Cecil Swanson (1889 - 1984)
Cecil Swanson was born in London, England and came to Canada in 1908. He attended Wycliffe College in Toronto and he and Enid Schnieder married that year.1) Swanson and W. T. Townsend, a college friend of Swanson’s, travelled together to Dawson on a Yukon River steamer in 1913. They were both candidates for ordination. After writing their exams they were ordained in Dawson in July 1913. Archdeacon Canham, John Hawksley, Benjamin Totty from Moosehide, W.G. Blackwell of Christ Church in Whitehorse, and J.J. Brett of Fort Selkirk all assisted in the laying on of hands.2)
In 1913, Swanson was appointed to the new mission of Carmacks and Little Salmon.3) The Little Salmon church and a cabin were completed by September 1913.4) Swanson taught school in the church until a separate classroom was built. Bishop Stringer thought that Little Salmon would be a year-round mission, but the First Nation trappers were away for about six months a year in the fall and winter. Swanson spent that time at Carmacks and in August 1914 he built a church and a small rectory there.5)
Swanson and his wife, Enid, ministered from Carmacks to Hoole Canyon. In August 1914, they travelled to Ross River and attended a yearly First Nation gathering. Poole Field translated for him. He was critical of Dr. J.O. Lachapelle and wrote a letter to that effect to the bishop.6)
There was a flu epidemic at Little Salmon in 1916 and one life was lost. Swanson and his wife nursed the sick and, with the help of an American doctor who stopped along his route, prevented the death of two others.7) This was the first of a series of influenza epidemics that swept through the First Nation population at that time. Swanson was transferred to Whitehorse in 1916 and Little Salmon and Carmacks churches were left vacant.8) Swanson left the Yukon in 1917.9) He was assigned to a teaching position in Victoria.10)
After serving in the Yukon he was at Metchosin on Vancouver Island and then Christ Church in Vancouver. He was appointed rector of St. Augustine’s in Lethbridge and in 1929 became the Archdeacon of Lethbridge. In 1932, he was at the St. Stephen’s Church in Calgary, and in 1944 he was appointed dean and rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver. In 1953, he became the rector of St. Paul’s Church in Toronto and he retired from there in 1960. He received honorary degrees from several colleges and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1978. The Cecil Swanson School in Calgary is named in his honour.11)
The Archdeacon Cecil Swanson fonds at the Yukon Archives includes photographs taken by Swanson at Little Salmon, Carmacks, and Fort Selkirk plus three pages of reminiscences written in 1978.12)