author
Edward Francis Wilson
1844–1915
An Anglican missionary, educator, and prolific writer, he left behind firsthand accounts of 19th-century church and school work in Canada. His books and journals are still read today for what they reveal about faith, colonialism, and the institutions he helped build.
1 Audiobook
Missionary Work Among the Ojebway Indians
by Edward Francis Wilson
About the author
Born in Islington, England, in 1844, Edward Francis Wilson later moved to Canada and was ordained as an Anglican clergyman. He became closely associated with missionary work in Ontario and is remembered as a churchman, educator, ethnologist, and author.
Wilson founded the Shingwauk Home at Sault Ste. Marie and later established other schools, including work in Manitoba. He also wrote extensively, producing missionary writings, memoir-like journals, and observations on Indigenous communities and church life.
Today, his legacy is studied with a more critical eye as well as a historical one. Alongside his religious and literary work, he was involved in institutions now recognized as part of Canada’s residential school system, which makes his writing important not only as biography and memoir, but also as evidence of a deeply consequential period in Canadian history.