While nurse Bingham was battling an unco~operative Atlantic, Minnedosarwas~busily erecéz
ting its firSt hospital. Built with assistance from a Lady Minto grant the vow llnbed hose
pital served this district fer 40 years, then as nurSing home for another 20, now as Drysn
dale. Apartments“ In 1909 nurse and the yet-:unfinished 'Lady Minto Hospital met and MissBing—
ham spent happy years nursing here rising Quickly to matron..Her starting monthly salary
was $35, ' I t ‘ p. - z -‘ .

Mabel‘remembers-vividly two popular well—known.colleagues,vDrs. W.J. Roche and JWN. An~
drew, The former, MP for this riding for 20 years:with.many as minister of mines and natu-
ral resources;'the latter (whose parents homesteaded near Neepawa in 1878) became the‘pro»
verbial "legend in his own time" through almost 60 years of dedicated medicalservicehere;
She also remembers well the hospital's custodian Harry Harmer as "a very nice man and-most
dependable'person." Harmer, many boy scouts will know, served as batman to their -fonnder
Lord BadenmPowell during the Beer War when that general successfully defendedMafekingwdth
800 men against some'lO,OOOn ' ‘ ' ” ' i V' - '

m In 1OF2 love came to our adventurespme nurse and she married Fred Gowan.:Fred was a son
ofuRJle Cowan, one of this district's earliest pioneers who served on Minnedosa's founding
council of 1883, The Cowan farm was located t% miles west of town on the South valley-rim.
An.attractive painting by W.d. Burgess (artistmfarmer who liVed here briefly) iJ1about t890
is all that remains of that homesteadn In fact, hundreds of cars daily roar through what
was once the.£armyard.

Here-the former urbanite nurse helped her husband grow grain and vegetables,raisepigs,
cows, chickens, turkeys. "The valley," recalls Mrsn Cowan wistfully, "Was unbelievably'beau~ V
tiful than; wild and unspoiled." For a year the Cowans liVGd in B°C., but the call.oftheir
beloved valley drew them back and they settled in it less than two miles West of‘their'first
home. Here in-a new-house Mabelmnnow in her 90th year~~still lives peacefully , with her
youngest_son Peter and 18-year-old grandson Mark. These two men operate.a successful son~
father farm in the finest Cowan tradition finding time to collect, repair andoperatestesnh
engines as a hobby. Three other children were born to the Fred Cowans; Freda who lives in .
Quebec, Robert, and a baby girl who died in infancye '

The grief of losing her son in the last war beComes painfully evident in Mabel's gentle
face when she talks of him” Flt. Sgt. Robert John Alexander Cowan fought the Nazis in that
most dangerous capacity, bombergunnero A holder of four medals he was killed Janug, 1943,
and awarded the RGAF‘e operational wings "posthumously in recognition of gallantservicein
action against the enemy" by Air Marshall Hebert Lecki, and the Silver Cross; both deeply
cherished by his mothero Equally meaningful is a letter from A.J. Bell,,Minnedosa's. ole-—
mentary school principal from 1909—35, part of which reads: "I am proud of nurMinnedosa.boys
and girls-and particularly of'Bobbyn'He was.a fine, straightforward, manly boy when he was
my pupil and I watched him grOW'to manhood with the same sterling qualities.”

In 1964 Mabel's husband diedn Besides Mark she has another grandchild, Linda-«a21—year~
old pharmacist in Quebec, Bailing eyesight interferes greatly with her favorite pastime of
reading and recently she's often-been bedriddeno A cheerful, pleasant woman Mabel Bingham
Gowan did‘find some brighter days in Canada, and created many herself in thiscommunitysme
loves dearly, The lines.she-wrote long ago as young woman are equally timely today.£flzalso
is the rest of her little pOem: , '

So only a word or KindnGSS‘,Lightens our heaviest load _And a gentle smile of gladness.

Brightens our Wearyi-roadn Forming the truest friendship Filling our

hearts with lovo' Guiding our Weary footsteps. To-a brighter world above.

32, SCIENCE FAIRS ‘ ' ’VALLEY VISTAS column, Brandon Sun, Feb. 11, t972

Althdugh several developments in Manitoba‘s educational system during the past decade
are hardly commendable the science club and fair movement's a notable exception. In early
t966‘CoAnE. Hensley (co—author of the Science Indoors and Out series which grades 7, 8, 9
used as texts for a quarter century), who did much to kick off the movement in this- pro—
vince,,Wrote1 “As an extension of their regular teaching many‘scienco teachers nowarehelnlp
ping their'scienceeprone students to develop problem solving habits and skills by sponsor—p

ing science clubs and_science_fairs. This movement is widespread in Europe and southtxfourg 7g

border, but is very new in canada. Same 40 schools in the province, half in the, Winnipeg -
area and half outside it, now have active science clubs," He wrote this shortly. after the
first provincial science.fair had been held, Mr; HenSley, it may be recalled, left Manitoé.
ha the following year to help Jamaica revitalize her science curriculum. Three other Manip
toba educators.pioneering in this movement Were N;W. Wilde, L.LQ Kolt, V. Peters, While the
service club supporting it most strongly.then was the Rotary Club” '

542