION

At the turn of the century English people began to move into Norwood and the issue of annexation came up. In a struggle to remain French and distinct, St Boniface chose to incorporate instead. Norwood grew with its own services. Houses replaced a golf course and marshland including several small lakes. Norwood’s first minister, JS Woodsworth, preached from a tent at Marion and Kenny.

COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

Some early industries included a soap factory in 1876, a brick plant in 1879, a wool factory, brewery, and a sawmill. After a major industrial development strategy in 1909, industry boomed in St Boniface. The St Boniface Archdiocese Corp began to sell off their lands for development. First with the railway and with abundant electrical power, St Boniface offered grants for industries to locate there. Tanneries, stockyards, meat packers and flourmills poured in.

The stockyards and meat packing plants began to be built in 1913 on 20 acres of land. The Shell refinery was built in 1920. A dye works, grain companies, a roofing manufacturer, and a steel plant followed.

Today, more than 190 years after its founding, St Boniface remains the bastion of French Canadian culture in western Canada. In so many ways, the new Metis nation and the people of St Boniface, had more to do with the creation of Manitoba than did the English-speaking people of Winnipeg.

THEATRES IN WINNIPEG

By George Siamandas

VOTING IN WINNIPEG CIVIC ELECTIONS

By George Siamandas

ONE MAN ONE VOTE?

In the first civic election Mayor Francis Evans Cornish won 383 votes compared to 179 for his opponent William Luxton. But there were only 384 registered voters. Some people like Mayor Joseph Andrews (mayor 1898-1899) got to vote 66 times. How did it happen? At the time property owners were allowed to vote more than once in each ward in which they held property. Many property owners were listed ten fifteen, twenty, thirty times and some like Joseph Andrews mayor during 1898-1899 was registered to vote in 66 locations. Plural voting was not abolished in Winnipeg till 1965.

The aim of qualifying to vote was to represent property not people. In 1914 there was a request by business people and city council supported by Mayor Thomas Russ Deacon, that the companies like his own, Manitoba Bridge and Iron Works should have a vote on money by-laws and should be able to instruct the manager how to vote. Labour opposed this vehemently and it was never passed by the Manitoba Legislature.

Sanford Evans was mayor from 1909 to 1911. A journalist by background he had come from Ontario. Evans was aided in his campaign by his ownership of the Winnipeg Telegram which denounced his political opponent with editorials charging him as a liar. The big election issue that year was whether prostitution should continue to be tolerated in a segregated district. Evans won on a platform of wanting to make Winnipeg a clean city.

After 1890 one was allowed to vote in every ward in which they owned property. In 1910 it was estimated that Winnipeg had 6,000 repeat voters. Beginning with incorporation both voters and candidates had to own some property. In 1906 with a population of 100,000 there were only 7,784 registered electors. In 1895 women were given the right to vote if they had property. Women were not allowed to hold office till 1916. The first to hold office was Jessie Kirk elected in 1921 and it was not until 1933 that the second Margaret McWilliams was elected. Winnipeg has had forty-nine different mayors. All had Anglo Saxon names for the first 83 years. In 1957 Steve Juba became the first (and only) non Anglo Saxon mayor after 46 straight Anglo-Saxons.

Six months residency in Winnipeg or have purchased property in the City of Winnipeg, be a Canadian citizen, and be 18.

The Day They Closed Portage and Main

by George Siamandas

On February 24, 1979 the Underground Concourse at Portage and Main was officially opened to the public by Mayor Robert Steen. From that day on pedestrians have been barred from crossing at the famous corner of Portage and Main.

The concourse had been envisioned at the time of the building of the Richardson Building in 1964, and its concourse level was built in the early 1970s with a knock out panel for a future connection. Metro Winnipeg planners of the day felt that the increasing numbers of pedestrians and cars would interfere with one another more and more as the corners were developed. It was also the intention to realize that long standing Winnipeg dream of a weather protected downtown pedestrian walkway. Bernie Wolfe who was a Metro politician attributes the credit for the concourse to Earl Levin who used to be Metro’s Chief Planner in the 1960s.

It was quite an engineering feat in that thirty manholes and 120 pipes, tunnels and tubes had to be relocated. All the underground work was done without interfering with traffic above. And it could only have been built after the Floodway was completed, otherwise it would have been prone to flooding.

At the time it was being planned there was small debate and virtually no opposition. Opinion studies done by Streets and Traffic dept the week after it was opened showed high public support for the project at about 80%. But soon it was discovered that it was not accessible by the handicapped and public demands were made to add elevators. To dramatize the issue, Councillor Joe Juken marched illegally over the barriers in 1979. Others like Nick Ternette have also walked across illegally in 1986 and 1995.

There is a lot of consensus that Portaeg and Main should be opened. Most of the general public would like to see it opened during the summer months. After all it is a national landmark. Mayor Susan Thompson has made a commitment that by Jan 1, 1998 she will have the intersection open well in advance for tourists coming to the 1999 Pan Am Games. Tourists who come to Winnipeg who had an image of the famous corner cannot believe that they cannot cross at the street.

Three of the four property owners at the corner have no objections, and the Downtown Biz and the Exchange Biz are for opening it. CentrePlan also has proposals to reopen Portage and Main.

Only one property owner, Trizec, is against it. Bernie Wolfe also remains an adamant opponent of reopening along with the City’s Streets and Traffic Department. A 1991 study showed accidents are down 50% with twice the traffic. Also a wind study conducted at the corner in the late 1980s suggests that on windy days, it may be “too dangerous” for pedestrians, now that there are three office towers there.

A compromise would recognize the need to keep traffic moving at peak times and the intersection might only need to be open part of the time. People that have looked at the issue believe that you could open up the crossing between the Richardson Building and the Bank of Montreal with minimal upset to the traffic.

The Richardson corner has the best potential to become a wonderful plaza. The Richardsons could get the ball rolling by considering a major upgrading of their plaza to create a vibrant public space.

The key would be to have some activity, entertainment, an outdoor cafe, a place where the public could sit and watch people and traffic. And to do it with some shelter from the wind and with good outdoor design like lighting and benches.

Trizec and its merchants would also have to be persuaded that they will not lose customers. Attracting more people downtown might even improve their business.

Winnipeggers Lost on the Titanic

by George Siamandas

Six Winnipeggers were lost including realtor Mark Fortune and son Charles Fortune, Thompson Beattie, Hugo Ross, JJ Borebank, and George Graham. The most tragic loss was that of Mark Fortune and his son Charles.

Mark Fortune became a wealthy real estate man who had come to Winnipeg in 1874 at age 27. He made his “fortune” in early Winnipeg real estate by promoting what was then just a muddy trail: Portage Ave. Increasingly a man contributing to the growth of Winnipeg, Fortune served as an alderman in 1880. Later in 1903 he was a founding member of the Winnipeg Real Estate Exchange and served as its president in 1906. Fortune was known for his honesty and moral standards and for his love of his family. Just months prior to their big trip they had just built a beautiful family home at 393 Wellington Cresc.

The family had spent 1911-1912 in Egypt and Europe and were planning to come back on another ship at the end of April. But Fortune was home-sick and was anxious to return to their elegant new home in which they had only lived a few months before their European trip. They had to be persuaded to return early and he did so by booking first class passage on the Titanic. On the trip were 6 members of the family. Mark and Charles waited on the deck as the life boats filled with women and children. Fortune’s 3 daughters and Mrs Fortune are reported to have watched the great ship go down from lifeboat no 10. 705 people survived. Mary, Ethel, Alice and Mabel made it safely to New York. Their mansion at 393 Wellington Cresc is still standing today and was converted into several luxury condominiums by Kathleen Richardson about ten years ago.

Five of the six men lost were active in Winnipeg’s real estate industry. Hugo Ross after whom a Fort Rouge street is named was in the real estate business. He lived in the Roslyn Apts. Thompson Beattie was also a real estate man who had come to Winnipeg in 1910 and went into business with Winnipeg mayor RD Waugh. JJ Borebank was another real estate man that became successful developing land in River Heights. George Graham was an Eatons manager who was returning from a buying tour in England.

There are as many stories of Winnipeggers who also sailed on the Titanic but failed to do so. For example Mrs Suckling had pleaded with her husband to sail with their friends the Fortunes but John Suckling favoured the slower ships. Similarly Grain Exchange member Alexander Hargraft and his wife were going to sail with Hugo Ross. But Hargraft’s wife became ill so they had left England on an earlier ship.

Apparently Harold Cottam, the wireless operator on the Carpathia moved to Winnipeg to live with his uncle on Toronto St. And Carpathia St. in River Heights was named after the rescue ship in 1913. After the loss of these Winnipeggers (five of whom were in real estate), the Winnipeg Real Estate Exchange furnished a 16 bed ward at the Children’s hospital in memory of their members Ross, Beattie and Fortune.

THE GREAT TIME BUILDING FIRE

“The big fire that threatened Eatons”

By George Siamandas

On June 8, 1954, a major fire broke out on Portage Ave. causing agreat holocaust on Portage Ave. that destroyed the old Time Building, and almost spread to Eatons. The fire broke out just past midnight on Tuesday June 8. It had been a very windy night with the wind blowing over 80km. The alarm came in at 1:18 am and when the fire crew got there, they discovered a fire in the neon sign above a clothing store at the Time Building. But it was stubborn and quickly burned its way up between the floors of this 7 storey building.

The Time Building located was on the north-west corner of Portage Ave. and Hargrave St. diagonally opposite Eatons. It housed a maze of offices and had the well-known J. J. H. McLean piano store on the first floor.

The wind continued to fan the flames and by dawn every available fire-fighter and crew had been called to the scene as the fire had now jumped east across Hargrave and began to destroy other buildings. The firemen created a vertical wall of water along Portage Ave. to protect the buildings on the north side. At one point flames were leaping north across Portage Ave. Eaton’s own 50 man fire crew had been playing a curtain of water over the front but this did not prevent the fire reaching the big store. Every window facing Portage Ave. broke and a small fire started on the 6th floor. The store’s 4,500 employees were sent home as they arrived for work.

Apparently, Portage Ave. looked like it had been hit by an air raid. It was the city’s biggest fire. A neighbouring building, the Dismorr Block, lost two floors. Over 100 businesses were destroyed. It caused $3 million in damages. Yet no one was injured. The fire was blamed on the wind. Six days after the fire, firemen were still on the scene dampening smouldering debris. It cost the city $25,000 to clean up and another $9,000 for damaged equipment.

The Time building was replaced by the Bank of Commerce complete with its sign of the times: Winnipeg’s first drive through bank. It still looks like quite a modern building fifty years later.

THOMAS RYAN

The Shoe King of Winnipeg

by George Siamandas

Thomas Ryan was famous as Winnipeg’s Shoe King, and as mayor of Winnipeg in 1889 introduced strict Sunday closing by-laws. Thomas Ryan was born in 1849 at Perth Ontario. In 1866 at age 17, he fought against the Fenians. He arrived in Winnipeg in 1874 at age 25 during the beginning of Winnipeg’s boom. Winnipeg was still the frontier town with horses and ox carts traversing the mud trails and the life of booze, bars pool-rooms and brothels sprawled around his 492 Main St. store.

Ryan had already apprenticed in the boot and shoe trade and with $70 of stock he brought with him to Winnipeg, entered the shoe manufacturing business. He went into partnership with a man called McFarlane whom he bought out two years later for $450. He was an immediate success and became known throughout the west as “The Shoe King” and by 1884 was doing the best trade in the entire country.

Ryan was a religious man who spent his time and money to help establish a community. Ryan had nine children. He became active in the newly organized YMCA and served as president 1883-1885 and he was also an early supporter of Grace Methodist Church.

Thomas Ryan was active in community life serving as an alderman between 1884 and 1888 and became mayor of Winnipeg starting in 1888. Ryan is credited with introducing the Ryan Sunday by-laws limiting Sunday shopping. The topic was frequently debated in Winnipeg churches and the Lord’s Day Alliance was a local group in favour of controlling Sunday trade. Officially called the Lord’s Day Act it tried to discourage Sunday shopping. Yet in many areas of life it was all but impossible to have people taking Sundays off. Newspaper delivery people, bakers, grocers, railway workers were all needed to do what they do seven days a week.

Over the years the laws waxed and waned on what could be open on Sundays and who could work. Human nature has always preferred the convenience of Sunday shopping. In a major clamp-down that occurred in 1908 the police recorded over 300 infractions.

THE RYAN BUILDING

Ryan’s original building on Main St just south of the old city hall was a landmark but was demolished in the 1930s. It was the first stone building in Winnipeg and had the first electric passenger elevator installed a decade later. His second building located at 104 King St. was built in 1895. This four storey building is fashioned in the Richardsonian Romanesque style and was designed by architect H. S. Griffith.

While Griffith designed dozens of Winnipeg buildings this is the only one remaining in Winnipeg. And it is one of the few buildings remaining in Winnipeg associated with a previous mayor. It suffered a fire in the late 1980s and is now boarded up with the owner prevented from demolishing it because of its Grade 2 historic listing.

Ryan was one of those that believed in the future of Winnipeg and did more than his share as a pioneering businessman, civic administrator and devout churchman. His contributions were both commercial and spiritual. Thomas Ryan died in Winnipeg on Nov 24 1937.

Winnipeg’s

Metropolitan and Capitol Theatres

By George Siamandas

THE MET

The Met originally called the Allen, was built in the 1919 wave of movie palaces by the Allen family, and was completed in 1920. Both theatres were built in what was considered the golden years of the silver screen. They became known as picture palaces where the theatre itself was as splendid as the entertainment to be offered. In the 1920s theatres became larger, luxurious and relatively fire-proof as compared to the older vaudeville houses like the Walker and the Pantages.

The Allens which had originated in the US, owned 45 theatres then. The architect was Howard Crane from Detroit a noted theatres architect. The Met has an opulent lobby, the auditorium seats 2,500, and the ceiling has lovely plaster ceiling and massive chandelier. Of the two theatres the Met is the most intact.

The new theatres like the Allen, which became the Metropolitan in 1923, and the Capitol incorporated lavish details like elaborate plaster decoration using classical details, mirrors and crystal ornamentation.

The second floor promenade of the Met had overstuffed chesterfields and chairs, in gold white, old rose and french grey. It was a place where people came early and stayed late. Silent films and some vaudeville continued till the talkies arrived in the 1928. There was a house orchestra and a grand Wurlitzer organ.

The Allen (Met) had special indirect lighting that was controlled to give magical effects as the lights dimmed before the show. For opening day on Jan 2 1920 the usherettes were dressed in crisp black and white uniforms and Union Jacks were draped over the capacity balcony which seated 1000. The Allen played four shows a day.

THE CAPITOL

The Capitol opened in 1921 and was designed by New York architect Thomas Lamb. Lamb did all of Famous Players Theatres. He also designed Madison Square Gardens and many of Toronto’s Theatres. It was unique in that it was a two part structure. It had its entry and marquee on Portage Ave where Le Chateau is today. But because land was too expensive to put the theatre on Portage, it was built on Donald with a connecting tunnel on the second level over the back lane. It had an extravagant entry with a marble staircase. In 1979 the Capitol was remodelled and became two theatres by being cut into two at the balcony level. The Met closed in 1987, the Capitol in 1990.

An American-based conglomerate, Famous Players took away the Allen’s distribution deal for Paramount pictures signing an 18 year deal. Understandably, the Allens got into financial trouble, and in 1922 and were bought out by competitor Famous Players in 1923 for a tiny fraction of what their theatres were worth. By 1930, Famous Players controlled 207 of Canada’s 229 chain theatres.

The Capitol was the Allen’s main competitor. It had 2,200 seats and a similar arrangement with balcony and elaborate plaster detailing. One entered from Portage Avenue up until 1963 or 1964. After purchasing tickets one would walk up a flight of marble stairs and marble finished walls. There were silk tapestries, mirrors and heavy brass railings to guide the theatre goer up and over that tunnel to the theatre itself. Children remember seeing Pollyanna at the Capitol just before its Portage Avenue entrance was abandoned and remember the experience of that grand entry which seemed so rich and opulent like the interiors in movie itself.

Sunday Streetcars

Observance of the Sabbath Vs Leisure

By George Siamandas

THE FIRST SUNDAY OPERATION

The first Sunday operation had been a one-time-only special occasion. It was the funeral of carman Patrick Mullan held on March 13, 1904. The cortege required 10 streetcars and thousands attended the passing of the cars through the downtown.

HOW SUNDAY OPERATION CAME INTO BEING

There had been several proposals to City Council and the legislature to permit Sunday operation of streetcars since the turn of the century. The issue was debated in letters to the editor of the Free Press. Some argued that with places to go that there would fewer drunks. Others argued that where this had been introduced, such as in Toronto, church attendance went up 20%. Sabbatarians argued that those cities that had done this were rapidly on their way to degeneration and ruin. It was put to the public a number of times. In Dec 2, 1902 Sunday operation was narrowly defeated 2,370 to 2,166 in a civic vote.

SUNDAY OPERATION APPROVED

Finally on June 28, 1906 it was put to another public vote. The Free Press was a staunch advocate and said that Sunday operation was a “humanitarian necessity in this city of magnificent distances.” And that “people interested in vice do not need to go into the country to gratify their inclination towards wickedness.” The results were 2,890 for and 1,647 against Sunday operation. Winnipeggers were jubilant and took their first chance to head to the parks, completely jamming the cars assigned to that first day.

The cars operated from 7:00am to midnight and the fare was 8 tickets for 25 cents. Out of respect for Sunday the speed would be held to 6 miles an hour near churches and the gong would only be sounded in emergencies. Streetcars rolled down a double track running down the middle of Broadway Avenue with its young elm saplings lining the edges of the wide centre Boulevard. Those that did not go to the parks delighted in joy riding around for hours, enjoying tours of the city.

WHERE DID PEOPLE GO ON SUNDAY?

It was just in time for newly opened Assiniboine Park. People enjoyed taking the open streetcars to other parks like River Park, and Elm Park. They also went to Happyland Park, which opened in spring 1906. Happyland was located on the south side of Portage Ave between Sherburn and Garfield. It lasted 14 years and then became Dominion and Aubrey streets. The old bus turn around remains on Aubrey St. In 1907, a special line ran into St Charles Golf Club. For many years the streetcar was the only way of getting there and to all the golf courses. And right into the 1940s, people would carry their clubs with them onto the streetcars.