Person Record

Metadata

Name

Brownlee, Katharine Crawford

Othernames

nee Katharine Crawford Frizzell "Catherine" on birth record

Born

Nov. 12, 1903

Birthplace

Sydenham Township, Grey County

Places of residence

Bognor, Sydenham Township, Grey County
Town of Meaford (for high school)
Manitoba (teaching post)
Kerwood, Ontario
Huron County

Father

Thomas Frizzell (d. Sept. 27, 1937)

Mother

Beatrice Evelyn Frizzell (nee Rorke, b.

Nationality

Canadian

Education

Bognor School ? No. 9? (needs more research, check the 1967 history book)

Notes

Katherine Frizzell hand-made her own wedding gown, and wore it on August 14, 1929, at Owen Sound, Ontario, when she married Stuart Henry Brownlee. Their wedding took place at St. George's Anglican Church. Her wedding dress is now in the Grey Roots Museum collection, after spending some time out west, in Alberta, where it was kept prior to 2017. The going-away dress that she wore is also now at Grey Roots. Her wedding shoes have also been kept. They were purchased from the T. Eaton Co. Ltd. She also kept the silk crepe underwear pieces (trimmed with rosepoint lace, and mongrammed in blue), that she had personally made for her trousseau.

Katharine travelled to Toronto to obtain the fabric for her wedding dress. The following is her description of her wedding gown:

"Ivory Satin and Tulle as pictured--long sleeves, V-neck at back, inset with tulle. Large tulle bow at waist. White satin pumps, chiffon hose, short white suede gloves. Stuart's gift of Pearls. Embroidered tulle veil worn by Kay. Carried handkerchief held by mother at her wedding. Underwear of white silk crepe and rose-point lace made entirely by hand (myself) - vest, panties, night-gown. White satin girdle glove silk bag. This "something blue" was embroidered "__" (perhaps monogrammed? seven times) on each piece of underwear.
Bought materials for dress in Toronto -- 3 1/2 yds. satin @ $4.50-$15.75 tulle $3.75. Made myself, under supervision of Miss Whittaker - $4.00 Total - $234 or $24"

Her mother Beatrice was married in Sept. 1899, so the handkerchief mentioned was the "something old" that a bride would carry for good luck. Wearing "something blue" also was a traditional custom.

Katharine had taught school in a one-room schoolhouse in Manitoba when she was sixteen years old. Her mother Beatrice Frizzell (nee Rorke) had been a Schoolteacher as well, but had to quit her job (1895-1899) at the Craigleith School when she married. Katharine's sister, Kathleen, also worked as a schoolteacher. When the sisters were young, they had waited so that they could go off to school together (does this refer to public school? or Model School ? or high school?).

Reverend Stuart Henry Brownlee was 27 when they wed, Katharine was 26.

After Katharine married Stuart, they set off for their honeymoon. In his excitement, Stuart wasn't concentrating when he went to a service station garage to fill up his car's gas tank. He accidentally backed up over a container of glass motor oil bottles, breaking many of them. He had to pay the garage three dollars for the breakage of them. Service stations used to have quart-sized, metal-nozzled motor oil bottles kept in stands that could be sat outside by the gasoline pump, and then brought back into the garage at night. The bottles were re-used, so the breakage would have likely inconvenienced the garage owner until he could get new ones. Katharine and Stuart's honeymoon trip was to ____________.

Stuart was an Anglican minister, and Katharine assisted him in entertaining and participating in social groups and his church work.

They resided at Kerrwood, Ontario. Rev. Canon S. H. Brownlee passed away in 1962. In 1963, Katharine Brownlee, was working as a Warden of a Women's Residence at Hellmuth Hall, in Huron County.

She passed away in 2000.

TROUSSEAU TEA
Bride-elects used to have "Trousseau Teas" held for them. The following is what Katharine Frizzell wrote down to record hers:
"Trousseau Tea at Kay's home, 1080 4th Ave. A. W. on Aug. 9th--- Alma and Isabel assisting in afternoon in rooms upstairs. June Taylor & Betty Schondelmayer at the door. Frances F. and Marie Dunnings/Cummings helped serve [a] buffet luncheon. Mrs. Hamilton pouring tea. In the evening Gwen & Muriel upstairs. May Lees, & Mary Middlebro assisting Kay. Olive F. at the tea tray, & Olivia Seeley at the door. About one hundred came --mother received with me. Table was done in golden rod, gold tapers, & tulle. I wore [a] rose satin & chiffon dress.
Also showed things at Bognor on Aug. 2nd. -- all [the] village women & girls came -- Isabel Shields & Florence Boyd assisted with lunch.
Trousseau dresses -- yellow crepe with green moire coat $30; grey & mauve French hup sacking, 3-piece suit $35; green celauese (sp.?) voile over yellow slip; black satin-faced crepe; beige & brown silk crepe; mauve dress & white & mauve picque coat; beige & brown 2-piece jersey; 4 house-dresses.
Coats: ---slicker; brown kitten's ear cloth (bought in Toronto at $9.50 per yd. --made by Hannah M.).
Best linen tablecloth & napkins - Smalluran & Ingram's, London -$1.50 - willow pattern" (This likely refers to a gift of Blue Willow patterned china dishes?)

In 1929, there was a wedding announcement published in the Owen Sound Daily Sun Times newspaper:
WEDDINGS
BROWNLEE---FRIZZELL
A nuptial ceremony of gracious dignity and simple loveliness was solemnized in St. George's Anglican Church on Wednesday, August 14, 1929, at twelve o'clock noon, when Katharine Crawford, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Frizzell of Bognor, became the bride of Rev. Stuart Henry Brownlee of Kerrwood, Ont., son of Mrs. Brownlee of London. Rev. Carew Hallowell of Brantford, brother-in-law of the groom, performed the ceremony, assisted by the rector of St. George's church, Rev. W. J. Taylor. The sacred edifice with its atmosphere of worship and mellow beauty was never more beautifully decked with flowers. The Girls' Auxiliary were responsible for the impressive arrangement of palms, ferns and flowers, white and green predominantly, with pastel touches of yellow and blue blossoms.
The bride, who was escorted to the altar and given in marriage by her father, looked radiantly pretty in her simple costume of white [actually ivory] charmeuse satin with veil and carried a bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley, arranged in a shower. She was attended by her sister, Mrs. F. Stanley Rivers, as Matron of Honor, and most becomingly gowned in yellow moire taffeta and matching mohair hat with (a) touch of blue. Mrs. Rivers carried a blue and yellow floral bouquet. Rev. Reginald Appleyard of Florence, Ont., supported the groom. The bridal party took their places to the strains of Lohengrin's Bridal Chorus, rendered by Mr. R. G. Geen, of Guelph, who also presided at the organ throughout the ceremony, playing softly and later rendered Mendelssohn's wedding march. At the conclusion of the ceremony of marriage, a communion service was held at the altar for the bride and groom. During the signing of the register, Mrs. W. J. Taylor, very sweetly sang "All Joy be Thine". The ushers were: Rev. James Allan of Ottawa, and Rev. Harold Appreyard, of Bervie, Ont."

FAMILY HISTORY
Katharine's mother, Beatrice, was a life-long resident of the Bognor area of Sydenham Township. Beatrice was born at "Sydenham Mills" (the original name of Bognor), on October 8 (or 3rd?), 1873, in a log house that her father had rented from the mill owner. Beatrice was the eleventh child of her family. Her parents were William Doane Rorke and Eliza Morris Wilson Rorke. Beatrice was descended from John Rorke of Waterford, Ireland. Her father, William, was a carpenter and builder who moved his family from Newmarket to Sydenham Mills in 1873, when the population was then only "ten souls". As a schoolgirl, Beatrice walked two miles from Bognor to attend the No. 9 school. Her teacher there, James G. Carrie, encouraged her to do further schooling, so she attended the Meaford District High School, and also a Model School there (for her teacher's training). Beatrice began teaching in 1895 at Craigleith, and worked there until she married Thomas Frizzell, in September, 1899. During both of the World Wars, she worked as a supply teacher, as teachers were in very short supply. Her husband, Thomas, passed away on Sept. 27, 1937. They were members of St. Matthew's Anglican Church, and Beatrice was the organist there. She was keen about music, books, her church, and she also was very involved with the Women's Institute, as a branch, district and county President. One of her son-in-laws, Dr. Floyd Rivers, was Chief Director of Education for Ontario (c. 1963), and Beatrice's youngest daughter Katharine, in 1963, was the widow of the late Rev. Canon S. H. Brownlee, and then working as a Warden of the Women's Residence at Hellmuth Hall, in Huron County. Beatrice had four grand-children, and one great-grandchild in 1963. Beatrice Evelyn Frizzell died June 10, 1967, and is buried at St. Matthew's Anglican cemetery.

Thomas Frizzell was a Farmer and Cattle Dealer at the time of his marriage to Beatrice. The Frizzell family had originated from Sligo, Ireland, and emigrated to Canada in the late 1840s. Six Frizzell households within two square miles in Sydenham Township had given the name "Frizzell Settlement" there in the early days. Robert Frizzell Sr. was the eldest of seven brothers. His brother, David Frizzell Sr., married Jane Crawford of Cincinnati in 1857. David and Jane had six sons and two daughters: Robert, Thomas, William, David, John, James, Frances (Mrs. George McKinley) and Martha (m. Frank O'Brien). The second son, Thomas Frizzell, who married Beatrice Rorke, occupied the Frizzell homestead farm from 1899 to 1912, at which time they moved to their village home in Bognor. The home farm was next occupied by Robert Frizzell Jr. and his wife Ethel (nee Heming) and their family (Grey Roots Museum has some items that pertain to this Frizzell family).

Katharine's sister, Kathleen Morris Frizzell, was born on Jan. 28, 1901 in Sydenham Township. When she was 24, Kathleen married Floyd Stanley Rivers. Floyd was a highschool teacher at Owen Sound at the time, from Teeswater (son of Albert Rivers of Seaforth). Floyd taught at the O.S.C.V.I. They were married at St. Matthew's Anglican Church on Dec. 12, 1925.

Occupation

Schoolteacher / Teacher
Spouse of an Anglican Clergyman
Warden at a Women's Residence in Huron County

Publications

Ontario Birth Record, 1903, for Catherine Crawford Frizzell (sic)
"Mrs. T. Frizzell Looks Back Over 90 Years at Bognor", OWEN SOUND SUN-TIMES, October, 1963
HISTORY OF SYDENHAM TOWNSHIP, 1967 (see the Frizzell farm history)

Relationships

Only sibling: Kathleen Morris Frizzell (b. Jan. 28, 1901), m. Floyd Stanley Rivers, Dec. 12, 1925
Aunt: Alice Maude Rorke (m. John Frizzell), lived at Burnaby, B.C., d. 1962, age 92
Grandparents: William Doane Rorke and Eliza Morris Wilson
Descended from 19th-c John Rorke of Waterford, Ireland