Bell of Frog Lake facts for kids
The Bell of Frog Lake is a church bell with a long history. It once hung on a wooden frame next to a church named Our Lady of Good Counsel (Notre Dame du Bon Conseil) in the settlement of Frog Lake. This area became known for the Frog Lake Massacre. This event was part of the Cree uprising during the North-West Rebellion in western Canada. On April 2, 1885, young Cree warriors, led by Wandering Spirit, attacked the village of Frog Lake. Nine people living there lost their lives.
This bell was one of twenty bells bought by Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin for the Diocese of St Albert. For a while, people thought this bell was taken from the church in Batoche after the Battle of Batoche.
The Bell's Journey
After the Frog Lake Massacre, some Métis residents, who were now captives, quickly placed the bodies of Fafard, Marchand, Delaney, and Gowanlock in the church's cellar. They also moved the bodies of Quinn and Gouin into a nearby house cellar. However, they were not allowed to touch the other victims.
The church, the rectory, and all the other buildings in Frog Lake were burned on April 4, 1885. This was the day before Easter. Only the bell tower and the cemetery were left standing.
On June 14, the Midland Battalion arrived. This was the first group of soldiers led by Major-General Strange. They buried the bodies in the cemetery. The bell was still hanging from the fire-damaged bell tower on June 8, but then it disappeared. Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin thought the soldiers had taken the bell, but they couldn't find it. Father Laurent Legoff, a missionary, also noted that the Frog Lake Mission bell had been taken. General Strange blamed the military teamsters (people who drove supply wagons) when he heard about the theft. Several years later, the Canadian government paid the Mission for their lost bell.
In 2014, proof that soldiers from the Midland Battalion had indeed stolen the bell was found in Ontario. The Midland Battalion had served in the North West Field Force until July 24, 1885.
Charles H. Winslow, a captain in the Midland Battalion, wrote about the bell:
"All was desolation. The only thing left was a stockade fence around where the Roman Catholic church had stood, and, at the gate, two posts, on which was swinging a small bell, and as there was quite a crave for souvenirs, some of men of my company, without my knowledge, of any of the officers' knowledge, took it down in this night, packed it in a box with some old clothing and managed to smuggle it home."
William Young, a private from the Millbrook Company in the Midland Battalion, also wrote about the bell in his diary on July 25, 1885:
"Our company then presented the town with a large bell that we had brought from Frog Lake, to be used as a fire bell. The bell had belonged to the Roman Catholic Mission at Frog Lake and one dark night two of our lads went and seized the bell and nailing it up in a wooden box had brought it home to Millbrook. The authorities had searched for the bell but could find no trace of it." Will E. Young
Finding the Bell's True Story
The bell stayed in Millbrook, Ontario until 1991. Then, it was stolen from the Royal Canadian Legion hall. It reappeared in 2013, held by Métis people. The Métis believed it was the Bell of Batoche. The Frog Lake bell had been wrongly identified as being from Batoche in a local history book published for the Canadian Centennial.
People started to question if it was truly the Batoche bell. Then, in April 2014, Philippe Mailhot, the director of Le Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum, confirmed the truth. He said there was enough proof to show that the "Bell of Batoche" at his museum was actually the "Bell of Frog Lake." It had been taken from the Frog Lake Mission in 1885.
The CBC found more evidence in 2014 that proved the bell came from Frog Lake. They found old handwritten papers and notes. These showed that the real Batoche bell was given in 1937 to another Catholic mission. This mission was in St. Laurent de Grandin, about 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) from Batoche. That church burned down in 1990. The fire destroyed the bell, leaving only its clapper (the part that strikes the bell) and a few pieces of copper. The church was rebuilt, and the bell's broken pieces are now kept in a locked glass case in the new church's shrine.
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