Alberta's Catholic Renaissance woman

Katherine Hughes was a journalist, author, archivist and founded CWL

By JULIETTE CHAMPAGNE
Special to the WCR

Known in Alberta primarily for her book on Father Albert Lacombe, Katherine Hughes was not only Alberta's first provincial archivist, she also founded the first unit of the Catholic Women's League in Canada during her time in Edmonton.

The social action organization, which worked with immigrant women, was the first of its kind in Canada. The idea quickly spread to other dioceses across the country where women established other units. The league became a national organization in 1917, was federally incorporated in 1923, and was eventually affiliated with the international association.

Born in Melbourne, P.E.I., in 1876, Katherine Hughes completed college studies at Prince of Wales College and found employment as a journalist with the Montreal Star.

She came to Alberta, in 1906, representing the Star as an associate of the Edmonton Bulletin, as a reporter in the press gallery of the provincial legislature.

Hers was a strong Catholic background, and all subjects pertaining to the Catholic Church fascinated her - in 1906, she published a biography of her uncle, Bishop Cornelius O'Brian of the Diocese of Halifax.

Alberta's first archivist

Appointed Alberta provincial archivist in 1908, a position which at the time comprised the Legislature Library and the provincial archival collection, she believed it was important to provide contextual material for future historians.

With this goal in mind, she sought out donations of correspondence and photographs, conducted interviews with the elderly who had been in the region for many years, and even collected artefacts for the province.

It was during this time that she interviewed the elderly Father Albert Lacombe at length, from which she published Black Robe Voyageur in 1911.

Even before her arrival in Edmonton, she had ideas of how to help disadvantaged women. She wrote to Bishop �mile Legal, in 1901, in the hope of developing a nursing program for young Indian women through the Department of Indian Affairs, who could be paid for their work as district nurses upon their return to their particular reserves.

In 1910, among her many other activities, including preparing her book on Lacombe, and serving as secretary of the Edmonton Branch Canadian Women's Press Club (of which she was a founding officer in 1908), she volunteered with a Ruthenian (Ukrainian) night school program teaching English to 60 women at a convent and orphanage run by Ruthenian sisters.

Catholic immigrants

Keeping Catholic immigrants in the fold of the Catholic Church was a huge challenge at the time. Legal sought help from the lay community to reach out to them, and it was with this in mind that, in 1911, he approached Hughes to organize a Catholic action society for the women of the Diocese of St. Albert.

A similar organization, the Catholic Association of Alberta, in which laymen helped immigrants adjust, had been created a year earlier. Hughes fell ill shortly after and was unable to begin work on the project, which was huge, as the diocese extended from the Athabasca River to the American border. But she took up the challenge the following year.

It was then that a timely visit to Edmonton by the Abb‚ Casgrain, chaplain and secretary of the Catholic Church Extension Society, proved fruitful. He met Hughes and suggested the creation of a diocesan women's association modelled after the Catholic Women's League, an international organization regrouping Catholic women in several European countries, including Britain, France, Germany and Italy, in efforts of lay social action, particularly with immigrants and poor women, and which was closely affiliated with the Vatican.

Such a league would answer to the bishop and would in no way replace any existing parish organizations. The immigration work of this international organization had been lauded at the 1910 Eucharistic Congress in Montreal by Cardinal Francis Bourne, archbishop of Westminster.

Casgrain, who worked with immigrants at ports of entry, had come to Edmonton with the idea of establishing a Catholic shelter for immigrants which could also provide the services of a job agency. Hughes had in mind a hotel for them. However, it was soon made clear to them that the necessary finances were not available, as she wrote later: "That was the decision of the men. Fortunately neither of us despaired; we simply turned to the women."

Hughes invited women from the diocese to a meeting in the basement of St. Joachim Church on Nov. 13, 1912. She recommended organizing the league similarly to the local chapters of the National Council of Women, which would permit them to establish a national federation after some time, a plan which was adopted by all the ladies present. Archbishop Legal, now head of the newly created Archdiocese of Edmonton, donated $25 to the cause, and allowed a special collection at Sunday Mass. By 1913, there were 174 members.

The league's objective was "the promotion of social welfare of its members, the dispensation of charity and special attention to the care of young girls away from their homes." At first a temporary home was opened on Jasper Avenue. It was soon replaced with a hostel, known as the Girls' Home.

Rosary Hall

By 1915, the Sisters of Providence of Kingston agreed to staff a new building, Rosary Hall, and a grant from city council the following year made possible the addition of an annex. In 1916, the Catholic Women's League fundraised to establish a summer camp at Lac Ste. Anne for women from Rosary Hall and Catholic businesswomen to provide them with a homelike environment for summer holidays. The works of the league aimed to deal with problems in the city of Edmonton and within the province.

Loretta Kneill, Katherine's sister, also lived in Edmonton, and served as president of the CWL. It was she who pointed out that after the war, Catholic women were not invited for government consultations as they had no national association. Her work finally led to the national federation of the CWL.

In September 1913, Katherine Hughes was named assistant to the agent-general of Alberta in London. She returned to Alberta again in 1915 to speak at a fundraising lecture for the Calgary Women's Press Club. She died in 1925 in New York.

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