Long, long ago, in a far-away land, there once was an enchanted kingdom called Pounderville. Its castle was in a secluded forest, down a long road through the woods, and just visible from a slow, winding river. Only the locals knew of its existence.
A fairytale? Not entirely.
 |
| Protestant Orphanage, Lot 90 St. Charles |
Origins
The large house and barn on the expansive riverfront property at Lot 90 in St. Charles did not always belong to Mr. and Mrs. Pounder. It was originally built in 1924 as a Protestant Orphanage maintained by the Orange Order of Manitoba, a fraternal order.
The advertisement below, from 1932, boasts of the Odd Fellows Home in Charleswood (southwest Winnipeg), built for "aged members, distressed widows and orphans of deceased members" of the fraternal order. The Odd Fellows Home was dedicated in November, 1923.
Also featured and pictured is the Protestant Orphanage "open to all children, without regard to race or creed, the only stipulation being that, once admitted, they must adhere to the Protestant faith."
 |
| Advertisement in The Winnipeg Tribune, Monday, October 10, 1932 |
The ad's text describes the Orphanage:
The only Protestant orphanage in the Province of Manitoba is maintained by the Loyal Orange Association, direct management being in the capable hands of the Ladies Orange Benevolent association. This is in St. Charles, and was opened in 1926. Buildings, when erected, cost approximately $30,000 and considerable sums have since been spent on their maintenance.
It is an orphanage open to all Manitoba children who are members of the Protestant faith, or who will embrace it. At present there are 16 children cared for there. Its field is limited to the province and it is supported by voluntary subscription, there being no provision for an assessment for its upkeep.
Children are admitted in infancy and may remain in the home until attaining the age of 16, when homes are found for them. Its work has been most successful and although its endowments are small, all contributions being strictly voluntary, it has done and is doing a most excellent work and has played a large part in brightening the lot and easing the way for helpless little ones to whom fate has been unkind.
The opening of the Protestant Orphanage in 1926 was a big affair that involved the Rt. Hon. Sir James Craig, Premier of Northern Ireland. The event warranted attention from the press, calling it a "ceremony of outstanding importance" attended by "prominent people from all over the province."
 |
| Grand opening reported in The Winnipeg Tribune, September 23, 1926 |
The Orphanage must have been a busy place. One newspaper account tells of a "monster picnic" held there in 1929 to mark the Relief of Derry. (This dates back to August 1689 when, after enduring 105 days of attack, hunger, disease, and death, citizens of Derry in Northern Ireland celebrated the end of the longest siege in British military history.)
The 1929 celebration on the grounds of the Orphanage included a parade in full regalia from St. Charles to the Orphanage. That would have been an impressive sight.
 |
| From The Winnipeg Tribune, August 9, 1929 |
It is unknown whether the orphans were schooled at the Orphanage itself, or if they travelled to St. Charles School for classes. Located just north of Portage Avenue on Lot 94, it would have been the closest public school. (Built in 1921 by contractor P. H. Hedges, St. Charles was a two-room school until more classrooms were added in 1956. It was demolished in 1986. For more, see http://stcharlesschool.ca.)
 |
| St. Charles School, c. 1930 Photo by E. D. Parker Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-3, p. 88 |
Pounderville
A brief mention on an Orange Lodge website suggests that the Orphanage operated until 1963. That was likely when Mr. and Mrs. Pounder purchased the property as a private residence. Their homemade sign on the riverbank declared it to be "Pounderville" (which would have been a most unsuitable name for an orphanage).
 |
| Approximate location of Pounderville, on the north bank of the Assiniboine River |
 |
| Pounderville (red dot) was well within the range of the roaming Fraser kids (400 St. Charles St. in green), especially when canoeing on the Assiniboine River. The area was mostly fields and woodland, not the housing development it is today. |
The Legend of Winogar's Tree
from Stories Houses Tell, by Lillian Gibbon (Hyperion Press Limited, Winnipeg, 1978)
 |
| Illustration by Arlene Olson, in Stories Houses Tell |
“Winogar’s tree is on our farm! You must see it,” said Mabel Pounder on the telephone. So the tree had to be inspected. It’s claimed that the last remnant of a romantic Indian legend is connected with that tree.
Some time ago, Fred Pugh, whose home, Woodlands, is in Charleswood across the river, had showed me the tree. We were strolling along a river path made by generations of Indian women as they plodded along the bank while their husbands paddled up the river.
Winogar was an Indian princess who was wooed by a coureur de bois. The great elm tree was their trysting place. Its huge umbrella boughs kept them safe from prying wigwam eyes. Winogar, the legend says, was eventually sacrificed to the gods of the water when her lover pursued her.
A Camp Manitou counselor once told children to listen closely for an eerie call of “Jemeraye! Jemeraye!” at night during the month of August. This was the spirit of the Indian princess calling her lover, a nephew of La Verendrye. The young explorer was killed on the Roseau River in 1736. A cairn to his memory stands at Letellier, but his spirit, too, still haunts the Assiniboine River.
Camp Manitou is near Pounderville on Manitou Road. Perhaps the princess who loved Jemeraye is the Winogar of the voyageur story. We like to think that the lovers are reunited after two hundred years. The legend has always fascinated me. Now I was to see the tree again.
Mabel (Mrs. Thomas J.) Pounder rocked her big car over the rough fields of her farm on the St. Charles side of the river. She stopped, and pointed dramatically, “There!”
The legendary tree is no Gothic elm. Gnarled, buffeted, and split, it leans not away from the prevailing northwest winds but right into them. It defies the elements.
The tree is huge. To span it, Mrs. Pounder, a house guest, and I flattened our bodies against the ancient trunk and touched finger tips. We could not see each other, so great is the girth.
Under the old elm is a large granite boulder. “A burying stone?” I asked. Kildonan Park Superintendent, James Gallagher, believes it was a fireplace, since the “bracing foot” an elm puts out makes a natural hearth. The horticulturist-historian went on to say that in the old days a spike was driven into the bark grooves above this natural opening, and a cooking pot was hung from it. He has found big spikes near many elms and believes they were left there by voyageurs.
Whatever the story, the tree is magnificent. Mrs. Pounder has cleared the tough undergrowth from the river bank to give the great elm full play. Nearby is a giant maple stump which she will use as a pedestal table.
The farm and house are now called Pounderville. Originally, however, the big house was the Protestant orphanage maintained by the Orange Order of Manitoba. The Pounders made it into suites for the farm superintendents. Later they decided they wanted to live in the big house too. After a picture window was fitted into the second floor overlooking the river they moved in and no longer needed to commute from their home on Cambridge Street.
The hall of Pounderville House is baronial with its great beams, tapestry brick fireplace, and two Jacobean chairs with cane panels.
“The chairs came from the old orphanage,” Mrs. Pounder said. “When Orange Order member Mrs. James Jenkins found them stored at the Scott Memorial Hall, she offered them to me and I accepted.” Now I, too, have a memento of the old house.
Thomas and Mabel Pounder
Thomas James Pounder was an engineer and an entrepreneur. He was born in 1904 and graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1928 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. His professional interest was in road-building, particularly pavement construction and maintenance. He was general manager of the Flintkote Co. of Canada, and founded the T. J. Pounder and Co. Ltd., serving as president and general manager.
Thomas married Mabel Grace McGill on July 27, 1951. Born October 3, 1908 in Waskada, Manitoba, Mabel was a schoolteacher for many years in Elm Creek and Fort Garry. She moved to California in 1948, two years after the death of her first husband, Dr. E. J. Ryall, and continued to teach in Los Angeles.
In 1951 Thomas and Mabel married, and lived in St. Charles until 1972, when they retired to Victoria, BC.
Thomas and Mabel were both very active in charitable and service organizations. Mabel had been Assistant Director of Social Services for the CNIB, was an active member of the Shriners Khartum Temple Women's Auxiliary, and was a life member of the Anglican Church and of the Engineers Wives Association.
Thomas was a Mason, a member of the Canadian Technical Asphalt Association, and belonged to several other technical and engineering associations.
Thomas died on January 16, 1976, and Mabel passed away on March 14, 2001.
Charitable legacies
A fund in the amount of about $70,000 was established with the University of Manitoba in memory of Thomas J. Pounder. The scholarship is to be awarded to a graduate student working "in aspects of the design, construction, maintenance and management of highway and airport pavements, with emphasis on practical application in Manitoba; [and who] shows promise of making a worthwhile contribution to society through his/her work."
Not to be outdone, Mabel bequeathed to her home town of Waskada a unique and valuable gift. As noted by Bartley Kives in his Winnipeg Free Press column of August 15, 2003:
In 2002 [sic], when 93-year-old Mabel Pounder passed away, she gave the Village of Waskada a gift: the mineral rights to a tract of land in the nearby RM of Arthur.
Those rights now translate into $600,000 a year for a village of only 185 people, who collectively generate only $154,000 in property-tax revenues.
 |
| Waskada oil well, 2010 Photo by Bill Redekop, Winnipeg Free Press |
Waskada continues to profit from an oil boom made possible by Mabel Pounder. In a June 19, 2014 story, the Brandon Sun noted that Waskada's oil field was the second most productive field in Manitoba, with 1,039 wells producing a total of 5.39 million barrels of oil. Mabel's original bequest, originally worth $20,000, today provides the bulk of Waskada's annual budget. In 2014, her donated royalties accounted for $800,000.
Mabel's father, a veterinarian, 25-year school board member, and Waskada councillor for 35 years, would have been mighty proud of Mabel.
Elm Tree Farm
Lillian Gibbons' tale of Pounderville (1978 edition) ends with a notation: "The property, called 'Elm Tree Farm,' is presently owned by Robert M. Chipman. The suites are occupied by those who have duties relating to the operation of the many enterprises centred at the farm. The children from Camp Manitou still visit there and the tree still provides the focus for the campfire legend."
The Pounders retired to Victoria in 1972, which is likely when Robert Chipman bought the property. An Orange Lodge website confirms he was its owner in 1980.
 |
| Bob Chipman (1926-2013) Photo by John Johnston, Winnipeg Free Press |
If the name Robert Megill Chipman sounds familiar, it should. Like the Pounders, Bob, too, was a remarkably successful entrepreneur, business leader, and philanthropist. He was inducted into the Winnipeg Citizens Hall of Fame in 2007. It was a well-deserved honour for the man behind a number of businesses, including the Megill-Stephenson Company Limited, National Leasing, and the Birchwood Automotive Group. His family created the Manitoba Moose AHL franchise, True North Sport and Entertainment, and built the MTS Centre. Bob's son Mark is a local hero for bringing the Jets hockey team back to Winnipeg.
 |
| The MTS Centre (Winnipeg Free Press photo) |
Bob Chipman also served as chair of multiple charitable, arts, education and sports organizations over many years. They are too numerous to mention, but he was keenly involved in The United Way and as a supporter of St. Paul's High School, where his sons attended high school.
It is not surprising that the Birchwood Auto Group built its Pointe West AutoPark at Portage Avenue and the Perimeter Highway, not so very far from Pounderville. The complex includes eight retail franchises, representing 17 manufacturers. The AutoPark includes a man-made lake, an insurance agency, a rental agency, and collision repair centre.
Bob's sons are walking in his philanthropist's footsteps, establishing the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy (WJHA) just north of the AutoPark. This is but one enterprise of the Winnipeg Jets True North Foundation.
WJHA has over 125 volunteers from local companies, 45 school champions and employs 40 university students throughout the school year to guide over 530 children in improving their connection to their school by offering a weekly hockey program for student athletes.
The WJHA aspires to build and sustain connections to school and community through hockey skill development, inter school exhibition games, various outings and after school programming.
And if you think the proximity to Pounderville is a mere coincidence, consider the fact that another enterprise run by the Winnipeg Jets True North Foundation is Camp Manitou, Pounderville's next-door neighbour to the west. The Foundation assumed operation of Camp Manitou effective January 2, 2014.
Camp Manitou has been around since 1930, and was operated for decades through several service clubs. Its campers visited Pounderville from time to time, and heard its tales.
It's a shame the Pounderville property has been swallowed by a new residential development. It is but a memory. But imagine the kind of ghost stories told around Camp Manitou campfires about the orphanage in the woods.
Wait, did you hear that? I thought I heard a baby crying…
