1901 when he first saw the beautifiil valley, whichwe all
now proudly call the Swan River Valley. He, like so many
others were looking to the west and to the challenge it
inSpired. Work was not too plentiful in the East. He had
worked as an engineer on the Grand Trunk Railroad
until the workers went on strike.

When he was 19 or 20 he came as far as Portage la
Prairie to work in the harvest fields. Rumors reached
the Portage area of a fertile land opening up north with
land free for the settling, so the time was ripe for a young
man who was out of work and wanting to make a home
in the west to come and see if it was good.

One thing he had which was a real asset in a new land,
was a knowledge of steam engines. One of his first jobs
was running a steam engine on a saw-mill at Renwer.
When he first arrived the men thought he was a forest
ranger coming to cause trouble, but he was able to per-
suade them to give him a trial.

About this time he decided he would learn to shoot.
He was following one of the fellows in the bush one
Sunday moming, looking for a fresh meat supply, when
they came upon two moose feeding in the underbrush.
The fellow shot twice and had two moose. Later, alter a
good deal of target practice, Robert could perform the
same feat. When his sons were little he used to have
them throw an egg into the air and break it on the way
down with a rifle shot.

In 1902 he installed the steam engine in Gable’s
Flour Mill in Swan River, and ran it out for a short
time. Homesteads were available so in 1904 Robert
claimed the SW 1/4 of 19—35-25, six miles south of
Minitonas as his own.

Robert George and Mabel Bertram

. Back home in Toronto, there was a sweetheart wait-
1118, Mary Mabel Dix, and Robert was looking for a
home, so in 1906 he bought the SE 1/4 of 23-35-26
from George Keys. On February 6 he signed an agree-
ment for sale for $1,550.00 for the quarter, $236.50

down and $150.00 per year until 1915 at an interest
rate of 8%. (The agreement for sale is one of Glenn
Bemam’s prize possessions.)

There was approximately ten acres cleared for crop
and that summer Robert worked to clear more land. He
used to write letters home to Mabel saying time after
time that he was “Scubbing”. Mabel thought there was
no cleaner young man in all the west.

In February of 1907 Robert returned to Toronto and
on March 26 he and Mabel were married. No doubt
Mabel’s family thought she was mad to go off to the
wilds with her young man, but to our knowledge she
never regretted it, even though the mosquitoes were big-
ger andheartierthanany Eastemercould  Robert
came back west in April with a carload of stock, ma-
chinery and fiimiture, and early inMay, Mabel followed.
It seemed a long, long way to her home. She arrived in
Minitonas on May 7, and Robert met her at the station
with the team and sleigh. The ditches were full of water
but there was enough snow on the road to make ad-
equate sleighing. Before Robert lefl for townhe had put
supperintheoven, andwhenhistiredandhungryyoung
wife looked in the oven she found a roast of moose meat
all tied up with binder twine. No doubt it was delicious.

Times were not easy, there were no modem conven-
iences, but the house, made of logs, was cozy and warm.
The furnishings brought from her home in Toronto, made
it a comfortable and attractive home. An old diary of
Robert’s tells of setting up housekeeping, planting a gar-
den, haying and threshing, etc.

Mabel’ s father (her mother died in 1900) came to visit
his daughter in 1908 and he was so enthusiastic about
the country that he bought a neighboring farm (NE 1/4
14-35-26) for his son Fletcher. On March 31, 1909,
Fletcher Dix arrived with acarload of fine horses to start
farming. Feed was very scarce. Robert’s diary states “it
was 20 below zero on April 22 and 23 of that year, and
a blimrd on April 26 leaving six inches of fresh snow.
Good sleighing on May lst”.

In those days, people walked or rode miles to enjoy a
good game of football, and Minitonas had a good team.
In 1908, the Minitonas Thistles mare Manitoba champi-
ons.RobertBer1ramplayedgoalieontheteamandFmest
Bertram, his brother, played fullback

On September 10, 1909, their first-bom son, Robson,
was born. That winter Robert lefi his young wife and
baby son, in the care of her brother Fletcher, to work as
anengineerinasawmillatRedDeer. Thenin 1911 and
1912 he ran the engine in a mill inthe Duck Mountains.
That mill cut up to 30,000 feet of lumber on a good day.

23 OnOctober l l, 191 1,FletcherDixmarriedEdnaToye