This is part two of my Great-Grand Uncle Arthur Symons’s experiences in WWI. Arthur emigrated to Canada in 1901, arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the SS Soman. (1)
When WWI broke out, Uncle Arthur enlisted in the 56th Battalion Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force in 1915 in Calgary. He was then shipped back home to the UK to train. While there, he visited his sister Lilian and her daughter Edith, my Grandmother.
Arthur Symons with Edith Bevan his niece, my Granny.
Granny was 15 years old.
At Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, the Canadians trained for four months, most of it in terrible mud, as England experienced one of its wettest winters in decades. While most troops stood up well to the awful conditions, Canadian equipment did not. Much of it was soon discarded in favour of British types. The Canadians learned basic soldiering in England after a hasty mobilization and a difficult, uncomfortable winter. Their real training would come at the front.
After training, Arthur was sent to France and later Belgium. At the Third Battle of Ypres, better known as Passchendaele, the troops fought there from July to November 1917. Both sides suffered appalling conditions and heavy casualties. “The name Passchendaele has become synonymous with mud, blood and futility”. Arthur was wounded in 1917 at Passchendaele. (2)
The Government of Canada Library and Archives search had Arthur’s Attestation Papers and detailed medical treatments at “No. 4 General Hospital Dannes Camiers” (2) among many other hospital visits.
Searching for Dannes Camiers Hospital, led me to the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the following information. (2)
Shortly after the war broke out, McGill University organised the ‘No. 3 Canadian General Hospital’ to serve in France. The hospital was established at Dannes Camiers in the Pas-de-Calais area on 19th June 1915 under canvas. A staff of 35 Officers, 73 Nursing Sisters and 190 rank and file. Life under canvas that cold wet November was tough, with deep mud, storms, frost and collapsing tents. The conditions so undermined the health of one Lieutenant Colonel Yates that he was invalided to England where he died the following year.
Arthur’s admission to the Dannes Camiers Hospital was on the 29th of October 1917. The first line of his medical records states he is ‘Dangerously ill’ with GSW (gunshot wounds) R. Leg fracture and left foot.
By the 16th of November, Arthur is now ‘seriously ill’ There follows 99 pages – starting with his Attestation Paper – then very detailed treatments and x-rays from various hospitals in France, England and Alberta, Canada. It makes for fascinating reading.
Three pages from Arthur’s 99 pages of hospital notes and X-rays.
On the 30 of November 1917, Arthur was transferred to the 1st West General Hospital Fazakerly, Liverpool England. After 5 months of treatment, Arthur was again moved to the Canadian Special Hospital Buxton, Derbyshire, England.
NOTE: Amongst the patients at Buxton, was Frederick G Banting, who would return to Canada after the war to continue research into diabetes and the use of insulin in its treatment, for which he was awarded the Nobel prize.(3)
His last transfer was on July 11, 1918, to the 5th Canadian General Kirkdale, Liverpool, England.
Eventually, on the 20th of September, 1918, Arthur was Invalided to Canada. He was sent to the Ogden military convalescent hospital in Calgary, Alberta. A short visit to the Calgary General Hospital, then back to Ogden.
Finally, after nearly 2 years at 5 different hospitals, Arthur was sent to the Banff Rest Camp, and discharged on August 28, 1919, medically unfit for further service. He was 35 years old.
Arthur went on to marry and have two children and was employed in the Civil Service
This rather poignant note dashed across his discharge papers state ‘Deceased 24/7/40’
Excerpt from The Calgary Herald, July 26, 1940, page 2 Arthur Symons, 54, of 2409 Centre Street South, died in hospital here Wednesday afternoon. Born in Leicester, England, he came to Calgary 32 years ago and was employed in the civil service for 17 years. He is survived by his wife, Catherine, one son, Arthur, and one daughter, Dorothy.Alberta Death Reg. #1940-08-201498
Great-Grand Uncle Arthur Symons is buried in Burnsland Cemetary, Calgary Alberta, Canada. (Photo credit Ron Reine)
RIP Uncle Arthur.
Part 1 of Great-Grand-Uncle Arthur’s experiences in WW1:
My great-grandparents, Harriet Eva Gould and William Gardiner (WG) Anglin shared 48 years of marriage together, and their lives exemplify the saying “Behind every great man is a great woman.” In many cases, when we look into our family history, finding information about our female ancestors can be tough. After they marry, their maiden names are often forgotten, their careers aren’t recorded, and their lives tend to be defined by their roles as wives, mothers and community participants. Such was the case for Harriet too, as is clear from her obituary.
Mrs. Harriet Anglin – there passed away at her home on 52 Earl Street, on Saturday evening, Mrs. Anglin wife of Dr. W.G. Anglin, deceased, who was before her marriage Harriet Eva Gould, had lived in Kingston since her girlhood days. For the past year and a half, she had been ill. Mrs. Anglin who was of retiring nature, was most widely known through her membership in Sydenham Street United Church.
Surviving her are two sons, Douglas Anglin of Anglin-Norcross Construction Company, Montreal, and Wendling Anglin of the Johnston and Ward firm, Montreal; also three daughters Mrs. McLaren Ewert of Moosejaw, Sask.; Mrs. R. M. Horsey of Montreal and Miss Mary Anglin, secretary to the Principal of Queen’s University; also one sister, Mrs. John Hunter of Goderich and three brothers, George, Harry and William Gould. Ten grandchildren also survive.
Prior to meeting each other, Harriet and WG gained experiences that would serve them well when they married.
Harriet Joins Kingston Society
For the first decade of her life, Harriet grew up as the eldest child of William Gould and Mary Wartman in Ancaster, Ontario. When she was about 11 years old, according to the 1871 census, her parents sent her to Kingston, Ontario, to live with her mother’s sister Susanna, who was married to a wealthy businessman named James Richardson. It’s not clear why they made this decision, but it’s believed that the Gould family couldn’t support all their children. At the same time, Aunt Susanna, who had only sons, longed for a daughter.
The arrangement worked well for everyone: Harriet was raised in a comfortable home and Aunt Susanna got the daughter she always wanted. While living with her aunt, Harriet received a good education and was introduced to Kingston society. She became known for her connections to the prominent Richardson family and her Loyalist heritage through her mother’s side. This social standing would play a part in her future, especially when she married.
William Gardiner (WG) Becomes a Surgeon
Before their marriage in 1886, WG went to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he learned new surgical techniques from Dr. James Lister, a pioneer in antiseptic surgery. After his return and marriage to Harriet, WG was invited to teach at Queen’s Women’s Medical College. Surgeon and Mentalist
Career and Family Life
WG’s skill and dedication quickly earned him a spot on the prestigious faculty at Queen’s University. By 1887, he was appointed as a Professor of Pathology and head of the Clinical Surgery department. He shared the groundbreaking techniques he had learned in Edinburgh with his students, shaping the future of surgery in Canada.
He and Harriet had their first daughter, Mary (1888-1979), that same year. In the following years came Susan (1889–1982), Douglas (1890–1955), Wendling (1892–1955) The Stock Broker, and Ruth (1895–1976). It’s believed that Mary and Susan were named after Harriet’s Aunt Susanna.
1923 – Douglas, WG, Wendling, Susan, Ruth, Harriet, Mary
Throughout these years, W.G. ran a private medical practice from their home on Earl Street, which allowed him to spend time with the family. His name was even etched in stained glass in the window of their office building.
52 Earl Street with “Dr. Anglin” etched in top glass
Going to War
In 1915, WG left his teaching job and volunteered to go to Cairo, Egypt, with the Queen’s Stationary Hospital at 59 years old, in response to a plea from Lieutenant Colonel H.R. Duff, who needed someone with “experience and wisdom.” He caught Malta Fever and had to return to Canada a year later. Although he recovered a bit, the illness affected his health for the rest of his life. Duff, however, died of pneumonia in Cairo.
1915 – Cairo, Egypt, WG on the left camel
Community Leaders
After the war, WG continued working in medicine on a limited basis and served as an examiner for the Canadian Pension Board. He also worked at Kingston Penitentiary, where he introduced medical and administrative improvements and treated the inmates with dignity until he retired in 1928.
Harriet remained dedicated to her children, their families and her church. As a proud grandmother, she tucked a newspaper clipping of a photo of my father and his brother into a random book where it slipped out 90 years later into the hands of a distant cousin who then made contact with me!
In their later years, Harriet and WG were well-respected members of their Kingston community until he died in 1934. She died only two years later and they are now buried together in the Anglin plot at Cataraqui Cemetery.
In 1878, two brothers from Montreal opened a hardware store in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Prairie city, known as the “gateway to the west,” was growing rapidly, and for several years the store appears to have been profitable, however, it went bankrupt in 1889. After that, the brothers’ lives took very different paths.
Mulholland Bros. Hardware Merchants was owned by Joseph Mulholland (1840-1897) and his younger brother Henry (1850-1934). Hardware must have been an easy choice for them since their father and several of their uncles had been very successful in the hardware business.
Their father, Henry Mulholland (1809-1887), was born in Lisburn,1 near Belfast in the north of Ireland, and immigrated to Montreal as a young man. He soon found employment with a wholesale and retail hardware firm owned by Benjamin Brewster. By 1851 he was a partner in the Brewster and Mulholland hardware company. He later went into partnership with a member of the extended Workman family, Joel C. Baker. The hardware firm of Mulholland and Baker was in business from 1859 to 1879.
Henry Mulholland senior married Ann Workman (1809-1882) in Montreal in 1834. The Workman family had also come from the Lisburn area. Four of Ann’s brothers were in the hardware business, including William Workman (1807-1878) and Thomas Workman (1813-1889),who were partners in the firm of Frothingham and Workman, reputed to be the largest wholesale hardware company in Canada. The country’s population was growing, and hardware and building materials were in great demand.
Henry and Ann Mulholland had several children who died very young, but two daughters (Ann and Jane) and three sons (Joseph, Henry and Benjamin) lived to adulthood. Both daughters remained in Montreal. Ann married Dr. George Henry Wilkins, while Jane and her husband, banker John Murray Smith, were my great-grandparents. Son Benjamin died of tuberculosis in Toronto in 1882.
The 1870 Canadian census found Joseph, 29, and Henry, 19, living in Montreal with their parents. Joseph was identified as a merchant, probably employed by his father’s firm. According to one newspaper account, he lived in Guelph, Ontario for a time prior to going to Winnipeg.2 Henry also worked for the family-owned hardware companies at the beginning of his career. Then, in 1878, Joseph and Henry headed to Manitoba. Many families were doing the same thing, attracted by the vast expanses of prairie farmland
The city of Winnipeg, incorporated in 1873, was a service center for the surrounding grain farms and, about a decade later, it became an important stop on the newly built Canadian Pacific Railway. The first CPR train steamed into the city in 1886. Optimists envisioned Winnipeg as a future “Chicago of the North”. In 1873, the city had a population of about 1900 people; that had risen to 8000 by 1881 and 42,000 in 1901.
When Joseph and Henry opened their Winnipeg store in 1878, it faced stiff competition, and the large newspaper advertisement announcing the opening of Mulholland Bros. ran alongside ads from several other hardware stores. Over the next few years, the newcomers focused on basic items like fencing wire and wood stoves.
The store advertised regularly in the local newspapers. source: Manitoba Free Press, p. 4, May 26, 1880, Newspapers.com
Running a business with a sibling had its challenges. In a letter to his father in 1884, Henry must have mentioned that he and Joseph did not see eye to eye on a bookkeeping entry. Henry senior replied, “Joseph is a good-hearted, generous fellow, and I trust that you and he will get on cordially together, as it will be for your natural interest to continue the business without any wrangling and refer any differences of opinion between you and him to your Uncle Thomas [Workman] and me who have had long experience in co-partnership businesses and in keeping accounts between the copartners.”3
Henry senior continued to offer sensible advice and encouragement: “I am glad to hear that you are making no bad debts and that you have no large accounts due to you in the books and that your stock is well selected and next to this never be tempted to offer any customer to increase his indebtedness by selling him more goods on credit in hope of obtaining payment of a past due debt.”
It appears that Joseph was the more outgoing sibling. His name appeared frequently in Winnipeg newspapers as he was involved with the Board of Trade. He was for a time president of the Winnipeg Liberal-Conservative Association, and he was briefly a candidate for mayor of Winnipeg, but withdrew his name. Several newspaper clippings following his death described him as a very likeable fellow.
Meanwhile, Henry’s name never appeared in the newspapers, so perhaps he was the quiet one, busy running the store. It is also possible he was distracted by family obligations. Henry was married to Ontario-born Christina Maria Shore and the couple had six children.
Henry and Christina Mulholland and five of their six children. source: Mulholland family collection.
On June 25, 1885, Mulholland Bros. ran an ad in the Manitoba Daily Free Press listing the many new items they had in stock, including blacksmith and livery stable supplies as well as articles for barbers, butchers, hunters and gardeners. They also carried bird cages and ivory-handled table knives.
Few of Winnipeg’s citizens were wealthy, the local economy was dependent on a good grain harvest, and shipping costs to Winnipeg were high. The business may have over-extended its inventory. In February 1889, a bankruptcy sale notice for Mulholland Bros. appeared in the paper, listing egg boilers and dog collars among the many items to be disposed of.4
Joseph returned to Montreal and, in 1890, he married Amelia Bagg (1852-1943). Amelia had inherited Montreal real estate from her father, Stanley Clark Bagg, and she was an independently wealthy woman. She was generous to family members in need, and in return, she was loved and respected by members of both the Bagg and Mulholland families. For Joseph, marriage to Amelia not only brought companionship, it also brought him a job in the Bagg family business as a real estate agent.
Joseph Mulholland, Montreal, QC, 1865, source: William Notman, I-1757421, McCord Stewart Museum
His good fortune did not last long, however. Joseph died of heart failure brought on by extreme heat in Montreal on July 15, 1897.5
As for Henry, after the Winnipeg store failed, he remained in Manitoba for a time — the family was still there in 1891 when the census was taken — but they eventually moved to Toronto, where Henry continued to work as a hardware merchant. After his death, his youngest son, Toronto lawyer Joseph Nelson Mulholland, commented that Henry had never regained his stride following the bankruptcy.6 When Henry died in Toronto in 1934, at age 84, his obituary did not mention the Winnipeg venture.7
A special thank you to a distant cousin who reached out to me recently with a question about his ancestor Henry Mulholland. Until then, I had never heard about Henry and had no idea Joseph had run a hardware store in Winnipeg.
I have written stories about twelve of Barnabé Bruneau and Marie Sophie Prudhomme’s thirteen children. That just leaves Helene (1849 -1929). Helene was child number nine or perhaps number ten. I just realized that she and Selene Joseph were the second set of twins in the family. They were born on December 20, 1849.
I haven’t found much information about Helene other than she appeared to be a devoted wife and mother. She married at twenty-six but before, had spent some time in New York City as photographs can attest. Was she also a French teacher or governess like her sisters?
Sophie, Helene and Matilde Bruneau, New York City
Helene married Célestin Pépin dit Lachance ( known as Lachance). He was born in Joliette (1847-1915) to Celestin Lachance and Elisabeth Payette. His parents converted to Protestantism in 1852 when he was a young child. He attended the l’Institute Evangelique Francais de Pointe-aux-Trembles. After he graduated, he became a Colporteur for two years for the French Canadian Missionary Society. He had aspirations of becoming a minister
Celestin & Helene Lachance
In 19th century America, the word colporteur (the borrowing of a French word meaning “peddler”) came to be used for door-to-door peddlers of religious books and tracts and is still used today. The Missionary Society trained the colporteurs and future pastors as there wasn’t a French Protestant seminary. Celestin abandoned his studies in 1867, possibly because he had tuberculosis and his doctor recommended he only work outside in the fresh air. If he did have TB, the fresh air did him good as he lived almost another 50 years. He worked all over Quebec in the logging and forestry industry. Helene accompanied him everywhere during their marriage.
Helene & Celestin Lachance and Helen’s sister Anais
Although he gave up missionary work he remained a religious Presbyterian the rest of his life. He read the Bible every morning and night. During his last illness, he read the whole Bible twice in nine months.
Helene was originally a Baptist as her parents also converted to Protestantism when she was a child. She is later recorded as being a Presbyterian.
Celestin and Helene had only one daughter, Helene Marie Antoinette (1876 – 1916). This curly-haired child grew up but never married. She attended Royal Arthur School in Montreal. Antoinette attended English schools because the family was Protestant, so she couldn’t attend French Catholic schools. In 1892, she won the prize in French for second intermediate girls, besting Nellie Wilson, who won the awards for most of the other subjects. She didn’t have Antoinette’s advantage of a French background. At the closing of the ceremony, the commissioner said, “It was well to be clever but still better to be good.” Antoinette died at only forty years of age. She lived with her parents her whole life and never seemed to have an occupation.
Antoinette Lachance
After Celestin and Antoinette died, Helene lived in Verdun, Quebec until her death, on June 4, 1929. The family is buried in Mont-Royal cemetery in Montreal along with Helene’s brother Napoleon.
Mount Royal Cemetery Montreal
Notes:
In the back of the little photo album in a list of the children, it actually said twins, which had never registered with me.
Back page of photo album
1871 Census: Celestin was 22 and living with his parents and sibling in St Charles Borromée, Joliette, Quebec. Year: 1871; Census Place: St Charles Borromée, Joliette, Quebec; Roll: C-10036; Page: 15
Helene and Celestin were married in 1875 and recorded as French Evangelicals.
Antoinette was born in October 2, 1876 and baptized at 9 years old in 1885.
According to Find a Grave: her full name was Helene Marie Antoinette Lachance born in St Constant Quebec.Ancestry.com. Canada, Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.Original data: Find a Grave. Find a Grave®. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi accessed August 28, 2024.
1891 Census: The Lachances were living in Ste. Conegonde Hochelaga, Quebec. Celestin was a Commis au Bois, a wood clerk, Helene was a wife and both members of the Free Church.
Year: 1891: Census Place: Ste Cunégonde Town, Hochelaga, Quebec, Canada; Roll: T-6396; Family No: 227Ancestry.com. 1891 Census of Canada [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Aug 28, 2024.
1901 Census: Celestine, Helene and Antoinettte (Marie-A ) were living in Ottawa, where Celestin was listed as a foreman and Antoinette, had no occupation. Year: 1901; Census Place: Ottawa (City/Cité) Dalhousie (Ward/Quartier), Ottawa (City/Cité), Ontario; Page: 19; Family No:189 Source InformationAncestry.com. 1901 Census of Canada [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Aug 28, 2024.
Montreal Star: Royal Arthur Closing Exercises, June 22, 1892 Wednesday, pg. 3. Newspapers.com accessed Sept 9, 2024.
Le Devoir: Celestin Lachance obituary, March 26, 1915 pg 2. Newspapers.com accessed September 9, 2024
Montreal Star Obituary: Helene Lachance, June 6, 1929 page 11. Accessed Oct 22, 2024.
Jean-Louis Lalonde: Lachance, Celestin (1849-1915) SHPFQ Societe d’Histoire du Protestantisme Franco-Quebecois. Octobre 12, 2020.
On September 26, 1912, a tall, slim, beautiful and well-dressed young woman stepped off the train at Viger Station in Montreal to be met, well, by no one.
There was a group of local reporters on the platform but they were waiting for someone else to arrive, someone far less fetching, as it were.
The journalists were expecting Barbara Wylie, a British suffragette. Wylie was one of Mrs. Pankhurst’s radical troops and British suffragettes were mostly manly, weren’t they?
Barbara Wylie 1912.
When the reporters realized that this stylish beauty was, indeed, Miss Wylie it caused quite a commotion according to a newspaper article in the Montreal Witness clipped by my husband’s great aunt Edith Nicholson.
The reporters immediately raced over and encircled the lovely lady.
Barbara Wylie did not disappoint on the radical front. The Scottish firebrand brashly answered questions about her reason for coming to Canada and glibly defended a British suffragette who recently had thrown a hatchet at British Prime Minister Asquith. “Had it hit the mark, it might have knocked some sense into him.”
Whoa!
Remnant of the Montreal Witness clipping.
When I first found the Witness newspaper report among Edith’s massive stash of yellowed newspaper clippings on the suffrage movement, it did not make an impression on me. I had heard of the British suffragettes, for sure. Who hadn’t? But, the name of Barbara Wylie meant nothing.
And I knew zilch about how, around 1910, some of Emmeline Pankhurst’s troops visited Montreal to try and convince “inert”1 Canadian suffragists that not-so-peaceful protest was actually the way to go.
Lets’ face it: there was nothing about Canadian women suffrage in my 1968 high school history book.
Haunt. Hmmm. Interesting choice of verb. Suffragettes were technically banned from coming to Canada. So the two suffragettes who did come,Caroline Kenney and Barbara Wylie, had Canadian relations and came on family visits.
Miss Barbara Wylie was head of the Edinburgh Chapter of Mrs. Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union. She came to Canada in 1912 on a year-long country-wide tour, but her loose-cannon ways did not get her far.
In Montreal, on November 4, 1912, Wylie climbed the speaker’s platform at the YMCA as a guest of the Montreal Local Council of Women. News reports say she was wearing a pretty powder blue silk dress, but her rhetoric was of the red-hot variety.2 “Why speak of men as brave and women as pure? Would it not be better to bring the idea into society that men can be pure and women brave?”
The meeting had to be adjourned early when a fist fight nearly broke out – between two men.
Edith Nicholson, 27, didn’t attend Wylie’s rowdy Montreal speech. A family letter reveals Edie returned home from Montreal to Richmond, Quebec on November 2. But the Montreal Witness clipping isn’t the only document I have that suggests Edie, an over-worked, under-paid teacher at Ecole Methodiste Westmount, was all for the “hysterical” window-smashing suffragettes.
“So sorry” Mrs. Snowden was NOT a militant. May 1913 letter to Mom
On May 2, 1913, Edie is in Montreal with her two sisters, Marion and Flo, and she writes this in a letter home to her mom, Margaret: “We are going to hear Mrs. Snowden speak. But she is not a militant for which I am very sorry.”
This sentence, too, I might well have over-looked had it not been for that Wylie newsclipping because that fragile disintegrating memento prompted me to conduct more in-depth research on the messy, all-but-forgotten Montreal suffrage movement.
The first British suffragist brought in by the Montreal Council of Women was Mrs. Ethel Snowden, in 1909. Snowden was the young wife of a British Labour M.P. She spoke at Stevenson Hall.
Described in one report as “a daughter of the gods, divinely fair,” Snowden’s oratorical skills also impressed that day. She condemned the British militants, who were just beginning their ‘deeds, not words” path, saying “Mrs. Pankhurst has unleashed a Frankenstein monster.”
The Council soon passed an ambiguous resolution somewhat in favour of women suffrage.
Montreal Gazette places suffragette news beside opera news. You can make what you want of that.
Emmeline Pankhurst, herself, visited Montreal in December, 1911. She was brought in by Council President, Miss Carrie Derick (a closeted suffragette sympathizer) “so that women could hear the other side of the suffrage story.”
In her speech at Windsor Hall, the famed feminist, looking tired and frail, stated her case with eloquence but she made sure to avoid provocative language.
So afraid were Montrealers of Mrs. Pankhurst (whose troops back home were angry at Asquith over a broken promise) that the Council had to give away 200 tickets at the last minute and only broke even on the night. Mrs. Pankhurst’s fee was considerable too. After all, she was on the tour to raise money for lawyers.
Minutes of MLCW launching Montreal Suffrage Associationat at the time of Mrs. Snowden’s second visit. Someone has crossed out the line where it says the organization is non-militant.(“Not relevant” Professor Derick said in the press.) They also intend to subscribe to WSPU Votes for Women Magazine and make money selling brochures. BANQ archives.
May, 1913 saw Mrs. Snowden’s second visit to Montreal. This time she spoke at St. James Methodist Church.
In the spring of 1913, Mrs. Pankhurst’s militants in England were in full battle mode, setting fire to post boxes, hunger-striking in prison and playing ‘cat and mouse’ with the police.
Mrs. Snowden calmed the fears of Montrealers in the audience, telling them not to worry, women wouldn’t suddenly want to run for Parliament with the vote (sic). “All men care about is money, but women care about the home, children and humanity,” she proclaimed. The vote for women, it seems, was all about saving babies.
This is exactly what the majority of women in the Montreal suffrage movement wanted to hear. These ladies were mostly well-off middle-aged matrons or unmarried teachers of a certain age. They were maternal suffragists, not equal-rights suffragettes, and they had worked very hard to keep any young, excitable unmarried women (even of their own class) out of the local movement.
These matrons did not like what they saw coming out of the UK or the U.S: the spontaneous marches in sundry small towns; the highly-publicized cross-country tramps; the gigantic uber-organized parades in major cities, including one with10,000 people that swept down 5th Avenue in New York led by a young suffragette goddess on horseback. They were especially afraid for/of their own daughters: A lengthy editorial in the Montreal Gazette described women’s colleges like McGill’s Royal Victoria College as”suffragette factories” churning out de-sexed females.
So, in March, 1913, they started up the Montreal Suffrage Association, an elite organization with a mandate to provide a ‘quiet and peaceful education of the people’ led reluctantly by, who else, Miss Carrie Derick – with a membership by invitation only.4
Ethel Snowden ended her 1913 speech by calling Mrs. Pankhurst’s troops “cavemen” giving the reporters their headline for the next day.
If Great Aunt Edie was in attendance that night in the large landmark Gothic Revival church on Ste. Catherine Street in Montreal, and I have no proof one way or another, she must have been mightily dismayed.
Great Aunt Edie 1971 toasting her niece’s marriage. In the 1920’s, she stepped out with Miss Carrie Derick according to a letter. They were both at McGill. Edith’s name on membership list for Therese Casgrain’s provincial suffrage association, The League of Women’s Rights in 1940-41. Edie was by then respectable, working at Royal Victoria College, McGill as Assistant to the Warden. Of course, back in 1913, Edie wasn’t listed as a member of the Montreal Suffrage Association, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t join the more inclusive and militant-minded Montreal Suffrage League started up by Caroline Kenney, another British suffragette. But, soon War broke out and everything kind of fell apart, but that’s a whole other story.
Originally published in Beads in A Necklace, Genealogy Ensemble’s compilation of family stories.
Furies Cross the Mersey is my story about the British Suffragette Invasion of 1912 from 3 different points of view. This era was a study in Media Literacy, that’s for sure. Journalists broke every rule of their trade covering the ladies of the suffrage movement. (For example: Were young suffragette sympathizers ‘manly and desexed’ or ‘excitable and hormonal?) Suffragists and Suffragettes wanted to take away men’s alcohol (overt)and their right to have sex before marriage with prostitutes (tacit). “Why can’t men be pure.” Mrs. Pankhurst, a doctor’s wife, was upset at the fact so many virginal women contracted veneral disease as a wedding present.(Hence the law requiring blood tests before marriage.). Also, many of her husband’s patients in the north of England arrived at his surgery pregnant by incest.
Margaret Votes published on this website. (How did Margaret Nicholson feel about voting for the first time in 1920? Very happy! Her neighbours not so much:) ) Most Canadian women won the right to vote in 1918. (Some with men in the military, earlier, in 1917) Quebec women in their province only in 1940.
“Inert” was the word used by Carrie Derick to describe the Canadian Suffrage Movement in 1912.
The British suffragettes, many of them young, were careful to dress well, knowing that it is easy to diss a woman on her appearance. This lead to news reports on the various marches in the UK and US sounding like fashion news.
The Montreal Local Council of Women launched the MSA in 1913, despite the fact this was not their mandate. They were supposed to be an umbrella for the various women’s organizations that had sprung up from the grass roots. I believe they launched the MSA because some other British Suffragettes, namely Caroline Kenney, sister of Annie Kenney, Emmeline Pankhurst’s working class lieutenant, were trying to start up a militant group (open to all) and even planning a march to Ottawa in the style of Rosalie Jones’s tramp. I know this because the Ottawa press covered their story, not the Montreal press. Another Kenney sister, Nell, had moved to Montreal (Verdun) with her journalist husband, Frank Randall Scott, in 1910, after he had swept her away to safety during a police action at a UK rally with Sir Winston Churchill, then the Home Secretary! His fonds are in the McCord Museum and include photographs of all the Kenney women – as well as the Royal Princes who came to visit in 1924. If you want to read more of their story read Furies Cross the Mersey, my book.
4. Carrie Derick is, famously, Canada’s first female university professor. A few other McGill professors were brought onto the Board of the Montreal Suffrage Association as well as some clergymen. The clergymen in particular hated – and feared – Mrs. Pankhurst. Many women on the Board secretly supported her, especially a Mrs. Weller, wife of a prosperous Westmount business man (electrical systems) who had made it a point to study the question in detail. She had invited Barbara Wylie into her home and she had visited the Suffragettes in England and had even given a speech about her visit.
The Canadian Contingent at the 1913 Suffrage Parade in New York City. Older matrons all with ‘token’ child, the niece of Flora Macdonald Denison. From the Toronto Sun.
In the1600s my ancestors left France and embarked on an adventure to New France. In 1651 Julien Fortin de Bellefontaine settled in Chateau Richer, near Quebec City, and built a home, while Claude Jodouin landed in Ville Marie (Montreal) in 1666 and remained in the area.
The Jodouin descendants moved east of Ville Marie (Montreal) to Varennes and Verchères on the south side of the St Lawrence River. Fortin descendants settled east of Quebec City in the Charlevoix, Baie St. Paul, Cap St. Ignace region on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River.
My third great-grandfather Francois Xavier Fortin (1755-1853) was born and baptized in Saint Pierre and Saint Paul church in Baie St. Paul and married Marie Rose Lemieux (1773-1853) at Saint Ignatius of Loyola Church in Cap St Ignace in 1793.
Marriage of Francois Xavier Fortin and Marie Rose Lemieux
Francois was a blacksmith and a farmer. While living in Cap St Ignace, they had two children. The births of their other nine children reveal that they moved four times over the years. I don’t know why they moved so often. Perhaps, the community required a blacksmith.
Their third child, Francois Xavier died in 1800 in St. Hyacinthe. Three more children were born in that community. Research does not enlighten us about the events that led to their next move. In 1808 they were living in Rigaud where their son Moyse Hypolite was born. The family settled in 1810 in the Seigniory de la Petite Nation in Montebello.
Joseph Papineau (1752-1841) became the first Seigneur de la Petite Nation in Montebello. He was a notary, surveyor, and landowner, who had bought land from the seminary in Quebec between 1801 and 1803.
Joseph Papineau -first Seigneur de la Petite Nation
In 1810 Papineau sold land to Francois Xavier Fortin who built a home where the family finally settled in Montebello, Seigneury de la Petite Nation on the shores of the Ottawa River. For over fifty years the Fortin family farmed the land. Today this home is known as The Fortin House. It played a significant role in the history of the area.
Louis Joseph Papineau
Joseph Papineau’s son Louis Joseph (1786-1871) purchased land from his father and began to build on the property. During the construction (1848-1850) of the Manoir Papineau, Louis Joseph and his family “borrowed” Francois Xavier Fortin’s home and they lived in his house while the manoir was being built. Changes were made to the Fortin house to accommodate the large Papineau family.
The Fortin House “borrowed by Louis Joseph Papineau
Louis Joseph had an interesting career as a politician, a leader of the Patriot movement, a speaker of the House at the National Assembly, and for a time, was exiled due to his involvement in the Rebellion of 1837.
An aerial view of Manoir Papineau
The Manoir is situated on Cap de Bonsecours
Parks Canada manages Manoir Papineau.
It is a National Historic site.
Research does not tell us where Francois Xavier and Rose were living while the manoir was being built and the Papineau family were in the Fortin home, however, one might surmise that the Fortin children were married and living in the area. Perhaps, as was the custom at the time they cared for their elderly parents.
Route from Montebello to Ottawa
In November 1853 Rose passed away, and within two short weeks, Francois Xavier followed in December. Both are buried in the Notre Dame de Bonsecours cemetery in Montebello.
The Burial of Francois Xavier Fortin
In 1900 The Fortin House and surrounding farm were purchased by the Huneault family who continue to farm the land.
Arthur Symons, Private,56th Battalion, Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Forces.
I once had a great-granduncle, Arthur. Until I started doing Genealogy, I had no idea there was such a title, but there it is, and I had one.
Of course, I never met him, but, as it is Remembrance Day I wanted him to be remembered.
My Granny’s mother, Lilian, had a family of five siblings, and Arthur was her younger brother. He was four years younger than her. Granny told me that Arthur immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s.
Despite many searches. I could find no information on his immigration. However, months after I started my research, I came across a border crossing Manifest from Canada to Sweetgrass, Montana.
It had all the information I had been searching for!
At this point, I was not sure he was even married, but the info on the border crossing gave me missing details and Arthur was beginning to become a real person.
The Manifest stated Arthur was 50 years old, accompanied by his wife, Catherine, son Alexander, and daughter Dorothy. It was dated the 18th of July, 1936. The family were visiting Yellowstone Park and Glacier Park. it gave Arthur’s address in Calgary, Alberta and his occupation as a Postal Porter. (1) It stated that he arrived in Canada at Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 19th of March, 1901 on the SS. Soman.
I haven’t yet found the passenger list for the SS Soman, but I keep looking.
When WWI broke out, he enlisted in the 56th Battalion Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Forces on May 3, 1915, in Calgary, Alberta. He was shipped back to the UK for training. While ‘back home’, he visited his sister Lilian – my great-grandmother – and had these photos taken with his sister and my Granny, Edith Bevan O’Bray.
Arthur Symons with his sister Lilian Symons Bevan. C. 1914-18
Arthur Symons with my Granny, Edith Bevan C. 1914-18.
Arthur Symons was born in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, in 1886. His siblings were Lilian Mary Symons—my great-grandmother; Thomas, who died in infancy; Arthur, Olive, and Ada, who was my Gran’s favourite Aunt, and only two years older than her.
Aunt Ada was also my Godmother. Together, they joined the WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service) in 1918 (2)
Great-grand-uncle Arthur fought at the Battle of Passchendaele and was severely wounded in the right leg, right hand and left foot. He was transferred to the Granville Special Hospital, located in Ramsgate, Kent, England. An orthopaedic facility to treat soldiers with damaged limbs. Later because of air raids on the Kent coast, the hospital was moved to Buxton. He was medically discharged on 28th August 1919.
In part Two, I will explore his stay in the Granville Special Hospital for Canadian troops. The first line of his medical records, dated November 29, 1917, stated he was “Dangerously ill.”
(1) Canadian Postal Porter – Porter – Worker having manual handling duties, typically at a large sorting office or railway station in London. Tasks included the loading, unloading, segregation and transfer of mailbags or other containers. Porters were also employed at some other locations, such as the PO Savings Bank.
After my great grandfather retired from a successful 40-year career in the wholesale food business, he took an active interest in the stock market and managed his own investments during the time of the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929. Would he lose his life savings like so many unfortunate others at the time?
In a letter to his eldest daughter Josephine, my grandmother, dated June 2, 1932, he wrote:
“…if we could get rid of a lot of these Rotten Banks and Stock Market thieves the world would come around all right in no time. A person has no show with that New York Stock Exchange. Just a lot of crooks and I don’t think these common stocks have any value at all, not worth the paper they are written on, most of them, but all this will come (out) all right but people have got to lose a lot of money and that’s that.”
William Thomson Sherron (1863-1932) was born in Salem, New Jersey, the son of Albert Wood Sherron and Eveline Stokes Gaunt Githens. His wife, Gertrude Gill, (1869-1940), born in Philadelphia, was the daughter of Thomas Reeves Gill and Josephine Love.
In November 1891, William and his bride settled in their new family home at 100 W. Broadway, Salem, New Jersey, where they stayed for the next twenty years. This beautifully refurbished Queen Anne style Victorian house still proudly stands today.
(Their first home -100 W. Broadway, Salem, New Jersey)
The couple had three children – Josephine (1893-1964) Social Media – Then and Now, Roger (1895-1963) Sherron and his Texas Betty and Alberta (1906-1992) Elopement … or not?. Josephine, my grandmother, her stockbroker husband and their two sons eventually settled in Montreal, Quebec. Their son Roger had mental health issues and lived with them until their deaths. Alberta married very young, had a son nine months later and remarried happily a while after that and had three more children.
(Roger, Alberta and Josephine Sherron – 1906)
William first worked for Thomas Roberts & Co. in the wholesale grocery business for 25 years in Philadelphia before going into the same business for himself in 1905 at the age of 42. He opened his own office at no. 37 South Front Street, Philadelphia, about a half mile from their new home at 261 W. Harvey where they lived for the another twenty years.
ScreenshotScreenshot
(Invoice – front and back from the grocery wholesale business)
His wife and daughters took an active role the local Germantown social scene. Their endless teas, luncheons, bridge parties and charity fundraisers were regularly featured in the social pages of the local newspaper.
(Gertrude Sherron and her daughters in the Society Pages)
Along with the usual collection of family posed photographs in my dusty old boxes, I found a delightful photo of 55-year old William. He is holding up a string of sizable fish, possibly bass, outside “the Windsor Avenue cottage” (which looks more like an old country inn). He is wearing a light coloured baggy jacket and matching pants with a proper shirt and tie, white shoes and a floppy “fishing” hat. The smile on his face reflects pure joy for the day’s “catch”.
(William and his catch of the day!)
In 1930, just a couple of years before William’s death, the couple enjoyed an extended trip to Europe. They stayed at the famous luxurious Carlton Hotel in Lucerne while visiting Switzerland and I have the note sent to their daughter Josephine. William began the correspondence writing at a slant that became a little more difficult to maintain as he ran out of room on the notepaper. Then Gertrude took over filling every remaining inch of the note – to the bottom, up the sides and finishing up at the top of the page! Nevertheless, I could just barely make out from their undecipherable scrawls that they “adored Switzerland”, the hotel was “a dream” and “Interlaken was perfect”. As for Paris, Gertrude didn’t mince words when she exclaimed “Paris is a horribly dirty city.” However, she “loved London” and thought the people dressed “heaps better than in Paris.” At one point in the note, William generously invited their daughter to join them and wrote “I will pay the fare.”
(Excerpt of their note to their daughter Josephine)
So, it seems that William didn’t lose his money in the stock market after all, and had plenty to splurge on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe with his wife.
For many of my ancestors, I have a name, a date of birth and sometimes a death date. That doesn’t tell you much about their lives, who they were or what they looked like. Who resembles them? Having a picture that you can document of them is a treasure. I still have many images of unidentified people. Some you can guess at but still you aren’t sure.
I have no pictures of Annie Sutherland (1878-1953) or much information about her except for one entry in my grandfather William Harkness Sutherland’s diary, “ Annie visiting from New York”. Annie was his first cousin, the daughter of his uncle William Sutherland and Jessie Johnston.
I thought I would try again to find Annie after researching her brother William. Annie is not a unique name so I didn’t have many expectations when I entered her name, birth year, and parent’s names in Ancestry. Up popped her visa for entry into Brazil in 1948! This document had her date of birth, her nationality, her parent’s names, her occupation and her picture! There she was for all to see at 69 years of age.
Annie Sutherland disappeared from Canadian records after the 1901 census when she was living with her parents at 21 Rose Ave along with her sisters Agnes, Isabel and Jessie and her brother Davison.
Single women at the turn of the century had few career choices open to them, one being a teacher. Annie and two of her sisters taught school. I imagine Annie wanted a little excitement in her life, so she immigrated to New York City in 1902 and moved in with her brother William. She continued to teach school.
She originally taught at regular public schools. Religion was important in the family, like many Scottish Presbyterians at the time. They attended services regularly and were involved in the church life. The males, like my grandfather, were encouraged to become ministers but none had the calling. So, it is not surprising that at some point Annie began teaching at the Biblical Seminary of New York (which became the New York Theological Seminary).
Wilbert White founded the Prostatant nondenominational school to train Bible teachers, missionaries and YMCA (Young Mens Christian Association) workers. This was a ministry for the “real world” with the Bible being the centre of the curriculum. Women formed a large part of the diverse cultural student body and the staff. In 1921 the school moved downtown to East 49th Street. There, in a nine-story building, students, staff and other borders lived together. Annie lived at the school and according to the 1940 census was a teacher making $4,764 a year, a large salary for anyone at the time.
Teachers have the advantage of summers off, and Annie Sutherland travelled the world. While she taught others to be missionaries, perhaps she did missionary work herself during her vacations. She can be found on many ship manifests as she sailed to Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, England, France and the Mediterranean, being away for two months at a time.
She, like her brother, decided to become an American citizen. She filed her declaration of intention in 1920, which included her renouncing her allegiance to George the V, King of Great Britain and Ireland. She received her naturalizing certificate five years later.
I last found her alive in New York City in 1950, living at the Prince George Hotel, having returned from another trip.
There is an Annie Sutherland buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, who died in 1953 at 74 years of age. Is that Annie’s final resting place? Did she eventually return home from her travels?
Notes:
“Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965”. Family Search, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2013. Index entries derived from digital copies of original and compiled records. Accessed on Ancestry March 10, 2020.
Mount Pleasant Cemetery: Annie Sutherland age 74 died 1953. Land, Section 33 lot 2650. accessed October 18, 2024.
New York Theological Seminary Records 1895-2005-https://library.columbia.edu/content/dam/libraryweb/locations/burke/fa/misc/ldpd_11693150.pdf
Year: 1901; Census Place: Toronto (Centre) (City/Cité) Ward/Quartier No 3, Toronto (Centre) (City/Cité), Ontario; Page: 2; Family No: 17 Ancestry.com. 1901 Census of Canada [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:
Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02648; Page: 61A; Enumeration District: 31-1008 Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, PA; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention For Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21 Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
Genealogy Ensemble 