11: Plum Creek

 
Of all the riverside settlements in Southwestern Manitoba, the village of Plum Creek could be said to have been the one situated in the right spot. There was nothing “False” about this start. Was it good luck, good timing, or was it just too advantageous a spot to abandon?

You might know it as Souris and although the history that town is well documented, We will include a very brief note here about its early days.

The first settlers came in 1879, but it was a colonization party from Ontario that really put the place on the map. In 1880 Squire Sowden came to look over and consider areas for his settlement. He liked what he saw and the following year a group he organized known as the Millwood Colony arrived and set about creating a town.  

By 1884 a dam had been built on Plum Creek to provide waterpower for the mill they had constructed. St. Luke's Anglican Church had been consecrated, and Breezelawn School was open.
 

Photo courtesy www.prairie-towns.com/

By the fall of 1884 there were fifty buildings in the townsite. The homes of Mr. Sowden, Dr. Stoyte, and J.N. and R.B. Kirchhoffer being the most elaborate. There were three stores, and four hotels. The Crescent Hotel, built by Lt. M.S.N. Bryan, a retired Naval Officer, and operated by Brown and McKennett, was reported to be "the best in style and first class in all its equipment." The Bruce House, owned and operated by James Hopkins, also provided a comfortable stopping place. Jameson and Kirchhoffer's livery stable was reported "equal to the best."

All that was well in place years before a railway line reached the town in 1890 and made its future development a certainty.

By then, perhaps it was too big to fail. Was that their strategy?
 

Map:  flickr- Manitoba History Collection

Could be, but let’s not discount timing and luck.

The Importance of good timing

Other would-be villages we have described so far existed for only a few short years before the arrival of railway in the region created a competing settlement with an incredible advantage. None had become large enough to offer any incentive to a railway company to alter any plans. The railway went where it was efficient to do so, and thus bypassed or ignored villages such as Grand Valley, Millford and Souris City.

Souris on the other hand, existed for a decade without a rail line, but also without any competition. The nearest rail line was at the transcontinental line that ran from Brandon through Griswold. Souris remained viable; in fact, it prospered as a commercial centre.

A look at the map may also lend some credence to the argument that luck played a role.  When the CPR did decide to build a Branch into the southwest corner its considerations, as always, rested on two factors. It sought the most direct and cheapest route. That meant avoiding steep river valleys, swamps and rugged hills. The other consideration was maximizing revenue by passing through productive farmland. Essentially they followed the Souris Valley – where there was good land that was already producing. They avoided the steep valley at Souris by crossing the Souris River a bit to the west of town and stayed on the south side of the river and bypassed places like the Lauder Sandhills. Souris was right there where it needed to be.

Whatever the interplay of all these factors, Souris not only go its rail link, it got two and became an important railway centre and the largest town in the region.

Sources:

The People of Souris and Glenwood: From the Earliest Beginning to the Present
Souris and District Heritage Club Inc. 2006

Early Days in Souris and Glenwood
by Alice E. Brown
MHS Transactions, Series 3, Number 10, 1953-54 season

http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/transactions/3/sourisglenwood.shtml


The Swinging Bridge - 2018.

 
Sowden’s home is now a Museum