Among the Fraser trunk treasures is Annie Reid’s Old Favourites song and poetry book, published by the Family Herald and Weekly Star.
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| The Montreal Star, an English-language newspaper, published the Family Herald, Canada's National Farm Magazine, for an impressive 99 years (1869 to 1968). |
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| The cover of Annie’s song book. Named after Kintyre, Scotland, Cantire was a small farming hamlet east of Paisley in Bruce County, Ontario. Established by the Taylor and Blue families, the settlement had no post office or church, but did have a school, a cheese factory, and a blacksmith shop. All that remains today is the school’s water pump and a commemorative sign. |
On the last page of Annie’s song book, an advertisement for The Family Herald and Weekly Star listed Old Favourites as one of its many specialties. It was worth the annual subscription of $1.00.
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| Old Favourites was a collection of “old and interesting songs, ballads and poems, often with music.” |
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| A young Annie Reid (1881–1969) at left, with her sister Kate (1878–1954). The two were the youngest of nine children born to Ontario pioneers Peter Reid (1829–1895) and Christena Taylor (1839–1925) |
Annie was 17 in 1898 when the second edition of Old Favourites was printed, and the 155-page book was clearly well-used and treasured. It must have been falling apart in Annie’s hands, as its binding has been resewn with kitchen string. Occasional stains suggest favourite passages, and we can guess at others.
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| “The Scottish Emigrant’s Farewell” would have resonated with Annie's parents, Christena Taylor and Peter Reid, who came to Canada in the 1850s from the Kintyre Peninsula, Scotland. They married in 1860 in Paisley, Ontario (about 200 km NW of Toronto near Lake Huron). |
The songbook included a poem that became a very popular hit when it was set to music.
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| George Washington Johnson’s poem was written early in 1864. Composer James Austin Butterfield set it to music in 1866. |
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| George Washington Johnson, poet and scholar.1 |
The song had a sad history:
One of the most popular ballads of the 19th and early 20th centuries with over 40 versions to its credit, “When You and I Were Young, Maggie” began as a love poem written by a school master, George Johnson, who taught in Glanford Township, south of Hamilton. In 1859, George, then 21, had fallen in love with one of his students, Margaret Clark, 18. After they were engaged, Margaret became ill with tuberculosis. He wrote the poem as a pledge of undying love and later had it published in a collection of his verse, titled Maple Leaves. George married his Maggie in 1864 but she had a relapse with the disease, dying in 1865, only seven months later.2
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| “When You and I Were Young, Maggie” was adapted into sheet music in 1866 by composer James Austin Butterfield and published by H.M. Higgins in Chicago. Butterfield was born in England in 1837 and emigrated to the US in 1856.3 |
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| Sheet music from Hymnary.org4 |
The song could be arranged in several ways. Listen to Bing Crosby’s swinging version:
Bing and Gary Crosby: When You and I Were Young, Maggie (1951) [3:22]
A Grokipedia account details the impact of the collaboration between poet Johnson and composer Butterfield. An excerpt is copied here:
The song quickly gained popularity in the United States and spread internationally, becoming a staple in 19th-century American parlors and music halls, where it evoked themes of nostalgia and enduring love. By the late 19th century, it had achieved global recognition as a sentimental ballad standard, performed in vaudeville shows, concert saloons, and early phonograph recordings, resonating with audiences amid the era’s rapid social changes.
The song’s cultural dissemination extended into the 20th century through diverse recordings and adaptations. Notable artists who recorded it include Bing Crosby in 1947, Perry Como in 1950, Fats Waller in a 1930s jazz rendition, Benny Goodman in a swing version from the 1940s, John McCormack in 1925, Louis Armstrong, and The Chieftains in their 1991 album An Irish Evening, incorporating it into Irish ballad traditions despite its Canadian origins and lack of Irish connections. It also appeared in films such as The Jolson Story (1946), where Larry Parks performed it, underscoring its versatility across genres from ragtime to Celtic folk.
Johnson’s professional trajectory evolved from rural schoolteaching to distinguished academia: after a brief period in journalism, including positions with the Courier in Buffalo, New York, and the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, where Maggie died, he resigned following her death and returned to education as principal of Binbrook Public School in 1866, later leading Central School in Hamilton (from 1875) and teaching at Upper Canada College (1891–1906). He advanced to professorships in languages at the University of Toronto—his alma mater—and in Latin at Cornell University, culminating in a PhD from Johns Hopkins University; post-retirement, he traveled extensively before dying on June 2, 1917, in Pasadena, California, at age 78, with his remains returned for burial in Hamilton Cemetery, Ontario. Beyond Maple Leaves, Johnson authored an autobiography interspersed with additional poems, published in 1893, reflecting on his life’s joys and sorrows, and he remained active in literary circles, contributing to the sentimental poetry tradition that resonated with Victorian-era audiences.5
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| Catherine (née Hay) (1849–1940) and Douglas Fraser, Sr. (1848–1915) |
The song was definitely known in the Reid and Fraser households. While out homesteading in Saskatchewan with his sons Pete and Doug, c. 1909–1911, Douglas Fraser Sr. wrote often to his family back home in Pilot Mound. An Ontario schoolmaster like Butterfield, Douglas Sr. wrote poignant letters to his own dear wife:
I sat by the fire reading the many happy returns of that day “when you and I were young Katy.” It is a long time since we first met on one of those days. Another milestone is passed, and I hope there may be fore us a good many more to pass yet. Our journey though long has on the whole been a pleasant one. Here and there we have met with jags, but I try to forget those and I know you do too, and let our remembrances dwell on the pleasant parts of the road.[…] Now My Dear Spouse don’t let Mrs. McKellar outdo you in showing your loving attachment for your poor lone husband here on the prairie. Keep my photo well brushed too, but don’t let her see you kiss it, for that would give you clean away. Your love I know is stronger than hers but I don’t want everyone to know it. It’s quite enough that I know it and appreciate it.(January 2, 1910)
Douglas’s hope for a good many more milestones was not to be. He died in 1915, only a few years after returning home after homesteading. Old Favourites includes another song that his widow would have appreciated:
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| Kate Fraser outlived Douglas Sr. by 25 years. She moved back to Ontario and died in 1940 in Wroxeter. |
A hit in several countries, others tried to claim the song as their own, but its Canadian roots are undeniable.
Eugene Dunphy, When You and I Were Young, Maggie (ballad history) [12:13]
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Sources (retrieved April 10, 2026)
- George Washington Johnson, poet and scholar, Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, https://www.cshf.ca/song/when-you-and-i-were-young-maggie
- Ibid.
- James A. Butterfield, Discography of American Historical Recordings, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/116455/Butterfield_James_A
- “When You and I Were Young, Maggie” sheet music, Hymnary.org, https://hymnary.org/hymn/SPH1930/page/195
- “George Washington Johnson, poet,” Grokipedia, https://grokipedia.com/page/george_washington_johnson_poet
