GRAND DRAPE: RAISING THE CURTAIN ON A LONG-HIDDEN WORK OF ART $10 Quebec

VOL 10, NO. 4 FALL 2016 HeritageNews

The Mystery behind the Great War’s Fallen MP Revisiting George Harold Baker Fenians’ Rainbow The 150th Anniversary of the Irish Invasion of Canada Remarkable Ancestors QAHN’s Heritage Photo and Heritage Essay Contests QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Quebec CONTENTS HeritageNews Editor’s Desk 3 EDITOR Anti-housewife, anti-heroine Rod MacLeod RODERICK MACLEOD PRODUCTION DAN PINESE; MATTHEW FARFAN QAHN News 6

PUBLISHER QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE Unsung and Obliterated Hero 8 HERITAGE NETWORK George Harold Baker, 1877-1916 Serge Wagner 400-257 QUEEN STREET SHERBROOKE, QUEBEC J1M 1K7 Memphremagog Masterpiece 11 PHONE Long-lost grand drape finds a new home Matthew Farfan 1-877-964-0409 (819) 564-9595 FAX 2016 QAHN Heritage Photo Contest Winners 14 (819) 564-6872 CORRESPONDENCE [email protected] 2016 QAHN Heritage Essay Contest Winners 18 WEBSITES QAHN.ORG QUEBECHERITAGEWEB.COM 100OBJECTS.QAHN.ORG The Ukrainians of Val David 20 Part II Joseph Graham

PRESIDENT SIMON JACOBS Housoldiers 24 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & The mobilization of Quebec housewives for WWII Lorraine O’Donnell WEBMAGAZINES EDITOR MATTHEW FARFAN

OFFICE MANAGER Clear and Present Danger? 26 KATHY TEASDALE The 150th anniversary of the 1866 Fenian Raid Tim Belford

Quebec Heritage News is published quarterly by QAHN with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage Review: The Gaol, the School, and the Moose 30 and Quebec’s Ministère de la Culture et Iron Bars and Bookshelves: A History of the Morrin Centre Sandra Stock des Communications. QAHN is a non-profit by Louisa Blair, Patrick Donovan, and Donald Fyson and non-partisan organization whose mis- sion is to help advance knowledge of the history and culture of the English- speaking communities of Quebec.

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Cover photo: The grand drape of Lake Memphremagog, by William Gill, at its ISSN 17707-2670 unveiling on the lawn of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. PRINTED IN CANADA Photo: Matthew Farfan.

2 FALL 2016

EDITOR’S DESK Anti-housewife, anti-heroine by Rod MacLeod

don’t want to give the impression treal, something I heard about often Smoking was a particularly sure sign of that my mother was somehow mer- without fully realizing what it was. this fallen state – which was odd, given cenary. But she did not come by Nothing heroic: a clerical job, a daily how many people smoked in those days. housewifery naturally and, during commute to 1135 Beaver Hall Hill to One day my mother came home from theI war years anyway, she wasn’t much help coordinate the armed forces’ need school to find her mother in tears be- of a heroine; that would come later. The for paints and chemicals – substantially cause Betsy Malone had told her that her war wasn’t a challenge for my mother: it less creative than sewing shirts. The cru- daughter had seen my mother smoking. was liberating. cial thing about CIL for my mother was My mother was never sure what both- My mother did her share of war not that it did stuff to help win the war ered her most about this incident: that work. Her parents were heavily into the but rather that it was in Montreal. One she had been unjustly accused of some- Red Cross, so I assume she helped out evening my mother was pushing her thing she would never (out of personal when she was at home, although sewing way along St. Catherine Street (that distaste, not a sense of propriety) do, or wasn’t her forte: she was far better at thoroughfare was perpetually thronged that her own mother would so readily as- reciting the adventures of Sister Susie with thousands even before VE Day) sume her guilt based solely on Betsy than she was sewing shirts for soldiers and as she stared about at that endless Malone’s own testimony. herself. (As a toddler, I liked The Lavers family were nothing better than my mother’s comfortably on the safe side of rendition of “Sister Susie Sewing that invisible line. My grandfa- Shirts for Soldiers” to calm my ther owned the general store in nerves, unless it was a few partnership with his brother, who rounds of “There is a Tavern in had married my grandmother’s the Town” – an anthem that still sister – meaning that my mother gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.) was related to everybody in the As a matter of fact, practical- family in at least two different ly everything my grandmother ways. The closest thing she had was good at and felt was impor- to a sister was her double cousin tant wasn’t my mother’s forte. Shirley, who was just three This was the source of much ten- months older, lived around the sion. Teaching was a notorious corner, and was in her class at case in point: Miss McLaughlin school. The two of them would had been a warm, nurturing den hang out at the store after school mother brimming with stories watching Uncle Dave and Uncle who loved every minute spent Harry (each of them also Dad) among the kiddies of Parrsboro, N..S., at sea of faces she had one gloriously gid- unpack exotic fruits from faraway least before she gave up teaching to mar- dy thought. places. I always loved the story of the ry Mr. Lavers upon his return from the “Nobody knows me!” barrel that also contained a spider the WWI trenches. Their daughter was natu- In Parrsboro, N.S., everybody knew size of a big man’s hand that began rally channelled into a teaching career everybody. And what they were doing. crawling up the store wall until my even though she loathed the prospect. And it mattered, because you were al- grandfather, a quiet gentle soul, calmly Miss Lavers was especially petrified at ways but a step away from stumbling took out his pen knife and stabbed it having to teach the offspring of the kid- over that invisible line into that mysteri- through the thorax. Life in Parrsboro dies her mother had taught; some of ous other category of people. My grand- was not without its charms. them were only a couple of years mother had cheerfully taught the I know my mother tried. I have dif- younger than she was and until recently Carmichael children, but when they be- ficulty interpreting her willing baptism had been her playmates. She wasn’t a came adult Carmichaels they were shirk- at the age of 17 as the product of reli- bad teacher, mind you – her cousin (and ers with large families who rarely gious conviction, and assume she was pupil) Vic often praised her skills in my washed and always smoked – just as you trying to please. That she hadn’t been hearing, even half a century after the would expect from the Carmichaels. My baptized at birth suggests that my grand- fact. But at the time she hated it. grandmother’s evidence for this was first father (nominally Presbyterian) had con- Sewing aside, my mother’s main hand: they lived next door. (There was ceded to my grandmother (Baptist) on war work was at CIL in downtown Mon- no spatial segregation in Parrsboro.) the understanding that the ceremony 3 VE Day, Montreal. Photo: Library and Archives Canada: a152318. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS would take place sooner or later. But to were moving. My mother realized that world. The Montreal equivalent of the formally join the Baptist church meant there was one thing a teaching diploma Parrsboro Carmichaels were wretched that my mother had to submit to total was good for apart from teaching, and indeed, particularly the children. At immersion – my mother who at no point that was shaving a year off a B.A. And some point late in the war, my mother in her life, despite having been raised of all the subjects she’d taught, the one who hated teaching decided to devote near the sea, liked putting her head un- she came close to enjoying was History. herself to child welfare. She may have der water. It meant having to plunge Halifax (Dalhousie) was a revelation: started as a volunteer, while still work- completely to the bottom of a big deep there was nightlife, there were men – ing at CIL, but she had her eye on it as a bath, which was the preferred receptacle even some whose families she didn’t career. This decision caused her parents for Parrsboro Baptists, again despite be- know – on their way overseas. She much confusion: social work, they pro- ing so near the sea. (It may be that the joined a sorority so she could have claimed, was what everybody did, not a Bay of Fundy’s huge serious job like teaching tides made scheduling a or housewifery. But as natural immersion im- Parrsboro’s Jimmy and practical; Gathering at cousin Vic would testi- the River loses much of fy, my mother was sur- its charm when the prisingly good with cleansing water lies half children even if she hat- a mile away, as it does ed the classroom. every 12 hours, across an This skill would be expanse of brown, clam- put to severe test when infested mud.) the Montreal Council of Teaching was anoth- Social Agencies, noting er thing that my mother my mother’s teaching tried in order to keep the diploma and academic peace. With Grade 11 B.A., found her a posi- under her belt, she tion at the Girls’ Cottage trooped over to the Industrial School in Teachers’ College in Sweetsburg, near Cow- Truro, 60 miles away, as ansville. These were her mother had done be- tough kids; my mother fore her. One year later she was back, in friends for the rest of her life, and never got scratched and bitten, and had to as- charge of the multi-year class in her old saw any of them again. What she sert her authority with infinitely more school that she had so recently left. A learned about History was enough to get confidence than she had done in Parrs- spark of the intrepid warrior my mother her the B.A., but it wasn’t the same as boro. This was not her thing either, but would later emerge on her first day being part of history, which was clearly she stuck it out until the school closed in when one snotty kid announced that he happening just beyond her vision. Her 1947. Spurs proved, she discovered a wasn’t gonna learn and she couldn’t sister-cousin Shirley had joined the much gentler and pro-active environ- make him. “That’s too bad, Jimmy,” my Women’s Royal Naval Service and was ment under the wing of Muriel McCrea mother retorted (I assume she got his off overseas “freeing a man for the fleet” at the newly-formed Montreal Chil- name right), “I had you pegged as a (as the slogan went), whence she would dren’s Aid Society, and soon after at the smart guy who would help me out with return at the end of the war, with a hus- Children’s Service Centre at Weredale the little kids.” I paraphrase, of course – band. The prospect of a naval career did Park, where she rubbed shoulders with but it won her the day, and Jimmy’s af- not appeal to my mother (nor would people from child protection agencies, fection. My mother made the best of it, marriage for a great many years). In- foster homes, and the Negro Community but it drained her, and after one year she stead of going back to Parrsboro she Centre. gave up, proving a deep disappointment took a train to Montreal. My mother’s forte, discovered at to my grandmother. Curiously, my moth- My mother’s efforts to reinvent her- long last, was adoption. Not supplying er took up teaching again forty years lat- self, away from the eyes of Betsy Ma- wealthy couples with abandoned chil- er, at Dawson College, in a room over a lone et al, took an ironic turn when she dren, as had generally been the practice dressmaker’s shop on St. Antoine Street; discovered social work. In Montreal, (and as much popular culture would then, the equivalent of Jimmy in her there were real issues: poverty, above have it), but rather finding homes for the class on International Adoption was an all, despite the rosy wartime employ- children who had fallen between the aggressive, ultra-cynical girl in dread- ment situation. My mother remembered cracks. The McCrea philosophy was for locks who, nevertheless, after listening the tramps who had come begging dur- society to get beyond using orphanages to my mother for some time, declared: ing the Depression and who had always and Industrial schools (for girls and “your head’s where it’s at!” – a redemp- been given a meal (on the back porch) boys) as a dumping ground for the de- tive highpoint in my mother’s life. by her charity-minded parents – but prived and the disturbed, and instead But in 1940, with a war on, things parts of Montreal were an entirely other find ways to actually accommodate

4 “Crossroads Co-Op Store at Parrsboro, 1962, former Dave Lavers store.” Photo: MacLeod family collection. FALL 2016 these youngsters in real families. As well grounds. One of these families lived Interracial was one frontier; interna- as being good with kids, my mother near us in Montreal West, and had a tional was another. By the 1970s, the proved to have a sharp eye for who (White) boy my age who was adept at disasters in Vietnam, Cambodia and would make a good parent. maintaining indifference while the other Bangladesh were producing huge num- Over her long career as a social kids in the class tried to work out bers of orphans. A group of these mul- worker, my mother handled thousands of whether it was odd or not that his older tiracial families we had come to know adoptions. According to one piece of in- sister had jet-black skin. It had only began to urge the Canadian government house apocrypha, adopted children in been a couple of years earlier, shortly af- to facilitate the transfer of some of these Montreal Protestant circles were prone ter my parents moved to the town, that children, first to their own homes in the to ask other children whether they came they had opened the door to a couple Montreal area, then to the homes of oth- from God or from Miss Lavers. Another with a clipboard seeking signatories to a er willing adopting families. Again, the story, also from my emphasis was on finding mother’s days as a single good homes, not satisfy- woman, is much more ing childless couples: credible. In the middle “Families For Children” of a dinner date, she was the appropriate spotted a former client at name of the organization another table and enthu- formed by Sandra Simp- siastically declared to son, Naomi Bronstein, her companion: “Oh, and Bonnie Cappuccino there’s the father of one – all of them middle- of my children!” Not class housewives deter- surprisingly, the gent did mined to alleviate the not ask her on a second lives of children in war date. zones. They did so not My mother had only by goading local found a job she enjoyed, bureaucrats but by trav- but the challenge came elling to places like in breaking down barriers and crossing petition to keep out what would have Saigon and Phnom Penh, even in that frontiers. Historically, adoption in Que- been the town’s first Black family. We disastrous year 1975. Early critics said bec favoured placing like with like, a had a long way to go. I know that in re- that the organization was run by do- principle that generally informed the cent years interracial adoption has some- gooders, not professional social workers, work of the Children’s Service Centre: times come under fire for effectively di- but it was not long before Families For out of respect for culture and with an vorcing children of colour from their Children got its professional: my moth- eye to easy integration, Protestant chil- roots and submitting them to cultural ap- er, who did pro-bono home studies for dren went to Protestant families, Black propriation. This is a legitimate charge, them for over two decades. In the winter children went to Black families, etc. But since so many of these adopting families of 1978, she went to Bangladesh with a what Muriel McCrea had been arguing brought their Black children up White – FFC contingent and she worked in an or- at least since the war (in clear opposition colour-blind, yes, but essentially White. phanage near Dacca for several weeks; to the social work mainstream as person- Muriel McCrea’s goal may not have she then accompanied a number of or- ified by the prim Charlotte Whitton) was been realistic. Even so, as I look at the phaned babies back to Mirabel Airport. that adoption should be colour blind. To world today, I can’t help thinking that Catching sight of her getting off the get beyond race as a serious social im- we could all use a little more of that in- plane, clutching in her arms an infant pediment, society had to start seeing tegrative spirit that my mother brought with a heart defect whom she’d spent the families as (ideally) nurturing home en- to her little corner of Quebec society. previous eighteen hours comforting, I vironments rather than genetic units. In was never prouder of her. other words, adoption could be interra- International adoption has also cial. My mother came to apply her skill come under intense criticism in recent at matching willing parents with forsak- years, largely because it is widely identi- en children to the challenge of placing fied with rich infertile couples meeting Black or “mixed race” (we tend to say their own needs via legally questionable “biracial” these days) in White homes – tactics. Even forty years ago, Families or rather in homes that promptly ceased for Children was lumped in with other to be “White” with the arrival of the groups that were arguably guilty of cul- adopted child. tural appropriation. FFC was adamant Or children. My mother eventually about not catering to prospective par- established lasting friendships with a ents’ requests: if my mother got any in- number of families who adopted a great dication that a couple preferred one skin many children from several ethnic back- tone over another, they would be reject-

Top: The Montreal Star, September 29, 1959. 5 Bottom: My mother at Mirabel, March 1978. Photo: MacLeod family collection. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS ed. The same was true if a couple were when I was 11, and my parents, with a case of her realizing, as we all eventual- to insist on an absolutely healthy baby, great deal of reluctance, invited my ly realize, that to everything there is a particularly as peace returned to these grandmother to live with us – during the season. Did I say I was never prouder of far-off lands and the local integration of winter, anyway; she would return to the my mother than when she came back large numbers of orphans revealed that house in Parrsboro from June to Septem- from Bangladesh? Maybe. But her most the children most in need of nurturing ber. Even so, my grandmother’s pres- moving moment in my eyes was when I families were those with physical dis- ence proved a strain on the household, arrived at the hospital and found her abilities. This was, perhaps, another even on my parents’ marriage – not be- leaning stoically, and sometimes not so frontier. cause she was needy or demanding, but stoically, on my dying grandmother’s But for all her enthusiastic involve- because she brought back everything my bed. Some months earlier, with much ment in these causes, my mother showed mother had worked to escape: the gos- guilt on my mother’s part, my grand- true heroism in an entirely different set sip, the disapproval, the endless chatter mother had been placed in a nursing of circumstances. A housewife she be- about what the minister had said and home near Parrsboro, where her health came upon giving birth to me and mov- how the previous night’s bridge game declined; at last, she was removed to in- ing to the suburbs, relegating her career had played out, even though the rest of tensive care, rapidly fading, and soon re- to carrying out home studies in the us disliked the minister and had no time duced to a tiny, squirrel-like figure on evenings and on weekends until I started for bridge. Eventually, my grandmother life support sunk deep in a huge hospital school. And although cooking and clean- began to have falls, and became bedrid- bed. That was my last glimpse of her – ing were not things she pursued with den and incontinent. My mother set to and I see my mother leaning over her, great pride, she kept son and spouse washing her, changing the bed, and muttering “Oh, Mum,” an infinity of happily fed and clothed. And although cleaning the sheets, often several times a emotions running through her that were we were of different temperaments and day. Over the course of five or six years, all the more shattering for containing clashed over a great many things (unim- my mother’s hair turned white and she large amounts of anger and resentment. portant things, I would say in retro- grew arthritic and bent while still in her We fight our wars on many fronts. spect), she and I had a very affectionate fifties. Some of us make peace. Most of us just relationship – infinitely more so than the But in this she was heroic. You get on with life – which is usually hard- one she had experienced with her own could say that she was paying the price er. mother. That relationship moved to a for her wartime escape from oppressive new level when my grandfather died domesticity, but I think it was more a QAHN News

OUTREACH 2017 St. Mungo's Homecoming and the roving consultations of Offi- This summer and fall, QAHN has (Cushing). cial Languages Canada (Bishop's Uni- been especially busy at events in com- In August, we participated at the versity). We also hosted a lecture and munities around the province. In July, Potton Multicultural Festival (Man- a traveling exhibition at the Richmond we brought the QAHN tent to the sonville), the Lennoxville Street Fest, County Museum (Richmond). And in September, we co-hosted a meeting of historical groups in the Laurentians (Morin Heights), and (as part of Townshippers' Day) welcomed several hundred visitors to our tent on the historic Brome County Fair- grounds.

FOREVER The Fostering Organizational Renewal through Enriching Volunteer Experi- ence and Recognition project (FOR- EVER) is winding down after what has been a successful 15-months. The Volunteering Matters confer- ence series has taken project managers Dwane Wilkin and Heather Darch to Montreal, Quebec City, Wakefield, Stanstead, Gaspé and, most recently, Knowlton, Quebec. 6 At the QAHN tent, Townshippers’ Day, Brome, September 17, 2016. Photo: Matthew Farfan. FALL 2016

Experts in the field of volunteer management have pro- vided various heritage and community organizations with valuable information and practical ideas necessary for building their volunteer programs. QAHN’s series of “Volunteering Matters” handbooks and a new Guide to Volunteer Recruitment can help organi- zations become more successful at attracting volunteers. Special work sessions using the Guide have been given to community and heritage organizations in Rawdon and Thetford Mines.

DREAM As one project finishes another new and exciting project begins. Diversifying Resources to Ensure the Advancement of Mission (DREAM) is a 15-month project funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage. Community groups and heritage organizations are find- ing it increasingly difficult to sustain funding, increase rev- enue and generate additional income and community sup- port for much needed projects and programs. QAHN’s DREAM project, under the direction of QAHN’s own “dream team” Dwane Wilkin and Heather Darch, will address these concerns, explore new trends and Small Press, present knowledgeable experts who will help organizations Tremendous Books! find answers to their financial issues. By focusing on how to financially equip and sustain QAHN’s heritage communi- 23 rue Ste-Anne ty, we can hopefully all DREAM big! Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC H9X 1L1 [email protected] 514.457.5733 www.shorelinepress.ca

Top and bottom right: St Mungo’s Church, Cushing, July 23, 2016. Photos: Sandra Stock. Top left: Townshippers’ Day, Brome, September 17, 2016. Photo: Matthew Farfan. 7 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

U NSUNG AND OBLITERATED HERO George Harold Baker, 1877-1916 by Serge Wagner

o most Canadians, George the Battle of Mount Sorrel near Ypres, Baker. For several decades, the Eastern Harold Baker is a little known where Baker died. This is therefore a Townships were the scene of a merciless figure. His name is mainly as- “commissioned work,” an “authorized feud between Liberals and Conserva- sociated with the fact that he is biography,” whose content was super- tives, then led respectively by two “hon- theT only Canadian parliamentarian killed vised by two of Harry’s sisters, Harriet ourable” politicians: Sydney Arthur in action in a war. Some may know him (1866-1962) and Effie (1871-1927). Fisher and George Barnard Baker (Har- from the few lines written on him in Harry’s letters also appeared to have ry’s father). The most famous episode of Wikipedia: this clash occurred in 1904, when Cana- George Harold Baker was a da’s senior military officer, Douglas Canadia politician and lawyer. He Cochrane, the Earl of Dundonald, ap- was elected to the Canadian House pointed Senator Baker’s son-in-law to of Commons in 1911 as a Member the Light Dragoons Regiment of Water- of the Conservative Party to repre- loo. Sydney Fisher, acting Minister of sent the riding of Brome. He fought Militia and Defence, blocked the ap- in World War I as a Lieutenant- pointment, declaring in the House of Colonel with the 13th Scottish Commons that this regiment had been Light Dragoons (1913–1914) and infiltrated by the Conservatives, naming commanded the 5th Canadian in particular young Harry Baker. When Mounted Rifles (5th CMR) which Dundonald protested, the Laurier Gov- he led into action in France in July ernment arranged for his recall to Great 1915. He was killed in action at Britain, generating a broad public debate Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium on in Canada and overseas. It is possible June 2, 1916. His father was sena- that public accusations of nepotism prac- tor and MP George Barnard Baker. ticed in the Baker family in the militia (and lack of competency of those pro- More of us are probably familiar with moted) afflicted young Harry. his horse, the subject of a 2012 CBC In any case, the Baker family had its news report (and the QHN’s “Back to revenge when Harry stood as Conserva- Glenmere: Exploring the story of ‘Cana- tive candidate against Sydney Fisher in da’s war horse,’” Summer 2015). This Brome County in the 1911 general elec- article will explore the political motives been “edited” in order to create a com- tion, and won. Humiliated, Sydney Fish- and military ignorance of George Harold mendable portrait. And as for the June er ran as the Liberal candidate in a by- Baker, commonly known as Harry. 1916 battle, the two descriptions pub- election two years later in the riding of lished were censored versions: a news- Châteauguay, held by the Liberals since The 1917 narrative paper article then under censorship and Confederation. Not satisfied at having Lord Beaverbrook’s official account. beaten Fisher in Brome in 1911, Harry Until recently, the main text regard- What is surprising is that the narra- Baker got actively involved in that by- ing Harry Baker was a peculiar booklet tive of 1917 was essentially never revis- election and contributed directly to the published in 1917 exactly one year after ited, nor were some major historical second consecutive defeat of Sydney Baker’s death. It was “printed for private events ever presented, either by the Bak- Fisher, putting an end to the parliamen- circulation” by Columbia University, er family, by the Army, or by the gov- tary career of the man who had been and it was most likely paid for by the ernment – particular not after the federal Canadian Minister of Agriculture for 15 Baker family. The author-editor, John election of 1921. years. William Cunliffe (1865-1946), a British- American professor of English literature The Dundonald-Fisher incident, 1904 Public humiliation in Brome, 1923 and journalism at Columbia, was a fami- ly friend. One of the key moments in the life Sydney Fisher died in 1921, but his The book brings together a set of of Harry Baker was probably the Dun- influence remained strong in the Eastern texts: a short biography by Cunliffe, war donald Fisher Incident of 1904, unmen- Townships as well as on the federal letters from Harry, and two accounts of tioned in most writings about Harry stage. The enmity between the Fishers George Harold Baker as a soldier. 8 Photo: courtesy of Patrimoine Bolton Heritage. FALL 2016

burg (in Brome County), he had enlisted them creates a strange impression: there from his seasonal residence in Bolton is little talk of the honoured. Centre (in Brome), and the address of In his speech, the prime minister his “Next of Kin” was in East Bolton said almost nothing of the celebrated (also Brome). Colonel Baker had also hero, stating that the monument was “es- raised the first regiment of the Great sentially symbolic.” He did mention War identified as the Eastern Townships’ Canada’s 600,000 troops, including its Regiment. Moreover, the Brome resi- 60,000 dead, and paid special tribute to dence criterion was not applied to each the Members of Parliament who had en- of the 63 soldiers inscribed on the monu- listed. As for the statue itself, King ment: a review of the names carried out spoke much more about its sculptor than in 1926 (Frizzle) revealed that twenty of about its subject. He did mention that these soldiers lived or enlisted outside the Governor General had been in com- the county, at least four resided outside mand of the Canadian Corps when the province of Quebec, and one was a Colonel Baker was killed. Yet the man U.S. soldier killed in France “under the who had been simply Julian Byng in U.S. flag.” June 1916 unveiled the statue without a word. The Governor General’s silence, National unveiling played down, 1924 and the Prime Minister’s near silence, may have resulted from political and Ottawa also decided to erect a mon- military motives. Politically, Sydney ument to the fallen. In 1919, while the Fisher continued to exert his influence in and the Bakers took on the Shakespeare- Conservatives were still in power, a joint Brome even after his death; he left a an accents of the deadly struggle be- committee of the Senate and the House trust fund of $100,000, which con- tween the Montagues and Capulets. One of Commons planned a monument in tributed directly to King’s election as of the places that one would expect the honour of Baker, the former MP killed Liberal leader in 1919 (Courtney). memory of Soldier and MP Baker to be in combat. The project, like many, was Militarily, the Canadian Army did perpetuated was, of course, Brome delayed because of reconstruction on not want to commemorate the Battle of County – yet, some Brome county resi- Parliament Hill following the fire of Mount Sorrel near Ypres, which may dents did not forget the double defeat he February 1916. The statue of Baker was have been one of the worst moments of inflicted upon their former MP and fed- finally inaugurated in February 1924, at disorganization in the early years of the eral minister. a time when the Liberals were in power. War (Stewart). Indeed, Canadian sol- At the end of the First World War, Among the dignitaries’ present were diers were ill-prepared in Flanders, and many communities began to erect me- Governor General Lord Byng of Vimy the Canadian Corps was disorganized. morials to honour their fallen soldiers. In and Prime Minister William Lyon During the first day of the battle, Canada 1920, Brome County Council decided to Mackenzie King. The speeches were suffered two major military losses: the “subscribe to the erection of a War Me- published in the Parliamentary Memoir Germans killed the highest ranking morial to the boys of the County Who of George Harold Baker, 1924. Reading Canadian soldier to die in either world Were Killed in the Great War” (Taylor). war (Major-General Mercer, commander In 1921, the council decided “that the of the 3rd Canadian Division), and they face of the Soldiers’ Monument at took the highest ranking Canadian pris- Knowlton Be That of the late Colonel oner of the war (Brigadier-General Baker.” The vote was divided, however Williams, commander of the 8th Canadi- (5 in favour, 2 against), and a few an Brigade). Lieutenant-General Julian months later the council unanimously re- Byng had just taken command of the scinded its previous decision. The mon- Canadian Corps on the Western Front, ument to the “Brome boys” was inaugu- and on June 3, when Baker died of his rated in September 1923. Not only was wounds, Byng ordered – against the the figure of Colonel Baker absent from Canadian command – an improvised and the statue, but his name was omitted unsuccessful counter-attack. Ten days from the list of 63 fallen soldiers from later, on June 13, the Canadian Corps Brome County. The posthumous humili- launched a new counter-attack, which ation of Harry Baker was complete. only achieved a return to the initial posi- Some have argued that the name tions of June 2. In the end, after a battle Baker was missing because he did not of less than 12 days, Canadians managed reside in Brome at that time. This argu- to maintain their positions, but at the ment is weak since Harry Baker was the cost of over 8,000 casualties. MP for Brome when he was killed; fur- The Baker sisters experienced the thermore, he had a law office in Sweets- humiliation of the Brome memorial.

Top: Colonel Baker monument, Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Bottom: Brome memorial. Photo: Serge Wagner. Photo: courtesy of Marika Prie. 9 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Effie, present at the inauguration of the tinued to reiterate his confidence in his Sources: Ottawa monument in 1924, felt that the men. Janet ChandlerAllingham, “Back to Glen- statue did not look like her brother. In mere: Exploring the Story of 'Canada's War November 1924, they wrote to General “To rise to the height of the event” Horse,'” Quebec Heritage News, Summer Dennis Draper, their brother’s second- (Hannah Arendt) 2015. in-command at Mount Sorrel. While rec- ognizing that the statue and the accom- Born into a wealthy bourgeois family, Brome County Historical Society, For King, panying memoir were a “lasting tribute George Harold Baker was elitist. In 1915, Country, and Constituents: George Harold that will perpetuate the memory of Har- when completing his enlistment form, the Baker and the 5th CMR. Knowlton, 2016. ry,” the sisters expressed bitterness: word “recruit” was crossed out everywhere We have read the memorial it appeared and replaced by “officer.” Bak- Derek Booth, “The 5th Canadian Mounted book from Ottawa. For us nothing er was clearly proud of his superior status, Rifles: The Last Hurrah,” Stanstead Histori- comes close to your tribute to but he did not denigrate his men. On the cal Society Journal, Vol. 23, 2009. Harry – couched in such words as contrary, while he celebrated his last only affection and sincerity can Christmas meal in 1915 with his officers, John C. Courtney, The Selection of National inspire. (Manson) he went first to wish a Merry Christmas to Party Leaders in Canada, Toronto, 1973. all his men who were also enjoying a spe- Harriet and Effie Baker, who had tried to cial dinner. And he was pleased that most John William Cunliffe, A Canadian soldier: promote the memory of Harry Baker, would enjoy a “sit-down dinner,” which George Harold Baker, MP, lieutenant then distanced themselves from Canadi- was uncommon. colonel 5th C.M.R., killed in action at Ypres, an society, travelling and living abroad George Harold Baker proved to be a June 2nd, 1916. Printed for private circula- for long periods of time. Their sense of “soldiers’ officer.” He was certainly a tion, Columbia University, New York, 1917. resentment seems justified: a review of traditional and partisan politician. How- publications about Harry Baker reveals ever, one feels that the experience of war Anne Drummond, “Fisher, Sydney Arthur,” that the 1924 inauguration was the last transformed him. One can also believe Dictionary of Canadian Biography. significant appreciation by the political that the charges of partisanship, nepo- and military authorities. tism and incompetence made and repeat- Glendon Frizzle, “The Brome County Me- ed in public in 1904 affected him deeply. morial,” Transactions of the Brome County Appreciated by his soldiers This can be seen in an observation by Historical Society, 1926. Prime Minister Robert Borden during For more than fifty years, it was the Parliament’s tribute to George Harold Fred Langan, “Morning Glory: Canada’s soldiers of Colonel Baker’s regiment Baker in January 1917: own WWI war horse,” CBC News (2012- who kept his memory alive. Several of He took up his work in a 11-09). them regularly visited Parliament on characteristic way. He knew the June 2 in an effort to commemorate their necessity of absolute thorough- Jim Manson, Harriet Baker: The Life and Colonel. Their last pilgrimage took ness of training, and he searched Letters of an Independent and Cosmopoli- place on June 2, 1966; the Speaker of not only Canada, but the other tan Woman of the Early 20th Century. Patri- the House of Commons acknowledged side of the Atlantic, and even In- moine Bolton Heritage, Bolton-Est, forth- their presence, but nothing else was said. dia, to have associated with him a coming. The persistent appreciation of Harry man who could undertake the du- Baker by his men is surprising. Maybe it ties for which he believed himself Desmond Morton, “A Regiment of Town- can best be understood by reading Bak- not adapted by previous training shippers in the Great War”, Stanstead His- er’s letters, published in 1917. Initially, and experience. torical Society Journal, Vol. 26, 2015. one is surprised by the man’s positive at- titude: he was never critical, his men George Harold Baker should be recog- Parliamentary memoir of George Harold were all worthy of praise, he loved ani- nized as a truly authentic hero; he Baker, Lieut.-Colonel, Fifth Canadian mals, especially horses, and that drove bravely paid with his life for his com- Mounted Rifles, Ottawa, 1924. his decision to raise a cavalry regiment. mitment to the defence of the Empire When he arrived in England, however, and Liberty. William Stewart, “The Barrier and the Dam- Harry learned that his regiment had been age Done Converting the Canadian Mount- “dismantled,” and he even lost his own ed Rifles to Infantry, December 1915,” horse, Morning Glory. Yet, he accepted Serge Wagner is a retired professor at Canadian Military History: Vol. 24, 2015: the decision without complaint, and en- the Université du Québec à Montréal Iss. 1, Article 31. couraged all his men to accept it too. (UQAM) and a member of Patrimoine Through the letters, we witness his Bolton Heritage. Thanks to Alex Gieysz- Ernest M. Taylor, History of Brome mounting anguish: this trench warfare tor for translating this article. County, Quebec, from the date of grants was clearly not what he had imagined. of land therein to the present time. Vol. Yet Harry Baker maintained his enthusi- 2. Montreal, 1908. asm and kept a positive attitude. He con-

10 FALL 2016

M EMPHREMAGOG MASTERPIECE Long-lost grand drape finds a new home by Matthew Farfan

fter languishing forgotten for Over the next few years, Gill stored. It has been called a "master- decades in the basement of worked on several more amateur pro- piece," and Gill himself "one of the the Haskell Free Library and ductions, completing his apprenticeship finest itinerant scenic artists of the nine- Opera House in Stanstead, a and quickly building a name for himself teenth century. (O'Neill and O'Neill) rareA and unusual artefact now has a new as a professional. He received commis- A significant number of historic the- home at the Stanstead Historical Soci- sions for work in Halifax, Saint John, atre curtains have survived in the United ety's Colby-Curtis Museum, just two Montreal, Quebec City, Kingston, and States, for example, in Vermont and oth- kilometres away. Ottawa. His scenery for a production of er parts of New England. (Hadsell) Very The artefact – or, rather, the work of Around the World in 80 Days, according few, however, may be found in Canada, art – is actually a 29-foot wide grand to the O'Neills, was described by the where far too many small town opera drape (complete with its houses and big city theatres original wooden roll) de- have been demolished, and picting Owl's Head Moun- their painted scenery dis- tain and Lake Memphrema- posed of. This makes the gog. It was painted by the William Gill curtain an ex- Canadian scenic artist tremely rare Canadian ex- William Gill (1854-1943). ample of this art form. A “grand drape” is the dec- According to local tra- orative curtain that would dition, Gill's Lake Mem- be raised and lowered on phremagog drape originally the audience side of the hung at the old Olympic stage at the beginning and Skating Rink in Stanstead end of performances or in- Plain. Built in 1892, this in- dividual acts during plays. door rink was known in its Gill's curtain features a later years as the Channell splendid view of Mem- Rink (after Ernest Channell phremagog from a beach on who was the rink's owner the east side of the lake, framed by tas- Saint John press as the "most gorgeous from 1913 to 1945). seled trompe-l'oeil curtains. The name spectacle ever presented on a St. John In June 1900, the Stanstead Journal "Memphremagog" appears at the centre [sic] stage." Beginning in 1878, when he reported that the then owners of the rink edge; the signature "Wm Gill," in the was only twenty-four, Gill began work had "supplied the building with new bottom left corner. A small steam launch in Boston, where he painted scenery for seats giving it a seating capacity of fully chugs across the placid water. Sailboats the Boston Museum and several major 400. They purpose offering inducement are visible in the distance. A rowboat sits theatres. He continued to receive com- to some 1st class theatrical companies idle on the beach. missions for work in Atlantic Canada, during the summer season." (Parent) Gill was born in England but immi- however, returning home on a regular Henceforth the establishment was also grated to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with his basis. (O'Neill and O'Neill) known as the "Rink Opera House," and family when he was a small child. When Until now, only one other example over the next few years, it hosted a vari- his father died, he was just fourteen. Ac- of Gill's work was thought to have sur- ety of popular entertainments, including cording to the theatre historians Dianne vived: a backdrop known as the "Ital- minstrel shows, vaudeville acts, dramat- and Patrick O'Neill, Gill "found employ- ianate Garden Scene," painted in 1892 ic performances, and concerts. The ment as an usher in the Temperance Hall for the Halifax Academy of Music, and building was equipped with a stage. and the Theatre Royal. Observing and housed since 1929 at the Musquodoboit During the summer of 1907, the studying under various scenic artists. Valley Bicentennial Theatre and Cultural Journal reported that an artist had been Gill mastered the techniques of the sce- Centre in Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia. busy at the Rink Opera House painting nic artist and acquired a local reputation This work, one of the oldest known sur- scenery. The paper reported the artist's painting sets for amateur productions." viving examples of scenic art in Canada, name as "Mr. G. Grill," of Boston. (Par- (O'Neill and O'Neill) has recently been professionally re- ent) This was likely a typo, a not uncom-

11 Unrolling the curtain for the first time. Photo: Leslie Farfan. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

mon occurrence in the paper; William it was demolished. As is well known, the Haskell Opera Gill (of Boston) in all probability was It is not known how long William House was (and is) well equipped with its the artist in question. Gill's splendid curtain was in use at the own original antique scenery. Its collection The Rink Opera House apparently rink, or if it was stored there after the estab- includes the famous and much pho- ceased operating a few years after the lishment stopped hosting theatrical per- tographed grand drape depicting Venice Haskell Opera House opened in what was formances. But at some point, it was donat- Harbour (complete with large steamship, a then Rock Island in 1904. The facility con- ed to the Haskell Free Library and Opera special request by patron Col. Horace tinued to function, however, as a very pop- House, probably on the assumption that the Haskell), several backdrops and numerous ular skating rink until the mid-1940s, when Haskell could use another curtain. other stage elements – all painted by the

Top: Lake Memphremagog drape. Bottom: Transporting the curtain on 12 volunteer George Lague's trailer. Photos: Matthew Farfan. FALL 2016 renowned scenic painter Erwin LaMoss in committee brought his boat trailer to trans- edge, and some paint loss at the sides, pos- 1902. (Farfan) Coincidentally, LaMoss was port the curtain on its heavy roll. Despite sibly from early water damage, the curtain also based in Boston, and knew and even the threat of a thunderstorm all morning, is remarkably intact, its colours surprising- worked with William Gill for a time. not a drop of rain fell, and the volunteers ly vibrant. (O'Neill and O'Neill) The Haskell collec- were able to pass the 30-foot roll through After being measured and pho- tion remains intact to this day, and repre- one of the basement's narrow windows and tographed by museum staff, the drape was sents the last work by Erwin LaMoss out onto the lawn. There it was unrolled for carefully transported to the Colby-Curtis, known to have survived. It is the pride of the first time in decades... where it is now stored in a proper climate- the Haskell and is still in use. What would it be like after all those controlled environment, and where it be- Whenever Gill's painting was donated, years in a moisture-filled skating rink, fol- gins a new chapter of its life. It is the hope the Haskell certainly did not need an extra lowed by even more years in a dank base- of both the Haskell and the Stanstead His- drape. So it was stored on racks in the ment? What kind of shape would it be in? torical Society that a grant can be secured basement where it remained unseen, un- Would there be mould? Insects? Would the to have this magnificent piece professional- used, and unappreciated – until this sum- ly restored. Perhaps in the not-too-distant mer. future, a suitable temporary venue can be In February of this year, the president found, where it can once again be enjoyed of the Haskell (the author of the present ar- by all. ticle) approached the Stanstead Historical Society to see if the museum would like Matthew Farfan is the President of the the drape for its collection of local artefacts Haskell Free Library and Opera House. and art, and if it could accommodate such a He is also a Director of the Stanstead His- large item. He and his fellow trustees felt torical Society and the Colby-Curtis that the basement of the library was not an Museum. ideal place for a piece of this caliber, espe- cially since the basement is not equipped with the environmental controls and stor- Sources: age space required to properly care for a Matthew Farfan, "Drop Curtain, Haskell large antique painted textile. Free Library & Opera House," The Iden- The historical society's acquisition tity of English-Speaking Quebec in 100 committee and its board of directors agreed Objects, Quebec Anglophone Heritage that the Gill drape would be an important Network, 2013. Accessed: July 20, 2016. addition to its collection, as did director-cu- Chris Hadsell, Suspended Worlds: His- rator Chloe Southam, who was very excit- paint have flaked off? No one knew what toric Theater Scenery in Northern New ed by the idea. All that remained was to to expect. England, Jaffrey, New Hampshire, 2015. choose a dry day during the summer when When the moment of truth arrived, the curtain could be safely moved from its and the curtain was slowly unrolled for the Musquodoboit Valley Bicentennial The- old home to its new one. first time in years, those present were ab- atre and Cultural Centre, http:/ /bicen- On July 15, the morning of the move, solutely stunned by the beauty of the art- tennialtheatre.ca/index.php?id=william- volunteers from the Haskell and staff from work – and by its excellent state of preser- gill. Accessed: July 20, 2016. the Colby-Curtis gathered at the library. vation. The curtain was, and is, spectacular. One member of the Haskell's building Aside from a few small holes near the top Dianne and Patrick O'Neill, "Canadian Scene-Painter William Gill and the Sur- vival of an 1892 Garden Scene," Theatre Research in Canada, 18 (2), Fall 1997. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/tric/ article/view/7133/8192. Accessed: July 20, 2016. Painted Rooms of Nova Scotia. http://www.htns.ca/paintedrooms/viewpr op.php?showsite=63. Accessed: July 20, 2016. Carolyn Parent, Olympic Skating Rink 1892-1945, in Stanstead Historical Soci- ety Journal, Vol. 13, 1989, 93-97. Don Prangley, Olympic (Channell's) Rink, in Stanstead Historical Society Journal, Vol. 13, 1989, 91-92.

Top: William Gill. Photo: courtesy of Painted Rooms of Nova Scotia. 13 Bottom: Erwin LaMoss' grand drape depicting the harbour of Venice is still in use at the Haskell Opera House. Photo: Matthew Farfan. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

2016 QAHN HERITAGE PHOTO CONTEST

Editor’s note: here are the short essays written by each of Figure skating was a huge part of my mothers’ life; and she the winners of the 2016 QAHN Heritage Photo Contest to ac- passes her love of skating on to me. I was on skates as soon as I company their photos. The photos themselves can be found on could walk and the ice rink was like a second home for me. This the following pages. picture constitutes heritage because the love of skating was passed on from many generations in my family. It is a very old FIRST PRIZE pair of skates from my mothers childhood and they have always been kept in our home. Sadly they were not passed down to my Alexander Hynes sisters or I, but the meaning of figure skating was. You see how Grade 11, Dr. Wilbert Keon School, Chapeau, Qc. much history and memories lives in these skates from how Title: "Logging” scratched and old they look. The skates are now just a part of our history and they no longer go on our feet. Hopefully, I will Logging has always had a big influence in my family. Every pass on the tradition to my children that will past it on to their weekend I would spend my days helping my father in the bush children. and it never gets old. It seems like every time we venture into a new cut or a foreign area in the forest there’s always something HONOURABLE MENTION new, from the fresh aroma of cedar trees, to the knocking echo of a woodpecker in the distance. The woods never cease to Hailey Romain amaze me. But not only is logging a way of life for me but for Grade 11, Dr. Wilbert Keon School, Chapeau, Qc. most of the people living in the Pontiac. This area was built Title: “White Rose” around the logging industry and to this day it’s still going mod- erately strong. We can visit places like the chutes Colonge or Stories shape not only history but who we are and what we will even the locks right here on Allumette Island and see the strong be. Listening to tales from old times, spoken in the wisest ways influence it had on our community. Logging represents our her- from my great grandmother did not only interest me but it was itage and hopefully it never ceases to stop. also captivating due to the amazement that I could see and touch the history she spoke of. There was a sign outside her house SECOND PRIZE which read White Rose. It always had me wondering what it meant or where it came from. One day in the late fall I remem- Olivia Fellen ber sitting with my great grandmother when my curiosity got Grade 11, Trafalgar School for Girls, Montreal, Qc. the best of me. I asked her about the sign. She told me that it Title: “Holiday Happiness” was hers and I didn’t understand why she would have a sign that read White Rose outside her house. She continued by explaining This photo of scattered Chanukah and Christmas themed cookie how she used to live in another house in the same town and how cutters represents my family and cultural heritage because I am she once owned a gas station that was called White Rose. When a person born into a mixed family. Each year my siblings and I she moved she felt so passionate about how much the gas sta- would help my mother bake holiday cookies, which we would tion had affected her and the many other stories that come with share with our family members. Being a child born into two it she took the sign with her. She told me that when she saw the completely different religions has given me a diverse outlook on sign shining in the sun it reminded her of the good times she life. My parents have taught me to be accepting of everyone no had when everyone knew what it meant and the rust on the matter the culture. These cookie cutters symbolize the union of edges didn’t exist. Now looking back I guess the sign also re- my family and the lifestyle I live today. I am no more Jewish minded her of aging. As time went on the sign kept rusting and than Christian and vice versa. These cookie cutters also symbol- the colour faded like the seasons and she grew older. She passed ize the diversity of culture within Canada. People from all away a year ago and like her stories and her memory the sign around the world move to Canada to live prosperous lives. lives on. When walking down the streets of Quebec, they're are people living here of all races and cultures. I have never seen so much HONOURABLE MENTION acceptance within the borders of a country. I am proud to be Canadian and to live in a country with such open arms. Teagan Belley Grade 11, Dr. Wilbert Keon School, Chapeau, Qc. THIRD PRIZE Title: “3 Generations”

Rosalie Simard Family is precious. They are always there for you when you Grade 11, Rosemere High School, Rosemere, Qc. think you have been abandoned and left alone. They give you Title: “Skates” hope when you think you have none. This picture is not just a picture of three hands. It is a picture of three different genera- This picture represents my heritage and a big part of my child- tions who each have a story of their own. The hand at the top is hood. These skates were my mother's first figure skating skates. the first generation which belongs to my grandmother, Shirley 14 FALL 2016

Quesnel, who was born on November 29th, 1939. Her hand tells spent 200 million dollars restoration, brought cutting-edge tech- a story of a strong and beautiful woman who has worked hard nology to the Grande Dame. It still is a historical building and on a farm almost all her life and went through many challenges. yet a five star hotel that lures many guests. This building has After all her years of hard work, she can finally relax and enjoy great detail that must of taken such a long time to perfect all the rewards she worked so hard to get. On her hand, she around this gorgeous hotel. wears her grandmother’s wedding ring and her own wedding I can imagine myself walking out of this hotel with a smile on and engagement ring. She got married to my grandfather Hubert my face and confidence in my heart. Feeling royal and free. Lajoie on August 20th, 1960. The hand to the left is second gen- Noticing every detail and carving being made, I began to think eration which belongs to my mother, Lynn Lajoie, who was about the amount of effort that was put into this massive sculp- born on August 31st, 1965. Like my grandmother, my mother ture. Workers working hard for everyone else has some pleasure had also worked on a farm but only until she was 18 when they in enjoying the sight. moved to Montreal. On her hand, she’s wearing her wedding When I first laid my eyes on the magnificent building, I was so and engagement ring. My mother got married to my father Ger- amazed and blown away by the architecture, my heart froze. ald Belley on August 8th, 1998. The last hand on the bottom is The luxury spoke to everyone’s heart who had the pleasure of the third generation which belongs to me, Teagan Belley, and I walking by this masterpiece. was born on August 19th, 1999. There isn’t much of a story for this last hand because unlike the other two, my story has just be- HONOURABLE MENTION gun. Yoad Vered HONOURABLE MENTION Grade 10, West Island College, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Qc. Title: “Paddle Through Time” Emily Gagnon Grade 11, Dr. Wilbert Keon School, Chapeau, Qc. Cultural heritage often defines what it means to be human. It in- Title: “A House Full of Memories” spires a sense of belonging and is a source of pride. Heritage is a visible reminder of the beauty of the ancient civilizations and You see that house? I lived in that house for 15 years. My first our shared history and identity. Culture has the unique potential steps, words, and tumbles were in that little house. From run- to be used as a means of expression to remind us of the contri- ning down the hallway to playing tag or jumping from one butions and past experiences of humanity. couch to another pretending there was lava on the floor, there Canada’s fascinating history goes back a long time. We, as will always be so many memories from that house. One of my responsible citizens, need to submerge ourselves in Canada’s favourite memories in that house is when we would wake up re- story-filled heritage that shaped our country. In fact, we all have ally early, and we would look all over the floor and the dresser our own ways to do so. Mine, is to go out kayaking in the great and there would be little Easter eggs everywhere! My 2 little nature of Quebec. sisters and I would get out cute baskets and run around the Traveling in an environment that is similar to the one that house and collect all the little eggs. Once we got them all from existed in the past, in the means that were used to travel at that under our pillows and even in our beds, we would run to the liv- time is a very educational experience, as the First Nations who ing room and we would have our very own box with a big Bar- traveled these same rivers and lakes in canoes are an important bie, Spongebob, or even Dora chocolate! When everyone was part of our Canadian culture. Not only do I get to learn about up we would go to our local church and sing with everyone our past, but I get to experience it. With every paddle in the wa- about the celebration of Easter! What’s so important about these ter and every breath of fresh air, it is very easy to imagine how memories is that they will last a life time! No matter where I it felt to live in the past. When in the outdoors, there is only one live in the future, these memories will always stay with me, in thing that has changed since the First Nations walked through my heart. In 2014 when I was 15 years old, I moved into my fa- those forests: us. ther’s house that he grew up in. It was a big change; 3 bath- Instead of focusing on the present, it is important to re- rooms, everyone got their own room, and even a kitchen that member the past. We should spend our days remembering our everyone could function around! Every day when I take the bus heritage, learning about it, and living everyday traditions. Even to school I see that house and where I was raised. Someday it though I don’t transport furs to trade with French and British won’t be there, and someday I won’t be here either, but those settlers, I am still able to embrace and experience their way of memories will be. Memories never die. life by kayaking in one of Quebec's many rivers, breathing in our history as I paddle through time. HONOURABLE MENTION

Nicole Tavares Grade 7, West Island College, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Qc. Title: “Luxury Speaks”

Luxurious from bottom to top, the Ritz Carlton says it all. The Ritz Carlton has taken many people including Queen Elizabeth II to Winston Churchill and the Rolling Stones. Recently they

15 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

FIRST PRIZE SECOND PRIZE

Surprised student contest winners, Dr. Wilbert Keon School, June 18, 2016. L-R: Hailey Romain (Honourable Mention), Alexander Hynes (First Prize), Emily Gagnon (Honourable Mention), and Teagan Belley (Honourable Mention). Photo: Karen McPherson.

THIRD PRIZE

16 FALL 2016

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

17 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

2016 QAHN HERITAGE ESSAY CONTEST

Editor’s note: Once again, the top three essay contest win- make it back across the English Channel. Then in December of ners all came from the same class this year: Ms Nina Wong’s 1944 him and his crew were sent back to Canada and were dis- Cycle 3. It was again my privilege and pleasure to attend the charged in May of 1945. class’s end-of-term party at which I was able to present cheques My grandfather’s brother Terrance was also a part of the Sec- and certificates to three very creative young writers: Griffin ond World War as an Air Force crew member but he was shot O’Neil, Jordan Cheng, and Sydney Levitt. I expressed my appre- down in February 1945 by anti air craft fire. My grandfather ciation for the students’ fine work, but I also pointed out how was very proud of his younger brother and spoke about him of- the success of a contest such as QAHN’s depends so much on ten. All the members from my grandfather’s crew had their first the enthusiasm of dedicated teachers – and Ms. Wong is clearly reunion 20 years later in Toronto, Ontario. one. Quite apart from the welcome coffee and baked goods with which I was plied, I could see in the time I was there how Ms. Wong kept her class attentive and respectful, while eager to take part in discussion. We look forward to more outstanding entries from Gardenview’s Cycle 3 in 2017.

SECOND PRIZE

My Great Grandfather by Jordan Cheng, Grade 6 Gardenview Elementary School, Saint-Laurent, Qc.

A long time ago in China, my great-grandparents had a very FIRST PRIZE tough life but were blessed with a lovely child. Unfortunately, that child passed away at a very young age. My great-grandfa- My Grandfather and WWII ther was so upset by the death of his son, he decided to start a by Griffin O’Neil, Grade 6 new life in a completely new country. He chose Canada as his Gardenview Elementary School, Saint-Laurent, Qc. new home. It is in Canada where he became a neighbourhood hero in my eyes. Today I’ll be talking about a World War II Veteran, my grandfa- My great-grandfather is a hero to me because he escaped ther Stephen Sheeran. He was born on April 7th, 1920 in Mon- poverty and came to Canada to create a better life for his family. treal, Quebec. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941. Not knowing much English or French, he learned to survive in a He trained in an Air Force camp in Northern Quebec till Octo- place he was totally unfamiliar with. When he had enough mon- ber 1943. The group of young men crossed the Atlantic Ocean ey, he brought over great-grandma and started a dry cleaning on a huge ship. business. He took a big risk by starting his business in a run- My grandfather told me that on the boat he got very sick, the down area of town. He was a pioneer and was one of the first waters were extremely rough. The boat docked in the United new businesses in the neighborhood. He helped revive the com- Kingdom. His auntie would send him over little care packages munity by opening up a store which encouraged many other along with news from home during this period of time. They businesses to follow his lead. He almost single-handedly re- carried out many bombing missions over France and Germany. vived and reenergised a very poor area. His crew was comprised of six Air men and on one mission I am very proud to be his great-grandson and he will al- their plane was hit by enemy fire. Luckily they were able to ways be a hero to me because he was strong enough to come to Right: Bomber Stephen Sheeran, c.1944. Left: Contest winners Griffin O’Neil, Jordan Cheng and Sydney Levitt, 18 with Rod MacLeod. Photo: Nina Wong. Photo: O’Neil family collection. FALL 2016 an unknown country to start a new life and while doing so was You may think that I only picked him because of his servic- able to help revive a poor community. es in the Canadian army but I also chose him because of his re- markable values and qualities. My great-grandfather definitely had a big amount of determination and a superb work ethic THIRD PRIZE knowing that he started out as a cutter in a clothing factory and climbed his way up the ranks to finally open a business in cloth- Sergeant Benny ing of his own. Benny also had great values since he believed by Sydney Levitt, Grade 6 that respect was extremely important and demanded it mostly Gardenview Elementary School, Saint-Laurent, Qc. from his children but from the people surrounding him as well. My great-grandfather identified very strongly with his Jew- My family heritage shocked me and managed to fill me with ish identity, was quite spiritual, always looked far and wide for lots of pride. At first, I doubted that ANYONE in my family thrilling adventures and most definitely loved to sing and dance. made an impact on my community but digging a little deeper According to my grandmother, he was commonly quiet and on- lead to me finding out that my great-grandfather, Benny served ly those who knew him well saw his great wisdom and sense of for the army during the second world war from 1939-1945. humor. Benny never fought overseas from a leg injury he received I hope that I’ve inherited his outstanding values and quali- while falling down a flight of stairs. He had done all the training ties to be able to thrive for greatness with hard work and effort but was incapable of fighting. Since it was obligatory for men to and live life to its fullest just as he did. be part of the army, my great-grandfather became a sergeant at Delson and taught the new recruits all he knew. Throughout the six years, he had experienced some life or death situations such as the time a bomb went off during a lesson and he risked losing the majority of his fingers to rescue others.

19 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

TE H UKRAINIANS OF VAL DAVID Part II by Joseph Graham

This, the second part of an article begun when the war began, he volunteered, ly- losis at the Laurentian Sanatorium in St. in the Summer 2016 issue, was adapted ing about his age. He signed up as Josif Agathe. Mary Eudokia followed, open- from a series first published in Main Vozovitch but they called him Joe Voss, ing a boarding house at the corner of Street, spring 2015. and he marched off with a unit of the Demontigny and St. Joseph streets in St. Canadian Expeditionary Force, back to Agathe to sustain herself and her young ime and memory have swept Europe to fight the Germans. family. away a lot of the details, but Shot through the jaw in the trenches When Joseph was finally released, we know young Joseph Voso- during German gas attacks, most likely he and Mary Eudokia determined that vitch, born in Kamenece- in the second battle of Ypres on April 24, work in the fresh air would be more suit- Ksaverooka,T Podolsk, Russia, was thir- 1915, he was sent to recuperate at a hos- ed to their new situation and to Joseph’s teen when he took charge of his eight- weakened respiratory system. Some ex- year-old brother and left home. Family ploring put them together with the Yaru- information and general research sug- shevsky family in Val David. They gests that the town was present-day struck a deal with Andrey and Maria to Kamenets Podolsk, Ukraine, a region acquire a parcel of land where they de- with a large Polish and even Ottoman in- veloped a nursery, strengthening the fluence. It housed a prison tower made small Ukrainian community. famous in the nineteenth century by In the meantime, Andrey and Maria peasant rebel Ustym Karmlyuk, a had purchased the Leesinsky share of colourful folk hero who escaped from it the farm that ran from the river up to and at least three times. He led the peasants past the current location of Route 117. on raids to steal and share, Robin Hood- Vasily and Dora Leesinsky kept some of style, and commanded 20,000 rebels at the land and managed to make a living the height of his career, leading 1,000 for their family through loaning money raids over a twenty-year period. Exiled to entrepreneurs whom they judged wor- several times, once even as far as thy but whom the banks had refused. Siberia, he returned to lead his people, Their skill in this form of risk-taking the poor from every background. He was helped spawn or supported some impor- finally murdered, killed in a raid, and the tant landmarks in the area, including a Polish nobleman who led the raid re- hotel that would rise to international ceived a medal and life-long pension prominence, La Sapinière in Val David. from the Czar. They contributed four children, George, Joseph and his brother may have pital in Nottingham, England. His jaw Olga, Cecile and Willy, to the thriving heard of Karmlyuk and might well have was rebuilt around a metal plate and he Ukrainian community. run with his rebels if they had lived a was shipped back to Canada, where he Andrey and Maria felt that their generation earlier. They were likely found work in construction in West- boys had to perfect their French. The among the poor and were probably en- mount. Within a few years he met Mary public system could not offer them an couraged to leave to avoid service in the Eudokia Semegen who had come from education in French, so they sent George Czar’s army. How they crossed Europe Russia to visit her brother in New York and Alexei off to a French boarding in 1910 and how they found passage on just before the onset of the war. Trapped school in Pointe-aux-Trembles where a ship heading to Halifax is a lost story because of the war and the revolution they completed grades 10 and 11. In but after their long adventure, young that followed in Russia, she never re- 1940, both George Yarushevsky and Joseph stepped ashore only to be told turned home. They married in June George Leesinsky enlisted in the war ef- that his young brother was quarantined 1918, and soon had two sons, James and fort. Both were just 18 years old, and on-board and would be refused entry. Albert. both went into aviation. The eldest of Joseph never saw him again. That was when Joseph’s lungs be- their families, they would be the only How Joseph maintained himself gan to give him trouble. He was recom- ones to serve. George Leesinsky became over the next few years is also lost, but mended to take the rest cure for tubercu- an airplane mechanic, a valued skill that George Yarrow and James Voss, c.1942. Photo: courtesy of Greg Yarrow. 20 FALL 2016

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21 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

and stern composure, he was a difficult, demanding teacher, a patriarch to his family, who felt he had to correct Maria when all around suspected that she was the brighter one. George and Alexei had to learn a bit faster than they were taught, a skill they no doubt picked up from Maria. In the early days, their tenants came mostly from the rapidly growing Yiddish community, people who had come from perhaps even greater hardships in East- ern Europe and Ukraine. Many worked in the needle trade or as urban entrepre- neurs. They tended to holiday as a group because, in order to pray on the Sabbath, they had to form a minyan, ten men who had been Bar Mitzvahed – called to the kept him this side of the Atlantic down became a flight instructor and flew in Torah and able to read it. For Andrey in Halifax, but George Yarushevsky, the squadron headed by Hartland Mol- and Maria, these Yiddish immigrants along with his unit, were given injec- son. By the time the younger Yaru- were a special clientele; they shared tions to protect them from disease in Eu- shevsky, Alexei, reached eighteen, a new their discoveries with their friends in rope. At full attention on parade, his law obliged at least one son to stay on Montreal, hoping to expand their cottage body went into anaphylactic shock and the farm to assure its survival. Willie communities and, no doubt, to assure a he hit the granite face first. After three Leesinsky was simply too young to minyan. Andrey and Maria encouraged days in a coma, he was told he wasn’t serve. them by providing vegetables, eggs and heading to the Front and was assigned to After the war, the two Georges chickens, even going to the trouble of British Columbia as a technical airman, moved back to the Laurentians, George finding a shochet, a kosher animal spending the war years stringing com- Leesinsky with his Nova Scotian wife, slaughterer, to prepare the birds. munications wires between Washington Patricia Young, and George Yaru- The summer population explosion State and Alaska. It was during this peri- shevsky, now formally George Yarrow, sent culture shocks through the local od that he formalized the family name as with Laura Engel, whom he met through community. These tourists appeared as Yarrow. Joseph Voss’s elder son James the Ukrainian community in Montreal. an anonymous series of strangers and signed up as well and served in the James Voss married Lena Yarushevsky, were not always welcomed. At one Black Watch, the prestigious volunteer and Albert and his wife Pierrette found- point, George Yarushevsky/Yarrow regiment that dates back to the days of ed one of the early alarm companies in caught word that a particular group of the militias. Voss’s younger son, Albert, the Laurentians. George’s eldest sister, rowdies was going to do something and the third generation of Val David about the ‘problem of the Jews’ and, in Ukrainians, joined the children of more anticipation, George climbed up on the recent immigrants at the St. Agathe roof of the first cabin along their road school -- the Badenducks, the Andrens, and waited there with his rifle. When a the Kazimerskis and many others from a pickup truck pulled up and a small gang variety of countries. of toughs tumbled out of it looking for While they were off at school, the trouble, George calmly made sure they second generation continued to build the could see him up there with the rifle Ukrainian community in Val David. across his knees and then addressed George and Alexei continued to play them quietly, encouraging them to re- hockey right into the 1950s, long enough think their plans. George and Alexei had for the older members of the next gener- a lot of friends in Val David and they ation to be able to come and watch the had established a reputation for being as games. good as their word, so his quiet admoni- Through the 1950s, the Laurentians tions carried the necessary weight to grew as a holiday destination. Both the calm matters. Yarushevskys and the Leesinskys of Val Over time the cottage movement David began building small summer cot- swelled the summer population to ten tages for rental. Andrey Yarushevsky’s times the winter numbers and provided project involved building a bridge and business for everyone. There was poten- cottages, educating his sons in the art of tial for winter cottages, too. Deciding to construction. With his bushy moustache build a number of them on the way up

Top: The Yarushevsky siblings and friends, c.1940. 22 Bottom: Lena Yarushevsky. Photos courtesy of Greg Yarrow. FALL 2016 towards Route 11, the Yarrows used blue roofing material purchased wholesale and called the road fronting on this se- ries of blue-roofed cottages Blue Valley Road. Next, they built a ski hill at the end of a private road, calling it Windy Top. George eventually sold it to John Lingat and Frank Juodkojis who changed the name of the ski hill to Val- lée Bleue, for the original Blue Valley Road. George needed the proceeds of the sale to pay for abdominal surgery a few years before Medicare was intro- duced in Canada. In 1952, Andrey passed away. He was young, in his mid-fifties, but what a life he had lived. His children wondered about the causes of his illness, remem- in Nova Scotia during the war, used ucts that the Ukrainians could appreciate bering things like the fixing chemicals in what he learned from cottage building but that others may have found striking- his darkroom and his lack of any precau- and his east-coast experiences to set up a ly exotic, like herring and pickles of- tions around them, dipping his hands in general contracting business. He operat- fered from large wooden barrels. the fix to take out the pictures and hang ed it successfully for some time, but it The Ukrainian community left an them to dry. He reinvented himself was his youngest brother Willie who got imprint not only in the naming of streets throughout his life, leaving home, the lucky, exploiting the land he inherited to and landmarks, but in their entrepreneur- son of a mayor obliged to abandon his supply gravel when the Autoroute was ial and community-oriented spirit, a part dream of being an actor, swimming extended. of the history of the Laurentians and across an important river, all to avoid Some of the grandchildren still live more particularly of Val David. serving in the Czar’s army, making his in the area but most followed opportuni- way through unfamiliar countries and ties elsewhere and are spread so far west Special thanks to Gregory Yarrow, eventually finding an opportunity to today that some are almost as close to Brigitte Voss, Jay Voss and Peter Leesin- cross the Atlantic to the New World. He their ancestral Ukraine coming at it from sky for their help and the reminiscences worked wherever he could in Montreal, the other side of the world. Some, like they provided. selling food from a pushcart, learning Cecile Leesinsky, returned every sum- photography in its early days and be- Sources: coming a photographer, learning to farm Vasily Tropinin, Ustym Karmlyu and to build houses, always adapting to http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/show the needs of the situation. Difficult at thread.php/5402-quot-Ukrainian-Robin- times, he was still the patriarch, the one Hood-quot?s=4909e306e3b32 around whom his family revolved. c157655aa4485b8e25b and https://en. When he died, Maria moved in with wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustym_Karmaliuk. her son George and his family for the winter months, but returned to the old La Société d’histoire et du patrimoine de farmhouse for the summer, living up- Val David http://www.histoirevaldavid stairs of the summer kitchen. She rented .com/html/toponymie.php. the rest of the house out and maintained a vegetable garden and some hens, sell- George Duravetz, "The Ukrainian Cana- ing produce to the tenants out of habit dian" magazine, September 1988, pp. and for a little extra cash. George and 24-29 Kobzar Publishing from Alexei tried their hand at gravel trans- http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/sgc- port and other enterprises. They even cms/histoires_de_chez_nouscommunity_ formed a small band, with Alexei’s memories. American wife singing, while George and Alexei played their guitars along Birth, death and immigration documents with their friend and partner André and passenger lists from Ancestry.ca. mer with her husband and ran an unusu- Monette on the fiddle. Until recently An- al grocery store perched practically over Joseph Graham ([email protected]) dré taught violin in Val David, mentor to the North River down the hill from the is the author of Naming the Laurentians: a whole generation of aspiring musicians Laroche dance hall on a little promonto- A History of Place Names Up North and from the Laurentians. ry below the falls that is now contained a forthcoming book on the history of the George Leesinsky, who had married in Parc des Amoureux. They sold prod- Laurentians.

Top: Jim and Lena Voss. 23 Bottom: Alexei carrying Maria Varebok. Photos: courtesy of Greg Yarrow. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

HOUSOLDIERS The mobilization of Quebec housewives for World War II by Lorraine O'Donnell

hen someone mentions wartime conditions made cooking a rior. It said, “She’s in there fighting too. women in World War II, challenge. Shopping was more compli- YES, she’s in there…all five feet, five many of us think of the cated: stores reduced delivery services inches of her…fighting courageously— ones who streamed into due to gas and rubber shortages, and tenaciously—resourcefully!” Both of munitionsW factories or military service. buses were crowded with war workers. these ads praised housewives’ tenacity in Did you know that the wartime contribu- Housewives still had to dress their loved the face of difficult wartime conditions. tions of housewives were equally impor- ones, but fabric went to uniforms first, They also said that by being thrifty, tant? The Canadian government of the families second. housewives could buy Victory Bonds: time certainly did. Government pro- Montreal housewives were not de- special loans by citizens to the govern- grams to mobilize the country’s labour terred and carried on by making do. The ment to finance the war. Through mes- force for the war effort included stay-at- interviewees for our project recalled sages like these, many links were made home wives. Popular publications and many of the ways their mothers coped between the household economy and the media picked up on this and likewise wartime economy. represented housewives’ work as war Popular media echoed this message work, even sometimes calling them that traditional housework was war “housoldiers.” work. An ad for breakfast cereal showed English-speaking Montreal house- a housewife saying, “It’s my war job to wives were part of the trend. This was a keep my family fit!” A cookbook cover theme explored in a 2016 Quebec An- featured a drawing of an aproned house- glophone Heritage Network project wife shouldering a wooden spoon like a called "Housewife Heroines: Anglo- rifle and saluting. It was called Economy phone Women at Home in Montreal dur- Recipes for Canada’s Housoldiers. The ing WWII." The project exhibit, along WWII-era housewife with her aprons, with the present article, drew on period mops and spoons was being represented sources such as newspapers and posters, as a kind of soldier in the space of her current history books and interviews of home; words and images in effect mili- Montreal women who lived through the tarized housework. war. The sources concur on a key point: whether toiling on traditional household New work for housewives tasks or taking up new ones, wartime planning and propaganda mobilized Wartime planning and propaganda went Montreal housewives and portrayed beyond incorporating women’s tradition- them as war workers. with shortages. Florence Phillips, for al housework into the war effort. They one, remembers her mother using sheets also recruited housewives to carry out Traditional housework as to make clothing. new tasks for the cause. war work Canadian government announce- One new task was salvaging, or ments targeted housewives specifically, what we now call recycling. The govern- encouraging them to be thrifty, resource- Before and during WWII, most of Mon- ment set up a Salvage Division in 1941. ful and adaptable. In so doing, the an- It called on housewives to recycle the treal’s married women were housewives nouncements suggested, they turned looking after their homes and family oil, fat and bones left after cooking, and their housework into war work. Some typical household materials including needs. A typical day of housework in- government advertisements, for in- volved cooking, cleaning, sewing and rubber, metal, paper, glass and clothing. stance, represented the household tasks These were sent off to government de- shopping. of washing, cooking and sewing as part These tasks were harder to do dur- pots and used in war industries. Intervie- of the war effort. One called housewife- wee Charlotte Bouie remembered ren- ing the war because of shortages of ordi- ly thrift “practical patriotism.” Another nary household goods. Food scarcities dering cooking fat, canning it and send- went further, and literally described a ing it off: “they asked for these kinds of due to trade disruptions and other woman shown washing dishes as a war- 24 Canada. National War Finance Committee. Poster. 1945. LAC Acc. No. 1983-30-865, MIKAN 3635875. FALL 2016

had done for the more traditional house- hold tasks already discussed. A cook- book showing dazzling gelatine dishes on its cover endorsed rationing; it was called Bright Spots for Wartime Meals: 66 Ration-Wise Recipes. Many striking government posters promoted salvaging to housewives. One showed a woman with arms full of recyclables under the slogan, “Dig in and dig out the scrap.” Another poster returned to the “house- oldier” theme, showing three civilian women carrying salvaged materials and walking abreast, as if in military forma- tion. The catchphrase on top: “We’re in the army now.” Perhaps the culmination of these government efforts was “Mrs. Consumer Sources: Week” in May of 1944. This special For a summary of the key secondary government campaign thanked women sources, see Patrick Donovan, “World for their war efforts as housewives and War II and the Montreal home front: A volunteers and encouraged them to keep literature review,” Quebec Heritage things because they were good for mak- it up. Publicity for the campaign includ- News, Winter 2016. Most useful for this ing munitions and implements.” ed a photograph of a mop-wielding article were Ruth Roach Pierson, They're Another new job for housewives woman wearing what my grandmother Still Women after All: The Second World was managing rations. Starting in 1942, used to call a housedress. A text panel on War and Canadian Womanhood, Toron- government regulations ensured fair dis- the picture thanked this “Mrs. Con- to, 2004, and Jeff Keshen, “Revisiting tribution of household items in short sumer” for “manning mops and waging Canada’s Civilian Women during World supply by introducing ration booklets war on grime” and “for knowing the War II,” Histoire Sociale/Social History with coupons for gas and food. House- morale value of a clean and tidy house.” 30, 60, 1997, 239-66. wives had to manage them when shop- A second campaign photograph showed ping. Our workshop participants had Mrs. Consumer again, this time dressed Interview with Florence Phillips and memories of their mothers standing in for outdoors and carrying a shopping Charlotte Bouie, November 26, 2015, line to buy goods and giving coupons for basket. The text thanked her “for think- Montreal. the many restricted foods including cof- ing first before you buy, and then buying fee, sugar, butter, chocolate and alcohol. what you need” and “taking to rationing General Foods Corporation, Bright Spots Government and popular media ac- with a smile.” In the Mrs. Consumer for Wartime Meals: 66 Ration-Wise knowledged and promoted this new campaign, the economic labour of han- Recipes U.S.A. General Foods Corp., work for housewives as much as they dling shortages and being thrifty, and the 1944. basic tasks of housework itself, were recognized as part of the war effort and Canada. Dept. of National War Services, worthy of public recognition and grati- National Salvage Office. “Dig in and dig tude. The Montreal Gazette concurred. out the scrap” [poster], 1940-1941, An article in the paper stated, “it would Canadian War Museum artefact number be difficult to pin medals on 3,000,000 19890086-523. Canadian women but next week – May 22 to 27 – has been set aside by the Canada. National War Finance Commit- Prices Board as a time to do the next tee. “Thrift is practical patriotism,” [ad- best thing – to salute ‘Mrs. Consumer’ vertisement], 1944, Library and and to say ‘thank you’ for a job well Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1983-30- done.” 904.

Lorraine O’Donnell, Ph.D., is an affili- Montreal Gazette, May 19, 1944, p. 5. ate faculty member of the School of Community and Public Affairs at Con- Ad for Nabisco Shredded Wheat, 1943. cordia University. Along with Patrick Donovan, she researched and curated QAHN’s “Housewife Heroines” exhibit.

Top left: Economy Recipes for Canada’s ‘Housoldiers.’ The Canada Starch Com- 25 Top right: Mrs. Consumer Week, 1944. LAC, MIKAN 4238792. Bottom: Canada. pany, 1943. Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill Univ. Library. Dept. of Nat. War Services. Poster. 1940-1941. McMaster Univ. Library. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

C LEAR AND PRESENT DANGER? The 150th Anniversary of the 1866 Fenian Raid by Tim Belford

n the year 1871 an article concern- Celtic militia. Indeed, the organization among poor and excitable Irish immi- ing the Fenian raids on Canada was was drawn up on strict military lines grants for the sake of ill-defined person- published for the Montreal Witness with officers, enlisted men and, at its al ambition.” by the Steam Printing House of head, a general. They were also badly armed and un- Montreal.I The author, who chose to re- When the American civil war broke able to maintain themselves in the field for main anonymous, gave a detailed outline out in April 1861, Fenian leaders saw a an extended period. More importantly, the of both the campaigns of 1866 and 1870. perfect opportunity for young Irish- post-war United States government held, His concluding remarks concerning the American revolutionaries to learn the and wished to maintain, a policy of neutral- raid of 1866 contained a dramatic and trade of arms in actual combat. The Fen- ity towards Britain and her colonies. forceful condemnation: ian command played an active role in re- Undaunted by these potential diffi- The raid and the panic of cruiting volunteers for the Union army. culties, the Fenian Brotherhood called a our helpless people as well as As a result, when the war ended in 1865, convention in the fall of 1865 in Philadel- the tardy movements of the mili- recruiters for the Fenian cause found phia to discuss the best method of attack- tary authorities will be long ing British-controlled Ireland. The con- remembered amongst us. vention split, with the majority under William Roberts opting to attack Canada Yet in history classes throughout the and use success there to force concessions country, Canadian students have long from Britain. At worst, such an attack, it been taught that the Fenian raids were a was thought, would likely force Britain glowing example of the bravery, courage into a war with the United States and give and efficiency of a young Canadian na- the Fenians a free hand in Ireland. tion repelling the odious American-en- The question remains, why did the couraged foe. Why then was the author Fenians feel an attack upon Canada of the article, a man who had undoubt- would not only be possible but relatively edly lived through both invasions, so an- easy? To answer this, one must examine gry and caustic in his denunciations? their base of support outside the Broth- How dangerous in fact were the Fenians erhood itself. Apart from Congressmen and how badly prepared was the Canadi- Banks and Butler, and Senator Fitzger- an government? ald of New York, the Fenians had little The 1840s in Europe had been an era official influence. Yet there were still of revolution. Unrest in Italy, Germany and two areas of encouragement: surely both Ireland, among other countries, had seen themselves with a huge pool of suddenly Irish Canadians and French Catholics the forces of nationalism and republican- unemployed young men with nowhere to would rally to their cause and happily ism play havoc with the political life of go and difficulty adjusting to civilian aid in the throwing off of British tyran- most of the continent. In the case of Ire- life. In a decade, Fenianism had evolved ny. land, famine combined with the political from a small group of theoretical radi- As early as 1865, they had received unrest to cause an unprecedented migration cals, four thousand miles from their favourable reports: “The agents sent of hundreds of thousands of poor, disgrun- homeland, into a large, militarily-experi- with your approbation, exhibit a good tled and desperate human beings who were enced army within striking distance of state of feeling among the French of the united in one thing: their abiding hatred of Britain’s largest possession: Canada. Eastern Provinces: who will, doubtless the British Crown. Much of their new-found strength, afford us much assistance.” Many of the immigrants to the Unit- however, was on paper. As Herward It was also true that several French- ed States had been members of an out- Senior pointed out in an article in the language papers, such as the Rouge Pays lawed society called the Young Ireland Canadian Historical Review in 1967, and Le Canadien, had published violent- Movement and it was from the remnants “Fenian leaders were too often violent, ly anti-British editorials. Yet for the of this organization that there evolved emotionally unstable, and incompetent most part, French Canada, although not the Fenian Brotherhood. The word Fen- conspirators who were careless about fi- necessarily loyal to the crown, were ian was coined from an ancient Celtic nancial matters and appeared, at times, anti-Fenian. The Bleu Minerve summed word that had been the name of an early to be exploiting nationalist sentiments things up:

26 “Freedom to Ireland,” Currier & Ives print, New York, 1866. FALL 2016

Le Fenianisme est un Daily Mercury summed up the foe: however, was somewhat limited since members of a militia unit were required to crime…S’ils (les États-Unis) What then is Fenianism as it muster only three days a year, one day persistent, par une coupable neg- has now declared itself, in its each in June, July and August. During ligence, à laisser nos frontières a aims, its alliances and its sympa- those days they were required to “review la merci de la première troupe de thies? It is the offshoot of the tree arms, to fire at marks, and for instruction brigands qui voudre s’organiser a of evil whose branches are the Il- in the exercise.” By 1846, significant l’ombre du drapeau américain, luminati of Germany, the Car- changes had been made: the age limit had ils peuvent être assurés que leur bonari of Italy, and those count- risen to between 18 and 60, divided into protégés d’aujourd’hui expieront less secret and unholy associa- two sections (18 to 40 and 41 to 60). The leur faute. tions whose name is legion, government also demanded that 30,000 whose Prince is Lucifer, whose men be placed in an active role with the aims are universal anarchy, and In the case of Irish Canadians, remainder liable only in time of emer- whose favourite march to battle things were different. One third of the gency. is the church plundering, priest population of Toronto was first-genera- A few years after the invasion of murdering refrain of the “Ca Ira.” tion Irish. Here, the Hibernian Society, 1866, a Report on the State of the Militia the Catholic answer to the Orange So much for the invaders. But what of the Dominion of Canada (1873) sug- Lodge, was a major factor in political resistance were they to meet? What defense gested that “men join the corps…from life. In Montreal, Fenian influence had could a colony of a mere three million people different motives combining patriotism been observed as early as 1861 by D’Ar- provide? Perhaps it would be advantageous to and love of service in various degrees, cy McGee. A one-time Irish nationalist take a discerning look at the military in Cana- and for various reasons aside from pay.” himself, and later a Father of Confedera- da at the time. This is not surprising since, as late as tion, McGee continually warned the As early as the year 1841, Lord 1870, a Lieutenant Colonel received population of the Fenian menace in let- John Russell, at that time Colonial Sec- $4.87 ½ per day, an Ensign $1.28 and an ters to both the Gazette and the Montreal retary, wrote to the Governor General, enlisted man $.50. In 1866, it could only Herald. But once again, support for the Lord Sydenham, concerning what he felt have been worse. Nevertheless, many Fenian cause looked infinitely better on to be the excessive expense of maintain- men were happy to sign up. Some fig- paper than in fact. When the conflict fi- ing suitable military forces in Canada. ures taken from a report in Military Dis- nally commenced, no overt support for Lord Russell suggested the sum of one trict number 5 in 1870 – admittedly after the Fenians was offered by Irish Quebe- hundred thousand pounds would, if one the invasion – still give us an idea of the cers. In Quebec City, the Irish popula- relative strength of the militia. In Missis- tion went as far as cancelling their 1866 squoi County, we find 3 officers, 35 St. Patrick’s Day parade for fear of caus- troopers and 38 horse; in Brome County, ing trouble. The Montreal Witness 3 officers, 34 men and 37 horse, and in summed up the general attitude: Hemmingford, 2 officers, 35 men and 37 All classes seem to entertain horse. A total of 112 men to guard three a kind of grim joy at the opportu- crucial areas along the U.S. border. nity about to be afforded of re- It is interesting to note that, just as pulsing the men who for so long the ranks of the Fenian movement and so unjustly have annoyed swelled immediately after the Civil War, Canadians with the threats which so too did the ranks of the militia, ex- are now being carried into cruel panding from 19,597 to a nominal lawless execution. strength of 33,754. Also of interest is the fact that immediately prior to 1866 ap- The Catholic Church too was vehe- plications were made from the Montreal ment in its denunciation of the Fenian headquarters of the Canadian militia to cause. In an interesting twist, the Church eliminated all needless expenditures, be the government for more arms and am- went to great lengths in the early months ample to pay, outfit and maintain Cana- munition. The application was ignored. of 1866 to prove to the public that Feni- da’s fledgling militia. By 1854, Britain The result? The Canadian militia that anism was neither Irish nor Catholic. Its had announced its wish to withdraw all met the Fenians was badly prepared, leaders, the Church announced, were regular troops with the exceptions of poorly drilled and inadequately armed. It avowed Protestants (Roberts being a those manning the Halifax and Es- was composed of soldiers guided by pa- Unitarian and Sweeny an Episcopalian), quimalt naval bases. The decision would triotic and romantic dreams. Its officers its ranks contained not one Irish leave Canada dependent on the strength were, for the most part, the rich and in- Catholic of respect, and it had supported of its own local militia units. fluential who had enough money to the revolutionary party in Catholic In the case of Lower Canada, the law equip a company but lacked the military Austria! required all men physically and mentally experience, and in some cases the On March 16, the day before St. able between the ages of 16 and 60 to be brains, to lead them. In short, when the Patrick’s Day, and what was believed to deemed fit for military service. The duty, invasion of Quebec came in June of be the impending invasion, The Quebec

27 Medal awarded to T. Green of Lennoxville for service in the Fenian Raid. Army Navy Air Force Veterans in Canada Unit 318 Museum coll. Photo: T. Belford. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

1866, the combatants were a revolution- rocious attack: that 400 Fenians had arrived in St. Al- ary rabble facing a slightly better organ- The reptile of Fenianism bans without arms. Again, on Friday and ized group of amateurs. has crept into daylight on Cana- Saturday, a total of about 450 more ar- The first attack came in April when an at- dian soil, and will be stamped rived, mostly from Boston and this time tempt to capture Campobello Island in the St. out by the well-armed heel of with several cases of arms. These arms, Croix River was foiled. In June, Roberts or- British power in North Ameri- however, had been immediately confis- dered an invasion of Fort Erie at the mouth of ca… No needless ferocity must cated and returned to Burlington by the the Niagara River. Even then, the authorities stain the fair name of Christian United States Marshall. remained confident. An article in the Toronto and generous Canada. Montreal was not alone in its excite- Daily Globe in May of 1866 – overshadowed ment and activity. In Quebec City, the by a piece on the Upper Canada College Meanwhile, along the U.S. border volunteers had been called out and were cricket match – showed little concern: and in the Eastern Townships, there was drilling each day from 9 a.m. to noon. Secrecy has been well pre- considerably more activity. Lt. Colonels Furthermore, the Fusiliers of Quebec served as to the point of attack, Smith and Brown were dispatched to had reached Montreal on Sunday. Hav- but we fancy that the American Huntingdon where they immediately ing received letters from many American and Canadian government will called out the First and Second Hunting- friends, a good deal of the population be equal to the emergency. We don Companies, the Durham Company, believed that Quebec City, because of its hope that Sweeney’s movement the Hinchinbrooke Rifles and the Athel- strategic position, ammunition stores will not be nipped too soon. If it stan Company. The Sherbrooke Regiment and prestige, was to be the real target of is only allowed to come to a head was also activated along with the Bishop’s the Fenian invaders. So worried were the it will be the last we shall hear of College School Cadet Corps, the latter as- people of that city that a plea to the may- Fenianism. signed to guard the Massawippi and St. or was placed in the Quebec Daily Mer- Francis bridges in Lennoxville. cury when he announced he would be Saturday’s dawn saw an awakened going to Ottawa on business: and active city. Yet the activity seemed in Mr. Cauchon must imperatively many ways sporadic, still being governed remain in Quebec. His nerve, his by rumours that arrived every minute by moral courage and his uncon- telegraph. 27 companies had been called querable determination are qual- out in Canada East and 12 more were ities which cannot be dispensed called out that day. Meanwhile, 150 more with and may not readily be Fenians had been observed passing through replaced. Rutland, Vermont, while 50 had arrived at St. Alban’s that morning. Along the border, the skies were In the United States, reactions were overcast and the rain fell in torrents. mixed. A Toronto Globe report told of Twenty members of the First Troop of how on June 1, at a meeting of Fenian Montreal Cavalry had arrived in Hem- supporters in the Buffalo Opera House, mingford along with members of the Senator Fitzgerald had given a fiery speech in which he said “the Canadian volunteers...were invincible in peace and invisible in war.” In Montreal, excitement ran ram- That same evening, the volunteers pant. Upon hearing word by telegraph of were called out and asked to report to the Fort Erie attack, and the resulting ca- the Victoria Armoury at five in the after- sualties, the city became alive with a noon. By ten o’clock, both the Victoria spirit that combined patriotic zeal, tem- Rifles and the Prince of Wales Rifles pered by anxiety and fed by rumour. had departed from Bonaventure station According to first-hand reports from amidst loud cheering on their way to St. Albans, Vermont, appearing in the Hemmingford. The journey was exceed- Quebec Daily Mercury on June 1, 300 ingly slow due to the fear that the Feni- Fenians had arrived -- 50 from Boston ans might have sabotaged the railway and the remainder from Lowell and Rut- lines. However, by 2 a.m. on Sunday, all land. The headlines were frantic: “The the troops had reached Hemmingford Fenians in Canada” and “The Province where they were billeted in barns. Prior Invaded.” As to the militia: “The volun- to their departure, there arrived from the teers are enthusiastic and every man is ‘front’ the first reasonable assessment of ready to take to the field.” Still, the Fenian movement from “a Canadian troops were not mobilized. Unlike the gentleman, whose reliability we can militia, however, the press mounted a fe- vouch for.” This gentleman maintained

Left: Helmet, 53rd Batl., Sherbrooke Regt. Army Navy Air Force Veterans in 28 Right: Monument to Margaret Vincent, shot on Canada Unit 318 Museum coll. Photo: T. Belford. Eccles Hill, 1866. Photo: Heather Darch. FALL 2016

First Prince of Wales Rifles under Capt. The population of the Eastern Bernard Devlin. Unknown to the troops, Townships…are in a frightful PROVINCE-WIDE the Fenians had apparently invaded state of alarm… Sweetsburg, EXPOSURE Frelighsburg, St. Armand, Stanbridge Bedford, Stanbridge, Frelighs- AT A GREAT PRICE!! and Pigeon Hill. The war was on. In burg, Dunham and Cowansville are SPECIAL ADVERTISING RATES Montreal, the papers published the first almost entirely deserted. 2016 report of an actual invasion along with Finally, just before noon, the troops the comment, “it is of much less dimen- Purchase two or more ads of sion that at first supposed.” arrived, only to be met by two wagons the same size, and receive Government officials in the United of captured Fenians – “little scamps such 40% off each ad! as one sees about the streets of all great States were also at work. 6,000 car- Purchase a full year and receive an tridges, ostensibly manufactured in cities” that had been taken prisoner by additional 10% off! Burlington, Vermont, were seized along the local volunteers. Stationing their ar- with 13 cases of arms. General Meade of tillery on a hill that commanded a good FULL-PAGE the U.S. army had moved troops into St. view of the forested valley of Pigeon 10 inches (25.5 cm) high Albans, Malone, Rouses Point, and sev- Hill, The Guides slowly advanced into 7.5 inches (19 cm) wide the woods. A shot was heard, then a sec- eral other areas to control further Fenian $400.00 (Special: $240.00) action. Most importantly, the President ond and then nothing. The Fenians had of the United States had issued a procla- fled and the invasion was over. The Back cover or inside page, colour mation through the office of the Attor- Guides had not even a chance to “flesh $500.00 (Special: $300.00) ney General: their maiden swords,” as one writer put it. Two Fenians had been killed and 16 HALF-PAGE By the direction of the Presi- captured in their abortive attempt to in- 5 inches (12.5 cm) high dent, you are hereby instructed to vade the Eastern Townships of Quebec. 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) wide cause the arrest of all prominent, One company of soldiers remained at leading or conspicuous persons Frelighsburg; the rest returned to St. Ar- $235.00 (Special: $141.00) called ‘Fenians’ who you may mand, and thence to Montreal, where Colour $300.00 (Special: $180.00) have probable cause to believe they were greeted by the cheers of thou- have been, or may be guilty of vi- sands of thankful Canadians. THIRD-PAGE olation of the neutrality laws of (COLUMN ONLY) the United States. Tim Belford was born and raised in the 10 inches (25.5 cm) high Niagara Peninsula but has lived in 2.25 inches (5.75 cm) wide At 8 a.m. on the morning of June 7, an Quebec City and the Eastern Townships informant was stopped by an advancing for the past 48 years. The former host of $200.00 (Special: $120.00) column of Fenians coming from Fairfield, CBC’s Quebec AM and one-time history Vermont, towards Frelighsburg. He was teacher, he now acts as part-time cura- QUARTER-PAGE asked if this was the way to Canada. Most tor of the Army Navy Air Force Veterans 5 inches (12.5 cm) high of the Fenians, he maintained were armed in Canada Unit 318 Museum in 3.25 inches (8.5 cm) wide although some were mere boys. He also Lennoxville. $125.00 (Special: $75.00) noted that the column did not exceed 500 and that their weapons were breech loading Sources: BUSINESS CARD carbines, not Spencers. R. J. Douglas Borthwick, History and Biogra- phical Gazetteer of Montreal, Montreal, 1892. 2.5 inches (6.5 cm) high By 7 a.m. on Friday, things were clear. 3.5 inches (9 cm) wide The Fenians were in St. Armand, Frelighs- burg, Cook’s Corner and Pigeon Hill – rob- H. H. Miles, A School History of Cana- $75.00 (Special: $45.00) bing, destroying property and slaughtering da, Montreal, 1888. animals. Although drunk and often without H. Senior, "Quebec and the Fenians," FREQUENCY, DEADLINES AND arms, the Fenians were safe from the equal- SPECIFICATIONS Canadian Historical Review, March ly defenseless farmers. Where were the 4 issues annually 1967. troops? Deadlines: Spring (early March 2016); 500 men had left St. John’s for the I. B. Taylor, Report on the State of the Summer (early June 2016); Fall (early Septem- ber 2016); Winter (early December 2016) front, and the Granby and Waterloo vol- Militia of the Dominion of Canada, Ot- Resolution required: Minimum 300 DPI tawa, 1873. unteers, accompanied by Captain Bal- By email at: [email protected] four’s battery and a cavalry regiment A Brief Account of the Fenian Raids on called The Guides, were also on the way. the Mississquoi Frontier in 1866-1870, By the morning of June 9, there were Montreal, 1871. still no troops facing the Fenians. The Quebec Daily Mercury summed up the Newspapers: Le Pioneer de Sherbrooke, situation: The Toronto Daily Globe, The Quebec Daily Mercury.

29 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

REVIEW The Gaol, the School and the Moose Iron Bars and Bookshelves: A History of the Morrin Centre Louisa Blair, Patrick Donovan and Donald Fyson, Foreward by Louise Penny Baraka Books, Montreal 2016

very old public building carries within it the stories of By the 1860s, this overcrowded and inadequate prison was its occupants and the times in which they lived. This is moved to a newer, but much more enclosed and harsh building especially true of the Morrin Centre, an imposing neo- on the Plains of Abraham. In 1868, the old building became classical structure with a unique and varied past, locat- Morrin College, a Presbyterian-run offshoot of McGill in Mon- edE on a rise in the midst of Quebec City’s Upper Town. The treal. It had been established by Dr. Joseph Morrin, originally Morrin Centre’s eighteenth and early nineteenth century neigh- from Scotland, and offered basic Bachelor of Arts education bours are mostly buildings that started life as private homes but along with evening courses for the public. In this second part of are now small hotels, restaurants and commercial venues; St. the book, A Presbyterian Stronghold in Catholic Quebec: Mor- Andrews’s Presbyterian Church, its manse and Kirk Hall, and a rin College (Since 1862), by Patrick Donovan, the history of former Methodist church (now an arts complex) are almost this admirable effort to bring English-language higher education equally venerable. Down the steep steps, below the Morrin Cen- to Quebec City is traced. The College closed as such in 1902, tre, is Rue Saint-Jean, the chief tourist and business street of but carried on as a foundation, maintaining the building and Old Quebec. granting funds for educational purposes. Its failure to thrive was At present, the Morrin Centre is a thriving multi-purpose twofold: the English speaking population of Quebec City had community centre, focused on the city’s small but active Eng- started to decline by the 1880s and never increased, and Morrin lish-speaking population. It is under the aegis of the Literary College was too intensely sectarian (Presbyterian) -- even in a and Historical Society of Quebec, established in 1824, the old- very sectarian society. Yet it did espouse some modern ideas, es- est (and only) English-language library in the city. In 1992- pecially in admitting women, and in finally updating a curricu- 1993, the exterior of the building was restored, followed by a lum that was heavily weighted to the classics. Again, individu- major interior restoration starting in 2002. Part of this was the als who attended or taught at the College are described, along conversion of the old jail cells section into an interactive visi- with the atmosphere of the times. What might have been rather tors’ venue. School tours and tourists have been going to jail the dullest section of the book is lively and informative of the ever since. history of education in Quebec. So where to begin to describe this book? There are three The third part is called Moose in Flames: The Story of the authors and all of them are excellent writer-researchers. There is Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, by Louisa Blair. The a depth of information and meticulously accounted historical moose was one of many stuffed specimens that was lost in a fire references in all three sections. All three sections are interesting in the nineteenth century when the Society focused on natural and even exciting in spots. Donald Fyson is the author of part history and appeared to be an enthusiastic example of the Victo- one, Prison Reform and Prison Society: The Quebec City Gaol, rian mania for collecting. However, this organization is the old- 1812-1867. He brings to life individuals, both prisoners and est learned society in Canada, was the main force in creating the prison employees, and in doing so, creates a vivid picture of life Archives of Canada and those of Quebec, rescued the Plains of in Quebec City in the first part of the nineteenth century. This Abraham from developers (many times) and increased public was a very rowdy seaport indeed, before the days of police as awareness of the value of built and cultural history and heritage. we’d know them, and with a legal system that was still partly It continues today, more reflective of our age, although Blair medieval yet beginning to reform itself under the influence of does record the hesitation of this group to digitize. Again this is people like John Howard. In the gaol/jail were debtors (think a wonderful social history of a very special English-speaking Charles Dickens here), disorderly sailors and disobedient ser- community that is obviously aware of its past and present in vants, prostitutes, a few major criminals (although not a high Quebec. proportion of the truly dangerous), and, very sadly, many men- This book is creative non-fiction/cultural history at its best. tally ill people. It was chaotic, smelly and noisy. However, as The illustrations are excellent and well reproduced. The appear- the building was right in the middle of a busy residential and in- ance of the work is attractive. The notes and references are copi- stitutional area, the inmates had a fair amount of contact with ous. Here is a world in miniature in a sense – a Quebec City that passersby and could easily have food and tobacco passed in to has enriched its present time by the preservation and adaption of them through the lower windows. The Methodist church next its past inheritance. door made several complaints. -Reviewed by Sandra Stock

Morrin College, 1902. BAnQ Québec, P546, D3, P18. 30 FALL 2016

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31 MattersVolunteeringVolunteering 2016 Resources andworkshops

Voluntary service is the heart of community life. Yet many non-profit groups are failing to find and inspire a new generation of supporters. DON’T DELAY. GET YOUR RECRUITMENT KIT TODAY Includes a set of eight essenal booklets and this 40-page guide to recruitment: JOIN THE CONVERSATION Explore and share great ideas for inspiring community acon Knowlton SEPTEMBER 23 Brome County Historical Museum The sixth & final conference in QAHN’s Volunteering Maers workshops series

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