Join Charlotte Taylor for a visit through her grandparent’s (William Brown and Charlotte Omand) 1856 Red River Frame House.
Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingly in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.
Join Charlotte as she explains the process of buttermaking.
Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingly in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.
Join Charlotte as she tells us the story of her father’s blacksmith shop.
Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingly in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.
Historical Context from Charlotte’s Stories
Blacksmithing
Blacksmiths played a vital role in the development of the pioneer economy in Assiniboia. During the frugal and thrifty lifestyle of the settlement era, the blacksmith was gainfully employed mending occupational equipment such as plows, pitchforks, butterchurns, vehicle parts and fittings. Blacksmiths came into decline in the 1900s, because they could not compete with modern factories to produce tools and hardware cheaply.
The musuem’s Interpretive Centre contains an original blacksmith’s forge, anvil, bellows and various tools. As the blacksmith works, the coals are kept hot in the forge to heat the metal which is then shaped on the anvil. The purpose of the bellows is to pump air into the fire to keep it at a steady temperature. It the temperature starts fluctuating, it weakens the final product.
Those training to become a blacksmith would work as an apprentice. The apprentice’s first task would be to pump the bellows (to build muscle). After that, they would have to make a thousand nails before they were allowed to make anything else.
The blacksmith display also includes a branding iron from the Honourable John Taylor, who was William Brown’s (original owner of the 1856 Red River Frame House) son-in-law. John Taylor was the first Minister of Agriculture for Manitoba.
Our display also contains several horseshoes, however, initially horseshoeing was a craft that was distinct from blacksmithing (as was goldsmithing, silversmithing, and swordsmithing).
Join Charlotte as she tells the story of her grandparents’ house and teaches us about the Red River Frame style of architecture.
Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingly in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.
Historical Context from Charlotte’s Stories
Red River Frame House
Red River Frame houses, also known as post on sill, were common throughout Western Canada during the nineteenth century. The precise origin of the technique is unknown, but it was likely adapted by the Métis people from house designs along the Saint Lawrence River in eastern Canada.
Upright posts were erected along the sill, a log running horizontally along the foundation of the house. These upright posts included grooves into which square logs were fitted to form walls. Since the logs were fitted into place, there was little need to use nails in the construction. Walls were then chinked with mud and straw for insulation.
An advantage of the Red River Frame house was that it could be easily dismantled and re-assembled in a new location. Red River Frame houses were durable and eliminated the cost for expensive nails. One disadavantage was that as the wood expanded and contracted, cracks in the chinking could occur, making the building quite cold.
The Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia is home to a two-storey Red River Frame house, the original home of William Brown and Charlotte Omand (grandparents to Charlotte). The house was moved from Headingley, where it was built in 1856, to the museum at 3180 Portage Avenue in 1973.
Join Charlotte as she introduces us to her grandparents and talks about her grandad William Brown’s work with the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingly in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.
Historical Context from Charlotte’s Stories
Hudson’s Bay Company
Incorporated in England in 1670, the Hudson’s Bay company set off to find a northwest passage to the Pacific, to occupy the land around the Hudson’s Bay, and to seek out profitable business available in these lands.
For many years, the Hudson’s Bay Company had sole control of the fur trade occurring throughout most of what is now present-day Canada. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s role in the fur trade played a crucial role in the colonization of British North America and as a result the development of Canada as a country.
In 1870, the Hudson’s Bay Company sold their territory to the Canadian government. However, this sale did not recognize the claim on the land by the Indigenous people of North America who had already settled and inhabited the land.
“The Métis people originated in the 1700s when French and Scottish fur traders married Aboriginal women, such as the Cree, and Anishinabe (Ojibway). Their descendants formed a distinct culture, collective consciousness and nationhood in the Northwest.
“Distinct Métis communities developed along the fur trade routes. This Métis Nation Homeland includes the three Prairie Provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta), as well as, parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the Northern United States.
“The Métis Nation grew into a distinct culture and became a people in the Northwest prior to that territory becoming part of Canada.”
Red River Settlement
In 1811 Lord Selkirk bought 116 000 square miles from the Hudson’s Bay Company to form a settlement at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. This area included the Red River Valley, the Assiniboine Basin, east to Lake of the Woods and north to include part of Lake of the Woods. This area covered what is now parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Minnesota, and North and South Dakota. This settlement was called Assiniboia, after the Indigenous peoples of the area, the Assiniboines.
In 1818 the forty-ninth parallel was declared the border between the American and British territories, cutting off the southern half of Assiniboia.
In 1835, 1542 river lots were marked along the Red River from modern day St. Norbert to Selkirk, and along the Assiniboine through what later became St. James, St. Charles, Headingley and St. Francois-Xavier. The river lots were provided for farms to accommodate for the increasing number of people who wished to settle in the Red River Settlement.
Join Charlotte for her first Storytime as she introduces herself and talks about life in the 1890s.
Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingley in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.
Historical Context from Charlotte’s Stories
John Taylor
John Taylor with his students in front of Headingley School in 1856
John Taylor was Charlotte’s father, but he was also a community leader. After moving to Headingley in 1855 to establish a school, he successfully operated a large farm, trading post, blacksmith shop, Royal Exchange Hotel, livery stable, and a barber shop. During the Red River Resistance of 1870, he was elected to represent the Headingley Parish.
Taylor, an English Metis who spoke French, English, and Cree, was an active member of the Legislative Assembly and became the first Manitoba Minister of Agriculture in 1879. When the Rural Municipality of Assiniboia was established in 1880, he was elected as one of the first seven councillors.
Rupert’s Land
Before Canada became a country, a large part of present-day Canada belonged to a territory called Rupert’s Land. In 1670 the territory encompassed 1,490,895 square miles (3,861,400 square kilometres). Rupert’s Land was a part of British North America and located primarily around the Hudson’s Bay. The Hudson’s Bay Company conducted the fur trade throughout this territory, based on a charter granted by King Charles II.
In the Rupert’s Land Act of 1868, the United Kingdom Parliament authorized the sale of Rupert’s Land to Canada. However, this sale did not recognize the claim on the land by the Indigenous people of North America who had already settled and inhabited the land.
Dominion of Canada
Beginning with Confederation in 1867, the Dominion of Canada was Canada’s formal title. During Confederation negotiations, the Fathers of Confederation wanted to call their new country the Kingdom of Canada. The British disagreed, and eventually the Dominion of Canada was agreed upon.
Government institutions stopped using the word Dominion during the 1960s and in 1982 Dominion Day was officially changed to Canada Day.
