Back in Belhaven, the Draper and Nelson families and neighbours celebrated Noah and Ethel's news. The Newmarket Era ran the following clipping on their usual Page 2 announcements:
After being married on Jan 12, 1912, Noah Draper and Ethel Nelson welcomed little Mildred Audrey Draper into the world on Sept 17, 1913. Almost instantly she became known as Midge, although I've found reference to both names being used interchangeably by photos, family records, and documents. Back in Belhaven, the Draper and Nelson families and neighbours celebrated Noah and Ethel's news. The Newmarket Era ran the following clipping on their usual Page 2 announcements: Since Noah and Ethel lived at the C.N.R. siding of Adams, most people knew the area only from the closest larger community of Grand Coulee, which I'll recap in my next post.
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See the Genealogy Note at the bottom of this post for more info on the above photo and the Experimental farm, mentioned by Noah in this letter. Author of Letter: Noah Clement Draper (24 yrs old) Dated: July 19th/1911 Addressed to: Miss E. Nelson, My Dear Ethel (21 yrs old) Mailed from: Grand Coulee, Sask 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, written on front and back like a book, but inside, paper is turned sideways and written across short length and down both pages. People/Places mentioned in this letter: - *Joe & Eva - Joe Perrault and Eva Amelia - Noah's sister - *Parthena - wife of Noah's brother, *Percy Draper - Parthena's baby - Royden Wallace Draper b Jul 1911 but what date? - *Stewart Draper, Noah's cousin, in Indian Head, Saskatchewan - *Louie: Noah's sister, Sarah Louisa Nelson, married to Fred Coventry - Fred's sister in Alberta - Probably Margaret Jane *Coventry * Regina, Saskatchewan ** Experimental Farm, Indian Head, Saskatchewan Local - Twice daily passenger train that runs from Regina to Indian Head. Used for excursions such as field trips to see the world famous Bell Farm, etc. * Look under the Categories/Labels in the right column for more on posts on the above people. **More info under Genealogical Notes
Genealogy Notes Genealogy Note 1: Margaret Jane Coventry Fred Coventry had 2 sisters. Mary Catherine stayed in Ontario, married, and died there. But Margaret Jane is shown on the 1901 census where she and her parents are living in Kenlis, Assiniboia - about 10 miles northeast of Indian Head. She is not with them on the 1916 census, though, where they have moved close to Fred and Louie near Grand Coulee. Did Margaret Jane marry and move to Alberta? Or did she just move there because of a job opportunity? Update! - Mary Catherine did NOT marry and die in Ontario - her Aunt Catharine did. In 1911, Mary Catherine and her husband lived in Strathcona, Alberta. - Margaret Jane moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada sometime between 1916 and 1920. She didn't show up on the 1916 census because it was a special one for the prairie provinces only so that the government could keep track of immigrants on the newly opened prairie land. Genealogy Note 2: The Experimental Farm The Experimental Farm had it's beginnings as part of the 53,000 acre Bell Farm which started operations in 1882 by the Qu'Appelle Valley Farming Company - before the railroad tracks had been laid on the bald prairie - before there was the town of IndianHead - and before Saskatchewan became a province, which is why the postcard at the top refers to it as Indian Head, Assiniboia. Once the railroad went through, the Bell Farm built a hotel, grain elevator and flour mill and Indian Head came into being. Using the most modern farming practices and equipment of the time, the Bell Farm drew interested people from several countries to see for themselves how farming had/could progress. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) carried tourists and farmers on daily excursions from Regina out to Indian Head to explore the farm for the day. The unique round shape of the Bell Farm Round Barn was one of the main attractions of the Bell Farm. Due to having its silo in the centre of the building, the layout provided ample space to stable 36 horses surrounding the silo - a time-saver when it came to supplying feed for the hard-working heavy horses. In 1887, part of the Bell Farm was sold to create a Dominion Experimental Farm - one of Canada's first agricultural stations. A lasting legacy of the Indian Head area is the tree nursery located one mile south of the town which had been established in 1897 to supply trees for shelterbelt purposes to cut down on wind erosion. Called the Prairie Shelterbelt Program, the nursery of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) supplied seedlings free of charge to all legitimate homesteaders and farmers. Although The Shelterbelt Program ended in the Spring of 2013, the PFRA tree nursery is a showcase of tree varieties which is open to the public and a favorite spot for summer picnics as well as information gathering. According to the Indian Head History Page by 1902, the Town of Indian Head was incorporated and had become "...one of the world's largest initial shipping points for wheat." ![]() 1900-1909 Image of ten grain elevators at Indian head that read "Jos Glen No. 1", "Jos Glen No. 2", "Dominion Elevator Co. Ltd. No. 72", "Ogilvie's No. 67" - various structures in between elevators, Canadian Pacific railroad cars next to elevators - man and several cows in foreground on other side of fence. Photographer: Denison Indian Head. Courtesy http://saskhistoryonline.ca/fedora/repository/indianhead%3A31195 And that's the history of Indian Head, Saskatchewan, which Noah mentions in this week's letter and which has been mentioned several other times when talking about Elva Nelson and Will Mitchell, and Stewart Draper and Bertha Hamilton.
Noah tells Ethel about the ball games the Grand Coulee team played on the 24th against Pense, and although I dug deep into the Saskatchewan Archives, the above image is the closest I could come to showing what Noah experienced that day. The scene is from a Picnic at the Gideon School in the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan area around that 1910 era. Author of Letter: Noah Clement Draper (24 yrs old) Dated: May 28/11 Addressed to: Miss E. Nelson, Bellhaven, Ont., Dearest Ethel Mailed from: Grand Coulee, Sask. Relationship: Courting Profession: Farmer Writing instrument: Fine point pen, Black ink, which he runs out of, so continues the next day with fresh ink Writing Paper: Thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6.5 inches. Paper is folded in half, and written in a 4-page booklet form, except Noah has turned the paper inside and written down the full length. People/places mentioned in this letter: - Mother - *Sarah Sophia Deverell Draper, Noah's widowed mother - *Ethel - Ethel Maud Rigler - Noah's older sister - G.C. *Grand Coulee - the 24th** * Look under the Categories/Labels in the right side column for more posts on this person/place/thing. ** see Genealogy Notes below
Genealogy Notes On page 2, Noah says, "there was nothing only base ball but a dance at night". The reason he says that is because back in Ontario, May 24th was a huge event. Yes, it was (and still is) a community sports day, but there were fireworks, as well as a dance. Here are some clippings from The Newmarket Era of things that Noah was missing out on:
Since Ethel talks about picnics, beaches, and Jackson's Point, I'm posting a 1910 postcard from the Baldwin Room Postcard Collection, Toronto Public Library, which shows that exact scene. More on this topic below under Genealogy Notes. Author of Letter: Ethel Isabell Nelson, age 21 (born 31 May 1890) Dated: May 28, 1911 Addressed to: Mr. N. C. Draper... My Dear Noah, Grand Coulee, Sask. Mailed from: Belhaven, Ont. 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 width of both pages, hence this letter has only 3 pages. People/places mentioned in this letter: - Pa - *James Henry Nelson - Ma - *Ida Amelia Glover - *Sadie Nelson - Ethel's 16 yr old sister (see photos last post) - Aunt Maggie - *Margaret Glover Barker - *Elva Jane is Ethel's cousin. Their grandparents are Henry Nelson and Eliza Crouch pictured in 1911 Courtship: May 7 Dear Noah. Elva and her husband, William Mitchell are working for Noah's cousin, *Stewart Draper in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. - *Maud Bruels - Ethel's school friend - *Professor Dales - Norman Anderson - ? - the English man (*hired man) - Martha Brooks and her young man ? - Mabel Wright in Queensville The following locations are shown on a map under Genealogy Notes - Queensville - ** Morton Park / Brighton Beach - 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
Genealogy Notes Before I forget, last week's Genealogy Notes were about John Prosser and his seasonal job as the Fox Island Lighthouse Keeper. On the map below, I've flagged Fox Island at the top of image, where it's located in Lake Simcoe. Note the mention and drawing of the Fox Island Lighthouse as a Point of Interest in the Morton Park newspaper snippet below. (Morton Park/Brighton Beach is the yellow pin above the word Ewert on the map. (Eeps - that should be Bell Ewart!) Ethel mentions Jackson's Point and Morton Park have been turned into private resorts and the name Morton Park is now called Brighton Beach. This week's delve into history is about Morton Park since it played such a huge part in recreational activities while Ethel was growing up. The image above is what you see if you zoom in on the map below, more or less. I came across some newspaper articles about Morton Park while I was searching the www.ourontario.ca online newspaper archives looking for info for our family tree. I can't stress how valuable this website is for genealogical and historic research. Ethel was born in 1890 and Morton Park was the closest beach to Belhaven. From everything I've read, it was a favourite place for a summer outing. Following is an 1899 new article in The Newmarket Era telling the history and amenities of Morton Park. Altough it's found on the right side of Page 1, I wonder if it was actually paid advertising. I'm posting it in its entirety, although it's too long for one image, so I've had to split it in half. I'm sorry about the mess at the bottom right corner, but that's the way it is with 100 year old newspapers. Note: The reference to a city in the above snippet is the City of Toronto, Ontario, Can. An interesting side note to this is the following information from Library and Archives Canada concerning Post Offices and Postmasters about Morton Park/Brighton Beach, keeping in mind this was a seasonal post office only:
So from the Post Office information, we find that the Post Office started when Neil Morton bought Morton Park in 1895 from the previous owner, Sir James Edgar, Speaker of the House of Commons, and that Neil died in 1911, which is when Ethel and the news snippets say it became the private Brighton Beach. (Photo of Neil Morton on the first section of large writeup.)
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