The Barrie Branch, 1958–1985

No branch outside Woodstock and Hamilton wrote its own year-by-year history while it was running. What survives of Barrie is a founding notice in the issue after it happened, a Branch Report in most spring issues from 1958 on, and one retrospective written five years after the branch closed. This page is assembled from that run rather than transcribed from a single document, and every claim below names the issue and page it comes from. Where two sources disagree, both are given.

A night-school class in Barrie

The branch began with one member and her pupils. Clara Cavanagh of Barrie was drawn to the Society soon after it formed, and in the early years “travelled to Toronto by bus … to avail herself of classes in leather given by such masters as Don MacKinnon and Bob Muma”. She was soon teaching an adult night-school class at a local collegiate herself, and “from this group enough interested leathercrafters gathered to start a Barrie branch of C.S.C.L. in 1958”. (Summer 1990, page 3.) Her obituary in Autumn 1987 says the same in fewer words: “She and her pupils formed the nucleus of the Barrie Branch of C.S.C.L.”

• Formed March 1958; first Chairman, Miss Kay Yasunaka
• Grew out of Clara Cavanagh's adult night-school class at a Barrie collegiate
• Won the Weston Trophy six times — 1962, 1963, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1981
• Hosted the Annual Meeting in 1964, 1967, 1972, 1979 and 1985
• Surrendered its charter in 1985; the members continued at large

The three accounts of Clara Cavanagh's own standing do not agree. Summer 1990 page 3 has her an Associate “by 1953” and a Fellow in 1955; Autumn 1987 page 4 gives Associate 1953 and Fellow 1955; Summer 1981 page 3 gives membership in 1953, Associate standing in 1955 and the Fellowship in 1956. The contemporary newsletters settle the two later dates in favour of the Summer 1981 account: Summer 1955 page 9 names her among the new Associates awarded certificates at the Annual Meeting of 8 May 1955, and Spring 1956 page 6 reports that “At the Annual Meeting April 21st, Mrs. Clara Cavanagh of Barrie, Ontario, was elected a Fellow member.” The 1953 membership date rests on the retrospectives alone.

The founding itself is dated by the Annual Meeting of 12 April 1958, at which the branches reported in turn: “Barrie: A new branch was formed in March of this year and is now under the Chairmanship of Miss Kay Yasunaka.” (Spring 1958, page 3.) That sentence is the earliest mention of the branch in the run, and it is where its founding date comes from.

The tannery

Barrie was a leather town, and the branch's retrospective says the siting was no accident: “As a location for a C.S.C.L. branch we feel that Barrie was ideally situated.” Kay Yasunaka “was employed at the Clarke & Clarke Tannery at Barrie and along with Garn Pratt (a salesman with the same firm and an excellent leather carver) and Sherle Bottrill Secretary and Receptionist, they cemented the relationship between our members and this producer of fine leather. Eventually, Robson Lang took over the tannery operation and some years later the retail portion of Clarke & Clarke was purchased by Tandy.” (Summer 1990, page 3.)

Clarke & Clarke Leathers of Barrie were one of the eleven firms listed as Sustaining Members in the Society's very first newsletter in September 1951, seven years before there was a branch in their town, and they were still putting up prize money for the Society's competitors in the 1960s.

May Corbett's recreation room

The branch acquired its long-term home by accident in 1960. “The fall session of night classes was overbooked in 1960. Picture that! In order to avoid disappointment for some new pupils, four members withdrew and convened in May Corbett's recreation room to continue working and learning together. Sherle Bottrill, Eleanor Coutts and Jepp Trew were soon joined by others who were lured by the good fellowship and fun that went along with the hard work. May's room quickly became our ‘club house’ and several Weston Trophy plaques hang there today.” (Summer 1990, page 3.)

Branch reports through the 1960s confirm it: meetings “at the home of the President, Mrs. May Corbett, Highland Avenue” (Winter 1963, page 6), “with few exceptions … on the last Wednesday of each month at the home of our President” (Spring 1965, page 2). May Corbett's own profile adds that “for many years May's recreation room has been home base for the Barrie Branch and our collection of Weston Trophy plaques adorns the wall there”, and that she had been asked to become Treasurer at her second meeting, “all this before she had actually paid her membership fee” (Autumn 1974, page 6). She went on to be President of the Society, elected in 1975.

A year in the life: 1963–64

The fullest single account the branch left is its report to the Annual Meeting of 1964. “During the year there were two executive and eleven regular meetings held, with an average attendance of 14 out of a membership of 21. Barrie Branch meets on the last Wednesday of the month with the exception of July and August.” Two socials were held — one entertaining the Hamilton Branch, the other a get-together with spouses followed by a visit to the Simcoe County Museum at Midhurst. The year's projects were a table centre, a braided belt, a leather tray, jewellery and a stacked pen.

“Apart from the activity at home, 10 members travelled to Rochester for the International Assembly where one member judged and one demonstrated. Ten members assisted with the Annual Christmas Sale in the Canadian Handicrafts Guild Gallery at Toronto at which articles of 9 members were sold.” One member took a recommendation award in the Ontario Souvenir and Handcraft Competition and a first prize at the C.N.E.; another took the Chatelaine Award and three prizes at the C.N.E.; “a third member had a stacked pen set chosen (at the Christmas Sale) for use in the Legislative Library in the Parliament Buildings in Toronto.” (Spring 1964, page 5.)

1964-65 Executive

President       Mrs. May Corbett
Vice-President  Miss Helen Anderson
Secretary       Mrs. Joy Findlay
Treasurer       Mrs. Kay Cloughley

“Jepp Trew” is what the page prints; the archive also holds a Dwayne Trew and a Jessie Trew of Barrie, and no source seen here says whether Jepp is either of them, so no identification is made.

The Weston Trophy

Barrie won the Society's branch competition in its fourth year and then would not let go of it. “The Trophy this year was won by our youngest branch BARRIE. The three branches competing all scored higher than 80% with Barrie rating 89.7%.” (Spring 1962, page 2.) Two years later: “Another first was set! The Barrie Branch is the first to win the Weston Trophy three years in succession. The five winning articles were crafted by Mrs. Clara Cavanagh; Mrs. Hilda Darbyshire; Mrs. Betty Heacock; Mrs. Jessie Trew and Mr. Dwayne Trew.” (Spring 1964, page 1.) (See the Weston Trophy roll.)

The trophy came back in 1969, at 90.3 per cent, received for the branch by its president Eleanor Coutts; in 1974, at the Annual Meeting at Belleville; and in 1981, when Barrie averaged 85.5 per cent against Woodstock's 84.8 and took first place with a shoe bag, a serviette holder, a card case, a tray and a carrying case for a bird book (Summer 1981, pages 2 and 8). Six wins in all.

The roll of winners transcribed from the trophy shield in Winter 1989 (page 10) prints Barrie's six years as “1963, 1963, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1981”. The repeated 1963 is a slip: the Annual Meeting report of Spring 1962 gives Barrie the trophy that year, and the branch's own 1962–63 report claims it. The archive files the six as 1962, 1963, 1964, 1969, 1974 and 1981.

Host to the Society

“For the first time in the 14 years of its existence the Annual Meeting of the C.S.C.L was held in a city other than Toronto. On April 4th, 1964 the members met at the Central United Church Hall in Barrie. The Barrie Branch of the C.S.C.L. played host to the meeting.” The day began at nine with registration and the setting up of displays, “the coffee and cookies served by the Barrie group were very much appreciated, especially by those who had to leave home by 6 a.m.” (Spring 1964, page 1.) The branch hosted the Seventeenth Annual Meeting at Barrie on 8 April 1967 as well, the twenty-second on 22 April 1972 and the twenty-ninth at the Continental Inn over 20–22 April 1979, and the Society's 35th, at the Continental Inn in Barrie over 26–28 April 1985.

Barrie hands are visible at other people's events too: the cover of the itinerary for the International Assembly “was designed by Hilda Darbyshire of Barrie and assisted by the Barrie Branch members, colored and assembled the folders” (Autumn 1967, page 4); the branch represented the Society at the Collingwood Art and Craft Show in the summer of 1969; and from the early 1970s onward Barrie took its turn writing whole issues of Canadian Leathercraft — the masthead names “Reporters this issue — Barrie Branch” in 1972, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982 and 1983.

What the branch made

The branch had its own badge by 1962: “The Branch now have their own identification pin choosing the shield and the rose, the rose being the chosen flower of Barrie.” (Winter 1962, page 11.) Its programme ran to demonstrations of moulding and dyeing leather trays, embossing and stacked pens, filigree pendants, macramé, gloves, sandals and carved wallets. In Spring 1970 the newsletter gave a page to Barrie's moulded animal pins and reached for a Japanese word for them: “‘shibui’ … to describe something which hits you just right”, made of 6 oz. leather, the expression on their faces “created with just a few well-placed knife cuts”. In 1982 the emphasis was “Back to Basics”, with eight meetings held “in spite of illness among our membership and severe winter weather” (Spring 1982, page 11, by Kay Cloughley).

By 1980 the branch had moved out of the recreation room: its president was Mrs. Joy Findlay and it met at St. Monica's Public School on Steele Street, Barrie (Autumn 1980, page 8).

Officers after 1964

The branch's own reports and the Society's Annual Meeting programmes carry the slate on past the 1964–65 executive above. Del Jacombs signed the branch's annual report as Secretary for 1962–63 and sat on the Society's Executive Council by 1970; John Findlay was Treasurer in 1967–68. (Spring 1963, pages 5–6; Spring 1970, page 6; 1967-spring no. 3, page 12.) Garry Walsh — printed Gary Walsh in some issues — was Branch President in 1975 and 1976, while serving at the same time as the Society's own 2nd Vice-President, and was Vice-President again in 1980; John Marsden was his Vice-President in 1975, the year he also demonstrated pine cone carving at the Society's 25th Annual. (Summer 1975, page 3; Summer 1976, page 2; the Annual Meeting programmes of 1976 and 1981.)

Emma Knowles was Branch President from 1977 to 1979 and Secretary again in 1982. Two Society documents disagree about her office in between: the 1975 Annual Meeting's own printed Barrie report gives the incoming 1975–77 executive as Secretary Emma Knowles, Treasurer Kay Naftel, while the 1976 Annual Meeting programme reprints the same two-year term the opposite way round, Knowles as Treasurer and Naftel as Secretary — both readings clear on their own page, and the archive's register keeps both rather than choosing. Sharon Walsh was Treasurer in 1977, and Bill Newton was Vice-President in 1981 and 1982. (The 26th, 27th, 31st and 32nd Annual Meeting programmes; 1978-spring, page 2; 1980-january, page 1.) Knowles herself took a Craftsman Ribbon in 1977 and another in 1981 for a red moulded tray — very likely the tray among the five pieces that won Barrie's sixth Weston Trophy that year, above. (Summer 1977, page 3; Summer 1981, page 9.)

1985: the charter surrendered

“Illness and changes in membership have forced both Barrie Branch and Belleville Branch to dissolve their membership as a Branch, and convert to Members-at-Large status for their members. We hope that this will prove to be just a temporary measure.” (Spring 1985, page 11.) It was not. The branch's own account is plainer about why: “the lack of sufficient enrolment at night school or summer classes led to a falling off of new C.S.C.L. members in our area, and time and health problems have taken their toll on the membership, which at one time reached twenty workers. In 1985 we no longer had sufficient membership to continue as a branch and therefore regretfully surrendered our charter.” (Summer 1990, page 4.)

The notice in Autumn 1984 had already shown the strain: the branch, “being small in number, have asked that support and additional help come from the Executive Council” in mounting the 35th Annual Meeting. Four years after the end, Winter 1989–90 recorded it: “It is with regret that the Barrie and London Branches are no longer in existence.”

Kay Cloughley closed her history where the branch had begun, in company: “Nonetheless, the friendships formed continue and we still gather at least twice a year for a social time and reunion.” The branch's teachers, she wrote, had been Nora Huyck and Helen Anderson, and its members had come from the Barrie, Orillia and Newmarket areas. “As Members-at-Large we try to attend Annual Meeting and workshops and depend on the Bulletin to keep us abreast of C.S.C.L. doings to date.” (Summer 1990, page 4.)

Assembled from Spring 1958 p3 (the founding), Spring 1963 pp5–6, Summer 1975 p3, Summer 1976 p2, Summer 1977 p3, the 26th, 27th, 31st and 32nd Annual Meeting programmes , Spring 1962 p2, Winter 1962 p11, Winter 1963 p6, Spring 1964 pp1 and 5, Spring 1965 p2, Spring 1967 p1, Autumn 1967 p4, Summer 1969 p5, Spring 1970 p10, Autumn 1974 p6, Autumn 1980 p8, Summer 1981 pp2, 3 and 8, Spring 1982 p11, Autumn 1984 p7, Spring 1985 p11, Autumn 1987 p4, Winter 1989 p10, and above all Summer 1990 pp3–4, “A Brief History of Barrie Branch”, submitted by Kay Cloughley.