There are many stories that could be told as part of the city’s Centennial Celebration this year. The upcoming April 14th ceremony recognizing the official provincial legislation that incorporated the City of North Bay in 1925 will likely include the most famous people and events.
Countless tales, some well documented and others that could use additional information for a fresh retelling, are featured in museums, libraries and media archives while others are only stored on the branches of family trees.
All that is needed is a spark and the storytelling flickers into a flame.
Last month’s Then and Now instalment included a photo of the 1909 North Bay town council members, one of whom was A.C. Syer, the Great Grandfather of Margo Walton (nee Christie), who said the photo brought to life her own ancestral roots.
“He and his wife Margaret owned and operated a bakery, which I believe is where G2GO is right now, across from the Pro-Cathedral,” she wrote in an email. “His wife back in the day was scorned for working in the shop with him and actually on a very equal level. My Mother told me they were both ahead of their time.”
Margo Walton also noted the reference in the article to R.Y. Angus, adding that he and his brother were architects who designed the Pro-Cathedral and original North Bay Public Library, which was torn down to build the present day City Hall. Another of their projects is the still-standing Angus Building (on the north side of Fraser Street, just behind the Bank of Nova Scotia.
There’s a host of story ideas in W.K.P. Kennedy’s book, North Bay – Past-Present-Perspective published in 1961, which compiles the city’s history, including the activities of elected bodies such as council and other public groups, complete with lists of service club members and business owners.
On Page 55, a summary of the 1925 council is found, topped by the plan to celebrate its incorporation with an ‘Old Boys’ Reunion’ on the first weekend of August. The council was led by Mayor J.H. McDonald and the finance committee recommended he be paid a salary of $1,000 and councillors $200. There was a $5 fine if you didn’t stay until the end of the council session, unless you were granted leave.
Among the interesting notes, aside from the Township of West Ferris adjusting its water rate to read 18 cents per 1,000 gallons, is the resolution “to see that the heroic act of Randolph Kerr, saving the life of Robert Leishman in Lake Nipissing, receive suitable recognition. That’s a story begging for more detail and it would be kind if someone helped find it for a future piece about the city’s historical links to the present.
The city’s population topped 14,000 a century ago and its boundaries encircled 2,100 acres. Michael Barnes’ book, Gateway City, The North Bay Story published in 1982, noted the inaugural city celebration had so many events that a large booklet was needed to list them all.
“Each day honoured such themes as the North, Soldiers, Children, Old Timers, the Railways and so on,” he wrote, adding; “John Ferguson presided over parades, sports and events for all tastes.”
The Old Home Week brochure called him “…an animated steam engine in trousers.”
“Prosperity in North Bay at the quarter century was the order of the day … job opportunities were so plentiful that men were even sent from Toronto to the local unemployment office to obtain work in area lumbering.”
Things were pretty good as the city began to plan its 50th anniversary in 1975. The city was “booming” with the assessment topping $75 million the year before and the standard of living was above the national average with construction above $22 million.
Judge McDonald, who was Mayor McDonald five decades prior, traveled from his bench in Sault Ste. Marie, to re-enact the reading of the city charter as he did in 1925. Also adding to his North Bay status, Roy Thomson gave $50,000 toward the football field in the park named in his honour. (The football field itself is named in honour of Rollie Fisher)
But the Golden Anniversary was marred by the jail escape by Donald Kelly, commandeering a car, and with rifle in hand, eluded police for 30 days beginning Aug. 2.
The manhunt deserves its very own full-length article, with a retrospect starring OPP tracking dog Cloud II (already a national icon) with handler Const. Ray Carson.
When they found Kelly near Wahnapitae, Ont., Cloud II was killed by gunfire and a legend was made.
Barnes, who wrote the book in 1982 for the North Bay District Chamber of Commerce to mark the 100th anniversary of founding the Town of North Bay in 1882, brought attention to an interesting tidbit about a song that was popular in the 1920s.
‘Masculine women! Feminine men!
Which is the Rooster? Which is the Hen?’…
“Did it foretell the way of life often discussed today?” Barnes asked 43 years ago.
How times have not really changed that much.
Editor’s note: The previous Then and Now feature initially had a reference to historian, columnist and author Hartley Trussler as the namesake of the J.W. Trusler School, which was named after a school board official who helped found Nipissing University. A reader pointed out the mistake and the reference was removed from the story.
