MacIver

The Family of Marion Thomson

MacIver, Mawhinney, McLeod, Thomson Fort Chipewyan, Gull Lake, Isle of Lewis, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Sydney, Tong 0

The Family of Marion Thomson

Letter from Jessie Mawhinney

Marion Thomson’s Family

Jessie Catherine Mawhinney wrote to my father on 23rd February 1989 about the emigration from the Isle of Lewis, Scotland to Canada, of her own parents in the early years of the twentieth century.

Her mother, Marion Mary, was the eldest child of James and Isabella Thomson, and the grand daughter of Alexander Thomson and Christina MacInnes. She was born in 1882, the first white child born in the Northern Territory of Canada.

She returned to the Isle of Lewis with her parents in 1889. In 1905 she met a George McLeod who had come home from Nova Scotia. They married in a ceremony in the market place with five other couples before returning to Nova Scotia. George found employment in the coal mines. Below is Jessie’s account, written only a few months before she died in 1989.

Nova Scotia Coal Mines

If I were a writer I could put together a lot of incidents in our family that would make pretty good reading. My father, George McLeod (why he spelt his name without the “a” we never knew and never thought of questioning), came to Canada in the early 1900s. He had an aunt married to a retired sea captain name of Kemp, living near Sydney, Cape Breton Island.

My father came and stayed with them while he sought work in the coal mines near there. In 1905 he went back to Lewis and married my mother and brought her out to Auntie Kemp’s until he could build a house, which he finally did, a little shack in the woods which my mother swore was two feet wider at one end than the other.

Anyway, their three oldest children were born there. Their close neighbours were a white lady married to a negro who also worked in the mines and my mother said he used to pick up one of her hens on his way home from work occasionally.

But the women were very good friends and Mrs. Mickey taught my mother a lot of things about housekeeping and sewing and making ends meet on my father’s salary. He received $1.50 per day and these were long, long days underground. Finally a group of the miners decided to go on strike for better wages and working conditions. No unions in those days. They stuck it out for a year and then, through desperation, went back only to be assigned worse jobs and no change in pay.

The Esplanade Sydney Nova Scotia 1950

Landseekers Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

By 1911 the Government opened a large territory of land in Saskatchewan. 320 acres of open prairie land could be had for the sum of $5.00 with provisions that a small house be built, a few acres broken each year and a minimum of three months living on the land each year for three years. After that they could apply for another 350 acres for the same price.

This looked like a fantastic deal to my parents so with high hopes they travelled on an immigrant train to the west. They stopped over in Winnipeg and were warmly received by friends from Lewis and felt much happier about the journey ahead.

My father settled the family in a small house in Gull Lake, then quite a thriving little town, and went to see what he could do about building a shack on his new homestead. He took a job in the local livery stable. There were two such in the town and they did a lively business.

No cars those days! He was able to borrow horses and a wagon and hauled supplies out to the farm. There wasn’t even a road out there so it was a long drive, ten miles, over rough places. He finally put up a small shack of lumber and covered on the outside with heavy, black tar paper which was attached to the wall with flat round metal discs and a sharp nail. Some tedious job getting that lot done.

Anyway, came the day to move the family out for their three months stay. With the three young ones, my sister Annabelle wasn’t quite a year old and my mother was pregnant with Johnnie. They didn’t have much to take out, just the bare necessities and it was a very windy day.

Homestead

Through the years we came to accept the fact the wind blew an awful lot and not a gentle breeze either. About the last mile of their journey they noticed various sizes of pieces of black tar paper blowing toward them. Mother couldn’t imagine where they would come from but Dad had a sinking feeling he had seen them before and sure enough when they reached “Home on the Range” the little shack was minus a covering here and there.

Must mention they brought a cow along which was tied to the end of the shack and in the day time was tethered out on a long rope to feed on the long prairie grass. Dad had dug a well near the shack and the water was lovely. My mother used to hang a milk can on a rope down into the well to keep it cool. One day the snap that held the rope on the can came off and after a great deal of persuasion, my brother who was about six years old then, was lowered into the well to rescue the milk.

My father took the borrowed horses and wagon back to town and from then on until the three months were up he worked at his job in town and walked to the homestead every Saturday night with the weeks supply of groceries. Back the ten miles on Sunday night. My mother must have been terribly lonely there though I don’t remember that.

Early Sod House

Gull Lake Saskatchewan

Aunt Isabel

The next summer my Aunt Isabel came to be with her and we young ones just loved her as she was just sixteen and a great one for playing games. There was a large ranch just across from our place which was fenced and a big gate close by which we, children, would swing on if there were no cowboys around to catch us.

They would be riding around to see if the fence was down and would come in once in awhile for a chat and a cup of tea. Eventually my father made a little pen for hens from a cave out in the side of the hills and sods from the newly plowed ground. So we had eggs and milk but there never was time enough or tools to have a garden until they came out to live all year round and have a proper house and other buildings.

Often there were land agents from town driving protective buyers out to look over the land still open for sale. One very rainy night two men stopped at the shack asking if they could come in because of the downpour. My mother was pretty apprehensive about letting them in but the nearest neighbour was two miles away and she couldn’t refuse.

They tied the horses in the shelter of the shack and came in to sleep on the floor until morning. My mother kept the axe handy by her bed just in case! In time these two men became good friends of ours and had many a good laugh about that night.

Gull Lake Policeman

It was six years later that the farm became a permanent home. In the meantime my father had several jobs and had acquired a nice house in town. The last two years he spent as town policeman.

One weekend my mother took the two youngest and went to visit another Lewis lady on a ranch twelve miles from town. My oldest brother and I were left to keep house while Dad was at work. We were pretty surprised on the Saturday evening when a strange man showed up at the door. He said Dad had sent him and he had some groceries and said he would have supper. He persuaded us to have some fun with Dad and we were to say when he came home that the man never arrived.

It turned out he was in jail for some minor thing and Dad had felt sorry for him so decided he could be out for the evening, likely knew him pretty well. Anyway, when we heard Dad at the door the man hid behind the big kitchen stove and when Dad enquired if he came we weren’t for telling the truth.

Dad was pretty worried for a while until the man emerged laughing. I suppose we got a good scolding and Dad would be relieved he hadn’t “flown the coop”.

Gull Lake 1911

Gull Lake 1950

Schooldays

The folks sold the house in town to buy horses and what machinery they could get by with. More would need to come later. There were four new work horses to name and I still remember their names. Also a team of drivers which we named Mutt and Jeff.

There were good years and bad years and we were fortunate to be a fairly healthy bunch. School was 1.5 miles away and we walked and took our lunch. School was only in the summer months in the first few years. Later on the Government paid a grant if the school was kept open the full term.

The eight grades were taught in one room by one teacher and I will say the children did very well though most of us couldn’t afford to go on to High School in town. I don’t remember that anyone particularly famous went from there into the world but we certainly had many happy days there.

Ancestor Chart

James Thomson and his Native Family

MacIver, Thomson Athabasca, Caroline Thompson, Fond du Lac, Fort Chipewyan, Fur Trade, Grey Nuns, Hudson Bay Company, Lake Mamawi, Louise Encore 0

James Thomson and his Native Family

Important Notice

Since this article was first published I have made contact with the family of Caroline Thompson and as a result of DNA testing it now appears that James Thomson was not the father of Caroline Thompson. Work is ongoing to clarify and confirm the situation, but the family of Caroline Thompson have suggested that this article should remain online until tests are complete and a formal correction can be made.

Artwork of the Wildife of Athabasca.

James Thomson and his Native Family

This article is the second part of the story of James Thomson and Isabella MacIver. The first part of the story is told in The First Lewis Woman in Athabasca. It is a good idea to read the first part of the story before reading this article.

The illustration opposite has been reproduced with the kind permission of the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre. With it’s depiction of the wildlife of Northern Canada, it evokes, to me (a European), the spirit of North Athabasca, where the story that follows is set.

It is also a beautiful piece of artwork, in it’s own right. I am not familiar with the wildlife of the area, but I believe I can see eagle, fox maybe wolf, buffalo and beaver. Perhaps a muskrat top right, the others I can’t identify, but I still love the picture.

I must first acknowledge and thank Patricia McCormack, Professor Emerita from the Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta, who unearthed the story about James Thomson and his native wife. She delivered a paper to Ethnohistory, 30 Sep – 4 Oct 2009 at New Orleans, Louisiana. Her paper was entitled “James Thomson and his fur trade wives: Fur trade reality or the soap opera of Fort Chipewyan?”

She has kindly given me permission to use material from her article on this web page.

Hudson’s Bay Company

James Thomson, who was originally from the Isle of Lewis, Scotland had been employed as a labourer by the Hudson’s Bay Company since 1868. By 1876 his contract was coming to an end and the letter opposite is a testimonial given to him by his employer, but also a letter to his superiors requesting his re-engagement for a further term. The letter transcribes as follows:

The Bearer James Thomson has served in Athabasca District since [Outfit?] 1868 and has given perfect satisfaction, both to myself and my predecessor in charge. He retires this season (1876) but I should be glad to have him back again on at least the terms of his last engagement, and if willing I beg that he may be re-engaged accordingly.

Portage La Loche, 4 August 1876

Hudson’s Bay Company

James Thomson continued to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company until 1885, so presumably he was awarded a contract renewal.

Letter about James Thomson

This Coat of Arms, with it’s celebration of the local wildlife reminds me of the illustration above that celebrates the local wildlife, but possibly for different reasons.

Hudson’s Bay Company

I like this coat of arms for the same reason that I like the illustration in the first paragraph.

The coat of arms has a number of components which have remained remarkably consistent over time. It is composed of a silver shield with a red cross (the cross of St. George) with four brown beavers, one in each quarter. Above the shield is the crest, which depicts a fox sitting on a red cap, the Cap of Maintenance, which is trimmed with ermine.

The shield and crest are supported by two elk. The earliest representations show animals whose antlers are more like caribou than what would be recognized as elk, but since no Europeans, or at least none at the College of Arms in England, had seen an elk, the animals on the original coat of arms were in fact quite bizarre looking.

According to E E Rich, professor of Canadian fur trade history and editor of the Hudson’s Bay Record Society from 1937 to 1959, the animals were supposed to be moose. A revised version of the coat of arms issued on Canadian share certificates in 1961 transformed the ambiguous “elk” into unmistakable moose.

James Thomson’s Agreement with Hudson’s Bay Company

James Thomson’s Contract

The Agreement opposite is the appointment of James Thomson as Labourer to work for Hudson’s Bay Company in Canada and is dated 24 March 1867.

James Thomson

The previous post told the story of Isabella MacIver and her journey from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland to Fort Chipewyan in Northern Alberta, Canada in 1881.

James Thomson was born about 1844 in the crofting village of Tong, on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. James joined the Hudson’s Bay Company labour force in 1868 and sailed to York Factory. He was posted to Fort Chipewyan, where he advanced from “labourer” and “middleman” to “fisherman”.

In 1876 he returned home to Lewis at the age of 32, and the following spring on 27 April 1877 he married Isabella Maciver, also from Tong and about 13 years his junior. She would have been a young girl, only 11, when he left for Canada. She was grown up and of marriageable age when he returned. James was probably a good catch, because his years with the Hudson’s Bay Company had given him a bank account. Perhaps he seemed dashing and exotic as well, back from the fur trade, undoubtedly with tales to tell. In 1878 he returned to Fort Chipewyan, and it is probably safe to assume that he expected Isabella, like other Lewis women, to remain at home in Lewis.

It seems that James Thomson may have had a liaison with a native Chipewyan woman called Louise Encore, by whom he is alleged to have had a child Caroline, who took the surname Thomson, to reflect what she believed to be her parentage, allthough she spelt her surname Thompson. It is not clear whether this was a casual liaison or possibly a marriage à la façon du pays, which I understand to mean an arrangement according to the customs of the local Chipewyan population.

I took an ancestral DNA test last year and I note that I have genetic DNA matches from several people in the Edmonton area, who also have native American ethnicity in their DNA. The percentage DNA match indicates a distant cousin, but as the common ancestor between myself and any descendants of Louise Encore would have been my great great grandfather, who was also James Thomson’s father, it is perhaps not surprising.

Lake Mamawi

Lake Athabasca – Dry Fish. Image courtesy of Don Voyageur, who lives in Fort Chipewyan

Making Dry Fish

Isabella MacIver, when she arrived in Fort Chipewyan, would have lived the life of a typical labourer’s wife. Her earlier life on Lewis would have accustomed her to hard work.

Two weeks after their arrival at Fort Chipewyan, James was sent to establish a fishery on Lake Mamawi. He took with him one assistant and two women, presumably their wives. The women’s job was “to make dry fish”.

Isabella would have been well accustomed to filleting herring on the quayside in Stornoway, but she would have had to learn the art of making dry fish. In Europe, we talk about dried fish, but that should not be confused with the traditional Chipewyan dish, which is always known as “dry fish”.

Lake Mamawi

They were at the Lake Mamawi fishery until the middle of October, perhaps a second honeymoon for them. At the end of October, James was sent out to Goose Island to work at the major fall fishery, where several men and their families were stationed. Isabella undoubtedly began to learn a little Cree, English, French, and possibly even Chipewyan at this time.

The fishermen remained at Goose Island until the day before Christmas. The post journal noted that all the Protestant labourers dined at Wylie’s; that would have included James and his wife. Although Isabella would have worked with her husband, she may also have been treated as something special by the other Scotsmen, thanks to her Lewis origin, and afforded special favours not necessarily granted to other women.

They had three children in Fort Chipewyan born one year after another, Marion on 28 February 1882, James Alexander 12 March 1883, and Catherine in May 1884. Isabella would have been assisted by a competent local midwife. The children were all baptized at St. Paul’s Anglican Church by Reverend Reeve. The family lived at Fort Chipewyan until 1885, when they returned to Lewis.

Fort Chipewyan Anglican Church 1893. Image courtesy of Brault Kelpin

Return to Lewis

Back in Lewis, James became a merchant and trader, and Isabella worked in the shop, producing butter, cheese, and jam to sell. Later James purchased a fishing boat and hired a crew. He had been working his mother’s croft in Tong (no. 15), and he acquired the croft in his own name in 1902. Five years later, he bought a second croft in Tong (no. 17). They had ten children, most of whom survived. They celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary in 1927. James died in 1929 at age 85, and Isabella in 1949 at age 93.

Fort Chipewyan Anglican Church 1980. Image courtesy of Brault Kelpin

Lake Athabasca in Snow

Caroline Thompson/Thomson

Patrica McCormack was reading the 1899 Half-breed scrip applications from Fort Chipewyan and found an application by one Caroline Thompson. She was born, she said, on the 15th of December, 1880 at Fort Chipewyan. Her mother was a Chipewyan Indian (noted as a “Pure Indian woman”) named Louise Encore. Caroline named James Thomson as her father but added a sad note to the application:

“I am an illegitimate child. My father was James Thompson a Scotchman who is now in Scotland. He never recognized me as his child and has never supported me. As a matter of fact he has repudiated me as being his child.”

Louise Encore

It was only by luck and chance that Professor McCormack had earlier discovered the story of the Thomson family and was able to think about the implications of this new information. Assuming that Louise Encore carried her pregnancy for a full nine months, she would have become pregnant about the middle of March, 1880. That meant that James Thomson was involved in a sexual relationship with Louise, but probably not marriage à la façon du pays, for some period during the winter of 1879-1880, at the same time that his wife Isabella was making her own plans to travel from Lewis to York Factory on Hudson’s Bay.

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, Roman Catholic Church, Fort Chipewyan. Sadly both the Church and the Father’s House on the right were burnt down in an arson attack in 2022.

Fort Chipewyan, Hudson’s Bay Company Houses. Image courtesy of Brault Kelpin

Caroline Thompson’s Birth

But if James Thomson went out to Red River on the first boats of the season, in late May or early June, it is possible that he would not have known when he left that Louise was pregnant, and in any event he may have told her that he was not returning to Fort Chipewyan, now that his Lewis wife was arriving. Perhaps he thought that the Company would station him elsewhere.

Community of the Holy Angels

Louise Encore delivered her baby daughter in the middle of December at Fort Chipewyan. She and baby Caroline left for Fond du Lac, a post for Chipewyans located at the other end of Lake Athabasca, possibly in the spring of 1881 when it was warm enough to travel or, more likely, when the lake opened in June. She may have had family there, or they may have been encouraged to leave by the Company factor.

Macfarlane or one of the other men, who knew that Thomson was returning with his Scottish wife, probably before James and Isabella arrived in August. Maybe both factors were at work. Louise and Caroline lived at Fond du Lac in 1881 and 1882. But then Louise died (when Caroline was “about one year old” – from scrip application), and Caroline was sent to live at the Holy Angels convent in Fort Chipewyan, where she was raised by the Sisters of Charity, more commonly known as the Grey Nuns.

Community of the Holy Angels, Lake Athabasca

Although James and Isabella were kept busy out of town at the fisheries for most of the fall following their arrival, we can engage in another point of reasonable speculation: the women of Fort Chipewyan would have made sure that Isabella knew about the Chipewyan woman and her daughter by James. One can imagine the scenes that must have followed between Isabella and James, the accusations and tears from Isabella, and the denials by James. That was almost certainly why James formally repudiated his illegitimate daughter, although we do not know the form it took. Yet Isabella and James were stuck with each other at Fort Chipewyan; they would have found it difficult to divorce. They obviously found a way to move on, to preserve their marriage, and the possibility of James having fathered this daughter became a secret that was not part of the family’s oral tradition.

Grey Nuns

Childhood in the Convent

Caroline Thomson was a child in the convent while her two half-sisters and one half-brother were born. Perhaps she was told about them; she may even have met them; but at such a young age it would not have meant much to her. She was five years old when her father left Fort Chipewyan to return to Lewis. Nevertheless, she persisted with his surname, which meant that she believed what she had been told about her parentage and that James had “repudiated” her as a daughter.

It seemed that Caroline chose not to self-identify as a Chipewyan woman, perhaps because she had been raised in the convent. Had she been raised by a Chipewyan family after her mother died, her life and identity would have been different.

She grew up a Roman Catholic, literate in the French language of the Sisters, with a Scottish father (or believing that she did). The scrip application indicated that it had been “read over and explained in the French language,” and she signed her name “Caroline Thompson.”

Caroline lived in the convent until July 1897, when she left to work as a servant for long-time employee Pierre Mercredi. She was then nearly 17 years old. Pierre Mercredi had gone to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1879 and must have known her father well, both from living in Fort Chipewyan and from working for the same company for six years. I like to think that Pierre believed that James had not done right by his daughter.

Giving her a job and thereby providing for her was the right thing to do. While girls raised in the convent often married when they left, Caroline was described as “Crippled (Lame)” in the 1901 Census, which would have made it more difficult for her to find a husband. In April 1898, she went to work for trader Colin Fraser, also as a servant. Servants were not common at Fort Chipewyan, but both women and men occasionally worked for well-to-do traders.

A female servant at Fort Chipewyan would have done domestic labour in the household, housekeeping, cooking, sewing, and childcare, something for which Caroline had been well trained by the Grey Nuns. Because Caroline had learned to read and write, and probably to do arithmetic, one wonders if Fraser might have found other uses for her in his business.

Scrip Application

She was still working for Colin Fraser when she applied for scrip. It is intriguing that she applied for land scrip, not cash scrip. The Half-breed scrip process in Canada was intended both to settle the Aboriginal claims of mixed-ancestry people who did not enter into treaty and to provide them with land to be used for farming. But land scrip was mostly worthless to northern people, because it was not possible to turn such scrip into land ownership in the north at that time. Land had to be taken in southern areas that had been surveyed and opened to homesteading. One wonders if Colin Fraser, who had good contacts in Edmonton, advised her to make such an application, thinking that he would help her get the land and then profit from its sale. She applied for scrip on 7 August 1899. Around the same time, she became pregnant, and her baby, Rosa Alberta Thompson, was baptized at the Holy Angels Mission on 20 May 1900 as the “illegitimate daughter of Caroline Thompson.” She was James Thomson’s granddaughter, though it was unlikely he ever knew about her.

Chipewyan woman and child hunting muskrat

The Household of Colin Fraser. Image courtesy of Brault Kelpin

Colin Fraser’s Household

Caroline Thompson, applied for land scrip. She identified herself as a “servant,” having worked for both Pierre Mercredi and Colin Fraser after she left the Holy Angels Convent in 1897 at the age of seventeen. She made her application in French, which she would have learned in the convent (LAC, RG 15, v. 1369).

This photograph shows the household of Colin Fraser. Caroline Thompson, who worked as a servant for Colin Fraser may well appear in this photograph, although we can’t be sure which one she is.

Colin Fraser, Fur Trader

Colin Fraser did not arrive in Fort Chipewyan until 1887, so he would not have known James Thomson, though he undoubtedly heard about him as he became part of the local community.

Colin Fraser, Fort Chipewyan Fur Trader

Fort Chipewyan with Steamer Grahame in Foreground.

John Arnott

Because Rosa Alberta was described as illegitimate, it suggests that Caroline married after the birth to John Arnott, a 47 year-old Englishman who was a returned Klondiker. In the 1901 Census of Canada, she was listed as John’s “Scotch breed” wife, and their daughter Alberta was one year old.

Caroline still had her land scrip, which was later listed in her married name, Caroline Arnott. John Arnott, who was working as a fisherman for an independent trader (Charles Smith), froze to death in a wicked snow storm in March, 1902. He was buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery on the shore of Lake Athabasca.

Postscript

An earlier version of this paper speculated about the future lives of Caroline and her daughter, and Professor McCormack had thought it was completed as far as she could do without further research. In a second remarkable coincidence, on Tuesday, 29 September, she met John Malcolm, a member of the Fort McMurray First Nation, who knew her history and confirmed for her something that she had heard to the effect that Caroline Arnott remarried in 1903 to Alexis Cree Senior, a man located farther up the Athabasca River (and Raphael Cree’s uncle).

She bore three other children with Alexis Cree, who died c.1911-12. Caroline then married a third time, in 1912, to Henry (Harry) Taylor Malcolm, with whom she had more children. Caroline’s daughter, Rosa Alberta Arnott (known as Rosa), like her mother before her, was placed in the convent as a two-year old toddler on 20 March 1902, to be raised by the Sisters. Professor McCormack could find no trace of her in the convent records searched, but John Malcolm informed her that she married Henry Militaire Hainault and had children of her own.

So both Caroline and Rosa have many descendants in at least two different Cree family lines. They are distant cousins to the descendants of James and Isabella back in Lewis, and one of my goals will be to find a way to build a bridge between the two families on the opposite sides of the Atlantic.

Fort Chipewyan, Potato Island with Wood Buffalo Park on the far horizon. Thanks to Brault Kelpin for pointing out that this is the view that James and Isabella would have enjoyed from their house in Fort Chipewyan.

Letter from Hudson’s Bay Head Office, Montreal

Letter from Hudson’s Bay Company

The letter opposite was sent by Hudson’s Bay Company on 25 April, 1888. This was three years after James and Isabella had returned to Lewis, so he seems to have instructed his former employers, to sell three shares in the Bank of Toronto and remit the funds to the UK. The amount transmitted was about £115 which is equivalent to about £18,300 at 2023 prices. The letter transcribes as follows:

Hudson’s Bay House, Montreal. April 25th 1888

My dear Sir,

Your letter of the 9th March last was received and acting on the instructions conveyed in it I have sold the three shares of the Bank of Toronto stock which belonged to you, receiving therefor five hundered and ninety six dollars & 25 cents. and enclosed herewith a cheque No A12350 of this date on the Bank of Montreal, 22 Abchurch Lane, London to your order for one hundered and fifteen pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence. (£115-12-6) being the equivalent at the present rate of exchange, of five hunderd and sixty five dollars and 28 cents, the balance of your account as shown in the accompanying statement.

I am obliged to you for the kind words given expression to in your letter in respect of transactions with my office and need only add that it will be a pleasure to me to be of service to you in any way in my power.

Kindly acknowledge receipt and with best wishes. Believe me, Very Truly yours, Donald Smith [Lord Strathcona]

James Thomson Esquire, Tongue Stornoway, Scotland

Lord Strathcona hammering the final spike in the Canadian Pacific Railway

Lord Strathcona

This paragraph and the previous paragraph share a common theme in that they mark the completion of a project. Both events were marked by the same man, Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona.

James Thomson had just completed some twelve years of working for the Hudson Bay Company. The final letter sent to him in Lewis enclosing the proceeds of the sale of his shares in the company was signed by Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona.

How fitting then that the final spike to complete the epic project to build a railway across Canada should be hammered home by Lord Strathcona himself. The railway the transported so many Lewis men across Canada.

James Thomson and Isabella MacIver

I believe that this photograph was taken in Lewis after James and Isabella returned to their croft at 15 Tong, Lewis, Scotland.

James and Isabella had ten children. The first three being born in Fort Chipewyan, and the remaining seven back in Lewis. Their first child was Marion Mary was born in Fort Chipewyan on 28 February 1882. Her story is told in the article The Family of Marion Thomson and is told by her daughter Jessie Mawhinney.

The other children were James Alexander 1883, Catherine 1885, Jessie 1888, Christina 1889, Alexander 1890, Mary 1893, Isabella 1894, Jane 1896 and Catherine 1899.

James died in Lewis in 1929 and Isabella died in 1947.

James Thomson and Isabella MacIver and Family

Update – December 2023

This page has been updated with some very helpful corrections and additional information and photographs provided by Brault Kelpin, who lived in Fort Chipewyan in his youth. I am very grateful to him for his contribution. He chanced upon this website while searching for information about James and Isabella. I am grateful to Brault for his help. He has written a fascinating blog about his early years in Fort Chipewyan and other fur trading settlements which I thoroughly recommend.

A detailed study of the Chipewyan Indian Nation can be found in Patricia McCormack’s Research Report ‘An Ethnohistory of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation’.

Ancestor Chart

The First Lewis Woman in Athabasca

MacIver, Thomson Athabasca, Fond du Lac, Fort Chipewyan, Hudson's Bay Company, Isle of Lewis, Lake Mamawi, Scotland, Tong 4

The First Lewis Woman in Athabasca

James Thomson and Isabella MacIver and family

James Thomson and Isabella MacIver

This page contains a story about James Thomson and Isabella MacIver from 15 Tong, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. James Thomson was the son of my great great grandparents Alexander Thomson and Christina MacInnes.

James was a fur trader employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company in Canada, working in the snowy wastelands of Northern Alberta at Fort Chipewyan.

James married Isabella MacIver in Stornoway on 27 April 1877. James’ father, Alexander Thomson and Isabella’s mother Catherine MacIver née Thomson were brother and sister. So James Thomson and Isabella MacIver were first cousins.

In 1927 on the occasion of their Golden Wedding, Isabella told her story to the Stornoway Gazette about how she had decided to go and join her husband in Athabasca, and in doing so became the first Lewis woman in Athabasca.

The story below is told in Isabella’s own words.

Journey to Athabasca in Isabella MacIver’s own words

It is a far cry from Stornoway in the Hebrides to Fort Chipewyan in North Athabasca, 850 miles north west of Winnipeg, even in these days when giant ocean liners cross and recross the Atlantic, and when luxurious trains traverse the great plains of Canada from seaboard to seaboard.

What it was in the year 1880 even in the best steamer then available, and on land by portage and canoe has been described by such writers as General Sir W F Butler in his book The Great Wild West and by numerous others. So that the account that follows may fall short in interest to those others, but I venture to say that it was no light journey to be undertaken by a woman who had hardly ever before left her native island, and who had not a word of English to help her in her great adventure into the unknown.

I was married at Stornoway on the 27 April 1877, my husband having come home on a visit and having to return almost immediately afterwards, so that I was exceedingly anxious to accompany him on his return. It was well known that the country at this time was very unsettled. The Indians had been put into a state of unrest by raids and other troubles, and I was strongly advised not to accompany my husband out there. All those who knew where I was going, and the difficulties I would have to surmount before getting there did all in their power to dissuade me from my desperate undertaking.

Fort Chipewyan Fur Trader. Colin Fraser

Entrance to Fort Chipewyan

Hudson’s Bay Company

Dr R Miller who was then agent for Hudson’s Bay Company at Stornoway did all he could to prevent my venturing out there, telling me that the cold in Western Canada was most severe in winter, and that the heat in summer would be very trying to one like me. Still, my husband had been out for thirteen years and he was well acquainted with the country. He understood the Indians, their language and their customs so I was not a bit afraid to venture.

However, much against my will, and in no way discouraged, I was forced to forgo my project, and it was three years after before I got away. During these years in my letters to my husband, I pressed him hard to allow me to go out to him as I could not be satisfied unless I was permitted to go. Thus it was that in the month of March 1880 my joy was great on receiving a letter in the following terms:

Dear Madam

Enclosed please find a draft of money for ……. dollars in your favour and a through ticket per the Allen Line from Glasgow to Winnipeg, sent by your husband who has doubtless acquainted you with his intention of bringing you out here.

You will, therefore, lose no time in making your preparations as it is most necessary for you to be here early in May so as to enable you to accompany your husband to the Athabasca District, his new appointment.

Yours Truly

Alexander Christie (Head Clerk), Hudson’s Bay Company, Fort Garry, March 1880

Voyage to Canada

I need hardly say that I was well pleased with the way matters were progressing for my project, and I lost no time in pushing forward my preparations for my journey.

My people redoubled their efforts to dissuade me from going, telling me that I would surely be killed by the Indians, and that my husband would be killed on my account. My mother especially gathered all the wild rumours she could about Indians and such like, but I would listen to no one, my mind was made up and I must go.

In the middle of April I embarked on the SS Clansman at Stornoway on a Monday and arrived at Glasgow on Thursday intending to sail from Glasgow on the following Saturday, but as I had hardly any English and as I did not know any Gaelic speaking people going by that boat, a friend advised me to wait for a week. A boat with a Gaelic speaking captain (Captain Maclean, afterwards Provost of Govan) was due to sail in a week, and my friend spoke to the captain on my account.

SS Clansman. Image courtesy of University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums

Every afternoon during our voyage the captain sought me out and greatly encouraged me for my venture. Also, before the voyage came to an end at Quebec he sought out among the passengers a Gaelic speaking man of the name of Mackay from Kintail, who was going to Winnipeg to search for work. The captain entrusted me to the man’s care and while he was of great service to me as interpreter, I was at the same time useful to him. He had sent his money to Winnipeg in advance under the impression that his ocean ticket supplied him with everything he needed on the train journey as well as on sea. This, of course, was not the case, but as I was well provided with funds, I was able to see us both through. Our passage across the ocean was good and uneventful, and I was little the worse for the voyage, arriving in Quebec in high spirits and quite satisfied with the first part of my journey.

Canadian Pacific Railway

After a short stay at Quebec we entrained for Winnipeg but as some sections of the CPR had not yet been finished on the north side of the Great Lakes, we had to go through the United States. Leaving Quebec in the early morning by the Grand Trunk Railway, our route lay upland through Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton then across into Detroit and through the States of Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota and Dakota, never once leaving the train from the time we entrained at Quebec until we arrived in Winnipeg. We even crossed the Great River at Detroit in sections and passed through the cities of Detroit, Chicago, St. Paul’s in Minnesota and Dakota, crossing again into Canada at Pembina in the province of Manitoba, and arriving shortly afterwards at Winnipeg, the first stage of my journey.

On my arrival there, I was disappointed at not finding anyone meeting me. As Fort Garry (the headquarters of the Hudson’s Bay Company) was nearly two miles from the railway station, I got the Kintail man to accompany me to the Company’s office where I called on Mr. Christie and found him most considerate. He told me that my husband was on duty at Fort Alexander and would be back in a day or two. In the meantime he placed me in a hotel close to Fort Garry, and told me to want for nothing as he would arrange everything for my comfort.

My two days stay in the hotel was very pleasant to me until the arrival of my husband from the Lake. With him were his cousin. John McInnes from Tong, and Angus Morrison from Stornoway. The latter was then the oldest pilot on Lake Winnipeg and second in command of the Company’s steamer which was to take us out on Lake Winnipeg to the mouth of the Saskatchewan River.

Our meeting was a most happy one and for a week we had an exceptionally fine time of it, meeting the many Stornoway and Lewis men who came to see me and to enquire about the old country and the folk at home. These were all retired servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company and they told me that there were no Stornoway or Lewis women in Winnipeg at that time, at the same time impressing on me that my adventure was only beginning then; a truth I was soon to find out for myself.

The Steamer ‘Colville’

Thus at the beginning of June 1880 we boarded the steamer ”Colville” of the Hudson’s Bay Company with Angus Morrison second in command and John McInnes, my husband’s cousin, as steward, and began to descend the Red River. The view as we passed down by Kildonan and St. Andrews was magnificent, pretty cottages nestling in sweet glades on each side of the river and a charming countryside stretching away on either side. I was told that the settlers were the descendants of Gaelic speaking people brought out from Sutherlandshire by Lord Selkirk years before.

Certainly their habitations now seemed to be placed in a smiling garden of exceeding richness. In the evening we arrived at Stone Fort, a large square closed in by walls twelve feet high and most strongly built of stone and lime. This enclosure was one of the wonders of the Hudson’s Bay territory, being very imposing and picturesque and to me exceedingly interesting as it was the work of a Stornoway man of the name of Macrae from Melbost.

Steamship Colville

Here at Stone Fort some goods were taken on board for use in the northern depots trade and then we passed down the river to Selkirk where most of the goods for the outlying districts were shipped. Here, at Selkirk, was where it was originally intended for the CPR to cross the Red River but the people of Winnipeg agitated and got the Railway company to strike along the south side of the river for 25 miles and cross at Point Douglas opposite Winnipeg.

Now everything was hustle and bustle loading the “Colville”, working day and night until she was loaded down to a dangerous point according to Angus Morrison, and he knew the River and Lake Winnipeg better than anyone, but at last all was ready and we left Selkirk for the lake, about five miles distant. There was a strong breeze blowing from the west as we got to the mouth of the Red River, and this had the effect of driving the water in a measure to the other end of the Lake. The mouth of the river had not been deepened or dragged, and the steamer often ran aground, making it impossible to get out onto the lake.

We were in a fix and there was nothing for it but to turn back to the river, discharge part of the cargo and try again. After getting rid of some stores, we tried again and were successful getting into the waters of the lake and passing along the north side of the mouth of the Saskatchewan River, but we could only get two miles up the river for we were told that the “Colville” could get no further owing to an obstruction called the Grand Rapids, and that the “Colville” had to return to Selkirk. There was a portage of two miles on the other side of the rapids and all the goods were carried this distance to where a large Company steamer, the North Castle”, was going up the Saskatchewan River.

Saskatchewan River

Two days later, we boarded the steamer and began to ascend through Cedar Lake, Moose Lake, Las Passe, Cumberland Fort and Fort-la-Corne above which the Saskatchewan River forks into two branches. We took the North branch and after a while came to Prince Albert where a few small houses could be seen scattered here and there. I was told that there was to be a town here soon, but as yet there was little appearance of that.

It took us a long time to get from the rapids to this place as the river was full of sandbanks and the current was very swift and strong, while huge pine trees some 90 and 100 feet long, fallen from the river banks and floating downstream, made the going quite difficult.

From Prince Albert we came to the great Fort Carlton, the capital of the Northwest Territories, where all the chief factors and traders from the far west McKenzie River District, the Athabasca District and the Île-à-la-Crosse District came every summer to hold council as to how to carry on the work of the following winter. Fort Carlton was a formidable place built of solid logs to a height of twenty feet all round so as to protect the white traders from the savage attacks of the Indians. I was frightened on being shown the marks of the lead balls fired into the fort by the Indians in olden times.

Here, my husband’s chief deputy, Mr R Ross MacFarlane, a Stornoway man, and a man of high distinction in the district, came to see me and complimented me on my courage in venturing so far west. He said that although I had a hard part of my journey still in front of me, he was not a bit afraid that I would not accomplish the rest as well, and as he had had a hand in allowing me to come so far, he was to ask me to undertake a delicate commission for him; no less than to take a cage of six tame hens and a cock to Fort Chipewyan, a distance by the route we would take, I was told, of 1,500 miles. As he was a great patron of my husband and a man of exceedingly high character and kindness, I promised that I would do my best to serve him, and took charge of his consignment of livestock with pleasure.

I was to get a pony and trap for myself and all the requirements for the hens were to be given to me, while carters and boatmen would be given instructions to assist me at all times when necessary. We were here on the borders of civilization and for the rest of our journey there would be no trains or steamers, our only means of travel being carts and York flat boats.

Red River Passage

This, then, was the third stage of my journey and preparations had to be made for a rough trip the like of which I never as much dreamt of Flintlock guns had to be cleaned out, powder and shot, tent poles and pegs, tea and sugar, kettles and pans had to be got ready, axes had to be sharpened and handled and innumerable other things had to be made ready for this part of the trip. As I faced this wild unknown I felt a quiver of uncertainty for the first time, and saw the wisdom of those who tried to dissuade me from entering the Great Wild West, but I was as determined as ever to go on. We crossed the river by a flat boat, and struck due north, our train consisting of ten carts all in charge of a Red River District man, William Sinclair, who knew every part of the route.

Red River Valley

Next morning we were off. The drivers shouted and laughed as they yoked the animals to the carts and fixed the baggage up, for everything bad to be secure and in its proper place. My place was in the rear with my pony and trap and this enabled me to see the country on every side, wild undulating country not very thickly wooded but covered with the richest vegetation. For seven days we trekked through this land of plenty stopping for dinner when a horn was blown by the chief and everyone cooking his own dinner amid a cheerfulness and good fellowship which to me was good to see. There was plenty of game to be shot, wild swan, wild duck, moose, beaver and all sorts so that we were never short of fresh provisions.

After seven days we came to Green Lake and met six boats that were ready to carry us across the lake. We then went down the Green Lake River through Waterhen Lake and River to Île-à-la-Crosse Fort, where we waited for a day or two to give us a much needed rest. We left for the long portage and passed up Île-à-la-Crosse Lake, Deep River, White Lake, Buffalo River and Lake Methie River and Lake, and from there to the long portage called Methie Portage. Here, we were at the highest point of land, and the Methie Portage is a connection between the water that falls into Hudson’s Bay (through the English and Churchill Rivers) and the waters that fall in the Arctic Ocean (through the Clear Water, Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers).

York Boat

The Long Portage

This portage of twelve or fourteen miles took us a whole day to cross with our horses and carts, and at evening we camped on fine high ground overlooking the Clear Water River. The view was extremely fine as far as Fort McMurray, the background of the mountains and the plains with an occasional patch of woodland forming a lovely picture.

Here again six York boats were ready to take us down to Fort Chipewyan, my destination, and they were in the charge of a middle aged Frenchman who knew his work well. He was called “Guide of the Brigade”.

We left the Long Portage early in the morning, and I was placed with my charge in the guide’s boat. We were going downstream rapidly, gliding smoothly over the surface until the afternoon when there was a call from the guide for all the boats to land, and for all steersmen to come to his boat for a consultation. This order was promptly complied with and there was a long consultation. I saw that something unusual was going to happen for all the boatmen were stripping themselves to the very skins and tying handkerchiefs round their heads.

All the time I could hear ahead a loud dull roar which seemed very terrifying but which, I was told, was caused by falling water. We were in fact to run rapids. The guide told the steersmen that every man had to do his part as he was told, the boats were to keep a certain distance from one another, and if any mishap were to befall a boat, all other boats coming behind were to go to her assistance as those in front could not turn back in the rapid current.

My husband who had passed several times through these rapids, and who understood all the people were saying, told me all this and at the same time told me to fear nothing as the going was perfectly safe. Soon we pushed off from the land, and in a short while the roar of the falls could be heard growing louder and louder as we rapidly approached the ledge. Before coming to the larger falls there were occasional falls which the boats ran down, giving the boatmen a most exciting time as they rowed with all their might on one side of the boat and backed water on the other side thus causing the boat to spin like a top in midstream. All this time the roar of the cascade was terrific and it was impossible to hear a word unless spoken at the top of one’s voice.

The spray from this immense body of water falling 70 or 80 feet down, rose high above the tops of the trees on either side and at first I thought the boats were going to shoot down this awful drop, which of course no-one could do and live. The boats were landed above the big fall and all the cargo was carried by the men across a small neck of land in front, and the boats were dragged ashore and pulled across a small strip of land into the water below the great falls, and so into smoother water behind.

Fort McMurray

It was a long time before I forgot the look and the roar of that giant fall or the majestic sight it presented to me when I viewed it for the first time. On our way down to Fort McMurray we passed as many as five of these rapids and at each one the cargo was taken out of the boats and carried across by the men.

It was a wonderful experience and a delightful sensation to me as the empty boats ran down the rapids towards Fort McMurray where the Clear River joins the Athabasca River. I was told that I was the first Scottish woman, and I am certain that I was the first Lewis woman that got down these rivers, for although at all these trading forts and stations Lewis men were everywhere in evidence, no Lewis women were to be met anywhere.

We left Fort McMurray after landing supplies for next winter, passed down the Athabasca River to the lake of that name, crossed the end of Lake Athabasca and arrived the first week of September at my destination, Fort Chipewyan in the Northwest Territory and established by that famous traveller, Sir Alexander McKenzie, a Stornoway man. The Deputy Governor Mr R Ross MacFarlane, who had arrived by canoe before us, came to see me and congratulated me on my success in coming through so many hardships, and bringing a cargo of hens safe and sound to Fort Chipewyan.

Grand Rapid to Fort Chipewyan

Hudson’s Bay Company Housing, Fort Chipewyan 1893. Image courtesy of Brault Kelpin.

Fort Chipewyan

These sketchy notes are now at an end. At the time these things happened, no notes were taken nor was it ever intended to write this account, but perhaps to many, the route taken and the hardships of travel endured by the early settlers may be of interest. To me, as I look back on those eventful days, many things come back, but nothing so much as the kindly consideration that was given me, a lonely woman, by Indians, Frenchmen and everyone else I came in contact with. My health was excellent and I was looking forward to a very happy home life in the plains of Athabasca. In conclusion, may I add my humble thanks to my countrymen who went before me into the Unknown, for I know well that when the history of these great and valuable parts of Canada comes to be written, it will be found that a very prominent part in the pioneering work of the Great Northwest has been taken by Lewis men.

Postscript

Isabella’s story ends with her arrival at Fort Chipewyan, but it is very far from the end of the story.

We must thank Professor Patricia McCormack from the Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta for unearthing the rest of the story. Her honours thesis and her PhD thesis were both about colonization at Fort Chipewyan, and the long established custom of white expatriates to take native wives from the indigenous population.

In particular, she has done a detailed study of the story of James Thomson, his Native American “wife” Louise Encore and his Lewis wife, Isabella MacIver, and can tell the story of what happened after Isabella arrived in Fort Chipewyan.

I will tell this story in the second part of this article,

Anglican Church, Fort Chipewyan, 1980. Image courtesy of Brault Kelpin

Ancestor Chart