Person Record

Metadata

Name

Armstrong, Maria

Othernames

née Maria Maughan

Born

July 31,1860

Birthplace

Owen Sound, Canada West (Ontario)

Places of residence

Owen Sound
For several years after the First World War she and her husband lived at ________, and then returned to Owen Sound
4th Avenue West, Owen Sound, Grey County (c. 1950)

Father

Joseph Maughan

Mother

Mary Maughan (nee Buchan)

Nationality

Canadian

Education

Old Stone School (Hill Street School) at Owen Sound
Owen Sound High School (1870s)

Notes

In the 1881 Census of Owen Sound, Ontario, in the section of town enumerated by Simon Parke, Maria Maughan is listed with her siblings and mother. In 1881 she was 20 years of age. The Maughan family had an English origin.

Maria's parents were Joseph Maughan and Mary Buchan [a daughter of Walter Buchan, who built "Buchan Manor" at Owen Sound]. Joseph's sister was Mrs. George Snider, and the Maughan family lived with the Sniders for about two years while their house on the west hill was being built next door. Maria was born before the Maughan cottage was built. She spent a lot of her young life taking care of her aunt, Mrs. Snider, who had virtually adopted the Maughan children. Maria attended the Owen Sound high school in the late 1870s, but found that she could not enter the University of Toronto, as they offered no courses for women. She became a local teacher before her marriage to Mr. John Armstrong in the 1880s. He had formerly been one of her teachers? The Armstrongs lived at the Snider residence and Mr. Armstrong became a law partner with W.P. Telford Jr. Later on, Mr. Armstrong became Crown Attorney. Maria was involved in many Owen Sound organizations in her lifetime.

A photograph (1955.011.002) shows the house on the hill that had been built by Joseph Maughan (Maria's father). It was built between 1860-1862 and was originally a one-storey brick cottage. It was later purchased by Christopher Eaton and enlarged (he and Annie Eaton named it The Eagle's Nest).

The Maughan family atttended the _________Methodist church at Owen Sound. Maria recalled Methodist camp meetings that were held in Neeland's Grove near Inglis Falls. "We were sent to get religion, but we frequently disappeared from the meetings and went wading in the river and there were wonderful strawberries across the road in the McDermott place." (1950 article recalling her youth)

Maria and John were married in the drawing room of the George and Jane Snider residence, in front of the bay window. She wore a simple white muslin wedding dress, as her uncle George Snider had died, and normally it would be expected that she would wear mourning. However a concession was made that she could wear bridal white. Mrs. Armstrong later recalled that mourning wear in Owen Sound had one's best dress all-black, with bands of crepe from the hem to above the knees, and one's second-best dress had three bands of crepe above the hem.

Maria and John Armstrong went on a wedding trip to Millbrook, to visit his relatives. They were married in November, 1885. On January 1, 1886, Mrs. Armstrong joined the Division Street Presbyterian Church, and was a member of the congregation for the rest of her life.

In 1911, their son George Armstrong died at the age of 19.

Her husband died in 1914, before the First World War began. Her neighbour, Annie Eaton, also was widowed in 1914. Mrs. Eaton set up the Grey Rooms in London, England in late 1916 for Grey County military personnel to visit. At home in Owen Sound, Mrs. Armstrong similarly did a lot of volunteer work, in the Women's Patriotic League (she was Vice-President). "In that First World War all the soldier and civilian comforts for overseas, a tremendous amount, everything made locally, went through the hands of the League financed through monthly collections from house-to-house by the women of the town." Mrs. Armstrong had her son, Dun Armstrong, serving overseas. He survived the war, and died in 1933.

Mrs. Armstrong was elected as the second woman to serve on the Board of Education at Owen Sound. The first woman member was Grace Lediard. Mrs. Armstrong also was a member of the Y.M.C.A. Auxiliary, the Women's Hospital Auxiliary, Vice-President of the Owen Sound Historical Society, the Home Missionary Society President of her church, and was the first President of the Y.W.C.A. in Owen Sound.

For twenty-five years, she had been a member of Mrs. Eaton's Angelica Shakespeare Club. There is a group photograph of the members of this group at the Grey County Archives.

Occupation

Teacher
Homemaker
Women's Patriotic League (Vice-President)
Board of Education
Y.M.C.A. Auxilliary
Women's Hospital Auxilliary
Home Missionary Society President (of Division Street Presbyterian Church)
First President of the Y.W.C.A. at Owen Sound
Angelica Shakespeare Club (25 years)

Publications

THE OWEN SOUND DAILY SUN-TIMES (Owen Sound), Feb. 4, 1950 (has an article that mentions the Maughan and Armstrong families, and has an image of Maria when a young woman)
Pearce, Helen, "Life-Long Resident of Owen Sound Mrs. John Armstrong's Memory Covers History of a Century", OWEN SOUND DAILY SUN TIMES, 1950 clipping, has an image of Maria Armstrong reading a book.