Forgotten Advice:
Pearl Richmond Hamilton (Mrs. E. W.) of The Canadian Thresherman

Ida Pearl Richmond was born into a relatively prosperous farmer's family on May 19th,1875 in or near Bristow in northeastern Iowa. Her parents were American-born Harriet and Irish-born John Richmond. Her maternal grandfather was Daniel Munn an early Iowa settler in what has been described as a beautiful and bounteous region. There he prospered, first in business and then through land ownership and as a farmer working the soil. Ida Pearl's mother was Harriet Ann Munn (b.abt. 1856/1855), Daniel's daughter. She was born in Troy, New York before the family 's relocation west. The Munn's traced their family origins to early English colonists and proudly to Deacon Samuel Chapin, a farmer and man of many talents who in the early 1600s was a founder of Springfield, Mass.

Ida Pearl spent her early years on the family farm in Grundy county near another farming center, Morrison, Iowa. Her father John Francis (J.F.) Richmond (b.abt.1847/1848) was of Scotch-Irish ancestry; he had come to the United States in 1861 with his parents and numerous siblings. His father was a pharmacist in Cavon, Ireland. The Richmonds settled in Wisconsin but soon at least three of the siblings had relocated to Madison, Wisconsin. Pearl's father despite his extreme youthfulness - and only three years after the family's arrival - became a soldier in a Wisconsin regiment on the northern side in the American Civil War. He ended his tour of duty in Louisville, Kentucky.

In the early 1890s Pearl left Iowa to further her education. She enrolled at the Lansingburgh Academy in Troy, New York where she prepared for and then passed the New York state regent examinations. She taught school in Howard, South Dakota sometime thereafter. In 1901, however, she was living in Madison, Wisconsin and was a student again at the Wisconsin Academy (a preparatory school located on State Street in downtown Madison where students seeking entrance into the University of Wisconsin could make up deficiencies). This particular school was run by her father's sisters, Charlotte and Susan Richmond. Following graduation from the Wisconsin Academy, Pearl Richmond enrolled in a special writing course or courses at the University of Wisconsin. She did not graduate, but during her sojourn in Madison she became close to Elmer W. Hamilton (who was known as Hammie then), a Wisconsin farmer's son.

In his 1901 entrance papers to the University of Wisconsin Elmer W. lists his father Alexander Hamilton as being of Scottish background and a farmer and his mother as Dutch. Besides their matriculation from the Wisconsin Academy then Pearl and Elmer W. had at least one other obvious thing in common: they had both grown up on a family farm , understood its rhythms and special challenges. Following his graduation from the University of Wisconsin Elmer W. moved to Canada. After their marriage in 1905 Pearl followed her husband north. At the time of their marriage Mr. Hamilton was 26 , Miss Richmond, Pearl (as she preferred to be called), was thirty.

Soon after graduation E. W. Hamilton had accepted an offer of employment from The Canadian Thresherman, a farm implement magazine which had only recently begun publication in Winnipeg, Manitoba. E. H. Heath, a former commercial representative of farm implement companies and an American most recently from Minneapolis, was the magazine's publisher. Heath's partner was B. Boyd Clarke, a self made man who also had close connections to various American farm machinery companies. Clarke wrote a humor column as Uncle Silas (which appeared regularly in both The American Thresherman and The Canadian Thresherman) and was the publisher of The American Thresherman in Madison, Wisconsin (established in 1898) . F. H. Phippen, a prominent Winnipeg solicitor in the prestigious Winnipeg firm Tupper, Phippen and Tupper, became their Canadian partner at least in the initial stages of the magazine's operation.

The American Thresherman and its Canadian cousin The Canadian Thresherman were magazines devoted primarily to serious talk about the practical needs of the American farmer; the magazines were supported by advertising revenues derived from equipment makers and others wishing to sell or promote their goods to farmers. Both magazines were attractive publications which featured colourful advertisements (at least during their more prosperous years) from some of the biggest Farm implement companies of North America. The advertisements from J. I. Case Threshing Machine Co. and Gaar-Scott & Co. (The Tiger Thresher Line), Richmond, Indiana., the most impressive of the lot, were primarily the work of artists employed through the Chicago Engraving Co. Mr. Hamilton was listed variously over the years on The Canadian Thresherman's mast head as both editor and managing editor. E. H. Heath listed himself as the publisher but also editor as well.

In both The American Thresherman and The Canadian Thresherman - as in mass circulation newspapers and periodicals of the late 19th and early 20th century generally - there was a women's section to the magazine which dealt with what were perceived to be women's department issues, cooking, raising the children, and in the case of the Canadian Thresherman advice on how to lead exemplary lives. At the outset the Women's Department devoted hardly more than a page to such womanly concerns. Mrs. Heath, the publisher's wife, launched the column, wrote segments of it and selected text for the first thirteen months of its existence. Writing under a pseudonym (Estelle Percy) she set down the purposes of her column and what she and the column were going to offer women readers. Her model was adhered to with little modification over the next twenty years. Mrs. Hamilton who contributed to The Canadian Thresherman under a variety of names was the column's fourth editor or "conductor" beginning in 1906. As such she became the voice of advice and a conduit of information about women's activities and special interests for the next almost twenty years. Under her tutelage the column expanded from one page to many and she became a popular columnist and the only named regular columnist besides Aunt Doris who supervised the page devoted to Children and their interests.

There is no question that Mrs. Hamilton was a capable writer and well read individual. She dealt effectively with inspirational as well as practical matters such as, for example, butter making (how to) and Curling (in impressive detail) confirm. But she also was a fiction writer who crafted moral lessons into the fabric of her text. Her fictional writing also found a place in The Canadian Thresherman in separate stand alone pieces and as short stories within her column. As she did in her advice columns she used the short story format as a vehicle to encourage a higher morality among readers of not only The Canadian Thresherman but in a variety of other periodicals including The Western Home Monthly in which her advice columns and fictional work appeared with some regularity.

Despite her farm focus , she herself did not live on the farm. She lived in Winnipeg where she was an active member of the Winnipeg Branch of the Canadian Women's Press Club (CWPC-WB) . Though she spoke quite softly about social issues in her columns for The Canadian Thresherman she did not ignore real problems on the farm and women's special agonies. Indeed, she shared many of the CWPC-WB members progressive views, including of course their support for expanded civil rights for women. One of her short stories was included in the CWPG-WB'sponsored The Knapsack in December 1914 which was designed to raise money for the war effort. Her article "The Mysterious Bundle" showed really just what an effective observer of life she had become as it depended on keen observation and understanding of family dynamics. In her story she portrayed with sympathy but also good humour a model married couple of simple values and impeccable virtue. They were really a demonstration of the simple and straightforward lifestyle she admired and recommended in her Women's Department columns for The Canadian Thresherman. In this particular story she also managed to include tips on cooking (another favorite feature within her Woman's Department) or at least how to get reluctant bread to rise under extremely difficult conditions. Her concern for women's situation extended beyond her writings to personal involvement with the less fortunate whom she tutored and advised.

This paper is a reintroduction of Mrs. Hamilton to Manitobans who used to know her name but have forgotten about her and the important part she played in the early history of women journalists in the province.

When Mrs. Hamilton announced her departure from Winnipeg the women of the CWPC-WB presented her with a token of their affection and respect, a copy of Canadian poet and American icon Bliss Carman's poems. She had made many good friends during her years in Winnipeg while working nonstop as a writer and simultaneously nurturing her expanding family which included two daughters. Her friends in the CWPG-WG paid tribute to both her practical side as well as her softer virtues at a farewell gathering.