![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/edmonton_journal_articles_165\/f30ac09967dd66d38b67e19dd92df26f.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nThe remains of Henrietta Macdougall, d. 1932, are buried in Section D, Block 66, Plot 15 of Edmonton’s municipal cemetery. That much is certain.<\/p>\n
So how did part of her headstone end up in a backyard on the other side of town?<\/p>\n
Terry Avery is on a quest to reunite a piece of Macdougall’s headstone with her descendants, after his son found the fractured burial marker outside his home in Strathearn. The home is about five kilometres as the crow flies from the cemetery where the pioneering reverend’s wife is buried.<\/p>\n
Josh Avery found the stone propped against his garage while cleaning up around the 100-year-old home he bought last fall. While only a portion of the name is visible, the Averys were able to determine the stone belonged to Macdougall, an Anglican reverend’s wife who came to Canada in the 1890s.<\/p>\n
How it got there, though, is a mystery. Terry Avery said when he first contacted the city about the headstone, he was told he might have to call the police in case there was a body on the property.<\/p>\n
“That kind of freaked me out,” Avery said. “They’re gonna dig my son’s yard up!”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The partial headstone found by Terry Avery\u2019s son at the 100-year-old house he bought in Bonnie Doon.<\/p>\n
A search of city records<\/a> revealed Macdougall’s resting place is located at the city’s municipal cemetery.<\/p>\n A pioneering woman<\/p>\n Henrietta Julia Macdougall was remembered in her obituary as a “pioneer resident of (the) west.”<\/p>\n A reverend’s daughter born in Oxfordshire in 1861, she emigrated to Canada in 1894 and trained as a nurse in Winnipeg. Henrietta eventually married Rev. Ronald Fleming Macdougall in Battleford, Sask., and spent “many years” working with him as missionaries in the “north country,” of Ontario and Saskatchewan. Eventually, they moved to Edmonton and settled at 12313 Stony Plain Rd.<\/p>\n The couple had three children: Donald Macdougall, who worked as an editor on the Journal; daughter Stella<\/a>, who became Mrs. W.L. Curror of McKim, Sask., and Ronald “Bon” Macdougall<\/a>, who made a name for himself as a high-octane stunt flyer in early Hollywood. Bon was a founding member of the 13 Black Cats<\/a>, an aerial stunt group famous for its wing-walking exploits, and also competed in (but did not finish) the 1926 Indianapolis 500.<\/p>\n Henrietta died in 1932 at age 71, three years before her husband. They are buried in Edmonton Cemetery, the city’s oldest, alongside son Donald and his wife Ada, who died in the 1990s. The modern-looking family marker is not far from pioneers like Emily Murphy and Malcolm Groat.<\/p>\n The remains of Henrietta Macdougall, d.1932, are safely buried in Section D, Block 66, Plot 15 of Edmonton\u2019s municipal cemetery.<\/p>\n Avery’s theory is that Macdougall’s original headstone was damaged at some point and replaced, though he’s been unable to find any connection between the Macdougall family and his son’s property.<\/p>\n Avery said he isn’t sure what to do with the marker beyond returning it to someone in the family.<\/p>\n “I just want any descendants that are interested in having this as a keepsake to get it,” he said. “Because I don’t know what to do with it.”<\/p>\n The City of Edmonton, for its part, said stories about misplaced headstones are uncommon<\/p>\n “This is a very rare occurrence and possibly the first time we’ve heard about something like this,” city spokesperson Christina Chu said in an email.<\/p>\n jwakefield@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n x.com\/jonnywakefield<\/a><\/p>\n jonnywakefield.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun<\/a><\/p>\n Henrietta Macdougall\u2019s 1932 obituary in the Edmonton Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The remains of Henrietta Macdougall, d. 1932, are buried in Section D, Block 66, Plot 15 of Edmonton’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[52,57311,57310,57314,57309,57313,57312,57308],"class_list":["post-181215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-edmonton","tag-henrietta-julia-macdougall","tag-henrietta-macdougall","tag-henrietta-macdougalls","tag-josh-avery","tag-municipal-cemetery","tag-ronald-fleming-macdougall","tag-terry-avery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/edmonton_journal_articles_165\/7c4dcf038f1455704938b5c200a29d93.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Henrietta](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/edmonton_journal_articles_165\/ac317dbb9fe4b06bd269628806a3c4ad.jpg\"\/)
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