Old Home Week Invitations and Ephemera 1925

The Invitation

The 1925 invitation was in Old English and took the form of a proclamation from George V. It was addressed to all “Olden Boyes and Girles, far and nygh” asking them to assemble in North Bay on August 2nd through 8th for the celebration of Old Home Week. It was signed by John Ferguson as President of OHW. Produced on thick cream paper with decked edges and with a red seal affixed to it, the invitation looked very official. Music, parades, sports and dancing in the street was promised. Everyone who knew anyone who had lived in Norrth Bay in the past was therefore asked to help by providing names and addresses so those people could be personally invited and over 5000 invitations were sent out. If you are a collector, note that a facsimile of this invitation on thin paper and somewhat smaller was printed at a later date.

R.S. Huntingdon’s Logo for the Envelope

1_1925Logo

The envelope that was used to send ot the invitations and the letterhead paper that was used by the committee was totally different. The logo on it, a drawing by local artist R.S. Huntingdon, shows two men, explorers, emerging from a thick forest, one of them portaging a canoe. They are approaching a lake with a sunset which proclaims “Prosperity for all”. The trunks of two tall trees are crossed by a banner to form the shape of a gateway. The banner proclaims: “The Gateway to the North .” In the corner is the text ” Back to ‘the Bay ‘ Aug. 2nd. to 8th. -1925.” The image is inviting and bids you to walk into the light and the promised prosperity along with the travelers.

Poetry Competition Winner

“Come back to the lake where you fished and swam,/ And rolled on the sun-drenched sand,…”

(Oneita McEwan)

The Women’s Canadian Club held a competition in 1925 for the best poem on the history of North Bay, Old Home Week, or the incorporation of the city. The winning poem by Miss Oneita McEwan was in the “Call to Old Home Week” category.

List of Old Timers

A large number of Old Timers attended OHW and helped to shape the nature of the celebrations. Veterans were remembered on Soldier’s Day. Old Timers played lacrosse and other sports. Mostly, they must have met old friends and reminisced. Unfortunately these stories were never recorded and the guest books that carefully recorded the names of all the guests that registered were lost with the rest of the Board of Trade records in a fire. The names of those who registered with the OHW committee, however, were published in the paper and a full list of these names could be compiled, although in some cases the microfilm is light and hard to read. The names of Old Timers (with the place they came from) published on August 7th, 1925 have been transcribed. Even from these names alone, one can see that people did come from great distances, but more came from Toronto than anywhere else. For anyone interested in these Old Timers from a genealogical purposes, the list is somewhat limited as women are often referred to only as Mrs. John Smith.

List of Old Timers published in The Nugget August 7 1925

Old Home Week Celebrations in North Bay

History of Old Home Week Celebrations

Old Home Week celebrations began around the turn of the last century and took place throughout the Eastern United States and Canada. They were similar to Old Boy Reunions and slowly began to repace them. In Ontario they were particularly popular in the 1920s. Older cities and towns had them to celebrate important anniversaries. Owen Sound used it to celebrate Canada’s Diamond Jubilee in 1927.

Overview 1925

North Bay, Ontario had its first Old Home Week to celebrate becomming a city in 1925. It was held through the first week of August, the Monday being a civic holiday. Provincial government officials were present to hand over the charter of the new city. The week was filled with parades, sporting events, promotions, music, dancing, and entertainment. Invitations were sent out to all the “Old Boys” who, with their ladies, came back from all over Canada and the United States to celebrate and reminisce. The local newspaper, the Nugget, was filled with stories of the week’s events as well stories about the history of the town. Long lists of visiting Old Timers were published in the local paper as well. A special pageant parade was held on Civic Day to commemorate the history of the place since 1615, the year of Samuel de Champlain’s travels through the area. His image adorned the cover of the souvenir book and was a key figure in the pageant parade.

Overview 1935

The second Old Home Week held in North Bay was ostensibly to celebrate North Bay’s tenth anniversary, but really, it was an opportunity to highlight the city as a tourist destination as thousands of visitors began their summer trek north to seek out the Dionne quintuplets, born only twelve miles away, in May 1934. The summer of 1935 they were displayed to the public several times a day. Despite the depression, the week was a success and virtually paid for itself. It had to be organized by local clubs and organizations, however, because the city did not have money to spare for such an event. The cost of providing relief was taking its toll on public funds. The week-long celebrations were very similar to those in 1925 with sports and entertainment of various kinds. There was also a commemorative ceremony unveiling the monument erected by two French Canadian groups in honour of the 400th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s arrival in Canada.

Later Old Home Weeks

North Bay had several other Old Home Week celebrations in the period after World War II. The North Bay public library has a copy of a souvenir book published for the one in 1948, but the exact dates of the others have not been verified. They do not appear to have left a mark in the same way as the first two. From a historical perspective, the 1925 and 1935 Old Home Week celebrations were particularly important because of the records they left as to the early history of North Bay.

For more history, images, and links to documents relating to North Bay’s Old Home Week Celebrations click on the link to the “Old Home Week” tag below.

Ontario Promotes Tourism

Lure Books

Starting in 1923 the Ontario government began distributing booklets meant to draw tourists, especially Americans, to come to Ontario to vacation. This was the beginning of the era of motor touring. An overview of the history of tourism in Ontario and the government’s involvement can be viewed at the Archives of Ontario’s online exhibit: Yours to Discover – Tourism in Ontario Through Time.

In the 1920s Ontario was promoted primarily as a Lake-land playground. Separate books for northern Ontario began to be issued in the 1930s. By the 1950s, the lure books consisted mainly of photographs. Other more specialized books such as the one on canoe routes were also issued.

Click on the cover image of the following lure books to view a pdf file of the entire book.

Lake-land 1923	Ontario 1925	Ontario 1926	Lakeland 1930
Holiday Haunts 1934	Ontario Welcomes 1938	King’s Highways 1939	Variety Vacationland 1954
Northern Ontario 1931	Northern Ontario 1947	Canoe trips in Ontario

Archival Sources for North Bay History

Local Archival Material

Trinity United Church under construction

This old photograph shows the beginning of construction of the North Bay Methodist Church, now Trinity United. Courtesy of Kevin Reeves.

Researching the history of North Bay has its challenges. There are no city archives and most public documents from the city, the school boards, and the registry office are still held by those bodies and have not been deposited with the Archives of Ontario. This makes access more difficult as the main mandate of these bodies is to deal with current issues, not historical ones. The city disposed of most, if not all, the historical documents it was not legally required to keep. It therefore has council minutes, bylaws and assessment rolls. The bylaws are online but the earlier ones are not indexed. Discovery North Bay has an important collection of material but there is no online catalogue to date. The Dionne Quint Museum has the Fred Davis collection of images and a collection of scrapbooks but most of its collection consists of actual artifacts and printed sources. A major collection of Orange Order material is available at Nipissing University. Indexes to the census, cemetary records and many other useful sources can be found at the library of the Nipissing Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society housed in the Public Library.

Public Archives

The Archives of Ontario does have some material relating to North Bay, usually in a series created for other purposes such as the theatre files, educational material, or material relating to licensed premises. There is a good online search engine. Some of the collections at the Laurentian University Archives and the Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-française in Ottawa also have records relating to North Bay.

Private Collections

There are many private collections of material which can sometimes be accessed. The most important are those belonging to North Bay’s oldest churches, Pro-Cathedral, Trinity, St Andrew’s and St John the Divine. Fraternal groups, service clubs and other social organizations also often have material but there is no central listing of who to contact. Some family collections are also important.

Printed Sources for North Bay History

North Bay: Gateway to Silverland by Anson Gard

Cover of the Reprint Edition

Anson Gard was North Bay’s first oral historian. An American by birth, he had spent over seven years in Canada and had published a dozen Canadian books by 1909, the year his North Bay: The Gateway to Silverland was published. Here, as in the Ottawa valley and Cobalt earlier, he traveled through the area, spoken to people, gathered their stories, and wrote them down. He also did research in the files of North Bay’s two early papers, the North Bay Times and The Despatch, newspapers which unfortunately have all but disappeared today. He sought out those who had collected photos of the early days and included a photo essay on North Bay along with his text.

Gateway to Silverland, consists of three distinct sections. The first, “Gateway to Silverland,” is made up of the stories he collected. These range from very obvious tall tales to much more factual information such as a list of firsts and histories of founding societies, schools, and churches. There is also a chapter on the railways and one on the Georgian Bay Ship Canal. The second section is his photo essay, “North Bay in Picture, the Old and the New” which includes many interesting early photographs, only some of which can still be found. The third section, “Patrons of ‘The Gateway,'” consists of sixty biographical sketches of the leading members of the town, many of them members of the Board of Trade, who supported his efforts.

Anson Gard did not write the kind of book we would write today. There is no doubt that he adopted the boosterism of his patrons and wrote of North Bay only in the most glowing of terms. It is also clear that he had little opportunity to meet ordinary working people; his informants were among the most affluent in the town, male, and Anglophone. He was aware of the presence of the First Nations in the area and devotes a short section to their history, but he does not appear to have spoken to any of them. He makes infrequent references to French Canadians who contributed to the early history of North Bay, but seldom refers to any of them by name. Today such a clear bias would be unacceptable.

Why, then, an anniversary edition of Gateway to Silverland? Through his stories Gard brings to life the flavour of North Bay at the time. It was the entertainment capital of the area. Tall tales were told around the fire and practical jokes were played on newcomers. Railroaders were bigger than life as they heroically steamed into town to vote on the choice of a District capital. His biographical sketches read like a street directory – Ferguson, Leask, McKeown, McGaughey, Parsons – and are an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to research the genealogy of these local families as he usually gives a place of birth and the maiden name of the wife. For one hundred years now, the stories that Anson Gard recorded about early North Bay are almost all that we know about these early days. They have been repeated, often without giving him credit. He deserves to be read in the original where what is fact and what is tall tale can more easily be discerned. He also deserves to be credited for his accomplishment. Since his book has long been out of print and remaining copies are expensive, a new anniversary edition will make it possible for those interested in North Bay history to read for themselves this wonderful story teller. His book, he wrote, involved “the recalling of memories, and preserving of those memories to those who may in the future see the part played by some ancestor” (p. 116). He could not have predicted the extent to which his efforts would be vital in helping to keep those early days alive in our collective memory.

Community History Publications’ new 100th anniversary softcover edition of Anson Gard’s North Bay: The Gateway to Silverland is available at Gulliver’s and at the Dionne Quint Museum shop. As well as reproducing all three sections of the 1909 edition in a modern font it includes a new preface by Françoise Noël and an index to “Patrons.” (ISBN: 978-0-9812769-0-8, retail price $19.95.)

W.K.P. Kennedy’s North Bay: Past–Present–Prospective

Early North Bay Blacksmith Shop

W.K.P. Kennedy’s North Bay: Past–Present–Prospective is a compilation of useful information rather than an analytical history. Kennedy was very familiar with North Bay’s early history, having arrived in North Bay in 1887, and he was given access to sources which can be difficult to get to today. For example, his section on municipal government summarize the minutes of council for every year from 1894 to 1960. Even in a summarized format, these provide us with an overview of important issues and the original minutes or the Nugget can then be consulted to find out more. He acknowledges having made use of Anson Gard and the Nugget, and the 1925 Old Home Week section clearly makes extensive use of the 1925 souvenir book. He provides lists of charter members of organizations, of businesses, hotels, schools, and churches, short histories of the railways, sports, and personalities, as well as some of his own recollections. It is an essential starting point for further research. The major drawback of this source is that almost fifty years have elapsed since it was written, leaving a long gap where similar information is not available. Like Gard he tends to be more familiar with anglophone North Bay but the book includes wonderful surprises like the image of Felix Labreche’s blacksmith shop shown here.

Digital Restoration of a Portrait of the Rinkey Dinks 1928

Railton Photo’s Original Photograph

The original photograph of the Rinkey Dinks by Railton Photo in 1928 consisted of twelve individual images of the players and the two coaches, dry-mounted on a large mat with three rows of photographs with an image of hand-lettered text in the middle of the bottom row. The name and position of each player was lettered onto the mat below the image. It looked a lot like the restored image below.

The Damaged Photographs

Rinkey Dinks of North Bay 1928 Lady Softball Champions of Northe

This composite photograph was later dismantled. The individual photographs were torn apart, remaining attached to the mat. At some point they must have been stored in a damp place and the photographs began to deteriorate. They all looked more or less like the photo of Dot Gore shown here on the right.

The Restored Photographs

Rinkey Dinks of North Bay 1928 Lady Softball Champions of Northe Having done some photo restoration before, I thought it might be possible to restore these photographs at least to some extent. Once I had scanned them, I realized that the amount of work to be done was more than I had encountered before. I consulted photographer Mike de Moree and asked for advice as to how to best proceed. He worked on one image and showed me how it might be possible to make them look better although this would mean softening the focus considerably on the most damaged parts. Luckily the faces tended to be in better shape than the uniforms. After considerable effort and adding a sepia filter the images looked much better. The text, however, did not look great.
Gore-text

The Layout

The next problem was how to lay these out. For this I consulted with my husband who is very good at puzzles. We looked at the patterns of discoloration on the backs of the images and tried to fit them together to match. The restored images were then laid out as they would have been originally together with the text image. In the end I decided not to use the original text under each photograph, but to type in the same information with a similar font.

The Restored Digital Portrait

For the final restored photograph a background colour was chosen similar to the original mat. A border was placed around it for viewing as a digital image. The final result is shown below.

Rinkey Dinks of North Bay 1928 Lady Softball Champions of Northern Ontario and Ontario Finalists for Intermediate Championship. Photo by Railton Photo. Restoration by F. Noël.

Print Copies

The original intention in undertaking this work (which took many hours) was to have a copy printed and placed in a public place like Memorial Gardens so that the Rinkey Dinks, the first team to bring home a provincial championship to North Bay (see previous post), be better remembered. A first attempt to do so failed because the file was too large. I believe that the new wide printer at Nipissing should be able to print this image full size and I am able to print a smaller version on my printer. Anyone wishing a print copy can therefore contact me. I would be particularly pleased to see it go up in a public venue.
The portraits of the individual players are 4 inches by 6.1 inches in size. The shield and text is 5.4 by 6.6 inches in size. The full image is 28.8 inches by 24 inches in size and the file size for the full colour image as above is 255.87 MB. A black and white version is only 85.3 MB in size.

Postcript on Jean Wilson

The last living Rinkey Dink, Jean Wilson, died in North Bay in 2012. She is top left in this photo. She did not play in 1929 when they won the championship because she had left the team to go to Normal School. She taught several generations of North Bay students who remember her fondly. She was 105 years old.

Link to Jean Wilson’s obituary.

Link to an image of Jean Wilson when she celebrated her 104th birthday.

“Citizens Pay Tribute to Newly Crowned Ontario Softball Champions,” The Nugget, 29 October 1929, 12.

[Transcribed with permission by F. Noël.]

CITIZENS PAY TRIBUTE TO NEWLY CROWNED ONTARIO SOFTBALL CHAMPIONS. THOUSANDS WITNESS PARADE IN HONOR OF ONTARIO CHAMPS.

Events Recalls Stirring Scenes of Old Home Week

Moving Pictures Were Taken of the Entire Demonstration

Memories of Old Home Week were revived on Saturday afternoon when the city was decorated in true celebration fashion and the citizens turned out in large numbers to participate in the civic tribute to the Rinkey Dinks in recognition of their spectacular achievement of winning the Intermediate girls softball title to bring the city its first provincial soft ball title.
It was one of the greatest spectacles seen in the city in years and second only to the displays of Old Home Week in colour and magnitude. As early as one oʼclock an hour before the time the festivities were schedules to commence, Main street was thronged by a gleeful and expectant crowd. In the vicinity of St. Maryʼs Cathedral where the parade formed decorated cars were assembled on all the main and connecting streets anxiously awaiting the call into line. Promptly at 2 p.m. Parade Marshal James A Smith with three bands interspersed in a mile string of floats and decorated cars started the long and colourful file towards Main street. Fire Chief Brady led off with the fire truck second in line and followed by decorated cars bearing Mayor Banner and the city aldermen, city officials, executive members of the various softball organizations, officers of the various civic and service clubs, and others prominent in civic activities.
Next came a string of floats conveying the members of the various city softball teams prominent in the line being the members of the Rinkey Dink team high up on a float […] in the team club colours of purple and white. Following came the Capitol T and N.O. and Kiltie bands at intervals in the parade and with these were a large number of decorated floats […] among which was an elaborate display bearing the name of the Board of Trade. Back of this spectacular array came an almost endless stream of decorated cars to stretch the parade to more than a mile in length. Following down Main street to Sherbrooke the Rinkey Dinks were heralded from all sides and this continued while the parade passed down Sherbrooke street to First avenue west to Ferguson street and on to Wallace Park where the ceremonies of the day took place. Accompanying the parade over the entire length were two motion picture cameras operated by representatives of the Associated Screen News under the direction of John H. Nelson, manager of the capitol theatre.
Arriving at the park the members of the Rinkey Dink club players, coaches, manager and officials were paraded with the Collegiate and Sudbury rugby teams, the Collegiate Cadets, the Girl Guides, and three bands for the purpose of taking motion pictures.

Decorated Stand

Following this the members of the victorious team were escorted to a decorated stand in the middle of the field where they were received by Mayor Banner, members of the city council, officials of the various civic organizations, and officers of the committee in charge of the reception.

Mayorʼs Address

In paying testimony to the guests of the day on behalf of the citizens, Mayor Banner said in part. “This gathering and wonderful demonstration is to convey in some manner our appreciation to the Rinkey Dink Ladies Softball Club of the honor they have conferred on our city by bringing home the intermediate softball championship of the province and to congratulate them on their great victory over the Owen Sound team.
This club composed entirely of North Bay girls has always been a factor in the championship race, having won both the local and Northern titles a number of times and last year were only beaten in the provincial championship by a lucky turn for their opponents. To say that any member of the team was directly responsible for the wonderful achievement of this year would be a mistake. The team play and co-ordination throughout the seasonʼs play is necessary to achieve victory. I hope this will be an inspiration to all other sports organizations of our city.
“The victory of our girls over the Owen Sound representatives has in a great measure compensated the fans of North Bay for the defeat the Trappers sustained at the hands of the Owen Sound team in 1924. Evidently the girls took this very much to heart and when the opportunity came to retaliate they went out to win.
“Again I thank the Rinkey Dinks for the great honor brought to the city and desire to assure them that the citizens are behind clean sport in all its branches. I hope this team, will remain intact and next year go out for the Dominion title.
Acknowledging the tributes paid by Mayor Banner, D.J. Saya manager of the Rinkey Dink club said

Sayaʼs Address

“On behalf of the Rinkey Dinks I desire to express to you their most heartfelt thanks for the wonderful reception you have given them and the many nice things that have been said about them today on their notable achievement in bringing to North Bay itʼs first club provincial championship, and now that the girls have broken the ice I only hope that many more championships of the same nature will come to North Bay in the various other lines of sport.
The road to the championship has been no easy one for the Dinks for they have had to make many sacrifices during their quest for this coveted honor.
“In looking around I see before me many good friends of the Rinkey Dinks who I know have helped them out in many ways during the past few seasons and those of you who have helped along from time to time since the club was first organized right to the present moment, the girls deem this a fitting occasion to express to you their sincere appreciation your many kindnesses on their behalf for great good will shows by all the fans present here today to the girls in their hour of victory greater still has been the loyalty shown to them by those who helped them out and cheered them along when every thing was not sunshine and roses for you have proven yourselves to have been friends in need indeed.
To the Ontario Womenʼs Softball Association and to Miss Mabel Ray their secretary in particular the Rinkeys owe much and I am only sorry that Miss Ray could not be present with us today. This association generously gave the Rinkeys a bye last year so the Rinkeys could compete in the finals against the strong Oshawa and National teams and this year they gave Northern Ontario permission to form the Northern Ontario Ladies Softball Association of which our good friend Mrs. W. Larden is the first president. Miss Ray as some of you know was the first woman to put ladies softball in the province on an organized footing and from a small beginning ladies softball has increased by leaps and bounds until now hundreds of teams are affiliated with the parent body of the O W S A and right now ladies softball is on a very high plane.

Thanks Press

“The girls also desire to thank the press and particularly so The Nugget for the wonderful publicity they have so generously given in the interest of ladies softball.
“As one who has traveled around the province with the Rinkeys during the past two seasons I want to state that at all times the girls have conducted themselves like real sportsmen and always remembered that they were out there representing North Bay. On the diamond they have always played the game and off the diamond they have been perfect ladies. They have made many friends for North Bay during the course of their journey. “Everywhere the girls went in Orillia, Oshawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Cochrane, Owen Sound, and other centres, you could hear it said what a wonderful bunch of girls the North Bay Rinkeys were and I venture to say that North Bay could not have chosen a better bunch of good will ambassadors for the occasion than the same Rinkeys.
“In addition I just want in mention one incident that occurred that will show you the courageous make up of the player in question a makeup that is typical of every member of the team.
Shortly after “Jackie Fellmanʼs” accident at Chalk River the girls called at Jackieʼs home to see how she was progressing and although “Jackie” was suffering intense pain at the time they found her singing the following words of a popular song.
Happiness comes double after a little pain if you want the rainbow you must have the rain. And ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to know that the girls have found the rainbow!”

Presents Trophy

Representing the Ontario Womenʼs Softball Association Mrs W Larden president of the N O W A S presented the intermediate trophy to the team at the same time congratulating them on behalf of the provincial and Northern Ontario Associations. Mrs Larden took occasion to commend the various units of the N O W S A for their activities this season, particularly the North Bay city league and expressed the hope that next year would bring about greater achievements.
Individual awards of medals were then presented to the following by Mrs Larden. Mary Mckee, V. Wilson, M Fellman, Sybil Carr, Zita McManus, Frances Larden, Vada Lee, Eleanor Johnston, Greta Finlay, Gwen Edwards, Sadie Buckley, Flo Johnston, Dot Gore, and Margaret Johnston. Wib Harris Mort Fellman and Fred Ball who were associated in coaching the team were introduced to the gathering.
In accepting the trophy award Frances Larden, team captain said the members of the team, were grateful to the people for their support during the season and more particularly for the reception and tribute tendered them on the occasion of their winning the championship.

Other Addresses

Senator Gideon Robertson, J H McDonald president of the Board of Trade and H Morel also delivered addresses commending the girls on their worthy achievement.
Congratulatory messages and letters were read by Mayor Banner from the following, Freda McGill, captain of the Owen Sound team, Charles Robinson, coach of the Owen Sound ladies, Miss Mabel Ray, secretary of the Ontario Womenʼs Softball Association, Mayor Bibby, Sudbury, W J DʼAlesandro, Toronto, Mrs. W J DʼAlesandro, president of the Ontario Womenʼs Softball Association, and Miss Tony Conacher, captain of the Canadian Ladies Softball Club, Toronto.
Preceding the program the Capitol band rendered O Canada and at the conclusion the T and N O band played God Save the King.
During the course of the program motion pictures were taken of the entire proceedings by two cameramen. These pictures will be shown in the capitol centre at a midnight show Friday and again Saturday afternoon.

Looking at the Dionne Quintuplets in a Classroom Setting

Readings on the Quintuplets’ Story

In the local area, no media story has ever been bigger or person more famous than the Dionne quintuplets, Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Emilie, and Marie Dionne, who captured the hearts of millions across the world in the 1930s. They were born in May 1934 and by 1935 they had become a tourist destination, living in a complex known as Quintland. Although many people benefitted financially from the rise in tourism to the area, the story of their lives did not have a happy ending. For those interested in reading more, see the attached list of suggested readings. Dionne_quintuplet_readings

Student Projects

Student Papers

In 2009-10, a fourth year seminar at Nipissing University explored the subject of the Dionne Quintuplets and Quintland from a historical perspective. Because of the nature of the sources available, the research papers produced for this course focused on media representations of the Dionne Quintuplets and those around them such as Dr Dafoe. Some of these papers have been edited, with permission, and brought togehter in book form. Student Papers on the Dionne Quintuplets.

Bibilography of Dionne quintuplet books and articles

A bibliogrpahy of books and articles related to the Dionne Quintuplets can be found in the attached document. It does not include newspaper articles, as that would be too huge a project. Quint_Bibliography

The Dionne Quint Museum

The birth home of the Dionne quintuplets is now a museum.

Amy Bennett of the Dionne Quint museum was very supportive of this project and made research material from the museuam available to the students. They have many artifacts relating to the Dionne quintuplets including magazines and published material and a large scrapbook collection. They also have copies of most of the Fred Davis images. Fred Davis was the official photographer of the Dionne quintuplets for the NEA in their early years.