Frontier Life in the Mounted Police: The Diary Letters of Richard Barrington Nevitt NWMP Surgeon 1874-78

Ed: Hugh A. Dempsey, 2010 (SC 218 pp)
ISBN 0-9780929123-18-9

On July 23, 1874, Richard Barrington Nevitt was appointed as assistant surgeon with the newly formed North-West Mounted Police. Before leaving to meet up with the first contingent of NWMP recruits for their march west, he and his fiancée, Elizabeth Beaty, committed themselves to a remarkable pact.

They agreed to write a kind of diary by correspondence about all that they did or thought – “no matter how trivial.” Elizabeth’s letters have not survived, but Nevitt’s family carefully preserved his letters detailing everyday life at Fort Macleod from 1874 to 1878. Later acquired by the Glenbow Archives, Nevitt’s letters also provide a rare glimpse into a 19th century long distance courtship.