Narratives 3/ From Winnipeg to The Poplars

More in the continuing saga of the Nevard's journey to the new land.

Dad was waiting for them in Winnipeg and from there they travelled by train on to the town of Indian Head in what is now Saskatchewan. Dad rented a house from Captain Corse for them to live in for the summer.  Uncle Arthur and Uncle Horrie had work there for the summer too.
During the summer Uncle Horrie had purchased a bicycle which he rode up to the homestead one day. Along the trail he had a flat tire and nothing to repair it with. He called at Fort Qu'appelle but they had nothing to repair the tire with. No luck in Lipton either. He had to stop often to pump up the tire. It was difficult riding the old Touchwood trail where in places the ruts were so deep that one had to be careful not to hit the edges with the pedals or over you would go.

 In October the weather was turning colder. Captain Corse, who was living in a tent for the summer wanted to get back into his own house for the winter so Dad and Uncle Horrie went up to the homestead and built a two room log house. Uncle Horrie said there was a snow storm while they were building.
I believe it was on a Friday when they left Indian Head for the homestead. They started with a loaded hay rack on wheels. When arriving at Fort Qu'appelle there was snow on the ground and they switched the hay rack over to sleigh runners.  They spent that night in the Fort Qu'appelle hotel. I think Dad ate a whole duck for his supper. He said meals were 25 cents.
Saturday morning they continued their way along the Touchwood trail until the reached the Niels Larson stopping house north of Lipton. Larson kept this house for travellers along the trail. They were no more than 3 miles from the homestead so they arrived in good time next morning. Just as they got on to the home quarter the horse tied behind the load broke loose. Uncle Arthur went running off after it and was successful in catching it before it went far. When mother came around the bush and caught first sight of the house I don't think she was very impressed. Bill was safely hid amongst the various household effects and could see nothing.
Uncle Horrie chored for Tom Norris that winter of 1906-07 while Uncle Arthur chored for one of the Watsons. One day Bill thought that snow looked tempting, so nice and white. He took a lick of it off the edge of a metal dipper and his tongue stuck to the metal. Results were that he had a very sore tongue for the next few days.
It was a long cold winter and they were only too glad to see spring come  Bill enjoyed running from one bare spot of ground  to the next. Mother never saw another woman all winter.

Narratives, 2

I know nothing more of Charles Fuller, never having heard of the name until I came across it at the Lands Titles Office. I'd heard that two other men came up with Dad and Uncle Arthur. The fact that Fuller filed on his homestead on the same date and his homestead number follows the others in sequence convinces me that he was one of the four. Bill told me that Dad spoke of a man named Wernick and thought he was one of the men who came up with dad and Uncle Arthur. There is no record of Wernick in Lands
branch office so I am afraid Mr. Wernick will remain a mystery. Bill also spoke of another Mr. Brown who he thought came up with the others.
I think Dad worked out both summers of 1904 and 05. He spent one winter on the homestead. He chored on a farm in Manitoba for a man named Foster. It was in open country and a blizzard came up while Dad was at the barn. There was no rope connecting the house and barn to guide him and he very nearly missed the house on his way back. He had just passed the house when a lull in the storm showed him where the house was.
In 1883 the Hogg colony was started over East in the next range. According to Walter Norris there were about two hundred came and settled a whole township. Mr. Quinton Hogg owned a large estate in England. He paid their way out to Canada and when they got their homesteads he took a lien on them. Crops were frozen and most of the men gave up their homesteads. a few stayed for a few years Tom Norris left his homestead and took another in the Hayward district close to Charlie Neil. Tom Norris had worked for Quinton Hogg in England as his gardener.
 Bob Drever told me that Joe Atkinson had the post office in Lipton in 1910.

Mr. Atkinson went back to England. Both he and Tom Norris homesteaded with the Hogg Colony.
In 1902 the Jewish Colonization Association started a Jewish colony northeast of the present site of Lipton. There were about 40 families in the colony. The Jews were scattered roughly from a few miles north of Lipton to a few miles south of Keliher. Herzel school was eight miles northeast of Lipton. There was a Jew on the southeast quarter of Section 24 after Charles Fuller left. His name was David Fastofsky. There is a Jewish cemetery three miles north of Lipton and six and three quarter miles east and three quarter miles north. There are 76 graves there.
Uncle Horrie came out to Canada in the spring of 1906. Mother and my older brother Bill sailed from Liverpool on June 20, 1906. Bill and I went to Liverpool to visit cousin Leslie Nevard and his wife Betty just 69 years later to the day. It was not planned that way, just co-incidence. When Bill got on board ship at age two he called out to his Aunt Emily, aunt Emmy, can I have another candy"? She replied, yes dear.

As a school girl Mother never dreamed she would ever come to Canada. One day in school Mr. Motom , the teacher , was taking a geography lesson and pointed out the province of Manitoba. He said "this is man-ah-to-bah, some day some of you may immigrate out there." Mother's thought was, oh maybe the boys might but she never would. Her brothers never did come out here but she did. Mother came out with another lady who had been out here before. I believe her name was Miss Prince. She came out to marry her fiancee, a Mr. Hammil. As the train steamed on it's way to Winnipeg Mother noticed the wild roses blooming and the prairie grass. She thought Canada can't be such a bad country if roses grew there. A passenger got off the train at one stop and picked some roses for her.

Mary and Bill Nevard.