Headstone of Edmonton woman buried in 1932 mysteriously resurfaces in stranger's backyard

Under normal circumstances, Terry Avery and Jacqueline Johnston would likely never have met. But on a sunny morning this week, the two were brought together by a historical mystery that remained at least partially unsolved—until Avery decided to investigate.

In a parking lot at Jackie Parker Park Thursday, Avery pulled from his vehicle a heavy piece of granite: the partial headstone of Johnston's great-grandmother, Henrietta Julia Macdougall, a minister's wife who settled in Edmonton and died in 1932. Despite being buried in Edmonton Cemetery, a fragment of her original headstone somehow found its way to the backyard of Avery's son's home in Strathearn, where it sat propped against a garage, possibly for decades.

Unsure what to do with the find, Avery began digging through records to learn more about Macdougall's family. He eventually spoke to the Edmonton Journal, which ran a story on his search Sunday. Within hours, Johnston was startled to see a photograph of her ancestor's headstone.

"This came right out of the blue," Johnston said after the exchange Thursday.

Henrietta Macdougall was born in 1861 in Oxfordshire, England, into a family of priests—her father and brother were both reverends in the Anglican Church. In 1894, when she was in her early 30s, Henrietta emigrated to Canada and trained as a nurse in Winnipeg. Artifacts from her nursing career remain in the family, including her nursing pin and handwritten notes explaining how to treat common ailments.

Johnston said her great-grandmother was a calligrapher known for her beautiful handwriting and enjoyed collecting signatures of famous artists and poets, as well as Royal seals. Her greatest treasure was Queen Victoria's signature.

A few years after arriving in Canada, Henrietta married Rev. Ronald Fleming Macdougall, a Glasgow native. The two worked in Indigenous communities throughout northern Ontario and Saskatchewan. A 1921 Saskatoon Daily Star article called Rev. Macdougall an "early Indian educationist" who administered industrial and day schools in those provinces.

The couple had three children: Donald Macdougall, an editor at the Edmonton Journal; Stella, who became Mrs. W.L. Curror of McKim, Saskatchewan; and Ronald "Bon" Macdougall, who founded the 13 Black Cats, an aerial stunt group in early Hollywood, and raced in the 1926 Indianapolis 500.

Henrietta and Rev. Macdougall lived their final years at 12313 Stony Plain Road. When Henrietta died in 1932, the Journal remembered her as a "pioneer resident of the west." When Donald and Ada Macdougall—Johnston's grandparents—were interred alongside Henrietta and her husband in the 1990s, the family realized Henrietta's headstone had been damaged. All four family members were ultimately placed under a common marker, and whatever remained of the original headstones were removed.

No one in Johnston's family knows of any connection to the Strathearn property, located about five kilometres from Henrietta's actual burial place. Johnston said the family hasn't yet decided what to do with the recovered headstone fragment.