Fort MacLeod [ctd]

Nov. 2. Yesterday evening I took a short walk – but it was very cold – the thermometer being below freezing. We have been told time and again that this snow would only last for a day or two but now it has been on the ground for more than a week & the weather is getting colder and at the same time we hear stories of the extreme cold of winter which beat all that we have hitherto heard. At one time it was a most beautiful climate quite fairy like – now it beats that of Manitoba for extreme cold. It is strange what stories are told. My sick report for a day or two was very large no less than 26 being upon it – more than one sixth the whole strength of the force it has however dwindled down to a much smaller number only 12 this morning and 4 of them able to return to their duty. I wonder that more of the men are not sick – what with tramping around in the snow and slush in moccasins full of holes or boots without soles and sleeping in the cold tents. They must be pretty good men not to come in. When I come back to you I will be a hardy veteran and what is worse and awkward boor. I am sure I will have forgotten how to behave myself. I had at Fort Benton a slight inkling of how much I had forgotten and now with perhaps three years of loneliness and without womans’ refining influences can you imagine a more pitiable object than myself stuck down in a ladies drawing room? Don’t let us look so far forwards – unless you promise to take me under your protecting wing and before my appearance again in society teach me all the little kindly mannerisms of good behavior so I will not bring disgrace upon you by suddenly being turned loose. Very nearly four months of the thirty-six have gone by – that is about one ninth of the whole time – which leaves only eight ninths to be gone through. Is that not a great deal shorter than three years? I do not now even expect to get a leave of absence during the summer. If Kittson and the remained of the force come up next summer – I will probably be left at the fort with any sick there may be – or I may be moved up to Fort Edmonton or to the Bow River at old Bow Fort or anywhere that a new post may be established. So it will be good bye to all my big tour dreams. I must say good bye for the present. I don’t know when this will go – and will add a few lines before it does.

Your own

Barrie

Fort MacLeod [ctd]

I forgot to date this letter at least this last sheet. All on this page was written on Sunday the first of November only three weeks now to my birthday and if I don’t get a letter from you by that time I shall indeed be bitterly disappointed. Now do try like a good girl and let me hear from you. Of course you have written but also this horrible mail we have been here nearly a month and there is no sign yet of hearing from you or from home. I am getting very much discouraged – almost a fit of the blues – only that would help me – as I have not got you to talk it out of me – or play softly and the blue devils out by the piano. Did you ever receive the letters I wrote to you on the march? And the one from Chicago in lead pencil? It is a queer country out here and the people themselves are queer. Last night Conrad finished a portion of his store and his men had a dance – a home warming over the event – the music was furnished by some men from the police in the form of a concertina and two pipes – the shouting and the sight of merriment were great. I did not go over to see them but judged only from the external signs. I supped at Trinity College the other day[;] the usual Sant Gimmons and Judas supper with James. Did you hear anything about them? If you see Frank Darling tell him that I will as soon as possible fulfil my promise of writing to him. I suppose he is getting along as well as ever. Tell him that he and Jack & Mannie had better make up a party next summer and come out and see me. come by the way of the Northern Pacific Railway to Bismarck and thence up the Missouri to Fort Benton then they will have to take their horses – and come on. I will promise them lots of hunting and fishing and we can pay some of the Indians visits. I may be able to take them up to St. Mary’s Lake where salmon Trout are as thick as the sands of the sea. Mr. Cameron’s mouth will water if he hears of such an abundance of fish that only require to be caught not only salmon trout but the ordinary speckled trout are in the greatest numbers. It is great sport I am told fishing for 1 hour through the ice. If you can get them before the snow falls – the ice is so clear you can see the fish in the water under your feet. But all the hunting and fishing does not in any way make up for the loss of the letters. It would be quite bearable if I could only hear from you. Of course when we expected to go to Edmonton we had made up our minds to a long long period of silence but here it is so aggravating to know that letters are on their way or are waiting for us within a known distance and still not be able to get them. ‘Pon my word, I would not hesitate to rou the mail if I knew it contained letters for me and I should meet it anywhere. I am afraid my letters are very egotistical and harp upon one complaining strain but human nature is often all human nature – and if I did not cry out about the letters I would find other causes of discontent. There is no news here to tell you the same regular course of work on the building goes on every day. We began on the stables 'for the horses were more able to be killed by any sudden cold. You will have some idea of the magnitude of the building when I tell you that the stables were to be 120 yds in length by 8 yds wide 7 ft. high at the eves. Then then mens quarters & hospital 80 yrds long the same width - & the officers quarters and quartermasters storehouse will be 80 yds long & the same width – then the powder magazine and force. When you consider too that the logs all had to be cut & set together and then the cracks filled up with bits of wood & then plastered with thick mud. The roof made of timber small round or larger split in half - & then on the left of this – a coating of mud six inches thick & thus on top of all six inches more of dry earth – then the chimneys to be built & the windows and doors made. It is an immense undertaking especially when begun so late in the season.

Fort Macleod, Oct. 31st 1874

My dear Lizzie

My last was only a few days ago – with a short account of our sufferings from the storm. I am happy to be able to state that a Chinook wind that is to say a warm wind sprung up & now we are in danger of being drowned out. These are minor evils. The men work pretty well – all things considered but with the most assiduous labor I see in prospect but canvass until way into the middle of November. A party of our men started out today for Sun River – taking with them 64 of our weakest horses they did not go as soon as I expected and my other letter was sent by a party by the name of Powers who was going to Ft. Benton.

Several ox teams of Conrads have arrived today & with the number of wagons & the stove of Conrads & the Fort – the place has assumed a very busy aspect next year we may expect a larger influx of settlers of all descriptions. The country up here has been opened up only for 3 or 4 years & already there are 8 or 10 trading posts in this one river & various others on other water courses. The country around us is one capable of cultivation if it had been irrigated. That is the great trouble in this country. They say there is coal up near the head waters of this river but pretty far up. I see no way for making a strike for a fortune up here except in stock raising & them on is liable to lose all his horses by Indian raids. True my profession would pay if there was anyone to be sick for up here I could chose what I liked – no medical man being nearer than Fort Benton. I may be able to do a little outside the Force but how I am to get paid I do not know. The other day I went with Dengs one of the officers in a boat up the area it was pretty hard rowing so many shallow rapids – after going up as far as we could we got out and took our rifles & went hunting – we got about a dozen prairie chickens and ducks we saw a Beaver and tried to shoot him but he was too quick for us. It was extremely cold – the water splashing on the oars froze where it fell the bottom of the boat was ful of ice. We floated down the current – with our pipes in our mouths – and drawing large blasts of tobacco which looked larger from the vapor expired at the same time. Possibly you could not see much fun in boating with the thermometer below zero – but it was all so strange and we were full of life & vigorous and the hard tramp thro the snow & trash had set us all in a glow. I am sure I enjoyed myself. The mountains looked glorious – full of snow which showed off all their peaks & crusts – the huge fissures in their sides & the dark line of forest – I want to try and take a water color sketch of them but when they look best just after sunrise it is so cold the water freezes and I cannot paint. I am very much afraid that we will not be able to get the officers quarters done at all this winter tho’ if we do not I am sure I don’t know where we will go. Tents will hardly do with the thermometer -40º.

Fort MacLeod [ctd.]

Oct. 28. No news & the mail goes at once. Goodbye my own darling.

Your own Barrie

Fort MacLeod [ctd.]

Oct. 27th. Last night was bitterly cold altho’ a beautiful still moonlight night – at 9 o’clock the mercury was 3 degrees below zero & at 3 a.m. 10º below – at 7 o’clock this morning with the bright sun it had only risen to 32º. My eyes but it made a fellow’s fingers tough. For all the cold the building operations were proceeded with & will now go on only to be interrupted by a fierce storm later in the Fall. The great trouble out here now is to obtain hay for the horses. No one here expected to have much to do with such a mixture of horses – consequently cut us hay except for their own use – what hay could be cut after our arrival was cut but that has amounted to almost nothing. I expect that a portion of our stock will have to go to Sioux River in Montana for the ensuing winter. A patient has just interrupted me – a half breed woman and child – her baby is only a few weeks old possibly six and as it is her first she thinks every time he cries he is extremely ill. Our consultation was lengthy and most ludicrous. I would gravely state the various symptoms in the child that I saw & calmly ask for more – she would then chatter away in Indian poly-syllables. I would then politely request her to repeat what she said – Chatter Chatter Chatter. I would at that give a sage hum of assent and tell the woman with a most sagacious face that I thought she was making a great ass of herself that the child was perfectly well but as I could not satisfy her in any other was I would give her something. I made up four little powders of sugar and went through all the motions of mixing in a spoon and taking it & then shut my eyes pretending to sleep to show that each powder was to be given at bedtime – she chattered volubly her thanks or whatever it was and departed all smiles. Once before I gave her some alum – a large handful for curing some skins at the same time. I looked at the baby & she imagined this alum was for the baby & was going to chuck this huge lump into the little things throat. If she tried that game this time she can’t hurt the child anyhow.

I had another case [of] a woman whos arm had been shot at the elbow but her husband was along & explained matters altho’ her case was plain about him. Did I tell you of the capture of a gang of whiskey traders with a portion of their alcohol? Shortly after we arrived here a couple of Indians reported that an outfit had gone up Old Man’s River to trade whiskey – so a body of 10 men & an officer were mounted & went after them – they were found with all their available goods & chattels packed up & moving off – they were all brought back & their alcohol poured out their Buffalo Robes confiscated & themselves fined. One of their number is a negro named Bond – accused of murdering a number of Indians and who is also suspected of murdering a family in Chatham Ontario some time ago. The others have paid their fines or had them paid & have gone – no one could be found to pay the poor devil’s fine and he has had to remain in the guard tent ever since and probably will for some time. This spell of cold weather can scarcely have been agreeable to him.

What is the news with you? How is everyone in Toronto? Does Sallie still keep up her drawing? Tell me everything you know hear or see. Tell me of yourself your outgoings & your evenings at home. I am starving to hear from you. A wagon is going into Ft. Benton tomorrow or the day after & will take in this letter & I hope it will bring some out. I should not be at all surprised if the wagon should carry this negro Bond to Ft. Benton & take him on thence to Ft. Garry for his trial – or it may only be for letters or only to carry the men’s baggage who go to Sun River to herd the horses. Six months more and communication will be free with Benton – and everything will be bright and green but until then – we can expect nothing but the bleak winter with storm and slush – a south wind always brings the latter – more snow fell during the storm than we had supposed on the level prairie it was more than six inches deep & drifted in places so deep that it was with difficulty a horse could wade through it. However we have a stove now & can put up with the lesser inconveniences of crowding things into an extremely limited space. There will soon be a second opportunity of sending a mail of which I will avail myself at present I will say goodbye as I wish to write home and let them know how I am getting along. I will not close this until the last moment in order to have the last word with you and give you that latest reliable information from the Great NorthWest Territories.

Fort MacLeod, October 26th 1874

Dear Lizzie

Again I have to write you the sad tidings that your letter has not reached me. I do not know how much longer I will have to wait – but I hope not very long – no mail matter has come in from Benton. We expect letters now every day. Perhaps after all I will get them for a birthday present. We have had our first real tough of winter – after being surrounded on all sides by vast prairie fires which lightened the heavens with their lurid glare for miles & miles the wind changed to the north & snow began falling & it was cold. In our poor thin canvass tents the keen wind found many an entrance & with no winter clothes it was bitterly cold. Fortunately for our tent Conrad had a small stove which he brought over to us – we made an impromptu safety valve & put in a fire which kept us comfortable. The men got served with Buffalo Robes - & tho’ they were anything but comfortable still it made things bearable for them. Of course all work upon our fort had to be discontinued last night was 16º when noticed[;] I think it was lower & work is again resumed. It will be some weeks yet before we get into our winter huts - & we will have several storms like this last one – which after all only lasted two days and a half. The snow is still on the ground & may continue to be for 2 or 3 days which makes it cold and unpleasant underfoot. I feel sorry for the party that went East with Col. French. They will be in a miserably exposed portion of country where this storm will be felt with tenfold severity. One melancholy event connected with the storm – the death of one man who had been suffering from Typhoid Fever he went out in the cold without coat or hat & came in complaining of cramps & died in a few hours. He was buried this morning with military honors. His death threw a gloom over us all. It was the second one since the force was organized. Also the first white man who ever died a natural death in these parts all others had been killed or come to a sudden end. I do so long to hear from you that is my constant cry – of course I know you have written also that my anxiety only makes the time appear longer – but still I am anxious. Never mind a mail is coming when we won’t want letters[,] when words will do and then is we won’t have a good long long talk.

Yesterday evening was the first Sunday evening I have missed my evening walk. I went out for a short time but only round the tent – perhaps next Sunday will be milder and I will start earlier & make up for it. The Rocky Mountains loomed up this morning in dazzling splendor – reflecting the sun’s rays – they appear only a few miles off & showed all their cracks & fissures more plainly than I have yet seen them. We have had fish from the river just in front of us – large pike weighing from 6 to 12 lbs. a man can in half an hour more than supply all the men in camp for one day. Deer have been shot especially the day before the storm – they seemed to have known of its approach & fled for warmth into the bush – large flocks of geese are continually passing over us but no one has been fortunate enough to get one of the many birds. A goose is a noble bird and endowed with many good qualities & with a high order of goose chase is not to make a fool of a goose but of the one sent. A band of the Kootenay tribe of Indians have been setting fire to the prairies all around the country. On Friday night one of the largest fires was suddenly turned by the wind in our direction & stopped within a few miles of us. The camp & country was one dense cloud of smoke making us all weep & cough. For the past week or so I have not been so well as I had been – owing most probably to my eating too much and working too little. I have been going about a little more & so feel better.

Would you be kind enough to ask Jack to go to Willing & Williamson & renew my subscription to "The Practitioner” & give them my present address – Dr. McCollum is receiving the present numbers & has the back numbers of the past year. I began from the month of December if I remember rightly & the subscription was too. I am very much afraid will all my messages & demands Jack will wish we had no communication at all with the outer world.

St. Mary’s River, October 9th 1874

My dear Lizzie

I wrote to you from Fort Benton giving you some slight idea of the course we had travelled the hardships we had undergone the sufferings we had endured or rather that the horses endured we most fortunately have nothing to complain of at times no water & perhaps short of flour occasionally. The men were sometimes left with short rations [&] grumbled of course. Some people will grumble in any case. The Buffalo have supplied us with meat – our pork rations have run out for some time but the Buffalo have supplied us with beefsteaks & roasts in profusion. On our way to Fort Benton we saw some few Buffalo perhaps 6000 would cover the number, but since leaving there within the past few days – for miles and miles as far as we could see on a level plain the ground was black from the enormous bulls close to us the tiniest speck in the far distance[;] for nearly two days we have been passing through the herd. The advance guard of the force has to stop every now & then to allow a body of buffalo pass in front of them otherwise they would rush through the train and overturn it. Since leaving Benton I have had a case of surgery on hand – one of the men had a portion of his finger blown off by the explosion of a gun. I will have to amputate the finger – my first operation. I hope & have every reason to believe tht it will turn out well, fortunately for him it is only the first joint not much to call an operation, but it is just as well to begin in little things and so go on to greater. My things in Fort Edmonton are likely to remain there until next summer. They will be fully 300 miles from us here and the worn out condition of our horses the lateness of the season with all prevent our even making an attempt to communicate with Edmonton. We expect to build quarters & stables for the winter. I will have a Hospital and will I hope be able to make the sick comfortable. Poor fellows it is pretty hard on them to be on a lengthened trip like this & to have such poor comforts. We expect to have quite a settlement up here. A man from Benton is going to build a trading post just near us – there are several settlers there already. Half breeds will congregate around us and I should not be surprised but what the Hudson’s Bay Company also start a post. The married officers & men are talking of bringing up their wives & children. These with the Indians will make the nucleus of quite a city. The country they say is excellent, the climate admirable since we have approached this St. Mary’s River the grass & vegetation has been improving – in the river bottoms – quite luxuriant. The climate must be wonderful – here we are in the middle of October and the weather fine & clear at noon quite hot – of course the nights are cool. We are liable to occasional storms – but they say this fine weather will continue until late in November. The winter does not regularly set in until January. They travel on wheels nearly all winter. What do you think of such a country? How would you like to live in it for a while?

To day on our march we saw the evidences of Western hate[sic] Frontier crime and its speedy punishment – the body of an Indian lying along the road exposed to the weather the gaze of every passer by shot through the head & left, no thought of burial. We suppose he had been trying to get horses and was caught & that was the end of it. I have enjoyed the most thorough good health ever since I came out upon the prairie. I am feeling stronger than I ever did in my life. I do not know how much I weigh now but I expect not a great deal more than when I left Toronto. The large meat diet is not productive of much fat. I am sorry now that I did not get weighed in Benton. I might easily have done so. Did I tell you how well we are treated at Benton? Mr. Baker of the firm Baker & Conrad – insisted on our stopping at his place as long as we were in Benton and he fed us most royally – treating us in the most hospitable manner. I said to Major MacLeod that these could not be Yankees and as we afterwards found out Mr. Baker was from Missouri and the Conrads, old confederate soldiers from Virginia. So my prejudice did not carry me too far in that case. And my darling how are you? Oh if you only knew how I long for a letter from you I believe I would do any thing in the world no matter how bad only to get one line from you. I fancy all kinds of things have happened to you surrounded as you are by all this traummels of civilization how many accidents from which we are free could easily assail you. Amidst all my thoughts tho’ you must readily believe finds no place there – it never enters my head to believe or to think that you can be anything else than my own Lizzie. It would seem so strange if you did the bare possible of such a thing never crosses my mind – it would not be like you. As for me you know my feelings to well to think that I ever would grow cold to you and besides I have no temptation and even if I have I would still look up to you[,] my own darling. Has To day on our march we saw the evidences of Western hate Frontier crime and its speedy punishment – the body of an Indian lying along the road exposed to the weather the gaze of every passer by shot through the head & left, no thought of burial. We suppose he had been trying to get horses and was caught & that was the end of it. I have enjoyed the most thorough good health ever since I came out upon the prairie. I am feeling stronger than I ever did in my life. I do not know how much I weigh now but I expect not a great deal more than when I left Toronto. The large meat diet is not productive of much fat. I am sorry now that I did not get weighed in Benton. I might easily have done so. Did I tell you how well we are treated at Benton? Mr. Baker of the firm Baker & Conrad – insisted on our stopping at his place as long as we were in Benton and he fed us most royally – treating us in the most hospitable manner. I said to Major MacLeod that these could not be Yankees and as we afterwards found out Mr. Baker was from Missouri and the Conrads, old confederate soldiers from Virginia. So my prejudice did not carry me too far in that case. And my darling how are you? Oh if you only knew how I long for a letter from you I believe I would do any thing in the world no matter how bad only to get one line from you. I fancy all kinds of things have happened to you surrounded as you are by all this traummels of civilization how many accidents from which we are free could easily assail you. Amidst all my thoughts tho’ you must readily believe finds no place there – it never enters my head to believe or to think that you can be anything else than my own Lizzie. It would seem so strange if you did the bare possible of such a thing never crosses my mind – it would not be like you. As for me you know my feelings to well to think that I ever would grow cold to you and besides I have no temptation and even if I have I would still look up to you my own darling. Has Annie Taylor paid you her visit yet. Remember me most kindly to her when you write if she is not in Toronto now – give my kind regards to the Camerons and to all who care to inquire after me. I wrote to Ned Armom while at Benton. Do you ever see him. Paper is scarce here in camp and all my nice paper reposing in Edmonton. Give my love to the Stotesburgs and till then I will write when we get settled in winter quarters. I will have to close this with this sheet. By the time we get of Fort up paper will be more abundant. Take care of yourself my dear and when I hear from you let me hear of a bright happy time. Goodbye from your own

Barrie