Faith Fenton (1857-1936)
Alice Matilda Freeman was born in Bowmanville, Canada West, on 14 January 1857. Her father, William Henry Freeman (1930-1914), was a furniture maker, and her mother, Mary Ann Lillie Freeman (b. 1830), raised Alice and her many siblings.
Alice attended Bowmanville Union School until her family moved to Barrie, ON, in 1867. Inexplicably, Alice was shipped back to Bowmanville to live with the Reverend Thomas Reikie (1819-1900) and his wife Margaret Reikie (1829-1871). When Margaret died in 1871, Alice returned to her parents in Barrie. She later returned to Bowmanville to finish her studies, after which she moved to Toronto to study as a teacher at the Toronto Normal and Model schools. After graduating, Alice taught at a number of schools in the Toronto area: the Palace Street School until 1877; the Niagara Street School until 1881; the John Street School until 1883; and the Ryerson School, until 1894.
While teaching, Alice began writing for the Barrie newspaper the
Northern Advance. Her first articles were signed with her initials, "A.F." only. When she was offered a regular column in the paper, exploring themes of fashion, politics, social ills, and travel, she began using “Stella,” developing a loyal following under that name. In 1887 and 1888, she first adopted the pen name “Faith Fenton” on the children’s page of the Toronto Globe weekend edition. She gradually adopted this name for everyday use, although official documents still recorded her as Alice Freeman or later Alice Freeman Brown. Around the same time, still as Faith Fenton, she began writing the Woman’s Empire column for the new Empire newspaper. Despite her growing success as a writer, Faith was forced to keep her job as a schoolteacher in order to supplement her income.
In 1889, the
Empire paid for her to take a six-week trip aboard the lighthouse supply boat, the Canada. Traversing the length of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, she wrote ten articles on the journey, solidifying her celebrity back home. During her work with the Empire, Faith interviewed famous opera singer Emma Albani (1847-1930) and the prominent advocate of women’s suffrage, Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906); she also became acquainted with Prime Ministers John A. MacDonald (1815-1891) and Wilfred Laurier (1841-1919). In 1893, Faith took an unpaid leave from teaching to report on the World’s Exposition in Chicago for Woman’s Empire, the main purpose being to cover the meeting of the International Council of Women.
In February of 1894, Faith resigned as a schoolteacher after nineteen years, with the hope of becoming a full-time journalist. But a year later, in 1895, the
Empire merged with the Mail and Faith lost her only steady job. For a number of months, she sold her syndicated column to other newspapers, such as the Union Advocate, the Ottawa Citizen, the Galt Reporter, and the Evening News (Toronto).
In October 1895, the
Home Journal launched its first issue, with Faith as its editor. Faith made space for reports on organizations like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Young Women’s Christian Guild, and appointing her close friend Lady Ishbel Aberdeen (1857-1939)—president of the International Council of Women and wife of the Governor General of Canada—as editor of the women’s group section. This move resulted in her removal as editor in 1897; it is likely that the proprietors of the magazine perceived Faith as turning it into a propaganda pamphlet for the National Council of Women of Canada.
Following her termination, Faith managed to secure an exclusive interview with Janet Carlyle Hanning (1813-1897), the sister of famous philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). The article was printed in the
Empire (2 October 1897), with several American publications vying for exclusive American rights to a series of articles on the correspondence. With the loss of her editorship, Faith also made a bold move: she planned a journey to the Klondike. The proposed column on the journey was picked up by the Globe, and, in 1898, she set off with a group of the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) for Dawson, YT.
While in the Klondike, Faith also secured a position as Assistant Private Secretary to William Ogilvie (1846-1912), the Yukon’s second Commissioner, where she worked alongside Dr. John Brown (1864-1943). After a brief courtship, John Brown and Faith Fenton married, on 1 January 1900, and Faith resigned from the Commissioner’s Office and continued to write only sporadically for the
Globe; at this point, she sometimes signed herself as Faith Fenton-Brown.
In the summer of 1904, John and Faith left Dawson with initial plans to return after John studied bacteriology at Toronto General Hospital and Johns Hopkins University, but departmental politics resulted in the position of territorial secretary being abolished and the couple never returned, abandoning their Yukon home and possessions.
In Toronto, John became the House Surgeon and Medical Superintendent of Toronto General Hospital in July 1905. Faith took on the task of entertaining in their home and joined John on his travels, and her journalist output dwindled. Faith did attend meetings of the newly formed Canadian Women’s Press Club sporadically and still published the occasional article.
John and Faith celebrated their thirty-sixth wedding anniversary on New Year’s Day, 1936. A few days later, Faith was taken ill with pneumonia and died on 10 January 1936.
Father: William Henry Freeman
(25 March 1830 – 29 March 1914)
William Henry Freeman was born to William Freeman, a songwriter and musician who left his middle-class roots in Colchester, England. His mother, a Miss Lardner, was an actress. William was their only son.
William met Mary Ann Lillie (1830-1922) in the late 1840s and the couple married in 1851. After immigrating to Brooklyn, NY, around 1854, the couple decided to move further north to Bowmanville, a community forty miles east of Toronto, Canada West, where William Henry worked as a furniture maker and Mary Ann raised their many children.
In addition to building furniture, William was an avid musician, joining local musical groups including the Orono band, the Anglican Church choir, and a quartet. After his musical attentions began to supersede his income, the family decided to move to Barrie, ON, where (according to a friend) there were good opportunities for cabinet-makers. The move to Barrie afforded William considerable success, and his establishment, Crystal Palace Stores, soon became known for its quality furniture. By the end of the 1870s, he began acquiring houses in Toronto.
Mother: Mary Ann Lillie
(January 1830 – 1 August 1922)
Mary Ann Lillie was the daughter of Mary Kesner Lillie and an English soldier. Her mother died young, leaving her alone, as the soldier had abandoned his family. According to stories told to her children, Mary Ann was taken in by a wealthy stranger, who cared for and raised her.
In the late 1840s, Mary Ann met William Henry Freeman (1830-1914) and they were married in 1851. The couple emigrated from England to Brooklyn, NY, around 1854, but after becoming dissatisfied with the city, they moved further north to Bowmanville, Canada West. Mary Ann Freeman bore around ten children over twenty-two years. She died on 1 August 1922.
Siblings
Henry Freeman (1832 – 1832)
Mary Ann Freeman (1852 – 9 February 1923)
Henry William Freeman (b. 20 October 1853): m. Ada Constance Kestin (1857-1893); m. Hannah Matilda Johnston (1867-1939)
Lily Eliza Freeman (6 September 1859 – 23 August 1926): m. Herbert E. Johnson (1862-1934)
Frederick John Freeman (1 July 1860 – 1 July 1917): Elizabeth Eleanor Warner (1860-1942)
James Francis Freeman (b. 1865): Edith Katherine Kestin
Edith Henrietta Freeman (1867 – 25 April 1921)
Florence Emma Freeman (1875 – March 1936): m. John Kerr Sparling (1872-1941)
Grace Freeman (b. 1875)
Arthur Peter Freeman (b. 9 August 1876)
Spouse: John Nelson Elliot Brown (14 September 1864 – 27 October 1943)
Marriage:
1 January 1900, Dawson, YT
John Brown was born in East Nissouri Township, ON, to John Brown (1834-1914) and his wife Isabel (1837-1911). He attended St. Mary’s Church and began work as a schoolteacher in a country school before enrolling to study medicine at the University of Toronto in 1888. After graduating in 1892, he became a house-surgeon at Toronto General Hospital and was appointed chief Obstetrician at St. Michael’s Hospital.
In 1898, after the discovery of gold in the Klondike, John Brown set out with his medical bag and typewriter to work in the mining town of Dawson, YT. He was hired by William Ogilvie (1846-1912) as a secretary, was appointed Territorial Secretary and later became the Yukon Territories’ Medical Officer of Health; in 1901, he was making an annual salary of $375.
While stationed in Dawson, John met Faith Fenton (1857-1936), who was working as a correspondent for
The Globe and later became John’s private secretary under William Ogilvie. The couple married on 1 January 1900 in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Dawson. In 1904, John and Faith left Dawson in order for John to study bacteriology at Toronto General Hospital and Johns Hopkins University. The couple planned to return to Dawson with an x-ray machine for the hospital, but after John’s position as Territorial Secretary was abolished and the local government underwent massive changes, John and Faith found no reason to return.
The couple settled in Toronto, where John found success as house-surgeon and Medical Superintendent of Toronto General Hospital in 1905. The year after Faith died in 1936, John married Olive Freeman (b. 1885), Faith’s niece. John died in 1943 and was buried next to Faith.