Up early and to the club for a busy day pf working the garage sale. Quite successful with just over $2500 taken in. I parked the motorhome there for exposure and last night was rewarded by a cll about it.
In the pm we attended a Celebration of life for one of the club members.
Here is more of my ancestors story.

The trail from here led over a rolling prairie with an occasional slough to cross, and they made good headway.  On reaching Jim Warren’s they were directed to Sim Palmer’s who lived a short distance further along the trail.

Sim Palmer, his two brothers, Sam Ballard, George Treherne (after whom the town of Treherne was named) all kept batch together in this house and all had taken up land in 1878.

Sim and his brothers made it their business to guide those in quest of land to find a desirable location.  They kept on hand a list of vacant lands which was of great assistance to home seekers, as they would otherwise have had to go to the land office to obtain one.

Nat, on reaching Palmer’s found several others who were seeking land so he and Sam joined the party and proceeded west to 7 –12, as most of the desirable land had been filed on out that distance. Nat took the North half of Sec. 15-7-12 for himself and reserved the south half of sec. 22-7-12 for me.   Each member of the party had at least three locations on his list, so that in case they found at the land office their first choice had been already filed on they could try others.

Sim Palmer then guided the party to Nelsonville, a distance of some 60 miles, where they entered for their land.  160 acres was then given as a homestead and 160 as a pre-emption.  The land was being taken so very rapidly at that time, so the law was changed so that 80 acres was given as a homestead and 80 acres for a pre-emption.

This change almost caused entry for land to cease, and after a few months the former land law was restored.

Nat wrote me to come, so I sold out and started for Winnipeg via boat line to Duluth and train to St. Vincent and boat to Winnipeg.  It did not take much time to take in the sites of Winnipeg at that time, and I ended up sightseeing by a walk along a road leading towards Fort Garry, which could be seen away to the south on the bank of the Assiniboine River with the surrounding land almost vacant prairie.

I visited the stores within the stockade enclosure of the fort and the traders, Indians and Half Breeds, dressed in their western garb, all appeared very strange and interesting to me.  I could see from the Fort a big stern wheeler being loaded from a warehouse a short distance down the river, so I walked over to investigate.  I was informed that it was leaving for Portage la Prairie in a couple of hours, so I engaged passage and had my baggage transferred to it.

We reached Portage landing the next day at noon and then walked the mile and a half to town.

The great wheat fields along each side of the road were just beginning to ripen and presented a fine object lesson to a new comer as to the fertility of the soil.  Never before had I beheld such crops.

Portage la Prairie consisted of two small straggling villages called the east end and the west end, lying about a mile apart and connected by the slough road, and the back road.  The Hudson Bay store and a flour mill were the principal buildings at the west end.  There was also a flour mill at the east end with several stores and a hotel at which I stopped overnight. 

I met at the hotel a schoolmate from the County of Durham, Ont., who was looking for a location for a general store.  I told him where I was headed for, so he decided to go along with me and see what the prospects would be for a store in the Tiger Hills country.

In the morning we struck off along the slough road to the west end where we procured a lunch to take along as an emergency ration, for we were informed that we could get meals at stopping places along the way.  From here the road led us along toward the river, where an old Hudson Bay Co. Fort stockade stood on the river bank, and then on through poplar bush for a few miles until we came to Vermillion plain where we had an early dinner at a stopping place.

After leaving this plain we passed through more poplar bush and into Long Plain, an Indian reservation where there were quite a number of dwellings.  Here we obtained a view of the river again, and I was surprised to find that we were on such elevated ground.  We inquired from the Indians where we could obtain drinking water and they directed us to a path that led down the hillside to a fine spring of good water.  This revived us considerably, and as we walked along the trail we ate our lunch as we passed through more poplar bush and on into Round Plain.  The trail led south from here for a mile or so and then began to descend into the valley on what was called the Hogs Back, an easy grade down to the ferry.

George Fortney resided in a log shack on the hillside back from the river, where we put up for the night.  We reached here at sundown pretty tired after our long walk and being pestered by mosquitoes all the way.  Mr. Fortney prepared supper and we ate heartily of the plain food.  As the settlers further on had to pass this way, he knew them all.  I enquired about Nat’s location and he told me it was about 35 miles further on.

 We retired for the night to a bed of hay on the floor, and in the morning were up early to make room for our landlord to prepare breakfast consisting of pork, bannock and tea.

When we were across the river, we made our way up out of the valley and away around the bend of the river to where there were a number of log houses occupied by Indians.  This was on a little higher ground near the brink of the valley, and presented a grand view of the river as it swept around in a great curve deep down in the valley with its densely wooded banks.  Here I obtained my first view of the Tiger Hills far to the south, shrouded in a blue haze.  This was about where Indianford P.O. was afterwards located.

The trail then led us south west through the willow swamp which was now well dried up since the rainy season and came out near the Boyne river and then on to Mallock’s where we made a short stay.  Then on past Mr. Steadman’s to Jim Warren’s where we had been informed we could obtain refreshments.

Mr. Warren was almost out of supplies and could not give us anything to eat.  He was going to Portage in the morning for supplies.  However they gave us each a glass of buttermilk which somewhat appeased our hunger and was a treat after drinking slough water along the way.

I now realized how foolish I was in not bringing along as much food as I could readily carry, and that I was now on the frontier among a few settlers scattered over the plains, who had been here for but a short time and who were all busily engaged in building shelters in which to reside.  Every ounce of food was valuable for most of it had to be carried on their backs.

We then walked along to Sim Palmer’s and found no person around.  We hesitated about going further for fear that we might be unable to reach some place where we might obtain food.  However we decided to go on over a poorly marked trail which was difficult to follow.  We could see away towards the hills a tent here and there where settlers were making a start towards building their homes.