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1894-95 Concert in Ste. Croix

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Jessie Helen Scott lived surrounded by adults.  Maiden aunts, a bachelor uncle and her grandparents lovingly cared for the young girl in their big white farmhouse with green trim, in Nova Scotia.  Her mother Mattie died when she was two and her brother and father lived in Novato, California where she would eventually join them, likely in 1895, when her dad remarried. Living an Anne of Green Gables existence, as a child among older people, she developed her skills with language quickly.  One can only assume she was mature for her age, having known personal loss at a tender age.

In Ste. Croix,  young Jessie became a star, that concert day around 1894. She had practised for weeks and was ready with her gift for the village -  a tender poem in her own sweet voice.  Over a century later, the event is still talked about, how she moved the crowd and how they clapped and cheered for more until she gave an encore,  likely the first ovation she had seen.

A classic beauty, with golden locks and an extremely bright mind, even as a child, her gentle manner left an impression that was not easily forgotten.  To most of the village she was known as Dill's girl, since her father, Alexander Dill Scott  grew up in the village and was well known.  Others remembered her equally beautiful Aunt Jessie, after whom she had been named, who died at age 16 with tuberculosis, better know locally, at the time, as consumption.

But to those who really knew her, "Little Jessie" was her own person.  Her Aunt Annie, a retired teacher, started schooling her at home and Jessie responded rapidly.  Keen to read, she was also quick with "memory work" and thus at the age of three or four she impressed everyone with three full verses of Little Boy Blue. A Victorian melodramatic classic by Eugene Field, the 1888 poem had all the elements for popularity in 1894.  Not yet in the nursery rhyme category, it was a modern and complex choice, for Jessie to practice.

If I close my eyes I can almost see her waiting for her name to be called, seated in her best dress, with her long blond hair brushed back slightly from her bangs, surrounded by family, friends and strangers.  Perhaps this was her first public performance.  As her name was called she stepped up, took a wee breath and started her presentation in a clear voice.  The hall became unusually silent . . . as the little girl from so far from her California home began.

Eventually Jessie passing her love of learning to generations of California children, as a teacher.  Her childhood picture remained in Nova Scotia with no identification on it.  Finally a match with a group picture of her California family identified the picture in 2001.  The story of the day had been told by her uncle and aunts to a younger generation and thus the events of little Jessie's special day were told in boyhood to, Fred Scott who at age 90, still lives in the white farmhouse that was home to Jessie in 1894. Seeing the picture inlarged and learning that it was Jessie sparked the memory of the Christmas concert so many years before.

While the image has yellowed a bit, the memory of the special gift given to the Maritime village, by the little girl from so far away has not faded.

Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true!