Klyne's Mill

Edmund Lorenzo Barber, the hapless American entrepreneur who came to Red River in 1860, whose famous house stands forlorn at 99 Euclid Avenue, a Phoenix not yet taken flight, was not the first person to occupy the site. The history of the property where the neighborhood's oldest house now stands actually goes back further than the 1860s.

The Barber House seen from the back, 1959. Credit

Barber first went into business in 1860 with another young man originally from the West Indies, who arrived at Red River the year before: Don Derigo Nojada Gomez da Silva Fonseca, who would be known more simply as William G. Fonseca. These two men would become leading citizens of Point Douglas, and by virtue of their devotion to investing in Point Douglas, or perhaps their unsophistication to changing business practices, or simply bad luck, they would both live out their days in the neighborhood, long after their contemporaries had exited for Wellington Crescent and Armstrong's Point: Barber at his house on Euclid, Fonseca on Maple Street in South Point Douglas.

Barber and Fonseca's store was located at Redwood, the residence of William Inkster, and opposite Inkster's steam mill. Built in 1857, Redwood later became the site of the Drewry Brewery, and of course the avenue and bridge that bears its ancient place name.

The next year, Barber opened his own store "at Mrs. Campbell's, near Fort Garry." The exact location of this store is unclear, but the scope of its merchandise was quite vast. In an ad placed in The Nor'wester, Barber notes he carried "Dennims, Jeans, Plaids, Under Shirts, Hoop-Skirts," as well as "Tea, Dried Apples, Powder and Shot, Scythes, Children's Toy Books, Slates and Pencils, Perfumery, Hair Oil," among many other things.

In late 1862, Barber moved once again, this time, his ads proclaimed, to "near Klyne's Mill, on Point Douglas."

This map places Michel Klyne's Mill near the site of Barber House in North Point Douglas. Credit

Michel Klyne, a Catholic Metis, had operated a mill at mid-century in the vicinity of the present Barber House. The Klynes had lived on Point Douglas at least as early as 1832. It was Klyne's thatch-roofed residence, Thistle Cottage, that Barber moved to, and that his present house either replaced or added to.


Owing to the tough economic times the early '60s were for Red River, Barber wasn't picky: "In payment he will take Wheat, Barley and Flour, as well as Money," an ad in November read. He also took, it would seem, IOU's; in April of '63, Barber asked that "[a]ll persons owing me wheat or flour would confer a favor by paying me at once, or as soon as possible."

Ad placed in the April 13, 1863 edition of The Nor'wester. Credit

Barber would operate his store from the Euclid Avenue property until the winter of 1870-'71, when he relocated to "the High Road at the corner of Logan's Farm and Point Douglas." Or, as Winnipeggers of today would know it, the corner of Main Street and Henry Avenue. He continued to live at 99 Euclid until his death in 1909.