JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
Re: JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
A posting from erfle: FISCHER Frederick Indian Agent: looking for information on Fredrick FISCHER he would be my great great grand father. He married Sarah STEVENSON or Angelic STEVENSON. my grand Mother was Laura FISCHER and she married Lars JOHNSON. Laura had a brother who's name is Albert FISCHER I believe.
Re: JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
I do have many unorganized snippets of information about Fred FISCHER in my files. However, this subject is beyond the scope of my current endeavors and it would be a very time-consuming task to do further research and to put it all together. More about that at this link: SPECIAL FAMILY PAGES
Gary Still
Gary Still
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Shelly Johnson
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:36 pm
Re: JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
Hi. It is interesting to see my family identified and written about. Brenda, some of the information you have is correct, while other information is not. Lars Johnson and Laura Angelique Fischer were my grandparents. My father is Orville Johnson and he is alive and well today (August 8, 2013) as is his sister, Agnes (Aggie) and his eldest brother, Gilbert (Manny) as is the youngest brother, Norman. Olive (Ollie), Albert (Jiggs) and Lars Jr as well as eldest daughters Helen and Oriolle have all passed on. Grandma Laura was a midwife in Norquay and worked for years with the local physician, Dr. O'Shay, delivering children in the local area. She passed away when I was 12 in 1973. Grandfather Lars Johnson was a Norwegian immigrant from a small town named Vinjeora, near Trondheim, Norway - Vinjeora is at the end of fjord that I visited in 2007 with my father.
The Stevenson's we are related to are still living in and around Keeseekoose and Regina. Robert Louis Stevenson (Robbie) and Charles (Charlie) live close to Keeseekoose, as well as Linda Poitras (their sister) who married into the Peepeekissis Rez. I have a very detailed family history map that I can provide that shows how we are all related. I developed that with the Stevenson family in 2004 with Robbie and Glen Stevenson (a few years before Glen passed). Glen was he one that remembered Grama Laura and yes, I've heard the same stories about Grama being separated from her community. It took me 2 generations to remake the connection. Glen spoke about going to see Grama Laura with his father when he was a little boy and he told me the story of also visiting with Grampa Lars. He also knew her as Angelique. The story I have been told by my father and uncles/aunts is that Grama's mother was also named "Laura" and she died in child birth with my Grama in or around 1897. Family story is that Grama was raised by her aunt, Sarah Stevenson (who was Laura's sister) until Grama had to attend the convent, which was located close to the Lebret Residential School. There was not much difference between the residential school and the convent, however, due to the fact that her father would have been an Indian Agent by that time (Frederick Fischer), she no doubt may have had an easier time there than other children who were not half-white. Of course, given what we have all come to learn about residential schools and the abuses that occurred there with the full knowledge of the governments and churches, that may be relative safety. It is true that Grama did not talk about her family or many of her experiences in residential schools. At the time she lived, there was no reconciliation for a little girl whose father was half-white (which may have estranged her from her reserve based community, as well if her mother married Fischer, she would have lost her Indian status at that time) and Fischer's family was in the Toronto area. How would anyone be able to reconcile that kind of mixed race ancestry at that time in history? Her choice was to go forward; yet she was not forgotten by her Stevenson relatives and they did visit from time to time. Dad vividly recalls and has pictures of Grama's brother's children (her nephew) coming to visit in Norquay; he brought along his wife and from the pictures, looks like 3 daughters. Her brother died in a car accident in the 1950's is what I've been told.
Certainly in our family, there are gaps in family knowledge due to the horrific experiences of many children sent to those schools and, Grama's experience as a mixed race child could exacerbate the feelings of being "between". Dad recalls Grama telling him that she went to visit her father during the summer times at his various posts and how she wanted to go to his funeral in 1930 but it was not possible. The distance was too great for her to get there in time. He is buried in the Legionnaire's plot in The Pas. Aggie and Dad visited it many years ago.
Dad and his siblings grew up on a family farm 2 miles north of Norquay. His parents sold the farm, retired to town in 1954 where they lived across the tracks from the Norquay grain elevator. It's true that before that, Grampa Lars owned a livery stable in town; however he farmed for many years. Both of them are buried at the cemetery south of the family farm, along with some of their children.
My father is very proud of his Saulteaux (what the french called us), Ojibway (how Grama referred to herself and what the English called us) ancestry, as am I. Dad said Grama told him that her father, Frederick could speak English, French, Latin and Cree. There may be some in Dad's family that do not feel the same pride in our Saulteaux ancestry, however to say that they all left Norquay because of racism is not correct. Certainly my Uncle Manny (Gil) that I spoke to today, scoffs at that notion as does Aggie and my father. Gil is now 89 and sharp as a tack, as is Aggie who is 85.
In those days, Dad explained, students who reached grade 8 in that small schoolhouse in Norquay felt they had all the education they needed. My aunt, Aggie, continues to live in Norquay and has owned businesses there. She has one daughter, Laura who continues to live there and is a minister. There is no doubt that racism is alive and well and that the line between the reserves and town is well acknowledged by all. However, the story about Grampa Lars only agreeing to marry Grama, if she sustained no contact with her family members is abit suspect. My mother (who has recently passed) told me that if anyone was the leader in the family, it was Grama, not Grampa! At least that was her perception having known Grama Laura for close to 30 years. Who knows? But at least 3 of my fathers siblings reject that notion.
My father left Saskatchewan for BC which is where my brother and I were born and have lived all our lives. When I reconnected with our Stevenson family in 2003, it was with Robbie Stevenson. I simply sent a fax to Keeseekoose Band office, explained who I am, who my grandmother was, and they knew right away who my family is. Our relationship is strong to this day. The Stevensons I know are very well educated people with Bachelor degrees in Business, Finance and Social Work. It took less than a couple of weeks for them to travel to meet me & my family here in BC and I remain connected to them to this day. In fact, Robbie has come to live with us a few times to help establish programming here in BC related to reconnection programs for indigenous families. To my children, he is "Uncle Robbie". My last visit to Saskatchewan was in July 2013 with my father when we went home to Norquay. On that trip we visited with Robbie and his daughter. Our Stevenson relatives have been nothing but welcoming and accepting. I hold them in high regard.
Currently I work as a professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. If you are Brenda and your mom is Angie, Helen's daughter, then we have never met. This despite our light eyes, and all.
The Stevenson's we are related to are still living in and around Keeseekoose and Regina. Robert Louis Stevenson (Robbie) and Charles (Charlie) live close to Keeseekoose, as well as Linda Poitras (their sister) who married into the Peepeekissis Rez. I have a very detailed family history map that I can provide that shows how we are all related. I developed that with the Stevenson family in 2004 with Robbie and Glen Stevenson (a few years before Glen passed). Glen was he one that remembered Grama Laura and yes, I've heard the same stories about Grama being separated from her community. It took me 2 generations to remake the connection. Glen spoke about going to see Grama Laura with his father when he was a little boy and he told me the story of also visiting with Grampa Lars. He also knew her as Angelique. The story I have been told by my father and uncles/aunts is that Grama's mother was also named "Laura" and she died in child birth with my Grama in or around 1897. Family story is that Grama was raised by her aunt, Sarah Stevenson (who was Laura's sister) until Grama had to attend the convent, which was located close to the Lebret Residential School. There was not much difference between the residential school and the convent, however, due to the fact that her father would have been an Indian Agent by that time (Frederick Fischer), she no doubt may have had an easier time there than other children who were not half-white. Of course, given what we have all come to learn about residential schools and the abuses that occurred there with the full knowledge of the governments and churches, that may be relative safety. It is true that Grama did not talk about her family or many of her experiences in residential schools. At the time she lived, there was no reconciliation for a little girl whose father was half-white (which may have estranged her from her reserve based community, as well if her mother married Fischer, she would have lost her Indian status at that time) and Fischer's family was in the Toronto area. How would anyone be able to reconcile that kind of mixed race ancestry at that time in history? Her choice was to go forward; yet she was not forgotten by her Stevenson relatives and they did visit from time to time. Dad vividly recalls and has pictures of Grama's brother's children (her nephew) coming to visit in Norquay; he brought along his wife and from the pictures, looks like 3 daughters. Her brother died in a car accident in the 1950's is what I've been told.
Certainly in our family, there are gaps in family knowledge due to the horrific experiences of many children sent to those schools and, Grama's experience as a mixed race child could exacerbate the feelings of being "between". Dad recalls Grama telling him that she went to visit her father during the summer times at his various posts and how she wanted to go to his funeral in 1930 but it was not possible. The distance was too great for her to get there in time. He is buried in the Legionnaire's plot in The Pas. Aggie and Dad visited it many years ago.
Dad and his siblings grew up on a family farm 2 miles north of Norquay. His parents sold the farm, retired to town in 1954 where they lived across the tracks from the Norquay grain elevator. It's true that before that, Grampa Lars owned a livery stable in town; however he farmed for many years. Both of them are buried at the cemetery south of the family farm, along with some of their children.
My father is very proud of his Saulteaux (what the french called us), Ojibway (how Grama referred to herself and what the English called us) ancestry, as am I. Dad said Grama told him that her father, Frederick could speak English, French, Latin and Cree. There may be some in Dad's family that do not feel the same pride in our Saulteaux ancestry, however to say that they all left Norquay because of racism is not correct. Certainly my Uncle Manny (Gil) that I spoke to today, scoffs at that notion as does Aggie and my father. Gil is now 89 and sharp as a tack, as is Aggie who is 85.
In those days, Dad explained, students who reached grade 8 in that small schoolhouse in Norquay felt they had all the education they needed. My aunt, Aggie, continues to live in Norquay and has owned businesses there. She has one daughter, Laura who continues to live there and is a minister. There is no doubt that racism is alive and well and that the line between the reserves and town is well acknowledged by all. However, the story about Grampa Lars only agreeing to marry Grama, if she sustained no contact with her family members is abit suspect. My mother (who has recently passed) told me that if anyone was the leader in the family, it was Grama, not Grampa! At least that was her perception having known Grama Laura for close to 30 years. Who knows? But at least 3 of my fathers siblings reject that notion.
My father left Saskatchewan for BC which is where my brother and I were born and have lived all our lives. When I reconnected with our Stevenson family in 2003, it was with Robbie Stevenson. I simply sent a fax to Keeseekoose Band office, explained who I am, who my grandmother was, and they knew right away who my family is. Our relationship is strong to this day. The Stevensons I know are very well educated people with Bachelor degrees in Business, Finance and Social Work. It took less than a couple of weeks for them to travel to meet me & my family here in BC and I remain connected to them to this day. In fact, Robbie has come to live with us a few times to help establish programming here in BC related to reconnection programs for indigenous families. To my children, he is "Uncle Robbie". My last visit to Saskatchewan was in July 2013 with my father when we went home to Norquay. On that trip we visited with Robbie and his daughter. Our Stevenson relatives have been nothing but welcoming and accepting. I hold them in high regard.
Currently I work as a professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. If you are Brenda and your mom is Angie, Helen's daughter, then we have never met. This despite our light eyes, and all.
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Shelly Johnson
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:36 pm
Re: JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
Re: the Stevenson family.
Robbie Stevenson tells the story about the 3 Stevenson brothers that all came from the Manitoba area and married into 3 different First Nations communities. Yes, he says they were half-breeds, of Scottish and First Nations ancestry; and without Indian Status at the time. However, this changed when they inter-married. The Stevenson's are a relatively small family on Keeseekoose reserve; never having been elected to Chief Council positions due to the sheer small voting block they are. Families with large numbers are typically voted into those positions. I would guess that you could ask him about racism that they may have experienced in the community due to this half-breed /white ancestry. I've not heard about that. Although some people on the reserve to this day are very straightforward about it. Once, when I visited Robbie at work at Keeseekoose, he introduced me to a woman as his relative from BC. She said to him, right in front of me "How can she be your relative? She's white!" So, it was pretty clear to me that he's seen as First Nations (and has the status card that says the Federal government recognizes him as such). To the Stevenson family members, I am a relative; to their children, I am auntie. To the federal government? I don't need that dysfunctional settler bureaucracy, largely staffed by immigrants to this country, to tell me who my family members are. I already know. No small feat, given the huge amount of time, money, effort and energy that the Federal government has spent to completely disconnect Indigenous families from one another. Two generations past Grama's time, there is clear reconnection in our own family.
My own identity is Saulteaux and when I introduce myself in gatherings I acknowledge my Saulteaux ancestry, first. There is a feeling in the very core of my being that identifies with the Stevensons, our Saulteaux community and lands around Keeseekoose that I never experienced anywhere else. Not here in BC, which is beautiful; and not in Norway, in the country (although it is beautiful in a rugged sort of way) that Grampa Lars came from. It helps that my mother's family was always proud of my Dad's, my brother's and my Sauteaux/Ojibway ancestry through Grama and never tried to deny it or hide it. Once Robbie took me to ceremony to receive my Saulteaux traditional name, I have never looked back to the time before where I wondered what happened in our family to make that disconnection so strong in Grama's time. Now, I know what happened; and the Federal government lost in this family. I know who I am and where I come from. All the racist whispers in the world can't take that grounding in my identity away now.
Robbie Stevenson tells the story about the 3 Stevenson brothers that all came from the Manitoba area and married into 3 different First Nations communities. Yes, he says they were half-breeds, of Scottish and First Nations ancestry; and without Indian Status at the time. However, this changed when they inter-married. The Stevenson's are a relatively small family on Keeseekoose reserve; never having been elected to Chief Council positions due to the sheer small voting block they are. Families with large numbers are typically voted into those positions. I would guess that you could ask him about racism that they may have experienced in the community due to this half-breed /white ancestry. I've not heard about that. Although some people on the reserve to this day are very straightforward about it. Once, when I visited Robbie at work at Keeseekoose, he introduced me to a woman as his relative from BC. She said to him, right in front of me "How can she be your relative? She's white!" So, it was pretty clear to me that he's seen as First Nations (and has the status card that says the Federal government recognizes him as such). To the Stevenson family members, I am a relative; to their children, I am auntie. To the federal government? I don't need that dysfunctional settler bureaucracy, largely staffed by immigrants to this country, to tell me who my family members are. I already know. No small feat, given the huge amount of time, money, effort and energy that the Federal government has spent to completely disconnect Indigenous families from one another. Two generations past Grama's time, there is clear reconnection in our own family.
My own identity is Saulteaux and when I introduce myself in gatherings I acknowledge my Saulteaux ancestry, first. There is a feeling in the very core of my being that identifies with the Stevensons, our Saulteaux community and lands around Keeseekoose that I never experienced anywhere else. Not here in BC, which is beautiful; and not in Norway, in the country (although it is beautiful in a rugged sort of way) that Grampa Lars came from. It helps that my mother's family was always proud of my Dad's, my brother's and my Sauteaux/Ojibway ancestry through Grama and never tried to deny it or hide it. Once Robbie took me to ceremony to receive my Saulteaux traditional name, I have never looked back to the time before where I wondered what happened in our family to make that disconnection so strong in Grama's time. Now, I know what happened; and the Federal government lost in this family. I know who I am and where I come from. All the racist whispers in the world can't take that grounding in my identity away now.
Re: JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
Very nice to hear from you Shelly!
That’s all very interesting stuff indeed; however I must say that I am having difficulty understanding some of the family connections. You mentioned that you can provide a detailed family history map that shows how you all are related. I would be very grateful if you could send me that, perhaps best by Email attachment if it is fairly large.
I have loads of information about the older STEVENSON families myself, but people born after 1916 are more difficult to trace than the ones born earlier.
Regards, Gary Still
That’s all very interesting stuff indeed; however I must say that I am having difficulty understanding some of the family connections. You mentioned that you can provide a detailed family history map that shows how you all are related. I would be very grateful if you could send me that, perhaps best by Email attachment if it is fairly large.
I have loads of information about the older STEVENSON families myself, but people born after 1916 are more difficult to trace than the ones born earlier.
Regards, Gary Still
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Shelly Johnson
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:36 pm
Re: JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
Hi Gary, I can provide it by email attachment, however I am interested to know if this will then be made available on this thread? Or is there some other way that people with an interest will be able to access it? Or will it simply remain in your files so that people will have to donate to the site or pay for it in terms of your time to provide it to them? Thanks for clarifying.
Re: JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
Shelly: Nobody has to donate anything, anytime. Sorry that I seem to have made it sound that way on my Home Page; my apologies. I have revised the wording.
Nevertheless, if someone is interested in tracing their ancestors, they need to first provide some base information, and then work with me to check everything out and create a story from it. To do it conscientiously can take a lot of effort and time, as I’m sure you would know.
Nevertheless, if someone is interested in tracing their ancestors, they need to first provide some base information, and then work with me to check everything out and create a story from it. To do it conscientiously can take a lot of effort and time, as I’m sure you would know.
Re: JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
question for info:
Hannah "Ann" Stevenson, born 1846/51 St Peters Res.
Husband William Cochrane born 1842
1870 Census it states her father was John Stevenson
1878 Scrip file it states her father was John Stevenson and mother was Sarah "unknown"
just wondering if it is possible thet hannah and john (1840) were brother and sister
Hannah "Ann" Stevenson, born 1846/51 St Peters Res.
Husband William Cochrane born 1842
1870 Census it states her father was John Stevenson
1878 Scrip file it states her father was John Stevenson and mother was Sarah "unknown"
just wondering if it is possible thet hannah and john (1840) were brother and sister
Re: JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
ok, now i am getting really confused..
have you reviewed this file from
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/metis40a.htm
John Stevenson Metis Jr b-1832 Oxford House, son John Stevenson Metis Sr b-1789 joined HBC (1855-1892) working York Factory, likely descendents of both John's
John Stevenson Metis of Red River joined HBC (1852-1867) Swan River
William Stevenson Metis b-1807 Red River married Fanny Hope Cree
Sarah Stevenson Metis b-1809 Red River married Andre (Andrew) Hardness (Harkness)b-1795 Red River
Marie Stevenson Metis married 1838 Alexander Thomas
Marie Stevenson Metis b-1845 Red River married 1866 Alexander Thomas
Ann Stevenson Metis b-1849 Red River daughter John Stevenson, married William Thomas
have you reviewed this file from
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/metis40a.htm
John Stevenson Metis Jr b-1832 Oxford House, son John Stevenson Metis Sr b-1789 joined HBC (1855-1892) working York Factory, likely descendents of both John's
John Stevenson Metis of Red River joined HBC (1852-1867) Swan River
William Stevenson Metis b-1807 Red River married Fanny Hope Cree
Sarah Stevenson Metis b-1809 Red River married Andre (Andrew) Hardness (Harkness)b-1795 Red River
Marie Stevenson Metis married 1838 Alexander Thomas
Marie Stevenson Metis b-1845 Red River married 1866 Alexander Thomas
Ann Stevenson Metis b-1849 Red River daughter John Stevenson, married William Thomas
Re: JOHN STEVENSON (1840-1932)
Yes, I’m familiar with Garneau’s website. Although Dick has loads of excellent tidbits about the STEVENSON and other genealogies, he fails to integrate them together in an understandable fashion – no end of confusion there. After years of frustrating over his information I usually avoid going there because it just leads to a lot of head-scratching, and my hair is getting pretty thin already thank you.