Fort Dufferin, The Fortyninth, and the West Reserve 1875

by Edwin D. Hoeppner

"I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

---------------------------------------------

He only says, Good fences make good neighbors.

(From "Mending Wall," by Robert Frost, 1914)

When the first Mennonite immigrants bound for the "Big Plain" west of Red River on the "International" were approaching the International Boundary, they passed the mouth of the Pembina River, site of a number of Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), Northwest Company (NWC) and XY Company (XYC) fur trading posts. The first of these appears to have been built in about 1793 by Peter Grant (NWC). A few years later, Alexander Henry (the Younger) built a NWC fort on the northwest angle of the confluence in 1801 and rebuilt it in 1803.¹ Later still, the Selkirk Settlers over-wintered at Pembina in Fort Daer, built by the HBC in 1811. Henry's Fort Pembina and Fort Daer both were still in existence in the 1820s and we are fortunate to have a watercolour of the two forts, in about 1822, done by the Swiss Selkirk Settler artist, Peter Rindisbacher. In about 1826 Rindisbacher and many of the Swiss emigrated to St Paul, Minnesota, after experiencing disastrous grasshoppers and the great flood of 1826. Immediately after crossing the boundary, the passengers of the "International" would have seen on the east bank of the Red the nascent village/town of Emerson, which had only just come into existence the previous year (1874) and was beginning to grow somewhat in 1875². On the west bank of the Red there still stood the HBC Fort North Pembina - painted by the American artist, Washington Frank Lynn, who passed through this area in 1872 on his way to Red River (Winnipeg); the painting depicts the fort much as it must have looked in 1875., It was "...torn down in 1880 and replaced with a fine, new store."² In the vicinity of the HBC Fort, probably to the south, stood a log building, the Canadian Customs House, opened in late 1871. By 1872 the Customs House also served as a Telegraph, Express, and Post Office - and it is likely also where the first Mennonite births on the West Reserve were registered. This area of the HBC Fort and the Customs House were initially known as North Pembina and a little later was known as "West Lynne." "The Emerson Centennial History" does not indicate the origin of the name "West Lynne," but one guess is that it might have some connection with "East Lynne, a novel (1861) by Mrs Henry Wood (1814-1887), which centred on a railway accident and which became the most popular Victorian stage melodrama. (cont. on p.7)

The Manitoba Daily Free Press (MDFP) reported the arrival of these immigrant Mennonites at West Lynne and at the Rat River in July, 1875. Fifty-three families landed at Fort Dufferin and forty families at the Rat River.

In the book "Reinland: An Experience in Community," Peter D. Zacharias has included an account of Jacob Fehr's memory of the arrival at Dufferin. Jacob Fehr (1859 - 1952) was sixteen years old at the time. "...It seems to me that there were three buildings arranged in a triangle. Our party occupied these quarters quite fully. There was little elbow room. There were many sick children who had not recovered from sea- sickness and one after the other they passed into eternity. There was a funeral every day ..." There is still a memory in the Emerson area of a series of shallow depressions south of Dufferin, which were believed to be the site of these graves.⁴ The area has since been cultivated and the depressions are apparently obliterated.

Until relatively recently no plan or map of Fort Dufferin was known but John McFarland and Associates located a plan in the Ste. Agathe Parish File No. 15, held in the Public Archives of Manitoba (PAM)⁵ and both Mr Dick Remus of the Post Road Heritage Group and Mr McFarland have graciously given the MMHS permission to publish their adaptation of this map in this article. Although the map may not be entirely accurate with respect to relative distances between buildings, it is interesting to note that the three barracks buildings (at 8, 9 and 10) are arranged in the form of a "U" with the opening of the "U" oriented toward the northeast and facing the river. It would appear that these are the three buildings "in a triangle" recalled many years later by Mr Jacob Fehr, and one of our photographs shows us what they looked like in the 1873 - 1875 period. As related by Mr Fehr, their party - likely the first one - had to stay in these overcrowded quarters for some six weeks until the land survey was completed and the new homesteaders could claim lands on what became the West Reserve. But why the delay in the survey? The reason becomes somewhat clearer by reference to the section on Land Surveys in the Historical Atlas of Manitoba (pp 231 - 237) and the map of lands surveyed by the end of 1874 (pp 268/269).⁶ "The preliminary step was to survey the land into blocks 12 miles square, composed of four townships ... After these outlines had been completed, surveyors were assigned to individual townships to lay out the farm units."⁶ A quick glance at the map on page 269 reveals that by the end of 1874 the row of townships No. 1, adjacent to the boundary had been surveyed in coarse outline only, and the sectional and quarter-section survey was only commenced in 1875 ... and thanks to a letter to the Editor of the MDFP, in the edition of June 24, 1875, we know that this sectional survey apparently did not get underway until at least the latter part of June 1875. By July 29, 1875 the MDFP was able to report that settlement preparation was underway.

By August 6, 1875 the MDFP reported that Mr Shantz was putting up at Emerson two buildings in which to store supplies for the Mennonites, and corrected the Reserve size to 18 townships. Each building was reported to be 18 x 80 feet in size and they were conveniently located near the steamboat landing and the ferry.

Then it its issue of August 19, 1875 the MDFP reported that Mr Shantz had indicated that "the immigration for this season is over." About 808 families, averaging 5½ persons to a family for a total of 4444 persons had come in 1874 and 1875 with about one third of this number arriving in 1874 and of these about 30 families had gone to the Scratching River in Township 5, Range 1E. Also 80 families were still in Ontario and would come in 1876. In this report Shantz referred to the "Rat River Reserve" and the "Pembina Reserve," with about 300 families on the latter.

The same issue, in an item from Emerson dated August 16th, 1875, reported that Mr Ashdown had brought in a barge load of goods for his trade with the Mennonites but that "Pembina has been getting a good deal of the Russian trade on account of the scarcity of goods on this side of the boundary line."

On August 25, 1875 the MDFP, in a column from Emerson dated August 22, 1875, reported "... Most of the Mennonites are now out on their claims. Mr. Hespeler was here during the past week ... The American land surveyors have completed their work in Minnesota up to the boundary line ... One of the Mennonite store-houses is completed and occupied and the other approaches completion.

On 26 August 26, 1875 the MDFP reported: "A portion of the freight of the Selkirk consisted in wagons, all the way from Russia, for the Mennonites. They are very substantial; but there are at least two things the matter with them: they have small wheels, which don't do for our mud, and the freight upon them amounts to as much as would buy good wagons here." On 28 August 1875 the MDFP reported: "Thornton & Sutherland have received an order from Mr. Shantz for 5000 sacks of flour and 4000 bushels of grain for the Mennonites, to be delivered before the close of navigation."

At this point the first Mennonites of the West Reserve are out on their claims, establishing homes and communities, bringing home their dearly bought supplies from Emerson and Pembina and the first instalment of flour and grain, the "Brotschuld" courtesy of the Ontario Mennonites, on their substantial wagons, and preparing for their first Manitoba winter. Their Fort Dufferin sojourn was behind them - but the lonely, little and probably unmarked graves would not soon be forgotten by the families affected.

Fort Dufferin, named after the Governor-General of the day, is not only central to the establishment of the Mennonites west of the Red River - it was also of significance in an episode concerning the arrival of many non-Mennonites, who came to settle southern and southwestern Manitoba. There appears to be some uncertainty as to how long Dufferin continued to serve as an immigration reception facility. In a report "Dufferin" prepared for the Manitoba Historic Resources Branch in October 1975, it is stated "Just how long Dufferin was used for this purpose is not known."⁶ It can now be confirmed that it was still in use for this purpose in 1881 when a family by the name of Wilson "... spent the winter of 1881 in the old Dufferin Hotel near Emerson, before moving on to Turtle Mountain.⁷ There is some description of the family's travel along the Boundary Commission Trail, but, oddly enough, there is no reference to the posts marking this road at 125 foot intervals through the Mennonite settlement, nor is there any apparent reference to stopping places until after they had reached the Pembina Hills.

The importance of Dufferin as a historical artifact and landmark transcends the Mennonite experience there. It was constructed to house and to serve as the headquarters for the British (and Canadian) North American Boundary Commission 1872-1876. By 1874 the boundary survey was nearly complete and only a few Commission staff were still there. The newly forming North West Mounted Police assembled at Dufferin and in 1874 set out on their famous march West to bring Canadian sovereignty and law enforcement to the West. Thanks to the recent re-enactment of this NWMP march West in 1999 as a celebration of the 125th anniversary of this event, this episode is now somewhat more widely known. The boundary survey of 1872 - 1876 was a tri-national project, with the United States North American Boundary Commission headquartered at the military installation of Fort Pembina near Pembina, North Dakota. There was considerable interaction between the two boundary commissions, who together, each on its own side of the "fortyninth," marked its location from Lake of the Woods to the continental divide - and this suggested the quotation from Robert Frost's poem with which this article began. Once the NWMP had departed from Dufferin, it was essentially vacant for 1875 and could, seemingly almost providentially, shelter our forebears in 1875 and thereafter. By means of its function, or rather functions, as home for an international survey, temporary and brief home for a national institution, the NWMP, and temporary home for a variety of in-coming immigrants and other homesteaders, Fort Dufferin is a national, provincial and local historic site.

It is beyond the purpose of this article to say much about the boundary survey, but some things are essential for our understanding of how and why southern Manitoba came to be the way it was and is. There is substantial literature on the subject and a small selection of it is listed in the bibliography.⁸ As was intimated in the introductory paragraph, together with the bibliographic references, there is a substantial historic record of the near-boundary area (on both sides) going back just over two centuries to the 1790s.

It is most probable that Alexander Henry's carts on their trips from Pembina to the vicinity of Pinancewaywining in 1802 created the first cart trails, of which the Boundary Commission Trail, and the Post Road were later modifications and/or further developments. Included in the photographs is a view of the Boundary Commission's Pembina Mountain East Depot. This depot was about 43 miles from Dufferin and it must have been where this 43 mile point was on the trail, the later Post Road, and, therefore, it cannot have been very far from the site of Mountain City (SW 1/4 Sec 24, Tp2, R6 West),⁹ quite possibly N ½ Sec 13, Tp2, R6 West, about 4.5 miles south-southwest of Morden, incidentally, within a few miles of the no longer extant village of Waldheim, which was also on the Post Road. The Boundary Commission Trail/Post Road ascended the Pembina Hills at this point, about 9 or 10 miles due north of the boundary, because the slope of the escarpment is much more gradual here than it is farther south, or farther north, and it was merely following the path marked out in 1859 by John Palliser's British North American Exploring Expedition 1857 - 1860.

Fort Dufferin

There were approximately eleven buildings plus three latrines in 1872 with further storage and stables and temporary buildings added in 1873. The following details are taken from the 1975 Historic Resources Branch Report.⁶ The base camp was designed by Lieutenant A.C. Ward and the construction was done by a contractor who obtained most of his labour and materials from Minnesota. The main accommodation buildings are described as: "all frame and consisting of officers' quarters -- a two storey building -- and attached kitchens, three one-storey buildings for the assistants and men, and a stable for fifty horses, store- house, cook house, bakery, work-shop, and smith- shop."

No. Length Breadth Height Remarks

Officers' Quarters 1 36' 6" 42' 9" 20' For 12 officers

Mess Kitchen 1 24' 4" 18' 3" 10'

Latrine 1 12' 4" 9' 4" 10'

Men's Quarters 3 48' 6" 24' 5" 11' Each one = 2 rooms, 14 men in each, two had cellars.

Three buildings, each of two rooms for fourteen men in each room, plus officers' quarters for twelve suggest accommodation for only a total of 96 people was available (96=3 x (14 x2) + 12). This would certainly confirm Mr Jacob Fehr's recollection that there was little elbow room. Perhaps some people had to be accommodated in the shops, store houses, and/or stables. Recall the MDFP report of 53 families debarking on July 14, 1875: using Mr Shantz' figure of 5.5 persons per family, this gives us a total of about 292 persons.

These people must have been extremely anxious to get out on the land after a stay of six weeks at Dufferin, for a number of reasons!

It must be remembered that the West Reserve had no legal existence as such in 1875. These eighteen townships were not officially set aside for exclusive Mennonite settlement until the Order-in-Council of April 25, 1876.¹⁰ It appears that the Dominion Lands agency acted on the knowledge, presumably internal instructions, that the area would be officially reserved for Mennonite settlement - but this information was not available to the non-Mennonite settlers, mainly from Ontario, who had already made claims on well-wooded sections along Dead Horse Creek and Plum Creek (or "River") near Waldheim, and on the slopes of the Pembina Hills, in the Spring of 1875, sections which were within the area to be reserved for the Mennonites. A conflict was pre- programmed - but that only became serious in late 1877.¹¹

This year, 125 years after the initial reception at Fort Dufferin, we remember with deep gratitude those who made great sacrifices to pioneer in a new land, and we reflect also with equal gratitude on the society that was prepared to receive our forebears.

Endnotes

1. New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest - The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry ..... 1799 - 1814 (Edited with copious critical commentary by Elliott Coues, Vol I The Red River of the North) (1897, Reprinted 1965, Ross & Haines, Inc, Minneapolis, Minn).

See also Chas. H. Lee; The Long Ago (1899 The Semi-Weekly Mountaineer Press, Walhalla, N.D.)

2. Emerson 1875 - 1975 A Centennial History (Emerson Chamber of Commerce, D.W. Friesen & Sons Ltd, Altona, Man).

3. P.D. Zacharias; Reinland an Experience in Community (Reinland Centennial Committee, 1976, D.W. Friesen & Sons Ltd, Altona, Man).

4. Telephone conversation Mr Dick Remus, of the Post Road Heritage Group, Emerson, with the author 10 February 2000.

5. Fort Dufferin Feasibility Study - Prepared for The Post Road Heritage Group, Inc. (by McFarland and Associates, March 1995).

6. John Warkentin and Richard Ruggles; Historical Atlas of Manitoba (Manitoba Historical Society, 1970) (pp 235 and 269).

7. Dufferin by B. Potyondi; Historic Resources Branch October 1975 page 26.

8. Helen E. Cowan; On the Old Boundary Commission Trail (Deloraine Times and Waskada News, Deloraine, Man. Thursday, March 30, 1944).

9. International Boundary Survey and Fort Dufferin.

9.1. John E Parsons West On The 49th Parallel - Red River to th~ Rockies 1872 - 1876 (William Merrow and Company, New York, 1963).

9.2. Marjorie Forrester; Shooting the Stars and Chaining the Land (The Beaver, Spring 1960 pp 10 - 17).

9.3. Marjorie Forrester; That Northwest Angle (The Beaver, Autumn, 1960 pp 32 - 38).

9.4. Marjorie Forrester; Markers on the Forty-Ninth (Manitoba Historical Society Series III No 16 pp 78 - 90).

9.5. John Peter Turner; The Historic Forty-Ninth (RCMP Quarterly Vol 9 No 2 Oct.1941, pp.166-177 and Vol.9, No.3, Jan.1942, pp.270-281.

9.6. Sergeant H.A. Stewart; Fort Dufferin (RCMP Quarterly Vol 7 No 4 April 1940 pp 377 - 379).

9.7. Capt.S. Anderson, R.E: Chief Astronomer to the N.A. Boundary Comm~ss~on; The North American Boundary from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains (A Paper read, March 27th, 1876 Royal Geographical Society, R.G.S. Journal Vol 46, London, 1876 p. 228).

9.8. Capt. Featherstonhaugh, R.E.;Narrative of the Operations of the British North American Boundary Commission, 1872 - 1876 (Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol XXIII, New Series, Woolwich, 1876, pp 24 - 49).

9.9. Suzan Scott; Fort Dufferin (Historic Resources Branch August 1972).

10. PAM MG 14 B44 Howard Winkler Papers; Mountain City (1875? - 1883).

11. E.K. Francis; In Search of Utopia (D.W. Friesen & Sons Ltd, Altona, Manitoba, 1955) pp 62.

12. Lawrence Klippenstein; West Lynne and Fort Bufferin, talk presented at MMHS Historical Workshop and Tour, Gretna Prairie Senior Centre, April 24, 1999.