Tweedsmuir Thursday #2

This building might look familiar to many Dunvegan residents: the DRA (Dunvegan Recreational Association) Hall. The DRA Hall, like many historic buildings, has served many purposes and organizations in its lifetime.

Built in 1919, the building was constructed to replace the original Loyal Orange Lodge, erected in 1867 and used as a meeting place for Orangemen in Dunvegan. After the new Orange Lodge was built, the original was sold to Alex Urquhart who moved it across the road and used it as a private house. In 2005, it was dismantled and moved to the museum. Although talk of a new Orange Lodge began in 1914, the First World War stopped plans and no mention was made in minutes until Feb. 1919.

The new Lodge was built by Frank Schell of Maxville and constructed of cement blocks and originally two storeys high. Members of the Building Committee received $1.00 per day for their labour. Since its opening, the hall was used not only by the Orange Order but also other organizations in the community. It was used for church suppers and events, dances, etc. During WWII, it held parties for every boy that joined the Armed Services.

As time passed and talk of disbandment brewed among the few Orange Order members, they turned the hall over to the Women’s Institute for a fee of $600 in 1974. The Orange Order and W.I had a close relationship and a history of organizing events together including, an annual Turkey Supper to raise funds for both organizations.

In 1978, the hall underwent extensive renovations. The cement blocks at the top of the building were cracking and the walls were spreading apart. Members feared the hall was unsafe and Angus John MacLeod undertook the task of renovating the hall into a one-storey building and constructing a new roof.  The above photographs are some before and after shots of the building. Below is a photograph of an Orange Order meeting at the Hall in 1921. These are from two pages in the Dunvegan Tweedmuirs.

Tools and Trades Tuesday #1

Above: A bloodletting knife that would have been used by a Barber Surgeon to treat patients.

Blacksmith, Tinsmith, Carpenter, Lumberman, Shoemaker, Doctor, or weaver – The list goes on. For every pioneer trade, there are a multitude of tools that go with it. Every Tuesday, we will feature a tool from the collection. Some, like this bloodletting knife, may seem outlandish today, but was considered essential for a doctor or “Barber Surgeon” in the 19^th century.

The process of bloodletting was the release of large amounts of blood from either veins or major arteries and it was believed to cure many ailments. This process of removing blood from the body to purge toxins from the system can also be traced back as far as 1000 B.C.E. when people were looking for explanations for many bodily illnesses of the time. Although today this is viewed as absurd, it was regarded as a common treatment for almost 2000 years.

During the 19^th century, bloodletting had become such a widely used operation that barbers, which were the surgeons of the time, began to advertise their ability to perform such tasks. A person would have the local doctor attend their home and often times he would recommend a session of bloodletting, at which the patient would travel to the local barber surgeon to have the procedure done. This medical treatment was used right up until the late 1930s, but quickly people were discover that it was often making people more ill or even in some extremes death.

Tweedsmuir Thursday #1

Above: Photo of Lady Tweedsmuir from the first page of the Dunvegan Tweedsmuir History Book

 

 

Welcome back to the weekly blog! This year we are introducing Tweedsmuir Thursdays, one of two weekly blogs. Tweedsmuir Thursday will feature fascinating stories, photographs, clippings, etc. from the museum’s Dunvegan Tweedsmuir collection. What is a Tweedsmuir? Tweedsmuirs are local histories that were compiled by Women’s Institute branches beginning in the 1940’s. They were named after the Governor General of Canada from 1935-1940 and his wife, Lord and Lady Tweedsmuir. Lady Tweedsmuir was a member of the Women’s Institute in England and while visiting Ontario, she took great interest in the Women’s Institutes and was made an Honorary Life Member of the Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario. She became very passionate about preserving the history of the Canadian people and advocated for the WI branches to compile village history books in order to preserve the history of each community.

Tweedsmuirs resemble scrapbooks because they contain historical information in various formats like newspaper clippings, photographs, handwritten histories, etc. Every Tweedsmuir is different and styled in a unique way. Despite this, they all contain various historical information on the community including; churches, schools, land and property, events, war effort, biographies, and earliest settlers, etc. In January 1942, a motion was made and seconded by the Dunvegan Women’s Institute that the history of Dunvegan be written.

What is the Women’s Institute? The WI was founded in 1897 by Adelaide Hunter of Hamilton, Ontario. After the death of her first child from drinking unpasteurized milk, she dedicated her life towards the education of women. Adelaide gained a large following which led to the development of the first branch of the Women’s Institute.

 

The Dunvegan Women’s Institute began on April 2, 1935 with a meeting of twenty ladies. Mrs. Mary Chisholm and Mrs. Mary MacIntosh thought it would be enjoyable to have an organization that every woman, regardless of race or faith, could attend.

In May 2001, the Dunvegan Women’s Institute disbanded. Their contribution to the community and dedication to the preservation of our local history will not be forgotten.

Stay tuned for exciting stories from the Tweedsmuirs that will be shared with you this summer.

Farming Fridays

This is an egg incubator which was used for hatching chicken eggs. Mechanical incubating was not invented until the year of 1749 by Reamur in Paris, France. Prior to this invention, one of the first recorded methods of incubating included using the heat of rotted manure to warm the eggs.

Although this incubator is mechanical, it was still before the availability of electricity to farms, instead, a coal oil lamp was used to heat water, circulating by convection through pipes around the perimeter of the incubator. This incubator is a cabinet style, made of redwood and could be suitable for indoor decor. Very few of these can be found today, making this item rare, especially because the incubator still has the original kerosene attachment. The cabinet style has drawer pull-outs for placing the eggs and for turning. Most incubators required hand turning of the eggs.

Farming Fridays

This McCormick Deering cream separator is used to separate fresh milk into cream and skim milk. Often the skim milk was consumed by the farmer and his family and the cream was saved to make butter, or it would be sold.
Before the centrifugal mechanism such as this one, milk was separated by letting it sit in a container until the cream floated to the top and could be skimmed off by hand. But the centrifugal separator makes it possible to separate cream from milk faster and more easily, without having to let the milk sit for a long time and risk it turning sour.
This one was originally a hand cranked machine but a motor was later added around 1925. The fresh milk gets poured into the supply can at the top, and then leaves the bowl through a valve on the side and passes into the disks where the cream separates. Good separators have a bell in the center of the gear (ours is missing); this allows the user to tell when the cream separator was being cranked at the right speed, usually 60 revolutions per minute. If the bell was ringing the cream separator needed to be cranked faster. This speed was very important for the cream separator to operate at peak efficiency. There are two different spouts at different heights, the top spout pours out the cream and the lower spout pours out the skim milk. Floor model cream separators such as this one often have a swinging platform where a bucket would go to collect the cream. 

Glengarrians & The Great War

    

This unique wheelchair belonged to Pte. John Alexander Grant. Grant was born in Apple Hill on September 5, 1896 to Mr. & Mrs. Duncan A Grant. He enlisted in the Canadian army on March 11, 1916 in Maxville, ON.  He was stationed during the First World War in England and France. During his time in France, he suffered a severe  injury, which resulted in shrapnel wounds and the amputation of both his legs. He was given this wheelchair, equipped with operating handles, once he was discharged from the army. It is believed that he continued to have a military presence by becoming a recruitment officer for local military branches.

        His wheelchair was donated to the Glengarry Pioneer Museum by the Estate of Myles Edwards c/o Bill Edwards. Myles refurbished the wheelchair and obtained a copy of Pte Grant's service and medical records but the connection between the Edwards and Grant families is unknown because of the death of Myles Edwards.

Farming Fridays

One of the more important aspects of pioneer settlement and pioneer life in Canada was how they made use of everything they had in order to make a life for themselves. Imagine arriving at a completely unusual, unfamiliar place with nothing and being surrounded by thousands of acres of forests. For pioneers, this was only one of the problems that they had to overcome in order to prosper in Canada. Before they could begin to farm, pioneers had to cut down many trees so they could plant crops. It was a very labour intensive task to clear the land but with innovation, creativity, and hard work, the pioneers learned of easier techniques and instruments to clear the land more efficiently.

            One particular artifact that we have here in our collection is a very useful tool for early farmers in the area is a crosscut saw. Crosscut saws have been used around the world since the 15^th century but have evolved over time to accommodate different types of trees, changes in metallurgy technology, and experiences. A crosscut saw is a general term for any saw blade cutting wood against the wood grain. They can have small teeth close together for things like woodworking, or they can have large teeth for course work like log bucking (cutting a tree into logs). The cutting edge of each tooth is angled in an alternating pattern which allows each tooth to act like a knife edge and slice through the wood. Many saw tooth patterns have 4 cutters and adjacent to the cutters there is generally a raker which does the actual removal of the wood that is being cut. The raker follows the cutters scraping the bottom of the kerf, and as it scrapes, a strip of wood is shaved away.

            Since arrival to Glengarry in the late 1700’s and throughout most of the 1800’s, wood remained the staple item of building and survival. They found use for everything in those days, so all the wood they had chopped down to clear space for crops would be used for anything and everything. Many of their farming tools were made of wood, their log cabin homes, kitchen utensils, fences, barrels, furniture, toys, shovels, and the list goes on. Even with the advancement of the chainsaw just after WWII, crosscut saws are still in wide use around the world today.

*Tip from an antique saw collector: if you want to get twice the heat out of your firewood, cut it up with a crosscut. 

Farming Fridays

     This is a Fanning Mill from the late 1800s that became a very important piece of farm machinery for early farmers. It is a peculiar-looking device made of wood, with shaped handles, rounded edges and like other old-time machinery, fanning mills were attractively painted in showy colours and designs appearing almost like a piece of furniture. The colours on this particular one have long since faded away, but when restored to their natural beauty they are quite attractive.

     The purpose of the Fanning Mill was to remove straw, chaff, stones, dirt and dust, weed seeds, and light immature seeds from wheat, oats, rye, barley, and other grains. It was important to remove contaminants for better preservation during storage and to have mold and grit free flour. Fanning Mills were a great technical advance over winnowing, which is the hand-process of pouring grain from one container to another in a breeze to blow away the lighter matter. Fanning Mills also cleaned the grain more thoroughly than a threshing machine and mills were kept around farms for a long time to re-clean oats and wheat in the spring for planting. This particular Fanning Mill would also bag the grains as they come to the bottom of the tray. 

Glengarrians & The Great War

This week’s World War One blog post features correspondence between Mr. William J. Cuthbert and W.P. Cooke, the Deputy Registrar at the Military Service Branch in Alexandria. The letters contain an appeal from military service by William Cuthbert on the grounds that he is a farmer. The appeal was eventually granted, and Mr. Cuthbert and his brother were exempted from active service until December 31^st, 1918. These documents are significant because they highlight the importance of Glengarry’s agricultural roots. Although it was important to send troops to Europe in support of the war effort, it was also essential to make sure there was food to be transported to the men overseas. 

Canada, as a dominion of the British Empire, was automatically involved in Britain’s conflict due to its colonial status. It became an active participant in the imperial war effort, working not only to meet Britain’s military needs, but also to provide economic and food support.This led to the development of nationwide initiatives, such as the “Soldiers of the Soil (SOS)” program, which encouraged young men to stay home and work the farm, and  “Farm Service Crops” or “Farmettes” with a similar mandate as the SOS but targeted women as recruits. WWI caused strain on farming communities, as they felt pressured  to support the war effort by  sending their sons to the front, but also to have enough help on the farm to meet the food demands during the conflict.

Farming Fridays

Jamieson Stoning Machine

     You can’t miss this extravagant piece of farm equipment as you are meandering through the museum grounds. Being one of our biggest artifacts here at the museum, it is also one of our more remarkable pieces in our agriculture collection because of the outstanding convenience it provided for many early farmers. In order for the land to be practical for growing crops, they had to clear the big stones out of the land space where they would like to plant. This big horse powered machine did the job just fine. The stoning machine was invented by an early settler of Brodie, William Jamieson, with the intent to help farmers with this labour intensive task of moving large boulders from their fields. After it was built, it had to be driven all the way to Kingston to acquire a patent for it.

     Although the mechanics of the machine look fairly complicated and complex, it was not hard to run. Young boys would work ahead of the machine and used a maul and chisel to make holes in the stones so the metal hooks could fit into the holes and lift the boulder with relative ease. Being a very useful machine to farmers, and only needing a horse or two to lift the stones by pulleys and ropes, it became a very popular tool and was still used well into this century. You could rent it for $1.50 a day and often farmers would make stone fences from all the boulders and many of the fences around Glengarry still have stones with these holes on their sides.