[The Pelham Pnyx, 1940]
By Margaret Tuck
The hand that has penned many of the finer contributions to Canadian Literature was stilled on March 10th, 1940, when Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald, renowned authoress and poetess, passed away at her home in Fenwick, in her 83rd year.
Miss Wetherald was born at Rockwood, Ontario, on April 26, 1857, one of a family of eleven children, of Irish and English parentage. Mr Wetherald was the founder of Rockwood Academy. The family moved to Fenwick after Mr. Wetherald resigned his position as superintendent of Havergal College, Philadelphia, to become an ordained minister of the Society of Friends. Their home came to be known as “The Tall Evergreens”, because of the spruces and firs around it. It was under her father’s tutelage that Miss Wetherald received much of her early education. Later she attended the Friends’ Boarding School at Union Springs, N.Y. and Pickering College, Ontario.
During her school days she excelled in English but she has confessed that she was a hopeless problem in Mathematics and spoke French with a marked British accent. Ethelwyn Wetherald began to write verse in her early teens and at the age of seventeen received her first cheque to the open astonishment of her schoolmates who thought it absurd that anyone should receive money for writing a string of verses. She has written for a number of magazines and other publications during her long career. Readers of the old Globe will remember her articles, written under the nom de plume of Bel Thistlethwaite. These contributions in 1887-88 led to her appointment in 1889 as woman’s editor of that paper. In 1890, John Cameron resigned his position as editor of the Globe and became the editor of the magazine “Wives and Daughters,” which was published in London, Ontario. Miss Wetherald became his assistant and it was during these years in London that she started writing lyrics and sonnets. In 1895 she finished her first book of poetry, “The House of the Trees” and other poems. Since then she has written, “Tangled in the Stars,” “The Radiant Road,” and “The Last Robin, Lyrics and Sonnets.” Earl Grey, Governor General of Canada at the time, found the poems in this latter collection so appealing that he ordered twenty-five more copies for friends. In 1911, Canada’s silver-tongued orator, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, quoted a poem from this book entitled “Orders” in the House of Commons. Miss Wetherald also has the distinction of being the first Canadian writer to have a poem appear in a Canadian school reader. It was her beautiful descriptive poem “Red-Winged Blackbird,” that won her this honour. “Tree top morning,” which appeared in 1921 was wholly comprised of verses for young people to whom she was very devoted. Her letters to the Patty Perkins column in our local paper, the Welland Tribune, under the pen-name of Octo, will be treasured by its members. Among her acquaintances were numbered such outstanding literary figures as Wilfred Campbell, Marjorie Pickthall, Francis Bellamy. During the last fifteen years of her life, Miss Wetherald seldom. left home, but she retained her keen interest in Literature and she was a gracious hostess to the hundreds of people who visited her. In 1931 a volume of three hundred and fifty poems which Miss Wetherald wished to be preserved together with her interesting reminiscences was arranged by John Garvin. A copy of this book was presented to our school by Miss Wetherald in February, 1933, and is treasured by staff and students. In closing I should like to quote what I consider to be one of the most beautiful poems of this collection.
AT WAKING
When I shall go to sleep and wake again
At dawning in another world than this,
What will atone to me for all I miss?
The light melodious footsteps of the rain,
The press of leaves against my window-pane,
The sunset wistfulness and morning bliss,
The moon’s enchantment, and the twilight kiss
Of winds that wander with me through the lane.
Will not my soul remember evermore
The earthly winter’s hunger for the spring,
The wet sweet cheek of April and the rush
Of roses through the summer’s open door,
The feelings that the scented woodlands bring
At evening with the singing of the thrush?
WETHERALD –At her home in Pelham Township on Sunday, March 10, Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald in her 83rd year. The funeral from her late home on Tuesday afternoon, March 12 at 2 o’clock, thence to Friend’s Church for service at 2;30. Interment at Friend’s church cemetery.
[Welland Tribune March 13, 1940]
Glowing Tribute Paid To Long Life and Service
Fenwick, March 13—Friends and neighbors gathered on Tuesday afternoon to pay their last respects to Miss Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald, who passed away early Sunday morning. A short service for intimate friends was held at the family home, “The Tall Evergreens,” then the funeral cortege proceeded to the Friends church, Pelham Corners, for the public service. The pastor, Rev Stanley Van Every, officiated.
It was fitting that the final ceremonies for Miss Wetherald should take place in the place so closely associated with the life of the Wetherald family. Here for many years, Mr Wetherald, father of the deceased, preached for divine worship, and Miss Wetherald herself was always a faithful adherent.
Mr Van Every paid glowing tribute to the long life of love and service of the one who had gone. She had not really died, as her spirit would live eternally in the many lyrics she left behind and which were so much a part of herself, the pastor stated.
Six friends of many years standing acted as bearers, Frank Page of New Dundee, Wm. Dorland of St. Catharines, J.A. Daboll of Ridgeville, Stewart S. MacInnes of Welland and Walter McRaye of Grimsby and Louis Blake Duff of Welland.
After a short service in the church, the remains were reverently laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery.
{Compiled by “S”}
In 1834 John Wetherald, a quaker, moved his family to Canada. He purchased a hundred acre farm near Guelph Ontario.
One son William was born in Healaugh, England on September 28, 1820. He attended Ackworth, one of the leading Quaker schools in England. He came to Canada and worked on the farm. Later he worked as a teacher. At age 23 he taught school in Ermosa Township. He was a gifted teacher.
In 1846 William Wetherald married Jemima Harris Balls born March 3, 1830 near Rockwood.
In 1851 William Wetherald started a boarding school for boys. It was called Rockwood Academy
Rockwood Academy: It housed up to fifty boys. The boys were ages 12-16. The main floor of the academy had a library, classroom, living room. The dining facilities were in the basement with a kitchen at the back. Upstairs the Wetherald family had five bedrooms and rooms for teaching assistants. The third floor was dormitory rooms for students.
The school was solid. English, math and latin were taught. Expenses were low, twenty –one dollars for tuition and board for a term of three months. Most of the texts were furnished to the students.
Mr Wetherald was a gifted teacher and revelled in the poets and was close to his students.
Many of his students were accomplished, many became doctors, teachers, business men, ministry. J.J. Hill became a railway magnet, Premier A.S. Hardy, I.E. Bowman was leading educator of Waterloo, Alexander Campbell Public School Inspector of Bruce County.and Sir Adam Beck of Hydro.
In 1864 William Wetherald sold Rockwood Academy and by 1884 it closed.
The movie Agnes of God was filmed at the Rockwood Academy.
William Wetherald accepted a position at Haverford College in Philadelphia, moved his family there and stayed there until 1866. He resigned and moved to a farm in Pelham, Ontario. It was located the corner of Foss Road and Cream Street. He was welcomed by the Quaker community. William became the ordained minister at the Quaker church on Haist Street, Fonthill.
In May 1898 William went to England to attend an annual meeting of the Friends and spent several months in England. He was strickened with pneumonia and died there. He died in Banbury England in his 78th year.
His Son Herbert inherited the farm. William Jr and Agnes Ethelwyn lived there until their deaths.
Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald was born April 26, 1857 in Rockwood. Her parents were William and Jemima Wetherald. She was the 6th of eleven children.
She was a serious, lonely, frail child. She immersed herself in books. She was five feet five inches tall, slight stature, gentle unselfish person with an indomitable spirit.
When the family moved to Pelham, a Quaker family in Buffalo offered to educate one of William’s daughters, Agnes was chosen. She attended Union Springs school in New York and Pickering College in Ontario.
Her father believed women should have as good an education as men.
At age 17 Agnes received her first cheque for a poem that was published in “St Nicholas”. Starting in 1887 she contributed articles to Toronto Globe, also wrote regular columns for that paper.
Much of Ethelwyn’s work was done in her “Camp Shelbi” a large tree house built in the limbs of a willow tree at the Pelham Farm. It was built March 1910.
Ethelwyn enjoyed politics and economics from both countries where she was educated.
Her first experience as a free lance writer, she was living with her 2 brothers in St Pail, Minnesota. She spent the summer at the lake , wrote about it and took it to the paper and was told it was a human interest story. It was published and she earned four dollars.
In the late 1930s Ethelwyn contributed to a column in the Welland Tribune. It was a children’s column written by Mrs S. McInnis using the pen name Patty Perkins. Ethelwyn used the pen name Octo, referring to the fact she was an octogenarian.
In 1938 July 16 Ethelwyn had a party. It was hosted by Louis Blake Duff at his home in St. John’s.
In 1911 at the age of 54 Ethelwyn employed a woman named Mary who had a child. Ethelwyn adopted the child and named her Dorothy. Ethelwyn never married.
Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald died March 10, 1940. At the time of her death much of her book collection was donated to the Rockwood Academy Collection at the University of Guelph.
- Some of Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald’s works:
The House of the Trees and other Poems, 1895
Tangled in Stars, 1902
The Radiant Road, 1902
The Last Robin; lyrics and Sonnets, 1907
Tree Top Mornings, 1921
Lyrics and Sonnets, 1931
An Algonquin Maiden: A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada with Graeme Mercer Adam, 1887
The Garden of the Heart: A Garland of verses by Ethelwyn Wetherald and others, 1903.
ARCHITECT’S INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAINTENANCE OF COUNTY JAIL SET FORTH
[The Welland-Port Colborne Evening Tribune, 1940]
While he was looking over old fyles recently in his offices at the county buildings, Colonel Donald Sharpe governor of the county jail recently discovered a well preserved letter nearly 84 years old. It was written to Jail Governor James S. Lawrence on December 31, 1856, by the architect who designed the buildings, Kivas Tully. Apparently Mr. Tully was worried over a visit and inspection by the grand jury because he gives Mr. Lawrence various orders as how to deal with cold vents, etc., and then says, “the grand jury will inspect the gaol and you will oblige me if you will shew them the ventilation system. Take a silk handkerchief and hold it flat before the holes so that all the jurors may see. And, point out to them the purity of the air. They will find no jail smell there.”
This letter refers to a gallery, and in the old days there was a gallery from which spectators watched the august proceedings of the quarter sessions which are today known as Supreme Court of Justice sittings.
Mr. Tully enclosed a $5 bill with which to hire persons to keep the doors of the county building shut. The doors opening in from the outside, he says, must either have good springs, or, boys must be hired to stand at them during the time of the Quarter Sessions (which were to be held on January 6, 1857) and to close them after everyone who went in or went out. The same procedure, the architect continued, should be carried out with respect to the upper gallery doors.
Mr. Tully gave detailed orders as to the operation of the heating and ventilation system, and among other things warned the governor of the jail to see to it that the cold air reached the county buildings stoves, and that all the valves in the chimneys were wide open. Of these there were 20, including four in the courtroom. Particularly must the authorities guard against anyone closing these four valves in the courtroom. Someone might do so, thinking cold air was coming in through them whereas it was going out.
The first jail governor was James Elliot, who officiated three months. This was early in 1856, James Lawrence followed, and remained eight years. The longest term as jail governor according to the records was that of John Coulson, father of City Engineer C.L. Coulson, who officiated for 13 years, and Colonel Sharpe has already 12 years as jail governor. The first prisoner was brought to the county jail on May 1, 1856, but the building was used long before that, and has been in use according to officials approximately 85 years.
The contractors for the county buildings were Hellems and Bald.
[The Welland-Port Colborne Evening Tribune, 20 May 1940]
Richard Dilbert Spencer, well known and respected insurance agent, passed away yesterday afternoon at his late residence 168 Ross street, after an illness of two years. He was in his 65th year.
Deceased was born in Crowland township, the son of Dr. John G. Spencer, veterinary and Catharine Spencer, and lived practically all his life in this district, with the exception of several years when he was employed in Buffalo as a telegraph officer for the Pennsylvania and B and O railways. He returned to Canada shortly before the first World War and held positions in the Michigan Central and the Canadian National Railway freight off ices before taking over the Canadian National Telegraph agency in Welland in 1914. A short time later he entered the insurance business. Deceased was a Jewel member of Orient lodge, I.O.O.F., and a member of St. Matthew’s Lutheran church.
Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Myrtle A. Spencer; one son, Richard M. Spencer, Buffalo; four sisters, Mrs. Nancy Robinson, Crystal Beach, Mrs. Velma Myers, Crystal Beach, Mrs. Martha Kelly, Buffalo and Mrs. Mary Stratton, Niagara Falls, N.Y., and three brothers, William N. Spencer and James Spencer, both of Welland and James Spencer, both of Welland; and Orin P. Spencer, of Kenmore, N.Y.
The funeral services which will be under Oddfellows auspices, will be held on Wednesday afternoon at 2.30 o’clock at Sutherland’s Funeral Home, 152 Hellems avenue. Interment will be in the Friends cemetery at Pelham Corners.
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