Ridgeville is a hundred miles south of Winnipeg on road 2N, 2 miles north of the US border. In 2002 when the author visited, the population quoted by the locals was 29 souls, considerably less than the hundreds that lived in the area during it's boom years in the 1960s and probably fewer than lived on the land in the late 1800s. The land is productive and thriving but fewer people are working it. It takes more land to be profitable, consequently large scale farming is common. Often large tracts leased from an absentee owner are set aside for pasture. The town has a general store with gas, a cafe and miscellaneous buildings including a rare, all-wood grain elevator.
The town of Emerson sits on the banks of the Red River about 10 miles west of Ridgeville along road 2N. The US border is an easy stone's throw. Emerson has many historic buildings and heritage homes. It began as a railway destination town about 1873 and boomed from 1880 through 1884 when the railway tracks were extended north from Minnesota. Travellers suddenly had easy access from anywhere east. Large numbers of settlers began arriving from Ontario to claim the rich, Manitoba, prairie land.
Richard SmithRichard Smith moved his entire family to Emerson prior to the census of 1881. He believed, as did many other investors and speculators, that Emerson would become the "hub" for rail traffic traveling farther west. By 1883 he had built a new hotel on Church Street called Russell House. His ad ran weekly in the Southern Manitoba Times from about 1884 until he sold in July of 1889. He also acquired the section of land, 14-1-4, near Ridgeville and held it for several years. The Emerson investors who expected to get rich when the railway made its East/West connection through their town had hopes dashed when Winnipeg was chosen as the centre of trade and transport. In 1889, Richard moved to Fort William and became very successful in a new business supplying food supplies to the railroad.
Thomas William Smith
In 1881, when Richard Smith was building his hotel in Emerson, his brother James was farming in Sunnidale (Barrie), Ontario. In 1884, James' sons, Thomas and Will, applied for and were granted homesteads on the north half of 12-1-4 near Ridgeville. Thomas was 16 and Will 18. They had undoubtedly travelled to Emerson to live and work with his Uncle Richard. Free land would have been difficult to turn down although he states in one of his applications in 1889 "I have not lived on my claim as yet" and in fact had been employed as a butcher in Emerson. In another note to the land commission in 1893 he states:
"I cannot build on my place as it is too wet to get on it to put in a crop. I will try it get on my place in October next. If this will do all is right, if it will not do I would advise you to make said 1/4 over to the provincial government as swamp lands."
Another conflict arises when Thomas discovers that his land has been sold without his consent. In another note signed by he and his brother in 1893 he states:
"the council of Franklin sold our lands 4 years ago for taxes to Allaway and Champion Bankers Winnipeg without notifying us and they claim said land"
His claim must have been maintained since he worked the land for another 10 years.
In 1887, James Smith and his wife Ellen (nee Loane) were working in Emerson, probably for Richard at Russell House. They may have been in Emerson earlier but the 1881 census has them living in Ontario. Sometime in 1889, James and his youngest son, Jimmy, (James Jr.) began homesteading on the remaining three quarters of section 12-1-4. A family house was built on the SW quarter. All three sons mention living with their father. Gradually over the next few years Thomas and Jimmy move onto their own quarters and start families. Will decided to leave the area about 1893 signed over his quarter to his aunt, Sarah Gilchrist (nee Loane), who had moved from Ontario after the death of her husband. The Smith farm became known as Hunter's Rest. "Game seekers from far and near found shelter there and enjoyed many a meal of delicious prairie chicken and wild duck cooked as only "mammy Smith" could cook them." (Obituary of Ellen (Loane) Smith) "During the North-west Rebellion, a Mounted Police post was established at the Smith farm to remain for more than 10 years. They also had a group of surveyors stay at their place." (R.M. of Franklin Turns a Century 1883-1983, page 402) Other nearby farms also hosted Mounted Police and their horses.
The homestead taken over by Sarah Gilchrist (NW 1/4 12-1-4E) became the family farm for several generations of Gilchrists. About 1903 Thomas Smith moved from his quarter to a new location in Birdshill, north of Winnipeg but his younger brother, James, continued to work his farm until about 1925. Nelson Smith, one of Richard's sons, became the owner of the eastern half of section 12-1-4 before 1933. The land was used to run cattle but not lived on.
The picture below is the James Smith Jr. house (circa 1905) as it looked in 2003. It had been uninhabited for several years.
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| The following was handwritten on the back of the original photo. (italic has been added) Back: L to R Aunt Laura (Laura Lenton, Jimmy Jr's wife) holding her son Jimmy, Great Grandma Smith (Ellen Loane, wife of James Smith) Grandma Smith holding Henry ? Aunt Sarah Smith (Sarah Jane Eliza eldest who never married) Aunt Ella (Ella Alice Smith, wife of Andrew Gilchrist) holding daughter, Helen. Front: L to R Jean (James Jr. and Laura Lenton) Susie (James Jr. and Laura Lenton) Josie (Thomas and Minnie) Nels (Thomas and Minnie) |
As homeseekers arrived... They were favourably impressed with the good soil and water, the potential fuel and shelter, and the ample wild fruit and game, all of which, out-weighed the disadvantages of having to clear the land.
The completion of the first railway in Manitoba from St. Boniface to Emerson in 1878, now known as the Soo Line, led to the rapid development in Southern Manitoba. It was about this time that some of these settlers, referring to their new country homes as villas, resolved to add "ville" to the commonly used denotation of "Ridge" to give Ridgeville it's present name.
With the arrival of the railway to Emerson from the south in 1879, all rail travel from Ontario became possible. This induced many homesteaders to come west... [Smiths arrived in 1882]
...little cash [was] available... Gardens Provided them with plenty of nourishing vegetables. Wild fruit and game added variety to their menus. Fresh meat in the fall of the year was no problem as the stubble fields were full of prairie chickens, wild ducks and geese. Most of the farmers carried a shot gun with them while they ploughed. One of the early settlers said the wild geese were so thick and so large, they chased him off the filed before he could get his Muzzle Loader ready to shoot. The resourceful homemakers made their own candles, soap, yeast cakes and cheese. They sewed clothes for the entire family, and knitted all the necessary apparel, such as socks, mitts and other wool garments.
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