Under normal circumstances, it’s unlikely Terry Avery and Jacqueline Johnston would ever have met.
But on a sunny morning this week, the two were brought together by a historical mystery that remains at least partially unsolved.
In a parking lot at Jackie Parker Park Thursday, Avery pulled from his vehicle a heavy piece of granite — the partial headstone of Johnston’s great-grandmother, Henrietta Julia Macdougall.
Macdougall, a minister’s wife who settled in Edmonton, died in 1932. Despite being buried in Edmonton Cemetery, a fragment of her original headstone somehow found its way to Avery’s son’s backyard, where it sat propped against a garage, possibly for decades.
Unsure what to do with such a find, Avery began digging through records to learn more about Macdougall’s family. He eventually spoke to this newspaper, which ran a story on his search Sunday.
Within hours, Johnston was surprised to be looking at a photo of her ancestor’s headstone.
“This came right out of the blue,” Johnston said after the exchange Thursday.
Henrietta Macdougall (standing), seen in an undated photo with her husband Rev. Ronald Fleming Macdougall and their children, Ronald, Donald and Stella. Henrietta died in 1932, and a piece of her original headstone was recently found in an Edmonton man’s backyard.
Henrietta Macdougall was born in 1861 in Oxfordshire, England. She came from a family of priests, including a father and brother who were reverends in the Anglican Church.
In 1894, when she was in her early 30s, Henrietta emigrated to Canada. She trained as a nurse in Winnipeg. Artifacts from her time as a nurse remain in the family, including her nursing pin and handwritten notes explaining how to treat common ailments.
Johnston said her great-grandmother was a calligrapher known for her beautiful handwriting. Her hobbies included collecting signatures of famous artists and poets, as well as Royal seals — her greatest treasure was Queen Victoria’s signature.
A few years after arriving in Canada, Henrietta married Rev. Ronald Fleming Macdougall, a Glasgow native whose family brought him to America as an infant. The two worked in Indigenous communities throughout northern Ontario and Saskatchewan — a 1921 Saskatoon Daily Star article called Rev. Macdougall an “early Indian educationist” who administered industrial and day schools in those provinces.
Eventually, the couple had three children: Donald Macdougall, an editor at the Edmonton Journal; daughter Stella, who became Mrs. W.L. Curror of McKim, Sask., and Ronald “Bon” Macdougall, who founded the 13 Black Cats, an aerial stunt group in early Hollywood, and raced in the 1926 Indianapolis 500.
Henrietta and Rev. Macdougall lived their final years at 12313 Stony Plain Rd. When Henrietta died in 1932, the Journal remembered her as a “pioneer resident of (the) West.”
Donald and Ada Macdougall, Johnston’s grandparents, died in the 1990s. When they were interred alongside Henrietta and her husband, the family realized Henrietta’s headstone had been damaged, though Johnston doesn’t know whether part of the stone was missing at that time. All four family members were ultimately placed under a common marker, and whatever remained of Henrietta and Rev. Macdougall’s headstones were removed.
Somehow, the top fragment of Henrietta’s stone found its way to the backyard of a historic home bought last fall by Josh Avery, Terry’s son. Johnston said no one in her family knows of any connection to the property — located in Strathearn, about five kilometres from Henrietta’s actual burial place.
Henrietta Macdougall, whose headstone was recently found in an Edmonton man’s backyard, trained as a nurse in Winnipeg in the 1890s.
After Josh found the stone, Terry took up the cause, diving into archives to find out more about the Macdougall family. While Johnston’s family haven’t decided what to do with the headstone, there’s been talk of having it interred on the family plot.
Johnston said she’s thankful Avery went through the effort to find her family.
“It’s kind of amazing that he actually took the time to research it and do this to reunite the family with this headstone,” she said. “A lot of people would have been, ‘Like, oh well, you know, whatever.’ It’s really amazing that he took the time and everything to do that. That was really incredible that he thought to do that for us.”
“I feel like I really accomplished something,” said Avery. “You know, I’ve been retired for seven years now, so I don’t have as many accomplishments happening as regularly, things I’m proud of. For me, it’s got nothing to do with recognition or anything like that — I just wanted to make sure it got back to the right people.”
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