Scott A. McLean - William Wye Smith: Recollections of a Nineteenth Century Scottish Canadian

RECOLLECTIONS OF A
NINETEENTH CENTURY
SCOTTISH CANADIAN

edited by Scott A. McLean & Michael E. Vance

Copyright 2008 Scott A. McLean and Michael E. Vance

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanic, photocopying, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Smith, William Wye, 1827-1917.

William Wye Smith : recollections of a nineteenth century Scottish Canadian / edited with annotations

by Scott A. McLean and Michael E. Vance.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-55002-804-1

1. Smith, William Wye, 1827-1917. 2. Frontier and pioneer life-- Ontario. 3. Poets, Canadian (English)--19th century--Biography. 4. Journalists--Ontario--Biography. 5. Publishers and publishing--Ontario--Biography. 6. Scottish Canadians--Biography. I. McLean, Scott A. (Scott Alan), 1963- II. Vance, Michael E. (Michael Easton), 1959- III. Title.

PS8487.M6Z477 2008 C811.4 C2008-900706-9

1 2 3 4 5 12 11 10 09 08

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books and the Government of Canada through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit Program and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Front cover image: An artists rendition of Inglis Falls, just south of Owen Sound. Courtesy of Archival and Special Collections, McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph.

Cover design by Erin Mallory

Text design by Jennifer Scott

Edited by Jane Gibson

Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis

Published by Natural Heritage Books

A Member of The Dundurn Group

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

Dundurn Press

3 Church Street, Suite 500

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

M5E 1M2

Gazelle Book Services Limited

White Cross Mills

High Town, Lancaster, England

LA1 4XS

Dundurn Press

2250 Military Road

Tonawanda, NY

U.S.A. 14150

Reading William Wye Smith:
An Introduction to Background Influences and Stereotypes

While we have been editing William Wye Smiths manuscript we have had the assistance of a great many individuals who deserve our thanks. In particular, we wish to express our appreciation to Barry Penhale and Jane Gibson at Natural Heritage Books for their interest and enthusiasm for this project. We would also like to acknowledge the help provided by the staff of the Archives of Ontario, the Toronto Public Library, University of Guelph Library, Special Collections, the Library and Archives Canada, the Owen Sound Public Library, the Special Collections at the Killam Library, Dalhousie Library, and the Interlibrary Loan Service of the Patrick Power Library at Saint Marys University. Dr. H. Amani Whitfield, University of Vermont, and Dr. Heather Murray, University of Toronto, were particularly helpful with their suggestions for secondary sources relating to Black History and Canadian Literary History, while Dr. Renee Hulan, Saint Marys University, kindly read early drafts and provided very helpful critical comments. Except for the mistakes made by Reverend Smith himself, we are responsible for any errors or omissions in this edited text.

Several years ago, during the course of our research on the history of Scottish settlement in Ontario, we came across Reverend William Wye Smiths unpublished manuscript, Canadian Reminiscences, in the Archives of Ontario. There does not appear to be any record of how the manuscript ended up in the archives, but it is clear from the first page of his draft, dated 1900, that Reverend Smith intended to submit his book to the Toronto Methodist publisher, William Briggs. Smith had previously published volumes with the Toronto Baptist publishers Dudley and Burns, but he appears to have decided to switch to Briggs around the time he composed his Reminiscences. Although we have not been able to determine if Briggs ever saw the manuscript, we do know that the firm did publish a collection of Smiths poetry in 1908.

Smiths desire to publish with Briggs was understandable since the firm was one of the most successful Canadian publishers of the late nineteenth century. Briggs had established a secure financial base by publishing Methodist religious tracts and supplemented its catalogue with educational works as well as poetry and fiction. Some of the most well-known figures in nineteenth-century Canadian writing, including Charles G.D. Roberts, William Wilfred Campbell and Catharine Parr Traill, had works published by Briggs and several of the companys volumes, such as Robina and Kathleen Lizars In the Days of the Canada Company, were, like Smiths manuscript, concerned with the pioneer phase of Ontario settlement.

The remaining eleven chapters in this volume are, we believe, of greater interest since they treat the broader history of pioneer settlement and community development.

In producing this version of William Smiths manuscript, we have relied heavily on the typescript version held by the Archives of Ontario. We discovered a number of typographical errors in that version and have corrected those errors here without indication. In several places we have inserted words to provide clarification, for example to indicate the county of a place mentioned in the text. These insertions are indicated by square brackets, [ ]. We have also tried to retain the flavour of Smiths original manuscript by reproducing his sub-headings but have altered much of his punctuation, spelling, and use of numerals to bring them more in line with the expectations of todays reader, while keeping the authors original intentions and much of his style intact. In keeping with the time period, all imperial measurements have been maintained in the main text: miles, feet, inches Repetitious material has been edited out. In places where Smith indicates emphasis by underlining words, we have retained that emphasis by placing those words in italics.

Many writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries attempted to celebrate the virtues of early rural pioneers and life on the land as a general criticism of what they perceived to be the negative, alienating influence of Ontarios rapidly expanding urban industrial towns and cities. From the opening chapter of his Canadian Reminiscences, Reverend William Wye Smith signals his intention to contribute to this pioneer genre by recording personal anecdotes and stories drawn from his memories of early settlement life. Smiths version of the pioneer celebration is, however, deeply influenced by his Scottish background and his literary aspirations. As a consequence, his manuscript reveals a great deal about the Scottish immigrant community and provides insight into literary influences on the earliest published authors in Upper Canada. The celebration of his Scottish homeland and the Scottish-Canadian community was a life-long preoccupation for Smith, and the literary allusions found throughout his manuscript, though at times inaccurate, are deliberate. But, what is perhaps most intriguing about the manuscript as we read it now is the unwitting testimony that Smith provides on the interaction between Scottish-Canadians like himself and the various other ethnic groups that settled Upper Canada. In particular, Canadian Reminiscences reveals that, for Smith, nineteenth-century notions of national and racial characteristics ordered Ontario society.