New schools were built in Middleton in 1904, and in Kinkora in 1908.20 The old church became a recreation hall. In 1904 a branch of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association (C.M.B.A.) opened in Kinkora.21 This was a National Catholic financial organization, mainly for the purpose of providing low cost life insurance, begun in 1878; it operated at Kinkora until the early 19405.22

The economic growth suggested by these examples was not unique to the five communities; it was world-wide. “From the middle 1890’s until the outbreak of the Great

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