We are very pleased to bring you the first in a series of letters from historical Edmontonians represented at Fort Edmonton Park! We hope you will forgive us for being a few days late.

Lovisa Jane McDougall was born in Cannington, Ontario in 1854. She married John A. McDougall in 1878 and shortly thereafter moved out west where "Johnnie" worked as a trader and businessman. Although this letter comes from Winnipeg, the couple were shortly to move to Edmonton where prospects, it was said, were good. You can visit the couple's general store on 1885 Street.

The original letter, with its odd spelling and criss-cross sentences to save paper, can be found at the Provincial Archives, reference 71.365/3. Lovisa's many letters from Edmonton were published by the archives as Occasional Paper No. 1 "Letters of Lovisa McDougall 1878-1887" edited by Elizabeth M. McCrum to whom we are indebted.

Winnipeg Man. Jan 28th 1879

Tuesday Evening

My dear Brother Your very welcome letter was duly received last week and I was so glad to get it. I would have written before but I thought I would get that pictures taken to send you, but Johnnie has been buisy [all sic] bookkeeping for some parties in town and would not go but I will send it to you next time I write without fail. …I would give anything to see some of my old chums sometimes, I often get so homesick. We have lots of company, nearly all young fellows. We have some good music sometimes. The other night a friend of Johnnies brought a good singer up. His name was Mr. Vick, he is a good singer, but that is about all he does. I know his collar was up to the top of his ears & when he made a bow his nose near touched the floor. We had lots of fun that night. A night or two after that Mr. Mathe & Charlie Andrews was here. Mr. Mathe is a good singer, he sang some French songs. He is French. I often wish you was here, so does Johnnie. We have pretty good times, we never play cards, nothing but chequers. We have not had a card in our house yet. It would be just splendid if we lived nearer home. I have a new jacket, I only wish you could see it. It is the nicest one in Winnipeg. Everyone says they never saw such a beautifull coat. It cost Johnnie about $60.00 to get it up altogether & it is worth $150.00. Wont it be nice to take home? It is lined with brown satin. …It is annoying but I would not care about us going back to Edmonton. I cannot say for sure yet wheather we will or not, but I would much rather go out their to live. I like the country better, the only thing is it is so far but as far as going home is conserned, I will get home as soon & sooner than I would if we lived here. Johnnie can make far more out their & we can live cheaper. Next summer the steamboats will run direct from here to Edmondton & will take only a week or ten days to get up, so 2 weeks after leaving Cannington you could be in Edmonton. I want you to come & see me as soon as we are settled. I was just thinking today how nice it is travelling out on the Prairie riding along in the fresh air with nothing to bother you. You cannot imagine what a different feeling one has. Everything around seems to be your own. I just love camping out as we was last summer, & there is no one I ever met that ever tried it but likes it to. Every body is so friendly, meet an Indian he comes up & shakes hands & is glad to see you. I hope you will have a trip out west yet. It is not a bit like people emagine. I was in Andrew Smiths stoar Saturday he says Mrs. Smith writes from C______ & says half of Cannington is coming out in the spring. …The weather here is lovely since New Years, their has not been any very cold weather. I do not see any different in our winter and the winters here.

Johnnie is writing a letter. Their has been no one in this evening. I laughed so the other night, Charlie Andrews come up & brought his sewing. He is a comical little fellow, just keeps you laughing all the time, but a very nice fellow. He brought me a pan of prairie chickens & a can of oysters Friday. I thought it is so kind. Every person treats us well. Well, I think I have told you call I can think of now. I wish you would write every week & I would write anything. I don't care wheather you have any news or not. If you only knew how I love to get letters from home.

Johnnie will write to you before long. I was so glad of that little bit of cake, I have some of it yet. I think anything Ma makes nicer than any person else does. Now good by, write immediately & ever believe your

Loving sister Lovisa

P.S.

I intend to write to Ma tomorrow night. Johnnie send his love to you all.

With the Anthony Henday ring road nearing completion in Edmonton, we thought we'd share with you some of the history of the man behind the name. This European explorer can largely be attributed to setting the foundations of what would later become Fort Edmonton, and later, the city we all call home. Join us, as we jump back to a time to a place where there were no cars, no trains, no electricity, and the North West was dotted with the tipis of the Cree and Blackfoot, Nakoda and Tsu T'ina, and just beginning to know the hoof prints of the horse and pony.

 

Born nearly 6,800 kilometers away in the Isle of Wight, UK, Anthony Henday was a convicted smuggler who undertook a job as a labourer and net-maker for the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort York (York Factory) a fur trading post, on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay in what is now northeastern Manitoba, Canada. In 1754, Henday agreed to accept a request from the governor of Fort York for volunteers to travel west and explore the western interior of the Company's fur trading domain.

The purpose of this expedition (shown in green above) was to convince inland native trappers to bring their goods and furs to Fort York on the Bay instead of dealing with French inland traders or Cree middlemen. Henday left Fort York in the summer of 1754 with a group of the post's Cree trading partners, led by "Conawapa," who agreed to let Henday accompany them west in the summer of 1754. Henday paddled west up the Saskatchewan River and was introduced to numerous Assiniboine, Blackfoot and even some French traders along the way, suggesting that while he was the first European to record his journey to this part of the interior, Henday was preceded by his French rivals. On the prairie south of present day Red Deer, Henday began writing of the encounters between himself and a group of people his Cree hosts called "Archithinues", thought to be a band of Nitsitapii or Blackfoot-speaking peoples.

 

Despite Henday's efforts and promise of good powder, shot, cloth and fine beads in return for furs and meat, the Archithinue chief was unimpressed with the offer of trade. The journey to the Bay was long, and they preferred to obtain European goods through middlemen such as the Cree rather than alter their lifestyle so significantly. This failure didn't sway Henday's persistence as he continued to try to encourage the Hudson's Bay Company to expand out west and the plains nations journey to the east. This was one of his many trips Henday took around what is present day Saskatchewan and Alberta. In 1765, Henday left the HBC, as he felt that his efforts were largely unappreciated - with French traders distracted by colonial war in the East, their competition was reduced and Henday's employers felt no more need to move inland.

 

Later that century, fur trading competition between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company heated up and finally helped lead to the establishment of inland trading posts on the Western Plains. In 1794, the North West company constructed Fort Augustus near what is present day Fort Saskatchewan. One year later, not wanting to be outdone, Henday's old masters, the Hudson's Bay Company, built Edmonton House merely "a musket shot" away, which served as the ancestor of the Fort Edmonton we know and love.

 

Forty years after their first meeting, the Achithinues' descendants were finally trading directly with the HBC as Henday had once hoped, but it was the Bay which ultimately had to come to the plains, not the plains to the Bay.