Anna

    Anna's grave is the smallest grave in the McDougall graveyard at Victoria Settlement and because of its size it is often assumed that she was an infant when she died of smallpox. Rather she was the fourteen year old adopted native daughter of the McDougalls. Engraved on the stone is her initials: A McD

    Anna was apparently not the only native child the McDougalls adopted. In Susan Jackel's introduction to John McDougall's book In the Days of the Red River Rebellion she writes that ... "the McDougall mission family numbered nearly twenty, including John's wife Abigail, their three daughters (one a newborn infant), and several adopted Indian children..."

   However an article in The Manitoban, published on January 21, 1871 describes the small pox epidemic as seen through the eyes of Mr. W. F. Clarke of the Hudson's Bay Company. Clarke traveled along the Saskatchewan river and through Victoria Settlement. He writes that: "Flora and Georgina, have died of the plague. The servant girl of the family died also." However it would appear that Mr. Clarke was mistaken - although he doesn't refer to her by name John McDougall claims her as his sister in his book The Days of the Red River Rebellion.

     George McDougall's journals from the time of the smallpox provides more information. He records that:

(October) 28th - This morning I buried our Anna. My son-in-law, Mr. Hardisty, dug her grave at the foot of Flora's. They were warm friends in life, and in death they have been but a few days parted. Anna was fourteen years old. She was the daughter of the late O-ga-mah-wah-shis. He gave her to us a few hours before his happy death. She was the best looking native girl in this part of the country; of a docile, tractable disposition. We were all much attached to Anna. 

Return to the Missions Menu
or back to the Smoky Lake History Archive