$60.00 CAD
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Early postcard image of the Cobalt Silver Mining camp. Group of tents near lake, one of them being the first bank (CIBC) in the town. Note land with stumps of recently cut down trees.
Text on postcard mentions typhoid in nearby town of New Liskeard.
Front image label: COBALT'S FIRST BANK'
Message on front:
Cobalt March 8th 1906
How are you? Well I hope. Why don’t you send me some postal cards. I am making a collection of it. Liskeard Hospital is full of typhoid patient. I am afraid of it it would be hard on me. Got a letter from Dr. Mowbray and wishes to be remembered to you. Did you get a letter from Baby. Mr. --- wishes to be remember to you ---
Your friend M .L. McCaffrey
Postmarked ‘COBALT ONT MR 8 06’ on 1 cent King Edward VII stamp, mailed to Calgary AB.
Couple of light corner creases.
The Cobalt Silver Boom (1903–1911)
The camp emerged after the 1903 discovery of native silver by McKinley and Darragh near Long (Cobalt) Lake. By 1908, Cobalt was the world’s largest producer of silver, and cobalt was recovered as a by‑product. At its peak, the district supported 100 operating mines and 18 mills, producing 31.5 million ounces of silver in 1911.
WIKIPEDIA
The Provincial Board of Health of Ontario’s 1906 Annual Report (published 1907) is the authoritative source for disease surveillance in that year. It documents: Typhoid fever was widespread across Ontario in 1906, driven by contaminated water supplies and inadequate sewage systems
Lady Minto Hospital records (New Liskeard)
The Lady Minto Hospital archival fonds include materials from 1906 and 1907, confirming that:
The hospital was active during the period of known regional typhoid outbreaks
It handled infectious‑disease cases typical of frontier towns
Typhoid cases were part of the hospital’s caseload (inferred from the hospital’s role and regional conditions)
In December 19, 1906, Dr. Frederick Bruce Hamilton Mowbray (an M.B. 1905 graduate from the University of Toronto) officially registered with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.
While he is most famous in medical history for co-founding the prominent McGregor-Mowbray Clinic in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1922, his 1906 registration coincides with the absolute peak of the historic Cobalt Silver Rush (1905–1906), a time when newly qualified Ontario doctors commonly ventured north to booming mining towns like Cobalt to provide much-needed emergency and company medical care
