For many of us in Canada and around the world, this holiday season will look a little different from past years. As we prepare to celebrate apart from our loved ones and many of our traditions are put on hold, we look forward to Christmases in the future where we can again gather safely.
Many of the early Quakers in Canada also faced challenging Christmas seasons. Bad weather, illness, and long distances kept families and friends apart. A glimpse into some of these challenges can be found in the letters and diaries of Deborah Mullet (1804 – 1892). Deborah emigrated from England to Canada in 1821 with her family when she was seventeen years old. Her family settled first in Adolphustown and later Amherst Island. In her article on the Mullet family and the Quaker Atlantic, Robynne Rogers Healey discusses Deborah’s initial struggles to adjust to her new life in Upper Canada and her desire to return home.[1] After four years of living in Canada, Deborah wrote to her grandmother in Bristol about their Christmas. The Mullett family had hosted two young men from Ireland at their table and Deborah stated they enjoyed “two of the fattest geese I have ever seen and a fine large piece of roast beef.”[2] While Deborah wrote to her grandmother that she was thankful for the health of her family that winter, she spoke of how she missed the society she used to keep and their former meeting in Bristol.
Deborah eventually settled into life in Canada. Her first marriage to Consider Haight gave the couple six children before his death in 1838. Twelve years later, Deborah married Vincent Bowerman at the age of forty-eight. Both Vincent and Deborah were active members of the West Lake Preparative Meeting (Orthodox). Deborah continued to write throughout her life. Though her diary entries are considerably shorter than her letters, they offer important details about her life. Christmas in 1875 brought “thunder and lightening with rain, no sleighing,” though Deborah writes her grandchildren were delighted with their presents.[3] Three years later, she recorded the weather on Christmas day as stormy, with the surrounding roads blocked due to the storm. Christmas 1888 was a quiet affair. At the age of eighty-four, Deborah wrote that her and her daughter Lydia spent the day alone, writing: “not a very pleasant day, hope it may be better next time.” However, her and Lydia did enjoy a large goose for dinner, and days later received cards from her family in England. Though it was a solitary affair, Deborah made note of both life’s misfortunes but also of life’s little joys.
In a year filled with uncertainty, may we find joy in better days ahead. In light of a busy (and mostly online) end of year, Robynne and I will be taking a short break from the blog this December, but we look forward to coming back in the new year. We wish you a safe and peaceful holiday season. May the roads be clear and the weather bright!
[1] Robynne Rogers Healey, “ ‘I am Getting a Considerable of a Canadian they Tell Me’: Connected Understandings in the Nineteenth-Century Quaker Atlantic,” Quaker Studies 15 (2011): 233.
[2] This quote comes from Deborah Mullet’s letter to her grandmother on 21 January 1825, the sixth letter in the “William Mullet Family Letters, Canada-England, 1821-1830,” transcribed by Thomas Sylvester and available in the Canadian Quaker History Journal 63 (1998): 27-40.
[3] Deborah Mullet’s diaries (#1, 1874 – 1882; #2, 1887 – 1892) are at the Prince Edward County Archives. They were transcribed by Lydia Wytenbroek in 2008 and are available on Randy Saylor’s website.
In this month’s Founders and Builders Series, we introduce you to Peter Brock, a gracious supporter of the CFHA and later honorary chairman. His legacy is remembered here by Jane Zavitz-Bond.
Peter Brock: World Peace Historian
1920-2006
By Jane Zavitz-Bond
Peter de Beauvoir Brock spent his life in the study, writing and teaching of the history of peace in the world. All his endeavours were interlinked as all aspects of peace, his focus and goal, are tied to one another. Peter understood that education was key to gaining an understanding of the past and bringing peace in the future.
Peter Brock
Peter Brock’s life began 30 January 1920 on the Channel Isle of Guernsey, where he lived until entering Exeter College at Oxford. His family had a long military tradition, including Sir Isaac Brock. Always finding his individual way, as a child he was not militarily minded. Perhaps awareness of World War I and its aftermath as he grew up led Peter to be a conscientious objector in World War II. He was in prison at Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs until released for alternative service in hospitals where he met Quaker pacifism with its links to social justice.
As a natural step after the war, Peter joined the Society of Friends Anglo-American Relief Mission in Poland, supported by UNRRA, where the need was great. He became the young head of the transport team with the office in Warsaw. Knowing the language was essential, he began his lifelong pursuit of Eastern European languages to permit fuller understanding of their history and current role as he wrote and taught. He earned two doctoral degrees, one from Oxford, and one from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, merely the beginning of his carefully researched works covering the beginning to current times in Eastern Europe, and then the world’s peace history for the rest of his productive life. He never ceased learning the language of the area studied.
Although Peter did not join the Society of Friends, he kept his connection to Quakerism. Following his marriage to Carman Williamson in 1958, a Friend from Jamaica, the ties were even stronger. After his 1966 appointment to the Department of History at the University of Toronto, their home was always a welcoming place for f/Friends, refugees, and, of course, students. Sharing over a cup of tea quietly passed the spirit of peace in their daily lives over to those who entered the home. Living their faith made the message of peace authentic.
Peter Brock’s role in the Canadian Friends Historical Association began in 1978 after the passing of Arthur G. Dorland, the original honorary chairman of CFHA. Peter was then invited to accept that role. It was proper recognition for him and right for CFHA as the Peace Testimony is a fundamental block of the association’s mission for both research and outreach. Peter Brock remained quietly supportive for the rest of his life. We were honoured by his generosity.
Peter Brock did not write articles for the Journal, but his books related to peace history were reported in the CFHA Newsletter and the Canadian Quaker History Journal. As the foremost scholar on pacifism, his many books and articles focused on social justice work and fighting oppression. The Brock works continue to assist researchers and provide a valuable resource in the Arthur G. Dorland Friends Historical Research Collection. The bibliography by John Stanley lists the books, essays and articles: “Scholarly Publications by Peter de Beauvoir Brock,” revised in 2006, required twenty nine pages to record.[1] The appointments and honours Professor Peter Brock received always enhanced CFHA’s standing among historical societies by association with the esteemed scholar.
There are a number of books in the Dorland Library Collection which Peter donated after using them for his research. Special treasures are Besse’s Sufferings, in two volumes, rebound in the leather style of the era, which recount the suffering of Friends by imprisonment and confiscation of property for refusal to obey laws they believed were not enacted in the Light of Truth. When required for later research Peter would request books via interlibrary loan. He gave the CYM Archives letters he had written to his mother, a personal insight to his life, always written with care.
He also gave the CYM Archives copies of letters from Peggy Robbins Harrison, an American AFSC Polish Team worker who married and lived in Alberta. Paul Zavitz’s letters also tell of events with the Polish team. They called Peter ‘the student prince,’ aware of his bent, before his future as a scholar could be known. The study of languages was a tool. He began as a young student of Latin and Greek, and continued with the fifteen languages he learned in order to research fully. At the end of his life he was studying Japanese and Hindi.
Peter’s contributions to CFHA were supportive. Quietly done, and simply there; he was present for us. We benefitted from his publications which helped open the field of the history of pacifism. Peter Stanley wrote in his account of Peter Brock’s life, “Scholarship in Action, ” that “his contributions have proven useful to scholars in many countries, drawing attention to figures, movements, events, and even whole people’s that might have been ignored. His lack of prejudice but also sympathy for his subjects was a model to scholars and students.” His hundreds of articles and books reflect a great diversity of interests, “but as a group they reflect a central concern of Prof. Brock: a struggle against injustice and oppression…This concern for justice unified his scholarship as it did his life.”[2] His histories of southeastern Europe are studied after the Yugoslavian break-up and terrible war.
We all are indebted to Peter Brock for his studies in history and the spirit in which he undertook them. May we continue to follow both his methods and spirit.
[1] John Stanley, “Peter de Beauvoir Brock: Scholarship in Action,” The Canadian Quaker History Journal 72 (2007): 3-10. This article by a former student and colleague presents a valuable account of Peter Brock’s life and work.
[2] John Stanley, Scholarly Publications by Peter de Beauvoir Brock, rev. ed., (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006). The preface reads: The listing for the period from 1951 to 1989 appeared earlier in “Essays in Honour of Peter Brock”, edited by John Stanley, Canadian Slavonic Papers, XXXI, no.2, 211-20. The Pacifist Impulse in Historical Perspective, a volume of essays in honour of Peter Brock for his seventy-fifth birthday on 30 January 1995, edited by Harvey L. Dyck. (University of Toronto Press, 1996), also included a bibliography of “Books and Articles on Peace History by Peter Brock (425-428). The present bibliography reflects virtually the whole of Peter Brock’s scholarly endeavours, which began early in 1949 when he started work on his Ph. D. at the Jagiellonian University of Crocow. An earlier edition of the bibliography appeared in the middle of 1999.
November 11 in Canada and other nations of the British Commonwealth is Remembrance Day. This is a day set aside to remember and honour military service people who have lost their lives in war, especially the First and Second World Wars. Many wear a red poppy as a sign of remembrance. An effort initially spearheaded by the Peace Pledge Union in Britain, and now seen in Canada, is the tradition of wearing a white poppy, or a peace poppy, to honour all lives lost to war. This includes civilians as well as soldiers. Those who favour white poppies are not trying to detract from the sacrifice of soldiers. Rather, those who wear white poppies recognize the horror of war but remain committed to non-violence and peace in the effort to create a more just world. White poppies can be worn alone, or alongside a red poppy.
Historically, Quakers have been advocates of peace and pacifism in some way since the earliest years of Quakerism. As appealing as it may be today to support the idea that Quakers have always been committed pacifists, it is incorrect. Scholarship has shown us that Quakers have willingly enlisted for armed service in many wars. Scholarship has shown us that Quakers have resisted armed service in many wars. Scholarship has shown us that Quakers have been at the centre of alternative service opportunities in many wars. What scholarship has shown us is that Quaker pacifism has been complex. Next week in our “Founders and Builders” series, we will be highlighting Canadian Quaker, Peter Brock. Throughout his productive career, Brock played a significant role in our current understanding of Quakers’ engagement with pacifism, as is evident in this extended extract from a recent historiographical essay.
It is not an exaggeration to say that no single historian has contributed as much to the study of pacifism, including pacifism in the Religious Society of Friends, as Peter Brock. In fact, in a 1996 festschrift to honour Brock’s contributions, The Pacifist Impulse in Historical Perspective (1996), political scientist Martin Ceadel asserts that “no ideology owes more to one academic than pacifism owes to Peter Brock” (17). As an historian of two fields—Eastern Europe and pacifism—he produced sixteen books, at least fifty major articles, and several edited collections. At least half of his books are on pacifism. While he had been raised in the Church of England, Brock was a conscientious objector during World War Two. He was jailed for a short time and then performed alternative service for the balance of the war. He became a Quaker, but his studies of pacifism almost consistently integrated Quakers into the larger fabric of pacifist ideas and practice over long, sweeping periods of time in various contexts. His first major work, Pacifism in the United States: From the Colonial Era to the First World War, was published in 1968. It was the first installment of Brock’s extensive trilogy survey of pacifism. At over one thousand pages, it is a substantial book! It was published at a time when there was great interest in pacifism and antiwar topics, especially on college campuses. Princeton University Press recognized an opportunity and extracted more manageable sections from Pacifism in the United States, releasing them as Radical Pacifists in Antebellum America (1968) and Pioneers of the Peaceable Kingdom (1970). The second two installments of the trilogy on pacifism were published at two-year intervals, Twentieth-Century Pacifism in 1970, and Pacifism in Europe to 1914 in 1972. Each of these works integrates Quakers with other pacifist religious traditions. In his retirement in the 1990s Brock returned to publications on pacifism, releasing a second trilogy in the early 1990s. The second book in that trilogy focusses specifically on the Quaker peace testimony from 1660 to 1914 (1990). Quakers are touched on in Brock’s general survey Varieties of Pacifism (1998), and feature in three of his collections. Challenge to Mars, edited with Thomas Socknat (1999) is a sizeable compendium focussed on pacifism; a number of the essays are written by Brock, with individual essays contributed by other peace historians. In Liberty and Conscience (2002), Brock offers an edited collection of documents on conscientious objection in the United States. Finally, Against the Draft (2006), published the year of Brock’s death, offers a collection of twenty-five of Brock’s essays analyzing conscientious objection as an expression of pacifism. While Brock’s considerable scholarship on pacifism was not all directly about Quakers, one of its strengths is the way he integrated Quaker history into larger historical narratives.[1]
As we consider the impact of war today, and the possibility of non-violent efforts to create change, we are offering a book giveaway for Be Not Afraid: The Polish (R)evolution, “Solidarity” (Ottawa: Borealis Press, 2011). This book, by Canadian author Heather Kirk examines Solidarnosc and gives readers insights into the non-violent resistance movement that contributed significantly to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
To be entered into the draw for this book, please comment and share your thoughts on the work of non-violence.
[1] Healey, “Diversity and Complexity in Quaker History,” in C. Wess Daniels, Robynne Rogers Healey, and Jon Kershner, Quaker Studies: An Overview, The Current State of the Field (Leiden: Brill, 2018): 32–33.
This guest post was graciously contributed by Dave Zavitz.
A photo of the Marsh Store, courtesy of the current Marsh Store
For generations the Marsh Store site has been the nucleus of activity in the Coldstream area. Its history began when John Moor Marsh and his wife, Sarah Zavitz, purchased the land in 1839 with encouragement from his brother-in-law Benjamin Cutler. Benjamin had already built a house and mill on the adjoining lot to the east.
After purchasing the property, John and Sarah built a home identical to a house plan they saw in London, and went on to have seven children together. John expanded his holdings by building a grist and sawmill on the river and a furniture factory on a stream on the north side of the river.
Their son, Jacob, married Louisa Wood who with her mother ran a store in their house on the corner of the Ilderton Road and Coldstream Side-road. When his father died in 1868, Jacob inherited the property and decided to expand. He moved the two-storey house and his family to the current site and built a two-storey store attached to it. He and Louisa had eight children. He continued to run the grist and sawmills as well as the new store. In 1890, he built a woollen factory behind the store which for a time ran twenty-four hours a day. Louisa provided meals at midnight for the night shift. Sadly, the mill burned down in the early 1900s.
The store quickly became a busy place. It housed the mercantile business, with the first telegraph in 1873. In 1882, the Lobo Mutual Insurance Company was housed here and later Jacob became president. The Lobo Mechanics Institute opened in 1890 in the back room and stayed there until it was moved to the Community Centre in the 1960s. Jacob ran the Post Office from the store. Jacob began the first telephone system which became the Coldstream Telephone Company in 1908. In 1921, Alex McKenzie moved it across the road. His son George later moved it to Poplar Hill where it was eventually taken over by Bell Canada.
Community activities, such as the lecture club and Olio society, often met in the upper rooms of the store. Upon Jacob’s death in 1927, son Roy and his wife Hope Nicholson took over and managed it until his death in 1955. Their son, Glenn, ran the store for a short time but due to poor profits it was finally closed. Hope ran the library once a week where you could come and check out reading materials. It was a much anticipated visit for locals each week.
In 1967 the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority purchased the land behind the store and along the river for a Conservation Area. The Authority rebuilt the dam to create a lake like the original mill pond. In 1977, they purchased the store, tore off the old tin shed roof that had replaced the original balconies and returned the exterior to its original glory. This building, later sold, was used as several businesses and today is a quilt store.
This site’s history was crucial to the development of the community. Many of the records of the store’s past are stored at the Middlesex Centre Archives where visitors may do research to gain an in-depth perspective on life and times in Coldstream.
This month’s update is contributed by Donna Moore on behalf of Gord Thompson and Jeff Dudiak.
AGM, Sept. 26, 2020
It is just a little over a month since our AGM, and it is good to reflect on the highlights. Holding the meeting via Zoom allowed for more attendees from a distance to participate, and it was very helpful to have this wider group review and discuss our activities. There was lots of interest in our keynote speakers, Ben Pink Dandelion and Stephen Angell, with good reason. They were able to share details about Quaker scholarship that was informative for all.One question they addressed was “What holds Quakers together given the diversity of belief?”You can listen to their answer to this and the full presentation at:https://cfha.info/2020/10/recording-of-agm-available/
Support for the Association’s many activities was shared by those in attendance. Of note is that those who have a project or research interest within our scope may apply for funding through the Founders Fund. Our revamped website and the activity on our blog are major initiatives that continue to gain attention. Also of note is the adoption of a customer relations management system, “CiviCRM.” This system helps with managing our membership records as well as providing functions for members such as online membership renewal. Appreciation was shared for the many individuals involved in these activities.
Friendly Fridays
Launched on Oct. 2 via Zoom, Friendly Fridays have connected several who wish to learn and discuss George Fox’s journal. Participants have very much appreciated being able to spend time on this document foundational to the Quaker experience.
You may be aware that a few years ago the Records committee made an agreement with Ancestry.com to make available the microfilm of Canadian meeting books, registers, and other records that were microfilmed in 1974. A full list of these holdings was published in Newsletter #13 in 1975 and is available as a pdf on the CFHA website.
Of course, Ancestry requires one to have a paid-up membership account and that prevents many people from accessing these microfilms. In Toronto, the Public Library has for many years given access to Ancestry’s Library Edition to library card holders but only on computers at the library. However, during this Covid period access is available for free at home to library card holders. Simply log into your account, click on “ebooks & online content” and within “A-Z list of databases” select “Ancestry Library Edition.” It may be that other libraries are offering this service during Covid.
A screenshot of the West Lake Monthly Meeting Register, 1820 – 1882, taken from Ancestry.ca
Card holders will be taken to Ancestry and under “Search” select “Card Catalogue.” There are two search boxes titled “Title” and “Keywords”. Entering the word “Quaker” in the Title box only yields 14 titles so use the Keyword box where 36 titles will be shown. Entering Society of Friends yields 7 hits.
The Canadian films are titled “Canada, Quaker Meeting Records, 1786-1988.” Selecting this will present a search screen for the films under that title.
At this point the researcher can make use of the nominal index that Ancestry made for all the Quaker films. This index is limited to forenames and surnames and not locations. For example, I entered Robert Saylor, a known ancestral Quaker to me, and it resulted in 133 hits in various films within the Canada holding. In one click the researcher is taken directly to the actual image of the page.
Within the Canada search page one can also choose a province, a meeting and then an actual book or register to browse the images. Once you are within the actual microfilm the index is not available for searching. The index is only available on the screen associated with the major title for that group of books. Do not overlook the group “Various” when selecting a Province as this has a number of Yearly Meeting books.
Two other titles of the 36 available are of major interest. “U.S. and Canada, Quaker Yearly Meeting Annual Reports, 1808-1930” and “U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935.”
The US holding is quite massive with a number of Yearly Meeting holdings available including Philadelphia. Notably absent are New York Yearly Meeting books which will soon be available on Find My Past, a competitor to Ancestry.
The transcriptions available on CFHA include most of the early Canadian minute books and registers up to about 1860. They are much easier to read that the microfilm images and the full text can be easily searched. Also available on CFHA are transcriptions of some early NYYM books for Nine Partners and Ferrisburg MM’s. Currently we are working on Muncy MM which is under Philadelphia YM.
Hopefully this is helpful to those interested and it would be useful to know if other Libraries are offering this access at home during the Covid period.
Coldstream Meeting House in the fall. Photos by Donna Moore.
Peaceful. If I had one word to describe the setting of the Coldstream Meeting House, it would be peaceful. Coldstream is a small village about twenty-five minutes west of London. The Meeting House, on Quaker Lane, is beside a conservation area and the Quaker burying ground. The setting is very picturesque.
On a table inside the meetinghouse, you’ll find a flyer about Quakers and the Coldstream Meeting specifically. It tells the reader that the first settlers, John Harris, Benjamin Cutler, John Marsh, and Daniel Zavitz, hosted Meetings at their homes until 1850. At this time, land was donated on which a burying ground was established and a frame building erected to serve as a Meeting House. By 1859, this frame building was inadequate to accommodate the growing families and it was replaced by the present brick building. The building was well constructed and has been lovingly maintained.
More history about the Coldstream Meeting can be found in several places. If you look up the minute book transcriptions on our own CFHA website (https://cfha.info/LoboH-3-1.pdf), you will find this historical overview:
“The township was settled around 1834 in part by Quakers from the Pelham area and directly from Pennsylvania. In 1849 the growing Quaker community was granted indulged status by Norwich Monthly Meeting. In 1857 the meeting became a Preparative Meeting under Norwich Monthly Meeting and this minute book starts at that time. Arthur Dorland in his A History of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Canada, 1927 & 1968, states that Lobo Meeting became one of the most progressive centres of the Hicksite Branch of Friends in Canada [172]. In 1893, since Lobo was the most active meeting within the Monthly Meeting it was decided that the name of Norwich Monthly Meeting should be changed to Lobo Monthly Meeting [Dorland, 172]. According to Jane Zavitz Bond, in the 1980’s Lobo Monthly Meeting became Coldstream Monthly Meeting and Yarmouth was set off as Yarmouth Monthly Meeting at Sparta.”
Dorland describes the early beginnings: “The first settlers in Lobo Township literally had to hew their homes out of the forest, as this district was extremely heavily wooded. Daniel Zavitz, for example, who came to Lobo in 1843, purchased one hundred acres of land at four dollars an acre on which not a tree had been cut. During the first year he managed to clear seven acres, which he sowed with wheat, only to have his promised crop caught by the late frost and ruined.”
Dorland references an essay written by Edgar M. Zavitz, the son of Daniel Zavitz mentioned above: “The Society of Friends in Lobo Township” which can be found online at: https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.84652/1?r=0&s=1
It includes more about his father’s experience settling the land, and also a recounting of how Daniel “went back (to New York) to get a companion.” Edgar also discusses such topics as temperance and the relationship with the local First Nations. It is so clear that Edgar had a deep appreciation for the Quaker legacy in the Lobo/Coldstream area.
I hope I’ve given you an introduction to the Coldstream Meeting. In a future blog, I’ll share some highlights from the delightful interview I had with Marilyn Thomas, a birthright Quaker. Marilyn highlighted some of the distinctive contributions of the Coldstream Quakers. I’ll also include details about the architecture of the meeting house and the cemetery.
The Friendly Friday sessions are held via Zoom starting at 1:30 PM, every other Friday. The next session will be held on Friday, October 30th. Subsequent sessions will be held on Friday November 13th and 27th, and Friday December 11th.
For each session the appropriate passages of the Nickalls edition of the Journal of George Fox are provided to session participants on-screen. The passages are marked to identify short individual paragraphs or portions which individual members volunteer to read aloud. Comment, question, and discussion follow each reading to reveal the richness and depth of the life and experience of George Fox.
Registration for Friendly Friday is required to allow distribution of the Zoom meeting invitations. Registration is only required once, and can be made by clicking the registration link provided in the Friendly Friday blog post on the CFHA website www.cfha.info, or by contacting [email protected].
In this month’s Founders and Builders Series, we introduce you to an influential Friend and early contributor to the CFHA. Our fourth essay features Fred Haslam and is written by Dorothy Trimble. Dorothy passed in 2014 at the age of 91 but remembers the life of Fred Haslam here in her 2012 essay written for the 40th anniversary of the CFHA.
Remembering Fred Haslam 1897-1979
By Dorothy Trimble
Fred was a vital part of the Toronto Meeting where my family found its spiritual home. We first started attending Meetings for Worship at the end of 1957. Fred had retired the year before from the Canadian Friends Service Committee, and he and his wife Maud were living at Inglewood in the Caledon Hills, about equidistant to the Meetings of Toronto, Newmarket, Hamilton, and Kitchener. They had hoped that it would be of help to Quarterly Meetings, but sadly, Maud died of cancer in 1958. Unable to maintain the home alone, Fred moved to an apartment in Toronto.
I remember Fred as reserved and quiet-spoken, but I soon came to appreciate the depth of thought and wealth of experience behind his well-chosen words. It took me longer to realize how many ways his life spoke of Christian faith.
Fred Haslam’s early years were spent at the Providence School in Middleton, Lancashire, run by the Providence Congregational Chapel where the family attended two services and two Sunday School classes each week. Fred left school right after his thirteenth birthday and took a job at a cotton mill to support his family. He continued his education at night school and read extensively.
Fred first came in contact with the Society of Friends in 1917 during the First World War. After spending three months in detention for refusing to take any part in combat, he was assigned to the Work Centre at Wakefield. One of the men at the centre invited him to go to the Adult School held at the Friends Meeting House. He also started to attend morning and evening meetings there, and to study Quaker literature.
After the war, Fred worked for Friends’ Emergency and War Victims Relief Committee, which was concerned with the repatriation of German citizens who had been interned during the war. Fred also volunteered for service overseas and joined the Friends Relief Mission in Vienna where he was in charge of the twenty-one food depots. While there he was also instrumental in persuading the government to improve conditions for prisoners, many of whom had been incarcerated for stealing food for their families.
In June 1921, Fred heard from his family, who had emigrated earlier, that his father had had an accident that ended his work as a carpenter. Fred came to Canada the next month. By the next year, he was not only helping his family but also serving Toronto Meeting as its treasurer.
One of the letters of introduction that Fred carried to Canada was to Albert S. Rogers. This was the beginning of a deep friendship and collaboration that lasted until Albert’s death in 1932. One of the projects they worked on was the Boys and Girls Clubs, held at Toronto Meeting on Maitland Street, where a bowling alley was installed in the basement for the purpose. Fred directed the Boys Club for many years. In 1930 Albert offered to purchase a property to provide a summer vacation for the children in the clubs and Fred helped find a suitable ten-acre property on Sturgeon Bay. In 1940 Fred purchased the adjacent property to the camp to increase its size. His vision of Camp NeeKauNis as a place for communal education and recreation helped to bring together the three separate yearly meetings in Canada in 1955.
When Albert’s son, Ted, developed “Rogers Batteryless” and started a radio tube company in 1924, Fred was appointed the secretary-treasurer. He resigned in 1940, when, a year after Ted’s death, the products were in demand for war purposes.
Fred served as the treasurer and general secretary of the Canadian Friends Service Committee from its beginnings in 1931 through 1956. During World War II, drawing on his own experiences as a conscientious objector (CO), he was able to counsel and assist COs in Canada. His 1940 letter to the Prime Minister resulted in expanded opportunities for meaningful alternative service, including conservation, road maintenance, social service work, and participation in post-war rehabilitation. He was later instrumental in Canada’s recognition of work in the British Friends Ambulance Unit as a form of alternative service, and he helped organize the first group of twenty Canadians to serve in China. His work included assisting Japanese-Canadian evacuees from the west coast who had moved to Toronto, and providing post World War II relief.
Ellen Johnson, whose parents Margaret and Reg Smith served as Resident Friends, remembers Fred Haslam as “like a grandfather to me. I was born in 1952 and have a sense that he was always around. In fact, a major snowstorm blew across Toronto on the day I was born. Dad was at school and couldn’t get home fast enough, so Fred drove mom to the Women’s College Hospital. It was Fred who taught me my colours sitting at the window of the library and watching the world go by. One day he came to my mom’s rescue when she discovered that I was sitting on the window ledge of what is now the daycare with my legs dangling outside. Fred went outside ready to catch me if I startled when mom approached me from behind.”
When I was serving as Superintendent of the First Day School, Fred would sometimes speak to the older class. One day after Meeting, I was mulling over something related to the First Day School and realized that I needed to speak to Fred. He had already left Friends House, so I dashed out the front door and down Bedford Road, managing to reach him before he stepped on the streetcar. But I was huffing and puffing so much I couldn’t speak. Fred reached out and gave me a big steadying hug, enabling me to catch my breath and relate what was on my mind.
Fred’s compassionate hug is a symbol for me of the many ways that Fred reached out to help those in need. His many efforts included frequent visits to the Toronto Jail, work with the John Howard and Elizabeth Fry Societies, work with the Canadian Council of Churches to abolish capital punishment, and support of relief work and projects of the Right Sharing of Resources, UNESCO, and the Friends Service Council of British Friends. Fred maintained that properly caring for the people of the world is essential for peace.
Fred also reached out to coordinate efforts of a wider circle, serving as full-time treasurer and general secretary for Canadian Yearly Meeting from 1960-1972, representing Friends on the Canadian Council of Churches, and representing Canadian Friends on the board of Friends United Meeting and on the World Committee for Consultation. Through example, he answered the question he posed: “Why try to do the job with a teaspoon when by cooperation you can use a bulldozer?”
Photo of (from left) Fred Haslam, Ralph Eames, and Murray Thompson at the Toronto Meeting, 1963. Photo by Barry Philp, 1963, Baldwin Collection, Toronto Star Archives, courtesy of the Toronto Reference Library.
I am especially grateful for Fred’s selfless service to Toronto Meeting. I have been told that he could be uncompromising at times, but I think we all knew that we were near and dear to him, and he took a real interest in our activities. During the three years that Bill and I spent in Lesotho, Africa, he sent three letters, expressing appreciation for Bill’s Letters from Lesotho book, and for his work in education. He took a special interest in my work with Canadian Save the Children Fund because of his long connection with the organization (which earned him the Canada Medal in 1977).
A letter written in January 1976 included a note on his health:
For me 1975 was a hard year with the discovery of cancer and operations on both eyes. However, the doctors involved agree that progress is being made, and the cancer doctor at Princess Margaret Hospital has now suggested that I take a trip to San Carlos near San Francisco. I had no idea that I would be able to take such a trip at this stage, but the medical people, including personal friends in the meeting, are all encouraging the idea. It has now taken hold of me and I hope to go for a month on February 5th. My sister and all my other immediate relatives are in San Carlos, I am all excited and hope it will be useful in keeping me to a more normal life.
Back in Canada, not long before Fred died in 1979, I visited him at the Salvation Army’s Grace Hospital in Toronto. He was very weak but enjoyed singing some of the hymns of his favourite poet, John Greenleaf Whittier.
Resources:
Dorland, Arthur. The Quakers in Canada, A History. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1968.
Haslam, Fred. A Record of Experience with Canadian Friends (Quakers) and the Canadian Ecumenical Movement 1921 – 1967. Woodbrooke College, Birmingham, England, 1970.
Muma, Dorothy. “Fred Haslam (1897-1979): “Mr. Canadian Friend” – A Personal View.” Canadian Quaker History Journal 66 (2001): 23 – 34.
Toronto Monthly Meeting of the Religions Society of Friends. “A Testimony to the Grace of God in the Life of Fred Haslam.” March 1980.
Zavitz-Bond, Jane. “CFSC Records.” The Canadian Friend 107, no. 2 (2011): 40.
Please join the Canadian Friends Historical Association in a “Friendly Friday” discussion of George Fox’s journal. This Zoom session will run on Fri. Oct. 16, from 1:30-3 pm. In the course of a little more than an hour, our group covered the first 8 pages of the Journal. We will pick up where we left off this coming Friday, and new participants are welcome to join us. Sessions will continue every other Friday through to December.
It is really easy to register–just submit your name and email address in the following link and submit. You’ll then be prompted “review your registration” which will then take you to a confirmation page. No need to be a member of CFHA to join.
Here’s more: “I attended the session on Oct. 2. The reading was sent out in advance, and it caught my interest in learning more about George Fox and his experience. During the session, we read a section from Fox’s journal, and then stopped for discussion along the way. I’m so glad to have attended this session because it helped me deepen my knowledge of a foundational text to understand what led up to the development of the Religious Society of Friends and to compare and contrast this with our modern Quaker experience. Donna Moore”
Borealis Press, 2011). This book, by Canadian author Heather Kirk examines Solidarnosc and gives readers insights into the non-violent resistance movement that contributed significantly to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
More history about the Coldstream Meeting can be found in several places. If you look up the minute book transcriptions on our own CFHA website (
It includes more about his father’s experience settling the land, and also a recounting of how Daniel “went back (to New York) to get a companion.” Edgar also discusses such topics as temperance and the relationship with the local First Nations. It is so clear that Edgar had a deep appreciation for the Quaker legacy in the Lobo/Coldstream area.