Sarah Ann “Sadie” Stringer, nee Alexander (1869 – 1955)
Sarah Alexander was born in Biddulph, Ontario and her family moved to Kincardine when she was a child. Isaac Stringer became her high school sweetheart and later husband. She worked as a secretary in New York while Isaac went to the high arctic. When he was posted to Herschel Island, Sadie trained as a nurse in preparation for the isolated location, and also took missionary training at Deaconess House. Sadie and Isaac were married in March 1896 in Kingarf, and two months later set out for the north. The young missionary Charles Whittaker accompanied them from Fort McPherson to Herschel Island.1)
The Stringers moved into a sod hut that Isaac had built on a previous visit. They started back to Fort McPherson in early September but were caught by the ice forming on the Mackenzie delta. Sadie was big with their first child and could not walk the remaining distance, so they camped until a dog team was sent from Fort McPherson to carry her to the post. Rowena Victoria was born in December.2)
The lumber shipped to the island to build the rectory was appropriated by the whaling company during the winter so the next summer they lived in two rooms at the back of the company Bone House, where baleen and walrus tusks were stored. The bigger room was used as a church, school and first-aid centre. If the whalers were caught in the bay for the winter, Sadie ran a day school for the Inuvialuit and a night school for the whaling crews. Four of her night students learned shorthand and quit whaling to take clerical jobs.3) Sadie used her skills in nursing, teaching, music, and stenography in the north. Her strong sense of social responsibility made her a valuable partner in her husband’s work.4)
The Stringers were four years on Herschel before they took a furlough in the fall of 1901. The women at San Francisco stared at her outdated big sleeves and wide skirts. They returned to the north in 1903 when Isaac was posted to Whitehorse. In 1905, Stringer became the 2nd bishop of the Yukon, and following his consecration the Stringers moved to Dawson and the pro-cathedral of St. Paul’s.5)
After the Stringers moved to Dawson, Sadie disregarded the social code of the time to give precedence to the wife of a First Nation deacon.6) Mrs. Stringer became a Life Member of the Yukon Anglican Women’s Auxiliary.7)