FAMILY LIFE
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INFLUENCE FROM MOM & GRANDMOTHER
Born March 24th, 1890 to Dugald McPhail and Henrietta Campbell McPhail, Agnes was the eldest of three daughters. Dugald and Henrietta homesteaded in Proton Township for the first years of Agnes' life, then moved to their farmhouse at 6 Corners in Artemesia. Dugald worked as a farmer, cattle dealer and was a popular auctioneer and Henrietta managed the home and children. Agnes and her sisters Gertha (b.1893) and Lilly (b. 1897) were raised within an embracing extended family, and Agnes formed strong bonds with the women in her family in particular. Her Grandmother Campbell, Jean Black, was a progressive thinker who has come from "few worldly advantages", and Agnes idolized her. Henrietta Campbell, Agnes' mother, had "the sterling quality of standing by her beliefs no matter what the cost" and illustrated thrift and unending hard work to her daughters.
Agnes Macphail
" I owed it to my father that I was elected to Parliament in the first place, but I owed it to my mother that I stuck out"
INFLUENCE FROM DAD
For Agnes, her father Dugald was a man of lenience, quick insight and wit. She admired his sociability but wondered aloud after his death whether he had lived to his fullest potential or if family responsibilities had limited him as well.
Emotions were kept to a minimum in the family, but Agnes loved her parents with a fierce admiration recognized the qualities she gained from them as some of her strengths later in life.
