Just as the Indigenous people in Treaty 1 were leaving their homes in southeastern Manitoba, many Mennonites were arriving. These new settlers had lived in peace for many years in Russia under Catherine the Great, but life had changed for them when Alexander II came to power. The new czar began to exert control over the Mennonites, curtailing their religious freedoms and interfering with their schools.1
In 1871, the Canadian government sent William Hespeler to recruit some of these Mennonite farmers to Manitoba. Hespeler convinced a group to visit, and these visitors wrote a report about the land and conditions in Manitoba. That report helped convince many Mennonites to risk travelling overseas in search of a new home.
About a year later, twelve Mennonite delegates from Russia came to North America to tour Manitoba and Kansas. After having looked at both locations, they chose the land in Manitoba. The area’s proximity to Winnipeg, as well as promises made by the government, were deciding factors.
Four Russian men signed an agreement with Canada, what they called a privilegium, laying out a guarantee of religious freedom, military exemption, and land. This land became known as the East Reserve, because it was located east of the Red River.2
In 1874, Hespeler oversaw the development of a railway station in the East Reserve. Although the town that grew around the station was originally called Hespeler, it eventually became known by the name of the railway station: Niverville. This name had been chosen by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1877 to honour Chevalier Joseph-Claude Boucher de Niverville, an eighteenth-century explorer and fur trader with one of the longest military careers of any officer in the Canadian Army. He had received many awards for his service, although he was involved in scandal that could merit an entire article on his own.3 4
Hespeler was also the mastermind behind the unique round grain elevator built next to the railway station. From this elevator, built in 1879, the first barley from western Canada was shipped to foreign markets.3
In the early 1880s, the East Reserve was divided into two municipalities. The north part of the East Reserve became the RM of Hespeler whereas the southern part became the RM of Hanover. Although originally located in the RM of Hanover, Niverville was incorporated as an independent village in 1969.2
Perhaps confusingly to some residents today, Niverville continues to remain part of the Hanover School Division, despite no longer being part of the RM of Hanover.
An infamous event occurred on May 24, 1970 that is often brought up in discussions related to the town’s history. The Niverville Pop Festival, the first music festival in Manitoba, took place on an abandoned farm east of the junction of Highways 59 and 305. Accounts vary as to how many people attended the festival, but 12,000 seems to be a low estimate. The event took place less than a year after Woodstock and drew mostly hippies.3 5
Torrential rains descended partway into the event, transforming the surrounding fields into mud. Many of concert attendees shed some, if not all, their clothes and partied despite the mess. Upon returning to their cars, most were unable to get out of the muck and had to wait for local farmers to tow them back to Highway 59 for the price of $5.3 5
The Niverville Olde Tyme Country Fair is a summer highlight, although it wasn’t the town’s first summer festival tradition. A fair was held every August in Niverville from the 1960s to the early 1990s, at which point it rather dwindled away. By 1996, a new group of organizers decided to create a bigger and better fair as a kickoff to the summer season. Thus, the Olde Tyme Country Fair was born. The event is still going strong, attracting tens of thousands of people every June.7 8
A recent boon to Niverville was the arrival of the Niverville Nighthawks, a new Manitoba Junior Hockey League franchise which plays out of the similarly new Community Resource and Recreation Centre. The team is about to enter its third season.6
Niverville has grown extremely quickly in recent years. By 1991, it had gone from village to town, surpassing the 1,500-resident mark. In 2021, the census found Niverville to be the fastest growing community in Manitoba for the third consecutive census period. It also the fastest growing town in the entirety of Canada. Between 2016 and 2021, Niverville experienced a whopping 29 percent population growth. By the next census, the town will likely be christened the province’s newest city.6
