George Millward McDougall, 1821-1876, was born in Upper Canada (Ontario). In 1842 he married Elizabeth Chantler, 1819-1904, and they had nine children, including John C. and Eliza (Hardisty). He attended Victoria College in Cobourg and was ordained a Methodist minister in 1854. In 1860 he was appointed to a mission near Norway House, Manitoba. In 1863 the family moved to a location 130 kilometres east of present day Edmonton, Alberta where he established the Victoria Mission, the earliest mission in the prairie west. In 1871 he moved to Edmonton House to found a permanent mission. At the request of the government he helped prepare the First Nations for the signing of Treaties 6 and 7. He died in a blizzard near Calgary. In 1932 the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated George McDougall as a National Historic Person. For further information see J. Ernest Nix's entry, "George Millward McDougall", in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. X. -- Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1972, p. 471-472. His son, John Chantler McDougall, 1842-1917, was born in Ontario and educated at Victoria College. He entered the ministry in 1866, was ordained in 1872, and established a mission among the Stoney at Morleyville in southern Alberta in 1873. In 1865 he married Abigail Steinhauer, 1848-1871, and they had three children, Flora (Begg), Ruth (Wheatley) and Augusta (Mathieson). Following Abigail's death, he married Elizabeth Boyd in 1872 and they had six children, George M., John B., Lillian (Graham), Morley S., David L. and Douglas J. He readied the First Nations of southern Alberta for the arrival of the North-West Mounted Police in 1874. After his father's death, he succeeded him as superintendent of Methodist missionary work in the Saskatchewan District. During the 1885 Riel Rebellion he accompanied the Alberta Field Force. He retired to Calgary and wrote several books about his experiences. See J. Ernest Nix's entry "John Chantler McDougall" in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, volume XIV. -- Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1998, p. 695-697.

AMDigital Reference: M-729-50.

Reproduction of: Postcard sent to John C. McDougall by B.M. Wright c. 1903-1910.

Glenbow Museum