Nation Builders by Gail H. Corbett

Author:Gail H. Corbett [Corbett, Gail H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Canada, General, Biography & Autobiography, Historical
ISBN: 9781550023947
Google: knJiAzudkRoC
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2002-09-15T16:19:26+00:00

Dr. Barnardo’s Receiving and Distributing Home 115 Pacific Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba

— W.H. Chapman

Road making on Dr. Barnardo’s Industrial Farm

‘ “Road making here means simply ploughing up the prairie soil, turning it over, and then leaving it to be beaten into hardness.”

— Dr. Barnardo, 1891 Manitoba Archives

In 1896, Barnardo opened his Winnipeg Receiving and Distributing Home, at 115 Pacific Avenue the gift of R.J. Whitla, a prominent Winnipeg resident. Just before Barnardo received the Winnipeg Home, the Land Commissioner of the Canadian Pacific Railway stated in the Canadian Gazette, London, that the Canadian North West suffered from a “famine of women” and English speaking general servants of good morals, who would make good farmers’ wives should be immigrated as quickly as possible. If not, young Canadian farmers, now living in isolation would leave for the United States. The Gazette emphasized that “women would give more energy to the now weak and ineffectual effort of lone young farmers.”

The Virden Advance 1904, stated in “The Manitoba Woman’s Burden” that western women were becoming “veritable slaves of their environment. We scarcely hear them complain so conscious are they that it is next to impossible to secure help. Such a state of things is a clog on the progress of the Province. Many men have to abandon farming as a profession because their wives are unequal to the physical strain which the endless duties of a farm house impose upon them.”

The great want of the North West was women: women to help women, women to help men.

The C.P.R. and Barnardo’s publicized the fact that “In the old country a servant remains a servant, always; but in Canada she becomes mistress of her own home.”

Barnardo Girls from Ontario were offered encouragement to seek their fortunes in Canada’s West.

To go “where there is space and work and large wages. And,” continued the Ups and Downs, “(this is confidential, and the girls did not say it themselves, but others told it us), there are many young men out there whose stockings are never or poorly darned, whose bread is soggy and weighty, whose wearing apparel is disjointed and shapeless, and whose hearth is unswept. Outside their home everything is shipshape and prosperity looks out from every acre of land, but it’s the inside of the home that bothers them.”

Dear Sir:

I took the homestead fever, which I thought was a good idea. It was fine until my sister left. If she does not come back you had better send me a young lady, as I have got to be one of the large farmers around here. I will stick to it a while longer, as I think that it is time that I was getting married, so if you know of a young lady who would suit me, send her along. Well, I remain one of Dr. Barnardo’s Old Boys.

C.A.C. Biggar, Sask.

In 1900 Dr. Bamardo visited the West for the last time. From the Industrial Farm at Russell he wrote his wife:

“You would be charmed with the prospect here. It is simply lovely from every point of view.

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