Final Story

As we all grew up, being the children of the children of Joe and Mary Schieber, we all heard the stories about living in Canada.






They had no electricity no running water, phone, TV or even a radio. They lived in a land that was still very unchanged and unfamilier with the white settelers. Joe worked the fields with horses and a single blade plow. He cleared trees by hand and worked very hard. I have a hard time imaginning how hard that must have been. None of us could do today what he did back then. Yet they survived and here we are.
I remember mom would say they had to run to and from school to keep away from the indian kids.






















They would get let out of school 15 minutes early just to get a head start. The indian kids wanted beat them up or get them in the bushes as I've also heard. The paths were just that from house to house and no real roads. This school was called the Grand Narrows School. It later change names, closed and was moved.
At one time I remember my uncle Ed saying that he traveled back to try and find the farm again but I don't recall if he found it or not. This has always been in the back of my head as one of those memories as a kid.
This trip all started one day at my sisters house when we were looking for old pictures of the family for another big project of mine. We came across a land document.





























On this documeny was the exact location of the farm.
When checking on this I found that this was an offer from Canada to come and farm the land. You had 2 years to make it work and the land was yours. I believe Joe was trying to grow corn on the land and the crops failed because the growing season was too short. The first year there uncle Ed was born. and 2 years later uncle Art was born. I think with the 2 little ones and the farm not working, Mary and the kids had to return to Minnesota. To do this, Mary's sister Rose drove by herself and picked them up and brought them back home. Joe stayed another year and work in the little town of Togo. I'm not sure what he did there.

I wanted to see the farm and realize this journey, and collect video for my other project so off I went.

It started off a little funny as I was talking with my boss about taking a week of vacation and he said he too was going to take some time off to go fishing in Canada. He is planning to go there in a couple of weeks. I told him about this trip (that wasn't a trip at that time) just as a bit of conversation. I thought I needed a passport to get to back from Canada. I didn't have a current one. Well the friday before my vacation was to start he came to me and said have a good trip to Canada. I told him about not having the passport and he said he checked into it and found that if you drive in and out all you need is a birth certificate and photo drivers license. So I thought, I have those...and so the trip was on. That fast.
Armed with a small internet map and credit card, off I went.

Arriving in Togo, a couple of ladies brought me across the street to a building. Inside was another gal that told me to go to Roblin and find the library. It was called R M of Shell River.
Once there, another couple of gals showed me a map on the wall and told me the stories of the area. She agreed the growing season was too short for corn and said that's why it's pasture land now. They also told me the name of the school was changed at one time to United Farmers of Manitoba before it finally was shut down. It shows up this was on the map but she said it was the Grand Narrows school. She also new the people that owned it now and where it was. I was out of there with everything I needed to find the farm and the school in an hour. The best part was it was still standing and only about 25 miles away.

Here is a section of that map.







The farm is in the upper left at box 18 and in the lower righthand corner and the school plot is in the lower right of the picture, next to square 33 upper right corner. The school now stands on the corner lot of Kevin Dixons land and was on the lot of his brother Edwin Dixons land.

It's 740 miles away from here.

It really was a fun adventure for me. I returned to the library before leaving for home and thanked the ladies for all the help that allowed me to make this happen.

I hope this helps to know a little more about our past.
Mom was always afraid of snakes and yes they're still there too.

See you all at Christmas!
Phil