Louisa MacKenzie Bethune (1793-1833)

Louisa MacKenzie Bethune (1793-1833). . , The life and legacy of Louisa MacKenzie represents the important role of women in Canada's early frontier and the evolution of the fur trade industry. , Louisa was the daughter of Honourable Roderick Mackenzie and a Chipewyan woman. Louisa was born in 1793 at Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca in Northern Alberta where her father was stationed. This was the same year that her father's cousin, Alexander Mackenzie, made his famous voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean as the first European explorer to cross North America. , Louisa was given in to the care of Roderick's kin Kenneth MacKenzie in 1800. Kenneth was apprentice clerk at Grand Portage, then Fort Kaministiquia in 1803 and proprietor of the Fort William Department and Montreal agent until he drowned in 1816 on Lake Superior near Sault Ste. Marie where his remains are buried. His will records Louisa MacKenzie as the mother of his [text missing from marker]. In 1817, Angus Bethune, a partner in the Northwest Company, visited Fort William where it is possible that Louisa first met her second husband. Between 1921 and 1936 Angus Bethune was stationed as Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor for one year at Moose Factory, two years at Fort Albany, eight years at Sault Ste. Marie, three years at Michipicoten and two years at La Cloche on Lake Huron. , Angus affectionately called his country wife "Miss Green Blanket". Angus and Louisa had six children. Their first child was born in London in 1821. Their second son, Norman, was a founder of the Upper Canada College of Medicine in Toronto. His grandson, Dr. Henry Norman Bethune is a national hero in China. He pioneered the use of mobile blood banks in the Spanish Civil War and organized mobile medical services for the Chinese Liberation Army in North China where he died of septicemia in 1939. , While Angus was stationed at the Michipicoten Post between 1832 and 1836, Louisa died in 1833 at the age of 40. There is no mention of her death in Angus's journals or his regular reports to the HBCo. headquarters. The inscription on her gravestone is the only known record of her time at Michipicoten. , Louisa's gravesite is one of the few remaining monuments to Michipicoten's incredible fur trade story. It also stands as a solemn reminder of the important role and sacrifice of European and native women to the growth and prosperity of the frontier in our early Canadian history.