The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini-Hunt - The Duel

“The Invincible Signor Farini” shouted the broadside, “Will not be Outdone”. And so “The Duel” began! Farini with “The length and slackness of his cable”, “the greater height and weight of the man he would carry” and the fact “that he would unload and reload his companion as he walked (across the cable)”! Blondin, for his part, “lowered himself to a short slack rope slung about twenty feet under his cable and on this rope he stood on his head, lay face down and imitated a swimmer” and then he “performed a startling series of a dozen or more lightning fast somersaults”. To finalize his performance "he appeared on the loading platform with little manager on his back and then proceeded to walk the wire!” All this to the delight of the crowds who had gathered! The Duel continued throughout the season, each performer trying to outdo one another! They even tried to convince the Prince of Whales (later King Edward VII) to take a trip on their backs across Niagara on the wire! It was an amazing period and one that would be remembered for a long time! It is interesting to note that although Blondin was the better known of the two performers, Farini prospered financially while Blondin struggled. Farini was showing one of his many talents, he was financially astute! As Shane Peacock summarizes in his Farini Niagara adventure, “He (Farini) had gone to the Falls to compete with the man whom everyone said was a superman. No one, they said, could do the things that the immortal Blondin did. Now, they knew different”.

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini-Hunt - Sky Walking (Part Five - continued)

 Here is how Shane describes it … “The jerking motion of the rope made the upward climb terribly difficult and at the halfway point, rapidly tiring, he signaled for the men on the steamer to let go of it. Now the jerking stopped and he was left “gently swaying backwards and forwards like a pendulum.” All the time, he had to squeeze the rope in an unusually tight grip, and his hands were turning numb. He began considering a plan for falling: hew had to release at the right moment and hit the water or he would brash into the steamer’s deck. But before he resorted to anything desperate he tried an old gymnast’s trick: wrapping the rope securely around a leg in order to rest his arms. Looking up, the distance to the cable seemed as daunting as the drop beneath him. He tried moving again, and despite his shaking limbs, was able to maintain a slow pace upward, hand over hand, climbing for dear life. Soon he was so close that his nose touched the cable. Desperate to move that inch, unsure he could, he heard nothing, not the crowd, the steamer of the falls, just the sound of his own breathing against the rope. Then, “using every particle of power left…”he raised one leg over the cable and used it to hoist his wilting frame onto the narrow walkway.” Over the season Farini and Blondin tried to out do one another. Farini’s doing headstands, somersaults, hanging by one hand, walking enveloped in a sack. Blondin was just as daring! It was truly a test of great danger and coverage! This, however, was just the start! The Duel was really about to begin and was certainly about to “Get Dangerous”

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini-Hunt - Sky Walking (Part Five)

After a period of time, rested, Farini returned to the wire and back to the United States. Blondin, who had also performed that day was not happy with the competition. Here’s a short passage from Peacock’s book, “From the whirlpool at Devil’s Hole he had seen signs of activity near Farini ’s rope in the distance, so he had loaded up his stove (the one he would take out on his rope that afternoon in order to fry on omelette at mid-wire) and performed the humiliating chore of displaying himself and his apparatus, like a sandwich-board advertisement, to the masses. Blondin turned in front of the Clifton so that both he and his stove were visible to everyone and headed back downstream. Stealing a glance behind, he noticed that no one had followed him. Some day, he thought, Farini will pay for this.” Before completing his return, however, Farini had one more card “trick” up his sleeve! Farini dropped a cord down to the water below, fastened it onto his wire. The “Maid of the Mist” steamer then edged over the cord. A thicker rope was sent back up to Farini and attached. Farini then descended and ultimately arrived safely onto the steamers deck. Here he drank a glass of wine with a friend and then ascended the rope back to the wire.

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini-Hunt - Sky Walking (Part Four)

Shane describes his final efforts before reaching the Canadian side! “Soon the spectators on the Canadian side had such a good view of him that they could see the blue of his eyes. He came up the cable towards them struggling, his legs shaking slightly but his attitude tenacisous. He seemed to be falling forward with each step as though there were a hevy weight pressing him down. He climbed the final few yards in near desperation until his foot finally touched wood…and safely. Forty minutes after starting out on the longest and most perilous high wire ever strung at Niagara Falls twenty-two-year old Bill Hunt was alive and standing on Canadian soil. The huge crowd erupted in cheers. At that age he valued praise above almost anything: this was his “kind of glory”. The shouts of Port Hope and Bowmanville people in the crowd touched him even in the intensity of the moment. He was just the second human being to do this and a righteousness swelled up inside him: he wished all his doubters could see him now.”

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini-Hunt - Sky Walking (Part Three)

After entering the enclosure on the American side of the Falls, he picked up his balance pole. It was now time to take his first steps over the Falls! The walk was not without problems, but he was able to overcome all of them and eventually made it to the other side. Here is Shane’s account … “An American reporter on the scene feared for Farini’s life. “The odds seemed terribly against him at this moment. There was an outcry that he never would cross and for a few moments of sickening suspense, in which he struggled with his pole, we believe half the crowd expected to see him fall.” Farini fought for his life with every once of his strength and kept his mind fixed on what had to be done. Sweat spread on his back and beads ran down his forehead and into his eyes. Then he reached inside himself and found what he needed. Locking his hips and holding his lower body rigid he tilted his upper torso sideways and slowly lifted the right side of the pole over the right guy and then carefully did the same with the left one before straightening himself and stepping forward to the next pair. He treated each set of guys similarly and slowly edged out over the gorge, steadfastly performing a strenuous and deadly feat. This part of his act was afterwards described by many onlookers as painful to watch.” Along the way he was able to perform many of the “tricks” he had promised he would do.

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt - Sky Walking (Part Two)

Here is how Shane describes the events before Farini’s first Niagara walk… “When he arrived and mounted the platform the people in the enclosure strained to see him. What would Signor Farini look like? They saw a young man, dark and handsome, almost Spanish in appearance. When they looked closely at his features many noticed the eyes first: the incongruity of their bright blue colour with the darkness sparks in his face. Farini had a shining mop of thick black hair slicked back on the sides, a moustache, and young whiskers that nearly touched at the chin. He was olive-skinned, oval-eyed and square-faced. The only blemish in his looks was a long, straight nose that turned up a little too much at the tip. Farini was noticeably bigger than Blondin, standing about five-feet-ten inches and weighing close to 170 pounds. Though he had just an average-sized frame, belied any thought that he was a man of average strength. Ladies were unaccustomed to seeing the outline of a man’s chest, so the ones nearest the platform looked closely at this well-developed specimen on display in the sun before them.”

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt - Sky Walking (Part One)

The high-wire was up and set. There was almost no wind. The sky was clear and the sun was shinning. It was a great day for a duel! The duel, of course, was between Farini and Blondin and the weapons were high in the sky with death waiting below! Peacock describes Farini the morning of the event … “He (Farini) always claimed to have nerves of steel and actually characterized himself as nonchalant and almost cavalier as his hour approached. A number of eyewitnesses agreed. One man who saw him that day recalled that he appeared “quite cool and smiled complacently” as he ascended the wooden platform next to his cable, and a reporter from the Daily Globe said that even at the last moment he still looked “like a person who possess a very determined spirit.” But as he rose that morning, his well-rehearsed bravado was undoubtedly fading. Someone else who saw him that day said that when he looked into Signor Farini’s eyes, “it was very evident that he was …nervous.” It must have been a nerve racking day, both for Farini and those who were waiting to watch him walk. Many thought they were going to watch him fall to his death!

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt - "Champion of Niagara"

Farini confronted Blondin and publicly challenged him, “but the great man (Blondin) … pretender seeking publicity,” Farini was not deterred, and within a single day he had secured financial backing. With this in place he set to work and made arrangements to have "an enormous rope shipped to him at the Falls". This began Farini’s journey to challenge and best the “Hero of Niagara”! Farini chose a spot to start his rope. His high-wire would be over 1800 feet long, much longer than Blondin’s. The large cable was eventually strung across the gorge after much work and difficulty. At one point Farini had to walk out on one of the guy wirer in order to attach more guy wires. He needed to stabilize the cable. While all this activity was happening, Farini’s soon to be rival was unaware of what was happening as he was out-of-town performing. Here is Shane’s description of Blondin’s return, … “When Blondin returned to Niagara from Ohio on the 13th he must have been more than a little surprised to see the Ferry Grove completely enclosed and a huge cable drooping over the gorge. The papers wer saying that the young man who had been challenging him two weeks before, so unknown but so full of fire, was going to cross it the day after tomorrow... This Farini fellow was for real.”

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt - Freedom (Part Three)

Eventually Hunt decided to leave the Dan Rice Circus and head north to Hope Township for reconciliation with his parents. According to Peacock, “he apparently worked the farm” but “later claimed he took up residence in his native Lockport.” Where ever he was, in April, Blondin returned to Niagara and his high-wire. This stirred Farini Hunt into action! Here is what Peacock writes, “His pride bursting within him, he decided to act at any cost. Suddenly it didn’t matter that Blondin was the greatest rope-walker in the world and he was a ten-month beginner, or that no other professional would dare attempt this staggering feat. He wasn’t Bill Hunt any more, condemned and held down. Farini could do what he wanted to do: he would prove himself … finally. … He quit his job the same evening and announced his intention to walk the Niagara gorge on a high wire. His friends thought him insane and his fiancée vociferously agreed, prompting him to cut off their engagement and head for the Falls alone the very next day. There he asked hotel proprietors and railway people to sponsor his walks.” With Blondin now well established as the “Hero of Niagara”, Farini decided to publicly challenge Blondin. He placed a “public notice” in the July 26th issue of the Niagara Falls Gazette. It was now time to get to work!

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.
(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt - Freedom (Part Two)

He decided to work for Dan Rice. Here is Shane Peacock’s description of Dan Rice, “By the late 1850’s Dan Rice was one of the most famous men in North America, a friend of presidents and a wit and performer extraordinaire, his clever political and social jests almost household sayings. During the early part of his life he had been a noted jockey, trained-pig presenter, riverboat gambler and strong-man, but found his true calling as a clown. He established his own circus and for a short time competed with former ally, the Spalding and Rogers Floating Palace, in an acrimonious showboat rivalry. He would become so popular that he actually put himself for the Republican nomination for president in 1868, and was a confidante of Abraham Lincoln, made an honorary colonel by Zackary Taylor, created the One Horse Show (temporarily broke, he put on marvelous circuses using a single horse), was paid the astronomical salary of one thousand dollars per week in the 1860’s and is considered by many to be the prototype for the character of Uncle Sam (Rice had the same beard and often performed in a stars-and-stripes costume). He danced, sang, performed dazzling feats of trick riding and loved to engage in repartee with his audiences. A sort of American court jester, he was more comedian and raconteur than painted clown. The quickness of his mind was legendary.” Hunt performed several jobs for Rice, in an atmosphere of violence and corruption. He apparently carried out his duties efficiently and worked for Rice for six months.

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt – Freedom (Part One)

Bill Hunt left Port Hope and his childhood life behind. I don’t think that he had any specific plans, because he seemed to travel where ever his mood took him. At first he performed high-wire performances at several fairs, but then he seems to disappear from public sight. In his own recollections, years later, he says that he was involved in several exploits. Much of the stories he told were filled with inconsistencies. His journey started out with a trip to Minnesota, where he lived with his uncle’s family. However, he soon became bored with prairie life and traveled east in search of adventure. He reached the Mississippi and then “floated” southward. Here’s an excerpt from Shane Peacock’s book, “When he reached the Mississippi a near-plague of smallpox was decimating the area, so he had to sneak through the villages until he got down to the water, where he found an abandoned rowboat and floated southward away from danger. In a few days he arrived at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin and heard that a floating circus run by the renowned American showman Dan Rice was docking at Galena to the south, readying itself for its Mississippi River season. This, of course, suited him perfectly.”

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.
(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt... The High-Wire (Part Two)

After the performances, Farini performed at other close by fairs. The walks had taken place during the month of October. During that time Hunt’s father had been in England and could not have interfered with Bill’s activities. With Hunt’s father’s return, everything changed! The father called his son a “mountebank” (Defined as - bastard, bluffer, charlatan, cheat, counterfeit, crook, deceiver, double-dealer, fake, forger, four-flusher, hoaxer, horse trader, impostor, mechanic, phony, play actor, pretender, quack, racketeer, sham, shark, swindler) He said to Bill “Why do you seem quite proud of having disgraced the whole family. I’m astonished and ashamed.” Bill was, of course, taken aback. He didn’t feel that he had done anything wrong. Soon after the confrontation Bill Hunt left the families Hope Township Farm for a life full of adventure! His thoughts are outlined in Shane’s book … “But Farini simply could not accept that the world was wicked: like the circus, it could be a place of wonder and possibility. So he threw away his so-called respectable career, and put provincial little Hope behind him for good. It had plagued and hounded his dreams for too long already.”…“Only his mother came to say goodbye at the Grand Trunk Railroad station in Port Hope.” “Then he left on the next train for Bowmanville. And so a twenty-one-year-old medical man from a respectable family ran away from home and headed for glory”. This chapter of his life ended. He was on to great things!

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt... The High-Wire (Part One)

When Monsieur Blondin took Niagara Falls by storm, Bill Hunt’s competitive side took over! Blondin challenged that “anyone else to try it” (rope walking over the Falls)! In Hope Township, Bill Hunt “was practicing”, and becoming very competent. In the nearby Town of Port Hope, the editor and publisher of the Port Hope Guide, Hugh Crea, had an idea that would likely change Bill Hunt’s life for ever! Crea was also the Secretary of the East Durham and Township of Hope Agricultural Societies. The fair was becoming tired and needed something with “drawing power”. He approached Hunt with the idea of “rope walking” over Smith’s Creek (now the Ganaraska River) between two downtown buildings. After negotiations and assurances that Bill could actually complete the performance; a “deal was struck”. Hunt would complete two walks, one at the beginning of the fair and the other at its close. The performance took place as scheduled, but not by local boy William Hunt, but by “Signor Farini”! This was what Bill was now calling himself! The performances were not without flaws. Here is an excerpt from Peacock’s book … “He lifted his other foot off the roof and stood out on the rope, surrounded by the crowd’s silence. The next few steps were slow, but he didn’t shake…he kept going without pause…moving steadily until he was all the way to the centre, directly over the river. If he indeed had been nervous before, he seemed supremely condiment now. But suddenly there was an unforeseen problem. Without warning the rope slipped under his weight and began to sway. The crowd felt themselves falling. Farini halted, steadied the rope with his powerful legs, and continued along the incline to the other building. People looked up at the bottoms of his feet and marveled. It seemed like a dream: a man virtually suspended in midair, a fantasy in three dimensions. When he reached the building on the east side and got onto the roof safely, applause erupted from the crowd like thunder and rang up and down the street. As Bill Hunt reveled in it, on the ground people felt a sense of enormous relief, as though they too were safe now.”

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.
(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt ... Youth

Even as a youth growing up, William Hunt was full of energy and was always searching for adventure. His early years were spent first in Lockport, New York until he was 10 years old and then in Bowmanville, Ontario. Although Hunt’s parents were very “respectable people”, William had a rebellious streak. This showed up in Bowmanville when William and his friends were caught, during their “un-parent approved” circus demonstration, by William's father, who had interrupted the show and was in the process of giving William a beating. This punishment was interrupted by a neighbourhood lady who yelled, “He ought to be whipped until he can not stand! Give it to him! You wicked, sinful boy! You are the ruin of all the boys in town!” Undaunted, William's future dreams were visualized after sneaking in and watching a circus that came to Bowmanville. Here is an except from Shane Peacock’s book … “Bill Hunt was beginning a day that would change his life. He not only met a famous show-business star and learned some of his secrets, but later, at great personal cost, sneaked into the big tent and actually saw the performance. From that day forward his life was infused with the bold spirit of the circus”. From Bowmanville the Hunt family moved back to Hope Township, to a farm that Bill’s (as he was now called) father had purchased. It was here that Bill started to hone his athletic and acrobatic skills and ultimately taught himself to become a “rope walker”. Through determined experimentation and constant practice, Bill increased his skills. It was in 1859 that Bill started to develop his “imagined future”. Here is another excerpt from Shane’s book … “As he approached his twenty-first birthday that summer, all he had been—a country boy from the Canadian backwoods, a medical student, an at-least-somewhat-respectable citizen—was about to die. A new persona was ready to surface. The greatest single impetus that created it came from the actions of a French acrobat. Late in June, Monsieur Blondin walked the greatest high wire in history, and the idea for Farini took root”.

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.
(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

Introduction

Our next Ontario Tales is about a man who time has all but forgotten. And yet, during his prime time he was likely one of the most impressive entertainment figures in the world! William Leonard Hunt, better known as The Great Farini, excelled in most everything he did! Fortunately, Farini has not completely been forgotten because of the wonderful autobiography by Canadian/Ontario author Shane Peacock in his book entitled “The Great Farini – The High Wire Life of William Hunt”. Mr. Peacock has generously allowed us to use some quotes from his book to tell this fantastic “Ontario Tale”! In Shane’s introduction he introduced us to William Leonard Hunt and The Great Farini with these words … “When I was a child my grandfather told me a wonderful story about a man who walked on a high wire over Niagara Falls. He told it as we sat on the sun-porch of our farm in the rolling hills of Hope Township in southern Ontario. It was the stirring legend of a country boy from just a few dirt roads away, and the unsinkable determination that pushed him to try his terrifying feat. My grandfather said that Farini Hunt, though forgotten by his countrymen, was one of the most extraordinary men who ever lived. He was absolutely right. But years later I discovered he knew less than half the story. He didn’t know that after Niagara, Farini had many more lives: in the palatial theatres of London, high in the air at Madison Square Garden and in the depths of the Kalahari Desert; Farini would be an inventor, an artist, a Svengali; he would be, as one amazed spectator called him, “the most versatile man in history.”

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at http://www.shanepeacock.ca
(To Be Continued)

He Did What?

by Gary McWilliams
aka "The Festival Nomad"

The first article (dated January 9th, 1880) that I read started off … “As the old year was drawing near it’s end, Dr. Turner, a physician well known to the Township, and at one time very highly respected, put $1,000 in his pocket, folded his ??? lovingly around himself and Mrs. Halligan and silently stole away. He leaves behind a large number of anxious enquiring mourners behind, the principal of who are his co-school trustees”. "What!", I exclaimed under my breath (I was still in the library), "this can’t be true!" My great grandfather a thief? An adulterer? It couldn’t be true! I had to find out the truth! As soon as I could, I visited my mother in Toronto (my father had passed away a few years earlier), I showed her the copies of the newspaper articles. “Can this be true?” I asked. Her eyes became very still and dark. She looked at me and nodded and said “Yes”. I couldn’t believe my ears! I looked at her and said “Did Dad know?” Mother nodded again and then quietly said, “They NEVER talked about it!” That, my friends, was the end of my dreams of having a wonderful, care giving County Doctor to look up to. As it turns out, Dr. Turner (notice, I don’t say “my grandfather”) was not only a thief and adulterer, he was also a drunk! I couldn’t find anything more, except one lone newspaper article, dated February 6th, 1880, that ended, “they (the fellow trustees) would be quite willing to make up with their old “chum”, if he would only make some slight advance (in cash) towards a reconciliation”.

Remember, if you have a family story (Good or bad) that you would like to share with our Ontario Tales reader, please send details to me at gary@ontariovisited.ca.

Next week learn about William Leonard Hunt or, as he is better known, The Great Farini!

The Good Doctor...

by Gary McWilliams
aka "The Festival Nomad"

We didn’t know much about Cobourg and area, so after our move, Judi and I decided to explore the Northumberland Hills. Driving straight north from Cobourg, on Highway (now county) road 45, we encountered the Hamlet of Baltimore. As we drove through, a light went off! Baltimore, I remembered, was where my father’s mother’s family was from! Deep in my memory, I had remembered that their name was Turner and that my Great Grandfather had been a county Doctor! I thought he must have been a great man, traveling the countryside in his black carriage, healing and comforting the sick! A pillar of the community! I had to find out more! Shortly after my “discovery”, I visited our local library. I figured that my Great Grandfather must have been a prominent member of the community and that there must have been something written about him in the local newspaper. Fortunately our library had “microfiche” copies of old newspapers, so I started looking through them. After a long search I finally found the name “Dr. Turner”. There were three articles! I started to read... and you won't believe what I read!
(To Be Continued)

Life Can Be Full of Co-incidences

by Gary McWilliams
aka "The Festival Nomad"

My mother was a first generation Canadian. She came to Canada, with her mother, when she was only four. They were from Liverpool, England (you know, where the Beatles were from) and traveled here on a ship, fortunately not the Titanic, and eventually landed in Toronto. This is where her father had arrived two years before. He had come to start a new life for himself and his family. This was not the case for my father. His family was of pioneer stock! His father’s family was from the Peterborough area, the Village of Lakefield, in fact, while his mother's family was from the Cobourg area, the little Hamlet of Baltimore. I knew these facts only because father's sister had done a fair amount of research about the McWilliams family. My father, being the youngest child of a large family, eventually inherited these findings. I never did read the family “scrapbook” thoroughly, but I did remember the facts mentioned above. Years after first reading the family history, Judi and I ended up moving to Lakefield. This was an interesting coincidence, but I never really thought much about it. This is, until I met another “McWilliams”! His name was Dan McWilliams and he and his brothers owned a large Peterborough moving company. After we had talked, we determined that we were not related, but he told me that he had been researching his own ancestry and had found my family's ancestral home in Lakefield! This got me to thinking more about the Lakefield “McWilliams”. Apparently we had been carriage makers in the mid 1800’s and had done quite well. I believe that my grandfather, at one time, taught at the Peterborough High School. He eventually moved his family to Toronto and started an insurance agency. This was the start of a long line of “McWilliams” insurance agents (now brokers). My daughter, Ainsley, is still in the business and is now fifth generation insurance! Fifth, because my mother's grandfather and grandmother had both been insurance agents in England. That, however, is another story. Life moved on, and Judi and I eventually moved from Lakefield and then, a few years later we ended up in Cobourg, talk about co-incidences!
(To Be Continued)