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Wellington Bridgman
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Cleric, writer.
Born at Zimmerman, Ontario on 12 July 1853, son of John Bridgman and Elizabeth Bradt, he was educated at Victoria College (Cobourg, Ontario) then ordained at the Hamilton Conference in 1880, after which he was stationed at International Bridge. He came to Manitoba in 1881 as assistant to Rev. Dr. George Young at Emerson then was an assistant to Rev. Thomas Lawson at Brandon for a year. This was followed by three years at Medicine Hat, North West Territories [now Alberta], three years at Fort McLeod, three years at Morden then, in 1892, he was appointed to Deloraine Methodist. From 1909 to 1912 he was Superintendent of the Manitoba Boys’ Reformatory. During the First World War, he was appointed garrison chaplain in 1916 and was later chaplain to the 251st Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
On 13 August 1883, he married Anne Jane Hoag (1854-?) of Saginaw City, Michigan with whom he had at least five children: Morley Counsellor Bridgman (1884-1968), Wellington Bridgman (1887-?), May Ethel Bridgman (1889-?), Fred Willard Bridgman (1895-1916), and Henry Cargill Bridgman (1899-?). He was a member of the Masons and Loyal Orange Lodge. In 1920 he published a memoir, Breaking Prairie Sod: The Story of a Pioneer Preacher in the Eighties. The book contained “A Discussion on the Burning Question of To-Day, ‘Shall the Alien Go?’” where he advocated the deportation of enemy aliens from the West.
He died at the Winnipeg General Hospital on 11 February 1922 and was buried in the Brookside Cemetery.
The Canadian Album: Men of Canada or Success by Example, Vol. III, Bradley, Garretson & Company, Brantford, Ontario, 1894.
Birth registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
For the names of First World War casualities from Manitoba who do not appear on any physical monument in the province, see the Manitoba Historical Society War Memorial. If you know of a name that is omitted from this list, please contact the MHS War Memorial Researcher Darryl Toews (darryl@mhs.mb.ca).
Soldiers of the First World War - Canadian Expeditionary Force, Library and Archives Canada.
Canadian Virtual War Memorial, Veterans Affairs Canada.
Financial support for research reported on this page was provided by the Manitoba Heritage Grants Program (2015-2016).
“Rev. Wellington Bridgman, pioneer pastor, is dead,” Winnipeg Tribune, 13 February 1922, page 6.
The Bridgman Families in Ontario, Canada, Rootsweb.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
We thank Bill Matheson for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 8 February 2022
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