Family Tree

HAS STRONG UC ROOTS –
FIVE GENERATIONS’ WORTH

BY ELAINE SMITH

The ever-growing Coutts family tree could also be considered a tree of knowledge, because a thirst for education is what sent five successive generations of the family to University College.

John Coutts

Oh, there are other branches, of course – offshoots who attended other U of T colleges or other institutions altogether – but the family has maintained its UC affiliation in an unbroken line since John Coutts graduated in 1884.

“It’s quite a legacy,” says Tracy Tieman, his great-granddaughter and a fourth-generation UC graduate. “I’m not sure how many fifth-generation University of Toronto graduates there are.”

Her great-grandfather, like many UC students today, was a first-generation Canadian and the first in his family to attend university. His parents were both immigrants from Scotland who met in rural Ontario, married and had 11 children. Coutts’ father instilled in his children the value of hard work, while his mother ensured they had an appreciation for learning, reading aloud to the family regularly – both values that UC embodies.

John, the eldest son, grew up on the family farm in Kent County, but envisioned a different future for himself. He taught school to earn enough money to attend university and enrolled at the University of Toronto in 1880 as a UC student.

“Those first-generation Canadians had their struggles, too. They wanted to get off the farm and be professionals,” says Christine Coutts Clement, John’s granddaughter, a UC graduate and emeritus professor of astronomy at U of T. “However, it was unique for the times that John’s father didn’t feel his children had to stay on the farm; he was proud of them for going to university.”

It was while teaching that Coutts met his future wife, Katherine Ballantine, another teacher. They were attending a picnic in Essex County and Ballantine drew his eye when she won the afternoon’s spelling bee. The pair corresponded while Coutts was away at university and married after his graduation in 1884. The family has since created the Katherine Ballantine Coutts Scholarship in her name at UC, since she wasn’t able to attend university herself – women weren’t admitted at that time.

Coutts wasn’t alone in his pioneering spirit; his oldest sister, Janet, married a minister, James Farquharson, and relocated to rural Manitoba in 1881, becoming one of the Canadians who helped open the West. His younger sister, Marion, also moved west to Calgary with her husband, a grain merchant, in 1898. John’s younger brother, Richard, emulated him by teaching to fund his university career. He, too, headed west to Saskatchewan in 1914 to serve as a school principal, then a school inspector and, finally, a vice-principal of a Normal School, i.e., a teachers’ college.

Meanwhile, after graduating from UC, Coutts apprenticed at a law office in Chatham, Ontario, and eventually settled in Thamesville, Ontario, where he set up his own legal practice and served as secretary to the local Ferguson Brothers bank. Thamesville became the family’s base. Their home is still owned by Coutts' grandchildren and continues to be the site of many happy family Christmas celebrations.

Dermot and Mary Ellen (MacBeth) Coutts

Coutts’ youngest son, John McDermot (Dermot) Coutts, followed in his father’s footsteps, attending UC and returning to Thamesville to join the elder John Coutts’ law practice, eventually taking over for his father. He married another UC graduate, Mary Ellen MacBeth, who had moved to Thamesville to teach high school.

Dermot and Mary Ellen settled in Thamesville and had a family. The late Janet Coutts Tieman, Malcolm Coutts and Christine Coutts Clement all thrived, but two later children died at birth. Mary Ellen, herself, died after giving birth to the youngest, leaving Dermot to raise three children alone.

“I see my dad as a success story as a single parent,” says Clement, adding regretfully, “but my mother was in her 30s when she died and didn’t get a chance to live her life.”

Happily, Mary Ellen’s surviving children all graduated from UC and lived very full lives. Janet, a wife and mother, became very active in the Liberal party and president of the Mississauga South Federal Liberal Riding Association. She was also an active UC alumna and earned the Arbor Award for her many contributions to the College.“My sister, Janet, had ideas about going elsewhere, but Dad told her, ‘You’re going to UC,’” said Clement. “Once that happened, we knew we’d all be going to UC.”

Malcolm, a year younger, studied physics at U of T. “The education that I received at University College and the Physics Department at U of T prepared me well for a career in teaching secondary school,” said Malcolm Coutts. “For that I am thankful.”

Christine followed a non-traditional path for women in the post-Second World War years, looking toward a career in astronomy at a time when marriage was touted as the Holy Grail.

“Helen Hogg, an astronomer I met in my fourth year, made me see that women could succeed in scientific work, even though the boys in my classes made fun of female scientists,” Clement says.

“If you came from a small town, you had to succeed, because you couldn’t go back home with nothing.”

Clement not only graduated from UC, but went on to earn her PhD and enjoyed a successful faculty career in U of T’s David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics prior to her retirement.

David Clement’s graduation from UC in 2004

Tessa Tieman’s graduation from UC in 2017

Both her son, David Clement, and Janet’s daughter, Tracy Tieman, also became part of what was, by then, a family tradition of attending UC. It is Tracy’s daughter, Tessa Tieman, who continued the UC tradition into the fifth generation, even living in Whitney Hall like her grandmother, mother, and aunt.

“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a little pressure to attend UC,” says Tessa with a laugh, “but U of T is a great school, I got a great education and UC is special.”

Her mom, Tracy, a Canadian Studies graduate, had many of her classes in the UC building and even held her wedding there, with a reception at Hart House.

“I do remember being in awe that so many generations of my ancestors had gone there,” Tracy says. “It struck me that they had walked the same halls and seen the same gargoyles and funky architectural details.”

With any luck – and a little encouragement from the family – one day, there will be a sixth generation of Coutts ancestors walking those halls before mounting the stage at Convocation Hall as part of the graduating UC contingent.

Images supplied by Christine Clement