Memorable Manitobans: George Millward McDougall (c1820-1876)

George M. McDougall Click to enlarge

Missionary.

He was born at Kingston, Upper Canada (now Ontario) in 1820, where his Scottish father was stationed with the British Navy. He served with the Royal Foresters during the Rebellion of 1837. In 1842 he married Elizabeth Chantler and moved to Owen Sound, receiving a licence to serve as a preacher. He attended Victoria College at Cobourg in 1848-1849. The following year he was sent to Alderville as assistant to William Case, and in 1851 to Garden River, near Sault Ste. Marie to establish a mission.

From 1857 to 1860 he served at Rama, moving in 1860 to Rossville, two miles from Norway House. At the same time he was appointed Chairman of Methodist missions for the entire North-West. In 1863 he established a mission at Pakan, near Edmonton, and in 1873 a mission at Morley for the Stoney Indians. He spent the winter of 1874-1875 addressing meetings in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes in the interest of missions, and visited Great Britain in 1875.

On his return to the West that summer he was commissioned by Lieutenant-Governor Morris of Manitoba to undertake negotiations with the Indians, which eventually led to Treaty No. 6 with the Plain and Wood Cree tribes in September 1876.

McDougall died about 25 January 1876, perishing in a snow storm near Calgary while searching for food for the mission at Morley, Alberta.

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: McDougall Memorial Methodist Church / Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Ivan Suchavsky (939 Main Street, Winnipeg)

Mission among the Buffalo: The Labours of the Reverends George M. and John C. McDougall in the Canadian Northwest, 1860-1876 by J. E. Nix (1960).

George Millward McDougall, Dictionary of Canadian Biography X, 471-72.

Sources:

Pioneers and Early Citizens of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Manitoba Library Association, 1971.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 12 October 2015

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