Lord and Lady Dufferin, arriving at the gates of Fort Garry. They had come to Winnipeg from Toronto to make a trip to Lake Winnipeg. They took the Dawson Road from Fort Garry to the Northwest Angle before heading north. Lady Dufferin’s Journal of the trip paints a vivid picture of the experience of a Red River Cart on a corduroy road. Source: Archives of Manitoba.Mitchell, R. (1966). Lord Dufferin. Manitoba Pageant, Winter 1966, Volume 11, Number 2. Retrieved June 29, 2020 from http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/pageant/11/lorddufferin.shtml
“Gov General Lord and Lady Dufferin visited Manitoba in the fall Sept 29, 1877 to tour Manitoba's emerging Mennonite settlements. Dufferin was a well regarded British diplomat who, for his time, showed a great sensitivity to Canadian concerns and helped bring the country together. Their trip to Manitoba took them to see Winnipeg, Selkirk, Stony Mountain, and Lower Ft Garry. The highlight of their trip was to see the new Mennonite settlements in the East Reserve. The Dufferins were interested to see the progress that this new immigrant group had made as Manitoba's first major group settlement. In less than three years the Mennonites had established 37 villages where there had been only bush, swamp, and unbroken prairie sod.
"...Lord Dufferin, Lieut. Gov Morris and two other unnamed men rode horses. Huge 320 pound James McKay MLA served as guide for the group. Other wagons carried food, a cook, camping supplies and etc. By 2:00 PM a severe thunderstorm found the party stuck waist-deep in mud in a swampy area near present day Ile Des Chenes. On the next day they reached the north end of the settlement where the Mennonites had spent weeks preparing for the Gov General's arrival. Hespeller who had served as the Mennonite's agent and who negotiated their coming to Canada had gone out the week before to assist in preparations.
"The party passed through a portal made of evergreen boughs. On a rise just west of present day Steinbach they could see half a dozen villages. A crowd of 1000 gathered to hear the Gov Gen. on a day the Mennonites had declared a holiday. Young girls served lemon-scented tea. A pergola had been created of evergreen boughs. Local produce and samples of wheat, corn, hay and flax were on display. German and Canadian flags flew overhead.
"Lord Dufferin welcomed the new settlers on behalf of her majesty Queen Victoria. He reassured them their challenges in Manitoba would not be man but "to conquer the plains" and to "bring peace, corn and plenty wherever they have trod." Dufferin spoke of "the comfortable homesteads that have risen like magic upon this fertile plain."
"Dufferin offered to share the benefits of Canadian Citizenship with the Mennonites. He told them they would find Canada "a beneficent and loving mother." He invited them to share our liberties, municipal organization, the chance to choose our members of parliament, and civil and religious freedom. The Mennonites were moved to tears.
"Dufferin was delighted with what he had seen. On their way out of Manitoba they drove the first spike in St Boniface for the future railway. And as they travelled south on the steamboat the Dakota, at Fraser's Landing, near present day Fargo, they stopped to see the locomotive that would forever carry their name: The Countess of Dufferin.”
George Siamandas, local author
Source: Siamandas, G. (n.d.). Lord Dufferin’s 1877 visit to Manitoba’s Mennonite Settlements. Time Machine website/blog. Retrieved June 20, 2020 from Lord Dufferins's 1877 Visit to Manitoba BY GEORGE SIAMANDAS
Traversing the Quagmire: “Knocked about as much as we could bear…”
Lady Dufferin. The plain fabric and minimal bustle of Lady Dufferin’s dress suggest the early 1880s., Hariot Georgina Rowan-Hamilton, Hariot Georgina Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, Baroness Dufferin and Clandeboye, Lady Dufferin, Countess of Dufferin, Rowan-Hamilton family, Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood family, Marquise, British, curly coiffure, hat, chemisette, collar, high enclosing neckline, long under-sleeves, cuirasse bodice, long close over-sleeves, draped tight skirt, wrap. Source: gogmsite. (2019, May 1). Grand Ladies - Lady Dufferin wearing fuzzy hat by?. Retrieved June 29, 2020 from https://www.gogmsite.net/new-content/lady-dufferin-wearing-fuzzy.html
“Before lunch, we did about seventeen miles and as the road was rough, we were glad of the rest in the middle of the day. When we started again we were told we had only nine miles to go and thought we should have such an easy afternoon. It proved a very hard one. We had five miles of swamp and a road made with rough-hewn trunks of trees. When first made, this sort of perpetual bridge is not disagreeable, but when time has worn furrows in it, the jogging of the wagon is not to be described.”
“When we had been knocked about as much as we could bear, we got out and walked a couple of miles, but almost our whole journey was over corduroy road and as we had to go at a foots’ pace – it was very fatiguing…when an occasional “cord” has broken away altogether, when another has got loose and turns around as the horse puts its foot on it or when it stands up on end when the wheel touches it, a corduroy road is not pleasant drive many miles over.”
Lady Dufferin’s account of the Dawson Road
Source: Dufferin and Ava, Harriot Georgina Blackwood, Marchioness of, 1843?-1936. (1891). My Canadian journal, 1872-8, extracts from my letters home, written while Lord Dufferin was Governor-General. Chung Published Works. B, London : J. Murray. Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/chung/chungpub/items/1.0056319
The arrival of the Countess of Dufferin, Winnipeg, 9 October 1877 signalled the arrival of the ‘iron horse’ to the prairies. The Dawson Road would be used to build the very railroad on which she would drive. Source: Canadian Pacific Railway. Retrieved June 20, 2020 from http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/pageant/04/ladyoftherails.shtml
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