WHAT CHARLIE WILSON TAUGHT ME ABOUT HISTORY - CHALLENGE, CHANGE AND THE CIVIL WAR
I so very much wanted to arrange a meeting between my old historian-friend Charlie Wilson, of Wilmington Delaware, and my historian-buddy, Tom Brooks, of Gravenhurst. Charlie was enthralled by the study of the American Civil War, and I often regaled him with stories about discussions I’d enjoyed with Tom Brooks, a truly dedicated and accomplished Civil War historian, living in our midst here in Gravenhurst. I hold Tom in high esteem, as both a writer and historian, and I would have loved the opportunity to sit in the middle of a conversation between these two “storied” gentleman. Now that would have been “historic” even for an historian like me! As a journalist Charlie had front line experience dealing with many breaking news events, covering a wide range of actuality, from race conflicts to large scale protests, politics and just about anything else a reporter on the beat might find front page material. In his elder statesman years he became a stalwart archivist.....and a good one. And he loved to talk about his latest research projects. I just salivated at the opportunities he was being offered, to go deeper and deeper into his state’s heritage.
Charlie and I got together as researchers, originally on a topic far from the battle for Little Round Top at Gettysburg. In fact, we were pulled together by a mutual friend / employer. It was back in the mid-1990's when I was employed with Charlie to help research a sports biography of Roger Crozier, of Bracebridge, formerly of the Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and the Washington Capitals. I had written a small feature publication on Roger’s hockey career, back in 1994 or so, and it appealed to the folks where the former all-star goalie was working at the time. Roger invited me to participate on the larger book project. It was being promoted by MBNA, where Roger was a senior executive. Charlie, a well respected former journalist, outstanding researcher, was also put on the project from the Wilmington side. For a couple of years we corresponded three or four times each week, and after the research was completed, we still kept up our calls and emails. When Charlie did come up for a visit, we didn’t have much time to do anything but work, not enough time to pull together a decent social meeting with Tom. I thought Charlie would be a regular visitor up here. Things happen, you see. Unfortunate things that change our plans.
While we were supposed to be working on Roger’s bio, we did borrow a bit of time to talk about history, journalism and particularly the heritage of the Civil War. Suzanne and I have long been smitten by the movie “Gettysburg,” of which Tom played a re-enactment role, on the side of the South (Tom’s soldier character is actually mortally wounded twice in battle .....but that’s Hollywood.) He signed our copy of the video. I’m not an expert on the Civil War but I love listening to historians speak of the battles, and events that changed the direction of the war......and the course of history. One evening I was able to arrange for Tom to speak as part of the lecture series, at the Muskoka Lakes Museum, in Port Carling, and I can honestly say, the audience was spellbound.....learning just how many British subjects, Canadians, had enlisted in the American battle between the North and the South. I love an event, as such, when people appear to be honestly amazed by what they hear, and learn about......miles upon miles from the truth they had long believed about Canadians,......which they had wrongly assumed were only reading about the conflict from afar. Versus being hale and hardy soldiers in the great marches and charges, having participated in so many landmark battles. I’ve never run into Tom that he hasn’t engaged me in some short, meaningful discussion, that I think to myself, when we part, I need to know more. Much more. And if, like my critics argue, I am pompous and arrogant as an historian, he is so much the opposite; so much more accomplished and confident with the vast amount of information he possesses of life and lives past in that Civil War context. It is what any historian should aspire to, and be willing to dedicate to research, and understanding, for any subject of special interest.
Charlie Wilson came into my life, at a time, when I was admittedly at that proverbial crossroads. I realized that I needed to possess the enthusiasm, to invade a subject area, live it, chase it down, devour it. If, that is, I wanted to know my topic in its most intricate and dimensional sense. Not just from one angle or two but from every conceivable vantage point. I had to drop pre-conceived notions. I had to appreciate fully that my understanding of certain historical events could be drastically over-thrown by in-depth, no-holds barred research, time and education. Both Tom, without knowing it, and Charlie, who must have suspected he was actually tutoring me, with all my questions, taught me about the relevance of total immersion,...... in order to truly understand something as amazing and complicated as the battles of the Civil War. A lot of what I had done, to that point, was history by sideline reporting. I was good at pouring through the books and documents. There were so many aspects of history that had to be experienced by standing on the spot, where for example, soldiers fell by the hundreds, and rapid-fire explosions tore open the earth. Places where flags fell and were raised again, drums kept the cadence of the charge, and death and heroics were more often than not, one and the same. I had, you see, been an armchair historian to that point. These two gallant gents, who understood the battle cry, the charge, the fallen, the victors, and the victory, had very much influenced me to become involved in the history I was writing and representing.
I took projects, like the study of artist Tom Thomson, back to the lakes of Algonquin. Traversing the same waters as Thomson did, until his death in July 1917 (Canoe Lake). Hiking the same portages, fishing in the same bodies of water.....even standing on the rocks below the Tea Lake dam, to witness some of the wild splendor he’d experienced in those Algonquin years. I stood on points of land where Thomson had been known to stop and sketch, and I sat out on cold autumn nights watching the Northern Lights, just as he had sketched out in the open, being romanced, haunted by the elements he was trying to capture on his paint boards. I went to the location on the lake where his body was found, and I stood up by the memorial cairn, on Hayhurst Point, at Mowat, where he was known to paint. There was nothing written, researched, or illustrated, that could have been more poignant an experience, than being part of that Algonquin spirit, in order to understand what motivated his creativity.....what stirred his emotion. I would stay out as long as I could, during a legendary Algonquin storm, to feel the fear and trembling awe inspires, when the tumult of black clouds, gale force wind and cauldron whitecaps boiled on the lake. Lightning flashes went crashing deep into the earth.
I know Tom Brooks has stood, like Charlie Wilson did in his life, on some of the most memorable pieces of American landscape, important to the events of the Civil War. If there are such things as ghosts, then these two historians would have known them intimately, as the spirited, poetic remnants of a terrible war. And with their immense knowledge, could hear the distant thunder of a long ago battle.....see the same field strewn with the colors of two armies, the bodies of the fallen, the dead and wounded, and the great vision of catastrophe.....of a hell on earth. It was sharing their knowledge of the Civil War, and War in general, that changed my approach, my opinion, about the responsibilities of an historian to abandon arrogance and stubbornness, to respect, and learn instead from the ongoing discoveries of others.......and to never resign oneself that every shred of information has been revealed. The book must remain a work in progress.
I got a call one day, while writing at this same keyboard. It was another friend from MBNA who told me Charlie had passed away suddenly, the evening before. An important mentor was gone. The meeting I had hoped to instigate could never happen. Of this I was devastated. I wondered later, if this had been selfish of me. It was a meeting for my benefit I supposed, because of my admiration for these two military historians, and the wisdom they possessed. I do think they would have become good friends over time, even though their viewpoints and interpretations may have widely differed. While I’ve been an active Muskoka historian for more than thirty years, I know that in their company, I would have been a mere student.... but an attentive one. Appreciating now just how much I didn’t know......and how deficient I was as a result......and how fettered it made me feel, as an historian, to be so lacking in knowledge of these important world events. The Civil War was a glaring example. I was astonished at how little I knew when I first met these chaps. I was a good local historian but crappy in all places beyond. Muskoka’s history was hinged to all other histories. I had some upgrading to do!
It has taken me quite a few years to write about Charlie Wilson. He died not long after another chum / mentor of mine, Dave Brown......I adjusted to the news of his passing by writing a biography. For Charlie, suffice to say that I have been left with many fond memories. Remembrance of so many in-depth discussions about war and peace. Especially the appreciation of how keen he was to learn more, and see everything he could of life. I have known few visionaries in my life thus far but his fascination for continuous learning, with rare future-mindedness, was a characteristic I have embraced whole-heartedly..
When at times my opinions seem harsh and holier than thou, and my embrace of historic precedents and events seems staunchly entrenched, and unmovable, in respect to my mentors in this field, in reality, I am never beyond correction or re-education on any subject.....and welcome new information about any subject. I would rather embrace truth and reality, no matter how shocking and opinion re-setting, than remain perpetually fettered by ignorance. If I am particularly hard on those I have faith in, to lead and represent us, whether on a municipal council or a particular committee, it comes with good intent. The failure to embrace reality in favor of delusion, is a demon I’ve had to face many times. The way to move forward constructively is to companion with a critical approach......that commands a full appreciation of all sides of an equation, a problem, an initiative, in order to understand its true dynamic. I see this often in public life, when elected officials and civic representatives, prefer to position themselves away from uncomfortable realities, versus confronting them and making corrections based on sensible proportion. It’s the clear result from hearing what they want to hear, seeing things as they prefer, and positioning themselves in a safe zone as a means of self protection. Reality, as time, waits for no one. I’ve never known propaganda to have ever won over the rigors of truth and reality.
I wish for all those officials, who embrace status quo, to appreciate that it is impossible to find safe haven for long, from issues that will define us in the future. While the kind of change I write about, must seem dramatic and almost crazy to some, it seems to me a far greater ill, to refuse to budge when the flood of change arrives at our doorstep......as the first drops now appear.
I’ve spent a lot of time studying this town. I’ve watched a huge change in the home district since we arrived here, as a family in 1966. Some of it has been frightening. Some of it has been welcome, and a boon to the local economy. Other development has adversely changed the landscape for decades and longer. Maybe it is a battle with the future that I see, from my front-line experiences, and what I fear, is that while we should be prepared for development surge, we are still mired in petty squabbles, and fettered ridiculously by hard feelings and a long antiquated status quo.
I have studied for decades as an historian. I am my own harshest critic. I pay attention to those I believe know more, and are better informed. I am a messenger. Not a philosopher. I sometimes see our town as a future battlefield of values......economic, environmental, where there will be many future clashes about the transition of Muskoka into a new suburbia.....a trend, that to some watchers, has already had a twenty year head-start. Huge new urban stresses will challenge political, economic, and environmental will in the coming ten years. The problems of the downtown business sector will pale in comparison, to the behemoth of new investment initiatives that will be coming from the urban jungle. As I’ve written about before, there is no alternative to enlightenment. As Charles Dickens prophetically noted, the new vested interest of the expanding industrial revolution, would change the world forever......and those who opted to remain loyal to the old ways, would die out with them. Time waits for no man!
This may seem a far stretch from an opening discussion of the American Civil War, and the kindnesses bestowed this historian by two knowledgeable chaps.....but it is my own guidepost in ongoing work as a local historian......and while it is not the study of war.....it is the examination of the rigors of change upon us all, that affect our actions and re-actions; our disconnect at times with what can happen when reality is of lesser concern than a protocol respected. Reality needs to be embraced in this town before it’s too late, and an even greater wave of change is forced upon us.......
I don’t expect local politicians and committee executives, to all of a sudden embrace a local historian, and thank them for all the due diligence they’ve performed for all of these decades......the kind of work that ensures we have knowledge of how history has etched and sculpted who we are today, and the character of the town and district in which we dwell. But believe me, one of the most interesting conversations you can have, is with someone who has a passion for knowledge, and has never equated money with the ambition....... to be good at the task of respecting and representing times past. And if you ask them, well, they can predict the future.....based on their knowledge from then to now and beyond.
My lack of respect for certain outdated protocols, my bluntness, and unapologetic high regard for criticism, doesn’t make me a cuddly, “says nice things” member in good standing of any mutual admiration society. Seeing as I’m not the flattering sort, just to make others feel good with pleasant chatter, I don’t get invited to parties.....ever. I’m good with that! Yet every now and again, I will run into a kindred spirit, (also not invited to parties) who knows the allure of the unknown, and the rabid curiosity of discovery. Folks who would like to re-enact history a lot, because they feel bloody short-changed about missing such important world events.......just because they were born too late.
ADVENTURES OF A PAPER SLEUTH - HUGH P. MACMILLAN
A MAN WORTH KNOWING - A FREE LANCE ARCHIVIST, HISTORIAN, ADVENTURER
"MUCH OF MY LIFE HAS BEEN DRIVEN BY A FASCINATION WITH GLENGARRY COUNTY AND ITS HISTORY. THAT FASCINATION EXTENDS BACK TO THE 1930'S, AND 1940'S, WHEN MY FATHER, A PRESBYTERIAN PREACHER, MADE THE PILGRIMAGE BACK TO HIS ROOTS IN GLENGARRY EVERY SUMMER. STARTING IN MY TEENS, I TOOK NOTES FROM THE REMINISCENCES OF MY GRANDMOTHER, WHO DIED IN 1942. OVER TIME, THIS INTEREST EVOLVED INTO A UNIQUE CAREER IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH, WHICH CONTINUES TO THIS DAY."
THE PASSAGE ABOVE WAS WRITTEN BY MY FRIEND HUGH MACMILLAN, A CANADIAN HISTORIAN WHO CHANGED MY LIFE. HE OPENED DOORS IN THINKING AND AMBITION, I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW I HAD. THERE IS SOMETHING ENDEARING ABOUT THE CRUSTY, SOMETIMES CRANKY OLD CHAP, THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO FOLLOW HIM ALL OVER THE PLACE….BECAUSE YOU JUST KNOW, HE WILL BE EMBARKING ON SOME INCREDIBLE ADVENTURE, AS A PAPER SLEUTH, AND THAT WITH HUGH, THE ONLY TRUE DOWN TIME FROM RESEARCH, IS WHEN HE SLEEPS. I'M PRETTY SURE, FOR HIM, IT DOESN'T STOP THERE EITHER. I PONDERED ONCE TO SUZANNE, IF GOD KNEW HOW MANY QUESTIONS HUGH HAD ASKED IN HIS LIFETIME, THUS FAR. IT HAS TO BE QUADRUPLE THAT OF THE MOST LONG-SERVING FRONT-LINE REPORTER, WORKING FOR THE DAILY PRESS. MOST OF HUGH'S ENGAGING CONVERSATIONS, THAT I'VE BEEN PRIVILEGED TO BE A PART, POSSESS THE CLEAR AND CALCULATED INFUSION OF QUESTIONS MARKS……BECAUSE HE'S VERY INTERESTED IN YOUR STORY……ESPECIALLY FAMILY HISTORY. IT'S FACT, THAT I HAVE NEVER MET A MORE ENQUIRING, INQUISITIVE PERSON, ANYWHERE ELSE ON THIS PLANET. AND WELL, APPARENTLY THE QUEST FOR ANSWERS RUBBED OFF…..WHICH BELIEVE ME, I CONSIDER A VERY GREAT HONOR. AND WHEN SOMEONE GRIMMACES, A TAD ANNOYED, WHY I ASK SO DAMN MANY QUESTIONS…..I JUST SMILE TO MYSELF, AND SOFTLY WHISPER A LITTLE "THANK YOU HUGH," TO MY ASSOCIATE IN HISTORY.
"AT 16 I LEFT HOME, LIED ABOUT MY AGE AND TRIED TO JOIN THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE. MY FATHER MUST HAVE INTERVENED, AS THE AIR FORCE SENT ME BACK TO SCHOOL. I DID SUCCEED IN VOLUNTEERING FOR THE INFANTRY, BUT MY ARMY CAREER WAS EQUALLY UNDISTINGUISHED. I DIDN'T GET OVERSEAS, AND THE PINNACLE OF MY MILITARY CAREER MUST HAVE OCCURRED SOMETIME BEFORE I GOT MYSELF BUSTED FROM SERGEANT BACK TO PRIVATE. HAVING SIGNED UP IN THE HOPE OF FIGHTING THE JAPANESE IN 1945, THE ONLY ACTION I SAW WAS CHASING JAPANESE FIRE BALLOONS IN A JEEP WITH A BREN GUN DURING WEAPONS TRAINING IN THE MOUNTAINS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA," WRITES HUGH MACMILLAN OF HIS YOUTH. WHEN THE WAR ENDED, I ASKED FOR A DISCHARGE AND WENT BACK TO SCHOOL. I SIGNED UP FOR SOME COLLEGE COURSES IN ENGLISH AND ACCOUNTING. AFTER A YEAR'S STUDY, I HAD A PASSING GRADE IN ENGLISH AND A FAILURE IN ACCOUNTING. I LEFT SCHOOL FOR A JOB IN MONTREAL, AS OFFICE GOPHER WITH A DUTCH EXPORT FIRM. WHEN I DISCOVERED THAT THE MANAGER WAS SHAFTING THE OWNERS, I LED AN OFFICE REVOLT BY THE THREE EMPLOYEES, AND THE OFFENDING MANAGER FIRED ME FORTHWITH."
HE NOTES, "THE SUMMER OF 1947 WAS SPENT WORKING ON MY UNCLE'S GLENGARRY FARM, CONTEMPLATING MY NEXT MOVE. TO STAY AND HELP RUN THE FAMILY FARM, WAS AN APPEALING OPTION, PARTLY BECAUSE OF MY NEW INTEREST IN FAMILY HISTORY. BUT I ALSO CRAVED ADVENTURE, SO I JOINED A TWO MONTH HARVEST EXCURSION IN SASKATCHEWAN, STOOKING GRAIN AND DRIVING A TEAM OF HORSES HAULING SHEAVES TO THE THRESHER. MOVING ON WEST, I SPENT TWO MONTHS ON A CATTLE RANCH IN ALBERTA, THEN OUT TO THE PACIFIC COAST. I WAS NOW TAKING A CORRESPONDENCE COURSE ON WRITING. IN VANCOUVER I THOUGHT OF GOING TO SEA AND WRITING AT THE SAME TIME, IN THE TRADITION OF JACK LONDON, JOSEPH CONRAD AND RICHARD HENRY DANA. MY TIMING WAS BAD. THERE WAS A SEAMAN'S STRIKE IN PROGRESS, SO I HAD TO SETTLE FOR A COASTAL TOWBOAT, ON WHICH I STARTED AS A DECKHAND. SO MUCH FOR WRITING THE NEXT 'MOBY DICK."
"IN ONE RESPECT, MY TIMING WAS VERY GOOD. IN VANCOUVER I MET AND MARRIED MURIEL DIVER, WHO HAD COME FROM MONTREAL TO ATTEND THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. IN 1952 WE WENT BACK TO THE GLENGARRY FARM. MY TRUE INTEREST LAY IN FAMILY AND LOCAL HISTORY, BUT THAT PURSUIT PAID NO BILLS. NOT HAVING A UNIVERSITY DEGREE, I WAS IN NO POSITION TO TEACH. I HELD A SUCCESSION OF JOBS NOTABLE MORE FOR THEIR VARIETY THAN THEIR FINANCIAL YIELD. CAR-TOP CARRIERS (JUST AS THE KOREAN CRISIS EMBARGOED SUPPLIES OF STEEL TO THE MANUFACTURER), LIFE INSURANCE (THE LAST REFUGE OF THE MAN WHO HAS NOT UTTERLY GIVEN UP THE HOPE OF AN INCOME) AND FARMING ITSELF (THE FIRST STEP ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY FROM EXPECTING TO MAKE A LIVING), ALL WERE DOOMED TO FAILURE. MEANWHILE, MURIEL TAUGHT SCHOOL BETWEEN RAISING AND CARING FOR OUR FOUR CHILDREN. HER CONTRIBUTION TO THE FAMILY FINANCES ENABLED ME TO SPEND TIME ON HISTORICAL RESEARCH. EVENTUALLY MY INTEREST IN FAMILY HISTORY FOUND A FOCUS IN THE FIELD OF DOCUMENTS AND ARCHIVES. I HAD BEGUN NOTING COLLECTIONS OF PAPERS IN GLENGARRY THAT WERE IN PRIVATE HANDS, AND IN MANY CASES IN IMMINENT PERIL OF DESTRUCTION. I WAS ABLE TO TAKE SOME OF THESE PAPERS TO THE PUBLIC ARCHIVES OF CANADA IN NEARBY OTTAWA, KEEPING COPIES FOR MYSELF TO USE IN A COLUMN I WAS WRITING FOR THE GLENGARRY NEWS. THEN, THANKS TO THE SUPPORT OF DONALD FRASER MCOUAT, I HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO PIONEER IN A NEW JOB THAT I HELPED CREATE, LIAISON OFFICER FOR THE ARCHIVES OF ONTARIO. THIS I FOUND TO BE REMARKABLE BECAUSE I WAS ACTUALLY GOING TO BE PAID TO LOCATE AND ACQUIRE PAPERS!"
ON THE PAPER TRAIL ACROSS CANADA
"Moving to Toronto, in 1963, was not easy, since our family had long established roots in Glengarry (dating back to 1802), and my lack of success in making a living from the farm of my ancestors was particularly poignant. But in a way, my father's peripatetic career as a minister had helped ease the separation. After all, only one of his children had been born in Glengarry, and it wasn't me. Besides, I was now in the happy position of being able to convert my hobby to a paying job. i came to terms with the fact that I was not a farmer," writes Hugh MacMillan. "My agenda for this new and untried line of work began without guidelines or direction from the Archives of Civil Service procedures as there had never been such a position before. I decided, and McOuat agreed, that I would set my own guidelines, following the precepts of any skilled salesman. I kept in close contact with my Eastern Ontario history buffs and gradually built a network across the province. I continued to gather family history information in the form of documents, both originals and copies, and combined it with the recording of oral history. Along my career path I unearthed many stories that relate to my Glengarry relatives. While every family's history is unique, every family has a history. Each is worth knowing, for the knowledge it gives depth to the lives of every member of the family and their understanding of why they are where they are in life. I have been in the privileged position for much of my life, of seeing how my family history intersects with the history of Ontario, the history of northern and western Canada, and even the West Indies! I have related disjointed bits on occasions and through the years, no doubt, boring some while delighting others. The rest of this chapter places these anecdotes together for the first time, hopefully putting me into my own historical context. Like many Scottish families, mine has spelled its name with joyous inconsistency as MacMillan or McMillan as while and fashion took it."
"In the employee lunchroom of Canada's National Archives there is a figured mug for sale. The face on the cup is that of Sir Arthur Doughty, the second Dominion Archivist and a legend among Canadian archivists. Sir Arthur made his name by the aggressive and ingenious methods he used to acquire historically important papers for Canada, whose collections were then in a state of infancy. Hugh P. Macmillan, the first field officer in the history of the Archives of Ontario, has created a method of archival acquisition which is broadly based on what he calls 'reverse genealogy.' It is a recipe for saving history, and stands in the best tradition of Sir Arthur and this of his table, so to speak," wrote David G. Anderson, a friend, from Williamstown, Glengarry County, in 2004. "If we 'reverse engineer,' the material that Hugh P. serves forth in this, his present book, we can savor the recipe as well. First, take a generous large hearted interest in other people, and their stories. Pay no heed to race, religion or gender, but do use them to enhance the flavor of the results - this from a man whose personal library has a long shelf labelled 'social justice.' Listen carefully in history. Knead relentlessly on said connection until it starts to leaven."
He writes of his friend, "The seeking (and finding) of good subjects involves a preparation time: become richly read in history and biography; contrive to sketch out a family tree and walk, write or telephone your way down the disparate branches thereof. At all times follow the trail of the family story and find who got the papers, portraits or artifacts. Never give up. once on to the scent, take van (or Caravan) and show up on doorstep. Engage subject in purposeful conversation, even through the crack in the door if the situation calls for it. Brush aside protestations that 'the attic is a mess,' or that they 'need time to go through the boxes.' Give receipts, tax credits, or in extremes, money, and get the material in its rough state back home to the professional archivists, the sedentary guard, if you will (to use a fine old term from the War of 1812). Before leaving, break bread with the new friend, and continue to be such a natural good companion that the proffered spare bed of the host is impossible to refuse. Never forget a name of a genealogy. Return when next in neighborhood and bring forth more and more connections to add to the intricate living web of characters, friends, papers and history. Through it all, keep a wife of abiding good sense (Muriel) and a family of international extent. There are no secret ingredients in the MacMillan method, but a few have mastered it or served it up as well as our friend Hugh P."
This was published in the text of "Adventures of a Paper Sleuth - Hugh MacMillan," published in 2004 by Penumbra Press, of Canada. Hugh sent me a signed copy, and it is one of my favorite reads, especially when I'm about to head out on my own "paper hunt," here in Muskoka. While I have no affiliation with the federal or provincial archives, I do use any historical documents, journals, diaries, and other published histories, as reference for our numerous research projects we are hired to work on, and compose into text, each year……including for publishing on this blog site. It was Hugh MacMillan and his old buddy and book-hound Dave Brown, who gave me so many incredibly important tutorials, while staying here, about not only document hunting and gathering, but pouring over the paper mountains, until weak-eyed and exhausted, to piece together the family tree. Suzanne, the host of these social / historical get-togethers, here at Birch Hollow, owes her present progress on our own family history, to the advice given by this historian's historian. You don't talk hockey when MacMillan drops by. He's not too interested in golf either, or curling, which you may find odd for a Great Scot……but when it comes to discussing historical matters of this country, let me tell you…..it's like being in a voyageur's canoe, whipping over the rapids, spray in your face, singing and laughing in the imminent reality of rocks and undertow, fast water and sunken logs. We might just be sitting by the hearth here at Birch Hollow, but when Hugh's spinning one of his stories, by golly, it's like you're right there in the midst of all the trial and tribulation of nation-building. You can't use the word "passionate" to describe his mission to know it all…..about our heritage. That would be to minimize his focus and interest. It's far more durable and dynamic than just passion for what he has done most of his working life.
When my book collector colleague, and Outdoor Education teacher friend, Dave Brown would show up, usually just after Hugh had left, (once with historian Ed Phelps), he would have to find a way of outperforming his contemporary, by taking Suzanne and I on an even grander historical odyssey……at hearthside, to the brink of my heart actually stopping…..like the birch bark canoe getting stuck on a dead-head at the brink of a great cataract, only in Dave's description, to get freed, and paddled safely to the shore without flying over the cliffside in a spray of white-water. These were the precious moments we had with two of this province's amazing historians……although they probably never referred to themselves in this way. Both men loved heritage discussions, and with a bottle of wine, some good food, and a some reason to reach back into their bag of anecdotes and untold adventures…..well sir, we never wanted those evening tutorials to end. The miles these chaps had canoed. The miles they had walked. The rare books and documents they had held in their hands. The treasures they had uncovered. The realities of history, their relentless sleuthing, gave us, as new historical fact, oh so many discoveries. Hugh MacMillan in particular, with his discovery of important, previously unknown and unacknowledged historical record, changed the previously accepted chronicle…….and brought about a new awareness about the relevance of critical thinking, and the pursuit of accurate records……no matter where, or under what pile of debris, they might be found.
I was a book and paper hunter-gatherer, and historian before I met Hugh MacMillan and David Brown. I became a much more proficient, better educated paper sleuth, having benefitted from their informal mentorship. I became more efficient and enterprising as an historian, and I learned how to follow-up leads, and carry-on with investigation, even after the assumption there was nothing left to uncover. Let's just say, I found out what they meant, about never taking "no" for an answer.
Tomorrow I would once again like to re-visit this fascinating biography, and explain a little bit more about what a paper sleuth, and free lance archivist does out there on the hustings. So please visit me again tomorrow for part two of this fascinating story. You will probably be able to find a copy of this book, by visiting the Advanced Book Exchange online, and entering the author and book title. We are active buyers on the ABE link, and have been well served by the member booksellers, specializing in out of print and antiquarian books.
"For more than 25 years, Hugh has roamed the highways, attics and basements of Ontario, seeking out the often forgotten, usually unappreciated treasures of our documentary heritage. Combining the skills of a great detective with patience and tenacity, he has been infectious, enlisting the help of many in the cause, and triumphing over bureaucracy and indifference. His achievements have been real and numerous. His exploits, though are the stuff of legend." The passage above was written, about Hugh, by Ian R. Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada, circa 2004.
No comments:
Post a Comment