Alice Emma Trainer was born on September 23, 1863, in Goderich, Ontario. She was the seventh child of Bernard and Louisa Saunders Trainer. Bernard Trainer, who had emigrated from Scotland to Canada, served as High Constable for Huron County and supplemented his income by working as a carpenter. Louisa, along with the rest of the […]

In 1887, the Trainer siblings reunited in Chicago. Coming from Goderich–a pleasant but rather sleepy town–Chicago must have been enormously exciting. It was the second largest city in the United States and was well on its way to a triumphant comeback after the Great Fire of 1871. It was the headquarters of major companies in […]

On March 16, 1902, Alice and William welcomed a long-awaited child. But sadly, William Henry Miner, Junior, died two weeks later. Alice was now nearly forty years old and unlikely to have another child. Neither she nor William left any record of their feelings about this tragic event, but their decision the following year to […]