Author: Clayton McLain Memorial Museum

Amy Rowswell (née Stephens) purchased this Remington Portable No. 5 typewriter in 1942. At the time, she was a student at the Normal School in Saskatoon studying to be a teacher. After receiving her certificate, she returned to Rockhaven to teach at Baldwinton, where she met Jack Rowswell. They married in 1952. Amy and Jack farmed south of Baldwinton, had three children, and eventually retired to the Town of Cut Knife.

Amy passed away in June 2023 and her family has kindly donated numerous items of historical value to the Clayton McLain Memorial Museum. Many personal stories will be attached to this machine. After all, it had been a part of the family for more than 80 years. However, this machine is also valuable in that Amy’s story points us to other stories, too.

THE TYPEWRITER

The idea of the typewriter first appears in 1714 as a Machine for Transcribing Letters, then again in 1830 as a typographer, but it’s not until the mid-1870s, that the typewriter appears on the market. Philo Remington, gun manufacturer, had purchased the production rights from Sholes, Soulé, and Glidden in 1873. In 1874, the Remington No. 1 was in production. By 1942, when Amy purchased her machine, typewriters were everywhere.

Typewriters became commonplace in office settings but also in people’s homes. They transformed the way people composed and produced written content and facilitate the process of manuscript preparation, typing letters and drafting professional documents.

The History of the Typewriter

THE NORMAL SCHOOL

Normal Schools were teacher training facilities created and funded by provincial governments. These institutions were designed to address the increased need for elementary school educators in the newly established public education systems.

The term “normal” derived from France’s École normale supérieure of the 1790s, and implied that teaching methods used therein would become the norm for all schools within the government’s jurisdiction.

The Canadian Encyclopedia

ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS

The school at Baldwinton, SD #4762, was one of many hundreds of one-room schoolhouses built in Saskatchewan in the early days of settlement. As both population and educational expectations increased, one-room schools were replaced with larger buildings appropriate for separate grade levels and multiple teachers. Baldwinton was in operation from 1929 – 1965.

These buildings were respected as centers of learning; they hosted community events; they were recognized as the framework within which the community grew – for the years they remained open. 

Clayton McLain Memorial Museum

~ Debbie M.