Timeline...
1870 - 1880
The
World
1876: Battle of Little Bighorn, June 25 and 26. A combined
Lakota,
Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho force, overwhelms the 7th Cavalry
Regiment of the United States.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell successfully transmits the first
bi-directional transmission of clear speech. An improved design for the
“telephone” was patented the next year.
Canada
1874
The newly created Northwest Mounted Police march west from Dufferin,
Manitoba, on passing the Turtle Mountains they have a brief glimpse of
some of the Minnesota Sioux and their white captives.
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Manitoba
1874 - July 31 - First Russian Mennonites arrive at Winnipeg on the
steamer International.
1878 - December 4 - First freight by rail reached St. Boniface. Two
days later, the first freight for export was shipped by rail from St.
Boniface via steamer.
Rapid City (originally known as Farmer’s Crossing) established.
A Land Office was located there.
First grain elevator built in Niverville.
Steamboats service established the Assiniboine as far as Fort Ellice.
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The R.M.
of Argyle
In the early 1870’s a combination of economic factors and natural
disasters, such as volcanic eruptions in Iceland, prompted increased,
and large-scale emigrations to North America. On the advice of a
Missionary named John Taylor a large group of settlers arrived on the
west side of Lake Winnipeg in the late fall of 1875, establishing a
settlement that has shaped the culture of that part of Manitoba through
to the present day and was to spread to the Argyle region.
The R.M. of Argyle in 1870 – 1879
Anticipating the great settlement boom of the 1880’s a trickle of
adventurous souls lead the way into this land in the 1870’s. Perhaps
the first were a small group of Metis from Red River who came to the
western end of Rock Lake after the Riel resistance and the backlash
that occurred there against their people. The Canadian Government had
offered Red River Metis scrip, documents that could be redeemed for
selected lands, and a few chose the area along the west end of Rock
Lake. They likely knew the area well as the annual buffalo hunts, only
recently abandoned, had taken hunters right through the area.
1872
Hector Le Ber surveyed Townships 3 and 4 in Range 12 West during the
months of July, August and September of 1872. And during the same
months John and William Otty; and another set of brothers Walter and
David Beatty, surveyed the rest of Argyle in Ranges 13 and 14 West.
1878
The early settlers of the Glenora district arrived around 1878 and
settled in this district mainly around the north part of the Lake.
There were a number of experienced farmers among them from Ontario.
Years of early fall frosts brought disaster and suffering to heavy soil
farmers while lighter soil farmers produced a good sample of wheat with
fair yields. Among the first settlers are Noble and George Lawrence.
1879
John Wilson homesteaded on the Marringhurst plains. Mr. and Mrs.
Wilson's hospitality to the immigrants passing through in those early
days is not forgotten. Mrs. Wilson was the first white woman to settle
in the district. John Cumming, former soldier and ship’s captain,
who first came to the Marringhurst area in 1879 had moved to the Huntly
area northwest of Neelin in 1882.
Murdoch McQuarrie, John Montague and John and Jacob Nelson arrived. Mr.
McQuarrie's home became the social centre for the district. Here a post
office was opened, the mail be¬ing carried from the Mound on an ox cart
by Thos. Freeley, who later opened the post-office at Glenora. A
sawmill near Glenora is started by Alex Blaine in 1879.
William Stark, John Bell. John Harrower and others settled in the
Roseberry District.
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