The McDougalls: George and Elizabeth, John and Lizzie, David
and Annie with family, friends and a herd of livestock arrived [at the mission] in 1873. In 1875, there were twenty-three residents
of European descent. By 1881, sixty settlers were collecting their mail from the post office inside David McDougall’s trading post. By contrast, in the same year, only 30 people were collecting mail in Fort Calgary. In 1891, 100 families totaling 388 people were listed as living at Morleyville.
George McDougall began his mission work for the Methodist Church in northern Ontario. With this experience he was “imprinted for life with the conviction of the natives’ helplessness, before the rapacity, treachery of unprincipled and thoughtless whites and the demonstrated indifference of government.” (Susan Jackel)
Concern for the welfare of the aboriginals became the motivation
for his life’s work.
After two years at Rossville Mission in Manitoba, George was
chosen to be Superintendent of all the Northwestern Methodist
Missions. In 1862 he established a Mission called Victoria beside
the North Saskatchewan River. This Mission thrived until a
smallpox epidemic devastated both the native encampments and the
McDougall family. They resettled at Fort Edmonton. There George
built the first church outside of the Fort in 1872. Also in 1872 he
scouted the Morleyville location.
In 1876 George was at Morleyville helping his son John hunt
buffalo to supply food for the mission. After the hunt he did not
arrive back at the camp. A cairn now marks the Nose Creek location
where his body was found, two weeks later. His funeral was at
the Morleyville Mission Church; he is buried in the nearby
Stoney Cemetery.
From the McDougall Memorial United Church