TRAF : Q UEBEC ’S OLDEST ENGLISH GIRLS ’ S CHOOL $10 Quebec

VOL 6, N O. 7 AUTUMN 2012 Heritag eNews

Tractors, Trains, Mills and Orchards QAHN’s Photo and Essay Contests Ottawa River adventurers George Hamilton and Thomas Kains Montreal’s Musical Heritage The Junior Symphony Orchestra and One Lost Piano QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Quebec CONTENTS Heritag eNews EDITOR Editor’s Desk 3 RODERICK MAC LEOD PRODUCTION Fixing a Hole Rod MacLeod DAN PINESE Letter 4 Street level screenings John Annesley PUBLISHER THE QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE Timelines 5 HERITAGE NETWORK The Cost of our Heritage: The Paul Holland Knowlton House Jessica Campbell 400-257 Q UEEN STREET Mystery Objects from Rawdon Beverly Prud’homme SHERBROOKE , Q UEBEC J1M 1K7 Between St Lambert and Longueuil: Remembering Montreal South Kevin Erskine-Henry

PHONE Spem Successus Alit 11 1-877-964-0409 125 Years of “Traf Janet Chandler Allingham (819) 564-9595 FAX QAHN Heritage Photo Contest 16 (819) 564-6872 QAHN Heritage Essay Contest 18 CORRESPONDENCE EDITOR @QAHN .ORG Montreal’s Music Man 20 WEBSITES Lewis V Elvin and the Junior Symphony Orchestra Carol Martin WWW .QAHN .ORG Just When Things Couldn’t Get Much Worse 23 WWW .QUEBECHERITAGEWEB .COM The Trials of George Hamilton Joseph Graham Devastation’s Purser 26 PRESIDENT Thomas Kains and the War of 1812 Eve Krakow KEVIN O’D ONNELL StoryNet Story 28 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & Lost:Morris Listowel Piano. Contains:Unrealized Dreams Gordon Rainey WEBMAGAZINES EDITOR MATTHEW FARFAN

OFFICE MANAGER KATHY TEASDALE

Quebec Heritage News is produced four times yearly by the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage and Quebec’s Ministère de la Culture et des Communications. QAHN is a non-profit and non-partisan umbrella organization whose mission is to help advance knowl - edge of the history and culture of the English-speaking communities of Quebec. Annual Subscription Rates: Individual: $30.00; Organization: $40.00 Cover image: Original doors from a now demolished original wing of the Trafalgar Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement Number 405610004. School for Girls, Dr. Penfield Avenue, Montreal. Photo: Rod MacLeod ISSN 17707-2670 PRINTED IN CANADA

2 AUTUMN 2012

EDITOR ’S DESK Fixing a Hole by Rod MacLeod

e’ve been hearing a lot given a reasonable amount of thoughtful striven to create the kind of grand termi - about crosses lately, about planning. Alas, for much of the twenti - nus the city deserved and for which the how they are somehow eth century, Montreal’s planners were site was well-suited: McGill College Av - fundamental to Quebec’s far too preoccupied with grandeur (of enue offered a vista running from the culture and identity. Whether or not that buildings and egos) to give much steps of the Arts Building right down to Wis true, I would argue there is one partic - thought to pleasant urban environments. the prospective terminus – a version of ular cross that is fundamental to Montre - The small terminus at the southern New York’s Grand Central Station, per - al’s culture and identity, for two reasons. end of this site, facing onto La - haps? Architect John Campbell Merrett One reason is that it typifies the modern gauchetière Street, was good enough for designed a striking Art Deco interior cosmopolitan city we are all proud concourse, but from the outside the of. The other is that it filled a nasty building that rose by the end of hole that no one loved. World War II was a dull, squat box I, perhaps alone, a mad voice set some distance from Dorchester in the wilderness, hate this particu - Street as if ashamed to go near it. lar cross. I quite liked the hole. It was Central Station, but never The hole was once filled very Grand. nicely by a large house and garden The CNR eventually cottoned belonging to the Joseph family (see on to its new terminus’s mediocrity QHN, September 2009) known as and decided to build a vast hotel Dorchester House, after the street complex on top of it, recalling the on which it was built. The Josephs great hotel-termini of the CPR. sold the property in 1912 to devel - This being the 1950s, however, the opers, the ones behind the Canadian result was no Viger Station or Gare Northern Railway project to dig a du Palais – rather the monstrosity tunnel under Mount Royal and give we know today as Hotel Le Reine their trains a downtown terminus. Elizabeth. The building is even Other, smaller buildings were also more of an affront to Montreal’s sacrificed to create a large piece of skyline than its title is to French real estate. By the time the tunnel grammar. (Isn’t the queen a was finished, there was a long woman?) If you don’t believe me, trough running north-south between go to the top of the McGill Arts Mansfield and St Monique (roughly Building steps and look down the on a line with McGill College Av - length of the street at the hotel’s enue) which emerged from the side endless boxy grey windows. They of the mountain and ran under the couldn’t even centre the building wide bridge that Dorchester Street properly. had become. Hugging the edge of North of Dorchester Street, be - this trough were such prestigious tween Mansfield and University buildings as St Paul’s Presbyterian the Canadian Northern Railway, but far streets, there was still plenty of hole. To Church, Mary Queen of the World from adequate for the Canadian National fill it, developers decided to vault brave - Cathedral, the Sun Life headquarters, Railway, which had swallowed it up by ly into modernity, leaving behind the and another lovely mansion-in-a-garden the late 1920s. In order to create a prop - stale pseudo-Deco of Le Reine Eliza - known as Homestead. er rival for the Canadian Pacific’s Wind - beth. They hired architects Henry Cobb Montrealers who remember this sor Station, Canadian National bought and IM Pei, who had some experience hole almost universally lamented what additional land to the east, as far as Uni - fitting skyscrapers into heritage areas in they saw as a scar on their city. But any - versity Street. Homestead and St Paul’s cities such as Washington and Philadel - one who has visited Edinburgh (a city Church were demolished – the latter, phia. For some time it had been appar - whose New Town was the inspiration for fortunately, rebuilt in St Laurent as part ent to Montrealers that their city, too, Montreal’s downtown) will know that a of a college. needed a dose of urban renewal, particu - trough with trains running through it can This loss of architectural heritage larly given the kind of blight still on of - make for a pleasant urban environment, might have been justified had planners fer along Dorchester Street – such as the

Place Ville Marie, 1961. Photo: Architecture, 3 Bâtiment, Construction, October 1961 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS elegant St James Club and the distin - guished Burnside Hall (recently home to the Fraser Institute Library). Both promptly fell to the bulldozer. The building that rose on the north side of Dorchester Street, completed ex - actly fifty years ago, was to weather the controversy it immediately engendered and emerge as Montreal’s most beloved building. The new head office of the Royal Bank consisted of a massive tow - er in the shape of a cross (as you looked down on it, which of course you could not do other than from an airplane as it was the tallest thing around) and a series of lower buildings framing the kind of windswept plaza that planners were fond of in the 1950s. Despite some obvious acquaintance with the work of Mies Van the Royal Bank building is now general - ish today despite, not because, of Place der Rohe, Cobb and Pei seem to have ly known, though that name originally Ville Marie. Fifty years on, we ought to been influenced principally by the archi - referred only to the mall beneath it) won look back and realize we deserved tects who designed the Exposizione Uni - its way into Montrealers’ hearts as proof something better. A grand central station versale Roma (the “EUR”) for Mussolini that they were hep and progressive and facing up McGill College Avenue to the in the 1930s, albeit on a vaster scale. on their way to being citizens of a World mountain. Or even just a hole. Like that fumbling attempt at classical City. Montrealers also like it because of This is a rant, I know. You can stand pastiche, Montreal’s cruciform tower its cross shape, which is of course a re - there and disagree if you like – but I and its subordinate blocks offer rows of flection of the cross on top of the moun - should tell you that I’m fixing another vacant black windows instead of the tain, which is also the city’s symbol. sort of hole: one that lets the rain get in clean lines and stunning surfaces that is The architecture of Place Ville Marie is and stops my mind from wandering… Modernism at its best. Compare the secondary. We’ve long since stopped ac - Royal Bank tower with Victoria tually looking at its massive bulk, or for Square’s Bourse, or with Dorchester that matter noticing how complicated LETTER Square’s RIBC building, or with the (albeit warm and dry in the winter) it complex at Westmount Square – which makes getting to and from Central Sta - was actually designed by Mies. tion. We think it did great things for us Street level screenings These were all products of the same pe - as a city, but I would argue that Montre - riod, but seem infinitely fresher. al emerged as the livable place we cher - enjoyed Rod MacLeod’s article Despite that, Place Ville Marie (as about the System Theatre. I re - member frequenting it in the fifties, when admission was well under a dollar. IThe theatre was at street level. What I remember the most about The System was that when you went in the front door from St Catherine Street, the screen was on the right, right beside you (with its back against St Catherine) so that you faced the people looking at the screen as you walked up the aisle to get a seat. Also, I think the “Sy” disap - peared at one time and it was called the Stem for a while. Good Stuff.

John Annesley Frelighsburg, QC

Top: Central Station at its opening, 1943. Photo: Bibliotheque et archives 4 nationales, PS47, S1, SS1, SSS1, D0002, P1877R. Bottom: The Dorchester Street bridge over the CNR trough, 1930. Photo: McCord Museum, MP-1989.20.2 AUTUMN 2012

TIMELINES The Cost of Our Heritage The Paul Holland Knowlton House by Jessica Campbell

n 1815, Col. Paul Holland Knowlton, a son of waiting for some decisions from the town and the golf Loyalists, settled and farmed on the land that has club.” Jacques Lecours, Brome Lake’s councillor responsi - been owned since 1921 by the Knowlton Golf ble for culture and communications, is leading the preserva - Club. He occupied a modest structure on Lot 14, tion project, and the committee cannot give information it Range 11, near a footpath through the woods that does not have. Duncanson added, however, that “there is a wIould later become Lakeshore Road and eventually, Lake - great deal of support among the population of Brome Lake side Road. It is unlikely that Paul Holland Knowlton con - to preserve the house, so this will be an ongoing project.” structed the three-winged house, which, in 1832, was report - A core element of the debate remains: is the house of ed to look like it had been built for at least ten years already. historic value and worthy of preservation? The Knowlton The “block house,” as his - Golf Club recently stated that toric documents call it, was sur - the house is “falling apart.” It rounded by fields where feels the house is unoccupied Knowlton farmed potatoes. and a burden to the club. Knowlton sold his crop in the According to last year’s west wing of the house, nearest findings by architects Beaudry the road, along with flour, cod - and Michaud, the house has fish, tea and tobacco. The road been modified beyond recogni - was then only a footpath lead - tion. Originally, its floors were ing to a single home, that of Al - “fine pine boards, very wide va Tibbits, where the village of and smooth, nailed with extra- Knowlton now lies. Through large square iron nails.” Since the distribution of land, and the then, they reported, the building establishment of mills, a store, has been demolished, rebuilt farms and a school, the town was born. Paul Holland and modernized. The architects’ seven-hour-long inspection Knowlton lived to help repress the Lower Canada Rebellion and 40-page report, which cost roughly $70,000 and an ex - of 1837, and was appointed to the Legislative Council of the tra $7,500 for its analysis, resulted in conclusions favoring Province of Canada where he fought for the under-repre - demolition: “one would be ready to sign its death warrant sented interests of the Eastern Townships. In later years, the and bring it to the dump.” site of his house belonged to Christopher Dunkin, who be - The architects’ findings dampened the preservation came Brome County’s first Member of Parliament after group’s hopes that the house is convincingly historic. Coun - Confederation. cillor Lecours disagrees with the Beaudry and Michaud re - Today, the fate of the Knowlton House hangs in the port. He contends that the building has not gone through balance, as the discussion of its demolition, relocation or major modifications. The modifications, he says, are re - restoration continues between the owners the Knowlton versible and have not compromised the integrity of the Golf Club and the Town of Brome Lake. As of summer building. 2012, the two parties have been working two years towards Lecours’ statements presumably derive from a local ar - an agreement. The subject is sensitive, and each party is try - chitect’s assessments of the building: David Kininmonth’s. ing to reach an amicable and peaceful solution that will sat - He has also taken their word that the cost of restoration isfy both sides. would be far less than the $500,000 cited by Beaudry and In November 2010, the golf club requested the removal Michaud. And he rejects as unrealistic Beaudry and of the house by demolition or relocation. The club’s motives Michaud’s estimate of $486,163 to relocate the house to the for removal: landscaping and parking. Shortly thereafter, an Brome County Historical Society (BCHS) site. opposition was born: 106 town residents signed a petition While Lecours disagrees with the idea of relocating the opposing the demolition and letters from concerned citizens house, a public consultation on April 30, 2012, led to sug - found their way to the town hall. Additionally, this year saw gestions for the relocation and renovation of the house on the formation of a preservation committee composed of vol - different grounds. unteers interested in restoring the house on its original prop - A large part of any house’s historic value, however, lies erty. Town resident Judith Duncanson publicly invited all within its foundations, and its surrounding environment of - who were interested in the house’s preservation to join the fers the purest understanding of its context. The Tibbits Hill committee. When contacted recently, Duncanson reported Schoolhouse, for example, is owned by the historical society that “the volunteer committee is at the moment dormant, and remains on its original site, where visitors are able to ap -

The Knowlton House, today. Photo: Jessica Campbell 5 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

preciate the purpose of the mid-nineteenth century building of it. The fact that the BCHS has little space to offer has not and have a better understanding that Knowlton was once an been mentioned recently. isolated rural community with limited means. Likewise, vis - As of now, the future of the Knowlton House remains itors to a restored Knowlton House could view the rolling uncertain. The house sits on a property with owners who hills that were once Knowlton’s potato fields and the high - thus far have no legal obligation to maintain it and a town way, which was once a rough country road. council that remains wary of funding the project on behalf Contrary to Kininmonth’s conviction that the Knowl - of a hesitant community. ton House on site would remain a “dead exhibit” due to an “Only part of the community is actively interested in inability to access it on private property, it is unlikely that the house; the other half couldn’t care less,” Lecours says. the golf club would agree to full restoration on site only to “It would be best if the money came from the townspeople.” deny public access. If the club were to allow access and per - When the Dunkin property was first transferred to the haps some parking for visitors, then the house could be Knowlton Golf Club, historian Ernest Taylor mourned that managed in a fashion similar to the Tibbits Hill School - that it “was a loss…to the entire public.” Likewise, the town house, and be opened to the public during specific times, will suffer from losing the original Paul Holland Knowlton perhaps outside of the golf season. Possibly it could join House, whether or not it understands the ramifications. other monuments on the Brome Heritage Trail and be used Is it the town’s ambivalence or its apathy that lies be - for purposes compatible with its historical value. Perhaps it hind the stagnation on this issue? Lecours laments the could serve a more modern purpose, such as a youth retreat town’s general lack of interest in its past. After all, he says, where youths could learn the history of the Townships and only 30 people attended the April 30 consultation meeting to the contribution made by the Loyalists in this part of Que - discuss the house. “If you’re not familiar with the past,” he bec. says, “you can’t understand the present, and you cannot pre - Not surprisingly, the issue of funding that plagues so pare for the future. The past is who we are, it has shaped us many small museums throughout Quebec has crept into the and how we think. This house in an object that enables us to debate. Diana Timmins, President of the BCHS, who has glimpse into our past.” been advised by both the golf club and the town not to get In other words, whether one is English- or French-speak - involved at the moment, formerly rejected offering funds to ing, or a permanent or a part-time resident, this house is a mon - move or restore the house. ument to the founder of Knowlton. It is where Col. Paul Hol - According to Quebec’s Cultural Property Act, a town land Knowlton envisioned the village that bears his name. may cite a building as a heritage site and thereafter compel the owners to maintain the house. Once the house is cited, Sources: the town may apply for funding that would contribute to its Harry B. Shufelt, Along the Old Roads: Lore and Legends renovation. Yet, government funding is difficult to obtain. of Brome County , 1954. In the case of the Knowlton House, private fundraising Clifford Smith. Yesterdays of Brome County , Volume among the public might better enable a restoration on site, 5,1967. or relocation, and might show that Brome Lake is behind the project. Councillor Lecours believes that if Council sees Ernest Taylor, History of Brome County Quebec, from the the community investing in the house, then it too will invest Date of Grants of Land therein to the Present Time, with in the project. Perhaps these funds, added to the $10,000 records of some early families . Volume II, 1937. that the golf club is willing to contribute to the move, would Brome County News . Articles by Frank Nixon and Marc enable the house to retain some of its historic value, if not all Clerk. Mystery objects from Rawdon

The Rawdon Historical Society wonders if any of our readers could help solve this puzzle. The grandfather mentioned in this query was a descendent of one of the early families to settle on a farm in Rawdon.

A couple of years ago I photographed some old wooden objects that my grandfather had among his personal possessions. No one in the family knew what they were for. The bottom object looks like something to polish or sharpen knives with. The first and second objects seem to be related. The dowel with the eyelets seems to fit in the opening of the first object. Would you have any idea?

Beverly Prud’homme Rawdon Historical Society Rawdon, Quebec

6

QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Between St Lambert and Longueuil Remembering the Town of Montreal South by Kevin Erskine-Henry he City of Montreal is flanked quickly. By 1890, a small building was ues. As a result, most of the new resi - on both sides by the towns of used for a school as well as for dents who moved to Montreal South Montreal East and Montreal Methodist and Baptist church services. were the higher-paid middle managers West each with their own dis - When it became too crowded, church and plant foremen, and this gave Mon - tinct character. Even after the municipal services were moved to the railway sta - treal South a higher social status then Tmergers of 2002, the former city of tion. On April 30, 1892, with a grant of their St Hubert Trolley line cousins. Montreal North re - Montreal South resi - mains a separate bor - dents also enjoyed ough on the island electricity earlier map. While most (1906) than others on points are covered it the South Shore. is South that is miss - With its country ing from this Montre - lifestyle, Montreal al compass. Almost South would provide forgotten is a town the best of both known as Montreal worlds. By 1943, a South, located at the new English school base of the Jacques called William White Cartier bridge on the opened on the corner South Shore, nestled of Lafayette Street between St Lambert with a capacity of and Old Longueuil. 250 students. Most of The history of the English commu - Montreal South starts nity life focused in 1888, when a large around the churches: tract of land located between Govern - $200, Montreal South Union Church Montreal South United, Gardenville ment Farm (Old Longueuil) and would open on St Helen Street. The Presbyterian, and St Oswald’s Anglican. Woodrow Farms (St Lambert) just oppo - church was called Union because The churches would host dinners, site Montreal was opened and divided Methodists, Baptists and Anglicans bazaars, fairs. They would join together into building lots. The developer was would meet, each taking a different time for snowshoe tramping in the open fields George Parent who would later buy and to hold their services. Also the Church and winter sleigh rides, trips across the subdivide land in Greenfield Park and St hall would later be rented for use as a frozen river along the Ice Road. During Hubert. The Longueuil-St Lambert lots two-room English schoolhouse for the the summer, outdoor picnics and hiking were sold to twelve English-speaking younger grades; older students went to trips along the river were common. Mrs families (mostly northern English and school in Longueuil. The Presbyterians K Campbell, who served as a United Scots) who had worked on building the were a larger community and opened Church secretary until its closing, re - Victoria Bridge. Wanting to escape the their own church, Gardenville, a year called: grime of early Montreal, they longed for later in 1898. a place in the country. There were no By 1905, Montreal South’s popula - “During the twenties Sunday school roads, and these early settlers had to tion had grown to 590 and was incorpo - picnics were held at King Edward have their supplies drawn across the rated as a town. By 1906, the newly- Park, located on the island directly fields and through bush or over the snow formed Montreal & Southern Counties opposite Boucherville. There were in the winter. The first graded earth road Railway began a daily interurban trolley few private cars in those days so with ditches was called Victoria Avenue across the Victoria Bridge; for eight everyone was transported from the (now Goupil), after Queen Victoria. In cents, workers had quick transport to church by buses. Often the people 1889, after several houses were built and and from the factories along the Lachine from St Oswald’s Anglican and families moved in, a station house was Cannel. The M&SCR located their first Gardenville Presbyterian would join built at the junction of St Helen Street station in Saint Lambert and soon added us... Since we rarely locked our and the Grand Trunk railway tracks, a branch line to Montreal South. Being doors and with almost no one left in which connected Montreal South to less than 10 minutes (5.2 miles) from town any thief would be able to Montreal via the Victoria Bridge. Montreal’s McGill Street-Youville sta - make off with whatever they wanted…” Having a direct link would allow tion, and only a short walk from the Montreal South’s population to grow shops of St Lambert, increased land val - The population of Montreal South re -

8 Old Montreal South United Church. Image courtesy of the Longueuil and MSCR archives AUTUMN 2012

this would also prove to be the last hur - rah for the English-speaking community of Montreal South. With new English- speaking residents now choosing to lo - cate in Greenfield Park or Brossard, the already small community would contin - ue to shrink. After marking its 81st an - niversary on June 28th 1970, Montreal South United Church would close its doors. A year later, St Oswald’s Angli - can Church would host a final service, attended by a handful of remaining wor - shippers, to officially dissolve the church – despite the fact that its building was only fifteen years old. Both church - es were later torn down. The old M&SC train route through Montreal South lay abandoned for many years, serving as part dog walk and night spot for roman - tic teenagers. Recently, the old railway tracks were removed and replaced with a bicycle path leading into Longueuil. By mained largely English-speaking until to Longueuil. (Jacques Cartier would 1998, with less than fifty students, the the late 1940s. The end of the war and merge in 1969.) This new municipal once bustling William White School was the opening of the Jacques Cartier merger would bring about some impor - closed. Montreal South became a faded bridge brought much expansion to the tant physical changes to the community. memory. area around the base of the bridge. New housing would replace the smaller Longueuil has since placed histori - The South Shore was now growing. By homes that once lined the streets. With cal plaques in its new Hotel de Ville to 1951, the population more than tripled the opening of shopping centres, there serve as a reminder of the former towns from 1,441 to 4,214. The English com - was less business for the stores along St now merged under its name. In Montre - munity was now in the minority. While Helen Street, and most would soon al South’s official 56-year history there life in Montreal South was very peaceful close. is barely a line that speaks about the and uneventful for most of its first fifty Nevertheless English community town’s once deep English-speaking years, a growing problem for its resi - life in Montreal South in the early 60s roots. dents in the 1940s was their neighbours remained fairly active, centred mostly, to the east. The town of Jacques Cartier as always, on church life. Ladies would Kevin Erskine-Henry is chair of the had grown almost overnight and with prepare afternoon teas and luncheons. In South Shore Community Partners Net - few rules and a mishmash of poor hous - 1964, to celebrate the town’s 75th an - work. Part of the SSCPN’s mandate is to ing, it truly became the place known as niversary, a huge dinner and concert for promote Local Community History. the wrong side of the tracks. Crime over 300 people was held. However, would often spill over and for long-time residents who had once sought a gentle country life, it was now time to move on. By the 1950s, the run of the M&SCR was coming to an end. The transit system was replaced by a come- by-chance bus network. The old Factory district located at the base of McGill Street was undergoing much change as plants closed or moved westward. Em - ployees now preferred to stay on the is - land of Montreal. Newer, more attractive South Shore suburbs were also opening closer to the just-completed Champlain Bridge. The population had reached 5,756 and there was now a need to pro - vide better municipal services. On Janu - ary 28, 1961, Montreal South merged in -

Top: Streetcar of the Montreal & Southern County Railways. 9 Bottom: The Montreal South Town Hall and Fire Station. Images courtesy of the Longueuil and MSCR archives AUTUMN 2012

SPEM SUCCESSUS ALIT 125 Years of “Traf” by Janet Chandler Allingham he QAHN meeting at the Smith lish school for girls in Quebec and the to wherein he lost a large sum of money. House a few years back was third oldest in Canada, originated and Fortunately, his uncle set him up again, the first time in a long while developed. this time as an auctioneer; so successful that that I had been on Mount was this venture that in four years he Royal, and it brought back childhood had amassed a fortune of nearly mTemories of skating on Beaver Lake, $50,000. This, and inheriting much of tobogganing down the adjacent hill, his uncle’s estate, made Donald a very skiing by the cross, and sipping hot wealthy man. chocolate at the Chalet. I realized that Donald and his wife, Jane Ross (a much of my education had taken place cousin), lived at Viewmount, located on within a few minutes of the meeting’s what is now Côte des Neiges Road. location: at Trafalgar School for Girls Their garden was famous for its fruits, (“Traf”) and McGill University. I vegetables, and flowers, thanks to the think the context of that meeting efforts of their capable gardener Patrick helped me to “see” the historical link McKenna, who was later able to set up between these two educational institu - a fruit and flower stand on the road tions, both still thriving where they nearby with the produce Donald and first opened their doors in the nine - Jane generously allowed him to use. teenth century. (Eventually it became “McKenna Côte At Traf, we were aware of a des Neiges Florist,” an enterprise that McGill connection: the names of grad - stood in exactly the same location until uates who went on to receive degrees 1993.) The Ross property extended at McGill were inscribed in gold on some distance west of Cote des Neiges plaques adorning the walls of the gym - Road after Donald acquired the Trafal - nasium. Students got the impression gar estate in 1860. This estate had once that McGill was the only university in been owned by John Ogilvy, who was the world! We took it for granted that an admirer of Lord Nelson and gave upon leaving Traf we would be quali - the farm its name. Ogilvy had erected fied to enter the institution of higher a tower there, and placed a cannon be - learning “next door.” At the QAHN side it which was ceremoniously fired meeting, someone mentioned the “Gold - he Founder of the Trafalgar In - on October 21st, Trafalgar Day. It was en Square Mile,” and I realized that the stitute (after 1934 the Trafalgar on this estate that Ross set his sights on significance of attending school in this School for Girls) was one of a establishing a school for young women. location had escaped me as a student. number of early Scottish immi - Why this childless, middle-aged It is, of course, not by chance that grants to Montreal who amassed consid - man should have wished to do this has the two institutions are located in such eTrable fortunes in business and were long been debated. Perhaps he was close proximity; their intertwined histo - leaders in the city’s churches, schools, thinking of his mother and sister, neither ries are part of the history of higher edu - and other organizations. They lived, for of whom had received much education. cation for women in Montreal. It was the most part, in what was referred to He must also have been aware of the here that a combination of wealth, later as Montreal’s “Golden Square growing belief in Canada and elsewhere beneficence and far-sightedness influ - Mile,” in the west-central part of down - that girls should be offered the same ed - enced the way young women were to be town. ucational opportunities as boys. Despite educated. This year the Trafalgar com - Donald Ross (1811-1877) was typi - the wealth within Montreal, no solid ed - munity gratefully and proudly celebrates cal of these young Scots. Son of a Ross- ucational opportunities were available 125 years of providing education to shire blacksmith whose early death left for young women. Some private schools young women in the same location, bor - his widow with four children to support, for girls existed, but they focussed on dering what is now referred to as the Donald was sent to Montreal to live with such ladylike pursuits as music and em - “Historic and Natural District of Mount his childless uncle and work for his dry broidery. Rich families employed gov - Royal.” goods business. At the age of 21, Don - ernesses to provide education in the This article summarizes the history ald’s apparently bright future was threat - home. Accordingly, Ross’s will, written of how the school, now the oldest Eng - ened by a robbery during a trip to Toron - in 1867, called for trustees to “erect, es - Trafalgar Institute’s original seven students (Nora Morris, Florence Botterell, Flo - rence Trenholme, Lizzie Shewan, Lena Labatt, Effie Baker, Ethel Dobell) and the 11 housekeeper, Miss Labatt. Image courtesy of Trafalgar School for Girls QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

tant, but non-denominational and non- year, enrollment stood at twelve. sectarian; (2) that it seek affiliation with There were three staff members, all McGill University as soon as possible; men: the school physician, and the Clas - and (3) that building should begin no lat - sics and Vocal Music teachers. In De - er than June 1st, 1885. These requests cember 1887, Trafalgar’s first principal, were compatible with the terms of Don - Miss Grace Fairley, arrived from Scot - ald Ross’s will, but then Smith made a land. Through the Association for the further stipulation that was not: that the Higher Education of Women (which lat - Institute be built within the boundaries er served as a model for the admission of the City of Montreal to be closer to of women to McGill), she had been one the population. After much debate, the of the first women to graduate from the trustees decided to accept Smith’s terms. University of Edinburgh. It is reported The Trafalgar property was sold, and the that she was a cheerful presence in the proceeds used to support the Institute. girls’ lives, despite her belief that “work Smith’s donation made it possible is everything; the worker but a means to for the trustees to purchase Chalderton the end.” Lodge, home of Dr. Alexander Mitchell, The curriculum, drawn up by the who generously agreed to a price that principal of McGill, Dr. Dawson, and was less than the house was worth. Rev. Barclay, was representative of its Built in 1848 at the top of Simpson time, but also progressive in that Gym - Street by a British military officer, nastics was included. The first students tablish and forever maintain” a school Colonel George Augustus Wetherall, were examined in Reading, Spelling and for girls on the Trafalgar property. His Chalderton Lodge was a “gabled fairy- Writing, Grammar and composition, stated aim was to “do the greatest tale cottage” surrounded by trees and a Arithmetic, Geography, Scripture, Latin, amount of good possible in educating garden, with a view of the St. Lawrence and Geometry. Students were given ac - the female sex,” at least those who be - River to the south. cess to the McGill University College li - longed “not to the lower ranks, but to families of the respectable and middle ranks.” At their first meeting in 1872, the trustees passed a resolution to establish the Trafalgar Institute; they adopted as its seal the Ross family coat of arms and its motto, Spem successus alit (success nourishes hope). The board of trustees included John William Dawson, princi - pal of McGill College, and several Protestant ministers. In its first years, many of the trustees came from the pres - tigious St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, located on Dorchester Street, whose members (Ross included) supported nu - merous educational and benevolent proj - ects for the good of the larger communi - ty. At first there were no funds, but in brary. There was an expectation that 1884 the St Paul’s Reverend James Bar - n September 28, 1887, the everyone would help with the “light do - clay, “the preacher who knew where the Trafalgar Institute opened its mestic work” of running the Institute. money was,” became chair of the board. doors for the first day of Fees were set at $280 per annum for Barclay approached Donald Smith (later school. Effie Baker was the boarding students and a $100 per year Lord Strathcona), one of the richest men only student that day, but one more ar - for a limited number of day students. in Canada, governor of the Hudson’s Orived from Toronto during the evening. Miss Fairley and the board appear Bay Company, president of the Bank of A third student arrived by Christmas. to have had a harmonious relationship, Montreal, one of the principal railroad Traf’s first class consisted of the afore - and the school thrived under her leader - developers in North America, and a said Effie, Nora Morris, Florence Tren - ship. By the second year, the boarding member of St Paul’s congregation. holme, Lizzie Shewan, Lena Labatt, school was filled to capacity with an en - Already a benefactor of McGill Ethel Dobell, Florence Botterell (one of rollment of twenty girls. Advertisements University, Smith offered the Trafalgar Trafalgar’s first McGill graduates – the of the time spoke of the school’s “com - trustees $25,000 with three conditions: other being Katherine Mitchell), and modious residence,” its 1½ acre garden, (1) that the Institute should be Protes - Edith Reford. By the end of the first and an “elevated situation above the

12 Top: Donald Ross. Bottom: Chalderton Lodge, c.1870. Images courtesy of Trafalgar School for Girls AUTUMN 2012

City providing both a view and good Both principals who followed Miss Fair - ry. She then attended Oxford on a health.” By 1890 enrollment stood at 56, ley stayed for short terms: Miss Hardy Moyse Travelling Scholarship. She re - and soon other classes were added. (1913-1915) and Miss Windsor (1915- turned to McGill as Warden of Royal Chalderton Lodge had been ade - 1917). It was only with the hiring of Victoria College and Assistant Confer - quate when numbers were small, but as Miss Janet Cumming that the school saw ence Instructor in the Department of the school grew the board was happy to continuity in leadership. Like Miss Fair - History. After teaching for seven years at provide for an expansion. This took ley, Miss Cumming had been born and Riverbend, a girls’ school in Winnipeg, place in 1890, making way for a gas-lit educated in Scotland, at a time when she resumed her studies at Bryn Mawr gymnasium, and a new East Wing con - women could not be fully admitted to College in Pennsylvania, earning a PhD taining dormitories as well as a large university. She had followed a curricu - in 1937. (This institution was, interest - dining room and music room. A second lum at the Elgin Academy and the Ferri - ingly, the first American university to expansion in 1902 provided more class - ers’ School in Aberdeen, eventually sit - grant PhD degrees to women.) While rooms, cloakrooms, and an assembly ting for university-level exams. Like teaching at St. Agatha’s School in New hall. The architect for both was Andrew many young women of her day, she York, Dr. Foster was recommended by Taylor, who had designed many build - sought employment in Canada, arriving the Warden of the Royal Victoria Col - ings for McGill University and homes lege to apply for the position of principal for Montreal’s wealthy families. at Trafalgar. In the summer of 1940, Dr. The 1902 expansion is the only part of Foster began to work with Miss Cum - the school still in current use, and con - ming to effect a smooth transition. tains three architectural features: a Dr. Foster was known as a brilliant steeply step-gabled roof, a double door teacher and administrator who was keen of carved oak (on the Dr. Penfield side) on ceremony. She donned a velvet- and the assembly hall, with its Gothic barred Oxford gown for Prayers each features. The assembly hall, the scene of morning, and added an academic hood daily prayers for so many years, now on the days when marks were read out. serves as the Library. Each morning the hymn player assisted By the early twentieth Century, the Dr. Foster with her gown, walked behind Trafalgar Institute had established for it - her carrying the Bible which was finally self a reputation based on academic placed on the lectern, pointed to the achievement, a progressive curriculum, hymn number for her to announce, and and competent staff. A sign of its suc - finally sat down at the piano. Even dur - cess was the ongoing need for more ing the late sixties, students were still space. Despite the difficulties posed by curtseying to Dr. Foster. World War I, Trafalgar’s board of gover - World War II brought difficulties in nors authorized another expansion. A staffing and procuring supplies, as well new wing was added on the north side, as a disrupted schedule. Trafalgar also on ground that is now Dr Penfield Av - became home to an unexpected arrival enue and Percy Walters Park; it consist - at Havergal College, in Toronto, in of 29 students from Britain, France, and ed of six more classrooms, cloak rooms, 1910. She applied for the principalship elsewhere in Europe as part of the War a washroom, a boarders’ study, a new art of Trafalgar, was turned down the first Evacuation Scheme. As an act of patriot - studio and an up-to-date science labora - time, but appointed in 1917. The board ism, the board reduced the boarding fees tory. must have thought highly of Miss Cum - charged to the daughters of serving mili - Traf rallied around the war effort. ming, for it gave her more authority than tary men and government employees. Students formed a Red Cross work her predecessors. She was given full re - The cost of living rose during wartime group, producing a total of 2,230 articles sponsibility in hiring staff, and they by twenty per cent, causing financial such as sweaters, socks and mufflers; were interested in her recommendations problems for the school. Dr. Foster rec - they also made pillow cases and blan - in the general running of the school. By ommended closing the boarding school kets for the Convalescent Military Hos - the time she retired in 1940, Miss Cum - and increasing enrollment at the day pital and purchased a $100 Victory ming could take credit for a job well school. This was not done, but the issue Bond. Former students paid their own done. had to be faced later on. way to do volunteer work at the front. Traf’s first native-born principal, Dr. Foster was responsible for a Many Traf traditions started during this Dr. Joan M.V. Foster, had impressive number of innovations. She initiated period, including the house and prefect credentials. Her father was Walter E. Arts and Science streams as well as out - system, a school magazine Echoes, a Foster, premier of New Brunswick door sports like skiing and skating, and Brownie Pack and Girl Guide Company, (1917-1923), whose Liberal government introduced shorts for gym class. Board - and the Trafalgar Old Girls Association had given women the vote in 1919. Joan ers’ Dances and the Trafalgar Day Open (TOGA). Inter-school athletic activities Foster had attended Havergal, and then House made the school more open to were born in this era. went on to earn BA and MA degrees at visitors. In 1957 a TV was purchased for The war placed stresses on staff. McGill in English and European Histo - the boarders. Prefects and the Head Girl

Detail, Pinsoneault’s Atlas of the Island and City of Montreal, 1907, 13 showing the Trafalgar Institute and the line of McGregor Street. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS were to be elected by the students, in - wearing high heels and an evening ture, though historical, was outdated. stead of being appointed by the staff. gown, with nothing more than a tiny Chalderton Lodge, built in 1848 and True to Donald Ross’ wish for a school purse. Trafalgar’s organist and choir di - crumbling, still served as the boarding that was not only for the wealthy, a rector, Frederick Blair, credited with school. Classrooms in the main part of scholarship (funded by the Trafalgar Old making Montreal a centre for organ mu - the school also needed to be upgraded. Girls’ Association) was offered for the sic, drowned on that voyage. Three Once again, a member of the local com - first time in 1941 in memory of Miss decades later, reminiscing about the munity came to the rescue: Miss Mar - Cumming. event during a Latin class, Miss Harvie jorie Caverhill, who was a Trafalgar In 1955, the City of Montreal re - digressed in order to advise the avail - School graduate from the Class of 1907 ability of practical footwear at all times. as well as neighbour, living in a grey - It fell to Miss Harvie to lead the stone mansion south-east of the school. school during the tumultuous changes Principal owner of Caverhill Learmont, that were taking place in Quebec. Some her family’s hardware firm, Miss Caver - of the more memorable events played hill was a well-known businesswoman, out close to the school: the kidnapping philanthropist and supporter of the Mon - of James Cross and the ensuing presence treal Museum of Fine Arts. When she of soldiers with bayonets drawn outside died in 1970, she bequeathed her proper - Metro stations and embassies once the ty to the school. War Measures Act had been evoked. The board considered how best to The transformation of Quebec education use this windfall, and in the end decided also brought insecurity; what would be that “form follows function.” The south - the long-term role of private schools? ern portion of the old school would be The Quebec Association of Independent torn down in order to build a modern Schools, of which Traf became a mem - gymnasium, classrooms, laboratories, ber, argued that private schools provided offices, and a cafeteria. Today, what re - “quality education: they offered diversi - mains of the original school is its gabled ty and enrichment; they met special roof and the historic oak door that now needs of individuals and particular com - faces Dr. Penfield Avenue. Miss Caver - quired that the north section of the munities, and they preserved values in a hill’s home was sold, and then demol - school be removed to allow for the ex - pluralistic society.” Under the provi - ished. Sadly, the carpet of blue scylla, tension of McGregor Street (now Dr. sions of the Private Education Act of long-admired by generations of Traf Penfield) across the property. 1968, Trafalgar was declared a school girls, also disappeared. The new Caver - The City offered the school $160,000 as “in the public interest” and was thus en - hill Wing was opened amid much fan - compensation, which was far less than titled to a grant of 80% of the average fare on May 8, 1974. While some Old the cost of the required renovations. A cost of educating a pupil. However, Girls missed the character of the old major fund-raising campaign was neces - since the school had not been able to buildings, the modern look inspired a sary. The new wing was opened by Gov - prepare its budget prior to receiving the sense of optimism. Separate labs for ernor General Vincent Massey on Febru - information, it faced the very real possi - physics, chemistry, and biology demon - ary 10, 1956. After the ceremony, he bility of bankruptcy because of the strated the importance of science. The promptly advised Dr. Foster to give the shortfall between operating expenses new gym made it possible to host games girls a holiday in the name of the Queen. and fees. In order to survive, Traf need - “at home.” Dr. Foster’s health began to decline, ed 100% enrollment. That year, Miss Harvie retired as and in 1964 she was obliged to resign. To top it off, the school’s infrastruc - principal. This Latin scholar’s parting She was replaced by Jean Harvie, a Traf grad and teacher of Classics there since 1939. Miss Harvie had been an excel - lent student, coming first in the McGill Matriculation examinations of 1931 and winning the Henry Chapman Gold Medal in Classics. She also won a Moyse Travelling Scholarship, which enabled her to study at Oxford for two years, after which she completed a post- graduate diploma in Education at the University of London. With the threat of war in Europe, she booked passage on the ill-fated SS Athenia, the first ship to be bombed in World War II. Miss Harvie survived by climbing into a lifeboat

14 Top: Dr Joan M.V. Foster, 1940. Bottom: Trafalgar School before the extension of McGregor Street. Montreal Star. 16 May 1953. Images courtesy of Trafalgar School for Girls AUTUMN 2012 words reflected on the school’s motto, would require that the third floor roof be dered if “most boys’ schools would be as which she confessed had always puzzled raised. open-minded.” her: Traf’s centennial celebrations were Spem successus alit – “Success the occasion to note that it was now the oday, 125 years after it first nourishes hope.” One would expect suc - oldest English-speaking girls’ school in opened its doors, girls still cess to be the result, whereas here it is Quebec. It aimed to remain a “flagship” climb the Simpson Street hill the beginning. This makes it very easy school, with state-of-the-art laboratories to attend Trafalgar School for to misinterpret… The motto does not and teachers who were enthusiastic Girls. They come from across the Island mean “Hope nourishes success.” That is about innovation. Pressure to amalga - Tof Montreal and even beyond, arriving sheer nonsense, for just hoping never mate with a local boys’ school was re - from nearby train, bus and metro sta - achieves anything. Success comes only jected. Trafalgar seemed to be on a firm tions. Instead of tunics, they are clad in as the result of effort. So, as I see it, the footing to face the future. It was even kilts and ties of the Hunting McRae tar - motto must mean that first one works confident enough to change some of the tan. They use cell phones to talk to one hard to achieve success, then one may another; by the fall of 2012 every Grade hope to succeed again or perhaps even to 7 student will be required to use an ipad. do better… Let success spur you on; Nowadays the school is surrounded by you can, because you think you can. apartment buildings, and the view of the Mrs. Jeanette Doupe, who succeed - St. Lawrence, even from the top storey, ed Miss Harvie as principal in 1975, in - is blocked by the Montreal skyline. The troduced advanced courses in physics garden, however, is still an oasis of calm and chemistry, and managed to work in the midst of the concrete: a little creatively around the curriculum im - postage stamp of green space, with the posed by the Parti Québecois govern - needed addition of a paved parking lot, ment. In 1981 the first three computers but still a garden. The high fence keeps arrived at the school, and the board the physical world out, while the Inter - funded even more including printers and net connects Traf to the world. software. Mrs. Doupe also raised the Mr. Dowd proudly and fondly refers general admission and academic stan - to Traf as “a little jewel.” The current dards. Some have suggested that she enrollment stands at 200. There is a feel - “saved the school” at this juncture in its long-standing traditions: the Christmas ing of order, security and friendliness history. One of the arguments she Concert became the Trafalgar School when one enters the building. The stu - mounted, prevalent during the era, was Family Celebration, and in place of daily dents, during a recent Career Day, were that girls do better in math and science Prayers there were faith-related assem - attentive, polite, and respectful. At the when they are learning in an all-girl en - blies. request of parents, they study subjects in vironment. This seemed to inspire the When Miss Armbruster retired in French at both junior and senior levels. board even more to safeguard the educa - 1994, there was to be yet another signif - The staff organize extra-curricular activ - tion of girls. Between 1975 and 1985, icant event: the arrival of the school’s ities including community outreach. the students also became involved in first male principal. Mr. Geoffrey Dowd Donald Ross would approve. He would community outreach and participated in had spent all of his previous teaching ex - also be happy that girls from Traf do more opportunities within the city. Some perience at Selwyn House, a school for well in high school leaving exams, and travelled to Ottawa, Stratford, and Eng - boys in Westmount. Born and raised in in Canada-wide Debating, Mathematics, land. All of the above strategies con - Quebec, he had received his post-sec - and Science contests. Graduates of the tributed to a sound reputation for the ondary education at McGill, Queen’s school are now spread out all over the school, and in the mid-1980s there was a and Concordia. As the father of two world, engaged in a multitude of profes - waiting list of 275. However, with high daughters, he “thought it would be inter - sions and activities unheard of in his rates of inflation and the need to keep esting to work with young women, day. His dream, taken up by others, is salaries competitive with those of public whose ambitions and aptitudes are simi - being achieved. school teachers, finances were tight. lar, but whose way of being is not.” Mrs. Doupe resigned in 1985, hav - The appointment aroused criticism – Janet Chandler Allingham graduated ing been appointed principal of Havergal some felt it was counter to what the from Trafalgar School for Girls in 1968 College in Toronto. She was succeeded school stood for – but the board stood by and from the McGill School of Nursing first by Mrs. Shirley Packer (to 1987) its decision that Mr. Dowd was the best in 1974. She currently lives in Vale and then by Miss Barbara Armbruster candidate. For his part, the new principal Perkins, Quebec. (to 1994), who was herself an Old Girl said that he viewed his appointment (Class of 1957) and Latin scholar like “rather as a sign that Trafalgar recog - The main source of information for this Miss Harvie. The 1987 Trafalgar centen - nizes and has signalled that now – and in article was Traf: A History of Trafalgar nial was celebrated, in part, by a build - the future – women and men alike School for Girls by Margaret Gillett, ing campaign so that yet another wing should be judged on merit in any hiring published in 2000. could be added. This time, the extension process in any institution.” He won -

Principal Jean Harvie. Image courtesy of Trafalgar School for Girls 15 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

QAHN’s first-ever Heritage Photo Contest has proven to be a big success! Seventy- eight contest entries were received from students at six schools around the province. QAHN The following schools participated in QAHN’s 2012 Heritage Photo Contest: John Grant High School, Montreal Paul VI High School, Montreal PHOTO Three Rivers Academy, Trois-Rivières Laurier Senior High School, Laval Maniwaki Woodland School, Maniwaki CONTEST Beaconsfield High School, Beaconsfield

Our judging committee was very impressed with the quality of the photos we re - 2012 ceived, and are pleased to report that the following students have been chosen as the winners of QAHN’s 2012 Heritage Photo Contest:

1st Prize ($150 with Certificate)

Lloyd’s Tractor by Esther Grebe, Secondary 3, Maniwaki Woodland High School, Maniwaki Category: Cultural heritage

This tractor is Lloyd’s companion. It’s weathered many seasons but is still going strong. Like Lloyd himself it has seen hard times but is steady and dependable. His tractor allows Lloyd to live responsibly off the land. He does enough logging to sustain himself, but he’s left the land relatively untouched. He doesn’t enjoy cities or traveling, but prefers to have his feet rooted in good soil. Lloyd lives on the farm he grew up on but life was never easy. He’s endured many hardships, even losing a finger to a saw. Nature is his passion. He enjoys putting out apples and carrots for deer, not to hunt them, but to watch and observe. He plays recordings of nature sounds in his basement and can recognize each animal’s song. Lloyd’s dream is to pass on his love of nature to the next generation. This tractor will help fulfill his dream.

16 AUTUMN 2012

2nd Prize ($100 with Certificate)

Hall of Fame by Alaethia Poettcker, Secondary 3, Beaconsfield High School, Beaconsfield Category: Cultural heritage

Canadian heritage is something we cherish and build off every time we spend time with loved ones doing something we love. Heritage is tradition with family and the ones that are close to you. Heritage helps us persevere and motivates us to do our best. The photograph titled “Hall of Fame” represents our cultural heritage. If you live in Canada you are probably a fan of hockey. Families sit around the TV cheering on their favorite teams, hoping their team wins the Stanley Cup. Because we live in Montreal, my family’s team is naturally the Canadi - ens. The bleu, blanc et rouge have been here for over 100 years making them a very special and im - portant part of our culture. This image represents the spirit of our he - roes which keeps this sport we love so much alive. They have inspired so many people to keep reaching their goals and never give up, and that you can do something you love for a job. 3rd Prize - tie ($50 with Certificate)

Abuelas on the Staircase by Kristina Martinez, Secondary 5, Laurier Senior High School, Laval Category: Cultural heritage

I took this photograph in summer 2010 on my trip to Havana. These two old ladies were sitting on the base of a staircase chatting. I got to speak to them for a little while and they were a true delight. I think they really showed a form of cultural heritage, as they represent a classic scene in these Cuban cities. These grandmothers sitting on the dusty steps represent the origin of families, their wrinkle lines a testi - mony of their age and experience. I named this photo “Abuelas on the staircase,” because abuela is the Spanish word for grandmother.

3rd Prize - tie ($50 with Certificate)

Graveyard Tree by Maddison Rea, Secondary 3, John Grant High School, Montreal Category: built heritage / family heritage

17 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

QAHN H ERITAGE ESSAY CONTEST WINNERS , 2012

Sixty-eight students from five elementary schools around Quebec participated in QAHN’s 2012 Heritage Essay Contest. Students from the following schools submitted essays:

Terry Fox School, Saint-Hubert Royal Vale School, Montreal Heroes’ Memorial School, Cowansville Sainte-Agathe Academy Royal Charles School, Saint-Hubert

Our judging committee was pleased with the quality of work submitted this year, and have awarded the follow - ing prizes: most people didn’t have cars to travel with or trucks to carry materials. Railways met this need. Today most of 1st Prize ($150 with Certificate): the railways and the stations have been shut down be - Austin Roy, “The Eastern Townships Railroads,” cause they are not needed. Grade 5, Heroes’ Memorial School, Cowansville. In 1836 the first railway in the Eastern Townships was 2nd Prize ($100 with Certificate): built called the Chaplain and St Johns where it connected to Dylan Desormeaux, “George Knight Nesbitt,” the water route to New York via Lake Champlain. Three years Grade 5, Heroes’ Memorial School, Cowans - later other lines were built to Ontario via Kingston. More rail - ville. ways were needed to help develop the Township area. 3rd Prize ($50 with Certificate): By 1900 the three railways that were mostly used were Cassie Lapierre, “The Orchards of Frelighsburg,” The Grand Trunk Railway (which became Canadian Nation - Grade 5, Heroes’ Memorial School, Cowansville. al), Quebec Central, and Canadian Pacific. Towns near railway stations grew faster. Often the railway lines were shut down because of flood - The Eastern Townships Railroads ing and work needed to be done on the lines. All the different railway lines could not stay in business. by Austin Roy In the twentieth century, lots of lines and stations closed. The Canadian Pacific railway bought the Southeastern Rail - n the nineteenth century, railways were needed in way. The service to Highwater stopped in the mid-1960s. They the Eastern Townships to get to raw materials, for had changed the name of Mansonville Station to Highwater in fast travel, the growth of businesses, and to fill in 1909 because of the yearly flooding on the Missisquoi River. Ithe desire to build more railway lines. In the past

18 Nesbit Grist Mill Cowansville town paintings. Cowansville Station, 1908. AUTUMN 2012

The Canadian Pacific Railway also purchased the line through He was married to Mary Jane Dunn and they had three Foster, namely the Foster station. In the 1970s the Foster sta - children. He died in Cowansville in 1909. tion was closed and the Lac Brome Tourist Bureau used the Because of George Nesbitt, Cowansville got its first elec - building. In Cowansville the railway station was torn down tric power and the town has a beautiful building that everyone and today there is a restaurant called La Station on that site. can still look at and admire.

George Knight Nesbitt The Orchards of Frelighsburg by Dylan Desormeau by Cassie Lapierre

eorge was born in Napierville, in the n the month of May, the apples blossom. In fall, province of Quebec, on September 29, the apples are ripe and ready to be picked. Apple 1836. His father was of Irish descent, and growing has a main industry for Frelighsburg he was a farmer and a mill owner. The early since 1930, but apples have been grown in the days of George’s life was spent on the family farm and area for a long time. Gin his father’s mill. IFrelighsburg is a good place to grow apples because of As a young man George went to the United States for a the gentle hills, the soils, and the pattern of the winds will blow while before returning to Canada in 1869, where he settled in in the area. Farmers began to change their farms to apple or - Cowansville. In 1870, he purchased the four mill which had chards. been built in 1839 by Andrew Cowan, the brother of Peter Adelard Godbout, who was once the premier of Quebec, Cowan and William Carter, Andrew’s brother-in-law. Peter had an orchard in the Frelighsburg area. Cowan is famous for giving his name to the town of Cowans - The first crop that was to be sold was picked in 1939. ville. Eight thousand bushels were sold. The year before the crop George Nesbitt became a successful businessman and he had been destroyed by a hurricane. was also the owner of flour mills in Frelighsburg and Man - A Co-Operative of Apple Growers was formed in 1949 sonville. in this region and Rouville. In Farnham they built a packing In 1881 George built a huge family house. It is still stand - and storage plant. It could hold 200 000 bushels. That’s a lot of ing. There were several houses built in the Empire Style apples! around that time, but his is the only house still here. Right now The favourite apple for a long time was the McIntosh. the house is medical clinic right beside our school. That is my favourite kind of apple too. Apple growers try out In 1891, with the help of his son Albert, he installed at his many different kinds of apples. Some use insecticides and oth - mill, a generator with enough power for 300 lights, creating ers are trying to be organic. the first electric lighting in Cowansville. In 1903, he was the Apples can be used to eat as is, or to make apple sauce, first owner of an automobile in Cowansville. apple juice, apple jelly, or apple cider. Apples are important to He was the second Mayor of Cowansville in 1877 and this area. Apples and apple products are sold here, in Montreal, 1878. across Canada and the World!

19 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

MONTREAL ’S MUSIC MAN Lewis V. Elvin and the Junior Symphony Orchestra by Carol Martin

Author’s note: The Quebec Heritage interest in instrumental music for younger stu - in Canada, within a few years Lewis Elvin News of March-April 2010, carried a re - dents as well as those in its high schools. By was living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and quest from a New Zealand music biogra - 1945 he had formed an inter-schools orchestra working at clerical and accounting jobs in that pher researching Harry Norris for infor - for students; in 1947 it expanded to become city. A few traces of his music activity during mation about a possible connection of the Montreal Junior Symphony. this time appeared in newspapers reporting on Norris with the Montreal Junior Sym - Lewis Vernon Elvin was born in 1905 in Kiwanis Music Festivals. In 1933, the Saska - phony Orchestra and Lewis V. Elvin. I Barnsley, Yorkshire, a coal mining and indus - toon Star-Phoenix of May 30 mentioned his responded to that request by reviewing trial town with a population of about 40,000. participation in a trio ensemble group. The my personal files about the MJSO, and With the exception of three childhood years in members of this group were not ideally researching the material held in the Mu - South Africa, he grew up and received his matched, according to the reviewer, but re - sic Archives of Library and Archives ceived a mark of 81, and “the violinist [Lewis Canada. The resulting research led to Elvin] had more range, colour and quality this article. than the cellist.” Five years later, he was con - ducting an orchestra competing in the 1938 n the 1940s, Lewis V. Elvin found - Saskatchewan Kiwanis Music Festival. The ed one of the earliest youth orches - Regina Leader-Post of April 28, 1938, had a tras in Canada, the Montreal Junior glowing review of the festival’s closing ses - Symphony. Like the charismatic sion, as follows: “The closing session, at protagonist of the Broadway musical which all three adjudicators were present, TIhe Music Man, Elvin had a vision of opened in fine style with two exceedingly fine students playing instruments and making performances by the Kiwanis orchestra (aug - music together. He also had the charm, mented) conducted by Lewis Elvin. So well organizing skills and musicianship to were they received that Maurice Jacobson create and lead such an orchestra, and he suggested that both selections be repeated.” was its conductor until his retirement in Elvin’s string orchestra entry received 88 1971. points, while his entry in full orchestra re - Elvin arrived in Canada from England in ceived 90. 1928, just before the outset of the Great De - By 1941, Lewis Elvin was in the Mon - pression. This energetic young man of 22 treal area, involved with the newly-formed found work that allowed him to follow his schooling and early musical training in Barns - Verdun Civic Symphony Orchestra, of which musical avocation and receive advanced mu - ley and Manchester. While Barnsley and the he was conductor. The Montreal Gazette an - sical training, leading to (and continuing while surrounding villages were noted for their tra - nounced and described its initial concert, in he held) a teaching position with Montreal’s dition of brass bands, originally created as so - April of that year, and another in July. Al - Protestant school board. And in Montreal he cial clubs for its mining communities, there though Elvin had been following his musical found himself among several other English, or were clearly wider music options, as Lewis avocation while living in Saskatoon, Montreal English-trained, musicians who were making Elvin learned the violin and developed an in - offered opportunities for amateur and profes - their mark on its music scene. He credits one terest in classical music. But the declining in - sional music as well as advanced musical of them, Irvin Cooper, for his move to a full- dustrial towns of Yorkshire offered limited training in an environment with several other time career in school music. According to bi - employment opportunities, and in the summer English, or English-trained, musicians who ographical notes in a 1954 concert pro - of 1928 Lewis left a job in a local paper mill were making their mark on its music scene. gramme (MJSO at York, England: Rialto Cin - and set out with his younger brother Jack for With characteristic energy, Elvin was soon in - ema, July 19, 1954), Elvin “immediately be - Canada. With $49 between them, the brother - volved in work and after-hours study, and he came active in amateur musical organiza - s’ announced intention was to take up farming was finally able to find paid employment in tions” after arriving in Canada, “eventually in the Canadian west, sponsored by a Manito - the music field. giving up an accounting position, upon the ad - ba-based organization, the British Settlement One of his mentors was Irvin Cooper, a vice of Dr. Irvin Cooper, to enter the Montreal Society of Canada. Lewis Elvin and his fellow Englishman born in Nelson, Lan - [Protestant] schools as a Music Specialist.” brother Jack arrived August 5, 1928 in Que - cashire, who had emigrated at about the same Elvin was hired as a school music teacher in bec City aboard the Athenia . (LAC Immigra - time as Elvin, and by 1930 was a music Montreal in the early 1940s. His energy and tion records, RG75, Series C-1-a, Reel T- teacher with the Montreal Protestant school inspirational teaching style coincided with, 14746, 1928, Vol. 17, p. 219.) board, becoming its Supervisor of Music in and enhanced, the school board’s expanding Whether or not the brothers ever farmed 1938–39. Cooper also taught at McGill, and

20 Lewis V Elvin. Image courtesy of Carol Martin AUTUMN 2012

Elvin studied orchestration and arranging un - that also featured the Baron Byng High a ground-breaking experience for participants der his tutelage. Douglas Clarke, from Read - School Choir, directed by Irvin Cooper. Elvin and the orchestra itself, described as “the first ing, Berkshire, had been involved in the Win - was then teaching instrumental music at Ban - Canadian symphony orchestra to make a Eu - nipeg orchestral scene before relocating to croft, Gilson, Iona, Rosedale and Willingdon ropean tour.” (Library and Archives Canada, Montreal in 1929; Elvin mentions that he elementary schools, according to programme MUS 23: Montreal Junior Symphony Orches - studied counterpoint and composition with notes. He was also studying in after-school tra fonds, 1947–1973.) Subsequent concert Clarke. And there is also Harry Norris, a New hours at McGill, from which he received a tours followed: Scandinavia in 1963, and Zealander who furthered his music studies in Bachelor of Music degree in 1946. Switzerland in 1970. There were also regular England, where he was music director during In 1947, the school board reported on the annual concerts in Montreal and frequent per - the 1920s for the D’Oyly Carte music compa - “music event of the year,” the International formances for local organizations in the city, ny, and took up residence in Montreal in 1929. Festival of School Music held in Montreal in providing opportunities that encouraged the Although Norris’s sphere in Montreal was pri - April. (Protestant School Board of Greater group to expand its repertoire and hone its marily light opera, he also taught violin, and Montreal Annual Report for 1945–47, p. 26, performance skills. he and Elvin were clearly acquainted and in 27.) The Montreal schools, Catholic and The early benchmarks of Elvin’s Mon - contact with each other. From Montreal, Elvin Protestant, French and English, took part, treal Junior Symphony Orchestra, including also furthered his musical education during along with school groups from Ontario, New the Ottawa and Toronto festivals and the tour summer vacations in Boston and studied con - York and the New England states. Five huge of England, were also part of my own experi - ducting with Leon Barzin of the National concerts were held in the Forum and publicly ence. In my mind’s eye, I see us on the flood - Symphony Orchestra of New York. attended, with additional concerts in venues lit stage at Ottawa’s Glebe Collegiate Audito - The 1930s and 1940s were a good time such as McGill’s Sir Arthur Currie gymnasi - rium. I’m 13 years old, in the back rows of the for music, both choral and instrumental, in um. Lewis V. Elvin is listed on its programme, violin section, playing third violin. Lewis V. Montreal’s Protestant schools. For some time directing the Montreal schools orchestra, Elvin raises his baton, and we launch into Ver - the McGill University Conservatorium of made up of 75 players (including me), at the di’s “Grand March” from the opera Aida . The Music had been allowed classroom space in festival. In 1948, Elvin received his Licentiate strings have the opening bars, and then the several schools for after-hours teaching of in - of the Royal Academy of Music (LRSM). wonderful trumpets sound. Around me, the strumental music (available to students in the The Montreal Junior Symphony Orches - different instruments join in, and the auditori - board’s schools and to others in the neigh - tra (MJSO) expanded the group of school- um is filled with music. I am part of this en - bourhood), but in the mid-1930s, music be - trained instrumental musicians to a full or - compassing “surround sound,” understanding came a High School Leaving Examination chestra complement. Elvin also saw the po - music in terms of the interwoven actions of subject. By 1938, the Board was offering its tential within it to create and develop sub - each section. The time is April 1948, and the own orchestral classes, 11 different classes in groups such as string and wind ensembles and event my second music festival experience. four high schools; a few years later it had be - quartets, and in the 1950s extended its admis - The Festival adjudicator, Dr. Gordon Slater of gun instrumental music instruction at the ele - sion to include some young musicians up to Lincoln, England, praises the orchestra for mentary school level. In October 1944, when the age of 20 who were no longer in the ele - “fine orchestral discipline . . . unanimity of Lewis Vernon Elvin married Grace Parkin, he mentary or high schools. In 1948, he took the bowing . . . really professional standard in in - was a teacher of music for the Montreal Montreal Inter-Schools-Orchestra/MJSO to dividual players.” On our return from Ottawa, Protestant school board (and she was also a the Ottawa Music Festival. It was a tour de Montreal’s mayor, Camillien Houde, received board employee, a clerk in Herbert Symonds force for the Montrealers, Elvin, and the the MJSO a t Windsor Station, and fol - School). In that autumn I was a student at school board, as it received first class standing lowed this with a civic reception. Willingdon School and a beginning violinist in all of its entries. He followed this success Elvin had a flair for showmanship in its string orchestra under the baton of Mr. two years later by entering the MJSO in along with his musical ability and teach - Elvin. Toronto’s Kiwanis Music Festival, with equal - ing skills. Orchestra members wore uni - In 1945, Elvin conducted his newly- ly rewarding results. During the summer of forms. Learning and practising instru - formed Inter-Schools Junior and Senior or - 1954, the orchestra toured England and ments led quickly to performances, and chestras in a concert at Montreal High School played eleven concerts in various cities there, then to festivals and competitions. In conjunction with these events, young musicians met other young musicians and their families, as well as local digni - taries; they also visited interesting sites. While he did not expressly “sell” music as an alternative to less desirable extra- curricular pursuits – the “music man” of the Broadway show had convinced par - ents that a school band would keep their sons out of pool halls – Lewis Elvin knew how to make music fun for stu - dents. He organized the MJSO as a cor - poration, with himself as both a Director and its first conductor. In 1954, as it

MJSO at BBC studio, London, England. Image courtesy of Carol Martin 21 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS campaigned to raise funds for a tour of “God Save the Queen,” since Mr. Elvin Vevey and Berne, and for the Festival England, honorary patrons included the had forgotten to bring music for it. Dur - closing concert five members, including governor-general of Canada (the Right ing the tour, two of the three buses hired the concertmaster, were selected to play Hon. Vincent Massey), the Quebec lieu - to transport the orchestra had break - as part of an international orchestra con - tenant-governor (Hon. Gaspard Fau - downs, and one had a fire in the luggage ducted by Walter Susskind. That tour teux), the Mayor of Montreal (Camillien section. There were probably other lo - was also Elvin’s final one with the Mon - Houde), Wilfred Pelletier, Director of gistical nightmares for the organizing treal Junior Symphony, and the end of the Quebec Conservatory of Music and committee, but our concerts were on his tenure as its conductor, although he Donald Gordon, President of the CNR. time and continued to reap praises. remained a director until 1973. In 1971, Remarkably, the orchestra players did Rereading the diary I kept, I’m struck by Eugene Husaruk – one of its early mem - not pay membership fees, as the organi - its happy tone, filled with impressions of bers (1948–54, including the tour of zation managed to cover expenses England) – returned as the orches - for sheet music, rental of rehearsal tra’s new conductor, to be suc - halls, concerts, and general admin - ceeded by Joseph Milo in 1977. istration through proceeds of con - At the time of his retirement cert ticket sales and contributions from the orchestra, Elvin was also from patrons. This financial deci - leaving his position as a teacher sion, and the opportunity for most with the Montreal Protestant of the participants to use instru - schools; 1970 was the last year ments provided by the Montreal Lewis and Grace Elvin are listed Protestant school board, kept ac - as Montreal residents. Their re - cess open to the widest possible maining years were spent in Eng - number of eligible students. From land, where he died in its inception until 1954 (the years Bournemouth, (Dorset) on April 5, I played with the orchestra), it re - 1985. hearsed in various Protestant Some of the young musicians schools: Alexandra (on Sanguinet trained by Lewis Elvin went on to Street), Montreal High School study music at McGill and else - (University Avenue), and Ab - where, and themselves became erdeen (St-Denis Street). Orches - teachers or music performers. For tra tours, including the first ones many others, like me, the Montre - to Ottawa, and Toronto, saved costs by the people and the music scene in the al Junior Symphony experience enriched billeting us with host families in the places we visited, the amount of sight - our musical abilities and appreciation. cities we visited, in itself a cultural ex - seeing we managed, and the comments Lewis Elvin was the school music man perience. about our performances and audience re - who made music exciting. The Junior Symphony’s tour of action. The tour included a stop at England took place in 1954, after a Barnsley, Elvin’s home town, on July Sources: year’s delay to raise sufficient funds. Its 15, where he and the orchestra were “of - 58 student musicians, with Mr. Elvin, ficially received” en route to Sheffield Library and Archives Canada, MUS: several orchestra committee members for an afternoon rehearsal and our Montreal Junior Symphony Orchestra and a nurse, left Quebec City for Eng - evening performance there. As the inten - fonds (1947–1973). land on June 30, 1954, aboard the At - sive schedule honed the orchestra’s per - lantic , a Home Lines ship. The month- formance throughout the tour, the English Montreal School Board: Min - long tour involved 11 concerts in cities group’s confidence and precision in - utes of Proceedings of the Montreal that included Tunbridge Wells, Brighton, creased. For Lewis V. Elvin, the tour Protestant Central School Board, Books York, Darlington, Sheffield, Bristol and was also a homecoming that showed his III–V (August 9, 1934–November 25, Bournemouth. In London the orchestra own progress and development in Cana - 1952). performed twice at St. James’ Palace and da. in the BBC television studios. It was a The orchestra’s 1963 Scandinavian Protestant Board of School Commis - whirlwind schedule that often ran late, tour probably followed a similar format sioners of the City of Montreal and and included regular pre-concert re - to its tour of England. Press clippings Protestant School Board of Greater hearsals, along with attendance at other list concerts given in Copenhagen, Montreal Annual Reports 1930–31 to musical and cultural events. British au - Aarhus, Thisted, Stockholm, Oslo, Lille - 1958–59. diences and press were enthusiastic, and strom, Bergen and Stavanger, with offi - the reviews of the orchestra’s perform - cial receptions in various cities and en - Personal memorabilia (1945–1956): ances praised its professionalism and its thusiastic audiences and press. The 1970 Newspaper reviews and articles, concert conductor. Behind the scenes, my diary summer trip to the International Festival and festival programs, a diary, photo - notes that as we crossed the Atlantic, I of Youth Orchestras in Switzerland had graphs. helped transcribe second violin parts for the MJSO giving pre-festival concerts in

22 MJSO members en route to England. Image courtesy of Carol Martin AUTUMN 2012

JUST WHEN THINGS COULDN ’T GET MUCH WORSE The Trials of George Hamilton by Joseph Graham

This is another excerpt from a forthcom - Canada. Worse yet, Pattee argued that life in New Hampshire, steeped in the ing book on the history of the Ottawa the people should have power through democratic notion that the people elect - Valley, and follows the events described their elected officials, a radical, republi - ed a government. in “Stealing Deals,” QHN, Summer can notion. The role of the Assembly The two sets of immigrants, Loyal - 2012. was only advisory, and that was how it ist and economic, had little reason to get should be. along. Even the atmosphere during the fter the 1820 election results It is hard to imagine today, but there 1820 election was still filled with figura - in Prescott and Russell Coun - were two very different types of immi - tive smoke from the War of 1812, during ties revealed William Hamil - grants from the Thirteen Colonies. Many which immigrants like Pattee and ton to be the winner, his British Loyalists, like the Fortunes, had Thomas Mears had to declare their loy - brother George wasted no alty to the King – and were Atime in trying to sabotage the not believed. reputations of those officials Fortune had risen to the who had supported the oppo - rank of colonel fighting the nent, David Pattee. He knew Americans during the War of that Pattee would contest the 1812. Many influences pre - results and he had an urgent disposed him to see Pattee as need to publicly discredit as someone who had to be many of Pattee’s allies as he stopped in order to protect could. If he succeeded, then Upper Canada. The executive Pattee’s petition to contest government, taking its orders would likely be rejected. from Great Britain, was the During the last days of proper way to govern – not the election, he had promot - the Assembly, taking its or - ed a story that Pattee had ders from the people. The been accused of forgery in British Colonial Office had New Hampshire 17 years inherited the assembly struc - earlier. As one of the largest ture from the Virginia Com - employers in the area, he al - pany that created the concept so put a lot of pressure on simply to control a rowdy voters to come out for his bunch of employees and set - brother William. If you were an employ - first gone to the rebelling colonies in the tlers. It was never intended to be the ee of the Hamilton Brothers and you had decade leading up to the war. Joseph’s government. the right to vote, they would be watch - family arrived in South Carolina in 1766 Fortune destroyed and miscounted ing how you voted. There was no secret and he was born there in 1773. Most of enough ballots to prove William Hamil - ballot as we have today. Your vote was these Loyalists moved to the remaining ton the winner, and George Hamilton public and visible. British colonies during the American sent a messenger to Goffston, New Cornwallis Joseph Fortune was the War of Independence, rejecting their Hampshire, to get the documentary returning officer. Son of an Irish Loyal - new American home because it was proof that Pattee had been accused of ist from South Carolina for whom Pointe fighting with the mother country, a place forgery. Fortune is named, he fought in the War that was still very much a part of their It is a credit to Attorney General of 1812. He served in the militia with lives. A second wave, economic mi - John Beverley Robinson that Pattee re - George Hamilton and was a part of the grants, arrived well after the war was ceived a balanced hearing. Robinson elite associated with the Family Com - over. Their formative years had been was among the staunchest conservatives pact. Like many members of this group, spent in the newly created United States. in the Family Compact and he had little he must have felt very conflicted at the David Pattee was a classic example. On - use for the likes of Pattee and others idea that an American immigrant could ly five years younger than Joseph For - whom he described as forming the be elected to the Assembly of Upper tune, he spent the first 25 years of his “scum” and “the rascals of the

Hamilton saw mills and timber slides, c.1859. 23 Photo: McCord Museum, N-0000.193.318.1-2 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

PROVINCE-WIDE EXPOSURE AT A GREAT PRICE!! SPECIAL ADVERTISING RATES 2011-2012 Purchase two or more ads of the same size, and receive 40% off each ad!

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FULL-PAGE 10 inches (25.5 cm) high 7.5 inches (19 cm) wide $400.00 (Special: $240.00) Back page, full colour $500.00 (Special: $300.00) province.” Ultimately fair-minded, he ed his claims about Pattee and stated that HALF-PAGE dismissed much of the slander generated Hamilton’s argument did not demonstrate 5 inches (12.5 cm) high by the Hamiltons, leaving only the charge “such Proof of Guilt of the Charge of for - of “forgery and uttering counterfeit ban - gery as to weigh against or outweigh 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) wide knotes.” Pattee, a modest and sincere eighteen years of irreproachable Conduct $235.00 (Special: $141.00) man, wrote in his own defence that a in this Province as certified by so many felon who was bargaining his own terms respectable Inhabitants.” The seat was THIRD-PAGE with the State of New Hampshire had awarded to Pattee, Joseph Fortune (COLUMN ONLY) falsely accused him. Pattee also added slipped discretely into Argenteuil Town - 10 inches (25.5 cm) high that he was not guaranteed any kind of ship and George Hamilton’s bad luck was 2.25 inches (5.75 cm) wide immunity to return to clear his name. only just beginning. Even so, he showed that he had made It was a setback for the Hamiltons, $200.00 (Special: $120.00) good on the debts he had incurred in New but the spring had brought with it a large Hampshire and he promised to resign im - supply of logs for their 40 saws and 80 QUARTER-PAGE mediately if the Assembly found fault in employees. They took comfort in what 5 inches (12.5 cm) high what he had done. He further asked, they had achieved – some people claimed 3.25 inches (8.5 cm) wide though, that the Assembly not “gratify the theirs was the largest operation of its kind $125.00 (Special: $75.00) Spirit of Revenge and persecution” that in the world. George Hamilton’s ambi - he perceived as driving his opponents in tion, to be the effective squire of the BUSINESS CARD their slander of him and his supporters. Hawkesbury region, was coming to 2.5 inches (6.5 cm) high For their part, the Hamiltons needed fruition with an ever-increasing number all the influence they could muster to of local families dependent upon his op - 3.5 inches (9 cm) wide keep their business afloat. They had built erations. The next election was only three $75.00 (Special: $45.00) a much larger mill than their predecessors years away, and his star was rising. He had left them and they were seriously ex - would have to tread carefully, maybe FREQUENCY, DEADLINES AND tended on all fronts. Their illegal cutting completely abandon the illegal cutting his SPECIFICATIONS operation on Crown Land was an offence men were doing on Crown land, but their 4 issues annually that, should he stand accused, would have supply store had worked well by giving Deadlines: Winter (mid-December 2011); Spring (mid-March 2012); Summer (mid-June to be heard in the very court where smaller loggers merchandise in exchange 2012); Fall (mid-September 2012) George Hamilton sat as a judge. Simulta - for their logs. His brother John ran their Resolution required: Minimum 300 DPI neously, they were painfully aware that huge installation near Quebec City, in black and white their brother Robert, charged with finding dubbed New Liverpool Cove. It com - By email at [email protected] the investments to keep them afloat, had prised over 2,000 feet of beaches, 450 signed guarantees against their property acres of land and three houses, as well as with Gillespie, Moffatt and Company, a work sheds, yards and wharves. Robert, firm with branches in both London and another brother, presided over the firm Montreal. Robert Hamilton, Brothers and Company The Assembly’s decision is recorded in Liverpool, and they had become the as a rebuke of George Hamilton. It reject - recognized St. Lawrence River represen -

24 Long Sault Rapids, Ottawa River, Hawkesbury, c.1920. Photo: Hawkesbury Public Library AUTUMN 2012 tative for underwriters in London, Ab - tell him that his other brother [William] down canoe, but no one else. Suzannah erdeen, Dundee and Liverpool. None of was dead.” and the children were gone. them had yet reached forty. They antici - Showing a fortitude that seems the George swam towards the canoe pated a great future. stuff of legends, George explained to his and they slowly hauled it from the water. In the meantime, the summer and wife Suzannah that they should prepare Underneath they discovered Suzannah, autumn proved to be difficult as they to move to Montreal with their three unconscious, clinging to a strut, but learned that the British timber market young children while he and his brother there was no sign of the children. was oversupplied. Robert made new John negotiated terms with their credi - The good reverend Abbott told arrangements, mortgaging all their prop - tors. They would soon return, he reas - more: “‘All things shall work together erties to Gillespie, Moffatt and Compa - sured them, but even before they could for good for them that love God.’ And so ny whose principal partners were in finish packing up, their house caught they did in this instance; for my friend Montreal and London. They just had to fire. They had time only to save them - Hamilton was afterwards blessed with as sell their wood into a soft market, take selves and to watch. It was a total loss. fine a family of children as I ever their losses, and ride out the downturn. On the day of their departure, the saw…” One year could change everything. three children, living in a bubble of reas - The following spring, 1822, also surances and comfort, laughing and Joseph Graham [email protected] is brought a large new supply of logs and playing, were seated with their parents writing a book on the history of the Ot - the millpond was again full, ready to in a large transport canoe guided stern tawa Valley. start the new season. There was even ev - and bow by capable French Canadian idence that demand was picking up. canoeists. Reverend Abbott was present References include History of the Coun - George waited impatiently for the un - to see them off. He described the pad - ties of Argenteuil and Prescott by Cyrus usually heavy floodwaters to subside dling songs echoing over the water as Thomas, Steamboat Connections by and for the first mail to arrive, giving the canoe headed across and down the Frank Mackey, Great Britain’s Wood - him news from his brothers. As the calm river to the first rapids. Getting yard by Arthur R.M. Lower, and the spring brought its burden of ice water through rapids, canoeists look for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography . downstream towards his operations, the deepest channel, sometimes breaking river rose to unprecedented levels and, around rocks, some - breaking its customary banks, it carried times spilling down away the millpond dam as he and his over sudden drops. men watched, helpless. All their logs The river was a trans - broke muddily into the main river and port corridor and had were gone. been one for thou - This disaster was followed shortly sands of years. The by the arrival of the first mail boat, men were experi - bringing the sad news to George that his enced. They had done brother Robert had passed away in Liv - this many times. This erpool. The impact of the loss of the logs time, though, the bow must quickly have faded in the face of canoeist, guiding this news, but George, father of three them through the fast young children and one of the largest water, misjudged his employers on the Ottawa, had also to an - paddle, which caught ticipate that their creditors would soon in a rock, and the ca - come, asking for full payment of the noe was immediately Hamilton mortgage, just as they, in their flipped into the rush - turn, had come to Thomas Mears and ing current. David Pattee only ten years earlier, con - In the water, fiscating their mill. George saw his 18- Among George’s closest friends month-old son, whom was the reverend Joseph Abbott, father he saved, just as they of the future prime minister, Sir John were both pulled tum - Abbott. The reverend told the story of bling through the the Hamilton trials and tribulations, rapids to the calm be - comparing him to the biblical Job. Possi - low. When he finally bly his own vocation predisposed him to gathered his senses, a certain exaggeration, but the facts re - he discovered he was main. He recounted the arrival of the no longer clutching mortgage demand and “[s]hortly after the boy, who was this, so immediately indeed, that I might gone. He spotted the almost literally say, ‘while the messen - two canoeists, cling - ger was yet speaking,’ another arrived to ing to the upside-

25 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

DEVASTATION ’S PURSER Thomas Kains and the War of 1812 by Gordon Rainey

s we unravel local history the age of 14, he joined the Royal Navy as and piece together the contri - a midshipman on none other than the butions of our forebears, we HMS Agamemnon, the three-deck, 64- are often amazed at what we gun man-of-war that was said to be Hora - uncover. tio Nelson’s favorite. AHow did the White House get its At 15, Thomas Kains was promoted name? What inspired the composition of to clerk on the HMS Hyacinth, an 18-gun “The Star-Spangled Banner?” Who knew sloop, on which he served from 1805- that Thomas Kains, a prominent citizen of 1810. Thus, he reached manhood during early Grenville, Quebec, played a key role the tumultuous Napoleonic Wars, engag - in both, but perhaps not in ways you ing in many of its epic naval battles. By might expect. 1813, Thomas Kains had been promoted We are now commemorating the bi - to purser aboard the HMS Devastation, an centenary of the War of 1812. Most of us 8-gun bomb vessel. know of Laura Secord and her grass-roots Napoleon was defeated in Europe in reconnaissance on the Niagara Frontier, the spring of 1814 and banished to Elba. the repulse of the Americans by Sir Isaac Britain shifted resources to quell Ameri - Brock at Queenston Heights, the valiant can attempts to invade Canada, initiated in fall of Tecumseh at Thames River, or, 1812. But, instead of merely defending troops met with light resistance. Caught closer to home, the Battle of Crysler’s Canada, Britain went on the offensive. by surprise, President Madison, govern - Farm. Not so familiar are the burning of In August 1814, Thomas Kains’ ship ment officials, residents who could flee Washington, DC, and the bombardment of HMS Devastation was dispatched to en - and most military units, hastily abandoned Fort McHenry in Baltimore, events to gage in what became known as the Battle the American capital. which Thomas Kains lent his hand. of Washington. On August 17, Devasta - On August 24, 1814, Thomas Kains Let us review how Thomas Kains’ tion, Seahorse, Euryalus, Ætna, Meteor, was part of the British company charged life was interwoven with these events and Erebus and Anne were detached from a with destroying the White House, known with the history of Grenville. British fleet in Chesapeake Bay and then as the Presidential Residence. Upon Thomas Kains was born in 1790, in moved up the Potomac River to bombard entering the building, they found a dinner Chatham, Kent, England, son of a Fort Washington. prepared for about forty people. They ate boatswain in the Royal Navy. In 1804, at In the Battle of Washington, British heartily of the sumptuous food and drank the vintage wine. Then they gathered what souvenirs they could carry and set the White House ablaze. Much of Washington was torched, as the British had resolved to burn all government buildings. The White House was substantially gutted by the fire, but not completely de - stroyed. Whitewash was used during its restoration, to cover the smoke damage and it was only then that it became known as the White House. British forces turned their attention north to Baltimore, intent on exacting re - venge on the notorious privateer-operated Clipper ships that were harassing the British Merchant Navy while outrunning and taunting Royal Navy battleships. But

26 Top: Thomas Kains in Royal Navy uniform. Image: Hugh P MacMillan, Adventures of a Paper Sleuth (Penumbra Press, 2004, 20). Bottom: The “White House” after the fire. 1814 watercolour by George Munger. AUTUMN 2012 the cannons at Fort McHenry guarded the the proud American capital was just retri - entrance to Baltimore Harbor. bution for the sacking and burning of On the September 12, 1814, Devasta - York (later renamed Toronto) by Ameri - tion, Erebus, Meteor, Ætna, Terror, and can troops in 1813. Volcano were deployed from Chesapeake Kains remained as purser with the Bay up the Patapsco River, in preparation HMS Devastation until August 1815, after for the attack on Baltimore. the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, The bombardment of Fort McHenry which brought years of war to an end. began at 5 a.m. on the morning of Sep - In 1818, Thomas Kains settled briefly tember 13. Devastation and her 5 sister in Carillon, Quebec, and then in ships fired rockets and mortars at Fort Grenville. In 1821, he married Mary McHenry for twenty-five hours, but the McMillan, the eldest daughter of defenders held. At 6 a.m. the following Grenville’s founding father, Archibald morning, bombardment ceased. McMillan. Nine of their children were The most memorable outcome of this born in Grenville. engagement was not military in nature, Thomas Kains was engaged for some but a poem penned by a young American years in the saw milling and grist milling lawyer named Francis Scott Key, who business in Grenville, where he was also a happened to be on one of the British ships church warden and justice of the peace. tional railroad bridge once crossed the Ot - to negotiate the release of prisoners cap - During this time, Kains was appointed, tawa River to Hawkesbury). tured at the Battle of Washington, three with Denis-Benjamin Papineau, commis - But Kains’ Royal Navy career was weeks before. He had watched throughout sioner of roads and bridges, to build the not yet over. At the onset of the Crimean the night, the red glare of the British rock - Grenville to Hull road. War, Kains was still a half-pay officer in ets and cringed at the sound of exploding Steamboats had started operating on the Royal Navy. On December 31, 1853, bombs. To his amazement, in the dawn’s the Ottawa River in 1823. In 1830, Kains at the age of 63, he was called back to ac - early light of September 14, after 1,500 entered the employ of McPherson & tive service as paymaster aboard HMS bombs and rockets had fallen, the Ameri - Crane, as captain of their steamer Shan - Victory, which had been Nelson’s flagship can flag hoisted at Fort McHenry was still non. He shuttled cargoes of mail, passen - at Trafalgar. By that time Victory had flying. The poem, which was later re - gers and goods between Grenville and By been converted to a hospital ship, and named and set to music, became Ameri - Town until 1841. In 1845, he purchased docked at Portsmouth, England. He held ca’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled the steamer, Princess Royal, and ran his this post until September, 1854. Kains Banner.” Thomas Kains had delivered the own company until 1853. died shortly thereafter, in Montreal, on fireworks. In the 1851 census, Thomas Kains May 9, 1855. Despite their repulse at Baltimore, (61), appears with his wife, Mary McMil - In the intervening years, Kains’ the British were satisfied with their diver - lan (50), and three of their offspring -- younger brother, George, and several of sionary raids, especially the burning of Thomas (28), Isabella (18) and Zebee his own offspring had left Grenville and Washington. In Canada, Governor Gener - (16). The family was living on Range 1, established themselves in St. Thomas, On - al Prevost proclaimed that the burning of Lot 7, (about where the old Canadian Na - tario. Both Thomas Kains and Mary McMillan are buried there. Thomas Kain - s’ epitaph reads as follows:

Then are they glad because they are at rest, and so we bringeth them into the heaven where they would be.

Archibald Kains (1865–1944), the grandson of Thomas Kains, journeyed to Washington, DC, in 1939, to return to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, some sterling silver and a small medicine chest that his grandfather had pillaged from the White House on August 24, 1814. Now, whenever I hear “The Star- Spangled Banner” before NHL hockey games, at the Olympics, or elsewhere, I think of Thomas Kains, the 24 year old purser aboard the bomb ship HMS Dev as - tation.

Top: The Kains Cairn at St Matthew’s Anglican Cemetery, Grenville, QC. 27 Photo: Gordon Rainey. Bottom: The Shannon at Bytown. Engraving based on an 1838 sketch by WH Bartlett. LOST : M ORRIS LISTOWEL PIANO , CIRCA 1915 Contains: unrealized dreams. If found, please play. by Eve Krakow hen I was growing up, we for my visit: two large cardboard boxes, Palestine. had an old piano in our containing old family photographs and Other miscellaneous items: a balance living room. It was a full newspaper clippings chronicling my sheet for my grandfather’s company, S. & upright, with dark brown grandfather’s involvement in the Jewish K. Clothing Inc., for the fiscal year 1929- wood, ivory keys, and a loose, full community when he was young. I’m here 1930 (net loss: $518.89); a five-page sWound. The middle C was chipped, in search of his stories, hoping to fill the speech, typed on legal-size paper with the which made it easy to find when I was gaps in what I know;I’m here to learn occasional correction hand-written in ink, learning to play. about my roots. which my grandfather delivered at the It was a player piano, and when I was My uncle takes the items out one by eighth annual convention of the “Zionist little it still worked. I loved to watch the Order Habonim”; my uncle’s and moth - keys go up and down; then I’d open up er’s school report cards, signed by their the front panels to see the scroll turning, mother (my grandmother). with the little holes punched out in pat - terns. It worked with cofmpressed air: two * * * foot pedals folded out from a sliding panel in the base; you had to pump them to keep Whenever I used to see my uncle David, the piano going. he’d hug me and ask, “How’s the writing Over the years the tubing for the going?” He knew I wanted to be a writer: player mechanism dried up and fell apart. as a kid I was always writing short stories, But it was a great piano. I played it all poems and songs. But as a young adult, through my childhood, composed songs my reaction to his question became one of on it, and used it to accompany myself recurring guilt. I knew I should be trying singing. harder. Sure, I was writing some newspa - When my Dad and my step-mom pers articles, but that’s not what he meant. sold their house, my childhood home, I I’d complain that “real” work (i.e. paid made some enquiries about getting it re - work) always got in the way. stored and moving it to my place. But it So when I first called David to tell wasn’t considered a particularly good him I wanted to write a story about my make and, because it was a player piano, grandfather, about his and my late moth - it weighed a ton. I was living in a small one, studying them under his glasses, his er’s father, I thought he’d be thrilled. He apartment at the time. So when my Dad dark bushy eyebrows furrowing as he tries wasn’t. mentioned he’d had to reinforce the floor to figure out who is who, what is what. “We were never close,” he explained, to support the piano’s weight, I gave up. There are stacks of pictures, black and in his distinctive deep voice. His father My parents sold it. white, various sizes. A few are in card - was 44 when he was born. It was too big a If I’d known what I know now, I board frames: my mother as a little girl; gap. “My father didn’t understand the life would never have let it go. my grandparents on their wedding day; of a Canadian teenager. We came from my grandfather in his late 20’s, in a for - different worlds. He was born in Europe, * * * mal pose with two other young men. In and though he grew up here it was within one picture he leans proudly against a car, a European community. He was very old I’m sitting on a sofa in my uncle’s bunga - a Model T Ford, from his job as a travel - school. Society changed. He never adapt - low in Saint-Lazare, a suburb just off the ling salesman. ed.” western tip of the island of Montreal. David hands me a copy of The Cana - Now, photos and newspaper clip - David, my uncle, settles his 6-foot plus dian Jewish Chronicle from November 7, pings spread before us, David tells me frame comfortably onto the other side. 1930. It’s in tabloid format with the tag- what he knows. Now in his early seventies, his move - line “The first and foremost Anglo-Jewish Abraham Aube Katz was born in ments are slow, deliberate, unhurried. Per - Weekly in Canada—Successor to the 1897 in the town of Dinovitz, near haps he has always moved that way: al - Canadian Jewish Times, Founded in Kamenetz-Podolsk, in Russia. The area, ways in control, always gentle, speaking 1897” (year of my grandfather’s birth in which later became part of the Ukraine, in a measured voice, with a laugh coming Russia). On page 10 is my grandparents’ was in the “Pale of Settlement,” the terri - right from his belly. engagement announcement. On page 3, tory where Russian Jews were forced to On the floor before us lies the reason an article by Winston Churchill about live.

28 Abe, Clara, and Sally Katz. Photo courtesy of Eve Krakow AUTUMN 2012

In 1907, when Abe was 10, his fami - I am still trying to absorb this infor - “It must have been very hard for ly fled the pogroms, bringing him and his mation when he says, “But you want to Clara,” Lela reflects. “She was a smart three sisters to Montreal. His father know about my father.” He puts the photo woman, but she wasn’t expected to do opened a butcher shop on Roy Street. aside and goes back to the chronology of anything special other than get married.” Around age 13, Abe left school to work in my grandfather. the shop and help his father deliver the * * * packages of meat by horse-driven wagon. * * * At some point, he lived in St. John, My parents read my early stories with en - New Brunswick, working as an insurance All week, this new fact about my grand - thusiasm. When I was in elementary salesman; he returned to Montreal a few mother nags at me, like a puzzle piece in school, my father brought home an old years later. He started a men’s clothing search of a puzzle. I question my sisters Ditto machine and I printed my own business with a partner, but went bankrupt and my father: it’s news to them too. I be - newspaper. But by university, I sensed he around 1930. So he got a job with the Pre - gin to have doubts. I decide to call Lela. wanted me to choose a “real” career, not mier Brand Clothing Company, travelling Lela is my late mother’s cousin in some artsy English literature and journal - to small towns in western Quebec and Toronto. Lela’s father, Morton Korenberg, ism program. My sisters had gone into Ontario selling men’s clothing. was one of Clara’s three brothers—the solid professions: architecture and com - Then he met Chaim Korenberg, fa - “boys” her father needed the money for. puter science. “I only want you to be hap - ther of Clara Korenberg, his wife-to-be. I don’t actually remember Lela. The py,” my father would say—meaning, fi - “Clara was pushed into the marriage,” last time I saw or spoke to her was… nancially secure. David explains, his tone becoming bitter. probably when I was 10, at my mother’s After graduating, I worked at a week - “I think her father wanted to go into busi - funeral. Will she even want to talk to me? ly paper. Occasionally I wrote short sto - ness with Abe… I don’t know.” He hands I take a deep breath and pick up the ries and sent them off to literary journals. me the wedding invitation, dated January phone. Rejection letters followed. I went to Spain 17, 1932. Of course she remembers me. Of for a year, and found work as a translator. “Did they love each other?” I ask. course she can tell me about her aunt When I returned to Montreal and decided He shrugs. “Love didn’t enter into it Clara. to study translation formally, my father in those days.” Clara Korenberg was 12 years seemed relieved. But David said, “What We look at the wedding photos, large younger than Abe. Her parents too had happened to the writing?” black and white prints of the bride and fled the pogroms, leaving Kishenev, Rus - groom in classic poses. Young Clara holds sia (Bessarabia province) in 1905, but she * * * a bouquet of roses, her head slightly tilted, was born in Montreal, in 1909. Unlike looking to the side of the camera with a Abe, she attended high school, graduating I decide to ask David more about Clara. closed-mouth, half-smile. To me it’s a from Baron Byng in 1926. On this visit, we sit on his back patio, ad - classic wedding pose, but David com - “David mentioned she had wanted to miring a small grove of birch trees sepa - ments, “She was not a happy bride.” be a pianist?” I venture. rating his house from the neighbour’s. And that’s when he reveals a piece of “Oh yes, she was very talented,” Lela “My parents led a hard life,” David information which seems to belong to says. “When her father pulled her out of explains. As a travelling salesman, his fa - someone else’s family. the Conservatory, Mort was furious! He ther was away a lot. That was hard on “You see, my mother, your grand - felt she had a gift. As a musician himself, Clara, who was left to manage on her mother, wanted to be a concert pianist,” he could appreciate it.” own, without much money, raising two he says. “She even attended the McGill That’s when Lela tells me the whole kids in their dark, second-floor flat on Conservatory for a year.” Korenberg family was musical. Once Hutchison Street. I look up at him. “Really?” I’ve never again I feel like I’m hearing about some - Clara’s mother had died young. “My heard this before. one else’s family—not my own great-un - mother never learned how to cope,” He nods, staring at the photo. “The cles. David reflects. As Clara grew older, she piano your mother and I grew up with—it Morton was a prominent doctor at became bitter and paranoid. She thought was Clara’s. Years later I met one of her Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital and her husband’s family hated her, and she friends, a music teacher: she said Clara later a psychiatrist, but he had initially kept to herself. She grew suspicious of her could have been one of the greats.” There considered studying music and composi - husband when he was on the road. They is regret in his voice. Sadness. tion, Lela explains. He could sing—he fought. “I was the peacemaker, the glue I think of the piano that I played as a had perfect pitch—and he played the pi - holding the family together,” David says. child. I had known it was my mother’s, ano and the violin. “Your mother stayed away as much as but I hadn’t realized it had been her moth - But Lela doesn’t think Clara’s father possible. She blamed her mother for caus - er’s too. “What happened?” was trying to be cruel. “That’s just the ing all these problems.” “Her father pulled her out. Said he way women were treated then,” she ex - I ask David if he ever heard Clara needed the money to educate the boys .” plains. Women married and had children. play. No. She refused. “That was a part of He emphasizes the last two words with Men earned a living to support the family. her life she couldn’t have, so she wanted sarcasm, almost disdain. “Her life ended What did a woman need to go study mu - nothing more to do with it.” But she en - there.” sic for? couraged her children to take lessons. Sal -

29 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS ly (my mother) did, but David didn’t want to keep it, but it wasn’t feasible at the played it.” to, said it was “for girls.” He regrets that time. Of course not, he says, regaining his now. characteristic composure. * * * He does remember, once or twice, his Driving home, it hits me. Why, ever mother showing Sally how to do some - since I was little, my uncle has always I don’t remember my grandmother much at thing on the piano. His eyes take on a far - made a point of encouraging me in my all; I was nine years old when she died of away look. “She didn’t touch the piano— writing, in my own artistic pursuits: his colon cancer. I remember she wore square she caressed it.” Whereas Sally banged mother never had the chance to develop glasses, looked a lot like my mother, and was away, Clara’s touch was “magic, like an her talents, but I do. He does not want me always shaking. Nervous. But nice to me. angel.” He makes a delicate movement to neglect that opportunity. I email my step-mom to ask what be - with his own hand, curving his wrist, re - came of the piano. She says they sold it to a membering. * * * young man from B.C. who was studying at And he remembers the piano. His McGill. They ran into him two years later in face becomes animated. “I couldn’t play, I call Lela back. I don’t really expect her to re - Pointe-Claire; he had moved and left it with a but I could put in a scroll and pump the member the piano, but she does. “When I was friend. pedals and watch it play,” he laughs. He small, we would go to Clara’s house, and she “I wish I could track it down,” I say. takes off his glasses to wipe them. “You would play it for us,” she recalls. She asks, “What would you do if you know, it could probably still be restored— “You heard Clara play?” I ask, surprised. found it?” ” he begins, and I realize with dread: he “Yes, she was very good.” I’m not really sure. doesn’t know. I ask if she knows where the piano came First I’ll write about the piano. Then I’ll “We don’t have the piano anymore,” from, and she says that Clara’s father bought it look for it. I say. for her. I mention that I grew up with that pi - Oh. He pauses in wiping his glasses. ano, but that— This story is the first to result from It’s a fraction of a second but I catch a “You still have it?” QAHN’s “StoryNet” project, which glimpse of something in those blue eyes, I can hear the hopeful joy in her voice; matched emerging writers with estab - or maybe it’s my imagination, but some - once again I have to break the news. lished mentors to produce innovative thing changes in his face, like a smile fad - “Oh God, it was sold!” she says, her dis - works of non-fiction with a heritage ing, like a last piece of his mother’s dream may and disappointment palpable even over theme. dying. I rush to explain how I had wanted the phone. “It was so precious. Everyone

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