My feature this week could well be called a ‘double-header’ — plus one.

We begin with the 154th anniversary of Somerset Methodist Church, followed by the birthday celebrations of noted music teacher Olivette Burch Morris. My column concludes with the second part of the feature I began last week on the iconic medical team of Arnold Packwood and Cordelia Fubler.

SOMERSET METHODIST CHURCH MARKS 154TH ANNIVERSARY

Spirited singing and powerful preaching marked the start of the 154th anniversary celebrations of the Somerset Methodist Church at Long Bay Lane, Sandys on Sunday.

Worship leader was Gwen Joell. Pastor Lynette Rayner and guest preacher Marcus Jones were presented as third and fourth generation members fostering the legacy of faith left them by church builders, a century-and-a-half ago.

Mention was not made of these original builders, who were prominent members of the Caucasian family of Gilberts and the black Ratterays of the parish. Over the years, yours truly has been privileged as a journalist to report on Somerset Methodists. One of those prime movers was a man named Charles “Roach” Ratteray.

According to Kenneth Robinson, in his book Heritage, Mr Ratteray was a celebrated black boat builder, trader and substantial landowner who featured heavily in the religious and commercial life of Bermuda during the years leading up to and after the emancipation of slavery in 1834.

Because of some racial complications that developed during the building of the Long Bay Lane church, Mr Ratteray withdrew from the effort and threw his support to the men responsible for inviting Bishop Nazery of the British Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada to Bermuda. The BME later became the AME Church of Bermuda.

Meanwhile, the Somerset Methodists at Long Bay Lane gained a new thrust leading up to the 1920s when the prominent blacks became more to the fore, esteemed as first and second generations and so on.

Mr Jones obtained his bachelor of arts degree in economics at Trent University in Ontario, Canada and a number of diplomas from Bermuda College. He was introduced by Joanne Brangman. Among others involved were Jacqueline Hunt; assistant pastor Karl Pringle; Anna Cann, and Monica Cann. There were soul stirring selections by Henry Hughes. Ushers were Jacqueline Hunt and Louise Basden.

Representatives from other churches gave salutations along with members of Friendly Societies including the Provincial Grand Master Norbert Simmons of both the Somerset and Hamilton districts of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, Manchester Unity.

MUSIC TEACHER’S GRAND 99TH

The family and friends of the esteemed music teacher Olivette Burch Morris celebrated her 99th birthday in a grand way at Lefroy House, Ireland Island, Sandys. She is the daughter of Venetia Reid Burch and Carl Burch of St George’s. She received her early teaching from her aunt, Louise Burch. Her higher learning was reflected in several certificates she earned from the Royal Society of Music. She has also been honoured many times by other institutions including her church, the Gospel Hall on Glebe Road, Devonshire. She was the organist there for more than 60 years.

At the celebration was her sister Ina Burch Pitcher, aged 93. She also has a brother Willard “Bo” Burch who recently turned 90. He is the well-known founder of Universal Barber Shop, Court Street, Hamilton.

CORDELIA THE GREAT NURSE

A week ago I noted how Arnold Packwood was one of the first black Bermudians following the 1834 emancipation of slavery, to qualify in medicine in North America. With nurse Cordelia Fubler often at his side, he operated on patients in her home or at Andover Arbour, his Ely’s Harbour surgery/residence.

The government-financed King Edward VII Memorial Hospital came into being in 1912. Significantly, it was upon the death of Dr Packwood in 1925 that Trinidadian-born Edgar Fitzgerald Gordon was recruited to fill the void. King Edward, though publicly funded became more persistent in its ‘whites-only’ policies. Its operators seemingly were prepared to go to the end of the earth for white nurses rather that engage black Bermudians, who were highly qualified in North America with degrees.

This feature is intended to be more specifically about Mrs Fubler. She was one of the few midwives in the whole of the country before the turn of the century.

Mrs Fubler was born December 14, 1830, the second daughter of Jacob and Francis Simmons. She was schooled in Sandys, and at an early age went to study nursing at the Royal Naval Hospital in Dockyard under a British officer, and for three years under Dr Packwood.

She had a happy married life. Her husband, Joseph Fubler, was a farmer and operator of the parish’s horse-drawn hearse. He died in 1936, but not before the couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Mrs Fubler was idolised by her own children and extended family. One daughter, Francis Simmons, operated her own private school and later became one of the founding members in 1927 of Sandys Secondary School. Others also pursued careers in the educational field.

Most impressive were those kinsfolk of Mrs Fubler and those inspired directly or otherwise to follow her example in related fields. Her daughter Helena became a nurse, but she died in the flower of her youth, soon after graduating from the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in the United States. A cousin, Alice Scott, became a state-registered nurse in New York in 1912.

A niece, Olivia Tucker, made medical history in 1925 when she graduated from New York’s Columbia University with a PhD in pharmacy, being the first woman in the United States’ history with such a qualification. Dr Tucker was crucified by the oligarchs when she returned home fully equipped to set up her own pharmacy. She was sent packing back to the States, to make more history.

Dr Tucker’s brother Trisccott Tucker, a nephew of Mrs Fubler, qualified as a surgeon at Howard University in Washington, DC. Tragically he was killed two years later by a motorist in New York before he could return to Bermuda to practice. Other relatives of Mrs Fubler who entered the medical field include nurse Iris Davis and doctors Delmonte Simmons and Don Quedelle Philip.

Yours truly, as a historian, newspaperman, former senator and broadcaster, am obliged to note here, how indebted I am to Dale Butler and his Writers’ Machine for publishing my book, Heroines in the Medical Field of Bermuda, which contains far more information and photographs of the iconic Mrs Fubler and most of her offspring mentioned above.