1887 Celebration Fit for a Queen

When Susanne is researching details for a story she is writing about a man in 1800's Ontario, she goes down a rabbit hole of history to find some gritty details about Queen Victoria's birthday celebrations in the backwoods in 1887. 

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Happy to Be Canadian Podcast. I'm Suzanne Spence Wilkins, a writer who lives in rural southwestern Ontario, Canada. Each week I share an original, very short story that will have you laughing and reflecting on the simple moments of our lives. Now, on to today's episode. Happy to be Canadian, episode 55. 1887 Celebration Fit for a Queen. Often when I'm researching a story, I end up falling down a rabbit hole of history. That happened this week on an unrelated project when I came upon a May 24th celebration in 140-year-old newspapers. Here's what I found. There were the average number of drunks on the street, but it could have been worse had the local turf association not prohibited the sale of intoxicating liquor on the grounds for the Queen's birthday celebrations. In 1845, the province of Canada had recognized the birthday of Queen Victoria as a public holiday. By 1887, the anticipation was bigger as it marked the golden Jubilee anniversary of her ascension to the throne. Villages, towns, and cities throughout her colonies and her homeland planned to recognize her long reign. May 1887 in central Ontario had been warm and dry. By mid-month, farmers had finished most of their spring planting, and their families had garden vegetable seeds in the ground. In the flower beds in villages and at established rural homesteads, the crown imperial fritillarias bent their bright red blooms towards the ground as if in a curtsy to the queen, while the yellow faces of the daffodils lifted towards the sun. The balmy weather had created an extraordinary growth of all types of vegetation. Farmers predicted there would be an abundant crop of plums, while the fall wheat that had overwintered in the ground was expected to be only an average crop. The fair spring had helped to make lambing season very satisfactory and prolific. However, the lack of rain and resultant dry conditions was causing concern as some farmers were having trouble containing bushfires. The weather had put the townspeople and rural folk in a fine mood to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday. The Queen was born on May 24, 1819, at Kensington Palace in England. And now, 78 years later, this Canadian town of 1,500 people had two days of athletic competitions, comedy plays, horse races, and other festivities scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, May 24th and 25th. Work at the Turf Association, which was coordinating the grand opening of its new grounds, began several days before the celebrations. It was a scene of great activity. Men were leveling the track, planting trees, building fences, digging a well, and making every arrangement for the comfort and enjoyment of the multitudes that were expected to attend. The new horse race track would be one of the best in Western Ontario, and the property would provide exceptional grounds for athletic games. A local gentleman, known for his business acumen and showmanship, had commissioned the building of a wooden grandstand that could seat up to 600 people. The roof structure was located to allow visitors to see all of the events. With its stable construction, it would be impossible for any accident to befall those seated inside. This would be true until an airplane struck the grandstand in 1992 and destroyed it. At the 1887 celebrations, the entrance fee to the grounds was 25 cents for adults, 15 cents for children, and an additional 10 cents to sit in the grandstand. The Canadian Pacific Railway issued reduced fee tickets to visitors from the surrounding towns as there was much interest in the competitions. As usual, when you are hoping for rain, it comes at the most inopportune time. At daybreak on Tuesday, May 24th, the overcast sky threatened rain. There were intermittent showers until 2 p.m. when the sun broke through the clouds and created another balmy spring day. Even though the weather must have kept people away, at least 2,000 people attended with the gate receipts tallying over $500 for that first day. While the grounds were wet and disagreeable, the first event got underway only 45 minutes late. The local men's lacrosse team beat their competitors from a bigger town located on the southern shore of Georgian Bay. After four resounding wins by the locals, the teams parted in a sportsmanlike fashion. This competitiveness did not last throughout the afternoon, as the local boys' lacrosse team went down two games to their foes from a nearby rival town to the south. The second win was not allowed, so the visitors refused to play another game. There was still lots of contests to view. The horse races and men's and boys' foot races drew the crowd's track side. Horses could earn as much as $100 when they won a contest, while men could win up to $8 for placing first in the five-mile-long race. As was common at meets like this, there was lots of unregulated betting. It was rumored that one young man lost $100 betting on his hometown lacrosse team, and many local boys got bitten, even though the hometown favorite man won the five-mile foot race. You have to wonder if they bet against him. In the evenings, Harry Lindley's famous comedy company gave performances in the town hall. The venue was crowded for each evening's humorous play. On the second day of the celebrations, the weather had returned to a warm and sunny day. The first baseball game of the season would be played between the Toronto Dauntless and the local Beavers. The game began competitively and was thrilling the crowd until the city boys seemed to lose all hope of winning. They played loosely, and the locals took control of the diamond to beat the city men 18-6. Throughout the two-day event, the Citizens Coronet Band from the local rival Southern Town entertained the crowds. There were many con artists on the streets, but it did not appear that festival participants fell prey to their offers, as the swindlers were prohibited from entering the Turf Association's grounds. The local newspaper printed 1,000 Jubilee programs and offered them free at the beginning of the two-day celebration. All were taken up and deemed a complete success. Just like the birthday celebrations for a queen that the revelers would only ever see in paintings and engravings. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Happy to Be Canadian. If you would like to receive an email each Saturday morning that features new short stories and more, you can sign up on my website, www.crazy8barn.com. If you would like to meet me in person and discover another way that we tell our rural stories, please join me at a Barn Quilt Painting Workshop at our beautiful eight-sided barn in Palmyra, Ontario, along the north shore of Lake Erie. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Crazy8 Barn. If you are an Apple podcast listener and enjoyed this podcast, I would appreciate it if you could leave me a favorable review. And that lets Apple know that Happy to Be Canadian is a valuable podcast and it shares it with other potential listeners. I'm Suzanne Spence Wilkins, and I'm Happy to Be Canadian.