1911 Courtship: Feb 27, Dear Ethel

Welcome back to the continuing letters of Noah and Ethel's courtship year. Our last letter was 1911 Courtship: Feb 24, and was written on a Regina hotel letterhead - Noah's next-to-last-stop as he made his way back home after spending time with Ethel in Ontario. Since we're going in chronological order, here's another of Noah's. It appears he misses his sweetheart  since his last letter was dated just 3 days before this one...

Author of Letter: Noah Clement Draper
Dated: February 27, 1911
Addressed to: Miss E. Nelson, Bellhaven, Ontario
Mailed from:  Grand Coulee, Saskatchewan
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer
Writing  instrument: Fine point pen, Black ink, switching to pencil on last page.

Writing Paper: Thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6.5 inches. Paper is folded in half and usually written starting on the front as page 1, then inside for 2 and 3, and ending with page 4 on the back. This time however, Noah wrote straight across the inside as if it was one page. It probably made sense to him, but it looks out of sync below, and it created havoc when I made a pdf copy - not something he had to worry about 100 yrs ago.

Mentioned in this letter:
- Percy - Noah's older brother (Noah is 23 yrs old)
- Will - probably William Rigler, married to Noah's sister, Ethel, who is mentioned on page 4
- the hired man - Common at the time for farms to employ and lodge a hired man.
- Mother - Sarah Sophia Deverell Draper (1846-1930)
- Coulee men - men from the area around Grand Coulee, Sask.
- Eva & Joe - Joseph and Eva Amelia Draper Perrault - another of Noah's sisters
- Veda - Veda Josie Perrault  (16 yrs) - Noah's niece
- a cute little girl - possibly Veda's baby sister, Marguerite, except she was born  Aug 1910. Perhaps she was a preemie and required an extended hospital/NICU stay ?
- Fred & Louie - Louie is Sarah Louisa - Noah's sister. More on Fred and Louie below under Genealogical Notes.

Grand Coulee, Sask.
Feb. 27. 1911.

Miss. E. Nelson,
     Belhaven, Ont.
Dear Ethel;-
   Received your welcome letter
Thursday and was glad to hear
from you. hope you are all well
as this leaves us at present.
     Well old girl you said you
would like to see me work
if you had been here this
after noon you would have
thought I was going some
I loaded the last three loads
of wheat I will draw untill
after seeding. Percy & Will
had out 16 loads when I got
here and we have drawn out
eight since.

I also done the chores for 22 horses and four cows as my man went
up to his homestead Saturaday night expect him back next week
guess I will hire him for the summer.
   Mother & Percy met me in Regina the day I wrote before & we
got things fixed up & they drove out & I waited for & went out on
the local. Met one of the Coulee men men in Regina & he said he was
having a party & I was to be sure and get ther. so of course I went
but it turned out to be a dance but I had a good time all the
same. Then on Friday night there was a Social evening in the
basement of the Methodist church had a good time at that
to & saw a lot of my old friends.
   Eva & Joe got home Saturaday night & brought home with
them a nice little girl. (O so cute) expect Veda & her will
have big times.  Say Veda is a tarter she grabed this out
of my hand and started to read it so I just reached up on
the side board & got one she had written, and opened it
& read it. Say there is no use letting any one getting ahead
of you. eh.  
   Was at Joe's last night for tea and also Fred and Louie we had
a big time Louie took mother with her so I had to take the
girls. O. Joy. then after church I went back & stayed all night
& came home this morning so am taking this chance for writing.

Say Veda is bothering me to best four
of a kind, wish you were here to
help me. Expect to go into Regina
tomorrow with mother & Ethel
Louie & Fred is going in too I guess.
     Well Ethel I am not much good
at writing letters but I am getting
near the end of this.
     Veda has my pen but not
my pencil. so all mistakes blots
& blunders are kisses. wish I
were there to deliver them
in person.
     Have you been over to your
aunts yet & how is she getting
along.
     Say Veda has adressed an
envelope to you so I am going
to use it. Well this is all for
this time. So good Bye from
your loving friend. & F---n - e

N. C. Draper

x x x x x x x x
G B S H S Y . L . O .

I wonder if that word just before Noah's name, F---n - e stands for fiance? Perhaps he doesn't want to use it because it's not official yet? Or is it only wishful thinking on his part? We don't even know if he's proposed because the letters started as he left Ontario after Christmas. Prior to that, they knew each other because their families are were close - she was the girl-next-door - but none of the other letters showed an inkling of their feelings.

And then the letters after the kisses... G B S H S Y . L . O .  I can only come up with... Good Bye Sweet Heart ... and the rest perhaps Say You Love... what? And would the O be for? 

Anyone wanna take a guess?

Photos of the Time

Since there seems to be a distinct lack of photos of the Draper Family around this time, I thought I'd introduce a new addition to the courting letters - historical photos taken at the time the letters were written.

Unless specified otherwise, the Regina photos are free doman taken from the site, http://scaa.usask.ca/gallery/regina/ which

Genealogy Notes

Many of the letters speak of Fred & Louie, but without Fred's last name, I can't find a record of him. I've searched for Fred, Frederick, Wilfred, etc with no luck.

The problem is compounded because Noah's parents, David and Sarah, used all 3 of the names of Sarah, Louisa, and Louie, on different census when listing Sarah Louisa. I put all 3 in the search engine, along with Fred, but I was inundated with hits for Sarah, Louisa, or Louie married to Fred Draper. Unless she married an unknown cousin, she wouldn't have married another Draper.

A further problem is the lack of information. At this time in the US, the censuses are released 70 yrs after the fact, which is why the 1940 US census has just been released. Up here in Canada, though, there needs to be a 92 year span which means we don't have access to anything later than the 1911 Canada census and the 1916 census supplement for the late blooming western provinces.

This won't be the last time we run across Louie and Fred in these letters, and one of these weeks, I hope to surprise you with more information about the mystery couple.

Next week, we get to read Ethel's response. :)