Discussions

On May 3rd. 1881 the Stern Wheeler Steamer ‘Marquette’ arrived near Grand Valley, carrying four wives, Mrs. T. Struthers, Portage la Prairie, Mrs. Johnston Rutherford, Shakespeare, Ontario, Mrs. Jas. Cairncross, Shakespeare, Ontario, and Mrs. D. Dunn, Angers, Ontario.  
 
At first the town site of Brandon consisted of one rude shanty and a tent. The tent was occupied by Mrs. Anderson and her husband, they cooked meals for a Railroad Gang working on the railroad grade  
 
The first Lady on record in the city of Brandon 1881 was the wife of the telegraph construction Forman Mrs. Muncey, whereas the first woman to give birth was the wife of the Baker, who was really a watchmaker, Mrs. Collis. Their baby son was christened Scott, Brandon Collis: he was given a free town lot. I wonder when this complimentary Service was ended? The first female child was Ethel Mary Boydell.  
 
Also, in 1881 were only two hotels, both of which were really huge tents, one was owned by Mrs. Douglas. By April 1882, Mrs. Beecham Trotter, daughter of Canon Boydell tells us that “Boarding Houses were over crowded with even the women sleeping on the floor, and there were numerous children, some so small as to be tugging at their mother’s skirts.”  
 
In 1890 families disregarded a provincial injunction for registering household births with the City Clerk, this oversight was soon corrected when the law agencies of the day began knocking on the doors of suspect domiciles.  
 
When the city of Brandon was only 16 years old in 1898 some of its citizens decided it was their duty, and their right to see that abused, neglected, orphaned, abandoned, or troubled children were given the kind of assistance necessary to make it possible for them to grow up fitting into society. A local council of women’s group had advocated a curfew byelaw, and along with the formation of the Children’s Aid Society, the numbers of juvenile’s roaming the streets of Brandon declined.  
 
Source: Brandon a City by G. F. Barker