July 2, 2020

This is an abbreviated excerpt from a longer work on the history of George Lake.

The story of the George Lake homesteaders is long and interwoven. Even after five years of research, I still have many unanswered questions. The main one: why George Lake? Personally, I find it hard to believe someone looked at a map of available homesteads and decided to farm such a wild, inaccessible land. There had to be a motivating factor in choosing this land, but it seems this has been lost in the memories of people who lived them. Yet, I find myself unable to curb my curiosity and end the search. I have come too far…

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The Homestead Era began with the arrival of D.A. Keizer in 1910. (For more on Keizer, please read my article: Simply Old Man Keizer) My unproven theory is that Keizer was recruiting people to join him at the south end of the lake. It was a slow process, yet it seems Keizer persisted. The first man applied in February 1912, but didn’t stay. Two others, Joseph Beck and Arthur Bagguley, thirty year old friends from Carnforth, Lancashire, England, came in November 1914, becoming Keizer’s first neighbours. Bagguley returned to England at the start of the war, leaving Beck and Keizer alone in the lake. Both claimed squatter’s rights in 1917.

Joe Beck received patent to his land in August 1922. Out of all the other homesteaders, he remained the longest and most continuously. Except for winters, when he stayed with the Borthwicks on Polson Ave. in Winnipeg or at 99 Euclid Ave. (Winnipeg’s oldest house), Beck lived at the lake until his death in December 1951, a total of 37 years.

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1915 saw the highest homestead surge in the lake’s history. Seventeen people applied for homesteads, covering the entire south basin of the lake around Tie Creek. Some were single men. Others were married with children. Fathers and sons acquired adjoining quarter sections, as did brothers. A couple of them applied in March, cancelled in April. By the end of 1915, four had abandoned their entry, citing “too much heavy timber,” “land not suitable for agriculture” and the main reason: “impossible to reach land.” The others let the land fall into default. All entries were cancelled by the Department of the Interior by 1922.

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The next homesteader to arrive and stay was Charles Phayer, who took up land in Rice Bay (also known as Charlie’s Bay or Jackfish Bay). He built a house in October 1917. By January 1918, Charlie lived continuously in George Lake. Later that year, he applied to fence a portion of the lake to harvest the wild rice as his crop, to which the Dept. of the Interior had no objection. 

In February 1919, his brother, John Phayer, applied for a homestead behind Beck’s quarter. Their sister, Violet, and her husband, William Borthwick, got the neighbouring quarter. Pte. Richard Borthwick was a returning soldier who had served and was wounded with the 5^th Battalion in France and Belgium. He applied for a soldier’s grant and took the option of an additional homestead grant to receive a full half section beside his brother, William’s, land.

The Phayers and Borthwicks were the first real homesteaders in the lake. Not only did they clear land for crops, all four homesteads had livestock. By 1921, Charlie Phayer had a chicken coop, along with a stable and barn to house his two horses and four cows. Jack Phayer, in 1926, had twenty-five head of cattle and two horses, plus chickens. William and Violet’s family lived on the homestead starting in April 1920. Together they raised thirteen cattle, eight hogs, two horses and a house full of chickens.  

Richard didn’t last in the lake. His application was cancelled by the Dept. of the Interior in May 1927 due to inactivity.

Charlie Phayer’s homestead patent was granted in October 1922. He lived in the lake year-round, trapping and being caretaker for the Club to make a living. His total number of years in the lake are unknown, but he is a close second to Beck for living there the longest. His brother, Jack, was granted patent in April 1927. He also lived in the lake most of the year.

William and Violet Borthwick received patent to their land February 1925. Following the tragic death of one of their children at the lake, they did not return. William went on to work as a shipper with Carling’s Brewery in Winnipeg.

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The next wave of homesteaders were returning soldiers taking up grants along the eastern shore of the lake. Paul Case came first at the end of May 1919. Frank Charbonneau, Joseph McMurray, James C. Astwood and Carl Hannum followed in June.

Charbonneau’s entry was cancelled in August due to the Dept. of the Interior believing the unsurveyed land was granted in error. All the others remained.

Pte. Paul Case served in the 11^th Reserve Battalion stationed in England. He had been drafted for France three times, but denied each time by medical officers due to “physical weakness.” Upon returning to Canada in 1919, he required treatment at a Winnipeg military hospital for his nervousness brought on by the war. Notes from his time there mention his intention to take up a homestead and live by fishing and trapping. He created “elaborate blueprints of a house…having fireproof walls and asbestos shingles,” which he thought would “protect it against sparks from forest fires.”

Case applied for a soldier’s and homestead grant, receiving a half section just south of the Narrows. He built a log house, much less elaborate than his plans, and cleared some land. In February 1920, he abandoned his homestead in George Lake in favour of land near Pointe du Bois, located across from the Club portage. With the construction of the Slave Falls generating station in 1931, Case’s land was flooded.

Sgt. Joe McMurray returned home from France suffering from a “war neurosis.” He served with the 2^nd Division Ammunition Park for three and a half years in France and Belgium. While being treated at a Winnipeg military hospital in May 1919, he applied for a one month leave to “go on farm.” At the time of his official hospital discharge in September 1919, the doctors believed he would recover better out of hospital. McMurray has been credited with saying George Lake is “the most beautiful place this side of heaven,” and the silence and solitude of the lake would have been no better place to heal from the trauma of war.

McMurray applied for a half section, a combined soldier’s and homestead grant, encompassing the red sand beach in the south end. He faced many personal and family struggles and frequently had to request payments be deferred, but McMurray was determined to stay. He built a house and by 1926 had cleared and cropped 20 acres. After receiving patent in May 1927, he also purchased the fractional sections along the northern and southern points of his land to own the entire bay surrounding the beach.

Pte. James C. Astwood served as infantry with the 27^th Battalion in France. His soldier’s and homestead grants provided him with a half section on the east side of the Narrows. Astwood lived continuously on the homestead from April until October between 1920 and 1926, having cleared and cropped twenty-five acres of land. He received patent in April 1927.

Carl Hannum, from Ohio, USA, served with the American military. It is unknown how he came to George Lake after the war, but his entry was granted for a half section in the north end of the lake on an eastern point. Hannum built a house and lived at the lake from July 1919 until January 1920, when his wife’s health forced his return to the States. In 1921, Hannum abandoned his homestead, giving the land to the Fort Garry branch of the Grand Army of United Veterans to construct a “convalescent rest home.” These plans never materialized and the land reverted back to the government.

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Over the next three years, five more people applied for homesteads. They were all cancelled in 1928 due to “non-fulfilment of conditions.”

The lake’s last homesteader, Cpl. William Radcliffe, applied for land in late December 1926. Radcliffe had served with the No. 5 Field Ambulance of the 27^th Battalion in England, France and Belgium before becoming infected with Trench Fever. He was medically discharged for duty in Canada. After the war, he worked as a civil engineer on the Pointe du Bois generating station.

Radcliffe received a soldier’s and homestead grant for a half section of land on the western shore of the lake’s north end. He lived at the lake from May to October in 1927-1929, building a frame house and log stable.  He cleared, cropped and fenced two and a half acres by 1932.

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The George Lake landscape is unsuited for homesteading, yet these men and their families managed to succeed. Documents from the Manitoba Archives show that they all worked together: handwritten and signed sworn statements vouched for time in residence, land improvements, types and sizes of buildings and stock counts. One story, passed on through generations, tells of Joe Beck getting dressed in his best and rowing across the lake for tea at Astwoods. They created their own sense of community far from civilization.

Over the past five years, I’ve explored pieces of these one hundred year old homesteads. Each time I return with new clues uncovered in archived material I discover something new. Walking in from the lake, the bush opens up: trees with smaller trunks than those nearby are spaced farther apart and low underbrush reveals land once cleared to meet homestead requirements. In some places I’ve found remnants of a building’s log corner or fallen brick chimney, even a still-level stone foundation. In others, all that remains are unbroken green glass bottles nestled in moss or rusted stove pipes and enameled pots sticking out of the mud. Within the next one hundred years, nature will have reclaimed these homesteads, leaving them only in memory.