Top reasons that Captain William Kennedy is a person of national significance: 1) Captain Kennedy was regarded as a hero of the British Empire for his exploits in the Arctic. He was honoured by famed Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton in 1910. He reached the furthest tip of the North American continent and has four places…

Peguis was born in about 1774 near Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) to a Saulteaux (Ojibway) mother, and a French fur trader (coureur des bois/voyageur). His family moved west to Red Lake (Minnesota) before migrating northward on Red River to where it meets the Assiniboine River (current city of Winnipeg, Manitoba). Continuing north, they settled their…

Born about 1824 in his parents’ camp along the banks of Netley Creek, Miskoo-kenew (Red Eagle) was one of the younger sons of Peguis and one of his wives. He was cultured in the traditional ways of his Saulteaux ancestors and educated in Christian/European traditions at the mission school at St. Peter’s. He was baptized,…

Joseph Cook was the first school teacher at St. Peter’s Settlement, and a dedicated assistant to the various missionaries who came to the community. Born about 1790 to Kahnapawanakan, a Cree woman from York Factory, Hudson Bay, and William Hemmings Cook, a Londoner, who worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company, Joseph grew up in northern…

Mary Innis Mackenzie was born in Glenrinnes, Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland on August 4, 1861. At age 25 she married Presbyterian minister, Ewan Mackenzie, in Scotland.8 Mary joined her husband in missionary work and shortly after their marriage the couple travelled to Nova Scotia. Mr. & Mrs. Mackenzie made at least one trip back to Scotland…

William Cockran was born in 1798 in Chillingham, Northumberland, England – a town that borders Scotland. He referred to himself as a Scotsman. Rev. Cockran was a big man, reports suggest he stood seven feet tall and weighed about 300 pounds.He studied Christianity at the Church Missionary Society College in England where he learned to…

Thomas Bunn was one of the early pioneers of St. Clements who devoted much of his life to shaping the development of this part of the Red River Settlement.

The son of a noted leader of Red River Colony, Dr John Bunn, he was a farmer by occupation and in later years turned his attention to the political development of the colony. He was a representative on Louis Riel’s first Provisional Government and then on the first legislative assembly for Manitoba.

Thomas Bunn (Jr.), the son of Thomas Bunn Sr. (1830 to 1875) and Rachel Bunn (Harriott) was born in the Municipality of St. Clements in 1874.  His father was the same Thomas Bunn who was a member of the Council of Assiniboia as well as the Provisional Government of Louis Riel and the first Manitoba…