The Bell Farm Visitors' Register was not printed until 1884, two years after work started at the Farm. From various historical records, including newspapers, journals, books, government reports and correspondence we know that many other people visited the Farm between 1882 and 1884.
This album records those people who have been positively reported as having been at the Farm between 1882 and 1896, when the farm closed. In addition, people continued to visit and report on the Bell Farm well after it ceased to exist, and those reports are also included.
One large group came in late August 1883, when a special CPR train was assembled in Montreal to go to the Rocky Mountains. A Group of 66 dignitaries were on board, including the President of the Canadian Pacific Railway, George Steven, and many members of Canada's financial and political elite. The train left Montreal on Aug. 20, and travelled to Toronto, Ontario; then on to Chicago, Illinois, followed by St. Paul, Minnesota, where they arrived on Aug. 25. After the group reached Winnipeg Manitoba, it headed due west on the newly-completed rail line to Calgary, Alberta, which was reached on Aug. 28. During the return trip, the entourage stopped off at the Bell Farm for a tour of this grandiose agricultural wonder. They arrived in time to witness the first harvest at the Bell Farm.
Two Winnipeg photographers also visited the Bell Farm in August 1883. Hall and Lowe took about 20 photographs of the Bell Farm, less than a third have been found to date. It is not known if Hall and Lowe also documented the Group of 66 tour to the Bell Farm.
As well, many others who visited the Bell Farm after 1884 did not, for some unknown reason, sign the official Bell Farm Visitors' Register. This included some of the members of the Tenant-Farmer delegation from England in October 1890; and again in the fall of 1893
RESEARCH:
As with the Visitors' Register album, most of the information and photos for the entries in this album have been located and provided by Michelle Cabana, of Saskatoon, with assistance from Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask.
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001 - Major Bell, on left, with five of his friends
This album includes information on and photos of people who did not sign the Bell Farm Visitors Register. This photo probably includes friends of Major Bell (seated far left) who at some point visited the Bell Farm. It is suspected that this photo was taken in Winnipeg after Major Bell left Indian Head in 1896. However, the location for this photo has not been determined. Based on archival research, we believe that some of the men are as follows, from left to right: • Major William Robert Bell (1845-1913) – confirmed (Manitoba Club member: 1882-1913) – no doubt about this identification, as we have lots of images of Major Bell on file. • Walter Frederick Payne (1863-1930) – possibly ? • Unknown _____ ? • Thomas William Taylor (1852-1924) – possibly ? • Walter Reginald Baker (1852-1929) – possibly ???? - (Manitoba Club member: 1881- ___) • John Haffner (1848-1921) – possibly ?
SOURCES:
Major Bell - http://bellbarn.ca/gallery2/v/bell-farm-history/family/ Major Bell - http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=7202 Major Bell - http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/bell_wr.shtml Haffner - Memorable Manitobans: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/haffner_j.shtml Haffner - https://archive.org/stream/storyofmanitoba02schouoft#page/126/mode/2up bio and photo source Haffner - http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/10428/54.html?qid=peelbib%7Chaffner%7C%7Cscore member of the Commercial Club Haffner - "Manitoba Free Press" Feb. 25, 1921 - Obituary Payne - Memorable Manitobans: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/payne_wf.shtml Taylor 1 - Memorable Manitobans: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/taylor_t1.shtml Taylor 2 - Memorable Manitobans: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/taylor_tw.shtml Baker - Memorable Manitobans: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/baker_wr.shtml Baker - "Winnipeg Tribune" Feb. 17, 1894 photo source Baker - https://archive.org/stream/outing25newy#page/501/mode/1up 1894-1895 photo source Baker - https://archive.org/stream/albertamunicipal62albe#page/n5/mode/2up (Retlaw Alberta/ private secretary to the Earl of Dufferin 1874-1878) Baker - "Winnipeg Tribune" Jan. 26 & 27th, 1893 New Year's Ball/Manitoba Club Baker - Winnipeg Tribune" - Provincial Fair May 7, 1890 Baker - "Winnipeg Tribune" - Cricket - June 16, 1893 Baker - Curling March 30 1894
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask. -
AIRD, Sir John
Visited the Bell Farm in 1882 - Sir John Aird (1855-1938) was born in Longueil, Quebec. He worked most of his life in the banking business, serving as Superintendent of Western Canadian Operations for the Bank of Commerce from 1908 until 1911, and then returned to Head Office in Toronto. Earlier, in 1882, after four years of working for the Bank of Commerce, Aird was sent to the Bell Farm to help deal with certain as-yet-undetermined banking difficulties then facing the newly-established Qu'Appelle Valley Farming Company (also known as the Bell Farm) at Indian Head. He was Knighted in 1917, and in 1928-29 he chaired the federal government's Aird Commission, the results of which ultimately led to the formation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1936. SOURCES: "Toronto Globe and Mail" Dec 1, 1938/ article "Life of Aird Was Full and Happy": "Authority on the West" Photo: Sir John Aird - https://archive.org/stream/historyofcanadia02rossuoft#page/n9/mode/2up - John Aird (1855-1938); Knighted in 1917 - http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/aird_j.shtml RESEARCH BY: Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask. -
BLANCHARD, Dr. Robert Johnston
Visited the Bell Farm on Oct. 13-14, 1895 - Dr. Robert Johnston Blanchard (1853-1928) was a Scottish medical doctor (graduated 1878) who moved to Winnipeg in 1879. In mid October 1895 he was summoned by Major Bell to attend to his ailing wife, Catherine. Dr. Blanchard came as quickly as possible, travelling by CPR President Sir William Van Horne's private train. However, Mrs. Bell was too sick and died on Oct. 14 from appendicitis. Both Dr. Blanchard and his wife Janie Louise, came to the Winnipeg CPR Station along with at least a dozen other mourners who were friends and associates of Major and Catherine Bell, when the Van Horne train carrying Mrs. Bell's remains passed through en route to Brockville, Ontario for burial. Dr. Blanchard served oversees during World War I, and afterwards returned to Winnipeg, where he practised until his death in 1928. SOURCES: Memorable Manitobans: Blanchard, Robert Johnston - http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/blanchard_rj.shtml RESEARCH BY: Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask. -
BREADY, Thomas Turnnel Wadsworth
Visited the Bell Farm on September 7, 1893. Thomas Bready (1854-1903) was a grain merchant and, as such, became a prominent capitalist and President of the Winnipeg Elevator Company. While at the Bell Farm, he "pronounced the wheat the best he had seen during his travels this season". His strong affiliation with wheat production might well have put him in association with Major Bell after the Bell family returned to Winnipeg in 1901.
SOURCES:
photo source - http://archive.org/stream/representativeme00winnuoft#page/76/mode/2up Bell Farm visit - "Winnipeg Free Press" - Sept. 14, 1893 Obituary - "Winnipeg Free Press" - Jan. 15, 1903 Obituary - “Houston Daily Post”, Jan. 27, 1903, , Page 10, col. 1 Portrait - http://krassoc.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/thomas-t-w-bready-wesleyan-methodist-member-bosanquet-township-lambton-county/ Biography: Memorable Manitobans - http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/bready_ttw.shtml Bready interview - “The Saint Paul Globe.”, November 25, 1896, Page 6, col. 3 Bready comments - “The Minneapolis Journal”, August 24, 1901, Page 2, col. 5
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask. -
BURGESS, A.M.
Visited the Bell Farm in June or July, 1884. Alexander Mackinnon Burgess (1850-1898) was born in Scotland, and emigrated to Canada in 1871, where he worked as a journalist for the Toronto Globe and the Ottawa Times. Burgess joined the federal civil service in 1876, and became Deputy Minister of the Interior on July 1, 1883. He travelled throughout the West in the summer of 1884. Part of his journey included discussions relating to squatters at the Bell Farm and other locations. Burgess was demoted to Commissioner of Dominion Lands after the Liberal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier was elected in 1896. He died iof a stroke two years later.
SOURCES
Annual Report of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year pgs 13-16 http://books.google.ca/books?id=7QpOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=%22Scarth%22++%22Bell+farm%22&source=bl&ots=XVEMAM3a-B&sig=skIkhyOD31wjLmCco-SBvxbDHkM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hMDnUM_FFYSk8gS4_oGwCA&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBw#v=snippet&q=Bell%20farm&f=false Annual Report of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year pgs 13-16 Biography: http://books.google.ca/books?id=7QpOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=%22Scarth%22++%22Bell+farm%22&source=bl&ots=XVEMAM3a-B&sig=skIkhyOD31wjLmCco-SBvxbDHkM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hMDnUM_FFYSk8gS4_oGwCA&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBw#v=snippet&q=Bell%20farm&f=false
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask. and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask. -
DANIEL, Arthur
Visited the Bell Farm with the Tenant-Farmer Delegates on Oct 3, 1890 - Arthur Daniel came from 172 Dereham Road, Norwich, England. In 1890 the Canadian government invited a dozen farmers from Great Britain to visit Canadian farms in order to report on agriculture and the prospects of immigration. The Tenant-Farmer delegates spent the autumn of 1890 travelling from Eastern Canada to the BC Coast with a stopover at the Bell Farm, Brassey Farm and / or the Dominion Experimental Farm on Oct 3, 1890. Arthur Daniel was one of those delegates. He left Liverpool on 28 Aug. on board the Allan Line Company's ship “Circassian”. Like his fellow delegates, he wrote a report on his trip. His report on the Bell Farm was not complimentary. He considered the Farm a failure, and credited that view due to reports he heard from others about mismanagement by Major Bell. SOURCES: http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/1853/6.html - p. 18-19 RESEARCH BY: Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask., and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask. -
DEMPSTER, William Henry - Welsh Tenant Farmer
William Henry Dempster (North Wales) and John Roberts (South Wales) were two of the Welsh tenant-farmer delegates that visited the Bell Farm on Sept. 19, 1893; but they didn't sign the Register. They left England on Aug. 24th, and return in mid November, 1893, and went across Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Edward Philip Leacock, on behalf of the Canadian government, acted as the Delegates’ guide during their time in the Northwest. Most of the delegates published their reports and promoted the Canadian North West back home. Dempster and Roberts saw their reports published by the Canadian government in the same volume, dated Feb. 1894. Dempster's report was 15 pages long; Roberts' was double that.
SOURCES:
Welsh Tenant-Farmers Reports, 1894, by Roberts and Dempster - https://archive.org/stream/albertatest_01394#mode/2up - p. 37-38 - refers to Brassey and Experimental Farms, but not the Bell Farm; likewise, p. 41 deals with the return trip from Calgary to Brandon, without any mention of the Bell Farm, which was discussed in Roberts' report. "Evening Express" (Wales) Dec. 4, 1893 - W.H. Dempster photo source and article/ Resources of Canada 1894 Sessional Papers for the Department of the Interior: https://books.google.ca/books?id=rCZOAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA4-PA23&lpg=RA4-PA23&dq=william+henry+Dempster,+wales,+tenant+farmer,+1893&source=bl&ots=K9FI9zDhhA&sig=ACfU3U068bNs2dV9GG-AU0Yuw9OPbeVZlA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiw38y1wPHrAhXWi54KHYopB1QQ6AEwB3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=william%20henry%20Dempster%2C%20wales%2C%20tenant%20farmer%2C%201893&f=false
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask. -
DEVLIN, C.R.
Visited the Bell Farm in March-April 1897 - Charles Ramsay Devlin (1858-1914) was a Quebec politician, and later served as an Immigration Agent in Ireland. In 1897 he joined with Alfred F. Jury (Immigration Anget in Liverpool, England) for a tour of Western Canada, including Indian Head and the Bell Farm.
SOURCES:
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/devlin_charles_ramsay_14E.html - Dictionary of Canadian Biography Charles Ramsay Devlin photo source for Charles Ramsay Devlin "Winnipeg Tribune" - March 22, 1897 - report on Jury & Devlin
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask. -
EBERHARD, Julius
Visited the Bell Farm in 1883 in company with Dr. Max Sering, both from Germany. Julius Eberhard, of Reutlingen, Germany, arrived in Canada in 1881 as part of a German agricultural delegation and then worked alongside the immigration agent in Brandon, Thomas Bennet, as his German speaking assistant. He left that position in 1884 and returned to Germany at the request of his parents. In 1883 he also accompanied Dr. Max Sering on a tour of the West. That tour was reported in the July 12 issue of the "Regina Leader", indicating approximately when these two men would have visited the Bell Farm.
SOURCES:
“Montreal Gazette”, Oct. 11, 1881 / agricultural delegate "Regina Leader", 12 July 1883, p. 4 - Sering and Eberhard visit to Regina area Alternate German Text - 1883 report on 1881 trip by Julius Eberhard, Dr. Schreiner, Dr. Wiederstein & Ludvik Glock - p. 2 and 17 - https://archive.org/details/kandskseverozpad00unse/page/16/mode/2up German Text of 1884 CPR Canada and the North-West booklet - p. 14 – Julius Eberhard, Dr. Schneider, Dr. Wiedersheim & Ludwig Glock tour Canada; usual Bell Farm sketches; Bell Farm - , bottom of p. 11 - appears to be of their 1881 tour – pre-Bell Farm era - https://archive.org/details/cihm_25813/page/n19/mode/2up German Text – p. 53 – 64 – Homesteading in Manitoba - https://books.google.ca/books?id=PI0tAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=%22Bericht+von+Julius+Eberhard%22&source=bl&ots=sdOk13ajFW&sig=ACfU3U1-UeWZsrciTCxwbkrLC4O3tIoxnw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjw5oOcorXuAhWvMlkFHQt0AXkQ6AEwAXoECAIQAg#v=twopage&q&f=false pg 53 German Text – p. 1-4 – mention of Moose Jaw, Regina, Brandon & Winnipeg – April 30, 1883 - https://books.google.ca/books?id=PI0tAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT10&lpg=PT10&dq=dr+julius+eberhard+manitoba&source=bl&ots=sdOk149nFR&sig=ACfU3U3PaCrPXuM5G0iVAPeR_8EzRgdqLA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwig_fGbxbXuAhUKEVkFHb7WAvwQ6AEwCXoECA0QAg#v=twopage&q&f=false Eberhard returns to Germany – Sessional Paper No 5, 1885, p. 144 - https://archive.org/details/sessional8s1885cana/page/144/mode/2up - called back home 1884 /replaced by Hermann John Maass Gov. Gen Marquis of Lorne’s Report on his tour of The Canadian North-West, 1881 – (Can. Govt Agencies - p. 2) - The Canadian north-west : Argyll, John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, Duke of, 1845-1914 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (Brandon: Julius Eberhard, German assistant) 1883 - JULIUS EBERHARD, BRANDON. RETURNED WITH MR. SPIELBERG- https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/CollectionSearch/Pages/record.aspx?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=1914794&new=-8585900904119596120 1883 - JULIUS EBERHARD, BRANDON. EXPENDITURE WITH DELEGATES. (D.C.O.) - https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/CollectionSearch/Pages/record.aspx?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=1913965&new=-8585900901614340152 1882 - JULIUS EBERHARD, BRANDON. STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURE. (D.C.O.) - https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/CollectionSearch/Pages/record.aspx?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=1916007&new=-8585900901614340152
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan -
EDWARDS, Oliver and Henrietta Muir Edwards, and Family
Dr. Oliver Cromwell Edwards (1859-1915) lived at Indian Head in 1882-83 and visited the Bell Farm regularly. He came to the West in 1882 and over the next decade acquired periodic government employment as Medical Officer for the Treaty 4 region, providing medical service to the First Nation peoples living in the Fort Qu'Appelle - Indian Head - Qu'Appelle region. In 1883 his wife Henrietta Muir Edwards (1849-1931) and their two children, Alice and William, joined him. Their third child, Margaret, was born at Indian Head in the midst of the North-West Rebellion of 1885. The Edwards were reportedly frequent visitors at the Bell Farm. Throughout the 1880s Dr. Edwards regularly reported on the difficulties that the First Nations people faced with respect to a lack of food and inadequate health care. However, his reports, like similar ones from other sources, were basically ignored by officials in Ottawa. Some suggest that his Liberal political support hindered his ability to influence the Conservative government of the day, and to gain more regular medical appointments. His later appointments by the Liberal Government would, in part, seem to corroborate this statement. The family lived in the Fort Qu'Appelle, Indian Head, Regina and Qu'Appelle regions during the 1880s, and later in Eastern and Western Canada. Dr. Edwards’ medical career was not lucrative, and Henrietta often supplanted family income from her own resources. In addition to caring for her family, Henrietta collected aboriginal art and became an accomplished artist in her own right. The sale of her art helped sustain the family's income. In the late 1880s she also took up the cause of women's rights. Henrietta became even more socially and politically influential after their move to Ottawa in 1890 and later to southern Alberta. She was one of "The Famous Five" Alberta women who espoused women's suffrage in the early 20th century and secured the right of women to vote and hold elected office. Their fight to have women declared as legal "persons" was confirmed by the British Privy Council in 1929. Henrietta was also the co-founder, with Lady Aberdeen, of the National Council of Women and the Victorian Order of Nurses. For her various contributions, Henrietta Edwards was recognized in 1962 by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada as a person of national historic significance. Larger-than-life bronze statues of The Famous Five can be seen in downtown Calgary. Dr. Oliver Edwards died in 1915; Henrietta Muir Edwards died in 1931.
SOURCES:
"Wineglass Ranch" website: http://www.wineglassranch.ca/family-heritage/dr-oliver-c-edwards "Montreal Medical Journal" – Oct. 1883, page 190: https://archive.org/stream/montrealmedicalj12mont#page/190/mode/2up Dr. Edwards at Indian Head: https://archive.org/stream/honalexandermac00rossgoog#page/n614/mode/2up Dr. Edwards obituary: April 22, 1915, "Ottawa Journal" Dr. Edwards treats British Association tour member Burton – accident: Aug. 18, 1884 - "Winnipeg Free Press" M.A. Thesis, U of Calgary, 1975 (p. 103 & 108, 109): "Henrietta Muir Edwards: the journey of a Canadian feminist" by Patricia Roome: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq24346.pdf Edwards Family photo, ca. 1882-83 (L-R: Doctor Oliver C. Edwards; Alice (in chair, foreground); Mrs. Henrietta Muir Edwards; Amelia Muir; Willie (asleep); Willie Edwards: http://www.glenbow.org/collections/search/findingAids/archhtm/edwards_gardiner.cfm#series13 Glenbow Archives Collection: http://www.glenbow.org/collections/search/findingAids/archhtm/edwards_gardiner.cfm#series1 "The Banker and the Blackfoot", by J. Edward Chamberlin "Qu'Appelle: Footprints to Progress" - local history
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon; Margaret Hryniuk, Regina; Bill Armstrong, Regina; and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Saskatchewan -
EDWARDS, William
Visited the Bell Farm with the Tenant-Farmer Delegates on Oct 3, 1890. William Edwards came from Ruthin, Wales. In 1890 the Canadian government invited a dozen farmers from Great Britain to visit Canadian farms in order to report on agriculture and the prospects of immigration. The Tenant-Farmer delegates spent the autumn of 1890 travelling from Eastern Canada to the British Columbian ccoast with a stopover at the Bell Farm, Brassey Farm and /or the Dominion Experimental Farm on Oct 3, 1890. William Edwards was one of those delegates. He left Liverpool on 28 Aug. along with six delegates on the “Circassian” of the Allan Line. Edwards did not comment on the Bell Farm in his report; possibly he was among the group that was caught in a heavy downpour that day and opted not to visit Major and Mrs. Bell after touring the Experimental Farm.
SOURCES:
http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/1855/4.html
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask. and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask. -
ELKINGTON, William M.
Crossed the Bell Farm on July 1, 1892. William M. Elkington bought a homestead 20 miles north of Fort Qu'Appelle, and moved there from England in April 1889. He worked his farm ,and did other manual labour in the region until he returned permanently to England in 1893. Meanwhile, he helped to construct the Brassey stone barn SW of Indian Head in the summer of 1892, serving as a stonemason's helper.
SOURCES:
https://archive.org/stream/cihm_30169#page/n5/mode/2up "Five Years in Canada" (Bell farm references from pg 91, 92, 99, and 121) (1892-1893) – published in 1895 https://archive.org/stream/wideworldmagazin01lond#page/424/mode/2up photo source for Elkington (born c.1871) https://archive.org/details/cu31924003044173 Elkington and Long
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Saskatchewan -
FANE, Col. Francis Augustus
Probably visited the Bell Farm on Oct 3 or 4. 1890. Col. Francis Augustus Fane (1824-1893) lived at Fulbeck Hall, Lincolnshire, England. He fought in the Indian Mutiny (1857-58); and was commander of the Peshawar Light Horse. He gained the `rank` of Colonel in the 25th Regiment. In 1890 the Canadian government invited a dozen farmers from Great Britain to visit Canadian farms in order to report on agriculture and the prospects of immigration. The Tenant-Farmer delegates spent the autumn of 1890 travelling from Eastern Canada to the British Columbia c Coast with a stopover at the Bell Farm, Brassey Farm and / or the Dominion Experimental Farm on Oct 3 or 4, 1890. Col. Fane was one of those delegates. In his report to the Canadian Government, Fane did not comment on the Bell Farm; possibly he was among the group that was caught in a heavy downpour that day and opted not to visit Major and Mrs. Bell after touring the Experimental Farm. However, he left an excellent itinerary for the tour. Col. Fane and six fellow Delegates left Liverpool on Aug, 28, 1890 on board the Allan Line steamer: "Circassian". They arrived at Quebec: Sept. 8; Ottawa: Sept. 9; Toronto: Sept. 11; Owen Sound: Sept. 17; Port Arthur: Sept. 19; Winnipeg: Sept. 20; Brandon: Sept 25; Moosomin: Oct 1; Grenfell: Oct. 3; Regina: Oct. 6; Calgary: Oct 8; Vancouver: & Victoria: Oct. 10; RETURN: Virden - Brandon: Oct 22; Winnipeg: Oct 24; Niagara Falls: Nov. 1; Toronto: Nov. 5; Montreal: Nov 9; Quebec: Nov. 11; return ship "Parisian", back to Liverpool: Nov. 22. Others travelled on the "Sardinian", leaving Sept. 4 and returned to England on the "Parisian" - both Allan Line ships. Col. Fane does not state when he visited or passed by the Bell Farm, and he did not sign the Visitor's Register.
SOURCES:
http://archive.org/stream/cihm_58480#page/n5/mode/2up - “The Visit of the Tenant-Farmer delegates to Canada in 1890”- p. 26 & 45; references to Bell and Brassey Farms on p. 33 and 42. http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/1853.html - by Col, Fane, etc http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/1855/43.html - Hutchinson, etc Peerage: http://thepeerage.com/p5467.htm#i54669 - genealogical information http://thepeerage.com/p33541.htm#i335409 - genealogical information
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask., and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Saskatchewan -
Flett, Rev. George - Presbyterian Missionary
George Flett (1817-1897) was 70 when he visited the Bell Farm on June 24, 1887 with the contingent of Presbyterian ministers who had recently met at Winnipeg for their annual General Assembly. Flett was born at Moose Lake, Manitoba to a Cree mother and Scottish-born father from the Orkney Islands. In 1840 he married Mary Ross, the daughter of Scottish fur trader Alexander Ross and Sally Timentwa, from the Okanagan area of the Rocky Mountains. By the 1860s, Flett had worked in the fur trade, and established a Hudson Bay Company Post at Victoria Settlement,along the North Saskatchewan River, NE of Edmonton, Alberta. He became fluent in several Indigenous and European languages, which served him well as a Christian missionary in western Canada, having helped Rev. James Nisbett establish a mission at Prince Albert (Saskatchewan) in 1866-67. Though not formally ordained into the Presbyterian Church until 1875, from 1873-1895 he served primarily as a missionary to the Ojibwa at the Okanase Reserve (now know as Keeseekoowenin), in the Riding Mountain area of Manitoba. Rev. George Flett died in 1897 at age 80; Mary died in 1912 at age 91 and both were buried on the Okanase Cemetery.
SOURCES:
Memorable Manitobans: George Flett (1817-1897) - http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/flett_g.shtml “Manitoba History”: George Flett, Presbyterian Missionary to the Ojibwa at Okanase, by Alvina Block , 1999- http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/37/flett_g.shtml “George Flett: Native Presbyterian Missionary” – Masters Thesis by Alvina Block, 1997 – University of Winnipeg & University of Manitoba - https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape17/PQDD_0006/MQ32058.pdf
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask. -
FRANCIS, Fred J.
Fred Francis was a newspaper correspondent for the "Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicles". He travelled to Canada in 1883 and reported on his Bell Farm visit in an article that was published on Nov. 3, 1883.
SOURCES:
"Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicles" - 3 Nov. 1883.
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask.