Johnson, Theresa Mary (Gowanlock)

DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: S. A. Martin, “JOHNSON, THERESA MARY (Gowanlock),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/johnson_theresa_mary_12E.html
DCB profile notes:
- Pioneer and author; b. probably 29 July 1863 in Tintern (Lincoln), Upper Canada, daughter of Henry Johnson and Martha A. Upper; m. 1 Oct. 1884 John Alexander Gowanlock in Tintern; d. there 12 Sept. 1899.
- Theresa Mary Johnson left the quiet security of her Loyalist family’s home on the Niagara peninsula for the North-West Territories following her marriage in 1884 to 24-year-old John Alexander Gowanlock, who had secured a government contract to build a combined saw- and grist-mill at Frog Lake (Alta). The new Mrs Gowanlock enjoyed the journey west and showed an intelligent interest in the people of the NWT.
- The Gowanlocks spent the first two months of 1885 on the construction of the sawmill, and by mid March all was completed. The winter, however, had been a restless one among the neighbouring Indians. On 2 April the Plains Cree war chief Wandering Spirit and Big Bear’s son Āyimisīs (Little Bad Man) led an armed group into the settlement, herded the whites together, and ordered them to go to Big Bear’s camp. Indian agent Thomas Trueman Quinn resisted and was shot by Wandering Spirit. That shot touched off a fusillade as the Indians fired on the unarmed settlers. Within moments nine of the ten white men of the settlement lay dead. The two white women, Theresa Gowanlock and Theresa Delaney, were pulled from the corpses of their husbands and taken to the Indian camp where, protected by mixed-bloods living with the Crees, they spent two months in captivity.
- For the two women these months were a nightmare of unaccustomed physical and mental hardship. They were not molested, and were fed and housed as well as their captors, but they were not prepared for the rigours of Indian life.
- The women moved with the camp until 31 May, when with the mixed-blood families they slipped away as the Indian band hastily broke camp. On 3 June scouts from Strange’s force came upon the mixed-bloods and rescued the two white women. Gowanlock then returned to her parents’ home in Tintern. She never regained the health and youthful enthusiasm with which she had embarked for the North-West Territories, and she died quietly 14 years later.
- Gowanlock’s account of the events at Frog Lake, together with a shorter one by Delaney, was published soon after her return to Ontario by her husband’s family. This narrative of his death and her own captivity is remarkable for its generally calm tone and for its perspicacity, despite the occasional and understandable outbursts of grief. She describes life and work in the camp in a clear and conversational style and, although she may have lacked the grasp of events of others who later wrote of the incident, such as Cameron, her observations are interesting as a firsthand account of this episode in the North-West rebellion.
Second Great Granddaughter of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=4536
Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150828525/theresa-mary-gowanlock