Fiddling with Images

My husband and me in 1958. Both playing in the sand, but not together. Not yet.

I fiddled with some Super 8, on DVD. I am told that originally Super 8 movies were extremely clear, but the ones I have of me are somewhat faded. My Aunt Flo took them. My husband has some, taken by cousins, that are clearer. They were stored in a better place, I guess.

Funny, my husband and I have quite a lot of video of our kids when younger, but none when older, as in their teens. They stopped being cute and just got annoying!

I dressed up the picture of Marion in her white dress, surrounding her in red with Corel, and printed it out on glossy paper and put it on the wall in the dining room. (I’m redecorating a bit and felt the room needed a note of colour. Then I forgot to save the picture on my computer. Oh, well.

I like this picture, which I originallly I scanned from the Nicholson Album and turned it into an “Impressionst Print” in Photoshop.

Now this picture of Marion was from scnned from a teeny tiny, say 2 inch by 1 inch photo and she was just sitting in the corner of the frame. Hardly noticeable. It was a tea party photo.

So an obscure little image, taken around 1910, by a Kodak camera purchased in 1895 or around (forgot the date) and hidden in an old album in a drawer for decades is now the main image, or iconic image of my Tighsolas website. And it’s on my dining room wall. I like it best of all the Tighsolas photos.

There she is in the photo in the upper right hand corner.

I wonder what my great grandchildren will be able to do with my image. Probably make it come alive, in 3-D or a hologram.

No doubt actually. I just wonder if they’ll bother.

If I were an actor today, I’d be having my descendants sign contracts to keep them from selling my image for commercial purposes.

New Tighsolas Website

Tighsolas.ca

I finally have received the template for my new and improved http://www.tighsolas.ca/ website. I commissioned a young man with a doctorate in history to do it.

My old website is designed in ‘spaghetti’ fashion, all over the place. Yet it still gets a load of visitors and many teachers use it.

I created that website in 2005 right off the top of my head and then added and added and added pages.

My new http://www.tighsolas.ca/ website, which I will post on http://www.tighsolas.com/ is orderly and self-contained and will have a search capacity. (It irks me when I see people come to my website looking for something that is RIGHT THERE, but they don’t find it.)

Job one is to create collages for the top of the pages and that will take a surge of creativity on my part. I can do it, but I have to be in the right mood.

I like the idea of using lace and pictures and letters, like above,… at least for the homepage..

And I think I will edit the letters down to make them readable.. I’ve already started this process on the 1911 letters… I will also annotate when necessary. (In 2005, I didn’t know enough to be able to annotate, but now I do.)

The young scholar I hired told me what other, more established historians have told me: that the Nicholson Family Letters are something rare and precious.

“Having 50 letters would be good for historians, ” he told me. I have 300 from the 1908-1913 era alone, and about 1000 between 1887 and 1936.

I hope to make this new http://www.tighsolas.ca/ more kid friendly and to integrate the material in the letters with the background information about the era, the fashions, transportation, education, immigration, Westward Ho, etc. The new website’s designer has provided a way for me to do this.

http://www.tighsolas/. ca contains the letters from 1908-1913, when the Nicholson family of Richmond, Quebec was separated by the need to find work.

That era was a pivotal one… in that so many changes happened at just that time.

When I first transcribed and posted the letters online, I used eBay to purchase era magazines for background and I posted some fun articles. They are all in the public domain. But in the following years, a great deal of Canadian material from 1910 came online and I’ve been writing about it on this Flo in the City Blog. (That’s why I have to focus on the material in the letters for this new website. These days, it’s the letters that are the unique aspect of Tighsolas. The background info is available elsewhere.)

So my new http://www.tighsolas.ca/ website will be very Canadian and will focus on an area of investigation given short shrift by historians, The Canadian suffrage movement..or lack of same. And not from the Famous Five point of view… from a new Montreal point of view.

I am also going to focus on the place where ‘education and immigration’ intersects. I’ve written an awful lot about this on this blog…

The Nicholson Girls got jobs in 1910 because so many new Canadians were coming to Montreal.

I want my website to be the best genealogy website ever…

The Nicholson Family Saga: Letter 1: A Toothpick and a Silver Bowl

Margaret Nicholson, Edith and Flora and Neighbour. Home alone.

North Bay, May 27, 1911

Dear Margaret,

You will see by heading of this letter where I am today.

This is a town of about 8 thousand situated at the end of Lake Tamiskaming. Flora can look it up for you on the map in the secretary.

I left Ottawa at 12 50 PM. Arrived here this morning at 9 am.

When leaving Ottawa last night they gave me a ticket over the CPR for here, also a berth ticket which I enjoyed very much. The porter made me a nice bed in one of the lower berths.

I got up this morning at 7 o’clock. Went into the diner and had breakfast which comprised 3 eggs, one baked potato, 3 rolls, and a glass of milk. And a toothpick served on a silver tray for my entree where I washed my fingers in a silver bowl.

All at the expense of the Transcontinental Ry.

On arriving here I went and saw the transport engineer and he sends me to Cochrane where the Tamiskamming and the Northern Ontario intersects–with the orders for my destination about 50 miles east of Cochran on Division D.

But I will be on the rails and I will be pleased not to have to walk. I leave here tomorrow at 5:20 am. Will stop at Cobalt for three hours then proceed to Cochrane. I am supposed to get to Cochrane at eight tomorrow morning.

I will try and write you from there, Now the distance from Ottawa here is 123 miles and from her to Cochran is 252 miles from Montreal to Ottawa is about 120 miles with 76 from Montreal will give you some idea of how far I am from home.

But I can cover the distance quicker then when I was in La Tuque, only it will be more expensive to go home when I do.

When I arrive at destination I will try and give you a better idea of where I am.

But so far they have treated me fine. I only saw Parent for a few minutes, he had arrived from Chicago and was busy in his office. He said he thought I would be suited with my change.

Will tell later. Hope you had a pleasant time in Montreal with Marion. I will send you address to write to as soon as I arrive. And will try and write you tomorrow from Cochrane.

I am taking things cool and intend to do so, do not worry about me.

I am feeling fine and the Commission is paying the bill as I go so I am not worrying about it in the least. I cannot think of any news so I will close for this time.

You will have quite a time to read this letter as I am writing in a hurry along with being a poor writer. Love to Edith and Flora also to yourself.

Your affectionate husband, Norman.

…In May 1911, Norman Nicholson, 60, former dealer in hemlock bark and leading citizen of Richmond, Quebec, leaves for a second stretch as Inspector on the Canadian Transcontinental Railway, a Laurier Government initiative.

He had been fired in May, 1910, from his first assignment working near La Tuque, Quebec, for going absent without leave.

At that time, Norman, a devoted family man, had been overcome with worry, mostly generated by his only son, Herbert, 26, who had just been caught ‘borrowing’ sixty dollars from of the Eastern Townships Bank where he was employed as a teller.

Norman had been working away in the Quebec bush, inspecting railway ties for 2 1/2 years. He was hired shortly after the the collapse of the Quebec Bridge, and that was likely no coincidence.

In early 1907, with his bank book balance at $33.00, Norman applied for work with the CTR.

In July 1907, despite having area Liberal M.P. E.W. Tobin as a patron, he was informed by a letter from the CTR’s head office that they had their full complement of inspectors.

Then, on August 19th, came the infamous bridge disaster that made headlines around the world. The bridge was “one of great engineering undertakings of the century” …”a topic of universal discussion” according to Technical World Magazine. Close to 100 men perished, most of them employees of the US contractor and Mohawk labourers from Caugnawaga, south of Montreal. (Kanewake).

The bridge was also a component of the Canadian Transcontinental Railway.

Suddenly, there was a need for inspectors at ‘end of steel.’

The Past is not a Foreign Country

The Nicholsons on the 1911 Census, the typed online page.

I have spent over five years researching the background to the Nicholson letters – and that family holds few secrets for me any more.

But looking over the 1911 Census material yesterday, (put online by volunteers), it got a little eerie.

It was fun to learn that Mrs. Skinner was named Ruby, a gem of a first name (too bad women’s first names were hardly used back then) and that her husband was Floyd.

And it was fun to learn that only two area families had live-in domestics, both on College street. One was George Alexander (of the insurance fiasco). Clayton and Isabella Hill did not have a maid living with them.

In the first chapter of Flo in the City I have Flora say that The Hills are one of the few families with maids. So I’ll change it to the Alexanders.

I decided to flip through the Census pages for the area around Tighsolas, and discovered something else of interest. Most men living outside of that little pocket of fine homes near College Street were labourers and almost all of them worked at the Boston and Last Factory (where Norman gets his firewood) or for the GTR.

In general, the Tighsolas letters are a window on the ‘elite’ of Richmond.

The Nicholsons saw themselves as among the elite – the business class – which gives me even more perspective on their state of mind as they struggled financially in the 1908-1913 era. http://www.tighsolas.ca/.

Of course, at one time, Norman had been a very successful area businessman. But he fell on hard times starting in 1900. He was broke by 1907. Herb’s disgrace, in 1910, must have been the icing on the cake.

Still, Normans 1922 obit in the Richmond Times, describes him as ‘one of the most respected persons of this place.’

As I wrote in the last blog, their friends in Montreal were very well off. And these were good friends, who bent over backwards to help the girls succeed in the city.

And of course J.C. Sutherland was the Superintendant of Protestant Education after 1911 and likely helped Marion in her career.

I knew this of course, but I didn’t quite ‘see it.’ The census material makes me ‘see it.’

Mrs. Montgomery’s health problems, hinted at in the letters, “her usual problem” had to do with conceiving, I’m pretty sure. We’re dealing with miscarriages here, I guess. She had only one child and that one in 1910 when she was 40.

Oh, and I learned Mae Waters lived in Kingsbury. The census has their name as Waters even though the Nicholsons always write Watters. Go figure. I’m pretty sure the tombstones said Watters. (So don’t believe everything you read.)

Of course, the Montreal Census might take days and days to scan. I couldn’t find my husband’s grandfather, but he lived in Westmount. Maybe that city’s info hasn’t been put online. Otherwise, I can’t figure it out.

I tried, in vain, to find the birth family of my Aunt Flo. She was ‘adopted’ by my grandparents after 1911. She had been born around 1906, and I always thought her family name was St-Clair, but there are no St. Clairs living in the City.

I wish I had her birth certificate. She spent some time in the Veteran’s Hospital in Ste. Anne de Bellevue. Maybe they have a record of it on file.

More Census Sense 1911

My grandfather’s name on the 1911 Census. He lived on St. Hubert at the time.

Well, I couldn’t find any secondary sources about the families in the Royal Arthur Catchment Area in 1911, so I went straight to the source.

The Census is online. Or part of it is.

At first, for the area of St. Cunegonde I found only French Catholics, but then I found an area with English, Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists.

It’s a working class area, for sure. Salaries are all well below 1,000, with 1,500 being the amount needed to raise a family well in those day, according to sources.

There were firemen, policemen, bakers and clerks, machinists, stablemen, stenographers, bricklayers and waiters and couturiers. Stenographers did not appear to make that wonderful salary stated in the Report to the Royal Commissioners by the Montreal Council of women, 1,200. More like 2 -4 hundred. Clerks could make 400 to 1,000, so it was a broad field.

The highest salary I saw was 1,250 for a bricklayer, of Spanish American extraction. I am guessing he had a special skill.

I found one porter, American Presbyterian, so likely black. But there has been no indication that Jewish garment workers live in the area.

Well, I also tracked down the McCoys, the good friends of the Nicholsons, from an old Richmond family. They lived on Hutchison, but I knew that. Isabelle was the MOM (according to this,) 63 years old, and Marie the daughter, a teacher, or “professeur” making 720. Well, Isabelle is the daughter. Mr. McCoy did not deign to put down his salary, but his servant chef, a Mr. Kelly, an Irish Catholic, made 1,200. this man’s wife lived in, so likely helped out.

Servants were expensive back then.

You can see why the McCoys could afford to go to Europe in 1912.

Most people on his street had a live-in servant, it seems.

I wasn’t able to find the Clevelands, yet. I have no idea where they lived, so I am curious. Unless it is Lorne Crescent.

(Yep, I found them. On 5 and 7 Lorne. It appears two Cleveland Brothers are living side by side, one is the dentist and the younger, Walter is the father to Ross and Thorburn and is in clothing. I merely looked up Cleveland for Quebec. Virtually every Cleveland lives in and ar0und Richmond. They are an old family. Just a couple in Montreal, tho. No salary for the dentist brother or clothier brother, Walter, but he had insured himself for 10,000. They both employed help, recently arrived English youths, 22 and 23, Kathleen and Hileck (boy?) and paid them peanuts, 200. But they lived in, so that’s an ok salary. Edith made the same as a teacher in Westmount and had to find lodgings.)

And I also tracked down the census entry that Margaret wrote about in her letter.
Edith is marked in as a teacher, but living in Richmond. Odd. They call themselves Scotch, even though they are Canadian born. But that’s what people did. Nathan Montgomery, her neighbour, is marked as retired. Hmm. Retired, with a new baby (whom I met in 2005) and buying an automobile.

The Nicholsons may have been struggling, but they had good friends who were flush with cash. Connections. Connections. Can’t get ahead without ‘em.

Tighsolas Still Life

A Nicholson flat iron (that I use as a bedroom doorstop) with a statuette (Royal Doulton?) once belonging to Margaret Nicholson’s grand daughter, on a piece of lace once belonging to the Nicholsons, with pic of Tighsolas.

Anyway, I found this tidbit in the 1909 Montreal Gazette Archive.

“In conjunction with Mr. Henry Morgan and Company, the Montreal Light, Heat and Power Company will give an exhibit and demonstration of electric cooking and heating devices, broilers, toasters, chafing dishes, etc.

A special feature will be the use of the electric iron.”

You can see one of the Nicholson flat irons in the pic above. (I also have a kitchen chair with an anvil shaped burn in seat from the Nicholsons!)

Well, I have a letter from 1909, Margaret to Norman, saying that it took two days for Flora to wash and iron her white dress.

That flat iron weighs at least 10 pounds! And Flora was a teeny tiny whisp of a girl, the ‘frail one.’

The Nicholson’s electrified Tigsholas in 1913. I have all the information. At least, they set it up for light. I also had invoices from Richmond Electric that is also trying to get people to cook with electricity.

I doubt that Margaret ever gave up her wood stove, at least willingly. She lived in Tighsolas until 1936, with a companion, a Mrs. Greene: I have the Depression Era letters. (Her sister, Sarah, writes her from Sarnia saying she never thought she’d see the day when there would be grown men begging in the street.)

Her granddaughter, Marion, recalls stealing doughnuts off the stove as they were cooling, from an upstairs bedroom, by using a hook through a hole in the floor. This would be in the late twenties. She loved to visit Tighsolas as a child, but found Sundays boring. Margaret did nothing on the Sabbath.

Today, I have a totally electric home and when the electricity goes off I am totally helpless. Well, I can use the BBQ…but no Internet!

But I recall, sometimes in my childhood, when we went to the country, say for a lake vacation, the cottages had woodstoves. My brothers and I loved playing with the hooky things and the heavy back iron, whatchamacallits, plates? I should learn the terms if I am going to write authentically above Tighsolas in 1910.

I wish I could turn on the TV to the LIFE channel and watch a 1910 cooking show, starring Margaret Nicholson. Revealing all her tricks. She was possessive when it came to her recipes, apparently. If someone asked for one of her recipes, she left out something, or changed something. Maybe someone already has a video on YouTube, How to Cook with a Woodstove. (One minute while I check…)

…Hmm. No videos, pers se. I understand that any good cook is a scientist, of sorts, a chemist, who innately comprehends the chemical properties of starches and oils and proteins, but from what I read, someone who cooked in the 1900 era was something of an engineer, keeping the fire going and heat flowing in the oven, opening flues and moving the pots around in the oven and over the stove top. I will definitely write a paragraph or two describing Margaret as she expertly manipulates her cooking materials, effortlessly, majestically, like a conductor over his (sic) symphony.

And then, apparently, a person had to clean the stove each day. Not only clean out the ash pan, but also polish the stove so it didn’t rust. Well, Stove Polish was a product purchased by the Nicholsons. No wonder.

Medicine Women

Flo, Marion, Edith, circa 1910. On the grass at Tighsolas

Nursing in 1910. In a few scenes of my novel Flo in the City, based on the letters of http://www.tighsolas.ca/ my social studies website, Flora will visit a doctor cousin in Boston.

She will write home about meeting nurses at Newton Hospital, some of whom are Canadian.

In the 20th century, nursing was a classic female profession. But I don’t think it got rolling as such until after WWI. Statistics Canada historical charts indicate that in 1911 there are 20,000 women working in the health services sector, compared to 13,00 men. This is one of the few areas where women workers outnumber men. Education is another and textile is another. Most women in Canada (one third of total workforce) in 1910 work in the personal or recreational services. I’m guessing this category is mostly made up of domestics. Domestics and dancers?

Nowhere in the Tighsolas letters is it indicated that any woman of their acquaintance was a nurse or was thinking of going into nursing except in Flora’s letter about Newton.

When the grandmother is dying in 1912, Margaret says that Clayton Hill can afford a nurse for her. She is exhausted staying up nights with her mom.

I think nurses came into the home, but only rarely, as most people relied on relatives to take care of them when ailing. Nurses, however, seemed to be routinely hired to care for newborns.

I have recently read a book by Vera Brittain, a classic called Testament of Youth. (It is being made into a movie in 2010.) Brittain worked as a volunteer nurse (VAD) during the war. Now, a bloody battlefield isn’t a hospital, but this book does give an idea of what nurses did back then. As my story will show, medecine was quite primitive.

As an article in Technical World Magazine in 1910 revealed, they were just beginning to see microbes under the microscope.

In 1910, Margaret tends her niece, Florance Peppler, who has typhoid. Norman had typhoid in 1896 (he lived on the same street, makes you wonder about the water supply). Anyway, he is worried for his wife and tells her to keep the windows open for fresh air and not to come into contact with any bodily fluids. Good advice, I imagine.

In 1912 in Richmond there are more untimely deaths than usual, it seems. They remark upon it in the letters. Perhaps a flu went around that wasn’t labeled as such.