THE FINAL CHAPTER: THE DIARY OF JOHNNY MOON - A CABIN AT WATER'S EDGE
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A WANDERER - THE ALLURE OF THE OPEN ROAD, A BRACEBRIDGE FOLK STORY
I HAVE READ THE MANUSCRIPT AT LEAST FIFTY TIMES SINCE I ACQUIRED THIS COPY, BACK IN THE EARLY 1990'S. EVER SINCE, I'VE TRIED TO LEARN AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, ABOUT THE WEE ENGLISHMAN, WHO ONCE LIVED IN A TINY SHANTY, ON THE BANK OF THE MUSKOKA RIVER, A SHORT DISTANCE FROM WILSON'S FALLS, ON RIVER ROAD. I HAD HEARD STORIES ABOUT JOHNNY MOON, AS FAR BACK AS MY FIRST SUMMER LIVING IN BRACEBRIDGE, WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN 1966. MY MATES HAD HEARD THE STORIES ABOUT THE FORMER BARNARDO BOY, FROM THEIR PARENTS OR GRANDPARENTS, WHO MAY HAVE EVEN KNOWN HIM, BACK WHEN HE CALLED BRACEBRIDGE HIS HOME TOWN. THEY SAID THERE WAS A GHOST CONNECTED TO THE STORY, AND, AS DID JOHNNY MOON IN HIS LIFE, THE APPARITION CAN BE SEEN IN A LEAKY OLD ROW BOAT, TRAVERSING BACK AND FORTH, THE BLACK WATER OF THE WINDING RIVER, ON LATE SUMMER EVENINGS, WHEN THE MOONLIGHT BEAMS DOWN, JUST RIGHT, OVER THE PINE VALLEY.
TODAY WE WILL LOOK AT THE FINAL FEW PAGES, FROM THE "DIARY OF JOHNNY MOON," WHICH IS ONLY PART OF WHAT HE MUST HAVE WRITTEN FORMALLY, IN HIS BIOGRAPHY. BUT ALAS IT IS ONLY COMPLETE UP TO 1926. THE ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN JOURNAL, WAS FOUND IN THE LITTLE SHANTY, HE HAD BUILT FROM RECYCLED WOOD, ALONG THE SHORE OF THE NORTH BRANCH, OF THE MUSKOKA RIVER, AND WAS TURNED OVER TO THE TOWN OF BRACEBRIDGE FOR SAFE-KEEPING IN THEIR ARCHIVES COLLECTION. IT IS AN IMPORTANT RELIC OF MUSKOKA, AND BRACEBRIDGE FOLK HISTORY, AND IT'S GREAT TO KNOW JOHNNY MOON'S STAKE IN OUR HISTORY, HAS BEEN PRESERVED FOR THE BENEFIT OF FUTURE GENERATIONS. JOHNNY, IT CAN BE SAID WITH CONSIDERABLE ACCURACY, HAD A DIFFICULT AND EMOTIONALLY TROUBLING LIFE, HAVING ARRIVED IN MUSKOKA INITIALLY, AS AN ELEVEN YEAR OLD LAD, COURTESY THE EMIGRATION PROGRAM OF DR. BARNARDO, AND HIS ORPHANAGES IN ENGLAND, IN THE LATE 1800'S. JOHNNY HAD LOST BOTH OF HIS PARENTS, EVEN BURYING HIS FATHER, FOLLOWING AN ACCIDENT, ON CHRISTMAS EVE. HIS STEP BROTHERS AND SISTERS COULDN'T AFFORD THE ADDED BURDEN OF LOOKING AFTER JOHNNY, SO HE WAS SENT TO THE BARNARDO HOME, AND THEY, IN TURN, SHIPPED HIM OFF TO CANADA, AS A LABOURER. ONE CAN IMAGINE HOW FRIGHTENED HE MUST HAVE BEEN, TO WATCH FROM THE SHIP, "LABRADOR," AS ENGLAND FADED FROM VIEW, ON HIS 1897 TRANS-ATLANTIC JOURNEY. WORKING ON A FARMSTEAD, NEAR BRACEBRIDGE, MUST HAVE ALSO BEEN A TREMENDOUS SHOCK TO THE PRE-TEEN, AND THE PHYSICAL DEMANDS OF THE WORK, HE WAS EXPECTED TO DO, A CRUEL INTRODUCTION TO NEW POTENTIAL IN A NEW LAND.
IF YOU HAVE JUST JOINED THIS STORY, YOU CAN CATCH-UP BY ARCHIVING BACK TO THE FIRST OF THIS WEEK. I HAVE ONLY QUOTED SMALL PASSAGES, AS THE MANUSCRIPT BELONGS TO THE TOWN OF BRACEBRIDGE. MOST OF THE CONTENT IS AN OVERVIEW OF THE TEXT. SOME NAMES WILL BE REMOVED DUE TO PARTICULAR FAMILY SENSITIVITIES TODAY; SOMETHING JOHNNY MOON DIDN'T WORRY ABOUT AT THE TIME. HE NEVER INTENDED FOR THE JOURNAL TO BE PUBLISHED, SO HE DID TAKE SOME LIBERTIES. WE RE-JOIN THE DIARY IN THE YEAR 1912.
He writes under the heading, "The Year 1912," that he had once again left the employ of the Albion Hotel. For lodgings, he turned back to the Banks family, who had moved to another location, after a serious flu outbreak some time previous. Johnny had actually been forced to move as a result of the quarantine, issued by the medical officer, as the flue had infected numerous residents of the boarding house. This time, he was living on James Street. There were the Banks family members, John and Mrs. Banks, Helen, Robert, Herbert and Agnes. He made money by doing odd jobs for homeowners, which seemed better for him, because of the short term he was locked-in, as he saw it as a sort of prison term. His biggest problem, of holding a job, was the long-term commitment, which frustrated him. During this period, he worked for Mr. Wallace, Mrs. Arnold, Mrs. Henry Bird, and Mr. Foulkes, of whom he was particularly fond. He was capable of hard work, and long hours, but his best performance was always short term. As he had problems with authority figures, and had a low threshold of tolerance, when it came to accepting criticism, or what he considered mean treatment, he had discovered part-time employment, and odd-jobs, far more comfortable.
Johnny, on his travels around the town, one day, heard a rumour about Mr. Tillson, being in the process of setting up a chicken farm in Bracebridge, on the north side, near the public school (not sure which one), and it sounded like something he could handle, as far as farm labour. He decided that instead of going to the tannery again, to seek work, he would go to where Mr. Tillson lived with his family, to enquire, in person, if there were any jobs available, at the new farm. As he was usually able to talk his way into employment, Mr. Tillson, who had been involved in the tannery business, was willing to give the young man a chance, and employment began immediately after. He claimed that this was a "turning point in his life." Some of you, reading on, past this point, will appreciate that Johnny was again, being overly optimistic. He did enjoy a longer relationship with the chicken farm, but he was continually being turned-out by the proprietor, without the words "laid off" being used. Johnny Moon was at his peak for the first week of employment, and then, depending on how bored he got, proprietor's would get the message that he wasn't a long-term kind of employee. Whether he was found sleeping on the job, or participating in any form of misconduct, isn't known. He did like working on the egg farm, which is important to note, because he didn't speak well of many of his former places of employment.
As was also his habit, he started to spend money after his first full day of work, feeling confident everything was finally going to work out; and he would have a fountain, of earned money, dropping into his lap. "On the evening of this same day, I made arrangements for purchasing a lot from Mr. Barron. Shortly after, I paid $20 down, the balance being $25., to be made in installments, and paid up by the 31st of October. Forty-five dollars was the total," he wrote in his journal. "Also I negotiated with Ed Buker to build a shack for me on the lot, me supplying lumber, and paying for the work done. Working on the farm, as I was, I had no time to do this myself. I think the shack was finished in July, and I left Banks and went to live there. I lived on my own lot for a couple of months, and then began to stay on, as such an arrangement was more convenient."
Johnny Moon lived in the little shack until it seemed a better situation, to live on the farm, "using the front part of the incubator house as living quarters. Such an arrangement was more convenient."
He enjoyed working on the farm for Mr. Tillson, especially the fact he could connect with visitors, who lived in and around the neighborhood, such as the Beatty family, and their son, Steve who was seven years old at the time. He had always found it easier to get along with children, and young adults, than those of his own age or older. Unfortunately, there were parents who felt uncomfortable with Johnny Moon getting too affectionate with their offspring. He was known to take them to movies and buying them candy treats, without consent of the parents. This would get him into trouble, as he used to write about in his journal.
In the early days of December, 1913, his old friend, Fred Foulkes, came back to Bracebridge, from where he was working, in Detroit. For a time, he was planning to work at his uncle John's Brackenrig farm. But it didn't appeal to him, and shortly after New Years, in January 1914, he had returned back to Detroit. It was in 1914, that Roy Beatty, had contracted spinal meningitis. Ed Hunt's boys had been stricken with much the same illness shortly before, one having died.
A devastating blow for Johnny Moon, came when one of his closes friends took ill, and succumbed. He pens into his journal, "One day, in the third week of April, the Kaye family, relations of the Foulkes, came on a visit to Tillson's Farm. Ruth Kaye came up to me where I was working, close by the long poultry house, at the rear of the place, and asked me if I was not going to see Fred?" Johnny hadn't heard about Fred coming home again, and looked surprised, at what may have been a reversal in his decision, to come back to Muskoka to work. "Then she (Ruth) told me he was dead, and they had brought him home. In a daze, I went down to the incubator house, changed my working coat for another, and went over to the Foulkes. Fred Foulkes died on the 15th of April, 1914. He had been recovering from sickness, when he fell and struck his head, the blow killing him. He was brought home from Detroit. He was nineteen years of age. He died on his birthday. He was born on the 15th of April, 1895. They buried him out at the Port Carling Cemetery; for a short distance, I followed the funeral procession, as far as the top of the hill at the north, west corner of town, above Monck School Road, and watched it till it passed beyond my sight. Then I returned to the farm. I had known him seven years, from the beginning of 1907 to 1914. In December 1906, I first saw him; the last of him, I saw in December 1913." He suffered a profound period of mourning for his good friend.
In the early part of July, 1914, Mr. Tillson fired Johnny from the chicken farm, without reason; or at least what the young diarist would write into his biography as a sudden dismissal. He moved back to his own shack, and for the two summer months, picked raspberries and sold them to Mrs. Beatty.
"In the last days of July and first part of August, 1914, the Great War broke out," he wrote. "In September I went back to Tillson's Farm, and was there until the last day of December, when he was once again, discharged from his position. "So ended the year 1914, a dramatic year for me, as for the world."
He comes to what is his final chapter, in this portion of the biography, and pens it all under the heading, "My Own Lot: Baysville Road, January 1915 - May 1923." He reports that he returned to his shack on Baysville Road, where he remained for the rest of the winter. He'd take occasional jobs at Leishman's Albion Hotel, for food money. In 1915 he got additional work with Fred Higgins, an owner of the Queen's Hotel, and was employed by the Grand Trunk, to clean the Bracebridge Train Station. Joe Willoughby was station master at this time. Johnny chummed around with his two you sons, Edgar and Gordon.
All the way now, to the 4th of February, 1922. In Johnny Moon's own words, "I took sick with the influenza. I went to see Dr. Grant. After examining me, he got me in at the British Lion Hotel, (corner of Dominion and Ontario Streets) which was still managed by Mrs. Sibbet. The hotel was being used as a hospital just then, as there was much sickness at that time in the country, and for that matter, the whole world; for this was the time of the big flu epidemic. I stayed at the British Lion Hotel, ten days. It was at this time that Bob Leishman's wife died. On the 14th of February, I staggered back home. I was still very weak. At this time I considered my prospects, sufficiently gloomy. First I was in debt to Mrs. Sibbett, for my hospital bill, at the British Lion Hotel. Secondly, I owed a bill to Dr. Grant, for his attendance, medicine, etc., thirdly, for the rest of the winter, I was going to need liquor for strength to pull me through, which under the prescription system, then in force, was going to be expensive. Also there was an item, which, although it had nothing to do with those matters, yet was serious enough. That was the future fuel problem. For up to that time, I had been using dry poles, deadwood, brush etc., from Barron's bush. But now it was practically cleaned out. I came to a decision. There was but one way out of the dilemma. I would sell my lot to Wilson, my nearest neighbor, and come down to the old abandoned road to live, down by the river."
Johnny pens in his journal, that the previous fall, in 1922, he had made a purchase, of a 15 foot rowboat from Jack Dunn, and brought it to the lot on the North Branch of the Muskoka River, between Wilson's Falls, and the Bass Rock Rapids. He received thirty dollars for his former lot. He tore down the shack Ed Buker had built for him, and hauled the wood on a cart, down to the river-front property. He then loaded the lumber and roofing materials into his row boat, to traverse the width of the river, to where he was building his new cabin. He began re-building it in May 1923. The bugs would have been epic at this time of the year, in this location (I know it well). He took up residence on this property in May, and he recalled it being bitterly cold, and snowing at the time. Not unusual in Muskoka.
Johnny writes of his cabin, with the following description: "The new shack was but a mere shell, being only single-boarded. therefore was cold. On morning of 25th, of May, it was so cold that I went to Keeler's Restaurant to get breakfast. I began using my boat in real earnest now. Crossed the river every day to downtown, that being the shortest way. I named my boat 'Kingfisher'."
He would return to work for Mrs. Sibbet, of the British Lion Hotel, and it would end as it did all the other times; he did not get along with the proprietor, and he did not like her management style. "I returned to my own home here, by the river,' he noted, as if it was his true safe haven. "I was thoroughly exasperated by things here."
In the early days of the summer, of 1925, Johnny Moon purchased a hand-crafted canoe from Art Leeder. His rowboat, the Kingfisher, had been damaged by the winter ice. There was no way to seal the cracks in the bottom, and it was taking on too much water, every time he crossed the river. At a purchase price of two dollars, Johnny called it "The Boglewump." It did prove too heavy to portage, but it met with all his normal, day to day needs.
There was a situation, at the end of the journal, involving a local family, and their young son, who Johnny developed a particular affection. I won't use the family name. Johnny would take the young boy to see movies in Bracebridge, and delighted in buying him treats before and after. His parents were unhappy with the attention he was affording the boy, and demanded he not come around any more. There was a substantial age difference, and really no reason for them to be friends in the first place. Their son was instructed likewise, and had been told he would be "skinned alive," if he was caught in his company ever again. Johnny couldn't stay away, and found many opportunities, when the boy's father was working at a camp, north of town, to make a visit to the family home.
On one particularly damning occasion, Johnny had employed Dr. Peter McGibbon, to have him see the boy, his young friend, who was having serious tonsil problems. His parents had refused to get him medical treatment, and this greatly annoyed the young Mr. Moon. The problem was real, and Dr. McGibbon prescribed the medicine to reduce the boy's suffering; but his parents were outraged by this unwanted intervention. Once again, Johnny was ordered to stay away from their son, and off their property. On the day the boy was travelling with his father, on the northbound train, to the Burk's Falls area, for reasons or employment, the man caught a glimpse of Johnny Moon, far down the train platform, watching as his little friend boarded the train. It ends, with the young Mr. Moon, travelling after him, some time later, and following a train trip to Utterson Station, walked all the way to a Sand Lake farm, where the boy and his father were working. Heart breaking in its own way, one can't help feeling sorry for the wanderer, Johnny Moon, who had never really grown out of his childhood, dating back to those first eleven years as a doted-upon child, in England. There is no evidence that he had any other intentions with these boys, other than to share some of the childhood he had been robbed of, by circumstances, first of his parents's deaths, and then his subsequent fobbing-off, to Dr. Bernardo's homes, which by itself guaranteed he was going to be sent to Canada, for work placement. He wound up on a Bracebridge area farm at eleven years old. It is somewhat understandable that his life was frozen in time; except the hard realities of every day life. He was afterall, a dreamer. A wanderer. A kindred spirit with all the creatures who dwelled and interacted with him, at his riverside shack, for many years, residing in this nook of forest, not far from the urban area of Bracebridge.
This portion of the journal was signed-off, officially by Johnny Moon, on Sunday, the 5th of July 1926.
It is suggested Johnny Moon died sometime in the 1950's, while institutionalized in Peterborough, Ontario. It is understood that in 1949, that he was receiving a pension for his blindness, which likely explains his being institutionalized.
Thank you so much for joining this extended series of blogs, about Johnny Moon, an odd little character, who is very much a part of the folk history of Bracebridge, and the wider Muskoka, he often travelled day and night, through the four seasons.
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