Interesting Lambton Businesses: The Newton Hat Shop



The Newton Hat Shop interior photograph from the Sarnia location

 

Sarnia Canadian Observer
March 14, 1919

Throughout Lambton County's history some businesses have ignited the public imagination and left an interesting legacy. The Newton Hat Shop is one example, a local business first established in Sarnia and eventually moved to Petrolia, owned by Katherine N. Newton. The Lambton Room is fortunate to have some interesting documentation from Newton's business.

Newton was a milliner (maker or seller of hats) who opened her first shop in Petrolia in 1918 and continued in business for over thirty years. She created and decorated her own hats but also ordered the latest hat fashions from hotspots like Toronto, Vancouver, New York and Paris. Newton operated two different hat shops, one in Sarnia and one in Petrolia. A newspaper advertisement in the Sarnia Canadian Observer announced the arrival of a store on March 14, 1919 at 129 Front Street (see scan from paper). The stores have been referred to variably as "The Newton Hat Shop" and "Miss Newton's Hat Shop." By 1946 the Sarnia location had closed and the Petrolia location was changing locations again, as announced in the Petrolia Advertiser-Topic on December 12: "Another new business will be open to the public in Petrolia on Saturday next when Miss Kate Newton, of town, opens the Newton Hat Shop in the former Pearson block."



Blank company invoice

Newton owned and operated her hat shop at a time when few other women were in business for themselves. She was a pioneer for businesswomen and exercised creative talents crafting hats and managerial/economic talents running her own small business. Little has been recorded about Newton personally outside of her business life. She ultimately chose not to marry and lived at 4227 Henry Street in Petrolia with her older brother, Roy, her sister, Ethel, and her mother.



After she passed away May 24, 1968, a search through Newton's attic revealed an inventory of over 500 hats in storage. These were purchased by George L. Smith, a local historian who has often swooped in to collect and purchase local artifacts and documents that might otherwise have been lost to history (it was also Smith who rescued from a dumpster the original Sarnia Observer Negative collection, thousands of negatives published between the 1950s-1970s and now safely stored in the Lambton Room - see blog post Local History Gem! The Sarnia Observer Negative Collection.) Some of the hats Smith collected even had the original price tags! The collection was sold to the Canadian Museum of Civilization and featured in the Hold Onto Your Hats! exhibition, which noted that Miss Newton's collection "provides important information about the millinery trade in Ontario, as well as a visual and tactile impression of the kinds of hats that were popular in Ontario in the first half of this century."

For more information on Katherine Newton and her hat shop, visit Dave and Lyn Dennis's A Glance Back, Kate Newton article.

 

Women's Cloche from The Newton Hat Shop, late 1920s. Rayon.
From Canadian Museum of Civilization collection.

Front of card published by the Newton Hat Shop




Interior of card published by the Newton Hat Shop

Look at the Inwood Red Cross Society

I'm conducting research for the Lambton Heritage Museum's 2013 exhibit, Shine: Spotlight on Women of Lambton. I've been looking for good examples of women making positive change in their communities and beyond through formal organizations. In the Lambton Room's vault I found some really interesting material from the Inwood Red Cross Society, not an entirely female society but one with many female members. The Inwood Red Cross Society was established just after the outbreak of WWII to support Canadian soldiers. Here is a brief history of the Red Cross and the founding of the group in Inwood, and scans of some traces of the society we have in the Lambton Room collection.

The Red Cross was established by an act of Parliament in 1909. It can trace its roots back to Louis Riel's 1885 Northwest Rebellion, when Dr. George Ryerson designed a Red Cross flag to identify the wagon he used to transport wounded soldiers. Dr. Ryerson founded the British Red Cross overseas, which later became the Canadian Red Cross.

The Canadian Red Cross was involved overseas in humanitarian aid during WWI and WWII. Volunteers offered services including comfort and relief for troops and prisoners of war, medical aid, information services, and family reunification.



Receipt Feb 4, 1943 Inwood Red Cross Dutch Auction



On the home front, the Red Cross was a rally point for local residents eager for opportunities to support troops overseas. The Inwood Red Cross Society was established in 1940 as "S.S. #14." Shortly after the society was formed, on June 1 the group put out a call for "wool blankets so urgently needed." Not wasting any time, by June 3 members had shipped from Inwood "four pair new blankets and four slightly used blankets." (Information taken from Inwood Red Cross Society Minute Book, 1940-42, p. 3-5 in Lambton Room collection.) The Inwood Red Cross Society demonstrates how men and women worked together to provide for Canada's armed forces during WWII. Women held many important roles in the society including secretary, treasurer, sewing convenor, knitting convenor, quilting convenor, and social convenor. We have many interesting documents from their organization including minute books, receipts from purchases made for fundraisers and soldier care packages, and letters written by grateful soldiers.



Receipt Oct 15 1943, Inwood Red Cross for Soldiers Overseas

Keep tuned to the blog for more information on the involvement of women in Lambton County as my research continues!



Letter from Private N.A. Campbell, Jan. 26 1945 to Inwood Red Cross S.S. #14.

Peek Into The Doors Open Lambton County Weekend

Doors Open Lambton County has just closed its first year. I had the chance to visit lots of sites over the last two days (but not all of them, too many to see in one weekend!) Here's some of the highlights of my Doors Open weekend. I'd love to hear any comments about places that other people visited and what they saw!

 

Charlie Fairbank, fourth generation owner of Fairbank Oil Properties, takes the reins of the horse-drawn wagon tour of his oil property. Charlie took us through the oil fields and shared stories about the history of oil drilling in Lambton County.

 

Directly across the street from the developing Watford/Warwick Museum is the Watford Fire Hall. They held a mural unveiling on Saturday afternoon. The series of three murals were produced by local artist Francis Martin and celebrate the history of the Watford Fire Hall, local military contributions and the famous Maxmobile that came out of Watford.

 

 

Doors Open sites in Petrolia focused on Victorian architecture and stained glass. In Christ Church I had the opportunity to play the church bells! These bells are the only piece that survived a fire which destroyed the original church building. Each of the 11 bells has its own individual name.

This snapshot is from the back gardens of a charming home in Corunna. Homeowner Ida opened up her beautiful house for tours and held a variety of special events in the back gardens including music, refreshments delivered by costumed servers, and a Metis representative from Wallaceburg's Fiddle and Sash Association was on hand with artifacts and historical information.

 

The Lambton Room Archives also participated in Doors Open. The archives brought out interesting material from their vault including rare photographs of interesting characters from Lambton County's history and a cookbook from the 1830s. Tips on genealogical research were provided and Lambton Room Historian Heather Lavallee was also on hand demonstrating conservation techniques.

Thanks to all the site owners who opened their homes and their businesses for this event, and to the volunteers who made the event possible. Thanks also to all the visitors who took part in the Doors Open weekend and helped make it a success!

Doors Open Lambton County 2012

The County of Lambton is proud to be celebrating its first county-wide Doors Open event this year on September 29 and 30! Doors Open events are celebrations of community heritage that take place every year all across Ontario, Canada and the world. These events provide residents and visitors with a unique opportunity to explore and enjoy the sometimes hidden and always interesting places and spaces in Ontario cities, towns, and villages - all free of charge!

Ninety-one sites from across the county have agreed to participate in Doors Open Lambton County. Municipalities that will be participating include Brooke-Alvinston, Lambton Shores, Oil Springs, Petrolia, Plympton-Wyoming, Sarnia, St. Clair Township and Warwick Township. No matter where you live in the county, a great Doors Open event should be nearby (and there's plenty of selection for out-of-county visitors!)

Nemo Hall in Petrolia, open to the public Sept. 29 & 30

Many sites will be open between 10am-4pm on both Saturday, September 29 and Sunday, September 30. Some sites have modified hours, so consult our Doors Open Lambton County website to verify hours before arriving at sites. Also, some sites are offering special events or guided tours at specific times, so check the website for information about special events! You can also check out Lambton's Doors Open events on the Doors Open Ontario Provincial Website, and come like us on Facebook! Look for provincial guides to Doors Open events at your local library. We'll also be soon distributing site maps that will help you explore the county.

The Stewart House in Wyoming, open Sept. 29 & 30

Some of the great sites participating include: Nemo Hall in Petrolia (tour through a gorgeous 1870 Victorian mansion); Munro Honey and Meadery in Brooke-Alvinston (family owned and operated farm established in 1925); the Stewart House in Wyoming (built in 1896 for local Wyoming merchant John E. Anderson); Kiwanis Kineto Theatre in Forest (one of the oldest continuously operating movie theatres in Canada); Fairbank Oil Properties in Oil Springs (the world's longest running oil field and a National Historic Site of Canada); Sarnia Solar Project in Sarnia (explore behind the scenes of green energy); and Corunna United Church in St. Clair Township (browse inside and outside this great church.)

 

Explore the Sarnia Solar Project Sept. 29 & 30

Learn more about the great local businesses sponsoring our event and the sites that you'll be able to explore at our Doors Open Lambton County website.

Much To Learn About Maps!

Fire Insurance Plan of downtown Sarnia, May 1958. "Insurance Plan of the City of Sarnia, Ont. Including the Village of Point Edward."

The Lambton Room's collection is full of interesting primary sources (original material created in the past), and maps are one of our most interesting passports into history. Many maps include not only the names of streets and towns, but also details about the topography of an area that can provide valuable insight into natural history. Maps give not only a snapshot of the physical landscape, but also a gateway into the perspectives of people in the past. Next time you look at a map, consider what landmarks or special notations a map's creator chose to include; it can provide insight into his/her social perspective and his/her values!

The Lambton Room has a fascinating collection of maps from across the county. They are sorted by geographic location and date. Our map collection received an invigorating boost last year when our summer student reviewed all our maps and created an index for them. The index contains the map's full title, a description of its geographic breadth, details about the height and width, the name of the publisher/drafter, and special notations about any prominent features of the map. Using this index, the public can get an excellent idea about what maps we have for different areas of the county, and our staff can quickly and easily pull those maps from the vault.

Legend from Fire Insurance Plan of Sarnia

Fire Insurance Plans are one of our most interesting types of maps. They are exceptional because they show the outline of buildings instead of merely indicating street names. An elaborate legend uses colour coding and symbols to display information like type of building material or number of stories in a structure. The maps also provide the names of prominent buildings (post offices or city halls) and names of local businesses. We have Fire Insurance Plans for Oil City, Oil Springs, Petrolia and Sarnia.

If you want to see how towns in Lambton County have changed over time or you have a nagging local history question that maps could help solve, swing by the Lambton Room and take a peek at our map collection.

Fire Insurance Plan of downtown Petrolia, January 1925

Tips and Tricks: Ancestry Library Edition

Ancestry Library Edition is a wonderful tool that is available free of charge at library branches across Lambton County. If you aren't interested in acquiring a personal subscription to Ancestry.ca, the Library Edition is an excellent alternative. The more you know about the website's databases and search functions, the more information you can find about your ancestors. Here are some tips and tricks I learned in a recent webinar hosted by ProQuest that will help you navigate Ancestry Library Edition more effectively!

1. The differences between Ancestry Library Edition and Ancestry.ca? You cannot post on the message boards in Library Edition; you cannot post your family trees in Library Edition; and there are less newspapers, magazines and periodicals available to search in Library Edition. If you found a great obituary at home on your personal Ancestry subscription and could not find it on Library Edition at your local library, this is likely because significantly less newspapers are available in Library Edition.

2. The difference between Ancestry.ca and Ancestry.com? Canadian vs American servers; there is no difference in content.

3. If you're searching for a woman, put both her first name and maiden name in the "First and Middle Name(s)" field, and put her married name in the "Last Name" field to increase your results!

An example of a search with the first name, maiden name and married name included.

4. The stars that appear underneath your search results show you how close the search results match your original request. Do not expect to see five stars; to get a five star result you would have to match at least six pieces of information in your search and it is very unlikely! Three stars is  considered a good probability of a match.

This search returned three stars and could be a decent match.

5. In Library Edition you cannot post on the Message Boards, but you can browse the content that is already online. On the Home page, scroll to the bottom of the screen and you will see "Message Boards" as a link underneath "More Collections." You can narrow your search by location and browse for specific names, making it easy to pinpoint any messages that have been posted about your family specifically.

Some of your search options in the Message Boards.

6. The situation with Family Trees is similar; in Library Edition, you cannot post family trees but you can browse the family trees that have been uploaded. From the Home page, choose "Card Catalog" from the drop down Search menu. On the left hand side of the screen you will see "Filter by Collection," and the last option is "Family Trees." It will return 7 results, and if you click on the "Ancestry World Tree" you can search over 467,671,000 records from family trees that have been uploaded by members to the website!

7. Use wild card characters if you are unsure about spelling. How surnames in your family have been spelled can differ drastically over time! The question mark, ?, represents one unknown character. If you are searching for "Olsen" or "Olson," search for "Ols?n" and you will return results for both names. The asterisk, *, represents any number of unknown characters. If you are searching for "Johnson," "Jonson," or "Johnston," search for "Jo*son" to return results for all those names.

8. There is a photograph collection on Ancestry Library Edition that is often overlooked. If you click on Search from the main Home page, you will see a list of "Special Collections" down the right hand side. The last is "Photos & Maps." Click on "Pictures" and then "View all in Card Catalog." In these 31 results is the "Canada Historical Postcards" collection, with over 26,000 historical postcards from across Canada. You can zoom in on the postcards and view the front as well as the back. Search for Lambton and see the great postcards that pop up! These images can provide you with context and a real sense of the world your ancestors inhabited.

Postcard of Sarnia Public Library from the Ancestry "Canada Historical Postcards" collection.

9. Another interesting database in the "Pictures" category is the "Passenger Ships and Images," where you can find information about passenger ships including years they were in service, the builder, the dimensions, the line it sailed under, and much more! Approximately 1,000 ships also have photographs attached to the records.

Screen shot, Ancestry Library Edition's information on the Empress of Britain.

10. If you need technical support or you notice problems in citations/indexes that should be changed, shoot an email to libraryedition@ancestry.com with a description of your concerns.

11. One last advisory caution... Now, some of Ancestry's recent advertising has adopted the slogan, "You don't even have to know what you're looking for... you just have to start looking." Ignore this! Always make sure that you are aware of what types of sources you are searching. The type of document and context of its creation are incredibly important in understanding the contents. Pride yourself in researching the types of documents available and being aware of what you're looking at!

Happy family tree hunting!

The Saga of the Moorings

The Old and the New: The Moorings before the structure's demolition. A new home was built on the property with the intention of removing the Moorings and it can be seen in the background.

It is always disappointing for the heritage community when historic buildings are demolished. The County of Lambton dealt with this issue recently when one of the county's oldest homes, a lakefront brick fortress in Hillsboro called "the Moorings," was demolished. Efforts to save the structure by the county's Cultural Services Division and heritage groups across Lambton proved fruitless, as plans to move the incredibly heavy building to a new site were prohibitively expensive. Additionally, to move the Moorings would take the building out of context: its location on the shore of Lake Huron is an important part of the structure's history and identify

The Moorings years ago.

Although the building has been demolished, there is still an excellent story to be told and, in the bicentennial year for the War of 1812, it is one of Lambton County's most well-known connections to the war. This blog will examine the history of the Moorings and the home's first owner, War of 1812 veteran Thomas Ledlie Crooke.

Thomas Ledlie Crooke, who was colloquially referred to around the county as "Commodore Crooke," was born in 1793 in Port Arlington, Queens County, Ireland (just north of Cork.) He was well-known around the community and is described in Margaret Hill and Frances French's History of the Moorings as "an attractive gentleman, sporting red hair with deep blue eyes... Thomas was known as an intelligent, industrious, honest, generous and friendly man, who was highly regarded by all who knew him."

He joined the Royal Navy on December 10, 1806, a traditional career move for third-born sons in Britain. He entered the Navy as a "First Class Volunteer," which according to Ron Dale, War of 1812 Project Manager with Parks Canada, "... was normally taken on board by an officer who was a friend of the family and would hope to do well as a 'boy,' possibly serving as the officer's servant and hoping to be appointed as a Midshipman when a vacancy occurred." During the War of 1812, he joined the Lake Ontario squadron under Admiral James Lucas Yeo on board the Prince Regent and then on the St. Lawrence. After the war ended he was "beached," meaning he was laid off but received a military pension with the understanding that he could be called back to work at any time. He returned to Ireland for some time, and in 1832 he was given a military land grant for 247.5 acres along the Lake Huron shore. He set sail from Ireland as a thirty-eight year old bachelor with his nineteen-year-old nephew Samuel Cantwell "Canty" Hill and landed in Port Sarnia on August 1, 1834.

Another vintage photograph of the Moorings.

Starting life in Canada's wilderness was taxing for early settlers. Crooke needed to clear his land, build a home and establish fields for farming. He envisioned building a grand stone house but hauling blocks of stone up the banks from boats on the lake proved to be an overwhelming task. After a stone foundation 43 feet long, 39 feet wide and 4 feet deep was built, Crooke opted for bricks to finish his home. He used the clay on his property and baked over 83,000 red clay bricks to complete the Moorings, which had walls four brick layers deep! The structure was intentionally built as strong as a fortress, strong enough to withstand a cannon ball if the Americans ever tried to invade Canada again. Crooke even took the trajectory of a cannon blast into consideration when deciding where to place the home on his property.

Some of the most interesting features of the home's interior included an immense fireplace in the living room, a solid walnut banister along the stairway, and a huge door-lock with a brass key six inches in length. Overnight accommodations for up to nineteen people were readily available, which was fortunate for Crooke, who enjoyed entertaining and having visitors to in home. According to records of the Hillsboro Cemetery, "He enjoyed entertaining and felt insulted in a guest left before staying a week."

The Moorings brushed with snow.

Crooke died November 25, 1864. He is buried in the Hillsboro Cemetery, which was established on land close to his home that he donated to the St. George Anglican Church in 1852. For those of you who just can't get enough of Commodore Crooke, this excellent description appears in Belden's Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of Lambton, Ontario, 1880:

He settled on Lot 49, lake shore, where he lived generally alone (he being a bachelor): but his genial manner and proverbial hospitality, coupled with his inimitable faculty of entertaining those of any and every taste, especially his amusing manner of relating an anecdote, drew around him such a number of friends as left him no time to become lonesome. There was however another very material inducement for people to visit his house - an inducement to which a greater charm attached in those days than at present - happily for the present. The 'magnet' referred to was a large barrel of whiskey, which is alleged to have been strictly first-class, and from this fountain of 'spirits' all were welcome to drink at any and all hours, as he always kept it on hand.

Lambton County's Titanic Connection: Oil Driller James McCrie

 

The world remembers the R.M.S. Titanic this month as April 15, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the ship's untimely demise. The sinking of the Titanic cost 1,514 deaths in one of the worst peacetime marine disasters in history. Lambton County may seem like it's far away from the Titanic disaster, but there is an intimate connection: one Sarnia man lost his life.

Local resident James McCrie was born in 1879, one of Matthew and Roxanna McCrie's eight children. Matthew and Roxanna were a farming and oil producing family who settled on Lot 2, Concession 14 in Enniskillen Township. Matthew McCrie was a respected citizen and politically active man whose "home [was] the center of a broad and liberal hospitality." (Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of Lambton, J.H. Beers, 1906, p. 125)

James McCrie married Maud Brown on April 14, 1902, and the couple settled at 503 Christina Street North in Sarnia. James worked as an oil operator in Sarnia until late 1910 when he embarked on a journey to Egypt. James was following in the footsteps of many Lambton oil men before him who left Lambton County to drill oil wells and teach drilling techniques in countries around the world including Venezuela, Borneo and Russia. The first crew of "foreign drillers" left Petrolia in 1874, and a steady stream of Lambton County men traveled around the world for decades to follow (to learn more about the foreign drillers, visit the Black Gold section of the Oil Museum of Canada's website.) James McCrie left for Egypt in November, 1910 and completed an eighteen month contract. At the end of his contract he traveled to England, where he communicated with his wife and family for the last time. He sent his wife a letter in the first week of April to let her know he would be staying in England for a week in order to travel across the Atlantic in the new steamer, the Titanic. McCrie boarded the Titanic in Southampton on April 10, 1912, and did not survive the ship's sinking on April 15.

James's story was not soon forgotten: his father Matthew's obituary, which appeared in the Sarnia Observer on July 4, 1939, closed with these sentences: "A son, James, lost his life with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. He was an oil driller who was returning home from Egypt at the time." James McCrie met an untimely death, and he is remember this month on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

If you would like to learn more about his story, check out this article that appeared on the front page of the Sarnia Daily Observer on April 16, 1912:

Sarnia Man May Be Titanic Passenger

Jas. M. McCrie Was En Route Home From Egypt

Wrote Home Announcing Intention to Sail on Titanic

There is just a possibility that a Sarnia man in the person of James M. McCrie, oil operator North Christina street, may be one of the passengers on the ill-fated steamer Titanic, which sank to doom in the Atlantic ocean early Monday morning. Mr. McCrie, who is a driller by occupation, has been engaged in that pursuit for the past eighteen months or so in Egypt. A short time ago his contract expired and he was on his way home to Sarnia. A letter recently received from him by Mrs. McCrie announced his arrival in England and also conveyed the information that he intended to remain over in England a week in order to make the passage across the ocean on the new steamer Titanic. So far Mrs. McCrie has not received any information contrary to the above and grave fears are entertained that Mr. McCrie may have been one of the passengers on the ill-fated steamer. The name of Jas. McCrie appears on the list of second cabin passengers on the Titanic.

Sarnia Historical Film Footage on YouTube: 1941 Wartime Parade and 1950s Home Show

I received a very interesting donation several weeks ago and I'm happy to be able to share it here! The digital donation is a combination of the work of a father and son both passionate about the history of Lambton County.

The father-son duo is George and Derek Smith. George L. Smith was responsible for much of the material that now makes up the Lambton Room's collection. He was an avid collector and wrote many books and booklets on Lambton history including the popular "A History of Sarnia in Pictures" as well as lesser known pieces like "A History of A.B.C. Books of Lambton County." Both his writing and his collection of newspaper clippings, photographs and history books form some of the cornerstones of our archival collection. For more on Smith's contributions to the Lambton Room, see an earlier blog, Where Did Our Collection Come From?

In addition to collecting and writing, Smith did some work with film, including a video of a wartime parade in Sarnia in 1941 and a video from a home show in the Sarnia Arena in the 1950s. Both sets of film are degrading in composition and quality as the decades have gone by. Fortunately, George Smith's son Derek has inherited his father's appreciate for Lambton County history, and also has a knack for video editing. Derek has taken the time to digitize his father's film, tinker with the film quality and produce two excellent digital copies of the old film.

The wartime parade marched down Confederation Street in 1941, and we believe that George Smith stood at the intersection of Confederation Street and Mitton Line while filming. The video features young soldiers as well as aged veterans. Most of the video is in black and white but it does feature an amazing colour sequence with a series of floats that have slogans like "K.O. Hitler," "More Machine Guns," "Make Your Savings Fight For You" and "Canada Needs More Planes." The video was uploaded to YouTube and split into two sections, so make sure that you visit the links for both sections: Sarnia Wartime Parade 1941, Part 1 and Sarnia Wartime Parade 1941, Part 2.

The home show was filmed sometime in the 1950s. It reveals a huge crowd that turned out to the Sarnia Arena for a display of modern appliances and home accessories. Local companies can be seen touting their merchandise. Interesting, the video transitions into what looks like a talent competition sponsored by local radio station CHOK! I went through our Sarnia Observer indexes and our files for information about the home show but did not find anything to provide us with more details. If you know anything about this home show, please post and let us know! The home show has also been posted on YouTube and can be viewed at Sarnia Home Show, 1950s.

I hope that you enjoy these moving pictures from the past!

Summer Fun at the Beachers' Club: 1914-1928

Rare photo of the Beachers' Club.

With spring just around the corner and our recent blast of warm weather, I know that many of us are looking forward to summer and all the activities we'll be able to enjoy. I recently dug up some interesting material from the Beachers' Club, a group of young Sarnian gentlemen who "believed that summers were endless, nights filled with music and pretty girls and that the days of youth would never end." (Red Wilson from the Observer, July 28, 1978).

The Beachers' Club was founded in 1914.
Founding members of the club include two WWI veterans, Harvey (Hot Dog) Douglas and Reg Savage, and characters like Moon from Ingersoll (who reportedly always brought a book to read but never got around to reading it). The tincovered building was located where the Sarnia streetcar turned sharply east near the Grandview (or Wees Beach) Hotel, just off Lake Huron. If you're trying to place that location on a modern map, it's at the end of Colborne Road!

This diagram shows the path of the Sarnia Street Railway heading towards Lake Huron, and the Wees Beach Hotel. Image the Beachers' Club nestled near where the streetcar takes the sharp turn east. Diagram published June, 1904 and entitled, "Diagram showing Sarnia Street Railway from Christina Street to Wees Beach Hotel, Township of Sarnia."

In the Observer of July 28, 1978, Red Wilson wrote a history of the Beachers' Club and gave this description of their clubhouse: "The Club held no secrets. It was open for all the world to see. About June the front was lifted to make a sort of patio roof. The interior, festooned with pennants, was a landmark from its inception until it moved across the road into a new and more substantial building. The new headquarters were more modern, sophisticated and roomier than the old. But they lacked that touch of glamor of the old."

Beachers' Club Reunion Itinerary

So what did these young men do at the Beachers' Club?  I couldn't find very many records of the club's activities in its heyday between 1914 and 1928, but I did find hints about what those boys got up to in some material released for a reunion that occurred August 15, 16 and 17 in 1941. The itinerary for this reunion promised sports, good meals, visiting hours (with a special tea where ladies were invited), and "... poker in the kitchen for the affluent and carefree -- chess or checkers for the serious." Attendees of this reunion were told to bring the following items: 

• Pyjamas - the regular regalia;
• Blankets enough for both sides of you;
• A pillow, too, if you must have it; don't bank on borrowing;
• One old white sheet for the ghost walk;
• Any musical instrument you toot or tickle;
• A disposition to let bygones be bygones and a hope for the continuance and dignity of the BEACHERS CLUB.

Beachers' Club Reunion Intivation

An official invitation accompanied that itinerary and was sent out to approximately sixty former members of the camp. It included notes from some men who had already RSVP'ed for the event. Some of the comments included:

• Jerry Battrum, "I got my Ukulele all tuned up - bring your voice well oiled."
• Reg Savage, "If you boys would like a date - I still have the old book."
• Ray Miller, "I'll get out the old jallopy and just start something."
• Red Wilson, "Ahh, boys, please let me sleep!"

Sounds like they enjoyed friendship, a bit of mischief and long summer days. Hopefully we can all enjoy these things as spring will soon turn to summer! Red Wilson reminisces fondly in the Observer article mentioned above, "They were good days then."

Twenty-two of the former campers invited would attend the 1941 reunion. This picture appeared in the Observer the week after the reunion in August.

The Story Behind Sarnia's Art Movement

Gallery Lambton is physically changing locations and adopting a new name; the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery is slated to open later in 2012. Have you ever wondered where and when Sarnians first had an opportunity to be inspired by great art? The answer lies in the efforts of a local women's group who fund-raised for Red Cross during WWI and the networking skills of local lawyer Norman Gurd.

Gurd followed his father Robert Gurd into legal practice, pursuing his studies in Toronto and returning to Sarnia in 1896 to work with the firm Kittermaster & Gurd. A strong believer in the library system, Gurd is credited with creating and popularizing the slogan, "The library belonds to you, do you belong to the library?"

Early art exhibition catalogue from Sarnia Public Library

Gurd's enthusiasm for the library system brought him closer to the network that would bring art to Sarnia. It was the Women's Art Conservation Committee (later the Women's Conservation Art Association) that purchased the first paintings to be hung in the Sarnia Public Library. The committee was an offshoot of the Women's Conservation Committee created during the First World War to raise funds for Red Cross. These ladies collected waste such as paper, cloth, fats and metals, which were in turn sold to local scrap dealers.

When WWI came to a close, the Women's Conservation Committee was seeking an alternative recipient for the financial fruits of their fund-raising efforts. Committee president Frances Flintoft wrote to Norman Gurd on July 25, 1919: "We have felt for some time past, that we should have displayed in the library, good pictures which would have an educating influence upon the public and would show them what good Art really is. There is no opportunity of this kind in Sarnia." She reflected on this process in a letter on March 2, 1929: "... turn our organization into an art association when the war was over - to buy Canadian pictures by Canadian artists and to form the nucleus of a permanent collection to have in the Public Library until such time as Sarnia should have an art gallery."

First two pages of a letter from Women's Conservation Art Committee President Frances Flintoft, March 2, 1929 reminiscing about the birth of the art movement in Sarnia.

After fulfilling the Red Cross's needs, the Women's Art Conservation Committee had $300.00 left and put this money towards the purchase of three paintings in March, 1920. George L. Smith records in his book, Norman Gurd and the Group of 7, that the pieces purchased were A.Y. Jackson's "Spring Lower Canada," H.B. Palmer's "Sawing Logs" and J.W. Beatty's "Winter near Toronto." [These links will take you to Gallery Lambton's online catalogue: note in the Credit Line, "Gift of the Sarnia Women's Conservation Art Association."] Other paintings purchased by the committee included Tom Thomson's "Chill November" (in December, 1920) and Lawren S. Harris's "Mongoose Lake" (in February, 1925).

Tom Thomson's "Chill November."

Sarnia Public Library was proud to display these paintings, offering  Sarnians a safe place to gather and appreciate art. Gurd expressed in a letter to Dr. Locke, head of the Toronto Public Library on November 3, 1919, that he would like to acquire "good pictures which would be truly representative of Canadian Art." What came to be known as the Sarnia Public Library and Art Gallery held various exhibitions and encouraged the sale and appreciation of authentic Canadian artwork.

Sarnia's art community was born out of the desire to allow the public easy access to great art; the patriotic desire to promote/display Canadian art; and the fund-raising efforts of grassroots community groups.

The Lambton Room is fortunate to have some interesting documentation of art's introduction into Sarnia. We have preserved much of Norman Gurd's correspondence, including a series of letters received from A.Y. Jackson in the 1920s discussing exhibitions and the sale of artwork. Our collection of catalogues from exhibitions at the Sarnia Public Library is also interesting, along with our biographical information on Gurd and newspaper clippings documenting his contributions to Sarnia.

Letter from A.Y. Jackson to Norman Gurd, February 16, 1925. Jackson and Gurd are corresponding about the availability of paintings for upcoming exhibitions. Jackson writes: "I am afraid we cannot find any more Thomson canvases. They are practically finished. We have a small one in the building which we are sending to Wembley. There are a few unfinished ones around but no great quality in them. The family are holding quite a number of sketches but will not sell them..."

Local History Gem! The Sarnia Observer Negative Collection

The Sarnia Observer Negative Collection is one of the most interesting and accessible collections at the Lambton Room. It is comprised of over 58,000 negatives of photographs that appeared in the Sarnia Observer in the 1950s and 1960s. In this blog post, I'm going to examine what makes this collection so interesting, and take a look into the future by acknowledging a recent donation from the Observer with new decades of material!

Sarnia Observer Negative: Sep. 29, 1950, SCITS Blue Bombers

The Sarnia Observer Negative Collection was almost lost before it could begin. According to the story handed down by past generations of Lambton County history enthusiasts, local historian and writer George Smith discovered that the Observer was discarding its collection of old negatives. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Where Did Our Collection Come From?, the story goes that Mr. Smith fished the negative collection from a dumpster behind the Observer office. We are fortunate for George Smith's zeal for Lambton County's history!

The photographic negatives are valuable because they allow us to create prints of images that appeared in the newspaper in the 1950s and 1960s. We have the newspapers on microfilm, but the pictures often do not show up well on microfilm, and when they are printed the results are often disappointing. With the Sarnia Observer Negative Collection, we can locate the original negatives and make significantly better quality scans and prints of the images.

Sarnia Observer Negative: Remembrance Day Parade, 1952

Summer students have been working with the Sarnia Observer Negative Collection for over ten years to increase its accessibility. The entire collection of 58,000 negatives has been indexed by summer students, and this index is available online. The Lambton County Libraries, Museums and Gallery web page has a link to the "Museum Catalogue." In this catalogue, you can browse the Sarnia Observer Negative Collection by searching for "Sarnia Observer Negative" in the drop-down search bar (the direct link is here). All of the photographs are indexed by event, location, and names of the individuals. In recent summers, students have begun the long process of scanning the negatives and uploading the images to accompany these database descriptions

Currently, the Observer is in the midst of compiling space in its downtown office. I was fortunate enough to speak with some staff from the Observer at the end of 2011 regarding some material that was going to lose its current office space. That material included negatives from the mid-1980s to early 2000s, as well as some original bound volumes of the newspaper. I was more than happy to take this material off their hands! The generous donation is now safely stored in our vault where it will be preserved. It will take numerous summer students and a lot of perseverance, but we look forward to the day when these additional negatives are also indexed and uploaded to the museum catalogue. A huge thank you to the Observer for donating this material to our archives!

Sarnia Observer Negative: Apr. 20, 1950, Ken Maidman Kayaks in Sarnia Bay

St. Clair Excursions on the Tashmoo

American company White Star Lines operated the Tashmoo or "The Glass Hack," a beloved ship that provided passenger service between Detroit, Port Huron and Sarnia. This speedy paddle wheeler took countless Lambton residents on pleasant excursions down the St. Clair River between 1901 and 1936.

The Tashmoo was built at Wyandotte, Michigan in 1899 and classed as a lake and river boat with a capacity for up to 3,500 passengers. During summer months she made daily excursion trips, and in the St. Clair River alone called at Algonac, Port Lambton, Marine City, St. Clair, Stag Island, South Park, Port Huron and twice at Sarnia. Leaving from Sarnia, a trip aboard the Tashmoo including a stop at Stag Island cost just under a dollar, about 80 or 90 cents. Jean Elford provides a charming description of a passenger's experience aboard the Tashmoo in the evening: "Hundreds of electric lights twinkled and were reflected on the great stretches of glass that enclosed the dining room and ballroom on A deck, the sixteen private parlours on B deck, and the aft portion of C deck. With the rest of her in darkness, she gave the illusion of floating above the water, and as she went the music of Finzel's orchestra added all that was needed to make her wonderfully romantic."

In the Sarnia Observer on August 20, 1983, O.N. (Red) Wilson reminisced fondly about the Tashmoo: "There are still those among us who dived into the bubbly wake cast up by the paddle wheels when the big ship left the dock. It took a lot of hard swimming to keep from going under the froth that refused to keep the swimmer afloat... While the ship was docked at Sarnia the 'water rats' dove for the pennies tossed into the water by passengers. The more successful dove, retrieved the slanting coins, tucked them into their mouths and kept right on chasing the money. They did it also with the Northern Navigation boats."

The Tashmoo was also known for her speed. After the ship's first summer of work, an official of the White Star Line bragged that she could outdistance the City of Erie or the City of Buffalo. The boasts were taken seriously and on June 4, 1901 a race was set up between the Tashmoo and the City of Erie. Both ships took the lead at some point during the hour-long race, but the City of Erie edged out the Tashmoo with a speed of 21.76 miles per hour to the Tashmoo's 21.70 miles per hour.

Unfortunately, Lambton residents would not enjoy whimsical summer nights aboard the Tashmoo forever. In the evening of June 19, 1936 while approaching the Livingstone channel below Grosse Ile, a trembling altered Captain McAlpine. The ship had hit a rock and an eight inch hole was quickly bringing in water. The captain wisely zipped the ship to shore and the crowd went ashore to the music of the orchestra, quite unaware that circumstances were more dire than just an engine malfunction. Once damages were assessed it was determined that the $750,000 price tag it would cost to repair the boat was too high, and the Tashmoo was sold for scrap. She had a wonderful 36-year run and created countless fond memories of airy summer nights.