Great Aunt Isa married a Canadian First Nations Chief by Dane Love
Isabella Nimmo Kerr Park was born on 1 March 1900, at 58 Kames Row, Muirkirk. She was the daughter of John Kerr Park (1867-1942), an engineman in the local pit, and his wife, Isabella Bain Hamilton (1873-1960). There was a total of eight siblings, of which Isabella, or Isa as she was known to the family, was the eldest. For some reason, on her emigration papers, she had shortened her name to Isobel, and then in turn shortened this to Isa. The other siblings were Hugh William Wilson Park (1902-1970); James Hamilton Park (1904-?); Joanna Kerr Park (1906-1997); Jemima Carter Park (1908-1992); George Park (1909-1988); Mary Moffat Park (1911-2003) and Angus Hamilton Park (1914-1984). As with most families connected with the coal and iron industry, they moved around, from Kames Row to 11 Railway Terrace, in Muirkirk itself. They later moved to Number 191 Gasswater (where my grandmother was born), Number 373 Cronberry, and then to Cumnock, living at Waterside Place, followed by 7 Keir Hardie Hill (which house had to be demolished when it started to crack due to the existence of a mine shaft underneath it), then 26 Keir Hardie Hill.
Isabella, or Isa as she was better known, always wanted to emigrate to Canada in search of a different, perhaps better, life. Her father always refused to allow her to go, but one day she came home and announced to her parents that she was now over 21 and that no-one could stop her emigrating. This probably took some time to arrange, or perhaps there was some reluctance to support her, but eventually, in 1923, she set sail.
Isa Park embarked on the SS Cassandra (Anchor Donaldson Line) on 31 August 1923. She sailed third class and the total money in her possession was £1. Her passenger card noted that she was a nurse, that she intended to remain as a nurse in Canada and that her intention was to ‘settle down’. She noted that she had never lived in Canada before. Her passage was paid for by her uncle, Bertram J. Carter, who already lived in the dominion, at 456 Main Street, East Toronto.
Isa served as a nurse and she was to meet a native Canadian named Dane Waindubence and after a short romance they decided to marry. The spelling of Waindubence was later changed to Wandabense, and both spellings are still current in the Indian reserve. It is said that Dane heard Isa singing and was attracted to her as a result. The wedding took place at the regular Sunday morning service at St Luke’s Anglican Church in Ottawa on 23 June 1929. For a reason not known to the rest of the family, Isa became known as Gretchen in Canada, a name used by all references to her there.
Dane Wandanbense was the son of John Wandabense and Mary Jane Nahwegezic. His parents died around Dane’s twelfth year.
The Sheguiandah Indians are part of the Ojibwe native Americans. Their tradition was that members who married British or French Canadians were considered to be outside the clan and Ojibwe society. The tradition in our family is that Dane Wandabense would have succeeded as Chief of the Sheguiandah clan if he had not decided to serve in the Canadian armed forces during the war and to marry a Scots lass.
Dane and Isa had a daughter, Margaret Dawn Wandabense, born on 27 August 1931, but she only survived for eleven hours, probably suffering as a result of a ‘prolonged difficult labour’. There were no other children. Interestingly, on the death certificate, her father is named as ‘Daniel’ Wandabense, the only time I am aware of that name being used. The informant was a fellow Indian.
This Dane Waindubence had an interesting background and life of his own. Although he had no connection with the Cumnock area, indeed he never once came to Scotland, the fact that he married a local lass who had emigrated is all part of the story of the local diaspora.
Dane was born sometime in 1907. It is recorded that he never knew what his own date of birth was. Indeed, in 1976, at the approximate age of seventy, he had to apply to the Canadian authorities to have his birth registered, which was written down as 4 February 1907. How precise this was cannot now be determined. His Ontario Vital Records Delayed Statement of Birth records: ‘Dane Wandabense, born February 4, 1907 at Sheguiandah Indian Reserve No. 24, District of Manitoulin, male. Father: Wandabense. Mother: Mary Jane Nahwegezic.
The Sheguiandah Indians are part of the Ojibwe native Americans. Their tradition was that members who married British or French Canadians were considered to be outside the clan and Ojibwe society. The tradition in our family is that Dane Wandabense would have succeeded as Chief of the Sheguiandah clan if he had not decided to serve in the Canadian armed forces during the war and to marry a Scots lass.
Dane and Isa had a daughter, Margaret Dawn Wandabense, born on 27 August 1931, but she only survived for eleven hours, probably suffering as a result of a ‘prolonged difficult labour’. There were no other children. Interestingly, on the death certificate, her father is named as ‘Daniel’ Wandabense, the only time I am aware of that name being used. The informant was a fellow Indian,
This Dane Waindubence had an interesting background and life of his own. Although he had no connection with the Cumnock area, indeed he never once came to Scotland, the fact that he married a local lass who had emigrated is all part of the story of the local diaspora.
Dane was born sometime in 1907. It is recorded that he never knew what his own date of birth was. Indeed, in 1976, at the approximate age of seventy, he had to apply to the Canadian authorities to have his birth registered, which was written down as 4 February 1907. How precise this was cannot now be determined. His Ontario Vital Records Delayed Statement of Birth records: ‘Dane Wandabense, born February 4, 1907 at Sheguiandah Indian Reserve No. 24, District of Manitoulin, male. Father: Wandabense. Mother: Mary Jane Nahwegezic.
I certify the foregoing to be true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. Given under my hand at Little Current this 29th day of November 1976. Signed: D. Wandabense.’
Dane was brought up in on Indian Reserve No. 24, belonging to the Sheguiandah Band. This tribe is based on the island of Manitoulin, which is the largest island in Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes. The Sheguiandah First Nation’s Reserve covers a land area of eight square miles. This Nation is a signatory to the Manitoulin Island Treaty. The history and traditions of the tribe are rooted in the Odawa, Ojibway and Potawatomi nations of Mnidoo Mnising, and its official languages are Anishnaabemowin and English. As of January 2024, the Nation had an approximate total of 548 registered members.
Dane was left as an orphan at an early age, the reason not known to me. He didn’t get on at school, and during his first week of school at Sheguiandah he played truant so often that at the age of twelve he was sent to a mission school at Sault Ste. Marie, a city that straddles the Canada and United States border between lakes Huron and Superior. However, he decided to leave at the age of fourteen. He trained to become a surveyor, being registered as an Ontario Land Surveyor.
In the early 1920s he started working for T. J. Patten, at Manitoulin, but on his death he continued his training under Col. S. W. Archibald. It is said that his training under a colonel served him well when he became a sergeant during the Second World War. From 1934 to 1940 he was engaged on highway location and construction between MacKerroe and Schreiber with the former Department of Northern Development, later the Department of Highways. He explored a route from Killarney to Whitefish Falls in 1937, but this was not developed at the time. However, opening up the North Shore was a source of pride to him.
He was an instructor from 1941 to 1946 in the Survey Wing and the School of Instruction in Gunnery in the Royal Canadian Artillery. He served as a sergeant. After serving in the war he joined the survey section of the Ontario Department of Highways and became articled to H. S. Howden, surveyor. He spent most of his time working in northern Ontario, for a time at Cochrane and Port Credit. Dane was to receive his Ontario Land Surveyor commission on 21 June 1950, number 733. He was Ontario’s first aboriginal land surveyor. Whilst in northern Ontario he was the only surveyor capable of using snowshoes. He was also proficient in skiing, and during the war he helped develop the army’s ‘ski patrol’.
Dane was a keen geologist, and over the years made a collection of rocks. He panned for gold, and when uranium was in demand in the post-war years, he carried a Geiger counter on his expeditions to search for it.
Dane opened up his own practice in the town of Clarkson in 1953, under the name ‘James and Wandabense’. He inherited the notes of previous surveyors and it was said that ‘the time and location [of his practice] was ideal, and his business was a success’. In 1954 he became an Associate Member of the Institute of Professional Town Planners and remained a member of it until 1978.
In 1960 Dane took on Francis M. MacGregor as a partner in the business, which became known as James, Wandabense and MacGregor. This partnership continued until January 1964 when he decided to return to Manitoulin Island. He set up a new practice at Little Current, north of his birthplace at Sheguiandah, under the name ‘Dane Wandabense, Ontario Land Surveyor’. He and Isa moved to the Joseph MacIntyre property west of Little Current before building a house on MacLean’s Mountain, a few miles south of Little Current. In 1979 he moved his practice to Espanola on the Canadian mainland but continued to live at Little Current.
Dane Wandabense sold his practice in 1982 to William J. Keatley. The business continues as Keatley Surveying Ltd, Little Current. In retirement, he and Isa spent their time travelling across Canada. In 1987 he was invited to become a Retired Associate of the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors but declined. In his letter he wrote:
Since I was commissioned an OLS, nine hundred have joined the ranks of the Association. Most of these young ladies and gentlemen would be complete strangers, with new modes and ethics. I know I would be out of place. This is the inevitable result of change. My generation was occupied with the evidence of discoloured squares in sandy soil, or the butts of old cedar posts and old blazes left by those of the 1800s. That is a thrill and satisfaction the new will not know. Gone is the day of snarling and the hubbub of sleigh dogs anxious to be off on steamy, cold mornings, often at 50O F below along the North Shore of Lake Superior, of mushers shouting and wielding their whips, trying to control fighting dogs. It was a dog’s life for both men and animals. And this not so long ago, it was during the mid 1930s. And yet the memory is pleasant. The challenges were met. One winter the spring break-up came early and our job – ‘lake traversing’ was incomplete, so we waded on snow to what was called ‘second ice’ for two weeks. Our clothes were always wet, no chance of getting dried, but we finished the job and no question of extra pay. The Union man was not yet born. We did expect to be rehired the next winter for another go at romantic hardship.
At MacLean’s Hill, the Wandabenses had no running water, and drinking water had to be brought from Little Current. They collected rainwater from the roof of the house in a tank in the cellar and this was used for washing and cleaning. It wasn’t until they sold the house that the new owners insisted that they create a bore hole in order to get a decent water supply, something that they really should have done years before.
Although he no longer lived on the Indian Reserve, he retained a close fondness for it. He became a long-time director of the Indian and Eskimo Association of Canada, and his common sense and knowledge resulted in the John Howard Society asking for his counselling advice in their study of the special problems of Indians in trouble with the law. According to him, ‘the society will learn what the Indian and Eskimo Association has known for a long time, Indians from reserves do not know what to expect in cities; they have no experience with assembly-line society and really see no use for it. Indians go to a city not knowing even how to rent a room in a boarding house. Alienation from the city can lead to a brush with the law’.
In 1968 Dane put his name forward as a possible candidate in the Algoma-Manitoulin riding. In his manifesto he took a stand for the native Canadian Indians:
The problem of a minority group, the six or seven odd thousand Indians within this riding. What about them? The problems of Blind River or of Espanola are regional, but this ethnic problem within this riding is really national in scope. ‘Red Power’ is heard more and more. Only an Indian or a group of Indians in the Commons can understand Indian thinking and translate it into action. This is why I offer myself. In addition by education and experience it is my pleasure to understand the non-Indian way of life as well. This one thing I can promise definitely, that if nominated successfully as your Liberal Candidate and elected, that I shall look after the interests of Algoma-Manitoulin Riding as a whole. Let Algoma-Manitoulin be the first to admit the peaceful and lawful invasion of this so-called Red Power
Dane and Isa retired back to Manitoulin Island, living in a house at Howland, located high on a hill with a panoramic view of the North Channel. Isa died in July 1994. Dane himself died on 14 June 1995 at the Manitoulin Centennial Manor. They were both buried in the Sheguiandah Reserve Cemetery, also known as the Anglican Cemetery.
Back in Scotland, Isa’s sister, Mary Moffat Park was to marry Thomas Love on 29 November 1935 at the Old Cumnock Parish Church manse. They had two children, a daughter, Isabella Hamilton Love, known as Isobel, born in 1938. A second child, a son, was born on 27 March 1943, and they decided to name him after Mary’s brother-in-law, becoming Dane Thomas Love. In turn, when Dane Love married Sheila Agnes Boyd Gillies, they named their first-born Dane Love, keeping the fairly unusual Christian name going. Dane Love is the writer of this article, and when he and his wife, Hazel Anne Cowan, had a son, he was christened Dane Cowan Love, becoming the third Dane in the Love family.
At a young age, with an inquisitive mind wondering where my name came from, I wrote to my great uncle to ask. He replied stating that it was from the Indian ‘Day-nay’, which means ‘intelligent one’, but that Great Uncle Dane had shortened this to Dane.
