Fort Dufferin is located on the west bank of the Red River, three miles north of Emerson, Manitoba, a border town on Highway 75, the main route between Winnipeg and the United States. Designated a National Historic Site, visitors to Fort Dufferin can take a self-guided interpretive tour of its historic buildings, restored over the past few years through many hours of volunteer and paid labour. My brother, Dale Hildebrand, who recently produced a documentary about the 1870s migration of Mennonites to Manitoba, says he and his buddies used to pack up cans of pork and beans, get on their bikes, and camp at Fort Dufferin while some of the original buildings were still standing.

There were two main immigration facilities used by the Mennonites who came to Manitoba in the 1870s: the so-called Shantz sheds, mainly used by the immigrants who arrived in 1874, and the camp at Fort Dufferin, used primarily by 1875 arrivals.

Much has been written about the Shantz immigration sheds. These were four sheds constructed by Jacob Yost Shantz, a Mennonite farmer, businessman, and industrialist from Ontario, who helped thousands of Mennonites from imperial Russia immigrate to Manitoba. Shantz had the sheds built in preparation for the arrival of settlers of the Mennonite East Reserve – that is, the area reserved for Mennonite settlement east of the Red River, affectionately known as Yantsied (the other side) by those of us who grew up west of the Red River.

The 1874 immigrants typically landed at the confluence of the Red and Rat Rivers. The Shantz sheds were located at the corners of four adjacent quarter sections, about five miles east of the landing site, near present-day Niverville. By the fall of 1875, Shantz had dismantled two of the sheds to build a storehouse to provide temporary storage of supplies purchased by immigrants in the process of constructing homes in East Reserve villages.¹

Shantz had already anticipated that later arrivals from imperial Russia would likely choose to settle on lands selected for a reserve on the other side of the Red River. The government granted permission to settle this area in 1875, although the land was only formally set aside for exclusive use by the Mennonites by an order-in-council in 1876. Together the two reserves comprised over half a million acres.

The facility at Fort Dufferin became an immigration station in 1875. Originally, from 1872 to 1874, it had been the winter headquarters and main supply base for the British-Canadian contingent of the North American Boundary Commission, which had the task of surveying the international border along the forty-ninth parallel. The camp was designed to accommodate approximately three hundred surveyors, and consisted of a two-storey officers’ quarters, three one-storey buildings, a large stable, a storehouse, a cookhouse, a bakery, a workshop, and a smith-shop.² As in many frontier areas, saloons and brothels soon sprang up nearby.

After the surveyors moved west along the Boundary Commission Trail, the fort was used by the North-West Mounted Police as an assembly point prior to their 1874 “March West” to what is now Alberta. It also served as their headquarters for the winter of 1874–75.

Fort Dufferin was then repurposed by the Canadian government as an immigration station. From 1875 to 1879, it received immigrants entering the country by steamboat from the United States. The boats carried thousands of Mennonites.

At least eight ships carrying 3,341 Mennonite passengers landed in Quebec between May and October in 1875.³ On their journey west from Quebec, when these Mennonites arrived in Ontario, they were welcomed by established Swiss Mennonites. The Swiss Mennonites, who had begun to settle in Canada in the late eighteenth century, offered to buy cows for the Mennonites heading for Fort Dufferin. If a few men would stay back to drive the cattle to Manitoba, the Swiss Mennonites would get a herd for them.

In July 1875, the first Mennonite immigrants disembarked at Fort Dufferin. Many joined friends and relatives in the East Reserve, but approximately one thousand Mennonites destined for what would become the West Reserve stayed at Fort Dufferin until they could move onto their homesteads, quickly surpassing its intended capacity. Mennonites represented the majority of immigrants who were housed at Fort Dufferin for a significant period.

The reason Mennonites settled on the West Reserve is that most of the arable land on the East Reserve had been taken by the settlers who arrived in 1874, and the land not taken was deemed unsuitable for farming. Prior to the 1875 migration, Shantz, who had anticipated the need for additional land, arranged for himself, his son Abraham, a Métis driver, a Métis surveyor, and three earlier Mennonite settlers to explore the area west of the Red River to assess its suitability for settlement. Shantz liked what he saw, but when this land was recommended to the newcomers upon their arrival at Fort Dufferin, they resisted settling on the open prairie.⁴ The area “was not highly regarded by most of the existing Anglo settlers, who were dependent upon ample supplies of wood and running water.”⁵ They had already rejected it in favour of what they considered better land, and the Mennonites may have become aware of this.

So, Shantz, immigration agent William Hespeler, and Mennonite leaders went out to inspect the land. Their primary considerations in making their assessment would have been the lay of the land, the natural drainage patterns, access to water for human and livestock consumption, suitability of the soil for agriculture, access to timber, and the ability for villages to be constructed in close proximity to each other.⁶

The Mennonite leaders were satisfied with the quality of the land, but some wanted to look elsewhere. Shantz and Hespeler advised them that it would be impossible to find another suitable tract of land for block settlement, and assured them that the land could be reserved for them, including the timber areas along the Pembina River. The immigrants accepted this and proceeded with surveying and determining village locations. After a six-week absence, the men returned to their people at Fort Dufferin. The wait for their return must have seemed endless.

Life at Fort Dufferin was challenging. People got sick; children died. Mothers worried that they did not have enough milk for their little ones. They waited and waited for the cattle the Ontario Mennonites had promised. It was the mothers’ hope that the cow milk might give their children more nourishment. Since they had arrived at Fort Dufferin in July, and the surveying party was away into August, there was no time to put in and grow a crop.

Young Jacob Fehr (1859–1952) arrived in Canada on the SS Sarmatian on July 6, 1875, and had landed at Fort Dufferin with his parents and five siblings. In a memoir chronicling his family’s journey from Russia and their time at Fort Dufferin, he describes the emotions that were felt when the cattle were finally delivered: “The cattle arrived and there was great joy, especially for the mothers who had to take care of the sick children. To a degree this necessary supplement rejuvenated the children. But the sadness of the time was not completely taken away. There was still a yearning for the true friends which had to be left behind, for the beautiful Heimat [homeland] with its precious orchards.”⁷ Not only were they tired, hungry, and sick, but they were also homesick.

Jacob’s account describes a grim routine: “There was little elbow room and many sick children. One after the other they passed into eternity. There was a funeral every day.”⁸ In cramped quarters, disease spread easily. Recorded data are sparse, but it is likely cholera, diphtheria, and malnutrition were significant contributors to the high child mortality rate.⁹

Thirty children died at Fort Dufferin. Included in that list was Jacob Fehr’s infant brother, Isaac, who died on July 19. He was remembered by his father, his pregnant mother, and his siblings. But there was no time for mourning. The family had to bury little Isaac and be ready to move west.

The children who died were buried at or near Fort Dufferin. The graves may have been marked at the time, but, to date, their exact whereabouts are unknown.

As Jacob put it, “We spent six weeks at this place of mourning till we could finally start out and set our foot on our own land.”

As the small group of men assessed the land and surveyed potential village sites, Mennonites at Fort Dufferin made decisions that would be critical to the development of the West Reserve. The immigrants at Fort Dufferin came from several colonies in imperial Russia, primarily from Fuerstenland (a Pachtkolonie, a colony on rented land) and Chortitza, and they came from a dozen or more villages. For them to come together as a community would be important.

Historical records highlight the critical role played at Fort Dufferin by two leaders: Aeltester (Bishop) Johann Wiebe and Isaac Mueller. Thirty-eight-year-old Wiebe had been the Aeltester of the Fuerstenland church for five years, and had been a strong advocate of emigration as the only solution to problems facing the Mennonites in imperial Russia.¹⁰ At Fort Dufferin, seeing a need to make decisions about church organization and colony administration, he called a brotherhood meeting.¹¹

Wiebe gathered the immigrants to organize a new church, establish its goals, and set its direction. Although Mennonites from Chortitza and Fuerstenland colonies had a shared religious history (Wiebe had been ordained by Chortitza Bishop Gerhard Dyck), Wiebe understood the challenges of creating a unified church. He saw this as an opportunity to re-establish the church according to the model of the early Christian church in the New Testament. Wiebe wanted a colony administered on the Mennonite model established in imperial Russia, but he strongly opposed the use of corporal punishment by civil officials. He wanted church discipline to be applied instead.

At the brotherhood meeting, Wiebe also advised close collaboration between civil administration and the Gemeinde (congregation). He promoted the notion that an Obervorsteher (chief superintendent) be elected to assist the church to lead and govern according to a Christian order.¹²

Wiebe was confirmed at Fort Dufferin as Aeltester of the new church born in the immigration sheds. The church would be called the Reinlaender Mennoniten Gemeinde – or, commonly, the Alt-Kolonier or Old Colony Mennonite Church.

Isaac Mueller, fifty-one years old, was elected as Obervorsteher. Historians have suggested Mueller occupied this role in Furstenland as well. Once elected, Mueller divided the immigrants into new village groups of about fifteen to twenty families. During Mueller’s eleven years as Obervorsteher, there was no issue on which he and Aeltester Wiebe publicly disagreed.

Soon after the surveying team arrived back at Fort Dufferin, the new immigrants moved to their homesteads on the West Reserve to begin establishing their new villages. Eighteen villages put down roots on the western part of the reserve in the summer of 1875.¹³ In the summer of 1876, 147 more Mennonite families arrived at Fort Dufferin and joined the villages.¹⁴ As one historian put it, “almost overnight the bare prairie became dotted with villages,” following the street-village settlement pattern the Mennonites had known in imperial Russia.¹⁵

Fort Dufferin’s role as immigration station ended once steamboats on the Red River ceased to be the main mode of transport for immigrants to Manitoba. On December 3, 1878, the last spike was driven to complete the first railway line from St. Boniface to the international boundary at Emerson, connecting Manitoba to eastern Canada by rail through the United States. In the 1880s, Fort Dufferin was used as a livestock quarantine station. It was eventually sold to private owners, and then to the Province of Manitoba.

In time, awareness of the historical significance of Fort Dufferin faded. Fortunately, mainly through the efforts of the Emerson-based Post Road Heritage Group, it is gaining recognition as a site of importance to the history of Manitoba and Canada. It is part of the Mennonite story as well.

Eleanor Hildebrand Chornoboy weaves narratives that connect readers with the past and resonate with the human experience. She is the author and editor of several books, and co-wrote and acted in the recent documentary Where the Cottonwoods Grow.

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A version of this article was presented as a webinar co-hosted by the Centre for Transnational Mennonite Studies and Mennonite Heritage Village on June 18, 2024.

1. “Shantz Immigration Sheds Cairn,” Peace Trail, https://peacetrail.ca/the-trail/shantz-sheds. ↩︎
2. Historic Resources Branch, Province of Manitoba, “Dufferin: Then and Now,” Manitoba History, no. 23 (Spring 1992), https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/23/dufferin.shtml. ↩︎
3. Lawrence Klippenstein, “Manitoba Settlement and the Mennonite West Reserve (1875–1876),” Manitoba Pageant 21, no. 1 (Autumn 1975), https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/pageant/21/mennonitewestreserve.shtml. ↩︎
4. Peter D. Zacharias, Reinland: An Experience in Community (Reinland, MB: Reinland Centennial Committee, 1976), 43. ↩︎
5. Edward M. Ledohowski, The Heritage Landscape of the Crow Wing Study Region of Southeastern Manitoba: A Pilot Project (Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism, Historic Resources Branch, 2003), sec. 5, https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/internal_reports/pdfs/crow_wing_later_settlement_groups.pdf. ↩︎
6. Peter D. Zacharias, “Arrival at Fort Dufferin,” in Celebrating the 125th Anniversary of the West Reserve, special anniversary newspaper, June 26, 2000, 3. ↩︎
7. Zacharias, Reinland, 40. ↩︎
8. Zacharias, Reinland, 39. ↩︎
9. Conrad Stoesz (archivist, Mennonite Heritage Archives), interview by author, 2023. ↩︎
10. Zacharias, Reinland, 28. ↩︎
11. Zacharias, Reinland, 44–45. ↩︎
12. Zacharias, Reinland, 58, 186. ↩︎
13. Zacharias, Reinland, 53. ↩︎
14. Zacharias, Reinland, 55. ↩︎
15. Klippenstein, “Manitoba Settlement.” ↩︎