The district north of present-day Solsgirth became the home of some of the earliest arrivals to the Birdtail settlement. Possibly first of them all was J. Lionel Ridout, who had come from Ontario to join the N.W.M.P., and was stationed at Shoal Lake for a time. It may have been 1878 when he selected a well-wooded spot with wild fruits and hazel nuts on a hill which he named "Hazel Hill". In 1883 he married Emily Frodsham, sister of Mrs. F. B. Miller. Their daughter Mrs. Ben Allen (Lillian) wrote "How we used to love to sit on the hill in spring, watching the ice on the creek, and later the logs from Grant's Mill."

Lionel Ridout was a Police Magistrate, but as people were law-abiding he was not often called to the "Bench". He had first-class stock, and one of the first gasoline ploughing outfits. His two sons Vincent and Walter were killed at the same time in the First War. He felt the loss very keenly, and almost lost interest in life. He and George Porter were great friends. Stanley Broadfoot wrote that Mr. Porter was a fine old Highlander from Aberdeen, the soul of hospitality.

On April 1st, 1879 the first trainload of settlers with the Colonization Society left Stratford in charge of D. W. Cummings. Among the hundred or more on board were William Todd, William Tait, Henry Harrison, C. K. Vanstone, a Mr. Pratt, Joseph Sharman, the Tye family, George Finch, Harry Sleigh, J. M. Dow, the Pengelleys. They purchased in Winnipeg the essentials for the overland journey, left about April 23rd, and arrived at the Birdtail May 23rd. En route, they found the horses too tired to go on, so the men walked the remaining eighty miles leading the oxen and the cart of provisions. They selected land not yet surveyed, in the later Toddburn district. By June they had broken land, planted potatoes in the first furrows, as well as oats for feed, later cropped fifty bushels from three of seed potatoes.

(Source: A View of the Birdtail - A History of the Municipality of Birtle, pp 99f [1970; Adapted])

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Established in 1897.

(Source: Manitoba Genealogical Society)

The Anglican church here was built in 1891.

(Source: Manitoba Historical Society [Adapted])

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Dominion Land Survey coordinates: LSD01-14-018-26W1

In the Municipality of Prairie View

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As noted above, a part of the community's story, and those of its inhabitants, from the early days of European settlement through roughly 1970 is told in the volume "A View of the Birdtail - A History of the Municipality of Birtle", especially on the cited pages. A free digital version of this and many other Manitoba local history books can be found online in the University of Manitoba Digital Collections. There is also a list of such books organized by district and town name on the Manitoba Historical Society's website on their page entitled "Finding Aid: Manitoba Local History Books".

A list of burials in this cemetery is available from the Manitoba Genealogical Society (reference #0684), transcribed by a member or members in 1992. Also available to MGS members is a searchable online database named the "MGS Manitoba Name Index" (or MANI). Some additional information is contained in the 1996 MGS publication "Carved in Stone: Manitoba Cemeteries and Burial Sites" (revised edition, Special Projects Publication, 106 pages).

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Additionally, many records for Anglican congregations in Manitoba and over part of the territory designated historically as "Rupert's Land" (esp, as bounded on the south by the U.S. border, extending north into the Manitoba Interlake Region past Fairford, with the western boundary reaching into the Pembina Hills and includes Portage la Prairie, eastward the diocese stretches to Sioux Lookout/Atikokan) are now with the Diocese of Rupert's Land and are kept in their offices in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.