Read The Promised Land: Settling the West 1896-1914 Online
Authors: Pierre Berton
Although much of my research comes from primary sources, a study of this complexity must necessarily lean on the spadework of others. All are listed in the accompanying bibliography, but I should like to single out some for special mention.
I found
The Doukhobors
by George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumovic to be the best work on that subject. Unfortunately, the authors did not have access to the James Mavor papers in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto. I was able to examine these through the kindness of the late Dora Mavor Moore; I am also grateful to her son Francis Mavor Moore for allowing me to read and make use of his two monographs on the Doukhobor emigration based on his grandfather’s records. Helen Evans Reid’s story of the Barr phenomenon,
All Silent, All Damned
, was extremely useful, especially in the background material she so diligently unearthed about Barr’s background and subsequent history. She is more charitable towards Isaac Barr than myself, but that does not detract from her research.
Readers who would like to know more about Ella Sykes are directed to her own book,
A Home Help in Canada
. The Shepherd family story is told in George Shepherd’s
West of Yesterday
, and the saga of the Humeniuk family from Galicia is related by Peter Humeniuk in
Hardships & Progress of Ukrainian Pioneers
.
Other secondary sources that I found especially useful include the initial volume of D.J. Hall’s
Clifford Sifton
, the first new biography of the Minister since Dafoe’s flawed work; James B. Hedges’s
Building the Canadian West;
Harold M. Troper’s
Only Farmers Need Apply;
Karel Denis Bicha’s
The American Farmer and the Canadian West;
Grant MacEwan’s
Eye Opener Bob;
James Gray’s
Red Lights on the Prairies
and
Booze;
Paul F. Sharp’s
The Agrarian Revolt in Western Canada;
Alan F.J. Artibise’s collection,
Town and City;
Ruben Bellan’s
Winnipeg First Century;
A. W. Rasporich and H. Klassen’s collection,
Frontier Calgary;
and J.G. MacGregor’s
Vilni Zemli
.
The book would not have been possible without the help of a number of people. The indispensable Barbara Sears again proved to be invaluable in searching out hard-to-find sources and poring through the various archives and libraries to supply me with raw material. Ennis Armstrong helped to organize the research with the assistance of Diane Jermyn. Caryle Jakobsen typed and re-typed the various drafts of the manuscript, always at top speed. Without the critical assistance of Janice Tyrwhitt Patton, who forced me to rewrite most of an entire draft, this would be a lesser work. Janet Craig, who has one of the sharpest eyes in publishing, again saved me from inconsistencies and imbecilities. Elsa Franklin’s help and advice were invaluable. My wife, Janet, who is, in my opinion, the best proofreader in Canada, kept the finished typescript clear of errors.
Miss Sears and I would also like to thank the following people and institutions for their assistance: Lindsay Moir and Hugh Dempsey at the Glenbow Museum; Gordon Dodds at the Provincial Archives of Manitoba; Norma Dainard and her staff at the Metropolitan Toronto Central Library Newspaper section; the staff of the Canadian History department, Metropolitan Toronto Central Library; Fred McGuinness at the Brandon
Sun;
Andrea Clarke at the Oklahoma Historical Society; Stan Horrall, RCMP historian; Jean Dryden at the Provincial Archives of Alberta; the Saskatchewan Archives Board; the staff of the Public Archives of Canada; the Minnesota Historical Society; the Athabasca Public Library; the University of Manitoba Archives; the Cameron Library, University of Alberta; the Ontario Archives; Roy St. George Stubbs; Charlie Thompson; Charles Woodsworth; Grace MacInnis; and Mrs. Alice Dexter.
Select Bibliography
Unpublished Manuscript Material
Public Archives of Canada: | |
MG 27 II D15 | Clifford Sifton Papers |
MG 27 II B1 | Minto Papers |
MG 29 C16 | Mavor Papers |
RG 76/65101 | Immigration Records: the Doukhobors |
RG 15 | Department of the Interior Records |
RG 18 | RCMP Records |
RG 2 | Privy Council Office Records |
RG 10 | Department of Indian Affairs Records |
RG 76/194804 | Immigration Records: the Barr Colonists |
MG 26 G | Laurier Papers |
RCMP
Archives:
Transcript, interview with Christian Junget
Saskatchewan Archives Board:
Oral history tapes: interview with Paul Sylvester Hordern by D.H. Bocking
E.J. Ashton reminiscences
Robert Holtby diary
Alice Rendell letters
J.A. Donaghy reminiscences
Stanley Rackham diary
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto:
James Mavor Papers
Legislative Library, Manitoba:
Robson, H.A. “Report of the Commission on Social Vice”
Ontario Archives :
RG 22, 6–2, no. 63279 Clifford Sifton will
Manitoba Archives :
J.W. Sifton will
Athabasca Public Library:
J.D. Edwards interview
Government Documents – Published
Census, 1901 and 1911
House of Commons, Debates
, 1896–1915
Senate, Debates
, 1896–1914
House of Commons, Journals
, 1899, vol. 34. “Report of the Select Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization. Immigration and Settlement in 1898.”
_______ 1903, vol. 38, appendix. “Canadian Immigration in 1902.”
_______ 1904, vol. 39, app. 2. “Report of the Select Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization.”
_______ 1906, vol. 41, app. 3. “Report of the Public Accounts Committee Concerning the Accounts of the North Atlantic Trading Company.”
_______ appendix. “Report of the Select Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization, Part II, Immigration and Colonization.”
_______ 1908, vol. 43. “Report of the Public Accounts Committee Relating to Payments in Connection with Timber Agencies in Edmonton and Calgary.”
House of Commons, Sessional Papers
, “Annual Report of the Department of the Interior,” 1897–1914
_______ “Annual Report of the Northwest Mounted Police,” 1897–1914
_______ “Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs,” 1897–1914
Newspapers
Brandon Independence [Independent]
, 1898–1902
Brandon Sun
, 1896–1900
Calgary Herald
, 1896–1914
Edmonton Bulletin
, 1896–1906, 1912
Eye Opener
(Calgary), 1902–1914
Globe
(Toronto), June 1899, January-February 1906
Grain Growers’ Guide
, 1915
Manitoba Free Press
, 1896–1914
Okemah Ledger
, March 1911
Regina Leader
, 1911–1912
St. Paul Pioneer Press
, March 1911
Saskatoon Phenix
, 1902–1903
Scarlet and Gold
, 1956
Toronto News
, 1899, 1908, 1915
Winnipeg Tribune
, 1896–1914
Published Primary Sources
Abbott, Edith (ed.).
Immigration: Select Documents and Case Records
. New York: New York Times/Arno Press, 1969.
Ames, Herbert P
Our Western Heritage and How It Is Being Squandered by the Laurier Government
. N.p., 1908.
Artibise, Alan F.J.
Gateway City: Documents on the City of Winnipeg 1873–1913
. Winnipeg: Manitoba Record Society Publications, vol. 5, 1979.
Beaverbrook, Lord.
Friends
. London: Heinemann, 1959.
Bickersteth, J.B.
The Land of Open Doors
. London: Wells Gardner, Darton, 1914.
Blackburn, J.H.
Land of Promise
. Toronto: Macmillan, 1970.
Borden, Henry (ed.).
Robert Laird Borden: His Memoirs
. Toronto: Macmillan, 1938.
Canada, Department of the Interior.
The Last Best West
. Ottawa: 1907.
Clark, A.F.B. “Winnipeg in 1904,”
Canadian Magazine
, vol. 25, no. 2, 1905.
Comer, J.G.
Across the Canadian Prairies
. London: European Mail Ltd., n.d.
Copping, Arthur.
Canada, the Golden Land
. New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911.
Crossley, F. Ivan. “My Life with the Barr Colony,”
Blackwoods Magazine
, vol. 291, March, 1962.
Curwood, James Oliver. “The American Invasion of Canada,”
Overland Monthly
, vol. 41, 1903.
_______ “The Effects of the American Invasion,”
World’s Work
, vol. 10, 1905.
_______
Son of the Forest
. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1930.
Davies, Evan, and Vaughan, Aled.
Beyond the Old Bone Trail
. London: Cassell, 1960.
Deane, R.B.
Mounted Police Life in Canada
. London: Cassell, 1916.
Fraser, John Foster.
Canada As It Is
. London: Cassell, 1905.
Gray, James.
The Boy from Winnipeg
. Toronto: Macmillan, 1970.
Griesbach, W.A.
I Remember
. Toronto: Ryerson, 1946.
Hanna, D.B.
Trains of Recollection
. Toronto: Macmillan, 1924.
Hobson, J.A.
Canada To-day
. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906.
Homesteader [pseud].
Canadian Life As I Found It
. London: Elliott Stock, 1908.
Hough, Emerson.
The Sowing
. Winnipeg: 1909.
Hubbard, Elbert.
A Little Journey to Saskatoon
. New York: Roycrofters, 1913.
Humeniuk, Peter.
The Hardships & Progress of Ukrainian Pioneers
. Winnipeg: Humeniuk, 1977.
Jeffs, Harry.
Homes and Careers in Canada
. London: J. Clarke, 1914.
Kaye, Vladimir J.
Early Ukrainian Settlements in Canada 1895–1900: Dr. Josef Oleskow’s Role in the Settlement of the Canadian Northwest
. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1964.
Knappen, Theodore M. “Western Canada in 1904,”
American Review of Reviews
, vol. 30, 1904.
_______ “Winning the Canadian West,”
World’s Work
, vol. 10, 1905.
Kropotkin, P. “Some of the Resources of Canada,”
Nineteenth Century
, March, 1898.
Lowes, F.C. “The Romance of City Building,”
Sphere, 22
February 1913.
Lyle, G.R. “Eye-witness to Courage,”
Saskatchewan History
, vol. 20, no. 3, 1967.
McCormick, J. Hanna.
Lloydminster, or 5,000 Miles with the Barr Colonists
. London: Ye Olde St. Brides Press, c.1924.
McNeil, Bill.
Voice of the Pioneer
. Toronto: Macmillan, 1978.
Martin, Sandra, and Hall, Roger (eds.).
Rupert Brooke in Canada
. Toronto: PMA Books, 1978.
Maude, Aylmer.
A Peculiar People
. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1904.
Mavor, James.
My Windows on the Street of the World. 2
vols. Toronto: J.M. Dent, 1923.’
Mawson, Thomas.
The Life and Work of an English Landscape Architect
. N.p., n.d.
Meighen, Arthur.
Unrevised and Unrepented
. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1949.
Mountain Horse, Mike.
My People the Bloods
. Calgary: Glenbow-Alberta Institute and Blood Tribal Council, 1979.
Nordegg, Martin.
The Possibilities of Canada Are Truly Great
. Toronto: Macmillan, 1971.
Pick, Harry.
Next Year
. Toronto: Ryerson, 1928.
Piniuta, Harry (ed.).
Land of Pain, Land of Promise
. Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1978.
Pope, Maurice.
Public Servant: The Memoirs of Sir Joseph Pope
. Toronto: Oxford Univ. Press, 1960.
Preston, W.T.R.
My Generation of Politics and Politicians
. Toronto: D.A. Rose, 1927.
Rendell, Alice. “Letters from a Barr Colonist,”
Alberta Historical Review
, vol. 11, no. 1, 1963.
A Session’s Disclosures: Some Transactions of the Laurier Administration in the Session of 1906
. N.d.
Shortt, Adam. “Some Observations on the Great Northwest,”
Queen’s Quarterly
, vol. 2, 1895.
_______ “Some Observations on the Great Northwest II,”
Queen’s Quarterly
, vol. 3, 1895.
Shepherd, George.
West of Yesterday
. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1965.
Sifton, Clifford. “The Immigrants Canada Wants,”
Maclean’s
, 1 April 1922.
_______ “The Needs of the Northwest,”
Canadian Magazine
, vol. 20, no. 5, 1903.
Stewart, Basil.
No English Need Apply, or Canada As a Field for Immigration
. London: George Routledge, 1909.
Stewart, William R. “The Americanization of the Canadian Northwest,”
Cosmopolitan
, vol. 34, 1903.
Sykes, Ella C.
A Home Help in Canada
. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1912.