We’re excited to share a recent find with you — an important pioneer photograph of Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) railroad workers in North Bay, Ontario. Penciled on the reverse is a note which says: “Old Time Ry. Men, CPR, North Bay. Taken in March 1884.” The image is sharply focused and well composed; we can’t help but wonder who the undoubtedly experienced photographer was.

While North Bay served as a regional trading center as early as 1851, it wasn’t until November 1882 – only 1-1/2 years before this picture was taken — that it incorporated as a village. In fact, the first train reached North Bay in December 1882, having traveled west from Mattawa. That train, the “Lucy Dalton,” carried 19-year-old John Ferguson, a Scotsman who delivered mail for the CPR. Ferguson, as we know, was one of the founding fathers of North Bay. Regular rail passenger service began in 1883 and, while the village grew rapidly, it wasn’t incorporated as a town until 1 January 1891, almost seven years after this photograph was made. Learn more about the history of the CPR.

If by some improbable chance anyone knows who the photographer was, or recognizes any of the men in the photo, we’d be interested in hearing from you.

To learn more about Canadian railroad history, read Pierre Berton’s two seminal Canadian history books, The National Dream: The Great Railway, 1871-1881 and The Last Spike: The Great Railway, 1881-1885.

Look inside a furniture store from 100 years ago in North Bay.

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This important early North Bay, Ontario real-photo postcard (RPPC), tells us much about the lifestyle and social mores of North Bayites nearly 100 years ago. The imposing gentleman wearing an overcoat and hat is local businessman Frederick J. Martyn. Born on 22 April 1868 and a teacher by trade, he arrived in North Bay from Bowmanville, ON in 1890. The 22-year-old teacher, along with his brother, came to town to build homes. Within a few years, he married Marian (as listed in the 1901 Census of Canada, née McKenzie), also known as Mary. Son Mervyn was born 30 June 1892, and Ian was born on 4 May 1896. William McKenzie, brother to Mary, came to North Bay in 1887, and owned a furniture store at 28 Main St. W. In 1897, the brothers-in-law formed a partnership to run the business. In 1907, Martyn bought out McKenzie’s share and, as a sole proprietorship, the business was renamed as F.J. Martyn Furniture and Undertaking.

And thus we arrive at a glimpse of the interior of a late Victorian furniture store. Mr. Martyn, by now age 44 and rather imposing looking, stands at the right wearing his coat and hat; three younger employees are also present. The store has overstuffed leather chairs for sale, along with mirrored coat racks, a slant-top desk and numerous pictures on the wall for interior decoration of North Bay homes.

One of the three young men was Alex, who wrote on the reverse of the real-photo postcard, the photo having been taken by the J. W. Wilson Co. of Toronto and Regina. Writing on 8 February 1912 to a lady named Mabel, Alex said: “Just a line to let you know we are surviving the cold weather of the far North. Have had it as cold as 32 below but ‘you don’t feel it.’ I suppose that is what Lizzie says about the West, but I have had both ears frozen. What do you think of our staff? Aren’t they a fine-looking lot of fellows, ha ha. That is Mr. Martyn with the overcoat on. He is very seldom in, as he is the largest contractor in the town and we three have to look after the furniture business.”

Embalming was uncommon in the 19th century, the rituals of death were different then. Following a death, someone outside of the deceased’s family circle was usually called to prepare the body for visitation in the home. Since local furniture stores or cabinetmakers usually supplied the coffin, these most often were the people asked to prepare the body for viewing. Embalming became popular at the turn of the century and, eventually, undertaking became Martyn’s full-time business, with the furniture aspect of the business sold off.

By the time of Frederick Martyn’s death in 1949, social mores had changed: fewer and fewer wakes were held in private homes and more and more were occurring in funeral parlors. The Main St. location had been outgrown. The property was sold to Solomon Weiser, who went on to operate a men’s clothing store at the Main St. location for many years. After a brief relocation to 220 Worthington St. East, the Martyn Funeral Home moved to its current location at the corner of Wyld and Worthington Sts. Formerly the Rankin home, the house was remodeled, with an enlarged visiting parlor and a chapel to offer church funerals. Later, Ian and his wife, Elizabeth, lived above the funeral home — a common practice at the time. The Martyns also provided ambulance services until the mid-1960s, when the Ontario government began standardizing provincial ambulance service. The Martyn family is now in its fourth generation of providing funeral services in North Bay.

See other photos of Mr. Martyn and his business here.. Or, read about QSL cards and ham radio operators in North Bay.

Photo credit: Martyn Funeral Home, Inc.

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Ham radio operators have been sending QSL cards for almost a century, and here are two examples from North Bay, Ontario. QSL stands for “I acknowledge receipt.” The traditional use of the postcard-sized QSL card was to serve as written confirmation of a two-way amateur radio communication or one-way reception of a signal from a radio or television station.

The heyday of private citizen turned ham radio operator was in the 1950s and 1960s, much as CB (citizens’ band radio) radios were all the rage in the 1970s and 1980s. QSL radio cards actually date back to at least 1916, when a QSL card was sent from 8VX in Buffalo, NY to 3TQ in Philadelphia, PA. Since QSL cards are a ham radio operator’s calling card, they often are an expression of individual creativity, as is the case with the QSL card of Ennis and Joyce Scobie of North Bay. Their card, showing a “Lone Ranger” image, probably dates from the 1950s. “The Lone Ranger” was an American TV show which aired from 1949 to 1957, starring Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. See a large collection of QSL art here. Another website has a collection of over 28,000 QSL cards.

Most QSL cards contain information about one or more contacts and their names, the stations, and the call signs exchanged between two ham radio operators. Often, information arranged in a check box format on the reverse side may include the date and time of the exchange, the radio frequency used, a signal report and information on the transmission mode.

Ham radio operator Jim Holman, who lived at 132 Whitney Ave. in North Bay, broadcast at XM47-754. His QSL card probably dates from the 1970s or 1980s.

The advent of the Internet enabled electronic exchange of QSL cards as an alternative to the need for mailing a paper card, with jpeg or gif images exchanged via email as proof of contact. Computer databases store the information previously verified by QSL cards. With the emergence of electronic QSLs, the old-fashioned paper QSL cards have become collectibles.

Learn about early North Bay area breweries.

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The New Ontario Brewery led a short but eventful life in North Bay. Established in 1905 by a group of businessmen headed up by James Palango, it produced a German-style lager beer. The company prospered, and enough beer was produced to supply both North Bay and surrounding communities. By 1910, the New Ontario had begun to hire “brewery boosters,” traveling salesmen who traveled by horse and buggy to locations as diverse as Cobalt to the north and Kitchener, Kingston, Ottawa and Pembroke.

However, the quality of the lager produced was inconsistent: for some unknown reason, the brewery had five different brewmasters from 1906 to 1915. By the time that a fire destroyed the brewery in 1915, the first World War I was on. Supplies were being rationed and there was a shortage of manpower. Anti-German sentiment of the time also factored into the decision not to rebuild the brewery.

A locally-owned brewery which met with more success was the Sudbury Brewing and Malting Co., Ltd. It was founded in 1907 by amateur boxer and former hotelier J. J. Doran of North Bay, whose nickname was the “Brewer of Northern Ontario.” His brothers-in-law, Richard A. Fee and J. J. Mackey, partnered in the business. Eventually, they went on to buy other breweries: in 1911, they bought the Soo Falls Brewing Co. (begun in 1900 in Sault Ste. Marie) and, in 1913, they purchased the Kakabeka Falls Brewing Co. in Thunder Bay (Fort William). They also built Doran’s Brewery in Timmins in 1929. The Port Arthur Beverage Co. marked the company’s final purchase, in 1948. Brewmeister Doran died in 1958.

In more recent times, consolidation led to the creation of Doran’s Northern Ontario Breweries, which has been known as Northern Breweries since 1979. Northern Breweries, in a deal with Molson and Labatt, sold Superior Lager and Northern Ale to southern Ontario. Finally, in 2004, Northern Breweries was sold to an investment group.

Learn about early Old Home Week celebrations in Canada.

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A serendipitous purchase has solved a mystery: the former location of Canada’s largest Indian, a roadside attraction which was in North Bay, Ontario. Chief Standing Moose, a spectacular example of roadside Canadiana (technically known as roadside Americana) was 24 feet tall and billed as “Canada’s largest Indian.” He was located beside a log cabin storefront offering “Indianware” for sale.

If you look closely, you’ll see that the right-hand corner of the Portage Trading Post, and a small shed behind the white teepee (which was where Chief Standing Moose was) exactly match the location of the buildings and construction materials seen in the vertical image of the Chief. (See the original post here.) The Portage, located in Ferris, advertised on the reverse of this chrome postcard as offering Hudson’s Bay blankets, Indianware, tartans, and other gifts and souvenirs. William Forder photographed this image in the mid-1950s. The Portage building sported advertising for honey as well, just above an old Coca-Cola vending machine. To the left of the entrance, a large moose head was mounted on an exterior wall. The Blue Jay Auto Court was to the left of the Portage.

We still don’t know who created the Chief, or what became of him. We’ve been told that the Portage morphed into The Bay Post, a two-story building located at 573 Lakeshore Dr. which offers similar merchandise. In this c. 1960s to 1970s postcard, one sees a totem pole and a carved, freestanding Indian figure at right front. If you can add anything to the story of Chief Standing Moose, let us know and we’ll update this post.

See a close-up photo of Canada’s largest Indian, a former roadside attraction in North Bay, Ontario.

Copyright ©2010, NipissingHistory.com. All rights reserved.

Since the automobile opened travel opportunities in the 1920s, North Bay’s Lakeshore Drive — hugging the shoreline of Lake Nipissing — has been the home to many of the city’s motels, cottages and cabins.

Somewhere on Lakeshore stood Chief Standing Moose. This spectacular example of roadside Canadiana (technically known as roadside Americana) was 24 feet tall. He was billed as “Canada’s largest Indian” and was located beside a log cabin storefront offering “Indianware” for sale.

Whatever became of Chief Standing Moose? What was the name of the store, and what was its address? Who created Chief Standing Moose?

Chief Standing Moose was part of an American and Canadian tradition of larger-than-life roadside folk art sculptures such as “Touchdown Jesus,” who arose in 2004 along I-75 at the Solid Rock nondenominational mega-church in Monroe, Ohio. Ironically, the right hand of Touchdown Jesus (also known as “Big Butter Jesus” for his creamy color and ““Drowning Jesus” for his position at the edge of a baptismal pool) was struck by lightning in June 2010; the entire Styrofoam and fiberglass structure was quickly immolated.

Well-known examples of roadside outsider art include Chimo the Polar Bear at Cochrane and the Big Nickel at Sudbury. See more fascinating Ontario examples of this genre at Large Canadian Roadside Attractions. Sometimes these roadside attractions are created for civic promotional purposes, but often they are created by outsider artists. Art critic Roger Cardinal coined the term “outsider art” in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut, a French term meaning “raw art” or “rough art.” The term is meant to describe art created outside the norms of what is typically thought of as art.

Read about a 19th century Canadian photographer who lived in Mattawa.

Photo credit: Drust/Flickr

Copyright ©2010, NipissingHistory.com. All rights reserved.

We once had a conversation with a North Bay area educator about North Bay’s 1925 Old Home Week celebration. She had thought that Old Home Week was a North Bay invention; however, that’s incorrect. Here, at last, is “proof” of that — a 1904 patriotic private postcard which shows that Old Home Week and a “Champlain celebration” were held as early as June 1904 in Saint John, New Brunswick. This is the earliest Old Home Week postcard we’ve personally seen.

This colorful image was published by the Maritime Steam Lithography Co. of Saint John, which paid great attention to detail in this old postcard. The faux wood background is intended to give a 3-D effect to the image, using an art technique known as trompe l’’oeil, or “fool the eye.” The famous explorer was engraved in fine detail, as was the idyllic country cottage, upon which red maple leaves rest. Lest one need a reminder of the event, a wise owl perches atop the country cottage image, holding a sign that says: “Be Wise & Come” in his mouth.

See a scarce Nipissing District logging postcard.

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