By ERNIE NEUFELD, Weyburn Review Associate Publisher
Glancing at 1925 entries in "Home Town in Review" last summer, my curiosity was piqued by a brief item about local Judge C.E.D. Wood. He had just received a communication from Chief Mike Mountain Horse of Macleod, Alberta, asking him to act as an honorary president of the "Canada-wide convention of Indians."
According to the Review story, "this is a signal honor for the judge and indicates his popularity with the original dwellers of the plains of the west, with whom he has been on the friendliest terms ever since the early 80s when as a scarlet rider of the plains he contributed to the establishment of the white man's code of law and honor - among Redmen, and renegade whites as well as a member of the Royal North West Mounted Police."
That was all the information there on the matter, or on the man himself. Six weeks later the Review carried prominently the good judge's obituary, which ran 2 1/2 columns in length. I scanned it for clues to the "signal honor," but as customary then, most of the story was devoted to names of pallbearers, mourners (including Chief Justice Sir Frederick Haultain) and those who had sent floral tributes. Six flower bearers, all members of the provincial police, included Cpl. L. Lett, he of Idaho Bill fame, originally with the Royal North West Mounted Police, and soon-to-be sergeant-at-arms of the Saskatchewan Legislature.
I did learn from this source that Judge Charles Edward Dudley Wood had been born in Washington, D.C., had moved with his parents to Drummondville, Quebec, at an early age, was master for three years at his alma mater, Trinity College at Port Hope, Ontario, before joining the RNWMP in 1880. He came west with the force to Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills, then RNWMP headquarters, and a few months later trekked west to Fort Macleod, "where he completed his three years' service with the famous Scarlet Riders of the Plains."
Not a word in all this about any activity or association which might have gained the apparent high regard of the area's Indian population, then as now numerous in those parts.
Puzzled by the omission I called the RCMP in Regina and only learned from the librarian or archivist that he had only been on the force for three years, had been discharged after injuries suffered falling from a horse. It was also recorded he had been instrumental in founding an organization devoted to welfare of former members of the famous force, and had established the first newspaper in Fort Macleod.
However worthy the latter initiatives, and seemingly ignominious the first, I could not see them as leading to special recognition. Unsatisfied, I telephoned the editor of the Fort Macleod Gazette, a young man who knew little about Judge Wood, but who referred me to retired publisher Jack Murphy, a 33-year veteran of the paper, then away, I gathered, on an extended vacation.
Months elapsed, and I had about given up when the Review forwarded a letter from Mr. Murphy, pleading loss of my winter address. When this had been remedied I received from him a bundle of pages copied from "Fort Macleod - Our Colorful Past", the community's first history book, with all references to Mr. Wood highlighted by my benefactor.
One of the references was to Judge Wood's return to Fort Macleod one year before his death to participate in the 50th jubilee of the town with 30,000 celebrants in attendance, at which the learned judge had taken part in judging of Indian costumes, and that afterwards "this doughty old pioneer along with several other oldtimers demonstrated to the twentieth century whippersnappers how to do an oldtime Indian dance, just for oldtime's sake."
Still hardly the basis for the eventual honor, but there must have been many dealings with First Nations people that earned him respect and trust.
During his early newspaper career with the Gazette, Mr. Wood entered the practice of law and was a partner or associate of Frederick Haultain, who became the first and only premier of the North West Territories, fought hard for Alberta's provincehood, which coincided with that of Saskatchewan, and finally became the chief justice of Saskatchewan named as a mourner at the Wood funeral in Weyburn. The Sir Frederick Haultain name was also adopted by Weyburn's second (and still active) chapter of the IODE. Judge Wood, it was further revealed in the obituary, had been responsible for raising during World War 1 the 152nd Battalion in Weyburn.
While in Fort Macleod, Wood was also active in promoting the community's pioneer educational system, and a strong fighter for support and financing of schools by the territorial government, in order, as he editorialized "that the numbers of children now growing up in Macleod might receive some of the rudiments of a common school education."
It would be interesting to learn more about this pioneer and battler for the west's betterment, and more clues to his "Indian connection." He might even merit consideration for Weyburn's Wall of Fame.
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