Coffee Time at the University

Today is an unseasonably warm September day and harvest is in full swing at the Boulton farm.  Thanks to sister-in-law Wilma’s garden, I had zucchini to make some muffins for afternoon coffee time for the combine drivers and grain hauling crew.  Wondering where to catch up with them, I was reminded of the blog post I’ve been working on for a while when Randy said they'd be at The University.  

Good farm helpers like me quickly learn the somewhat obscure names given to the quarter sections.  Legally, this one is the Southeast half of  24-6-28, just south of the house.  The Boultons have a Wilson quarter, Smitty’s, Don’s and Freddie’s which are named after past owners but “The University” name always baffled me. There are no buildings in sight!

A bit of research helped uncover that in 1883, the province granted a group called The Land Committee 150,000 acres to fund the University of Manitoba.  The intent was to sell the land to create and operate a University.  They had lofty goals that would make a free program to further education in the young province.  In 1900, it was renamed the Land Board and in 1904 it was known as University Council.  A few successful years soon turned to controversy as this article tells. 

 

In 1906, the fund was run by the firm Archibald, Machray & Sharpe and that seems to have been when some of the problems began.  In 1932 while John A. Machray was in charge, discrepancies and poor management resulted in a collapse of the fund and as a result tuition fees sharply increased and there were wage cuts to staff.  It ended with the arrest of Machray and his death in prison in 1933 after pleading guilty to theft. Over a million dollars was missing from University coffers and it was assumed he used the money to cover bad land investments. 

Thomas Boulton, Randy’s grandfather, started payments on the east half in 1907 according to papers that have survived the years.  There is a big stack of invoices, receipts and letters about the sale to read through.  The west half purchase is referred to as the Thompson sale #361 in 1910. 

In 1919, ownership was transferred to Thomas's brother Anthony and after his death in 1950, it passed to Edwin.  Now 112 years later, Boulton seeding and harvest continues on the same land. I'm glad I knew where to find them.  This time. ☺