Sifton, Manitoba
Encyclopedia
Sifton is an unincorporated community located in the Canadian
province
of Manitoba
approximately 20 km north of Dauphin in the Parkland area. Large influxes of Ukrainians
settled this region in the mid-1890s, part of a mass immigration undertaken by the federal government. Sifton is named after Minister of the Interior Clifford Sifton, who viewed farmers from Eastern Europe as ideal for settling and opening the Canadian West. About 250 families both in town and in the surrounding countryside today call Sifton, Manitoba their home.
Sifton was once a hub of woolen milling in Manitoba. Local residents still speak of the village blacksmith in the early 1930s, going broke trying to shoe horses for a living, who started manufacturing spinning wheels instead. It was a stroke of business genius and it sparked a major industry for Sifton, even during the Depression. It led to the construction of Spin-Well Mfg. Co. here and its eventual expansion into producing woollen products, including heavy yarn for sweaters and socks. The blacksmith, John Weselowski, eventually partnered with Willard McPhedrain, a community promoter and CN agent at the time, who had the idea of creating knitting patterns with Canadian symbols. It was McPhedrain who founded the Mary Maxim Co., bestowing on his company a name derived from the shortened version of a domestic in his household: a local girl named Mary Maximchuk.
Sifton was, during those years, also a centre of other industry, including flour milling. It had several mills, plus elevators, numerous stores, cafés, a lumberyard.
The town’s fortunes began to reverse in the late 1950s. Mary Maxim Co. eventually left Sifton,
and relocated to Paris, Ontario
. One by one the town’s flour mills disappeared. A terrible fire in 1949 destroyed several businesses on Main Street. Railways were abandoned. Farms got larger and people more mobile. Children from Sifton’s large families left for education and fortune elsewhere, frequently Dauphin, which became the major economic centre of the Parklands.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
province
Provinces and territories of Canada
The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...
of Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
approximately 20 km north of Dauphin in the Parkland area. Large influxes of Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
settled this region in the mid-1890s, part of a mass immigration undertaken by the federal government. Sifton is named after Minister of the Interior Clifford Sifton, who viewed farmers from Eastern Europe as ideal for settling and opening the Canadian West. About 250 families both in town and in the surrounding countryside today call Sifton, Manitoba their home.
History
A spinning wheel mounted on a cairn in town is the only visible reminder today that Sifton is also the birthplace of Canada’s iconic fashion item of the 1950s, the Mary Maxim sweater.Sifton was once a hub of woolen milling in Manitoba. Local residents still speak of the village blacksmith in the early 1930s, going broke trying to shoe horses for a living, who started manufacturing spinning wheels instead. It was a stroke of business genius and it sparked a major industry for Sifton, even during the Depression. It led to the construction of Spin-Well Mfg. Co. here and its eventual expansion into producing woollen products, including heavy yarn for sweaters and socks. The blacksmith, John Weselowski, eventually partnered with Willard McPhedrain, a community promoter and CN agent at the time, who had the idea of creating knitting patterns with Canadian symbols. It was McPhedrain who founded the Mary Maxim Co., bestowing on his company a name derived from the shortened version of a domestic in his household: a local girl named Mary Maximchuk.
Sifton was, during those years, also a centre of other industry, including flour milling. It had several mills, plus elevators, numerous stores, cafés, a lumberyard.
The town’s fortunes began to reverse in the late 1950s. Mary Maxim Co. eventually left Sifton,
and relocated to Paris, Ontario
Paris, Ontario
Paris, Ontario is a community on the Grand River in Ontario, Canada. The town was established in 1850. In 1999, its town government was amalgamated into that of the County of Brant, Ontario, thus ending about 149 years as a separate incorporated municipality.-History:The town was first settled in...
. One by one the town’s flour mills disappeared. A terrible fire in 1949 destroyed several businesses on Main Street. Railways were abandoned. Farms got larger and people more mobile. Children from Sifton’s large families left for education and fortune elsewhere, frequently Dauphin, which became the major economic centre of the Parklands.
Geography
- Area: 768.27 km² (296.65 mi²)
- Location: Southwest ManitobaManitobaManitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
- Area Code: +1-204Area code 204204 is the North American telephone area code for the Canadian province of Manitoba, encompassing the province. 204 is one of the original 86 area codes assigned in 1947 in the contiguous United States and the then-nine-province extent of Canada....