Diary of Edna Mary Conant Caldwell

By Joseph George Caldwell

Diary of Edna Mary Conant Caldwell (1855-1916), with notes by Patricia Mitchell and Joseph George Caldwell.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joseph George Caldwell
• Release date: Mar 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9780944848098

Joseph George Caldwell

Joseph George Caldwell is a mathematical statistician and systems and software engineer. He is author of articles and books on divers topics (e.g., population, environment, statistics, economics, politics, defense and music, including The Late Great United States (2008); Can America Survive? (1999); How to Stop the IRS and Solve the Deficit Problem (The Value-Added Tax: A New Tax System for the United States) (1987); How to Play the Guitar by Ear (for mathematicians and physicists) (2000). See Internet website http://www.foundationwebsite.org to view these and other articles. He holds a BS degree in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a PhD degree in Statistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

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Preface

A Note on Edna Mary Conant Caldwell and Roger Conant

by

Joseph George Caldwell

My great grandmother was Edna Mary Conant Caldwell (1855-1916). She was a descendent of Roger Conant, who was one of the founders of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the first Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. He arrived in Plymouth / Salem in 1623, probably on the Ann, which followed the Mayflower (it is not known for sure which ship Roger was on – it is known that his brother was on the Ann, and so it is assumed that he was on the Ann also).

Two books that provide information about Roger Conant were written by Thomas Conant (1842-1905). They are Upper Canada Sketches, With Illustrations, Portraits and Map, (Toronto: William Briggs, 29-33 Richmond Street West, 1898) and Life in Canada (Toronto: William Briggs, 1903). The first book contains a number of color illustrations. Thomas Conant was the brother of Edna Mary Conant. These books were given to me by my father, Joseph George Caldwell (1921-1993), who received them from his father, Joseph George Caldwell (1895-1968), Edna Mary’s son. My father also gave me her diary, which I gave to Patsy Ann Jones-Rei of Smithers, British Columbia, a few years ago.

A typed version of Edna Mary Conant Caldwell’s diary is posted at Internet web site http://www.foundationwebsite.org/EdnaMaryConant.pdf . The diary was typed by my aunt, Patricia Caldwell Jones Mitchell (who also lived in Smithers until her death in 2013). While transcribing from the original manuscript, Aunt Pat made a number of comments on the text. These are included as footnotes in the version posted on the Foundation website. Since eBook versions do not accommodate footnotes, these notes are included in the present version as in-line notes (e.g., [Note Patricia Mitchell:….]).

Thomas Conant’s books may be viewed online at the following Internet locations:

Upper Canada Sketches:

http://archive.org/details/cihm_00740 (options page) or http://archive.org/download/cihm_00740/cihm_00740.pdf (.pdf file)

Life in Canada:

http://archive.org/details/cihm_71466 (options page) or http://archive.org/download/cihm_71466/cihm_71466.pdf (.pdf file)

The .pdf files are in black and white. A color version of Upper Canada Sketches is posted at http://www.archive.org/stream/uppercanada00conauoft#page/n7/mode/2up .

Hardcopy editions (in black and white) of these two books are available from BiblioBazaar, PO Box 21206, Charleston, SC 29413, http://www.bibliobazaar.com

A history of the Conant family is published as A History and Genealogy of the Conant Family in England and America, Thirteen Generations 1520-1887; Containing Also Some Genealogical Notes on the Connet, Connett and Connit Families, Illustrated, by Frederick Odell Conant, M.A. of Portland Maine, U.S.A, Privately Printed, Portland, 1887. Reprinted by The Apple Manor Press, Markham, Virginia, http://www.yesterbooks.com .

The children of Edna Mary Conant Caldwell were Wilfrid, Gordon, Joseph George (who went by his middle name, George), and Imogene (who went by Gene). A daughter May died as a infant. Edna Mary’s son, George, was my paternal grandfather. I was the eldest grandchild, born in 1942, and I knew my grandfather (George) quite well. I called him Granddad. His wife, Coralie Laurie Cook Caldwell (1896-1972), I (and her other grandchildren) called her Nanny. Granddad called her Coralie.

In her diary, Edna Mary writes of her own activities and those of her three surviving children, Wilfred, George and Gene. She does not write a lot about her husband, whom she refers to as Father. At one point, she makes the enigmatic reference to him, Much poor weak women suffer with the best men in the world (as I have) because they have not the courage to insist on their right.

Wilfred and Gordon were dentists, as was their father. I did not know Wilfrid, but I met Uncle Gordon. I was born (1942) and lived in Kingston, Ontario, until 1953, when we moved to the United States. Granddad and Uncle Gordon lived in Belleville, which is just 50 miles west of Kingston, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, toward Toronto. I was the eldest grandchild, and was given much attention by Nanny and Granddad all the time we lived in Canada. I do not recall meeting Uncle Gordon’s wife, Anita, for whom my sister, Anita Caldwell Cathcart (1943-), is named.

I find it rather fascinating that I am directly connected via strong relationships to someone who was born in 1855. I will take this opportunity to recount some of the memories I have of my grandfather (Edna Mary’s son George) and his wife (Coralie Laurie Cook Caldwell).

In the 1940s, Uncle Gordon (Edna Mary’s eldest son) lived at 209 Albert Street in Belleville. His dental office was located in a sun room at the front of the house. When we visited, I recall that he owned a parrot, which was quite fascinating to a small boy.

In the late 1940s, Nanny and Granddad lived in a small bungalow on Burnham Street in Belleville (quite near the General Hospital), and they purchased a coal and lumber yard and a residential lot on Consecon Bay, at Consecon, a few miles from Belleville. Both Belleville and Consecon are located on waters of the Bay of Quinte, just off Lake Ontario. Nanny and Granddad built a small cottage on the lot, next to the water. The front room of the cottage was an office, from which they operated the coal and lumber yard. The business was called the Consecon Coal Company. The coal facility and lumber yard were located directly across the highway from the cottage, just outside of the village of Consecon.

The coal was housed mainly inside a large warehouse. On the far (back) side of the warehouse was a railroad track. The coal was delivered by rail car. Inside the warehouse were a number of coal conveyer belts, which moved the coal from the train into the warehouse, and from the warehouse onto delivery trucks. The power source was a large diesel motor, and the power was distributed by means of large leather belts (e.g., four inches wide and 15 feet long). The lumber was stacked in quadrangles outside the coal warehouse, for drying. Nanny and Granddad kept a small flock of chickens, which ran free in the lumber yard, and about a half-dozen pigs.

Each summer, my parents (Evelyn Phyllis Barter (1919-) and Joseph George Caldwell (George) (1921-1993) would take me to spend summers with Nanny and Granddad. I imagine this was the years 1948-50. It was an idyllic time, which I passed exploring the marshes and spending time with my grandparents. I spent most of my time in and around the cottage. I can still recall clearly hearing the soap operas on the radio, drifting dreamily from the house as I played outside – Helen Trent, Backstage Wife, The Second Mrs. Burton, Stella Dallas, Lorenzo Jones, Our Gal Sunday, The Guiding Light, Just Plain Bill, Nora Drake, Inspector Keen, and the soap commercials – Tide, Fab, Oxydol, Lux, Rinso Blue. The first summers I was alone. The last summer I was accompanied part time by my cousin David Jones (Aunt Pat’s son).

The village proper of Consecon was within walking distance, but we rarely went there. I recall visiting a canning factory one day. To the right of the coal and lumber yard was a house on a large lot. On the lot was a wild cherry tree. I recall picking cherries from it – they tasted exactly like Chiclets wild cherry flavor chewing gum.

About 50 yards from the cottage was an old yellow school bus. This bus was fitted with a dental chair, and still contained a full set of dental tools. It had been used by Uncle Wilfred as a mobile dental office. Each summer, he would travel in this bus to the Northwest Territories, and offer free dental care to the Indians. For some time, I owned some mementos of Uncles Gordon and Wilfred (a dental mortar and pestle, an instruments drawer, a samovar and buffalo picture from out west, a horizontal clock that drove the Iron Fireman coal conveyor for the furnace in the basement of 209 Albert Street), but these were passed on to others.

About 1997-98, when I was consulting to Canada Trust Bank in Toronto, I took my wife Jackie on a road trip to visit Belleville and Consecon. The cottage was gone, replaced by a house, and the coal warehouse was also gone. All that remained was the concrete loading dock next to the rail line, on which a tourist gift store was now located. Of course, the bus was gone. There was hardly a trace of the setting of my childhood memories. As they say, you can’t go home again.

In the early years at Consecon, we did not make much use of the bay. Nanny and Granddad were busy with the coal and lumber yard. The water along the shore dropped off very slowly, and was filled with marsh wildlife – water lilies, bulrushes, loons, bullfrogs, and thousands of Monarch butterflies. A small rowboat had been abandoned along the shore. It was sunken the day I discovered it. I refloated it, patched the cracks, and used it one day to row to a small island just offshore, along with my cousin Leslie Smith.

My father, Joseph George (George) worked his early years at the Aluminum Company of Canada in Kingston, as a tool and die maker. He then operated a silver-plating firm on Quebec Street, quite close to my elementary school (Frontenac Elementary School) and not very far from our home (21 12th Street, later 21 Lorne Street). Dad had developed a desire to move to the United States. He owned a heavy duty Indian motorcycle, which he used to commute to work at Alcan. One summer, he took a road trip on the motorcycle to visit the east coast of the US, including Kentucky and Tennessee. Upon his return to Canada, he drove to Consecon, where I was staying, and presented me with a bow-and-arrow set, complete with a chief’s headdress. I was quite fascinated with the set, and with