The Reminiscences of Mr. Wardie Pankhurst

By Lisa Terech, Community Engagement

Throughout the pandemic, volunteers were assisting the Oshawa Museum with our Audio Transcription Project. They listened to hundreds of hours of audio interviews and recordings and created transcriptions of what is being said in the audios. This not only makes the audios easier for researchers to use, but, more importantly, it makes the audio collection accessible to the deaf community and to people with hearing loss.

Of the many different community interviews, one was conducted with a man named Ward Pankhurst, which likely took place at his family home on Cedar Street. His family has become a research focus for the museum, as his mother’s family were among the first Black settlers in the area, who arrived in the 1840s.

Ward Delayfayette Pankhurst was born in 1888, the second of three children born to Henry and Margaret (nee Dunbar). Ward lived his life in Oshawa, the Cedar Dale community specifically, however, it appears he lived for some time in the US, as he was drafted into the US army in 1917. 

Ward’s interview may not provide researchers with much information about his maternal family and their history, but it has given us glimses into Oshawa in the 20^th century. 

When remarked that he’s lived in Oshawa his whole life, Ward responded:

Oh! Yes, I have lived in this house, this will be, I’m going on 83^rd year I’ve lived in this house. My sister was born right up here where I -where I sleep now. I’ll be 84 this year.

‘Family Homestead’ on Cedar Street, in Oshawa. This house is still standing today.

Ward touched on his family briefly, saying:

Incidentally my father he’d come out from England in 19- 1872 just be 100 years this May when he came out here, now my mother and father -or my mother came out -well my mother was born here but here people came up from Lower Canada in 1840 I think it was. You know it was just Lower Canada and Upper Canada.

Q: And they settled here?

A: Oh settled right here. Yeah, yeah.

(Other voice): She lived in Lower Canada?

A: Not my mother, no no no her people.

(Other voice): she was born here in Cedar Dale?

A: Yup.

(Other voice): So a real Cedar Dale (multiple people talking at once)

A: Oh yes there, I’m the last f the -I’m the last -I got a brother down in California, he’s 87, but he’s not -he hasn’t been here -Oh he hadn’t been here to live since the first war. No no he left in early 20s, but I’ve been here.

About schooling around the turn of the century, Ward remembered:

Oh we paid to try the entrance. Oh yes for the entrance exam. And the reason they’d said about that, they said “well that paid for your foolscap you know and your -” I don’t know what else, the ink and the pen I suppose, but you paid a dollar anyways, you know. A dollar incidentally wasn’t so easy.

Of note, he attended Cedar Dale school, a 150+ year old building which still stands today.

Pupils of the Cedar Dale Public School, c. 1890, from the Oshawa Community Archives

A prominent family in this area were the Conants.  As told by Ward:

You see this here was just farmland the whole thing was just farmland, and it was owned by -I wish my sister could find that there picture. Lovely picture of Mr. Tom Conant. But you wouldn’t see a nicer picture, and he was a stately sight of a man. He used to write for the old Globe, and he travelled around the world about four times, and this was the last time he came back. Incidentally he didn’t live no length of time. I think he was only in his early 60s when he died.

Ward also remembered different hotels in the community:

Now we had six hotels in the town here. There was the Queen’s, the Oshawa House, the Central, there was the American House, and the Brook House, and Mallet’s Hotel. Well, Mallet’s was right back in the station over here. Every station, that’s the funny thing, but at every station on the Grand Trunk there always was a hotel.

Queen’s Hotel

Ward also shared stories about sports and teams associated with different local industries:

We had a ball team and they started in ’13 -we started the town league. There was the Piano Works, McLaughlins, – no. The Piano Works, the Fittings, the Town Team, and Cedar Dale, and the Steel Range, and we had a town league you know. Well that was interesting, really interesting.

Q: Where did you play?

A: Play? Right where Sam McLaughlin’s is. That was theProspect Park you know. That’s where we played, right at the back end of his place, that was beautiful. That was owned by Eli Edmondson and we had that there, and afterwards -well, we were only there two or three years and he bought that off of Eli I think in ’17 – ’16 or ’17. Well then they moved up to the Alexandra Park you see, but of course then they got into the big league they got into the central league.

Ward’s interview, in its entirety, is over 1 hour and 36 minutes long. We are grateful to the volunteers who assisted with this project, helping us open access to our collections.

You can listen to Ward, in his own words, by listening to our video podcast, available on our YouTube channel:

The Host Files: Scout-Guide Week and Scouting in Oshawa

By Adam A., Visitor Host

The week of February 22 is Scout-Guide Week, the celebration of the global Scouting and Guiding movements around the shared birthday of its founder, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, and his wife, Lady Olave Baden-Powell, the former World Chief Guide. These organizations promoting preparedness and community mindedness have long been active in Canada and had an especially notable presence in Oshawa.

Lord Robert Baden-Powell’s role as the founder of Scouting began as a mere coincidence. He was a career soldier of the British Empire and served in a number of colonial campaigns in Africa. During this time, he penned a guide to living off the land and wilderness survival titled Aid to Scouting, meant to instruct the Army’s non-commissioned officers in the skills needed for reconnaissance. At the same time, a grassroots movement had begun to reconnect the youth with nature and revive the rural character that had been lost through industrialization and urbanization. In lieu of more suitable literature, a number of predecessor organizations had adopted Lord Robert’s book, inadvertently turning a niche military manual into a best seller. Lord Robert took a more active role in the movement upon returning from the Second Boer War, organizing the first scout rally in 1907 and rewriting Aid to Scouting to be more directly applicable to youth wilderness instruction, publishing it in 1908 as Scouting for Boys. In 1910 he formally founded the Boy Scouts Association and, along with his sister Agnes, established the Girl Guides in response to the high amount of female interest in scouting.

Scouts Canada would only be established in June of 1914 as an overseas component of the British Boy Scouts Association, but, as in the UK, a number of predecessor organizations and informal scouting troops already existed by that time. This arrangement gave Canada a national council to organize scouting activities and procure uniforms and other equipment for the troops, but Scouts Canada would continue to be internationally represented by its British parent association until 1946.

022.11.1 – scout shirt from the 1930s

Last year the Oshawa Museum received an especially interesting collection of artefacts from this period of Canadian scouting. A collection of Sea Scouts uniform clothes belonging to John Chappell, son of Colonel Frank Chappell, was donated in September. This collection notably contained the uniform John Chappell had worn in 1933, his 6^th year with the 8^th Oshawa Sea Scouts Troop, and the year in which he was one of eight Canadians to attend the 1933 Scouting Jamboree in Budapest, Hungary. This uniform proudly displayed 20 proficiency badges:

• Pathfinder
• Ambulance man
• Cyclist
• Signaller
• Fireman
• Rescuer
• Interpreter
• Naturalist
• Starman
• Citizen
• Swimmer
• Pioneer
• Camper
• Laundryman
• Handyman
• Camp Cook
• Musician
• Electrician
• Auto Mechanic
• Plumber

Detail of 022.11.1, showing the sleeve and badges.

He also had badges designating him as a King’s Scout and a First Class Scout. As Scouts Canada was still internationally represented by the British Boy Scouts Association, his 1933 Jamboree patch is accompanied by a Union Jack patch.

Girl Guides of Canada was established in July 1917, though a number of Guide Companies organized under the British Association had been operating since 1910. The Oshawa Girl Guides began as one of these early groups, first organizing in 1911. For many decades they lacked a permanent meeting place. They met at St. George’s Anglican Church as well as the homes of prominent Oshawa women like Adelaide McLaughlin and Verna Conant.

Camp Samac, c. 1940s; Oshawa Museum archival collection (A002.9.8)

In 1943 Sam McLaughlin donated 150 acres in north Oshawa to Scouts Canada, and three years later it opened as Camp Samac. Camp Samac remains one of Scouts Canada’s largest properties and hosts a number of major scouting events, such as the international Join In Jamboree which has been held there since 2015. In 1947 the McLaughlins would provide the Girl Guides with their Guide House in downtown Oshawa.

Painting of Guide House, 1981, Oshawa Museum archival collection (A013.5.5).

Various troops from both organizations frequently visit the Oshawa Museum to learn about the area’s history and to do Victorian/pioneer crafts. The Oshawa Museum is also currently preparing a new exhibit on the history of Scouting and Guiding in Oshawa which is planned to open later this year.

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Sources:

https://www.scouts.ca/news-and-events/national-calendar.html

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Stephenson-Smyth-Baden-Powell-1st-Baron-Baden-Powell

http://discoverhistoricoshawa.com/listings/camp-samac/

http://discoverhistoricoshawa.com/listings/girl-guide-house/

Pvt. Gordon Dickie and the Memorial Museum Passchendaele

By Jennifer Weymark, Archivist

Recently we received a letter from the Memorial Museum Passchendaele in Belgium.  The museum was looking for any additional information we may have in our holdings on a soldier whose sacrifice they were memorializing as part of their Names In The Landscape project.

This project is working to tell the stories of the almost 7000 Canadians who died in Flanders during the First World War. The Museum has been working to identify the wartime burial locations of those Canadians who were commemorated on the Menin Gate and share this information with surviving relatives, along with the greater public.

Menin Gate; By Marc Ryckaert – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72596911

The initial request was for our assistance in finding the modern address that matched the historic address as listed on the attestation forms for a Pvt. Gordon Dickie. Given that the address they were looking for was a P.O. Box, I was concerned that I may not be able to assist in any way. The project was also looking for anything further we may have on Pvt. Dickie, anything to help better understand this young man who lost his life so long ago.

The P.O. Box led nowhere, so I went to Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) website to find the attestation record and file on Pvt. Dickie to gather further information and see how we could help. The files held by LAC turned out to be something I had never come across before. It turns out that Pvt. Dickie not only had more than one attestation papers, he actually had two regimental numbers associated with his name.

After determining that this was not a case of two men with the same name, I began to dig further into the tale of Pvt. Dickie and found a story of a very determined young man whose perseverance was not rewarded.

Gordon Dickie was born on November 2, 1898 in Greenrock, Scotland to parents Thomas and Anne Dickie. The passenger lists for Quebec show members of the family arriving there from Scotland in July 1907. By 1911 the family had made their way to Welland, Ontario and were documented in the Canadian census for that year.

The first of his three attestation papers dated on January 3, 1916.  That document states that he lived at 65 King Street West, in Oshawa.  He is listed as being a machinist with no previous military experience. This first form is officially signed on May 15, 1916, and Dickie had enlisted with the local regiment, the 116^th Battalion. At this point, he has been assigned Regimental #745971.

Dickie began training at Camp Niagara with the 116^th when he was discharged June 28, 1916 for being medically unfit.  According to the Medical History forms included in his file, he was deemed unfit due to being “under military standard of chest measurement.” The document further notes that Dickie will “overcome the disability in due course by normal growth.” He was only 17 and had not yet experienced that growth spurt that would allow him to serve. By July 5, 1916 Dickie was officially discharged and no longer serving with the 116^th.

This discharge did not dissuade Dickie, and he promptly reenlisted.  His second attestation paper is dated July 12, 1916, just one week after being discharged for being medically unfit. This form once again lists his home address as Oshawa, his mother as his next of kin, and that he had worked as a machinist.  This new form shows both Regimental numbers associated with Dickie.  It seems he was assigned a new number before it was determined that he had already enlisted.  This new form also notes Dickie’s six months of service with the 116^th Battalion.

Dickie headed up to Camp Borden to enlist this time, and he was placed with the 176^th Overseas Battalion the day he signed the forms.  His time with the 176^th was even shorter than the six months he spent with the 116^th. By August 16, 1916 he was once again deemed medically unfit due to the size of his chest, as well as being underweight at 110lbs, and he was discharged on August 22.

The third and final attestation paper was signed at Camp Borden on October 6, 1916.  This attestation paper has his second Regimental #850943 associated with it and shows a change in address. Both Dickie and his mother are now listed as living 22 Carleton Street in Toronto. Once again, he enlisted with the 176^th O.S. Battalion.

Apparently, Dickie had finally grown enough to be deemed medically fit, and he left Halifax on April 28, 1917 on route to Liverpool. He arrived in England on May 7, 1917, and by September he was in France with the 2^nd Battalion.

Pvt. Gordon Dickie was Killed In Action on November 6, 1917 during the Battle of Passchendaele.

The grave for Dickie had been unknown, and so he was memorialized on the Menin Gate, along with so many other Canadian soldiers. The work of the Memorial Museum has determined that Dickie was buried near Goudberg, Passchendaele, and his updated information has become part of the NamesIn The Landscape project. For more information on the Museum and their project, check out their website.

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Another Oshawa name memorialized on the Menin Gate is that of Pvt. William Garrow. Learn about his story by visiting our online exhibit, Letters from the Trenches.

Another solider with two regimental number is Oshawa’s Charles Bracey, buried in Union Cemetery.

February is Black History Month

Every February is celebrated as Black History Month. In Canada, the first Black History Month was celebrated in 1988 in Nova Scotia. The Ontario Black History Society petitioned the Ontario government in 1993 to proclaim February as Black History Month.

In December 1995, after an idea by Rosemary Sadlier, president of the OBHS, the Canadian House of Commons recognized Black History Month in Canada, following a motion introduced by the Honourable Jean Augustine, the first Black Canadian woman elected to Parliament.

In 2008, a motion was introduced by Senator Donald Oliver, the first Black man appointed to the Senate, to “Recognize Contributions of Black Canadians and February as Black History Month,” receiving unanimous approval.

To learn more about Oshawa’s Black history, we invite you to visit our Black History Month Resource page. Here, we have rounded up blog posts written about Oshawa’s Black history and people of note, videos sharing these stories, as well as included links to other organizations and resources.

Visit

Black History Month

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Information about Black History Month in Canada from: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/black-history-month/about.html

The Month That Was – February 1863

All articles originally appeared in the Oshawa Vindicator
Content Warning: one article discusses a suicide

February 4, 1863
Page 2
Another Suicide

…It is our most painful task to record the death of Thos. Bartlett, Esq., by his own hands, on Monday last, between the hours of eight and nine o’clock in the morning. The deceased was a brother of the late Wm. Bartlett, Esq., who hung himself… on the 4^th September last, and lived on the opposite side of the road, only a few rods distant from the last residence of the former. Soon after his brother’s sad end, the subject of the present notice was taken ill, his difficulty being a nervous affection which prevented his obtaining sleep, the consequence of which was that he began to fail in flesh. As a remedy he resorted to opium, of which he took repeated and large doses with a view only of procuring sleep as was then supposed, but when it took effect it acted powerfully as an emetic, rather than as a narcotic, otherwise the quantity would most probably have proved fatal. For some time afterwards he lay in a very critical condition…

4 Feb 1863, page 4

February 11, 1863
Page 2

The Emancipation Proclamation to be Photographed – Benjamin J Lossing has obtained permission from the president to take a photograph of the Emancipation Proclamation, which is entirely in Mr. Lincoln’s handwriting. The photograph is to form one of the illustrations in Mr. Lossing’s historical work.

Oshawa Central School
At the last meeting of the Board of School Trustees, applications were received from twelve different young ladies willing to accept one or the other of the two situations open in the staff of teachers of the Central School. Only one of them – a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Cantlon – had ever taught before, and after due consideration of the claims of others, she received the appointment as teacher of the second grade at a salary of $240 per annum. A daughter of Mr. Hurd, of Raglan, was appointed teacher of the first grade, at a salary of $150 per annum. Miss Stone was, at the same time, promoted to the third grade, without increase of salary. The Central School is now better provided with teachers than it has ever been, having two male and three female teachers. Their united salaries amount to $1550. The obnoxious “monitor system” has been dismissed from the school, and teachers are paid for their services and expected to work for the interest and benefit of the school accordingly. The attendance of pupils is very large, notwithstanding the prevalence of disease, giving the five teachers plenty to do, to attend to their proper instruction.

Skirt Lifters – This new and useful invention is becoming very popular with the ladies, and promises to form nearly as important a branch of manufacture ad trade as the hoop skirt business has become. It will be seen on reference to our advertising columns that the original article is to be had at al of our Dry Goods Stores. We see by the Toronto papers that another article designed to serve the same purpose is in the market. It is a Canadian invention called the Patent Canadian Skirt Lifter.

11 Feb 1863, page 3

11 Feb 1863, page 3

February 18, 1863
Page 2
Oshawa Wheat Market

Last week was one of excellent sleighing and persons having wheat to dispose of, took advantage of the good travelling to pour in the golden grain and get, in return for it, the golden coin or the equally prized green colored Ontario Bank note. At Warren’s Mill, from half a dozen to twenty loads of grain were to be seen every day, standing about, wait8ing for their turn at the door to unload, and a similar scene might be witness at that of Messrs. Gibbs & Bros., in South Oshawa. The amount of wheat purchased by the latter firm, and delivered, during the week, was 22,834 bushels; 1[  ],830 were delivered on the last 3 days of the week. The amount purchased by John Warren, Esq., and delivered at his mill, was something over 18,000 bushels during the week.

In another column we give both the Oshawa and Toronto market prices.

Page 3
Oshawa Markets
Fall Wheat: 90  95
Spring Wheat:  80  85
*note, this represents a price range per bushel

18 Feb 1863, page 3

February 25, 1863
Page 2

An ice-bridge, says the St. Catharine’s Journal, has formed at the junction of the Niagara River with Lake Ontario, for the third time in the history of Canada. The cause is the prevalence of south winds for a few days and then a sudden change to the north, the first forcing the ice down the upper lakes into the river, which is prevented by the north winds from getting into Lake Ontario.

Alarm of Fire – On Saturday evening last an alarm was rung out on the fire-bell, and many ran to and fro, looking for the fire. It was at last discovered, by some, in an unoccupied house belonging to Mr. L. Butterfield, on Water Street, opposite Messrs. Warren & Co.’s Tannery. A woman was engaged in cleaning out the house, and the partitions caught fire from an improperly put up stove pipe. It was soon extinguished, before doing much damage.

Page 3
Scarcely a day (says an English paper) passes on which the journals do not record deaths from wearing Crinoline. A young woman at Dalston, for instance, was making a pudding at a table five feet from the fire, when a draught from an open window blew her extended dress into the grate, and not long afterwards she was dead. Verdict of the jury, “Died from fire while wearing crinoline.”

25 Feb 1863, page 3