Rare Books On Sainte Marie Among The Hurons and What A Great Story About Huronia

IN TOUCH WITH HISTORY - AND READING ABOUT THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO DOCUMENTED IT FOR OUR NATION'S BENEFIT

A GOOD OLD BOOK, DOUBLED SIGNED BY TWO HISTORIANS, WHO HELPED BRING SAINTE-MARIE AMONG THE HURONS BACK TO THE FUTURE

PART ONE

     There are times, when I find a treasure, at some antique venue or other, that I give the appearance of being more stunned than usual. Comatose while standing. Well, not really but it sure looks that way. Suzanne knows when I've found something, we call a "sleeper" which in the antique profession are those pieces that have a greater value, than the amount, a dealer assessed, when making out the price tag. It's pretty common. This is very much the case, that acquired expertise in a particular area of collecting interest, is a dealer / collector's greatest asset.     In old books, our specialty at Birch Hollow, Suzanne and I are also practicing regional historians, who know which books are not only the most valuable, in the monetary sense, but what are the most thoroughly well-researched, that can assist our own projects at home, and bolster this blog-site as a bonus. My own passion for the history of Sainte-Marie Among-The-Hurons, dates back to Centennial Year, 1967, and a public school field trip we took to the restored 1600's, Jesuit Mission, of Ste. Marie Among-The-Hurons. I was mesmerized on that day, because of what I saw, and felt, being in that holy place in beautiful Huronia, and it has been on my mind, ever since; and when I can't visit regularly, I read about it instead. Suzanne must have known then, that I had found something amazing, while visiting our friends at Carousel Collectables, in Orillia, yesterday, because I was speechless for longer than usual. Seeing as I am so seldom quiet, she assumed I had found a book that I was obviously going to buy. If I fondle a book for more than a minute, it's a keeper. In this case, looking over my shoulder, in my friend Ted's booth, she read the title, and knew at once, that I had reconnected with my favorite heritage site in all of Canada; Ste. Marie Among-The-Hurons.
     This 1954 first edition, by Wilfrid Jury, and Elsie McLeod Jury, is important because it is signed, by both authors, and dated twelve years after its publication, while both were in Penetanguishene, Ontario, where both were involved in the archaeological work of re-estblishing the former buildings and facilities of the British Naval and Military Encampment on the Harbour, and it is indicated by Mr. Jury, in the book, that this was his next big heritage project, seeing as the Ste. Marie book was completed and published for public consumption. Just possessing a book, once handled, and then signed by these two incredibly talented, and dutiful historians, was quite moving for me, someone who would, one day, like to achieve even a quarter what the Jurys did in their lifetime, working on behalf of Canada, to recover its lost heritage. Here is how the book begins:
     It is dated, October, 1953, University of Western Ontario, where Wilfred was curator of Indian Archaeology. "In the fall of 1947, a hurried telephone call came in to the University of Western Ontario, in London, from the Director of the Martyr's Shrine, at Midland. Discoveries had been made on the site of Sainte-Marie which he believed to be of real importance. Would the archaeologist of the University come to Midland and examine them? We were on the point of leaving for a conference on the Iroquois Indians, in New York State, after a heavy summer of excavating two Huron sites, but this information concerning one of America's most historic spots proved too compelling, and in a matter of hours, we found ourselves on board the train to Midland, the conference forgotten."
     Mr. Jury writes, "What we saw then led us to spend the following winter planning a thorough examination of the land occupied by Sainte-Marie-aux Hurons. It was hoped that the secrets of the past would be bared and that we might learn the full extent and exact nature of the buildings that had once stood there. To members of the Society of Jesus, there was a special significance in the undertaking, for in the absence of written information they were eager to learn every fact and detail that would throw more light on the life of their illustrious predecessors. The University, along with all scholars, was concerned with the contribution that such an investigation would make to our knowledge of early Canada. We were anxious to discover how the seventeenth-century Europeans responded when transplanted to a remote territory, surrounded solely by stone-age people; how he coped with the forces of nature and extremes of climate, and with the lack of transportation. What had been the outcome of his dependence on wood, the only indigenous raw material? We would discover how he built his home and obtained a livelihood in a land productive only of corn and beans, with a short season of wild fruit, and where the natives farely ate meat; how he protected himself amidst a population generally unfriendly and with ever-shifting loyalties, a people dwindling through epidemics and perpetually harassed by enemies.
     "A joint project was therefore planned. The Society of Jesus in Upper Canada, would pay the expenses of the dig, while the University of Upper Canada would pay the expenses of the dig, while the University of Western Ontario, would lend the services of the archaeologist and other scientists, would supply the scientific instruments necessary, and would pay for photographic records. All relics and specimens recovered were to be the property of the Society of Jesus; the field notes, charts, maps and other data would remian with the University. The co-operation throughout the joint project was exemplary. We, our technical staff, and numerous visitors from the University, were treated with courtesy by the Director of the Martyr's Shrine, the Rev. T.J. Lally, S.J. and with every kindness by the staff of Fort Ste. Marie Inn, which for four seasons was our home. Sainte-Marie is situated in the heart of Huronia. For variety of scenery the district is unsurpassed. Rolling wooded hills form lovely valleys and far vistas. Fine beaches stretch for miles along the shoreline, and to the north, in Georgian Bay, is spread a labyrinth of rocky gemlike islands, tossed in anger, we are told, by the giant Kitchikawana, whose tomb lies in their midst, dominating the passage to the west. Across the bay, tall hardy jack pines bend eastward, perpetually driven by the prevailing west wind."
     The author records that, "To this area thousands of Canadians and Americans come yearly, and it is natural that many of them should seek out the historic spots of three hundred years ago. The excavations almost immediately attracted more than had ordinarily come to Sainte-Marie. Throughout the summer of 1948 hundreds came to watch us work. Before the second season had well begun, visitors from far and near came in ever-increasing numbers, and we recognized the opportunity of acquainting our fellow citizens with the airms, methods, and results of an archaeological expedition. We felt bound, also, to share with them the knowledge that we were gaining of this particular manifestation of the earliest period of European habitation on the North American continent. We therefore undertook to reconstruct, partially, certain features of the old fort, to outline others, and generally make the site well-explanatory to some degree. Eighteen-foot poles were placed ten feet apart to outline the original palisade walls. Railway ties, given by the Canadian National Railways, were laid over the foundation of the former buildings and whitewashed weekly. One cellar was left exposed. A model building of the same construction as a seventeenth-century original was exhibited; numerous explanatory signs were erected. At the entrance, a large scale drawing of the reconstructed fort, up to the point of our excavation, was mounted.
     "The canal proved particularly instructive to visitors. The landing basins and complete channel were kept clean and bared to their original proportions. The timber of the aqueduct was removed for safety's sake, but was replaced by similar poles and pointed pegs. The original timber in the canal was removed for the winter months. The spillway, the first local or water chamber, and other large timbers which could not be removed, were treated with preservatives and guarded as carefully as possible against the winter's ravages. Our policy of making the site speak for itself proved successful. It required time and ingenuity but comparatively little expense. During our last summer at Sainte-Marie, some 52,000 people signed a visitor's book. Schools, camps, Women's Institute groups, teachers, conventions, newspapermen's conventions, and many other groups came to visit the site. The historical background of the area was described, our discoveries were explained, and the technique of excavating could be observed. Our particular gratitude for help, in sustaining interest in the excavation is due to the Huronia Historic Sites and Tourism Association, and its then President, Mr. Norman D. Clarke of Barrie."
     It is also recorded, that "As this preface was being prepared for the press, we learned with deep regret, of the death of the Director of the Martyr's Shrine, the Rev. T.J. Lally, S.J. with whom we have worked for the past eight years with the common object of discovering and examining the old Jesuit mission sites in Huronia." It is concluded with the names of Wilfrid Jury and Elsie McLeod Jury, dated 1953.
     The well written text begins, "There is a high hill on the souther shores of Georgian Bay, in central Canada, near the Town of Midland, which thousands of people climb yearly. At its foot, a wide expanse of evergreens stretches toward a mirror-like stream called the River Wye. Beyond are rolling hills of farm lands, and deep wooded patches of many hues. To the north, the dark blue waters of Georgian Bay change their color hourly; to the south, the river widens into broad marsh lands, where splashes of fresh water shine through tall bullrushes. Through the heart of this quiet valley, the white threat of a modern highway winds, serving commerce and industry, and bringing to this spot pilgrims and sightseers from every corner of Canada and the United States, and indeed from almost every country in the world, because it was at the base of this hill, in the year 1639, that the Society of Jesus built a central residence for the Mission to the Huron Indians. Here, for ten years, men of culture and education lived among savages, in the heart of an unknown continent, an ocean removed from their native France; and five of them, near here, met violent deaths, caught in the holocaust of native warfare. To their memory, a handsome grey stone, twin-spired church, known as the Martyr's Shrine, today rises over the scene. Near the river bank, ruins may be discerned through the heavy trees. Fort Ste-Marie, reads the sign erected there by the Ontario Department of Highways. Sainte-Marie-aux Hurons, those who lived here, called it, over three hundred years ago. And although long forsaken, Sainte-Marie has remained in men's memories, the focal point in an epic of North American history, that has never failed to stir imagination of every successive generation. It is true that for a century before the founding of Sainte-Marie, Europeans had been crossing the Atlantic Ocean to fish and then to trade, returning annually to their homeland. At the time a few settlers clustered around the rock of Quebec in the St. Lawrence River, and hugged the rugged coasts of New England and Virginia. But only the most daring faced inland, explorers and traders searching out the lakes and rivers that were as yet untravelled by the white man.
     "The men who lived at Sainte-Marie-among-the-Hurons were in search of human souls, and with the courage of early Christians, they faced inland with their lay helpers, travelling, by foot and by canoe, eight hundred miles beyond the fringe of European civilization, past the rapids and the whirlpools of the St. Lawrence, north on the Ottawa, crossing the Nipissing Lakes, over thirty to fifty rough, rocky portages, until they descended the French River to the open waters of Georgian Bay, where, facing south, they threaded their way through the thousands of islands to the mouth of the Isiaragui, which we call the Wye. Throughout the ten years that Sainte-Marie was occupied, not only food and clothing were transported over the arduous route, but building materials for this first European settlement in the interior of America; young calves, pigs, and chickens for agricultural purposes, in the wilderness, tools, and implements for tradesmen, who were to ply they crafts in the heart of a world of primitive peoples. The identity of Sainte-Marie-among-the-Hurons has long been recognized by mounds and depressions, and by the crumbling stone walls. For over a century, scholars and historians have been attracted to it, and much has been written about it; yet little was known of the actual features of the establishment, and still less of the activity that once took place there. For four years, it was our task to explore this area and to examine whatever evidence remained in the soil of the seventeenth century habitation. We here (via the book), present an account of this investigation and its results, at the same time attempting to acquaint the reader with archaeological methods and to pass on to others something of the excitement and satisfaction felt by the archaeologist, as features that have lain for centuries buried deep beneath the soil, come gradually to light. We shall show how, from these discoveries, we have learned much more than was known, or imagined, before of the construction, the form, and the extent of the ancient habitation; and how much this tells us of what manner of men planned and built it, of the lives they lived here, and of the age in which it flourished."
     I will re-visit Ste.-Marie, and this important book, prepared by two exceptional historians, Wilfrid Jury and Elsie McLeod Jury, in tomorrow's blog. Please join me!