1911 Courtship: May 7 Dear Noah

Henry Nelson (1835-1900) and Eliza Croutch (1840-1919), ca 1890-1900?

The photo above is my husband Nelson's Great-Great-Grandfather - referred to as his 2nd Great Grandfather, and his 2nd Great Grandmother. We received this picture and others via email from a wonderful new relative in Iowa which is where Henry and Eliza Croutch emigrated to from Canada, although half the family stayed in Ontario.  I'll be posting a letter that Eliza Croutch sent to her son, James Henry Nelson (Ethel's Pa) in July 1911 - according to the 1911 Courtship calendar.

Meanwhile, by that same calendar, we're still in May, so here we go...

Author of Letter: Ethel Isabell Nelson, age 21
Dated:  May 7, 1911
Addressed to: Mr. N. C. Draper... My Dear Noah
Mailed  from:  Belhaven, Ontario
Relationship:  Courting
Profession:  Farmer's Daughter  
Writing  instrument: Fine point  pen, black 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 written straight across the whole width so technically, there are only 3 pages.

People/places mentioned in this letter:
- *Sadie Nelson - Ethel's 16 yr old sister 
- Ma - *Ida Amelia Glover- Pa - *James Henry Nelson
- Uncle *Will Glover - Ida Amelia's older brother born 1872
- Uncle *Leslie Glover - Ida Amelia's younger brother born 1886 
- *Della - Della Mahoney
- Mary Smith and Della Heartley - school friends
- Little Ethel - *Ethel Marie Rogers - 3 mo old daughter of Ida Amelia's sister, Victoria Maud
- Mrs. Manfred Terry - Noah's cousin on the Draper side, *Manford Terry 
- Mr. Davidson - Robert Davidson - a Belhaven neighbour (building his barn)
- **Mr. John A.B. Cole's only daughter - Melvina Cole

- 24th of May - *Victoria Day 
- buckwheat - a grain which gives honey a dark colour, strong flavour &  heavy odour
- **ploughing down the fall wheat - image and information under genealogy notes

Legend: 
* Look under the Categories/Labels in the right side column for more posts on this 
  person/place/thing.
** see Genealogy Notes below

Belhaven. May 7. 1911.

Mr N C Draper,
          Grand Coulee,
                    Sask.

My Dear Noah;--
                          Rec'd your letter
last night all O.K. I am thinking
perhaps you got two, one which
should have gone to you the
week before. Sadie took it to post
and forgot to post it. so she
says. I guess we will have to
get her something to improve
her memory.
              Well Ma & I have just got
home. Sadie went with us but we
brought her around to Uncle's and
she staid there.

 Sadie and I were up to Uncle Will Glovers and Ma was to Uncles
Leslie's. We certainly have spent a great day of it. Although I enjoyed
the ride most of all. 
  Pa finished seeding about the middle of last week. except
sowing some buckwheat. Several of the farmers are ploughing
there fall wheat up.
 Della has came home from the city. I guess she likes
to get back to see an old Keswick friend. Mary Smith has
been visiting in Orillia with Della Heartley I think.
 Sadie was successful in her examinations she coming
fifth in a class of about thirty
 There is going to be quite a time in Newmarket on the
24th of May. I don't know yet whether we will be going
down or not.
 Say! when you get that bugy finished painting
just drive in some evening and we will go for a
drive. How nice it would be.

 Well I can guess at the rest of
those five words. And it wouldn't
take long for me to say them
sometimes,
 Little Ethel was here last week
and say she is just as nice as
her name sake. (ha ha.) Suppose you
pity her if she is no better, eh! I do.
I saw Mrs Manfred Terry at Mr
Davidson's raising, I understood
her to say they were going to keep
a boarding house this summer,
a cousin of mine Mr John A.B.
Cole's daughter is to be married in
June, to Ambrose Traviss of Brown-
hill. Mr. Robt Davidson thinks there
is no girl on the fifth like his. Well
I guess I must say Good Bye for
this time with all love from your
Ethel Nelson.                Sweetheart.
                                         xxxxxxxxxx

---

Say don't laugh at my letter  ? on the envelope.

Genealogy Notes

There are 2 topics discussed here:

Topic #1:

Mr. John A.B. Cole's daughter - Melvina Cole: 

Ethel says, 

a cousin of mine Mr John A.B.
Cole's daughter is to be married in
June, to Ambrose Traviss of Brown-
hill. 

This was new to me, since our tree doesn't have anyone named Cole yet. So, I did a start-from-scratch search looking for any event for John A Cole of Gwillimbury. One of the first records that came up on the ancestry.ca site was a marriage record for John Abram Cole and Eliza Ann Croutch. I knew we have plenty of relatives named Croutch (or some spelled it Crouch) on Ethel's father's side, so this was exciting. I checked our tree and found an Eliza Ann Croutch who was a cousin of Ethel's father, James Henry Nelson. Further checking revealed that John A Cole only had 2 children, a  boy named Alonze, and a girl, Melvina. Next, I searched for Melvina and confirmed that she does indeed marry Ambrose Traviss of Brownhill in June, 1911. 

Ethel's notation is a big help to us. Because of the spelling of Croutch/Crouch, and the large families of the time, it's very confusing to decipher who belongs to whom. On top of that, part of the Croutch family left Ontario and moved down to Iowa sometime during the last quarter of the 19th century. So we're dealing with census records from 2 countries as well. 

However, we're blessed that one of the Croutch descendants who emigrated to the U.S. has found us on ancestry and we've established a rapport to the extent that records and photos have been exchanged. Because of this person, I now have a photo of Ethel's grandparents and others of  Ethel's family. (See photo at top of post)

Topic #2

Ploughing down the fall wheat crop - in the spring. 

'Sulky plough on the C.P.R'., MB, 1889, William McFarlane Notman © McCord Museum.

What Ethel calls 'fall wheat' is commonly referred to as winter wheat today. Winter wheat is different from other types of grain because it's planted in the fall. It starts to grow, then winter comes and it freezes and lays dormant - usually beneath a layer of snow - all winter. Come spring, it starts growing again. If all goes well, the winter wheat is ready to harvest in July. It's the first crop harvested after the hay is taken off. 

I don't know what crop the farmer above is ploughing. It may even be stubble after the harvest, although it doesn't look spiky or devastated enough. But that's about the height - maybe a bit more - that a farmer will plough down his fall/winter wheat if it's not growing good. Ploughing it down is like feeding the soil since the nutrients in the green grass-like shoots are full of vitamins and minerals that the soil requires. That's why most crops that are used for this purpose are the leafy ones like clover. 

If the farmers in the Belhaven area are ploughing down their fall wheat, the spring is not a good one - not enough heat or moisture, etc.