Changing Times:
​The Modern Story of Seven Oaks House (1890s - 1940s)

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Old Timers

As the 1800s drew to a close, the Inksters were among the wealthiest and most politically-connected families outside of downtown Winnipeg. The world around them was also changing rapidly. Families like theirs were seen as “old timers” whose fur-trade empires were quickly becoming a relic of the past.

​Waves of immigration brought the city new prosperity, but also deeper prejudices. Old Red River families were forced to hide their Métis ancestry to avoid discrimination, while a connection to the first "Selkirk Settlers" from Scotland became an increasingly important part of their social status.

By the time Marak Inkster inherited Seven Oaks House in 1892, it would have been considered hopelessly old-fashioned and out of date. Log forts insulated with fur had been replaced by brick mansions with ornate decorations and steam heat. In 1907, her sister Harriet had an impressive, modern home built next door. You can read more about Harriet’s life and the history of her family’s land HERE.

Marak allowed various extended family members to live with her at Seven Oaks, including her uncle Captain Colin Robertson Sinclair (read his story HERE). Her brother, John George Inkster, also sent his children from New Orleans to be cared for by Marak.​

Mary 'Marak' Inkster c.1890s. Photo by Israel Bennetto

Bobs - Thought to be Marak's dog. Photo by Steele & Co between 1894 & 1912

This photo from 1897 shows the second generation of Inksters: Marak, Harriet, and Captain Colin. The young women are likely Harriet’s daughters.

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Leaving a Legacy

 In 1891, Marak Inkster donated a piece of her land along Main Street to build the Monument to the Battle of Seven Oaks (a National Historic Site). Her brother Colin helped organize the building of the Monument with the Manitoba Historical Society.

Shortly before her death she gave the Lord Selkirk Association of Rupertsland a piece of land along Main Street to build a meeting house. The Association acted as caretakers for the Monument until at least 1917. Their office would be at the intersection of today’s Rupertsland Boulevard and Main Street, or on the location of the Green Briar Inn – likely explaining the street’s modern name.

​Marak died on August 15, 1912 with no heirs. She willed her remaining 2.53 acres of land to the City of Winnipeg with the intention that it be used to create a park for the rapidly-growing community. In 1913 the Public Parks Board surveyed and photographed the site.

Birds Eye View of Winnipeg, 1911 (Courtesy of Jim Smith)

City of Winnipeg Public Parks Board annual report - 1913 (Courtesy of Murray Peterson)

The remaining out-buildings like barns and additional houses were demolished and seemingly burned around this time. Archaeological excavations uncovered a thick layer of ash and metal debris (like nails and hinges) on one part of the site. The layer also contained a coin from 1912, with no significant artifact deposits on top.

In April of 1914, the Municipality of West Kildonan constructed wood-plank sidewalks around the area, including “In the Seven Oaks estate”. In 1920 the Parks Board undertook the first restoration of the building. The repairs suggest that there were plans to use Seven Oaks House, but there are no concrete records from this time. Various stories suggest that a family of caretakers lived there, or that a groundskeeper simply maintained the site.
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“At Sevenoaks Park the old dwelling house was stripped of its shingles (four coats, all put on in the old days, with wrought iron nails) reshingled, trimmed and stained; the verandah leveled up, its roof stripped and reshingled, one chimney partially rebuilt.”

Winnipeg Public Parks Board Minutes, p.65 

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A Community Centre

In 1937 there was breaking news: An “old log store house” on the “Inkster Estate” was restored and used as a meeting space by the St. John’s branch of the TOC H Club, led by a man named Robert Hetherington.

The Toc H Club was formed as a social group for Christian soldiers during the First World War. Veterans brought the society home with them and set up local chapters around Canada.

These community groups sponsored charitable activities, children’s clubs and sports. The St. John’s group is a mystery, but you can read about the St. James branch HERE.
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The article incorrectly-describes the building as a store house, but the photo shows our General Store. It describes how the building was first built along Inkster Creek (or Seven Oaks Creek) in the 1830s near the family's windmill, and later moved to its current site.

The group found a variety of fascinating relics, including a Red River Cart, old rifles, whaling harpoons and a set of golf clubs they attributed to the Selkirk Settlers.  Some of these artifacts are still in the museum, including one of original couches built by John Inkster. Apparently the Toc H men roughly reupholstered the family heirloom to sit on while smoking their pipes.

​The veteran’s group met every Thursday, while the “boys club” they organized (the Toc-H Junior Club) met on Friday nights.

There's no mention of Seven Oaks House itself.

The Toc H clubhouse in 1937. Note the siding on the second floor and the four-paned window in the centre.

The General Store in 2021. The same window is visible on the left side.

During the Inksters' time, this couch was upholstered with rich gold velvet, and likely stuffed with horsehair or feathers. In the 20th century it was stuffed with grass, leaves, and garbage including cigarette packets. It was then roughly covered with two layers of modern fabric. This "reupholstering" was probably done by Toc H, and later covered again by museum volunteers. The couch is undergoing conservation to return it to its original appearance.

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Hidden history

In 2020, this “Toc-H Junior Club” sign was found deep in the attic of Seven Oaks House. This permanent signage suggests that the club used the site in a public way for some period of time. We made a more surprising discovery the next year. A stack of notes from Toc H meetings in 1942 were found in the space between the Master Bedroom’s floor and the Dining Room’s ceiling.  Numerous pages were stacked together, looking hidden rather than lost between the floorboards. 

Shortly afterwards, a wall in the Dining Room was torn open for restoration. Behind the wall was a carefully-placed notebook, sitting upright in a very small cavity. It was filled with notes from the Toc H club ending in 1942. The last page contained an architectural drawing and was signed “William Prinz, 117 Leila Ave; restored Seven Oaks House - 1956”. (Read more and see the notebook HERE – coming soon!)

In September of 1939, the Council of West Kildonan gave the St. John’s Toc H group permission to use “the old log building at 160 Newton Avenue for a boys club.” This home, built in 1841, was known as the John Fraser House. It stood there until 1989 when complaints from neighbours led the owner to dump it on a rural property. The Toc H Boy’s Club officially opened on December 6, 1939 at 8:00pm

Toc-H Junior Club sign, used at Seven Oaks House in the 1930s

John Fraser House in 2012 (Courtesy of Murray Peterson)

John Fraser House in 1982

Main Street at Belmont Avenue, looking North - 1938 (City of Winnipeg Archives)

Family connections

 The Inksters married into many of Red River's most prominent families, and in some ways this tradition continued through the 1900s.

Seven Oaks was located in the new Municipality of West Kildonan. The first West Kildonan council met on March 16, 1914 and included  Reeve E. Partridge, Councillors W. C. Smith, J. H. Gunn, I Colish, and Thomas Sly. Thomas held his position as Councillor for over twenty years, retiring in 1935.

​His brother, Percy Sly was born in Birmingham, England in 1898. In 1918, Percy was hired by the West Kildonan Public Works Department at a wage of $100 per month. He lived with his wife Elizabeth (b.1898 in Birmingham) at 528 Seven Oaks Ave. There were no water or sewer services in the western parts of the community, so in 1928 he traded for a piece of municipal land at 311 Seven Oaks Ave.

City of West Kildonan Crest (City of Winnipeg Archives)

​Percy dug a basement by hand and poured a concrete foundation. Their house was dragged for two blocks using log rollers, a team of horses, and buckets of soap for lubrication. His family now had running water, and in 1931 Percy became Water Works Supervisor at a wage of $1,620 per year.

Work was scarce during the Great Depression, and Percy's crew was assigned to dig the Grassmere Creek Drain by hand. Each day they would walk from West Kildonan to Middlechurch (7km, or 1.5 hours) and back, carrying their shovels. They considered themselves lucky to have the work.

Conditions improved and by March of 1946 he was assisting the municipal Assessor with field work. The Council minutes from March of 1952 recognize that “Long-time municipal employee Percy Sly passes away.” In February 1963, a street in a new subdivision of the Margaret Park neighbourhood was named Sly Drive after the family.

Percy’s daughter, Katherine Sly (b. July 26, 1915 in West Kildonan), married Colin Spencer Inkster (b. Oct 18, 1909 in Nokomis, SK). Colin Spencer was the grandson of Sheriff Colin Inkster and the son of Rupert Finlayson Inkster, who succeeded his father as Sheriff. Their family home, "Inkster House", still stands at 145 Bannerman Avenue.
The young couple lived in Percy Sly's home until he decided to take a creative approach to getting the newlyweds out of his house.

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Colin Spencer Inkster (centre) with brothers Harold and Norman, c.1960s

Homecoming

Percy suggested that the couple could move back into Colin’s ancestral home. Seven Oaks House was sitting vacant, and the municipality agreed to let them live there for free as caretakers.

In 1942, Colin James Inkster was born, and the family moved back to Seven Oaks.
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The property was still in a very rural state. The family called it "The Park". Once a year, grass in the park would be cut with a horse-drawn mower and sold as hay. There was no running water in the house. Percy tapped into the municipal line on Mac Street and installed a spigot at the base of the hill. The family hauled their drinking and washing water up the hill in buckets every day; just like their ancestors would have. In the winter it would freeze up, and they had to pour boiling water over the tap daily. This spigot is still used today to water our gardens.

Grandma Elizabeth Sly and Colin J in front of Seven Oaks House, with the family dog Pax - 1943. Pax means "peace" -- a poignant name for a German Shepherd during the war. (Courtesy of Colin J Inkster)

Katherine & Colin James Inkster outside Seven Oaks House - May, 1943. The first homes on Tait Avenue are visible in the distance. (Courtesy of Colin J Inkster)

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Percy also built a large, 2-person outhouse with a concrete tank immediately behind the house. Occasionally a worker would come on a horse-drawn buggy and empty the latrine pit using a shovel and a bucket on a rope. Colin recalls that in those days, septic service workers all wore red handkerchiefs around their necks.

The family kept warm with a Booker brand coal-burning stove. Colin remembers listening to the radio growing up, so the house must have had electricity. It’s not clear if wiring was installed before 1912 or during this period.

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Photos suggest that the back hall area (which currently contains our Interpretive Centre) was used as the kitchen. The family’s stove would have sat where the modern washroom is located. The original Kitchen annex had been converted into a garage.

​The Toc H Club continued to use the house during this time. They would rent one of the large rooms on the main floor and have meetings where they smoked pipes and cigars heavily. The mysterious notes we found were hidden under the floor around this time -- perhaps to keep them stored "privately" on site away from the family.

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​Meanwhile, the Second World War was raging. As a municipal space, the house was also used for some type of air cadet training.

​Some of the upstairs bedrooms were used as classrooms, while an old British biplane (a yellow de Havilland Tiger Moth) sat in the back yard for training. After the war, the plane was simply abandoned on the lawn and slowly broken up for scrap.

Colin's family hosted parties for returning veterans and friends. They would fill a large galvanized tub "with ice and two two-fours". Colin recalled that "Nobody ever got out of hand -- except maybe me."

​One night a soldier who'd had too much to drink put on his helmet and dared young Colin to hit him. The man said  “Go on and hit me! It’s made of steel, you can’t hurt me! Go get a big turnip and whack me with it.”
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Colin found the biggest turnip in the house and hit him two or three times with no effect. The man laughed, saying “Look, it didn’t hurt!" and passed out a short time later. Colin, seeing his opportunity, fetched the turnip and whacked him hard over the head. The man woke up yelling in pain and ran from the party.

"Inside picture one night at 9 o'clock with that little camera Doug gave Colin" - Early 1940s (Courtesy of Colin J Inkster)

de Havilland Tiger Moth trainer, at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada

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Map by the Winnipeg Electric Company (Courtesy of Jim Smith)

This 1941 map of Winnipeg's bus & street car routes shows the Monument to the Battle of Seven Oaks as a point of interest, with little other public development.

The West Kildonan area was still something of a remote suburb. Kildonan Park was the end of the line, unless you took a special bus out to Selkirk. All of this would change quickly after the war's end.

Main Street at Seven Oaks - June 29, 1938 (City of Winnipeg Archives)

One day your ship will come in

The family had a close relationship with Sibyl Inkster. She was the daughter of Sheriff Colin Inkster, who inherited his large estate around Bleak House (read more about their story HERE).  Sibyl was wealthy, and she often repeated an odd promise to Colin Spencer:

​​“Colin, one day your ship will come in – and I’ll build you a house with a red roof.”

​It’s tempting to read into this phrase: The home and trading post of her uncle, William Inkster, was called Redwood. It was named after its unique red wood roof, which became a landmark. Redwood Avenue and its bridge (today called the Lazarenko Bridge) were built on William’s estate and named in its honour. Sibyl’s father was an avid historian, and there’s no doubt that she would have known about this connection.

Photo courtesy of Jean Naomi Demianyk (nee Burnell). Jean was a family friend and babysitter to Colin J.

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Winnipeg Free Press, Sepember 29, 1962

In 1946, Sybil Inkster sold a large portion of the Bleak House property to developers who filled in the neighbourhood by completing Seven Oaks Avenue and parts of Tait Avenue.

In 1948, Sibyl used her recent windfall to fulfill her promise. She had a new house built next door at a cost of $6,000, moving the young family out of their drafty log building and into a modern home. Even in the late 1940s, the basement was excavated by a man with horse-drawn machinery.  

Colin James Inkster still lives there on the family homestead – but Seven Oaks House was abandoned again.

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Colin J Inkster inside the General Store/Post Office building, late 1940s

Colin J Inkster on the verandah of Seven Oaks House, 1940s

Do you have your own photos and stories related to the history of Seven Oaks, or of our community?
​ Send us an email.

Research compiled by Eric Napier Strong, 2022. With thanks to Colin James Inkster, Jean Naomi Demianyk, Murray Peterson and Andrew Yuzek.