Mrs. George Duncan was the former Lillian Lent and came west with her parents. She recalls that her father became acquainted with John McDougall whom the McDougall United Church in Edmonton was named after and he persuaded her father to come to the Mission west of Edmonton.
She has a very vague memory of the long cold sleigh ride to the Mission in March of 1900 and spending the night at Kreye's stopping house.
The Reserve was on the east side of a big lake, called White Whale Lake at that time and the Reserve was called the Alexis Stony Reserve. Mr. Lent could speak Cree and Mrs. Duncan believes he helped in changing some of these names such as Wabamun which is "Looking Glass", Mewassin means "Good" and and Mayatan Lake which was on the Reserve then means "Bad". She also remembers some of the Indians such as Chief Paul, William Bearhead and Thomas Burnstick. Mr. Blewett was the farm instructor and they lived on Bad Lake. When the Lent family arrived in the district an old couple by the name of Larson had a little store at the end of Moonlight Bay and there was a store built by Dunns.
Lillian worked with her mother on the farm and remembers numerous people they used to feed as well as their own big family. While Mr. Lent was at Edson teaching and Louis was working away, Mrs. Lent and Lillian milked cows and shipped milk to Edson, to the bakery and other places. They had their own milk and butter, which was supplemented by the odd deer roast and whitefish.
In 1912, Lillian married George Duncan who was born in Wiarton, Ontario and came west to the Smithfield District. The railroad went through in 1911. At this time the townsite of Duffield was surveyed and the Duncans bought the first two lots. These were north of the tracks and on the west side of the road. On one lot the Duncans built a store and called it the Duffield Trading Company. They were able to get the Mewassin Post Office transferred to Duffield and operated it along with the store. The store had one long room upstairs which was later used as a dance hall.
Duncans built a house on the other lot to the west. Three children were born: Eva and Bob who were born in an Edmonton nursing home and Edna who was born at home with Mrs. Lent acting as midwife.
After Duncans started the store, the government men came out to pay treaty money once a year. George and Lillian set up a concession booth where the Indians used to eat, dance and have a merry time. The people camped with their families, set up teepes beside their wagons, built fires and made tea. hey always had many horses and dogs.
The Duncans sold the store to Andy Schienke in 1916, and bought a farm about two miles south of Duffield. They built a makeshift building on the farm that summer to live in while their house was being moved. A contractor was hired from Edmonton to move the house from Duffield and he charged two hundred seventy-five dollars. They farmed until the fall of 1918, when they sold the farm to Mike O'Sullivan and moved to Penticton, British Columbia.
George passed away in 1952, and the farm at Wembly, where they had been living, was rented. She was assistant matron and then matron of the Pioneer Lodge from 1953 to 1969. She has now retired but is still living at the lodge.