Boost in recognition for a person who did much work in our community
Local history buffs and pretty much anyone who’s taken a tour of the St. Andrews Heritage Centre know that Captain William Kennedy was a significant person in the shaping of our local area during his lifetime. Wanting to acknowledge him as an important historical figure both to Manitoba and Canada, the St. Andrews Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee submitted his name for consideration, and they were successful in having Kennedy recognized by Parks Canada as a person of national historic significance.
Captain William Kennedy was born in 1814 and lived in St. Andrews from 1862 until his death in 1890.
Rob Sarginson and Paul Kushnar, members of the St. Andrews Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee, credit Gayle DeGagne for discovering that Kennedy could be nominated and bringing it to the group.
“(Kennedy) was an Arctic explorer. He was very much involved in the (history) of Manitoba, and he was one of the early promoters of attaching the Red River Colony to Canada back in the 1840s and 50s. He even tried to establish a postal link between Toronto and the Red River, which, at the time, there were no roads, no telegraph, no railways, nothing. He did it on snowshoes and dog sled,” said Sarginson.
The Manitoba Historical Society’s online Archives says that he made the trip starting from Toronto on the 22nd of January and arrived at the Red River Settlement on the 27th of February, 1857.
In addition to Kennedy’s local victories, he also led an expedition into the North in search of the Franklin expedition.
The Franklin expedition, consisting of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, was a famously lost Arctic exploration led by John Franklin that departed England in 1845. It was attempting to traverse the Northwest Passage. It went missing, and its location was a mystery for well over 100 years.
Kennedy didn’t find the expedition, one ship was located in 2014 and the other in 2016 by Parks Canada, but he did accomplish a lot, mapping a large area and bringing his entire crew back alive.
Some of his other work was lobbying against the Hudson’s Bay Company’s monopoly over the area that would eventually become Manitoba.
Sarginson, a retired teacher, explained that he thought it was very important that Kennedy receive this recognition, as it allows local kids to learn about someone in history class that they can relate to.
“There is a shortage of Westerners, a shortage of Indigenous people, a shortage of Métis people, a shortage of Inuit people. There’s just a lack of representation in all these areas (in our history books). And yet, without the Inuit, a lot of our explorers would have perished in the Arctic, including Kennedy. Without representation, kids can’t see themselves,” he said.
Kennedy was an Indigenous person with a Cree mother and Scottish father.
The process of having him acknowledged took several years.
“It was 2019, and I did get a letter from the Heritage Sites and Monuments Board in 2019 saying that he was approved as a candidate to be considered,” said Gayle DeGagne, a member of the St. Andrews Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee.
She explained that the Heritage Sites and Monuments Board didn’t ask the committee for much information because they wanted to do their own research into Kennedy’s achievements.
“It was just very general, standard information that we gave them. It wasn’t that complicated a process,” she said.
She believes that the Heritage Sites and Monuments Board considered his many local and national accomplishments in giving Kennedy this recognition.
“He was also a jack of all trades in some ways, because he was an explorer. He brought the first Postal Service to St Andrews. And, he was involved in all of the small ventures around the community as well,” she said.
The group learned that Kennedy had been recognized in 2023, and the official announcement was made by the federal government recently.
“I was very glad that we were successful in the application. I know that his being designated will certainly help the cause of getting (Kennedy House) repaired. But certainly, he qualifies as a person of massive significance in his own right, too. It was a good event. It was good news for lots of reasons,” said DeGagne.
A plaque will eventually be installed acknowledging Kennedy and this honour.
If you would like to learn more about Captain William Kennedy, the St. Andrews Heritage Centre has some very good information and some pieces that were owned by Kennedy.
Captain William Kennedy is buried in the St. Andrew’s-on-the-Red Anglican Cemetery and there is also a plaque inside the church with information about his life.
To learn more about Kennedy online, you can visit the Manitoba Historical Society’s Archives page at https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/transactions/3/kennedy_w.shtml or his Parks Canada webpage at https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/personnage-person/william-kennedy.
In addition, Kennedy House, which has been closed for many years for repairs, is on its way to being fixed and will hopefully open again in the future, but, for now, the gardens at Kennedy House are open in the summer and are a beautiful place to visit.
