Whiteheads left photographic legacy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/12/2019 (2339 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Several months ago, during a brief visit to the Daly House Museum and a visit with local historian Tom Mitchell, I was introduced to a stack of old photo albums and documents that I had never seen before. In fact, somehow, after 14 years living in Brandon and working at The Brandon Sun, I never even knew they had existed.

These files, photos and documents were once the property of the Whitehead family, the same family that for more than eight decades had owned and operated the Sun. Ownership of the Sun would eventually pass to Thomson Newspapers, Ltd. in 1987 after the last member of the family to own the paper, Lewis Whitehead, was forced to abandon it due to ill health. In November 2001, the FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership acquired the Sun and the Winnipeg Free Press from Thomson.

But between 1903 — when Joseph Blyth Whitehead (J.B.) took over as owner and managing editor of The Brandon Sun — and 1987 at the point of sale, the Whiteheads were one of Brandon’s pre-eminent families, and had built up the Sun into a profitable operation and a strong Prairie voice.

J.B. Whitehead was born in Blyth, Ont. in 1865, and had been employed by the Western Union Telegraph Company in Winnipeg as a bookkeeper for two years before taking a new job at the Merchant Bank in Brandon. Daly House records stated that he was appointed to the office of treasurer for the City of Brandon and held that position until 1905. But he seemed to have found his calling in 1903 when he joined the company of three others to purchase the Brandon Sun.

J.B. Whitehead was appointed the managing director of the paper in 1905, and he continued to run the operation until 1937.

“He was a member of the Brandon Masonic Lodge, the Brandon Club, the Brandon Board of Trade, the Canadian Press Association and a founding member of the Oak Lake Shooting Club,” according to documents emailed to the Sun by Daly House curator Eileen Trott earlier this month. “He was a member of the AF and AM (Scottish Rite, 32nd degree) and the Anglican Church. He made The Brandon Sun one of the most influential papers in the Canadian West and his involvement in the development of the community earned him the nickname ‘The Czar of Tenth Street.’”

J.B. was an amateur photographer, and many of the photos in the Whitehead fonds at the Daly House Museum that show Brandon at the turn of the 20th century are part of his collection. While I have included several of them in the accompanying photo essay, I am particularly fond of his hunting pictures.

J.B. married Edith Hamilton Christie in 1894, and had three children: Ernest Christie Whitehead, who would go on to succeed his father, Edith Lake Whitehead, and Margaret Blackburn Whitehead.

“Ernest Christie Whitehead started working at the Brandon Sun in 1913 and worked his way up the ranks of the newspaper,” reads the documents sent by the Daly House curator. “In 1937, when his father J.B. Whitehead became very ill, Ernest managed the company. He took full control of the paper when his father passed away in 1941.”

Ernest married Elizabeth Grace Davidson in 1923 in Brandon, and the couple had two sons, Lewis Davidson — the last Whitehead to own the Sun — and Joseph Alexander.

“Ernest also served in the Canadian military as a Lieutenant in France in the First World War, where he was injured and was awarded a Military Cross.”

The Whitehead Family Fonds were donated to the Daly House Museum in 1994, and include textual records and photographs as well as memorabilia. Daly House was able to add the Whitehead Family Fonds to the Manitoba Archival Information Network through the assistance of Manitoba Heritage Grants, and they can also be accessed there. There are many documents that relate to The Brandon Sun and several other newspaper organizations, local clubs and committees.

But this last month my attention focused mainly on the photographs, which show a rich history of not only Brandon, but also of surrounding lake pursuits and rural life. They are quite delicate and a few have not aged well and require careful handling.

I have spent the last month digitally repairing and cleaning several of the photographs in the Whitehead collection in an effort to prepare them for publication, with the results as you see them. They are a testament to a family that settled in this city, becoming part of its very fabric and dynamic. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @MattGoerzen