McDougall Orphanage and Morley Residential School Timeline
1873
Methodist missionaries establish a settlement at Morleyville, Alberta, on the north side of the Bow River, and open a day school there.
1877
Treaty Number 7 establishes the Stoney Indian Reserve, the eastern border of which is 7 km west of Morleyville. The reserve straddles the Bow River, with the Wesley band concentrated on the north side of the river, and the Chiniki and Bearspaw bands on the south.
1880
Some 43 children attend the day school; because of the river, children from Bearspaw and Chiniki can only attend during the summer.
Missionary John McDougall begins to board schoolchildren in his home.
1882
From 1882 to 1887, the Women’s Missionary Society provides grants to the “orphanage.”
1883
The McDougall Orphanage and Training School, administered by the Methodist Missionary Society, opens in September with 15 children in residence.
Boarders attend classes at the day school.
1885
A second day school is opened on the south side of the river in the home of the Bearspaw chief.
The government begins financing the orphanage.
1886
The government provides the Methodist Society with a grant of 1,170 acres of land for the exclusive use of the orphanage.
Girls at the orphanage learn housework, sewing, cooking, and baking; boys garden, put in fences, herd cattle, milk cows, and split wood.
The children learn to play the organ.
1887
The government provides the first per capita grant to the orphanage: $60 per child to a maximum of 50 children.
The orphanage is moved into a log building on the Missionary Society’s land grant, about 8 km west of its original location.
Eighteen children are in residence; they no longer attend the day school.
No crops have been raised, but the land has been broken for farming.
1888
The orphanage is overcrowded and strapped for cash.
A permanent schoolhouse on the south side of the river is under construction for the Bearspaw day children.
1890
A new, larger orphanage building, owned by the Missionary Society, is erected with hot-air heating and accommodation for 40 children.
The Women’s Missionary Society contributes to the new building and continues to make occasional grants in support of the residence.
The old orphanage building is used as a carpentry workshop for the boys.
The children raise food crops and hay and tend to 33 head of cattle and four oxen.
1894
Children at the orphanage put in 38 acres of oats but the crop fails. They raise two acres of potatoes and 20 tons of hay. The garden is destroyed by gophers.
In addition to 52 head of cattle and oxen, they tend to four cows, six sheep and their lambs, and 12 horses and colts.
There are 38 children in residence.
1895
The children raise 32.5 acres of oats, two of potatoes, turnips and gardens, and they break 40 acres of new land.
The kitchen is enlarged, and a laundry and pantry are added; a new schoolhouse is erected behind the orphanage.
Classes are suspended for six weeks because of “whooping cough, chicken pox and inflammation of the lungs”; the schoolhouse is converted into a hospital.
There are 31 children enrolled; the per capita grant is $60 for up to 35 children.
1896
Some 100 children on the reserve attend school—at one of the two day schools or in the orphanage.
The crop fails because of drought.
A blacksmith is brought in to train the boys in that trade.
A well is sunk 90 metres from the residence; previously water was brought from a well 1.6 km away. There is not, however, enough water to put out a fire.
1898
The per capita grant is raised to $72 for up to 40 children; 39 are enrolled.
The orphanage is becoming overcrowded.
The two day schools are practically closed.
1901
A new two-storey wing, with basement, is added to the orphanage.
The orphanage can now accommodate 45 children and eight staff.
Heating is now by wood stove.
1902
Forty acres are under cultivation: 30 of oats, nine of wheat and one of brome grass; in addition the children grow one acre of potatoes, one of turnips, half an acre of carrots and half an acre of small seeds, but most of the vegetables are damaged by severe frost.
Boys are taught ranching: teaming, ploughing, fencing, mowing, milking, and the care of stock; girls are taught housekeeping, sewing, knitting, mending, cooking and laundry work.
1903
Swings are erected for the girls’ recreation.
The day school at Morleyville reopens but closes within the year.
1904
For the first time, water is piped into the residence, with taps in the kitchen and the laundry.
The Methodists want to enlarge the orphanage but the Department of Indian Affairs refuses.
All the children are under 14.
1905
An audit of the orphanage shows that it is deeply in debt; the principal is removed for mismanagement.
1906
Parents refuse to send their children to the orphanage in response to the removal of the principal, who had allowed the children weekly overnight visits home. There is also friction among the staff.
The water system is completed, with flush toilets and pipes supplying hot and cold water throughout the residence.
There are 70 head of cattle.
Stoney community members petition the Department of Indian Affairs to have the two day schools reopened.
1907
Thirty-nine children are enrolled, but truancy is a problem.
The Indian Agent reports that he has trouble inducing parents to send their children to the orphanage.
1908
Pigs are added to the farm animals; the orphanage no longer raises sheep.
The water pipes are not working properly and the furnaces have broken down.
The McDougall Orphanage closes on November 10.
A day school on the north side of the Bow River is opened.
1909
The Department of Indian Affairs adopts a policy of improving and promoting day schools on the reserve.
When the Department tries to change the school teacher and move the school into the hospital at Morley, Stoney parents refuse to send their children.
1910
The school teacher is transferred.
1912
The Department of Indian Affairs closes the day school, declaring it a failure.
The Stoney repeat that they want two day schools, one on each side of the river.
1919
The day school is reopened, replacing one of two stores on the reserve, but closes within the year because of lack of attendance.
1922
A temporary semi-boarding school is set up by the Methodist Church with government support.
1923
The first teacher arrives in January.
Signs of Tuberculosis are found in a number of children.
1926
Morley Residential School, on the south side of the Bow River, is built by the government and managed by The United Church of Canada. The residence opens in August and the school formally opens Nov. 11 with some 60 pupils—all residential.
The school includes a farm, with barn, henhouse, shed, pigpen, combined ice house–cold storage facility and stock-shed. The school has electricity.
1927
A root cellar and utility building are erected.
A child sets fire to the school but causes little damage; he is strapped and sent to Edmonton Residential School.
Children attend classes in the church building.
1929
A two-room classroom block is opened, with attendance by both residential and day school children.
1930
An addition to the barn/stable is built.
1931
Wash basins are installed for children with trachoma.
The school is overcrowded; five girls are housed in the principal’s residence.
The school is quarantined because of a mild outbreak of scarlet fever.
1934
The residence is expanded; a small hospital is erected near the school.
1935
A child tries to set the school on fire but little damage is done.
1936
The Department of Indian Affairs applies to have lands (Lots 8 and part of 7) that had been transferred to the Department of Lands reserved for Morley Residential School as pasture land.
1937
A new pump is installed to meet the growing water demand.
The beginning of the school year is postponed because of black measles on the reserve.
1938
The stable buildings catch fire. They are not replaced.
1939
The school begins to raise mink on the farm.
Day school children are no longer attending Morley.
Girls are taught Native Crafts by local instructors.
1946
The boys are not receiving manual training because there is no instructor. Manual training for the girls is “limited to girls working in large kitchen.”
Native Crafts instruction is suspended.
1950
In September, the David Bearspaw Day School is opened in the old Stoney Agency office.
The school is quarantined because of chicken pox.
1951
The school is quarantined because of a mumps epidemic.
1952
Natural gas is installed.
The beginning of the school year is postponed because of a polio epidemic.
1953
A principal’s residence is built.
The school no longer raises mink.
1954
The David Bearspaw Day School amalgamates with Morely Residential School.
Part of the church is rented for extra classroom space and the Agency office is used as a teacherage.
The Department of Indian Affairs takes over paying the teachers.
Impetigo is reported and blamed on washing at a common trough.
A manual training instructor is hired and manual training for boys begins again.
1955
A four-room classroom block with teachers’ quarters is built to replace use of the Stoney Agency building and the church.
1956
The matron resigns because of mistreatment of the children.
1957
Seven children attend grades 9 and 10 at Cochrane High School, bussed from the residence.
1958
Kindergarten children appear for the first time on the quarterly returns.
Terminal classes “for older pupils that were not making a successful academic program” are introduced.
The residence basement is used for extra classroom space off and on until 1969.
The school’s farm is closed; funds from the sale of stock and equipment are remitted to the United Church.
1959
A prefab two-classroom unit is added.
1960
The government enters an agreement with the Cochrane School District, whereby the school district agrees to accept all Morley’s grade 9 children as well as a limited number of elementary school children.
Children from Crooked Lake and Qu’Appelle agencies in Saskatchewan begin to attend Morley.
1961
Nine Morley children are “integrated” into Exshaw school because it is closer to their homes than Morley Residential School.
Some high school children from the reserve attend school in Calgary under a “boarding home plan.”
Lands (Lots 8 and part of 7) that Morley Residential School had been using as pasturage are added to the Stoney Reserve.
The government cancels all admissions from Saskatchewan.
1962
By March, 20 to 30 children are attending public elementary and high schools.
1963
A few children from Sunchild and Sarcee bands also attend Morley now.
Robert George Pooley, a teacher at Morley Residential School from 1962 to 1963, is convicted of indecent assault on a child there.
The minister in charge of Christian Education and another staff resign because of “goings on” at the school.
1964
The United Church appoints a committee to take over administration of the residence and puts a resident superintendent in charge. The school is now administered separately under its own principal.
The residence is chiefly used for high school children bussing to Bowness and Exshaw.
1965
The old agency building is returned to the Stoney reserve bands.
1966
Pupils are bussed to Cochrane public schools.
A four-classroom addition is made to the classroom block, making eight classrooms in all.
A dentist reports the children’s teeth to be the worst he has seen.
1967
In November, Language Arts instruction is introduced for grades kindergarten through level three.
A teacherage is constructed.
1968
Native Crafts is reintroduced to the curriculum.
1969
The government takes over the residence and closes it sometime between July and October. The school, administered now by the federal government, continues under the name Morley Day School or Morley School until at least 1986.
The residence building is used to serve hot lunches to the day school children until 1973. It is also used for children showers and for various adult classes.
1973
For the next two years at least, the residence building houses the Stoney Cultural Education Program and some band offices.
1977
The residence building is demolished.
1986
The Stoney Tribal Council announces plans to operate their own government- approved school and education program to replace Morley School.