Elizabeth was Quaker, born in Surrey, England and was
educated in a Quaker college in England. She moved with her parents to
Muddy York (Toronto) where her father built the first flour mill. (Kells
4) The family moved to Meaford and Elizabeth went to keep house for her
brother at Tollendale where she met George M. McDougall.
Elizabeth and George were married in 1842 and lived near
Owen Sound for six years. In 1848 they moved to Cobourg, Ontario so
George could continue his education - they left their children behind
with friends. After one term there they went to Alderville and then in
1851 they went to Garden River where part of George's job was to see
that liquor brought across the border by bootleggers was
destroyed. Six years later they moved again, and then three years
after that they moved to Norway House on Lake Winnipeg, at a mission
called Rossville. Three years later, George left for his job as chairman
of the western Methodist Missions and Elizabeth was left along with the
younger children.
In 1863 Elizabeth travelled out to Victoria Settlement
where the family spent the year living in a buffalo skin tent while they
built a big house. In the years to follow, the men of the house were
often gone either for supplies, hunting or to visit other missions and
Elizabeth had to be used to living on her own, with the children. She
lead religious sermons with her daughter Georgiana working as a
translator. In 1866 she organized a sort of Woman's Missionary Society
that gathered for sewing meetings and prayer times. (Kells 24 - 25)
In 1866 Elizabeth's oldest daughter Eliza was married to
Richard Hardisty of the Hudson's Bay Company and in 1867 Elizabeth said
goodbye to her other three daughters who went East to go to the Wesleyan
Female College. Georgiana returned the next year, but Libbie and Nellie
did not return till 1870 and 1872 respectfully.
In 1870 the family moved to Edmonton where in the
following year George McDougall built Edmonton's first Methodist
church.
Mrs McDougall finally got her chance to visit Ontario
again while her husband went on a lecture tour to England. (Kells
39)
In 1875 George and Elizabeth moved to Morley, Alberta.
Elizabeth was away visiting her daughter Nellie (Mrs.
Leslie Wood) when her husband George got lost in a blizzard near Morely.
Arriving at The Elbow, where the two women had planned to meet George,
they met instead John and a party of men. It was decided by the others
that Elizabeth should not be told of the tragedy till after supper, but
Father Scullon, the Roman Catholic missionary came to console them on
their loss and had not been warned that Elizabeth did not yet know. And
so Elizabeth found out that her husband had been missing then for seven
days. (Kells 41 - 42)
Mrs McDougall lived another year in Morley, then went
East with her son George when he went to school. When his schooling was
done, they returned and took up a homestead. George died at age 18 of
pneumonia while on a trip to buy cattle. (He was accompanied on that
trip by Mrs. David McDougall's brother Tommie McKenzie who went missing
on the same trip. Tommie presumably drowned while attempting to help his
cattle ford a stream.) (Kells 43 - 44)
One of Elizabeth's granddaughters lived with her during
her later years and she often made parties for the children at the
orphanage at Morley. Elizabeth lived till she was 84 years old and died
in March of 1904.
When Elizabeth fell ill her daughters Elizabeth and
Nellie were summoned to come to her, but a train worker's strike
prevented them from boarding a freight train and reaching her in time. (Kells
46)