November 13, 2006
house research
I went to the city archives today to try to confirm the date of our house. We'd thought 1912 based on some very rushed research last summer, but I wanted to take a more careful look.
1912 seems fine, on sober second thought - the house doesn't exist in the 1911 city directory, and does in the 1912. If I'd had more time, I would have chased down the building permit, but building permits from that era are very minimal documents, from what I've seen.
Here's what the city directories say:
1912: Cochrane, Frank L.
1919: Cochrane, Frank L.
Ryam, Percy M.
1930: Cochrane, Mary E., Mrs.
Brash, Harold
1935: Cochrane, Mary E., Mrs.
Pidduck, Hester M., Mrs.
1940: Cochrane, Mary E., Mrs.
After 1940, city directories cease to be published, I think because of the wider use of phones.
So, for lack of a better idea: Frank Cochrane dies at some point in the 1920s, leaving the house to his wife, who then lives there through at least 1940, taking in lodgers. I assume the lodgers lived on the third floor, with a bedroom in the back room and a sitting room of some sort in the front room.
Next stop was the property tax rolls. Our part of Riverdale was assessed for the first time in 1913 for the 1914 property taxes, but as far as I can see Logan isn't on the rolls - perhaps I was in too much of a hurry.
In the 1918 assessment for 1919, howevever, I hit pay dirt:
Name: Cochrane, Frank L.
Age of Taxable Person: 33
British subject or alien: BS
Freehold or Tenant: F
Occupation, or S. M.W. or W*: Soldier
(ie., for women: single, married woman, or widow)
- In 1922, Frank Cochrane is listed as a clerk, and in 1925, Mary Cochrane is listed as the property owner, with no mention of Frank, which presumably narrows the range for his date of death.
If Cochrane is a soldier in 1918, then all kinds of records open up. The easiest score is his attestation at enlistment, all 600,000 of which are now on the Internet as image files. The beginng of his is above.
The two pages of the form are here and here.
Cochrane enlisted in the 116th Battalion in Uxbridge,on January 14, 1916 saying that he was 29 and a telegraph operator by trade. The 116th was raised in Ontario County, which is now Durham Region.
He had previously been in the 109th Battalion, between August 16, 1915 and November 24, 1915. The 109th was raised in Lindsay.
There are two documents I'd like to see:
So:
- Cochrane was able to buy the house as a 26-year-old telegraph operator. Other occupations along our stretch of Logan in 1918 are: Packer C.N.R., Conductor, Safemaker, Salesman, Painter, Cutler, Plumber, Clerk, Shipper, Foreman, Builder, Draftsman, Carpenter, Butcher, Mang. Agent, Asst. Mangr., Traveller.
- Why did he enlist twice in rural areas northeast of the city? It could be because of his background in Peterborough - he may have been trying to arrange things so he would serve with friends and relatives - but also possibly because it was easier to join in farm areas, where recruits were hard to come by.
Could he have had health problems? This would explain his first discharge, in a period when the CEF was sucking in recruits by the tens of thousands and conducting door-to-door searches for shirkers (Our Glory and Our Grief: Torontonians and the Great War is a good resource for the city in this period) and perhaps also his early death.
Posted by Patrick at November 13, 2006 09:48 PM