THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE
who have made the Municipality of Pipestone their home over
the
years, since its inception in 1884, have been a fascinating group, full
of strength and wisdom, wit and vigour, kindness and foresight.
Some of these people are also significant, key figures in our history.
They have either come to define the region by their very being, or they
have changed our communities through their actions and decisions.
This project recognizes and honours these people.
On the following pages you will encounter the collection of peoplewho
have made a real difference. The useful way we have chosen to explore
and describe these people has been to focus on traditional occupations
and avocations. With one key person typically defining each entry (a
merchant, a school teacher, a brick-maker, etc.) we expect that the
rich and deep experience of life and work in the Municipality of
Pipestone can be effectively and succinctly defined.
The people profiled in this booklet are special, but we have also
endeavoured to feature others with slightly lesser claims to
significance who help define or enhance a certain entry. And where
possible we have also added information and details on certain
occupations and avocations so that readers can come to fully understand
and appreciate who these people were, what they did, and how they did
it.
This booklet was developed through a project called Notable People, an
initiative of the Historic Resources Branch of Manitoba Culture,
Heritage and Tourism. That project allowed us to develop a
comprehensive inventory of potential candidates, and to carefully
analyze and assess the relative significance of the 180 individuals
profiled. We are grateful to the Province for this support and
direction.
It is easy at the turn of the 21st century to forget the origins and
qualities of Manitoba’s smaller communities. But at their beginnings
these were very industrious places, with young, ambitious people, full
of life, and with great dreams for their new home. It is also important
to recall that these places were also self-sustaining, with nearly
everything one would need made at hand. Much of what was required for
daily life was manufactured here, from bricks to dresses, harnesses to
flour. Place like Reston, Pipestone and Sinclair and the smaller rural
communities surrounding them in 1900 was active, lively and fun.
It is important to set the stage for the following stories, and we are
fortunate to have the words of Ellen Guthrie Bulloch, who in 1929
created our first local history book, Pioneers of the Pipestone. We
quote often from that remarkable little book, which we highly recommend
to anyone interested in the early days of “The Settlement” as the
loosely defined community centred around the Lanark School was called.
Mrs Bulloch, in her conclusion, wrote:
To trace the growth of the district from the very beginning until the
coming of the railway and towns has been a most interesting,
if rather a difficult task….
Many changes have come about during this time and it has been a
wonderful experience to see the country develop from the bare prairie
without a tree or shrub except along the river, to a country partially
wooded, well built, homes, excellent gravelled roads, telephones and at
this time of writing.
The very first crops were cut with scythe and cradle, hay mowed and
raked by hand, and threshing done with horse power in some
cases. Plows of one furrow with one team of horses or oxen were used
and the whole process of farm work was much slower than it is today.
Gradually the people began to realize the possibilities of the soil and
climate. More and better gardens were grown, trees, shrubs and flowers
planted, fruit of many kinds, especially the smaller varieties grown.
As the land was broken and the prairie fires which burned over the land
every season in the first years no
longer ravaged, the poplar bluffs began to spring up around sloughs and
have spread until now the bare prairie of the early days has
disappeared entirely.
Today many of the men and women who bravely faced pioneer conditions in
this new land have passed on to their reward and only those who lived
during that period or experienced like conditions
in some other part of the country can realize how much courage, faith
and endurance was required to carry on in spite of all the difficulties
encountered.
Thus to this later generation is passed on the task of upholding and
carrying on thee work so well begun by the pioneers, trying to
realize their dreams and ambitions for this new land, and each
individual contributing his or her share towards that development so
far as possible. Realizing also as the pioneers did that spiritual as
well as material development is necessary if the proper growth is to be
attained, may we go on keeping these aims and ideals ever in mind,
trusting and striving for the fullest possible development lest we
break faith with those who have gone before, the Pioneers of the
Pipestone.
Community History
By the end of the settlement era three sets of tracks crossed the
Municipality of Pipestone. In 1892, the C.P.R. line had been extended
from Souris into the northern part of the R.M. and would eventually
create the towns of Pipestone, Reston and Sinclair. In 1902 a branch of
the C.N.R cut across and the southern reaches putting Scarth,
Woodnorth, Cromer and Butler on the map. Shortly thereafter the C.P.R.
created the Reston-Wolseley line giving birth to Ewart and Ebor. By
1906, farmers throughout the municipality had reliable connections with
the rest of the province allowing much easier marketing of their
produce and much improved access to agricultural equipment and consumer
goods
The first towns may not have appeared until after 1890, but the region
itself already had a long and interesting history. The wooded valley of
the Pipestone had long been a place of shelter, a gathering place for
various aboriginal peoples, and a buffalo hunting ground.
In 1881 the arrival of the transcontinental railway, first at Brandon,
then Oak Lake and Virden, allowed settlers easier access to this
territory.
The first settlers in the Pipestone Valley were Dan McKinnon and A.
McLean who arrived on May 28th, 1881. They were followed within days by
William and James Lothian. Their names and others live on through
mention of McKinnon’s Crossing and Guthrie’s Grove in the local
histories.
Some of these first settlers came with the hope that a rail line would
soon cross the district. That didn’t happen and it left the people of
Pipestone to make long trips for supplies and to market their produce.
That didn’t stop them from establishing farms schools and churches,
raising families, and generally getting on with life.
For the first ten years after farming operations commenced, the
scattered rural nature of settlement in the area was characterized by
various small rural centres, often just a post office, usually in a
farm home, and perhaps woirh a school which might double as a church
and community hall. Lanark School and nearby Reston Post Office which
was located on the Bullock farm, was once such community. Elm
Valley School and Post Office in the Cromer Area was another centre to
the west, Manda and Woodnorth Post Offices were central and Belleview
was on the eastern reaches of the district.
This map was created prior to 1890. The locations
identified as “Reston” and “Pipestone” refer to Post office locations
as the railway (and the villages) had not yet arrived.
In 1892 Canadian Pacific Railroad, completed a line from Souris into
the northern part of the Municipality of Pipestone. The towns of
Pipestone and Reston were quickly established. Service to the rest of
the municipality was improved with additional lines in the early 1900’s.
With the arrival of rail lines we saw the usual creation of villages
centred around a railway station, elevator(s) and a cluster of
services. Schools and Post Offices were then generally moved to new
locations in the village.
The establishment in 1892 of the towns of Pipestone and Reston in the
midst of well-populated and productive farmland led to an initial burst
of commercial enterprises. The usual banks, general stores, drug and
jewellery stores appeared. Some of these would naturally be housed in
quickly erected-frame buildings, but soon a few noteworthy buildings
such as the stone G.S. Monroe Store, the brick Berry House and Berry
Block and the frame Pipestone Presbyterian Church were erected, all of
which remain. Several of those built near the turn of the century
created the downtown streetscape in Reston, the general outline of
which does still exist today.
Reston in 1912
In most Manitoba communities, the “Establishment” era is defined by the
replacement of “Pioneer” log, sod and rough lumber buildings by more
ambitious constructions of milled lumber. With that definition in mind
the towns in the municipality of Pipestone can be said to have almost
skipped the Pioneer stage and proceeded directly to Establishment.
The rural areas of course did go through these phases. The
Consolidation period can be said to have started in the early 1900’s
with the erection of the several “downtown” brick blocks in Reston, the
Arlington Hotel in Pipestone and retail expansion in general.
In the early years of the twentieth century Reston consolidated its
position as the primary trading centre for the region while Pipestone,
though a vibrant community, offered more limited commercial services.
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