1925 by Kathryn Bridge BA

Being Young in the Country: Settler Children and Childhood in British Columbia and Alberta, 1860 - 1925 by Kathryn Bridge B.A., University of Victoria, 1977 M.A., University of Victoria, 1984 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of History Kathryn Bridge, 2012 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Being Young in the Country: Settler Children and Childhood in British Columbia and Alberta, 1860 - 1925 by Kathryn Bridge B.A., University of Victoria, 1977 M.A., University of Victoria, 1984 Supervisory Committee Dr. Lynne S. Marks, (Department of History) Supervisor Dr. Rachel Hope Cleves, (Department of History) Departmental Member Dr. Eric Sager, (Department of History) Departmental Member Dr. Alison Preece, (Department of Curriculum and Instruction) Outside Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. Lynne S. Marks, Department of History Supervisor Dr. Rachel Hope Cleves, Department of History Co-Supervisor or Departmental Member Dr. Eric Sager, Department of History Departmental Member Dr. Alison Preece, Department of Curriculum and Instruction Outside Member This dissertation demonstrates that the voices of children and the experiences of childhood provide important new perspectives about the settler societies in British Columbia and Alberta during the period 1860 – 1925. It employs a combination of direct quotations from individual children and analysis across the cohort of one hundred historical children as a means to explore both individual personalities and shared child perspectives of childhood. Child-created diaries and correspondence were selected as the principal documentation in this study as a deliberate strategy to privilege children and to enable clear child-centred voices unmixed with those of adults. The intent is to reveal child-centred understandings about the physical and emotional aspects of growing up in Western Canada that are set within the contexts of specific communities, of family life, of sibling relationships, of friendships and separations. Some significant findings include the phenomenon of boarding school within the childhood experience and the realization that many settler children spent childhoods away from family, the difficulty boys shared in achieving masculinity, and the importance placed by girls and boys on charting and comparing their physical growth and attainment of child-centred milestones of achievement. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Why chose this cohort ................................................................................................. 4 This thesis will argue that: ...........................................................................................6 Writing about children and childhood ............................................................................16 A new historical field of study ...................................................................................22 Child-centred scholarship ......................................................................................25 Canadian studies ................................................................................................31 Children of the American West .........................................................................33 British studies ....................................................................................................34 Thematic studies ................................................................................................35 Diaries and letters ...........................................................................................................38 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................41 Chapter 2: The Records, the Cohort and Children’s Sense of Place ............................... 42 The setting .......................................................................................................................42 Settler society .........................................................................................................44 Children’s sense of place .......................................................................................49 Ethnic, racial or social “others ...............................................................................51 The records and the cohort ..............................................................................................53 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................55 Chapter 3: The Structure of Their Days ........................................................................... 57 School attendance ...........................................................................................................61 Chores and housework ....................................................................................................76 Church-going ..................................................................................................................96 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................106 Chapter 4: Growing Up in All Directions – Physical, Social and Emotional ................. 109 The physical body: “I’m bigger than you are!” ............................................................113 Part of a cohort: younger, older, little, big ....................................................................123 Identities, subjectivities and personality ..............................................................124 Who am I? ............................................................................................................125 Play-time .......................................................................................................................130 Deliberate stretching away ............................................................................................137 Gendered bodies ............................................................................................................141 Mastering emotions .......................................................................................................145 Mortality .......................................................................................................................152 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................159 Chapter 5: The Boarding School Experience and Separation ........................................ 161 Boarding schools ...........................................................................................................163 Parental perspectives on sending children away to school ..................................164 v Nineteenth century practices ................................................................................166 Early twentieth century schooling .......................................................................167 The legacy of separations .....................................................................................168 Boys experience school .................................................................................................170 Boy culture ...........................................................................................................172 Fagging ................................................................................................................175 Girls at school ...............................................................................................................178 Girl culture ...........................................................................................................182 Cross dressing ......................................................................................................185 Shared belonging .................................................................................................187 Fagging ................................................................................................................188 Girl culture in college ..........................................................................................189 How boarding schools functioned for children .............................................................192 Being “other” .......................................................................................................195 How children coped at boarding schools .............................................................197 The importance of place, the role of memory ......................................................201

Load more