Faith Fenton

Alice Freeman (1857 - 1936), better known by her pseudonym, Faith Fenton, was a Canadian school teacher and investigative journalist. She became Canada's first female columnist while writing for the Toronto Empire. [cite web|url = http://www.portraits.gc.ca/009001-2000-e.html|title = New Acquisitions : 2002|publisher = Portrait Gallery of Canada] Freeman wrote under the pseudonym "Faith Fenton" to keep her job as a teacher, as journalism was seen as an unacceptably disreputable activity for a teacher to be involved in.cite web|url = http://www.collectionscanada.ca/cool/002027-2105-e.html|title = Faith Fenton (1857-1936)|publisher = Collections Canada] With the low salary she earned at these jobs, she required both salaries to support herself.

Childhood

Fenton was the third of twelve children, and was sent to live with a Bowmanville, Ontario minister and his wife when Fenton was age ten.cite web|url = http://www.collectionscanada.ca/eppp-archive/100/202/300/newreader/newreader.b01/Readers/Reader/1996Fall/downie.html|title = A Passionate Pen - The Life and Times of Faith Fenton|author = Margaret Gunning] Margaret Reike, her foster mother ensured Fenton got an education beyond what her parents might have afforded.

Journalism career

Fenton began her journalist career in 1886 as a Toronto correspondent for the "Northern Advance", a daily newspaper in Barrie, Ontario. In 1888 she began writing a column for "The Toronto Empire". The column, titled "Women's Empire", dealt with issues relevant to women of the day: sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, child abuse and wage disparity. Fenton wrote columns at night, travelled to work as a journalist during the summer, while remaining a teacher during the day. As a writer, she interviewed famous people of the day like Susan B. Anthony, Oliver Wendell Holmes , Catherine Parr Traill, Pauline Johnson and Emma Albani. She kept her double-identity secret until 1893. She resigned her job as a schoolteacher in 1894, and became a full-time journalist.

When gold was discovered in the Yukon, Fenton accompanied the Yukon Field Force's nurses to the Yukon as a correspondent for "The Globe". Fenton departed Toronto in the spring, arriving in the Yukon in August.cite web|url = http://www.hougens.com/yukonHistory/nuggets_year/2000s.aspx?nugget=1936|title = Faith Fenton Journalist|author = Les McLaughlin] In the Yukon, Fenton met and married Dr. John Brown. [cite web|url = http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/findaids/fonds/f/fenton.htm|title = Fenton, Faith, 1857-1936|publisher = McMaster University] Fenton took up residence in Dawson City and began to send reports of the gold rush back to eastern Canada. She returned to Toronto in 1904.

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