Introduction
Overview
We have attempted to relate these site to the history of the region
through a series of short articles on:
1. Historic Claims of the area
2. Analysis Critera - Where
sites fit
in terms of the Community
Heritage
3. Community Layout
4. Notable People (See the Notable
People Project)
The project is intended as a "Beginning" rather than a Finished
Product.
Local groups and individuals are invited to amend and add to it. New
information is always welcome and we will make every effort to add
anthing that is sent to us.
One goal is to collect as much information about our older
buildings as we can. This will be found in the Sites section, and we
would appreciate corrections, additions, comments and questions as we
complete the project.
Community Historical
Claims
The town of Carberry, in many ways a classic
railway town, has some interesting and important claims that set it
apart from its contemporaries. Like many other towns established along
the C.P.R. Main Line its location was dictated by the railway and
various scattered established businesses had to be re-established along
the line. But with Carberry the C.P.R. actually established the town
twice, moving the station when land speculation threatened railway
profits and control. Although many towns are named after, or by,
C.P.R. directors, Carberry may was likely the last town named by J.J.
Hill before he left the C.P.R. to concentrate on his American
interests. Like many prairie towns, its economy was, and still
is, based on serving the surrounding agricultural settlement, but
Carberry has supplemented that base with other varied enterprises and
one particularly large-scale economic endeavor. Most towns had a
consolidation era during which a substantial main street business
district was quickly lined with two-story commercial buildings, but
Carberry has retained both the scope of its commercial district and in
many cases the buildings themselves. And while many towns with have a
few dominant business leaders who helped shape the commercial
landscape, Carberry had one in particular that left a lasting impact.
When the directors of the newly-formed syndicate charged with
completing Canada’s ambitious trans-continental railway decided in the
early spring of 1881 to survey the line along a southerly route rather
than the much publicized more northerly options, settlers in and around
some well-established towns like Birtle, Rapid City and Gladstone were
disappointed, while those who happened to have homesteaded along the
south branch of the Carleton Trail, at places such as Fairview, Grand
Valley, and Gopher Creek suddenly had the country’s most vital
transportation link at their doorstep.
Prior to the spring of 1881, many prospective settlers expected the
main line of the new trans-continental railway would either pass along
the main route of the Carleton Trail, some distance to the north, but
the south fork of the trail from Portage La Praire through Grand
Valley and westward south of the Assiniboine also drew some
interest and a few homesteaders. By 1879 several people had taken up
homesteads in the “Big Plain” region and a post office was established
at Fairview and operated by John Baron, a few kilometres north of
Carberry, and soon there were settlers scattered through the
region. Once the exact location of the line was evident, a series of
towns were established between Portage La Prairie and Calgary -
“Railway Towns” in the truest sense. Fairview was on the line of the
preliminary survey but when that survey was changed or fine-tuned as
the track approached, the new town of De Winton, one of the first of
that era’s “Railway Towns” sprang up in 1882.
This was at the height of the “Manitoba Boom”, a period when wild
speculation occurred, based on hopes, rumours and outright fraud
relating to the location of rail lines. By January of 1882 De Winton
lots were being advertised for sale in Winnipeg newspapers. The C.P.R.
in this case countered that speculation by moving its station. De
Winton soon became Carberry, a few kilometers to the west., and entered
its early period of rapid growth. Like many other towns established
along the C.P.R. Main various scattered established businesses had to
be re-established along the line.
The town grew quickly and steadily in the security of its ready access
to markets and supplies. A headline in the Winnipeg Daily Sun of
October 20, 1882 proclaimed: “A Million Bushels of Grain Harvested in
the Big Plain” and the story reported that Mr. Perley had built a hotel
and that the town had “large stores by Mssrs Perley R.F Lyons, Wise and
Dalton and Smith & McCall.” The report also mentions ”two lumber
yards, feed and sale stables, blacksmith shops, a doctor and nearly all
the requirements of a growing town”. The settlers, predominantly
from Ontario brought their protestant religion and practical business
sense and applied both to their new surroundings. The consolidation
era, which might be said to run from 1895 until 1915, saw considerable
commercial expansion, much of it lead by James White a contractor and
businessman responsible for many fine brick buildings, including two
notable churches, and for a host of commercial enterprises including a
Sash and Door Factory and a foundry. Other entrepreneurs such as Dave
Kerr and Elias Jones who invented, and manufactured the “Jones Stacker
and Blower” contributed to economic diversity.
Mr. White and his contemporaries have left their mark in the
well-defined commercial downtown that exists largely intact today with
a two block long “Heritage District” recently established to pay
tribute to the towns past and to consolidate its future.
Analysis Criteria
History
Aboriginal Peoples
The establishment of Pine Fort on the north bank of the Assiniboine
south of present-day Carberry in the late 1760's by Free Traders from
Montreal, was the first attempt to by the fur traders to establish a
presence in area and develop trade with the Sioux from the south,
resident Cree and Assiniboine, and eastern groups such as Saulteaux,
Ottawa and various Ojibwa bands; all of whom were trading or hunting in
the area.
Settlers and Defining Culture
In 1878 and 1879 settlers from the Ontario began to settle the Big
Plains. Many of the farmsteads and buildings in and near Carberry today
bear the names of the settlers who arrived in that period – names such
as McKinnon, McLaren, and Stickle. In 1879 a post office called
Fairview was established about 4 kilometres south of the current town.
In 1882, the CPR established a station and a small town-site named De
Winton about three kilometres miles east of the town's present site. To
combat speculation in town lots the railway company, using 100
specially-hired men, in one night physically moved the new station to
the present site of the town of Carberry! Soon the standard
retail services were in place, local Municipal Government was organized
and Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican congregations were established.
Other Settlement/Ethnic Groups
Although Carberry remains predominantly an Anglo-Saxon community, its
proximity to Brandon and the presence of a large employer, along
increasing social and commercial interaction with neighbouring
communities, has fostered an increasingly multi-cultural population.
Economic Engines
As is the case in virtually all prairie towns, agriculture is the prime
Economic Engine. Carberry’s location on the main line of the
trans-continental rail line gave it early access to markets for its
agricultural products and helped spur the growth of large grain and
ranching operations. That was augmented by the establishment a large
potato processing plant in the 1960’s which is still an important part
of the local economy.
Commercial Growth
Carberry is fortunate in having at many notable commercial buildings
from the Consolidation in its core area, offering a streetscape with a
heritage feel.
Social & Cultural Development
The pioneer era, began in 1878 with the arrival on “permanent” settler
Alfred Morton a schoolteacher and farmer from near Stratford, Ontario.
By July of 1882 with the arrival of the railway we see the
first store erected by J.H. Lyons, the establishment of a railway
station managed by T.D. Stickle, a Post Office and a Hotel managed by
H.A. Perley.
In most Manitoba towns the arrival of the railway normally signaled a
change in building methods with more readily available milled lumber
finding its way into more substantial and well-finished homes and
commercial structures. In Carberry’s case these supplies were available
from the outset, but out of economic necessity most homes were modest
and of frame construction.
In Carberry as in other communities, the “Consolidation” era began is
defined by a “second wave” of construction, often typified by the
replacement of modest homes and commercial structures. Beginning in
about 1895, we see the erection of fine brick residences, churches and
commercial building many of which still exist.
.
Community Form and Layout
The physical form of the town of Carberry is firmly rooted in its
relationship with its transportation links. In the pre-railroad days
south fork of the Carleton Trail was the main route from Winnipeg
westward and the first store and post office named Fairview was located
close to that trail. The arrival of the C.P.R. dictated the location of
the new town site and the lots were surveyed in a typical rectangular
pattern with commercial enterprises locating along the street parallel
to the tracks (4th Avenue) and along Main Street which intersects near
the station in a classic T-shaped pattern. In Carberry’s case, it was
the intersecting street that evolved into the predominant business
district. The town continued to develop exclusively on the north side
of the tracks, and although there was residential expansion both west
and east of 4th Avenue (the business street) the west saw the most
growth and contains the largest concentration of fine older home. The
location of the Trans-Canada Highway through the northern fringe of the
town may have re-enforced the northward growth of the town and that
highway’s re-location a few kilometres further north in the 1960’s may
also have encouraged additional residential and commercial expansion in
that direction.
|
