In 1872 Canada began a series of measures to stimulate settlement and development of the prairie provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The Dominion Lands Act of 1872 called for a prior survey system to lay out a grid of townships across the country. Each township would contain 36 one square mile sections. Immigrants were encouraged to homestead the prairie provinces. They were entitiled to a quarter section, 160 acres. The next measure came in 1880; it encouraged the building of the railroad across the continent to the Pacific. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company was formed and given massive land grants along the railroad route to compensate the company for its construction expenses. Saskatchewan and Alberta were granted province status in 1905. These acts were patterned after those already in effect in America.[The American Acts Canada used to base these measures on were the Ordinance of 1785, the Homestead Act of 1812 and the Railroad Land Grants of 1869 (Kerr 1975)]

Frank Oliver, an Alberta resident, was appointed Canadian Minister of the Interior in 1905, a post he held until 1911. He implemented an aggressive policy to attract the English, Americans and East Europeans to immigrate to Canada and settle in the prairie provinces. Oliver, also, pushed the New Dominion Lands Act through Parliament in 1908. This bill preempted the unsold railroad grant land and opened this land for homesteading. [Frank Oliver was instrumental in the settlement and the development of the prairie provinces throught his public career from 1888 to 1928 (Waddell 1957)]9

In 1913, Ray White packed his family and all their belongings and headed north to Alberta. Driven by dreams of land, wealth and adventure, the Whites left their comfortable life in Ohio for the Canadian frontier.

This story of Edna White and her family shows the effects of the lingering pioneer spirit in some Americans. Encouraged by her younger sister, Lou, to record her memories, Edna penned her story entitled Up North in 1975. She described the adventures and misadventures of the White family, the daily hard work, the extreme conditions they endured, how they survived, and what sent them back to America.

Edna White Byland's story, Up North, was handwritten in 1975 at the request of Lou White Schlicht. The manuscript was given to Edna's daughter, Marge, to transcribe. Copies of the typescript were given to various family members including Lou. The manuscript was unavailable for use in this project. Therefore, the typescript was used. I believe it to be a full and accurate copy of the original manuscript.

Several problems became apparent in reading the story which I felt needed attending. The overuse and misuse of punctuation throughout the story was distracting and sometimes confusing. This included commas, hyphens and quotation marks. I attempted to clean up the punctuation without changing the meaning and continuity of the story. There were many run-on sentences, some of which were wandering or disconnected. These were changed wherever possible with simple punctuation or use of a conjunction.

Edna did not include many dates in the story. Whenever possible the date or a close approximation was added in the side notes to help place events in time. Also, to help break the story into time or event periods, chapters and titles have been included.

The occasional misspelled words were corrected. Awkward grammar was left intact except when it obscured the meaning of the sentence. Then it was changed to clarify and simplify the sentence.

Finally, an attempt has been made to keep editing to a minimum to ensure that the character and style of Edna White Byland came through.

This project has been interesting and informative. I would like to thank Lou White Schlicht for graciously allowing me to use this story and for supplying additional information, some of which came from her brother, Ray White. For allowing access to Edna White Byland's photo albums, I would like to thank Juanita Byland Jacobsen. Also, I would like to thank Stephen Dow Beckham for his inspiration, knowledge, humor and informative stories. A special thanks to my wife, Patti, who suggested using her grandmother's story for this project. For all her support throughout the project and her help with proofreading, researching and typing I am grateful.