Jennie Fleming

Trip of a Lifetime: Introduction

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Jennie Fleming – Passport photo – c 1903

Nearly sixty years to the day that the Fleming family arrived in Quebec City from Glasgow, Scotland, Jennie Fleming, with her nephew Roy Fleming, her older brother James Fleming, and his daughter Minnie, boarded a steamer in Montreal bound for Liverpool, England.

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Roy Fleming in New York City, 1906

They were embarking on an eight-week trip through the British Isles and Europe that included a pilgrimage to their homeland in Perthshire. Roy had proposed the trip to his family in October of 1902 and they decided at Christmas. They must have been very busy over the next few months deciding on itinerary, arranging accommodations, and contacting family in Scotland.

It was Friday, June 26 1903. Their ship was the passenger liner R.M.S. Tunisian, built in 1900 for the Allan line. They were comfortably settled in two second-class cabins, the men in one with two other cabin mates, and the women in another across the passageway. James, who had been only a boy of thirteen when his parents Alexander and Jean emigrated from Perthshire Scotland with their children, must have remarked more than once on the luxury of the modern steamer with its dining saloons and decks compared to the cramped and harsh conditions of the Jeannie Deans, the wooden three-masted barque that had brought them to Canada.

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Rural Diaries

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Good news: The Rural Diary Archive, a project at the University of Guelph to showcase rural life in Ontario 1850 to 1900 through diaries, has added two Fleming diaries to its online collection. Many thanks to the Library and Department of History at the University of Guelph.

Jennie Fleming kept a diary of her trip by train to Toronto and Bowmanville in June 1869, and jotted some notes about her return voyage from Marquette, Michigan in 1871. Her profile page is at https://ruraldiaries.lib.uoguelph.ca/jean-jennie-fleming

Roy Fleming, her nephew, when only 12 years of age, kept a short entry diary throughout 1891, the year his mother died. It’s poignant and informative about rural living from a young person’s view.  https://ruraldiaries.lib.uoguelph.ca/roy-franklin-fleming

Scans of both diaries are available, as well as transcriptions of the content accompanied by explanatory notes.   Click on the Browse tab to locate the images and transcriptions.

More diaries  can be easily discovered by reviewing the list of diarists.   Filter by county, ethnicity, religion or occupation.

For Meaford in Grey County, Mary (Williams) Trout appears. Married to James Trout, a land agent in Trout and Jay and a prominent member of the Church of  Disciples of Christ, she also figures into Fleming Family history because her sister, Elizabeth, married William Fleming. Mary kept a diary from 1867 to 1920 about her family, the church, and activities. Occasionally  Mary mentions her sister “Lib”, children Lincoln and Ottie,  and trips to Owen Sound. The Rural Diary Archive has posted the 1867 diary. The complete set  of scans and transcriptions is online at the Grey Roots Museum and Archives site: Mary Williams Trout: Diaries of a small town lady.

 

Clan Stewart Camp

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During the 1900s the Fleming family formed a deep and abiding love for the Fishing Islands at Oliphant, on the Lake Huron side of the Bruce Peninsula.  Attracted by the rugged nature of the islands, the abundant fishing, and the beautiful blue waters, they established camps in the very early 1900s on Main Station, Little Squaw, Sunset, Frog, and others.  Clan Stewart Camp on Little Squaw continues as a family gathering place. Roy Fleming, Ruth Larmour’s grandfather, and Roy’s Aunt Jennie bought this parcel of land in 1909 on Indian Channel and built a Victorian cottage.  They named their cottage Clan Stewart Camp after Jennie’s mother, Jean Stewart Fleming. The cottage has been modified a few times since, but its porch is still a favourite place for lounging in the afternoon.

The story of the early Fleming campers, their descendants, and of Clan Stewart Camp is told in “The Fleming Family – Early Oliphant Campers'” published in the Yearbook Edition 2017 of the Bruce County Historical Society.  Ruth Larmour is the narrator  with tales of early cottage life, the changing connections of family with the islands, and her own deep attachment.

Read the full article at  Fleming-Oliphant-Version3a-2017.pdf (in Dropbox)

 

Diary of Young Roy

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Among the Fleming family papers is a diary that Roy F. Fleming, son of Charles and Lyda Warren, kept in 1891 when he was a boy of twelve living on a farm near Kilsyth in Derby Township.  It was a sad and tumultuous year for him and the Fleming family. The greatest tragedy was that his mother died  in March while receiving treatment at the Kellogg Sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan. Roy with his two older brothers, Howard and Stuart, and two younger sisters, Ruth and Annie,  carried on working with their father on the farm and in his general store, going to school and to church. Charles’ sister “Aunt Jennie” stepped in to help raise the young children.

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Front page of Roy Fleming’s 1891 Diary

Roy recorded his diary in a journal printed by  C.A. Fleming,  Roy’s cousin, for the Northern Business College, Owen Sound. Continue reading →

Jennie’s early travels

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Jennie Fleming, Alexander and Jean’s youngest daughter,  was 29 years of age in June 1869 when she boarded a steamer in

Jennie-Fleming
Jennie Fleming

Owen Sound to  Collingwood and then rode by train over very rough tracks to Toronto.  Her journal of this trip has survived containing the log of the stops on the rail line and the places they visited.  We presume she was travelling with another person though she does not reveal any names.

The trip had several purposes: to attend a Disciples convention in Bowmanville, to see some sites in Toronto, and to procure dry good supplies for the store in Kilsyth. You are welcome to read the full account as best we could transcribe it from this document in our Dropbox folder.

This same diary has a short account of her trip in September 1871 on the steamer Meteor from Marquette on Lake Superior in Michigan to southern Lake Huron.  Again – no companions are named but she might have been with her brother Charles and his new wife Eliza (Lyda) Warren. She doesn’t say whether the steamer took them home to Owen Sound, or they had to journey by train. The voyage, however, seems to have been  blissful – no storms, no accidents.

View Diary of Jennie Fleming 1869-1872