Construction of the Railway just before the Aqueduct

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Royal Alexandria Hotel Winnipeg Manitoba

An experimental station was established at Reynolds by the Manitoba department of agriculture “with a view in helping the settlers already located and to demonstrate the possibilities of the district.”
The provincial government also established a prison farm, known as the- Provincial Gaol Farm, four kilometres west of East Braintree.
Building the railway was not an easy task as the route passed over pre-Cambrian rock, gravel, stone ridges, rivers as well as muskegs and swamps (The Building of the Winnipeg Aqueduct, by C.S. Prodan Manitoba Pageant, Winter 1979). In the vicinity of Mile 84-90, the railway crossed about 10 kilometres of muskeg, which. necessitated construction of a system of corduroy logs that acted like floats, which were then filled with gravel, muck and sand in order to sink them until a road bed was firm enough to withstand engines and freight cars to carry gravel to the site, wrote Prodan.
“The line is standard gauge and is well ballasted and laid with 90-pound steel rails,” reported the Free Press on July 3, 1915. “The equipment, in addition to modern freight cars, both box and gondolas, also boasts of four loco motives, a dinky (small locomotive) and a crane. The district own(s) a combination passenger and baggage coach, but this has already proved inadequate to meet the demands of pass traffic and another passenger car has been purchased.”
During the construction of the aqueduct, round-trip excursions to Shoal Lake originating at the Union Depot were advertised in Winnipeg newspapers for $1 each. “G to Shoal Lake frequent stops will be made along the line to excursionists to inspect the work of aqueduct construction at several points,” according to one advertisement. “Train will stop at St. Boniface CNR Depot both going and returning”.
The board the GWWD, the city board of control, prominent Winnipeg businessmen and Mayor Deacon took an excursion as guests of the Northern Construction Company to inspect the work on the railway in November 1914.
“The greatest s was ex pressed by the entire party at the excellent condition of the well-balanced track, which, although it was only laid this summer, allowed a heavy loco motive pulling a baggage car and two standard sleepers to travel over the road at a good rate of speed,” reported the November 9, 1914, Free Press.
The newspaper said the work had progressed to the Birch River, which was over 100 kilometres from Winnipeg and a short distance from Shoal Lake.
The construction had proceeded so rapidly due to the use of new machinery such as a “huge track-laying” machine. “This machine has an attachment on one side by which ties are carried on an endless belt and de posited on the right of way while on the other side of the machine another endless chain conveys lengths of steel rails. Spikes and bolts are dropped as well and the machine moves continuously forward, all the accompanying gang having to do being to feed it with ties and rails and spike the rails to the ties.”
At Gravel Pit No. 2, a huge steam shovel “was tearing great scopes of gravel and filling gravel trains for ballasting the track.”
The shovel was capable of scooping up four loads of gravel every 65 seconds, “or nearly eight cubic yards a minute.”
At the time of the excursion, a rail bridge was being built over the Birch River, one of four rivers and streams that were eventually crossed by the railway tracks.
The article said the railway cost over $1.2 million to complete.
Even before the railway was ful1y completed, construction of the aqueduct was slated to begin.
“The aqueduct will be constructed in the north of the railway parallelling it 110 feet from the centre of the tracks and the clearing of the entire distance is already an accomplished fact.. The trees which were cut down have been cut into cordwood lengths and are stacked along the right of way. Much of this wood will be sold at cost to Winnipeg and used by the Associated Charities.”

An experimental station was established at Reynolds by the Manitoba department of agriculture “with a view in helping the settlers already located and to demonstrate the possibilities of the district.”

The provincial government also established a prison farm, known as the- Provincial Gaol Farm, four kilometres west of East Braintree.

Building the railway was not an easy task as the route passed over pre-Cambrian rock, gravel, stone ridges, rivers as well as muskegs and swamps (The Building of the Winnipeg Aqueduct, by C.S. Prodan Manitoba Pageant, Winter 1979). In the vicinity of Mile 84-90, the railway crossed about 10 kilometres of muskeg, which. necessitated construction of a system of corduroy logs that acted like floats, which were then filled with gravel, muck and sand in order to sink them until a road bed was firm enough to withstand engines and freight cars to carry gravel to the site, wrote Prodan.

“The line is standard gauge and is well ballasted and laid with 90-pound steel rails,” reported the Free Press on July 3, 1915. “The equipment, in addition to modern freight cars, both box and gondolas, also boasts of four loco motives, a dinky (small locomotive) and a crane. The district own(s) a combination passenger and baggage coach, but this has already proved inadequate to meet the demands of pass traffic and another passenger car has been purchased.”

During the construction of the aqueduct, round-trip excursions to Shoal Lake originating at the Union Depot were advertised in Winnipeg newspapers for $1 each. “G to Shoal Lake frequent stops will be made along the line to excursionists to inspect the work of aqueduct construction at several points,” according to one advertisement. “Train will stop at St. Boniface CNR Depot both going and returning”.

The board the GWWD, the city board of control, prominent Winnipeg businessmen and Mayor Deacon took an excursion as guests of the Northern Construction Company to inspect the work on the railway in November 1914.

“The greatest s was ex pressed by the entire party at the excellent condition of the well-balanced track, which, although it was only laid this summer, allowed a heavy loco motive pulling a baggage car and two standard sleepers to travel over the road at a good rate of speed,” reported the November 9, 1914, Free Press.

The newspaper said the work had progressed to the Birch River, which was over 100 kilometres from Winnipeg and a short distance from Shoal Lake.

The construction had proceeded so rapidly due to the use of new machinery such as a “huge track-laying” machine. “This machine has an attachment on one side by which ties are carried on an endless belt and de posited on the right of way while on the other side of the machine another endless chain conveys lengths of steel rails. Spikes and bolts are dropped as well and the machine moves continuously forward, all the accompanying gang having to do being to feed it with ties and rails and spike the rails to the ties.”

At Gravel Pit No. 2, a huge steam shovel “was tearing great scopes of gravel and filling gravel trains for ballasting the track.”

The shovel was capable of scooping up four loads of gravel every 65 seconds, “or nearly eight cubic yards a minute.”

At the time of the excursion, a rail bridge was being built over the Birch River, one of four rivers and streams that were eventually crossed by the railway tracks.

The article said the railway cost over $1.2 million to complete.

Even before the railway was ful1y completed, construction of the aqueduct was slated to begin.

“The aqueduct will be constructed in the north of the railway parallelling it 110 feet from the centre of the tracks and the clearing of the entire distance is already an accomplished fact.. The trees which were cut down have been cut into cordwood lengths and are stacked along the right of way. Much of this wood will be sold at cost to Winnipeg and used by the Associated Charities.”

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categoriaUncategorized commentoNo Comments dataDecember 14th, 2009
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The Military Reign of Terror Part II

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When lawyer Joseph Dubuc stepped outside the courthouse on Main Street near Upper Fort Garry, he didn’t expect to be a victim of violence arising from animosity that had contributed to a riot during the previous year’s federal election. Yet, emboldened by alcohol and waiting outside the courthouse was the man who would eventually become Winnipeg’s first police chief. Seeking vengeance for perceived injustices, John Ingram beat Dubuc so severely that the young lawyer, originally from Québec, was left unconscious in the street and his face was battered to such an extent that he lost sight in one eye.
Dubuc’s sin had been the gall to bring before the court a list containing names of the men he believed responsible for the election riot at a St. Boniface polling booth in September 1872.
Le Métis on September 18, 1872, reported in an “extra” the presence of a large mob allegedly organized by the Liberal, the voice of Dr. John Christian Schultz, in support of Midrew E. Wilson, a candidate running in St. Boniface riding against Donald Smith, the chief commissioner of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Wilson was a local merchant and a stockholder in the Liberal.
The Winnipeg mob had crossed the Red River into St. Boniface to insist a number of English-speakers have their name included on the voters’ list. The French-language newspaper said the men, described as the “loyal” supporters of Wilson, demanded the poll book, and when it wasn’t presented started a riot at the polling station at the home of Roger Goulet. Armed with  wooden wheel spokes, the rioters attacked the unarmed Métis, ransacked the polling station, found the poll book and then burned it.
Among the men from Winnipeg was James Farquharson, the father-in-law of Schultz. Farquharson pulled out a pistol and fired off a number of rounds, but fortunately he was quite inaccurate with a gun and no one was killed, although several were wounded.
LeMétis, reporting on the Bataille a St. Borniface, said the mob was only interested in securing rights for themselves and no one else, hoping to subvert the will of the majority, especially Métis voters in St. Boniface.
Some of the Ontarians were involved in the riot because they resented Manitoba laws adopted for the federal election.
The Manitoba Free Press on December 7, 1872, said the riot, while not justified, was the natural outcome of the “infamous law which excludes newcomers from the franchise from to two to three years …“
The name of a newcomer could not be entered onto the voter s list until the settler had been in Manitoba for at least one year. A further delay to including a name was the law which said the voters’ list was only compiled every second year on or before the first day of April. The newspaper said, since immigration started in May, the law effectively prevented a new comer from voting for a minimum of two years. It proposed an annual compilation of the voters’ list.
Also contributing to the riot was the absence of a secret ballot, which was not introduced until 1874 for federal elections. Until its introduction, violence and using liquor to bribe voters frequently occurred at polling stations as rival factions attempted to influence the outcome. Since voters indicated their preferred candidate by a show of hands, it was relatively easy for anyone present to know who voted for whom.
Not having been satisfied to only abrupt, the vote in St. Boniface, the rioters recrossed the river, “crazed with excitement and liquor,” intent upon more violent mischief at the Winnipeg polling station, according to an “extra” edition published by the Manitoban on September 21.
With armed police prepared to quell the disturbance on Main Street, Francis Cornish, who would be elected the first mayor of Winnipeg, incited the mob to greater fury by verbally attacking Manitoba Lieutenant-Governor Adams Archibald, Smith and Manitoba Sheriff Edward Armstrong, and referred to Frasse de Plainval (a.k.a. Louis Nathal), the chief of the Manitoba Constabulary (provincial police), as a “toad-eating Communist.”
Schultz was quite ecstatic about the turn of events, writing to his friend John Gunn in a September 20 letter: In a twinkling of an eye, the Carbines were wrested from the police and they were rapped over the head with them. The police were then reinforced and proceeded to attack the crowd, but they were at once disarmed of their batons and they themselves thrust in the police station downstairs and locked up. In this scrimmage, Plainval got badly beaten about the head and ran like a lamplighter. Word was sent then to the (Lieutenant) Governor (Archibald) and … he ordered the troops down to quell the mob and preserve the peace til the result of the poll was declared.”
When a guard was posted around the polling station, the mob sought other victims of their, turning their attention to newspaper offices opposed to Schultz. They wrecked the offices of Le Métis, the Manitoban and the Gazette, which left the Liberal as the only newspaper in operation.
Schultz wrote to John Gunn: “The police did not dare to interfere and the Manitoban office was broken into, the Press knocked down and the type scattered (a picture of the Manitoban office following the election riot shows shattered printing presses, as well as newsprint and lead type strewn about) and the Métis office served the same way.”

When lawyer Joseph Dubuc stepped outside the courthouse on Main Street near Upper Fort Garry, he didn’t expect to be a victim of violence arising from animosity that had contributed to a riot during the previous year’s federal election. Yet, emboldened by alcohol and waiting outside the courthouse was the man who would eventually become Winnipeg’s first police chief. Seeking vengeance for perceived injustices, John Ingram beat Dubuc so severely that the young lawyer, originally from Québec, was left unconscious in the street and his face was battered to such an extent that he lost sight in one eye.

Dubuc’s sin had been the gall to bring before the court a list containing names of the men he believed responsible for the election riot at a St. Boniface polling booth in September 1872.

Le Métis on September 18, 1872, reported in an “extra” the presence of a large mob allegedly organized by the Liberal, the voice of Dr. John Christian Schultz, in support of Midrew E. Wilson, a candidate running in St. Boniface riding against Donald Smith, the chief commissioner of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Wilson was a local merchant and a stockholder in the Liberal.

The Winnipeg mob had crossed the Red River into St. Boniface to insist a number of English-speakers have their name included on the voters’ list. The French-language newspaper said the men, described as the “loyal” supporters of Wilson, demanded the poll book, and when it wasn’t presented started a riot at the polling station at the home of Roger Goulet. Armed with  wooden wheel spokes, the rioters attacked the unarmed Métis, ransacked the polling station, found the poll book and then burned it.

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categoriaUncategorized commentoNo Comments dataNovember 11th, 2009
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Grey Nun’s Convent – St. Boniface National Historic Site of Canaday

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The Grey Nun’s Convent , Winnipeg’s oldest building houses the St. Boniface Museum .  Built for the “Grey Nuns” who arrived in the Red River Colony in 1884, the structure is an outstanding example of Red River frame construction and historic construction methods and procedures.

The museum presents an impressive collection of artifacts  that reveal both the lives and the cultures of the Francophone as well as Metis population and populations of Manitoba Canada , including a most special exhibit  featuring Mr. Louis Riel – the founder of modern Manitoba.

Teh St. Boniface Museum:

494 tache Ave

Winnipeg Manitoba

R2H 2B2

phone – 204-237-4500

email:  info@msbm.mb.ca

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categoriaUncategorized commentoNo Comments dataAugust 12th, 2009
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