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Postcards in the heyday of the medium were used for many purposes. Today, we tend to associate them with travel; people send postcards to their friends and relations from places they have been. This use has always been common. As Gifford (2013) points out, postcards were commonly used to mark holidays as well. Easter was one such holiday.
Easter postcards often feature generic drawings of bunnies, churches, eggs, chicks and other familiar icons of the season. One such card is shown below.
However, for various reasons, people sometimes took it on themselves to make personalized holiday postcards. One such card is shown below:
In brief, the view is a family portrait in a classy, simulated oval frame. The figures are (from left to right) Mrs. Douglas (née Martha Torrance), Lennox Herbert Douglas, Wesley Ryerson Scott Douglas, and the Rev. William Herbert Douglas.
The back of the card provides an Easter greeting along with a seasonal message and identifies the addressee:
Happily, the message identifies the date and place of the postcard's use: Rockwood, Ontario, 7 April 1912. It's interesting to note that, although the postcard was addressed, it was not sent through the mail. Instead, it was likely delivered by hand. Looking at the persons identified on the card helps to explain why.
So, the puzzle now becomes genealogical: Who were these people and how were they connected such that this postcard was prompted? Investigation yields some interesting answers.
The obvious place to start is with the good Reverend William Herbert Douglas. He was born on 8 March 1873 in Reach Township, Ontario (now part of Scugog Township), to Samuel and Jane Douglas, immigrants from Ireland. The 1891 census reveals that they were farmers and that, while Samuel was a follower of the Church of England, Jane was a Methodist, along with all the couple's children. The family had an academic bent: William's siblings John and Annie were occupied as teachers and his brother Thomas was a Methodist minister. So, it is not surprising that William followed a similar path.
A fulsome obituary in the Georgetown Herald (29 December 1937) provides more details:
Mr. Douglas commenced his ministry as a missionary to the Canadian West, subsequently returning to Ontario and offering himself as a candidate for the ministry at Jarvis, Ont. During his career he has ministered to the following congregations in Ontario: Jarvis, Trafalgar, Rockwood, Port Elgin, Canfield, Norval, Lynden, Port Robinson and finally Mount Pleasant.The Minutes of the Toronto Methodist church (1900) note that William Douglas was ordained that year. The Acton Free Press (22 July 1909) reported that his first sermon in connection with the Rockwood circuit would be delivered at Siloam church shortly. Later reports suggest that it was warmly recieved.
Reports suggest that Rev. Douglas performed his duties ably, preaching sermons, conducting weddings and funerals, and, of course, celebrating Easter appropriately. On 23 November 1909, he preached a special sermon to the Christians while addressing the unconverted the next day. It is not reported how many non-believers were in attendance.
An article in 6 June 1912 Acton Free Press notes that the Reverend was on his way to a new parish on Port Elgin, so, not long after he sent out the Easter card above. He retired from the ministry in 1935 due to failing health and settled in Toronto, where he passed on in 1937.
The couple's first son, Lennox Herbert, was born on 6 April 1901 and grew up to become a doctor. He practiced in a number of Ontario communities, winding up in Galt (now part of Cambridge) Ontario, where he passed away in 1966. He married Margaret Vicars Kent of Truro, Nova Scotia, whose father Hedley practiced medicine there for nearly 50 years.
The couple second son (and only other child) Wesley Ryerson Scott was born on 4 February 1904. He married Mary Aileen Moore of Georgetown in 1932. A fulsome obituary in the Georgetown Herald supplies some details (23 September 1959):
Mr. Douglas was born in Kemble in the Bruce Peninsula where his father had a charge, his parents were Rev. and Mrs. W.H. Douglas. When Mr. Douglas served his charge in Norval his son attended Georgetown high school, later going to Victoria College, University of Toronto, graduating in 1929. While at college he played both rugby and hockey on the Victoria and Varsity teams.So, he followed the family tradition of teaching, a profession that can be quite rigorous.
For some time after his marriage in 1932, he taught in Northern Vocational School until he suffered a heart attack and was advised to leave the teaching profession. He later formed his own brokerage firm, Ryerson Douglas Securities on Bay Street. He and his family were members of the United Church.
The attention paid to the Douglas family in the pages of the Georgetown Herald is partly explained by the fact that Wesley's wife Mary was a daughter of J.M. Moore, publisher and editor of that newspaper for more than 30 years. Both were buried in at the Greenwood Cemetery in Georgetown.
It seems appropriate to finish with a few words about the recipients of the postcard. Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Mary McCarter were Methodists and residents of Rockwood, where Thomas worked as a bailiff. Myrtle was born on 16 September 1898, and so was 14 years old when the McCarters received the postcard. In 1923, she married Harold Douglas Treleaven of Rockwood, who was a salesman. Eventually, the couple relocated to the Big Smoke.
So, we come back to the matter of why the postcard was addressed to the McCarters by the Douglas's. The McCarters likely belonged to the Methodist church in Rockwood. The purpose of the postcard was to reaffirm the place of both families in the local Methodist community. Holiday postcards were often used for this sort of thing.
Thanks again for being a part of the internet postcard community and, of course, Happy Easter!
Sources used for this post include:
- Gifford, D. (2013). American Holiday Postcards, 1905-1915: Imagery and Context. McFarland.
