Three Steps Forward, One Back

A picture of Edith with very possibly staff from Westmount Methodist Institut. Myabe Yvonne Villard is there.

Well, five steps forward, one step back.

I wasn’t finding much online about Westmount Methodist, so lucky, I thought, for the Preparing the Way document by Paul Villard. Only a few copies of this little pamphlett remain in existence, one supposedly at McGill and one copy at Westmount Library. And his other book, Up to the Light, contains only a bit on the Institut -because I found a French webpage that said as much.

I decided to check the Gazette archives and didn’t find much either, just a few graduation notices… and a strange article from 1960′s, about the actress Madeleine Sherwood, the Mother Superior, I think, in the television show The Flying Nun and also that very bitchy pitch-perfect Sister Woman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, one of the movies that should have won Best Picture but didn’t. (Did she play the same character on Broadway?)

It seems this Montreal-born actress’s grandfather was a certain McGill Prof, Paul Villard, who was also an MD and a preacher.

Could it be the same Paul Villard. I couldn’t be sure, until I found an article in the 1911 (YES) Westmount News about The Institut that claimed this Paul Villard was a doctor, too.

Too much of a coincidence. I couldn’t be 100 percent sure, until I found a bio for Ms. Sherwood that claimed her Mom was named Yvonne.

Well, that nailed it.

The Westmount News was so useful. I discovered a great deal of useful information for my first draft of Threshold Girl, the new title for Flo in the City.

The Horse Show was in early May at THE ARENA in Westmount. So I have to fix that. Westmount Park wasn’t referred to as Victoria Jubilee Park anymore, but The Westmount Park. So there, I have to change it back to what I had.

And there wasn’t a tram on Sherbrooke,not until 1913, like I had supposed. The St Catherine tram was cramped and crowded.

And the Merry Widow wasn’t playing (well, I knew that ) but Brewster’s Millions was. The Westmount News goes into great detail about What’ s On at the Orpheum and Princess… And in 1911, Sir Wilfrid bought some land in Westmount for his wife. And there wasn’t much crime in the city, (well, I saw that from the Yearbook) but a lot of ‘car’ accidents. The trouble is, ‘cars’ could be motorcars or tramcars.

And they were showing Kinecoloured films of the Coronation at the Princess.. with realistic colours.. so they wrote. So maybe I will have Marion go to this, instead of the same Somner Park show that Edith went to.

And one tidbit I will put in my story: a Laurentian Water horse ran amok in Westmount. Well, I write about runaway horses, in my story and Laurentian water was owned by my husband’s relations on the other side. I think I will have Flo and Edith witness this!! I want to put a bit about Laurentian in Marion’s story anyway. (Here’s a quote about the need for a children’s library in Westmount: “Pure water, effective drainage, fine sidewalks,beautiful parks, and the annexation of profitable lands are material things worth striving for, but the things of the mind, things that build charcter should not be overlooked,these build for time and eternity. It was a wise Jesuit who said, “Give me the first 7 years of a child’s life, and you can take the rest.” (This quote is similar to my “healthy home” quote at the beginning of Threshold Girl.”) Intellectual, physical and MORAL health were considered ONE AND THE SAME THING in 1910.)

But I also discovered something that messes me up a bit. In the article about Westmount Methodiste, Villard writes that Academy I graduates can enter the Model Course at Macdonald. Hmm. So that means Flora wasn’t in Academy III but Academy II, as she just took one year of the course.

I guess I have to change that. I wonder why Edith didn’t take the course, money I guess. Just like so many people, she didn’t have enough money to take off a year and to go school.

Oh, and another thing I read, wedding announcements in Westmount tended to describe the weddings as ‘quiet.’ Many of them. I figure this is to appease those who were not invited..

Women’s Options, 1910

Coco Before Chanel still. This is the scene at the racetrack where she trashes the society women’s fashions while walking with her sister.

As I wrote in the previous blog, some 1910 era movie period pieces are meticulous when it comes to costume and some aren’t.

Coco Before Chanel is, because, well, that’s the material point.. (pun).

And where’s my Miss Potter. I love that movie. But someone stole my copy. Must get another.

Anyway, I’ve been reading over some of my old blogs (because I MUST get down to writing Flo in the City) when I stumbled upon an important one that I forgot all about.

I wrote about a letter in the Nicholson stash, (but not a Nicholson letter) from someone writing down the names of all the Lewis relations in the US.

It is mentioned in the letter that an Aunt Flora (which one I can’t tell) is living in the poor house is Sarnia with her invalid husband, where they pay 1.50 a week to stay.

It also mentions that another relative, a niece is working as a high school teacher in Chicago and earning 180 a month, three times what Marion is making.

Two sides of the coin, I guess. Or two extremes of the middle class.

This I MUST put in Flo in the City. I’m sure visions of the poor house danced in Margaret’s head when she read this. It must have terrified her, or comforted her, as her daughter Marion was a teacher.

(I saw in one of my era magazines a profile of the Superintendant of Education in Chicago who was a woman and whose salary was 10,000 a year, a huge salary.)

Watching Coca after Chanel, up to this scene and seeing how Coco had to ‘ingratiate herself’ with her first rich boyfriend, indeed foisting herself on him because she needed a place to stay,well, it’s something.

I have a bio of Coco, but years ago. I’m not certain if this was EXACTLY the case. But she was a ‘courtesan’ of sorts.. No choice, she had no connections.

But as many great works of literature have shown, courtesans had it better than most women. And this courtesan was the right woman in the right place at the right time.

Statistics Don’t Lie

Small pastel of a young Marion Nicholson, sketched by “Buzzell”…likely the Helen who attended Teachers’ Convention in 1916, see below.

Statistics don’t lie. There was a need for new teachers in 1911 in Montreal, as in other urban centres of North America. That’s why Flora Nicholson, who failed composition and maybe French, still got into Macdonald Teaching School, with a little help from the school inspector, who was a family friend.

That’s why in 1912 she wrote to her mom “We have the Montreal Board at our mercy.” Despite the fact her tuition at Macdonald had been paid for under a scholarship plan for rural teachers, she knew that the numbers meant that she could secure employment at a Montreal School. And she did.

Below are statistics for 1903, 1913 and 1915, showing the increase in pupils in Protestant Schools in Quebec, in the cities.

Maisonneuve is Central Montreal and that’s where immigrants mostly from the UK would have lived. Outremont, I suspect, was where the new Jewish Immigrants lived. It is adjacent Mile End which was really growing in 1910.

Westmount, well, I suspect that’s where wealthier former townsfolk had moved, although I believe the Southern Regions was home to new immigrants who weren’t wealth. (I’m guessing here, I have to check the 1911 Census Records.)

Edith Nicholson (Richmond) and Flora Nicholson (281 Old Orchard, are also included in this long list of teachers and other education professionals who attended Teachers’ Convention in 1916.

Flora lived with her sister Marion during the war. In NDG. In a war-time letter, Marion tells about how everyone is out making a garden, to grow their own veggies. She jokes that she does not think anyone really knows what they are doing. City folk! In Richmond, the Nicholsons always had a large garden.

Flora taught at Willian Lunn, on Anne Street in Griffintown. In her letters, she feels sorry for her students who ‘have such a hard life.’

But at Parents Day, she remarks in a letter that the Moms and Dads appeared in droves, all wanting to know how their children were doing. William Lunn closed for Jewish Holidays, so that suggests most kids in that school were Jewish- and new immigrants. (Again, have to check the 1911 Census)

Jewish Community began collecting around St. Laurent and Ste. Catherine.

TOPSY TURVEY WORLD 9th installment

A roll in the hay? Flo and friends. 1907 or 8.

“I have some good news,” Margaret announced to Flora, as she closed the door behind kind neighbour Mr. Skinner, who had picked her up at the train and seen her home. It was Sunday evening, 7 o’clock. Marion was already on her way back to Sherbrooke. Finessing her lesson plan, no doubt. “Edith has given her notice into the head man there. She’ll be returning home for good on the 26th of June.”

Flora blinked, but was not surprised. Her mother had clearly gone to Three Rivers on a mission – and now she knew what the mission had been.

Poor Edie. She’d only taken the position out of a sense of duty to her parents. If she were not getting married, better that she earn her own keep, even if her wages were barely enough to sustain herself, let alone help out her parents.

A year before, on her birthday, things had looked much rosier. Marion and Flora had sent their older sister a note:

My dear old girl,

To greet thee on thy birthday (age?) we the undersigned wish to express our appreciation for your very valuable services rendered so grudgingly and grumblingly up to this venerable old age. We sincerely wish you many happy returns of this notable day and we will multiply our regards a ‘tousan fol’ if by this time next year you would take unto yourself a spouse and charm him into realms of bliss with your exquisite and delicious cooking.

Marion Annie Nicholson and Flora Margaret Nicholson.

The note was kindly meant, as it did look like Edith was soon to be married. Why else had she suddenly decided not to attend the Symons Business School in Boston.

But her beau, one Charlie G. had not proposed as expected (perhaps it had something to do with the Nicholson’s fall in fortunes, Mrs. Montgomery had cruelly speculated) and Edith was left, in 1907, without any plan for the future.

J.R. McLeod, Minister at Three Rivers, came to the rescue with a request. “Dear Edith,

The Manager of Works at a town 15 miles from here says he is looking for a suitable girl to teach 1o children. Her pay would be 20 dollars a month, and it would likely cost 10 dollars a month for room and board. A diploma is not needed. I am sure you are up to the task.”

Edith took the job, hoping, no doubt, that her absence would make his heart grown fonder.

Her work was going well and the people in charge were very pleased – they’d had so much trouble keeping their teachers. And she was something of a fashion plate in the small company town “Everyone here loves the way I do up my hair, ” she wrote in a letter home.

But in winter word got back to Edith that Charlie was attending dances in Richmond.

So the couple parted ways in March.

She called it ‘a growing experience’ in a letter to Marion and seemed to take it all in stride; but Margaret and Norman were worried. Edith was being pursued by a certain Mr. Young. In a letter home, Edith described him as ‘a persistent beggar who won’t take no for an answer’. “He’s not a bad sort, but his people aren’t much,” she added.

This is what Flora knew of the situation, the information Mrs. Montgomery had tried so hard to squeeze out of her at Saturday luncheon.

Flora also knew that Margaret blamed Edie, at least to some degree, for the break up. She had overheard her mom telling Marion at Easter:”She does not put any effort into it. She loves the attention and suspense, but she isn’t practical about romance.

Edie is not practical about very much, replied Marion. She’s impulsive. It’s not in her nature to compromise. She wants to taste it all.

Yes, I’m afraid you have all the focus in the family, Margaret had told her second oldest daughter, which was true enough, but Flora did not like hearing it.

Margaret, at the moment, in the master bedroom, as Flora placed her suitcase beside the giant vanity table, was admitting to nothing.

But then little Flora was deliberately kept out of the loop on so many things. All Margaret offered was this., ” It is such a lonesome place. You should see the sad examples of humanity there. The poor young girls wasting the best years of their lives, the way they cling to friendships and are desperate for news of any kind. Well, at least I learned how my pots and pans are made.

How are they made, Mother?

Well, there’s bogs and iron deposits, and coal and immense furnaces and smokestacks and molten iron and sand and moulds. And father says the ironworks are antiquated, by modern standards. He says they are probably spewing soot into the air and that’s why Edith has suffered from so many headaches lately.

The Company doctor there said she had to give up drinking tea. Can you imagine?

Both Father and I agreed, she must leave. For her health.

So you will have your sister back, for now. Oh, and I’ve decided on something else. I will be going to Quebec at the end of July for the tercentary celebrations. I must keep an eye on the Prince.

And then you and Mae are off to Massachusetts. Oh, Flora, At least I have one child who is giving me no worries. Speaking of which, was there a letter from Herb in the mail yesterday? Father is frantic.

“No, Mother.” Flora blushed. If mother only knew the truth. If she only realized how topsy turvy her world was at the moment. How confused she was about it all. How she could find no consolation anywhere, even at church. How her favorite place, the verandah at Tighsolas on a sunny afternoon, provided no peace of mind, either. It was June and exams were coming up. And she had no one to help her pass.