Our Heritage

3. Excerpts from "Stories of Pioneer Days at Killarney"

Pioneer Days in the Rowland District . By J. E. Haight

Owing to lack of time and space, I must conﬁne this article chieﬂy to the actual homesteaders. What is generally known as the Rowland district consists of Township 4, Range 18 and part of the South half of Township 4, Range 17. Mr. George Haight colonized the greater part of the South half of 4-18, bringing from the County of Oxford, Ontario, the early homesteaders, taking for himself and his four sons, homesteads and preemptions. The application for entry for lands were then made at the land office at Deloraine. In the years 1882 and 1883, the most of the entries were made for this part of Township 4-18. The Bleakley Bros, Woodrow Bros, Johnson Bros, Arthur Squires, T, E. Bill. Joseph McKay. In the northern part, were the Mitchell Bros, 'Wm. Bertrand, James Russell and several others from other parts of Oxford County. Mr. A. Mustard, although a pretty small boy when he came in 1883, has the right to claim an important part in the development of this section of the country. Most of these homesteaders were young men and unmarried, I think at this time, there were only four married men in the Township, so when the ladies began to come, you may be sure they received a right royal welcome. On July 27th, 1883, Mrs. Geo. Haight, Miss Cunliff and the writer arrived at Rowland, via Brandon, from Brandon to Rowland per horse team and democrat. They arrived a little too soon, however to receive a grand reception. Mr. S. J. Woodrow was getting together all the men and ox teams in the neighborhood to come out to meet us. He also had a part of a brass band to accompany the procession.

An item worthy of note just here might be that the ﬁrst white child to be borne in Township 4-18, was a little Miss McKay, however she may have thought it not wise to stay here, so soon went with her parents to their home in Ontario.

In 1884 came Mr. and Mrs. T. M. Bailey, the parents of the worthy manager of the Royal Bank of this town. Mr. Bailey was a tailor by trade and it was he who made the wedding suit of the writer of this article.

Later came Mr. and Mrs. James Wye, The Muirhead Bros, Mr. David Lister and his father, and others to purchase R. R., H. B, and School lands. The homesteads by this time were about all taken, except herer and there an abandoned quarter section. In the southwest part of 4-17, were Mr. and Mrs. Hugh McKnight, Mr. and Mrs. Jas. McKnight, the Smale Bros, Will Henry, Stockdale Bros. and Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Wilson.

The nearest post office was at Langvale, about 13 miles away and some of the young husky fellows thought it nothing to walk over in an afternoon for the mail for themselves and their neighbors, especially when they were expecting a letter from the “girl I left behind me.”

When the post office was established at Rowland in 1883, with Geo. l-Iaight as post master, the late Mr. Chas. Bate was appointed in Her MajeSty’s Service to carry the mail from Killarney to Langyale and Rowland. Later Mr. James Russell, with his faithful old grey horse, “Dan” and backboard took over the service.

In 1887, on January 7th, we began to get two mails per week, previous to this only one per weekend some times none at all. In 1882, it was fully expected that the Manitoba Southwestern Railway would pass from Glendenning through the southern part of Township 4 westward, so with high hopes what was expected to become a thriving town was located on Section 10-4-18. A stopping place, store, blacksmith shop, with Neil Johnson as ﬁrst smith, al arge feed and sales stable; consisting-of poplar poles and prairie brick, and a commodious tent were erected. This location was in a direct line from Brandon to the historic village of Wakopa and the international boundary.

But alas, the long cherished hopes of the pioneers were not to be realized, for in 1885, the railway came, leaving Rowland, the nucleus of a busy, prosperous, commercial center four miles north of its iron way. Thus the veriﬁcation of the thought as expressed by the poet, “Hopes are allusions and not what they seem.” Today there is nothing left 'to mark the spot.

Some notable persons were entertained in the humble farm homes in those days. Among them were Lord John Pollock, of London, Eng, Professor Tanner, of Edinborough, Scotland. These two were accompanied by Mr. J. W. Dafoe, later editor of the Winnipeg Free Press. He was on duty as reporter. It was Mrs."Geo. Haight, who did the entertaining on this occasion.

When Professor Tanner returned to his home in Scotland, he wrote a poem about the great west country, part of which I here quote: “There a man is a man, if he is willing to toil. And the humblest may gather the fruits of the soil. There children are plenty and he who hath most hath help for his fortunes and riches to boast. There the young may exult and the aged may rest, away far away in the land of the West.”

Those were the good old days, there, was friendliness and companionableness, for every man was as good as his neighbor, they had hearts that could feel for his neighbor’s woe and share in his joy with a friendly glow, with sympathies. large enough to enfold all men as brothers. They were bound together by one common tie in the days of the early eighties. If one was unfortunate and behind with his work, the word was, “come on boys, we’ll help him out,” With no thought of how much are we going to get for it.

Parties? yes, lots of them, surprise parties too, in sleigh loads: drawn by oxen, or perhaps an ox and a cow, or a horse and an ox. One amusing sight the writer saw was a horse and an ox hitched to a top buggy conveying a man and his wife to church service, on Sunday. The preacher was no less a person than the late Dr. Stewart who later became professor in Wesley College. Winnipeg. He, I think, was the ﬁrst inspector of schools in this southern district. He and Mr. Wm. Ryan of this town, who was then Reeve of Turtle Mountain Municipality, formed the Bethel School District in 1887. The meeting was held in what was then called a “house”, dimensions, 10 x 12. Divine services were held in stopping places and in private homes until Rowland school house was built in 1886 and Bethel School in 1887.

The» ﬁrst sermon preached in Bethel was on November 4th, 1888. Rev. Mr. Lowery was the preacher and there were thirty in attendance. Services and Sunday School, entertainments and public gatherings were held in the Rowland school house from the early days up to the time when the church was built in 1913. The Rev. G. Teeter was the ﬁrst to start a movement towards the building of this church. Following: Mr. Teeter came Rev. J. B. E. Anderson and during his ministry of several years, the church was planned, ﬁnanced, work begun and well on to completion. Then came Rev. Mr. Stock, under whom the building was ﬁnished, opened and dedicated to the worship and service of God, on November 16th, 1913, Thus there now stands in the centre of a thriving community this beautiful and well equipped little church as a tribute to the labor and sacriﬁce of a united people and all free of debt

The ﬁrst political meeting ever held in the district was in the stopping place under the auspices of the “Farmers Union,“ Mr. James Lang of Langvale was the speaker. The Municipality of Riverside in which lies the Rowland district never had a place where liquor could legally be sold. It came under Local Option in the early days as the result of a petition circulated by Rev. Mr. Kinley and Mr. A. Mitchell, such solid men as Mr.Thos Morrow, late of Killarney, the McMillans, Mitchells, Loves, Chesters, Bills, Hopwoods and many others, upheld the temperance cause, when an effort was made to repeal in 1908 and it failed, no effort has been made since and still they are ﬁghting on.

Game was plentiful in the pioneer days. Geese, ducks, sandhill cranes, and chicken. Fur-bearing animals were also numerous, Red fox, of which the writer dressed 32 in one winter and the pelts were sold at from $1.50 to $2.00 each. Mink, badger and there was also in evidence that very much despised little animal which when danger approached had the faculty of effusing an extremely obnoxious efﬁluvia which plainly said, please let me alone and all will be well.

Sometimes the graceful jumping deer might be seen leisurely strolling over the prairie and in the timber areas, moose and elk were to be found.

In concluding these memories of the pioneer days, I have, to say that most of the brave men and women who turned the virgin soil of the wide open prairie into ﬁelds of productiveness, who endured the hardships and privations of pioneering, built homes, churches and schools and made it a goodly land in which to live, these have left their mark and passed on, showing that this is a world of change. In thinking of this, it seems to me that I might ﬁttingly quote these words. “Like as a plank of driftwood, cast on an angry main, another plank encounters, meets, touches, parts again. So it is with life forever o’er life’s dark troubled sea, we, meet, we greet, we sever, drifting eternally.”