OLD TIME MILLING. 



The History of Milling in the Red River Valley. 



Chas, N. Doll in Northwest Miller. 



We liave to go p, long way back in time, 

 comparatively speakinK. to review the in- 

 troduction of wheat growiuK to the valley 

 lands of tlie Red River of the North. A 

 few words on fanning of any kind under- 

 taken on the banks of tlie Red river will 

 not be out of place here. The fur traders 

 of the Northwest Fur Co. had established 



gosts on the upper Red river, in the neigh- 

 orhood of the spot where now stands the 

 town of (irafton, as early as 1800, and the 

 imployes of the Hudson's Bay Co. aoou 

 followed them. The Northwest company 

 was a Canadian concern, with its head- 

 quarters atMoutreal, their means of trans- 

 port being confined to the bark canoe. The 

 Hudson's Bay Co. supplied its Red river 

 posts from Albany House, on James' bay, 

 though its most important post was at 

 York Factory, on the west shore of Hud- 

 son's bay. The latter place supplied all the 

 posts north of Lake Winnipeg and on the 

 Saskalchetvan river. 



From t he old journal of a partner of the 

 Northwest companv, I ttnd that on the 

 17th of May, 1801, Alexander Henry, the 

 partner mentioned, proceeded to the east 

 side of the Red river, opposite the mouth 

 of the Pembina river, and on what la now 

 the site of St. Vincent, he planted "thirty 

 small potatoes,,' which had been brought 

 from the fur trading post of the company 

 at Portage la Prairie on the Assinibolne 

 river. Here was the site of a former post 

 of the Northwest company built about 

 1798 by one Peter Grant. On this same 

 day Henry established Fort Pembina, 

 which has been the 



CKNTKAL POINT FOB SETTLEMENT 



in that locality e ver since. The fort here 

 was situated "on the north side of the 

 Pembina river, on the point of land be- 

 tween that and the Red river, about one 

 hundred paces from each." On the 3rd of 

 October, Henry took from his garden 

 patches one and a half bushels of pota- 

 toes. 



Continuously after 1801 crops were rais- 

 ed at Pembina, and curiously enough, the 

 next year Henry gives us a rei)ort of his 

 garden produce that fully equals anything 

 in the crop report line that emanates from 

 the imaginative brain of a Dakota editor. 

 On the a)th of October, 1802, he wrote: "I 

 took in ray potatoes, 420 bushels, the 

 produce of seven bushels, exclusive of 

 the qujintity wc have eaten since our 

 arrival, (from Lake Superior at the 

 yearly gathering of the traders), and 

 what the Indians must have stolen, 

 which must be at least 200 bushels more. 

 I measured the circumference of an 

 onion, which was 22 inches. A carrot 

 was 18 inches long and at the thick end it 

 measured 14 inches in circumference. 

 A turnip, with its leaves, weighed 25 lbs." 

 etc. 



The next list of his vegetables given 

 was in 1804, when, in addition to the 

 coarse roots, he had cucumbers, melons, 

 squashes and Indian com. This is the 

 first mention I find made In the old re- 

 cords of any grain, though, from another 

 .journal, I flna that the &d River Indians, 

 prior to 1809, regularly resorted to the 

 Missouri River to trade with the Man- 

 dans for corn, ^a 1806 oats were sown at 

 Pemblnr 



APPARENTLY FOR THE FIRST TIME, 



and the Indians at the mouth of the Red 

 River were also growing com, the seed 

 having been supplied to them the previous 

 year. It was not until the year 1812 that 

 barley is recorded as forming part of a 

 yearly crop raised at the permanent posts 

 of the fur companies. 



In 1812 the first batch of eraigranij» -vas 

 sent out via Hudson's Bay to the Red 

 River by Lord Selkirk, a Scottish noble- 

 man, who had secured control of a ma- 



jority of the stock of the Hudson's Bay 

 Co., and voted himself a tract of land 

 bordering on the Red and Assinibolne 

 rivers. In the present State of Minnesota, 

 Territory of Dakota, and Province of Man- 

 itoba, comprising In all some 110,000 

 square miles. Lord Selkirk aimed at 

 establishing a colony on the banks of the 

 Red River which would serve to break up 

 the fur-trading operations of the North- 

 west company as well as provide a home 

 for the evicted Highlanders, who, driven 

 from their holdings were forced to emi- 

 grate. For several yt-ars after 1812 suc- 

 cessive parties of emigrants from Scot- 

 land Ireland and Switzerland, arrived at 

 the colony, and wheat now became one of 

 the leading articles of production. The 

 seed wheat appears to have been brought 

 out from England, and certainly barley 

 was introduced from Groat Britain at an 

 early date In 



THE HISTORY OF TUE .SETTLEMENT. 



The colonists were all settled on the Red 

 River immediately to the north of the 

 present city of Winnipeg, but owinar to 

 th3 scarcity of provisions freq uen tly passed 

 the winters at Pembina, when on the 

 south side of the Pembina River, and op- 

 posite to the Northwest Company's post, 

 they had established a fort, or collection 

 of log houses, which went by the name of 

 Fort Daer, being called so after Lord Sel- 

 kirk, who was also Baron Daer. Trouble 

 soon arose between the governor of the 

 colony, who had been appointed by Lord 

 Selkirk, and the officerr of the Northwest 

 Fur Co. One act led to another, and the 

 result was, first, that in 1815 the North- 

 westers induced the great majority of the 

 Selkirk people to emigrate to Upper Can- 

 ada, and second. In 1816, to an encounter 

 between the rivals, which ended in the 

 death of Gov. Semple and 20 of his Selkirk 

 servants, while the Northwesters lost only 

 one man. The remainmg colonists were 

 driven away to Lake Winnipeg, and their 

 fields, houses, etc., nearly all destroyed, 

 but Lord Selkirk pushed up from Canada 

 with a large band of discharged soldiers 

 and in turn drove olf tlie Northwesters. 

 The British government then interfered, 

 and the settlement grew and flourished, 

 and was strengthened by the coalition of i 

 the fur companies in 1820-21. i 



In 1826 there was a great flood throiigh- j 

 out the length and breadth of the Red ; 

 river valley. The dwellings, barns and | 

 fences of the settlers, with the forts of the j 

 Hudson's Bav Co., were swept away. Left i 

 homeless, and almost, starving, the se i 

 tiers were driven to despair, and when the j 

 waters subsided, In the middle of .lune, 

 the majority of them, including nearly all j 

 the I)e Meurous and Swiss, decided to 

 abandon the Red rivor country. Accord- > 

 ingly on the 2.Srd of June a party compris- 

 ing 242 persons of both sexes and all ages, 

 started for Fort Snelling, where, after 

 passing safely through the territory of the 

 warlike Sioux, they arrived in good time 

 and settled down. 



THE REMAINING COLONISTS 



set to work to rebuild their houses, and 

 notwithstanding the lateness of the sea- 

 son, sowed what seed wheat they had 

 saved from the flood, and later on reaped 

 a most bountiful harvest. From that day 

 to this the land then broken has been 

 almost annually sown in wheat and pro- 

 duced luxuriant crops without in any woy, 

 as far as is apparent, losing any of Its 

 flower. 



It will be seen, then, thatthe settlement 

 began on the lower or most northerly por- 

 tion of the Red River Valley, and It was 

 not until a full half century later that any 

 whtat was raised on the landsof Northern 

 Minnesota and Dakota, where, within a 

 few years after, the "iron horse" made Its 

 appearance in all directions, to take in 



emigrants and their equipments, and re- 

 turn to the east the wealth of goldenlgrain 

 which grows up after their arrival. 



Having followed the course of grain cul- 

 tivatlon'in the "new northwest let us 

 turn back to the days when the noise of 

 the flour mill was just heard in the land, 

 where now many a stately and substan- 

 tial structure, containing rollers and 



OTHER MODERN MACHINERY, 



supplies the wants of the settlers. There 

 is no reason to doubt that the Selkirk set- 

 tlers, on their arrivsl in the Red river 

 country in 1812, were the first persons in 

 this district who raised wheat and ground 

 it into fiour. With the original party of 

 the colonists was brought out, from the 

 Orkney Islands, some stone hand mills. 

 One of these is now in the possession of 

 the Manitoba Historical and Scientific 

 society in Winnipeg. The mill is con- 

 structed of two flat stones, circular In 

 shape, about two feet in diameter, and 

 each an inch and a half thick. Inserted 

 in the centre of one is an iron pin, while 

 the other has a circular hole cut through 

 the centre, about three and a half 

 inches In diameter, and crosswise, 

 in which is placed a narrow bar of 

 wood, having a hole bored through It 

 to admit of the iron pin in the lower 

 stone passing through it so that the upper 

 one will revolve about it as an axis. A 

 straight upright handle is inserted into 

 the upper stone near its outer edge, and 

 by this means the stone is turned around, 

 while the grain to be ground is slowly 

 poured into the whole in the centre, from 

 whence it gradually works its way out- 

 ward between the stones. Aitogeiiier it 

 Is a very primitive mill, and the settlers 

 soon become dissatisfied with It, as I find 

 In a book published In 1816 that there was, 

 the year before, a mill (presumably work- 

 ed by wind power) used by the "settlers, 

 which stood just about on the site where 

 now is the 



LARGEST STEAM GRIST MILL 



in northwest Canada. From this date on 

 windmills were erected as the settlement 

 spread along the banks of the Red and As- 

 sinibolne rivers. The ruins of several of 

 them still stand, as relics of the past, with- 

 in hearing of the sound of the steam 

 whistles of larger roller mills. Nearly 

 thirty years ago an enterprising miller 

 constructed a dam across one of the num 

 erous prairie coules that run into the Red 

 river in the vicinity of the present city of 

 Winnipeg, and by this means stored up 

 sufficient water to run a water power grist 

 mill during the spring and early summer 

 months. 



The first steam grist mill was in opera- 

 tion about the year 1861, when Andrew 

 McDermot, an ex-employe of the Hudson's 

 Bay Co., and for years one of the com- 

 pany's most active rivals in the local fur 

 trade, erected in the vi1i-;e of Winnipeg 

 a small mill, the mocu. y of which, 

 bought in New York, was isported iu 

 carls from the then town \>i St. Paul 

 to Fort Garry at a cost of five dollars 

 per "piece" of ninety pounds weight. 

 Another small steam grist mill was 

 erected about the same time, a mile low- 

 er down the Bed river. It was not until 

 1876 that milH of any considerable capa- 

 city were established on the banks of the 

 Red river. In that years the Hudson Bay 

 Co. and D. H. McMilllan erected large 

 mills, which have been enlarged from 

 time to time since that date, and are no\~' 

 turning out Hour for export. After the 

 above date settlers poured into the Red 

 river valley in Minnesota, Dakota and 

 Manitoba, necessitating the erection c( 

 many raills at all the principal points of 

 settlement. 



K«9S3£ 



