Homesteads & Family Farms
One of our ongoing C/DMHAC projects has been to collect information and stories about early homesteads and family farms in the Carman/Dufferin area.
Homestead Act. Under the Dominion Lands Act, 1872, or Homestead Act, a person over 21 could obtain a land grant by laying claim to a quarter-section land and paying a $10 administration fee. They were required to live on the land for at least six months a year for three years, build a dwelling and cultivate a specified number of acres of land. After meeting these requirements, they could apply for a patent, which gave them full title to the lands. Between 1872 and 1889, homesteaders could pre-empt or claim the right to buy, an adjoining quarter- section of land. This promise of land, fired by a strong dose of religious and cultural propaganda, unleashed a wave of westward migration that dramatically changed the socio-economic structure of the province.
For an overview of land settlement in the Boyne area, see A Review of the Heritage Resources of Boyne Planning District, by Karen Nicholson, pp 8–15.
We have described elsewhere how formation of the Province of Manitoba opened the territory to an unprecedented land rush. Post-1870, the land was surveyed into townships and sections and opened for homesteading. Specified sections were reserved for groups such as the Hudson’s Bay Company, railways and schools. Provision also was made for those already in the Province to claim property rights. This included 1.4 million acres of land that was to be allocated for Métis heads of family and their children.
In the following accounts, families tell us what they know about the family farm—why their ancestors came to the area, how they arrived, what the country was like at that time and how it changed and was handed down over the years. Hopefully this project will encourage families to record and preserve their memories and pass them along to future generations.
January 2019
Homestead & Family Farm project. One of our ongoing heritage projects has been the collection of information and memories from families that homesteaded or purchased early family farms in the Carman/Dufferin area. Although the number is decreasing each year, we still have a few local residents who remember grandparents or other family members who homesteaded the land or who recall family stories from the early days. We’ve been asking these folks why their families came to the area, how they arrived, what the country was like and how it developed over the years. Our goal is to document early homesteading experiences in the Carman/Dufferin area and to begin tracing changes in agriculture and in life on local farms over the past century.
Over the coming months, we will be adding these accounts to the Local Heritage section of our website under the heading Homesteads & Family Farms.