he entered the bush a deer
appeared. He fired at this and at each of three more following it. He
found that every shot had taken effect, so he now had five deer to take
home. He cut enough poles to form a bed for these and that was all the
load he could take, as he could not have loaded them on a high load. He
supplied each of his neighbors with a fine joint of venison.
SPORT
The summer season was usually opened with a picnic at Otenaw. The
favorite spot was on the farm of Kit Cramer 10-5-13 where there was a
shady poplar grove and an open field for sports. Each family brought, a
supply of eatables and these were spread on improvised tables and
shared with all. Baseball, footraces, etc., delighted the younger
groups while the elders renewed acquaintances and discussed plans
for work and other subjects.
The English boys tried to start a cricket club to offset the favor
given to baseball, but in 1890 the local baseball club challenged the
cricket club to a contest first in baseball and then in cricket, and
won in both. So the Cricket Club faded away.
THE COMING OF THE RAILWAY
There was great rejoicing in the district when in 1889 it was learned
that the Northern Pacific Company was building a line from
Morris to Brandon. The long journeys to market would now be a thing of
the past, No more doubling up the Pembina hills. No more waiting in
town overnight. No more need for extra rest after a long weary
trip. The people went to watch Streeval’s gang
raising the grade across the prairie, and cutting through the high
ridges. Then the bridge gang working both east and west of the town
site, then the track laying: the building were all greeted in
turn.
Objection was made by the leading families to having the town at the
eastern edge of the prairie, but the company directors explained that
the hill to the eastward was so steep that provision must be made for
cutting heavy trains in two and bringing one half up the siding and
going back for the remainder. The objectors then pressed for another
town site six miles west, where the town of Baldur was started in the
following spring.
NAMES
The village of Greenway was nam¬ed after the Hon. Thomas Greenway who
was premier of the province at that time. The Frenchmen of 5-12 wished
to have the next town to the eastward named St. Marie but the railway
di¬rectors claimed they had enough saints along the line already, so a
compromise was made on Mariapolis.
Discarded post offices such as Otenaw, 16-5-13; Pasadena 20-4-13;
Moropano 20-4-14 and Roseberry 28-3-14 are now only memories, but they
bring back thoughts of weary teams struggling through almost endless
miles of snowdrifts, with icicles hanging from their faces and al¬so
from that of the driver, toiling on to bring the mail at the appointed
time to the anxious watchers waiting for word from their dear ones so
many leagues distant.
I distinctly remember one such incident fifty years ago, when I was
working for Samuel Rowe. On the 14 day of February 1890, through the
drifting snow appeared the team and form of A. W. Playfair, returning
with the mail from Pilot Mound. He had waited long enough at George
Stewart's at Dry River post office to have
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the mail sorted so he could deliver ours
at the door. He handed me an envelope containing a photograph of one
who is still at my side.
HARDSHIPS
Many of the early settlers came to the district by team, or on foot
from Emerson or Brandon. Flooded roads and rivers increased the
difficulty. Mrs. W. S. Jackson said she was floated across the Souris
river in a wagon box.
Frost and hail sometimes destroyed the crops. In 1885 the crop
was frozen. Mr. Jackson had but one load to sell. He started off with
his oxen in the early morning for Pilot Mound He arrived late in the
evening and stopped the team near one of the elevators. The elevator
man came and looked into one of the bags and walked away. The man from
the other elevator did the same and left him
standing there. A lump seemed to rise in his throat as he stood
here. A friend of his came along and said "What are you doing here,
Walt?' He replied, "I have brought my only load
of wheat for sale and they will not make me an offer". The friend
brought one of the buyers back and said “You must make him
an offer as he has to sell his wheat to get
supplies." The agent took another look and said
"Nineteen cents a bushel is the best I can do for
you." Forty bushels at this price would give him $7.60 for his
seasons work.
FIRE DESTRUCTION
Fire was a great enemy to the early settlers. In 1886 the country was
burned black from the Tiger Hills almost to Glenora. Nearly every odd
numbered section was an unbro¬ken mile of grass. Fields were small and
disconnected. There were no graded roads to form fire guards.
.... Such guards as there were around buildings and stacks only even
these were too narrow to check direct running fire. Walter Jackson and
Kit Cramer had to use their coats to beat out a fire which was
threatening the hay stacks. Domes¬tic fires sometimes caused serious
loss and hardship. When the Stratford house took fire, Mrs. Jackson,
from her home a quarter of a mile away, saw the smoke, and knowing that
only the children were at home ran to save what she could. On rea¬ching
the house she saw that the building was doomed, so she started to
remove the furniture. She seized the organ and took it alone, out of
the house to safety . . A feat which she would have thought impossible
at other times as she was but a small woman.
The first store in Greenway was built and opened early in 1890 by C, H.
Carbouneau, who brought his supplies by team from Cypress River about
fourteen miles north. In 1893 he sold out to Jas. Flett and moved to
Mariapolis; shortly afterwards the store and contents were burned.
An¬other building was erected and busi-ness resumed immediately. Thirty
years ago the railway station and freight shed with the platforms and
all the contents were burned.
The section house with accommoda¬tion for fourteen men had been burned
several years earlier. I was working on the track at Greenway in 1890
and 1891. In the fall of the latter year a great slaughter of cat¬tle
occurred one night on the track to the east of Greenway. The engineer
was in the habit of running swif¬tly down the long slope from
Mariapolis to gather speed for the climb up the last mile into
Greenway. At the foot of the slope was a plank crossing and thirty
yards westward was an open trestle bridge. A
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