104 10 13602 https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/dbd9f7654e23589b1391af4c2f2355cb.mp3 d0fbea1fa429f42bd0aa3d367c6988bb https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/af859eb01913e169fa0d4d2aa1312c25.mp3 edc72996619376e70addd6a0f0d530f1 https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/3eaa8a6235fe57fbc4d488e1eb849729.mp3 b0e4f06bd4050bfb2fdf6f75979cde65 https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/c032fea0855f4d81c3b59d9a4ef3eef9.mp3 3707aaed138524bc0a81d915abb73875 https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/58cb742b6db3bc67d1c7fe638f05929b.pdf 815399a90a0a8a7471dc9c2e3b018bb6 PDF Text Text /)Jo. ~~ ~~/4 ., /}fl~ ~~ ~ ~~v ~ - :;;~ ~~-~p 2:{) ,~()/t/3-t ,I read your bookletoon Silver Islet history and you indicate on !" 'µ\,, ,~ . VQ IM..i...... the label set but I don't want to leave XH anything in that area but what I would like to do is to go back into your own life in the early ~ part of your childhood and talk about as you remember growing up, ~hat i~ ~our personal life story. -A Well among the first things that I remember of course living in Port Arthur, there were board sidewalks all over the place. I imagine they were made of good white pine planks, all over the place, there was no cement at all, and there were cracks and if you happen to drop a nickmm or a penny why you could see them through the light of the crack but then it was to get an older brother with a not~s ~itx and get it out. p= a pick or something to hook up this plank, you see, It was quite something that all the young people did as they walked along to see if there be a glint, and if there were xexx why then finders xsssexs is keepin you see, aM ~f course there was just one public school. Now the first public school mind you there were two or more that were run by xke just Miss somebody or other that would gather a group of children but finally there was a school set up and was two rooms and it was divided, I don't know ex~~ii¥ what grades went into which rooms but anyway that's all there was. Q. What year was this? A. It was before my time because that school is now a double house or else four suites next to the Baptist Church in Port Arthur, but when it got too small then a front was put on and that's the front of the Central School over in Port Arthur up on by Gore Park. Well then when the ... and the two rooms were at the back of it joined on and when that became too small th~setwo rooms were moved over by the back of the church somebody bought it and made into two or four suites or a double house and then the �present addition I think 8 rooms was put on the back of it and that was the only school there except the Catholic school. Well then about 65 years or more ago there was a new Methodist church being built which is Trinity and the old church was moved down the hill and down Bay Street now Algoma Street to where Secord School is and it made two rooms and that was the first school, what do you call those schools not the central school (primary) anyway it was the first school other than the central school in the city and everybody,everybody had to go to Central school first and then the people that crowded in and built up the south end of Street Port Arthur had this Secord/School to go to. Then I think the next school that was built St. James Street school way down Court Street. Q. Of all first, Thunder Bay North, Port Arthur, preceded Fort William development? A. Oh no, Port Arthur was or Fort William was first, it was the fourth. xxxsx Q. What we call the East end now must have developed then was what was called Fort William then, near the old Fort? A. Yes, that's why down in the East End there are McLaughlin Street, McTavish and all those Scots names, named after the Hudson Bay men, the whole place most of it has Scots names because most of the Hudson Bay men were Scots. Port Arthur you walked to school of course. then, in what area? In Q. Where was your home A. Well the first home was at this end of Court Street before Bay, there was nothing from Bay Street on (just wilderness) Yes, just wilderness, just swamp, cranberries. Q. Even in the 40's when Jix moved up here that was still swamp Intercity was largely swamp there? A. Oh yes, well you see in prehistoric time this was a great bay than rairup as far as XR&HEekH Kakebeka Falls and then they claim that there was a Afpping and the water drained here and piled up over on the south shore of Lake Superior but however, it drained out and only wiggling Kaministiqua �River was left to drain it and x it was all swamp right from the height of land at Port Arthur to the mountain, it was all swamp and they declared they could never build a town or a city here because it was, they called it"Frog Town" it was full of frogs, it was a real swamp. lands and of Well they started in to build course the draining just kept on in some part down in the coal dock they pumped the sewage and the ... Q. All of waste that has to be A. Up and out you see EHRKHSe but of pumped because of course Port Arthur is on the hillside so they had to around as well there but Port Arthur was wooden sidewalks and mud or gravel ~ or earth t.hrowed. Q. When you were very young some of the 11e1x very well established society in the Lakehead Thunder Bay was very elegant in comparison to the outliffing areas? A. Well you see all the settlers came from the east and most-of them came from good homes down there and they E~H~ brought some very nice furniture with them and as they could they built their own homes. At first there was just the peek-through wooden houses everywhere 7well then nice homes were built on what they called the Court Street ridge that is from made by the hillside there and the Court Street and very nice homes were there. It was many, many years afterwards, I IVl. {,U-u,(~ suppose, ~ow 60 years or so, when they began to build up in Maragay and those parts they were operft-y men that would buy great space and of course up in Mar~y it was swampy~ it was a great blueberryppatch up there. Q. This area here out in McIntyre River and out towards Chippewa Park was designed to develop originally as the in? ~ area of the Twin Cities. Industry has crept A. I guess those sections outs there were finally left to the mosquitoes and roads and they had to think of the centre of the little town or village because after-all the stores were there. d �So they just kept building houses. Q. Yet there were streetcar tracks moving out to Chippewa Park and streetcar tracks right ijtx~ 0 Rosslyn? A. Well the idea was that they would take them out to Rosslyn and you know that bridge that goes xx~kx over the Kam River has an upper structure. y ou drive through in the lower part, well that was built meaning to have the streetcars go right out through there the and if the top deck is on a level with/hills on each side. There was to be a high level xa ~ and go over the bridge right through and span the immediate valley but then trucks came in and the farmers didn't need the/railway to BHiX~ bring their produce in and in fact there wasn't such a tremendous population to encourage large farms with the selling of produce in the town, ...s.Q i understand it .tfo be ~laced before very long but that bridge must be oh I suppose that's 70 years old or more. Q. There's a story that a woman designed the first bridge across the Kam River~ so far its only a myth, I haven't been able to track it down? A. No, I couldn't tell you of that. Near that bridge, the first bridge that went across and into Flint River Valley and all was there. You turned lQ~scorner and go across the bttdge and you went straight on and it was a level on a river level bridge. Q. Bigger families ~ llectio~ ~J here's ~ I ) -- ~ - - U ~ IJ..R.Arff)-4p i ct ure S of 80for 9~t.Q Oeta5ie 1golhg to Silver Islet for Sunday picnic and very elegant thing5 ~~each other packed and so on. ever a part of the excursion for Sunday afternoon? Were you A. No, we strictly went to church and Sunday school, we wouldn't go on excursions on Sunday but when we first were out there, Capt. Malloney xaxke~ would leave the Port Arthur dock at 10:00 on Saturday night and the men would scramble to be shut up their stores and get it, and XHB¥X tgen they would reach Silver Islet by midnight and the wives would meet them there, and help them carry home the basket of fresh meat and so forth. The men would stay then until 8:00 o'clock Sunday night ~ the �tugs would leave and get into town around 10:00 o'clock Sunday night. It was oh some time after that I suppose what 65 years ago anyway it became a grand spot, Silver Islet. It was theonly place where there was a dock ax decent dock and there was no highway, no #17 I either way, you couldn't get out of town except by water and so these sailing boats w~re old boats that were bought down east and brought up here one at a t i m e - /44ien it was wrecked or scrapped another one would be bought. There were daily excursions Ji Silver Islet because that was the only place you could go and the old carpenter shop was fixed up and a hardwood floor put in it and they had dances and then for picnicing why they picniced all over the place whexerever they wanted to open their basket. picnic consist of in those days? Q. What sort of food would the A. potato salad, cabbage salad, but not any of the frillies pretty baking now-a-days, sandwiches, cake and pie in the original baking dishes. you have a bottle of wine? Q. Would A. Oh, I never heard of that, I suppose some of them might have, it wasn't the outside drinking that there is now. changed Q. Has the attitude xx~a towards d~I½ in Fort William in these past fifty years? IA,M/' A. Oh ~ea~ ~~,,(~ ya, you see in the olden days t h e r e ~ they tell a saloon on every corner of Cumberland Street, four corners and four saloons and right from Arthur Street down to well Pearl Street~•- cnrd"J:t was a different type of person that drank, drank abundantly, it was the men that came and worked in the bush and then they would come in and they would spend a good part if not all axx of their winter's earnings on just getting drunk, and what they haven't spent somebody would relieve them of. Oh it was terrible, and a lot of drunkeness but not educated people, not the kind now,well then when how many years ago, Lt-'1v7 ~alcohol was entirely outlawed and then it got to be considered smart to find a .-----blind keg or be able to sneak in and then the �/. ,. educated people they should have had more sense t ~ n'- 1' -.le 1,,. ~~ and it§ continued, I hear so many well educated people that could ,. be fine citizens and therjust alcoholics and the poor people, well I guess there's a good deal of drinking of there.& beer, but you don't hear so much about that, except in the way of crime0 J tk generally drinking RH~ that brin~s on the crime. So it would look as if were headxH~ed for many years that it would be outlawed again. In catalogues see all of the paraphanalia xf~ making wine and beer. b �J Q. A. Well the important point is love, but then people their own home have inner thoughts and in and they save the dining room, the living room has an arch way between where the is wooden why because of taste and some people had quite large living uh dining room. This is you know and across the hall from MRS there large I think a comedy thing and they would send to Toronto would have a first in those days and they would send I think it was coal that was food sent up by Train and coal into the cubic form and Mrs. Mccullen showed me a big form that just looked like a big piece of wood, but that's what she said it just was sent up the other way the coal would be boned at KxxkxaHa and separatea with a fontth meatand put a jelly in XH sthis form and have H some radishes and different things imbedded in the jelly and then they cook and then the whole this was xke a coal you see this was thin~ was sort of levelled itself and that's what turned up here by train and then the night of the diner party I suppose and it was turned out onto it would be dipped into a R plack oh huge one HHa no Houbt, and then Mxss Mr. i great there was no bone in it, and he would just slice right down and leave the outside room with jelly and be ice cream and 70 years ago. This was a terrific maid or maids maae/and others borrowed Then there would before cherries that's about and we had axxxs girl and they had all this cleared away and after the ice cream, and the �cake and the cheese cake, and pie oh the cooking would be tremendous Graham and then there's a dance. Well George Rxa~ now they and the McTabish were the leading socialites in Fort William and this George Graham's first home was down on the river like the McKellar home just way down here out straight down and they had lawns and a lovely that goes home ~xase down to the river and they had beautiful and they were very nice. When the~ the railway tracks were moved from down in the East end up here, all those houses were either raised or moved and her's was moved out to the corner of Archibald and Metcalfe? ? and on the south corner of Archibald and quite a large house well there's after he built everything on this side and he built a great big park and when the other of the old house there's a garden decorated with big parlour and then Peter had an office there interested and Died off and I was no longer xx he came down just a meeting about once a year or once every two years or so, and when he and there's all the papers were brought to me one time to digest and write but I was ill and I was ill for a long time but I happened for whatever I could be any worth on my bed the box could be geared over and Mr. Langley had brought so this here to skaH when I was so he took the one day when he was home and gave it to Bill Langley in his office. They had them kept in a trunk in the basement of the library, the old library, well it got to be oh not many years ago somebody wanted to know where those papers were, so I told them in the libaary. Well they hunted in the library and then thing.insi'd e out cou ld n I t f'in d t h e turned thexaaxxH~ trunk and in the mean time Mr. Langley had just died and one of I �daughters oh was I thrilled because I did my part xax~ex he ~~x gave them right back to me because he had brought thmmx to me and I couldn't tell John go xi~kx &Hgk find whoever had the key to this trunk and whoever finds xxwa ix the key I would do my part. Oh that's what happened. Well the older people those thatw were left, when those older people had joined to form what we call ..... they would alternate the meetings but would be very well attended because there xaliieae more people wka maxe« and there were some in Port Arthur really new comers although they were elderly and then they progressed to having a building and my mind simply thought well at xeHxx these meetings were over the library and this is why the ... and then you see these new people which was all revitalize the wanted to and do the museum and have about up and coming things was in my surprise I said would become of these Port Arthur people where very impressed, they outside and I said well my goodness are you going to do it? its wonderful to have some a~iside that are going to revitalize it, they didn't even sayH anything, however, but you see the end of these between these two towns, but of course they're one now but I mean in the west xi«e end isn't died off, it takes a generation of folks to die off. Mind you in the olden days it was a «ixxiii~x thing because they MaHx« were quite isolated in the winter, cut off, entirely isolated cut off still and they had good fights just tremendous fights that brought often HH« xkex any other day and this kept them alive. Q. weren't enough. A. Oh yes, because there Q. There wasn't enough A. Yes ae~HHXe if they want they could have it, you were �/0 in Port Arthur and they were very friendly, those people ? A. Yes, you see Q. Do things like that their grandfather came to Ontario when everything a long time ago to the land if you took the land and you were told that only mining was sss xke ~~xsxKHsx~~HXkKs KHSX~~HxkKsxx~ x~ took a fold and you had to hope cariboo and also to the California gold and therefore be something a miner and you just sent by the Allie Mining Co. who their representative here and they kKs have prospectors all through the bush. I would expect there would be a thousand prospectors all through the bush, mind you it would be so many miles out where they were and I suppose they were out about xke all the substance where they win but .... Q. A. Yes, maybe forty years ago, a long time ago, ... Q. Would A. Well they, yes, that was established by a :f:xxm called a i~~, they had six xliii and the grandmother and he and my aunt they then had six sons KHs, then there was and/they had three daughters. Then grandmother and grandfather and the girls at that why the sons were all fixed with tradeaown east machinist and father was a IIXKHSX and they weren't just ordinary tradesmen time were they were really sHpex supper, I guess all of them had two trades before they were a handyman. , and of course in those days you were There was a University in Toronto father wanted to us and back home there was what we found in Toronto. So father from and my mother and brothers like a another one has a foundry now and also coal mine next to the one �II who has a foundry and something else, and the oldest brother has something call RH~ end of an old building ~ln'.HXXH not an archway, oh my goodness that was very long ago, but only he would he would be back and also with a potter maker and that's very still Well they had all these things, the brothers, and m¥ grandmother thought that this was going to be arain city • a ~xeax an d t h ere way you h a d to come h ere an d th e west wou ld come here and they coming into this they would set now but she just told the boys up and they would all go inx~ =together, so the day came when they guilt the Port Arthur Iron Ore all under one roof, and they were BR ? and it was A. The year, well 92 years ago, 1873, and father was married/before Eva lffRthe first child was born so he stayed down east and he knew the Q. What year did Indians? He bought them food and came up in July of that year and the Crothers had been here putting up buildings. there~was The CPR was coming through and it was going through RR ~x~ no foundry between Toronto and Winnipeg and there was so many being done so father would that they would be working night and day to settp the and get the He had this xi~ little engine that they had set up a boiler to give them the power to run the little engine, it would run all over in the machine shop. to put up a Now in the foundry they had and all kinds of things there and in the blacksmith's shop fordge and all this. Well iMewas the machine shop that was taking xkeixx~x~exs the longest and they were trying to get this boiler to get it started but in the meantime . as it was hard for them to get the material so they set them up XR a line and if you know anything about a steam shaft why they or electricaR~&they had a ~zezz¥ great �overhead and they had leather belts over those between downhill heal on their and they would sew the machine belt,,would be to turn the machine this rubber thing would be on. and and then he put extended So they set them up and he put a great big candle and would .... the long enough for two or three men to stand, but those men could and turn it was a the handle of this forget the word, anyway they came back then they could release the strap came on from a small wheel to a large wheel the large whe~l and then back again and they could turn, I don't know how many men, they could turn the and then before you have the boilerJ~He engine boiler they then you have the cooler working and then ¥~H would matter i~rkx~most of the night to fill th e then r-X ~-xH /boiler and that was no easy they got the little engine going and its a kooky engine but you and but it was an old man who know the staff/they were well would start as long as I could remember but it was a grave price so much noise, so much going on after shop blacksmith/ around school there were always boys who town that would need men well the blacksmith would RH ask him to help with the fordge you know this sort of A. Yes, and X Q. KR I ix was awful after school and on Saturdays this nice old boy and I found out that he was one of the men he worked I guess he kept track of everything and like the handyman � https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/d879455e6691b905a588f780a4c40db1.pdf b8d9aa7b2c6d2f103b99d16600f8879b PDF Text Text .·, 1 MRS. GER~RUDE DYKE~-Norah Street The first thing she remenbers is living in Port Arthur and that there were board sidewalks all over. She thinks they were made of white pine planks, there w s no cement at all. The boards had cracks in them and for fun they used to try and get money that was dropped between the cracks out they used pliers or a pie or anything to hook the board so the \ 0 could get the money out. There was just one public school and she doesn't know the date this was. It had just two roans and they were divided. It is now a do 1ble house next to the Baptist Ghurch in Port Arthur, this is the ori r. inal building they did build on to it and it is now the front of the Central School near Gore Park. About 65 years a g o there was~ new Metho ~ist Church being built and the dld one wa s moved down the hill and down Bay 0treet to where the Secord Schoo1 is and that was the first school besides the Central uchool, the next school was on St James Street. Port Arthur and Fort Nilliam were built fourth the first to be built up was the East End were l 1cLau ·· hlin and McTavish Streets are. The first home w·s at this end of Court Street before Bay from there on there was just wilderness. In the forties inter~ci ty was still swamp area. The} s~id they could never build anything on it, it was full of frogs and when the~ did try to build the sand just sunk and it dr2.ined. When people settled here they broucht t _e best furniture as they did come from good families ~own East. The nicehomes were built on Court Ridge and many ~, ears later they started to build in Mariday and it was swampy this was out towards Ghippewa Park this was suppose to be the residential area but industry crept in. When she was young she was never part of the e~cursion that went to Silver Islet for Sunday picnics. There was no hi 6 hway or any other way to get out of town so they had to use old boats that were sold down East and brought her~. The picnics used to consist of potato salad, cabbage salad, sandwiches, cakes and pie. In her day there was the usual drinking, there were four �saloons, and it was men that worked in the bush that used to drink all their wages up in one ni c ht of drinking. Ste said it was outlawed to drink and it wasn ' t educated people who drank then but she thinks there would be better people if they didn't all drink so much, crime wouldn't be as bad if there was no drinking. Around the year 1875 0PR was coming thro ugh. � https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/3f780398215efb8d448801dfa135afb2.pdf 4e8efdff911365f2c76e9e145e0d7dd5 PDF Text Text 7/ J..~ lI ✓ •! I ' I. \ HERSTORY PROJECT Mrs. G. Dyke interviewed by Helen Lovekin Mrs. Dyke: Q. Now what do you want to know about? First I would like to ask you some general questions and then some specific ones that we have come across in our research. How long have you been in Thunder Bay? A. All my life. Q. Uhat did your family do? A. My grandfather came 130 years ago and at that time his mail was addressed to Thunder Bay. I was born in Port Arthur. He came to Thunder Bay as representative of a mining company, he had gone to the California Gold Rush and to the Caribou (Canadian Gold Rush), so he knew quite a bit about minerals. His sons all lean1ed trades so four of therncombined and came to Port Arthur and built Woodside Iron ~1 orks. The company still exists in P.A. . It is 9.5 years ago, this July since my father and mother came because the boys stayed down east when their father and mother came he.:ie, and they learned their trades. Then there was the black- smith and the machinist and the pattern maker and one was a carriage maker an:i painter. They all seemed to have two trades and they were all master mech- anics in whatever they undertook. So their mother thought that the Lakehead would be the Chicago of the north, before there was any C.P.R. running through, So they came up - four of the six boys - to the Lakehead and with their father they built the first building and had that all ready and father was buying the machineT"J down east and making it because he made the first engine that was used in the shop, and it was 8.5 yars ago, the 19th of July. I don't remember dates but my oldest sister was 6 weeks old when they came up; they crossed the lake in a sidewheeler and one of father's oldest brothers was settled in Port Arthur and so they started up right away. inery in rie;ht away, as soon as it came up with father. ing towards P.A. 9.5 years ago bu£.\ is wasn't up to P.A.. and so they could cast iron things. I They put the mach- The C.P.R. uas buildThey hall a foundry The C.P.R. was desperately in need of foundry and ma<:!hine work sas well as blacksmiths. The blacksmith Hasn't so bad because you can move a blacksmith and a foree and an anvil, but you can't / �move a machine shop and a foundry. work at once. So they set it all up and commenced to Father was tryine; to get the boiler in place and get the engine so it would do the work and there is a shaft overhead. with the machines underneath and you pull a lever and the belt that is up top will turn the machine you are working on. This one shaft will turn all the machines, if there is two rous, then there are two rows of shafts. Well, father couldn't get it up at once and there was such a need for it that father put a great big iron thing which could fit 3 or 4 men and put it at the end of the shaft. These men turned the shaft by hand to run these different machines. Uhen one was winded he would step out and another would take his place - and they worked until all hours of the night because there was such a demand for their work. There was an old man in the shop and I remembered old Ned Hill and he was always kept on and when I knew him he was old but he had the job of just Imowing where everything was and he also turned the crank and a man that endured that, father kept him on. The other men had gone of their own free will but Ned had a family and he stayed. Woodside Iron Works. That was the beginning of There is really a great story of the beginning of the shop, when they had the place set up, men uere married and had their homes the brothers, and then there was grand.mother and there was the three girls that Here 13 yea.rs younger than the 6 boys. So there were a lot of women and they decided they would have a pink tea dmm at the shop to celebrate the opening. Q. What is a pink tea? A. It was called a pink tea in those days just for a little decoration I guess. But the women had pink teas at church - we say they had teas nowadays - wHl they added pink and gave it an air. So they had a pink tea, they brought cups and saucers and the baJdng and all arid the work stopped for a half hour and they had pink tea to celebrate. This brother who was in the other molding room or shop as was the case, had cast a horseshoe, a little horseshoe. There was a patten1 made of it in the pattern shop and then you put it in sand - you have to see a foundry to know how it's done. shoe for every woman there. And he cast a horse- As a child I remember that every kitchen had a horseshoe with a li ttl e bit of - not canvas but anyway, yuu put a piece of cloth on the back and you made this little pouch and it was a matchfolder. I don't know where our's went, I don't know if my brother keeps it or not. Anyuay, that was a souvenir of the opening of it and they had a lot of things �like that, and they a.re really a story nowadays. Q. Could you tell me a little bit about your education? A. In p. A. we had the Central School which was the only school in the whole city and then we had the high school which was the only school in the whole district. They came from Fort Frances a.rid Murillo if any of them wanted to - I don ' t remember that any of them did though - and Fort William and Westfort. They came to this four roomed high school. Q. Where i-ras it? A. It was where the gym is at the high school on the hill - P.A. C. I. Q. So they were quite close - the two schools. A. Yes and the high school was torn dmm and the big one built then, they added the gym. It was just four rooms and two teachers and finally they got a woman teacher which meant three. Q. Do you recall what yea.:r that was? A. I don 't Imow. Q. But you were at school at that time? A. Yes. Q. Did that cause any sensation? A. Of course most of the teachers were women but in the high school there had just been the two men always. That a woman was teaching? Then I think this woman was buffeted around by the two men but she stuck with it. from the east. Niss Achison was her name, she came We had a e;reat many teachers who came from around Sarnia because they could come direct by boat. Q. Has she a young woman when she came? A. She seemed young to me - she may have been JO. And I think she taught history and geography and the principal was a Scotchman who had taught boys ' school in Scotland and why he came out here, I don't know. Except that he drank once in a while. Q. Perhaps he was just another black sheep that was shipped off? A. I don ' t lmow, but he was a very superior teacher. The other man was l\'Ir. Morgan and he taught physics and chemistry but he had learned German and at the most unexpected time we would have a little lesson in German just when the principal wouldn't know anything about it. Everybody picked up a few German words. Q. So you feel you got a ue2..l rounded education? A. Yes - . and a great many Hent to Toronto University which was something. • It 1 �would take on the part of the teacher, a lot of real teaching to get them so ambitious as to go on. Q. Did you finish hieh school at all? A. In P. A . ? Q. Did they have Grade 13 at that time? A. T-J ell, Yes . they didn't have grades - in the public school it was the book - Junior and Senior 1,2,3 and 4 and then in high school, I guess it was the year, 1, 2 and Q. J. There was just the three years? Hm1 old would you be if you graduated each year you passed? A. I started school 1-1hen I was 4. My father was chairman of the Board of Educ- ation or a member of it, years and years. This time they were short one pupil to get the goverrrn1ent grant so they said, "Tom, you have lots of children, you can just spare one." Well, I Has tall and big for 4 and so I was sent to school and my aunt Ann, his sister, was the kindergarten teacher. And she taught up to the end ofthe first book I guess. So I was strorg and nell and I uas just 10 or 11 uhen I Has in high school and I got through high school and we had teachers college in P.A. Q. You became a teacher? A. Yes, for L~ yea.rs. 1h . So I went through that and when I graduated I wasn ' t quite And they couldn't Grant me a certificate, I was too young . Q. You had to lJe 21? A. You had to be 18, however they grru.1ted me a special dispensation and I went down east to mother ' s old hqme ru.1d taught there for a year. Q. ~Jhich town would this be? A, Out of l'ieai'ord, near Owen Sound. Then I came back and because they bad done this, allowing ne to teach, I was obliged to teach one year here, so I supplied in the different schools in P.A. -well, there was just the Central School. Then they built the south ward and I took the principals place, she was sick or uent on a trip and I think that was when I was 16 that principal of a south ward school. But I was 5' 10½" I .was so they didn't argue :'1ith me. a. Q. This was A. Yes. Q. A. Q. Because you went through teacher ' s college rather than normal school? secondary school? Yes - because they didn't have a normal school/ And you taught, married, raised your family - how did you become interested �in becoming an historian? ~: If you grew up here, naturally you saw it all happen so you couldn't ~elp but be interested. You might say I just stumbled onto it or grew into it. Q. It has become for you a career? A. No. Q. Do you look at it as more of a hobby? A. Hobby, yes. Goodness, I hadn ' t time. You raise a family - these women that work and raise a family are braver than I. Q. How many children did you have? A. ; I raised 3 children, but I had a lot of company. Q. Company with friends or with your children? A. Both, and relatives - we had relatives all the way from Halifax to Dawson City, and they all stayed on, on trips. Q. Hith both your career as a teacher and a historian, did you find any discrimination? You mentioned that Miss Achison had a bit of trouble with the men but you were able to hold your A. 01-m? Yes , but it was the first lady teach er and if any pupil had to stay aft er 4 she was delegated to stay too. Q. But you were the principal in the south ward - how many teachers were under you? A. Just one - of course don ' t mention that - I was principal at 16. That ' s why I was young when I was teaching, because I started at 4. Q. Was this a lady teacher as well? A. Yes. Q. You would have had no experience between wage differential? A. My goodness, I think the teacher got $32 a month or so. Q. Regardless of whether you were a man or a woman? A. No, I guess the men got more because they were the principals and sub-principals and they had families - they would have to have more - but $32 and $35, There were some of the girls that had a special permit and taught, that saved money and went on to university. Q. Was a teacher paid according to whether he was married or not? A. I think there was a set wage. Q. For a man or for a woman. A. Yes, but the man was al ways married and the woman wasn't. Q. This was before women were allowed to have a career after marriage. A. You didn ' t dream of anything after marriage, other than scrub bare floors and scrub clothes - you hadn't time for ... Q. No married ladies taught, even if they didn't have children? s �A. I don't think so. They didn't here anyways. There were widows - that was Q. different. As a historian, I have come across some of your works which are extremely competant and have you ever had any trouble with the - there is quite a few male historians about kn-ocking anything you might have to say. A. I have never had any trouble because whatever I wrote I had printed myself and they didn't consider me a full scale historian - I was just a woman that was writing down a few things. I don't know whether anybody wanted to have any trouble with me or not but I never did. Q. A. I wrote 3 booklets and I have the .. ........... . lfaat about the organizations and co-operation between women and their org- anizations? I really can't recall any dirty work, they seemed to have - well you can't say they have worked together always because they haven't always. There have been women - some girl teachers who came from down east who were stirring the teachers up to go on strike, years ago. Such things had never been heard of - teachers going on strike - too bad because teachers have a wonderful influence on their pupils and they don't have an influence through It sets them down a bit I think - for the pupils. :Bu:-:t I think that this one that was the leader in all this, wasn't hired _in the second year and things were done gently, they did.~'t have a fist fight. What was her proposition? Hhat was she upset about? Wages, and she was principally upset about it, everything that a strike would ... So you felt your wages were high enough? No, the wages were always low. And yet, you would not consider strike action as the course to take? Not ... She was upset about wages, she was upset about what else, hours? One thing they were upset about was that we weren't pr0ducing teachers of our own and these teachers had to come from down east and of course, in those days, the girls were very glad to get a position and so they came from Petrolia and Sarnia because it was close to the boat. So, one thing she was going to strike for was that the Board of Education would pay their boat fare here. There were people in the town who boarded teachers - they were well cared for and were honored citizens in the churches and all were fine strike. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. �women. Some of the finest women we ever had are teachers, ~: Can you recall, as a young girl, the suffragette movement being discussed? A. Yes, Q. Was there a suffragette organization withing Thunder Bay? A. Of sorts. It wasn ' t very strong but of sorts. The suffragettes had many cartoons in papers of the suffragettes and I think some of them were accused of wearing pants and you could be run in, you could serve a term if you appeared in pants. It is not many years ago since my husband told me that I could~..go to his tailor and order a tailored suit with pants - any material or any cut - and he would pay for it. He knew perfectly well that I would never wear pants and out here it is just the kind of thing because it's cold and keeps your ankles warm. It's not so many years and now we don't think anything of it at all. Q. Must have been auful hard washing long dresses and ... A. Yes , washed by hand. Q. After the suffragette movement of sorts, do you recall the organization that also had something to do with that movement? A. Miss Black who was one of the first librarians in Fort William wasn ' t a fighting suffragette but she was quite in favor of that. Mary J. Black, Q, Unfortunately, all her people were lost when she went out to B.C. A. Yes, she had a brother that she went to when she was sick - before she died, and I suppose like. so many people, they cleaned up everything thoroughly. Q, Too bad that she hadn't given evecy ... A. I suppose, like many people she was going to write it up herself. Q, I believe th?.,t the Homen 's Christian Temperance Union supported suffrage? A. Yes, they weren't fighting about it but ... Q. They gave support. A. Yes. Q. They sent petitions and endorsements. A. Mother believed and belong ea~ to the WCTU for years. We were a big family but mother always had help - always had a maid and hadra washwoman, that came Monday all day and Hednesday for a half a day. That was the day when our dresses and our underwear were washed but not the sheets or pillowcases. That was once a week. She was president of the Ladies Aid and a member of the Mission Circle and the Miss WCTU and the Mother's____ Anyway, mother went to that and the one thing I remember abo~t it - she came home �and mother was the kind that she never looked for an argument, she was a very wise, sw~et uoman, but this night ~he came home and we sat down .... had not experience keeping house for a man and had no family and never did but she undertook to tell the mothers how to bring up their families and Mrs. Dr. Smelly had 8 and Mrs .. Neelan had 7 and they had big families and here(wRet was this woman telling them how. Q. What sort of things was she recommending? A. How to dress your children and how you fed them an.d what you taught them and everything - ;gh'e knew how. answers. These women with no children who knew all the Mother and Mrs. Smelly talked it over and they agreed that they did the best they could at the time. Q. To get back to the WCTU - you mentioned it in your book so I wonder - you have never heard what happened to Ricobs or anything - nobody seems to know. A. Young fQlks organization - The White River Band - and we had the record books for them but Dr. John Ritchie of Regina - he was a surgeon· there for years he is an uncle of Ken Ritchie the doctor in P.A.. A very fine man - well he was secretar-J for years and years and he was a pure wit and his minutes you got there early so you wo:i.aldn 1 t miss John B's minutes, it was lovely. So we had them - it had closed dmm for years and finally my sister sent them to him and of course he wrote back - he was delighted - he said many of the words he didn't know what· they meant but he had used them. So that is were that ·went, and as for the rest I don't know but Mrs. Hamlet - Q. I found several books in the library that were minutes. One of the more notable was a report of a social survey by the Department of Temperance and Moral Reform in the Methodist Church. a great amount of detail with it. It is rather complete, they went into TJas that a woman's organization or was it just church members? A. I don't know for sure but I would say it was an organization within·__. the church not necessarily all church officers. Q. What was it called? The report was called the Preliminary and General Social Survey of Port Arthur, March 1913, Directed by the Department of Temperance and Moral Reform in the Methodist Church and the Board of Social Service and Evangelism of the Presbyterian Church. A. So, you can take your pick there. Q. Yes, it is rather - so detailed, I was wondering if it had been a notable organization. �A. Q. A. Well, I think it was like so many organizations that just are born and flourish for a while and then go. They were doing good work in getting that written down. The statistics were very good. In my letter I told you to contact Mrs. Hamlet who lives in Waverly Towers. She is still there is a little nuclei of the WCTU - she and her sister, who is now in Westmount or Grandview in Fort William. Let me see, did she die just lately? Anyway, Mrs. Hamlet will know - she•s a little birdie woman Q. a very nice woman, a widow. I have noted on my studies of the English suffragettes - they were the prime movers~ that they allied themselves with temperance movements, for the rather obvious reasons. Nellie McClung was very closely allied with the temperance movement. Although it wasn't a militant movement, literature was circulated for women's rights and this went along with temperance, which was A. because women couldn't afford to .... I don't think so, it was the same women largely in all organizations. King's Daughters and all of these - oh, mother belonged to the K.D. or the Queen's Daughters - it was the Queen's Daughters in Victoria's time and then it was Q. A. the King's Daughters. Could you explain the function of the Queen's Daughters? It was an organization that fostered patriotism and when any noteworthy person like a Govenor-General etc. came, the Q.D.looled after them and they had meetings and showed the flag, like the Imperial Daughters - but they were older women - younger than lots of the IODE. Q. It was just a patriotic formation. There was also another book I came across - a report on the Local Council of Women - The West Algoma Local Council of Women. didn't you? A. No, I didn 't . Q. There was a Mrs. Dyke. A. It might have been my mother-in-law. You convened that JO years But I attended - I don't know whether I held any office in it for q_uite some time. But I wasn't a leading light but I think my mother-in-law was and she was a member of a hospital aid before the RMG hos pitaJ. was built and during which time, mother and Mrs. Dr. ~1Smelly and Mrs. Neelson and Yi.rs. Mical. Quite a bunch of them that were very friendly and they enjoyed their friendship at these meetings and once the RMG started - once a week they went to the hospital and mended the sheets and pillowcases and towels. Mother always had a good maid, woman or girl, so that �her children were in e;ood hands and mother was up early so that in the a£ter- Q. noon she could go and bring word back of what they did. This would be the ladies social contact I suppose because they didn ' t work out of the homes. If you didn 't belong to an organization, you wouldn ' t go A. out very much. Yes, that is so. I did come across the minutes from 1894-1950 and I wrote a list of all the Q. proposals and the ammendments that the coucil had made for the wanen. They strongly pushed for women sitting on various boards, particularly the School Board and in 1917 they wished to have at least two women appointed to the Taxation and Organization of Homen Labor Boards. Although they were interested in hospitals, they seemed to have suggested - in 1930 a pre natal. clinic in Port Arlhur - all sorts of things that women are still asking for. It seems that they were thinking along feminist lines - did it strike you that A. way at the time? That ' s why they organized - to have mightier say in things than they have had before because they were supposed, just to run their homes and bring up their children. And now they bancled together and asked for some things like the RMG hospital. There was just St. Joseph ' s Hospital and women didn ' t go to the hospital. to have their babies. The RMG hospital., the women urged that until they got it and the primary idea was for it to be like a maternity hospital. They had wards .and private rooms for maternity but it was RMG that was General, The Railway, Marine and General Hospital. Well, in those early days there was a great deal of typhoid, and they had a lot of typhoid wards and men ' s and Nomen 1 8; And my oldest sister went to the RMG to have her baby and there was a night nurse on for the men's typhoid ward - she crune across the hall to ansuer the bells of the young mothers. To have a nurse who would be far more interested in gabbing all night with those men than Q. A. bothering washing and scalding her hands before coming to the mothers and Eva went home with typhoid fever. Did she survive? A. She survived but she was ill for a long time. The baby as well? Yes. Q. They were both very lucky. A. Yes and lucky too there was a Scotch nurse - a married woman . Q. You see any lO �trained nurse was scarce and this woman married and came with her husband to Port Arthur and someway, I think my brother-in-law knew them well enough to have her come and look after Eva. She was Scotch - trained and we had very few trained nurses in those days. That is what started the RMG - to be Q. a maternity hospital. Were you also a member of the Women's Institute? A. No, that was a rural organization. They made - two or three years ago - the word went through all the institutes : "Have your district written up." and Mrs. Oliver did it for Slate River. Each area had it written up and I pre- sume all those books and papers are kept at the headquarters. Q. We are having a difficult time extracting the Hymers book from a Mrs. Thatcher. She has it and she is not giving it out. A. Q. Well - and hasn't had it published yet? No. I know that the Women's Institute did some valuable things including setting up libraries and providing rural women with what they needed - a place to go and be with other women. The council is more politically orientated - was there any tension between the two or did you co-operate? A. I don't recall any tension. Q. A. Was there any co-operation between the two groups for projects? Some. Q. Can you give me the areas? A. Q. I just have the feeling. Did you hear of the Dominion Women ' s Franchisement Association? They did change their name to a much easier one which was the Canadian Suffrage Association. I talked to Mr. Russell Brown and he said he remembered but he couldn't remember anything about the suffrage movement other than they wore pins. A. They tried to be militant to stir themsel~es up and to head up a slight war but they never got that far. Each strove a little bit and all together they have got some very good things for women. Q. After looking at the minutes I am findin 6 so many things that we are still fighting for. Looking back, do you think we have changed very much? gotten anywhere? Have we A• They have really done very well. Slowly and without making big distresses. They quietly accomplished a good many things. Q. Have you got something that you had worked on then, that is still not an accomplished feat, that you would very much like to see happen? \l �A. I don't think I can pull that one out of a hat. Because there ar~ so many things that they just have quietly gotten. Nellie McClung - she used to come and speak. Q. A. Her father-in-law was Presbyterian. She came to speak here? In P.A. and F.H.. The men loved Nellie McClung, she was witty. I used to go with father, and to hear her speak in the evening, there was lots of laughs in it. Q. A. She was very diplomatic and very kindly but she made a point. lfas she an inspiration for you? Yes and she had some experience with liquor and so she was out and out for WCTU. I remember her speaking in the Presbyterian church in Port Arthur - St. Paul's - and there would be as many men as women because she was worth going to hear and you quite agreed with what she had to say because she put it quite nicely. She spoke this evening and I think there was some big ~ I don't suppose it was a war, but something was on and the Archbishop of Canterbury had said that he couldn ' t do without his wine because it helped his digestive system and stomach do it ' s work. And the way she would state it and she had a little twinkle in her eye and everybody was laughing about this. The Archbishop uasn ' t an out and out prohibitionist, he liked his wine. was a very fine woman. She She went west - her father-in-law was one of the earliest ministers in P.A. - Methodist, because Robert McClung, who she married taught a Sunday school class of boys as a minister's son was expected to do. My aunts were all teachers and my grandmother taught the Bible class and my uncle was a Suuday school superintendant, and his wife played the organ in church. These were unrilly boys that Bob Mcclung was teaching. young man, 19 or so, He was a very Hell they would sit around him with their row of chairs, heads tight together listening to him. And they discovered that he had a copy of Robinson Crusoe in a Bible cover and he was reading that to them and they just~ loved him and loved his stories. Nellie went west to teach in those early days and she fell so in love with Mrs. Mcclung and there was a young son and she was so disappointed because if she could marry a son, she would be Mrs. McClung's daughter-in-law. To her great amazement and joy, this bo:;y sh(n1red up one time - he was a druggist - and here was a ready-made son of her own age. So she said that she - well, she would say it of course - she simply said her cap and he couldn't get out of it. So they married. led a great deal and was acclaimed wherever she went. She lectured and travelShe was well-known and one time she heard that her husband was objecting to her being away so much \2 �without telling her. So she went home and she had been honored in Toronto and Ottawa and he felt she was getting beyond him so when she got there in the evening and they had tea, she said to him, "Would you please pass.the brown bread?". That was the staple food, brown bread, and she wanted him to under- stand that she was still staple. So it went on from there. She loved Mrs. McClung and Mrs. McClung loved her, more than any of her own children. Q. Was she treated well by the papers here? A. Yes, wherever she went. Q. Did they print up any of her speeches? A. Oh, yes. Q. So, if I go through the microfilm - you don't know the years she was here? A. No, I couldn't tell you .... If you just get up and give dates and times, it just bores you to death. I see you have read "Plane Down" , that story in there. It is pure fiction but this is the house they crune to. They came in that door tumbled down their goods there, and went into the livingroom and we made fires in the kitchen and the back shed still has the great woodpile. Ann Caaslet, the Dickinsons were really pioneers, her great grandfather ran - r·don ' t know whether it was the first paper published in P.A. e His granddaughter is Mrs. Ann Causelet and she lives in this cottage where old Captain Marrin lived, Ann Dryna - my mind went blank, what was I going to say about Ann Dryna? ,a/,. '· 1 e A. . .... Oh yes, that "Plane Down" and they have been here for ever and ever and were talking about Nellie McClung. Ann speaks very slowly. morning. She lives back again in F.W. and she phoned this She said, "Mother and I have racked our brains trying to think of the year that plane mishap and we can't remember it at all. pen?" When did it hap- I said, "Imagine, have I convinced you?•, "Convinced me of what?". "That's pure fiction" and she said, "You told it too well, we thought it was true," Q. You have been very active in women's organizations all your life, and so has your mother. A. How do you feel about the women's oganizations now? I'm stric~ly a temperate woman, Father called it the "accursed stuff" because he had such trouble with th.e,~:men, especially the foundry men. fines and hauled them out and got them back to work. He payed their He and mother were strictly temperate and one thing I o1;>ject to is that these organizations now there is wine and cheese - well, it doesn ''t seem to dawn on them that they don't need to have this wine and cheese business but they think they've got to do like some of the others do. There are other less outstanding things �that they are also embracing and it used to be that now the Canadian Club was a splintered organization, it was for the most part made up of cultured, educated women, and I don't say that they aren ' t educated now, but I don't like some things and I feel that the women ' s organizations should stand forth for the best in Canad.a and you can't bring up children to avoid alcohol if you belong to these organizations that serve it and take it. to be on one side or the other. didn't need it. You have got We didn ' t serve it and we didn ' t miss it and And then, after all, women have a place that is separate from men and women are dressing like men and their doing so many things that men do, Q. Do you mean working? A. No, I mean in every way. For example, car racing and boy, the women are driving the cars along with the men. They have to do with all the sports. Q. You think that 's wrong. A. I think the men like them to be women. Q. Nellie HcClung had a saying: We were t~J.king to a woman who preferred to have her coat taken off and the doors opened etc. and Nellie McClung referred to that once as "wantin 0 to eat the icing rather than the cake." And that goes right along with her brown bread saying, where yoy. have to be recognized for your ability, and whether they open the door or ill.at shouldn't stand in the way. To me, this is the goal I 'm trying to work towards, and I think a lot of other women that I work with would agree with me on that. It is the cake that I would rather eat, you get too many cavities eating icing - too many holes in it. Do you have a daughter? A. Yes, in California. Q. Do you think that it is a better life for her than it was for you? A. It was pretty rugged and we didn't know it because it was where we lived and what we were used to. They have sidewalks and roads now that you can go without going down to the axle and in my day, in Fort lilliam especially. we have coveniences now in the house and travel etc. And Yes it is much easier. I was telline; somebody of a classmate of mine who got to P.A. from the States and came to high school. I don't know how she got to P.A. and her father had died and her mother was lecturing for something. She and her brother and, I don't know how they jerked themselves up but anyway they both got to P.A .. She was poor and had no ml':biley or \~achl.ng worked her way. but she got up to Collegiate and she She got up for this English woman who had 2 girls and she �washed and dressed them and got them breakfast and eot them to school and did the beds and dishes and left the house tidy - to come to school herself. I didn't think she paid and as for clothes, she gave her her cast-off clothes and this woman was two sizes smaller than Lula and Lula I remember had no hat so she wore a bonnet every winter and it was all she had. jolly well take· h er with a bormet or leave her. And you could She went through public school and went to the teachers college which we had for a few years and then she went up the line to teach and married the first man that asked her. hadn't had a home, so just to have a home. about him. She She wasn ' t asking the man much He had a farm but it had been bun1t over and when I saw her after some years of marriage, her hands were like horns - she was still using this burnt over wood and she had 5 children and somebody said "one every Friday" .every year, anyway. Her husband wasn't interested except to feed them - that was his duty done. She wanted them to have an education so she sewed and she proclaimed herself a barber and then she got a second hand chick hatchery an incubator - and turned one of the two bed.rooms she had into an incubating • room and hatched chickens and sold them around the district. tomatoe plants and sold them and sent her children to school. Then she raised Then they had to go into town for the hi¢gh school - her oldest daughter went first and she got babysitting - had a room but I don't think her board, but did that and it was enough to bring her cash. Then she went home Friday night and her mother did the s~wing, washing and ironing, fixed her up on Saturday and then she came back Sunday night and brought a big basket of food. Her brother was ready for hig9.school and they just put a sheet up in her room with a bed on each side and she managed the food for them. He eventually became a teacher and she trained in HcKellar Hospital and she had the money that they, paid the girls - $2.50 a month or $J.OO and if she broke a thermometer, it ~as a disaster and she had clothes her mother made out of old clothes. Stockings and those button - on shoes was all she had and she learned like her mother:· that was what she had and she wore •-il and she was thankful. denims so she could go hiking with the girls. RMG and had a bad time. Had a pair of The next girl went into the The matron didn ' t approve of her - a poor girl in the class with some of the girls that had more - so she dismissed her on the first pretext she could find and she herself was dismissed for cilsmissing the girl. They all managed and were splendid children. How many are doing that nowadays? \S �If they haven't silk stockings and all the rest of it, they sit down and howl at the moon, but these youngsters didn ' t. Q. I feel sorry for the girl you went to school with who married the first man who caJ.11e along to get a home and live with a man - probably not a very happy life. A. Oh, I'm sure, but she wouldn't cheep, there would be no squabbling, she made her bargain and she kept it. Dad finally died and he had a thousand dollars life insurance in some organization - very little. Now that is five $200 ' s well the youngest girl had died so there were four and she was the fifth so they each got $200 and that was just touching the •::louds. She came to F. W. and two or three times she came representing the Women ' s Institute and they would pay her way down and then she would stay with me and she told me "I just went on a regular binge, I bought an electric iron and an electric kettle" and then she bought enough black silk or rayon and a neighbor helped her make a dress and a jacket and she had $.50 left and she put it in the bank - so she had a bank account. The others - it was spent the same Hay - had to give a good account of every nickel. She died long since and at Christmas time I write one of her daughters and this daughter - her son and another boy in the neighbqrhood were going to play PeeW ee hockey in F. W. , so they stayed with ll!e. Youngsters love to see through a house so when they had been there a little while .I suggested that the boys go on and look through the house and see everything. One youngster went home and I guess he nadn 't been in a big house before and he told his mother all the details - the furniture, what they had on the beds, how they took a bath . in the bathtub. He is now a grown man and married long::::since but she still gives me a little of his history and she and her sister were fine women and well thought of in the community and the one boy is a teach er and the other is head of the highways in Kenora and I don't knou whether he is still there or whether he is retired or not. They have always accepted any help - so nicely - no embarrassment, just thank-you very much. Q. Uas there any help for a woman uho wanted to leave her husband - perhaps if he physically beat her or the children? Has there anyone she could turn to if she had no family? A. 1 tfell, they turned to the church and the minister and his wife. went into housework - that was her refuge. Of course, she �Q. Would she be able to take all of her children? A. If there Here children that would be different. Q. She would have to put up with it. A. Q. Yes, many of them did. A. There was often a ver-J nice neigbor map. who would beat the daylights out of This is one of the things we are still trying to work on. him - which he well deserved. Q. I asked an Italian lady in Italy what a wife would do if the husband beat her and she said that generally they never moved from the original village and she had her brothers protect her. It would take on<f.'•• thump and generally he got the message. A. There was an early priest - Father Baxter in P.A. He was a great big burly man and if he heard of any man that had been beating his wife, he ' d talrn off his clerical black gown, "nightg0vm" as they called it, and he ' d just give him such a thrashing that he wouldn't forget it. Many a man stopped beating his wife when he had a beating from Father Ba,'Cter. He came out here in the early days and said mass and that white house down there is built on the old foundation of the old Catholic church - the Sellars live in it. quite a family of them. in the Lakehead. There was They were the early elevator people and grain pe ople Hr. Al Sellars bought it but it was in such disrepair and it was finally torn down and then the foundation was. remade and he built the same size on thesame foundation. It was during the years I was away from Silver Islet that it was finished so it took some arguing on Ethel Sellars ' part to convince me that it wasn ' t the old Catholic Church. Q. Do your remember WWI? A. Yes. ' Q. · I am a history teacher - do you remember after the Har, in your experience, if the attitude towards working women changed much? A. Yes, it commenced a change because the women had irnrked so hard during the uar. Q. At jobs that a lot of people didn ' t think they could do. A. 1-J ell, Q. Did it progress further after WH2? A. Yes and after WWI and especially after WW2, the people had learned to go out there were more stenographers and bookeepers and things like. that . and enjoy themselves and people had learned to leave their children and go out. They took their families lightly to what they had been before, A mother wouldn ' t \7 �leave her children and go gabbing. They think nothing of leaving them and they can pretty much bring up th ems elves, the youngsters. Q. Do you see no discrepancy between a woman hiring a girl t.o feed her children breakfast and lunch and do their clothes and send them out to school, even though she lives withinl. the house, to women who have to use daycare centres to do the same thing? ·no you see much of a difference? A. Of course daycare - Miss Michaels has now set up her evm school in the Salvation Army Eall and has the daycare. That is a real profession. She has a real degree and education. Q. The point I ' m getting at is the effect on the children, Why would it be more acceptable to have a girl living in your home to do that? A. Because they are home - that's the only differ-~nce. These daycare centres, where the girl has to Imow a lot and the child must learn a lot. Q. Yes, they are very careful with them. A. There was a couple married in Hesley Church a11d they were quite active, they were both teachers. They had a child and they didn't show up again and it was some time before one of the ladies went to call and found that· this beautiful little girl baby had an enormous head - it was terrific. There nas something wrong with the children a11d so from that, they banded together and Wesley let them have a room and they met every mon1ing uith a different mother looking after these 5 or 6 children. It meant a holiday for the mother -l~ days a week and 5 mothers, and 5 children and they did simple ~ai.11es and things and looked after them and the mother would be refreshed and rested. I went d01m for about 26 years. I was the relief officer - that is an at- tendant to the second-hand clothing and people would come to my house, I had a trunk that was never empty and never full. ....... I would then send overseas twice a year there were greatshipments. I" remember one time .we sent 850 lbs. a.nd that is a lot to pack a.nd Hr. Gerr'iJ would come and help us rope and the McKenzie dray came and took it, shipped it, a11d paid tho shipping charges and just charged us for the shippinc charge - they never charged us for their dray and went on for years and yea:cs ... I would often be at the church in the morning~ after school and these children - the little girl with the great big head, I don ' t know how she held it up - it must have taken a long time to get it O o I• Q. How long did she survive? A. I think she was 9 or 10 when she finally died. shapen and mongoloid. The others, they were mis- I always stopped and talked to them and told them a story, so that they got to know me. l3 �• Q. A. Aft er the war, when ladies had been working in factory jobs and that sort of thing, when their husbands came home, did they expect them to go back to the way they had been? What sort of conflicts Callle from the change? They expected it. Women often went out without any squabbling, they get their own way and they had more money than they had ever and they weren ' t going to give that up right away. Q. A. So there was difficulty. The majority of women stayed with their husbands. And the husbands learnt to live with liberated women? It wasn't so easy for the men to get jobs and there are a few sensible men that would see that their wives really had to bring in the bread and butter and they had to work at home themselves. You saw quite a few, but also you saw the one that wasn ' t going to have it. going to stay so. ironed out. He was king of the castle and was That was the unfortunate few but it is wonderful how many There was one English girl that came out - the men came home first - well they sent the women home first - anyway, she was-______ and she married and Indian from the mission over here and in England they are not so concerned about the color of their skin as we are. them marry from the Near East - red and brmm skin. A great many of One of our ta,-ximen was at the station and this girl came to him and wanted to be taken to the mission, and he was shocked. She was a fine looking :I!nglish girl, so he said "Are you sure that is the right address?" She had married a native Canadian and was going to stay with his people until he got here. H2 very nicely tried to persuade her not to but she was going - he took her for quite a long ciistance and then you turn up tolthe reserve and he said he noticed that her chatter ceased when he turned up because it was pretty crummy in those days, they've decent houses now. He told her that this was the house and he told her he would wait and for her togo to the door. So she did and a big, fat, very unclean looking squaw came to the door - the mother of this boy she married. She just threw up her hands and came back to the taxi and said for him to take her away from there. He told her he knew and had tried to tell her but he decided she had better see for herself. He told her he would take her to his house or to the Salvation Army, 1-1hichever she wanted and she could get help from the Red Cross to go back home. She chose to go to the Salvation Army and reported to the Red Cross and they came and helped her. went right back home. She just They would have been marrying boys from all the colonies so she ..... now they are very fine, smarl Indian men that are working on the highways and worki:pg at machines. They've had a tough time, our native people. /9 �.,· • Q. A. We have a lot to account for. They used to scalp people and shoot them down with arrows and burn them and do all kinds of things. If we had a hoard of p~ople come in and take over our country - they had it for thousands of years - of course they ' d fight. Q, As far as scalping goes, it was white men that taught the Indians - they used It was easier to bring in a scalp, they thought of ears for a while but a guy could bring in two different ears and say they were ears from one person and so, the scalps. A. More power to them - fight for their land. If somebody crune along and put me out of this house, ..... Thank-you for your help Mrs. Dyke, it for bounty. l.C � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Northwestern Ontario Women's Decade Council Herstory Project Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Herstory: Gertrude Dyke Description An account of the resource An oral history interview with Mrs. Gertrude Dyke in Port Arthur, Ontario. The interview was performed by Helen Lovekin as part of the Women's Decade Council Herstory project. The recording consists of two sides each of two cassette tapes, available here as four MP3 files. (Click on the speaker logo to play each file.) The transcript is available by clicking on the image thumbnails. During the interview, Mrs. Dyke recalls the social and working conditions of Northern Ontario in the early 20th century, focussing on the education system, her personal historical interests, regional terrain, temperance movements, local businesses, community and personal relationships, and the activity of women. Please note that this tape includes discussion of settler-Indigenous relations, using language that would not be seen as sensitive or appropriate today. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northwestern Ontario Women's Decade Council Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Release form was obtained by the Herstory project, allowing the recording to be shared and used. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP3 PDF Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Text Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada - Ontario - Port Arthur Canada - Ontario - Thunder Bay Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource [197?]-06-27 Subject The topic of the resource People Women's History https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/828e6695cca847a587c40e57dadab504.jpg 29c71694b103aa80e2ce4942da8c3ed0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lakehead University Collection Description An account of the resource Photographs from Lakehead University's history: people, events, and campus. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context UG6-Z-I-38 Title A name given to the resource Lakehead College: People in front of the sign Subject The topic of the resource University Life People Description An account of the resource "Lakehead College, Third at Duluth." People standing in front of the Lakehead College sign. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lakehead University Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPG Type The nature or genre of the resource Still image Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada - Ontario - Thunder Bay https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/d85ae99b8396d01cd722eacda28aeaaf.jpg 786946af0a9e9346ed9b669d9d45e965 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lakehead University Collection Description An account of the resource Photographs from Lakehead University's history: people, events, and campus. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context UG6-Z-I-37 Title A name given to the resource Lakehead College: Watering Plants Subject The topic of the resource University Life People Description An account of the resource Lakehead College. Watering plants: possibly experimental work? Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Lakehead University Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPG Type The nature or genre of the resource Still image Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada - Ontario - Thunder Bay https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/0bdbfdc6b93c6259a0993d03de1e82c2.jpg f89cc808381db21bab3229d0ebe4f96d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lakehead University Collection Description An account of the resource Photographs from Lakehead University's history: people, events, and campus. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context UG6-Z-I-36a Title A name given to the resource Lakehead College: Library, 1962 Subject The topic of the resource University Life People Description An account of the resource Lakehead College of Arts, Science and Technology, Library, 1962. Copy of print photograph. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Lakehead University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1962 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPG Type The nature or genre of the resource Photocopy Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada - Ontario - Thunder Bay https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/c8ce0a54fcc6441682784f20e64e95ee.pdf a342d383f348ae65008e922e627c94a9 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lakehead University Collection Description An account of the resource Photographs from Lakehead University's history: people, events, and campus. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context UG6-Z-I-35b Title A name given to the resource Lakehead College: Opening, October 3, 1959 Subject The topic of the resource University Life People Description An account of the resource Lakehead College Opening, October 3 1959. Copy of print photograph. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Lakehead University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1959-10-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPG Type The nature or genre of the resource Photocopy Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada - Ontario - Thunder Bay https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/7129afd51a5077e0754426eb6cc40d28.pdf 917c068cfdbb8e895ef2991c35547ea8 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lakehead University Collection Description An account of the resource Photographs from Lakehead University's history: people, events, and campus. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context UG6-Z-I-35a Title A name given to the resource Lakehead College: College Fund Total $300,000 Subject The topic of the resource University Life Universities Description An account of the resource Lakehead College Fund Total $300,000, Building Campaign gifts and pledges, April 25 1963. News article. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Times Journal Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Lakehead University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1963-04-25 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Type The nature or genre of the resource Photocopy Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada - Ontario - Thunder Bay https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/94a7a32ac86ac71f90588b76c056b4f5.jpg 99564a6434d3bd871462731a7b8ad534 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lakehead University Collection Description An account of the resource Photographs from Lakehead University's history: people, events, and campus. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context UG6-Z-I-29 Title A name given to the resource Lakehead College: Cornerstone of Braun Building Description An account of the resource Lakehead College, Cornerstone, September 26 1956. The cornerstone of the Braun Building is laid, as construction begins. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Lakehead University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956-09-26 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPG Type The nature or genre of the resource Photocopy Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada - Ontario - Thunder Bay Subject The topic of the resource University Life People https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/811a8a0e1f9bfc77886f17343760656e.jpg 28676e262d4384ec8dcfd865b5f33f4f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lakehead University Collection Description An account of the resource Photographs from Lakehead University's history: people, events, and campus. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context UG6-Z-I-28b Title A name given to the resource Lakehead College: Official Opening Subject The topic of the resource University Life People Description An account of the resource Newspaper clipping. Lakehead College. Hon. W. J. Dunlop Opens Lakehead College of Arts, Science and Technology, October 3 1959. Front, left to right: Mayor Eunice Wishart, Mrs. Ray Gleeson, Princess Beatrice Chapter, IODE. Back, left to right: F. L. Stevens, College Advisory Board Member, Douglas Fisher, MP, Rev. Dan McIvor, MP, Hon. Clare Mapledoram, Minister of Lands and Forests; Hon. W. J. Dunlop, Minister of Education, Hon. Col. W. Griesinger, Minister of Public Works, R. J. Flatt, Board Chairman, George Wardrope, MP, Mayor Hubert Badanai, H. S. Braun, Lakehead College Principal. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Times Journal Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Lakehead University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1959-10-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPG Type The nature or genre of the resource Photocopy Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada - Ontario - Thunder Bay https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/a8b748778357c49816b50ed1e398b26a.jpg a1f2795a43cabdfaa074203f57159ba3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lakehead University Collection Description An account of the resource Photographs from Lakehead University's history: people, events, and campus. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context UG6-Z-I-22 Title A name given to the resource Lakehead College: Architect's Model Subject The topic of the resource University Life Universities Description An account of the resource Lakehead College, Model of College Building. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lakehead University Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPG Type The nature or genre of the resource Still image Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada - Ontario - Thunder Bay https://digitalcollections.lakeheadu.ca/files/original/be56d94f193c18b43c6fa3708baa4bf1.jpg aa74ada5816001f2c20920165305a171 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lakehead University Collection Description An account of the resource Photographs from Lakehead University's history: people, events, and campus. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context UG6-Z-I-21 Title A name given to the resource Lakehead College: Architect's Model Subject The topic of the resource University Life Universities Description An account of the resource Lakehead College, Architect's Model of College Building. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lakehead University Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPG Type The nature or genre of the resource Still image Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada - Ontario - Thunder Bay