Hours
Generally 9:00 am - 4:00 pm Monday to Friday. An appointment in advance is recommended.
Contact
Mennonite Archives of OntarioConrad Grebel University College
140 Westmount Road North
Waterloo, ON N2L 3G6
Phone: 519-885-0220 x24238
Title: Series 6: Welfare Committee (Craigwood Board)
Dates of creation: 1954-1978
Note: Further accruals are expected
Physical description: 40 cm of textual materials
Administrative history: Craigwood (known as the Ailsa Craig Boys Farm until 1964), located 1.6 km south of Ailsa Craig, Ontario was a home for the rehabilitation of delinquent boys. The Craigwood provincial charter was issued on 21 Jun 1955. Mennonite Central Committee (the Canadian branch, located in Ontario) took over management of the project. Harvey Taves was made acting director, while Jack and Anne Wall took on the role of on-site house parents. Ed Driedger became director around the time of the departure of the Walls in 1959. Mennonite Central Committee Ontario assumed responsibility after its creation in 1964.
The board was made up of representatives from every constituent conference of MCC Ontario: the Mennonite Conference of Ontario, Western Ontario Mennonite Conference, Mennonite Brethren Conference of Ontario, the United Mennonite Conference of Ontario and the Brethren in Christ. Three additional members were co-opted from the constituency. The Welfare Committee or Welfare Section was one of the five sections of MCC Ontario. The board usually met approximately 10 times a year. The four committees of the board were the executive committee, personnel committee, property committee and nominating committee.
By 1971, longstanding financial problems led to the takeover of the home by the Ontario government. Craigwood Youth Services was incorporated separately as a children's mental health centre in 1983, and Mennonite institutional involvement concluded.
Custodial history: Most files were transferred from Mennonite Central Committee Ontario in 1982; some came from J. Winfield Fretz upon his retirement from Conrad Grebel College.
Scope and content: Contains minutes, report and correspondence of the Craigwood board.
Notes: Craigwood newsletters were published as Boys Farm Bulletin and Craigwood Bulletin as special sections of The Canadian Mennonite. Copies are located in the Milton Good Library.
Photographs related to Craigwood can be located through the Mennonite Archival Image Database.
Additional administrative history information from Steiner, Samuel J. In Search of Promised Lands.
File list:
Box 1. Minutes, Correspondence, Financial Statements, etc., 1954-1978
Generally 9:00 am - 4:00 pm Monday to Friday. An appointment in advance is recommended.
Phone: 519-885-0220 x24238
Conrad Grebel University College
140 Westmount Road North
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G6
519-885-0220
All information on this website is copyright by the Mennonite Archives of Ontario, Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Permission is granted to include URL references to this information for noncommercial purposes, provided that proper attribution is given.
Conrad Grebel University College is situated on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Read Grebel's full territorial acknowledgement.