CHARLOTTE SMALL- WOMAN OF MYSTERY -WOMAN OF HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Isle a-la Crosse- September 1st, 1785, there was born to Patrick Small and his unknown Cree wife, a girl. Perhaps because of some remembrances of a home in a different land, Patrick Small, a Northwest Company Fur trader, named her Charlotte. Small would later abandon his wife and children (Charlotte was five years old) and return to England. On June 10^th,1799 a notation was entered in the Journal of David Thompson. “This day wed Charlotte Small. Later on Thompson would write “ My lovely wife is of the blood of these people, speaking their language and well educated in the English language, which gives me a great advantage.”

Charlotte would become Thompson’s main confidante about aboriginal ways, customs and his knowledge of the Cree. Charlotte would travel almost 4 times the distance that Lewis and Clark had travelled. She would become his reassuring rock of Gibralter when financial calamities and poverty assailed him in his old age. Recently Charlotte Small has now been recognized in her own right officially by Ottawa as a person of national historical significance and plans are underway to unveil a plaque in Small’s honour in 2009 in Jasper National Park although a very good argument could be mounted for having that plaque unveiled at Rocky Mountain House. Their first child, Fanny, was born here which in itself is significant and Charlotte and her children accompanied Thompson from Rocky Mountain House , along the present David Thompson Explorers Trail, past the Kootenay Plains and then through the Howse Pass and were with him when he established Kootenae House. Their footprints and their canoe prints are all over this area. The marriage of David Thompson and Charlotte Small lasted almost 58 years. Charlotte Small was to bear David Thompson 13 children- five would be born out west and four in what is now Alberta.

Sharon Wass is of Métis Blood and has written a one woman play about Charlotte Small wherein Charlotte describes her husband of 57 years :

“My David was a strong man, but he was different from many of the company men and even many of the natives. Most thought only of the task at hand. If they are tracking they think only of the trail and don’t notice a pretty flower right in their path. Or as they are paddling, they think only of the river and don’t hear the beauty of a bird’s song or see the burst of new leaves on the bushes. They miss so much. Not my David. He liked to notice everything. Sometimes he would notice something and he would catch my eye to see if I saw it too and we would smile. We were very close. My David and I”

In 1812 Thompson and Charlotte with their five children left the west forever and arrived in Quebec. I do not have to paint pictures of what it must have been like for Thompson to arrive back in Montreal in 1812 with a mixed blood wife and five young children. Where the vast majority of fur traders had abandoned their ‘country wives’ Thompson never entertained the thought.

When he arrived In Montreal Thompson firstly wanted his family to be baptized.

“ ..the Thompsons dressed in their best attire, stood shoulder to shoulder around the baptismal fount at St Gabriel Presbyterian Church in Montreal, : David, 11 year old Fanny, Samuel, Emma and John arranged according to their age, and Charlotte with 18 month old Joshua in her arms. They clasped their hands and bowed their heads as the cleric read the baptismal rite- sprinkling holy water over all but David and welcomed them individually and as family into the Christian Community.” D’arcy Jenish

Then the Thompson family moved to Terrebonne outside Montreal and soon after settling in on October 30th 1812 Thompson again wrote- “Married to Charlotte Small” They had married several years earlier according to the customs of the Cree at Isle a la Crosse. In their new home Thompson felt strongly that he should legalize the marriage especially in the eyes of not only his God but the Community. Thompson had a notary draw up a marriage contract according to local rule of law and 4 days later he summoned a member of the local clergy to their home. He and Charlotte stood before witnesses and their 5 young children, exchanged their vows and were declared legally man and wife. Pretty special I would say and certainly a rarity when most of the country wives had been abandoned.

And now at last we have some tangible visible proof of the presence of Charlotte Small. Charlotte signed the registers of both the Baptismal Certificates and the Marriage Contract! Aritha Von Herk , In Travels With Charlotte, refers to Charlottes Signature “ Clearly she was able to read and write. In an interesting quirk, she shapes the second “L” in her surname lower and smaller than the first. But her signature is legible, and the letters appear confident.”

During their declining years in the midst of abject poverty,  Charlotte was his constant companion, and the two would often go for long walks at night watching the stars and no doubt remembering the days of yesterday, of how they had traversed the rivers and slept under the stars. I often wonder if they missed the ‘rhythmic sound of the north canoe paddles that seemed to have a distinctive heartbeat all its own’ as Sharon Wass writes in “My David.”

Their grandson William described Charlotte as extremely reserved except with family and reflected that his granddad was a man who enjoyed simple home cooking and drank nothing but tea and milk,who always dressed plainly and had no use for style or fashion of any kind. Charlotte however made it her special business and pride to take care of his clothes, and always looked him over carefully before going out.

Eventually the children stepped in to provide a home for their aging parents. The first to provide this help, was Elizabeth Thompson, with her husband William Scott. William Scott recalled later that David Thompson’s dark hair had now become white and he had let his beard grow. He talked little, read the newspapers and his bible and received few visitors except the pastor.

During their parents’ last years, the Scotts had been transferred, and now the youngest sister, Eliza, with her husband Dalhousie Landel, took the old couple into their home in Longueuil, where Landel had a position with a railway company. Eliza was the youngest daughter who, as a young teenager, had walked the streets of Montreal looking for suitable rooms for her mom and dad.

The young couple ensured their aging parents of warmth, nourishment and a measure of dignity at the end of their lives. They cared for the old couple until the end. David died first, early in 1857. On May 4^th Charlotte, all that was left of this resilient couple, after all the miles, all the children, all the years, slipped away too. She was seventy-one years old.

They are buried in a family plot in Montréal’s Protestant burial ground, Mount Royal Cemetery. Charlotte, buried in front of David Thompson, is referred to as “ The Woman of the Paddle Song,” and David as “the Worlds Greatest Geographer.”

“They are as close as we can come to, if not a myth making Canadian romance then, at the very least, a historic, intimate partnership between a European immigrant and a First nations woman..” Van Herk

Albertans can, I strongly suggest, make a very good claim to honoring David Thompson and Charlotte Small as their own. Four of their five children were born in what is now Alberta- at Rocky Mountain House, Boggy Hall, Peace River and Edmonton. Fanny’s Birth at Rocky Mountain House on June 10^th, 1801, was a signature event. It was a precursor of the mighty Métis nation to come.

Kerry Wood another beloved son of Alberta in his book The Mapmaker writes a scene where the little family is approaching the Mountain House in preparation for Thompson’s historic treks through the passes.

“ Look you there Charlotte!” David cried to Charlotte as the canoe brigade came in sight of the blacked stone chimneys of Rocky Mountain House. “ We’re home again!’

Yes they are- Home Again.

Charlotte Small was a major part of this great Canadian adventure.