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| Cover art from Agnes Macphail's family history |
Family Life
Born March 24th, 1890 to Dugald McPhail and Henrietta Campbell
McPhail, Agnes was the eldest of three daughters. Dugald and Henrietta
homesteaded in Proton Township for the first years of Agnes'
life, then moved to their farmhouse at 6 Corners in Artemesia. Dugald
worked as a farmer, cattle dealer and was a popular auctioneer and Henrietta
managed the home and children.
Agnes and her sisters Gertha (b.1893) and Lilly (b. 1897) were raised within an embracing extended family, and Agnes
formed strong bonds with the women in her family in particular. Her Grandmother Campbell, Jean Black, was a
progressive thinker who has come from "few worldly advantages", and
Agnes idolized her. Henrietta Campbell, Agnes' mother, had "the sterling
quality of standing by her beliefs no matter what the cost" and
illustrated thrift and unending hard work to her daughters. For Agnes, her father Dugald was a man of lenience, quick insight and wit. She admired his sociability but wondered aloud after his death whether he had lived to his fullest potential or if family responsibilities had limited him as well.
Emotions were kept to a minimum in the family, but Agnes loved her parents with a fierce admiration recognized the qualities she gained from them as some of her strengths later in life. In My Ain Folk, Agnes Macphail wrote: "Perhaps if I owed him [Dugald] the ability to get into Parliament I owed her [Henrietta] the ability to stand it when I got there".
More Family
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