The First Newspaper in Muskoka - "The Northern Advocate"

THE FIRST NEWSPAPER IN MUSKOKA - "THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE"

NEWSPAPERS KEPT A RURAL POPULATION IN TOUCH WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD

LET'S LOOK AT SOME OLD TIME VALUES IN THE COMMUNITY PRESS

     SO HOW IMPORTANT WERE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS DATING BACK TO THE LATE 1860'S? HOW RELEVANT WERE THESE PAPERS, TO THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE REGION, SINCE THEIR NEWS PAGES BEGAN ROLLING OFF THE PRESSES? HOW ABOUT POLITICS? HOW RABID WERE THESE PUBLISHERS AND EDITORS WAY BACK.....EVEN A COUPLE OF DECADES AGO, WHENEVER THERE WAS A MUNICIPAL, PROVINCIAL OR FEDERAL ELECTION? HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO HAVE A NEWSPAPER OFFICE ON THE MAIN STREET OF OUR MAJOR TOWNS?

     AS AWARE AS I CAN BE, REGARDING THE MODERN DAY ECONOMICS FACING NEWSPAPERS ACROSS THIS COUNTRY, I WOULD LOVE A RETURN TO THE OLD TIME,  FAMILY OR PARTNERSHIP OWNED PUBLICATIONS, LIKE WE USED TO COUNT ON......TO KEEP US UP TO SPEED ON THE LATEST NEWS FROM HOME AND ABROAD. BACK TO A TIME WHEN JOURNALISM WAS MORE THAN JUST A REPORTER HUSTLING UP A STORY, OR A PHOTOGRAPHER GETTING A GREAT FRONT PAGER........OR THE PUBLISHER CELEBRATING A "SOLD-OUT" EDITION. IT WAS WHEN A COMMUNITY LOOKED AT ITS REPRESENTATIVE PAPERS, AND BELIEVED IT WAS AS MUCH A SIGN OF PROSPERITY AND FUTURE POTENTIAL. AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO BELIEVE ME....BUT POSSIBLY YOU MIGHT BELIEVE THESE HISTORICAL OBSERVATIONS, FROM FOLKS WHO DID, FROM CLOSE QUARTERS, APPRECIATE THE ROLE OF THE COMMUNITY PRESS IN OUR REGION OF ONTARIO.

     "THE FIRST NEWSPAPER IN THE SETTLEMENT (BRACEBRIDGE) WAS PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR (THOMAS MCMURRAY), ON THE 14TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER 1869, BEARING THE TITLE OF THE 'NORTHERN ADVOCATE.' IT WAS FIRST PRINTED AT PARRY SOUND, BUT FROM THE FACT THAT BRACEBRIDGE WAS MORE CENTRAL IT HAS BEEN REMOVED THITHER. THE OBJECT OF THE PUBLISHER WAS TO GIVE RELIABLE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FREE GRANT LANDS, AND HIS LABOURS HAVE BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL. THE CIRCULATION IS 1,000 COPIES WEEKLY. A GREAT MANY COPIES GO TO ENGLAND, IRELAND AND SCOTLAND FOR INFORMATION OF INTENDING EMIGRANTS, AND THROUGH THE ADVOCACY MANY HAVE BEEN INDUCED TO SETTLE IN OUR MIDST."

     THOMAS MCMURRAY, WAS OF COURSE, THE AUTHOR OF MUSKOKA'S OWN SETTLERS' GUIDEBOOK, SIMPLY ENTITLED "MUSKOKA AND PARRY SOUND," IN THE EARLY 1870'S, AND HE USED THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE IN MUCH THE SAME MANNER AS THE BOOK.....TO ENCOURAGE SETTLERS TO INVEST IN OUR REGION OF THE PROVINCE. THE CONFLICT FOR MCMURRAY, THAT HE OBVIOUSLY DIDN'T CARE ABOUT, WAS THAT HIS EDITORIAL CONTENT, AND OUTRIGHT SOLICITATION FOR EMIGRANTS, WAS TIED INTO HIS BUSINESS INVOLVEMENTS, FROM NEWSPAPERS TO REAL ESTATE SPECULATION IN ITS INFANCY.  THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FREE GRANT LANDS, OF OUR DISTRICT, EARNED HIM MONEY, FROM THE SALE OF NEWSPAPERS, THEN HIS BOOK, AND PROPERTY SALES ON TOP OF THAT. BUT HE WAS ALSO HEAVILY INVESTED IN THE COMMERCIAL AREA OF PIONEER BRACEBRIDGE, WHICH OBVIOUSLY BENEFITTED FROM A POPULATION INCREASE. MCMURRAY DIDN'T HAVE PARTICULAR INTEREST, IN SHARING THE WHOLE STORY ABOUT PIONEERING DISADVANTAGES IN MUSKOKA, BECAUSE HIS PROFITS WERE BASED ON ATTRACTING EMIGRANTS.....NOT DISCOURAGING THEM FROM TAKING A CROSS-ATLANTIC ADVENTURE.

     MCMURRAY WAS AMBITIOUS AND MADE MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF BRACEBRIDGE, AND INDEED, THE SETTLEMENT OF MUSKOKA, BUT HE MADE ERRORS IN JUDGEMENT THAT COST HIM SERIOUS FINANCIAL REPURCUSIONS. IN BRACEBRIDGE, FOR EXAMPLE, HE WAS IN SUCH A HURRY TO ERECT HIS BRICK BUILDING, ON MANITOBA STREET, THAT HE FAILED TO ALLOW THEM TO CURE PROPERLY, BEFORE HAVING THEM CEMENTED IN PLACE. SO THEY BEGAN CRUMBLING EARLY IN THE HISTORY OF THIS MAIN STREET ARCHITECTURE. THE LARGE BUILDING WAS LATER HAULED DOWN, AND THE PROPERTY RE-DEVELOPED. MCMURRAY DESERVES A STREET NAMED IN HIS HONOR, IN BRACEBRIDGE (BRACEBRIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOL IS ON THIS STREET), AND HIS NAME IS PERMANENTLY ETCHED ONTO THE PAGES OF REGIONAL HISTORY. HE WAS A BIG MUSKOKA BOOSTER, A CHAMPION OF THE PIONEERING MOVEMENT INTO THE HINTERLAND, THE FIRST MUSKOKA HISTORIAN, AND THE FIRST NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER. FOR ALL THAT HE DID ACCOMPLISH, IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE TOWN, THINGS JUST DIDN'T WORK OUT AS HE WOULD HAVE LIKED.  HE THEN RETURNED NORTH TO PARRY SOUND TO RECOUP HIS LOSSES.

     ACCORDING TO MCMURRAY, "IT IS SOMEWHAT SINGULAR, THAT WHEN THE WRITER FIRST CAME TO MUSKOKA, HE HAD TO ROW ACROSS MUSKOKA LAKE, AND WHEN THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE, WAS PUBLISHED, IT SO HAPPENED THAT THE STEAMER WAS UNDER REPAIRS, AND HE HAD TO ROW SIXTEEN MILES ACROSS THE SAME WATER IN ORDER TO DELIVER THE FIRST NUMBER." NO ONE SAID THAT THE NEWSPAPER BUSINESS WAS GOING TO BE EASY.

     "THE FREE GRANT GAZETTE (THEN BY THE 1940'S, THE BRACEBRIDGE GAZETTE), IS MENTIONED FOR THE FIRST TIME, IN THE AUDITOR'S REPORT OF 1872 AND 1873, BEING PRINTED BY IT. THE FIRST AUDITOR'S REPORT FOR 1869, WAS PRINTED BY THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE, BRACEBRIDGE'S FIRST NEWSPAPER, WHICH LATER BECAME DEFUNCT. WE OFTEN HEAR IT SAID THAT PEOPLE TODAY ARE DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THEY WERE 75 TO 100 YEARS AGO. THERE IS, OF COURSE, A VAST DIFFERENCE IN THE WAY PEOPLE LIVE TODAY, AS COMPARED WITH 75 YEARS AGO, BUT FUNDAMENTALLY HUMAN NATURE IS THE SAME." WROTE CAPTAIN LEVI FRASER, IN HIS 1940'S CHRONICLE, "HISTORY OF MUSKOKA." MCMURRAY RECOGNIZED THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF A COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER, AND WRITES ABOUT IT, IN THE FOLLOWING PASSAGES, TAKEN FROM HIS CHAPTER THREE.

     "THE PRESS OF MUSKOKA HAS INDEED BEEN A GREAT STIMULUS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT; AND IN THE EARLY DAYS ALONE, BUT UP TO THE PRESENT TIME (1940'S), OUR NEWSPAPERS HAVE GIVEN SUPPORT IN FULL MEASURE TO EVERY PHASE OF LIFE IN THE DISTRICT. IN POLITICAL AFFAIRS THERE HAS BEEN, AT TIMES, BITTERNESS; BUT TO SUPPORT THE DISTRICT, COMPLETE ACCORD, AND WOE, TO THE ONE WHO WROTE ANYTHING DISPARAGING OF THE HOME FRONT. THE APPRECIATION OF THE PUBLIC IS EVIDENT IN THAT EVERY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN MUSKOKA, IN 1874, OR LATER, IS STILL GOING STRONG. THE TOWN OF BRACEBRIDGE IS NOW ONE OF THE FEW TOWNS OF ITS SIZE IN ALL OF ONTARIO, WHERE TWO WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS ARE STILL PUBLISHED. TODAY ONE MARVELS AT THE ENTERPRISE OF SOME OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. IN 1869 THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE WAS PUBLISHED IN PARRY SOUND BY THOMAS MCMURRAY, BUT FINDING THAT LOCATION WAS TOO FAR TO ONE SIDE OF THE TERRITORY, IT WAS MOVED TO BRACEBRIDGE ONE YEAR LATER, IN 1870."

     CAPTAIN FRASER WRITES, "BRACEBRIDGE AT THAT TIME, BEING THE CENTRE AND DISTRIBUTING POINT FOR THE WHOLE COUNTRY, AS FAR NORTH AS LAKE NIPISSING. MR. MCMURRAY WAS BY THIS TIME WELL KNOWN, AS HE WAS ONE OF THE VERY EARLY ARRIVALS, AND HAD BEEN ACTIVE IN COMMUNITY AFFAIRS; HAD BEEN REEVE OF THE UNITED TOWNSHIPS OF DRAPER, MACAULAY, STEPHENSON AND RYDE. HE WAS ALSO A BUILDER AND REAL ESTATE MAN, OWNING CONSIDERABLE LAND IN BRACEBRIDGE. THE LAND ON WHICH THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND THE BRACEBRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL STAND, WAS PART OF HIS HOLDINGS. HIS RESIDENCE, FOR A TIME, WAS THE FINE BIG HOUSE, 'THE GROVE,' LATER THE HOME OF THE LATE J. EWART LOUNT, AND WHICH WAS TORN DOWN TO MAKE ROOM FOR THE PRESENT HIGH SCHOOL (CLOSED AND RELOCATED). MR. JAMES BOYER (FATHER OF GEORGE BOYER, AT PRESENT, CUSTOMS OFFICER AT BRACEBRIDGE, WAS EDITOR. FOUR YEARS LATER, IN 1873, MR. MCMURRAY FAILED IN BUSINESS AND THE ADVOCATE WAS CONTINUED BY A MR. COURTNEY WHO, A SHORT TIME LATER, WAS DROWNED. THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE WAS THEN DISCONTINUED. LATER IN THE YEAR OF HIS FAILURE, MR. MCMURRAY BEGAN PUBLICATION OF THE NORTH STAR IN PARRY SOUND, WHERE HE HAD BEEN APPOINTED CROWN LANDS AGENT.

     "THE SECOND NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN THE DISTRICT, THE FREE GRANT GAZETTE, IN 1872, BY MR. E.F. STEPHENSON, APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN A LIVE NEWSPAPERMAN, AS THE GAZETTE SOON BECAME VERY POPULAR THROUGHOUT THE DISTRICT, AND STILL RETAINS ITS POPULARITY AFTER 73 YEARS OF PUBLICATION (CIRCA 1940'S). MR. STEPHENSON STARTED THE PUBLICATION OF "THE LIBERAL" IN HUNTSVILLE UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF DR. HOWLAND; IT WAS PRINTED IN BRACEBRIDGE BUT AFTER AWHILE, IT WAS DISCONTINUED AND IN 1877 THE HUNTSVILLE FORESTER, MADE ITS APPEARANCE AND FOR 68 YEARS IT HAS BEEN ACTIVE IN PROMOTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT. FEW JOURNALS HAVE SHOWN MORE ENERGY AND FORESIGHT, OR HAVE GIVEN BETTER LEADERSHIP IN FURTHERING THE MANY VARIED PROBLEMS WHICH ARE OF VITAL INTEREST, TO A NEW AND GROWING TOWN AND ADJACENT COMMUNITIES (WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE TOURIST TRADE) THAN HAS THE HUNTSVILLE FORESTER. THE FORESTER MIGHT BE CONSIDERED A CONTINUATION OF THE LIBERAL, THE DIFFERENCE BEING THAT THE PAPER WAS NOW BEING PRINTED IN HUNTSVILLE, WITH MR. F.W. CLEARWATER, ASSOCIATED WITH DR. HOWLAND, WHO STILL RETAINED THE EDITORSHIP. THREE YEARS LATER MR. CLEARWATER PURCHASED DR. HOWLAND'S INTERESTS AND CONTINUED AS EDITOR AND PUBLISHER UNTIL 1899 WHEN THE BUSINESS WAS SOLD TO MR. GEORGE HUTCHESON WHO CONTINUED THE PUBLICATION UNTIL 1913 WHEN IT WAS TAKEN OVER BY MR. H.E. RICE, WHO, TOGETHER WITH HIS SON PAUL, STILL EDITS AND PUBLISHES THE FORESTER (1940'S).

     "THE LUMBERMAN WAS PUBLISHED IN GRAVENHURST IN 1876 BUT AFTER SIX MONTHS CIRCULATION WAS DISCONTINUED," NOTES CAPTAIN FRASER. "IN 1878 MESSRS. GRAFFE AND OATEN BEGAN PUBLICATION OF THE MUSKOKA HERALD; THE HERALD WAS THE FIRST CONSERVATIVE NEWSPAPER TO BE PUBLISHED IN MUSKOKA, ALL OTHER JOURNALS WERE OF LIBERAL PERSUASION. SO WITH THE ADVENT OF THE HERALD, BRACEBRIDGE SOON BECAME A HOT-BED OF PERMISSIBLE POLITICAL PROPAGANDA."

     HE WRITES, "ALTHOUGH THE LIBERALS WERE STRONGLY ENTRENCHED AT QUEEN'S PARK, MUSKOKA HAD ALWAYS BEEN GOOD FIGHTING GROUND, BUT WITH THE ADVENT OF THE HERALD, THE POLITICAL PENDULUM BEGAN A DECISIVE SWING TOWARD TORYISM. FROM THE TIME AWAY BACK IN 1886, WHEN G.F. MARTER WRESTED MUSKOKA FROM THE LIBERALS, UNTIL 1934, ONLY ONE LIBERAL, THE LATE DR. BRIDGLAND, MANAGED TO CRASH THE CONSERVATIVE STONEWALL DEFENSES, BUT IT WAS DR. BRIDGLAND'S OWN POPULARITY THAT CARRIED HIM THROUGH, AS HE WAS BELOVED BY THE RANK AND FILE OF THE MUSKOKA PEOPLE. IN 1884 MR. D.E. BASTEDO PURCHASED MR. GRAFFE'S INTERESTS AND FOR A TIME THE HERALD WAS PUBLISHED BY OATEN AND BASTEDO. IN 1886 MR. BASTEDO SOLD HIS INTEREST IN THE HERALD, AND WENT TO GEORGETOWN AND PURCHASED THE GEORGETOWN HERALD, THAT WAS IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AT THE TIME; MR. BASTEDO SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING A SUCCESSFUL NEWSPAPERMAN AND IN A SHORT TIME HE HAD THE GEORGETOWN HERALD ON ITS FEET, BUT HIS HEART WAS IN MUSKOKA AND WHEN AN OPPORTUNITY OFFERED FOR SALE OF THE GEORGETOWN PAPER, AT A SUBSTANTIAL PROFIT, HE SOLD IT, RETURNED TO BRACEBRIDGE AND PURCHASED THE MUSKOKA HERALD; THIS WAS IN THE 1880'S. HE CONTINUED AS EDITOR AND PUBLISHER UNTIL HIS RETIREMENT IN 1919, WHEN THE HERALD WAS TAKEN OVER BY THE MUSKOKA PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED, AND IS STILL BEING CIRCULATED BY THAT FIRM, WITH MRS. R.J. BOYER AS EDITOR. MR. E.F. STEPHENSON CONTINUED PUBLICATION OF THE FREE GRANT GAZETTE UNTIL ABOUT 1903, WHEN HE SOLD IT TO MR. DUNCAN MARSHALL, WHO AT THAT TIME WAS THE FEDERAL LIBERAL CANDIDATE IN MUSKOKA.

     "MR. STEPHENSON WENT TO NEW ONTARIO WHERE HE FOUNDED THE NEW LISKEARD SPEAKER. MR. MARSHALL'S ELECTION CAMPAIGN WAS UNSUCCESSFUL AND A SHORT TIME LATER, THE GAZETTE WAS SOLD TO MR. ALF MCISAAC. WHILE OWNED BY MARSHALL THE NAME WAS CHANGED TO BRACEBRIDGE GAZETTE. IN 1906 THE GAZETTE WAS SOLD TO MESSRS. G.H.O. THOMAS AND HARRY LINNEY. A SHORT TIME LATER, MR. THOMAS MR. LINNEY'S INTERESTS AND CONTINUED AS EDITOR AND PUBLISHER OF THE GAZETTE, WHICH SOON BECAME ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS IN THE PROVINCE. DURING ELECTION PERIODS THE PEOPLE OF MUSKKOA LOOKED FORWARD WITH ZEST TO THE WEEKLY DUELS BETWEEN THE GAZETTE AND THE HERALD. FEW MEN IN ONTARIO HAD THE PLATFORM ABILITY OF MR. THOMAS, BUT FOR POLITICAL ORGANIZING ABILITY, THERE WERE NONE IN MUSKOKA AT THAT TIME, THE EQUAL OF MR. BASTEDO. I HAVE OFTEN THOUGH THAT MUSKOKA AND SCOTLAND PRESENTED A SIMILARITY, NOT IN SCENIC GRANDEUR ALONE, BUT IN THE FACT THAT EACH HAD PRODUCED A SURPLUS OF PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS MEN. WHERE A CONDITION OF THIS KIND OBTAINS THERE MUST BE A DEFINITE INCENTIVE, AND IN MUSKOKA THE INCENTIVE WAS THAT MANY OF THE EARLY SETTLERS WERE PREPARED TO LABOR AND SACRIFICE IN ORDER THAT THEIR CHILDREN MIGHT RECEIVE AND EDUCATION."

     IN TOMORROW'S BLOG, I WILL CONTINUE THE STUDY OF CAPTAIN FRASER'S OVERVIEW, OF THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NEWSPAPER PUBLISHING ENTERPRISE IN MUSKOKA....AND SOME IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE PUBLISHERS WHO RAN THEM.