Manitoba, established as a province in 1870, had been settled in The Red River-Selkirk Settlement, and had established a congregation in Kildonan in 1818; they waited 30 years for a minister, John Black, supplied from the Free Church in Canada, after he served as a missionary to the French in Canada East near Montreal. He was later joined by Rev. James Nisbet formerly of Oakville, Canada West, who then established a territorial outpost in Prince Albert (now Saskatchewan) Northwest Territories. James Robertson, a minister from Oxford County, Ontario was first called (1873) to a congregation in Winnipeg, and in 1881 was appointed as missions superintendent, where he provided leadership and growth to new settlers, student ministers, ordained missionaries, and congregations. Manitoba College started in Kildonan in 1871, received support from both Canadian churches prior to 1875, and at the 1883 General Assembly, their moderator, Rev. Dr. John Mark King (from St. James Square Church in Toronto) was called to become their first principal. With the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway across Canada, development and settlement of the Western Canada began, from Manitoba, and by 1905, the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were formed.