History on Agnes Campbell Macphail
 | 1890 Agnes McPhail was born on March
24 in Proton Township, Ontario |
| 1906 Begins school at Owen Sound
Collegiate Institute in September |
| 1910 Graduates from Stratford Normal
School with teacher's certificate |
| 1918 Women who have a vote in
provincial elections are granted the right to vote in federal elections |
| 1921 Agnes elected to her first term
in Federal Parliament, as member of the Progressive Party; MacKenzie King
begins first term as Prime minister |
| 1922 Agnes changed the spelling of
her surname back to the original spelling of Macphail, after a visit to
the family farm at Euroch, in Kilmartin, Argyll, Scotland |
| 1925 Agnes re-elected to the Federal
Parliament |
| 1926 Agnes elected to a third term;
her parents, Dougald and Henrietta McPhail, retire to family home in
Ceylon, Ontario |
| 1929 Agnes goes to Geneva as a
delegate to the League of Nations; The New York stock market crashes |
| 1930 Her father, Dougald McPhail
dies at age 65; Agnes wins her fourth term in the Federal Parliament; R.B.
Bennett elected Prime Minister |
| 1931 Beauharnois power-project
scandal |
| 1932 Founding of CCF in Calgary,
Alberta, Canada |
| 1935 Agnes elected to fifth term in
the Federal Parliament; Mackenzie King returns as Prime Minister |
| 1936 Archambault Commission
investigates prisons |
| 1937 Her mother, Henrietta (
Campbell ) McPhail dies at age 73 |
| 1939 King George visits Canada;
Canada declares war on Germany |
| 1940 Agnes is defeated by Walter
Harris |
| 1943 Agnes is elected CCF member for
York East in the Ontario Legislature |
| 1945 Agnes loses her seat in the
Ontario Legislature |
| 1951 Ontario Legislature passes
legislation on equal pay for women; Agnes defeated in election |
| 1954 Agnes Campbell Macphail dies on
February 13 at the age of 63 |
Note: When Agnes died in Toronto, her body
was sent home to Grey, the county that had nurtured her and sent her off more
then thirty years before on a splendid quest for social justice.
A snow storm raged that Tuesday,
visibility was poor, side streets were blocked and main roads barely passable.
Trains were hours late.
The wind and snow were still blowing
fiercely when the services at Priceville ended, but a township plow had spent
much of the day breaking open the road a mile south to the McNeil Cemetery.
Pallbearers struggled through the last
five hundred feet. Friends and relatives followed and huddled together against
the cold.
Agnes was laid to rest with her parents,
Dougald & Henrietta McPhail and one of her two sisters, Gertha. May you
know rest in peace, Agnes Campbell Macphail...
"She came in on a Grey County storm
and she's bloody well going out on one" stated an old farmer from Grey.
