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• 1 2025-08-25T00:31:05+00:00 The Cluff Family 62 plain 2025-08-25T22:36:53+00:00 Since being built, 9 Sherbrooke has been home to a variety of residents, such as pattern maker Robert Bell in 1912, blacksmith Thomas Moore in 1917, and barbers John and Napoleon Paquette in 1918. However, the Cluff family stands out amongst them for having lived at the residence for over 40 years.

  Backgrounds

  Joseph Cluff was born on 5 April 1865 in Bells Corner, Ontario to Irish-Anglican parents. He shares a similar family background with his wife, Sarah Jane (née Anderson), who was born on 13 April 1872 in Kazabazua, Quebec. The Cliffs began their family there in Kazabazua, which had a well-established grid of protestant (specifically Anglican and Presbyterian) Irish settlement since the pre-Famine period.
  
  However, despite this history, Irish-Anglicans were a religious minority among Anglophones, and a linguistic minority among the French Canadian Catholic majority in Quebec. As seen in the 1921 census report, despite growing up in Quebec, Sarah Jane and her eldest son are listed as not being able to speak French (fig. 9).
  
  The Cluff family first moved to Sherbrooke Avenue in 1912, acquiring 73 Sherbrooke from F. W. Mahon for $2,800 (fig. 10 and 11). They continued to live at this house until 1921, when they would move up the street to 9 Sherbrooke Avenue (fig. 12) with their three sons - George, Howard, and Harry.
  
  
  For more information on Irish immigration to Canada, see the Embassy of Ireland in Canada's summary.  

  Cluff's Health Baths

  During his life in Ottawa, Joseph worked as a whole sale fruits salesman for T.H. Blackburn & Co., Dominion Fruit Exchange, and C.E. Bain Wholesale Fruit Company - the latter of which he was epode at for 24 years (fig. 13). The former, T.H. Blackburn & Co., would place Joseph in the Lowertown Market at 25 York Street, serving the community of fellow blue-collar patrons in a forward-facing role.
  
  This background of manual labour, in addition to the general novelty of in-home water service at the time, makes this 1937 fire report, wherein Joseph Cluff is referred to as the owner of " Cluff's Health Baths", quite peculiar (fig. 14). The oddity of it all the more heightened as this seems to be the only reference to its existence between The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Journal, and the Ottawa City Directory.
  
  Bathouses, such as Plant Bath and Champagne Bath, were essential facilities for the poor and working class communities in Ottawa during the early 1900s. This need was exacerbated by class division, social reform, and disasters such as the Ottawa-Hull fire of 1900 and the Spanish Flu epidemic  of 1918.
  
  The waterworks system for Sherbrooke Avenue (then Ninth Avenue) was laid in the summer of 1899, and the complete Hintonburg system was tested in November of that same year (fig. 15 and 16).
  
  Though the availability of waterworks makes this home-operated bathhouse physically possible, it raises more questions about the ability of a seemingly working-class man to fun the business and the need for such a service where other larger bathhouses are available. 
  
  Though, for all the enigma that this fire report stirs, Cluff's Health Baths being in "a separate building adjacent to the dwelling" does shed light on one of the possible uses for 9A Sherbrooke when not leased to a tenant.
  
  For more information on the history of Ottawa bathhouses, see The Public Baths of Ottawa: A Heritage Reconsidered By Meredith Stewart.

  In The Community

  Like their father, the Cluff brothers were known for their different services to the community,
  
  George, the eldest, was a retired locomotive fireman for the Ottawa Division of the New York Central Railway (NYCR) between 1918 and 1931 as part of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers (fig. 17 and 18). In 1905 the NYCR took control of the Ottawa and New York passenger trains which ran between Ottawa, Cornwall, and Tupper Lake. These Lines were leased to the NYCR for 21 and then extended to 99 years. However, the trains were gradually reduced until there was only one train each day in both directions. Eventually, in 1957, the New York Central Railroad was abandoned between Ottawa and the international border at Cornwall. 
  
  Early railway transportation relied on steam engines to power trains by way of large coal-fired boilers. These boilers required regular fuelling to keep the train fired up and running, and it was the task of locomotive firemen to shovel coal into a train engine's firebox through a narrow opening.
  
  In honour of his work as a fireman, Joseph Dolan and Sons Ltd. - a local coal, coke, and wood fuel supplier for the NYCR -  delivered a floral tribute to George's funeral service (fig. 19). 
  
  The middle brother, Howard, worked as a market gardener in the West End Market (now the Parkdale Market)(fig. 20).
  
  The market opened in July of 1924, advertising the opening only a day before to the surprise of farmers and patrons. The 'West End Market' was officially established by By-law in November 1940, and the land was acquired by expropriation in 1947 for $15,000.
  
  As a market gardener, Howard carried on the tradition of his father and grandfather, who was a farm labourer.
  
  Harry, the youngest, served with the Royal Canadian Engineers from 1916 to 1918 as a sapper, and in World War II with the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps.
  
  In the Canadian Forces, sappers exist both in the regular force and reserve force. The rank is used instead of private trained to signify completion of the basic Engineer training course.
  
  In 1916 and 1917, Harry was discharged after completing the training course for being underage, having modified his birth year to appear older (fig. 21). Though small, this act of defiance shows Harry's strong sense of duty.
  
  Although she lived at the residence the longest, there is not much record of Sarah Jane's presence in the community. She left behind three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, was a homemaker, and attended the Anglican Church of Canada.
  
  What we see of her is not uncommon for women of the time, only transcribed in the peripherals of her husband and sons as they were not considered persons until 1929 by the British Privy Council (fig. 22).
  After a lengthy illness, which left her housebound and in search of help and companionship (fig. 23), Sarah Jane passed away in the hospital on 12 September 1955. Her obituary now remains as one of the most substantial records of her life (fig. 24).
  

  The Ottawa Valley Sled Dog Racing Association

  The most novel of the Cluff Brothers' contributions, though, is their involvement in The Ottawa Valley Sled Dog Racing Association. In October of 1934, Howard was elected president of the association (fig. 25). During his year-long presidency, his brothers acted as starters, timers, and judges for the derbies.
  
  Derbies became popular after WWI. In 1930, The Ottawa Business Men's Association organized the first Ottawa International Dog Derby as part of Ottawa's Winter Carnival activities (fig. 26).
  
  The derby route began at Chateau Laurier and ran along the Queen Elizabeth Driveway, then along Carling Avenue towards Bells Corners and Fallowfield Road. The course was 100 miles, held over three days.
  
  The Carleton County dog derby was another race that was held on the Ottawa International Dog Derby Course. This race was shorter, running 60 miles and held over two days (fig. 27).
  
  These sled dog races were a regular part of The Ottawa scene until unpredictable winters dimmed their popularity in 1956.
  
  For more information on the first Ottawa International Sled Dog Derby, see this City News article by James Powell.

  The Capital Theatre and Minstrel Shows

  On 23 May 1933, Howard and Harry Cluff were executives for a fundraising event at the Capital Theatre to provide recreation for families on city relief. The headlining entertainment for the event was the "Stoney Broke Minstrel Troupe", courtesy of Ray Tubman - manager of the theatre -  and directed by Howard and Harry (fig. 28).
  
  Minstrelsy began in the American Northeast during the 1820s, wherein mostly white male performers - but also newly emancipated Black men post-1860 - perpetuated racial stereotypes while donning blackface under the pretence of authenticity. By the late nineteenth centuries, while and Black minstrels commodified "Blackness", performing race and gender for the amusement and nostalgia of their audiences for plantation slavery. 
  
  These shows were highly normalized in Canada with the assumption that it was nowhere near the level of American shows. However, minstrelsy in Canada perpetuated xenophobia, anti-black sentiments, and white supremacy that was thinly veiled behind the guise of returning to a "simpler" time.
  Minstrel shows were commonplace in Ottawa through theatres such as B.F. Keith's Theatre (fig. 29 and 30), as well as the fundraising activities of the Kiwanis Club of Ottawa during the 1920s (fig. 31).
  
  For more information on the history of minstrelsy in Canada, see Black Minstrelsy on Canadian stages: Nostalgia for Plantation Slavery in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries by Cheryl Thomson.