The Hemsley's

Gordon's grandfather Robert McEwan married Harriotte Hemsley a young woman whose family lived around the corner and down the road from the McEwan home in Downie Township. Harriotte was the daughter of Thomas and Harriotte Hemsley.  I have two  pictures of Harriotte's parents. But, aside from the pictures and the dates of births, deaths and other factual material that found its way into census and church records, I know almost nothing about who they were. What I do know is that Thomas Hemsley and Harriotte Patching were born in the early 1800's in Sussex County, England. They grew up in neighbouring villages a few miles north of the English Channel. They were married in 1831 (Remember that date. It is essential to one of the few stories I know about them) when he was 29 and she was 23. Sometime between then and 1845 they emigrated to Canada either following (or with) Thomas' younger brother William. It was William who first leased the land in 1842, and later purchased the deed to the farm which was located on the first concession of  Downie Township.  Now for my three stories:   Story 1.  From what we know Thomas and Harriotte had been childless from the time of their marriage in 1831 until they arrived in Canada.  And then it happened: Daughter #1 was born in 1845, followed by daughter # 2 in 1847, daughter #3 in 1848, and finally daughter # 4 in 1851. This story of the sudden fecundity has been told enough times in the family that I have made notes of it on at least two occasions.  When Gordon recorded the story in his reminiscences he suggested that it was something in the "Canadian clime" which allowed them to be blessed with four daughters.  Well, that is one possible explanation.   Now, to story 2: This story was told by Gordon's grandmother Harriotte about her father.  The family grew turnips on their land and it was the job of the girls and their father to hoe the turnips.  I am sure that it was a hot, dirty and tiring job.  Thomas, the father, would tell the girls that they only had to hoe until they found the magic turnip and that would be the signal to quit work for the day.  When questioned further about how they would know when they had found the magic turnip the father always reassured them that they would know when it was found. Of course, it was always he who found the magic turnip and it was always just about the time when the evening meal would be ready back at home. I am sure that no one was fooled. Story 3. This comes from Annie Warden a granddaughter of the Hemsley's.

Entrance Exams

Jimmy Noxan taught school at SS#9 for several years in the 1920's. Lois remembers him as an ineffectual teacher. Not much learning went on when he was the teacher. Then, when Lois was in the senior third, Mr. Noxan was replaced by Miss Hazel Crago, a native of Blanshard Township. Immediately Miss Crago recognized that the students in the senior third were unprepared for the entrance exam. This provincially set examination was held each spring and was used to determine whether students would be allowed to proceed into high school. It was an important hurdle for students, and doubtless, it was also a measure of the quality of the teacher's work. Miss Crago instituted before school classes for the seven students in the Senior Third. The group consisted of Lois Hearn, Mary Riley, Frank Riley, Crawford Tyler, Helen Teahen, Oliver
Bell, and Jennie Dunsmore. To try the entrance examination all students in the township had to travel to Stratford where the examination was held in the County Court House. The distance between her home and Stratford is likely less than 8 miles but Lois remembers that she had never been to Stratford before, and she suspects that with the possible exception of Jennie Dunsmore, none of the others in the class had ever been in Stratford. At the lunch hour break between exams the group went for a walk but were careful to always keep the court house tower in view. Otherwise, they might be unable to find their way back.  Here is the Stratford Court House with the tower that the group of country kids had to keep in view during their lunch hour walk. Later, when the exam results were announced the group took pride in the fact that they all passed their entrance exam, five with honours.

Tuberculosis: the Dreaded Disease

Throughout the 1800's tuberculosis was a leading cause of death across the industrialized world. As with any disease in which the cause is unknown a whole body of myths grew up around the causes and prevention of the illness.  One such myth was that the germs that caused TB could be transmitted through clothing. Attached is a cartoon from the August 8th 1900 edition of Punch Magazine. The cartoonist Samuel Erhart illustrates - in dramatic form - the common belief that the trailing material in woman's cloaks could pick up germs from the streets. Once in the house the germs could be transmitted to innocent family members.  Rural Ontario was not immune from either the scourge of TB or the myths that grew up around the disease. A distant relative of Gordon's who lived in Perth County died of consumption in the early 1900's. After her death, a fur coat which she owned was given to her nieces.  Ten years later when the nieces each contracted and died of TB in their early 20's the conviction in the community was that the inherited fur coat was the culprit.  And this rumour instigated a second tragedy that these families had to face.  Not only did they lose family members but the whole family became tainted with suspicion of being carriers of consumption. Furthermore, I am sure that there was guilt and blame among both the family who gave the coat and the family who received the coat. Gordon who was born in 1914 remembers as a child that his mother and other family members did not want to be kissed by the those distant relatives.  And, as a child Gordon remembers being nervous about visiting the relatives because of the  "dreaded consumption".  

The Night I was Born

Lois and Gordon were married on 27 December 1937. The story of that day has been told in a previous blog. Their first child Betty Lou was born 11 months later in October 1938 and Lois Ann was born almost exactly two years later, in September, 1940. Because the birth of Lois Ann had been very difficult, Lois had been advised not to have more children. However, in spite of the excellent advice (and nature being what it is) Lois became pregnant again in the spring of 1942 the year that she and Gordon moved to Dickson's Corners. In spite of the fact that the new baby was due at any time, and in spite of the fact that they drove an old car with bad tires and no heating system, the family travelled north for Christmas day with Gordon's parents who now lived in St. Pauls and two days later they made the return trip to Stratford for the traditional New Year's celebration with Gordon's aunt and uncle, Charlie and Alice Ballantyne. It was already dark by the time they left Stratford for the return trip to Dickson's Corners. The heavy snow which had fallen earlier, had turned to rain and the visibility was very poor. Once on the road they realized that it would be impossible to drive out to the farm to pick up Roberta, Lois' ten year old sister who had been invited for holidays. They pulled into Norman McCully's farm which overlooks the valley of Trout Creek heading to St. Marys and phoned Lois' father to say that they didn't dare leave the main road. The McCully's pressed them to stay at their farm for the night, but they decided to continue on, and after a white knuckled ride south on the 10th concession, through Uniondale, Medina, Kintore and on to Thamesford where they turned left onto Dundas Street and then right onto Highway 2 and so on to Dickson's Corners. As Gordon rounded the cedar hedge leading into the driveway at home the car slid off the road into a snow bank. There they left it. Gordon carried the two girls into the house and left them still in their winter clothes on the couch in the living room while he proceeded to relight the fire which had long-since gone out in the old pot bellied stove which sat on a slightly raised platform in the middle of the living room. It was then that Lois realized that the baby was ready to be born and that she would have to get to the hospital in London. There was a panic phone call to Jim and Mary Calder the neighbours from across the road. Mary said that she would take the girls home with her, while Jim and Gordon went out to dig out the car. After some furious digging and rocking, the car came out of the snowbank, and slid across the lane into the ditch on the other side. With that Jim Calder decided that Gordon and Lois should head to London in the Calder car.  Lois' contractions were coming more frequently, and as they drove into London, Gordon realized that he had no idea how to find Victoria Hospital. They stopped, got directions, and arrived at Victoria hospital to be met by Dr Shute, Lois' specialist who had been alerted by Mary Calder that Gordon and Lois were on their way. After a quick examination, Dr. Shute announced that the baby was coming and that there was no time for any preparation. One of the nurses asked Lois when she had had her last contraction and when Lois said "at Kellogg's" the nurse responded: "Oh you poor thing, you have worked right up until now."  (The attached picture is of what the Kellogg's plant would have looked like as they passed by in 1942 when Lois had her last contraction. They still had a 15 minute drive to Victoria Hospital.)  Lois remembers that the anaesthetic which she was given was strong enough enough to make her drift off but not strong enough to prevent her from saying time after time: "What have I got? What have I got?" Each time she asked the question, the patient nurses reassured her that it was a boy but the question would be asked again. This continued until everyone was laughing. When the baby was brought to her, Lois immediately took off his diaper to check to be sure that it was the boy she wanted after having two girls. Some time later when Gordon left the hospital he felt that the excitement was over for that day but, unfortunately, when he found Jim Calder's car Gordon realized that he had no idea of how to start it. Gordon found a doctor who was leaving the hospital and pleaded with him for help. Deeply sceptical, the doctor finally agreed to start the car and Gordon was able to get home without incidence.

Evening Prayers and the Picture at the Top of the Stairs

In our home - as in many other homes in rural Canada in the 1940's - saying our prayers was an essential part of getting ready for bed.  Like most children I rushed through our prayer without any thought to what it said or meant.  In my head the first line was " nowilayme (all one meaningless word),  I pray the lord my soul to keep ... and so on. The prayer ended with a "God bless" where we listed a series of names beginning with grandparents and relatives - God bless Grandma, God bless Aunt Allie - and ending with God bless Mommy and Daddy and the rest of our immediate family including Skippy the dog.  If someone in the community was ill  my mother would encourage us to add a line that go something like: "Please make Wayne better."  And then we would hop into bed. If the weather was cold the persons mentioned in the "God Bless" line got shorter.  However, if you wanted to irritate your sister who was waiting her turn to say her prayers you could always string out the "God Bless" line to include everyone you could think of.  Typically the prayers were said while kneeling beside the bed but in the midst of January in a cottage where there was no direct heat in any of the bedrooms we were allowed to say the prayers from under the covers.

I now realize that there were several versions of the prayer we were taught.  Other versions were more gentle and did not talk of dying children or souls heading to heaven.  The version we recited came from an 18th century American book called the New-England Primer.  The first stanza went like this:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray to Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take

  On reflection I am glad that I never made any attempt to comprehend what I was saying.  It certainly had the potential to cause nightmares in a young child who awakened in the middle of a dark night.

Now for a word about the picture that accompanies this blog.  When we were children my father's elderly aunt and uncle lived in a large brick house on Elizabeth Street in Stratford. Because my Grandmother lived with them our family were frequent visitors in their home.  Unlike us, Uncle Charlie and Aunt Allie had indoor plumbing.  The toilet was located on the second floor in a room separate from the bathroom.  To get to the toilet you needed to climb the heavy oak staircase to the first landing, turn right and begin the climb to the second floor where at the top of the stairs hung the picture (shown above) of the angels floating over the little girl.  I never understood what those angels were doing but I figured that it must have something to do with death.  I also knew that even if I kept my head down and tried to look the other way I would "see" the picture as I passed under it.   And for an eight year old the choice was very clear: scurry past the picture or face even worst humiliations!