Title & Author:

The pioneer years, 1895-1914 : memories of settlers who opened the West / Barry Broadfoot.

Publication:

Toronto ; Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1976.

Description:

viii, 403 pages, 12 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
1. The way it was -- 2. The lure of the land -- 3. The hard land -- 4. Blizzards and bulldog flies -- 5. Golden sheaves -- 6. Man and beast -- 7. The English ... -- 8. ... and the others -- 9. Growing up on the land -- 10. Wives, widows, and whores -- 11. Ribbon of steel -- 12. About the town -- 13. Buyers and sellers -- 14. Oh, the prairie schoolhouse -- 15. Law, order, and some chicanery -- 16. Having a darn good time -- 17. Characters were everywhere -- 18. But life went on ... -- 19. Those were the days ...

Summary:

They came from Europe and the United States, drawn by promises of free land. Many left a relatively prosperous existence, lured by the romance of a pioneer life they had read about in books. Some brought a fancy wardrobe, more suitable for the streets of London than those of Winnipeg, and never wore it once, having lugged it across ocean and prairie. There was free land all right, but making it yield a crop was another story. Some made it, some didn't. This book reveals the incredible hardships of those years and the price of both success and failure. In these pages the pioneers themselves remember the years from 1895 to 1914 when Canadian West took its modern shape. They remember the loneliness of the prairie, the importance of the family and the crushing burden of death and natural tragedy. They remember the joys of community, barn raisings, trashing gangs, going to church, going to town, and days spent in a one-room schoolhouse. And they remember the growth of commerce as the land opened up, life in the towns, and the importance of the railroad. From hundreds of personal interviews Barry Broadfoot has again created an unforgettable oral history of one of Canada's most remarkable eras.

ISBN:

0385099835
9780385099837

Subject:

Frontier and pioneer life Prairie Provinces.
The West, Canadian History.
The West, Canadian Biography.
Frontier and pioneer life
Manners and customs
Prairie Provinces Social life and customs.
Canada, Western History.
Canada (Ouest) Histoire.
Canada (Ouest) Biographies.
Provinces des Prairies Mœurs et coutumes.
Prairie Provinces
Canada History 1867-1914.

Added entries:

Broadfoot, Barry, 1926-2003, editor.

Holdings:

Location: Library main canada 81343
Call No.: PO14816 CAN; ID:85-B10822
Copy: 2
Status: Available

Location: Library main 81332
Call No.: PO14816; ID:85-B10819
Copy: 1
Status: Available