Behind The Scenes With Ben - The Last Blog

The Last Blog

This past week at Backus-Page House we’ve been busy getting prepared for our Farm Show that is September 10^th and September 11^th.  We have put together carnival games, cleaned up the grounds and have brought out the tent poles that are ready to be put together. 

From my last post I had said who I named our scarecrows after.  Each scarecrow was named after someone who was important to Canadian history.  Our scarecrow Brock is named after a British Officer whose name was Sir Isaac Brock and who was very important to Canadian History in the War of 1812.  Our other scarecrow Kim is named after Canada’s first female Prime Minister Kim Campbell.

Sadly this is my last blog post for the year, thank-you for reading and also reading my past blog post.  See you later from the MNR.

Ben

Seedy Saturday- Garlic

Garlic

       Plant garlic in October in a sunny well drained loamy location. Separate cloves from the bulb ensuring they are clean and disease free. Plant individual  cloves with the "pointy side" up approximately 8 inches (20 cm) apart and 3 inches (8 cm) deep. 

     

       In June of the following year prepare the harvest by cutting off the flowers (small bulbs called scapes). Scapes can be used in cooking. Then in late July or early August the bulbs may be lifted, when the leaves have wilted and turned brown. 

        Hang the garlic by the leaves in a shady, but well ventilated location for the garlic to dry for 10 days to 2 weeks. (no metric equivalent). To keep bugs away from roses try planting onions and garlic alongside the roses. 

 

Credit to: Rodney Horticultural Society. 

More Heritage Farm Show Details

New to the Heritage Farm Show this year (September 10-11)

Cider Pressing, Old Fashioned Carnival Games, Sauerkraut Demonstration, and a Chicken Show!

We also have space for yard sales/flea markets set up.  $25 for a spot.  The museum will have some treasures to sell such as cornflower crystal, VHS movies, eight tracks, Quilting Books, office and craft supplies, home decor and more.

Don't forget to get your registrations in for tractors, small engines, and equipment.  Colouring pages, pies, minced meat, and other submissions must arrive by 5pm on Friday September 9.  All forms can be found on our website www.backuspagehouse.ca under the Heritage Farm Show event picture.

29424 Lakeview Line, south of Wallacetown

10am - 4pm both days of the event.  Food available for purchase.

World War Wednesdays: "Enemy Aliens" in Elgin, WWI

     Hey there, history buffs! This will be my first official post back in my usual home base, and I'm coming at you live from the Gatineau hills once again. I was quite sad to have to vacate my post at the museum, but of course all good things must come to an end, and my fourth year at university will be over before we know it! In honour of this occasion, I decided to more directly cover a topic we've briefly discussed a few times before, with a local connection, of course.

     During the early part of the First World War, all elements of the German presence in Canada experienced a major backlash. Public schools removed German language courses from the curricula, and some orchestras refused to play German music. When the Lusitania, a civilian ship, was sunk in 1915 with hundreds of civilian deaths, the popular sentiment officially became that Canada was fighting a singularly noble cause against a nation of barbarians. Nasty riots began to explode in cities like Victoria, Montreal, and Winnipeg, with German-owned shops and businesses being targeted.

     While things generally weren't as violent in our own neck of the woods during that time, all things German did receive a harsher treatment. I recently came across a story which highlights this point and sheds some light on the power of popular opinion in wartime.

   

Thomas Brothers, Limited St. Thomas factory ca. 1908

     When the Thomas family emigrated from Germany to settle in Rodney, five of their sons established a successful lumber company on the west side of Furnival Road, south of the railroad tracks. Then, in 1903, the business was moved to St. Thomas, east of Wilson Avenue between Chester and Elm Streets. The brothers also built a number of houses along Chester Street to house factory workers.The 1903 catalog advertises an array of products: pails, washtubs, keelers and refrigerator drips, washbasins, handy dishes, milk pans, barrel covers, bread trays, ice water jars, butter tubs and covers, spittoons, chamber pails (for hospitals and asylums), slop jars, bread and butter bowls, florists' vases, and flower pot saucers. The company used wood fibre to produce their line, which they marketed as the Lily Brand. In addition, the factory was referred to as being a broom factory, and the Backus-Page House Museum has one of their washing machines. The brothers really did manufacture everything but the kitchen sink!

    During the advent of the First World War, however, the company was boycotted due to the brothers' German heritage, forcing the company to close. Ironically, the factory complex was briefly used in 1916 as living quarters for members of the 91st Battalion, and the Battalion also maintained a recruiting office there. Unfortunately, the brothers were unable to recover and resume business after the war was over. Between ca. 1917 and 1923, the factory complex was rented to the Thomas Edison Co. for use as a phonograph company. After that, it stood empty until the 1950s when it was re-purposed for use as the Victor Gasket Co.

     The Thomas Brothers' experience was troubling and unfortunate, but not nearly as devastating for them as it could have been. Anti-German propaganda, stories of German atrocities abroad, and the fear of saboteurs drove many Canadians to expect protection from their government. This came in the form of incarcerating some 8,579 of those"Enemy Aliens" behind barbed wire  and forcing tens of thousands more to register with authorities and abide by strict rules for the duration of the war. 

     The Thomas Brothers story is just one of many to come of that period in our history, and the discourse regarding these issues remains heated to this day. Many thanks to the Canadian War Museum and Elgin County Archives for the content this week! If you want to view the Thomas Bros. catalog, here's the link: http://inmagic.elgin-county.on.ca/ElginImages/archives/ImagesArchive/pdfs/ECVF_B63_F24.pdf

Thanks for reading,

Delany (@DLeitchHistory on Twitter)

Seedy Saturdays- Tomato,Tamoto

Tomato. Tamoto.

      Select a sunny location. Set out bedding plants in late spring when the soil temperatures have warmed up, after all the dangerous frost has passed. The soil should be deep fertile and well dug with organic matter. Stick the plants as deep as possible into the soil to create an enhanced root system. follow directions of the chosen variety. 

       Tomato yields can be improved by pouring a tablespoon of Epsom salts in the bottom of the hole ready to receive the plant. Plants can be fertilized with Epsom salts every week. Add additional tablespoons of salts for every foot of height of the tomato plant. Water regularly, as inconsistent soil moisture will cause blossom end rot. 

Credit to: Rodney Horticultural Society. 

Remember to Register for the Heritage Farm Show

Heritage Farm Show is September 10 and 11 at Backus-Page House Museum but we need your registrations NOW!!!

NEW: Submit your creations by September 9 at 5pm and win prizes for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place.    

          ___ A fruit pie with recipe

___ 1850s style Minced Meat in a mason jar with recipe

___ Any type of craft or textile art with the theme “Out Standing in Their Field – A Farm Scene”

___ Colouring Page (supplied by THS and Backus-Page House Museum)

___ Vegetables you’ve grown 3 of a kind on stem with leaves

___ Fruit you’ve grown 3 of a kind on stem with leaves

___ Any painting, drawing, or photograph with the theme “Rural Roots”    

See our website for submission form and details.

If you have vintage or antique farm equipment or a classic car, please register using the form on our website.  

World War Wednesdays: "In-Flu-Enza": The Spanish Flu Epidemic, 1918-19

     I had a little bird,

its name was Enza.

I opened the window,

and in-flu-enza

-Children's skipping rhyme, 1918

     Some fascinating and tragic elements of the First World War are the devastating events that occurred on the home front during that period. After four long years of unprecedented global devastation, the war ended in 1918 with a raging influenza epidemic which was partly spread by soldiers returning home. Ultimately, at least 20 million people around the world succumbed to the disease, including an estimated 50,000 Canadians. 

     Uniquely lethal in its tendency to attack young, healthy bodies, the Spanish Flu was spread through bodily fluids and moved quickly through the population. It manifested itself through fatigue and cough but quickly escalated its attack, creating mucous build-up in the lungs that was impossible to expel. Victims of the disease could be dead within days of contracting the illness.

     The Flu came in three waves: the first in the spring of 1918, the second (and most lethal) in late August, and the third and final during the winter of 1918-1919. Contrary to its name, it did not originate in Spain at all. Wartime censorship meant that combatant armies did not release any information about the flu in an attempt to maintain civilian morale. Since Spain was a neutral party during the war, it had no reason to impose censorship, leaving Spanish newspapers free to report on infected citizens. As a result, Spain was tagged as being the origins of the virus. 

"The 1918 has gone: a year momentous as the termination of the most cruel war in the annals of the human race; a year which marked, the end at least for a time, of man's destruction of man; unfortunately a year in which developed a most fatal infectious disease causing the death of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to combating the greatest enemy of all--infectious disease," (12/28/1918).

     Canada's flu dead included soldiers who had survived the fighting in Europe only to succumb to the disease upon their return to Canada. In addition, thousands of family members who welcomed them home also perished soon after their arrival. This horrible reality hit close to home in Dunwich Township with the death of returned soldier Harry Bateman Blue of Iona Station in January 1919, He is the only confirmed local soldier who succumbed to the virus according to my database and research this past spring. 

     In addition to the widespread fatalities, the epidemic caused severe social and economic disruption. Children were orphaned, many families found themselves without their chief wage earner, and armies on both sides of the war were temporarily debilitated. Businesses lost profits from both a  lack of demand for their products and a reduced workforce. In an attempt to halt the spread of the disease, municipal governments closed all services except those necessary, and provinces enacted laws regarding quarantine and enforced the wearing of masks in public. Although the Canadian population happily accepted these restrictions, it opposed the federal government's request that victory celebrations be postponed until December 1. 

     Although decreasingly virulent, the Spanish Influenza strain remained active in Canada until the mid-1920s. While crippling in the majority of its immediate effects, the epidemic is credited with leading to the establishment of the federal Department of Health in 1919. In addition, since pneumonia contracted by a patient who was weakened by influenza became a major cause of death, the discovery of penicillin greatly weakened the impact. 

Timeline of the Spread of Flu and Movement of Soldiers:

The Limits of Necessity: Public Health, Dissent, and the War Effort during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic notes the spread of the virus was connected to the movements of soldiers. This piece provides some great insight on the social climate at the time and the ways in which military efforts defined Canadian life. Some interesting quotes and notes follow.

• “[Carol Byerly] suggests that military physicians and government officials were caught between their obligation to protect the public health and their duty to prosecute the war effort. According to her analysis, health and war became competing interests.” 
• The first wave of flu broke out in ranks of Canadian Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium in May 1918,  and sickened Canadian soldiers stationed in England a month later 
• Infected soldiers sailed for Canada on June 26 on the Araguaya, the last Canadian vessel to ferry wounded soldiers back across the Atlantic until the end of September 
• Arrived at Halifax harbour on July 7, 23% of its soldier-passengers were infected.
• ”The second and more deadly wave of the flu first appeared among American soldiers at Camp Devens outside of  Boston on 8 Sept. 1918. By the month’s second week, it had already spread across Massachusetts and into New York State.” 
• 17 September→ broke out among Polish American recruits at a camp outside of Niagara-on-the-Lake
• 20 September→ soldiers began reporting sick at St. Jean Military Hospital.
• “In the midst of this crisis, MacPhail requested her father’s permission to sign on for active VAD service. Now a certified VAD nursing assistant, she argued that the city was “crying out for helpers and being young and strong I feel I ought to” despite the fact that the flu showed "no respect for youth.” 
• “In this era," Nancy Bristow argues, "there was a presumption that women, whatever their nursing qualifications, would put themselves in harm’s way to fulfill their natural caring role. Certainly, many women came forward to nurse influenza victims, despite the risk to themselves.” 

     Many thanks to the Canadian War Museum, The Canadian Encyclopedia, and the University of Waterloo's Department of Drama page, "Contagion, Pandemics, and Humanity" for the information and images used in this post. 

     Thanks for reading,

Delany (@DLeitchHistory on Twitter)