I picked up a Biblio Life reprint of this 1910 publication the other day. It is an interesting little booklet for anyone studying the settlers of the pre-1915 desertions. Essentially, it consists of copies of documents in the Selkirk Papers that help to identify exactly which people arrived as settlers in the 1811, 1812, 1813 and 1814 groups.

You’d think that would be a pretty straightforward thing to figure out – just look at the ships’ lists! In actual fact, though, it isn’t very easy at all. Some of the ships’ lists have gone missing. Not all the people who were recruited and show on those lists embarked on the journey. Some of those changed ships during the voyage. Some decided to work for the HBCo. before joining the settlement, others went directly to the Colony. Some were sent home before the rest made the trek from York Factory inland. Several died on the voyage and at Churchill Creek.

Although this booklet presents the extant lists as they occur either as lists proper or as part of a longer document, all the information presented is available on the Internet for free, or through interlibrary loan of the Selkirk Papers microfilms. A good detective will want to look at other documents to further determine who was actually present at the RRS in the early days and not limit themselves to what Martin has collected here. There is little biographical material on any of the settlers here – just lists.

This is a handy reference for the RRS research library, perhaps, but the lists are printed in other books. You might want to save $15 and invest it elsewhere!

I wrote about Donald Gunn and his egging expedition for the Smithsonian a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned in the first entry that someone had requested a copy of his book History of Manitoba from the Earliest Settlement to 1835. As I didn’t have the book in my own Red River collection, I decided I’d like to obtain a copy.

I couldn’t find a first edition anywhere. I don’t normally purchase print to order books, but I saw that Cornell University Library had scanned and published a facsimile reprint. I hate these types of reprints because the quality of reproduction, especially of any pictures, is generally horrible. But in this case, I really only wanted a copy to read. If I found a first edition after fulfilling my customer’s request, then maybe I’d spring for a copy to replace this one.

The book arrived last week, in paperback format. I’m really very pleased with it. It was scanned from a relatively clean library copy, and the reproduction is excellent. I would highly recommend this edition to anyone who would like a copy for a reasonable price (mine was just under $50 CAD. First editions are going for at least six times that price.). Email me through the Contact Us page if you would like me to find you a copy. I will donate a portion of the purchase price to TLSARL.

At some point I will do a few blog entries on aspects of this work. As Donald was an original settler, much of what he wrote about is an eyewitness accounting of events, so this will be of particular interest to members!

Peter Rindisbacher c. 1834. Self Portrait

Peter Rindisbacher set himself up in a studio in St. Louis Missouri during the latter years of his life. It was there that he earned a reputation as a miniature portrait artist. Although the image to the left is in black and white, there is a colour reproduction of both this and portraits of his parents and some of his siblings in the book The Artist was a Young Man. They are rare examples of portraits of original Selkirk Settlers.

I’ll leave you this week with another scene of life at the Red River Colony by Peter Rindisbacher:

Winter Fishing on the Ice of the Assynoibain and Red River, 1821 (National Archives of Canada)

Subtitled The Life Story of Peter Rindisbacher, this book was written as a supplement to the 1970 art exhibition of the same name. As a consequence, it is not very long, but it is filled with information of an often overlooked group of original Selkirk Settlers, the Swiss of 1821.

Peter Rindisbacher was a teenager when he arrived at Red River with his family. He began studying art in Switzerland prior to the family’s emigration to the RRS, and showed a great deal of promise as an artist. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that there was no way of furthering his education in the North American West, but then again, Rindisbacher’s work might not have had the fresh, original style that it was praised for during his lifetime.

The Rindisbacher family left the RRS after the flood of 1826 to seek their fortune further south. Eventually, Peter would end up in St. Louis, where he died suddenly – no one seems to know how – at the age of 28.

His paintings were the first ever of the native peoples of the plains and of pioneer and fur trade life there. They have added significance on two points: he lived for years among the people and scenes that he painted, unlike travelling artists like Paul Kane, for example, so he really knew his subjects; and Rindisbacher was meticulous in accurately portraying the detail of those subjects.

Thanks to him, we have a visual record of life at Red River in the early days. In an earlier posting I used one of his images to illustrate a dog carriole. Some of his most famous scenes depict the buffalo hunt in both summer and winter. But there are others that illustrate life near and at the RRS, too.

Two of the Companies Officers Travelling in a Canoe Made of Birchbark Manned by Canadians (1818 - 1828) (National Gallery of Canada)

The Governor of Red River, Driving his Family on the River in a Horse Cariole (1824 ) (National Gallery of Canada)

For more on Peter Rindisbacher See Clifford Wilson’s article in Canadian Art #83, Jan./Feb. 1963.

Again, I return to the AGM at the end of September this year. The newly elected Vice President of TLSARL, Roy McLeod, stopped me as I was entering the venue. He’d found some articles written by my great-aunt in a couple of old copies of Saskatchewan History, and kindly, he gave them to me. Imagine my excitement when I found her contributions were (an annotated copy of) a journal her aunt kept while on a canoe trip made in the 1920s!

One of the participants in the forum I set up for Red River Descendants mentioned an ancestor, and I remembered collecting something on him some time ago as he was a relative of my own, too. I was able to send her the quote I’d extracted from a 1927 article in another Saskatchewanian historical society’s bulletin.

Another person who signed up at the forum mentioned she had a book on one of her Red River ancestors. It was one I didn’t have in my library, so I ordered a copy…. It came in yesterday, and I will write more about it when I finish going through it, of course!

One of the best ways to learn more about the shared history of the Red River Settlers and their descendants, to learn more about specific people within that group, and to learn where to find more material about them is to network with other researchers.

There are several ways to do that:

• Visit the blog here and read about our history – and discuss it through comments (free).
• Join TLSARL, if you are a descendant, get our quarterly Newsletter and participate in our Reunion every year (small annual fee – Contact Us for more information).
• Join the Red River Settlement, Rupert’s Land (Manitoba, Canada) forum at GenealogyWise (free).

You will meet people who are deeply engaged in their history, people who are just starting to explore their Red River roots, and undoubtedly you will acrue some new relatives! Discussing your stories, sources and knowledge with others will help deepen and re-enforce your understanding of your own history as well as bring others closer to theirs.

At the Annual Reunion in September, someone who found out that I was a used book dealer asked me about locating a book by Donald Gunn for them, History of Manitoba. Published in 1880 and long out of print, this is a scarce book and difficult to find in the original edition. A 2009 reprint by Cornell University Library is also in short supply.

According to L.G. Thomas’ article on Gunn in the Dictionary of Canadian Biorgraphy, History of Manitoba should be an interesting read. Donald Gunn was an original settler, and his mainly narrative history of the colony is an eyewitness one, unlike much of Alexander Ross’ history, which relies on second hand information for the settlement’s early years.

But History of Manitoba is not the only literary contribution Gunn made to the Red River omnibus. He and his son went on an egging expedition to Shoal Lake, Manitoba in 1867. It wasn’t Gunn’s first such expedition, but he did write the experience up, and it was published in the Smithsonian Institution’s Annual Report in 1867.

There is some interesting information in the brief article, and, since I am fortunate enough to have a copy, I thought I’d share a few snippets this week. The expedition takes readers away from the Red River Settlement proper, but it does shed light on lifestyles in the region in the late 1860s.

I just recently finished reading this little gem of a book. I’ve had it tucked away on my bookshelf for years. About a year ago, a TLSARL friend sent me a URL that led me to a site where I could read it online if I cared to, and his thoughtfulness reminded me that mine was buried somewhere. I dug it out, but still didn’t read it for some time.

The Red River Settlers in Real Life is a valuable addition to any Red River Colony library. Although he tends to be a bit sentimental at times, and there is the odd historical error, the general insight the author gives readers into everyday life in the early days of the settlement is fascinating. I only wish he hadn’t put the writing down off as long as he did (read the introduction).

MacBeth covers everything from crops and social customs of the agricultural society at Red River, to the hunt, weddings and funerals and daily menus. Interesting anecdotes illustrate the facts, and for genealogists among readers, there is the odd mention of individual settlers! His coverage of religion at the Colony is far more sympathetic than that of Alexander Ross!

MacBeth’s book was published in 1897, and was long out of print until a print to order company began printing it again in 2007. It is not difficult to find a copy of the original edition for under $50, and if you want a copy for your library, that is what I would advise you to invest in. Then you can see the illustrations well. If you’d like to read it before you buy a copy, you can do so for free at ElectricScotland.

The snail-mailed copies of the August Newsletters have been mailed, and most of you will have had a

Order here and 10% will be donated to TLSARL!

chance to read it by now.  In it (and in the June issue) was an article concerning J. M. Bumsted’s latest book, Lord Selkirk: a Life.

It is almost a year since this massive volume was released. I’m curious to know how many people have read it and what they thought of it.

I’ve seen two other reviews of the book in addition to Mr. McKay’s: Heather Robertson’s in The Beaver, and one Shirlee Anne Smith wrote for the Manitoba Historical Society’s publication. I’ve also read the book – which took a while given that I was reading it over lunch hours! I didn’t pay much attention to Robertson’s review as she didn’t sound very knowledgeable about the period and issues dealt with in the book. I was really surprised that The Beaver asked her to review it instead of someone with more experience with Canadian/Scottish/English history of the early 1800s.

There were two things I noticed about the book that struck me as odd. First, it seemed that Bumsted didn’t form an opinion one way or the other about his subject until he began relating Selkirk’s involvement with the RRS. The second, given all the tangential material that Bumsted included in the book, it seems strange that he didn’t say a bit more on the fate of the settlers that remained loyal to the colony and fled to Jack River in 1815. This was pointed out in Smith’s review, which I read before I arrived at that point in the narrative myself.

One of the things I really appreciated about Lord Selkirk: A Life was the insight it provided to the general history of the period and how it all tied together to influence the fate of our ancestors. That fact alone makes it a valuable addition to my collection!