|
|
|
|
| | LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION: | Fonds | | No.: | PR0114 | | TITLE: | Cornelia Wood fonds | | CREATOR: | Cornelia Wood | | DATE RANGE: | 1839-1984 | | EXTENT: | 7.76 m of textual records and other material
Also includes ca. 227 photographs, ca. 245 negatives, 9 postcards, 13 maps and 10 posters. | | ADMINISTRATIVE | | HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Cornelia Wood, nee Railey, was born to Henry Newell Railey and Sedelia Edith Courtney on a farm near St. Joseph, Missouri on April 14, 1892. In 1900, Cornelia and her family moved to Oklahoma City. They moved again in 1904 and settled on a farm in Stony Plain, Alberta. Cornelia attended High School in Edmonton and later attended Normal School in Calgary. At the age of 16, Cornelia Railey graduated from the Calgary Normal School and was posted to the Warden School to teach grades 1 to 9. Here she taught for four years until her marriage to Russell Edgerton Wood of Edmonton, on December 24, 1912. Both Cornelia and her husband settled in Stony Plain until their deaths: Russell on December 30, 1963 and Cornelia in November 1985.Cornelia Wood was a charter member of the Stony Plain Women’s Institute formed on December 8, 1913. She remained an active participant at the local and provincial levels serving as the Stony Plain Branch’s first secretary and later serving as president for many years. From 1931-1935 she was Provincial Supervisor of the Women’s Institute Girls Club and from 1937-1941 served as Provincial Secretary. Cornelia Wood also worked as a demonstrator and lecturer for the Department of Agriculture under the auspices of the Women’s Bureau Branch from the late 1920s to late 1930s.During the late teens and early 1920s, Cornelia Wood campaigned for Frank Oliver and other Liberals. In 1933 she was converted by the teachings of William Aberhart and the philosophy of Social Credit. She began helping to organize a number of Social Credit Study Groups in her area. In 1940 she won the constituency of Stony Plain and held her seat until 1967, with only a brief break from 1955-1958. After 1941 Cornelia served as the chair of the Social Welfare Sub-Committee of the Alberta Post-War Reconstruction Committee. She firmly believed that the ideal of every woman should be to raise a family and to be a good homemaker. In order to do so, however, she felt it was also necessary for women to take part in public life. Cornelia believed that women understood how to best promote social welfare programs to enhance the family. Another one of her major concerns was the fluoridation of public water supplies. Cornelia felt that fluoride was an unnatural additive, which would ultimately cause widespread health problems among the populace. Cornelia Wood was chairman of the Stony Plain Consolidated School Board from 1933-1939, chairman of the Alberta Division of the Community Planning Association of Canada from 1955-1960, member of the Stony Plain District Library Board for many years and mayor of Stony Plain from 1953-1954. | | CUSTODIAL HISTORY: | The records of the Cornelia Wood fonds were deposited at the Provincial Archives of Alberta over the course of several years. Early accessions (1968-1979) were deposited at the Provincial Archives of Alberta by Cornelia Wood. In 1986, more records were deposited at the archives by Peter Bakker, the executor of Cornelia Wood’s estate. In 1988 Margit Knupp of the Stony Plain Multicultural Centre donated several records directly to the Provincial Archives of Alberta, and in 1989 more records came to the Provincial Archives on copy loan from the Stony Plain Multicultural Centre via the Provincial Museum of Alberta. | | SCOPE AND CONTENT: | This fonds consists of records relating to Cornelia Wood’s work as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Alberta Social Credit Party, publications and pamphlets about the Social Credit movement, photographs of Alberta scenes, particularly around Stony Plain, personal and political correspondence, speeches, newspaper clippings, periodicals, financial records, posters, calling cards, magazines and other records relating to Cornelia Wood’s involvement with various organisations. | | LANGUAGE NOTE: | The language used in the records is predominantly English, but there are some posters in German and Ukrainian. | | RELATED RECORDS: | A tape recorded interview with Cornelia Wood is available in GR1974.0161 | | RELATED FILES: | Display FileList | | RELATED ITEMS: | A17355 (Cornelia Railey)
A17356 (Grandstand at Peace River Crossing)
A17357 (Peace River Crossing [Fair])
A17358 (Horse Race at Peace River Crossing [Fair])
A17359 ([Peace River Crossing])
A17360 (Peace River Crossing - Main Street)
A17361 (Peace River Oil Well)
A17362 (Peace River Band)
A17363 (Cornelia Wood)
A17454 (Woman sawing logs, Stony Plain.)
A17455 (Children in front of Stony Plain School)
A17456 (Children standing in front of Stony Plain School)
A17457 (Cornelia Wood in Ukrainian Costume, Stony Plain.)
A17458 (Cornelia Wood in Ukrainian Costume, Stony Plain.)
A17459 (Female swimmers in Lake Edith)
A17460 (Baseball Game, Stony Plain.)
A17461 (Baseball Game, Stony Plain.)
A17462 (Women's Basketball Game, Stony Plain.)
A17463 (Science Classroom, Stony Plain.)
A17464 (Threshing in snow, Stony Plain.)
A17465 (Susie Harms, Tina Harms, Cornelia Wood, and Hilda Gruenigen at Edmonton Fair.)
|
|
|