The beginning of the European settlement of what has become Headingley begins several decades after the coming of the Selkirk Settlers.The community around the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers was beginning to spread outward as the population increased and settlers looked for more land.Land west along the Assiniboine River was popular with many because it was higher and important consideration given the periodic river flooding in the area. The land also contained abundant wood supplies for fuel and construction and the hay fields were extensive.
The first permanent resident of the area appears to have been Oliver Gowler (1814-1865)and his wife Mary (1816-1878).Theirs is a story of overcoming tremendous odds to flourish in their new home.The young married couple came to Canada in the fall of 1836,hired by the Hudson ’s Bay Company to work on their experimental farm at Red River.They arrived and were forced to winter at York Factory but lack of food forced them to attempt 300-mile trek to Norway House in the dead of winter.Struggling to keep up,Mrs.Gowler would wake up before daylight and start her march.By lunch, the rest of the party had caught up to her.After a quick lunch she was forced to walk late into the night to catch up to the rest of the group,only to have to repeat this the next day. Somehow,they managed to make it safely to Norway House, where they remained the rest of the winter.After spring breakup,they travelled south to the Red River Settlement and to the Company farm.The farm was a failure,but Gowler had fulfilled his contract and was able to purchase his own farm near Fort Garry in 1846.The devastating flood of 1852,however, chased the Gowlers and many farmers like them away from the area.Many fled west to the Silver Heights/Sturgeon Creek area.
The Gowlers chose to go even further west,choosing high,relatively dry land on which to locate.Thus the first farm was begun on Headingley soil,River Lot 64 (present-day John Blumberg Golf Course)and ultimately expanding to include River Lots 3 to 6 on the south side of the river.
Oliver Gowler prospered on his new farm,cultivating more and more land and reaping remarkable harvests of potatoes,wheat, barley and oats.By the late 1850s,he had established a reputation for producing fine cheese and tobacco, had a good stock of cattle and horses and was planning on building a fine mansion to replace his original home.
He became one of the most successful early farmers in what would become Western Canada and was known to lecture throughout the province on agricultural practices.Beginning in 1868 and continuing for many years,the Gowler House was used by Rev.George Young to conduct Methodist services on his regular Sunday circuit that included Winnipeg,Sturgeon Creek,and Headingley.
James Cunningham,a member of Manitoba ’s first Legislature of 1870,also arrived in Headingley in 1853. He was born at Fort Churchill in 1817 but moved to Kildonan parish in 1822 after his father died.Like others, the flood of 1852 forced them to move west and they settled in Headingley. He and his family moved between Headingley and Poplar Point several times over the next six decades.
He is credited with building a water mill in Headingley around 1861,able to turn out 100 bushels per day and produce high quality flour.
He took out patents on River Lots 31,33 and 36 (the west end of the Headingley parish,on both sides of the river)by the mid-1870s.
He died in Somerset,Manitoba at the age of 98.
The next major development was the founding of the area ’s first organized church by the Anglicans.Anglicanism had a long history in the area,Reverend John West had been sent in 1820.Long under the guide of the Church Missionary Society,Queen Victoria erected the Anglican See of Rupert ’s Land in 1849 with David Anderson as Bishop,the first step towards autonomy.
One year later the Parish of St.James was created to serve the growing community on the Assiniboine River. In November 1852,Reverend Griffith Owen Corbett was sent from England and,after being ordained by Bishop Anderson,was given the task of organizing a new parish west of St.James.Reverend Corbett named the Parish Headingley,after his sponsoring parish in Leeds,England and immediately built a house where
he conducted services.The first Holy Trinity Church,built near the banks of the Assiniboine on Lot 57 (just east of present-day Breslayor Road),was completed during the summer of 1854,a sturdy log structure on a stone base with a sod roof. It was consecrated by Bishop Anderson on November 26,1854 and was also used as the community ’s schoolhouse.The nearby cemetery was consecrated in 1862 and three years later Bishop Anderson donated the church bell.
In 1876,the second Holy Trinity Anglican Church was completed,replacing an aging facility described by one observer as “irredeemably
dilapidated.”
The new church was larger (60 ’ x 25 ’)and stood on Lot 54.Bishop Machray dedicated it in November 1876 but it would be replaced in less than a decade. The new church/schoolhouse gave the community a sense of permanency and also attracted a man who would become
its most influential citizen -John Taylor.Taylor was born in St. Paul ’s Parish on January 24,1834, son of James Taylor,Hudson ’s Bay
Company man and Mary Inkster,daughter of chief factor James Inkster of Brandon House.Taylor chose education and agriculture as pursuits rather than the usual career in the Hudson ’s Bay Company.He was educated at the parish school and then St.John ’s College,under Bishop Anderson. He was appointed teacher at the mission school in Oxford House and after eight months relocated to Norway House. Returning to St.Paul ’s in 1855,he was then sent to Headingley to take charge of the parish school.He married Miss Flora Campbell in 1856 and together
they had eight children (she died in 1872).A year after their wedding,Taylor began farming and in time,amassing a large amount of land in Headingley (specifically River Lots 49-53) and further west.
William Benjamin “Billy ” Hall was another in the list of well-known Headingley farmers who arrived in the 1850s.Hall was born in Fort Erie,Ontario in 1833 and came west as a surveyor in 1858.In 1859 he had received a land grant of River Lot 1,Headingley Parish and proceeded to build himself a modest home on his land.
Hall,it turns out,was an excellent nurseryman,and by the early 1860s,was well established.He took a bride and then built a magnificent mansion that became known as ‘The Hermitage,’ the original house becoming a wing.It became a meeting place for the community and the couple ’s nine children.His experimenting with fruit and vegetables as well as trees and shrubs earned him an excellent reputation and his nursery was soon supplying stock for most of the settled communities in the west.He died on June 22, 1902 and The Hermitage was destroyed in a tragic fire in
January 1920 that claimed the life of his eldest son,William Syrenus Hall,who had taken over the house,W.S.Hall ’s infant son and two other members of the household -William Rodgers and John Marigold.
By the end of the 1850s,Headingley had seen remarkable changes in a short time.It had a number of farms well estab lished and prosperous,a handsome little church and parish school and a growing population on both sides of the river. It was also developing into a major resting spot on the overland trail going west from the Red River Settlement,especially for the huge Red River cart trains travelling along the western trails.
The 1860s continued much the same way as the earlier decade.New names began to appear as more of the land was occupied:Dennison,Clouston,Bremner,Tait,and Fowler. Several other developments spurred growth in the area, including the advent of steamboats on the river.In 1858,the Anson Northup made the first-ever steamboat trip on the Red River,from Minnesota to Fort Garry,proving not only that it could be done,but also that it was a workable solution to the demand from the Red River Settlement and surrounding areas
for more goods.It wasn ’t long before many boats were making their way along the major water systems of the region and Headingley became an important stopping point for the Assiniboine River boats.Similar to the trails of old and the trains of the near future,Headingley was taking advantage of its geographic location.
The area ’s first rope ferry was established in 1869 by J.F.Robinson at the Headingley Grand Passage,the historic fording location.
In the late 1860s,Rev.George Young,the first Methodist missionary in Red River,began making regular visits to Headingley.His regular Sunday entailed a Winnipeg service at 10 a.m.,a second service six miles west at Sturgeon Creek and then Sunday School (4:30 p.m.)and service (6 p.m.)at the home of Oliver Gowler in Headingley.He would stay the night at the Gowler farm and then rise the next morning to start his missionary circuit,arriving in Winnipeg the following Sunday to begin again.
The 1860s was also the decade of the Riel uprising at Red River.Reverend Corbett had increasingly been a leading voice in the community outside of the church walls,travelling to England in 1857 with his wife Abigail to appear before a House of Commons select committee arguing for the populating of Rupert ’s Land to protect it from possible annexation by the United States.Reverend Corbett remained in England over the
winter and took some basic medical training to better serve his parishioners.
Upon his return to Headingley,Corbett became very vocal in his opposition to the Hudson ’s Bay Company and the existing government in the region.His opinions were held by many in Headingley but did not sit well with some of his parishioners.In December 1862,he was arrested for,according to a local observer,“having made repeated attempts to procure abortion,by instruments and otherwise,on the person of
Maria Thomas,a girl in his service,whom he had seduced.”
Corbett was jailed after interviews were conducted with the various parties and the community was split between supporters and critics.The trial in February 1863 lasted nine days and heard from 61 witnesses.Corbett was found guilty and sentenced to six months imprisonment.The sad episode was not over however,as a group of Corbett ’s supporters broke him out of jail on April 20.The leader of this group,James Stewart,school-master for the Parish of St.James, was then arrested and he too was broken out of the jail at Fort Garry. Neither man was ever returned to jail and soon after Corbett left his family and his parish and returned to England to live.
His place was taken at Holy Trinity by Rev.H. Cochrane for three years,followed by Rev.James Carrie (1866-72). Of course,Headingley ’s loca-
tion on the main communication line and its traditional role as stopping point guaranteed its inclusion in the dispute between the government of Canada and the Metis of the Red River Settlement. On January 25,1869,a group of anti-Riel supporters gathered in Portage la Prairie to arm themselves and return to the Red River Settlement to oppose Riel and his forces and re-establish the old government and make ready for the takeover by the Canadian government.
The next day,a Metis-organized convention of elected delegates from all area parishes met to decide the fate of the Settlement.After a full week of debate,it was decided that a delegation of the convention (Judge John Black,Father M. Richot and Alfred H.Scott)should take the Bill of Rights to Ottawa.
Meanwhile,the group in Portage la Prairie was joined by 60 government surveyors and other interested people and set off to reach Fort Garry and force the release of Riel ’s prisoners.In Headingley they were met by a fierce blizzard and were fed and sheltered by fellow Orangemen and their families.
After two days,several Headingley men,including John Taylor, W.B.Hall,Magnus Brown,John Cameron and members of the Morrison and Dennison families,decided to join the group.
On February 12,the party headed east,arriving at Kildonan and joining a party of 300 led by Dr.John C.Schultz.Tension mounted at the same time that Riel was releasing the last of his prisoners at the Fort.There was bloodshed,the Kildonan group disbanded and went home except for the Portage/Headingley men, who choose to elicit a reaction from Riel by passing under the walls of Fort Garry.Riel was quick to respond,jailing 46 men (Magnus Brown and John Taylor among them,W.B.Hall and John Cameron were freed and returned to Headingley).
After more negotiation in both Ottawa and around the Settlement,the way was cleared for the passing of the Manitoba Act by the government of Canada on May 12,1870,creating the Province of Manitoba.In November,elections were held and John Taylor was declared Headingley ’s first M.L.A.with a majority of one vote,although the new Attorney General awarded the seat to James Cunningham on a “technicality.”
Taylor would win the next two provincial elections,1874 and 1878,becoming the minister of agriculture after the second victory. Headingley was now maturing;it had an M.L.A.,prosperous farms and merchants:for example,John F.Robinson, “Dealer in General Merchandise,” and John Higgins with his “General and Select Assortment of Dry Goods,Groceries, Hardware,&c [sic ]...at his Stores in the Town of Winnipeg and
Headingley.”
John Taylor,despite his election setback,continued to grow in influence,one report stating that “Until settlement forced him to give up stock ranching.
