North-Western Railway reached Churchbridge from Winnipeg in 1886. This enabled immigrants to more easily travel west and explore possible settlement sites. The company needed to consider locations for railway stations where the steam engine would be serviced and refilled with water. A few English immigrants were the first to claim land south of Churchbridge, where a church was built as well as a school. A new company was formed, The Churchbridge Colonization Company, which founded the village in 1887 and this caught the interest of speculators.
Icelandic businessmen: Helgi Jónsson, the Winnipeg entrepreneur, editor, and publisher of the Leifur newspaper, was interested in opportunities in new villages on the railway into the Northwest Territories. He knew quite well that settlers on both sides of the track needed supplies which would be available in the new villages. A few of his countrymen in Winnipeg shared his interest, among them was Jóhann Gottfred Thorgeirsson who emigrated from Akureyri in 1882. A baker by trade, he was keen on getting established in towns or villages. Travelling west to North America on the same ship was Bjarni Davidsson from Dalasýsla. Bjarni went into partnership in 1886 with Helgi Jónsson in Langenburg in the Northwest Territories, now Saskatchewan. This partnership did not last long as Helgi passed away in 1887 and Bjarni moved to Churchbridge a year later. He built a store on the south side of the railway and a year later Jóhann arrived there, and his store was on the north side. He managed that store until 1894, then sold it to Bjarni who continued his business until 1917. A new post office was opened in the village April 1, 1889, which Bjarni managed until 1901. The railway and the village caught the attention of men both in Manitoba and N. Dakota. Olafur J. Olafson opened a harness store in 1889 and sold it to Thorstein Oddson two years later. Palmi Sigtryggsson and his wife, Helga Runólfsdóttir opened a guesthouse and ran it for a few years, and in 1903 Magnús Stefánsson and his wife, Monika Einarsdóttir, opened the first hotel in the village. Sveinbjörn Loftsson from Hnappadalssýsla bought a store in 1904 which he operated for many years with his wife and children. Last but not least, Jóhannes Einarsson, a farmer in the Lögberg settlement had part in establishing an Agricultural Society in Churchbridge in 1892 and was the chairman of the Board for several years. Churchbridge was for some a stepping-stone, they would move on to other places after some time, and others from other areas replaced them, the village remained small, but through the years Icelandic businessmen and their descendants have lived there.
St. Vincent street in Churchbridge in 1909. Photo Prairie Towns