Maude (Lucas) Smart

Wetaskiwin

1886-1963

Description

Life and Work

Maude Lucas Smart spent 37 years of her life nursing, using good humour, lots of common sense and an ability to improvise.

Isabelle Maude Lucas was born and grew up on the Peace Hills Agency Farm just north of Wetaskiwin. Her home was one of five stopping places on the Calgary-Edmonton Trail. Her playmates were the nearby native children, and she learned their language.

After graduation from the Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary in 1914 she nursed at the Wetaskiwin hospital until leaving for overseas during WWI. Following the war and post-graduate work in New York, Maude was one of four nurses hired by the Department of Indian Affairs to visit all of the reservations in the three prairie provinces. At the request of the government she took a course in the treatment of tuberculosis. The needs of the locals were great, but her supplies and money were insufficient to carry out her work. She travelled on foot, by horseback, horse and buggy, and on snowshoes.

After retirement Maude nursed at Grande Prairie, and she spent the last three years of her life in Edmonton.