Postcard c1911 Young man harvesting with horse drawn binder and a man carrying grain stooks. Published by The Valentine & Sons Publishing Co. Courtesy of Peel Library, University of Alberta Postcard Collection.
Author of Letter: Noah Clement Draper (24 yrs old)
Dated: Aug 28/11
Addressed to: Miss E.Nelson, Belhaven, Ont., My Dearest Ethel
Mailed from: Grand Coulee, Sask.
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer
Writing instrument: Fine point pen, Black ink, but looks grey in places and pencil-like in others.
Writing Paper: Thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6.5 inches. Paper is folded in half, written in booklet form, but Noah has written the pages in this order: 1, 3, 2, 4.
People/places mentioned in this letter:
- Mother - *Sarah Sophia Deverell Draper, Noah's widowed mother
- Steward - Noah's cousin, **Stewart Trueman Draper of Indian Head, Sask
- **George Draper - Stewart's brother from North Gwillimbury, Ontario
- Uncle - *Uncle Emanuel Nelson is an uncle of Ethel's Pa
- 3 men for stooking (stooks are shown in postcard above)
- well-diggers
- plasterers
- carpenters
- Regina - nearest city to Grand Coulee
Cliche/Phrasing:
"Will ring off..." - reference to new telephone system where the caller must turn the handle to sound a bell that makes a ringing sound so the Operator knows the caller is finished his call
* 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: Aug 28/11
Addressed to: Miss E.Nelson, Belhaven, Ont., My Dearest Ethel
Mailed from: Grand Coulee, Sask.
Relationship: Courting
Profession: Farmer
Writing instrument: Fine point pen, Black ink, but looks grey in places and pencil-like in others.
Writing Paper: Thick, textured, linen-like paper, 9 inches x 6.5 inches. Paper is folded in half, written in booklet form, but Noah has written the pages in this order: 1, 3, 2, 4.
People/places mentioned in this letter:
- Mother - *Sarah Sophia Deverell Draper, Noah's widowed mother
- Steward - Noah's cousin, **Stewart Trueman Draper of Indian Head, Sask
- **George Draper - Stewart's brother from North Gwillimbury, Ontario
- Uncle - *Uncle Emanuel Nelson is an uncle of Ethel's Pa
- 3 men for stooking (stooks are shown in postcard above)
- well-diggers
- plasterers
- carpenters
- Regina - nearest city to Grand Coulee
Cliche/Phrasing:
"Will ring off..." - reference to new telephone system where the caller must turn the handle to sound a bell that makes a ringing sound so the Operator knows the caller is finished his call
* 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. August. 28/11 Miss E. Nelson, Belhaven, Ont. My Dearest Ethel; - Received your letter Friday and was glad to hear you were still able to be around. Hope this may find you as well as this leaves me at present. Well Ethel I have not started harvest yet I got out to the field Sat. morning when it started to rain so had to quit and will start again Tuesday if nothing hapens. George Draper is up at Stewards now got a card from |
| him Sat. he is comeing up as soon as Steward gets thro harvest (I wish it were you) for a hunt. Say do you know where all the fellows went to from down there? I havent saw any of them yet! Well the well diggers are away at last but they didnt get water that hole turned out to be no good but it cost me $375. to find it out. The plasters were here and put on the first coat and will be back on Wed. to finish up. the carpenters are here now or are supposed to be. it will take about |
| 2 weeks yet to finish it up. Well Ethel I guess Mother is going down East with me this winter but I dont think she will come back as soon eh. I am expecting the machine agent out this afternoon to start my binder have not git it going yet. Was in Regina Sat for a piece for the binder and stayed all night & came back yesteraday. say I will be glad when the harvest is over I have 3 men for stooking and they cant do anything while it is wet & I dont like them laying around. |
| Well I hope your Uncle is better by this time, sickness is an awful thing. There is quite a few sick around here now. Say there is over 500 men in Regina waiting for harvest some of them have been here 3 weeks I guess they must be tired of it by this time. for I know how it goes only I am waiting for something else. eh. & it cant come to soon for it seems lonesome out here now. far more so than before last winter. Well dear I guess this is about all for this time so I will ring off. so Bye Bye. Write long letters to your lazy lover. N.C.D xxxxxxxxxx |
Genealogy Notes
In this week's letter Noah mentions that George Draper is at Steward's place. Noah is talking about his 1st cousin, Stewart Truman Draper who farms in the Indian Head area east of Regina, and Stewart's brother, George, who lives in North Gwillimbury Township - the same township where Ethel lives.
Stewart brought his immediate family west, leaving the rest of them in North Gwillimbury. When Noah says that George is now out west with Stewart, I wanted to know if George had also brought his family out west.
George Milburn Draper was born on 28 August 1880, 4 yrs after Stewart's birth, which makes George 31 yrs old at the time Noah wrote this letter.
In 1908, George married Eliza Alberta Hamilton whom I suspected was a sister of Stewart's wife, Bertha Hamilton. When I couldn't find evidence of that relationship, I went back a generation to see if the wives were cousins. I couldn't find a relationship there, either. However, I noticed that Bertha's father, Robert Hamilton, and Eliza Alberta's father, David Hamilton, were born 5 years apart in Nova Scotia. That was too much of a coincidence not to investigate.
I found an 1861 Canada West census with a Hamilton family that looked similar to the one I was seeking. At that time, Canada West was Ontario as the real west was under exploration and still run by the Hudson's Bay Company.
Stewart brought his immediate family west, leaving the rest of them in North Gwillimbury. When Noah says that George is now out west with Stewart, I wanted to know if George had also brought his family out west.
George Milburn Draper was born on 28 August 1880, 4 yrs after Stewart's birth, which makes George 31 yrs old at the time Noah wrote this letter.
In 1908, George married Eliza Alberta Hamilton whom I suspected was a sister of Stewart's wife, Bertha Hamilton. When I couldn't find evidence of that relationship, I went back a generation to see if the wives were cousins. I couldn't find a relationship there, either. However, I noticed that Bertha's father, Robert Hamilton, and Eliza Alberta's father, David Hamilton, were born 5 years apart in Nova Scotia. That was too much of a coincidence not to investigate.
I found an 1861 Canada West census with a Hamilton family that looked similar to the one I was seeking. At that time, Canada West was Ontario as the real west was under exploration and still run by the Hudson's Bay Company.
1861 Canada census showing George Hamilton and Jane Patchell and their 5 children, 4 of whom were born in Nova Scotia with the youngest, John (from Image 1214) being born in Canada West/Ontario.
I realized I'd found the right family when the census jived with the following information I'd already collected:
| Eliza's Father: David David's Birth Place: David's Father: George David's Mother: Jane Bertha's Father: Robert Robert's Birth Place: Robert's Father: Unknown | My records David b 1845 Nova Scotia George b 1801 Jane b 1807 Robert b 1840 Nova Scotia | 1861 CW census David b 1845 Nova Scotia George b 1800 Jane b 1802 Robert: b 1840 Nova Scotia |
The above chart has enough compelling evidence to show me that David and Robert are brothers, that their father is George Hamilton b 1800 in Ireland, and their mother was Jane (Patchell) also born in Ireland. I'd like to add that I clicked over to the next census image/page to see if there were any other family members and there was - the youngest in the family - John Hamilton, whom I added to the above screenshot, was born in 1847, 2 yrs after David.
I now knew that Bertha and Eliza were Hamilton cousins who married two brothers, Stewart and George Draper. It also meant that I now had a whole lot more people to add to the family tree when you include all the brothers and sisters as well as 200 yrs of descendants. Plus, I can research the Irish records with the names George Hamilton and Jane Patchell.
Getting back to George and Eliza, although I couldn't find a newspaper snippet, their marriage record shows they were married 23 Sep 1908 in North Gwillimbury.
The 1911 Canada census finds the couple living next door to his parents, Stephen Draper and Martha Barnhart, and his sister Edith, all whom we've met before in the Genealogy notes of 1911 Courtship May 7.
I now knew that Bertha and Eliza were Hamilton cousins who married two brothers, Stewart and George Draper. It also meant that I now had a whole lot more people to add to the family tree when you include all the brothers and sisters as well as 200 yrs of descendants. Plus, I can research the Irish records with the names George Hamilton and Jane Patchell.
Getting back to George and Eliza, although I couldn't find a newspaper snippet, their marriage record shows they were married 23 Sep 1908 in North Gwillimbury.
The 1911 Canada census finds the couple living next door to his parents, Stephen Draper and Martha Barnhart, and his sister Edith, all whom we've met before in the Genealogy notes of 1911 Courtship May 7.
1911 Canada Census showing Stephen Draper and his wife, Martha Barnhart, and daughter, Edith, followed by son George, and his wife, Eliza Hamilton. (The transcription only shows four names at a time)
According to this 1911 census, George and Eliza don't have any children. Although one other Ancestry.com family tree shows George and Eliza with a girl born in 1911, my search of the newspapers and records, including the 1916 census record, didn't produce any mention of live or still births until 1921 when a little one-year-old boy appears with them.
So to answer my question if George went west alone, I found these snippets. The first one mentions that George, or Geo. as they call him in short form, is leaving for the west, and the 2nd one states that Geo. Draper has left Keswick for the west.
So to answer my question if George went west alone, I found these snippets. The first one mentions that George, or Geo. as they call him in short form, is leaving for the west, and the 2nd one states that Geo. Draper has left Keswick for the west.
The Newmarket Era. August 11, 1911
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The Newmarket Era. August 18, 1911
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Since Aug 1911 had a huge demand for harvest workers, I can only assume that the above mentioned men have gone west to find work and perhaps have a look-see around while they're there. And where else would George go but to help out his brother, Stewart.
I'm looking forward to Noah's letter where he next mentions cousin George so we can perhaps learn what he thinks of the new Canada West.
I'm looking forward to Noah's letter where he next mentions cousin George so we can perhaps learn what he thinks of the new Canada West.
