Editor’s Note: This is perhaps an unusual story of mission work. We likely all have a little knowledge of the building of Canada’s first trans-continent railroad. I suspect most have never read about how the builders’ spiritual needs were served. The following article is from the February 20, 2008 issue of the Dryden Observer courtesy of the Dryden and District Historical Society.
By Gerrie Noble
Construction of the Transcontinental Railway across Canada was begun in 1875 at both Thunder Bay and Winnipeg. Contractors’ sections were spaced out along the surveyed line and each had to build several miles of roadbed in his section. Because of the extremely rough country, supplies had to go in from both east and west to the end of the steel. Then barges took it in over water routes to the contractors’ camps.
Hundreds of labourers lived and worked in the wilderness, living in shanties and log bunkhouses along the line. Isolated as they were, there were other enterprising people who saw a way to make money from these workers. Bootleggers set up temporary saloons to sell strong drink and women of ill repute conducted a sex trade in some areas as well.
By 1879, His Grace, Monsignor Tache of St. Boniface became concerned that labourers on the line were being exposed to body and soul dangers. These dangers were from the work they did and from the temptations of alcohol and loose women. He began sending priests out along the line when they could be spared, but by the fall of 1880, he realized that a full time missionary was needed: He appointed Rev. Father Albert Lacombe of the Oblate Order to minister to the Catholic labourers and other whites along the right-of-way.
That November, Lacombe left Winnipeg by train for Rat Portage (Kenora) to establish a headquarters. On the train, he shared a coach with the Hon. Charles Tupper, Minister of Railways and later, in 1896, the Prime Minister of Canada.
Arriving at Rat Portage, Lacombe was disappointed to find his parish base was an unfinished house. Once he had his parish in order, he began traveling down the line to contractors’ camps. His meetings with native people at Rat Portage gave him the impression that ‘they were in a poor moral and material condition,’ and he resolved to include the aboriginal people in his missionary work.
His work took him eastward, down the line to Eagle River, which was the end of his section to cover. Between Rat Portage and Eagle River, he visited twenty work camps. This gave a population of about fifteen hundred men, divided, into groups of thirty, forty or sixty men per camp. A third of these men were French Canadian and the other two thirds were of Irish, English, Scottish, Dutch and Danish descent. He estimated that half the personnel were Catholic and welcomed his mission.
Cursing and taking the Lord’s name in vain were everyday occurrences and liquor and women of easy virtue were too readily available. Such were the trials of a missionary doing God’s work among railroaders.
Father Lacombe was always welcomed’ by the contractors and helped to arrange religious services. He heard the confessions of the Catholic labourers, often using a blanket hung up between priest and his parishioner as the confessional. He also held communions and collected money for the Church.
While Lacombe was well received by many, there were others who ignored or ridiculed his approaches. He was genuinely concerned about the dangerous work of the labourers and the accidents and death they faced in the wilderness places. His travels up and down the line by canoe and walking the line between camps took a toll on his health and energy. He often arrived at a destination greatly fatigued from the journey. He was also saddened by the lack of interest or rebuffs by the native people to his religious teachings, of whom he referred to as ‘infidels’. Occasionally, he would come across a white family who welcomed the rare opportunity to have a religious service in their home.
In July of 1881, Father Lacombe was in Rat Portage and among the reception that met the Governor General of Canada.
Lord Lorne arrived in a gaily-decorated flotilla of canoes, paddled by voyageurs singing their traditional French paddling songs. Lacombe was presented to his Excellency and had a conversation with him.
When Lacombe returned down the line to Eagle River, he was pleased to be visited by two traveling priests, one of which was Father Allard returning from a mission on Lac Seul.
When the railway construction was finished between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, Father Lacombe returned again to Alberta where he had previously been a missionary to native people there. Father Lacombe died near Calgary in 1916 at the age 0′£ 89 years.
Submitted by Gerrie Noble and the Dryden & District Historical Society
Further information on Fr. Lacombe OMI can be found at:
Caryn Swark is a Grade 3 teacher at St. Patrick’s School in Taber Alberta.
