The First St. Clements Settlers
Who Were The First Explorers? The French were the first European explorers to come to the Red River. They were led by Pierre La Verendrye. The trail that they explored and left behind is called the La Verendrye trail.
The Hudson’s Bay Company King Charles II Next came the Hudson’s Bay Company workers. The English King Charles II gave two explorers named Radisson and Groseilliers a ship called the Nonsuch. With this ship, they explored the land by Hudson’s Bay. Nonsuch
Why Did They Come? They found lots of furs in the Red River area. They set up a trading camp to bring the furs to England and make lots of money. They were the first group of people to live by the Red River, who were not aboriginal.
Settling Down They built their homes south of Selkirk/East Selkirk. Today this would be Winnipeg and Southern St. Clements. Many of these European settlers married and had families with the aboriginal peoples. These people were called the Métis.
Who Was Lord Selkirk? Lord Selkirk was a Scottish nobleman. His full name was Thomas Douglas, the Fifth Earl of Selkirk.
The Selkirk Settlers In the early 1800’s, Scottish peasants were in trouble. People were starting to raise sheep. They needed large fields for the sheep to live on. The peasants that used to live on the fields were cleared off and didn’t have a home anymore. Lord Selkirk saw this happening and didn’t like it. He wanted to help them.
Where Did They Go? There was no land for the peasants to live on in Scotland so Lord Selkirk had to send them somewhere else. Lord Selkirk decided to send them to North America. The Hudson’s Bay Company gave Lord Selkirk a lot of land near the Red River. The first group of the Selkirk settlers arrived in 1812.
Arguments The town they built grew quickly. The Métis people were still living in the same area between Selkirk and Winnipeg when the Selkirk settlers arrived. There were a lot of arguments between them because the Métis didn’t like the Selkirk settlers living on their land. A big fight even happened called the Seven Oaks Massacre. The fighting stopped when Lord Selkirk sent some soldiers from Scotland.
Moving After a while, the children of the Selkirk settlers wanted to move. The land they lived on kept flooding, and they didn’t like that. They moved to the Selkirk area in St. Clements because it didn’t flood here.
Arriving in St. Clements The Selkirk Settlers created a town. They named the town Selkirk after Lord Selkirk.
East and West Selkirk The town was supposed to be on the East Side of the River Plans changed and people built their homes on both sides of the river. West Selkirk became a town in 1882. East Selkirk became a town in 1883. By 1884, East Selkirk had over 400 people, five general stores, four hotels, several quarries, brickyards, potteries, and a very busy harbour at Colville Landing.
East Selkirk Roundhouse/ Immigration Shed The Selkirk settlers built the East Selkirk Roundhouse/Immigration Shed. It was originally supposed to fix train engines but never did. Instead people moving here from other countries used it as a first house.
- “preserving our community’s heritage one story at a time” – This presentation brought to you by the St. Clements Heritage Advisory Committee! - “preserving our community’s heritage one story at a time” – Information Compiled/Presentation Created by Jared Laberge Bibliography St. Clements Historical Committee. East Side Of The Red. Winnipeg: Inter-Collegiate Press, 1984. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Rebellion> Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson%27s_Bay_Company> <http://www.hbc.com> The End