360 Eveline Street The Winnipeg, Selkirk, and Lake Winnipeg Railway Company was formed by a group of local businessmen in 1901 to provide passenger and freight services for residents. By 1906, the line was electrified, and directorship of the company was turned over to the Winnipeg Electric Company. The line ran along Eveline Street until…
Selkirk’s First Commercial Street The name Eveline was given to the muddy trail behind the busy waterfront in 1875. Eveline was most likely the wife of inn-keeper and entrepreneur, John Greig. Before the creation of Selkirk, the “inner trail”, as it had been known for 50 years, led along the riverbank to Lower Fort Garry.…
A Simple Form Of Currency Before there were institutional banks in communities across Canada, people had to barter or exchange goods and services to acquire what they could not produce for themselves. In Red River settlement the Settlers relied on bartering throughout the West. It was a common method of developing local commerce, but it…
In the Beginning Thousands of First Nations have lived in the Red River Valley for centuries. In the late 1700s, Cree people travelled along Lake Winnipeg to settle near Netley Creek. The Saulteaux, led by Chief Peguis from the Sault St. Marie region in the east settled along the Red River in 1790. This is…
Here’s some history for you – what we now refer to as simply ‘online’ used to be known as the information superhighway, and if you’re travelling on it, it should take you somewhere. For those who’ve discovered SelkirkMuseum.ca, the destination has been joyous. Five years after it launched, the City of Selkirk’s museum, which is…
Coming to Selkirk The Purvis Family is responsible for one of the oldest Selkirk based businesses. It all began when William Robert Purvis and his two brothers immigrated to Kincardine, Ontario from Arbroath, Scotland in 1851. At first, William was the lighthouse keeper at Great Duck Island, but by 1882 he had started to fish…
Richard Henry Gilhuly is best known by the community as the owner of Gilhuly’s Drug Store. He was born in Carleton Place, Ontario in 1857, and moved to Selkirk in his mid-twenties. To begin his career, he took a job in 1881 as an assistant in James Colcleugh’s store on Eveline Street. Shortly afterwards in…
William Gibbs is best known for being one of two bakers in Selkirk during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Gibbs name is remembered by the community for Gibbs’ Drug Store which William’s sons, Harry and Frederick started and continued in 1890. William was born to the town baker in Taunton, England in 1845.…
Coming to Selkirk Alphonse Langlois was born in Terrebonne, Quebec in 1844. He married a French Arcadian woman, Marie Cartier, from New Brunswick. The large family moved from Quebec to Nova Scotia before relocating to Crookston, Minnesota in 1860. Several years later they travelled down the Red River in 1884 on a raft to St.…
212 Manitoba Ave Abraham Rifkin immigrated from Shadrinsk, Russia to New York, USA. His wife and children, Louis, Izzy, Benny, Sarah, Harry, and Gordon slowly followed, one or two at a time. When Harry immigrated in 1908, he was 14 years old. The family settled in Galancy, a Jewish borough of New York. Abraham and…