to Cape Croker, where he preached to his growing flock until his death in 1882. The last child, Laura Alberta, known as Bertie, was born in 1881, the year before Henry’s death.
Upon their arrival at Cape Croker, the Bawtenheimers found their home, the manse, [which,] according to one account written for the Methodist Conference of 1875, was, “…an old Indian house, damaged furniture, loss of garden, an old dirty Indian house which was being repaired…Mrs. Bawtenheimer’s health was so very poor. Rev. Henry built a small barn and kitchen, put up out-houses and fenced fifteen acres, planted trees, levelled and cleared the yard. He built a church with contractors from Owen Sound with a spire.” A dismaying experience it must have been for Martha Amanda and the children.
Henry Bawtenheimer born 1822; married 1859; died 1882, Samuel Edward’s maternal grandfather.
Nevertheless it was all part of the custom of the Methodist Church of the time that each minister must present himself, his wife, his family and all their belongings to the Methodist Conference in Toronto, held each year in June at which time assignments were decided and announced for the following year. Thus a preacher, his wife, pregnant or not, did not know from year to year where they would be located for the following twelve months. Sarah was fourteen when the Reverend Henry arrived at the newly created charge of Cape Croker. Even before they could clear out the debris and filth from the ‘manse,’ a highly inappropriate word for their shelter, the garden had to be dug and prepared for the seeds to be planted to ensure that the family would, hopefully, have sufficient food to keep them alive over the winter.
To profess the word of God under such circumstances demanded strong commitment from both minister and wife. Henry, a strict taskmaster with himself as well as with his family, was described as being very pious and very narrow in his views. Descendants of Henry and Amanda tell family tales of the children having to stand behind their chairs at mealtimes while the Reverend Henry ate his meal first. Then the children would be allowed to seat themselves after their father had finished his meal. Martha Amanda waited on Henry and ate with the children. The Reverend Henry took himself and his position with great seriousness. In 1881, he ended a letter to his daughter, “Yours very truly, Father,” hardly the outpouring of a loving parent.
Martha Amanda (Barber) Bawtenheimer born 1842; married 1859; died 1930, Samuel Edward’s maternal grandmother.
Sarah is reported to have told her children that as a young girl, she played with the Indian children of the Reserve, but she was at least fourteen when she arrived and as the eldest would have had a great deal of responsibility for her brother and sisters. Frances was about nine, Mary was six and Eva Jane three, so it may well have been that it was the three little girls who had Indian playmates and their brother Charles, a ten year old, would have had Indian friends as well. Since Martha Amanda’s health was not robust, especially with another baby on the way, Sarah would have had a great many tasks thrust upon her. A big girl, she grew to be very tall and square jawed like her father. The other girls were petite like their mother.
Henry’s poor and ‘failed’ health finally gave way on April 15, 1882.
In the Minutes of the Toronto Methodist Conference of 1882, it was noted that:
“Bro. Bawtenheimer was born in the Township of Blenheim in the year 1828 (sic). God blessed him with pious parents, they being among the pioneer Methodists of that part of Canada. He seems, like Samuel, to have loved the Lord from his early childhood, for his sorrowing wife now says, “I cannot tell the exact date of his conversion, but I have often heard him say he could not remember the time when he did not pray and earnestly wish to be good.” He, having become convinced of his call to preach, entered the Ministry of the Primitive Methodist Church in 1855, and after one year of acceptable service in that connection, offered himself to the Wesley Methodist Church by whom the offer was accepted.”
The obituary then lists his various callings, noting that he preached with great acceptance to the Indians. An assessment of his character follows, which gives an insight into the home life of the Bawtenheimers and Sarah’s early experiences.
“Bro. Bawtenheimer possessed great intellectual ability — was of a generous, sympathetic, sensitive nature, and had a warm loving heart. He was a devoted Christian, a faithful pastor and loved to preach Christ. In forming an estimate of his character, however, we should, in loving sympathy, remember his long years of sickness — the last twenty years of his life having been, with a few intervals of rest, one long agony of excruciating pain, which shattered his constitution, blighted his prospects, and what, to a highly nervous and sensitive nature like his, was exquisite torture, involved those whom he loved with him in a common misfortune; this threw a sombre shade of gloom over his whole nature, and would, had it not been for the sustaining grace of God, have overwhelmed him in an awful despair. But God did sustain him, for even when his lips were quivering with anguish, he recognized the source of this agony and knew it came with a divine purpose…
During his last illness he was singularly patient and submissive and constantly raised his heart to God in prayer for his blessing to rest upon himself and his family. His undying devotion to his work was strikingly manifested a few Sabbaths previous to his death, for when the hour of divine service had come, he requested his attendants to carry him to the ‘house of god,’ that he might once more proclaim to his flock the story of redeeming love, and point them to that home whose delights he was so soon to experience.”
Sarah Bawtenheimer, Samuel Edward’s mother born 1860; married 1884; died 1935. Photograph taken while she worked at Eaton’s, c. 1880.
Reverend Henry Bawtenheimer died, “in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life,” and was buried on the Cape Croker Reserve. Shortly afterward the house burned to the ground and all Rev. Henry’s books, furniture and other possessions were lost. Martha Amanda took her family back to the site of her husband’s last charge in Owen Sound.
When the Bawtenheimers had been moved to Toronto in 1874, Sarah was fourteen and so was given a slight taste of life in a city. She must have found the Reserve a distinct culture shock. Earlier, in 1856, her father had met Timothy Eaton of the department store at Stratford and the two staunch Methodists had struck up a close friendship that was to endure until Reverend Henry’s death. At age sixteen, Sarah left the manse and family life for the city, applying to her father’s friend for employment in his store, now located on Queen Street in Toronto. Timothy Eaton, who made it his policy to employ ‘daughters of the manse’ in his store had housing arranged for Sarah in a boarding house on Adelaide Street, just west of York Street. This establishment, suitable for young ladies, was run by a Mrs. Lee who had come to Toronto from Kirkton, Perth County, where Timothy Eaton had started his merchandising. Another of Mrs. Lee’s boarders was a young art student, Homer Watson from Doon near Kitchener, who later was to have so great an influence on Samuel Edward’s early art collection.
Sarah started off in the ribbons department. Her hours were from 8 am until 6 pm, five days a week, and 8 am until noon on Saturdays. Her wages were $2.50 per week. Church attendance on Sundays was not only expected of all Eaton employees, but was insisted upon. Timothy frequently took Sarah to church himself, along with his family, and kept an eye on her for the sake of his old friend. By the time Sarah was eighteen she was permitted to attend a few parties, most decorous affairs they would have been, always escorted by a suitable relative. In Sarah’s case, this was Sam Bitts, a second cousin and a young law student. In those days heavy curtains were drawn across the Eaton store windows on Saturday closing time, so that there could be no desecration of the Sabbath by possibly enticing passersby
