The Great Blizzard of 1887 in southern Alberta, by Vern Wishart
While reading the story of their ancestor's struggle against a blizzard, Vernon, William, and Shirley Wishart learn the truth about their family heritage.
Date: 1780s to 2004
Whenever we cross the North Saskatchewan River on the Walterdale Bridge, time rolls back and in our mind's eye we see William Flett and Saskatchewan disembarking from a canoe and making their way up the bank to the fort, Edmonton House. As we leave the bridge and the River Flats, we are reminded that Edmonton is not just a place where we live and work. Our roots and our story are intimately bound up with this city. This connection arose with the discovery of our Native roots, which heretofore had been hidden from us. The curtain was drawn open in a little book, a local history, called The Rosebud Trail, written by John J. Martin in 1962. Johnny Martin was a self-educated man with an eye and an ear for history. In his book, he describes "The Great Blizzard of 1887".1 We have followed closely his account of the blizzard, as well as that of Mary Cook, our great-grandparent's daughter.2 The story in brief is this:
James Wishart, in order to obtain much needed supplies, hooked up his team of horses, John and Grey, to a sleigh and set out to Gleichen some thirty-five miles away. While in Gleichen he picked up his mail and supplies at Vic Beaupre's store and was about to leave when Crane Bear, a Blackfoot Indian, said, "Do not go! A bad storm is on its way".3 Disregarding Crane Bear's warning, he wrapped himself in buffalo robes and headed his team for home. Before he had gone many miles, sky and snow had become one. By the time he reached Chimney Hill, visibility was zero. Further travel was out of the question. Jim drove his team into a coulee on the west side of the hill, and dug into a snow bank under a sandstone ledge where he spent the next two days and nights. By the morning of the third day, the storm had passed into Montana leaving in its wake many settlers frozen to death in their flimsy shacks. Thousands of cattle were trapped and frozen in banks of snow as were his faithful horses, John and Grey.4
The bitter cold took its toll on Jim. His hands and feet were frostbitten. If he was to survive he had to make the remaining ten-mile trek home on foot. He set out, his six foot six frame plunging through snow that often came to his waist. When his legs failed to carry him any longer, he collapsed. As he lay in the snow prepared to die by freezing, he heard a voice say, "Jim! Get up Jim and have one more try!". He staggered to his feet and fell. He began crawling on his hands and knees clawing his way forward. Just as night was settling, he topped the hill, which stood a few hundred yards from his home, and then fell forward in a heap totally and utterly exhausted.
Eliza, his wife, had been watching at the window of their log cabin. She hoped Jim was waiting out the storm in Gleichen Noticing a dark object in the snow, she called their son, Dave. The two of them went out into the night. Dave took his rifle thinking it might be a bear. Suddenly, they realized it was Jim!
Back at the cabin the extent of the damage by frostbite was soon determined. If Jim was to live, the toes had to be amputated! Eliza placed one of Jim's affected feet on a block of wood. She held a knife on the joint below the gangrene of the big toe and struck the knife with a hammer. Once again the primitive operation was repeated. Eliza moved the bloody blade to the next toe. As severed toe and blood spurted fort, Eliza fainted. Jim picked up the bloody knife from the floor and completed the torturous amputation.5
The story then comes to the source of our family's secret. I quote directly from the account: "Eliza's knowledge of Indian medicine and surgery saved Jim's life."6 This was our first indication that our great-grandparents were of mixed-blood. In those strokes of hammer on flesh, sinew and bone, our roots were laid bare.
Our father, while not knowing the full story of his roots, was well aware of his mixed-blood background of Orcadian and Native. Why it was something he wished to hide, we do not know for sure. Very likely, as a boy, he was taunted by his peers who called him, "Half-breed". In that time, and in the circles in which he spent his youth, to have "Indian blood" was seen as something of which to be ashamed. Our father likely determined very early that he did not want his children to experience what he faced while growing up. He hoped to give us as level a field as possible as we made our way in the world. He never lived long enough for us to lift that burden from him and say,
"Dad, we are tremendously proud of the fact that in our family tree we have Native ancestry; that we have a link with the aboriginal people, a people who were inhabitants of this land for thousands of years before the white man came. We are tremendously proud of the Native women in our background, without whom our ancestors, as rugged as they were, would have been unable to survive and thrive. We are proud of James and Eliza, who they were and what they did; and we are proud of you."
The discovery of our Native heritage prompted extensive research by our sister, Shirley Wishart. She delved into Hudson's Bay Archives housed in the Provincial Archives in Winnipeg, as well as documents held in the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. She wrote letters, interviewed people, taped conversations, collected photographs, chartered genealogies, and visited the Orkney Islands in 1990 to do further research into our family's Orkney connection. With the solid foundation resulting from her research, our Native roots were traced back over two hundred years to Hudson's Bay Company servants and their Native and Mixed-blood wives.
One of our ancestors was William Flett, an Orkney man, who signed on with the Hudson's Bay Company on the 19th of June, 1782 at the age of twenty years.7 Peter Newman, in his book, Company of Adventures, observes that the contribution of the Orcadians was significant, "They did most of the real work, and it was their loyalty to the Company they served and their attitude towards the Indians with whom they traded that allowed the Hudson's Bay Company to rule its distant domain and barter in good faith with native harvesters of fur".8
Company policy did not allow the presence of white women in the 17th and 18th centuries and as a result marriage with Native women became increasingly a normal part of fur trade social life. The acceptance of these unions is reflected in the widespread use of the descriptive phrase - marriage "according to the custom of the country".9
When Flett began his service with the Company it was not uncommon for employees to marry Native women. Like many of his countrymen Flett married a Native. She was a Cree. Her name was "Saskatchewan", a Cree word derived from the word kishiska meaning "swift" and djiwan, meaning "current"; the river with the "swift current"- kishiska djiwan.10
Saskatchewan, like the women of the First Peoples, who married husbands from distant lands, were invaluable to their spouses. Indeed, without them many would not have survived the hardships they would endure in the service of the Company. Marriage, "according to the custom of the country" not only cemented the social ties between the Native people and the traders but also had a beneficial impact on the fur trade itself.11
Flett's early work with the Company included stints as a labourer, canoe man, steersman and hunter. In 1793 he accompanied the English surveyor, Peter Fidler in the search for a new site for a Hudson's Bay Company post. The site they explored was near the mouth of the Sturgeon River.12 The construction of Edmonton House began on October 13, 1795 just upstream from the mouth of the Sturgeon north east of present day Fort Saskatchewan. The post's flag was raised on December 7, 1795 and was just opposite Fort Augustus ("a musket shot away") which had been erected by the North West Company in the summer of 1795.13 The close proximity of the rival companies was protection in case of attack by Natives.
Edmonton House was moved several times until in1812 it was located on the River Flats close to the present site of the Power Plant. Around 1830, due to the flooding of the North Saskatchewan River, Fort Edmonton was moved to its last site, which was beneath the present Legislative Building.
William Flett, with the assistance of his wife Saskatchewan, became a valued Company employee. As an indication of his ability, he was asked to serve as Master and Canoe Builder at Edmonton House on two separate occasions, 1814 - 20 and 1822 - 23. Records also indicate that when the Chief Factor had to be away, Flett was put in charge.
William Flett finished his career at Fort Edmonton in 1823 at which time he and Saskatchewan retired to the Red River Settlement. In his will dated November 9, 1823, Flett directed that "all his monies be put in trust for the sole use and benefit of his wife Saskatchewan and their four children".14
Eliza Wishart, our great-grandmother, with whom our story of roots begins, was the granddaughter of William and Saskatchewan Flett. Eliza and her husband, Jim Wishart, settled in the Rosebud area two years before Jim was caught in "The Great Blizzard of 87".
It is a sad commentary on the social environment of the late 19th century and the temper of the times, that our great-grandparents could not acknowledge their rich fur trade family heritage and their Native roots. As the first settlers on the Rosebud Creek, near what is now Redland, Alberta, they passed themselves off as white! Had they not done so they were vulnerable to discrimination and physical violence. This is a fear we no longer have to live with. We are proud of our fur trade heritage and our Native roots.
BibliographyPrimary Sources
William Flett
Secondary Published SourcesArmstrong, G.H. The Origin and Meaning of Place Names in Canada. Toronto: MacMillan of Canada, 1972.Martin, John J. The Rosebud Trail. Self published, 1962.Newman, Peter C. Company of Adventures. Markham: Viking; Penguin Books Lt, 1985.Van Kirk, Sylvia. "Many Tender Ties": Women in Fur Trade Society, 1670-1870. Winnipeg: Watson and Dwyer Publishing Lt., 1993.Wishart, Shirley Aulta. From the Red to the River of Many Rosebuds: Akokiniskway. Calgary: Printed by Shirley Wishart, 1983.
Background InformationVernon R. WishartI was born in Lacombe, Alberta, August 20, 1927 but grew up in Carstairs, Alberta. I attended Colorado College, Colorado Springs on a hockey scholarship. I decided to return to Edmonton to attended St. Stephen's College at the University of Alberta 1949 - 52 graduating with a Bachelor of Divinity Degree. I served a rural pastorate (Sedgewick/Lougheed) before doing graduate work in the U.S. where I met my wife , Jo. I served as United Church Chaplain at the University of Alberta 1959 - 63 before we went to India to serve with the Student Christian Movement of India. We returned to serve Garneau United Church, Edmonton, 1968 - 79. We served Erskine and American Church, Montreal, 1979 - 1988, and St. Paul's United Church, Grande Prairie,1988 - 93, before retiring to Edmonton in1993. We have five children and five grandchildren.
William WishartI was born in Alix, Alberta, April 3, 1932. I grew up in Carstairs, Alberta where I graduated from high school. I worked for a short time in Peace River before attending the University of Alberta 1952 - 57 when I graduated with a Master's degree. I was employed as a Wildlife Research Biologist with the Provincial government from 1957 - 1987, when I retired. I have lived in Edmonton fifty years. My wife, Pat and I have three children and three grandchildren.
Our younger sister, Shirley Wishart trained as a Medical Records Librarian, and also worked with the Provincial government. She has not resided in Edmonton. In 1964 she attended a shower for a friend in Calgary. A lady from Rosebud, Alberta happened to be seated beside her. She introduced herself to Shirley and said, "I know Johnny Martin in Rosebud and he has written a book in which he mentions the first settlers in the area whose names are Wishart." Shirley contacted Mr. Martin and visited him. She bought his book, The Rosebud Trail. On one, of several visits, he gave her the broad axe used by Jim Wishart in constructing log cabins. Beginning with a chance conversation, which led to a meeting with John Martin, she began her extensive research that traced our ancestral roots to the Hudson's Bay Company and their connection to Edmonton. Shirley is retired and living in Victoria, B.C. She wrote the following poem:
The Whetstone
Shirley Wishart, "The Whetstone," The Long Bone Tunnel (Calgary: Circle 5, 1987), 14.
Shirley writes, "I wrote this poem before I learned the whole story. Eliza, overcome by the stench of rotting flesh, fainted before she was finished and Jim had to cut off his own toes."
1 John J. Martin, The Rosebud Trail, 72-76.2 Shirley Wishart,. Akokiniskway, 4.3 Martin, 75.4 ibid.5 See the poem that follows, "The Whetstone".6 Martin, 76.
7 See attached biographical sketch of William Flett from HBC Archives.8 Peter C. Newman, Company of Adventures, 175.9 Sylvia Van Kirk, Many Tender Ties, 28-52.10 G.H. Armstrong, The Origin and Meaning of place Names in Canada, 257.11 Van Kirk, 28-52.12 Hudson's Bay Archives E.3/2: 70-75 Reel 4M4.13 Saskatchewan Journals and Correspondence, 1795-1802: 14.14 Van Kirk, 45.