| Main entry | Anderson, Clara E. Rothwell |
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| Birth place | Listowel, Perth, Ontario |
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| Birth date | 3 June 1871 |
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| Death place | Ottawa, Ontario |
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| Death date | 25 July 1958 |
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| Identifier | 0143 |
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| Birth name | Clara Emily Rothwell |
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| Married name | Anderson |
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| Marital status | married |
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| Religious affiliation | Presbyterian |
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| Other work | clergyman's wife |
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| Biography | Clara Emily Rothwell (1871-1958) was born in Listowel, Ontario where her widowed father, principal of the local public school, raised five children alone. Gifted with a beautiful voice, Clara studied at the Toronto Conservatory and became a soloist at the Trinity Methodist Church. In 1899 she married Reverend Peter William Anderson (1870-1936), with whom she had three children. The vocation of clergyman's wife led to Clara's discovery of her own creativity through the writing of more than a dozen light-hearted plays that were produced as fund-raising events for the Ladies' Aid Societies of her husband's Presbyterian congregations. Her first skit, AN OLD TIME LADIES' AID BUSINESS MEETING AT MOHAWK CROSSROADS (1912) was whipped up in a mere two days. Fearing that the conservative citizens of Shelburne, Ontario, might object to stage costumes, her amateur actors performed the piece in their street clothes. A great success, the play was staged throughout rural Ontario and eventually across Canada. Her plays struck a responsive chord with their audiences because they dramatised the preoccupations and daily life of small rural communities. Her novel, JOHN MATHESON: A WHOLESOME HUMAN STORY OF CANADIAN RURAL LIFE (1923), held a similar appeal. Clara died in 1958 and was buried in Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa. |
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| Other notes | Siblings: Benjamin Edward Rothwell (1875-1929), m. Ada Mary Steen, and was a barrister; Ellen ("Nellie") Rothwell (1878-aft 1911), m. Dr. Major Henry Langs, and was a school teacher; Ruby Rothwell (1880-) was a telegraph operator. |
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| Residences | Listowel, Ontario (1871, 1881, 1891); Shelburne, Ontario (1901); Ottawa, Ontario (1911) |
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| Geographic regions | Southern Ontario |
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| Primary genres | drama; fiction |
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| Books | AFTERNOON TEA IN A FRIENDLY VILLAGE, 1862 (1912); AN OLD TIME LADIES' AID BUSINESS MEETING AT MOHAWK CROSSROADS (1912); THE MINISTER'S BRIDE (1913); THE YOUNG VILLAGE DOCTOR (1915); AUNT SUSAN'S VISIT (1917); THE YOUNG COUNTRY SCHOOLMA'AM (1920); JOHN MATHESON: A WHOLESOME HUMAN STORY OF CANADIAN RURAL LIFE (1923); MARTHA MADE OVER (1923); AUNT MARY'S FAMILY ALBUM (nd); AUNT SOPHIE SPEAKS (nd); THE JOGGSVILLE CONVENTION (nd); LET MARY LOU DO IT (nd); MARRYING ANNE? (nd); WANTED, A WIFE (nd) |
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| Other arts | music (singing) |
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| Father's name | Benjamin Rothwell |
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| Life dates of father | c1835, Ireland - 15 March 1913, Listowel, Ontario; m. 1865 |
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| Father's note | teacher; principal, Listowel Public School; second wife Mary Ann Britton, m. 1888 |
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| Mother's name | Sarah Cosens |
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| Life dates of mother | Early 1848, Canada - 1 January 1881, Listowel, Ontario; m. 1865 |
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| Mother's note | Died of inflammation of lungs |
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| Spouse 1 | Reverend Peter William "P.W." Anderson |
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| Life dates of spouse 1 | 15 September 1870, Oakwood, Ontario - 4 August 1936, Ottawa |
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| Spouse 1 note | clergyman, Presbyterian |
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| Marriage 1 date | 1 June 1899 |
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| Marriage 1 place | Perth, Ontario |
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| Children number | 3 |
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| Children's names and dates | Bruce Rothwell (14 January 1903 - December 1975);
William Murray (25 November 1904 - );
Jean (c1915 - ) |
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| Biographical references | Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1911; 1881 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada; Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928; 1901 Census of Canada; 1911 Census of Canada |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 238, 424; CANADIAN DRAMA 8 (1982): 179 |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Image credits | Line drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia). |
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| Copyright | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Please cite Canada's Early Women Writers. SFU Library Digital Collections. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. 1980-2014. |
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