Prince Albert Community
In 1866, he led a party of pioneers that included his wife, (1864) Mary MacBeth, the daughter of one of the Kildonan Church Elders and member of the Council of Assiniboia, to the Prince Albert, Saskatchewan area. George Flett acted as interpreter to the party. They arrived on July 26, 1866 and formed a mission to bring Christianity to the prairie Indian nations. It was Nisbet who named the mission Prince Albert after British royalty; namely as a memorial to Queen Victoria's deceased husband. Gradually the community surrounding the mission adopted the name as well.
James Nisbet was a skilled carpenter as well as a reverend. With this skill he built the First Presbyterian Church, which was a log structure that can today be found in nearby Kinsmen Park, Prince Albert. This building served as the Prince Albert Historical Museum, until a larger building (the former firehall) was acquired in 1975.
During the times of smallpox epidemics, he created a crude vaccination which saved hundreds of lives. The missionary was also known for planting crops and gardens to help feed the population during several lean years. He was assisted in his work by two other Red River pioneers John McKay and George Flett (related or connected by marriage to Mary MacBeth Nisbet), both of whom were later ordained and continued to be missionaries in the region for the rest of their lives. Nisbet also continued missionary travels in the North West, and reached as far away as Edmonton, Alberta, as well as making trips back to Oakville, and to important Presbyterian Church meetings.
After living in Prince Albert for almost eight years, Nisbet was forced back east to Kildonan due to ill health, initially with his wife. Both died there in September 1874, she in the arms of her husband and father, and he a few days later. They were buried in simple graves in the Kildonan Churchyard (off Kildonan Highway at John Black Avenue in present day North Winnipeg), that were upgraded years later. It was noted in an early biographical account for those searching the Kildonan Cemetery to find an early memorial to the Nisbets, to travel far from Kildonan to Prince Albert, the Memorial being the active city and St. Paul's Presbyterian Church.
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