Isaac Barr

William Barr brought much of his ministerial approach to education and young Isaac emulated his father by playing the role of preacher in childhood games.

In December 1901, Barr resigned his ministerial appointment with a view to join and support the colonizing efforts of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa.

Barr began an intensive campaign of letter writing and public speaking, urging the people of England to emigrate to Western Canada.

As his biographer, Helen Evans Reid, describes it, Barr stressed two opportunities: to "exchange ... the poverty of Britain for an estate in Canada"; and the "chance to build the Empire by planting a colony of pure British culture in the empty territory".

[7] At the same time, another Anglican cleric with Canadian experience, George Exton Lloyd, was writing letters to the editor also urging British colonization in Western Canada.

[11] Barr’s plans included the formation of several "syndicates" or co-operatives through which the colonists could purchase transportation equipment, farm machinery and livestock.

Lloyd, too, became increasing involved, eventually arranging with the Colonial and Continental Church Society to receive a stipend to act as Chaplain to the group and thus he and his wife and their five children became "Barr Colonists".

Many other colonists came on other ships and this flow continued over a period of several years, thanks to the energy generated by Barr’s idea of an all-British Colony in the middle of the untapped Canadian west.

[14] By the time the ship docked in Saint John, New Brunswick complaints had already surfaced about Barr’s inability to meet the colonials’ expectations.

The growing tension between the two was fueled by Barr’s lifestyle; drinking alcoholic beverages, and a relationship with the young, female typist, both of which offended the prim moral standards of Rev.

Then the naive settlers set about purchasing oxen, horses, and wagons to transport their huge quantities of baggage, with everything from fine china to pianos, and travel the remaining 300 kilometers to the townships where homestead lands awaited, reserved for them as a result of Barr’s visit to Ottawa.

Colonists continued to blame Barr for the high prices of goods, the harsh weather conditions, and the lack of suitable travel facilities.

[17] His rejection was even more poignant when, despite some growing pains, the settlement quickly became a success and one of the prime agricultural areas in western Canada and, later, an oil producing center as well.

Conditions in the new settlement were challenging, farming success was modest, but Isaac and Christina raised their young family, with descendants remaining in the area.