Home named after enemy of Louis Riel

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This article was published 15/11/2010 (5749 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RUSSELL — Col. Boulton, founder of the Town of Russell, was to be executed by firing squad, preceding Thomas Scott, under the orders of Métis leader Louis Riel.

Boulton’s crime was organizing to retake Upper Fort Garry, which Riel had seized, and free 40 prisoners Riel held there.

Donald A. Smith, after whom three streets are named in Winnipeg (Smith, Donald, and Strathcona, after his title, Lord Strathcona), tried to negotiate for Boulton’s release, without success. Then John and Joan Sutherland, who had just buried a son lost to senseless gunfire, pled with Riel to end the bloodshed. Riel finally relented.

After the conflict, Boulton returned East, started and lost a lumber company, came back West and in 1881 founded the Town of Russell, 370 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. But when Riel resurfaced in the Northwest Rebellion at Batoche four years later, guess who came riding after him with a vengeance.

Col. Charles Arkoll Boulton. (You can’t have a middle name like Arkoll unless you are from an influential family, and Boulton was.)

The house of the man who disliked Riel as much as anyone alive in those times still stands today in Russell. It was built in 1894. It’s actually called the Boulton Manor, after a style back then of giving names to houses. Boulton’s father’s home in Toronto was called The Grange, and is an art museum today. His father was mayor of Toronto when its population was just 20,000.

Today, Boulton’s home in Russell is a bed and breakfast. It’s owned by Ward and Linda Tweet, who also live in the 4,000-square-foot house.

It’s a storied house. Legend has it Boulton built underground tunnels so his family could escape in case Métis or aboriginal people sought retribution.

The tunnels likely didn’t exist but what is known is Boulton had a secret compartment beneath the master bedroom accessed by a trap door. The hiding place was furnished.

The home also had a secret passageway, said Lisa Clement, librarian at the Russell and District Public Library. “I remember my Grade 6 teacher had an apartment there and we were there once and she showed us this closet. It had a secret panel and when you pushed it, it opened to the servants’ quarters,” Clement said.

Unfortunately, the above details are mentioned in the past tense because the home was completely gutted and made into four suites before the Tweets bought it. Only a grand, old oak staircase, darkly stained, remains of the original home. The exterior walls made of the original concrete blocks also remain and are painted grey.

The home was made initially of mud blocks, a system of construction Boulton learned from area farmers. “He figured it was the building material of the future,” said Linda Tweet. It was replaced in 1911 with concrete blocks.

The family lived happily in Russell. “He and Gussy (his wife, Augusta) were very faithful and would write to each other regularly” when Boulton was absent, Linda said.

Boulton surveyed the town and named streets after his family members. Today, there are Russell street names for Heather, Darcy, Lawrence, Russell, and wife, Augusta. A street named after daughter Ellen has been changed to Mather, and Highway 16 was once named after son, Evard. There is also a street named Grange after his family home in Toronto. His youngest two children were born after the town was surveyed and so had no streets named for them.

Historian Heather Robertson reissued Boulton’s memoir in 1985 under the title, I Fought Riel. In her forward, Robertson writes: “For Louis Riel, Boulton had only dislike and contempt. He considered Riel a despot, a murderer and a traitor.”

In the 1870 Red River Rebellion, Boulton recounted being in a jail cell and hearing his death sentence: “I heard the door open and Riel looked in. Without entering, he said, ‘Major Boulton, you prepare to die tomorrow at 12 o’ clock.’ I answered, ‘Very well.'”

In 1875, Boulton, wearing a British war helmet and red serge, led 60 men from the Russell area dubbed “Boulton’s Scouts” to fight Riel in a rematch. It would have been brilliantly dramatic if Boulton had found Riel. However, while he and his men helped fight insurgents, Boulton didn’t have a direct hand in Riel’s arrest. Riel was executed for his role in the Northwest Rebellion.

Of course, Boulton would be shocked to learn Riel is regarded as a hero today.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca