Chatsworth in Grey County, Ontario — Central Canada (North America)

Nellie L. McClung

Photographed by Tim Boyd, September 20, 2026

1. Nellie L. McClung Marker

Inscription. This outstanding suffragette, author and teacher was born south of Chatsworth, in 1873 and moved with her family to Manitoba in 1880. Ten years later she commenced her teaching career in Manitou, where she became an active member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union and began the writing of Sowing Seeds in Danny (1908), best known of her published works. An indomitable fighter for equal rights, Nellie McClung was a militant member of the Winnipeg Political Equality League Which sought the vote for women and the improvement of conditions for women factory workers. As a member of the Alberta Legislature, 1921-1926, she championed legislation for mothers’ allowances, improved public health care and fairer property rights for women. She died in British Columbia in 1951.

Erected 1975 by Ontario Heritage Trust.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Civil Rights • Women. In addition, it is included in the Canada, Ontario Heritage Trust series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1873.

Location. 44° 27.276′ N, 80° 53.688′ W. Marker is in Chatsworth, Ontario, in Grey

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County. It is at the intersection of Toronto Sydenham Street (highway 10) and Crawford Street, on the right when traveling north on Toronto Sydenham Street (highway 10). Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 55 Toronto Sydenham St, Chatsworth ON N0H 1G0, Canada. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Georgian Bay Country

and in Southwestern Ontario.

It is also in Central Canada.

Globally, it is in North America,

on the Great Lakes,

in the Western Hemisphere,

in the Western World,

and in the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once a British colony,

the Viceroyalty of New France,

the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy,

and Rupert’s Land.

Other nearby markers. At least 5 other markers are within 19 kilometers of this marker, measured as the crow flies: The Toronto-Sydenham Road (approx. 0.6 kilometers away); Chatsworth Continuation School and Public School (approx. 0.6 kilometers away); Survey of the Great Lakes / Le levé des Grande lacs (approx. 12.8 kilometers away); Trinity United Church - Annan (approx. 18.1 kilometers away); Tom Thomson 1877-1917 (approx.

Photographed by Tim Boyd, September 20, 2026

2. Nellie L. McClung Marker

The former Chatsworth United Church is in the background

18.6 kilometers away).

Also see . . . Nellie McClung, the great woman of Canadian history.

In 1921, now living in Alberta, she ran as a Liberal MLA in Edmonton, won, and acted like an independent, supporting her opponents when she felt they were doing something sensible. She was defeated in 1926 because she had pushed so hard for prohibition.

Then there was the Person’s Case, spearheaded by Canada’s and indeed the British Empire’s first female judge, Emily Murphy, joined by three other stellar figures, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney (an Alberta MLA, the first woman elected to a legislature in the British Empire), and Irene Parlby (Alberta MLA). When the Supreme Court of Canada, in all its wisdom, preferred to think it was still 1867, the Famous Five, as they came to be called, used their last resort and appealed, as was their right as British subjects, to Britain’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Those men across the ocean overruled Canada’s Supreme Court, which wasn’t so supreme, on October 18, 1929, and declared that women could and should be deemed “qualified persons” and thus eligible to be admitted
1908

3. Nellie McClung in 1908
Source: Pembina Manitou Archive (public domain)
to the Senate.

(Submitted on September 21, 2026, by Tim Boyd of Hamilton, Ontario.)

Credits. This page was last revised on September 21, 2026. It was originally submitted on September 21, 2026, by Tim Boyd of Hamilton, Ontario. This page has been viewed 11 times since then. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on September 21, 2026, by Tim Boyd of Hamilton, Ontario. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.