Daly’s First Settlers

Related Collection: Remembering CFB Rivers

Excerpt from Bradwardine & District, A Century & More, Bradwardine History Book Committee, 2003, p. 11

The survey of Daly Municipality was complete by 1874, and the availability of homestead lands were then advertised. However, prospective homesteaders may have been initially concerned about going into the then untamed prairies. In 1876, the Sioux massacred General Custer’s troops in Montana at the battle of the Little Bighorn and then escaped to Canada for Queen Victoria’s protection in the Northwest Territories (today’s Saskatchewan). No one knew if there would be similar problems in the next few years.

Access to western Manitoba was by the Hudson Bay Trail from Fort Garry, or by steamboat on the Assiniboine River. Steam-powered paddle boats, which had long been active on the Red River, navigated west as far as Fort Ellice in 1879. Due to the meandering nature of the Assiniboine, the distance followed by the boats was about three times the distance as the crow flies – many travellers claimed that walking was faster. Cordwood was stockpiled at intervals along the riverbanks to supply these river boats, which stopped frequently to take on fuel.

One of the first arrivals in Daly was T. Cousins, who constructed his cabin in 1879. Other homesteaders purchasing Township 12, Range 22, land in 1879 were: William Harvey (NW36), Ernest Glinz (SW34, NE35), George Taylor (all 25), William Dawe (SW&SE 23) and Joseph Whitechurch (all 24).

Others arriving in 1880 to settle in Township twelve in Daly were: John Rutherford (NW10), Thomas Thomson (SW10), William Baily (NE14), Joseph Z. Baily (NW14), Alfred Field (SE18), John Baily (NE 22), Zachary Baily (SE 22), Samuel Shortreed (NE26), Edwin McTaggart (NW28), Robert McTaggart (SW28), James Dobson (NE30), Needham Furnival (SE30), Thos. H. Gregson (SE32), Edward Reid (NE34),and John Marsh (NE36).

The majority of these early arrivals in 1879 and 1880 claimed homesteads in the northeastern portion of the township, the area now known as Lothair. Possibly this was due to finding suitable agricultural land closer to Rapid City where supplies could be obtained and the supposition that grain crops could be marketed there when the railway arrived.

Homestead families arriving in Township 12 in 1881 were: Joseph Shuttleworth (NE6), William Ruller (NW6), Edward Hunter (NW7), John Dyer (SW12), Zachary Baily(NE15), Archibald Chisholm (NW, NE18), John Marsh (NW20), and A.E.S.Sharman (NE20). Many others also arrived early in 1882.

In 1880, the first families to file for homesteads in the Township 11 (Tarbolton) area were William Rutherford, James and Ann Joynt, Thomas Seens and William Wood. Others who were listed as arriving in the district about the same time were John Ramsay, Thomas Thomson Sr., W. Graham and J. Wedderburn.

Company records indicate 1881 buyers of CPR Township 11, Range 22, W1 land were James Young (Sec.9 & 19) on Oct. 10, 1881; Bery Garrett and Peter Ferguson (Sec.33) on October 26,1881; and George and Frederick Wolrige (Sec.33) on November 30, 1881. The trickle of settlers became a flood in 1882 when the CPR was built west to Brandon and transportation of people and supplies to the district became fast and economical.