McFarlane, John Baird

[Dominion Land Survey of Canada][Northwest Rebellion] Correspondence of Work and Camp Life While Surveying Throughout Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada Throughout the Early 20th Century

Canada: Early 20th Century. [Dominion Land Survey of Canada] [Northwest Rebellion] Correspondence of Work and Camp Life While Surveying Throughout Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada Throughout the Early 20th Century, John Baird McFarlane and Family Members.

The collection is collated in 8 folders organized in chronological order. Overall, the letters are in very good condition and relatively easy to read. Majority of the letters are on un-lined cream paper with the exception of 5 letters from 1911 written on "Department of the Interior, Geographic Surveys Branch" letterhead. 14 of the 44 envelopes are pre-stamped.

This collection of correspondence contains letters to and from John Baird McFarlane, D.L.S. (1879-1958), a surveyor who worked throughout much of Saskatchewan and Alberta throughout the early 20th century. The letters were largely written to Emma E. Harrison of Deer Park, Ontario, a neighborhood in Toronto. Dating between 1905 and 1913, there are a total of 44 letters (103 pages) with covers in the collection.

J.B. McFarlane, or “Jack” as he would sign his letters, took several trips to Western Canada throughout this period: once in 1905 to what was then Assiniboia (now Saskatchewan), again in 1907, and then to Alberta in the years of 1909 and 1911. He wrote to his future wife,
Emma E. Harrison, whenever he would get the chance. McFarlane describes camp life, his boss and coworkers, his travel to and from places, reports about the weather, describes the natural environment and towns that surround him, and responds to whatever news Emma would have sent in a letter to him. He often mentions being in the country miles from a post office, so letters could only be sent to his “dear little girl” or “my own darling little wifey” every so often.

The collection contains 44 letters with 103
pages which consist of 35 sent by J.B.
McFarlane to Emma. The other 9 are sent
to him from others including 4 from Emma
(Harrison) McFarlane; 3 from his sister,
Agnes McFarlane; one from his brother,
D.S. McFarlane; and one from a S.
McCreight. All the incoming letters are
dated 1907. The biggest section of this
collection focuses on his surveying trip to
Assiniboia in 1905, which contains 17
letters to Emma.

John B. McFarlane was born in Canada on February 25, 1879. Not much is known of his
background or how he came to be involved in the Dominion Land Survey of Canada’s western
territories. The Dominion Land Survey was used to divide Western Canada into one square mile
sections for agriculture and other purposes.

On January 4, 1911, he married Emma Elizabeth Harrison (b.1885) in Toronto, Ontario. By 1913 they homesteaded in Lake Saskatoon, Alberta. They had a daughter named Annie born around 1917 while in Alberta. The family immigrated to Burbank, California in 1923. The 1930 census lists his occupation as a mechanic. His daughter, Annie, graduated from UCLA in 1940. John McFarlane passed away in Southern California in June of 1958.

Several examples of quotes from within various letters of J.B. McFarlane’s travels provide a
glimpse into what it was like to be doing survey work and camping throughout Western Canada
in the early 20th century. In a letter datelined
Fiddle Creek, July 4, 1909, McFarlane writes
Emma about the trials of a surveyor in the wilds.
“And there is always something unexpected to
take up a fellow’s time. We had to make a new
keel for our boat as the old one broke the other
day and patch it as it is wearing quite a lot. A
bear knocked my new transit over the other
night and sent it over a ten-foot bank. I never
saw one fall over 5 feet before without being put
out of business for the season, but this one
came off lucky. One leg was broke but I had a brass clip I made a year ago like one I put on my old transit and with a little maneuvering fitted it on as the instrument will work now but the upright standards are sprung quite a bit. You could not notice it to look at it and it works very near alright on the level ground, but for up or down hill or observations it is way out but if I get a day or two at it in camp I may be able to fix it up considerable. That is part of the trade and my summer in a machine shop did not do me any harm for that.”

The surveying crew often ran into First Nations people while camping in the woods. In a letter from a “Camp near Rocky River” dated July 25, 1909, McFarlane writes: “To make matters worse some Indians were camped near our cache the night we left and helped themselves. We missed three boxes but when the boys were down to Prairie Creek cache the other day they got two of them. An Englishman on a homestead near Fiddle Creek heard something in the bush near our cache the night we left and thought it was a bear and took after it, he did not get sight of it but found the boxes there the next day so we expect he scared the beggars and they dropped them.”

McFarlane often remarked on other encounters with First Nations. In an October 1st, 1905, letter sent from Birch Hills, Saskatoon, he writes to Emma: “Most of the people around here have some Indian blood in them and are rather dark. Our neighbors are all dark. The folks where we had tea yesterday are all quite dark with very dark brown eyes except one young girl who is rather fair skinned and has blue eyes. That is something funny about the half-breeds. You may be talking to a person out here as fair as most Canadians, but you better not mention half-breed as half that person’s brothers and sisters may be as black as any old squaw in the country.” He then proceeds to write about his boss contributing $10 to throw a dance with some of the white people in the area.

On several occasions, McFarlane suggests that Emma come and work in the camps. In one
dated June 5, 1905, from Log Valley, Saskatchewan, McFarlane writes that: “Perhaps you could get a job in the camp, yet as one of the fellows says the other night when we were washing our clothes, wouldn’t this almost make you wish you were married, so if you want to act the Chinaman I have no doubt you could get good wages here.”

His boss during the 1905 survey, Ernest Wilson
Hubbell, was a prominent surveyor for the
Department of Interior and spent some of his
earlier days in the mounted police. When
passing through Batoche on August 16, 1905,
McFarlane describes to Emma the rebellion
that had occurred in the area and how his
boss, Hubbell, was one of the soldiers to be
sent in. He writes: “We are now in the place
where the Northwest rebellion in 1885 was
finished and Duck Lake, 6 miles west & north
(a little) is where it started. Mr. Hubbell was
one of the soldiers who came out here to put
down the rebellion. He was over chasing up
some of the old bullet holes where some of
the soldiers or mounted policemen were shot.
The storekeeper showed us where a couple of boards had been put on the side of the store
where a cannonball struck and went through.”

Various aspects of nature including animals, weather and the scenery they witness are also
mentioned throughout the letters. While camping in Birch Hills, Saskatchewan he writes to Emma: “Tell your Papa he ought to come out here for his holidays as there are lots of bears here and red deer and elk, prairie wolves, and any amount of rabbits, prairie chicken and partridges. We have not seen any bears yet but all the natives say there are lots but of course we are always chopping or making a racket which scares them away.”

University of Alberta holds several collections of correspondence from John McFarlane. We find records that McFarlane also surveyed Jasper Forest Park in 1909, after the area was designated a forest park in 1907.

An important and vivid first-person account of rural Saskatchewan and Alberta in the early 20th century.


McFARLANE COLLECTION INVENTORY

Folder 1/8 John B. McFarlane. Biographical notes and miscellaneous documents.

Folder 2/8 John B. McFarlane. Correspondence - Outgoing. 9 letters and covers dated May 9 -
August 16, 1905. (24pp)

Folder 3/8 John B. McFarlane. Correspondence - Outgoing. 8 letters and covers dated
September 1 - November 26, 1905. (17pp)

Folder 4/8 John B. McFarlane. Correspondence - Outgoing. 3 letters and covers dated July 28 -
August 18, 1907. (6pp)

Folder 5/8 John B. McFarlane. Correspondence - Incoming. 9 letters and covers dated June 3 -
September 23, 1907. (29pp)

Folder 6/8 John B. McFarlane. Correspondence - Outgoing. 6 letters and covers dated February
14 - August 8, 1909. (12pp)

Folder 7/8 John B. McFarlane. Correspondence - Outgoing. 8 letters and covers dated May 21 -
November 12, 1911. (13pp)

Folder 8/8 John B. McFarlane. Correspondence - Outgoing. 1 letter and cover dated January 28,
1913. (2pp). Item #2708

Price: $1,200.00