Georgiana McDougall

    Georgiana came west with her family in 1863. Living at the mission site she quickly learned to speak the Cree language, and when her father was away, and her mother called upon to give religious talks to the native people, Georgiana would be there to interpret. (Kells 12)

    Once some natives came into the McDougall house to steal turnips. One of the natives stood at the door to the kitchen, where Georgiana was working and the other two snuck into the cellar. Georgiana ordered the man away, but he did not go, so she threw her knife into the doorway above the man's head. Mrs. McDougall came in from another room as the natives fled. (Kells 33 - 34.) 

    In 1867 Georgiana and her sisters left the Victoria Mission with their father to go East, to Hamilton where they attended the Wesleyan Female College. Georgiana disliked the damp cold of Ontario and returned home a year later. (Kells 34)

    In 1869 she died of smallpox. Elize Newton writes in the book "Elizabeth McDougall: Madonna of the Plains" that:

Georgiana, she knew, was not so strong as she tried to make her mother think. All the night before she had tossed and turned fitfully, and Elizabeth had gone repeatedly to her side. The two had been so close. Each instinctively felt what the other was suffering, and Elizabeth realized that her daughter would avoid calling out for what she needed. At nineteen, she was every inch a mature woman, co-teacher, interpreter, and helper in all her mother's activities among the Indians. (36)

    George McDougall records his daughter's death in his journal entries, the excerpts of which are now online.

    Georgiana's grave is located at Victoria Settlement.

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Sources:

Kells, Edna. Elizabeth McDougall, Pioneer. United Church Publishing House, Toronto.

Newton, Elize. Elizabeth McDougall: Madonna of the Plains. Frontier Publishing Ltd.