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)