Florence Goyette (1900)
According to her mother, 14-year-old Florence Goyette was a disobedient child who, in addition to neglecting her school work, “put her hair up in a pug and painted her face” and attended dances with friends. The judge’s decision to commit Florence to the Industrial School was sealed by the fact that her mother had previously lodged a complaint against her husband in court.
Florence Goyette, the 14-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Goyette, of Burlington, was before Judge Hawkins Saturday afternoon… The domestic infelicity of the Goyettes was aired in the city court earlier in the week, when Mr. Goyette was fined for a breach of the peace… on complaint of his wife. Mrs. Goyette came to the court with her daughter and told how the little girl went to dances … to say nothing of her neglect of school and refusal to mind her mother… She said her daughter would start out early in the evening and go over to a neighbor’s, where they put her hair up in a pug and painted her face and then she would go and dance all evening. Judge Hawkins thought this was bad for a young girl and coupling the facts with what he had learned of the domestic relations of the Goyettes… sentenced Florence to the industrial school.
St. Albans Daily Messenger, October 22, 1900
