About Emma

Emma Bell (nee Aylesworth) Chant was my great grandmother. Born in Newburgh, Ontario in 1873 she lived a full 86 years witnessing tremendous changes in the world around her, including the coming of the telephone, the radio, the automobile, and the television - all of which are featured in her letters.

Emma at 19

 

A week after she turned 20, she married my great grandfather, Stanley G. Chant, who was one month older than she. Together they raised 10 children (and losing one infant girl) who gave them 43 grandchildren.

Emma and Stanley on their 50th Anniversary with their 10 children, 1943.

Emma was a prolific letter writer and I am fortunate to have copies of dozens of her letters, mostly written 1918-1924 to her eldest son Joe. I transcribed them all last year and posted them one by one on a Facebook group I created for her descendants. But I wanted another way to share them with the world. So here it is :) 

The setting for most of the letters is Hampton, Ontario (a tiny village near Bowmanville). In January of 1918 the family had moved from Webbwood, Ontario to Hampton after a fire burned their house down. In Hampton they became a farm family for the first time.

The first letter in my possession is dated 23 June 1918. Emma's 11th and final baby was born 2 July 1918. This letter, and most of the others is written to her second son Joe, not yet 17, who remained in northern Ontario working in the logging industry (mostly near Sudbury).

The letters are full of family and community news, and reveal an intelligent, funny, hard-working woman.

This blog is dedicated to this wonderful woman. I wish I had the opportunity to meet her in person, but through her letters, I almost feel I know her.