ca 1930s James Henry Nelson and his driver, Belhaven, Ontario. Courtesy of the Norma Draper Photo Collection.
The back of the above photo is written in Norma Draper's hand and says, "Grandpa and driver." It was only from reading the early 1900 newspapers that I knew the driver was the horse. Actually, the first time I read a news article about a runaway driver I thought they were talking about a person and didn't understand why he'd be running away. After re-reading it though, I came to understand the terminology of the driver being the horse that was used mainly for pulling the family's buggy, wagon, sleigh, or what have you. So when Noah mentions that he's working his driver, he means he's got his main driving horse working out in the field, and since most work horses weren't trained to pull wagons, etc, he has to walk if he wants to go anywhere.
Author of Letter: Noah Clement Draper (24 yrs old)
Dated: Sept 3rd 1911
Addressed to: Miss E.Nelson, Belhaven, Ont., My Dear Ethel
Mailed from: Grand Coulee, Sask.
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer
Writing instrument: Fine point pen, Black ink, but looks grey in places and then darkens as he dips his pen in the ink jar.
Writing Paper: Thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6.5 inches. Paper is folded in half, written in booklet form, but for the 2nd page, Noah turned the paper and written down the length of the 2 pages before closing it, turning it again, and writing page 4 on the back.
People/places mentioned in this letter:
- Mother - *Sarah Sophia Deverell Draper, Noah's widowed mother
- *Veda - Noah's 16 yr old niece, daughter of his sister *Eva Amelia and *Joe Perrault
- *Sadie Nelson - Ethel's 16 yr old sister back in Belhaven
- plasters (plasterers)
- carpenters
- painters
- **harvest
- the office - the Post Office
- my driver - Noah's main horse for pulling the wagon, buggy, sleigh, etc (see pic above)
Cliche/Phrasing:
- "Well kiddo..."
* Look under the Categories/Labels in the right side column for more posts on this
person/place/thing or use the search box in the header
** see Genealogy Notes below
Dated: Sept 3rd 1911
Addressed to: Miss E.Nelson, Belhaven, Ont., My Dear Ethel
Mailed from: Grand Coulee, Sask.
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer
Writing instrument: Fine point pen, Black ink, but looks grey in places and then darkens as he dips his pen in the ink jar.
Writing Paper: Thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6.5 inches. Paper is folded in half, written in booklet form, but for the 2nd page, Noah turned the paper and written down the length of the 2 pages before closing it, turning it again, and writing page 4 on the back.
People/places mentioned in this letter:
- Mother - *Sarah Sophia Deverell Draper, Noah's widowed mother
- *Veda - Noah's 16 yr old niece, daughter of his sister *Eva Amelia and *Joe Perrault
- *Sadie Nelson - Ethel's 16 yr old sister back in Belhaven
- plasters (plasterers)
- carpenters
- painters
- **harvest
- the office - the Post Office
- my driver - Noah's main horse for pulling the wagon, buggy, sleigh, etc (see pic above)
Cliche/Phrasing:
- "Well kiddo..."
* Look under the Categories/Labels in the right side column for more posts on this
person/place/thing or use the search box in the header
** see Genealogy Notes below
| Grand Coulee. Sask. Sept. 3rd 1911. Miss. E. Nelson, Belhaven, Ont. My Dear Ethel: - Well kiddo I missed your letter last week & wonder if you got mine, hope so any way for if it is with you like it is with me it is a blue Sunday. I was not down to the office last night but mother was there in the afternoon I am working my driver, so could not go unless I walked & I was to lazy for that. eh. Well harvest has started at last & I have about 160 or 170 acres |
| of wheat cut and about 120 more to cut will finish about Thursday if it doesnt rain any more. had a rain at noon that will stop us tomorrow & it looks as if it were not all over. Well Ethel the plasters have got thro with the house & the carpenters are here now & will be for about. two weeks then the painters will have a turn at it & then for a move out of the tent. and you bet I will be glad. I wish you were here to move into it with me & it would seem more like home to me. but I guess if nothing happens you will be before long. Eh. Well I dont think I will get down to church to day but I will have to go twice next Sunday to make up for it. ha ha. hope you do better than that. Well Veda is going to college the 26 of Sept. and I bet she will have a big time wheather it will do her any good or not for she is so full of mischief that she cant keep still. Say you never told me wheather Sadie passed her exams or not hope she did tell her I enjoyed her letter fine. ha. Ha. |
| The duck season opened. last Friday but I have been to buisy to go. but will go to- morrow I guess if it dont rain any more. Say it sure seems like a long time since I saw you and I will be glad when the time comes when I can go down wish it were tomorrow but Ihave got along so far & guess I can untill the time does come. eh. Well this is a queer letter but it is from a queer fellow as you well know so I guessyou will over look that part and remember only that I love you & that there is a long road between or else I would not be writing but talking instead. Well I guess this is all for this time so good bye with lots of love & kisses. N.C.D. xxxxxx |
Genealogy Notes
In this week's letter, Noah writes that he has 160-170 acres of wheat cut and about 120 acres to go. That's just the binding and stooking. Sometime in the next month or so, Noah will get a harvest crew together and they'll thresh the stooks which separates the wheat kernels from the chaff.
Some farmers owned their own threshing machines, but many hired threshing crews that went from farm to farm similar to the corporate harvest crews of today.
The following photographs were copied this past summer from one of the albums in the Norma Draper Photo Collection. The album is mostly in chronological order starting in 1912 with the harvest photos being the first pictures in the album. Noah served in WW1 from 1916 to 1919 and then the family moved to Victoria, BC where they lived from 1920 to 1924.
Some farmers owned their own threshing machines, but many hired threshing crews that went from farm to farm similar to the corporate harvest crews of today.
The following photographs were copied this past summer from one of the albums in the Norma Draper Photo Collection. The album is mostly in chronological order starting in 1912 with the harvest photos being the first pictures in the album. Noah served in WW1 from 1916 to 1919 and then the family moved to Victoria, BC where they lived from 1920 to 1924.
Noah & Ethel Draper and Family History in Picures 1912-1924, courtesy of the Norma Draper Family Collection.
There are 2 harvest scene photos below and each has been cropped a couple times. The originals show so much sky and ground that the people are minuscule. Therefore, I cropped each photo first by cuttting one third off the top and the same from the bottom. What you see in the next 2 images are the result of that first cropping.
The 1st image shows the men standing around, posing. This was the first photo in the album. But the image below shows the men working as can be seen by the stream of chaff from the thresher blowing out above Percy's head on the far right. (click the image for a bigger view - I hope.)
ca 1912-1916 Noah Draper's Threshing Crew, Adams, Saskatchewan. Percy Draper far right standing on the wagon. Noah Draper 3rd from right standing on thresher behind horses.
These next 2 images have been cropped further by cutting another third off the left side so we can clearly see Noah and Percy.
ca 1912-1916 Noah Draper's Threshing Crew, Adams, Saskatchewan. Noah Draper farthest on the right, Percy Draper 3rd from the right. (Cropped from wide image above.)
The image below wasn't annotated by Ethel like the one above, however, it appears that the men stopped their work and then moved forward together for the shot. When I zoomed in as much as I dared without losing definition, I could clearly tell that Percy Draper is on the wagon because of the jaunty angle of his light colored hat. But where was Noah?
I finally found him by looking for his clothes - the partially unbuttoned coat over coveralls - the only worker to wear his coat in this fashion. He's on the thresher, behind where the horses are standing. Unfortunately, his face appears to be a blur so he might be looking down and his hat is hiding his face, but he's using the same stance in both images and it's one that I've come to recognize from many of his pictures - thanks again to his daughter Norma's preservation of the family pictures.
I finally found him by looking for his clothes - the partially unbuttoned coat over coveralls - the only worker to wear his coat in this fashion. He's on the thresher, behind where the horses are standing. Unfortunately, his face appears to be a blur so he might be looking down and his hat is hiding his face, but he's using the same stance in both images and it's one that I've come to recognize from many of his pictures - thanks again to his daughter Norma's preservation of the family pictures.
ca 1912-1916 Noah Draper's Threshing Crew, Adams, Saskatchewan. Percy Draper far right standing on the wagon. Noah Draper 3rd from right standing on thresher behind horses. (Cropped from wide image above.)
There's a good probability that the husbands of Noah and Percy's sisters, Ethel Maud and Eva Amelia, are somewhere in the photographs so if any of those family members see this and recognize someone, please contact us.
