Pioneer Settlement
by Marvin Bjornstad
Pioneer Settlement of the Ferguson Flats area began just after the turn of the century about 1911. It was slow at first with some homesteaders who were leaving the NWMP or the army. New advertising in Europe by the Laurier government started an increase in immigration. It speeded up in the early twenties because the CNR was building a railway. First Ferguson Flats, then Elk Point was rumored to be the new divisional point for the line running to North Battleford, the one time capital of the North West Territories. The railway finally arrived in 1927 bringing with it a flurry of activity but it only went as far as Heinsburg. In the early 30's another rush of settlers who had dried out in the south of the province happened. The next groups arrived in the 1940's after the end of the war.
We have divided the website family histories into these groups:
- the early homesteaders (before 1912)
- the moving of homesteaders searching for better land (1913 to 1919)
- the rush of Railway (during the 1920's)
- the depression years (during the 1930's)
- during the war and after (during the 1940's)
- the building years (during the 1950s)
- during the 1960's
If you choose to just go to an alphabetical index each of the names of early pioneers is listed in the index for each section. In order to keep family histories together we have a section on descendants who remained in the district after each after the main groups. You can also just search for the last name to see all the family pages. Family names are organized alphabetically by the male head of the household.
We hope you find lots of interesting information on these families and their times and we will be adding more as we get it. Updates to family history after 1974 will below a horizontal bar. Text with the blue and white logo are from the Reminiscing Ferguson Flats created by the Ferguson Flats Ladies' Club in 1974.
