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The Wahstao Mission
"Wahstao," meaning "something shining" or "something that reflects light," was the Cree name for a hill that sloped down to the North Saskatchewan River and was visible for miles in every direction. In July 1904 Rena Edmonds and Jessie Munro moved there from Ontario. In the company of Dr. Lawford and T.C. Buchanan they arrived by way of the "old Saddle Lake trail," which followed along the north bank of the river and was filled with "ruts, stumps ... and mosquitoes all the way." For three months they used Lawford's tent for living quarters and a Sunday school while one William Leonard erected a two-thousand-dollar building that served as home, chapel, school, and dispensary. When a cold wave struck on 7 October, they moved in "before the plaster was set" and "with shavings in the porridge."
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Over the years marriage trimmed the wms ranks and called forth replacements. In 1909 Cartwright married Arthur Hencher, a home-steader from seven miles away, with Lawford officiating. In 1910 Weekes married William Leonard, the builder of the Wahstao and Kolokreeka school-homes who was to become a China missionary in 1913. T.C. Buchanan officiated*, and for "the main dish for the wedding repast," William Pike "shot enough prairie chickens that each guest had half a bird to eat." In 1913 Ella McLean married Percy Sutton, another Ukrainian missionary. After Mclean's death in 1914, Sutton married her replacement at Kolokreeka, Phoebe Code from Trowbridge, Ontario.
The Kolokreeka Mission
As "outside workers," Weekes and Cartwright did house visits, using Sienna Zacharuk as interpreter. In 1905 Weekes "harnessed Maud, the horse, and drove a dozen miles west" to start a Sunday school in the home of Nicoli Gologhan, and in 1907 Cartwright began a Sunday school further north, at the home of John Nikolichuk. Possibly Lawford made the contact, since the ladies needed directions to find the place, "not knowing where he lived." In 1908 Weekes and Chace selected land on White Earth Creek for a second school home. The ladies named the mission Kolokreeka: an improvised Ukrainian-English word for "beside the creek." In 1909 Weekes and Mclean staffed the mission, living in a tent while William Leonard erected an unpretentious building with "a basement, kitchen, dining-sitting room, pantry, three small bedrooms, [and] two wee dormitories with room for eight in each."
*William says they were married by C.H. Lawford in this letter, and Edith says the same in Catherine's record book.
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