Clearing in the West: My Own Story

Susanne Day is a retired education specialist whose focus was physically
challenged, blind, and speech-impaired children.

Nellie McClung’s autobiography (a reprint) is as interesting and entertaining today as when it was first printed. Perhaps because one of the first books I can remember reading was Nellie’s Sewing Seeds in Danny, thrust upon me by my grandmother who was both a friend and ardent admirer of the author, reading Clearing in the West was pure pleasure.

The trials and tribulations of those early days in the West have been recorded by others, but Nellie’s recollections give us a sense of being part of a family listening to a much-loved elder telling us our family history. Travelling with the family from Ontario to Manitoba, we encounter: the excitement of the train trip to Winnipeg and from there to the new homesite older brother Will had chosen; the hardships of that first log cabin home and the joy of the new house, built with the help of good and willing neighbours. She writes of the thirst for knowledge and the excitement of a school at last. All this is here and more as we accompany Nellie through the joys and sorrows, disappointments and achievements as she grows to young womanhood, completing her education and becoming a teacher herself. Finally, this portion of her story comes to an end as we leave Nellie and her new husband on a train headed for Manitou, where they will live, leaving the reader with the desire to read more of Nellie’s life story, related in her own words.