Most well known of the Reid offspring were Dr. Hannah and Dr. Minerva Reid. These two, the ninth and 10th offspring, were respected and successful physicians, pioneers for women’s progress in the field of medicine in Canada. Both had a significant influence on the establishment of Women’s College Hospital in Toronto where

Hannah was Chief of Anesthesiology and Minerva was Chief of Surgery, and both served on the first Board of Directors for the hospital. Both sisters started their careers as teachers, Hannah teaching in Orangeville and Toronto, and Minerva in Watford and Tillsonburg.

Hannah lived with her sister in Toronto and attended medical school in the evening. After resigning from her teaching position, she attended one year at university there and then moved to intern in Boston. She practised medicine in Toronto on Dovercourt Road from 1912 to 1950. Along with her general practice, she specialized in Anaesthesia and Obstetrics, often administering the anesthetic while her sister Minerva operated on patients at Women’s College Hospital. A loving and generous aunt, she boarded eleven of her nieces and nephews during their university days in Toronto.

Hannah loved driving, and owned and drove seven different cars during her years of practice, first Reos then Chevrolets. She always passed them on to her young relatives when she replaced them. Hannah died in Women’s College Hospital in 1955, and is buried at Mono College Cemetery.

Minerva received her early education at Camilla Public School and Orangeville High School. She was extraordinarily bright and passed her entrance exams at age 11. She obtained her teaching certificate and moved to Tillsonburg to live with her brother John who was a local doctor. Living with him inspired her own desire to become a doctor, and she attended medical school in Toronto with her sister. They graduated together in 1905.

Minerva went back to Tillsonburg to take over her brother’s practice while he went to England for further study. She followed him to London in 1911 and went on to Dublin to complete her training as a surgeon. The story goes that when she arrived at the medical school in Dublin on a dark evening she was met by the house doctor who had no idea what to do with this young woman seeking education at the wholly male institution. Apparently, she had to be bedded down for the night in the school dining room, as there was no other appropriate accommodation. Minerva was always an activist, rallying behind the Suffragette cause, serving as a member of the Toronto Board of Education, running for the Progressive Conservative Party and supporting the Humane Society. She was fierce in her support for Women’s College Hospital and did much to build and maintain its reputation. She led, alongside Lady Eaton, several rallies and protests to support the establishment of Sunnybrook Hospital for the care of the war wounded. Minerva lived at 125 Annette Street in Toronto, and made a welcome home there for her mother and sister Carrie in their later years. A tribute upon her death, written in the Toronto Telegram sums up her good life:

“Life for Minerva Reid was itself a good cause; good and therefore worth fighting to make better. Thus she fought with tireless and selfless intelligence for her patients. Thus she fought for happier fortune for the generations she brought into the world. Thus she fought to save the future from the cruelties, the dishonesties and the stupidities that would destroy her hope. Especially the dishonesties; but she always fought them smiling.”

These two were not the only Reid children to become successful. Indeed, this family spread its influence far and wide.

Another Reid daughter, Margaret Marie Reid Grose, also travelled far from Mono during her life. Margaret obtained a teaching certificate from Camilla Public School at 16 years of age. She then attended Mount Forest High School, where her brother John was the principal and taught school at Laurel, where she met and married the Rev. Richard Grose.

Rev. Mr. Grose accepted charges in the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and while living near Boston, Margaret began to develop her talent as an artist. She pursed this interest through stints of pastoral work in India, where they lived for 14 years while Richard was made Bishop of Hyderabad. While undertaking her missionary work, Margaret taught art and painting to the wives and daughters of the high caste Hindu Nabobs. In 1917, during World War One, Margaret retuned to Toronto while her husband went to serve in France. Like so many of his generation he never returned, as he was killed in Paris in 1919.

In her grief, Margaret threw herself into her art, painting incessantly and leaving behind hundreds of paintings. In 1921 she went to Chile to teach art in a church school for girls at Concepcion. In a lovely photo in the Reid family history, Margaret is seen at the school, in front of a display of her paintings. She looks beautiful, composed and calm. Upon her return from Chile, she lived with Minerva, painting, giving art exhibitions and living a very full and useful life. She died in 1939 and is buried alongside her family at Mono College cemetery.

These are only a few of the stories of this remarkable family. They all lived full and satisfying lives, spreading their influence as doctors, teachers, school administrators, prospectors, inventors, travelers and good citizens.

Their story begins and ends in that small stone school and cemetery just north of the Hockley Valley Road on Highway 10. Stop sometime and wander through the headstones. Reflect upon this noteworthy family and their many accomplishments and give praise to John Reid’s absolute insistence upon the value of the education provided at “Mono College” during those harsh pioneering days.

Visit the Museum and learn through objects and archival material a moment from a “life well lived” and get to know Dufferin County a little better.

The Dufferin County Museum and Archives is situated on the northeast corner of Highway 89 and Airport Road. For more information, please call 705-435-1881 or toll-free 1-877- 941-7787, or visit www.dufferinmuseum.com

Source: Through The Beaver Meadow – Reid History 1778-1982, by Bess Reid Marshall. From the Archives at the Dufferin County Museum and Archives