1910 The 'Courting House' on Lake Shore Drive, Jackson's Point, York County, Ontario, Canada
For a color view of the Lake Simcoe shore with people and boats at Jackson's Point check out my post at 1911 Courtship: May 28 Dear Noah.
The date on this letter is in error. It looks like June 2, but the facts are July.
Author of Letter: Ethel Isabell Nelson, age 21 (born 31 May 1890)
Dated: June 2, 1911 suspect July 2nd, 1911
Addressed to: Dear Noah (Mr. N. C. Draper, Grand Coulee, Sask.)
Mailed from: Belhaven, Ont.
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer's Daughter
Writing instrument: Fine point pen, blue ink
Written on: Light bluey/gray, slightly thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6 inches, folded in half. The paper is folded in half with the first page on the front and last on the back, but inside, she's turned the paper and written across the short width and turned both pages into one long page. Hence this letter has only 3 pages.
People/places mentioned in this letter:
- Pa - *James Henry Nelson
- Ma - *Ida Amelia Glover
- **Grandpa - Albert Rogers
- Wm Henry Rose (died July 1st, 1911)
- Orville *King - close neighbor
- Mr and Mrs John **Kellington visiting
- Mr R Davidson's - unable to find them (only know Robert Davidson, neighbor)
- *Sadie Nelson - Ethel's 16 yrs old sister
- Aunt Maggie - Margaret *Barker - sister of Ethel's ma
- Lennox and his picnic at **Jackson's Point
Legend:
* Look under the Categories/Labels in the right side column for more posts on this
person/place/thing.
** see Genealogy Notes below
Dated: June 2, 1911 suspect July 2nd, 1911
Addressed to: Dear Noah (Mr. N. C. Draper, Grand Coulee, Sask.)
Mailed from: Belhaven, Ont.
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer's Daughter
Writing instrument: Fine point pen, blue ink
Written on: Light bluey/gray, slightly thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6 inches, folded in half. The paper is folded in half with the first page on the front and last on the back, but inside, she's turned the paper and written across the short width and turned both pages into one long page. Hence this letter has only 3 pages.
People/places mentioned in this letter:
- Pa - *James Henry Nelson
- Ma - *Ida Amelia Glover
- **Grandpa - Albert Rogers
- Wm Henry Rose (died July 1st, 1911)
- Orville *King - close neighbor
- Mr and Mrs John **Kellington visiting
- Mr R Davidson's - unable to find them (only know Robert Davidson, neighbor)
- *Sadie Nelson - Ethel's 16 yrs old sister
- Aunt Maggie - Margaret *Barker - sister of Ethel's ma
- Lennox and his picnic at **Jackson's Point
Legend:
* Look under the Categories/Labels in the right side column for more posts on this
person/place/thing.
** see Genealogy Notes below
| Belhaven. P. O. June 2nd, 1911 Dear Noah, - Rec'd your last letter on Tuesday, was very glad to know you were still able to be around. but I guess you would be busy something like we are just now. We are going to raise our barn about next Saturday if nothing happens. Ma & Pa are going down to Grandpa's barn raising tomorrow. |
| 2. Well Noah I would just like to be were it is a little cooler. The heat to-day is some thing fierce. Mr Wm Henry Rose was taken sick on Thrusday night & died on Friday night. His funeral is to day. Meet at the Church at 2 o'clock. We are going up to the Church & then down to Uncles so that I could write this forenoon. How did you get along in your baseball game yesterday. There was nothing doing around here, only the same old picnic at Jackson's Point. None of us were down. Orville King has been here helping with our barn. He says he is going up West this fall if it is possible at all. Mr & Mrs John Kellington are here visiting & Mr R. Davidson's are they living anywhere near you. Sadie starts to-morrow to try her exam's. She says you'll see if I dont teach out West |
| Lennox is having a picnic at Jackson's Point on July 20th. Have you got your Electric batteries yet? Aunt Maggie was saying she had rhuematism in one of her fingers. and since you gave her that shock she has never been bothered with it since. So much good you did when you were here, "eh". I just wish it was possible for you to be here today. it certainly would cheer someone up. I guess I must close for this time it is now just 12-o'clock So Bye-Bye With love from your xxxxxx all of these True Sweetheart as you wish for. Will be looking for your letter to-morrow night. Say, Sadie & Christie have just been trying to get this letter. Guess you will have quite a time to read it. E.N. |
Genealogy Notes
There are 3 Genealogy Notes in this post:
Genealogy Note #1 - Grandpa:
I had a major problem with this one because Ethel has a maternal and paternal grandfather and yet both were dead at the time of this letter, as were here great-grandfathers. So who did she call Grandpa? After many days of mulling, I was looking for the death date of Ethel's maternal grandmother, Sarah Elizabeth Greenwood when I remembered that Sarah had remarried in 1896.
Sarah Elizabeth Greenwood's first marriage was to James Glover who died in 1887. He had already passed when Ethel was born in 1890, and she was 6 yrs old when her grandma Sarah married Albert Rogers. As such, Ethel would have called him Grandpa since that's who she knew him to be.
Genealogy Note #2 - John Kellington:
Until this courtship letter, I only listed one Kellington in the Draper Family Tree and that was James Wesley Kellington who married Hattie (Ida Elizabeth) Draper in 1904. According to the ancestry.com figuring, that makes Noah and Hattie 3rd cousins as their great-grandfathers were brothers.
A search then followed to find out where John Kellington fit in the family - especially since Ethel mentions R Davidson from the west in the same sentence. My research revealed that John was the father of James Wesley and according to the 1901 census they were all in the Belhaven area. Normally the next census would be in 1911, but the Canadian government took a special census in 1906 for the prairie provinces only so they could keep track of the rate of settlement in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
The special 1906 census shows John Kellington living in the Estevan area of Saskatchewan along with his wife, Charlotte Fairbarn and 3 of their children, one of which is James and his wife, Hattie who now have 2 small boys of their own.
So when Ethel says the John Kellington's are visiting, it makes me wonder if it's just John and Charlotte who came back to Ontario for a visit, or did James and Hattie as well?
Genealogy Notes #3 - The Lennox Picnic at Jackson's Point:
This was an easy one to figure out because the event is covered efficiently in The Newmarket Era in the weeks leading up to the annual North York M.P.P. picnic, whereby the M.P.P stands for Members of Provincial Parliament (Ontario).
Genealogy Note #1 - Grandpa:
I had a major problem with this one because Ethel has a maternal and paternal grandfather and yet both were dead at the time of this letter, as were here great-grandfathers. So who did she call Grandpa? After many days of mulling, I was looking for the death date of Ethel's maternal grandmother, Sarah Elizabeth Greenwood when I remembered that Sarah had remarried in 1896.
Sarah Elizabeth Greenwood's first marriage was to James Glover who died in 1887. He had already passed when Ethel was born in 1890, and she was 6 yrs old when her grandma Sarah married Albert Rogers. As such, Ethel would have called him Grandpa since that's who she knew him to be.
Genealogy Note #2 - John Kellington:
Until this courtship letter, I only listed one Kellington in the Draper Family Tree and that was James Wesley Kellington who married Hattie (Ida Elizabeth) Draper in 1904. According to the ancestry.com figuring, that makes Noah and Hattie 3rd cousins as their great-grandfathers were brothers.
A search then followed to find out where John Kellington fit in the family - especially since Ethel mentions R Davidson from the west in the same sentence. My research revealed that John was the father of James Wesley and according to the 1901 census they were all in the Belhaven area. Normally the next census would be in 1911, but the Canadian government took a special census in 1906 for the prairie provinces only so they could keep track of the rate of settlement in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
The special 1906 census shows John Kellington living in the Estevan area of Saskatchewan along with his wife, Charlotte Fairbarn and 3 of their children, one of which is James and his wife, Hattie who now have 2 small boys of their own.
So when Ethel says the John Kellington's are visiting, it makes me wonder if it's just John and Charlotte who came back to Ontario for a visit, or did James and Hattie as well?
Genealogy Notes #3 - The Lennox Picnic at Jackson's Point:
This was an easy one to figure out because the event is covered efficiently in The Newmarket Era in the weeks leading up to the annual North York M.P.P. picnic, whereby the M.P.P stands for Members of Provincial Parliament (Ontario).
 The Newmarket Era. July 14, 1911, Pg 5 I've been able to figure out most of the wording, although I question them leaving Toronto at 7.40 pm vice am. | Conservative Pic-Nic The annual political and social ev- ent at Jackson's Point, called by the name of "Herb. Lennox Picnic," is an- nounced to take place on the 20th inst. Particulars as follows, have been furnished the Mail & Empire--- The great and only "Herb Lennox" picnic will be held at Jackson's Point on Thursday the 20th of July. A new feature this year will be a decorated automobile parade. It is expected that there will be 150 take part in the parade. The Highlander's Band has been engaged, and also hve other brass bands. There will be at least three Ministers of the Crown and ten or twelve members of Parlia- ment present to deliver address. Special trains will be run from the different points and arrangements have also been made to use excursions by boat from Barrie, Orillia, and Peterboro. A large sum of dollars is being expended for prizes for athletic, land and aquatic sports. There will be a grand pyrotechnic display in the evening. A special train will leave the Union Station, Toronto, at 7.40 p. m. and returning, leave Jackson's Point at 4 p. m. |
I'll post more about the picnic in weeks to come because Ethel writes one letter on the day of the picnic and it's quite - amusing - to read about the effect it has on Sadie. :)
