The Story of the Chapman Museum Buildings

Selected Display Highlights




Residential

The farmhouse display featured the furnishings and appliances found a century ago in most rural homes

Although there are items that take us back to the very early pioneer days, the bulk of the displays focus on what is often referred to as the establishment period of rural life. The land was broken, towns and villages appeared, and consumer goods were available. For special items, trips to stores in the larger towns such as Rivers and even to those in Brandon were feasible. Eaton’s Catalogue was there for anything that couldn’t be found nearby. Sturdy frame houses, even some in brick, had replaced the first sod huts and log cabins.

There was much in the Chapman Museum to remind us of what home life was like in that era from 1900 to 1940.





There was furniture such this attractive and functional kitchen cabinets in stained wood. 






This elaborate, well-designed wood burning stove would have been and object of pride, and put to good used on a daily basis.








Fine china and glassware would be proudly put into service on special occasions.



Items like this “boiler” would have been used in canning season or on special occasions, gatherings etc.



An attractive clock might be prominently displayed in the living area.



Coal oil lamps were an important item – many areas didn’t get electricity until the late 1940’s.



This phone would have been  connected to the party line. It might not have been a “smart “ phone but it was a giant leap forward in communication.




Consumer Goods

The general store displays featured an excellent collection of consumer products that for most of us might have been long forgotten. The store fixtures too, such as scale and cash registers belong to an era quite removed from today’s retail experience.


Several displays, notably those in “Chappie’s General Store” shine a light on the shopping experience of a century ago, and remind us that there were a wide variety of consumer goods available to rural families, and also that the nature of some of the staple household products has changed a great deal while other remain almost unchanged by time.



As the first example shows names like Rogers, Fleischman’s and Maple Leaf Tenderflake are still with us today, the packaging changed in some products.

It would be interesting to know what was in the container that reads, “Imported by G.J. Jackson, Brandon, Man.” It does indicate a time when many products were produced locally, or failing that, imported in bulk and packaged locally.

The next photo highlights yet another brand of lard and reminds us that Laundry Starch was once a necessary item. The right hand side of the photo features some still- familiar breakfast cereal brands.



Lard was always necessity for baking but the disappearance of brands like Swifts and Burn’s Shamrock likely indicate that a greater market share of this type of product today goes to plant-based alternatives such as Canola Oil.



The displays featured some brands that are still active and several that aren’t.





And tea, then as now, comes in a wide variety of types and brands.



As did tobacco products that, in those days were aggressively marketed and almost universally acceptable.








The Shopping Experience


The first stores in any community were aptly named “general” stores. For some time they would be the only store – so they covered all the bases by carrying everything a new settler might want. In time other retail outlets would spring up, specializing in this or that – hardware store, tailor shops, jewelry stores and more.  In that way, today’s “Super” stores are a return to that retailing strategy – one stop shopping.

The most noticeable difference was the nature of the shopping experience. It would be some time before the self-serve format would change shopping. Instead of roaming the aisles and selecting items to put in your cart, you approached the counter and made your request. In the early days, most of the food was stored in large barrels – popular items such as sugar, soda crackers, tea biscuits, raisin biscuits, ginger snaps, molasses, syrup, and apples. Your purchase would be placed in the appropriate sort of bag or container by the staff.  Coffee, tea and cocoa came in large square caddies and were dispensed by the pound.  Cheese came in large round cakes and was sliced to order with a copper wire. Cheese along with dried apples and prunes were popular items with the numerous bachelors in a pioneer community.

As transportation service improved the railways brought in an increasing variety of conveniently packaged household items. You no longer just got “tea”. Competing brands in distinctive packaging called for your attention. For a time these were still stored on shelves behind counters, but as time marched on the products were displayed in aisles where you served yourself. The Chapman Museum had an extensive collection showcasing the variety of household good that made available.

It is also important to note that the store was more than just a place of business. For isolated farm families, shopping trips were social occasions. The store was a natural meeting place.


Scales


Before everything came pre-packaged, Things were sold by the pound or by volume.












Product packaging became an art in itself, with embossed glass containers setting themselves apart from competing products.






Farm Life

Most mixed farms had milk cows, but unless they specialized in dairy they marketed only the cream. To do that they needed a cream separator. The early ones were hand powered and operating them was a chore that usually immediately followed daily milking time.



A farm machinery display highlights the start contrast with today’s farming methods.

The very first plows carved a single furrow and most were powered by oxen.  A ten- acre field took some real time and effort.





Today self-powered combines move quickly through large field, but the first farmer had to bring the crop to the threshing machine.





A farmed was by necessity a repairman, advanced mechanical training was not required but tools were essential.





School

Pioneers took education seriously. They volunteered to build schools and often donated land for a school site.  They applied for government funding. They arranged room and board for teachers who often came from afar and were unfamiliar with the community.



The challenge was to adapt both teaching methods and materials to the prairie rural setting. The teacher had to be a generalist – up to eight age/ grade levels all in one room with limited resources. By all accounts they worked wonders, without the benefits available in a larger school. The gymnasium was the outdoors. The library was often a shelf in a corner, as was the science lab.  (which could also be the ourdoors).





A close-up of one such school library reveals a fine selection of what we today call the “classics.”

At the bottom of the above photo I noticed one “classic” in particular. Although all we can read of title is “Clearing In”, because I have that book on the shelf, I know it to be “Clearing in The West” by Nellie McClung. It is a very fitting selection for a rural school library.





Along with the schoolhouse display the Museum also maintained another building as a library.



 
Church

The Roseville Church was near the Chapman Farm and was the heart of the Roseville District. The Cemetery is still in use and maintained by Gordon Allen.





The church was moved to the Museum after it closed and remained as a reminder of the importance of the Church in community life.



The Community & The Region

The nearest railway line was about 5km north of the Chapman Farm. The small villages of Pendennis and Carnegie were located on that line in 1902. These were important in the early days in terms of access to the rest of the world. As they were the closest railway villages. The stations were the link for both travel and supplies. The elevators were where their grain was marketed. Two of the buildings featured came from Pendennis and one came from Carnegie. Many artifacts came from these spots as well. Prominently displayed were collections of photos from each place – important and interesting components of the historical record.





Southwards along the boundary of the municipality, Manitoba’s first hydro-electric generating station was located on the Little Saskatchewan River. The Ten-Mile Dam, built in 1901, was the first Hydro-Electric Generating Station in Manitoba and supplied Brandon with its first electricity.



The dam created a lake several kilometres long. The hydro plant ceased operation in the 1920’s but the dam remained in place until it was washed away by a torrent of water unleashed upstream in Minnedosa when a dam their burst in 1948. Several photos of the plant in operation were on display.



The Korman Block was a notable Rivers business centre and the doorstep on display was a visual connection to the largest town in the region.



Informational displays about the original use of a building, such as the Pendennis School, were often part of the displays.



The Story of the Chapman Museum Buildings