In recognition of Women’s History Month, we’re launching a series of features about women in the Porcupine Camp.
Local historian Karen Bachmann notes that people have been here for at least 5,000 years, beginning along the Nighthawk River.
Women were part of the big arrival of people into the area when minerals were discovered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Cobalt Nugget featured one who started a stage coach service from the end of the rail at Kelso into the mining camp in 1910. She offered an add-on service.
“If you hired her stage coach, you could also ask for the company of a lovely lady, because the trek took about three hours,” says Bachmann. “So you could also bring somebody along with you if you really wanted.”
The Nugget didn’t divulge her identity because despite her success, the business wasn’t entirely legitimate.
The Porcupine Advance featured ads from female-run businesses. For instance, a Miss Baudry offered a nursing service, because there was no hospital.
“What I found really interesting was that there was a lady called Dr. Clara Hubbard, and she was a doctor of chiropractics and she ran a practice in Timmins in 1918 and did a lot of pushing people and encouraging women to get into the business and to actually consider it and go to college for the profession.”
We’ll have more in the weeks to come on pioneering women.
