The image on the top page of Noah Draper's and Ethel Nelson's 1912 four-page Marriage Certificate
It's finally here...
Noah's and Ethel's 1912 Wedding Day!
If you read last week's post, you know that Noah Draper is now with Ethel Nelson in the Belhaven area of York County, Ontario, and their wedding day is finally here. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to locate a photo of the happy event, although I was able to scan their Marriage Certificate when we visited Nelson's cousins, granddaughters of Noah and Ethel, last summer. Norma's girls are the holders of the albums and photos which I refer to as the Norma Draper Personal Photograph Collection.
Scanning the marriage certificate was very tricky though as I didn't want to disturb its 100 yr old appearance by undoing the polished twisted cotton string because I knew I'd never get it back in the same position and it would then end up looking messy. Instead, I scanned each page as best I could which means you don't get to see the ribbon running through the holes at the top, and have to trust me that it's there. The dark areas are from the scanning process due to the knotted string.
The handwriting in Noah's and Ethel's Marriage Certificate is written in black ink and it's approx 5 inches x 6.5 inches. Made of 4 vellum sheets tied together, there is a copyright notification on the bottom left cover as such: COPYRIGHT 1898, J. S. KENNARD.
1912 Marriage Certificate for Noah Draper & Ethel Nelson - front cover/Page 1
1912 Marriage Certificate for Noah Draper & Ethel Nelson - Page 2
1912 Marriage Certificate for Noah Draper & Ethel Nelson - Page 3
1912 Marriage Certificate for Noah Draper & Ethel Nelson - Page 4
1912 Marriage Certificate for Noah Draper & Ethel Nelson - back of Page 4
As usual, I wanted more, and since newspaper snippets of the wedding weren't included in either Ethel's Treasure Box, nor Norma's Collection, I pulled up The Newmarket Era looking for any information about Noah and Ethel surrounding this date. As stated last week, there is no record of December 1911 issues on file, but I had hopes for January.
Nope. There were no mention of them - or anything Belhaven - in the first 2 wks of Jan 1912. And then when I pulled up the January 19, 1912 edition, I almost cried. Instead of telling you about it, I made this collage to show you what found...
Nope. There were no mention of them - or anything Belhaven - in the first 2 wks of Jan 1912. And then when I pulled up the January 19, 1912 edition, I almost cried. Instead of telling you about it, I made this collage to show you what found...
Collage of remaining pages of The Newmarket Era, January 19, 1912 edition.
And when I checked the following week's January 26 edition, there was no mention of Noah or Ethel either. But that couldn't be, could it? After all those letters and news snippets? I needed closure!
For the lack of anything else to do, I pulled pulled up the Our Ontario News website which shows not only the Era but many more Ontario historical newspapers, and I searched for both Draper and Nelson. Two hits came up - both for the Jan 19 edition above. Ugh!
But a blink later, I realized Ethel's shower news made it through ... in the bottom right corner of Page 7:
For the lack of anything else to do, I pulled pulled up the Our Ontario News website which shows not only the Era but many more Ontario historical newspapers, and I searched for both Draper and Nelson. Two hits came up - both for the Jan 19 edition above. Ugh!
But a blink later, I realized Ethel's shower news made it through ... in the bottom right corner of Page 7:
| Belhaven. On Sat. Jan. 6, the young ladies of this vicinity met at the home of Miss Ethel Nelson and gave her a shower. We are sorry to lose Ethel from our midst. | 
The Newmarket Era. Jan 19, 1912, Pg 7
|
Well, that was something at least. With trepidation, I checked on the next hit and this time almost cried with relief because miracle upon miracles... it was the snippet I was looking for. Now, you have to ignore the dark parts, and I've adjusted the exposure a bit, but it's quite legible considering that we have it at all.
| Wedding News: 
The Newmarket Era. January 19, 1912 - Page: 8
| BELHAVEN Too Late for last week. Belhaven has now been invaded by the prevailing North Gwilimbury fever and has taken away one of our bright young women. Miss Ethel Nelson who on Wednesday, Jan. 10th, at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Nelson, was married to Mr. Noah C. Draper. The wedding was a very quiet one, the ceremony being performed by Rev. W. P. Flet- cher, Keswick. The bride was mar- ried in her travelling dress, and the young couple left after the wedding dinner for Huntsville and other plac- es. They expect to return to Bel- haven to say good-bye to their friends before leaving for their new Western home at Grand Coulee, Sask. The bride will be very much missed by her many friends and the workers in the Belhaven Sunday School. |
Although we don't have a record of Noah and Ethel's gifts, I found some gift tags in Ethel's Treasure Box amongst a couple Congratulatory letters which I'll be posting in the coming weeks.
This 1st one is from Alice Winch, a Belhaven friend of the family.
Alice has written in black ink on a beige manilla card, blank on the back.
Alice has written in black ink on a beige manilla card, blank on the back.
| To Ethel With Best Wishes for a very Happy Life. Alice Winch Jan. 6th 1912. | 
|
This card is from close neighbor Cecil Daniel Prosser who has been spoken of often this past year and will marry Sadie in 1915. Cecil has used black ink on a card that is similar in thickness to the letters Noah has sent Ethel. From the 2 holes above the word, YOU, I suspect this card may have been pinned to a package or bouquet.
| With All Good Wishes for You a Happy Future Sincerely C.D.P. Cecil Prosser. |
Florence Sweet is the 15 yr old daughter of neighbors Willson Sweet and Susannah Thompson, the oldest of their 8 children. Florence has written in black ink on a cream colored piece of lined foolscap, newsprint weight. It is 5 inches wide and has a watermark with 'Vic' before it runs off the right edge.
| To Ethel with Best Wishes From Florence Sweet. | 
|
This last one is a bit over 3 in x 5 in unfolded and consists of some type of slippery paper reminiscent of parchment. It's blank on the back and without a name so we don't know who gave the gift, but it must have meant something for Ethel to have kept it. My guess is that it came from a box of candy or chocolates - from Noah perhaps?
As for the house Noah spent the summer building for them... here's one of the best views because it shows the depth of the house. It's also the only photo of the house before the porch was damaged and subsequently changed after the Summer of 1912 Cyclone hit the Regina area. More of the cyclone in a couple weeks.
The house Noah Draper built for Ethel Nelson in 1911 at Adams, SK. Courtesty of the Norma Draper Personal Photograph Collection.
The photo looks neglected because of the ripped corner and edges, but most of the ones I've found in this condition were once glued in those old photograph albums with the black pages. When the owner wanted to remove the photo to either put it in a frame or give it to someone, etc, it was physically pried from the page with dire results.
With this photo of Noah's house, I didn't want to cut the damaged portion off because a good part of the house - and porch detail - would have been lost in the process.
Doesn't this remind you of the problem we're having with those magnetic photo albums of the 70's and 80's? The glue at the back is ruining the photos, but ripping them out is sometimes doing more damage than leaving them in. I'm so glad I saved all my negatives, especially since Nelson bought a negative reader to turn all our photos into digital images.
Well, that's it for this special wedding post. Noah and Ethel are on their way to Huntsville for a honeymoon. January in cottage country? Well, they'll certainly have privacy and solitude. I daresay they'll have to cozy up to each other for warmth, too. Ha!
Next week we'll keep the celebration going with a letter from Veda Perrault asking Uncle Noah how it all came off.
With this photo of Noah's house, I didn't want to cut the damaged portion off because a good part of the house - and porch detail - would have been lost in the process.
Doesn't this remind you of the problem we're having with those magnetic photo albums of the 70's and 80's? The glue at the back is ruining the photos, but ripping them out is sometimes doing more damage than leaving them in. I'm so glad I saved all my negatives, especially since Nelson bought a negative reader to turn all our photos into digital images.
Well, that's it for this special wedding post. Noah and Ethel are on their way to Huntsville for a honeymoon. January in cottage country? Well, they'll certainly have privacy and solitude. I daresay they'll have to cozy up to each other for warmth, too. Ha!
Next week we'll keep the celebration going with a letter from Veda Perrault asking Uncle Noah how it all came off.
