The Peterboro Branch, 1956–1958

No history of the Peterboro Branch was written while it ran. What follows is assembled from the newsletters that reported its founding and its first two years; every claim below names the issue and page it comes from.

Organized, October 1956

The newsletter's Fall 1956 branch report tells the story in full: “On Wednesday evening, October 17th, 1956, a meeting was held at the YWCA for the purpose of organizing a creative leathercraft society for Peterboro and the surrounding district which would be affiliated with C.S.C.L. There were 65 present with Mr. Ken Robinson, Recreational Director, as Chairman.” The Society's own President, Mrs. Jean Newton, and Vice-President, Mr. Fred Brown, addressed the meeting, and Dr. R.K. Larmour spoke on leathercraft and showed films. Don MacKinnon demonstrated leather carving, Jean Newton spatter dyeing and masking, and Reta Larmour the assembly of framed handbags. (Fall 1956, page 11.)

• Organized 17 October 1956 at the YWCA, 65 people present, addressed by the Society's own President, Vice-President and Honorary Members
• Founding executive: Dr. R.K. Larmour (Honorary President), R.G. Schwab (President), Mrs. M. Niblett (Vice-President), Mrs. Joe Watson (Secretary), Mrs. E. Cockerill (Treasurer), with a three-member Membership Committee and four Advisers
• Miss Gladys Mortimer, one of the branch's own founding Advisers, was teaching a class of 45 girls by April 1956 and became an Associate the same year
• Mrs. Edythe Niblett of Peterboro made Associate in 1958
• Reported a successful, active year in 1958, with a display booth at the Peterboro Exhibition
• Named among the Society's branches in its own reprinted history, 1960 and 1975
• No branch report, officer list or meeting notice for Peterboro has been found in the newsletters after 1958

The founding executive

The same report names the branch's first officers in full: “Honorary President, Dr. R.K. Larmour; President, Mr. R.G. Schwab; Vice-President, Mrs. M. Niblett; Secretary, Mrs. Joe Watson; Treasurer, Mrs. E. Cockerill. Membership Committee: Mrs. D.M. Wood, Mrs. E. Renwick (Lakefield), Mrs. Newman (Campbellford). Advisers: Mrs. J. Wharry, Miss G. Mortimer, Mr. Ken Robinson, Mr. Don MacKinnon.” (Fall 1956, page 11.)

Gladys Mortimer's own classes

Miss Gladys Mortimer, named an Adviser at the branch's founding, was already teaching before it: “In Peterborough, Don and May MacKinnon and Ralph and Reta Larmour were guests of Miss Gladys Mortimer and her classes of 45 girls on April 11, 1956... Miss Mortimer has a most enthusiastic group of craftsmen studying with her, and following the program, several were sufficiently interested to become members of C.S.C.L.” (Summer 1956, page 5.) Ten days later, the Annual Meeting of 21 April 1956 named her, as “Gladys Mortimer, Peterborough,” among the members newly rated Associate. (Spring 1956, page 6.)

A second Associate, and an active year, 1958

Two years after the branch was founded, the Spring 1958 newsletter records another Peterboro Associate, “Mrs. Edythe Niblett, Peterboro, Ont.,” among that year's ratings, and separately reports the branch itself doing well: “Peterboro branch reported a successful, active year with outstanding craftsmen demonstrating at meetings and a display booth at the Peterboro Exhibition.” (Spring 1958, pages 2 and 3.)

Named in the Society's own history

The Society's own retrospective, “The Society's First Ten Years” by Robert Muma, written for the tenth anniversary, names Peterborough among the Society's branches: “This organization as we see it today is a mature tree with a number of Branches in Toronto, Hamilton, London, Peterborough, Tillsonburg, Barrie and Petrolia.” The same sentence, word for word, was reprinted for the twenty-fifth anniversary in 1975 — the same recollection restated, not a fresh count of branches then active. (Spring 1960, page 7; Spring 1975, page 2.)

No branch report, officer list or meeting notice for Peterboro has been found in the newsletters after the 1958 report above. Later mentions of Peterborough in the newsletters — a fair, a person born there, a craft show, an award ceremony's venue — name the place, not the branch, and are not evidence that it was still meeting.

Assembled from Spring 1956 p6, Summer 1956 p5, Fall 1956 p11, Spring 1958 pp2 and 3, Spring 1960 p7, and Spring 1975 p2.