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  3. Mission Life in Cree-Ojibwe Country: Memories of a Mother and Son

Mission Life in Cree-Ojibwe Country: Memories of a Mother and Son

Jennifer S. H. Brown
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  • Overview

  • Contents

In May of 1868, Elizabeth Bingham Young and her new husband, Egerton Ryerson Young, began a long journey from Hamilton, Ontario, to the Methodist mission of Rossville. For the next eight years, Elizabeth supported her husband's work at two mission houses, Norway House and then Berens River. Unprepared for the difficult conditions and the "eight months long" winter, and unimpressed with "eating fish twenty-one times a week," the young Upper Canada wife rose to the challenge. In these remote outposts, she gave birth to three children, acted as a nurse and doctor, and applied both perseverance and determination to learning Cree, while also coping with poverty and short supplies within her community. Her account of mission life, as seen through the eyes of a woman, is the first of its kind to be archived and now to appear in print. Skillfully woven together and meticulously annotated by Jennifer Brown, these two remarkable recollections of mission life are an invaluable addition to the fields of religious, missionary, and Aboriginal history. In their power to resurrect experience, they are also a fascination to read.
  • Cover
  • Contents
  • List of Abbreviations
  • Foreword
  • Acknowledgements
  • Introduction
  • PART I: Untitled Memoir of Elizabeth Bingham Young, 1927
    • “1859 & Sixtys”
    • Leaving Home
    • The Invitation to the North West
    • From Hamilton to Detroit
    • The Travelling Party
    • Detroit to Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Red River
    • Sojourn at Red River
    • From Red River to Norway House
    • Settling in at Rossville Mission
    • The First Cree Visitors
    • September 1868: A Brief Separation
    • The Chief Factor’s Cariole Ride
    • “Giving Out Medicines”
    • More on the Women
    • The Visit of Tapastanum
    • Queen Victoria’s Picture
    • Fish, More Fish, and Household Help
    • The Annual Requisition for Supplies
    • Christmas, a Recent Introduction
    • The New Year’s Feast
    • Smallpox and Measles
    • The Arrival of Eddie, June 1869
    • Little Mary and Eddie
    • Winter Travel and the Home Front
    • Prayer Meetings and Parcels
    • The Arrival of Lillian
    • Special Potatoes
    • “Still at Norway House”
    • The Birth of Nellie and the Pitfalls of Hospitality
    • Two Farewells
    • Back in Ontario, 1873–74
    • From Ontario to Berens River
    • “Where Are My Quilts?”
    • A Mother’s Crisis
    • Christmas Anxiety, 1875
    • The Birth of Florence and Other Memories
    • Witnessing Treaty 5 (and Two Mysterious Deaths)
    • Comment: Elizabeth Young’s Berens River Experience in Retrospect
    • Leaving Berens River, 1876
    • Life in Ontario Parsonages: Port Perry, Colborne, and Bowmanville
    • Our Last Two Children and Another Loss
    • Postscripts
      • Elizabeth Bingham Young: Method in Her Methodism
      • Mission Wives at Rossville: Some Comparisons
  • PART II “ A Missionary and His Son” and Subsequent Reminiscences
    • Introduction
    • A Missionary and His Son
      • 1 Born at Norway House
      • 2 So Little to Do With
      • 3 Going to Church
      • 4 “ Lend Me Your Little Boy”
      • 5 Scientific Evenings
      • 6 The Food Supply
      • 7 My Mission Sisters
      • 8 Talking
      • 9 Operations
      • 10 Pemmican
      • 11 The Fish Pond
      • 12 The Big Bad Wolf
      • 13 Dogs
      • 14 Welcome Home
    • Reminiscences of 1962 for the Years 1876 to 1898
      • Leaving Berens River, 1876
      • School in Port Perry, 1876–79
      • Other Memories of Port Perry
      • School Troubles and Father’s Response
      • Grace Amanda and the Death of Jack
      • Colborne, 1879–82
      • Bowmanville, 1882–85
      • Meaford, Brampton, and a Family Reunion
      • Four Decades in Methodist Church Ministry, 1892–1932
    • “ As Darkness Steals upon Mine Eyes” : A Poem
  • PART III: Supplementary Documents and Excerpts
    • 1 Resolution, Quarterly Board of Hamilton City East Circuit, 4 May 1868
    • 2 The Rope from Hamilton
    • 3 Adventure with a Bull at Norway House
    • 4 Letters of Clarissa Bingham and Sarah Bingham to Elizabeth and Egerton Young, 1868–69
    • 5 “ A Great Surprise to the Missionaries Wife” : Moss
    • 6 Women’s Work
    • 7 Sandy Harte
    • 8 Egerton R. Young’s Illness with Typhoid, 1872
    • 9 Schooling in Rossville: The “ Infant Class” and Miss Batty’s Thoughts on Shawls
    • 10 “Thanks to the Kind Ladies of Canada” : Egerton Young to the Christian Guardian
    • 11 Transitions, 1873–74: Letters from Egerton to Elizabeth Young
    • 12 Elizabeth Young’s Second Account of Ontario and Berens River, 1873–76
    • 13 Two Letters from the Reverend Enoch Wood Regarding the Youngs’ Appointment to Berens River
    • 14 Letter from Little Mary to Egerton R. Young, 1887
    • 15 Letter from Alex Kennedy, the Youngs’ Dog Driver, to Egerton R. Young, 1890
    • 16 Elizabeth Bingham Young: Appreciations and Memories
  • Illustrations
  • Index
    • A
    • B
    • C
    • D
    • E
    • F
    • G
    • H
    • I
    • J
    • K
    • L
    • M
    • N
    • O
    • P
    • Q
    • R
    • S
    • T
    • V
    • W
    • Y
    • Z
Citable Link
Published: 2014
Publisher: Athabasca University Press
ISBN(s)
  • 978-1-77199-005-9 (ebook)
  • 978-1-77199-004-2 (ebook)
  • 978-1-77199-003-5 (paper)
Subject
  • History
  • Indigenous Studies
  • Women
  • Memoir
  • Canadian History
  • Gender Studies
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