London's Bicentennial (Snippet 22)

 HELLMUTH LADIES' COLLEGE

    In the second half of the 19th century, if you asked any American what they knew about London, Ontario, the answer would likely have been, "It's the home of Hellmuth Ladies' College."  I think that is the case because any newspaper search about London in those days yields "hits" about the Hellmuth Ladies' College, the advertisements for which are ubiquitous. London for them must have been imagined as the "Athens of the North."

                                  Higher Education in London, Ontario
  Elevated above the Thames, young ladies were lured to come to the "sanitary surroundings" in the Forest City where they could study, music, dance, French and refinement. To illustrate what was advertised, here are some samples and they range from such papers as, The Salt Lake Herald, Southern Christian Advocate (Charleston) and The Portland Daily Press (the one in Maine.) These are from the 1880s and there are many more from many different newspapers.

This picture is from the 1890s. 

    The property is located on RIchmond at Windermere and is now mostly a retirement facility, but you can stay at the Guest House on the Mount if you are visiting.

 Farther up the river Thames, east on Windermere, young ladies coming to UWO could stay at Spencer Hall well into the 1960s. One of the finer dormitories found anywhere, I would think. It is now the Spencer Hotel and Conference Centre and you can stay there as well.

  Young women used to be able to come to another "ladies'' college in London which was also an attractive place, located until just a few years ago, above the corn fields across the road from UWO. It ceased to be a college for women a few years ago (see, "Bad News From Brescia.")

 

  The corn fields were removed to make room for parking and the Ivey Business School and the space at Spencer Hall on Windermere is now also associated with the Business School. Progress, I suppose.

Kitty Coleman

 Kitty Coleman Provincial Park

     Recently we spent some time in the Comox Valley area on Vancouver Island. While there, we visited both the Kitty Coleman Provincial Park and the Kitty Coleman Woodland Gardens. Although personal names appearing in place names is common in B.C. (e.g.,Vancouver), Kitty Coleman caught my eye.

      A few years ago I wrote a book and in it “Kit" Coleman is mentioned. “Kit” is the diminutive associated with Kathleen Blake Coleman who was a famous Canadian journalist and war correspondent. She is the “Kit” I found during my research and I didn’t recall her ever being referred to as “Kitty”.  Could the Kitty Coleman for whom the park is named, be simply a West Coast, laid-back reference to Kathleen “Kit" Coleman?

Kit Coleman

   The short answer is “No”.  The famous “Kit Coleman” I wrote about showed up recently on a commemorative Silver Dollar issued by the Royal Canadian Mint. (For more about that Kit Coleman and the coin see, Kathleen "Kit" Coleman.)
   Although I am reluctant to use the following word in relation to an Indigenous woman, the infamous “Kitty" Coleman shows up in the database of BC Geographical Names where this is found:
   “Kitty Coleman was an Indian woman who, 40 or 50 years ago, left her tribe to marry a white man. He was later jailed, and she lived alone on this beach selling fish and berries. The beach became known locally as Kitty Coleman's Beach, hence the park name….There are frequent references to Kitty Coleman in court documents through the 1890's and into the early 1900's; she ran a brothel (location not specified), and was frequently cited for unseemly behavior or jailed on prostitution charges. In later years, she lived near Cape Mudge.”

     I confess to being curious about “Kitty” and did a cursory search. The following article was found and it is very interesting. Since it involves Indigenous matters and “colonial” ones, which are contentious these days, I will offer no comments, other than to say that the infamous Kitty and the famous Kit both deserve more attention and research.

       THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL. TUESDAY. MAY 8, 1906, p.7

“SLAVERY AMONG INDIANS”

A Bad State of Affairs Reported in

British. Columbia.

Ottawa, May 7.--  (Special) According to a return secured by Mr. Borden, there seems to have been ample grounds for the statements which appeared In the British Columbia papers a few months ago, that Indian children were being sold into slavery in that province. The matter first came to the attention of the department through a letter from the Rev, J. B. Kindle, of Cape Mudge, B.C., who wrote to Mr. Vowell, Indian superintendent at Victoria, transmitting the complaint of an Indian named Billy Seawhit and his wife Sarah.These Indians said that Mr. South, agent of the Children's Aid Society of Vancouver, had visited the Indian village at Cape Mudge, and had taken from the Seawhits their little girl, who was known as Edith Grant. From reports it appears that she was three parts white and one part Indian. Mr. Debeck, agent for the Indian Department at Cape Mudge, when, asked for particulars of the affair, reported that the child was in the hand of a vicious Indian woman named Kitty Coleman, and that, by order of two magistrates, the child was handed over to Mr. South, to be cared for by the society

at Vancouver. Mr.Debeck says that Mr. South, is a most humane man, and

took this action after full enquiry upon the spot Then, curiously enough,

Debeck recommends the Seawhits to consult a Vancouver lawyer, with a view to compelling the Vancouver society to deliver the child up to the parents. Transmitting Mr. Debeck's report, Mr. Vowell declares that from every possible moral standpoint Mr.South took the proper course under the circumstances. He comments upon the inconsistent position of Mr. Debeck in recommending to the parents to resort to law. They did secure a hearing before two Judges to Vancouver, and after full enquiry the child was ordered to be retained by the Vancouver society. Mr. Vowell proceeds to say that girls with white skins, thick brown hair braided down their backs, and big, innocent, childish eyes, are being sold today, and have been sold for years in British Columbia to the highest bidders. He points out that many of the girls are sent into the logging camps for immoral purposes, and urges that this practice should not be allowed to continue longer. He thinks that the administration of justice department in British Columbia should take hold of the matter. 

   Agent Debeck makes a special report to the department from Alert Bay, dated October 23rd last. He says almost every Indian in that agency who Is in the potlatch is a slave dealer; fathers sell their daughters, brothers sell their sisters or cousins, and he knew of one instance where a son offered his old mother for sale as a slave. He mentions one case where a boy was taken out of the Indian school, and a young girl of 12 or  13 from the girls' school was sold to him. They lived together for a while, and then the authorities compelled both to go back to sohool again. Mr.Debeck recommends a remedy for the existing evils, first of all, the putting down of the potlach, which is really at the bottom of all the evils complained of. He says It should be done with a firm hand, not in a slipshod manner in which Justice has been administered among the Indians in the past. Secondly, he suggests a rigid enforcement of the law, especially as regards the sale of intoxicants to Indians which  is at present, he says, a disgrace to any civilised country. Third, he suggests patting a stop to the custom of buying and selling women, and,  if possible, the compelling  of the Indians to marry their women legally, and lastly, if possible, to keep out the grafters. These different communications evidently stirred up the Indian Department, as a circular letter was sent to all inspectors and agents in the western provinces, asking for information on the subject of the intermarriage between whites and Indians, a number of alliances of a temporary character, the age at which Indian children should be allowed to marry, and the extent of the custom of selling young girls into slavery.

   Again Agent Debeck is to the fore with some pretty frank advice. He says: "You may legislate for these Indians until doomsday, and they will never do any good until this curse of their whole lives, the potlatch, is completely wiped out.” Further he says "People come here in the  garb of missionaries, start a store, commence trading with the Indians, making what they can out of them, ride roughshod over the Indian Act and are then upheld by the Indian Department.  As far as the Criminal Code goes. It Is about the same. All manner of crimes ore committed among these Indians, even to murder, and it is seldom that any of them are brought to justice."

[The source is provided and should be checked. This version is a result of my cutting and pasting and may contain errors. The bolded print is not in the original and was applied by me to call attention to the 'sensational' parts.]

Place Names:

   I suppose one could ask if a place should be named for someone who exhibited "unseemly behavior", ran a brothel and is described as "vicious'. I am not one who would ask such a question and am against the scrubbing of names from maps. For a good book relating to questionable toponyms see, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame by Mark Monmonier. For a fascinating book about names on the land, read Names on the Land by George R. Stewart.
  For a discussion of those books in MM see "Names on the Land" and the post about the author, George R. Stewart. 
  For more about name changing (and name calling) in B.C., where there are some who want to sanitize the landscape and remove names that often reveal interesting stories see, "British Columbia or Saquatchia?". 
  For my typical contrarian view about name changing, see "No More Name Changing".

  The geographical puritans are also worried about names in the Southern Hemisphere. See, for example, "The Meaning of Magellan."

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 21)

 Henry Ward Beecher and London - 1881

    This preacher was one of the more popular public speakers during his time, but today people are more likely to know about his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe. I don't know if the Reverend made it to London on this occasion, or what his "confoundedly wicked" topic was on the earlier visit. Whatever the subject, it was likely well-delivered. Twain described him, "sawing his arms in the air, howling sarcasms this way and that, discharging rockets of poetry and exploding mines of eloquence, halting now and then to stamp his foot three times in succession to emphasize a point." Perhaps the problem had more to do with the erotic than the evangelical. His affair with a good friend's wife had been highly publicized.

Source: The Canton Advocate, June 2, 1881. (This Canton is the one in South Dakota, not the one south of us below Lake Erie.)

Reading For Father's Day

  Here are some suggestions for some Canadian-related nonfiction books. Given that good CANCON can be hard to find, among the dwindling number of books that are not romantasies, they may be useful. It is also the case that most books are now unreviewed, so the synopses provided will be helpful, even if they are written by those associated with the books and the prizes. That the two top books garnered a total of  $100,000 should mean that they are worth something, even if those are Canadian dollars.
   If you are looking for an escape I will say only that these works do not escape the Zeitgeist.
   If you are looking for the books in London, I note when they are found in our libraries. The London Public Library does a fine job, even though much of the acquisition budget probably has to go to the more popular works of fiction. Those in the Western Libraries perhaps have not yet had the time to order these new books, or have the funding to do so. Or, it may simply be that books are too much of a bother and that the library space is better used for other purposes. In any case, do your own searches and, of course, Amazon will probably be able to deliver the book to your door by the time I finish typing this. 

[N.B. About The Bonus at the bottom.  It is below the Sources and I have been told no one ever makes it to the "Sources." Admittedly, the bonus is often frivolous, but in this case it is about the serious issue of the potential abolition of Father's Day and even Mother's Day! Perhaps you missed the related news items, or just thought them frivolous.]

Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing 
"Rewarding the Best Political Writing"

   To learn about the Award see The Writers's Trust of Canada.

   The Wikipedia entry is also useful: Shaughnessy Cohen Prize.
 I did a post about Elizabeth Shaughnessy Cohen who was born in London and died in the House of Commons in 1998 at the age of 50. 

The Winner: 
1. Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community, Maggie Helwig. London Public Library has several, Western Libraries, not available.

"The housing crisis plaguing major urban centres has sent countless people into the streets. Encampment tells the story of how some of them found their way to the yard beside the Anglican church in Toronto’s Kensington Market where Maggie Helwig is the priest. An outspoken social justice activist, Helwig has spent the last three years getting to know the residents and battling various authorities that want to clear the yard and keep the results of the housing crisis out of sight and out of mind. The book also introduces readers to the Artist, to Jeff, and to Robin: their lives, their challenges, their humanity. It confronts society’s callousness in allowing so many to go unhoused and demands, by bringing their stories to the fore, that we begin to respond with compassion and grace."

The Finalists:

2. On OIL, Don Gillmor LPL has copies. WL n/a

"Don Gillmor worked as a roughneck on oil rigs during the seventies oil boom in Alberta. On Oil examines how the industry has changed over the decades and illustrates the ways our dependence on oil has led to regulatory capture, in Canada and elsewhere, and contributed to armed conflict and war across the world. Gillmor documents the many ways oil companies have misdirected environmental action and misinformed the public about climate concerns. He illuminates where we went wrong and how we might yet change course."

3. On the Ground: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent​. Brian Stewart

About the Book LPL has copies.  WL n/a

"Brian Stewart is a trusted voice who brought stories of the world home to Canadians for decades on CBC’s The National. He saw it all firsthand and bore the responsibility of shining a light on the most exciting and most horrifying moments of the late 20th century, including the Gulf War and the Ethiopian famine. He spoke with world leaders, armed militants, activists, aid workers, and more. Now, Stewart shares his experience of the cost, both personal and professional, of bringing truth home from around the world."

4. On Book Banning​: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy LPL has copies. Copy at FIMS at WL

"From the destruction of libraries in ancient Rome to today’s state-sponsored efforts to suppress LGBTQ2S+ literature, book bans arise from the impulse toward social control. Using a survey of legal cases, literary controversies, and philosophical arguments, Ira Wells illustrates the historical opposition to the freedom to read. He argues that today’s conservatives and progressives alike are warping children’s relationship with literature and teaching them that the solution to opposing viewpoints is outright expurgation. At a moment in which democratic institutions are buckling under the stress of polarization, On Book Banning is both rallying cry and guide to resistance for those who will always insist upon reading for themselves."

5. Women Who Woke up the Law: Inside the Cases that Changed Women’s Rights in Canada, Karin Wells, LPL has copies. WL n/a

"Karin Wells pulls readers into the lives and legal trials of a group of women integral to the advancement of women’s rights in Canada. Eliza Campbell, Chantale Daigle, Jeannette Corbiere Lavell — these Women Who Woke Up the Law often had no idea what they were facing in the courts or the price they would have to pay. Some never saw justice themselves, but they left a legal legacy. From the award-winning author of The Abortion Caravan and More Than a Footnote, Wells’ new book chronicles the bold determination of Canadian women, which she argues is something we need now more than ever to guard the hard-won gains in women’s rights. "

The Donner

  The website is here: The Donner Prize

   "The Donner Canadian Foundation, one of Canada’s largest foundations, was established in 1950 by businessman and philanthropist William H. Donner to support projects that advance the common good in Canada by encouraging private initiative, independence and individual responsibility."

The Winner:

1. Borderline Chaos: How Canada Got Immigration Right, and Then Wrong by Tony Keller (Sutherland House Books) LPL on order - not at WL

   "How did Canada turn one of its most admired policy achievements into a source of public anger and institutional damage? Tony Keller’s Borderline Chaos answers that question with precision and force. In sharp, concise prose, it traces how a once-stable, broadly trusted, rules-based immigration system, built on skilled permanent residents and disciplined selection, was overtaken by a coalition of business interests, provincial incentives, and federal political ambition. The result is incoherence, housing strain, labour-market distortion, and eroded public confidence. Jurors celebrated the book’s clarity of thesis and its insistence on evidence-based policymaking, calling it compelling and infuriating in equal measure — essential reading for any policymaker confronting the aftermath of that period.

The Runners-Up:

2. Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson (Signal) LPL has a copy. WL does not - Ibbitson is a W. grad.

   "Canada is not collapsing — but it is bending. Breaking Point makes a compelling case that the pressures accumulating around housing, productivity, regional grievance, immigration mismanagement, and generational inequality are converging in ways that threaten national cohesion. Bricker and Ibbitson’s great strength is synthesis: they pull together disparate anxieties into a single, coherent story about national fragility. Grounded in polling data, demographic trends, and economic indicators, including long-term survey data showing declining national pride, the book offers decision-makers both a lens on public mood and a strategic overview of the risks Canada faces if current trends continue. Jurors praised it as a timely and accessible contribution that translates complex policy debates in a way everyday Canadians can appreciate."

3. 21 Things You Need to Know About Indigenous Self-Government: A Conversation About Dismantling the Indian Act by Bob Joseph (Page Two) LPL - several at WL. One copy at FIMS in WL.

   "One of the central unresolved questions in Canadian public life is how to move beyond the Indian Act. Bob Joseph’s focused volume takes that question seriously and answers it with clarity, conviction, and practical grounding. Structured around 21 short chapters, it demystifies the core concepts of jurisdiction, inherent rights, fiscal arrangements, and treaty relationships, without the use of legal jargon or rhetorical excess. Drawing on real policy mechanisms and case studies such as the Nisga’a and Westbank agreements, Joseph frames self-government not as a grievance-based claim but as a governance reality already in motion. Jurors praised its plain-language accessibility as making it a uniquely effective public education tool and noted that it lays out the issues and possible solutions more clearly and accessibly than any comparable work for Canadian readers."

4.  A New Blueprint for Government: Reshaping Power, The PMO, and the Public Service by Kevin G. Lynch and James R. Mitchell (University of Regina Press)

LPL n/a  WL n/a

   "Canada’s policy underperformance is not simply a matter of ideology or bad luck, rather it is a structural problem, rooted in how the federal government is designed, managed, and held to account. Drawing on decades of senior public service experience, Lynch and Mitchell make a rigorous, evidence-based case that power has drifted dangerously from Cabinet to the PMO, that ministerial accountability has eroded, and that bureaucratic risk aversion has hollowed out execution capacity. In under 200 pages, they connect governance architecture to tangible failures — procurement delays, productivity stagnation, service breakdowns — and propose concrete reforms. Jurors described it as an elegantly argued agenda for change and the most focused, actionable detailing of possible Canada-focused policy reforms to emerge in recent years."

5. The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity by Tim Wu (Alfred A. Knopf) LPL has copies, none at WL.

   "The promise of the digital economy was transformative — open, democratic, and generative of shared prosperity. Tim Wu’s The Age of Extraction is a bracing account of how that promise curdled. Drawing on a historically informed arc from oil trusts and railroad monopolies to Google, Amazon, and Meta, Wu argues that dominant platforms have stopped enabling markets and started extracting from them, harvesting data, imposing fees, manipulating algorithms, and eliminating competition. His central concept of “extraction” gives policymakers a disciplined framework for understanding digital concentration not as a technology story but as a story about power. Jurors found the book timely, intellectually rigorous, accessible, and strategically important. While its policy prescriptions are anchored in the U.S. context, its framework speaks directly to the platform challenges facing Canadian competition policy, digital regulation, and the future of work."

Sources:
   One will find articles when the winner of the prize is announced. 
   For example for the Cohen prize:

"Maggie Helwig’s Encampment Wins 2026 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing," Ian Bailey, G&M, April 29, 2026.

"Helwig’s win was announced Wednesday night at a gala in Ottawa, and the honour comes with a $40,000 prize. Meanwhile, four shortlisted finalists will each receive $5,000.
   For the Donner:

"Donner Prize Nominees Break Down Their Big Ideas, from AI to Immigration,

Brad Wheeler, G&M, May 13, 2026.

“On May 14, the annual $60,000 Donner Prize for the best public policy book by a    "Canadian will be awarded at a gala dinner in Toronto. The shortlisted authors, including Globe and Mail columnists John Ibbitson and Tony Keller, were asked to identify a misunderstood issue or misguided policy related to their books and explain the importance of getting it right.”

The Bonus: 
   The good news, such as it is, is that you should be able to celebrate Father's Day, which was under threat of being cancelled in some parts of Canada. For that matter, so was Mother's Day since, I guess, many children do not have regular moms and dads. One related headline, for example is: "Canadian Schools Ditch Mother's and Father's Day Celebrations in the Name of Diversity." But recently it appears there have been second thoughts: "Manitoba School Scraps Plan to Move Away From Mother's Day, Father's Day Celebrations." 
   There should be room for all, in that there are days, weeks, months and even years dedicated to just about any entity you can think of. June 8 was "National Best Friends Day" and on the second Sunday in August there is "Gay Uncle Day." Even the lonely have a week - "Loneliness Awareness Week" and in China, the horse has a whole year. Hallmark, at least, has reason to celebrate all of the time.

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 20)

 London Flog

Source:
  This item is found in The Sun, (New York, NY), Sept. 7, 1879. It is among the general news items with no title. Justice was a little rougher in London in olden times. That was still true in 1924, when two men were hanged in London on the same day. See, Snippet 13. 

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 19)

 A Scandalous Affair?

Source: Cincinnati Daily Star, Oct 11, 1879.
 One wonders what damage was done to Miss Woodman and if she could have been from Goderich, since errors often occur along with digitization. Although papers "borrowed" frequently from other papers and this piece was syndicated, I found no other examples. More can probably be found on microform or up in the London Room at the London Public Library.

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 18)

  I searched for additional stories related to this one and found none. Although it is rather vague, one would think that such a large number ($$$) would have attracted a lot of attention and more articles. My search strategy may have been faulty and a local historian may be able to find additional details, or already know them.

 This is found in The Milan Exchange, Oct. 16, 1879. The Milan Exchange was published in the Milan in Tennessee, not the one in Italy. It is in Western Tennessee and is pronounced, "MY-lunn", as you would have expected.