By Mary Simpson and Caroline Gough, November 8, 2025.
The Glencoe & District Historical Society is absolutely buzzing this week (Nov 8, 2025) . A remarkable gift has just arrived at The Archives: the enormous scrapbook collection lovingly created over a lifetime by Mrs. John Alberta (Bertie) MUNSON McFarlane. Her daughter Caroline and granddaughter Betty Ann have generously entrusted this treasure trove to our care.
Bertie was one of those extraordinary rural women who quietly carried the heartbeat of a community. She clipped everything. Births, marriages, deaths, retirements, accidents, reunions, graduations, memorable storms, championship teams, church news, farm sales… you name it, she saved it.
This collection is enormous. What you see in the photo is perhaps one-fifth of the total “fonds” . The rest fills an entire wall of boxes. In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an individual, or organization
Caroline Gough, Bertie’s daughter, told us that as a girl she never quite understood her mother’s hobby. Caroline loved horses and dance, while her mother spent evenings with scissors, glue, newspapers, and her other talent, fine needlework. But now she sees the magnitude of what her mother created: a family and community archive of extraordinary depth and love.
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