TheThe Published for Residents, Businesses and Visitors since 1985 MirrorMirror Marysburgh South September 2019 Library Month Profile Jeanne Minhinnick By Anna Feldman Gronau Two framed photos hang in Milford's Ann Farwell Library. But, who is this Jeanne Minhinnick - the person in the photograph who's not Ann Farwell? Jeanne Minhinnick was my grandmother. Before her death in 1985, she was so well known in the County, par(cid:415)cularly in South Marysburgh, and her work so much about remembering, that I hadn't imagined a reintroduc(cid:415)on might ever be called for. Jeanne had true County creden(cid:415)als: Her mother Jennie had been a Welbanks. Jeanne's grandfather's grandfather, a Loyalist, had se(cid:425)led in 1783 on South Bay - where Welbanks descendants s(cid:415)ll reside. When Jennie died in 1903, shortly a(cid:332)er the birth of her only child, Jeanne was raised for a (cid:415)me by her maternal grandparents, Hiram and Esther. As owner/editor of the Picton Times, Hiram, and his wife, knew or were related to prac(cid:415)cally everyone. Jeanne spent winters in Picton and summers visi(cid:415)ng the homesteads and farms of friends and rela(cid:415)ves - observing, first-hand, communi(cid:415)es marked by mutual respect and affec(cid:415)on and an ease with people's differences. So began her lifelong sense of belonging here. Growing up, Jeanne witnessed a way of life that retained 19th century customs, furnishings, and speech - intriguingly different from her father's Toronto household. The County was rela(cid:415)vely isolated; people saw li(cid:425)le need for a lot of change. In Jeanne's words, "They were content, though not complacent." Eventually, it became her life's work to research, record, preserve and explain that old-fashioned world before it disappeared. Jeanne's passion invariably overlapped with her love of the wri(cid:425)en word. At age eight, she wrote a "novel," killing off all her young protagonist's rela(cid:415)ves by chapter three so she could inherit a 17th century house in England! Jeanne read insa(cid:415)ably and wrote throughout her life. Jeanne was herself thoroughly modern. As a young woman, in the spirit of the 1920s, she went to work - wri(cid:415)ng ar(cid:415)cles, then edi(cid:415)ng various periodicals at Maclean Publishing. She met and married a handsome World War I veteran, William Nelson ("Bat") Minhinnick, a commercial ar(cid:415)st and writer. Their included ar(cid:415)sts and bohemians. for old houses loving history, Despite friends Jeanne as a young woman She was always in tune with all things new and intellectually leading edge. Her outré behaviour - including smoking! - scandalized her in-laws. Though, when Alix (my mother) was born in 1925, there was joy throughout the family. By 1937, the story goes, Jeanne's book habit and thus a debt at Britnell's (Toronto's preeminent bookstore) had grown significantly. So, she approached Mr. Britnell for a job. By 1940 she was his chief assistant and buyer and had developed the store's rare and old book department. Around that (cid:415)me, Jeanne met Ann. Wi(cid:425)y and level -headed, Ann complemented Jeanne's determined roman(cid:415)cism. In 1940, they purchased a derelict 1830s house near the Welbanks homestead on County Road 13 as a vaca(cid:415)on home. They moved it across fields onto land purchased from Earl Collier and named it Bay House. And, when vaca(cid:415)ons weren't enough, they bought a nearby farm. (Con(cid:415)nued on page 9)