Susannah I. Steckle

Susannah Chase was born on March 29, 1898, in King’s County, Nova Scotia. She came to the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, and in 1921 was the first woman in Ontario to graduate from an agricultural course. Returning to the Annapolis Valley, she was the first woman president of the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers’ Association and was named an honorary member in 1948.

When she married John Steckle in 1928, she started a seven- acre orchard on the homestead on Bleams Road. She sold apples, pears, vegetables and flowers at the Kitchener Farmers’ Market for many years.

Steckle was active on the K-W Council of Friendship, the Waterloo County Children’s Aid Society, the Kitchener YWCA, Trinity United Church and was the first president of the Helena Feasby branch of the Women’s Institute. She was famed for her trillium teas which took place in Steckle Park which was later donated to the city by her husband, John Steckle.