Sarah Ann "Sadie" Stringer
(1869-1955)

Sarah Ann Alexander, better known as "Sadie", grew up on a farm not too far from the Stringer family near Kincardine. She and Isaac attended the same high school at during that time "came to an understanding."

Sadie continued her education by studying typing and shorthand. While Isaac Stringer was attending Wycliffe College, she accepted a post as a stenographer in New York City. Here she learned that her husband-to-be wished to assume a ministry to the Inuvialuit of the Arctic coast. She supported him in this decision, and during the two years of his initial posting, she prepared herself for the role of missionary's wife by taking a nursing course at Grace Hospital in Toronto then spending a few months at the Deaconess Missionary Training House. Thus prepared for life in the north, Sadie married Isaac on the 10th of March, 1897. They left for the north in May.

Her many skills as well as her strong sense of social responsibility made her an able partner in her husband's ministry. She accompanied Isaac on many wilderness trips and, on one occasion, travelled from Dawson to Fort McPherson accompanied only by a native guide. She endured childbirth in primitive conditions, delivering two of her five children with only her husband in attendance.

Her home was always open to her Inuvialuit and Indian friends, and it was of no moment to her if she disregarded the rigorous social code of Dawson City to give precedence to the wife of a native deacon.