Photograph was removed from a photo album. Photograph is ripped.
History / Biographical
According the 1911 Henderson's Brandon City Directory, the Brandon Fire Department - headquartered at Seventh Street and Princess Avenue - had 16 permanent firemen. For equipment the department had one steamer, two chemicals, two hose wagons, one hose reel, one aerial aldder, one hook and ladder wagon, and 10 horses. The city had 34 electric fire alarm boxes and 114 fire hydrants. The pumping station had a capacity of 3.5 million gallons in 24 hours. By 1914, the Brandon Fire Department had 19 permanent employees on its roster and added 2 more horses as well as an 80 horsepower combination motor truck.
Custodial History
Photograph was given to Fred McGuinness by Linda Bilkoski (nee Lepard) of Lac du Bonnet, MB.
Scope and Content
Photograph shows two horse-drawn fire wagons in front of the Brandon Fire Station No. 2. One wagon has a hose, the other wagon has an extension ladder.
Notes
Writing on the back of photograph reads: Ed Harden, Driver on the left, 1914, 11th McTavish. This picture is the same as the negative in the Lawrence Stuckey collection. Stuckey obtained a copy of the photo from George Lepard, father of Linda Bilkoski (nee Lepard).
Photograph was removed from a photo album. Photograph is creased and has tape residue.
Custodial History
Photograph was given to Fred McGuinness by Linda Bilkoski (nee Lepard) of Lac du Bonnet, MB.
Scope and Content
Photograph shows the interior of Brandon Fire Hall No. 2. The wagon engines are in the foreground. The firemen stand in the background, holding the bridles of the horses that are standing at the entrances of their stalls. The interior of the hall shows a brick floor and tin ceiling. Stairs lead to a wooden door that is likely the entrance to the living quarters and offices on the second floor.
Notes
Writing on the back of photograph reads: Ed Harden, Driver on the left, 1914, 11th McTavish. This picture is the same as the negative in the Lawrence Stuckey collection. Stuckey obtained a copy of the photo from George Lepard, father of Linda Bilkoski (nee Lepard).
For custodial history see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.
Scope and Content
The Brandon Asylum for the Insane
Notes
The entire Brandon Asylum complex was completely destroyed. Patients were temporarily housed in the Winter Fair Building (located on the 500 block of 10th Street).
It is reported that the nearly 700 staff and patients were evacuated without any loss of life due to the fire itself (Refvik K. 1991. The Brandon Asylum Fire of 1910. Manitoba History, Number 21, Spring 1991).
Built in 1991-1992 for $1.4 million, the official opening of the Centre was May 29, 1992. The centre is currently (April 2010) called the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, Parkwood Centre.
Custodial History
For custodial history see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.
Scope and Content
Alcoholism Foundation of Manitoba (AFM), Parkwood Treatment Centre located on Victoria Avenue East.
Built in 1991-1992 for $1.4 million, the official opening of the Centre was May 29, 1992. The centre is currently (April 2010) called the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, Parkwood Centre.
Custodial History
For custodial history see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.
Scope and Content
Alcoholism Foundation of Manitoba (AFM), Parkwood Treatment Centre.
Photographs have been glued to a backing board that has warped over time
Scope and Content
Photograph shows street view of north side of Rosser Avenue, primarily the 700 block. Horse and buggies are travelling on the avenue and pedestrians fill the sidewalks. Union Jacks and English flags are mounted from the windows on the Fleming and Beaubier blocks. Flag banners are drapped across Rosser Avenue. Businesses visible in the Fleming Block include: Lowes Brothers Clothing and Spring Park Nurseries. Businesses visible in the Beaubier Block include the Empire Hotel. Businesses east of the Empire Hotel are grocer A.M. Percival and the Brandon Hardware Company. An advertisement for the Northern Bank is affixed to a telephone pole on the southside of the street. The street is lined with litter and a number of dogs can be seen roaming the area.
Notes
Writing on the front of the photograph matting reads: 313 July 1906. One photograph (20-2009.8) is glued below and another, 20-2009.6, is glued on the reverse side. Page appears to be from a photo album.
Very good. Some of the letters written in pencil are a little faded.
History / Biographical
Ruth Alverda Wade was born born July 11, 1912 in Brandon, MB to James and Etta Alverda. She had two younger siblings: sister Gwen and brother Sherry. The Wade family resided at 1837 Princess Avenue, Brandon, MB. Ruth graduated from Brandon College with the Class of 1933.
During her time at Brandon College Ruth met Archie MacLachlan. Archibald James MacLachlan was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan in 1907. He had four brothers: Howard, Edgar, Bruce, Curly and Stirling. When Archie was quite young the MacLachlan family moved to Alberta. Archie came to Brandon c. 1930 to attend Brandon College. During the summers of his years at Brandon College Archie held pastoral charges in Alberta. The first two summers were spent in the Peace River Country and the second two in Etzikom in Southern Alberta. This is the period during which the letters in the fonds were written.
Ruth Wade married Archie MacLachlan on September 19, 1934 in Brandon, MB. Following the wedding the couple moved to Hamilton, ON. Archie graduated from McMaster University with his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1937. During this period their daughter Joann Ruth was born. After his ordination as a Baptist Minister the family moved to North Bay where Archie was minister for four years. The next six years were spent in Vancouver as Archie worked as minister at Fairview Baptist Church in Vancouver. The couple's sons Archibald James and Lachlan Wade were also born during this period.
At the end of the Second World War Archie decided to go back to school. The family travelled to Brandon, where Ruth and the children remained for part of a year while Archie went ahead to Andover Newton to enroll and find a parish that would support him while he went to school. The family was reunited in Penacook, New Hampshire; they lived there for two years while Archie completed his Masters in Sacred Theology. After a brief additional period of study at Harvard University, the MacLachlan family returned to Canada, settling in Toronto while Archie finished his second Masters degree (Psychology) and held positions as interim minister and then assistant minister at York Minster Church. Following the two years in Toronto they moved to Winnipeg.
Eventually Archie left the church ministry and became Chaplain at the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital. He also continuted to train students in Pastoral Education through the courses he had begun at the Divinity College of McMaster University. He remained at the Hospital until his retirement.
During their married life Ruth was kept busy raising the couple's children and with her work as a minister's wife, particularly her work in the community. She sat on a number of community boards, including positions as President of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec and a member of the Board of Governors for McMaster University's Divinity School.
Ruth MacLachlan died on October 29, 1983 in Missassauga, ON.
Archie married Kathleen Marie (Green) French (b. January 22, 1908, d. June 1, 1998) on June 20, 1987. Archie MacLachlan died in December 1997.
Custodial History
Records were in the possession of Ruth and Archie MacLachlan until their deaths. At that time the records were inherited by their daughter Joann. Joann MacLachlan donated the records to the McKee Archives on October 24, 2009 at a donation event held as part of Homecoming 2009.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of approximately 197 letters written by Ruth and Archie to each other during the spring and summers of 1932, 1933 and 1934. The letters were written during the courtship of the couple and contain details not only on about their lives in Brandon and Alberta but also more personal information about their relationship, families and future plans. Because Ruth and Archie were students at Brandon College during this period the letters also often reflect on events and personalities related to the College, as well as their own personal studies.
Fonds also contains a scrapbook compiled by Ruth during her Brandon College years. It includes photographs, newspaper clippings, graduation cards, event programs, place cards and other ephemera. There are also a few miscellaneous documents - McMaster University examination papers, handwritten sheet music, postcards - that appear to have belonged to Archie. Fonds also contains a graduation photograph of Ruth.
Notes
Description by Christy Henry. History/Bio information taken from Joann MacLachlan's book Ruth and Archie: Brandon and Brandon College 1932-1934.
Ruth and Archie's daughter Joann edited the letters into a book entitled Ruth and Archie: Brandon and Brandon College 1932-1934. A copy of the book is located in the Rare Book collection of the John E. Robbins Library, Brandon University.
William Ridley Sheridan Wade collection (28-2007)
Arrangement
The letters are arranged in chronological order with all of Archie's letters to Ruth for a particular year grouped together, followed by Ruth's letters to Archie for that same year. For preservation purposes photographs in the scrapbook have been removed and placed in photograph storage, with their corresponding scrapbook page number noted on the back. Because of the fragile condition of the scrapbook a note has been made concerning the original location of many items that have become detached from their original location in the scrapbook. These items remain with the remnants of the scrapbook in one archival housing. Note that Ruth did not place items on every page so the numbering is not sequential for scrapbook items. Some items were loose at the back of the scrapbook and therefore have no corresponding page number.
Eleanor Kidd Park (est. 1977) is situated on 18th Street North, on the south side of the Assiniboine River, and east of the Thompson twinned bridge. The park was the former site of an animal shelter overseen by Eleanor Kidd. Adjacent to the park are the Eleanor Kidd Gardens, which contains performance and fountain plazas. The sites have been subjected to heavy flooding from 2011 to 2015.
Eleanor Maud Kidd (nee Death) (b.05 Aug 1881, d. 11 July 1978) was born in London, England. She trained as a nurse/midwife at the Liverpool Children's Hospital and worked as a private nurse for affluent families in Italy. She immigrated to Canada in 1913 and lived in Portage la Prairie where she worked as a public health nurse. She ultimately settled in Brandon where she married barber William Wesley Kidd (1873-1951) on November 24, 1921. Mrs. Kidd is credited with incorporating the Brandon SPCA/Humane Society in 1947. She died in Brandon, Manitoba, and is interred in the Brandon Municipal Cemetery. (sources: Brandon Sun 12 July 1978; Brandon Sun 13 July 1978; Manitoba Vital Statistics)
Custodial History
Photograph courtesy of Dirk Aberson
Scope and Content
Photograph is a close-up of Eleanor Kidd posing in front of the Elanor Kidd Park sign.
For custodial history see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.
Scope and Content
CPR Ice House Fire with engine 701
Notes
This large ice house, located between the CPR tracks and Assiniboine Avenue at 3rd Street, was filled with blocks of ice from the Assiniboine River each winter. It had a long high platform for [loading ice blocks into] refrigerator cars, and also handled charcoal braziers for heating these same cars in winter. The new ice house structure that was built after this fire was much smaller, as it had an artificial ice plant.
With mechanically temperature-controlled cars replacing ice-cooled refrigerators, it was demolished in the 1970's.
This photograph shows how steam switch engines were used as fire engines. A hose carried in a box under the tender was fitted into a branch of the boiler feed pipe (discharge pipe). When the injector was turned on it gave a nozzle pressure of over 200 psi.
Samuel Bronfman began business in Brandon and eventually became head of Seagram Co. Ltd.
[See: "Booze: the impact of whisky on the prairie west " by James H. Grey; "Bronfman dynasty: the Rothschilds of the new world" by Peter Newman (P.E. 22/05/09)]
Custodial History
For custodial history see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.
The construction of the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium was considered first during a meeting of the Brandon City Council in 1953. In 1962, the City of Brandon was given permission by Manitoba Premier Duff Roblin to proceed with the construction of the auditorium as a centennial project to celebrate Canada's centennial in 1967. Constructed on the Brandon University campus, the auditorium was completed in early 1969.
Custodial History
This collection was accessioned by the McKee Archives in 1998. Previous custodial history is unknown.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of one scrapbook with newspaper clippings and pamphlets about the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium and its construction.
A.E. McKenzie was born in Wilcox Lake, York County, Ontario in 1870 to F.B. and Maria (Carley) McKenzie. His family came to Manitoba in 1883. He was educated in Brandon, Manitoba and graduated from the Collegiate Institute at age 21. In 1897 he founded the Brandon Seed House. McKenzie was present at the cornerstone-laying ceremony of Brandon College on Juy 13, 1900. From that moment on, he was very involved in the College, first as an interested businessman, and later as a member of its Board of Directors. In 1902, McKenzie married Laura Bell in Port Arthur. They had two daughters, Marjorie Bell and Kathleen. In 1906 the Brandon Seed House was incorporated and from then on was known as the "A.E. McKenzie Co. Ltd.."
McKenzie became a member of the Brandon College Endowment Committee in 1918. The following year he was on the Finance Committee. By 1925, McKenzie was a member of the Board of Directors. In 1928, he was part of a syndicate that advised the Baptist Union that they were developing an endowment plan to provide continuing financial support to the College and talked the Union into providing $10 000 towards the accumulated deficit.
In 1931, McKenzie organized the Brandon Board of Trade to help save Brandon College when the Baptists said they could no longer afford to keep the College. After the By-law failed, he helped to organize the Brandon Citizen’s Campaign to raise enough money so that the College could open the following year.
When the Baptists withdrew support in 1938, McKenzie was one of the central figures on the Brandon Board of Trade that decided to save the College from closure. A representative delegation from Southwestern Manitoba of over 60 men descended upon Premier Bracken’s office to try and convince him to help the College. On June 12, 1938 McKenzie said he would set up a $100 000 endowment to Brandon College. He subsequently raised this amount to $300 000. On August 1, 1938 the Board of Trade launched a campaign to raise $15 000 to match what the government was prepared to offer the College. McKenzie was asked to provide Brandon College with $3000 personally. In September of 1938, McKenzie upped his endowment once more to $500 000. The fund raising worked however, and the chater establishing Brandon College Incorporated was assented to on April 17, 1939. On June 6, 1939 a by-law was again presented to the citizens of Brandon, and fortunately it passed.
In 1941, McKenzie received an honorary L.L.D. from the University of Manitoba. The A.E. McKenzie Foundation was created in 1945 by the provincial government, who had assumed 90% of the A.E. McKenzie Co. Ltd. stock.
On September 25, 1964 McKenzie died at the age of 94. He never retired, but worked full time until two weeks before his death. The funeral was held in the J.R.C. Evans Lecture Theatre. The Arts and Library Building at Brandon College was completed in 1960, and is known as the A.E. McKenzie building, in honour of the man who contributed so much time, effort and financial help to the College during a crucial period in its history.
Custodial History
Records were accessioned by the McKee Archives in 1998. Prior custodial history is unknown.
Scope and Content
A.E. McKenizie’s records in the Brandon College fonds are very useful from an administrative point of view. Because McKenzie was so involved in Brandon College from the very beginning until his death in 1964, it is easy to understand how the College Administration arrived at decisions. There is correspondence between McKenzie and various regarding College and Board of Director business. There are Brandon College financial statements and letters regarding the A.E. McKenzie Foundation. The records contain newspaper clippings, pamphlets and lists of names of members of various Brandon organizations. As well, McKenzie has letters regarding Building Expansion in the 1940’s and minutes of Board of Director meetings. There are also several photographs. One photograph is the 1919 graduation picture of Zoe Hough. Another is tentatively identified as Frances Wolverton, also of the Class of 1919. There are two more photographs of unidentified young women.
The City of Brandon (by decree of the Province) went to a ward system of government with the civic elections of October of 1971. Ten aldermen, who had to reside in their wards, were elected by the people of their wards. The Mayor was elected by the city at large. The previous committee system was abolished and individual aldermen henceforth had no specific responsibilities.
Custodial History
For custodial history see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.