| Main entry | Caswell, Annie Gray |
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| Birth place | Durham, Grey, Ontario |
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| Birth date | 27 February 1873 |
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| Death place | Toronto, Ontario |
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| Death date | 15 May 1954 |
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| Identifier | 0197 |
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| Birth name | Sarah Ann Gray Wilson |
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| Alternate names | Annie Gray Butcher, Annie Wilson Caswell, Annie Butcher Caswell, Annie Gray Caswell |
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| Married name | Butcher, Caswell |
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| Marital status | married |
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| Religious affiliation | Anglican, Baptist, Methodist (United Church of Canada) |
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| Paid work | journalist |
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| Other work | Board of Directors, Toronto Day Nursery and East End Day Nursery; Director, Canadian Girls in Training |
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| Biography | When her parents died of tuberculosis in 1899, sixteen-year-old Annie Wilson (1873-1954) left school to raise her younger siblings, establishing the pattern of care-taking that would characterize her life. Childless despite being married and widowed twice, she served on the boards of the Toronto Day Nursery and the East End Day Nursery and as Director of Canadian Girls in Training. She first married Jack Butcher (1870-1915), a piano maker, and after his death, Nathaniel Franklin Caswell (c1858-1945), publisher and printer. As a journalist, she supplied columns and stories to Toronto papers, including the GLOBE, the NEWS, the MAIL AND EMPIRE, and the TELEGRAM. A prize-winning story eventually grew into her single novel, SUSANN OF SANDY POINT (1930), based largely on her own extended family. Her wide literary circle included Lucy Maud Montgomery,* Florence Deacon Black, Mabel Burkholder,* and other members of the Canadian Women's Press Club, of which she served as president of the Toronto branch. Annie died in 1954 in Toronto. |
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| Honours and awards | Award for story in PLEASANT HOURS |
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| Residences | Durham, Ontario (1873); Glenelg Township, Grey, Ontario (1881); Toronto, Ontario (1901, 1911, 1923, 1954) |
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| Geographic regions | Southern Ontario |
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| Primary genres | fiction; journalism; poetry |
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| Books | SUSANN OF SANDY POINT (1930) |
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| Periodicals | MAIL AND EMPIRE; PLEASANT HOURS; SATURDAY NIGHT; STAR WEEKLY; SUNDAY WORLD; TORONTO NEWS; TORONTO TELEGRAM |
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| Organizations | Canadian Women's Press Club |
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| Father's name | George Wilson |
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| Life dates of father | 11 December 1847, Normanby Township, Grey, Ontario - 17 May 1899, Toronto, Ontario; m. 1868 |
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| Father's note | butcher; died of TB |
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| Mother's name | Mary Ann Gray |
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| Life dates of mother | c1848, Trafalgar Township, Halton, Ontario - 26 April 1899, Toronto, Ontario ; m. 1868 |
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| Mother's note | Died of TB |
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| Spouse 1 | John ("Jack") Butcher |
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| Life dates of spouse 1 | 7 January 1870, Wicken's Row, West Malling, Kent, England - 27 May 1915, Canada |
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| Spouse 1 note | piano maker, Heintzman Piano Company; possibly also went by John Butcher Jesshop |
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| Marriage 1 date | 10 January 1894 |
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| Marriage 1 place | Toronto, Ontario |
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| Spouse 2 | Nathaniel Caswell |
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| Life dates of spouse 2 | c1858, Milton, Trafalgar Township, Halton, Ontario - 17 November 1945 |
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| Spouse 2 note | owner, Federal Printing Company and Brough and Caswell Printing |
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| Marriage 2 date | 17 November 1923 |
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| Marriage 2 place | Toronto, Ontario |
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| Biographical references | 1881 Census of Canada; 1901 Census of Canada; 1911 Census of Canada; Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913; Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928 |
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| Bibliographic references | National Library of Canada |
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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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