Brandon's mysterious Clara Beckworth McInnis

© 2023, Christian Cassidy

Clara M. McInnis, November 7, 1907, Brandon Sun

To most who knew her, Clara M. Beckwith was a British-born swimming ace who went to Boston, Massachusetts to perform and travelled extensively with vaudeville-type shows. She settled in Brandon, Manitoba in 1898 after marrying local dentist and soon-to-be M.L.A. Stanley McInnis.

While researching the previous post about Stanley McInnis, I dug into her background to find where she ended up after his death and stumbled across a fascinating story about her true identity.

More on that later. First, the official story.

Miss Clara M. Beckwith

Boston Globe November 13, 1892

Clara Beckwith appeared on the American swimming circuit at a swim club in Boston in the 1880s and by the 1890s was featured as a solo act taking on swim challenges or performing in an enormous glass tank. Her ability to hold her breath for long periods thrilled audiences as she did acrobatics or more mundane things like eat a banana under water.

The Natatorium at the Grand Museum in Boston was her regular year-round venue and in the summers she toured around the region in travelling shows. Over time, these tours brought her further afield.

From In the Swim, 1893. (Source: Archive.org)

As part of the self-promotion for her performing career, Beckwith published a booklet in 1893 entitled "In the Swim: Autobiography of Miss Clara Beckwith, The World's Champion Lady Swimmer". It was a combination biography and how to swim guide.

Beckwith claimed that she was born in Lambeth, England, on October 26, 1867 into the Beckwith family of champion swimmers before coming to America around 1882 to take on new challenges. Four pages of the booklet describe her growing up in England and an equal number are dedicated to stories about the lives she saved in the water.

She wrote: "My first public appearance occurred in England when I was but 13 years of age. My father was present and witnessed my exhibition. It was then he predicted that some day I would be recognized as  Champion Lady Swimmer of the World". That is the tag line she used to describe herself throughout her professional career.

Beckwith wire stories in the Winnipeg Tribune, 1893

To coincide with the release of her autobiography, a series of promotional pieces about Beckwith were sent out over the wire services in 1893 for member newspapers to use as filler. The articles more often spoke of her “perfect beauty” and athletic form, complete with detailed measurements of every part of her body, than her swimming feats. (She was 5'4", weighed 156 pounds, her feet were 9 1/2 inches in length, her neck was 13 1/2 inches around and her thighs were 14  1/2 inches around.)

Even the Winnipeg Tribune picked up two of these wire stories and ran them in February and August  1893.

Beckwith did interviews in some of the cities she visited and was happy to talk about her English childhood and swimming feats as part of the Beckwith family. She also strongly encouraged women and girls to take up the sport of swimming.

How did she end up in Brandon?

Beckwith's career took her to Manitoba in the summer of 1897 as part of a travelling show that included trick bicycle riders, trapeze artists and a dog circus. She performed at the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition from July 19 to 24. The calendar of events published in the Daily Nor'Wester newspaper referred to her as the "great London sensational aquatic performer" and noted that the troupe performed twice a day for the week.

The Winnipeg Free Press described her show in its July 20, 1897 edition this way: "Clara Beckwith followed in her mermaid act, which was graceful. She appeared to relish a banana with much gusto and drank ginger ale with relish while immersed in her tank of water." It noted that her tank weighed four tons and took an entire morning to fill.

The troupe then travelled to Brandon by rail to perform at the summer fair which took place the first week of August. The Daily Nor’Wester reported that the cast returned to Winnipeg on August 7 and would then head back east the following day.

 October 13, 1897, Winnipeg Tribune

It is most likely that Beckwith met McInnis during her time at the fair. He had lived in Brandon since 1890 when he set up his dental practice and was involved in several community organizations.

Another sign that they met at the fair was that Beckwith returned to Brandon in October 1897 for a "season of shooting". McInnis was an avid outdoorsman and president of the Brandon Gun Club. He no doubt invited her back for an extended stay as she also enjoyed hunting and shooting as a pastime.

Beckwith left Brandon for her home in the state of Maryland on November 5, 1897.

June 27, 1907 Brandon Weekly Sun

Beckwith made quite an impression on McInnis and he wanted to marry her.

The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune of February 24, 1898 noted that a marriage license was issued to "Stanley W. McInnis, Grand Hotel and Clara M. Beckwith, Grand Hotel" in that city but the marriage did not take place.

The Brandon Western Sun reported that on June 2, 1898, "Dr. McInnis left on yesterday's local for Winnipeg. He will leave to-day for Baltimore where he will wed Miss Clara Beckwith." The couple would then return to Brandon and a house on Victoria Avenue that McInnis had recently purchased.

Obituaries of McInnis note that the wedding took place on June 8, 1898, which can also be confirmed in the pages of the Baltimore Daily Record of that day.

February 3, 1889, Boston Globe

The couple returned to Brandon and it appears that Beckwith gave up her life of performing to be a doctor's wife with one exception.

An ad taken out by the Natatorium in the February 3, 1889 edition of the Boston Globe states that Beckwith had performed there the previous week and starting February 4th would be appear for another week of swimming feats and “The management are ready to match her for a one or six-day swim for from one to five thousand dollars.”

Perhaps Beckwith was fulfilling a contractual duty to her old venue or maybe she wanted one last payday and chance to be in the limelight. it does not appear that she performed again after this.

In September 1889, the Boston Globe reported that it had been contacted by Valeska Nelson, a German swimmer whom Beckwith had competed against in past shows. She handed a down payment of  $500 to a reporter as part of a $1,000 purse to have one more race against Beckwith. The Globe printed the challenge but nothing about Beckwith's whereabouts or why she disappeared from the local swimming scene. Perhaps nobody knew where she had gone?

It does not appear that Nelson's challenge was accepted.

McInnis residence (Source: Illustrated Souvenir of Brandon)

Beckwith is rarely mentioned in Brandon or Winnipeg newspapers during her time in Manitoba. She co-presided over a spring tea for residents of Victoria Avenue in 1905, her garden got an honourable mention in a summer 1907 Sun article, and she received at her home in October 1907. That's about it.

There are no reports of her chairing committees or playing a major role in church or fundraising events as one might expect from a prominent prairie doctor's wife.

As a performer, Beckwith was the centre of attention and a constant self-promoter but those traits don't seem to have carried over into her married life. Newspapers also don't seem to make a connection between the performer and Manitoba's newest socialite, or if they did they did not print it.

It could be that Beckwith spent her time as a behind the scenes partner in McInnis' career.

As can be seen in the previous post, aside from being a dentist, McInnis was the MLA for Brandon from 1900 to 1907. During this time he also held senior positions with the Canadian, Manitoba and Western Canadian dental associations and was the head of many community organizations, including the city's rugby team, the horticultural club and the gun club. For good measure, in 1906 he partnered in a real estate firm.

It is hard to imagine that McInnis had the time to pack all of this activity into his day and surely could not have done it without assitance to manage his schedule, plan his travel and take care of some personal affairs. It makes sense that his wife would be that partner. If this is the case, Beckwith also made a great contribution to Brandon's social and cultural history in the early 1900s.

November 7, 1907, Brandon Weekly Sun

Stanley McInnis died unexpectedly on November 4, 1907 after his appendix burst while on a shooting trip at Oak Lake, Manitoba. Clara was at home and rushed to be at his bedside when he reached Brandon Hospital. She, of course, attended both funeral services in Brandon and Winnipeg.

It appears that Beckwith did not make any public statements nor were any interviews with her published in newspapers.

It is likely that Beckwith was left financially well off and the estate was liquidated over a long period.

Twenty horses were auctioned off at the Winter Fair in March 1908 and the house was sold not long after that. McInnis also owned land, the last parcel was made up of a half dozen lots of valuable city land on or around Victoria Avenue that were sold by the estate in May 1912 - more than four years after his death.

After Brandon

June 25, 1908, Brandon Sun

Beckwith, who had no children and was in her mid-thirties when her husband died, did not stay in Brandon long enough to see the remainder of the McInnis property sold.

The last Manitoba newspaper mention of "Mrs. S. W. McInnis" is in the social column of the June 25, 1908 edition of the Brandon Sun which reported that she left to visit Winnipeg. She likely never returned from that trip.

According to David Day, a modern-day biographer of Clara Beckwith, she moved back to Boston and married musician Clement G. Miller on November 25, 1908. The 1912 Boston street directory shows they lived at 217 Warren Street.

It is unclear when Clara died.

Clara's true identity

1883 poster for the Beckwith Family (The British Library)

Nearly a century after Clara left Brandon, British researchers David Day and Margaret Roberts were researching Lambeth, England's famous swimming family, and discovered articles about Clara's exploits in U.S. newspapers.

The Beckwith family consisted of father Frederick and his children Agnes, Lizzie, Willie and Charles - but no Clara!

So who was this imposter?

1901 Census of Canada for Brnadon, Library and Archives Canada

In her biography, "Clara Beckwith" claimed she was born in Lambeth, England on October 26, 1867, yet Day and Roberts found that on the application for her marriage license to McInnis she wrote that she was Clara Marie Sabean born in Annapolis, Nova Scotia in November 1870. Census records confirm her existence there.

Day notes that Clara "was recruited as a performer in the Boston Swimming Pool around 1887 before being promoted around America as Clara 'Beckwith'".

Interestingly, for the 1901 census of Canada, Clara gave her birthplace as England and said she was born on October 26, 1873. This shaved five years off the age provided in her biography and three years off the age on the marriage certificate.

It is unclear why Clara 'came clean' on her marriage certificate.

Perhaps she knew that marriage meant the end of her performing career and she didn't want to settle in Brandon as "The Champion Lady Swimmer of the World" with, presumably, a fake English accent and the need to talk about her fake immediate family and upbringing.

This could also explain why she shunned the spotlight in her new home town. The more attention she attracted, the more likely it is that someone would dig into her past and make the connection between Clara McInnis and Clara Beckwith. (Though this doesn't explain why she reverted back to England as her birthplace in the census.)

Agnes Beckworth, ca. 1885 (Source: The British Library)

It is not unusual for a performer to take on a persona and embellish their past. In fact, Clara wasn't the only woman to claim to be a Beckwith daughter. Around the same time, there was also a "Cora Beckwith" making the aquatic rounds who was really Cora MacFarland born in the state of Maine in 1869.

In this case, though, there was a real Beckwith swimming family that Clara and Cora used to further their careers. As Day notes, "Both women not only appropriated the Beckwith name but they also annexed the Beckwith routines, including endurance floating and ornamental swimming..."

The person who was most impacted by the impersonations was Agnes Beckwith. She was the most accomplished daughter of Fred Beckwith and a "lady champion swimmer" in her own right who was born on August 24, 1861.

Agnes toured Europe and North America, including a stop in Toronto in 1883. She returned to North America in 1887 but, "unfortunately for Agnes she was unable to convert her social capital into financial capital and she continued to work into the twentieth century", writes Day.

A factor in her lack of success could be due to the fact that the North American aquatic swimming market was already saturated with "Beckwith" daughters doing the rounds. Clara's tag line, "Champion Lady Swimmer of the World" was almost identical to Agnes Beckwith's "The Greatest Lady Swimmer in the World" which must have caused confusion to those booking shows.

Agnes Beckwith moved with her husband to South Africa in 1948 where she died on July 10, 1951.

Cora Beckwith, the other Beckwith imposter, in Winnipeg
January 9, 1917, Winnipeg Tribune

Further reading:

- David Day and Margaret Roberts' research into the Beckwith family, including the imposter Beckwiths, appears in various books and journals. The most complete version available online is From Lambeth to Niagara: Imitation and Innovation among Female Natationists from the book Sport’s Relationship with Other Leisure Industries.

- Another biography of Agnes Beckwith by Day and Roberts featuring many period photos is Agnes Beckwith Different Modes of Expression Published.

Thanks to Prof. Day for taking the time to clarify some of the questions I had about Clara.