A Lady's Life on a Farm in Manitoba

by Cecil Hall

Letters from an early colonist of Manitoba and Colorado providing an insight into American frontier and pioneer life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Travel, Classics, History, Historical

82 pages, Paperback

First published June 29, 2004

Reviews

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author isn’t Cecil Hall, it’s Mrs Cecil Hall. Or more precisely Mary Georgiana Caroline Hall.
It was an interesting read, but with the usual racism of its time.

[Magnolia A.]

If you are feeling like a fish out of water, or insecure about your station in life, this is a must read for you! The women in this book make one think our ancestors had to be very capable, or we wouldn't be here today. The extraordinary circumstances in which they got to America, and their return home, are astonishing by today's standards. This book gave me iinsight to a world I can only dream about! I am researching my ancestors and if you are into genealogy, you will get a sense of what our grandmothers, aunts, and cousins went through.
A must read.

[Aruna Reddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful, you can witness european migration into americas after the colonial period.
The new world's offers to European commoners. Like, free visa, free tickets, free land (100s of acres per family)
and most importantly free mosquitos. ☺️☺️

Loved the writing style. Still feel mosquitos around me...☺️☺️

[Kelly Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tried this book for Nonfiction November. I perfer letters to a memoirs. I always suspect that writers of memoirs are skipping over a lot. Letters I expect that a lot was not written. Still...this was a trying book.

[Meriem Guenoun · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's such a good journey to the country side

[Josh Bezaire · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable piece of Canadian history. Can be found at ProjectGutenberg.Org

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Lady's Life on a Farm in Manitoba would have been better titled A Lady's Extended Vacation on a Farm in Manitoba or A Lady Visits Manitoba and Thinks It's Great but Returns to London After a Few Months. This is one of the old-fashioned books where everyone's name is obscured by means of initials, so it is the collected letters of H- who goes with her sister E- to C- Farm to visit their brother A- who's immigrated to Manitoba and invested in some land together with Messrs. H- and L-. As someone with a train ticket back to London, the privations of life on the Northern prairie did not strike H- to the bone the way Ma Ingalls or Mrs. Woodlawn might have looked ahead to surviving winter and doing the whole thing over again next summer. H- and E- were friendly, roll-with-the punches, roll-up-their-sleeves women and I liked them a lot. They arrived in Winnipeg in May with snow still on the ground and A's farm sixteen miles from town. The supply steamer from Chicago had been delayed by an early winter and all of Winnipeg was doing without. The roads were ruts, and the ruts had massive potholes. This book drives home how late Canada was settled. Rupert's Land only changed hands from Hudson Bay Company to Canada in 1870; Winnipeg, neė Fort Garry, was incorporated in 1873; and H- travelled there in 1882. This was a land newly settled by agrarian white people. H- and E- get right into cleaning their brother's house and doing laundry that no one's touched since September. A late frost kills L-'s early cabbages, and H- tells him that he made a mistake of growing them outdoors instead of inside on the living room carpet. While in Manitoba, H- and E- try their hand at driving the plow, gathering eggs, making the weekly mail run, and camping out. Mosquitos eat them alive. The horse runs away with the carriage while H- is out visiting. But the sky is so clear it reflects Winnipeg's gaslights, the air is wild and healthy, and there is a nonstop stream of visitors. Mrs. Hall includes some figures, added later, on wages and profits to encourage immigration, as this book was published as a guide for immigrants, but, honestly, A Lady's Life makes Manitoba sound like a great place to visit but no place to stay.

http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/20...

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of an adult version of a condensed Little House on the Prairie series with A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mts. It discusses farming, ranching and agricultural development. Letters written back home in England.
Letters #25 - #37 about traveling to the Rocky Mts. #26 references Lady Bird's book! So I guess she did bring some tourists to CO.

[Peri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am so loving this. Finished this last week - totally brilliant. I like letter based books and this one really gives a window into a time and way of life I couldn't even begin to imagine.....a little like Little House on the Prairie for grown-ups.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

1882 trip to Manitoba via NY, DC, Chicago etc. Time spent on a farm in Manitoba, at a mining town in Colorado, etc. Told in letters back to London.

[Velvetink]

epub version