Leaves from the Life of a Pioneer: Being the Autobiography of Sometime Senator Emil Julius Meilicke

Michael Payne is head of the research and publications program, Historic
Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and the
co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

There is no single Canadian equivalent of the American Dream, but on the
prairies a “pioneer dream” exerts a similar influence. According to
this dream, homesteaders left poverty and discrimination in Europe and,
through hard work and determination, became prosperous, respectable
members of prairie society. This myth contains elements of truth, but
the full story is more complex and interesting. Less than half the
agricultural land in western Canada was available for homesteading, and
“free” homesteads were scarcely free. In Saskatchewan, over half of
all homestead entries failed—a staggering human cost alone. Moreover,
most settlers came from the United States or from Ontario, not from
Europe, and most were attracted by the pull of economic opportunity as
much as by the push of discrimination or poverty.

In 1866, Emil Meilicke’s parents decided to emigrate to America. His
father’s death soon after their arrival in Minnesota destined family
members to a long struggle to re-establish themselves. Emil eventually
became a successful farmer and represented the Populist Party in the
Minnesota state legislature. After more than three decades in America,
he began to think about “making a new start,” though not out of any
necessity. As he states, “I now enlarged my plan of getting cheap land
for myself (on which to play the part of a pioneer), to include the
purchase of land for others, and a profit to myself by its sale.”

Canada offered just such a prospect. In 1901, Meilicke purchased more
than six sections of land between Saskatoon and Regina, near Dundurn,
Saskatchewan, and brought numerous friends and family members to
homestead near him. This land turned out to be some of the richest
farmland in Saskatchewan, and Meilicke became exactly the kind of
respected community leader that pioneer mythology enshrines. He just got
there by a more complex and circuitous route.

The noted historian and archivist A.S. Morton encouraged the original
publication of these memoirs in 1948 because they reflect important
aspects of Canada’s immigration and settlement history and because
they record the life of a significant public figure. Morton’s
assessment remains equally valid today. This book offers real insight
into pioneer history, not just pioneer myth.