The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology

Daniel T. Williams

(ca. 1840–1887)

There are two versions of Daniel Williams. The first imagined Williams was born into slavery in the American south and arrived in the Peace River country, currently Alberta, in 1869. He was imagined to lurk on the periphery of prairie society, squatting illegally on Hudson’s Bay Company land, opening competing trading posts, destroying and stealing HBC property, and committing murder when the Company tried to reclaim what it thought of as its property. Williams, it is told (e.g., Peter Freuchen 1956; Nigel Hannaford 1976), was finally brought to justice after fatally shooting a police officer who entered his cabin and mistakenly killed Williams’s Beaver wife, Thela, instead of him. He was tried at Fort Saskatchewan, and found guilty of murder. It is said he was executed by hanging in 1880.

But looking at the archival record, it becomes clear that this version of Williams is altogether apocryphal, a product of prairie fears of blackness and, in particular, black masculinity. A strikingly different image of Daniel Williams emerges from nineteenth-century Dominion Geological Survey records, and from archival Edmonton Bulletin articles published in the 1880s. In these versions, Williams is an integral member of early prairie society; he is socially connected, and he is rooted in a land he cared for deeply.

Williams was born in Canada, not the United States. He likely came from Kingston, Canada West, and he probably travelled west as a translator and cook for the famous John Palliser expedition, which surveyed the prairies from 1857 to 1860 for possible routes for the Canadian Pacific Railway. By 1872 he was well established in the Peace River district, as evidenced by the garden he wrote about. Williams was a careful and talented gardener, and he shared his work with surveyors who came by his place to gather data on soil and climate in the area. In 1876 one Dominion land surveyor, Mr. Selwyn, made note of "Nigger Dan’s [sic] flourishing garden of vegetables and grains—he was harvesting his potatoes August 2 and his barley and oats were ripe by August 12." Williams kept a notebook in which he carefully recorded his observations about the changing seasons in the Peace River country and regarding his garden operations. Williams shared his notebook with Dominion land surveyors, one of which published a fragment in Province of Manitoba and North-West Territory of the Dominion of Canada: Information for Emigrants (p. 27, 1878), published by the Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, from which the following excerpts are taken.¹ Williams’s lyrical simplicity reads like a restraint poem stripped down to the necessary nouns and verbs: river, geese, ice. He sows his words on the page as carefully as seeds in earth.

On August 12, 1882, news of Dan Williams was published in the Edmonton Bulletin. The Local News article suggests Williams was a well-known local figure, enough so that his failing health was regarded as newsworthy. The article reads:

Wheat is getting yellow.

Eighty eight in the shade on Tuesday.

No prospect of CPR getting to Calgary this season.

Raspberries are plentiful and sell in town at $2 a patent pail full. […]

Dan Williams, of Fort Saskatchewan, who has been very ill lately, is improving slightly.

Further news of Williams is printed in the Bulletin on July 9, 1887, letting local readers know about his death:

A party of nine came into the Upper Peace River last fall from Calgary by way of British Columbia. […] The other 6 including Dan Williams, Nigger Dan, [sic] went up the Finlay Branch of the Peace. They had some disagreements and Dan and another separated from the rest and came down to the mouth of the Finlay where they built a cabin in which to winter. Dan took sick in the fall and gradually wasted away until he died about the middle of February. His death was not heard of until the ice broke up and his companion came down to Christie’s camp.

Williams never was hanged for murder as the legend told. Further proof is that his name does not appear in the Inventory of Case Files of Persons Sentenced to Death in Canada, 1867–1976 (Gadoury and Lechasseur). He has likely been mixed up with one Jess[e] Williams, a black man who was hanged for murder in 1884 at the North-West Mounted Police Barracks in Calgary.

From his writing it is clear that he did have a quarrel with the Hudson’s Bay Company, but there is no evidence that he ever did more than commit pen to paper in defence of land he thought was his. The ultimatum regarding this land that Dan Williams wrote to Chief Factor Kennedy in 1873 is the second-oldest surviving piece of writing by a black prairie person, after his Notebook fragment. In the short but powerful missive, Williams’s written voice rings out in uncompromising defence of both his personal sovereignty and the sovereignty of his claimed home place.

Notebook 1872–1875

"1872.

"Ice began to run in river November 8th.

"River closed November 28th.

"First snow October 28th.

"1873.

"April 23rd, ice moved out of river.

"Planted potatoes April 25th.

"First permanent snow November 2nd.

"River closed November 30th.

"1874.

"River broke up 19th April.

"First geese came 21st April.

"Sowed barley and oats April 22nd.

River cleared of upper ice May 3rd.

"Planted potatoes May 5th.

"Potatoes not injured by frost until 22nd September. Then snow fell which coverd them, but soon went off. Dug over 100 bushels from one planting.

"Ice commenced to run in river October 30th.

"River closed November 23rd.

"Snowed all night November 4th.

"1875.

"Ice broke up in river April 15th.

"Warm rains from north-west; blue flies and rain, February 18th.

"Ice cleared out in front of Fort, April 16th.

"Potatoes planted 8th, 9th, and 10th May.

"Barley and oats sown May 7th.

Snow all gone before the middle of April. This applies to both the river valley and the level country above.

Letter to Hudson’s Bay Company Factor, George Kennedy, April 12, 1873

Kenedy I hear by

Worne you that Com and Gett your

persnol property if eny you

have Got on my prmeeis   In 24 hours and then keep

away

from me because I shal Not betrubbled Nor trod on

only by her most Noble

Majesty

Governmet

(Sgd) D.T. WILLIAMS

I have waited longe A-day for an ancer from that Notis you toer-Down and now It is my turn to tore down.

1 Digitized and available from the University of Alberta at https://babel.hathitrust.org.

Dr. Alfred Schmitz Shadd

(1870–1915)

Alfred Shadd was not only a teacher and a physician, but also a talented farmer, politician, newspaper editor, writer, and energetic civic leader. He was born in Chatham, southern Ontario, to Garrison and Harriet Poindexter Shadd, a couple known for their high-profile abolitionist work. Alfred’s aunt, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, was the famed writer and educator who edited the Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper (published 1853–1857) that advocated for equality, integration, and self-education for black people in Canada and the United States, and which urged black Americans to consider Canada as a permanent home.

Although the Shadd family was well respected, they were not wealthy. Alfred Shadd began his career as a teacher and taught first at the same racially segregated school in Chatham where he had been a student (Thomson, Alfred Schmitz Shadd). Shadd dreamed of becoming a doctor and he studied medicine at the University of Toronto, but running short of money, he had to leave his program, and in 1896 headed west to teach in the small community of Kinistino, in the North-West Territories (now Saskatchewan). After his first year in Kinistino, Shadd returned to the University of Toronto to complete his medical degree, and in 1898 he returned to Kinistino, this time to practise medicine.

Shadd proved to be a gifted and dedicated country doctor, travelling constantly to tend to patients throughout the Carrot River valley. The tributes to Shadd published in the Melfort Moon after his death testify to his successes as a doctor. No drive was too long; no night too dark; no trail too rough to deter the doctor when the call for assistance came. According to another newspaper article, he was universally liked by all who knew him, especially those who received medical treatment from him, it being as good as medicine to hear his hearty laughter when he was cheering up a patient. A long-time resident of the area remembered, "I will never forget Dr. Shadd sitting beside my little sister keeping her swatched in cool cloths and wrapped in cotton batting and oiled silk when the measles went back in on her. She had to learn to walk all over again but he saved her. Rain or snow, road or no road didn’t stop the doctor. If there was no trail for the buggy or cutter he would take to horseback (Saskatchewan African Heritage Museum).

In 1907 Shadd went to Europe to pursue postgraduate studies in Edinburgh and Paris, but once again a lack of money forced him to return to his medical practice on the prairies. On December 31, 1907, Shadd married Jeanette (Jennie) Simpson, a white woman, and they had two children, Garrison, named for Shadd’s father, and Louena (or Lavina). The Shadds entertained distinguished guests in their middle-class home, including the first premier of the North-West Territories, Frederick Haultain.

Over the next decade, Shadd channelled his ambitions into a stunning array of civic building activities. His list of achievements is remarkable for any individual. Shadd purchased the Prince Albert Advocate in 1908 and moved it to Melfort. It was renamed the Carrot River Journal and the first issue came out October 8, 1908. Dr. Shadd was the publisher and editor, despite his apparent disavowal of his editorship in the October 1910 editorial, below. Shadd opened and operated a drugstore. He was instrumental in building a hospital in Melfort, and he was active on both the Melfort town council and the school board. He founded and became president of the Melfort Agricultural Society, and he belonged to the local Masonic lodge, Orange order. He reputedly called himself a black Orangeman (Thomson 1998).

Shadd was less successful in his political career than he was in his other endeavours. In 1901 he ran as a Conservative candidate in the territorial elections, but was unsuccessful. In the 1905 election as the Equal Rights Party candidate, he came within fifty-two votes of becoming the first black person elected to a provincial legislature in Canada. Nevertheless, Shadd’s achievements are remarkable, and they are made all the more so by the fact that he accomplished it all before his early death from appendicitis at the age of forty-five.

In the following speech to the electorate of Kinistino, published in the Melfort Journal, readers can hear Shadd’s elevated and formal tone, befitting that of a public figure. Readers can also note the way Shadd prioritized local and regional concerns above federal ones.

In his Defamation rant, published in the Carrot River Journal, which Shadd also owned and edited, readers encounter a black author ironically disavowing his own authorship. The rant should be understood in the context of Shadd’s sparring relationship with the editor of the Kinistino Representative, whom he knew well from living in Kinistino from 1896 to 1904. Such verbal salvos were common in newspapers during this time, particularly concerning political affiliations. After all, Kinistino elected a Liberal from 1902 to 1929, whereas Shadd ran as a Conservative in 1905. The disavowal of his authorship and his pugnacious tone, then, should be understood as forms of permitted disrespect that testify to his security within his community. In Shadd’s final editorial in the Carrot River Journal, on February 2, 1912, three years before his untimely death, he bids farewell to his paper readers and users. His reference to the past three and a half years seems to suggest it was his paper throughout.

In March of 1915, Shadd took ill and died. A Canadian black granite stone marks his burial place in Melfort, Saskatchewan.

Original copies of the Melfort Journal and Carrot River Journal (1908–1912 ed. Shadd) are housed at the Melfort and District Museum, Saskatchewan.

To the Electors of the District of Kinistino

Gentlemen, —— We have a very large district, and although I have held meetings in nearly every portion of it, still many of you may possibly not have met me or been made acquainted with my views upon the present issues. I would therefore in the first place say, I am fully convinced that in our purely local affairs it is better that we should consider the province of Saskatchewan first in the present juncture, and the Dominion as a whole second. At the General Elections for Ottawa I would certainly say, consider the Dominion first and our local interests secondary. In short, I think that as a province we will get evener [sic] justice when the Premier of Saskatchewan has not to think whether he will injure his party at Ottawa or not, by standing out for our full rights in questions between the local and Dominion government. I think that Mr. Haultain took that stand, knowing at the time that he would be deprived of his position as our Premier by doing so. We have not so very many men in public life who deliberately do this, and when we find them I believe we as electors should uphold their hands.

I believe also the property of railways and corporations and great land companies should be placed upon the same general footing as regards paying taxes as our farm property; and as the Dominion government failed to provide for this in framing the Autonomy Bill, in so far as the C.P.R. tax exemption is concerned, therefore, the Dominion government should increase our subsidy by the exact amount we lose by not being able to tax this property. This is only just, as we know the C.P.R. was built for Canada as a whole and not for us in particular.

We should also undertake in our own behalf the building of a line of railway to Hudson Bay at once. By the word we I mean the Western Provinces. I don’t think the Ottawa government will be in any haste to do this work, and I don’t think we can wait.

I think again that if we are to become as important a province as, say, any of the eastern group of provinces, we should be handed over the control—and at once—of our public lands, and forests, as well as any minerals we may have. Without these resources we will be forever tied down to the Federal government grant or to direct taxation. Besides, without lands our borrowing power will be very little and our rate of interest correspondingly higher.

Regarding our schools, I believe the matter of their control should have been left in our own hands. Personally, I am convinced that in countries like this where men of every race and creed are coming in and making their homes, a system of national schools for all the little children alike would be the best way of forming good Canadian citizens of them all. And as we all well know, one school is certainly more apt to be efficiently conducted where settlements are sparse than two.

Apart from this, if I am returned I am prepared to give Mr. Haultain a full measure of support along all lines of general progress. And I am sure we are all agreed, both friends and opponents of his, that Mr. Haultain has in the past done his utmost to give our vast North-West Territories efficient and progressive management. As we have that experience to go by, I am convinced that the Province of Saskatchewan can do no better than return Mr. Haultain as her first elected Premier.

If you, gentlemen, think with me in these matters, I ask your support at the polls.

Believe me, your obedient servant,

A. Schmitz Shadd.

Melfort, Nov. 28

Defamation

Carrot River Journal, October 1910

In an article in the Kinistino Representative of Oct 13, headed Shaddows, there are several statements to which we take objection because they are not true, they are defamatory, and even insulting. We wish the Representative to clearly understand that Dr. Shadd has no interest in the [Carrot River] Journal, that he does not write for it, and if the Rep were to get his grey matter at work, if he has any, he would see the name of the editor and proprietor of the Journal at the top of the editorial column.

Having called the attention of the editor of the Representative to the above fact, we have not either the time or inclination to pay any attention to his braying.

Sorry but Happy

Melfort Journal, February 2, 1912.

With today’s Journal the present Editor is forced to bid adieu to the readers of his paper. After three or more years, we are going to lay aside the pen, for more hands to take up. We were born young, but age is making us old. And with age comes wisdom. This goddess points out that the Journal has now reached the place where a practiced newspaper man should be at the helm. She points out that while tenacity is generally a winner, there is a time when the goal is won by letting go. The goal striven after by the Journal is in sight. Younger and more practical men will be able to guide us along until we reach it.

Our successor, Mr. S.C. Lancaster, is well known to the Melfort public. He helped to get out the first issue of the paper and was with us for several months, leaving to take over the management of our esteemed contemporary. He has been in that office ever since. The lure of the first love, however, was too strong and now Mr. Lancaster returns, not as manager but as editor and proprietor. His experience in newspaper work bespeaks a bright future for him in his new venture. The Journal will now be enlarged and improved in many ways. A growing town and community requires a growing publicity medium. This has always been the policy of the newspaper and it will so continue.

The Journal during the last three and a half years has received many kindly assurances from its readers and contemporaries; also many bumps, both of which were very much appreciated. Our thanks are due our patrons and supporters, and in heartily tendering the same, we commend their continuance to Mr. Lancaster.

A Schmitz Shadd

Mildred Jane Lewis Ware

(1871–1905)

When it comes to the literary legacy of the black prairies, it is Mildred Ware, more than her famous husband, John, who left her mark. There are a number of letters written in the late nineteenth century that were sent from the Ware family ranch to the brand office that appear to be penned and signed by John Ware. But John, being born in slavery, did not learn to write.¹

Mildred Lewis was born in Toronto in 1871 to a middle-class urban family. Her father, Daniel Vant Lewis, was a carpenter and cabinetmaker who moved with his wife Charlotte and their large family from Ontario to Alberta in 1889, when Mildred was in her late teens. After unsuccessfully trying their hand at ranching near Shepard, the family moved back to Calgary, and Daniel resumed his trade of carpentry. According to Cheryl Foggo (My Home), he specialized in building elaborate staircases in Calgary’s upscale homes. In the affluent and educated Lewis family, Mildred learned to read and write. Before marrying Ware, Mildred was a schoolteacher, and thus it was she, rather than John, who wrote the following letters.

Mildred Lewis and John Ware were married by a pastor of the Baptist church in Calgary at the Lewis residence on Tuesday, March 1, 1892. The bride was reported to be of a happy disposition, well cultured and accomplished by the Calgary Tribune.² For his part, John was praised as charming and gregarious: no man in the district has a greater number of warm friends than the groom (qtd. in David Breen). When they married, John already had a ranch on the headwaters of the Sheep River with two hundred head of cattle. In 1902 the Wares moved to a new ranch in the Rosebud area, but their home was destroyed when the Red Deer River flooded its banks. The family barely escaped in the night. The Wares eventually prospered, and their operation increased to one thousand head of cattle. Mildred never learned to ride a horse.

Mildred and John had six children, five of whom survived until adulthood. Mildred died at the age of thirty-seven of pneumonia. John Ware died five months later, when a horse he was riding stumbled in a badger hole and fell upon him.

While John Ware is memorialized in the name of John Ware Junior High School in southwest Calgary, the John Ware building at SAIT polytechnic, several geographical features in southern Alberta—Mount Ware, Ware Creek, and John Ware Ridge (formerly Nigger John Ridge [sic])—and the 2012 Canada Post commemorative stamp, the contributions of Mildred Ware in the running of the Ware ranch have not been as widely acknowledged. But the persistence she shows in the writing of these letters suggests that she was a significant part of the ranching operation. Indeed, she did the bookkeeping on the ranch, carried out the necessary letter correspondence, and taught her family to read and write. Mildred does not write after her letter of June 20, 1899; presumably after this she received confirmation that she had been successful in registering the 999 brand in her daughter’s name. Why Mildred chose to have the brand registered in Nettie’s name—then five years old—is hard to say. It could be that some part of the business was registered by the Wares in their daughter’s name. But why Mildred signed her husband’s and her daughter’s names to her letters rather than her own is puzzling. Although Mildred appeared to be reluctant to put herself forward, the black prairie archive remembers and celebrates her as the first black woman writer on the prairies.

Recently, Mildred Ware’s voice has been brought to life by author Cheryl Foggo, whose play John Ware Reimagined (excerpted in this volume) also constitutes a reimagining of Mildred. Foggo’s description of Toronto-born Mildred’s reaction to nineteenth-century prairie culture in all its roughness, the dull routine of ranch life, the wildness of her country-raised children, and her enduring love of her husband, is deeply affecting.

I have transcribed Mildred’s handwritten letters exactly as I found them in the archives. While the short lines are due to the narrow letter paper on which Mildred wrote, keeping her original lineation here amplifies the possibilities for reading the texts in other ways—for instance, as found poems. Mildred’s original letters are held by the Alberta provincial Brands Office. Copies are available at the Glenbow Archives (M-1283-1).

Letter May 4, 1898

Millarville May 4th 1898

Dear Sir

$1⁰⁰

I wont to get

my brand recorded 999 on

left shoulder for horses John Ware

Sheep Creek. and I wont to get

DC on left side and hipe

for cattle treasfer from me

to Miss Nettey Ware.³ can

Robert Ware brand † get this

brand for cattle on left

side and shipe

I am sending bil of sail to

show you that DC brand

belongs to me it is recorded

in the Old brand book

in Courtney main please

return bil of sail to me

I inclose One Dollar for treasfer

Yours truly     John Ware

                       Millarville P.O.

Letter June 6, 1898

Millarville

I am in receipt of your letter

of May 28 and beg to say

my horse brand I paid

for getting it recorded

I have nothing to show that

it is recorded 9 on the left

shoulder I wont to now