Anita Mae Draper
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1911 Courtship: Dear Ethel Sep 3

10/28/2013

 
James H Nelson and driver
ca 1930s James Henry Nelson and his driver, Belhaven, Ontario. Courtesy of the Norma Draper Photo Collection.
The back of the above photo is written in Norma Draper's hand and says, "Grandpa and driver." It was only from reading the early 1900 newspapers that I knew the driver was the horse. Actually, the first time I read a news article about a runaway driver I thought they were talking about a person and didn't understand why he'd be running away. After re-reading it though, I came to understand the terminology of the driver being the horse that was used mainly for pulling the family's buggy, wagon, sleigh, or what have you. So when Noah mentions that he's working his driver, he means he's got his main driving horse working out in the field, and since most work horses weren't trained to pull wagons, etc, he has to walk if he wants to go anywhere. 

Author of Letter: Noah Clement Draper (24 yrs old)
Dated: Sept 3rd 1911
Addressed to: Miss E.Nelson, Belhaven, Ont., My Dear Ethel 
Mailed from: Grand Coulee, Sask.
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer 
Writing instrument: Fine point pen, Black ink, but looks grey in places and then darkens as he dips his pen in the ink jar.
Writing Paper: Thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6.5 inches. Paper is folded in half, written in booklet form, but for the 2nd page, Noah turned the paper and written down the length of the 2 pages before closing it, turning it again, and writing page 4 on the back. 


People/places mentioned in this letter:

- Mother - *Sarah Sophia Deverell Draper, Noah's widowed mother 
- *Veda - Noah's 16 yr old niece, daughter of his sister *Eva Amelia and *Joe Perrault
- *Sadie Nelson - Ethel's 16 yr old sister back in Belhaven

- plasters (plasterers)
- carpenters
- painters

- **harvest
- the office - the Post Office
- my driver - Noah's main horse for pulling the wagon, buggy, sleigh, etc (see pic above)

Cliche/Phrasing:
- "Well kiddo..." 


* Look under the Categories/Labels in the right side column for more posts on this 
  person/place/thing or use the search box in the header
** see Genealogy Notes below 



Picture
Grand Coulee. Sask.
Sept. 3rd 1911.
Miss. E. Nelson,
          Belhaven, Ont.
My Dear Ethel: -
     Well kiddo I missed your
letter last week & wonder
if you got mine, hope so
any way for if it is with
you like it is with me it
is a blue Sunday. I was not
down to the office last night
but mother was there in the
afternoon I am working my
driver, so could not go unless
I walked & I was to lazy for
that. eh. 
     Well harvest has started at
last & I have about 160 or 170 acres

Picture
of wheat cut and about 120 more to cut
will finish about Thursday if it doesnt
rain any more. had a rain at noon that
will stop us tomorrow & it looks as if
it were not all over.
     Well Ethel the plasters have got thro
with the house & the carpenters
are here now & will be for about.
two weeks then the painters will
have a turn at it & then for a
move out of the tent. and you bet
I will be glad. I wish you were
here to move into it with me
& it would seem more like home
to me. but I guess if nothing
happens you will be before
long. Eh.
     Well I dont think I will get
down to church to day but I will
have to go twice next Sunday
to make up for it. ha ha. hope
you do better than that.
     Well Veda is going to college
the 26 of Sept. and I bet she will
have a big time wheather it
will do her any good or not for she
is so full of mischief that she
cant keep still.
     Say you never told me wheather
Sadie passed her exams or not
hope she did tell her I enjoyed
her letter fine. ha. Ha.

Picture
The duck season opened. last 
Friday but I have been to
buisy to go. but will go to-
morrow I guess if it dont
rain any more.
     Say it sure seems like a
long time since I saw you
and I will be glad when the
time comes when I can go 
down wish it were tomorrow
but Ihave got along so far &
guess I can untill the time
does come. eh.
     Well this is a queer letter but
it is from a queer fellow as you
well know so I guessyou will
over look that part and
remember only that I love you
& that there is a long road between
or else I would not be writing but
talking instead. Well I guess this
is all for this time so good bye with
lots of love & kisses.  N.C.D. xxxxxx



Genealogy Notes

In this week's letter, Noah writes that he has 160-170 acres of wheat cut and about 120 acres to go. That's just the binding and stooking. Sometime in the next month or so, Noah will get a harvest crew together and they'll thresh the stooks which separates the wheat kernels from the chaff. 

Some farmers owned their own threshing machines, but many hired threshing crews that went from farm to farm similar to the corporate harvest crews of today.

The following photographs were copied this past summer from one of the albums in the Norma Draper Photo Collection.  The album is mostly in chronological order starting in 1912 with the harvest photos being the first pictures in the album. Noah served in WW1 from 1916 to 1919 and then the family moved to Victoria, BC where they lived from 1920 to 1924. 

Picture
Noah & Ethel Draper and Family History in Picures 1912-1924, courtesy of the Norma Draper Family Collection.
There are 2 harvest scene photos below and each has been cropped a couple times. The originals show so much sky and ground that the people are minuscule.  Therefore, I cropped each photo first by cuttting one third off the top and the same from the bottom. What you see in the next 2 images are the result of that first cropping.

Picture
The 1st image shows the men standing around, posing. This was the first photo in the album. But the image below shows the men working as can be seen by the stream of chaff from the thresher blowing out above Percy's head on the far right. (click the image for a bigger view - I hope.)

Noah Draper Harvest Scene
ca 1912-1916 Noah Draper's Threshing Crew, Adams, Saskatchewan. Percy Draper far right standing on the wagon. Noah Draper 3rd from right standing on thresher behind horses.
These next 2 images have been cropped further by cutting another third off the left side so we can clearly see Noah and Percy. 

Noah Draper Harvesting Scene
ca 1912-1916 Noah Draper's Threshing Crew, Adams, Saskatchewan. Noah Draper farthest on the right, Percy Draper 3rd from the right. (Cropped from wide image above.)
The image below wasn't annotated by Ethel like the one above, however, it appears that the men stopped their work and then moved forward together for the shot. When I zoomed in as much as I dared without losing definition, I could clearly tell that Percy Draper is on the wagon because of the jaunty angle of his light colored hat. But where was Noah?

I finally found him by looking for his clothes - the partially unbuttoned coat over coveralls - the only worker to wear his coat in this fashion. He's on the thresher, behind where the horses are standing. Unfortunately, his face appears to be a blur so he might be looking down and his hat is hiding his face, but he's using the same stance in both images and it's one that I've come to recognize from many of his pictures - thanks again to his daughter Norma's preservation of the family pictures.

Noah Draper Harvesting Scene
ca 1912-1916 Noah Draper's Threshing Crew, Adams, Saskatchewan. Percy Draper far right standing on the wagon. Noah Draper 3rd from right standing on thresher behind horses. (Cropped from wide image above.)
There's a good probability that the husbands of Noah and Percy's sisters, Ethel Maud and Eva Amelia, are somewhere in the photographs so if any of those family members see this and recognize someone, please contact us.

bonnie margaret Bremnes
10/30/2013 02:27:04 am

Amazing. Such a legacy. Fine job of securing it.

Anita Mae
11/6/2013 02:42:26 am

It is, Bonnie. I'm still astounded that we ended up with it, and consider it a God thing that it was us and not someone who didn't see the value because it's not a monetary thing. Nice to see you here. :)

Taimi Discala link
10/31/2013 12:37:59 am

Why , this harvesting ect sure takes me back to my childhood - & love that he called his horse "driver" We had threshers going around then too - but died out as farmers bought tractors . Super reading !! Taimi

Anita Mae
11/6/2013 02:51:58 am

Thanks, Aunt T. I really appreciate you stopping by and sharing your thoughts. Nice to have validation. :)

About James H Nelson calling his horse, 'driver', it seems to be the term they used in that era for a horse who pulled a conveyance as opposed to a field horse. It would be like taking your ladies maid out of the house and sending her to the field to work.

But the first time I heard/read about the term was in the newspaper when they were reporting a buggy accident and I read that the driver was a runaway. I thought it meant a kid who ran away from home and thought it was very odd the way they wrote it. But minutes later, I realized they meant the horse ran away.

Since then, I've noticed in both the early 1900 Newmarket and Regina newspapers where they call the horse a driver. For research purposes, I now need to find out when the term was first used because I don't want to make a mistake and talk about a driver in my western stories which take place in 1880 or so, if the term wasn't used until 1900. Fun, eh. :D


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