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CPR/Nielsen House
As the initial waves of immigration slowed, the Canadian Pacific Railway undertook advertising campaigns to attract settlers to Western Canada. In 1909, ready-made farms were marketed and sold to increase the immigration to harder to sell areas. The first ready made farms were sold in Southern Alberta and came complete with a house, barn, fence, well and pump. They were between 65 and 135 hectares which sold for ten annual payments of between $1300 and $2500/year, depending on the size of the farm. These farms were grouped in colonies that were close to the railway, schools and churches. By 1919, 762 ready-made farms in 24 colonies of between 5 and 122 farms had been established.
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Aksel Nielsen purchased a readymade farm near Standard, Alberta which included 160 acres of fenced an ploughed land, the house and a barn, plus a drilled well and pump house. Aksel married Marie, his Danish sweetheart and they raised seven children on their farm.
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The house was donated and moved to the Museum in 2007 to be restored and opened to the public, enabling us to show what homes looked like for early immigrants.
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