John Alexander McDougall (May 20, 1854 – December 17, 1928) was a businessman and politician in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada, He served as a municipal councillor, mayor and a member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

Early Life

John Alexander McDougall was born May 20, 1854, in Oakwood,

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

(now

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

) to Alexander J. McDougall and Janet Cummings. His father died in 1867 when John was thirteen. He left school and worked to support his family. In 1873, he moved to

Fort Garry Fort Garry, also known as Upper Fort Garry, was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post located at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in or near the area now known as The Forks in what is now central Winnipeg, Manitoba. Fort Garr ...

(now

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

) where he worked as a fur trader and completed his education at

Manitoba College Manitoba College was a college that existed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, from 1871 to 1967, when it became one of the University of Winnipeg and University of Manitoba’s founding colleges. It was one of the first institutions of higher learning ...

. In 1877 this work brought him to Edmonton, where he decided to settle, but not before returning to Ontario in 1878 to marry his high school sweetheart, Lovisa Jane Amey (1878-1943), with whom he had three sons and three daughters. The pair settled in Edmonton in 1879, where McDougall went into business, trading furs in competition with the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

, soon opening a general store. In 1881, he was one of ten Edmontonians to guarantee the five hundred dollar annual salary of the settlement's first schoolteacher. He became a justice of the peace in 1885.

Business career

McDougall ran a general store in Edmonton starting in 1879. He specialized in buying and selling furs. John McDougall was the first president of the Edmonton Board of Trade, in 1889. In 1896, McDougall joined with fellow Edmonton pioneer businessman

Richard Secord Major general (United States), Major General Richard Vernon Secord (July 6, 1932 – October 15, 2024) was a United States Air Force officer who worked in covert operations. Early in his military service, he was a member of the first U.S. avia ...

and founded McDougall & Secord. This business advertised itself as "general merchants, wholesale and retail; buyers and exporters of raw furs; dealers in land scrip and north west lands; outfitters for survey parties, traders, trappers, miners and others for the north, and suppliers for country stores." The two ran the company until 1907, when they sold it. Besides the fur trade, McDougall & Secord did a major business in buying Metis scrip and re-selling them at a profit. Sometimes a scrip, a mere scrap paper, could be obtained for a bottle of whiskey, then could be used to obtain 160 acres of choice farmland, which then sold for $2 an acre. Alleged schemes that Secord used to secure scrip at that time are described in Rob Houle's research "Richard Henry Secord and Metis Scrip Speculation" (June 2016), available on-line. With this business and their other lines, McDougall and Secord became millionaires by the time Alberta became a province in 1905. In 1907, the two formed a financial house and mortgage corporation called McDougall & Secord, Limited. McDougall operated this company until his death, when its leadership was taken over by his son John Charles McDougall. It has now been closed permanently.Wikipedia: Richard Secord (politician)

Political career

1892 In Samoa, this was the only leap year spanned to 367 days as July 4 repeated. This means that the International Date Line was drawn from the east of the country to go west. Events January * January 1 – Ellis Island begins processing imm ...

, McDougall ran for alderman of Edmonton's first

town council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland In 2002, 49 urban district councils and 26 town commissi ...

. He was narrowly defeated, finishing seventh place (16 votes behind sixth place

Philip Daly Philip Ernest Daly (December 1860 – January 22, 1923) was a politician in Alberta, Canada and a municipal councillor in Edmonton. Biography Philip Ernest Daly was born in Neenah, Wisconsin in December 1860 to Charles B. Daly, from Kingsto ...

) out of fourteen candidates in an election in which the top six candidates were elected. He ran again in

1893 Events January * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * January 6 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress; th ...

and finished first of nine candidates and was elected. He was re-elected in

1894 Events January * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States. * Ja ...

(finishing second of nine candidates, behind Colin Strang) . He was elected to the public school board the same year (he served one year). In

1895 Events January * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of tr ...

McDougall ran for mayor against

Herbert Charles Wilson Herbert Charles Wilson (December 7, 1859 – December 17, 1909) was a Canadians, Canadian politician and physician. He was an elected member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territo ...

, but was defeated, 129 votes to 91. He made another attempt in

1896 Events January * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports Wilhelm Röntgen's dis ...

and became mayor. He did not seek re-election in

1897 Events January * January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City. * January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a punitive expedit ...

, and stayed out of politics for the next decade. In

1907 Events January * January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Moment magnitude scale, Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000. February * February 9 – The "Mud March (suffragists), Mud March", the ...

McDougall was again elected mayor, defeating Joseph Henri Picard 1217 votes to 437. During his second term as mayor, he installed an automatic telephone system in the city and oversaw the establishment of a street railway (streetcar) system for Edmonton and Strathcona. He did not seek re-election in

1908 This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time. Events January * January ...

. Running as a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

candidate in

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escapes death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Janu ...

, he was elected as one of the two Members of the Legislative Assembly in the

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

district. He did not seek re-election in

1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...

, when he was 59 years of age. Instead he devoted his energies to his business activities, the Edmonton economy being in recession at that time.

Last years and legacy

St John Ambulance Edmonton Alberta Canada 01A

McDougall spent many of his last years traveling the world with his wife. He died in Edmonton on December 17, 1928. He had been active with the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...

, the

Masonic Order Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

and the Edmonton Club. McDougall was one of the founders of

St. John Ambulance St John Ambulance is an affiliated movement of charitable organisations in mostly Commonwealth countries which provide first aid education and consumables and emergency medical services. St John organisations are primarily staffed by volunte ...

in Alberta. John A. McDougall School is named in his honour. McDougall & Secord, Limited exists in Edmonton to this day, believed to be the oldest surviving company in Alberta. Its precursors—McDougall's General Store and Secord's Fur Store and Warehouse—are reproduced on 1885 Street in

Fort Edmonton Park Fort Edmonton Park (sometimes referred to as "Fort Edmonton") is an attraction in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Named for the first enduring European post in the area of modern-day Edmonton, the park is the largest living history museum in Canada by ...

. James G. MacGregor was author of his biography, Edmonton Trader, The Story of John A. McDougall.

Footnotes

References

''Real Estate Weekly'' biography of John McDougall

Edmonton Public Library Biography of McDougallCity of Edmonton biography of McDougallMinutes of the City of Edmonton's Naming Committee, January 18, 2006

History of St. John Ambulance in Alberta
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDougall, John Alexander 1854 births 1928 deaths Pre-Confederation Alberta people Alberta Liberal Party MLAs Mayors of Edmonton Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian fur traders People from Kawartha Lakes Canadian Presbyterians 19th-century mayors of places in Alberta 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 20th-century mayors of places in Alberta