Bridging Two Peoples: Chief Peter E. Jones, 1843–1909

Chronology of Dr. Peter Edmund Jones’s Life

xxiii Q Chronology of Dr. Peter Edmund Jones’s Life Q 1843 Born 30 October to the first ordained Aboriginal minister, Rev. Peter Jones, and his English wife, Eliza Field Jones, at the Methodist mission near London, Ontario. 1851 Moved to the non-Aboriginal community of Brantford; homeschooled because of poliomyelitis. 1866 Graduates from the medical faculty of Queen’s University at Kingston, the first Status Indian to obtain the M.D. degree from a Canadian medical school; receives Ontario medical licence number 678. 1869 Establishes a medical practice in Hagersville, Ontario, a village located on the edge of the Mississaugas of the New Credit reserve. Farms land on the reserve. 1873 Marries Charlotte Elvin-Dixon, an English widow with three young children. 1874 Elected head chief of his band; becomes their physician and introduces quarantine and other public health measures that helped insure the survival of the Mississaugas. Finds and begins to research an outstanding Mississaugas of the New Credit land claim. 1880 Serves as secretary-treasurer of the Grand General Indian Council of Ontario and Quebec, communicating their concerns directly to Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. Actively works for the federal Conservative party. 1886 Publishes The Indian, the first Aboriginal newspaper in Canada in order to insure registered Indians understand and take advantage of their newly acquired federal voting rights. xxiv Chronology of Dr. Peter E. Jones’s Life 1887 Responds to a request from Prime Minister Macdonald to propose modifications to the Indian Act and to consider the feasibility of a separate Act for what he called the “uncivilized” Indians living in the North West. 1888 Appointed a federal Indian agent, a post previously reserved for nonAboriginals ; no longer head chief, he remains the band’s physician. 1889 Presents the Mississaugas’ case before a Special Council of the Six Nations called to resolve a forty-year-old dispute between the bands over land payments. 1891 Recognized as an experienced archaeologist, he helps David Boyle, curator of the provincial museum uncover evidence of early Aboriginal settlements, and advises and collects Aboriginal artifacts for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. 1896 The Liberal party wins the federal election. Jones, no longer Indian agent or band physician, farms on the reserve with the aid of his stepson and follows his patients in Hagersville. Maintains interests in Aboriginal affairs and helps band leaders submit their land claim. 1909 Dies in Hagersville of cancer of the tongue, and buried in family plot in Brantford. ...