Posts Tagged ‘1880s’
Arbour Day in New Brunswick – 1888
In a previous post, I wrote about the importance of trees in the school yard and the celebration of Arbour Day in schools in Nova Scotia during the early 1900s. One room schools in New Brunswick also celebrated Arbour Day.
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The 1888 Annual Report of the Schools of New Brunswick, by the Chief Superintendent of Education, reports on 1888 Arbour Day celebrations in New Brunswick, years before the first official Arbour Day in Ontario, Canada (1906). The purpose of Arbour Day celebrations in the school was:
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to encourage the improvement and ornamentation of school grounds and thereby of cultivating on the part of pupils habits of neatness and order, and a taste for the beautiful in nature …
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In 1888 New Brunswick schools celebrated Arbour Day on May 18. In the whole province, students planted 6,571 trees, 650 shrubs and 393 flower beds!
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
early schooling in New Brunswick – teachers in 1888
In my family, teaching was a much-revered profession. Both Mom and Dad were teachers, as were my Aunt and Uncle. Mom, and my Aunt and Uncle, taught in one room schools. Mom began teaching in the early 1940s, when she was only 16, just after her graduation from Grade Twelve. At first, she taught with a temporary teaching licence issued during the Second World War. Later she went to Normal School to obtain a permanent licence.
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a copy of the reader my Dad used in High School in Nova Scotia, about 1933 (High School Reader, 1913)
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To learn a little about teachers in one room schools in the late 1800s, I have continued to read the Annual Report of the Schools of New Brunswick, 1888 by the Chief Superintendent of Education. In 1888, teachers in New Brunswick were trained in the Provincial Normal School. Of the 1,582 teachers, 1,534 were trained and 48 were untrained. Teachers, depending on qualifications, were in three classes: I, II and III.
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In 1888 in New Brunswick, there were many more female teachers than male:
| Class | #Male
Teachers |
# Female
Teachers |
| I | 114 | 141 |
| II | 157 | 644 |
| III | 108 | 404 |
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High School English Composition, 1913
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The salary of a teacher in 1888 was certainly small compared to today! The average yearly salary for teachers in New Brunswick in 1888 was lower for female than for male teachers:
- male teachers $536.90 (First Class) (average salaries for the three Classes ranged from $231.00 to $536.90)
- female teachers $328.49 (First Class) (average salaries for the three Classes ranged from $187.47 to $328.49)
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The Superintendent does not mention the inequity in pay for male and female teachers. He focuses on a decrease in pay from 1888 to 1889, criticizing the government for not being more generous to teachers. His worry was that teachers would not stay in the profession if salaries were too low.
… it is an ill-advised economy that seeks to maintain on the scantiest allowance a service which is essential to the preservation of order and the strength and progress of a country.
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The budget for all schools in the Province in 1888-1889, from provincial, federal and district sources, was $404,145.00 (not including building and property costs).
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two of the old school books in my collection: Nova Scotia Readers, 1911 (used in Nova Scotia) and The Canadian Readers, 1924 (used in Alberta)
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
family history – changes in 10 years
As I look into my family history, I am often amazed by the changes that occur in families in short periods of time. An example is found in the early life of my great-grandmother Ella – Mary Ellen (Hawk) Norman. In the ten years from 1860 to 1870, she experienced dramatic changes in her family.
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The 1860 US Census shows Ella’s family living in Chestnut Hills Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania. The family included Josiah Hawk (Ella’s father, a shoemaker), Sallyann (Sarah Ann) (Ella’s mother), Owen and Ella (Ellen). Mariah Hawk, Ella’s paternal grandmother was also living with them.
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In the next decade, the family underwent remarkable change. First, five children were born – Flora, Sarah, twins Edwin and Otto, and Emma. Of these, Otto and Emma did not live (Josiah and Sallie had already lost a child in 1957). Then Josiah died on June 28, 1865, a month and a half after Emma. Also, sometime during the ten-year period, Maria Hawk, who lived until 1880, went to live elsewhere.
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John Franklin born Sept. 15, 1855 (died Dec. 26, 1857, two years old)
Owen born April 21, 1857 (death date unknown)
Ellen born January 4, 1859 (Ella, my great-grandmother, died 1933)
Flora Alice born June 25, 1860 (death date unknown)
Sarah Ann born Dec. 11, 1863 (Sadie, my great grand-aunt, died 1921)
Edwin W. born 1864 (Ed, my great grand-uncle, died 1940)
Otto born 1864 (death date unknown, before 1870)
Emma Lydia born Jan. 7, 1865 (died May 9, 1865, 4 months old)
From: Atwood James Shupp, 1990, Genealogy of Conrad and Elizabeth (Borger) Hawk: 1744 – 1990, Gateway Press, Baltimore).
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In 1870, Ella’s mother, Sallie, married again to Joshua Popplewell.
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The 1870 US Census shows the results of all this change. In 1870, the family is living in Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. The family now includes Joshua Popplewell (step-father), Salie (Sara Ann) (mother), Owen, Mary (Ella), Flora, Edwin and Sarah (Sadie).
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The person most affected by these changes must have been my great-great-grandmother, Sara Ann (Sallie). During the decade she gives birth to five children (including a set of twins), her husband dies, she remarries, and she changes the location of her home at least once. In the only photo I have of her, she seems a formidable woman, steeled to withstand all manner of disruption in her life. I also see great sadness in her eyes.
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my great-great-grandmother Sallie – Sarah Anne (Kresge) Hawk Popplewell (1835 – 1910)
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Our lives are dynamic, full of change. New people enter our lives, others leave. The place we call home shifts to a new location. We go to school and graduate, we take a new job, we retire. Our focus changes, along with our point of view. Some change is dramatic, some subtle. Some change makes us laugh, some makes us cry.
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What changes do you see in the decades of your life?
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
searching the newspapers #2
Using the search features available, I have been looking in the Wyoming newspapers of the 1800s for any item about my great-grandfather. It is slow work, partly because I don’t want to miss anything, partly because I am easily distracted by various interesting adds and articles.
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You may recall that I already know of an item about my great-grandfather in the July 26, 1886 edition of the Laramie ‘Daily Boomerang’ (page 4). On July 25, 1886, he fell from his horse and broke his collar bone, only a day after he and my great-grandmother Ella were married.
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If only to show that I am being careful about my search, I have now found a corroborating article in the ‘Cheyenne Daily Sun’ for July 28, 1886 (page 3).
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I will never know if Frank was riding his own horse, or if he had to hire one from a place like Emery’s Livery Stable (in the add just to the right of the article).
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When we visited Laramie in 2002, I misread the article slightly and talked non-stop about how my great-grandfather had ridden his horse into the hills. Do you see any mention of hills in either article? Nevertheless, I was anxious to drive up into the hills east of Laramie, to see the landscape he might have seen. The road cuts there showed a orange-pink bedrock and I brought a small chunk back with me to remember Frank’s unfortunate ride. Looks a little ghostly under the scanner …
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
searching the newspaper archives
Still on the trail of my great-grandfather, I have turned for a short time to the wonderful source of the newspaper archive. This may not uncover any new leads about my relative, but it is a fascinating way to search.
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I know from my Aunt’s earlier search for information, my great-grandfather (Frank Norman) and great-grandmother (Ella Hawk) were married in Laramie, Wyoming on July 24, 1886. I have written before about my great-grandmother Ella and her father, Josiah Hawk, who was a shoemaker in Pennsylvania (https://nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/occupation-shoemaker/). In 2002, we drove out to Laramie as part of a vacation adventure, and saw where Frank and Ella were married. It was amazing to know I was standing where they did so long ago!
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My present search for Frank has taken me to the pages of the ‘Daily Boomerang’, a newspaper in Laramie. This was a four page daily paper, reporting local and national events and providing advertising for Laramie in the 1880’s and 1890’s and beyond. It included lots of local tid-bits in the ‘Personal Paragraphs’, ‘Personal Points’ and ‘About Town’ sections. The ‘Laramie Boomerang’ continues today.
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In 2002, when I visited Laramie, I spent part of the day looking at the fragile paper archives of the ‘Daily Boomerang’. Although my time was short, I was able to find out a little about the Minister who married Frank and Ella.
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Now, a little more than a decade later, I am able to access, online, every page of the paper. This is thanks to the Wyoming Newspaper Project. The project has converted over 800,000 pages of Wyoming newspapers into searchable digital format. Today, all I have to do is type the searchword ‘Norman’ to find if Frank or Ella are mentioned in the pages of any of over one hundred Wyoming newspapers ! To search these papers, have a look at http://www.wyonewspapers.org .
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I know this effort may turn up some results since I already know of one article, found by my Aunt, about my great-grandfather. On July 26, 1886, only two days after their wedding in Laramie, Frank receives a short mention in the ‘Daily Boomerang’.
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Just a little below the center of the page above, under ‘About Town’, it says:
Frank Norman, while out riding yesterday, was thrown from his horse and had his collar bone broken.
I know from later records that Frank made his living as a ‘hod carrier’, part of a bricklaying team. The ‘hod carrier’ is the worker who carries bricks on a hod – a v-shaped wooden carrier with a handle, carried over the shoulder. A collar bone injury would have been a hard turn of events for someone whose work involved carrying heavy loads. It must have been a tradgedy for the couple newly married.
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I have a little work ahead of me since I want to look at all possible entries in the newspaper about Frank or Ella from the time of their marriage to about 1892 when Frank and Ella were living in Denver, Colorado. There may be nothing more to find, and the search is made complicated because a common breed of horse for sale in Wyoming at the time – the ‘Norman’ !
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I will keep you up to date on my search for information about my great-grandfather. Have you ever used newspapers to search for information about a member of your family?
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
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