(Written by Judy Chamberland)
On a bright, crisp winter’s day in early February, Robert Taylor and I spent a delightful couple of hours in conversation with two of Trinity’s treasures, Adelaide Morgan and Alix Humphrys. These two charming ladies had agreed to reminisce about their years at Trinity as a contribution to the 125th anniversary celebrations of our parish. In view of the fact that both had helped celebrate earlier, notable celebrations (e.g. the 50th in 1926 and 80th in 1956), they seemed ideal subjects to interview. Several histories have been written about Trinity. However, Robert Taylor and others felt that hearing about events and activities in the past from people who experienced them, and are still with us, would be of interest to more recent parishioners.
Natalie Frerichs, former and long-time organist at Trinity, wrote two of the histories I mentioned above, “History of Trinity Church, Ottawa, 1876-1956″, and “History of the Ladies’ Guild of Trinity Church, Ottawa South, 1916-1962″. Unlike these chronological records, the conversation that February afternoon moved comfortably back and forth in time, prompted now and then by questions from Robert and me. At Adelaide’s suggestion, I borrowed her copies of Natalie Frerichs’ detailed and very readable histories. They proved very helpful in providing additional context for Adelaide’s and Alix’s recollections, captured on a tape recorder with their approval.
I almost titled this piece “FUNdraising at Trinity over the years”, because two themes recurred throughout Adelaide and Alix’s reminiscences: raising money and having fun-often simultaneously. Before going further, however, I will set the stage with a few personal details about these two longstanding members of Trinity. Adelaide began life as a westerner, born in Golden, British Columbia in 1911. (We felt we could safely include the year, as Adelaide’s age has been public knowledge since she celebrated her 90th birthday.) Her family moved to Ottawa in 1916, and while her father was serving overseas during WWI, they lived with her paternal grandmother in New Edinburgh. In 1921 they moved into a brand new house in Ottawa South; Adelaide clearly remembered that the first things her mother did were join Trinity, and register at the Library. Alix is something of a rarity, having been born in Ottawa and, apart from spending 20 months in Belleville, has lived in Ottawa her whole life. She was born in 1914 in a house at 463 Sunnyside Avenue, and was baptized at Trinity the same year, by the Reverend George Scantlebury.
Adelaide and Alix, both of whom attended Glebe High School, recalled fondly the years when activities at Trinity played a major role in their lives as teenagers and young adults. Adelaide taught Sunday School, and for 25 years sang in the choir. Both belonged to the Badminton Club. Given the diverse activities that this club participated in, one could be forgiven for suggesting the name was too restrictive: members did play badminton (in such large numbers, in fact, that they were cramped for space in the church hall); but they also put on plays, cabarets and minstrel shows, organized dances, and went on winter sleigh rides and skating parties, and summer picnics. Not surprisingly, Adelaide described it as a “wonderful club, marvellous”. Adelaide explained how ‘the four As’ (Adelaide, Alix, Arthur and Ashley) began putting on plays at Trinity. Having seen “Paddy makes things hum” performed at Glebe Collegiate, Adelaide persuaded other members of the Badminton Club to put on this play at Trinity. It ran for two nights, and they charged $.50 a person. (Dramas were an example of FUNdraising: Adelaide said that money raised putting on plays paid for the electricity in the church.) We chuckled with Adelaide over a recollection about a performance of “The Man from Mexico”, in which she played the leading lady. At one point she was supposed to swoon over a photograph of the leading man; instead, she burst out laughing on discovering the Badminton Club boys had replaced the photo with a picture of a bulldog! On the topic of romance, Alix revealed that a number of Badminton Club members went on to marry one another, including Adelaide and Herb Morgan.
Alix described the wonderful dances the young people organized at Trinity, where a player piano provided the music: “if the (player piano) rolls weren’t going, someone was playing.” Adelaide added that sometimes they hired an orchestra. The members of the club also went elsewhere for dances; for example, the boys would take the girls to ‘tea dances’ at the Chateau Laurier Hotel (admission: $1.00). And, speaking of the Chateau, Adelaide remembered the big slide down to the Ottawa River behind the hotel. She said it was a wonder her nose wasn’t flattened from pressing her face so hard against the person in front of her on the sled.
In the summer during Exhibition week at Lansdowne Park, the young people could work at Trinity’s refreshment booth (a tent), a venture which the Reverend Turley began in 1924, and which continued until 1937. Alix said that the students who helped serve meals at the church booth could get onto the grounds for free, and were given time off to go around the grounds. Adelaide recalled being warned that they couldn’t accept tips! Adelaide also remembered the summer of 1926, when there was a Poultry Congress at Lansdowne Park. The Ladies’ Guild served full course meals at the tent for two weeks. As Natalie Frerichs said in her history of the Ladies’ Guild, “Many a lady spent most of the next week in bed!”
Reference here to the Ladies’ Guild is perhaps an appropriate transition point in this ‘walk down memory lane with Adelaide and Alix’. So far, I have focused on the happy years of badminton and dances, picnics and plays. However, Trinity had faced difficult times of financial need over the years, and the historical accounts reveal the major role the women of Trinity played in helping to meet these needs. In the spring of 1916, in the middle of WWI (‘the Great War’), the financial situation at Trinity was causing a great deal of anxiety. It was so serious that, according to Natalie Frerichs, the church could no longer afford a sexton. The men looked after the furnace and sweeping, and the ladies did the dusting and cleaning. At the suggestion of a female parishioner, the Rector’s wife, Mrs. Scantlebury, called a meeting of the ladies of the congregation to create an organization “to raise money and do whatever work would best help the Rector and wardens” (“History of Trinity Church”, p.7). Thus was born the Ladies’ Guild, or St. Mary’s Guild, as it was called then.
Over the years, Guild members held a number of money raising events, such as cooking sales; an annual Garden Party; rummage sales; driving parties (i.e. sleigh rides); socials (musical programmes with refreshments) in members’ homes; afternoon teas (including an annual Valentine Tea); and an yearly bazaar. In 1920, the Ladies’ Guild launched a venture that was to last for almost forty years: catering outside the church. It was fortunate for Trinity that the ladies were so successful at this fundraising activity, for it helped the church through several periods of severe financial hardship. One of these was in the aftermath of the great fire that destroyed the church on Ash Wednesday, March 19, 1947. Not surprisingly, both Adelaide and Alix, young women in their early thirties at the time, have vivid memories of that tragic event.
Adelaide first learned about the fire as she was walking up Cameron Avenue on her way to the bank on the corner of Bank and Cameron. Her husband, Herb, was the Treasurer at that time, and it was Adelaide’s task to deposit the Sunday collection in the bank. “Your church is on fire”, the milkman told Adelaide. Alix did not recall how she first heard about the fire, but in the time it took to put on her coat and walk the short block to the church, her children watching from an upstairs window of their home, the roof was already gone. In the booklet “Come into our Church”, the description next to a photograph of the gutted interior reads, “In twenty minutes, fire completely destroyed the church, memorials, furnishings, and vapourized the new Great Wars Memorial Window and beautiful pipe organ. Only the walls and basement could be restored.” Adelaide remembered seeing the former Rector, Reverend Turley, walking down Cameron Avenue, “tears just pouring from his eyes”. The Rector, Reverend Bender, suffered burns to his face saving the Communion vessels; and both he and the member of the Altar Guild on duty that morning suffered from shock after having to be rescued through the Rector’s vestry window.
Adelaide and Alix recalled how the men began work the day of the fire to remove the debris from the floor of the church. They had to coat it with pitch so that the hall below-which would serve as the church until a new one could be built-would be waterproof. The Sunday after the fire Southminster United Church invited the congregation to hold its service there; however, the following Wednesday evening, the usual Lenten service took place in Trinity’s own hall. Like the men, the women of Trinity began immediately the work of rebuilding their church. By the end of March, a group of young married women with Adelaide Morgan as their captain, formed a new circle of the Ladies’ Guild (Circle 4) dedicated to helping rebuild Trinity.
Raising money through catering had continued through the years, but according to Adelaide, the women “did it in earnest” after the fire. A large number of caterings were held in the Masonic Temple on Metcalfe Street, where Ladies’ Guild members would serve complete turkey dinners to as many as 300 at a sitting. For $1.50 people received fruit cocktail or tomato juice, turkey, vegetables, and strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. While these caterings were financially very successful, they involved a tremendous amount of work (which may be why Adelaide and Alix remembered them so clearly). The women would pack boxes of dishes, glasses, cutlery and pots and pans, and have them delivered to the Masonic Temple. There they unpacked everything, set the tables, carved the turkey, cooked the vegetables and prepared the shortcake. After serving the meal, they would wash and repack the dishes, etc., and have them delivered back to Trinity, where they had to unpack and reshelve everything. By means of this “sheer hard work” as Natalie Frerichs described it in her history of Trinity, the Ladies’ Guild was able to contribute $5,000 to the Building Fund. The opening service in the reconstructed church took place on Wednesday, September 29, 1948, only 18 months after the fire.
Robert’s and my conversation with Adelaide Morgan and Alix Humphrys that February afternoon was far ranging. This account highlights certain periods of time and events, and particular activities memorable to both women. However, to use an expression from the world of cinema, “the cutting room floor” is covered with material worthy of additional articles (or poems, or plays). I encourage anyone so inclined to contribute items for publication in the Grapevine during this 125th anniversary year. Who knows? They might end up in future histories of Trinity!
I conclude with these heartwarming words from Adelaide: ” I love people and I love being in things. (…) I just loved everything I did at Trinity.”