John Maclean
| John Maclean | |
|---|---|
| John McLean (spelling used until c. 1890) | |
| Born | 1851-10-30 Kilmarnock, Scotland |
| Died | 1928-03-07 Winnipeg, Manitoba |
| Occupation | Methodist missionary, author, educator, archivist, librarian, newspaper editor |
| Father | |
| Mother | |
| Partner | |
John Maclean (30 October 1851 – 7 March 1928 (aged 76)) was a Methodist missionary, ethnologist, author, and archivist who served a pastoral posting in Port Arthur, Ontario in the 1890s and spent much of his career documenting Indigenous languages and cultures of western Canada.
Early life
Maclean was born on 30 October 1851 in Kilmarnock, Scotland, the son of John McLean and Alice McLean. He attended academy in Dumbarton, Scotland, before immigrating to Canada in 1873.[1] He pursued higher education over many years, earning a BA from Victoria College, Cobourg in 1882, an MA from the same institution in 1887, a PhD in Church History from Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington in 1888, and an LLB from the University of Manitoba in 1926.[1]
Methodist ministry and mission work
Maclean was received as a candidate for Methodist ministry in 1875 and initially served in a circuit northwest of London, Ontario. He was ordained on 6 June 1880, the same day he married Sarah Anne Barker in Guelph, Ontario.[1] The couple relocated shortly afterward to a Methodist mission near Fort Macleod, Alberta, where they spent nine years working among the Blood Indians, members of the North-West Mounted Police, and settlers across southern Alberta.[1]
During this period Maclean acquired proficiency in several Indigenous languages and conducted ethnological fieldwork that would define his scholarly reputation. His mission work placed him in competition with Samuel Trivett of the Church Missionary Society. The Blood Indians' responses were mixed: they sometimes welcomed educational and material assistance, and sometimes destroyed his property.[1]
In 1886 Maclean was appointed public school inspector for the territory stretching from Medicine Hat to the Rocky Mountains and southward from Fort Macleod. He resigned after joining the North-West Territories Board of Education on 2 December 1887, and subsequently accepted positions on teaching examination boards.[1] In 1889 he and his family relocated to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where he remained until 1892.[1]
Port Arthur years
From 1892 to 1895 Maclean served a pastoral posting in Port Arthur (now part of Thunder Bay), Ontario.[1] During this time he also held church administrative roles: he served as journal secretary of the Manitoba and North-West Conference from 1888 to 1891, as secretary in 1892, and rose to president of the conference in 1895.[1]
Later career
After Port Arthur, Maclean moved to Neepawa, Manitoba (1896–1900) and then to Carman, Manitoba (1901–1902). He served as editor of the Wesleyan in Halifax for four years from 1902 to 1906, then returned west to Morden, Manitoba, where he remained until 1911.[1] He also served as president of the Prohibitory League in 1898.[1]
In 1911 Maclean was assigned to Bethel mission in Winnipeg, which served impoverished English-speaking neighbourhoods. He and his wife Sarah Anne Barker provided social, legal, and medical assistance to the community until 1919. The mission was renamed Maclean Mission in 1918 and featured a Sunday school, a community centre, and free Saturday orchestral concerts.[1]
From 1918 Maclean served as chief archivist of the Methodist Church at Wesley College, Winnipeg, and took on the concurrent role of chief librarian from 1922 until his death. He devoted himself to documenting Methodist and Presbyterian ecclesiastical history.[1]
Ethnological scholarship
Maclean belonged to an unconventional circle of missionary-ethnologists that included Silas Tertius Rand, Émile Petitot, and Adrien-Gabriel Morice. He corresponded with prominent ethnologists including Horatio Emmons Hale, Franz Boas, and James Constantine Pilling, as well as the British Association on North-West Indian Tribes (1882–1888) and the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology in Washington, D.C., focusing on Plains Indigenous languages and culture.[1]
His three major works were The Indians: their manners and customs (Toronto, 1889), The Blackfoot language ([Toronto?, 1896?]), and Canadian savage folk: the native tribes of Canada (Toronto, 1896). In his final years he contributed articles to the Hudson's Bay Company's Beaver magazine from 1924 to 1927 under the pseudonym Robin Rustler.[1] Contemporary critics noted his adherence to the "vanishing Indian" theory and questioned the rigour of his fieldwork, though colleagues remembered him as "a committed and passionate man who devoted himself completely to scholarship, especially on native languages and culture, and to the church."[1]
Maclean was a member of the Canadian Institute, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Folk-Lore Society, the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba, and the Ontario Historical Society.[1]
Death
Maclean died on 7 March 1928 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.[1] He and Sarah Anne Barker had six children.[1]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 Susan Gray."Susan Gray, "MACLEAN, JOHN," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15."[website].Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15 (University of Toronto/Université Laval).2005.University of Toronto/Université Laval.Link.(Rights: copyrighted | Access: open)
- ↑ "AO, RG 80-5-0-94, no. 11978."[record].RG 80-5-0-94, no. 11978.Archives of Ontario.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "LAC, MG 29, D65."[record].MG 29, D65.Library and Archives Canada.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "UCC Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario Conference Archive, Vertical file, John Maclean."[record].United Church of Canada, Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario Conference Archive, Winnipeg.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "UCC-C, Biographical file; Fonds 3270."[record].Biographical file; Fonds 3270.United Church of Canada Archives, Central Archives.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Winnipeg Tribune, 19 May 1926."[newspaper].Winnipeg Tribune.1926-05-19.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ H. J. Morgan."Canadian men and women of the time."[book].1898.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ G. H. Cornish."Cyclopædia of Methodism in Canada."[book].Cyclopædia of Methodism in Canada (2 vols.).1881.2 vols., Toronto and Halifax, 1881–1903.Toronto and Halifax.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ J. W. Grant."Moon of wintertime: missionaries and the Indians of Canada in encounter since 1534."[book].1984.Toronto.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)