Edith Nicholson never married. The family story goes that she lost her 'great love' in a hotel fire and never wanted to marry anyone else; they weren't officially engaged, but they did have 'an understanding'. All very romantic, although I assumed that story was more of an excuse than anything else.

That's as much as anyone knew.

When I found this great stash of Nicholson letters, I was pleased to discover a letter from early May 1910. Edith is writing her mother and alludes to a serious loss; such a serious loss her mother had used  the telephone to console her the night before, and she never used the phone long distance. "Why are so many good people taken away so early?" Edith asks in her letter.

Edith mentions no name in the letter (she was coy about writing down the names of boyfriends) but she does say she is looking at his picture in the newspaper (The Star) and that "It does not do him justice." She says some other mysterious things: "If only it were an accident it would be easier to understand." So a while ago I went to McGill and found the Montreal Star for May 1910 on microfilm and found the article on the fire: a serious one in Cornwall Ontario and saw the picture of the man. 'Willie Hume.' Mystery solved, her great love was Willie, whom she writes about in the 1909 letters. In the May letter she writes that "Grandma saw him at Christmas and said he was so handsome." Funny, there's no indication that she likes Willie in the 1909 letters but there is a mention in a December 1909 letter that Willie is upset, he can't get the time off to go to Boston for Christmas. So, I figure, he was invited to Tighsolas and Edith and he fell in love. ….Except a few months later I re read a line I'd missed in a 1909 letter that Charlie Gagne was staying in a hotel in Cornwall (Ontario). (The first time I had read it, the Cornwall connection seemed unimportant.)

Now the 1909 letters are full of talk of Charlie! (Edith clearly likes him because she is always so MAD at him.) He is usually referred to as C.G or Charlie G. Edith 'shows' him to her father when he's in Montreal. The last you hear about Charlie he has gone on a trip to Mexico.  Edith (and Margaret) seem to have written him off. But he's the guy in Cornwall…and I THINK  there is a name like Charlie Gagnon or Gagne on the list of deceased in the fire. No picture of him though. So I have to go back and look at the archives of the Montreal Star - again. This time I'll make a photocopy.

Last time I looked, I saw that the May 1 1910 newspaper was full of news of the King's death and the Montreal Horse Show. I do recall the opening line of the Horse Show Article, something to the effect that' the automobile will never replace the horse in man's affections'.  (The Montreal Herald has nothing on microfiche for the years 1910, only up to 1909, which is VERY annoying. You see, there was a fire at the Herald.)

Click for other pic of Edith as teacher