Boucher, Margaret Ruttan, (Scott)

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Carolyn Crippen and Marion McKay, “BOUCHER, MARGARET RUTTAN (Scott),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/boucher_margaret_ruttan_16E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Stenographer, administrator of home-nursing services, and social reformer; b. 28 July 1855 or 1856 in Colborne, Northumberland County, Upper Canada, daughter of Robert Mant Boucher, a lawyer, and Mary Ruttan; granddaughter of Henry Ruttan; m. 23 Oct. 1878 William Hepburne Scott (d. 1881) in Campbellford, Ont.; they had no children; d. 1 Aug. 1931 in Winnipeg and was buried there in St John’s cemetery.
    • At age 22 or 23 Boucher married lawyer and mla William Hepburne Scott. Widowed less than three years later, she was left without financial means. She found office work in Peterborough with the Midland Railway of Canada. Later, she was transferred to the audit office of the Grand Trunk Railway in Montreal, where she was responsible for supervising 50 young women. Not physically strong, she overtaxed herself and her health broke down. On her doctor’s advice, she moved to “the bracing climate” of Winnipeg in 1886. She initially found employment at the Dominion Lands Office and later worked as a stenographer for Hough and Campbell, a local law firm. Scott, who would become known for her skill, had learned shorthand from businessman Frederick William Heubach after the only individual providing formal instruction refused to teach her because she was a woman.
    • A devout Anglican, Scott volunteered for the Reverend Cecil Caldbeck Owen at Holy Trinity Church, where she sorted correspondence related to charity matters. Owen encouraged her to give up her office position and to devote herself to the care of the poor. “Mr. Owen,” she said, “prayed me out of office work.” In 1897 she resigned from Hough and Campbell and moved into a small room in the Winnipeg Lodging and Coffee House, which was owned by Holy Trinity, and devoted the rest of her life to charitable concerns and social reform. In addition to organizing Sunday-school classes and religious services for the men who boarded at the house, she established a weekly mothers’ meeting group, offering spiritual guidance as well as material assistance. She also sought out the needy at the police court and often spent her nights nursing female prisoners.
    • Known as the “Angel of Poverty Row,” “Winnipeg’s Angel of Mercy,” and “the Florence Nightingale of Winnipeg,” Margaret Ruttan Scott died in the Winnipeg General Hospital in 1931 after almost 45 years of community service. Flags in the city flew at half mast, and her funeral service at Holy Trinity Church, conducted by Archbishop Samuel Pritchard Matheson, was attended by the mayor, Ralph Humphreys Webb, council members, and many who had been touched by her life.
  • Great Granddaughter of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7234
  • Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/239259434/margaret-ruttan-scott