HISTORY OF WHEAT RAISING IN THE RED RIVER

VALLEY.*

BY HON. GEORGE N. LAMPHERE.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RED RIVER VALLEY.

I have not deemed it entirely relevant to my subject to discuss the topography, the geology, or the aboriginal inhabitants of the Red River valley. And for another reason than its relevancy, I have omitted any discussion thereof because they have heretofore been treated by the honored secretary of this Society, Warren Upham, in a paper read at its annual meeting in 1895 (Minnesota Historical Society Collections, vol. VIII, pages 11-24).

The Red River valley, as this term is commonly used, is a broad and flat prairie plain reaching ten to twenty miles on each side of the Red river of the North, having thus about half of its expanse in Minnesota and the other half in North Dakota. It extends three hundred miles from south to north, continuing in Manitoba to lake Winnipeg. Inclosed by the higher land on each side, and pent in at the north by the barrier of the receding icesheet at the end of the Glacial period, this valley plain was covered in that geologic epoch by a vast lake, which, with the complete disappearance of the ice-sheet, was drained away to Hudson bay. To this glacial lake Mr. Upham has given the name of Lake Agassiz; and its survey and description are the subject of a volume prepared by him and published by the United States Geological Survey. The closing chapters of that work should be consulted by any who seek information concerning the general ag

*An Address at the Annual Meeting of the Minnesota Historical Society, January 8, 1900.

ricultural capabilities of this very fertile district, or concerning its water supply and its hundreds of artesian wells.

WHEAT RAISING IN THE SELKIRK SETTLEMENT.

The beginning of wheat raising in the Red River valley was in the Selkirk settlement north of the boundary line, near Fort Garry, now Winnipeg.

In 1811 the Earl of Selkirk purchased from the Hudson Bay Company a vast tract of land in Manitoba, including the land afterward occupied by the Selkirk settlement. The purchase was subject to the Indian claim to its title. About the time of this purchase there was a compulsory exodus of the inhabitants of the county of Sutherland, Scotland, from the estates of the Duchess of Sutherland; and Lord Selkirk took a large number of these evicted persons under his protection and forwarded them to settle on the land he had purchased on the Red river. They arrived on the bay in the fall of the year, and spent the winter at Churchill, on the western shore of the bay. In the following spring they advanced inland, crossed lake Winnipeg, and ascended the Red river of the North. They intended to make their home at the confluence of the Assiniboine and Red rivers, but on arriving there found that the X. Y. and the Northwest Companies of Canada, which were opponents of the Hudson Bay Company, regarded them as invaders and also as protégés of the latter.. The Indians also objected to the cultivation of their hunting grounds, and were instigated to hostile proceedings against the new comers by the representations of the Canadian companies.

The year 1812 passed without any satisfactory progress being made toward settlement, and the immigrants spent the following winter in great distress at Pembina, whither they were driven by the Indians. By some means, however, they were able to mollify their opponents, and were permitted to return in the spring. They built log houses and began the cultivation of the land on the bank of the river. Within a year they were attacked by the partisans of the companies, who burnt their houses and killed some of their number. Afterward, being reinforced by a company of additional immigrants from Scotland, the settlers returned to the places from which they had been driven, and recommenced their labors. The

hostility of the companies toward these poor immigrants was continued, their property was destroyed and men were captured and killed. At length, on June 19, 1816, the adherents of the two parties met at Seven Oaks, in the center of the settlement, under such circumstances that a small battle occurred, in which about twenty men, among whom was Governor Semple, were killed.

In 1817 Lork Selkirk came over and visited the settlement. Besides having a desire to see how the settlers were prospering, he desired to negotiate for the extinguishment of the Indian title to the land he had purchased. After much difficulty he negotiated a treaty with the Chippewas and Crees, which treaty was signed July 18, 1817. The consideration was the annual payment of 200 pounds of tobacco, half to the Chippewas and half to the Crees. The conditions in the territory at this time were so wretched that the Canadian government interfered and appointed a commissioner to make investigation, who recommended an amicable settlement and a union of interests by the companies, which had been reduced to the verge of bankruptcy. It was a long time, however, before action was taken. Lord Selkirk died in 1821, and the Right Hon. Edward Ellice succeeded to his rights. He was one of the principal stockholders of the Northwest Company, and the Canadian government consulted with him and under its auspices he instituted negotiations, which, after many difficulties, resulted in a harmonious union between the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company, the latter having before combined with the X. Y. Company. This agreement went into effect in 1821, and from this date the opposition to the settlers was withdrawn.

Lord Selkirk, on his arrival in 1817, had provided the settlers with agricultural implements, seed grain, and other necessaries, but the season was so far advanced that little produce was grown in 1817 and a famine ensued. The people again returned to Pembina, where they passed the winter, subsisting as best they could on the produce of the chase. The next spring they went back to their lands, ploughed and seeded them, and entertained high hopes for a bountiful harvest, but were to be sorely disappointed, as an army of locusts made its appearance and in one night destroyed every vestige of verdure in the fields. The locusts left their eggs and in 1819 were more numerous than

in the preceding year, making agriculture impossible. The settlers again took refuge at Pembina, and Lord Selkirk imported 250 bushels of seed grain from the United States at an expense of £1,000, and this, which was sown in the spring of 1820, produced a plentiful crop in the autumn of that year. Thus it may be said that the first wheat that was ever successfully grown and harvested in the Red River valley was in the season of 1820 by the Selkirkers. I am principally indebted for the facts as above set forth to the book entitled "Red River," by J. J. Hargrave, printed by John Lovell, Montreal.

The methods of cultivation in the Selkirk settlement were rude and primitive. Their plow was English or Scotch, made all of iron from the tip of the beam to the end of the handles, and was ten or twelve feet long. Its share was shaped like a mason's trowel. With this drawn by one horse, enough ground was scratched every spring to raise sufficient wheat to feed all the blackbirds and pigeons in the Red River valley, and leave a surplus large enough to meet the wants of the people of the settlement; also to sell to the Hudson Bay Company all they needed for their outposts in the British Northwest possessions, and still leave a surplus sufficient for food and seed for two years, which was stored up to be used in case of emergency or failure of crop in the coming seasons. The grain was cut with sickles, the bundles. tied with willow withes and stacked in the barnyard, to be flailed out during the winter and cleaned by the winds, men, and women and children all giving a helping hand in this work.

In August, 1851, Charles Cavalier arrived at Pembina. At that date the Red River valley, except the Selkirk settlement, was a howling waste throughout its whole length and breadth. Then there were only four white men in that section, namely, Norman W. Kittson, Joseph Rolette, George Morrison, and Charles Cavalier. There were 1,800 to 2,000 half-breeds, and Mr. Cavalier says that, as he was born among the Wyandotte Indians in Ohio and brought up near them, the Indians at Pembina were not much of a curiosity to him, but the half-breed was a new phase of the genus. "To this day," says he, "I have not fully made up my mind whether the cross between the white man and the red man was much of an improvement, as with but few exceptions the Indian blood predominates."

In those early days bread was a rarity, and pemmican, dried buffalo meat, fish and a few potatoes constituted the food supply. Charles Cavalier and Commodore N. W. Kittson planned a trip to the Selkirk settlement, where they were told they would find bread in abundance. They set out in the same year (1851) and in a day and a half's sail down the river in a canoe reached Fort Garry and St. Boniface, where they received a hospitable welcome from Vereck Marion, Mr. Kittson's father-in-law. They visited the Roman Catholic bishops and clergy and found them pleasant and agreeable gentlemen. They also visited the Sisters of Charity at the hospital, who gave them a warm welcome and showed them through the whole establishment. Kittson having returned to Pembina, Mr. Cavalier, in company with Mr. Marion, visited the office of the Hudson Bay Company, where they met also Major Campbell, who was in command of a company of British troops stationed near Fort Garry. With Marion, who was an old settler and acquainted with every one, Cavalier went on a tour of inspection and gathered all the information possible in his limited time in order to tell his friends on his return about this isolated, almost unheard-of community, and how they made life endurable in their frigid northern climate.

From Fort Garry to the Lower Fort the two men called at almost every house, and found a happy, prosperous, Englishspeaking people, mostly of Scotch descent from the immigrants sent over by Lord Selkirk. A few of other nationalities were also there. They were very kindly and hospitable people. The two men called upon Bishop Anderson of the English church, and found him to be "a fine old English gentleman all of the olden time." With him they visited the colleges, one for males and the other for females, where the youth received a classical education, and which institutions are still in existence. Here Mr. Cavalier first met Donald Murray, one of the original Selkirk settlers, who had once settled at South Pembina and had remained there until it was determined to be south of the international boundary line, and whose daughter is now Mr. Cavalier's wife. Mr. Cavalier somewhat enthusiastically says that his impression at that time was that he had never seen a more prosperous community in the States than was the Selkirk settlement. There was not a family that was not well off as to all the wants of life. The latch string