Results for ‘Historical MUSINGS’
What They Mean-Famous People That Bore the Name-The Name in History, Literature, Etc.
By Henry W. Fischer
[Welland Telegraph, 9 February 1912]
REBECCA
Rebecca, also spelled Rebekah, means a troth, binding engagement, not reconciliation, as some writers say.
The first Rebecca “was very fair to look upon,” like the flower, her emblem the “Star of Bethlehem,” and probably on account of the original Rebecca’s comeliness the name was adopted in all languages.
In America the full name is not very often heard, the abbreviation, “Becky,” hallowed by literature, and the contraction Reba taking its place.
Becky Sharp, in “Vanity Fair,” was Thackeray’s most original conception of a female character, the very impersonation of talent, worldliness and tact. If the suffragettes lack the prototype of a “managing woman” let them start a “Becky Sharp League.”
Scott’s “Ivanhoe” introduces to us a medical “Rebecca,” the original Rebecca of whom was an American spinster, Rebecca Grats of Philadelphia. She was born in 1781, and preserved her singular beauty until long beyond middle life. Benevolence and devotion to the Jewish faith were her chief characteristics, and Washington Irving was proud to call her friend.
Irving asuggested the character of Rebecca to Scott, and when “Ivanhoe” was finished the latter wrote to the American poet: “Does the Rebecca I have pictured compare well with the pattern given?” Rebecca Grats died in 1869.
What They Mean-Famous People That Bore the Name-The Name in History, Literature, Etc.
By Henry W. Fischer
HELEN
[Welland Telegraph, 5 April 1912]
The girl named Helen must have a hard time living up to her name, which means radiantly beautiful.
The fact that there are so few perfect beauties in the world may account for it that many girls christened Helen are called by the less ambitious appellations of Nellie or Nell. The most famous of the Nells, Nell Gwynne, the gay enslaver of Charles II, was remarkable for beauty and a nimble mind, but even then the names of Helen and Eleanor seem to have been cinfounded. One of the early biographies of Nell calls her Eleanor and Nell’s testament is styled in official language “the last request of Mrs. Ellen Gwynn.”
With the signification of Helen as radiantly beautiful the emblem allotted to the name, ranunculus, ill tallies.
This is a flower one gathers in the meadows as plain buttercups or kingcups. Helen’s motto is “Full of charm.”
Helen of Troy was a daughter of Jupiter and Leda. She caused the war of Troy by running away from her husband Menelaos, king of Sparta with Paris, a prince as beautiful as herself.
Helen of Troy is to this day esteemed the goddess of navigation, and certain meteoric flames occasionally seen on the masts of ships are called “Helen’s Fire.” If the flame is single, foul weather is at hand; if two or more flames appear, weather conditions will improve.
The Empress Helena was the mother of Constantine the Great, and the rediscovery of the cross is imputed to her. Some records have it that she was a native of Treves, others that she was an English woman,
In Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well,” Helen or Helena typifies a woman lovely in person, at once patient and hopeful, strong in feeling and sustained through trials by her enduring and heroic faith.
Edgar Allen Poe worshipped at the feet of two Helens, Helena Stannard, the love of his passionate boyhood, and Mrs. Helen Whitman.
The Late Louis Blake Duff by William Arthur Deacon
The late Louis Blake Duff of Welland was the subject of a biographical article by William Colgate that appeared in the Globe Magazine in mid-August. Dr. Duff died two weeks later at the age of 82. Tributes to his character and career appeared on the editorial pages of this and other newspapers, for the man was not only extremely able but loved even more than he was admired. Now his friend George H. Smith of Port Colborne has gathered these and other similar material into a handsome, privately printed brochure of 150 copies. It would have greatly pleased the short, round man in whose honor it has been published.
Born near Wingham, Louis Blake Duff taught for four years before a long and varied career on several newspapers in Southern Ontario. For 20 years he was the successful owner of the Welland Telegraph; but in 1926 he surrendered it to a buyer because the offer was too high to refuse—in those days. So Mr. Duff founded Niagara Finance Corporation and throve more lushly. But it was as writer and humorous speaker that he was most widely known. His great library of rare and beautiful books was admired; and now some of the books he himself wrote are collectors’ items. The lighter side of the man came out when he was accepting an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Western Ontario. He explained that the small son of a neighbor lost interest in the promotion when he learned Dr. Duff would not be allowed to hoist a “D” on the license plate of his car.
I am grateful to Mr. Smith for a copy of his memorial book because it gives me a chance to say something. Being away from Toronto when Dr. Duff died, I lost the chance of timeliness. What has not been stressed is the man’s kindliness. A writer never forgets the first editors who bought his words nor the established senior writers who spoke encouraging words to the fledgeling in the craft. When I, an unknown young fellow from the West, was trying to make good in the then despised chore of reviewing, one of my first fan letters was from Louis Blake Duff. Nor did he stop there. He gave helpful advice; he entertained me in his home, took me to the beautiful, fairy-like Crowland he had built; insisted on a friendship that lasted 37 years.
He always attended the Leacock dinners for the Humor Medals. The last time I saw Louis was at the Meet the Authors dinner last spring, which he attended, not as the author he was, but as a member of the reading public. If slight there was, he was too big to take notice.Afterward, Greg Clark, Louis and I were admiring John Drainie’s superb impersonation of Leacock giving a lecture from a copy of his own Orillia porch. The make-up, the stance, the intonation amazed Louis, who said: “I knew Leacock all my life; and I could have believed the man on the porch was Stephen himself.” Then he went home and wrote Drainie his congratulations (a carbon to me). This pleased Drainie, who never saw Leacock; but was so typical of the generosity of Duff.
The composite man
{Port Colborne, 1959 Privately printed for George H. Smith}
But what of Louis Blake Duff himself? He was born in Bluevale, a village in Huron County near Wingham, on January 1, 1878. He was named Louis by his mother after Louis Riel, and Blake by his father, an ardent Grit and follower of Edward Blake. A period as schoolteacher(1896 to 1900) was followed by a stint as reporter on The Wingham Times, The Stratford Beacon and The Galt Reporter under J.P. Jaffray, where he had as colleague J. Herbert Cranston, for ,many years editor of the Star Weekly in Toronto. “Louis Blake Duff,” says Herbert Cranston in his autobiography, Ink on My Fingers, “began his career as a schoolteacher, but after four years of verbally admonishing the young, and a few years at research for a shorthand expert in the city of Toronto, was invited by Blake Elliott of The Wingham Times to manage his weekly temporarily.”
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By Peter Shisler
[Welland Tribune, 15 February 1872]
REMINISCENCES OF THE FRONTIER-When I was 17, in the year 1827, I remember teaming oats to the Pavilion Hotel at the Falls, which was at that time kept by one W. Forsyth, who kept stages running daily from that place to Fort Erie, and Mr. A. Crysler ran stages from Niagara to the Falls. This went off very well and both parties made money out of it, but by and by, the parties would take passengers the whole route and dispute over it. So they drew bonds that neither should drive on as though there had been no bonds exchanged, and the consequence was Mr. W.F. had to fork over $5000, but it did not seem to hurt him much, as when he left that business he left each of his four sons 200 acres of land with good buildings, besides giving his daughters a good setting out. Since 1827, that hotel has been destroyed three times by fire and rebuilt. Since the cars have taken the place of stages the above taverns are cut short, and in fact everything has taken a change. Chippawa, at that date, was the market for over fifty miles west and south-west for all kinds of produce, and I believe to-day, if some men owned the land from Chippawa to the Falls, there might be a greater market there to-day than ever has been in times gone by; as anyone who has passed along the rapids between these places can’t help but see that there is a great chance for water power. And the day may not be far distant when Chippawa may regain its position. Besides its old time advantages it has the accommodations of the Erie & Niagara R.R.; with splendid water communication. All that is required is for some of your wealthy men to put their shoulders to the wheel. As I passed through, on the 4th instant, I noticed a large number of scholars coming from a splendid mansion, which is a credit to the place, and as it lies so near one of the greatest wonders of the world, my impression is that it will be one of the last places that will go down, unless the great cataract gives way of which I think there is no danger as it is bound with such large cables to the U.S.
In the Early Days Girls Were Not Admitted to School
Present Building Was Erected in 1915
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 17 June 1924]
The Welland High School, while not one of the oldest schools in the Province, can yet claim a place with the older schools of its class; its establishment dates from 1854, before the hamlet, formerly known as “The Aqueduct,” later the Village of Merrittsville, after much rivalry with other places won the county buildings, became the capital of the county newly separated from the united counties of Lincoln and Welland and was incorporated in 1858 as the Village of Welland. The founders of our present city, descendents of an intelligent stock, people who had had good schools in New England and of a people whose forefathers had enjoyed liberal educational advantages in the old world, were not unmindful of the care of education and, though a school had been in existence for some years previous to incorporation, the need was felt for a higher institution of learning, resulting in the establishment of the Welland Grammar School in accord with a new Act of Legislature making provision for such schools.
These schools previous to this time had not been in any sense popular schools; their founders had in mind the great English public school whose curriculum was largely classical and whose benefits were confined to the wealthy; they were essentially for the benefit of the ruling classes and though Governor Simcoe’s proposal in 1789 was to have “Free Grammar Schools,” they levied considerable sums in fees and received considerable legislative grants. Neither were they High Schools as we now use that term. The curricular had no uniformity; each school was a law unto itself and depended almost wholly on the teacher; if he were scholarly and earnest, he could accomplish much and many did so. Often young boys who could scarcely read were admitted and their later progress was affected by the teacher’s skill in mending goose-quill pens once and twice a day. But although these schools were not for the mass of the people, it was a decided advantage that the rulers should have some educational advantages. No one can read the list of names of men educated in these schools and afterwards prominent in Canadian public life without recognizing that their establishment was a blessing to the whole of Canada.
The Welland school, coming into existence late among schools of its class, was to a large extent free of the limitations and objectionable features of the old-time Grammar Schools; under the new act it received from the outset good popular support. Under its first headmaster, Nelson Burns, who labored wisely and well and whose memory is held in high esteem, it was housed in a dwelling or “old pottery” on the site of the dwelling of A.J. McAlpine, later in the court house and in a school building on the site of the present Y.M.C.A. In 1866, after Mr. Hodgson’s removal, a system of union Grammar and Common School was inaugurated with J.W. Jolly as head master. Four years later increased attendance earned it again a home of its own, a brick building diagonally opposite the present building and later well known as the “Third Ward School,” since removed and the site built up with residences. Mr. Jolly was succeeded by Ira DeLamater, B.A., E.M. Bigg, M.A., and William Oliver, B.A., during whose term of office by the Act of 1871 the same Grammar School was changed to High School, and in 1874 a uniform standard of entrance examination was established throughout the Province. Mr. Oliver resigned during this year and George Baptie, B.A., was in charge till J.M. Dunn, B.A., L.L.B., took charge in January, 1875.
Under the new Act, with a new name and a new principal, the school gained in strength till in 1879 it was moved to a new site just in front of the present building and a new building, “A beautiful building,” the History of Welland County says of it, “of red brick trimmed with white, in spacious grounds, with basement, well furnished, and heated throughout by hot air from a huge furnace.” This building was replaced by the present building in 1915. Mr. Dunn, not a young man, died in office ten years later, a zealous painstaking teacher, who sent on many students to the University whose courses reflected great credit on his work; indeed, it is claimed that the first lady to graduate from a Canadian university was prepared in his classes.
It is not known at what date girls were first admitted to the school; the spirit of the old Grammar Schools was decidedly opposed to such procedure; this attitude will strike the students of today as decidedly queer; now-a-days a school without ladies as teachers and girls as students would be regarded as “a home without a mother,” and without sisters, too. It must be remembered however, that accommodations and affairs generally now are very different from those of the early pioneer days. The association of boys and girls in school, so easy and even desirable today, would have been under the old conditions difficult and intolerable.
After the death of Mr. Dunn, John Lennox, the teacher of mathematics and science, was acting principal till the appointment of H.M. McCuaig, B.A., the principal. The school at that time had three teachers less than one hundred students on its roll and made good effort to cover all the work of the curriculum; today there are seven teachers with a trifle less than three hundred students on the roll and the work has been greatly specialized and the curriculum extended, noticeably the science, art and commercial departments.
The new building opened in March, 1915, stands well back from West Main street on a slight knoll with a green lawn sloping gradually to the fine maple trees that border the grounds. The building is of red brick; its straight sky-line and the absence of stone-work at the basement gives the appearance of greater length and less height. A circular walk with off-shoots to the boys’ and girls’ entrances at either end curves past an imposing main entrance at the centre. The interior has, at the right of the main entrance, the office, on the left a fine, large room, for the library; immediately opposite the entrance a “convenience door” leads to a balcony overlooking the great gymnasium which in height from basement to second store extends from the rear of the main building; to the right and left wide well lighted corridors, lined by class-room doors with glass panels, lead to the students’ entrance at either end and to stairways leading to the hallway above. Here are more class-rooms, science laboratories, an art room, a suite of rooms for the commercial department, and a large room for domestic science classes. The basement contains a manual training room in addition to lunch-rooms and locker rooms for students and is finished in concrete as are all the lavatories. The building is heated by steam, lighted throughout by electricity and ventilated by shafts admitting outdoor air that is warmed by radiators. There are study-rooms, cloak-rooms and all provision for comfort. The building is practically fireproof and has emergency locks on outside doors that open to pressure from within even when locked.
The administration of the school is vested in a Board of Trustees appointed by the councils of the city and county respectively, and to the gentlemen who have given their services on this Board the progress and strength of the school is due in no small degree. Its income is from grants from the councils mentioned and from the Legislature. No fees have been charged since 1891.
The opening of the new building with its fine gymnasium gave an impetus to the work of physical training and the athletic interests of the students; the school has the usual quota of boys’ and girls’ clubs, a good Cadet Corps which has provided from its ranks some fifteen men for overseas service, and a school paper “The Student” published now and then.
High Schools were organized in the beginning to prepare students for the universities and the training schools of the professions; among these the profession of teaching took by far the greater share. Of late greater recognition has been given the claims of others, students destined to industrial, commercial and agricultural work find their requirements better met by the regular courses of the school. The Industrial Evening Classes and the encouragement given to the Junior Farmers’ Improvement Association were extensions along this line, and the addition of manual training and domestic science seems to be a step of the near future. It is questionable whether this arrangement will long satisfy the demand; later years will in all probability see specialized secondary schools growing out of the many departments now included in the High School scheme.
NOW SEVENTY YEARS OLD
Gutted by Fire in 1913
Corner Stone Was Laid at Port Robinson but Later Was Changed
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 17 June 1924]
Welland County’s massive stone courthouse, built in 1856 at a cost of over $100,000 was practically gutted by fire on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 11th, 1913. Only the first floor remained partly untouched by the flames and when the fire was brought under control, the great stone shell was practically all that was left of the handsome structure. Defective electric wiring was said to be the origin of the fire.
County Court was in session in the court room when the fire was first discovered in the big dome directly over the centre of the building. In a moment the court room was emptied, the judge, attorneys, witnesses and spectators making a hasty rush for the stairway. Charles Stewart, one of the constables of the court, ran through the building warning the occupants of the different offices of their danger and giving them time to place valuable documents and papers in the vaults.
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What They Mean-Famous People That Bore the Name-The Name in History, Literature, Etc.
By Henry W. Fischer
AGNES
[Welland Telegraph, 16 January 1912]
Agnes should cultivate a gentle and retiring disposition, lest she belies her name, which, literally translated means “lamb.”
As in ancient Rome the lamb was consecrated to sacred purposes, it is not surprising that the name was applied to the gentle girl famed in the history of the church as one of the early Christian martyrs, “Agnes, the representative , the triumph of Innocence.” The Church of St. Agnes in the Eternal City stands on the very spot where the lamb-like creature is said to have suffered.
St. Agnes’ name day is Jan. 20, and on its eve a girl is supposed to see the face of her future husband through certain forms of divination, as told in Keats’ poem, “The Eve of St. Agnes.”
The white violet is Agnes’ emblem: modesty her sentiment.
Agnes de Poitou was the Empress of Henry III of Germany and mother of Henry IV.
By his marriage with Agnes of Meran, King Philip Augustus of France brought down the papal interdict upon his land and subjects and was forced to take back his first wife, Ingeborg, whom he had divorced.
Agnes, Countess of Orlamunda, killed her two children in a mistaken idea that her lover demanded this sacrifice. She was a relative of the Hohenzollerns, and, according to the legend, haunts them as the “White Lady of the Berlin Schloss.”
Queen Agnes of Hungary was the daughter of the murdered German Emperor Albrecht I. She took bloody revenge on the murderers of her sire.
Nor was the royal favorite Ines more fortunate. The beloved of Pedro of Castro, she was murdered by Alphonse of Portugal because Castro had secretly married her.
There is a suggestive Agnes in Moliere’s “School of Women,” on which “The Country Wife” by Wycherley is founded. The Agnes of Lille’s play, “Fatal Curiosity,” is as unfortunate as many of the royal women bearing the name.
What They Mean-Famous People That Bore the Name-The Name in History, Literature, Etc.
By Henry W. Fischer
[Welland Telegraph, 5 January 1912]
MOLLY
“Molly” is the only colloquial substitute for the more dignified Mary that good taste will tolerate. Others, like Mamie and Mame, are seldom heard outside the most intimate circles, and good literature scorns them.
“Molly” on the other hand figures prominently in the domain of crime as in that of letters. At the same time it is frequently applied in a derisive sense.
Two of the world’s famous lyric poets owe some of the happiest hours of their lives to girls named Molly: Shelley and Burger.
The latter, whose famous ballad, “Leonore” offered Walter Scott his first opportunity as a literary artist, conceived a passion for “Molly,” when he led to the altar her sister, his first wife. The infatuation yielded both man and woman untold miseries that the literary world might gain some jewels of poetry, whose every word meant a heart-ache.
When, after years of unhappiness, Burger finally married his “Molly;” death robbed him of his treasure in a few months’ time.
Like Burger’s, so Shelley’s love for “Molly,” Mary Goodwin, broke his wife’s heart, but they had at least the happiness of living in peace for eight years, when in the end their love culminated in the long-wished for marriage.
Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders is no work of imagination, but the biography of a real person.
Molly was a contemporary of the second Charles and did time in Virginia, then a penal colony. An outcast and a thief for more than two decades, married five times, she ultimately grew rich and died full of years and honors. She was, perhaps, the handsomest woman of a period famous for beauties, such as Neil Gwynn, Lucy Waters, Mrs. Middleton and La Belle Stuart, and so were most of the other famous Mollys noted for fair looks and sprightliness.
Molly Carlson, known as “the German princess,” was hanged at Tyburn. Molly Firth, alias Molly Cutpurse, was a bold thief in the reign of Charles I. She escaped the other Moll’s fate by bribing the Newgate jailer.
What They Mean-Famous People That Bore the Name-The Name in History, Literature, Etc.
By Henry W. Fischer
[Welland Telegraph, 2 January 1912]
MARY
Mary is the Hebrew form of the Greek name Miriam, variously translated “Rebellion” or “Full of Bitterness,” the exact meaning, however remaining in dispute.
Modern writers, particularly the American and English, claim authority for translating Mary as “The Exalted One,” which seems acceptable in view of the fact that so many famous women were named Mary by royal parents.
In religion, chief of all is the Virgin Mary, who was of the tribe of Judah and of the royal lineage of David.
Mary Chatsworth, immortalized in Bryon’s poem, “The Dream,” was the poet’s first love. Highland Mary was the youthful love of Burns, and the subject of his famous songs, “Will You Go to the Indies, My Mary?” “Ye Banks and Braes o’ Bonnie Doon” and “Thou Lingering Star.”
English Queens bearing this name are Mary I., sometimes called “Bloody Mary,” Mary of Modena, the Queen of James the second, and Mary II., who jointly ruled England with King William, III.
The first of the Scottish royal Marys was Mary of Guise, the wife of James the Fifth and mother of the famous Mary Stuart, the “Mary Queen of Scots” of romance and history.
In France there was Marie Therese, wife of the Grand Monarque, Marie Lescuinska, the consort of Louis XV, Marie Antoinette and Marie Louise, the second wife of the great Napoleon.
Marie Theresa was Empress of Austria and the mother of Joseph II, the last to rule as Emperor of the Western Romans.
Marie Sophia, last Queen of Naples, now keeps a lace store in Paris.
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