As I read more into the past of this beautiful border city, I’ve found myself pausing to laugh and take in some hilarious quotes I’ve found including some violence and chickens.
Harry Pick wrote in his book, Next Year, “It speaks well for the British love of law and order to record that only eleven fights, seven incipient mutinies, three riots, and twenty-two violent interviews with Barr, the party’s leader, occurred during the voyage.” It also speaks quite well to how violent things got.
It was early in the Barr Colonists trip to Lloydminster when people began to prefer the leadership of Rev. George Exton Lloyd over Isaac Barr leading to some heated interactions.
I wrote in a previous column about the inexperience of the colonists when it came to farming and this quote encompasses the sentiment perfectly.
“Many of the British immigrants had exaggerated or even invented their skills as a farmer.”
In the modern age inventing skills is simply called networking, it’s how people are employed.
To wrap up this quick look at some funny quotes I found, was a particularly gruesome recounting of how a colonist decided to deal with her chickens.
“One Barr Colonist found she had a distaste for beheading chickens, so she set to work drowning the birds in her water barrel.”
I can understand having a distaste for beheading chickens but drowning them seems like a far more arduous task. History of anything can be incredibly boring, hearing tales of small details that you may not always be interested in. Luckily, people of the past had far less of a filter than we do in the modern age.
If it wasn’t for all the British violence on the boat over, I may have never thought about exploring some silly quotes I found.
Read more: Opinion: The great fire and unity
Locally owned and community driven, the Lloydminster Meridian Source is the online news source in the Border City. Whether it’s breaking news, features or sports, if you have questions about what’s going on around town, Source it with us.
Since online platforms no longer support the sharing of news, we encourage you to bookmark meridiansource.ca. Whether you’re having a coffee or enjoying a meal, check in any time for the most up-to-date news in Lloydminster.
