Cynthia Faryon showing "The Dream," a soft-cover, 64 page coffee table.
Cynthia Faryon moved from Victoria, B.C., to Richer in November of 2003. Her writing career was still new; she had dabbled in travel reviews, broadcasting, and published books. Soon after the move, she and her husband bought La Breeze Friese in La Broquerie and named it Cindy’s.
It was here Cynthia heard about W.P. Davidson and the Manitoba Dairy Farms Ltd. People loved to talk about how their uncle, father, grandfather, cousin… had worked on the farm. A few of them suggested Cynthia write a book about this piece of history, but it was Louis Balcaen who finally convinced her. He and Claude Tetrault funded the project which grew into two books and a 2009 calendar. It was a bigger story than anyone realized and the project took two and a half years to complete.
The Davidson era, as Cynthia likes to call it, captivated her, and in the process of writing the tales of the Manitoba Dairy Farms, she fell in love with Manitoba. The romance of living 100 years ago in the Canadian wilderness, yes even with the ticks and bugs stirs the imagination and gives a better understanding of how our country was created.
When Cynthia started out on this journey, she thought she was writing about a farm and an innovative business man. She discovered stories of murder, extortion and humour. We seem to expect people in survival situations to be specially equipped to succeed. It’s always a surprise when we find they’re just like the rest of us.
The questions she thought these books would answer, only created more…. Why did a successful businessman from the U.S. spend millions on a project in the Canadian wilderness?
A boy, a farm, a dream… is a 304 page paperback with black and white photos. It is the story of the settlers seen through the eyes of one of the first: Lloyd Lehman.
… The Dream is a soft-cover, 64 page coffee table book with colour and black and white vintage photos. It is the story of W.P. Davidson and The Manitoba Dairy Farms Inc.
For this story and more, pick up a copy of the Dawson Trail Dispatch.
