A Lady's Life on a Farm in ManitobaHall, M. G. C. (Mary Georgina Caroline)
History
A Lady's Life on a Farm in Manitoba
Hall, M. G. C. (Mary Georgina Caroline)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Manitoba; Manitoba -- Description and travel
You should have seen A---- and his equipage start into Winnipeg
two days ago. He and the men from the tent had to go in and bring
out a waggon and the new "Cortland waggon" (my present), and they
had to take in the broken buggy to be mended. So they started with
a four-in-hand to their cart, the broken buggy tied on behind, and
another pair of horses behind that again. The buggy they say very
nearly capsized going over the bridge of the creek when near
Winnipeg, otherwise they got on beautifully; but it was a funny
arrangement altogether, and they seemed to cover a quarter of a
mile of ground as they left here. Winnipeg grows in a most
astonishing way; every time we go in, a new avenue or street seems
to have started up. Emigrants, they say, are coming in at the rate
of a hundred a day. A few years ago the population was about five
thousand, in 1878 about ten, now over forty thousand, a fourth of
whom are living under canvas.
It was estimated last winter that the building operations this
season would amount to four million dollars, but double that
amount is nearer the mark, and many are obliged to abandon the
idea of building on account of the difficulty of getting timber
and bricks. Every house or shanty is leased almost before it is
finished. Winnipeg, as you know, was formerly known as Fort Garry,
and one of the chief trading stations of the Hudson Bay Company.
Of the old fort, I am sorry to say, there is very little left, and
that is shortly to be swept away for the continuation of Main
Street. The Governor, now occupying the old house, is to have a
splendid building, which, with the Houses of Legislature, are in
the course of construction, rather farther away from the river.
The town is built at the confluence of two great rivers, the Red
and Assiniboine, the former rising in Minnesota, and flowing into
lake Winnipeg 150 miles north, navigable for 400 miles. The
Assiniboine has many steamers on it; but the navigation being more
difficult, the steamers often sticking on the rapids, it is not
much in vogue with emigrants going west, particularly now that the
railway takes them so much more rapidly.
There is a large suburb of the town the other side of the Red River
called St. Boniface face, the see of a Roman Catholic Archbishop;
possessing a beautiful cathedral and a great educational school for
young ladies; for some reason or other we never managed to get over
there to see it, though the cathedral is a grand landmark for a great
distance.
The railway traffic also is enormous. During the flood 4,000
freight waggons were delayed at St. Vincent; now they are coming
in at the rate of 4,000 per week, and still people cannot get
their implements, stores, &c. fast enough. We have asked several
times for some turpentine at one of the shops, and the answer
always given is, "It is at the depot, but not unloaded."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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