The Tennyson Club: Picton’s living link to the literary societies of old Ontario

In 1902, the Picton High School classics master was looking for a way for his staff to entertain themselves on long winter evenings. In a County whose motto is, “Blessed by Nature, Enriched by Man, Loyally Founded, Loyally Built,” the Tennyson Club was just the ticket for such enrichment. After all, Alfred Lord Tennyson, the British Poet Laureate, who penned "The Charge of the Light Brigade,” had just died 10 years earlier in 1892. And Tennyson himself, while at Trinity College in Cambridge, had joined The Apostles, a literary club. The Picton Tennyson Club was part of a much larger late 19th and early 20th Century explosion of literary societies in rural Ontario. One of the best-known members of the Tennyson Club in Picton was composer Gena Branscombe. Born in Picton to a United Empire Loyalist family, she graduated from Picton High School before going on to study music in Chicago and composition in Berlin. The Macaulay Club in Chatham got its start in 1882; the Twenty Club of Lindsay in 1892; and the Tuesday Reading Club of Woodstock in 1896. Indeed, self-improvement manifested itself in numerous forms during the period. This was also the era of the Chautauqua movement, named after the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly founded in New York State in 1874 as an educational experiment in out-of-school, vacation learning. It was broadened almost immediately beyond courses for Sunday school teachers to include academic subjects, music, art and physical education. Likewise, it was the era of the Carnegie libraries – so named after Scottish-born American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie – including two striking examples extant locally in Wellington and Picton. The Tennyson Club in Picton has evolved over 105 years from a purely musical and literary group into an eclectic mix covering a spectrum of interests. Today, life-long residents of the County and newcomers may find themselves side to side in the Tennyson Club, although membership is limited to 30 as they meet six evenings a year from September to May on a rotating basis in members’ homes. The 30 members are divided into six groups of five, with each group responsible for putting on a program for one evening a season. The form of the program is up to the presenters: it can be a debate, discussion, theatre, art, music, games, etc. Programs in recent years have included, “The County – Whither Goest Thou?”; “Drama – Mirror of the Age;” and “The Enterprising Mind.” So, enjoy the nice summer weather by all means, but remember to keep it in the County while improving your mind and spirits when the cold westerly winds again begin to blow off Lake Ontario. For more information on the Tennyson Club you can call their president, Margaret Moore at (613) 393-5771 or reach her by e-mail at: moorejo@reach.net