Memorable Manitobans: Roderick George McBeth [MacBeth] (1858-1934)

Cleric, historian.

Born in Kildonan, Manitoba, he was an early graduate of the University of Manitoba (BA 1882, MA 1885) and was called to the Manitoba Bar in 1886. He subsequently studied for the ministry at Manitoba College and Princeton Seminary, and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1891. Most of his ministry was conducted in Vancouver. He wrote extensively about his ancestors in a series of autobiographical books on the early development of the Canadian West: The Selkirk Settlers in Real Life (1897), The Making of the Canadian West (1898), The Romance of Western Canada (1918), Policing the Plains (1922), and The Romance of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1924). He also wrote on church subjects, including Our Task in Canada (1912) and The Burning Bush and Canada (no date). He was awarded honorary degrees by the University of Winnipeg (1885) and the University of Manitoba (1929).

He was a son of Robert McBeth Sr, and his brothers included John McBeth and Robert McBeth Jr.

His articles for the Manitoba Historical Society:

Farm Life in the Selkirk Colony
MHS Transactions Series 1, No. 50, read 22 April 1897, Winnipeg: Manitoba Free Press.

Source:

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by J. M. Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 20 March 2011

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