Tuesday 27 March 2012

Man killed after he falls down elevator shaft in 1912

First of all, forgive us for being surprised that Prince Edward Island had elevators in 1912, considering 100 years later we can still count the number of lifts on the Island using only our fingers.
But, it appeared the device was, in fact, present and in use on March 17, 1912, when the ill-fated (and much beloved by all who knew him) Ernest Teed fell down the shaft at Rogers Hardware Company in Charlottetown.
The conveyance apparently worked by pulley, and the shaft ran 30 feet from the ground floor up to the third floor where poor Ernest had gone to fetch some whitewood board.
Read the account from the 1912 Charlottetown Guardian (they/we don't write 'em like this any more!):


Ch'town man's sudden death
Ernest Teed died from injuries sustained in fall yesterday
As the result of a distressing accident yesterday, Ernest Teed, Charlottetown, aged thirty-two, and for the past number of years connected with the firm of Rogers Hardware Co., passed away at the P.E. Island Hospital at 3:25 p.m.
For the past week or so the deceased had been ill and under medical treatment though able to be at the shop. Monday evening, George J. Rogers, the president of the Company, advised Mr. Teed not to return unless with the doctor's permission. He remained away in the forenoon but shortly after the dinner hour he went to the shop telling one of the clerks that he was going up to the third floor to get a piece of whitewood board for himself, stating that he would give the measurements to the clerk afterwards. The clerk went into the store and shortly after the noise of a fall was heard and Teed was found lying on the elevator on the first floor.
Mr. Teed was assisted to a barrel where he sat down and the ambulance and a doctor were summoned. He was removed to the P.E.I. Hospital and lived for about an hour, retaining consciousness until the end.
It is supposed that the unfortunate young man became dizzy in his weakened condition, and being subjected to the attack while preparing to raise the elevator, fell the distance of thirty feet. Death ensued as a result of internal injuries.
The deceased was a young man of excellent habits, of a cheerful and kindly disposition, and greatly beloved by all who knew him. His employers recognized in him a faithful and untiring employee and in the duties as a shipper proved himself capable and zealous and with his employers' interest at heart.
He was a member of the St. Lawrence Lodge, No. 8, I.O.O.F., and also of Lodge Eton, S.O.E., and with members of both orders was universally esteemed.
He was the son of Wm. and Mrs. Teed, Sr., Kent St., and besides the sorrowing parents the following are suddenly bereft of a greatly beloved brother: William, Jr., with G.D. Wright, Undertaker; Harry, formerly of Arty & Cp. now in Western Canada; Frank, with James Stewart & Son; Fred, with Rankins' Drug Store, and Mrs. Bert Essory, Charlottetown.
The funeral will take place tomorrow, service commencing at 3:15 p.m., and leaving his father's residence, 256 Kent St., at 3:45 p.m. for the People's cemetery. It will be under the auspices of the I.O.O.F. and S.O.E. The pall bearers will be Major J. R. Darte, George Moran, John Reardon, George Mugford, Walter Brown and H.I. Bethune. 
To the bereaved family The Guardian joins in tendering heartfelt sympathy to their more bereavement.

This news item appeared in the "From Our Pages" section on Page 2 of the March 27, 2012 Guardian and prompted a phone call from none other than Ernest Teed's great niece, Beryl Graham of Charlottetown.
Graham says the family's version of events, as passed down to her, differ slightly from The Guardian's account above.
She says the family understood Ernest, having just taken the elevator to get to the third floor of Rogers Hardware, was under the impression it was still stationed there. His view was obstructed by something he was carrying (presumably the whitewood board mentioned in the article), and he stepped into the void, never considering the lift was no longer where he'd left it.
Either way, the young man died of his injuries, leaving sorrowing parents, bereft kin and grieving lodge brothers.
Graham says she is the last of the Teed line. Her grandfather was Bill Teed — the William Jr. mentioned as being an undertaker in the 1912 article. He was an upholsterer for coffins at what is now known as MacLean's Funeral Home for years. Then he got bored with that, explained Graham during our phone call, and became a letter carrier for the rest of his life and was well known in Charlottetown.
Bill had two daughters: Graham's mother Margaret, and aunt Thelma Ernestine, named after Ernest.
Today this would be a worker's safety issue and would likely go to some sort of inquest and legislation would be put in place to ensure there be, say, doors in front of the elevator shaft. In 1912, it was a front page story. But only for one day. And a tale passed down through generations of Teeds who, if frightened off from using elevators by Ernest's experience, would not find much cause to overcome their fears in their native province.

Thursday 22 March 2012

Spring weather is hard on 'old people'

Citizens of Prince Edward Island who have been revelling in record high March Break 2012 temperatures should consider the "old people" of their acquaintance, who find Spring a very trying season of the year!
According to this ad from the March 21, 1900, Daily Guardian for Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills, many of the elderly are "hurried to their graves" during the break up of winter and the advent of spring. Their graves! 
Please consider this seasonal terror when enjoying your ice cappuccino or brushing the snow off your barbecue: the very sun's rays that seem to be putting a spring in your flip-flopped step can cause distress -- and bad breath -- to our previously robust and fragrant pensioners. 
Worse, we cannot say what today's answer to Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills might be.

 OLD PEOPLE
Find Spring a very trying season of the year.
_____
They can preserve their health and
strength by using Milburn's
Heart and Nerve Pills.
_____
The breaking up of the winter and the advent of spring usually comes hard on the old. Their health seems to suffer severely at this time and many are hurried into their graves. But people advanced in years can prevent sickness and keep themselves hale and strong and in the enjoyment of good health by using Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills.
This remedy makes the blood rich, the nerves vigorous, and the heart strong, and should be used promptly on the first signs of declining health or strength.
Mr. Samuel Lane, 31 St. Patrick St., St. John, N.B., writes:
"I am now a man of nearly eighty years of age and enjoyed the best of health until a few years ago, when I began to feel distress after eating, and suffered greatly with indigestion, bad breath, etc.
"My friends recommended numerous remedies, but none of those I tried seemed to do me much good.
"Finally I started using Milburn's  Heart and Nerve Pills, and before I had finished the box they brought relief, so that I now can eat anything set before me without the least inconvenience. I was run down and nervous before taking these wonderful pills, but they have regulated my entire system, toned up my nerves, and restored healthy action of the heart, so that I am now feeling vigorous and strong."
 We hope that Mr. Samuel Lane continued to be vigorous after his discovery of these wonderful pills and that our 2012 octogenarians likewise have a healthy spring.

Saturday 17 March 2012

St. Patrick's Day during Prohibition

From a Prowse Bros. ad, presumably of an Irish man, in an October 1899 Daily Guardian.
March 14, 1892

They didn't serve green beer — or liquor of any shade — in those days, but that doesn't mean The Guardian didn't cover St. Patrick's Day like the ... condensation on the glasses containing their virgin cocktails.

The following are a few examples of the Irish entertainment enjoyed by all, if temperance-mad Guardian did say so.

March 16, 1900
The Benevolent Irish Society of Charlottetown will celebrate St. Patrick's Day on Saturday, March 17th, 1900 by the usual Parade and Church Services in the morning. In the evening at the Opera House, the BIS will offer a programme of vocal, violin and clarinet solos. There are also plans of a ball at Dodd's and Baskin's Drugstores Thursday morning. Because, you know, balls are always in the morning. At drugstores. It's a deal, though, with admission 35c for reserved seats!

The Benevolent Irish Society was suitably impressed with the reception members received in Charlottetown, apparently, running this ad the next day:



You know what we don't have enough of anymore? Bunting!

Not in Town for St. Patrick's Day? The citizens of Souris also knew how to paint the town ... green. In fact, the newspaper reported, "St. Patrick's Day seems to be the national holiday of the Village." The activity offered, suitably enough at St. Patrick's Hall, was a Grand Dramatic Entertainment on the topic of a Schooner adventure seven years ago. Maybe not as authentically Irish as the offering in the capital, but the play was a hit, nonetheless. 
Writes The Guardian:
"The applause which greeted ... the presentation showed that the audience, at any rate were well pleased with what had been done. It was nearly eleven o'clock when the curtain was rung down on the last act; and the inspiring strains of the National Anthem, which this year more than ever before seems to stir the hearts of the people, brought the entertainment to a close."
Eleven o'clock, even!

March 19, 1900
Meanwhile, in Mount Stewart in 1891, the occasion was celebrated with pie — and raised $66 to build a new Methodist Parsonage:

April 1, 1891

And you can't have St. Patrick's Day on Prince Edward Island without doings in the Kellys Cross/Shamrock region. Here's how the people of Emerald did up St. Paddy's Day:

March 22, 1899
Once again, we have grabbed these clippings from the islandnewspapers.ca collection. 

Thursday 15 March 2012

Winter of 1905

Prince Edward Islanders have seemingly escaped too much in the way of shovelling this winter, 2011/12, despite Old Man Winter's early start with a couple of dumpings in December.
The Guardian in 1905, however, records the challenges caused by snowfall for travel, communication and general state of mind. These short paragraphs complaining of snowfall amounts are found day after day throughout January, February and March, 1905.

Here's an account from mid February, concerning Egan's cutting (the section of railway dug out near Mount Stewart):
It is hard for any one who has not been over the Island railway during the past week or two to conceive of the great difficulty experienced in opening a way for trains. Many places for hundreds of yards the track is just a narrow passage the width of the snow plough cut through the snow, and this fills in with the slightest drift. The Guardian representative on Saturday had the privilege of seeing Egan's cutting, a few hundred yards to the east of Mount Stewart, which is pronounced the biggest on the eastern line. No one who has not been on the spot can fully realize the work necessary to make a way through the bank. At Loyalist the cutting extends some hundred yards and is almost all the way over the tops of the cars. The snow is packed hard and the engines soon stick thus making shovel work necessary and greatly increasing the labor from what it would be if the snow were light.
 Things were no better to the west of the city:

Last evening, W.S. Louson arrived in the city shortly after dark having partly walked and partly driven from Hunter River. Mr. Louson, who on Friday walked from Kensington to Bredalbane, on Saturday walked to Hunter River, where he managed to get a team to drive him to the city yesterday. He reports the road is very much drifted and heavy, those driving having to get out and walk parts of the way. Mr. Louson says that from the general opinion gathered from the section men and railway employees, under present conditions the train coming east, which is stuck near Emerald, will hardly reach the city before Thursday night.
 (note the spelling of Bredalbane!)
One couldn't get around by rail, but walking wasn't recommended in the completely whitened landscape, either:

While crossing from Charlottetown to Rocky Point on a few nights ago Wallace Fields of this city lost his way and did not succeed in getting back to the city till the next morning. His feet were badly frozen and amputation may yet be necessary.

As has ever been the case, though, there is always some old grump who remembers having it worse!

A RESIDENT of Charlottetown calls attention to the fact that the storms of 1882 were even worse than the present year. At that time it took a week getting from Charlottetown to Summerside by rail and the banks around the city were even worse than the present time.

Thursday 8 March 2012

Editor's Mail. April 12, 1899, The Morning Guardian

We were looking for an appropriate International Women's Day post for this blog when we came across this historical newspaper, loaded in the Islandnewspapers.ca online holdings.

This letter to the editor, appearing on Page 3 in the April 12, 1899, Morning Guardian, argues that intelligent, law-abiding women be given the vote and illiterate, criminal men have their electoral powers taken away.

It is not clear whether the author, G. A. Clay, is a man or woman, but he or she certainly has strong opinions about the franchise issue and -- as was almost always the case when the topic of giving women the vote arose -- temperance.


 The full text reads:


Editor's Mail: April 12, 1899, The Morning Guardian:

Men and Women.
Sir, — In contemplating the respective worth of men and women, and their value to society and civilization, the average person has always been ready to ascribe all honor and praise to the men, for their heroic deeds on the field of battle, for their persuasive eloquence by which they sway the multitude, and for their inventive genius by which they have, over and over again, revolutionized the different methods of production.
Women have been known to display marvelous feats of courage, and when their duty lay in the path of danger they are not inclined to shrink. In this connection I may be permitted to speak of Deborah, who urged a timid halting Barak to battle and went with him to successful war; of Esther who by one heroic act which involved the risk of her own life saved her nation from destruction; of Grace Darling who is still the heroine of a true story of rescue on the stormy coast of England; of Joan of Arc, who girded the French troops, repulsed the legions of Bedford and carried succor to a straitened garrison; and of Charlotte Corday who seemed the embodiment of courage in the grim tragedy which ended the life of Marat. Many other citations might be given. Still greater proof of women's courage and fidelity is to be seen on the broad mission fields wither she has gone, and is still going, to spread the light of truth and love among the benighted sons of men; and the fact that women have not participated in the great wars of the world, is a strong factor in her favor. War is a sphere which men have created for themselves.
Let us not fail to reflect on what women have achieved in the literary world. Does not "Uncle Tom's Cabin" stand unexcelled by any book of its kind? And did it not appeal to the common people, and thus shape the national character on the question of human slavery as no other power would do? And does not the name of its author and the names of Harriet Martineau, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, the Cary sisters and Mrs. Hemans, and many other female writers deserve to rank with almost any others that might be named? And yet it is claimed that women are unfit for the full privileges of citizenship; and claimed by those who enjoy those peculiar rights by reason of an accidental condition which even in their own sex is often unaccompanied by any special adornments apart from ignorance, bigotry, and greed. The writer is not in favor of universal women suffrage; that would be no improvement on present conditions. But the ideal system of franchise would appear to be one which would make the qualifications, not wealth or sex, but loyalty to existing law, and a certain standard of intelligence.
We boast of having extended the franchise: But it is not possible that by extending it to the hopelessly ignorant man, it has been extended too far? And by denying to the intelligent woman it has been too much limited? Here is a woman who feels a deep interest in the commonwealth, and has a good mental grasp of what the word "government" implies, and a fair knowledge of current events, and is capable of choosing between conflicting issues; and she is lawabiding, loyal to the laws in the making of which she has no voice. The other side of the picture is the officials in the polling booth helping Jim Blank mark his ballot. Jim can neither read, write, nor think intelligently. He has been twice fined for misdemeanor, and served two terms in the county jail. He knows nothing of the issues before the people, nothing about politics, in fact, in knowledge he is true to his name, he is a blank. And now the election official is helping him mark his ballot for the man who, during the campaign, bought his vote for a debauch on bad whiskey. It has frequently been urged that women are not constituted by nature for the great work of making laws. This we shall not attempt to deny. But shall be content to let history show, as it clearly does, that the slowness with which the councils of men have yielded to the claims of justice and the right, only proves them, above all things, to be endowed by nature with power or to hold tenaciously to every form of ancient barbarism. And when we look at present conditions, to say nothing of the past, and see over five hundred thousand saloons existing under the protection of men-made laws, in this North America, pouring forth their black streams for the creation of criminals, and then see the gallows, prepared by the same laws, for the criminals thus created, we must confess we are not over burdened with a sense of adoration. How have our Canadian rulers been dealing with this momentous question? By vacillation, by cowardice, by burking and shelving the question, by useless commissions of inquiry, by meaningless plebiscites, by laxity in the enforcement of existing laws. In all these ways they have shown a despicable subservience to the rum power, and have forfeited every claim to be votes of a Christian people. It is difficult to imagine a council of women who could so completely mock and delude a long-suffering nation. Intemperance is one great national sin; and by its debasing effects on the individual, it tends to destroy the national life, overthrow the church and shroud the world in ignorance and vice. Our hope of rescuing our country from the grasp of this foe, rests in our willingness to invest with legislative power those who will dare antagonize it. To this end let us have a cleaner and more intelligent electorate. Let us enfranchise all loyal and enlightened citizens irrespective of sex; and to disfranchise all who are known to be corrupt or illiterate, or who ruthlessly violate our country's law. Then with woman (who according to your recently published penitentiary statistics have so far exceeded the other sex in the matter of self control) exalted to her rightful place in the family of man, she can work side by side with the best men for the ushering in of the "good time coming, when right and might shall be the lord," and when the glorious destiny of which we dream shall be a grand reality.
Yours, very sincerely,
G. A. Clay