A SCOTT-BROWN-McCANN STORY
/How Do You Solve A Problem Like Aunt Annie?
MALONE SCHOOL TEACHER, ANNIE SCOTT BOUCHARD
By GG Niece Sandra Townsend
When I embarked on the study of my McCann family roots (an effort that I have titled “The McCann’s of Malone”), I was stymied when trying to find a fit for Aunt Annie. My mother’s generation were all gone. I was sadly confronted by “questions not asked”. So I turned to my cousins’ collective memories. All of them had memories and stories of encounters with Aunt Annie, but no one appeared to know quite how she had earned the “Aunt” title or how she fit into the family dynamic. That is how “Aunt Annie” became my problem.
I came across a scrap of paper from my Mother’s Treasures, the contents of which held an outline of the James and Martha Scott family of Marmora. This scrap of paper had been given to my mother and her siblings by Aunt Annie’s son, Scott Bouchard. Mother and son Bouchard, both represented larger than life characters in the lives of my mother’s (Bessie McCann’s) Malone area siblings and first cousins.
What did I know?
I knew that Aunt Annie (1878-1958) had been a teacher. I knew that her son Scott lived in Florida and was retired from the United States Navy. However, I did not know Aunt Annie’s story. Where did she live?
She arrived at our home for occasional visits. She didn’t drive. Each visit left stories and memories. Sitting at her feet while she recited “Little Bateese” by William Henry Drummond, being told that we must address our mother as “Mother” and never “Mommy”. Being invited to visit her in her room at the McCann farm in Malone and given Welch's grape juice as an offering of hospitality. Learning that for a time she had an extended stay with my mother’s eldest sister Freda (McCann) Neal in Oshawa. Hearing my father amusingly tell us about coming home in the night after a late run from his job as a railroader and climbing into his bed only to find Aunt Annie there. Her visit had come unexpectedly and my mother had given up their room. This may have been the same visit that my father shared his concern, that when as our family of six young children were gathered at the dinner table, Aunt Annie felt the need to rinse her dentures in her water glass. Much to our parent’s relief not one of us reacted to this event despite our disbelief; not regarding the etiquette, but that you could remove your teeth!
So, my research began.
Meet Anna Scott, born in 1878 as the sixth and final child of James and Martha SCOTT, both born in Co. Sligo Ireland. Anna’s nearest in age sibling, Joseph was six years older. Her parents raised their family in Shanick. My grandmother, Annie (Brown) McCANN and her only sibling, sister Maggie (Brown) McCANN called her Anna even though she was their mother’s sister, making her their aunt. Their mother Mary (Scott) Brown is Anna’s older sister. Anna’s nieces, Annie and Maggie (who married the McCann brothers, Charles and John) would play a vital role in Anna Scott’s later life.
rT TO LT: lITTLE jOHN sCOTT, HIS MOTHER mARY sCOTT, aUNT aNNA sCOTT (STANDING), jAMES sCOTT jR., aNNIE bROWN (STANDING), mAGGIE bROWN, SEATED & mARY sCOTT bROWN
In 1901, 22-year-old Anna has left her parents’ home. It is a suspicion only but I feel that Anna may have attended the Ontario Ladies College in Whitby. Anna appears to have taken my mother, 13-year-old Bessie McCann (her grand niece) with her to what appeared to be a class reunion there in 1940, according to a postcard found in my mother’s treasures. My mother in later life, voiced, that her younger self’s desire was to be a teacher. Aunt Annie may have tried to foster that plan.
Twenty-eight-year-old Anna loses her father. James Scott dies in 1907 and his obituary indicates that daughter Miss Annie is teaching in New York State. Her oldest sister Kathryn is married to Dr. Thom. Hallett in Clyde N.Y.
In Anna’s thirtieth year her mother Martha dies in December of 1909. I have noted that women’s obituaries at that time did not seem to state a “survived by” statement. By 1915 Anna Scott now 36, is back in Marmora Twp. And teaching at S.S. #6 Malone.
I know this from reading her brother John Scott’s obituary. He had moved from Shanick to Malone, to farm his sister, Mary (Scott) Brown’s land when her husband Wm. Armstrong Brown died in 1896. Her daughters, Anna and Margaret, were 3 and 1 when their father died. I suspect that Anna Scott was living with her sister Mary (Scott) Brown in her Malone home in 1915.
In 1921 I found 41-year-old Aunt Annie in Flinton, Kaladar Twp. Lot 22 Concession 4. She was listed as the wife of Charles Bouchard. There were two daughters, 12 and 8 and a one-year-old son Arthur. I don’t believe that Anna is mother to the daughters. In earlier census, I note that Charles Bouchard has a wife Margaret and six children. Four of those children should have been still in his home in 1921. The youngest daughter would have been born after the 1911 Census. Perhaps his wife died after her birth. If that is the case where are the missing children? I know that Anna is mother to Arthur. His middle name is Scott and that is how we identified him.
This is the last time that Anna (Scott) Bouchard can be located in a released census.
Charles Bouchard is present on his property in the 1931 census. He declares as married and as a farmer. There is no one living with him listed as his wife. There are two older sons residing with him, 30-year-old Louis and 23-year-old Douglas. Louis does not appear in earlier census documents but his age aligns with a son Audley. Perhaps Louis is a middle name he commonly uses. Both sons declare as Trappers.
MALONE SCHOOL S.S. #6 Teacher describes break-in at the school house FAIRLY CAUGHT Nov. 30, 1922 -Malone school CLICK HERE TO READ THIS AUNT ANNIE STORY None of us who knew Aunt Annie are surprised by her reaction or actions in this story.
Anna’s story takes a remarkable turn, but one that speaks to the beginnings of Women’s Rights in Ontario and Canada. None of those who knew her would expect her to “toe the line” or tolerate a situation that did not meet her comfort level or needs.
As seen above in 1922 and 1924 our Aunt Annie has a new name. Her life with that name is next. It definitely has some missing parts, that she took with her to her grave. My imagination perceives a situation where a 41 year old very proper Anna, perhaps teaching in Flinton, either marries Charles Bouchard and conceives a child, or conceives a child and then marries. Either way, Charles Bouchard has a large family that are not mentioned in this census. Where are those children? What happened to the first Mrs. Bouchard? Anna appears to withdraw from this living arrangement, as she is in Malone teaching for the next two school years. I suspect that she may be residing with the duplexed household of Charles and John McCann, husbands to her nieces Annie and Maggie (Brown) McCann, with her son Scott.
The Charles and Annie McCann household moved to Eldorado in 1928. The 1934 picture above shows Aunt Annie at 55 and son Scott 13 on the front step of the Charles and Annie (Brown) McCann home in Eldorado in 1934. They likely were residing there at that time. The note states that Scott enters the US Naval Academy three years later in 1937.
The Marmora Herald Sept. 28, 1950 states that JOSEPH JONES SCOTT “is also survived by one sister, Mrs. Annie Bouchard, of Malone”
In 1950 at 72 years old, Aunt Annie mourns her brother Joseph Scott. Her location is stated as Malone. So at this point she would be residing at her niece, now newly widowed, Maggie (Brown) McCann’s home.
I truly do not know how Aunt Annie, student, career woman, married lady (of sorts…), mother and most predominantly Aunt, supported her life. As she reached 70 years of age in 1948, she would have been eligible for the Canadian Old Age Pension. From what I am learning of that time, life got better for most in the post-war times relative to the Depression years and rationing of the War years; senior’s government pensions however did not keep up with inflation. I suspect that her son, who himself was only married briefly and late in life, contributed financially to her well-being. I have no proof of that circumstance. I do know that she mainly resided with her nieces Annie and Maggie McCann. Family, supporting family, certainly an historical norm and expectation. I do have proof of that from letters that Dorothy (McCann) Reeves saved from after she married and left her Malone family home and moved to Belleville
May 31, 1948 Dorothy’s Mother Maggie McCann wrote:
“Aunt Anna wants to go to Belleville soon on Business, but I don’t know if Dad will want to go some Saturday or not as you know he don’t like driving in the city anytime and he says Saturday is always heavy traffic.” “Aunt Anna asked if I minded if she stayed another month with me, and of course I didn’t mind as in the winter she stays more at Annie’s. Anyway, I didn’t mind.” August 31, 1948 Maggie continued:
BURIAL Marmora Common Cemetery
THE GALLERY
“Maggie continued: “Aunt Anna is about to take a trip over to the States. She said she would like to go over to Annie’s this week and then she is planning to go from there.”
THE SCOTT FAMILY TREE
THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF BROTHER, JOHN SCOTT
Post Script: After Anna’s death, a Bouchard step brother contacted her son Scott. Anna had never advised Scott that there was any Bouchard family. He was extremely upset by this news and had his name removed from her tombstone. At his death he chose to have his ashes placed in the sea in Florida.
