Gerry Beaubier was born in Wainwright, Alberta to Beatty and Babe Beaubier. He completed his high school in Saskatoon, before receiving a BSc in Geography from Brandon University.
Before attending university Gerry served in the army as a special reserve, while working as a night clerk at the Bessbourough Hotel in Saskatoon. His post-graduate career consisted primarily of work for Canada Agriculture, under the PFRA Branch (Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration). Later he would work as an Executive Manager, helping develop forage and range management programs for several post secondary schools, including, Assiniboine Community College, as well as schools in Red Deer, Lethbridge, and Saskatoon.
Gerry Beaubier married Joyce Abercrombie, of Saskatoon. Together they had two sons: Neil and Dean. Neil, an Account Advisor for the Royal Bank, was born in Regina, and currently works in Swift Current. Dean was born in Swift Current, received his PhD in Education and currently lives in Forrest working at Elton Collegiate.
The Beaubiers, who were originally from Ireland, emigrated to the Canadian West, making Gerry part of the fourth generation of his family to call the region home. His great-grandfather, along with his grandfather and great uncle were amongst the first one hundred settlers in Brandon. Together they first built the Beaubier House, a boarding house for early settlers and travellers. After it burnt down they began construction on the Beaubier Hotel, which stood at the corner of 8th Street and Princess Avenue in Brandon until August 17th, 2008. His grandfather, David Wilson Beaubier, continued to build and operate hotels throughout the prairies, including the Empire Hotels (of Brandon and Saskatoon) and The Park (Moose Jaw).
David Wilson Beaubier served as a secretary of the Orange Lodge of Manitoba. As an Orange Lodge Colonel, he worked with other Orange Lodge members, to recruit throughout the prairies for the purpose of World War One. For his efforts , David was promoted to Leftenant Colonel, and later Captain of the 99th Manitoba Rangers. David's sons (Gerry’s father, at University of Manitoba, and uncle at McGill), were both working towards undergraduate degrees when war broke out in 1914, and each would leave school to join their father at Camp Hughes.
Custodial History
Gerry Beaubier collected these photos primarily in the years 2000-2011, largely
from family and friends who knew of his interest in the topic. They were donated to the S.J. Mckee Archives in 2011.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of digital photographs of those who trained for battle in World War I at Camp Hughes and in Brandon, Manitoba. It also includes a digital copy of the cover of the Nominal Roll of Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Men, who departed from Brandon in 1917.
The photos, taken primarily at Camp Hughes, are of a number of battalions, including the 34th, 100th, 108th, 181st and 214th. The photo, PT in England, is a postcard sent home from Beaty Beaubier. The Massey Harris building seen on the right side of, WW1 B parade0001, was used to house troops throughout the war. The man standing alone at the front of the parade in, 181 Parade, is David Wilson Beaubier.
Notes
Information for the biographical and custodial histories was provided by Gerry Beaubier on September 25, 2013. Description by Dustin Lane (October 2013).
Oriole A. Vane Veldhuis is the great-granddaughter of Percy Criddle and Elise Harrer Vane. She grew up on a farm in southwest Manitoba and received an education at Stockton school, Brandon College and Central Normal School in Winnipeg. Veldhuis balanced teaching at schools in Manitoba, Newfoundland and Ontario, with studying at MacDonal Institute in Guelph, ON and at the Centre for Christian Studies in Toronoto for Diaconal ministry. Alongside her husband Art, Veldhuis served in United Church congregations in God's Lake Narrows, Holland and Winnipeg, MB, as well as Elmira, ON. Oriole and Art had four children together, whom they raised while she was working part-time and studying to recieve her Bachelor in Education, Post Baccalaureate in Education and Master of Divinity.
Once retired from her teaching and ministry duties, Veldhuis shifted her focus to maintaining a promise to her father that she would try to uncover the mystery of his grandmother. Veldhuis self-published her discoveries regarding the secret life of Elise Vane and Percy Criddle in her book, For Elise: Unveiling the Forgotten Woman on the Criddle Homestead.
Veldhuis was awarded the Margaret McWilliams Award by the Manitoba Historical Society for best local history book in 2012. In 2016, her book was a finalist for the Whistler Independent Bood Award in the non-fiction category. Three editions of the book have been published (2012, 2013 and 2014), as well as ebook and audio book versions.
Custodial History
Records were collected and created by Oriole Vane Veldhuis during the research, writing and promotion of her book, For Elise: Unveiling the Forgotten Woman on the Criddle Homestead. They were donated to the McKee Archives in two accessions between 2014-2015.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of the research materials that Veldhuis compiled between 2001-2012, in the writing of her book, as well as materials created and collected during the promotion of the book. The records deal with the relationships between different members of the Criddle/Vane family after they had immigrated to Canada and were living at their southwestern Manitoba homestead. The correspondence between Edwy Vane and his fiancee, Emily Steers, provides insight into the relationships between Percy and his illegitimate children. The records containing Elise Vane's homestead material shows Percy's loyalty to his agreement with Elise to provide for their children in his fight to ensure the government's approval of her homestead.
Collection consist of records - diaries, letters, homestead applications and files, and receipts, as well as addressed envelopes and postmarks - related to the Criddle and Vane families. Some of these documents are copies from materials held in the Archives of Manitoba, while others are copies of family records transcribed by Verna Vane Pannycook in 1976, and later given to Veldhuis. Other records were obtained from a private source and prepared by Oriole Vane Veldhuis.
The collection also includes two booklets containing Veldhuis's original and continued research. The first booklet outlines Veldhuis's motivation for beginning research on her great-grandmother's past, information on Elise that she received from relatives in Europe, and an account of Elise and Percy's years together before immigrating to Canada. The second booklet contains documentation of Veldhuis's travels in 2004 to Germany in search of further information on her German ancestors, as well as a general account of Heidelberg's history, and family trees for both the Veldhuis and Harrer families.
The collection also contains an article promoting For Elise in an issue of the Winnipeg Free Press (August 9, 2014), as well as two book reviews by Lois M. Wilson and Greg Pohl, an article regarding the Criddle Homestead by Neil Holiday, an interpretive trail brochure from the Criddle/Vane Homestead Heritage Committee, and a copy of For Elise (2nd edition).
Finally, the collection includes a DVD containing digital copies of Percy Criddle's diary from 1882-1918. The DVD contains 38 Word documents (one document for the London diary years [1876-1882] and one document per diary year for 1882-1918). It aolso contains the same diary entries broken down into three PDF documents: 1882-1890, 1891-1903 and 1904-1918. The original London diaries were transcribed by typewriter by Alma Criddle and converted into computer file by Myrna Paquette.
Notes
History/Bio information was taken from the records. The copies of Percy Criddle's diaries in the collection contain minor changes from Percy's original hand-written diaries housed in the Archives of Manitoba. The copies of Elise Vane's Homeseated files were obtained from the Archives of Manitoba and copied in the 1970s before they were converted to microfiche. Description by Caroline Stitt (October 2016)
Marion (Marionne) Louise Scott was born January 13, 1913 at Ste. S, Parkview Block, Brandon, MB to Annie Louisa Lawson and David Henry (Harry) Scott. She attended St. Michael's Academy and Brandon College (Arts, Class of 1933), graduating with a teching certificate. At some point following her graduation she moved to Toronto, living with her Aunt and Uncle Olive and Keith Murphy, while working for Massey Harris. Eventually Marionne became Private Secretary to the president James Duncan. She also worked with E.P. Taylor and Colonel Phillips during her duration with the company.
Marionne met her husband Robert (Roy) Warden Jamieson through friends at the Parkdale Canoe Club, which is now the Boulevard Club on Lakeshore Avenue in Toronto. They were married on December 26, 1944. Following their retirement, Marionne and Roy spent their winters in Florida.
Marionne Scott Jamieson died on July 20, 1990 in Mississauga Ontario. Both she and her husband are buried in Park Lawn Cemetery at Bloor Street and Prince Edward Drive in west Toronto.
A number of the individuals identified in the photographs are members of Marionne's extended family or friends. Basic biographical information for both side of her family are below. Additional biographical information on the Lawson and Scott families is available at the McKee Archives.
Maternal relatives:
William Lawson was born c. 1849 in Markham Township, Ontario where his parents had settled from England. In September 1875 he married Alice Brunskill (born c. 1854) in Buttonville, Ontario. The couple settled on a farm at Aurora, Ontario before come west in 1892. Lawson and his family settled in the Hayfield district south of Brandon where he farmed until c. 1916. During his farming years, Lawson made a number of trips to Scotland and Ireland for the Manitoba government to secure immigrants. After retiring from farming, Lawson became an agent for the Manufaturers' Life Insurance Company. Lawson's brother, Reverend Thomas Lawson, organized the first Methodist congregation in Brandon.
William Lawson and Alice Brunskill had seven children:
William Ernest (married Maragret Louise Conling 23/11/1904 in Souris, MB)
Clarkson Brunskill (married Florence?)
Annie Louisa (married David Henry (Harry) Scott 29/06/1910 in Brandon, MB)
Alice May (married Arthur Ferrier Valens 27/06/1912 in Winnipeg, MB)
Fred J. (married Lottie C. Gibb 18/04/1906 in Selkirk, MB)
Frank Hill (married Cora Ethel Cunningham 11/03/1914 in Oakland)
Olive Gertrude (married William Keith Murphy 25/12/1923 in Brandon, MB)
Paternal relatives:
David Hunter Scott was born in 1851 in Brampton, Ontario. After completing his education he became a telegraph operator and then deputy postmaster for his hometown. In 1873, he moved to Manitoba, settling at Meadow Lea, where he took up a homestead. After fifteen years engaged in farming, Scott moved on to become a representitve for an implement manufacturing company. In 1892, he moved to Brandon to become manager of the Brandon Times newspaper. Four years later he founded D.H. Scott and Son, a real estate and insurance business he operated with his son David Henry until his death in September 1943.
David Hunter Scott married Anne Jane Lipsett (born 1854) of Meadow Lea, MB on May 24, 1876. Together they had ten children:
John Frederick
Robert Wesley
David Henry (Harry) (married Annie Louise Lawson 26/06/1910 in Brandon, MB)
William James
Caroline (married Christopher Russell Heise)
Annie Louise (married Alexander Ferguson (died 1927), married Nettleton Whitby Kerr)
Mary Emaline (married David Gordon Bawtinheimer)
Lillian Georgina (died August 9, 1931)
Josiah Aikens (died during World War I)
Reginald Jacob (married Norma May Hughes 16/08/1915 (Reginald died during World War I))
Custodial History
The photograph album and graduate's book were sent to Alumni Relations by Ruth L. Murphy on March 31, 2004. Both items had been in the possession of Marionne Scott, passing to her husband Robert Jamieson upon her death. When Jamieson died the items came into the possession of Ruth Murphy, whose husband was Marionne's first cousin. Carla Eisler, Alumni Relations, transfered the photograph album to the Archives on January 15, 2008, and the graduate book on January 8, 2009.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of a photograph album created by Marionne Scott. The majority of the photographs cover the period 1926-1933, and are of family members, friends, and classmates at both St. Michael's Academy and Brandon College. They were taken in Brandon and at a number of other locations that Marionne visited. There are three loose photographs, taken by R.M. Coleman, that were taken at the wedding of Vivian Eva? and Reginald Stanley Stark, June 7th, 1941 at St. Matthews Cathedral and the Prince Edward Hotel.
The graduate's book consists of notes, signatures, newsclippings, photographs, programs, convocation documents, graduation cards, reunion descriptions and the 1932 general information booklet for Brandon College.
Notes
History/Bio information taken from the Brandon Daily Sun, the 1901 and 1911 Canadian Census, the Manitoba Vital Statistics website, and the Brandon Cemetery website. Additional biographical information provided by Ruth Murphy. Description by Christy Henry.
