Clara Selina Bagshaw

Clara Selina Bagshaw was a twenty-one-year-old teacher’s wife when she welcomed Du Vernet and Jeremiah Johnston into her home at Little Forks on July 14, 1898.

The wife of Reginald Bagshaw, the teacher and catechist, Clara prepared tea (or dinner) for the two missionaries and Charlie, their Ojibwe canoe guide. That night, she participated in “family prayers” and bible study with great enjoyment, according to Du Vernet. The next morning, she made breakfast for her overnight guests, after which four Little Forks Ojibwe residents, including a young girl, a woman, and two men, joined the group to watch a morning prayer session.

Du Vernet does not tell us about any Bagshaw children, but as a mother who eventually had eight children, Clara may have had at least one child at home in 1898. She died in 1958.