In Canada, Women's Institutes began as rural gatherings supporting education, community services, and the needs of rural girls and women. The first one formed in what is now Stoney Creek, Ontario in 1897. The first institute in Manitoba was established in Morris in 1910. Within a short time, provincial groups united to create the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada and began drawing in urban women. Kirkham's Bridge Women's Institute formed in 1950 in the municipality of Riverdale northwest of Brandon. Its name derives from the site where a steel truss bridge was built in 1906 over Little Saskatchewan River. (The bridge was moved to a new site in 1981.) Meeting at the home of Mrs. Albert Chapman, the institute's 15 members elected as officers Mrs. R.E. Leeson, Mrs. Edna E. Chapman, Mrs. Charles Evans, Mrs. A. Guild, and Mrs. H. Clammers. Monthly meetings featured speeches, lectures, demonstrations, and musical performances by members and outside guests. Lunches and teas were part of the regular program. The institute supported local and international aid projects; in 1950, it sponsored a fundraising concert and held a clothing drive for European communities recovering post-war. The institute compiled a community history book, "From Generations to Generations," in 1956, and added to it in 1987. Membership rapidly declined as more women joined the paid work force, resulting in less time for community work. The Kirkham's Bridge Women's Institute fell dormant in 1992, however a cairn it erected in 1970 near the site of Kirkham's Bridge pays tribute to its long history in the community.