Doreen Drummond Photography Museum

Aunt Lill (1906 - 1981)
Uncle Fred (1908 - 1983)
Aunt Marion (1910 - 1926)

Having had to clean up our respective parents' homes, hubby and I have been working on our stuff ourselves. My late mother had some photos. I showed them to my daughter, who would be our executor, and explained who they were, at least the ones I knew.

Some I can place, but not others.
Aunt Lill died at her cottage, on Long Lake.
Uncle Fred had a heart issue and fell off of our deck porch, dying shortly thereafter.

My mom died inside our Bala lakefront home, just as she wished.

The three siblings had cottages along the Windsor Dr. lakefront, bought in the 60s.

I did some internet research and found a death certificate for Marion.

Marion's 1926 death certificate
gives lots of information,
including maiden names

Aunt Marion died in Toronto in 1926, according to the death record, of 'creeping paralysis.' I imagine polio.

My father had a class photo in mom's files, as well.

What do we do with these archival photos?

My late father's school class

This, I believe, is
my great-grandmother
Mariah Mallette

Mariah Mallette ran a boarding house in Port Hope.

My grandmother told stories about First nations people rescuing her or her brothers, when they'd get lost in the forest nearby. This is a story I wrote down, after having it told to me by my late grandmother. I interviewed her for a high school essay!

Story of our family tree

This was originally an essay written in early 1976. I tried to trace the family’s development from about 1800 through to the late 1900’s., where Nanny ended up in Port Hope.

Mariah, widowed, ran a boarding house and catering firm in Port Hope. I haven't been able to figure out where.

Mariah Mallette

I did find some lodgers in the Census.

When Nanny was 12, Mariah stopped catering and began to run a boarding house. Anne, when she quit school, helped her mother on a full-time basis. They had a large house, with 19 boarders, to whom they fed breakfast and dinner. Mariah gave them full-course meals, including juice and soup. They also packed a lunch for them.

Every day Annie would clean the rooms. She would sprinkle tea leaves on the carpets and then sweep them up into a dustpan. Linen was always used for the meals, plus there was bedding, so there was a great deal of washing, done by scrubbing. At that time, they were living on about $20 per week after doing all that cooking and cleaning for nineteen people.

One boarder moved into the house in Port Hope. He came from Surrey, England, where his grandfather was the Mayor of Winchester. He had begun his apprenticeship to be a butcher at age 10, and was now going to be a butcher in Port Hope. When nanny was 20, she married this man. His name was Fred Butt, and they moved to Toronto. They opened up a meat and grocery store. Nanny did her share in the store, carrying 150 pounds of meat upstairs from the freezer.

William Butt (butcher)
Mariah Mallette
William Mallette (organist) (1842 - 1884)
Marcia Laurenceson

Marion Butt (1910 - 1926)
my aunt

As is the way, I'm not sure who is whom!


We were tootling along, near Ashton and found this photography museum. I donated the large tin-type of my great-grandmother, as well as the other smaller photos. The large tin-types are rare!

Appleton!

Tin-type on the left of my great-great grandmother!
Melissa and myself!

Melissa Alexander

Project Coordinator
North Lanark Historical Society
North Lanark Regional Museum