The First St' Clements Settlers

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The First St. Clements Settlers
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Who Were The First Explorers?

• The French were the first European explorers to
  come to the Red River.
• They were led by Pierre La Verendrye.
• The trail that they explored and left behind is
  called the La Verendrye trail.

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The Hudsons Bay Company

• Next came the Hudsons Bay Company workers.
• The English King Charles II gave two explorers
  named Radisson and Groseilliers a ship called the
  Nonsuch.
• With this ship, they explored the land by
  Hudsons Bay.

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Why Did They Come?

• They found lots of furs in the Red River area.
• They set up a trading camp to bring the furs to
  England and make lots of money.
• They were the first group of people to live by
  the Red River, who were not aboriginal.

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Settling Down

• They built their homes south of Selkirk/East
  Selkirk.
• Today this would be Winnipeg and Southern St.
  Clements.
• Many of these European settlers married and had
  families with the aboriginal peoples.
• These people were called the Métis.

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Who Was Lord Selkirk?

• Lord Selkirk was a Scottish nobleman.
• His full name was Thomas Douglas, the Fifth Earl
  of Selkirk.

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The Selkirk Settlers

• In the early 1800s, Scottish peasants were in
  trouble.
• People were starting to raise sheep. They needed
  large fields for the sheep to live on.
• The peasants that used to live on the fields were
  cleared off and didnt have a home anymore.
• Lord Selkirk saw this happening and didnt like
  it. He wanted to help them.

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Where Did They Go?

• There was no land for the peasants to live on in
  Scotland so Lord Selkirk had to send them
  somewhere else.
• Lord Selkirk decided to send them to North
  America.
• The Hudsons Bay Company gave Lord Selkirk a lot
  of land near the Red River.
• The first group of the Selkirk settlers arrived
  in 1812.

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Arguments

• The town they built grew quickly.
• The Métis people were still living in the same
  area between Selkirk and Winnipeg when the
  Selkirk settlers arrived.
• There were a lot of arguments between them
  because the Métis didnt like the Selkirk
  settlers living on their land.
• A big fight even happened called the Seven Oaks
  Massacre.
• The fighting stopped when Lord Selkirk sent some
  soldiers from Scotland.

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Moving

• After a while, the children of the Selkirk
  settlers wanted to move.
• The land they lived on kept flooding, and they
  didnt like that.
• They moved to the Selkirk area in St. Clements
  because it didnt flood here.

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Arriving in St. Clements

• The Selkirk Settlers created a town.
• They named the town Selkirk after Lord Selkirk.

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East and West Selkirk

• The town was supposed to be on the East Side of
  the River
• Plans changed and people built their homes on
  both sides of the river.
• West Selkirk became a town in 1882.
• East Selkirk became a town in 1883.
• By 1884, East Selkirk had over 400 people, five
  general stores, four hotels, several quarries,
  brickyards, potteries, and a very busy harbour at
  Colville Landing.

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East Selkirk Roundhouse/ Immigration Shed

• The Selkirk settlers built the East Selkirk
  Roundhouse/Immigration Shed.
• It was originally supposed to fix train engines
  but never did.
• Instead people moving here from other countries
  used it as a first house.

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The End