Cornerstone Colony

Cornerstone Colony
Selkirk's Contribution to the Canadian West
Copyright 1977 Western Producer Prairie Books
Cover designed by Warren Clark
218 pages,
ISBN 0-919306-80-2.

Most of the people were from the Hebrides and western Ireland and while they might have expected more by way of accommodation, they breathed sighs of relief at having amved without mishap. Owen Keveny, affable fellow, was a good leader, one who could be a disciplinarian without being offensive.

And in keeping with Captain Macdonell's hunch, there came with the party a flock of twenty-one sheep - seventeen ewes and four rams - intended, hopefully, to furnish a foundation for a New World sheep and wool industry. One ewe died on the ship to York Factory but the other members of the pioneer flock arrived at Red River in good order, in spite of William Auld's warning that they would "inevitably die on the road up."

If Macdonell had intended to leave the livestock to winter beside the hay at the Forks, the very superior character and value of these twenty-one sheep and the special supervision and protection they merited, caused him to change his mind. He was not one to waver in making decisions and when he heard about the importance Lord Selkirk attached to these sheep, he ordered that cattle and sheep as well as settlers be directed to Pembina with the least possible delay.

Instead of taking ordinary sheep like the lowly Scottish Blackface breed which could have been bought cheaply at any point in Western Scotland, the Earl resolved to begin with the best wool sheep available anywhere. His reasoning was that wool of the highest quality could become a valuable article for export from Assiniboia and he determined to provide the best in breeding stock. The sheep chosen were the golden-fleeced Merinos from Spain, the producers of the world's finest wool. Moreover, these members of Selkirk's little band were hand-picked to ensure even the best of their strain.

Having been caught up with the idea of his settlers finding sheep's wool to be a practical and profitable item for export, Selkirk was most enthusiastic about the basic flock. He admitted to visions of high quality wool being pressed into ninety-pound bales - the way farmers of a later period baled hay. Because the wool would have a high value in relation to weight, it would be found practical to transport it by canoe to York Factory and from there to the British woolen mills by sailing ships.

"They are a valuable breed," the Earl wrote about his Spanish sheep, "selected with great care and if they are lost it will not be easy to replace them."' He saw the effort as an important experiment and his approach to it was that of the scientist. Had the sheep survived, they might well have furnished the beginning of an important trade and industry. In furnishing instructions to Miles Macdonell, he mentioned that each of the sheep bore an identifying mark; clipped notches in the ears would signify identifying numbers from 1 to 22. Many breeders of pedigreed sheep were still using this marking technique over a hundred years later. All lambs in the Red River flock were to be identified in the same way to relate to their breeding and in due course every fleece from these sheep would be properly ticketed to show individual identity and shipped to England or Scotland for expert appraisal. In this way, the settlers would find a proper basis upon which to cull and select breeding stock for purposes of breed improvement. There was nothing wrong with the plan. Had the sheep survived, the Earl's sheep scheme might have produced notable results and even a new Canadian breed.

The blue-blood sheep managed to reach Red River safely and were under the experienced care of John Maclean. But there was trouble ahead. Between an insufficiency of feed and depredation by dogs and hungry natives, the flock grew smaller rather than bigger. Indians who were seen seeking safety from these strange new animals by clinging to branches in trees, soon discovered a fancy for the taste of mutton. One ewe and two rams died during the first winter and in the spring all the lambs except one were lost. Before very long the valuable Merino sheep were completely extinct at Red River.

Fortunately, the winter was not severe but the snow was deep and with complete dependence upon the buffalo herds which remained deep on the plains, famine seemed to be never more than a few days away. Macdonell had arranged with Jean Baptiste Lagimodière and two other seasoned hunters to keep up a supply of buffalo meat and the arrangement was working satisfactorily until the snow became so deep that delivery at Fort Daer was almost impossible. One young man, Magnus Isbister, perished while trying to reach the hunters' stockpile of supplies.

With the coming of spring, the settlers returned to Point Douglas to start building what they hoped would be their permanent homes and to enlarge their plots of cultivation. It was a great moment when they began to live on the land which was to be their own and one settler thought sufficient of it to give himself a new birthday date.

Adam and Eve and the sheep survivors returned also, to graze on ground which would someday be part of Winnipeg's Main Street. Later in the spring they were joined by three more cattle: a bull, a cow and a heifer calf, which the obstinate but useful Peter Fidler bought at the North West Company's post on Souris River, for the high price of £100. With the birth of a bull calf to Eve, the total cattle population of the area marked by present-day Western Canada, appears to have stood at six - two bulls, two cows and two calves, all grazing at Red River.

The bushel and one-half of winter wheat planted in the previous autumn failed to survive the winter and the small quantities of spring wheat, barley and peas obtained from Brandon House did not do much better. Grubs were said to have destroyed the Indian corn and Macdonell was appealing to Lord Selkirk for more seed for the 1814 planting season. Obviously, the state of cultivation was not. adequate for most crops and only the potatoes made a good showing. Macdonell knew what was wrong; he was not blaming the soil or the climate and was confident that with better seed and better cultivation, the reward would be good. He emphasized the need for more cattle, making it clear to Lord Selkirk that the settlement should have at least twelve or sixteen yearling heifers from which to build a herd.