Perspectives from the Past – Part 2

This post – the 2nd of 3 in my genealogy series – focuses on my dad’s maternal ancestors, the Scottish and Metis branch of the family. My 5x great-grandfather, Malcolm Ross, was a fur trader and explorer with the Hudson Bay Company (HBC). He was born in the Orkney Islands (Scotland) in 1754 and came to what was then Rupert’s Land when he was 20.

Rupert’s Land was a huge wilderness territory – almost 8 million square kms – and a rich source of furs. In 1670, King Charles II granted the Hudson Bay Company exclusive rights to trade and colonize all the land where rivers flowed into the Hudson Bay. Indigenous peoples had inhabited this land for thousands of years prior to that. The existence of the Hudson Bay Company changed the way of life for the Indigenous people from one where they hunted and trapped for subsistence, to one where they trapped to trade for other goods.

Malcolm started out at the York Factory, one of the HBC’s first trading posts. In 1776, he travelled up the Saskatchewan River and returned over a year later, “bringing four Sledge Loads of Furrs, hauled by Dogs after 40 days’ arduous travel from Where the Indians they left … are pounding Buffelo.”

Malcolm was described as “an Excellent Servant and fine canoe Man equal allmost to any Indian in Shooting falls”. His 1782 performance review described him as a “most excellent Canoe Man, much beloved by the Indians”, earning him a raise from £15 to £20 per year.

Between 1790 and 1792, Malcolm was part of the expedition with Peter Fidler and Philip Turnor to explore Athabasca country. He was accompanied on the journey by his wife, an “Indian woman” named “Abicow Shies”, (likely the British interpretation of the Ojibwa name Abequa), and their two young children, George and Clementine. Peter Fidler commented in his journals on the value of having Abequa with them on the journey:

 “An Indian woman at a House is particularly useful in making shoes, cutting line, netting snow shoes, cleaning and stretching Beaver skins &c., that the Europeans are not acquainted with.” 

Indigenous women were often used as a way to build alliances between the Indigenous people and the fur traders. Women were offered to the fur traders as a way of cementing the relationship. The fact that Malcolm’s wife and children travelled with him was somewhat unusual for the time. It was against company rules to have relationships with the local women, but it doesn’t seem to have been enforced. In one of his journals, Malcolm comments on the mistreatment of Indigenous women by the Canadians (employees of the competing North West Company based out of what was then Canada).

The Jepowyan Indians complain very much of the injustice done them by the Canadians in taking their women from them by force, some of the Canadians keep no less than 3 women and several 2.  An instance happened this day of the injustice of the Canadians in the traffic of the Fair Sex. A Canadian that had 2 women before, went to their tents and took a young woman away by force, which was the only support of her aged Parents: The old Indian her Father, interfered, he was knocked down and dragged some distance by the hair of his head, altho so infirm with age that he is obliged to walk with a stick to support himself – such is the goings on in this Quarter, all this is encouraged by their masters, who often stand as Pimps to procure women for their men, all to get the mens wages from them.

In 1793, Malcolm was asked to organize and lead an expedition to Athabasca Country to establish a trading post, but faced years of delays and obstruction from the homeland and the HBC leadership. By 1796, Malcolm and his assistant, David Thompson – a surveyor who would go on to map half of North America – grew frustrated with the situation. Malcolm tendered his resignation and planned to return to the UK. Thompson was pegged to replace him, but in the spring of 1797, Thompson decided to leave HBC and go work for the North West Company. Without giving the required one-year notice, he snuck out in the middle of the night, leaving Malcolm with no choice but to postpone his retirement. [History class would have been infinitely more interesting if I’d understood when we learned about Thompson that a decision he made in 1797 might have impacted my very existence in the world.]

In 1799, the expedition to establish an Athabasca post was finally ready to go. Malcolm was given a 3-year contract at a rate of £80 per annum. He departed Churchill in September, but the following month York Factory received word that Malcolm had fallen overboard and drowned in the rapids. Malcolm’s son, George, was the beneficiary in his will and travelled to the UK after Malcolm’s death, likely to be raised by Malcolm’s relatives. Abequa and Clementine, about 12 at the time, probably went to live with Abequa’s family.

In 1824, Clementine married John Moar, from the Orkneys. She and John had about nine children, one of whom was my great-great-great-grandfather, Hebron Moar, born in 1831.

Hebron married Louise Campbell, who was also Metis. Hebron and Louise had at least a dozen children, including Margaret Moar, my great-great grandmother, born in 1855.

In 1869,  the Hudson Bay Company decided to sell Rupert’s Land. The Americans could afford to pay a higher price, but Britain pressured them to sell to Canada (which two years earlier had become a country made up of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia). Rupert’s Land was sold for $1.5 million dollars.

Hebron and his family then moved to the Manitoba House settlement about 200 kms north of what is now Winnipeg.

The Metis people of this community were all descendants of employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Trading Company of French, English, and mostly Scottish extraction, who had intermarried with the Indians….The Metis settlement adjacent to the trading post was referred to as simply the Manitoba House Settlement until 1889 when the name Kinosota was suggested by John Norquay for the local post office. The settlement consisted of a number of long narrow lots strung out along the shore of Lake Manitoba.

Reference: http://stcharlesschool.ca/Historic_Metis_Settlements_in_Manitoba_a.pdf

The first families in Kinosota were: Tanner, Demarais, Pruden, Moar, McDonald and Garrioch. Hebron was the postmaster. He was described as the patriarch of the community who had a good education. He had a reputation as the best interpreter of the Indian language and was familiar with their traditions and legends. He relayed the story of where the name Manitoba originated.

As the Hudson’s Bay Company contemplated closing their post, I decided to take a venture on my own account and accordingly resigned and bought the old Manito-Wapa Indian Agency building so picturesquely located on the west shore of The Narrows – at the point about a half-mile or a mile wide – and looking out on Manitou Island in the gap between the east and west shores of the lake. Here I carried on successfully for a number of years the business of a “Free Trader,” mostly in furs and fish and my customers were my old friends the Ebb & Flow, Dog Creek and Fairford Indians. They called it The Narrows-Manito Wapaw; Manito from the island which they believed to be the dwelling place of the Great Spirit; and Wapaw, meaning The Narrows or Narrow Waters. Literally therefore, the meaning is “Spirit of the Narrow Waters.” Manito-Wapaw became in the mouths of the white man, Manitoba, a word easier to pronounce.

(as relayed by J.J.Wilson http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/pageant/15/manitobasource.shtml)

Hebron and Louise’s daughter, Margaret, married Donald McDonald, born in 1848 in Scotland. Donald worked at HBC’s Fairford and Shoal Lake locations from 1862 to 1884, and later turned to farming. Margaret and Donald had at least nine children, including Ida, my great-grandmother.

Ida was born in Kinosota, Manitoba in 1877, the first of my ancestors to be born in “Canada”. She married Donald McLeod, who was born in Shoal River District of Manitoba in 1897.  His parents were Angus McLeod (“Whiteman”) and Mary Ducharme (Metis). The genealogy on the McLeod side is a bit murky, but Ida’s children are referred to in a newspaper article as “descendants of the McLeod family long associated with the Hudson Bay Company”, so it may trace back to John McLeod of Scotland who joined HBC in 1823 and married a Metis woman named Elizabeth Swain.

Ida and Donald lived in Gypsumville, Manitoba , and had ten children: Margaret (who, according to the 1901 Census, had a twin sister, Edith, not listed in the 1911 Census), Tina, Hattie, Malcolm, Jessie, Marion, Cassie, John Arthur (Cassie’s twin, who died at 3 months of age), Thomas, and Edith (born many years later than the earlier Edith).

In 1901, Ida claimed scrip, a government-issued voucher offering land or money to “half-breeds” in exchange for extinguishing land claims.

Gypsumville was known for its gypsum mine and Donald was one of the earliest employees of the Gypsum Company, likely working in the quarry. Ida worked as a caretaker at the school. Donald died in his late 40s or early 50s.

Ida lived in Gypsumville for 50 years, before moving to Winnipeg around 1940. She died in 1960 at the age of 82. Margaret, Hattie, Malcolm and Thomas had all pre-deceased her, so by the time my siblings and I were born there was our grandmother, Cassie, and four great-aunts: Jessie in B.C., Marion in Ontario, Edith in Boston, and Tina in Calgary.

Several members of this branch of the family were also involved in the war effort during World War II.  Thomas enlisted early on and was one of 916 Canadians who lost their lives in the Raid on Dieppe. Marion served overseas with the women’s division of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The women took on support roles to free up the men for combat. Jessie’s husband, Stan, and two grandchildren (Margaret’s sons) also served.

My grandmother, Catherine Anne (Cassie) McLeod, married Herbert Greenham, but that’s a story for the next (and final) episode of my genealogy series.