Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID # |
1961.027.006 |
Object Name |
Buttonhook |
Title |
Button Hook |
Lexicon category |
3: Personal Artifacts |
Date |
pre-1865? |
Artist |
Unidentified maker |
Made |
Unknown |
Place of Origin |
Unknown |
Description |
Wooden-handled button hook, 19th-c. Likely a steel hook. It is very plain-looking. Belonged to Catharine B. Sutton and her family. |
Makers mark |
None |
Provenance |
This buttonhook is a 19th-century item (possibly from the 1850s?). It reportedly belonged to Catharine B. Sutton (neé Nahneebahweequay or Catharine Brown Sunego). She was an Ojibwa (Anishnaabe) woman who married an Englishman, William Sutton, in 1839, at the Credit River Mission (a Wesleyan Methodist mission that was assisting Ojibwa families). Catharine Sutton was an adept needlewoman and also did fine sewing, knitting, embroidery and beadwork. She had learned various handwork skills at the Credit Indian Mission where she was educated and had spent much of her childhood at in the 1830s. Mrs. Sutton died in September of 1865, so it may pre-date then, as it was found amidst her needleworking implements. The Suttons had moved their family from the Credit River area to what would later be known as Grey County in the mid 1840s, in order to assist the Newash Ojibwa band with missionary work. The Newash Band gave Mrs. Sutton and her heirs a quantity of land in what later became Sarawak Township, Canada West. When an 1857 land treaty with the Crown occurred, Mrs. Sutton was in jeopardy of losing her land, as she could not legally obtain title, as she was an "Indian", and could not even purchase it at auction. This injustice, and others, led her to becoming a spokesperson for her people. She was elected by the Council at Rama to be their envoy to England in order to speak to Queen Victoria about the unfair situation for aboriginal people in Canada West. Mrs. Sutton was of the Eagle Totem and was born circa 1824 and raised at the Credit Indian Mission (near the Credit River near Lake Ontario). Her name "Nahneebahweequay" meant "Upright Woman" or "black squirrel". Mrs. Sutton died in September of 1865, at her log home in Sarawak Township, Grey County, so the item likely pre-dates that year. She and Mr. Sutton still had young children to raise when she died. Her mother assisted Mr. Sutton after she passed away, as did Miss Catherine Sutton, the eldest daughter. The item was passed down in the family, eventually belonging to Mrs. Catherine Morgan (nee Catherine Staves) of Brantford, Ontario, who was a grand-daughter of Catharine and William Sutton. Catherine Staves was married to Reverend Alfred Morgan. Alfred Morgan was the last owner of the item. Catherine Staves and Alfred Morgan were married at Toronto on August 14, 1906. Catherine Staves was the daughter of Joseph Staves (a cooper), and Sophia Staves (neé Sutton). Sophia Staves had died of consumption in Sarawak Township on May 17, 1875, and Mr. William Sutton raised his grandchildren, Catherine Staves (b. 18__) and her brother, William Percy Staves (b. April 10, 1875) in Sarawak Township. |
Collection |
Toiletry & Cosmetic Collection |
Material |
Wood/Metal/Finish |
Found |
Brantford, Ontario |
People |
Sutton, Catharine Sutton, William Sutton, Catherine Sutton, Albert Morgan, Catherine Morgan, Alfred |
Subjects |
Buttons (Fasteners) First Nations of Central Canada |
Search Terms |
Sarawak Township Victorian Ojibwa (Anishnaabe, Anishnibeg) |