James Moffat Douglas

James Moffat Douglas

James Moffat Douglas was born on 26th May 1839 at Linton Bankhead by Morebattle. The son of John and Euphemia Douglas he was the third of their six children. Both parents were agricultural labourers.

In 1851, when James was twelve years old, the family emigrated to Canada and settled on a farm near Cambray in Victoria County, Ontario.

James completed his education there, before studying for the Ministry at the University of Toronto. He was ordained as a Minister of the Presbyterian Church in Canada on October 16th 1867.

In 1861, he had married Jane Smith the daughter of an earlier settler from the south of England. From then, after his ordination, he served as a pastor to various churches in Ontario. He was a member of the Ontario Board of Public Instruction and also served as an Inspector of Schools and as chairman of the school board in Cobourg, Ontario.

John and Euphemia Douglas

In preparation for work overseas, he attended a short course in medicine at Trinity College, Toronto. In 1876, soon after his ordination, he set sail for Indore in Central India where he served as a missionary from the Canadian Presbyterian Church. He also served as Chaplain to the British troops at Mhow, some thirteen miles from Indore.

Returning to Canada in 1882, he served as minister at Brandon until 1887.

With a brood of seven children to support and to find a future for, he entered into a search for homesteads with his older brother, Thomas, travelling to the lands to the west of Fort Ellice. They were so taken with the landscape there that they applied for homestead entry on adjoining quarter sections, the two remaining quarters being taken up by James' sons, John and Robert.

James continued his ministry while his sons carried out the work of the farmstead. To comply with the homestead regulations, he had to reside there for periods of time, so was without a regular ministry from 1887 to 1889.

Being born to the soil, he was keenly interested in the conditions of those working the land, and became a supporter of the agrarian movement. He stood as a candidate in the federal elections of 1896, being elected as representative for Easter Assiniboia. He introduced many enlightened bills to the House of Commons, improving the way in which farming was organised. In 1906, he was appointed to the Senate as one of the four representatives of Saskatchewan.

At home, he was a much loved member of his community, and although not a licensed medical practitioner, he used his medical training for the benefit of the lcoal community at a time when doctors were few and far between.

On August 1st 1897, a Post Office was established in his home with his son Robert as Postmaster. The new Post Office was named "Tantallon" after the Castle near North Berwick in Scotland, the ancestral home of his branch of the Douglases.

He died at Tantallon on August 19th 1920.

James Moffat Douglas was nominated for the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame in July 1976.

(Thanks to Nicole Douglas, of Cedarburg, USA, great great granddaughter of James Moffat Douglas, for providing all the information on which this entry is based)

James' 50th Wedding Anniversary

James Moffat Douglas' Grave