Dr. Charles H. Lawford

    Dr. Charles Lawford was ordained a minister in 1892. Then in 1898 he withdrew from ministry and started studying medicine, planning to serve as a medical missionary in China. Instead, around 1900 he settled to work near Pakan.

    In 1906 he began petitioning the General Mission Board of the Methodist Church for a new hospital and a house. By April 1907 plans for the hospital were made and four thousand dollars allotted to the task. It was named after George McDougall and the building materials were brought down the river from Edmonton. The stone foundation was built by Henry Nelson, a stonemason from Norway. Work was finished by the end of November that year, and the hospital was put in use the next month. It was staffed by Dr. Lawford, two nurses from the Public Hospital in Edmonton and one nurse from the Women's Mission Society.

    Although working in a predominantly Ukrainian area he was unwilling to learn the Ukrainian language and disapproved of dancing or games of luck.

    When the railroad came to Smoky Lake and Pakan/Victoria was abandoned Dr. Lawford eventually moved to Smoky Lake and opened a medical office and drugstore. The drugstore building is still located in Smoky Lake. Then in 1944 at eighty-two years of age he retired and moved to Edmonton. He died in 1952.

    One visitor to the Victoria Settlement Provincial Historic Site told a story of having gone to Dr. Lawford's house in Edmonton as a child. Dr. Lawford approached her and told her that he'd always wanted to go for a ride in the dumb-waiter, but he couldn't fit, so would she like too? They went up to the top of the house and she climbed in and was carefully lowered a floor down, where Dr. Lawford checked that she was alright before continuing her on her adventure down. She said it went really good till they got to the kitchen where the women were and then they both got in trouble!

The Lawfords had five daughters, one of whom was adopted. Four of the daughters became teachers and taught at Smoky Lake. The fifth daughter, Alice, helped at the Drug Store and Telegraph Office and then married Ted Beaupre.

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