Hannah Whittaker
While researching Grandma's family, I discovered that other members of her family had lived at 12 Smithy Green previously. Richard Ollerton, brother to Grandma's maternal grandmother,
Ann Ollerton, had lived there with his family in 1881. Ann Ollerton and her husband, James Harrison, (Grandma's maternal grandparents) were located at 12 Smithy Green for the 1891 census. Also living with Ann and James was their daughter, Margaret Harrison, her husband, Peter Whittaker, and their children.
Grandma was born to a family of coal miners and weavers. Her father died of aortic syncope when she was quite young. Her mother, Margaret, ran a fish and chip business out of her home to support the family. At that time, she would have had five children still living at home, ranging in age from eight and a half to twenty-four.
Grandma had very little formal schooling as she had weak eyes. She explained to me once that, when she was little, she had had measles which had affected her eyesight. Subsequently, she had her eyes ‘painted’ with some kind of medicine and she said she had to sit at the back of the class and just listen. She always used to tease us with what she remembered learning in school, "This, that, these and those are distinguishing adjectives." She had no idea what this meant, but she could always remember it. Grandma didn't know what a palindrome was but delighted in telling us that she never missed not having a middle name as ‘Hannah’ was special because she was the same going as coming!
According to the 1911 census, Grandma worked, at age 16, in the card room at the cotton mill as a frame tenter. A frame tenter was someone who looked after the spinning frames. Eventually, Grandma became an excellent weaver.
Grandma married my grandfather, Frank Hilton, on Aug 21, 1918. Her married sister, Margaret Ellen Sharples, stood up for her at her wedding. Both Grandma and Margaret Ellen were married at St. George's Parish Church (Church of England) by Rev. John Lund.
My mom says Grandpa called Grandma Nancy or Nan as a pet name but I only ever heard him call her Hannah . Margaret Ellen called her Our Hannah which was common practice in Lancashire at the time. This portrait was taken on their first anniversary in 1919.
Grandma and Grandpa emigrated to Canada in December of 1920. They started out their new life in Hamilton. As Grandma was a crackerjack weaver, she landed the first job. She was able to weave as fast as the men and earned extra money for this ability. It is likely she worked in a cotton mill as that is what she did in England but I have no proof of that. Textile mills and cotton mills in particular had sprung up in Hamilton at the turn of the twentieth century.
After three years, Grandpa sent Grandma home to visit her family in England for a six-week vacation, just as he had promised her mother that he would. Great Grandma Whittaker was convinced her daughter would die at the hands of what she referred to as Indians in Canada. Grandma departed Montreal on September 1, 1923 aboard the SS Regina and landed in Liverpool September 9, 1923. She returned to Canada aboard the SS Regina, leaving Liverpool on May 9, 1924 and arriving in Montreal on September 18, 1924. Her six weeks had turned into the better part of a year! Grandma had spent all this time at home enjoying being the centre of attention, playing cards and winning money daily from her brothers who worked in the mines.
Grandma loved to play bridge and entertain her lady friends. She had a very distinctive laugh and was always the centre of every gathering. My mother delighted in sharing the story of the one and only time she skipped school to spend the afternoon at the movies. Partway through the movie, she heard this huge laugh from another part of the theatre and realized her mother had attended the movie as well. Naturally, she had to skulk out of the theatre before she was noticed and miss out on the ending. Unfortunately for Mom, the principal felt it was his duty to walk to Mrs. Hilton's to find out where Margaret was that day. Suffice it to say, my mom never skipped school again.
Lack of formal schooling often meant that Grandma confused similar words and would have us all in stitches. She would call Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia both Yugoslovakia, though in retrospect, now that they have changed names yet again, I see that her confusion was because they had undergone various name changes during her lifetime. Grandpa's Aqua Velva aftershave would always be known in our family as his Aqua Velma and his fedora a vedora. Grandma read only Harlequin romances, moving her lips as she read. She smoked Cameo menthol cigarettes for as long as I knew her, but NEVER inhaled. She was a real character.