Written in stone
Sharing the story of Dr. Bertha Delight Beckwith
Having a cottage in Harbourville, I would often travel north on Hamilton Road and pass by the Burlington Cemetery.
One bright, breezy day I ventured in the graveyard and had a look around as cemeteries are for the living, not the dead. One interesting spot I was looking for featured the headstone of Dr. Bertha Delight Beckwith, located at the northwest corner under some overhanging Rock Maple branches surrounded by a fashionable, wire-linked, iron fence. As president of the Burial Grounds Care Society, I often come across interesting characters of the past, both orally and through writings, and this lady was one of them.
Bertha, or Delight as she was sometimes known, was the first born of nine children (four girls and five boys) to Samuel and Jemima (Saunders) Beckwith. Her father, a farmer and fisherman, was a son of Samuel Beckwith Sr., a first settler of Berwick. Samuel Sr. was a justice of the peace, and surveyed much of Berwick and north of the area including roads and wharfs, as well as running a singing school.
Samuel Jr. and Bertha’s mother, Jemima, possessed 100 acres on the Lightfoot Road near Woodlawn in the Burlington area. This section of the road is now called the Nollet Beckwith Road in honour of her brother, Nollet.
Dr. Bertha Beckwith could trace her roots back to Robert the Bruce of Scotland on her father’s side, and to Captain John Saunders, who brought the first Puritan settlers to Cape Cod in November 1620, just a few miles north of where the Mayflower landed about the same time.
After receiving a good rural education, Bertha went to Saint John, N.B. at the age of 16 to continue her studying, then moved to Boston with her brother, Samuel, where she was employed as a newspaper reporter. Soon after, in 1917, she enrolled in New York University pursuing medicine. The medical field was evident in her family background as her grandfather, Samuel Sr., had a brother who was a doctor in Halifax, and her grandmother, Samuel Sr.’s wife, tended, far and wide, to the sick, mainly with the use of herbs. Bertha became a nurse, then went on to become a doctor at a time when women were just beginning to have the right to vote. She served a fair bit of time in France during the First World War. Dr. Beckwith was considered the first female doctor to practice physiotherapy on wounded soldiers.
Not being widely accepted as a woman doctor in those times, Bertha pursued an acting career. She completed a two-year course in one year at the New York School of Expression. Using the, then new medium called radio, Bertha was the first to recite readings from the Bible; the first to broadcast a play by Shakespeare; the first to offer a children’s program; and the first to have music in the background during her readings. The newspaper, New York Times, said, “Miss Bertha Delight Beckwith, a talented Nova Scotia girl, is making a name for herself in New York City. She appeared in musical monologues and has a most pleasing personality and demonstrated great ability. The Times wishes the talented young woman success in unbounded measure.”
Bertha belonged to several historical pride organizations during her time in New York. She died there in 1967 at the age of 91.
One never knows about the life of a person buried in our soils, but it is worth a visit to a graveyard, and subsequently, discover something interesting. We, at the Burial Grounds Care Society, are always looking for volunteers to help us in that regard, as well as care for neglected burials of those who, also, have a story to tell.