William Henry Fry (1885 – 1921)

William Henry Fry and his wife, Christina, had been married only a few months when they arrived at Herschel Island to take over the mission from the Anglican minister Isaac O. Stringer. Stringer had ordered lumber to build a church in 1896 but it was diverted to cover in four whalers at Cape Perry. He ordered the lumber again in 1916. When the Frys arrived he suggested they live in a sod house or the unfinished church. Reverend Fry had already spent five years on the Arctic Coast and his last mission had been Kittigazuit. The Frys arrived at Herschel late in July and were met by 150 to 200 Inuvialuit staying on the island. Work had not begun on a building. The Hudson's Bay Co. manager Harding was not into building the church but started on a two-story, 20'x30' house. Whittaker and crew from Fort McPherson laid the floor and erected the walls. Progress slowed when some of the Frys outfit was damaged in passage and Harding sold the rest of his lumber to another island resident. Fry used the church lumber to finish the house. The Frys taught school, held services, and did what they could with inadequate medical supplies. Christina's first child, Walter, was born in May 1917 and her second, Herschel Noel, was born in 1918. Only her husband was present at the births.¹⁾ The Frys were receiving two mail deliveries a year by 1918. Christina described the diet as meatless, wheatless, and sweetless and called beans Mackenzie River strawberries. Winter was beans, beans, and beans.²⁾ The Frys left Herschel in 1919 as Rev. Fry's health deteriorated.³⁾