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INTRODUCTORY.
Missionary enterprise in
Western Canada began with the Jesuit priests who accompanied the
expeditions of Verendrye. Fathers Mesaiger, Aulneau and Coquart were the
first heralds of the Cross west of the Great Lakes. But it was not until
the coming of the Selkirk settlers to the Red River that permanent
missions were established. Acting upon a petition from the people of Red
River in 1817 to Monsignor Plessis, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec,
Rev. Joseph Norbert Provencher and Rev. Joseph Nicholas Dumoulin arrived
at Red River in July, 1818, and founded the first permanent mission in
Western Canada at what is now the City of St. Boniface.
The Anglican Church
followed in 1820. Rev. John West was sent from England by the Hudson's
Bay Company and the Church Missionary Society to Red River, to minister
to the Protestant settlers of the Selkirk Colony. From the Red River the
work begun by these pioneers has spread to the Saskatchewan, the
Athabaska, the MacKenzie and the Far North. It was not until 1840 that
the Methodist or Wesleyan Church began to occupy the Western field,
establishing the first missions at Rossville, near Norway House and at
Edmonton, under Rev. James Evans and Rev. Robert Rundle. Eleven years
later Rev. John Black, a Presbyterian minister from Upper Canada,
founded the Parish of Kildonan, the cradle of Presbyterianism in Western
Canada. In a sense the Presbyterian Church may be credited with the
first permanent missionary in the West. James Sutherland, a Selkirk
settler, who arrived at Red River in 1813, was invested with special
authority to administer baptism, solemnize marriage and to expound the
scriptures. The three denominations alluded to were well established in
every part of Rupert's Land and the Indian Territories before these
territories were united to the Dominion of Canada in 1870. The Baptist
Church was the next of the principal denominations to establish in the
West in 1873. Lutherans, Moravians, Mormons, Congregationalists, Jews
and the Greek Church grew up with the settlement of the country after
the Rebellion of 1885— an epochal year in the history of the West.
The glowing pageant of
the history of Western Canada exhibits many characters who have played
an heroic part in laying the foundations of civilization in the Great
Lone Land. In that illustrious Procession there are no more fascinating
or compelling figures than the early missionaries. For the joy of
bearing the message of life to the savages and the Pioneers of the
plains, these sainted messengers endured perils and privations
inconceivable—perils of travel on the storm-beaten trail, perils of the
lake and the river, perils of starvation and disease.
In the paragraphs that
follow in this chapter, the men and the achievements of the principal
denominations are dealt with in the order in which these denominations
became identified with the Province of Alberta.
METHODIST MISSIONS.
As we have noted at the
beginning of the chapter the first missions of the Wesleyan or Methodist
Church in Western Canada were established in 1840. In that year a party
of missionaries under Rev. James Evans left Montreal to establish
stations at different points in the West from Rainy Lake to the Rocky
Mountains. Mr. Evans was an Englishman had spent some time among the
Indian missions of Upper Canada. He was invited by the Wesleyan
Missionary Society of England to take charge of Wesleyan Missions in
Western Canada. At the same time three young men—Rev. George Barnley,
Rev. Wm. Mason and Rev. Robert T. Rundle—were sent from England to
assist him, under the auspices of the Society, and chiefly at the
expense and under the protection of the Hudson's Bay Company. Evans
accepted the invitation and brought with him two young Objibway Indians,
Peter Jacobs and Henry B. Steinhauer.
The missions established
and the missionaries in charge were as follows:
Norway House—Rev. James
Evans, superintendent, and Peter Jacobs.
Moose Factory and Abittibi—Rev. George Barnley.
Rainy Lake and Fort Alexander—Rev. Wm. Mason and Henry B. Steinhauer.
Edmonton and Rocky Mountain House—Rev. Robert Rundle.
Rundle was the first
missionary to visit what is now Alberta and to establish missions among
the Indians of this part of the West. He reached Edmonton September 1st,
1840. He was given quarters in the Fort and supplied with the
necessaries of life by the Hudson's Bay Company, a custom followed by
the Company throughout its wide territory. In the course of his ministry
Rundle visited Beaver Lake, Rocky Mountain House, the Blackfeet on the
Bow River and the Stoneys in the vicinity of Banff. He camped for a
number of weeks at the foot of Cascade Mountain in 1841, and ascended
the mountain that now bears his name. At the Mountain House he met
Maskepetoon, the great peace chief of the Wood Crees, and accepted an
invitation to visit the chief at the Red Deer. This visit culminated in
the chief's conversion. Other notable Indian neophytes of Rundle were
Broken Arm, Stephen Kecheyees and Pakan; also Peter Erasmus, a
half-breed, still living and long employed as missionary and interpreter
at Whitefish Lake. During his periods of residence at Fort Edmonton,
Rundle held school twice a day in the Fort.
He established a mission
at Pigeon Lake under Benjamin Sinclair, which was destroyed by the
Blackfeet in 1845. In that year we find him at Fort Canton where Paul
Kane met him. He left the country in 1848, and died in England in 1886.
During his
superintendency of Wesleyan Missions, Evans visited Fort Chipewyan, Isle
a Ia Crosse, Fort Pitt, Fort Canton and many of the principal fur posts
on the Churchill River as far east as York Factory. Endowed with a
natural aptitude for linguistic study Evans was the originator of the
syllabic system of the Cree language, which has been one of the great
factors in the success of Indian missions by all Christian denominations
in Western Canada and America. Evans made his first type from lead taken
from tea chests and old bullets. carving the letters with his pocket
knife. Ink he made from soot; paper from birch bark and with his own
hands built a rude press with which he printed the first characters of
his hymn collections and Scripture translations. This system is based
upon a form of phonetic shorthand and is so simple that by its use it is
possible to teach all to read and write his own language in a few weeks.
The Methodist Missionary Society saw the great importance of such an
invention, and types, paper and press were sent from England to Evans'
headquarters at Rossville. The influence of the new learning spread far
and wide. The Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches adopted it. It gave
an incentive to invent other similar systems for the Athabaskan and
Blackfeet tribes.
The labors of this great
pioneer missionary in Western Canada had a tragic ending. During one of
his trips to a neighboring mission, he accidentally shot and killed his
beloved interpreter, Thomas Hassell, an educated Chipewyan. Overcome by
grief he left the country and died in England November 23, 1846. His
place at Rossville was taken by Rev. Wm. Mason, who had labored there
since 1844.
In 1854 Indian missions
established in Western Canada by the Wesleyan Missionary Society were
transferred to the Methodist Church of Canada, and soon the splendid
work inaugurated by Evans was taken up by one who measured up to him in
heroism, in adaptability to pioneer conditions, in missionary zeal and
power over the Indian tribes. This was the Rev. George McDougall, the
father of Methodism in Alberta. Mr. McDougall was commissioned in 1860
by the Methodist Conference of Upper Canada to take charge of Methodist
Missions in Western Canada with headquarters at Rossville. He was, by
this appointment, chairman of a vast district embracing stations at
Oxford House, Rossville, Carlton. Edmonton, Rocky Mountain House,
Whitefish Lake and Lac la Pluie.
During the interval from
1854 to 1862 the work in Alberta was carried on by Rev. Thomas Woolsey,
and Rev. Henry B. Steinhauer, assisted by Rev. Benjamin Sinclair and
Peter Erasmus. Woolsey and Steinhauer arrived at Edmonton September
26th, 1855. Mr. Steinhauer was stationed at Lac la Biche until 1857,
when he moved to Whitefish Lake, establishing a mission there, where he
labored until his death in the closing days of 1884. Mr. Woolsey made
Edmonton his headquarters, being accorded the same privileges as
Rundle—a private room and a place at the officers' mess. In 1857 he
commenced an outpost mission at Pigeon Lake and during his residence in
the territory visited at various intervals the Indians at Old Bow Fort,
Rocky Mountain House, Smoky Lake and Whitefish Lake. In 1862 he
determined to establish a mission at Smoky Lake, and erected a cabin.
Before he left the country he translated a number of hymns and portions
of Scripture, with the help of Peter Erasmus and Jonas, one of Rundle's
converts of the Mountain Stoneys, for the people of that tribe. His
knowledge of medicine gave him a great reputation among the camps. He
left the country via York Factory in 1864 for England. Returning to
Eastern Canada he continued in the ministry until 1885, when he was
superannuated and died in 1894.
In 1862 Rev. George
McDougall resolved to establish the Indian missions of what is now
Alberta, but then known as the Saskatchewan Valley, on a more permanent
basis. In that year he crossed the plains, accompanied by his son John,
from Winnipeg via Batoche, Carlton and Pitt to Whitefish Lake,
established about 1857. Here he met Rev. Henry B. Steinhauer. Several
Indian houses had been built around the mission and many of the natives
were strongly attached to the place. From Whitefish Lake he proceeded to
Smoky Lake, about twenty miles north of the present village of Pakan, on
the North Saskatchewan, where he found Rev. Thomas Woolsey. Exercising
his authority as chairman of the district, he ordered this mission to be
transferred to Victoria, now called Pakan. He then crossed the
Saskatchewan at Victoria, taking with him Rev. Mr. Steinhauer and Peter
Erasmus, and journeyed into the Battle River country to meet the Wood
Crees, under their great chief, Maskepetoon, who, through the labors of
Rundle and Woolsey, was able to read the Cree Bible. When Mr. McDougall
visited him he was reading the 8th chapter of Romans. Mr. McDougall next
visited Edmonton, where he was hospitably received by Chief Factors
Christie and Hardisty, and proceeded down the Saskatchewan on September
9th for Rossville, on Lake Winnipeg.
In the following year Mr.
McDougall returned to Victoria where, according to his orders, the new
mission was established, the Indians moving from Smoky Lake with the
mission. This was his headquarters until 1871. During the summer he
visited the Stoneys South of the Battle River, going as far as the Big
Canyon, on the Red Deer River. Seed was procured from Edmonton and Lac
la Biche for the spring crops of 1864 at Victoria. After seeding,
McDougall, with his son John, Mr. Steinhauer and Peter Erasmus visited
the Stoneys again and proceeded far enough south to meet the Mountain
Stoneys. The party returned home via Pigeon Lake, where a site was
picked for another mission station, which was subsequently called
Woodville. Two schools under the auspices of the Methodist Church were
opened this year, one at Victoria and the other at Whitefish. These were
the first Protestant schools in the Province. They are still carried on
by the Methodist Church, and have (lone a splendid work for the Indian
and half-breed children. The first teacher at Whitefish was Ira Snyder.
Other teachers in this roll of honor were Miss E. A. Barrett, 1872-1874;
Benjamin Sinclair and Edward R. and Robert Steinhauer, and J. A. Youmans.
In the following year the
mission at Pigeon Lake was built, and put in charge of John McDougall,
who for the next half century occupied a commanding position in the
history of the Methodist Church and the Indian affairs of the North West
Territories. The timber for the mission was taken out by the younger
McDougall in the fall of 1864. He was in charge of this mission until
1869 when he was succeeded by Rev. Peter Campbell, who arrived at
Edmonton September 21, 1868, having taken his wife and two small
children across the plains from Fort Garry, driving ox carts. Mr.
Campbell was one of a party of three young ministers brought out by Rev.
George McDougall that year from Ontario. The other two were Rev. George
Young and Rev. Egerton R. Young, famous in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The former was the first Methodist minister of Winnipeg.
For the program of the
summer of 1869 the principal missionaries of the Saskatchewan Valley
organized a big gathering of the Indians on the plains with the object
of promoting peace among rival tribes and educating them in loyalty and
Christianity. The Indians and half-breeds from Lac la Biche, Mr.
Steinhauer and his people from Whitefish Lake,, Rev. George McDougall
and the people from Victoria, the Wood Crees, John McDougall with the
Wood and Mountain Stoneys, Hudson's Bay Company officers—almost the
entire population of Central Alberta at the time—were included.
Following the Indians over the plains was a favorite method followed by
all the missionaries—before the Indians were placed on reserves—Roman
Catholic, Methodist and Anglican, to bring the gospel to the natives and
acquaint them with the policies of the Government. But this gathering
including so many tribes, was the first effort of the kind and an
anxious experiment for Superintendent McDougall and his son John. The
big meeting nearly failed owing to the treacherous murder of the Chief
Maskepetoon by the Blackfeet in the spring of the year. Maskepetoon
visited the Blackfeet camp hoping to arrange a peace. As he was
approaching the camp, bearing a white flag- and open Bible, a Blackfoot
savage shot him.
Among the chiefs at the
hunt were Sayakamat, Chief of the Wood Crees after Maskepetoon's death,
Pakan, Samson and Ermine Skin—men who proved their loyalty in 1870 and
1885. Rev. Father Scollen, the Catholic missionary, was in attendance
during the hunt, as were also Rev. Peter Campbell and Ira Snyder, the
teacher from Victoria. No doubt this successful "summer school" for the
Alberta Indians did much to hold them in subjection during the dangerous
events at Red River in the fall of that year.
The transition from the
rule of the Hudson's Bay Company to that of the Government of Canada was
an uneasy period for the missionaries of the plains. Buffalo were
becoming scarcer every year in the valley of the North Saskatchewan and
the Indians were inclined to blame the white men. Besides there were
over seven hundred mixed bloods in the country West of Fort Canton,
sullen and restless over the disturbances at Red River (1869-'70). Added
to these difficulties was the terrible scourge of smallpox during the
winter and summer of 1870 which carried off over one-third of the
population. The Government of the North West Territories and the
Hudson's Bay Company sent John McDougall on a mission of peace in 1871,
for the tribes were gathering at the Hand hills and evil counsel was
being spread. Here he met Sweet Grass, Sayakamat, Little Pine and their
headmen, and better counsel prevailed. For this service Mr. McDougall
was given the status of an officer in the Hudson's Bay Company.
In 1871 Superintendent
McDougall (Rev. George) decided to establish the headquarters of the
Saskatchewan District at Edmonton. Leaving his son John in charge at
Victoria and the White Earth Settlement (near the site of Old White
Earth House of 1810), he built a mission house and church outside of the
Hudson's Bay Fort, on the site of the McDougall Church of the present
day. This was the beginning of modern Edmonton, and Rev. George
McDougall was its founder. Next year the District meeting of
Saskatchewan transferred Rev. Peter Campbell from Pigeon Lake to
Victoria and John McDougall to Pigeon Lake.
During the summer of 1872
the first Methodist Conference held west of the Great Lakes was convened
in Winnipeg. All the missionaries from the Saskatchewan Valley
attended—Rev. George McDougall, Rev. Henry B. Steinhauer, Rev. Peter
Campbell, and Bro. John McDougall. The conference decided to open a new
mission for the Mountain Stoneys at Morleyville, named after Dr. Morley
Punshon, who attended the conference, and to put Rev. John McDougall,
ordained at the conference, in charge. The site of the mission was
selected the following spring (1873) by Rev. George McDougall, and
building commenced in the autumn of the same year. Materials for the
buildings were brought from Font Benton. This has been one of the most
successful Indian missions established in Western Canada and is still in
operation.
Rev. Lachlan Taylor,
General Secretary of the Methodist Missionary Society, visited Alberta
in the summer of 1873, with John McDougall as guide, calling at
Whitefish Lake, Victoria, Edmonton, where he dedicated the first
McDougall Church building, and Pigeon Lake. Continuing his journey
southward through the Blackfeet Country, he spent a night at Fort
Whoopup, and crossed over to Fort Benton on his way home to Eastern
Canada. Next year (1874) Rev. George McDougall visited all the missions
in Alberta as far north as Athabaska. Rev. John McDougall was sent by
the Canadian Government to explain the coming of the North West Mounted
Police to the Blackfeet tribes of Southern Alberta. He visited Fort Kipp,
Fort Whoopup and Blackfoot Crossing, where he met some of the famous
whiskey traders of the time. Here he met Crowfoot and Old Sun. The
announcement was welcomed by the Blackfeet chiefs as one of deliverance
and protection from the plundering, murderous whiskey traders, but at
the same time it was a poignant realization that the glory of their
nation had departed forever. Henceforth they would be wards, not masters
in the land of their birth.
We come now to the end of
the Indian regime on the plains. Up to this period we have been dealing
with Indian missions. After the formal entry and taking possession of
the country by the North West Mounted Police the way was prepared for
settlement. From this date onward Indian missions have been confined to
the Reservations. We hear no more of big missionary gatherings of the
various tribes during the buffalo hunts. The time had come for permanent
missions and settled pastorates.
After a trip among the
Crees and Stoneys to prepare them for taking treaty, Rev. George
McDougall and his son John visited the Blackfeet late in 1875 to
establish a mission among them. A location was chosen at Pincher Creek,
but the untimely death of the intrepid missionary delayed the project
for two years. It was not until the summer of 1878 that a mission was
established among the Blackfeet by the Methodist Church.
The death of George
McDougall at the age of 56, after sixteen years of heroic service on
behalf of the natives of the plains was a great loss to the Church and
to the State. The tragic circumstances of his death made the loss still
more lamentable. Word reached Morleyville January (1874) that the
buffalo were moving westward. Mr. McDougall, his son John, and three
others set out to secure a supply of meat. On the 24th of that month
they were camped about ten miles from where Calgary is now. After three
days' run they were returning to camp, eight miles away, Mr. McDougall,
when within two miles of the lodge, went ahead to prepare supper while
the rest brought home the meat. Thirteen days days later he was found
frozen not far from the camp. lie was buried at Morleyville. His name
and his work will ever be an unfailing treasure of inspiration to the
Methodist Church in Western Canada.
His work was taken up by
his son John, then, and for many years afterwards, stationed at
Morleyville. A church was built at Calgary in 1877, although John
McDougall had held services there from the time the Police established
Fort Brisbois, the first name given the police post at this point. Next
year he sent Miss E. A. Barrett and one of nis daughters to open the
first Protestant mission in Southern Alberta at Macleod. Six months
later Rev. Henry M. Manning succeeded Miss Barrett, and in the summer of
1880 John Maclean, a student, took UI) the work which he carried on with
pronounced success for over ten years. Meanwhile Mr. Maclean completed
his theological studies and acquired a wide knowledge of Indian history,
languages, manners and customs, which he has given to the world in a
number of books. He is now the chief archivist of the -Methodist Church
in Canada. In 1881 the mission was moved to Blood Reserve, where it was
carried on until 1892, when it was turned over to the Anglican Church.
In 1880 Dr. Alexander
Sutherland, General Secretary of the Methodist Missionary Society, made
a tour of inspection of Western missions. He came over the Southern
plains from Fort Benton to Edmonton, thence by boat down the
Saskatchewan to Prince Albert, thence overland to Winnipeg. A new church
was built in Calgary in December, 1883, a few months after the Canadian
Pacific Railway reached the town, by Rev. James Turner, the first
settled pastor. The same year the first Methodist Church in Medicine Hat
was built, Rev. Wellington Bridgeman being the first pastor.
When the coal mines were
opened at Lethbridge, Rev. John Maclean from the Blood Reserve, held
services for the miners on the river bottom before there was a town of
that name. These services were held once a month until 1887, when Rev.
Wellington Bridgeman of the church at Macleod, took up the work. In 1889
Rev. James Endicott, now General Secretary of the Methodist Missionary
Society, was sent there as a young man under the superintendency of Rev.
A. B. Hames, of Macleod.
A new Indian mission was
opened in 1883 at Lesser Slave Lake, under Rev. E. R. Steinhauer, son of
the veteran native missionary of Whitefish Lake. The name of this
mission soon disappeared from the yearly reports, and Mr. Steinhauer was
transferred to Morleyville. In the early eighties missions were
established among the Indians on the reserves on the Battle River. Rev.
John Nelson ministered to the Stoneys at Woodville and also visited the
reserves at White Whale (Wabamun) Lake and Riviere Qui Barre. Rev. E. B.
Glass was in charge at Battle River from 1882. After the rebellion in
1885, Rev. Geo. E. Somerset established a new station at Bear's Hill.
After the death of Henry B. Steinhauer at Whitefish Lake (December 29,
1884), Rev. Orrin German, a famous Cree scholar, who had served many
years at Norway House, Oxford House and other stations in Northern
Manitoba, was sent to Whitefish Lake (August, 1885). He conducted this
mission until he was transferred to Battle River and Bear's Hill in
1892, where he labored until his death in ,July, 1905. Rev. Geo. E.
Somerset took charge of the missions at White Whale Lake and Riviere Qui
Barre (1892), and Rev. E. B. Glass was transferred at the same time to
Whitefish Lake. Next year (1893) an Indus- trial School for the training
of the Indian youth was established at Red Leer, and placed in charge of
Rev. John Nelson and R. B. Steinhauer, B.A., another son of the famous
missionary of Whitefish. Next in charge was Rev. Geo. E. Somerset from
1894 to 1903. Then followed: Rev. John P. Rice, 1903-1907; Rev. Arthur
Barner, 1907-1913; Rev. J. F. Woods- worth, 1913 to the present time. in
1920 this school was moved to a site a few miles North of Edmonton. It
draws its pupils from Louis Bull's Reserve, Samson's Reserve, Paul's
Band at Wabamun.
The importance with which
the Conference of Manitoba and the North- West regarded its w'ork among
the Indians was indicated by the appointment in 1903 of Rev. John
McDougall, founder of the McDougall Orphanage and Mission at Morleyville,
to the position of Superintendent of Indian Missions for the Methodist
Church, and organizing the work among the Indians into a separate
department or an Indian District. On Mr. McDougall's retirement a few
years later he was succeeded by Rev. Thomas Ferrier, the present
Superintendent of this work.
A Galician mission was
established in 1901 at Pakan, the new name given to Victoria. The
importance of Victoria as an Indian mission had ceased. The country
South and North of the Saskatchewan River was filling up with new
settlers from Galicia. C. H. Lawford, M.D., who was placed in charge of
the new mission, still labors in this field.
The McDougall Orphanage
at Morleyville was closed in 1906, and remained closed until 1921, when
the institution was reorganized and opened as a boarding school, Rev. E.
J. Staley in charge.
The year 1906 brings us
to present day conditions. Churches began to spring up in every town.
Towns grew as railways were extended. The Methodist Church, following
the lines laid down by the Conferences, and directed by the genius of
the Superintendent of Missions, Rev. Dr. James Woodsworth, pursued a
vigorous and comprehensive policy of establishing its ministry in every
town and settlement, and of strengthening its organization to meet the
increasing demands. The territory, comprising what is now Alberta, was
divided into three districts—Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton—with
twenty-five stations in each district. Twenty years before, June, 1883,
the first Conference in the West had been organized in Grace Church,
Winnipeg. Rev. Dr. Geo. Young, the first Methodist minister in Winnipeg
(1868), and then Superintendent of Missions in the West, was elected
President. At that time there were only five self-sustaining fields,
forty-six missions to White settlers, and seventeen to the Indian tribes
in the whole of the North-West.
Conditions were ready for
further advancement in the organization of the church in the West. So in
1904 the Conference of Manitoba and the North-West, meeting again in
Grace Church, Winnipeg, divided the jurisdiction into three Conferences,
namely: Manitoba, Rev. Win. Saunders, President; Saskatchewan, Rev.
Hamilton Wigle, President; Alberta, Rev. J. M. Harrison, of Medicine
Hat, President, and Rev. T. C. Buchanan, Superintendent of Missions for
Alberta.
In anticipation of the
division of the territory, the Conference of 1903 authorized the
organization of Alberta College at Edmonton as a preparatory and
collegiate institution under the Methodist Church. Accordingly, Alberta
College was opened December 3, 1903, with Rev. Dr. J. H. Riddell as
principal. Dr. Riddell held the position until he took over the
principalship of Alberta Theological College (now Alberta College
South), when that institution was opened on the campus of the University
of Alberta. Rev. F. Stacey McCall succeeded Dr. Riddell as principal of
Alberta College North. In 1918 Dr. Riddell accepted the principalship of
Wesley College, Winnipeg. Rev. D. A. S. Tuttle then became principal of
Alberta Theological College.
ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS.
In dealing with Roman
Catholic Missions, a general review of the subject will be given
applicable to the whole of the North West Territories, followed by a
history of the several parishes and churches founded in Alberta.
The Roman Catholic Church
began its permanent establishment in Western Canada among the Selkirk
settlers, the French Canadians and Half-Breeds. As already noted, that
was in 1818. Over half a century was to pass before the Hudson's Bay
Company surrendered the country to the Dominion of Canada. During that
time there was little settlement of the country. It belonged to the
Indians and the Hudson's Bay Company. The principal work, therefore,
during that period was among the Indians. As the work spread among the
numerous tribes the demands became so great that Bishop Provencher
eventually realized that the great task of Indian missions could not be
successfully carried on by secular priests alone. It became increasingly
difficult to get young men from Lower Canada to man the Western fields.
He met with that same disappointment that Dr. Robertson met with when
the great Presbyterian superintendent complained forty years later that
the young men of the East heard the call only where the beds were soft
and the meals palatable and good.
After twenty-five years
of heroic endeavor Provencher had only four priests to carry on the work
of the Church in the vast diocese comprising Rupert's Land and the
Indian Territories. The good bishop turned to the great religious orders
of the Roman Catholic Church. He first approached the Jesuits, but
finally entreated the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to undertake a
foundation of their order in Western Canada. The Oblates were an order
of missionaries founded by Rt. Rev. Charles J. E. de Mazenod, Bishop of
Marseilles, in 1816. They were the first missionaries to enter Canada
after the conquest and had achieved wonderful success among the country
parishes of Lower Canada. The coming of the Oblates solved the problem
of securing men for the Indian missions. For the next fifty years scores
of young priests, many of them scions of fine, old, aristocratic
families of old and new France, bade everlasting farewell to home and
friends, and became martyrs of the cold amid Arctic snows, endured
hunger and all the hardships and dangers of nomadic life among Crees and
Blackfeet, with no reward except to raise the moral and material
condition of the savages of the land we live in so peaceably and
prosperously today. The story of Alberta missions is linked with the
Western Crusade of the Oblates. Although the first Roman Catholic
missionaries to Alberta were secular priests, the great names associated
with Alberta and the West - Taché Grandin, Faraud, Clut, Lacombe,
Grollier, Petitot, Grouard and Legal—were all Oblates. In 1881 there was
only one secular priest in the whole of Alberta—Father Bellevaire, at
Battle River.
The first Oblates to
arrive in Western Canada were Father Aubert, from France, and Brother
Alexander Taché, a young novice of the order from Lower Canada. They
reached Red River in August, 1843. Brother Taché was a descendant of
Verendrye, the first white man to see the Red River. A few weeks after
his arrival, Taché was ordained and began a wonderful career of fifty
years' service, first as itinerant missionary, next coadjutor to Bishop
Provencher, then Bishop, and finally Archbishop of the metropolitan See
of St. Boniface, the largest ecclesiastical province of the Roman
Catholic Church in the world.
Archbishop Taché is the
greatest name in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the West.
During the fifty years of his ecclesiastical reign he was called upon to
deal with all the big problems that have faced the Church in Western
Canada—Indian missions, demands of the settlers and half-breeds
respecting the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company, the troublesome
incidents arising out of the Riel Rebellions in 1870 and 1885, amnesty
for the insurgents, the use of the French language, separate schools
according to Roman Catholic standards and practice, the neglect of the
Indians by the officials of the Indian Department after being put on
their reservations, and the indifference of the Government of Canada
with respect to the general administration of Indian affairs. Some of
these issues were decided against the Roman Catholic Church, but the
reason was not due to any want of ability, tenacity and consummate
statesmanship on the part of the Archbishop of St. Boniface.
On the death of Bishop
Provencher in 1853, Taché, at the age of thirty years, succeeded him to
the See of St. Boniface, having been appointed his coadjutor in 1850,
with right of succession. At that time the See of St. Boniface counted
few new parishes and missions—St. Boniface, St. Francis Xavier, on White
Horse Plains. Of missions there were Lac St. Anne; Nativity, on Lake
Athabaska, at Fort Chipewyan; St. Joseph's at Ile a la Crosse and Our
Lady of Seven Dolours at Fond du Lac. Three of these missions were in
what is now Alberta.
As new men arrived and new missions were established, Taché, though the
youngest bishop in the world, asked the hierarchy in Canada to petition
the Pope to grant him a coadjutor, leaving the choice to the Superior
General of the Oblates, Biship de Mazenod of Marseilles. The Superior
General nominated Rev. Vital J. Grandin, who had arrived at Red River in
1854, from France, and who was to give forty-eight years of fruitful
labors in the West, almost equal to the achievements of Taché himself.
Father Grandin was appointed Biship in December, 1857.
The Cathedral of St.
Boniface, the cathedral with the "turrets twain," of Whittier's poem,
built by Provencher in 1844, was burned to the ground on December 14,
1860. Taché visited Canada and Europe to raise funds to build a new
cathedral, and to have his plans for a division of the immense diocese
of St. Boniface approved by proper authority. His plans were approved,
the diocese was divided into two, the dividing line being the famous
Methy Portage. Rev. Father Faraud was appointed Bishop of the new
diocese—the vicariate apostolic of Athabaska-Mackenzie—in May, 1862,
with headquarters at Fort Providence, on Great Slave Lake, established
by Bishop Grandin in 1861.
In 1864 Father
Vandenberghe was sent from France to inspect the Oblate missions in
Rupert's Land. In company with Bishop Taché, he visited He a la Crosse,
Cold Lake, Lac la Biche, St. Albert, Edmonton, and Fort Carlton.
Just now the Roman
Catholic missionaries were meeting strong opposition from the Anglican
missionaries in Athabaska-Mackenzie district at Fort Simpson. Bishop
Faraud consequently appealed for a coadjutor. Father Clut, in charge of
Nativity at Fort Chipewyan, was, by special permission, chosen at a
conference of Oblates of the diocese held at Providence, January, 1866,
making the fourth Roman Catholic bishop in the country.
A second division of the
See of St. Boniface was decreed by the eleventh chapter-general of the
Oblates, held in France August, 1867. In consequence, Bishop Grandin was
named vicar of Saskatchewan missions, with jurisdiction separate from
Bishop Taché. He is better known as the Bishop of St. Albert. The new
diocese included the basins of the Saskatchewan and Churchill rivers,
and the valley of the Athabaska River as far as Lesser Slave Lake. In
this vast territory there were six mission centres, namely: Lac St.
Anne, St. Albert, Lac la Biche, lie a la Crosse, St. Paul of the Crees
(the present Brosseau on the Saskatchewan River), and St. Peter on Lake
Caribou. To carry on the work of these stations among the Indians were
eleven priests, ten lay brothers and nine nuns. St. Albert now became
the episcopal residence of Bishop Grandin, due to the destruction of the
entire establishment by fire at Tie a la Crosse in May, 1867.
The fourth Provincial
Council of Quebec met in May, 1868, and decided to elevate the See of
St. Boniface to the dignity of a metropolitanate. Naturally Bishop Taché
was nominated by the Council as Archbishop of the new ecclesiastical
province. This act was ratified by the Supreme Pastor of the Roman
Catholic Church in 1871, and Archbishop Taché was invested with the
pallium in June of the following year.
After the transfer of
Rupert's Land to the Dominion of Canada, the proportion of the Catholic
population of Western Canada steadily declined. When the Province of
Manitoba was incorporated there were 5,452 Catholics, 4,841 Protestants
and 1,935 of unknown religious faiths in the Province. The proportion
was still greater in the North West Territories in favor of the Roman
Catholics. But the tide of immigration soon indicated that Manitoba and
the North West Territories would be overwhelmingly Protestant and
English speaking. To cope with the problem that inevitably faced his
church, Archbishop Taché initiated a current of Roman Catholic
immigration to the West. Many of the first settlements in Alberta were
established as a result of this policy. The migration of the Half-Breeds
of the Red River after the rebellion of 1870 to the North and West
rapidly decreased the preponderance of Catholics in Manitoba. Special
immigration agents working in Eastern Canada, and among expatriated
French Canadians in the United States were successful in directing
thousands of their co-religionists to Western Canada, and especially
Alberta.
The control of Catholic
higher education, as well as the control of missionary enterprises had
been under the Oblates since Archbishop Taché arrived at Red River in
1845. It had long been his wish to hand over the permanent control of
the College of St. Boniface to his own congregation. But the Oblates are
a missionary order and not a teaching order like the Jesuits and it was
decided to place the college under the Jesuits. The transfer was made
August 13, 1885. Among the priestly professors of the new order was Rev.
Father Lewis Drummond, afterwards known in Alberta as a professor in the
Jesuit College at Edmonton, and a scholar of great piety and learning.
In 1887 the Cathedral begun by Taché in 1862 to replace the cathedral
built by Provencher in 1833 and destroyed in 1862, was completed and
consecrated.
The first Provincial
Council of the Province of St. Boniface was held in 1889 on the 71st
anniversary of the arrival at Red River of Provencher and Dumoulin. This
Council asked for the division of the diocese of St. Albert and issued
eight decrees on the following subjects: The sacraments, education of
youth, Indian missions, sanctification of the Lord's Day, episcopal
jurisdiction, ecclesiastical properties, secret societies and Christian
mortification. Indeed such a council of the Western hierarchy was a
necessary preliminary to declare the unchanging position of the Roman
Catholic Church and strengthen its influence in the conflict that was
about to break against it.
Clouds were looming over
the horizon. In 1890 the Manitoba legislature abolished separate schools
and the use of the French language and two years later similar
legislative action was taken by the Assembly of the North West
Territories. Archbishop Taché and his bishops protested vigorously
against the action of the legislature of Manitoba, first on the ground
that it was unconstitutional, and second that it was a violation of
assurances given by Premior Greenway and Attorney-General Martin in
1888. The equal rights agitation in Eastern Canada fanned the flames in
Manitoba and battles, legal, polemical and political, clouded the
closing years of Taché's life. The result was a defeat, but not a
surrender for the Venerable Archbishop of St. Boniface. The Privy
Council decided the Manitoba law was intra vires. The pledge given by
the Greenway Government could bind only while it held office.
Consequently the Government felt safe, though it could not have felt
conscience-clear, in breaking the pledge. The issue was bound to arise
and to be settled by the Protestant majority, as it was settled by the
legislature of 1890.
Bishop Faraud, owing to
growing infirmities resigned his charge of the vicariate-apostolic of
Athabaska-Mackenzie early in 1890, and died in September the same year.
He was succeeded by Father Grouard who had come from France in 1860 and
had served at several missions in the North. Grouard used a printing
press in work, printing books in the native dialects for the Indians of
the Athabaska and Mackenzie. Bishop Grouard was consecrated at St.
Boniface June 4, 1891. In the same year the diocese of St. Albert was
divided and a new bishop appointed, Bishop Pascal, consecrated in France
April 29th. 1-us diocese included part of Alberta and extended to Hudson
Bay.
In 1894 the Superior
General of the Oblates, Rt. Rev. Louis Soullier, visited Canada oil tour
of Western missions. In the same year Archbishop Taché died (June 22,
1894). When he arrived in Red River 49 years before, there were only
four Roman Catholic priests between Lake Superior and the Rocky
Mountains. At the time of his death within the same territory, there
were five bishops, over one hundred and forty-seven priests, and over
150 sisters. Tie was succeeded by Archbishop Langevin, who was
consecrated March 19, 1895.
It has been said of
Langevin that he not only succeeded Taché but he filled his place. The
truth of this estimate of his ability was tested and proven in his
negotiations with the Government of Canada in 1896 in the settlement of
the contentious school question arising out of the famous Remedial Bill
of that year, and again, in the battle that was waged over the school
clauses in the Alberta and Saskatchewan Acts of 1905.
With the establishment of
a Metropolitan See in Alberta in 1912, under Archbishop Legal, St.
Boniface lost its importance in the church policies of Alberta, and we
arrive at a convenient date to close the general summary of the history
of the Roman Catholic Church in Alberta.
CATHOLIC PARISHES IN
ALBERTA—ST. ANNE.
The oldest Catholic
parish in Alberta is Lac St. Anne, founded by Rev. Jean Baptiste
Thibault in 1842. The first priests of any denomination to perform
religious services in Alberta were Fathers Blanchet and Domers on their
way to British Columbia in 1838. They passed through Edmonton and
erected a cross on the site of the Parliament Buildings.
In 1841 Peeche, the guide
of Sir George Simpson on his trip of 1841, arrived at Red Deer to beg
for a missionary for Edmonton. In the following spring Bishop Provencher
sent Father Thibault. He left St. Boniface April 20, 1842, reaching Fort
Edmonton via Fort Carlton on June 19th. Spending the summer at Fort
Edmonton, he returned to Red River in October. Next year he returned and
founded a mission at Lac St. Anne, or Devil's Lake as it was called by
the Hudson's Bay Company's men. He chose this route rather than Fort
Edmonton to be out of the fighting zone of the Blackfeet and Crees. In
1844 he was joined by Father Bourassa. Next year Father Thibault visited
the Chipewyans at Lac Ia Biche, He a la Crosse and Cold Lake, while
Father Bourassa visited the Beavers at Lesser Slave Lake and the Grande
Prairie and Peace River country. In the early days of 1846 the good
Fathers were surprised by an illustrious visitor. This was the Jesuit
missionary, Father de Smet, who, corning along the Foothills passed
through Edmonton, Lac St. Anne, and Jasper 1-louse, looking for the
Blackfeet to press them to make a treaty with the Flatheads on the
American border. Father Thibault, worn out by hardships, returned to St.
Boniface in 1852, and was followed the next year by Father Bourassa.
Father Lacombe, yet a secular priest, took charge of the mission in 1853
and was soon joined by Father Remas, an Oblate, arrived the previous
year from France. Here the two priests labored for five years, making
journeys to the Indians at Lac la Biche, Lesser Slave Lake, Jasper
House, and following the Plains Indians on their buffalo hunts. They
were visited by Bishop Taché on March 27, 1854, then on a tour of
inspection of the various missions in the Saskatchewan and Athabaska
regions. During this period Father Lacombe joined the Oblates,
completing his novitiate in September, 1856.
The Grey Nuns established
at Lac St. Anne in 1859, the first being Sister Superior Emery, and
Sisters Lamy and Alphonse. Other priests in charge of Lac St. Anne have
been: Father Leduc, 1867 to 1868; Fathers Andre and Bourgine, 1870 to
1871; Fathers Blanchet and Dupin, 1871 to 1874; Fathers Scollen and
Grandin, 1883 to 1884; Father Lizee, 1886 to 1896; Father Vegreville,
1897, when Father LIzee was again placed in charge until 1908. Next the
mission was under Father Portier and then Father Beaudry until 1917.
In 1889 Father Lestanc,
Superior of St. Albert, began the customary pilgrimages to St. Anne,
which take place each year on the Wednesday nearest the Feast Day of St.
Anne.
St. Albert:—The next
important mission in Alberta was established at St. Albert in 1861.
Bishop Taché selected the spot and placed Father Lacombe in charge. Next
year Father Lacombe started work on the buildings, including one for the
Orphanage, that has been carried on ever since by the Grey Nuns, who
moved from Lac St. Anne in 1863. The new mission attracted a great
number of half-breeds, who settled on farms and founded one of the
largest settlements in the West at the time. From 1865 Fathers Tissot
and Andre continued the work while Father Lacombe founded a new mission,
St. Paul of the Crees, on the North Saskatchewan River where the village
of Brosseau is now situated. Father Leduc succeeded to the charge in
1868, and in the same year Bishop Grandin established his palace at St.
Albert, a log building 16 feet by 30 feet. The ceiling in the chapel was
so low that the Bishop could not officiate without catching his mitre in
the joists. He entered St. Albert October 26th, escorted by a cavalcade
of half-breeds, having arrived from St. Paul of the Crees, where he was
met by the eight priests of his diocese—Fathers Lacombe, Leduc, Remas,
Vegreville, Moulin, Gasté, Andre and Legoff.
In 1870 a cathedral was
built 84 feet by 72 feet, which purpose it served until 1906, and is
still used as a Concert Hall and Assembly Room for the town of St.
Albert. That same year St. Albert was raised to the dignity of an
episcopal See, Bishop Grandin being the first Titular Bishop. Previously
he had been only Vicar of Saskatchewan and coadjutor to Bishop rfaché
The new dignity gave him increased jurisdiction.
Father Lestanc followed
Father Leduc in 1874 and remained for three years, when Father Leduc
returned. In 1878 a number of white settlers arrived and gave an impetus
to the material progress of the community. Next year the mission erected
a grist mill and a sawmill. Father Leduc remained ten years, when Father
Merer succeeded, continuing until 1914. Father Legal who had spent
sixteen years among the Blackfeet of Southern Alberta, was appointed
coadjutor to Bishop Giandin in March, 1897, and in 1900 the Apostolic
Delegate for the Dominion of Canada came purposely to St. Albert to
visit the aged Bishop. In the same year a Diocesan Seminary was
inaugurated. In 1902 the saintly bishop died and was succeeded by Bishop
Legal. Apostolic Delegates have visited St. Albert on two occasions
since—Msgr. Sbaretti in 1902 and Msgr. Pelegrino Stagni in 1910.
The progress of Roman
Catholic missions in all parts of the Province required the erection of
another diocese, the Diocese of Calgary, in 1912. At the same time the
diocese of St. Albert was raised to the dignity of a Metropolitan See,
under Archbishop Legal. The growth of Edmonton to a modern city induced
the Pope to order the establishment of the cathedral and archiepiscopal
residence at Edmonton instead of the town of St. Albert, and the
archdiocese named the Archdiocese of Edmonton. The venerable archbishop
died in March, 1920, and in December, 1920, His Grace Archbishop O'Leary
was appointed in his place.
With the appointment of
the present Archbishop the number of secu- lar priests in the Province
will increase. For eighty years the Oblates governed and manned the
diocese of what is now Alberta. In their long and honorable history here
and elsewhere in Western Canada they have amply justified the hopes of
Provencher and Taché, and their great sacrifices and achievements will
never be forgotten by the people of the West.
St. Joachim's,
Edmonton:—As we have seen, Fathers Blanchet and Demers passed through
Edmonton in 1838 and Father rrhibault was there in 1842. For the next
fifteen years the priests from St. Anne often visited Edmonton. The
Journals of the Fort frequently relate arrival and departure of Fathers
Lacombe, Remas and Bourassa, but as yet there was not a permanent
priest. For example, there is an entry in the Journal of March 10, 1856,
as follows: "Messrs. Moberly and John Sinclair, accompanied by Abraham
Satois, went on a jaunt to Lac St. Anne to bring back some carts left
there last fall as well as to confess their sins." Rev. Robt. Rundle was
often a visitor to the fort in those days. In 1857 a mission was begun
at Edmonton. Chief Factor William Christie gave permission for the
establishment of a chapel within the walls of the fort, and a house for
the use of the missionary. One of the priests either of St. Albert or
Lac St. Anne were in charge until 1865, when a school was built and
Father Scollen took charge. Eleven years later (1876) the chapel was
removed outside of the fort. Mr. Malcolm Groat, ex-employee of the
Hudson's Bay Company, donated nine acres in what has been since known to
the people of Edmonton as the "Groat Estate." Here another chapel was
built from the materials of the old chapel. Rev. Father Blanchet was put
in charge, but resided at St. Albert. In 1883 a new chapel was built on
the present site of St. Joachim's Church, and Father Grandin, a nephew
of the bishop, became the parish priest, lie remained until 1890, and
was followed by Fathei' Fauquet, who was succeeded by Father Lacombe.
The good father longed to go back to his hermitage at Pincher Creek, and
gladly gave up his charge at St. Joachim's to his old friend, Father
Leduc. During Leduc's pastorate the present St. Joachim's Church was
erected. Father Jan, who had assisted Father Leduc for a number of
years, succeeded to the charge in 1904. Then followed Fathers Hetu and
Therien, 1906; Father Naessens, 1907; Fathers Lemarchand, Merer and
Tavernier.
The congregation of the
Faithful Companions of Jesus founded a boarding school beside the
mission in 1888 and in 1895 the Grey Nuns established a hospital, the
nucleus of the splendid hospital on Victoria Avenue today. They were
followed in 1901 by the Sisters of Mercy of the Misericordia Hospital.
The original parish of
St. Joachim's has been divided several times as Edmonton increased in
area and population. The first parish was the Immaculate Conception
organized in 1905 by Father Hetu; then Sacred Heart to accommodate the
English speaking parishioners of the Immaculate Conception, in 1911. A
new church was built for the purpose in 1913. It is interesting to
observe that Father Roque, incumbent of the Immaculate Conception, was
the first secular priest in Edmonton. The parish of St. Anthony (Strathcona)
was founded in 1895, and served from St. Joachim's until 1901, when it
became independent. Priests in charge have been Father Nordmann,
1901-1905; Father McQuaid, 1906; Father Jan again, 1907; Father McQuaid
1908-1911; Father Lernarchand, 1912-1914; Father Torquinet.
St. Francis of Assisi:—In
1909 the Franciscan Fathers established a mission at North Edmonton, the
industrial portion of the city. The previous year they had come to Our
Lady of Lourdes at Lamoureux, opposite Fort Saskatchewan, but decided to
locate at North Edmonton. Here their monastery has been built. Father
Berchmans was the first superior. Father Xavier-Marie followed Father
Berchnians in 1911. By 1914 the parish had grown so that it became
necessary to divide it, one for the French speaking Catholics, the other
for the English speaking and other nationalities.
Other parishes in the
City of Edmonton manned by priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
assisted by the Ursuline Nuns, are: St. Edmund (Calder), St. Francis
Xaverius, under the Society of Jesus, with a college founded in 1912,
Father Iludon, Society of Jesus, principal; and Holy Rosary (Polish).
Mission at Lac La Biche:—This
point had been visited by Father Thibault in 1844, Father Bourassa in
1851, by Bishop Taché in 1852 and Father Lacombe, but it was not founded
as a permanent mission until 1853. Here Father Remas took up his
residence that year. He was visited by Father Vegreville next year, and
was sent to Lac St. Anne in 1855. Fathers Tissot and Maisonneuve, who
then took charge, put the mission on a permanent footing. They opened a
road from Fort Pitt to Lac La Biche in 1856, and brought in supplies by
ox-carts, raised barley and potatoes, making the place self-sustaining
and a source of supply for other missions of the North. Next year
several buildings were erected under the supervision of Brother Bowes,
one of the most famous of the Oblate Brothers, and who built many
missions in the North-West during his lifetime. They burned limestone
and built stone buildings.
In 1862 a colony of nuns
was established at Lac La Biche, with Sister Gunette as superior. The
Fathers built a small mill and the Sisters made bread for the mission.
In 1875 Bishop Faraud
established his episcopal palace at Lac La Biche. Father Vegreville was
priest in charge of the mission. Two years later the mission was
transferred to the jurisdiction of the Vicar Apostolic of Athabaska and
Mackenzie because of its advantages as a base of supplies. When Bishop
Faraud took up his residence at Fort Providence in 1889, the mission,
which had long rivalled St. Albert, lost much of its importance and
became an outpost of half-breed settlement. In 1898 the Sisters moved to
Saddle Lake, though in 1904 Father Grandin, then in charge, succeeded in
establishing another community of Sisters at the mission.
Calgary (Our Lady of
Peace):—Alexis Cardinal, Father Lacombe's famous and intrepid guide,
built a house on the Elbow River, some twenty- five miles above the
junction of the Bow and Elbow rivers in 1872. Next year he gave the
house to Fathers Scollen and Fourmond, and in 1874 a larger house was
built. This was the beginning of the parish. When the North West Mounted
Police established a police post at the junction of the Bow and Elbow,
the two priests moved to the vicinity of the police barracks and built a
chapel there in 1877. Father Doucet was the first priest in charge. In
the spring of 1881 Bishop Grandin visited the mission while on an
episcopal tour to the Blackfeet tribes of Southern Alberta. In 1883
Fathers Lacombe and Doucet filed on two quarter-sections within the City
of Calgary, which were eventually acquired by the Church. In 1885 twelve
Companions of Jesus arrived (July 26th), Fathers Leduc and Andre in
charge, visiting Gleichen, Pincher Creek and other posts around.
Beginning was made on a stone church, Our Lady of Peace, under Father
Leduc, and it was opened in 1889. The Grey Nuns of Montreal established
Holy Cross Hospital in 1891. As the city grew other churches and
parishes sprang up—Sacred heart in West Calgary, St. Anne's in East
Calgary, and the Ruthenian Parish of St. Stephen's in 1911, St.
Joseph's, 1915, as well as several separate schools, and St. Mary's high
school for boys. The Ursuline Nuns, chiefly devoted to nursing and
education of girls, erected a foundation of the order in Calgary in
1921.
INDIAN MISSIONS OF THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH.
After the Indian tribes
had taken treaty and were placed on their several reservations, it
became comparatively easy to establish missions thereon—much easier than
when the missionaries were compelled to follow the tribes in their
nomadic life on the Plains. The Roman Catholic Church showed remarkable
energy in establishing missions at nearly all the reservations, though
it should be borne in mind that both the Methodist and Anglican Churches
have also carried on a splendid work on the reservations.
It is a significant fact
that though the Indians of the North-West have been described as savages
by almost every writer of the last century who traveled in this
territory, the missionaries of every denomination have been invariably
treated with kindness and respect by the natives. In the long history of
Western missions only four missionaries have suffered death from the
hands of the Indians—Father Aulneau at St. Charles, 1736; Father Darveau
at Lake Winnipegosis, 1844, and Fathers Faford and Marchand in 1885 at
Frog Lake. To this list may be added the name of Brother Alexis Raynard,
O.M.I., the factotum of Northern missions, who was murdered at House
River in the summer of 1875 by an Iroquois companion. The outrage at
Frog Lake was the work of non- treaty nomads, incited by Riel's
emissaries.
In 1882 Father Faford
established a fine mission at Frog Lake, where a large number of Indians
were settled. At Onion Lake, another reserve a few miles away, plans
were in progress for a mission in the spring of 1885 by Fathers Merer
and Marchand. But the rebellion intervened and Faford, Marchand and
seven other whites were murdered by Big Bear's band, and the buildings
destroyed by fire (April 2, 1885).
In 1886 Father Merer was
sent to rebuild Onion Lake mission. After the completion of a fine
church in 1871 a solemn service was held by Bishop Grandin on September
15th, in connection with the burial of the martyred priests—Faford and
Marchand. Their remains were borne from their temporary resting place at
Frog Lake to the vault of the chapel at Onion Lake. A school was opened
on the reserve and put in charge of the Reverend Sisters of the
Assumption. The first nuns arrived with Bishop Grandin, 8th of
September, 1891. Since that period, until the present, there has been
naturally many changes. The mission has been one of the most successful
in the Province. An excellent boarding school is maintained and attended
by 75 children.
After the unhappy crisis
of 1885 the Indian Department gathered the Indians at Victoria (near
Pakan), and south of the Saskatchewan, principally around Whitford Lake
(then Egg Lake) and placed them on the reserve at Saddle Lake—near
Whitefish Lake and Good Fish Lake reserves. These Indians were under
Chief Pakan, an ardent Protestant, but to minister to the Catholic
members of the tribe Father Merer established a mission here in 1888,
that has flourished ever since. It is said that the last pagan Indian
was baptized by Father Leduc on this reserve in 1897. He was the Indian
who unintentionally shot Chief Sweet Grass in 1876. In 1898 the boarding
school at Lac La Biche was, on the advice of the Indian Department,
transferred to Saddle Lake, where it is still carried on. Father Baiter
who took charge in 1906 published for many years a small monthly
journal, "The Sacred Heart" in Cree, using the syllabic characters.
HALF-BREED MISSIONS OF THE
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Duhamel:—Some of the
Catholic missions have been established especially for the benefit of
the half-breeds, as most of these people in the West belong to this
church. Such were Duhamel and St. Paul de Metis. In the late seventies,
a number of half-breed families settled on the banks of Battle River,
about thirty miles east of the present City of Wetaskiwin. This was
known as the Selvais or the Laboucan settlement. A special survey was
made in 1883, and the plan of river lots, so popular with the half-
breed settler, was adopted. As a mission Duhamel dates from 1881, when
it was first visited by Father Beillevaire. The founding of the mission
and the introduction of the river lot surveys attracted a considerable
number of half-breeds. In the summer of 1883 a priests' house and church
were erected and the place named after Archbishop Duhamel of Ottawa. By
1900 a school was added to the establishment. Though a small parish
still exists under Father Beillevaire, through the advance of
settlement, the half-breeds have gone elsewhere. The country has been
opened up by various classes of new settlers. The opening of the country
by railways took away the favorite vocation of the half-breed,
freighting, and the old mission now consists of immigrants of various
nationalities.
St. Paul de Metis:—The
mission at St. Paul was the idea of Father Lacombe, who loved the Metis
or half-breeds and understood their weaknesses and the dangers they
would be subjected to by the settlement of the country by white men. The
good Father conceived the plan of gathering the half-breeds into one
settlement as far from the path of settlement as possible and placing
them under the paternal care of the Oblate Fathers. In cooperation with
the Department of the Interior four townships were secured under a grant
of twenty-one years to the episcopal corporations of St. Albert, St.
Boniface and Prince Albert, and a plan worked out for the redemption of
the half-breeds. Father Lacombe, with the assistance of Father Therien,
chose a beautiful tract of country lying between the North Saskatchewan
River and Cold Lake. It was surveyed in 1896 and Father Therien sent by
Bishop Grandin to lay the foundations of the half-breed colony. The
first harvest was reaped in 1897. The flour and sawmill at Lac la Biche
was removed to St. Paul. A school was opened that year, and two years
later the Sisters of the Assumption, who already had a convent at Onion
Lake, arrived and took charge of the day school. A boarding school was
erected to accommodate one hundred, for children who lived too far from
the mission to attend day school. Meanwhile Father Therien visited the
United States to acquaint the half-breeds in that country of the colony
at St. Paul. As the work increased it became a heavy tax upon the
resources of the Oblates, and applications were made to other orders.
Father Lacombe went to Europe for this purpose, and applied to the "Salesians"
and the Premonstratensian Fathers of the Abbey of Grimbergen, Belgium.
The latter sent an agent, Father Van Wettin, to investigate the project,
but after the report the Premonstratensian Fathers refused to take over
the mission. Resort was had to the charity of the parishes of Quebec. A
new church 104 feet by 42 feet with a sacristy 42 feet by 22 feet was
built in 1904. The colony suffered a severe blow in 1905 (Jan. 15th)
when the boarding school was burned to the ground. But scarcely had new
buildings been erected when a notable transformation of the country
began. There is no place in the North-West that is immune from the
invasions of the ubiquitous settler. By 1908 settlers were filling up
the vacant lands around the Half-breed Reservation. It was apparent the
scheme as originally planned in segregating the half-breeds in an
isolated colony was doomed. It was therefore resolved to bring in a
selected class of settlers and Rev. J. A. Ouellette, parish priest of
Beaumont, was appointed colonization agent for this work, assisted by
Father Therien. As settlers poured into the districts, new parishes were
formed with St. Paul as a centre—St. Vincent, Bonnyville, St. Louis. In
1909 the reserve was thrown open for homesteading and the unique
experiment was a thing of the past.
Similar missions are
carried on at Heart Lake, Cold Lake, 1874, Riviere Qui Barre, 1877,
Hobbema (formerly Bear Hills), 1881, Stony Plain, 1885. In 1874 Emile
Joseph Legal, a professor of mathematics from Nantes, was ordained to
the priesthood, lie came to Canada in 1881 and was appointed to missions
among the Blackfeet, especially the Bloods and Peigans. Here he labored
for sixteen years until he was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Grandin in
1897. He carried on successfully the work begun by Father Lacombe, a
quarter of a century before.
Father Lacombe is the
great Roman Catholic missionary of the Blackfeet—the black-robed
voyageur of the plains. He visited them as early as 1857, with his
faithful Alexis, and again in 1859. After several years among the Crees
he again returned to the Blackfeet in 1871, intending to devote himself
entirely to winning this warlike nation over to Christianity. Bishop
Grandin, however, had other plans for Father Lacombe which kept him from
his beloved mission until 1881, when he returned and spent several years
among them, rendering valuable service in pacifying Blackfeet tribes
during the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Rebellion of
1885.
FRENCH-CANADIAN PARISHES.
A list of the most
important French-Canadian parishes and missions established in Alberta,
with appropriate notes concerning each, is given as follows:
Notre Dame de Lourdes (Lamoureux,
P. O.), founded in 1875; chapel built by Father Blanchet, 1877; Father
Dorais in charge from 1891-1908, the year of his death; present church
completed 1903; Father Berchmans, 1909; Father Pilon, 1909-1912; Father
Normandeau, 1912-1914.
St. Emerence, Riviere Qui
Barre, founded 1893.
St. Jean Baptiste,
Morinville; founded by Abbe Morin, 1891. Father Harnois, first parish
priest, 1892. Daughters of Jesus from Kermaria, Brittany, established a
convent in 1903; present beautiful church dedicated by Bishop Legal,
March, 1908.
St. Vital, Beaumont;
founded 1892 by Abbe Morin. First priest, Father Perrault, O.M.I., 1893;
Father Poitras, 1894-1896; Father Beauparlant, 1897; Father Ethier,
1898-1902; Father Bouchard, 1902-1905; Father Ouellette, 1905-1907.
Other parishes: St.
Pierre, Villeneuve, 1900; St. Emile, Legal, 1899, named after the Bishop
of St. Albert; Spruce Grove and Egg Lake, 1900; Sion, 1911; Brosseau.
1905; Bonnyville, named after Father Bonny, the first priest, 1910.
When the railway was
built from Edmonton to Calgary and south to Macleod, in 1891 and 1892,
Catholic churches sprang up in every important town. The same happened
when the Canadian Northern was built into Edmonton in 1905; and when the
Grand Trunk Pacific was built in 1910. The names of the parishes may be
designated by the names of the various towns and villages along these
lines. These parishes are composed of all nationalities of the Catholic
faith, differing in this respect from those described in the remainder
of this chapter on the Catholic Church in Alberta.
POLISH MISSIONS.
The Galicians,
Bukowinians, Rumanians and other foreign nationalities from Central
Europe who settled in Alberta from 1892 to the end of the century
belonged to three great categories of religious denominations: Roman
Catholics, Greek Ruthenian Catholics or Uniates and Green Orthodox. The
Catholics of these groups had no resident priest among them until 1898.
They had been visited frequently by Fathers Dorais, from Lamoureux, and
Nordmann, who could speak German. In 1900 a Polish priest, Father
Olczewski, was ordained by Bishop Grandin and commissioned to carry oil
work among these nationalities, situated principally in the country East
of Edmonton, and South of the Saskatchewan River. He established his
headquarters at a point since called Krakow, where he built a church in
1907. Under his auspices missions were founded, 1904, at Skaro, Beaver
Lake, on the Little Vermilion River, between Edmonton and Athabasca. At
Skaro some Polish young ladies established a convent in 1904, and were
consecrated by Bishop Legal under the name of "Auxiliaries of
Apostolate." Later the sisterhood extended its work to Krakow and
Edmonton.
Father Olczewski was soon
joined by Fathers Albert and William Kulawy, both Oblates, and sent to
Canada to look after the welfare of Ruthenian and Polish, missions, and
in 1903 a third brother, Father Paul Kulawy, was sent to reside at St.
Albert. Next year he established a parish for these nationalities at
Round Hill and built a church there, which was dedicated by Bishop Legal
in July, 1907.
A Ruthenian mission was
established at Rabbit Hills, eighteen miles southwest of Edmonton, in
1903. The church was dedicated with beautiful and pious demonstrations
on the feast of Corpus Christi, June 2, 1904. A procession escorted
Bishop Legal with banners, ikons and lighted tapers to the church
through arches of foliage and flags of the national colors of
Galicia—yellow and blue.
St. John Nepomuck,
another mission of this nationality, was established in a Polish
community fifteen miles North of Daysland by Father Kulawy in 1009.
GREEK RUTHENIAN MiSSIONS.
Among the foreign
nationalities of Alberta mentioned above, reference has been made to the
Galicians of the Greek Ruthenian rite or Uniates. They submit to the
jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome. The liturgy of their church is not in
the Greek but in the Ruthenian language. In Galicia there is a separate
Ruthenian hierarchy distinct from the Latin hierarchy in the same
territory, with jurisdiction only over the members of its own rite.
Before these people in
Alberta had been visited by Bishop Legal or any of the priests under his
jurisdiction, some of the Galician settlers secured a visit from two
priests of the Greek Orthodox Church who tried to induce the Greek
Catholics to forsake their mother church. This was in 1897. In September
of the same year, Father Demytrow, a Uniate priest, visited the district
and was granted the right by Bishop Legal to exercise his priestly
ministry among the Galician people. Steps were taken at once to secure
priests of the Greek Ruthenian rite through the Propaganda at Rome. In
the spring of 1898 the Metropolitan of Galicia sent Father Tymkiewitcz
to Alberta. This young priest seems to have been of the class that
favored soft beds and good meals, for in less than six months he left
the Province for the United States. Before he left he succeeded in
inducing Bishop Grandin to vest the church property at Star in a
committee of three, known as trustees or syndics of the mission. The
trust created by this act gave rise to one of the most protracted and
memorable lawsuits in the history of the courts of Alberta—the famous
Star Church lawsuit (Zacklinski vs. Polishie, 1908 A. C. 65). After the
departure of Father Tymkiewitcz, Father Zacklinski took his place in
1900. In order to obtain a regular supply of priests for the Galician
settlements, Father Lacombe visited Vienna and Lemberg in 1900. In
response to this appeal the Archbishop of Lemberg sent Father Basil
Zoldak to Alberta to survey the situation. He arrived in Edmonton in
1902 (February 15th), and returned to Galicia in May, accompanied by
Father Jan, to secure more priests. Accordingly three Basilian Fathers,
a lay brother and four sisters, "Servants of Mary," were welcomed at
Edmonton in October of that year.
The three priests,
Fathers Filas, Dydyk and Strozky, established new missions at Monaster,
Star, Edmonton, Rabbit Hill, and went on periodical visits to Lethbridge
and the Crow's Nest Pass. Father Filas was appointed to the vacant
episcopate of Stanislow in Galicia in 1906, and Father Dydyk became the
Superior of Ruthenian missions in Alberta. He was later transferred to
Winnipeg. He was succeeded by Fathers Filipow and Tymocko, with
headquarters at Mundare. Father Tymocko died in 1909. His place was
taken by Father Kryzanowski. In 1910 a fine church, of Muscovite style,
was built at Mundare, the first of all the Ruthenian churches in
Alberta. In the same year this church was dedicated by the Metropolitan
of Lemberg, who had come to Canada and the North-West and spent some
time in the Galician settlements. Three years later (1913) Bishop Budka
was appointed Bishop of the Greek Ruthenian Rite, with jurisdiction over
all Ruthenian Catholics in Canada. |
