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Elizabeth (Eliza) Victoria
McDougall Elizabeth was known to her family as Eliza, and at Alderville, where her father worked for a while as an assistant manager of an industrial school while she was an infant, the natives called her No-No-Cassa, which meant hummingbird, because "she was a great crier". (McDougall, 3) She remained at school in Ontario when her family first came West, and joined them in 1865. Only one year later, at age 17, she was married to Richard Hardisty of the Hudson's Bay Company. After a honeymoon at Fort Edmonton they spent a year at Rocky Mountain House and then returned to Victoria till in Richard was appointed Chief Factor in Edmonton. Mrs. Hardisty was apparently the first white woman in Edmonton, although she was joined by several others soon. In 1879 there were four white women at the Edmonton Methodist Mission (Mrs. Donald Ross, Mrs. Coleman, Mrs. Whiteside and Lovisa McDougall). At the Hudson's Bay Fort there were three white women, Mrs. Hardisty, her sister Mrs. Leslie Wood and Mrs. Taber. (MacGregor 1963, 124 - 125) Lovisa McDougall, wife of John A. McDougall the free trader, wrote in a latter in January 1881 that she and Mrs. Hardisty took turns playing the organ for the church choir, and that when she was sick Mrs. Hardisty and her sister were the only two to come and see her often. (MacGregor 1963, 143) Elizabeth died in 1929.
Return to the Missions Menu Sources: Unpublished draft from the Sally Swenson box. McDougall, John. Parson on the Plains. Ed by Thomas Bredin. Don Mills, Ontario: Longman Canada Limited. 1971 MacGregor, James G. Edmonton Trader: The Story of John A. McDougall. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Limited. 1963
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