The Basin Record Newsletter Vol.3 Issue 2

Name: _______________________________________ Mailing Address:_______________________________ ____________________________________________ Phone Number:_ ______________________________ Email Address:_ _______________________________ Become a member of the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History Individual: $25.00 Family: $40.00 Institutional: $50.00 Corporate: $200.00 Annual Membership Fee: Please drop-off or mail this form - with payment in cash, cheque or money order to: Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History, 21-A 10th Ave S, Cranbrook BC, V1C 2M9 Phone: 489-9150 City of Cranbrook The Government of Canada has contributed funding to this initiative Columbia Basin Institute Image Bank Project Ymir Strong and Healthy In 1904 The Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History has been fortunate in securing newspaper microfilm for several towns in the Columbia Basin. The following two pieces from the Ymir Mirror [January 16, 1904] help to point out how many vibrant communities existed in this region 100 years ago. The hospital and fire hall are indicative of a lot of other businesses and services that once serviced Ymir. We look forward to exploring more of the history and vitality of this West Kootenay town. “Miss Gray, who has been nursing at the Ymir Hospital for the past couple of years, is about to sever her connection with the institution. She has proved herself one of the most popular and efficient nurses an hospital has ever been fortunate enough to secure, and general regret is felt at her departure.” “A fire alarm was rung in last night which called the fire brigade to the residence of T. Newett, on Second Avenue. A room in the upper storey used as a close closet, was in flames, but how they originated is a mystery as there was no fire in that part of the house, nor did any flues pass through the apartment. The supposition is that one of the children must have taken a light into the room. Fortunately the flames were noticed by Wm. Clark, who promptly shouldered his Babcock extinguisher, and running to the burning house extinguished the fire. The fire brigade lost no time in responding to the call, but their services were not required. A quantity of clothing was destroyed but otherwise the damage was slight. When the alarm was raised, George Paquin, Joe Leahy ran to the fire hall to ring the bell, but they pulled too hard on the rope, turning the bell over, so that a few tolls were all that were heard.” With Mother’s Day just passed, and the continuing national debate on the health of the family, the “glass ceiling” and the general valuation of women’s labour in contemporary society, a perspective from the Cranbrook Herald of 100 years ago [January 17, 1907] may be appropriate. As we often say, by looking back we move forward. “It is gross injustice that women’s service, though it wears away her life, robs her of the ability to do that which is for her children’s highest good and chills her love of the refined and beautiful, has no promise of compensation equivalent to the lifelong sacrifice it demands…. A mother’s health, both of body and mind, is worth more than additional acres of land and fine livestock. The heart should not be allowed to grow old. Life should not have lost its charm, the heart its spirit, and the body its elasticity at forty years. And yet how many women are faded and wan and shattered in mind and health long before they are forty. All the joy of life is not in its morning, if tyrannical or thoughtless oppression were restrained by the hand of justice.” On Women Please visit us at: www.basininstitute.org