If you read last week's courtship letter, you may notice that the date is the same, except on this one, it's addressed to Ethel and not from her. Since Noah and Ethel each mail letters every week, there are bound to be delays and such as the letters cross by train and wagon from Ontario (previously Upper Canada) to the new province of Saskatchewan (previously North-West Territories).
Author of Letter: Noah Clement Draper
Dated: Mar 26 (1911)
Addressed to: Miss E. Nelson, Bellhaven, Ont.
Mailed from: Grand Coulee (Saskatchewan)
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer
Writing instrument: Fine point pen, Black ink, but looks blue-grey in places
Writing Paper: Thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6.5 inches. Paper is folded in half, but written as Ethel's whereby page 2 and 3 are one long page and you have to turn the letter after the first page and then turn it back again for the final page.
People mentioned in this letter:
Mother - Sarah Sophia Deverell, Noah's widowed English mother
Orville - 23 yr old Orville King of Ethel's letter of Mar 26 who plays violin at Sunday School and will head west in August of 1911.
Mary Crowder & Mr. Crowder - Neighbours we met in Mar 19 Dear Noah
Louie & Fred* see Genealogy Notes below
Things mentioned in this letter:
La Grippe - Used frequently during the cold and flu season in the Newmarket Era as well as these letters.
Dated: Mar 26 (1911)
Addressed to: Miss E. Nelson, Bellhaven, Ont.
Mailed from: Grand Coulee (Saskatchewan)
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer
Writing instrument: Fine point pen, Black ink, but looks blue-grey in places
Writing Paper: Thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6.5 inches. Paper is folded in half, but written as Ethel's whereby page 2 and 3 are one long page and you have to turn the letter after the first page and then turn it back again for the final page.
People mentioned in this letter:
Mother - Sarah Sophia Deverell, Noah's widowed English mother
Orville - 23 yr old Orville King of Ethel's letter of Mar 26 who plays violin at Sunday School and will head west in August of 1911.
Mary Crowder & Mr. Crowder - Neighbours we met in Mar 19 Dear Noah
Louie & Fred* see Genealogy Notes below
Things mentioned in this letter:
La Grippe - Used frequently during the cold and flu season in the Newmarket Era as well as these letters.
| Grand Coulee March 26/11 Miss E. Nelson, Belhaven, Ont Dear Ethel; -- Received your letter tonight & was glad to find out you were still kicking. and hope you have not got the La Grippe. Am feeling fine & working like a setting hen you should feel the muscels in my arms I can tell you it went hard for the first few days but I dont mind it now. Mother is down to Louie's for a week dont know whether she will be home tomorrow or not. Well I suppose your snow |
| is all gone by this time. we have some yet but it will be all gone if it keeps on like this in two or three days it is just nice & muddy here now. but it will soon dry up. Well I have my stable up & my horses in it and I have to walk about quarter of a mile to do my chores & that is worse than the work while it is so wet will put up my tent as soon as it dries then hurrah for batching. wouldnt you like to eat some of my cooking? eh. Have not got a man yet expect to go into Regina Monday or Tuesday. wish I had hired one when I was down there. Will have to pay about $35.00 a month this year but dont care as long as I have a good man. Well we have a start at cleaning wheat cleaned about 110 bu yesterday after noon we can clean it in about 2 days more I guess so that wont be bad. Have been a way all day hunting my cow she has been out about 2 weeks. but I could not get any trace of her yet. was on horse back & so am good & tired for I had to ride my driver as Louie has her pony down there. & there is a big difference in the way they ride |
| Well Ethel you talk about geting lonesome I can tell you there is two of us at that trick then. for you are never out of my mind very long at a time even when Iam fooling with other girls I often think what is my darling kid doing now so I guess we are two fools well met. eh. Suppos Orville has grown about two feet since he started playing in the Sunday School. & goodness knows he was big enough before. How is Mary Crowder geeting a long & (Mr. Crowder) tell her I was very glad to meet her. Ha. Ha. Well. Ethel I guess this is all for this time so ByeBye. I am yours for ever & after N C.D. as B4 Witten along the left side of the page above... P.S. Am writing this so if I go to church tomorrow I can post it Bye Bye xxxxx N.D |
Genealogy Notes
- I'm surprised Noah called Ethel 'kid' and it's not because it isn't a romantic term for a fiance, but rather because us historical writers are always wondering when certain words were brought into common usage. This is definitive proof that the word 'kid' was being used to refer to someone other than a baby goat prior to 1911.
- Louie and Fred update! Louie is one of Noah's older sisters. Her real name is Sarah Louisa but everyone calls her Louie and she's also recorded in the census records that way. I recently gave an update on Fred and Louie in Mar 6 Dear Ethel because I'd finally found them after a long search. That post has an image of Fred in a buggy as well as Louie's headstone although the cemetery records show that Fred, his father, and his mother are also buried there.
In preparation for this week's letter, I went on another search for Fred's vital records, Louie's death record, and their marriage record. I thought it strange that none of these came up in my previous searches. I only had Louie's birth record. There wasn't even any mention of the girls Noah talks about in one of his letters, either.
And I found something.
I found a death record for Sarah Louise - not Sarah Louisa, but Sarah Louise. I assumed it was an error until I looked at the age - 2 yrs old. Awh. Louie had a little girl with a name similar to hers and the little one died. As a mother myself, I grieved for Louie. The death record was from British Columbia because Fred and Louie died in Kelowna, and but it didn't list the Cause of Death. I have to send away for the actual Death Certificate to get that information.
But that's not all.
Louie and her little girl both died on Feb 1, 1920. With premature deaths like that, it had to have been some kind of accident. I still haven't found Louie's death record, or Fred's. Or their marriage record. Or Fred's birth record, although he's listed in all the censuses with his parents.
But no evidence of any other children, and no online newspaper for Kelowna that I can check. I believe I'm getting spoiled by the Newmarket Era from Ontario which gives all the Belhaven news from 1860-1980.
So, another chapter in Louie's life, and like everything else in genealogy, I now have more questions than before.
Anyone out there from Kelowna? Wanna check some old newspapers at the Kelowna Library Archives for me?
- Louie and Fred update! Louie is one of Noah's older sisters. Her real name is Sarah Louisa but everyone calls her Louie and she's also recorded in the census records that way. I recently gave an update on Fred and Louie in Mar 6 Dear Ethel because I'd finally found them after a long search. That post has an image of Fred in a buggy as well as Louie's headstone although the cemetery records show that Fred, his father, and his mother are also buried there.
In preparation for this week's letter, I went on another search for Fred's vital records, Louie's death record, and their marriage record. I thought it strange that none of these came up in my previous searches. I only had Louie's birth record. There wasn't even any mention of the girls Noah talks about in one of his letters, either.
And I found something.
I found a death record for Sarah Louise - not Sarah Louisa, but Sarah Louise. I assumed it was an error until I looked at the age - 2 yrs old. Awh. Louie had a little girl with a name similar to hers and the little one died. As a mother myself, I grieved for Louie. The death record was from British Columbia because Fred and Louie died in Kelowna, and but it didn't list the Cause of Death. I have to send away for the actual Death Certificate to get that information.
But that's not all.
Louie and her little girl both died on Feb 1, 1920. With premature deaths like that, it had to have been some kind of accident. I still haven't found Louie's death record, or Fred's. Or their marriage record. Or Fred's birth record, although he's listed in all the censuses with his parents.
But no evidence of any other children, and no online newspaper for Kelowna that I can check. I believe I'm getting spoiled by the Newmarket Era from Ontario which gives all the Belhaven news from 1860-1980.
So, another chapter in Louie's life, and like everything else in genealogy, I now have more questions than before.
Anyone out there from Kelowna? Wanna check some old newspapers at the Kelowna Library Archives for me?
