IMPERIAL PLOTS IMPERIAL PLOTS Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies SARAH CARTER UMP-IMPERIAL-LAYOUT-REVISEDJAN2018-v3.indd 3 2018-03-09 12:19 PM Imperial Plots: Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies © Sarah Carter 2016 Reprinted with corrections 2018 21 20 19 18 2 3 4 5 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system in Canada, without the prior written permission of the publisher, or, in the case of photocopying or any other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca, 1-800-893-5777. University of Manitoba Press Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Treaty 1 Territory uofmpress.ca Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada isbn 978-0-88755-818-4 (paper) isbn 978-0-88755-532-9 (pdf) isbn 978-0-88755-530-5 (epub) Cover design: Frank Reimer Interior design: Jess Koroscil Cover image: Sarah Minnie (Waddy) Gardner on her horse “Fly,” Mount Sentinel Ranch, Alberta, 1915. Museum of the Highwood, MH995.002.008. Printed in Canada This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publica- tions Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The University of Manitoba Press acknowledges the financial support for its publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Department of Sport, Culture, and Heritage, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Manitoba Book Publishing Tax Credit. UMP-IMPERIAL-LAYOUT-REVISEDJAN2018-v3.indd 4 2018-03-09 12:19 PM University of Manitoba Press Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R3T 2M5 uofmpress.ca © Sarah Carter 2016 Printed in Canada 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5 TO MY GRANDMOTHER JEAN MUNN All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form (JENNIE MAY MARSHALL), 1899–1967, BORN ON or by any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system in Canada, without the prior HER PARENTS’ HOMESTEAD, WELLWOOD, MANITOBA. written permission of the University of Manitoba Press, or, in the case of photocopying or any other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca, or call 1-800-893-5777. Cover design: Frank Reimer Interior design: Jess Koroscil Cover image: Sarah Minnie (Waddy) Gardner on her horse “Fly,” Mount Sentinel Ranch, Alberta, 1915. Born Wexford, Ireland, 1879, died Calgary, 1959. Museum of the Highwood, MH995.002.008. Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada. ISBN 978-0-88755-818-4 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-88755-532-9 (pdf) ISBN 978-0-88755-530-5 (epub) This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The University of Manitoba Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support for its publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage, Tourism, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Manitoba Book Publishing Tax Credit. Collection. Family Photo: During my stay in Canada I heard a good deal about farming for women, and how they ought to take up homesteads, therefore I was interested to come across the young daughters of a neighbouring farmer, who acted as hired men to their father. Mrs. Anderson [her employer] said they rode wonderfully, could handle a team better than most men, drive the “binders,” and do the whole work of a farm; but she considered that the life they led was unsuitable for a woman and was unfitting these girls for becoming wives and mothers in the future—in fact, the feeling of the countryside was strongly against their father. Ella C. Sykes, A Home-Help in Canada, 1912 People are beginning to waken up to the vast conception and imperialistic importance of tendering free homesteads as an inducement to women of strong moral force and high intellectual ability to come to our beautiful West and lend their aid in establishing a Canadian colony, a new and clean colony… “Homesteads for Women,” by “Isobel,” Grain Growers’ Guide, 25 October 1911 CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - XI LIST OF TABLES - XIV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - XV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS - XIX NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY - XX INTRODUCTION - 3 CHAPTER ONE - 29 NARROWING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN: FROM THE INDIGENOUS FARMERS OF THE GREAT PLAINS TO THE EXCLUSIONS OF THE HOMESTEAD REGIME CHAPTER TWO - 85 “LAND OWNERS AND ENTERPRISING SETTLERS IN THE COLONIES”: BRITISH WOMEN FARMERS FOR CANADA CHAPTER THREE - 147 WIDOWS AND OTHER IMMIGRANT WOMEN HOMESTEADERS: STRUGGLES AND STRATEGIES CHAPTER FOUR - 207 WOMEN WHO BOUGHT LAND: THE “BACHELOR GIRL” SETTLER, “JACK” MAY, AND OTHER CELEBRITY FARMERS AND RANCHERS CHAPTER FIVE - 245 ANSWERING THE CALL OF EMPIRE: GEORGINA BINNIE-CLARK, FARMER, AUTHOR, LECTURER CHAPTER SIX - 287 “DAUGHTERS OF BRITISH BLOOD” OR “HORDES OF MEN OF ALIEN RACE”?: THE HOMESTEADS- FOR-BRITISH-WOMEN CAMPAIGN CHAPTER SEVEN - 327 THE PERSISTENCE OF A “CURIOUSLY STRONG PREJUDICE”: FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION CONCLUSION - 375 NOTES - 383 BIBLIOGRAPHY - 423 INDEX - 443 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Survey map of Township 12, Range 15, West of the Principal Meridian. Archives of Manitoba, N6411. P. 2 Figure 2. “Sioux Woman,” the daughter-in-law of Hidatsa farmer Maxi’diwiac (Buffalo Bird Woman), demonstrates traditional farming methods, 1912. Photo by Gilbert L. Wilson. Minnesota Historical Society, 9448-A. P. 32 Figure 3. Detail of an 1882 map for “intending settlers,” showing the dominion lands surveyed west of the border of Manitoba. Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries, Map 597. P. 51 Figure 4. Métis women and men at a sitting of the Métis Scrip Commission at Devil’s Lake, Saskatchewan, 1900. Saskatchewan Archives Board, S-B9750. P. 55 Figure 5. Patent issued in 1883 to Manitoba homesteader Matilda McAskie. Library and Archives Canada, Western Land Grants, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/land/land-grants-western- canada-1870-1930/pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=461605&. P. 67 Figure 6. “The Primitive Farmer and Burden-Bearer, South Africa,” from Otis T. Mason, Women’s Share in Primitive Culture (1899), 6. P. 78 Figures 7 and 8. The Glynde School For Lady Gardeners in Sussex, England, established by Lady Frances Wolseley in 1902. Papers of the Viscountess Frances Wolseley, Hove Central Library, Hove, Sussex, Commonplace Book no. 196. P. 99 Figure 9. Colonial Training Farm at Arlesey, England. The Bystander, 16 September 1908, 610–11. P. 113 Figure 10. “Canada for Women” promotion, Canadian Pacific Railway, 1910. Daily Mail, 2 March 1910, 10. P. 142 Figure 11. The Canadian Pacific Railway office, London, wants “settlers, not suffragettes,” 1913. Getty Images, no. 3424540. P. 145 Figure 12. Englishwoman and Alberta rancher Agnes Bedingfeld. Glenbow Archives, NA-2467-12. P. 151 UMP-IMPERIAL-LAYOUT-REVISEDJAN2018-v3.indd 11 2018-03-09 12:19 PM xii IMPERIAL PLOTS Figure 13. Alberta homesteader Margaret de Tro earned extra income as a “magnetic healer” in Edmonton. Edmonton Bulletin, 29 December 1905, 4. P. 161 Figure 14. The auction sale of the estate of Madam M. de Tro of Hardisty, Alberta, in March 1916. Edmonton Bulletin, 1 March 1916, 9. P. 162 Figure 15. Rush for Free Homesteads at the Dominion Land Office, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, 1908. Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries, Postcard 18198. P. 181 Figure 16. Homestead rush at Edmonton, Alberta, 1 September 1908. Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries, Postcard 6839. P. 182 Figure 17. Women homesteaders near Square Deal, Alberta, c. 1912. Glenbow Archives, NA-206-27. P. 192 Figure 18. Jane Gentles and sons, First World War. Saskatchewan Archives Board, homestead file 2092263. P. 201 Figure 19. Eva Iddings of Indiana in front of her claim shack near Fort Benton, Montana. Barrows Collection, Overholser Historical Research Center, Fort Benton, Montana, 1910, BC11, 244. P. 201 Figure 20. Ontario sisters Caroline (Carrie) Louise MacGregor and Mary Frances MacGregor homesteaded in Sheridan County, Montana, c. 1909. Courtesy Judy Archer (Carrie’s granddaughter), Orillia, Ontario. P. 202 Figure 21. Alice (Alix) Westhead, c. 1906. Glenbow Archives, NA-2925-2. P. 213 Figure 22. Isobel “Jack” May, Sedgewick, Alberta. Currie Love, “Farmer-Boy ‘Jack,’” The Lady’s Realm31, 181 (1911). P. 224 Figure 23. Louisa Wittrick farmed with “Jack” May, but her responsibilities focused on the domestic realm. Currie Love, “Farmer-Boy ‘Jack,’” The Lady’s Realm31, 181 (1911). P. 225 Figure 24. May and Wittrick at Sedgewick. Currie Love, “Farmer-Boy ‘Jack,’” The Lady’s Realm31, 181 (1911). P. 225 Figure 25. The “bachelor girl settler.” Currie Love, “Farmer- Boy ‘Jack,’” The Lady’s Realm31, 181 (1911). P. 226 Figure 26. Qu’Appelle Industrial School students with older generation. Georgina Binnie-Clark, Wheat and Woman, 70. P. 249 ILLUSTRATIONS xiii Figure 27. Indigenous people at Victoria Day/Empire Day at Fort Qu’Appelle, 1912. Georgina Binnie-Clark, Wheat and Woman, 178. P. 250 Figure 28. Portrait of Georgina Binnie-Clark. Courtesy Mr. Dennis Jenks. P. 253 Figure 29. Doukhobor women pulling a plough in Saskatchewan, 1902. Glenbow Archives, NA-670-45. P. 257 Figure 30. Press coverage from 1910 of Georgina Binnie-Clark’s activities in England and Canada. Gleichen Call (Alberta): “Are Booming Canada,” 9 June 1910, 7; “Making Girl Farmers,” 21 April 1910, 7.