Nellie McClung
Emma, Alyssa, Amelia & Erika
 
   

Biography

Nellie Mooney McClung was born on October 20,1873 in Ontario. She was one of four girls and two boys on the Mooney farm. One of Nellie’s sisters was named Hannah. Her motto was “Never retract, never explain, never apologize, get the thing done and let them howl.” “Windy Nellie“ and “Calamitous Nell” were her nicknames. She had a good sense of humor, she was a pioneer, and she loved to read books. Nellie had dark hair. Nellie was a girl who liked to ask questions and talked to anyone who would listen.

When Nellie was almost seven, she moved to Millford, Manitoba. Nellie was a girl who liked to play boy games so her mother often described her as a showoff. She never saw the inside of a school until she was ten. Nellie thought about how unfair things were for girls even when she was a child.

Nellie did not want to be a teacher but she had to, so at age sixteen she went to teacher’s college. Crops were flattened by hail so there was no money to pay her with when she was a teacher. On top of that, she had to teach eight grades at the same time.

When she quit being a teacher, she started writing books like Clearing in the West and The Stream Runs Fast. These are about pioneer life. Her first book, Sowing Seeds in Danny, became a national bestseller in 1908. In all,Nellie wrote sixteen books. After she met J.A. McClung, Nellie said that Mrs.McClung was the only lady she would like as a mother-in-law. Nellie’s wish came true when she married Wesley McClung. Nellie didn’t regret her marriage. She had five children. After Nellie got married, she lived in Calgary for nine years and her address was 803 - 15 Avenue S.W.

Once when Nellie was walking with one of her children in her arms, she almost got run over by a drunken man driving a truck. Suffrage means the right to vote so the women who worked for suffrage were called Suffragists or Suffragettes. Nellie was a social reformer, a suffragette and a prohibitionist who worked against alcohol.

The Famous Five were five women who worked for womens’ rights. Nellie was one of the Famous Five. The other members of the Famous Five were Louise McKinny, Henrietta Edwards, Irene Parlby and Emily Murphy. A recitation is like a commercial on T.V, but they were a popular form of entertainment. By doing recitations and writing articles in magazines, Nellie let people know that women needed suffrage. After five years of doing these things, she won the right for women to vote.

In 1914, Nellie decided to move to Edmonton. Between 1921-1926, Nellie worked for the Alberta Legislature. In 1923, she moved back to Calgary. After working hard on week days for suffrage in Edmonton, Nellie would come home to Calgary on Saturdays and Sundays. After a while, she settled down and moved to British Columbia. She died on September 1,1951 in Victoria, B.C.

Contributions

Life was often harder for pioneer girls and women than for boys and men. When a woman married, everything she owned would become her husband’s, including her clothes! The husband also owned his children, and got to decide what their religion would be, whether they would go to school, and what age they would start work. (Sometimes it would be as early as age 6.)

When men would come home and beat their wife and children because they were drunk, women could not complain because it was not against the law. Many women would be yelled at if they did not spend every minute of their time with their family.

Lots of men did not want women to have rights, so they said that women were “too delicate to vote". Unbelievably, they were also not allowed to have any job but as a school teacher or to ask questions. Women always had to wear long dresses, while men needed to wear hats. People always lived in wooden houses which they had built themselves.

People played hockey in the winter and baseball in the summer. When Nellie was thirteen, there was a big fire in Calgary that burnt down fourteen buildings. After that, people built their buildings out of sandstone. Around 1910, people started to build bigger buildings. At that time, people had telephones and cars.
 

Lifestyle

Before Nellie grew up women could not vote. When she was old she went to the government and said that women are equal to men and they should have the right to vote. The government said “yes” women could vote, because Nellie and another four women convinced him. Now they are called the ‘famous five’. There are sculptures of the Famous Five in downtown Calgary because a little girl wrote more than one hundred letters to make it happen. Nellie stopped people from drinking. She talked to them and told them what would happpen. She didn’t want people to die.
 

Reflection

Nellie McClung made a contribution to Manitoba and Alberta by fighting for women’s rights. I learned that you should never give up, no matter how hard the task is. If the Famous Five had not existed at one time, girls and women would have their choices limited. Questions would not have been allowed from girls. Take Jamie Sale, for example (Canadian Silver Medalist in pairs skating of the winter Olympic Games, 2002). She and David Pelletier have touched the hearts of many Canadians when they skated. That would not happen if Nellie McClung wasn’t there. Women would be thought of as property, not people. I learned that you not only should take brave risks, but you should take risks for other people. A thing to remember about Nellie McClung is why she did what she did. As she once said, “I don’t even want approval of those who think that if all’s well with them, the world is at rest.” Nellie grew up in good homes all her life, but she saw other people and wanted to help them. I think that if everyone was as kind as her, the world would be at rest. Dreams should come from your heart, not from what other people say you should do. But any dream, no matter how big or small, should be followed. Another person who is respected for their dream is Guy Weadick. He followed his dream through thick and thin and accomplished the Stampede. This happened because he told people about it. I want to be a jockey, (unsurprisingly for anyone who knows me) and I will follow that dream no matter what. (Unless I become a beggar and all of the money I have is the money I am saving for horse camp).
 
 
 
 
 
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