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Tom Monto

William Newton, Edmonton's pioneer Anglican missionary

Updated: Aug 14, 2021

William Newton

Anglican missionary at Edmonton from 1870s to 1890s

(born in 1828 in Halstead, Essex, England; died 1910)


Newton recorded his memories in a book, Twenty Years on the Saskatchewan (published in 1897). This is available on the Peel's Prairie Provinces website.

I like the idea of him preserving his memories for all later people, such as you and me.


He had two books published before he came west as well, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia (on-line):

"He served in England for some years as a Congregationalist minister, during which time he published two books of sermons, Studies in Divine Things (1863) and Fresh Religious Thoughts (1865)."

When he moved west to take up pioneer missionary work, he left that kind of sermon-giving and literary work behind him. (More on this below).


The neighbourhood of Newton and the Newton Centre, a strip shopping mall at 12111 - 54 Street, are named after him.


I doubt there is any connection to the Newton Place, a 20-story student residence at 8515 112 Street. It is in a different part of the city. It would seem to be named after Robert Newton president of the UofA in the 1950s. (His virtues - and shortcomings - re presented in this elegant essay: https://sites.ualberta.ca/ALUMNI/history/peopleh-o/50fallnewton.html)

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“The Hermitage became a famous landmark in the district. Over time, more buildings were added and it became an elaborate establishment consisting of a library, a school, a hospital, and a chapel. It also had a garden with lilacs, lawns and flower beds that made it an outstanding show place in those frontier days. The very lilacs Newton had planted still grow in the area today.

from Newton Community webpage:


The hospital may be particularly worthy of interest as it is example of not-for profit healthcare. The Anglican church, like other religious associations, filled in the need for affordable healthcare at a time before government took on the job. Actually when Newton operated The Hermitage, there was almost no effective government to speak of.


Perhaps his wife (and children) never followed him because of the conditions out west. Such a move would have been major sacrifice, although from this distance such pioneering seems glamorous and exciting. The cold and isolation, the wild animals, the personal hardship would have been a severe challenge, that it seems likely not everyone may have felt they were up to facing.


In fact "The Hermitage", the name that Newton gave his home on the outskirts of Edmonton, is reference to living in solitude. Newton described the location as being seven miles from Edmonton, Edmonton at the time was itself mostly just the fort located on what is now the Legislature Grounds.


The un-knowables of distant human history

A well-read man, Newton wrote of the un-knowables of distant human history - how travel and knowledge of the New World may have been much more extensive than generally thought.


He noted "emigrants from parts of Austria and the Crimea and people from the Scottish Highlands who are familiar with the Gaelic often remark on the similarity of the sound of Cree to their own languages, and it certainly has an affinity with Turkish and Hungarian. Many of its root words are European, while the verb forms are a good deal like the Hebrew."


He even postulates that "some Jews [referring to the lost tribes of Israel] may have come to the New World in days of yore or on the other hand the religious rites and customs, especially of circumcision and blood feud, first offerings and yearly festivals, were not peculiar to the Hebrews. They were customs very common in the East, especially in the first periods of human history and were well known to and practised by the inhabitants of Mid-Asia. Likewise the tradition respecting a migration of Welshmen to America may have truth in it..."


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Like many spiritual people, Newton had a naturalist side to his personality. He noted in his memoir:

"on my land i had a beautiful grove of spruce firs and being fond of trees I spent time and money in clearing the grove [of underbrush or old mouldering logs]. One day, on returning home, I found person had in my absence taken down the fence, cut down some of the trees, scattered the waste around and carried the timber away.


Presently I found the man who had done this wrong and told him not to come on such business again. Instead of being shamed, he told me he should do as he pleased with the grove and that he should not hesitate to take it all away.


When I complained to the only civil authorities we had, they realized they had no instruction about Crown lands and timber limits and so refused to give protection. Soon others came and did the same and gave me to understand that they had the sanction of the local men who did not recognize the right of anyone to a piece of land or of what was on it." [Due to this weak bureaucrat and the uncaring attitude of the government far away in Ottawa, Crown land, instead of being no one's lumber, was allowed to be anyone's.]


"Out of this folly and injustice arose lots of trouble to the Canadian government by "claim jumping which as as piece of local history may be mentioned in its place. [perhaps reference to the Metis uprisings, when old-time residents found their rights of residency were threatened by newcomers.]


Just then there was a small band of American outlaws who stole horses and cattle from whom I suffered and could get no protection. [Perhaps these miscreants were associated with the U.S.-based whiskey sellers who were causing such trouble on he Prairies as far north as Edmonton. The whiskey sellers caused the founding of the Mounted Police, today's RCMP.]


"Civil government could hardly have been more hopelessly inefficient in any part of her Majesty's Empire." (p. 37)


He noted that the Blackstone book of British law states that men have natural rights to the land that they use, so long as their right do not infringe on the claims of others. (p. 84)


"Surely under the British flag these natural rights should be allowed. Yet in the Edmonton district these were denied with the result that the lawless attempted to "jump" the lands that were possessed by others - that is, to publicly steal them. Exhibitions were thus made of the greed of lawless human nature that were sad indeed to behold.


Outside the circle of Government men, a Committee of Public Safety was instituted and it seemed necessary if the commonest order was to be observed. Persons had become possessed of pieces of land where the town of Edmonton now stands; some had paid money for them, and others had put put buildings on them and claimed the right to do so. But it might be asked what were the government during tall this time. The answer is -at Ottawa drawing their salaries, amongst other things, for governing the North-West.


For a long time there was no organized surveys, and confusion was rampant. One day a court was held in order to try certain men, some of them being our most respected citizens."


Criminal charges for civil disturbance, etc. were laid against Matt McCauley (later mayor of Edmonton), Frank Oliver (owner of the Edmonton Bulletin), Laurence Garneau (Metis pioneer and well-known fiddler), Joseph Lake, W. Henderson and D.R. Fraser for participating in vigilante activities to protect rights of Edmonton pioneers squatting on un-surveyed land. This was reported in Edmonton Bulletin in June 24, 1882.


Newton recounted the incident this way:

"A would-be thief of landed property had put a building on another man's lot hoping thus to get possession of it for himself. The proper owner removed the building and placed it so near the high banks of the Saskatchewan that it, by design or accident, rolled over and the man was put to great trouble in recovering even a part of it. The lawless man sued the removers and got judgement so fat that the owner was fined for causing unnecessary damage in the removal of the house, the inference being that if he had removed it and no damage to it had followed, that action would have been lawful. No distinct instructions however were given from the bench and matters continued as unsettled as before. The lawless saw that there was very little to restrain them and acted accordingly.


But why was this allowed?


Possibly in order that the government men might have a free hand to do what they liked in the issue of patents, claiming the lands of the great North-West as purchased property through their transaction with the HBC.


According to their view, no one had any rights. All conditions of men were in the same position, half-breeds and settlers and even Indians who did not take the treaty, had no legal standing, save as British subjects. England was a long way off and Canada lay between [between the North West and Britain], and effectually hindered the cry for justice reaching the motherland.


If an able Commissioner from England had been sent to the Indians, half-races, and settlers of the North-West during the three year s preceding the events of 1885, there would in all probability have been no outbreak. Millions of dollars and many valuable lives might have been saved. Order would have been preserved based on respect for Government authority and its necessary institutions. The authority of the Ottawa government is not strong enough in these territories and it has not on all occasions the will to enforce obedience to its own orders. When in 1891 it attempted to remove its land office across the Sask to the railway terminus, an armed crowd of men and boys successfully resisted the order and that in the open daylight.


While these uncertainties were occurring about the land claims of Natives and settlers in the Edmonton district, land speculators were busy and were successful in their greed for spoils. A company was set going with a grand name ostensibly patronized by the Ottawa government supporters. It proposed to colonize and bring both settlers and capital into the country. Large tracts of fine land were entrusted t the company but they brought no settlers and today their buildings are in ruins and most of their lands are waste.


Meanwhile honest settlers were compelled to go far into the wilderness for homesteads, and business and civilization were hindered in order that these speculators might make money by the labour and enterprise of neighbours who were cursed by their presence. A poor man is sharply looked after if he does not fulfil his the conditions of his homestead claim and his title are cancelled. How is it then that fraudulent companies can hold heir own, or, rather, the land that should belong to other people.


As population increases here, some of these questions may receive stern answers.


While these things were occurring among settlers in every part of the North-West, the Indians also were becoming very restive....


Some of the Indians also misunderstood their treaties or at least thought they had been over-reached in their bargains. Possibly their intercourse with a low class of traders did not tend to increase their contentment, and from causes of this kind the rebellion of 18885 arose.


Unrest seemed to be in the air, as when a storm is brewing,... yet no one knew where the centre of the storm would be or when it would burst. mysterious rumours came to Edmonton of who would happen when the grass was green - that is, when Indian horses cold travel and find pasture on the plains. Then came the news of the massacre of the Roman Catholic priests and Indian agents at Frog Lake. (p. 87)


Then of the fight at Duck Lake, where the Mounted police and volunteers scarcely held their own.


Then Canada was aroused and sent Middleton and Troops, and the news came of the battles of Cutknife Creek and Batoche on the South Sask. By this time the Indians were in a ferment everywhere, and at Battleford, they were committing depredations that could not be resisted. [I have learned recently that the stolen goods were later found on the farm of local white residents. The Natives thus were blamed for someone else's crime.]


... Inspector Dickens abandoned Fort Pitt, and plunder was the order of the day.


... In all directions [from Edmonton] were Indians enough, if they were well led, to try the mettle of our sparse and scattered settlements, and our people were virtually without arms and ammunition. They are almost entirely unprepared to fight for their own lives and for the honour of the Government.


.. the sudden rise and growth of rumours on these plains is beyond belief, and every new story is somehow or other believed simply because there is no evidence to the contrary.


..."many Indians around Edmonton were only waiting for a general rising..


if Riel had been victorious at Carlton, very few white men would have been left alive in the distant settlements. The entire Indian population would have been aflame with the passions of greed, and lust, and murder.


..Riel certainly had the the sympathy of many [of the Metis of the Edmonton area]. Gebriel Dumont [Riel's military commander] was from our neighbourhood and had friends here. The mistake that Riel made in his tactics was the mistake of a man of very limited information and of great self-esteem. He did not know the outside world against which he arrayed himself - he did not realize that behind Canada was England... he posed as a kind of liberator...he did not disclaim the murder of the priests at Frog Lake and he separated the men under his influence as much as he could from the Roman Catholic Church.


By such a policy ... he destroyed the sympathy of a powerful organization that might have been interested in any grievances that the Metis had, and have given the Metis a certain protection. Moreover his folly alienated his cause from the French province of Quebec, which could have afforded him powerful support, and given great trouble to the whole Dominion of Canada.


As it was, the brave and skillful defence that Dumant made with his badly-armed band of 500 undisciplined men produced a great impression, and it might easily have grown into a war of races, which would have challenged the sympathy and chivalrous feeling of ancient France. A little spark sets the prairies ablaze and a few men speaking French and conducting themselves bravely and struggling with a real grievance against great odds might have touched the honour of France and brought her back to America gain. Riel's ineptness crushed the Metis and annihilated all external sympathy."


Meanwhile quick action taken in Edmonton brought quick reinforcement and quelled the incipient Native uprising in the Edmonton area.


A messenger rode two days to Calgary. He found there that Lieutenant-Governor Dewdney had put General Strange - "a most capable officer who had seen service in India" - to the duty of getting up a force and coming north. Newton wrote that "the news of his coming saved the Edmonton district from an Indian war."


[Father Lacombe meanwhile complained that the messenger's crazy hell--bent journey aroused excitement all along the Edmonton-Calgary Trail, making it more difficult for him to preserve sanity and level-headedness among the Natives of central Alberta..]


Newton noted that the military column that saved Edmonton was made up as follows:

Strange's Rangers 50 soldiers

Police 67

65th Battalion 332

Winnipeg 332

P. Battalion (92) 307.


"The 65th regiment of Montreal under Conel Ouinet was stationed at Edmonton while General Strange went east after Big Bear who gave himself up to General Middleton at Battleford.


"Thus Indian and half-breed hopes of driving away the white man from the NWT and possessing the country for themselves were crushed and destroyed for ever. Riel was hanged at Regina on Sept. 18, 1885." (p. 90-92)


Causes of the rebellion

Newton indicated the rebellion was caused by many factors including the confusion of the times as western Canada underwent a drastic transformation.


He wrote

"History will, I believe, assign the following causes:


First, and chiefly, the utter inattention to the interests of the half races when they negotiated for the transfer of the territories to the Government of Canada. In different parts of the North-West, settlements had arisen around the forts and many half-breeds were scattered in all directions on the plains. who were living an independent life as hunters, trading with the forts and exchanging their buffalo meat and skins for the things they required.


He noted the half-breed population had been spawned by the HBC and the NWC.


"The half-breed was in itself helpless. It might send its complaints and its petitions but they would only be treated with indifference and contempt. The HBC had influence and wealth to support its case both in England and in Ottawa.


...the historian who wishes to trace events to their true causes must hold the official negotiators of this transfer greatly responsible for the unrest, the uncertainty and the waste of money and lives caused by the scenes of 1885."


Secondly, there was often a great want of tact and prudence on the part of the Canada gentlemen who had to do business in these parts and more especially with the tribes of the plains. Before any arrangement were made with the Indian bands, surveyors were sent to survey longitudes, etc. Local Natives were told that the Queen-mother was gone and Canada had taken over.


Add this to the half-race grievance and it is not surprising that in time the fire should blaze on the prairies until much was consumed."


Newton wrote that he had mentioned these concerns to the gentlemen involved who answered "What do I care? I am not afraid of an Indian."


Newton noted that some of these gentlemen "were pretty well scared afterwards. But others had to meet expense and to sacrifice their lives and to bear the penalty of their incompetence." (p. 95)


Thirdly, difficulties of all kinds on account of distances were sure to arise, and these could scarcely be avoided in the transmission of plows and other manufactured goods. The Indians had been promised these things, and oftentimes they did not arrive....


Contempt of persons and races is never good policy, and it is to be hoped that when the Athabasca, Peace River and Mackenzie River districts are opened up for settlement, these lessons will be remembered and all collisions of races avoided in the future." [A nice dream!] (p. 99)


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On the theme of natural beauty, Newton wrote of the beauty of the prairies with its undulating hill and open spaces.


"Besides the vastness of the scenes above and below, on the banks of brooks and rivers, there are innumerable broken, hilly spots filled with vegetation, generally well wooded where poets might make homes of beauty and rest. It is as if Nature had said "the plains are made for agriculture and the toil of brave hand; but I have also made spots where the thinkers of a nation may live to idealize the common life and thus make a perfect nation.""


He also spoke of the pleasure and beauty produced by a garden near to farmhouses. He said many European plants thrive in the Edmonton climate.


"For years the common lilac has blossomed for me." Still today lilacs can be seen on the old site of Newton's Hermitage.


He recommended the Osage orange as a good natural hedge, and timothy for hay.

Shrubs such as lilac, the syringa, the privet and the guelder rose grew well for him in Edmonton.


Bokhara clover, he said, "has lived for years and sown itself. it is able to survive our winters and it would yield large crops several times in the summer. Farmers should give it their attention...." (p. 170)


Bohkara clover (melilotus albus) is also known as sweetclover and honey-clover. Its flowers are great for bees.

It is edible. Its flowers and leaves can be used to make tea, leaves can be eaten raw or boiled, seeds can be added to stews or soups for flavor, dried crushed leaves give baked goods a vanilla-like flavor, and flowers and fruits are used to flavor cheese. (https://www.anpc.ab.ca/wiki/index.php/Melilotus_albus)


But under some conditions it acts as an anti-coagulant so is poisonous for livestock.

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Newton moved to Edmonton in the 1870s. That was before there was any railway west of Ontario. Newton's journey to Edmonton from Ontario took five months (p. 15) . and after he arrived here, everything not made locally was shipped in by boat or on horse- or ox-drawn cart or wagon - or you had to live without it.

The Prairies had only become part of Canada in 1870.


Mounted police were formed a few years later to stamp out U.S.-based Wild-West-style liquor peddling. 1870s whiskey sellers came as north as Edmonton to sell their potent mixtures. (Background note: the later adventures of Jeremiah Johnson, one of the whiskey sellers who operated in the Edmonton area, was the subject of a Hollywood film starring Robert Redford.)


Edmonton did not publish its first local newspaper until 1880 no radio or television, no telephone or daily mail delivery


Imagine surviving Edmonton's harsh winters without modern clothing or thermostat-controlled heating systems.


Even glass windows were a scarce luxury back in 1870s.


Newton wrote in his memoir 20 Years on the Saskatchewan of trying to write and finding the ink frozen solid on his desk. (p. 20)

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Oddly enough, in his memoirs, Newton does not mention fellow Anglican minister Rev. McQueen whose career in Edmonton overlapped with his own.

In Bashir Mohamed's expose of racist activities in old-time Edmonton, McQueen is seen to refuse to participate in black-face activities of the local Rotary club in 1920. (Edmonton Bulletin, Oct. 22, 1920, p. 9)

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