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of ContentsDuring the reign of the great Queen Victoria, settlers, mostly from "Old
Ontario", steamed up the "Queen of Rivers" from Lake of the
Woods to the Chapple area. In order to settle Western Canada, the Dominion
of Canada passed The Dominion Lands Act in 1883. This Act stated that any
person who had attained the age of eighteen years, was entitled to obtain
entry for a homestead (quarter section) on payment of a fee of ten dollars.
the holders of a homestead entry had six months from the date of entry to
take possesion and commence residence duties (to be performed during a three
year period)
The residence duties involved erecting a dwelling upon the homestead, and
living six months in residence there for each or three calendar years. The
cultivation duties were:
a) Before 1 June, 1908 - a homesteader was required to bring fifteen acres
under cultivation.
b) After 1June, 1908 - a homesteader had to bring thirty acre under cultivation
of which twenty acres must be cropped.
The homesteader could not apply for a patent (document showing ownership)
until the full three years had elapsed from the date of entry. It was required
that he apply within five years from the date of entry.
After recieving a patent for a quarter section, a homesteader could apply
for a pre-emption which entitled him to puchase at the rate of one dollar
per acre, an additional 80 acres adjacent to the homestead [later changed
to three dollars per acre]. The 1887 Rainy River Free Grants and Homesteads
Act of Ontario was offered nearly the same oppurtunities, but was enacted
after the district was given to "Old Ontario" in 1884. The Act
claimed that all pine trees, many of which became the mast poles of Her
Majesty's ships, along with any mineral shall be the property of her Majesty.
Some of Selkirk's settlersm many of them habitants from Quebec, came via
the Rainy River near the beginning of the eighteen hundreds and continued
west to become the historic St. Boniface settlement at the meeting of the
Red River and the Assiniboine, i.e. The Forks. In the 1870s, after the construction
of the Dawson Trail, up to 1200 people paid the fee of $10.00 to Fort Garry
from the Lakehead, After the CPR was built the Dawson Trail was abandoned
and between 1883 and 1910, settlers arrived in an ever-increasing tide.
Most came from Eastern Ontario, some from south of the border, and a surprising
number were returnees from western Canada. After the Canadian Pacific Railway
linked Thunder Bay to Winnipeg via Kenora in 1884, people rode the railway
to Kenora, and then went through Lake of the Woods by steamboat. In 1901,
the Canadian National Railway was completed from the west, and as soon as
the eastern link to Fort Frances was completed the following year, people
travelled the entire route by rail.
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