Edmonton Epistle

This blog post is based on a letter that my Uncle Tim passed on to me. The letter was written by Hugh MacDonell (he spells it McDonell in his signature) to his sister Janet MacDonell Treacy in January 1918. Hugh was living in Stony Plain (a suburb of Edmonton), Alberta, Canada at the time and his sister was living in at 114 Wayne St. in Syracuse, NY. Janet and her family moved to 123 Woodland Ave. sometime between March and September 1918. At the time the letter was written Hugh (b. 1878) was a 39 year old bachelor and his sister Janet (1875-1967) was a wife and mother who had just turned 42 years old. 

My relationship to Hugh and Janet is shown below, followed by the actual letter. The rest of the post will involve unpacking various people and events mentioned in the letter. 

Relationship chart showing Hugh is my great-great uncle, brother of my great grandmother. 

1918 Letter from Hugh MacDonell to his sister Janet MacDonell Treacy.

Aunt Jessie in Islay

Hugh begins the letter saying he spent the summer in Isly with Aunt Jessie. I believe he is referring to Islay, a hamlet in eastern Alberta about 160 miles directly east of Edmonton. Aunt Jessie would be his mother's sister Jessica MacMillan MacDonald (1849-1934) who married a Mr. MacDonald. My grandmother Anne Treacy Fenlon's notes for Jessie say "lived in Alberta in 1880's, later at Glen Nevis." The letter places her still in Alberta in 1918 and her death certificate from 9 Oct 1934 places her back at Glen Nevis, Glengarry, Ontario. I am not sure what crop Hugh refers to and hope some of you have an idea! UPDATE: Uncle Brian suggests that the crop was wheat. Alberta is called "Canada's Breadbasket" because of all the wheat they produce. This makes sense to me.

D's in Ray

Uncle D. refers to his mother's brother Dougald. I am not sure about "The Boys at Ray are all well," but I think he is saying Dougald and his brother Daniel live at Ray, which might refer to Raymond, Alberta which is about 350 miles south of Edmonton. One argument against this assumption is that Hugh says D. "sent me here [Stony Plain] with two teams to haul coal." That sounds like two teams of horses/mules and it seems unlikely that Hugh would have transported horses 350 miles from Raymond to Stony Plain, but I suppose he could have. 

Relative locations of Stony Plain, Islay, and Raymond in Alberta.

Archie

Hugh says, "I wrote to them at home," by which I assume he means their relatives back in Glengarry County, Ontario. Archie was supposed to visit or move out to Alberta, but did not do so. Archie might refer to his older brother Archibald (b 1873), but it probably refers to his maternal first cousin Archibald Joseph MacDonell (1895-1963) (see relationship chart below) who would have been about 23 years old at the time. 

Relationship chart of Hugh and his cousin Archie.

The McDougals & McMillans

I don't know who the McDougals are, but Hugh seems to be saying that Mrs. Allen McDougal did not approve of him when they both lived back in Ontario, but in Edmonton she has softened and gives him great praise. That is good news as it seems he wants to marry her daughter Mary Ann McDougal. I also do not know who Miles McMillan is. 

WWI

Next Hugh discusses World War I. Canada entered WWI in July 1914 so it had been involved for over three years already so one can understand why Hugh is tied of it already.  I think "losing your old fellow next" is a way of suggesting Janet's husband John Treacy will join the war effort, perhaps even be drafted. The US entered WWI in April 1917, so Hugh might be right to wonder this. However, John did not fill out his WWI registration card until Sep 1918 when he was about to turn 44 years old, not exactly first in line for the trenches. (Note that by September the family had moved to 123 Woodside.)

WWI registration card for John A. Treacy showing his new address. 

Hugh also wants to know if other relatives have been called into service for the war effort, specifically the sons of Archie Jim or Jimmy Donald.  I am not sure who he is referring to, but I believe these are cousins on his father's side. Archie Jim is Archibald James MacDonell, the son of James MacDonell and Margaret McDonald and Jimmy Donald is James D. MacDonald, their son-in-law who married Hannah MacDonell. I have highlighted these relationships with blue boxes on my grandmother's tree for the MacDonells shown below. This makes sense because Archie Jim and Jimmy Donald each had more than one son who might be of age to join the war.  

Hugh also adds in a question, "How is Jimmy Archie making it batching?" This is pure speculation, but perhaps his first cousin James McDonald (see green box below), son of Mary MacDonell and Angus McDonald, is who Hugh is referring to with this comment. 

Anne Treacy Fenlon's family tree for the MacDonells.

Influenza Pandemic

What Hugh does not ask about is also interesting. We now know 1918 was also infamous for the so-called Spanish Flu pandemic (which probably started in Kansas). This is not on Hugh's radar yet because the first cases of the 1918 flu in Edmonton were not detected until October 1918.  On Janet's end in Syracuse, the first flu cases appeared in mid-September at Camp Syracuse where WWI soldiers being were stationed. As discussed previously on the blog, John Treacy's cousin James Francis Dunlop was a WWI solider from Australia serving in England who did of the flu in Aug 1918.  

Keeping House

On page two of the letter Hugh wants his three nieces to know he has not forgotten them and writes about having "one of them come out here and keep house for him." He writes that he showed D. a photo of Janet's three daughters (probably the photo shown below) and that D. also wants one to "keep house for him." 

I assume keeping house meant cooking and cleaning for your room and board. I am not sure if they would have been paid for this domestic work. It would be fascinating to know what Janet wrote back in response to this suggestion. At this point she knew all of her girls were extremely bright and accomplished students. In fact, by the time this letter arrived her daughter Mary had become somewhat famous for passing five NYS High School Regents exams when she was only 10 years old. Presumably keeping house in Alberta would not have offered many educational opportunities and my guess is that Janet wanted that for her daughters. In the end, Mary, Anne, and Catherine would go on to earn college degrees from Syracuse University and to become teachers as well as hold other jobs. 

Some of the academic and professional accomplishments of the Treacy sisters. 

As an aside, the photograph of the sisters shown above was taken at the Hunter Tuppen Department Store which was located in the McCarthy Building on the corner of South Salina and East Fayette Streets in Syracuse. This appears to be similar to photography studios in Sears or K-Mart stores in more recent times, before these stores also closed. 

Jno. D. McMillan

The post script to the letter is at the top of page two as Hugh ran out of space at the bottom. It apparently is his address from where he is staying. Jno. is an old abbreviation for John. (If you want to know how this might have come about read user Kerrywood's explanation here.) So, Hugh was staying with his maternal Uncle John D. McMillan. It is news to me that John D. also lived in Alberta. Anne Treacy Fenlon's notes indicate that Dougald, Dan, and Jessie lived there, but she had not indicated John D. did as well. The town of St. Albert appears to be about 18 miles northeast from Stony Plain on a modern map, but perhaps they shared a postal address in 1918. 

Hey Mr. Postman

I was curious how this letter would have traveled from Alberta to Syracuse in 1918. Some research showed that it certainly would have been by railroad. The US airmail system only had one route in 1918, and that was from NY to Washington, DC. I wonder if the letter would have traveled east within Canada to somewhere like Toronto and then be transferred to the US or if it traveled to the US first, e.g., to somewhere like Denver, and then traveled east. 

Hugh McDonell

Unfortunately I do not know much about our letter writer Hugh except that he was born on 6 October 1878 in Lochiel, Glengarry, Ontario and he later lived in Alberta. My grandmother's notes do not indicate that he ever married and I am not sure when he died. According to Janet MacDonell Treacy's obituary, Hugh was living in Edmonton in July 1967.  It is very difficult to do genealogy research on the Scotch descendants in Canada. I have found records that use McDonell, MacDonell, McDonald, and MacDonald interchangeably.  With that in mind, I did find a death record and obit for a Hugh MacDonald who passed away in Edmonton on Christmas day 1969. That Hugh was living in The Central Park Lodge, an assisted living facility common in Canada. Unfortunately no age or biographical information was given for this Hugh. 

UPDATE: I want to thank Uncle Tim again for sending me this letter from over 100 years ago. I leaned a lot researching it.  As always I welcome your comments, questions, and contributions. Thanks for reading.

Ed Fenlon

Lancaster, PA

efenlon -at- fandm -dot- edu

APPENDIX

Some additional information on the McMillans is below. 

Family Tree as a pdf.