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E. Cora Hind
Biographical Sketch
Ella Cora Hind was born in Toronto on September 18, 1861. She came from Hugenot and English stock on one side and Irish Loyalist on the other. By the time she was five she had lost both her mother and father. She went to live with her paternal grandfather on his farm in Grey County, Ontario with her two younger brothers. Her grandfather used to talk to her about the fields and flocks and these talks developed a deep love of the soil, as well as an interest and understanding of crops and animals. Traveling to Winnipeg in 1882 with an aunt, Cora carried a letter of introduction to W.F. Luxton, then editor of theWinnipeg Free Press. She expressed to Luxton a desire to write but he discouraged her saying that the newsroom was no place for a woman. Her application for employment with the Free Press stayed on file until 1901 when John W. Dafoe was appointed editor-in-chief and who appointed Cora Hind market and agricultural reporter.
Her first crop estimate for the Free Press appeared in 1904 and with it, Cora Hind made her name. Black rust, then new and strange to prairie wheat fields, had affected the crops. A United States expert looked over the West and estimated 35,000,000 bushels as the total crop. Neither Miss Hind nor the editors of the Free Press believed the estimate was correct. She went into the wheat fields and made her own examination. Her estimate was that the western crop would be between 50 and 55 million bushels. When it was threshed and in the elevators the actual figure was 54,000,000 bushels.
For the rest of her career as agricultural writer and editor for theWinnipeg Free Press, Cora Hind was known as an authority on agriculture, livestock, and wheat yields. Her opinion influenced prices on the Winnipeg Grain Exchange and western crops. She was also a champion of women's suffrage and a strong supporter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Political Equality League. She passed away in Winnipeg on October 6, 1942.
Scope and Content
The collection contains correspondence, a diary of her 1928 European tour, lectures, her Winnipeg Free Presscolumns from 1935-1942, and news clippings about her career.
Collection Reference: MSS SC 7
Inclusive Dates: 1928-1942
Collection Contents: 44 cm of textual records
Access Conditions: None