SK0093 (DOUKHOBOR SETTLEMENT OF VERIGIN)

POSTCARD

Date: Posted November 29, 1904.

Publisher / Photographer: Unidentified

Notation: A “Classic” early undivided Velox Private Post Card. Posted from Winnipeg to Mrs. J. D. Griffiths in Weston Lullingfields, Shopshire, England.

Note on front: “Many thanks for letter & paper I received last week. Will write soon. Oh, thanks for the Photo I like it splendid. Hope you are quite well. I am at present. Love to all. Will.”

I was intrigued by the image on this postcard and acquired it with the intent of trying to try to identify it. After some research, I am pretty much convinced that it is of a Doukhobor community - almost certainly the settlement of Verigin, in the South Doukhobor Colony. I found two images on the Doukhobor Genealogy Website that are pretty conclusive matches for both the building on the foreground and the rows of residences (house-barns) in the background.

In 1904 (the year of this image) the C.N.R. constructed a new line between Kamsack and Canora. The line crossed through the South Doukhobor Colony and the Railway installed a siding to serve the Colony. They named it Verigin Siding - after Peter Verigin, the leader of Canada’s Doukhobor religious sect. The settlement of Verigin took shape around the new station and at some point in 1904, Peter Verigan himself moved his home and headquarters there.


Further information on Doukhobors in Canada can be found at: www.doukhobor.org