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MURRAY CANAL CELEBRATES 125TH ANNIVERSARY!

About 100 people attended a celebration of the 125th anniversary of the official opening of the Murray Canal on Saturday, October 18, 2014.

Organized by the Murray Canal Organization in partnership with History Lives Here Inc., the event was developed to mark the anniversary year with a celebration of this historic site. The volunteer organizers hope to make the event an annual one tied closely to other regional activities such as the development of the Macdonald Heritage Trail to be launched in 2015, and the Macdonald Project of Prince Edward County, which will install a larger-than-life bronze sculpture of Sir John A. Macdonald in downtown Picton on Canada Day 2015. Next year is the 200th anniversary of Macdonald’s birth and celebrations are planned across the country.

Macdonald’s was Canada’s first prime minister and remains the area’s most famous citizen. He spent much of his early years in the Quinte area living in Napanee, Hay Bay, and Picton, and often reflected fondly on his years as a “Quinte Boy”.  The new Macdonald Heritage Trail will link sites stretching from Kingston through Napanee, Bath, Hay Bay, Prince Edward County, Belleville and Quinte West – including the Murray Canal – through a visitor site map to be made available next year.

Sir John A. Macdonald actually opened the Murray Canal twice – once on October 6th, 1886 for its preliminary opening and again on April 14th, 1889 when it officially opened to marine traffic. For those who attended this last ceremony, the event must have been a special day as the project took nearly 100 years to complete.

In the first days of Loyalist settlement in the 1790s, land was set aside for its construction with an additional 3,000 acres to be sold to pay for the project. Over the decades, war with the Americans and the constant threat to shipping and sailors off the dangerous shores of Prince Edward County, kept the issue of the canal construction front and centre in area politics. But while there were many surveys of the proposed canal route – there were at least five surveys undertaken in 1824, 1833, 1837, 1845, 1866 and 1881- there was no construction. Over time, the threat of war with the United States subsided, and steamships replaced the great age of sail. Railways were the rage, and the issue of constructing a canal to link Presqu’ile Bay with the Bay of Quinte remained a largely local concern. Infighting among local groups over the canal route didn’t help matters.

Still construction of the canal remained a persistent concern championed by the timber industry and local politicians like James Biggar, and Joseph Keeler, the MPs for Northumberland and Mackenzie Bowell of Belleville, a minister in the Macdonald governments. Their lobbying efforts paid off and work started on the canal project in August 1882, and after many challenges and delays, the canal opened in the spring of 1889.  One hundred vessels passed through the 8.5 kilometre canal in its first year of operation. Upon completion, the canal project had cost $1,272,470 to build – about $32.6 million in current dollars. Today, the Murray Canal remains a safe and scenic route for boaters and an important part of our history.

The 125th Anniversary of the Opening of the Murray Canal

On Saturday, October 18th, 2014 starting at 1 pm, the Murray Canal District Organization will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Murray Canal in 1889. The event will take place on the site of the official opening in 1889 at Twelve O’Clock Point Rd. on the northeast side of the canal crossing at Carrying Place.

The canal has a long history and land was set aside for it during the first days of Loyalist settlement in the 1790s. Pressure to build the canal built during the War of 1812 as the route became an important supply line for the British, and saved days of dangerous sailing for the great vessels of the era. Afterwards, the timber trade in the Trenton area also encouraged local lobbying efforts to have the waterway built. While there were many surveys of the site, the Murray Canal became less of a concern for federal authorities. Steamships replaced sailing ships; the threat of war lessened; and railways were the rage. 

But nonetheless, the local residents of Prince Edward County, Hastings and Northumberland wanted the canal built and they got their way in October 1889 with John A. Macdonald official opening it.

We plan to mark the day with a re-enactment of Macdonald’s official opening together with historical tours of the canal. Parking at the site will be limited and we plan to bus folks from nearby parking areas. 

THE ENDURING APPEAL OF HISTORY – The 1884 Lazier Murder Trial Re-enactment

On Friday, July 11, 2014, the stately courthouse in Picton was jam packed with visitors hungry to witness history – the re-enactment of an infamous murder trial that took place in Prince Edward County in May 1884.

The trial of two local men for a botched robbery and murder at Christmas 1883 in Bloomfield is deeply steeped in County lore.  With an inflamed community seeking revenge, 12 County men serving as jurors had to weigh circumstantial evidence, shoddy police work, high emotions among citizens, and the fate of two accused men – George Louder, a 23-year old bricklayer, and Joseph Thomset, a 35-year old fisherman. In the end, intermittent boots tracks from the crime scene to their homes at West Lake sealed their fates, and the harassed jury pronounced them guilty of murder although they recommended mercy that never came.

Despite a determined campaign by local ministers, and prominent citizens who supported the men’s claims of innocence, Louder and Thomset were hanged at 8 o’clock on the morning of June 10th, 1884 in the gallows that still stand in the cell block area of the courthouse.  Louder died first. But Thomset struggled for a full fourteen minutes. Both men left behind heart-wrenching letters proclaiming their innocence to their families and their community.

Although there were other murder trials in the decades, which followed, there was never another hanging in Prince Edward County. Haunted by this certain miscarriage of justice decades before, local juries simply refused to convict as the story of Louder and Thomset’s grisly fate persisted in local folklore. Did we hang the right men? Not likely. It is just what we did in a rush to judgment in other times.

The trial re-enactment was a fundraiser for the Macdonald Project, an initiative to create a bronze sculpture of Sir John A. Macdonald, the County’s most famous citizen, as part of national celebrations of the 200th anniversary of his birth in 2015. Macdonald was prime minister of Canada at the time, and constrained by legal precedents of the period from intervening in the case despite the appeals for clemency.

For the small volunteer Macdonald Project Committee, the sold out trial re-enactment was further proof that “history sells.” We believe that the bronze sculpture of Macdonald created by Ruth Abernethy, one of Canada’s foremost portrait artists, will be an enduring attraction to Canadians discovering the story of our first prime minister and the chief architect of Canada. The story of Macdonald’s time in Prince Edward County is largely unknown and the area can lay claim to the early years of John A. Macdonald who always considered himself “a Quinte boy.”

The life-size sculpture of Macdonald will be installed in downtown Picton on Canada Day 2015.   To learn more, visit www.macdonaldproject.com

Re-enactment of the Lazier Murder Trial: Prince Edward County 1884

Re-enactment of the Lazier Murder Trial: Prince Edward County 1884 LIVE

Friday, 11 July 2014 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM 

Picton, Ontario | Picton Courthouse

In December 1883, Peter Lazier was shot in the heart during a bungled robbery at a Prince Edward County farmhouse. Three local men, pleading innocence from start to finish, were arrested and charged with his murder. Two of them — Joseph Thomset and George Lowder — were sentenced to death by a jury of local citizens the following May. Nevertheless, appalled community members believed at least one of them to be innocent — even pleading with Prime Minister John A. Macdonald to spare them from the gallows.

The Lazier Murder explores a community’s response to a crime, as well as the realization that it may have contributed to a miscarriage of justice. Robert J. Sharpe reconstructs and contextualizes the case using archival and contemporary newspaper accounts. The Lazier Murder provides an insightful look at the changing pattern of criminal justice in nineteenth-century Canada, and the enduring problem of wrongful convictions.  In 2011 Justice Robert Sharpe wrote a book about the infamous double hanging that took place in Picton in 1884.  The book was called The Lazier Murder, Picton Ontario 1884.  The outcome of the trial was controversial at the time, and remains that way today.  

Justice Sharpe, a Prince Edward County native, gave a fascinating presentation about the trial at the Regent Theatre soon after the book was published.  A re-enactment of the trial has been in the works for some time and is now planned for July of this year.  Justice Robert J. Sharpe (OCA) author of The Lazier Murder: Prince Edward County, 1884, will preside at the re-enactment of the trial in the courthouse where it all took place.  Did they get the right men?  You be the judge.

The re-enactment takes place on Friday, July 11, 2014 from 1:00 – 3:00 pm at the historic 1834 Courthouse in Picton where the actual trial took place.  After the re-enactment participants are invited to tour the gaol and gallows where the men were hung.  A reception follows at the Waring House where Huff Estates wine and county fare will be served and Justice Robert Sharpe will answer questions about the trial and re-enactment.  

Tickets are $125/per person with a charitable receipt issued for a portion of the ticket price. To order tickets go to Eventbrite.ca / Find Events / Picton, Ontario / Lazier Murder Re-enactment

Proceeds support The Macdonald Project to create a bronze sculpture of Sir John A. Macdonald presenting his first case as a young lawyer in Picton in 1834 in the very same courthouse. Visit www.macdonaldproject.com for more information.

HISTORY MOMENTS FEATURED AT CANADIAN AGRICULTURE MUSEUM EXHIBIT

Two History Moments produced by History Lives Here Inc. on the canning industry of Prince Edward County are featured at a new exhibit, which opened May 13th at the Canadian Agriculture and Food Museum in Ottawa.

Video plays in French or English

Food Preservation: The Science You Can Eat is an exhibit which tells visitors the story of food preservation from the first days of settlement when aboriginal peoples and settlers dried, salted and buried food to survive long winters to technological advances such as the canning of foodstuffs in the 1880s and development of frozen foods in the 1930s. Today, scientific innovation in the food industry allows us to grow and import food from all over the world that retains its nutritional value over an extended shelf life. Finding ways to preserve food is one of the greatest advances in civilization.

Canadians can take credit for many of these scientific breakthroughs. Research at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa where the museum is located has resulted in a staggering number of discoveries of new plant varieties, processing techniques, and food products. While the preservation of food through the canning process dates back to the Napoleonic era, the fruit and vegetable canning industry in Canada took root in the small community of Prince Edward County in the 1880s. In 1882, Wellington Boulter, the father of the canning industry in Canada, started a small factory in Picton, Ontario. Soon other factories dotted the landscape of this small community, and the area became so dominant in the industry shipping canned goods all over the world that the region became known as the Garden County of Canada. Our History Moment on the origins of the canning industry in Prince Edward County is one of two video features showcased in the museum exhibit. 

Our second History Moment featured in the exhibit tells the story of early attempts to advertise canned goods. The first products of the canning industry would be considered unacceptable by today’s standards. Lids were soldered shut by hand and bits of solder often dropped into the canned food. The first tins reacted with the food and caused lead poisoning. Sanitary practices throughout these rudimentary factories were largely absent as the science of canned foods had yet to be discovered. To counter consumer resistance, the early canners spent a great deal of effort on the labels that adorned their products. Embossed colour labels created by design firms in Toronto, Hamilton and Montreal enticed consumers to try these canned products. Today, these spectacularly beautiful labels are artwork that reflects early advertising approaches. Some of the labels that adorned canned goods produced in Prince Edward County were quite likely designed by Group of Seven artists who supported their weekend painting expeditions by day jobs at lithographic firms supplying canning companies with labels.

“We encourage Canadians to take in this wonderful exhibit, “says Peter Lockyer, the producer of the History Moments series. “And we’ve very honoured to have our history features as part of the display. It’s an indication that our work showcasing old forgotten stories from communities throughout Eastern Ontario has a timeless value to museums like the Canadian Agriculture and Food Museum and the thousands of visitors they receive each year.”

To learn more about the Food Preservation: Science You Can Eat exhibit at the Canadian Agriculture and Food Museum, visit their website at http://www.cafmuseum.techno-science.ca

Wind, Waves and Canvas Sails: Re-live The Era of the Tall Ships This Summer

Experience the great age of sail onboard the tall ship, the St. Lawrence II, as part of a once-in-a–lifetime sailing adventure on Sunday, June 15th and Monday, June 16th 2014.

Your travel adventure includes a half day onboard this magnificent 70 foot square rigger as it departs Napanee at noon on Sunday, June 15th making its way under full sail to the quaint harbour in Picton, Ontario. Hear the rich maritime history of the region while helping to navigate this great ship on its journey. 

A three-course dinner created by acclaimed chef Michael Sullivan, and overnight stay at the elegant Merrill Inn brings the day to a close.  After a sumptuous hot breakfast at the inn on Monday morning, an experienced guide from History Lives Here Inc. will take you by bus on a customized tour of Prince Edward County to some of its unique heritage sites, with lunch at the Agrarian Restaurant and shopping in the charming village of Bloomfield before a visit to the Black Prince Winery. Return transportation to Napanee is provided by Franklin Coach Lines.

The all-inclusive tour price is  $545/pp plus tax based on double occupancy. This two-day tall ship adventure is limited to 24 adults so book soon! 

To book tickets and for further information, contact:

Brigantine Inc., 53 Yonge St., Kingston, ON K7M 6G4

Tel.: 613 544–5175

Email: info@brigantine.ca

Website: www.brigantine.ca

Tall Ship Itinerary Cruise

June 15/16, 2014

As part of the inaugural Napanee Riverfront Festival taking place on the weekend of June 13-15 2014 (www.downtownnapanee.com), Brigantine Inc., the owners of the tall ship the St. Lawrence II, and History Lives Here Inc., are offering a sailing adventure cruise from Napanee to the nearby community of Picton, Ontario. 

Experience life onboard this great ship as part of the crew learning timeless nautical skills from master mariners. Hear the rich maritime history of the area from historical author, Dave More, the manager of Brigantine Inc., as you re-live the era when tall ships, their crews and cargoes made the area a dominant commercial centre within a young country. Discover the history of Prince Edward County while staying at one of the area’s finest inns, savouring fine food, and visiting one of the local vineyards in Canada’s newest wine region.

Sunday, June 15 2014

Noon departure from Napanee for Picton

Departure is from the Waterfront River Pub and Terrace, 22 Water St. in Napanee

Lunch will be served onboard

6 pm arrival at Picton with transport to the elegant Merrill Inn for dinner and overnight stay [www.merrillinn.com]

Monday, June 16 2014 8 am–9 am … Breakfast

9 am … Bus pick up by Franklin Coach Lines [www.franklincoachlines.com]

9 am–1130 am … Heritage tour with local historian Peter Lockyer of History Lives Here Inc. [www.historyliveshere.ca]

1200 pm … Lunch at the Agrarian Restaurant, Bloomfield [www.AgrarianPEC.ca]

1 pm–2 pm … Shopping in the village of Bloomfield [www.bloomfieldontario.ca]

2:30–4 pm … Wine tasting at The Black Prince Winery [www.blackprincewinery.com]

4 pm … Bus transportation to Napanee

4:30–5 pm … Arrive Napanee

All bookings for this adventure cruise are through:

Brigantine Inc.,

53 Yonge St., Kingston, ON K7M 6G4

Tel.: 613 544–5175

Email: info@brigantine.ca

Website: www.brigantine.ca

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR HERITAGE – History Lives Here at the 2014 Economic Revitalization Conference

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR HERITAGE 

History Lives Here at the 2014 Economic Revitalization Conference

In recent years, The Monieson Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario has hosted an annual summit on rural economic development bringing together academics, economic development specialists, and government and private business stakeholders to share research and best practices.

At this year’s conference held April 8th at the Kingston Waterfront Holiday Inn, History Lives Here Inc. was invited to present the business case for heritage.  Key excerpts from our presentation re-stated our belief that rural communities across Canada are losing their built heritage and special places – the physical expression of the past – because old landmark buildings, barns, rural spaces, cemeteries, and museums are viewed as municipal loss leaders and “heritage beggars” rather than critical business assets within their communities. Matters will be become worse over the next five to ten years as many volunteer groups currently maintaining heritage properties age and become unable to continue this work. Municipalities should be concerned about the many implications of the aging demographics of their communities as many volunteer groups now raising money for a wide range of worthy community causes – including heritage preservation – will soon simply fade into the past.

That’s certainly the case in historic Prince Edward County, a community rich in history that is now a largely retirement area nestled along the northern shores of Lake Ontario. While there have been some restoration success stories as volunteers rallied to save historic properties, the fact is the community cannot save buildings as fast as it is tearing them down.  In 2010, an old Methodist Church built in 1875 along the Main Street of the community’s major centre of Picton, a town of 4,000 people, was torn down in a spectacular example of what can happen in the absence of any community vision and plan to maintain its heritage infrastructure. As horrified onlookers watched a demolition crew gut this graceful old building, municipal officials had no policy, no money, and no means to intervene. Years later, the site is now a vacant lot up for sale and there is still no heritage strategy in place in the community. And there are now other significant properties at risk with more to come.

Our solution is that communities develop a Heritage Economy, the concept that local history and heritage can be transformed into a suite of goods and services retailed to the world – bus and walking tours, specialty foods and drinks, crafts, conferences, festivals, antique shows, plays, videos, and other events, which celebrate local history while creating locally made products retailed online to heritage consumers.

There is a marketplace for history. Every month, 68 million people around the world Google the word “history”.  The History Channels in the United States and Canada exist as businesses linking advertisers with boomer consumers interested in history. Ancestry.com makes $28 million/month from its 1.7 million subscribers accessing the company’s extensive genealogical database. The small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania makes nearly $400 million annually and has created 5800 jobs from its yearly influx of three million visitors coming to hear the story of three days of history forged during the American Civil War in the 1860s. So why don’t we tell our stories to the world as an economic driver in our communities?

Over the last decade, History Lives Here has been working closely in our hometown of Prince Edward County to encourage new strategic partnerships for a collaborative community effort to celebrate our history and to kick – start the Heritage Economy. We have developed walking tours and are now expanding into bus and tall ship tours with local bus lines and Brigantine Inc. of Kingston, a non-profit organization operating a 70-foot square rigger, the St. Lawrence II. Beginning in June 2014 with a pilot tall ship adventure cruise to Picton, we plan to develop regular tall ship cruises between Kingston and Picton in 2015.

We have developed a fall/winter series on local history themes, and an annual video series called The History Moments, two-minute video vignettes on early settlement, first industries, prominent people and significant events, which have profoundly shaped the history of the area. The History Moments play before movies at local theatres, on regional television and cable stations, are broadcast online on the websites of sponsors and community partners, are distributed into area schools as learning resources, and retailed as DVDs at local shops. They are an important first heritage product in awakening the community to the history that is all around us.

Prince Edward County is Canada’s newest wine region. In partnership with the Black Prince Winery of Picton, we have developed History Lives Here wine, and we are working with our local artists and businesses to develop other heritage products. 

Heritage isn’t free. It’s come at an enormous cost to those who gone before us. I think we owe them something. We should remember them always, tell their remarkable stories, and we should be stewards of the past in our lifetimes. But we need to think bigger, act more boldly, and work together to develop a business that transforms the dormant asset in every community – our history and heritage – into a product line retailed to the world. Old approaches such as bottle drives, bake sales, and annual dinners with silent auctions will never raise the money required for heritage preservation. We need to develop a Heritage Economy.

MACDONALD PROJECT IN THE SPOTLIGHT AT THE ONTARIO LEGISLATURE

Members of the Macdonald Project Committee were introduced by Speaker David Levac at the Ontario Legislature on Wednesday, April 2, 2014 and received a standing ovation from MLAs for their project to celebrate the 200th birthday of Sir John A. Macdonald. 

The project will create a life-size statute of Canada’s first prime minister as a young man practicing law in Picton in the 1830s. The project has been prominently displayed in an exhibit in the lobby of the Ontario Legislature over the past few months featuring a head study of Macdonald created by artist Ruth Abernethy.

Committee members observed Question Period before being taken on an extensive tour of the Legislature followed by lunch with Speaker Levac in his private quarters. A former teacher and principal, Speaker Levac is the Liberal member from the Brantford area. He is an avid history fan who entertained committee members with stories from his riding of famous Canadians including the Massey and Cockshutt families who once ran major farm implement factories in the area.

The Macdonald Project Committee is now planning its next major event – a re-enactment of the infamous Lazier Murder Trial in 1884 to be held in the old courthouse in Picton on Friday, July 11th 2014 at 1:30.

Judge Robert Sharpe of the Ontario Court of Appeals, a Picton native and author of a book on the case, will be taking guests through key moments of the trial with the help of some of his legal colleagues. The trial resulted in a death sentence for two Prince Edward County men convicted of murder as part of a botched robbery attempt in Bloomfield during Christmas 1883. The two men were hanged a month later – the only two men ever to be hanged in Prince Edward County. A tour of the cells and gallows will follow the re-enactment as well as a reception at the nearby Macaulay Museum. The re-enactment is a fundraising event for the project.

Contact History Lives Here Inc. at 613 – 476-356 Email: historylivesheref@bell.net for ticket information.

Experiences | Product Development | Multimedia

History Lives Here Inc. provides archival research and editorial services, web content and design, creates heritage products such as tours, re-enactments, events, and experiences, and provides full-service communications and video production services.

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