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“Residence No. 1. Present owner emerging from inspection”; “Residence No. 2.”; “Residence No. 3.”, 1891

Set of three black and white photos, each with a small log building. The first one is a small log house with a man in the doorway, the center one is a larger gable roof log house, and the third is the largest painted log house.

Credit: Courtesy of the current Lord Aberdeen

Ishbel Aberdeen’s Kodak photograph from The Guisachan Album, private archives owned by the current Lord Aberdeen.

 

John McDougall was born at Fort Garry around 1827 to a Scottish father and a First Nations mother.  McDougall travelled through the Okanagan Valley while working for the Hudson’s Bay Company.  After leaving the Company’s employ in 1860, McDougall moved to the Okanagan Mission to operate a HBC store.

In 1861, McDougall pre-empted 160 acres, which grew to 480 acres.  McDougall, an excellent axe-man, built the original 1860 sod-covered log cabin, then built a modest log cabin, and in 1886 replaced it with his third log house for his growing family.  After his wife Amelie’s death, he sold his 480-acre ranch to Lord and Lady Aberdeen and moved to the west side of the lake.