The History of Histories
C. Chad Martin
September 19, 2016
In his 1978 book "A History of Minto Township" Clifford Harrison opened his brief history of Palmerston with the line; "Palmerston has done rather well in the chronicle department." While true, it can be considered quite the understatement. Since then a plethora of histories and information has been created as well as found from the past 140 years of Palmerston history. While it may seem odd or a little bit meta, the history of histories for Palmerston is a fascinating story in itself.
The documentation of Palmerston's history has been in a renaissance with the continued growth and development of the Palmerston Railway Heritage Museum, as well as the ability to take a heuristic approach through the endless resources on the internet. It isn't without its own irony that the very thing slowly eroding away at the printed word is what has opened the doors to the discovery of so many pieces written long ago about our little community.
Many times before I have written and spoke about the almost self imposed isolation of Palmerston. As a community physically it is in a central albeit remote area. In its early days the back and forth politics were a key element in the creation of this isolation. Even the encouragement of the railway opening a depot in the area was due to political infighting that moved the fledgling community away from Perth County. The isolationism created a need for determination and self identification of uniqueness. Combined with the settlers closely tied to their own traditions and cultures, with a need to reinforce their ties to their "old country". These ingredients led to a community determined to preserve its stories to acknowledge its place in history.
The scope of written histories about Palmerston is quite varied, far more than one would expect. The isolationism or need for it actually linked the community with many different areas as it bounced from township to township and county to county. For a very long time it was commonly accepted that pieces such as the 1975 Centennial Paper, the George Donaldson article from 1942 and the book "Legacy of the Adam Brown" were the main sources of history about Palmerston.
The first recorded history was a brief synopsis of the community only a year after incorporation; " Few places, if any in Canada can boast of such rapid prosperity as Palmerston, only four years ago the ground where the Town now stands was a wilderness, the first home was built in 1871...". The "Fisher and Taylors Wellington County Directory and Gazetteer" and many like it all produced short but concise histories of communities while also being a great resource for directories and advertisements of the people and businesses of the town. Directories were a common occurrence in the late 1800's, where Palmerston benefitted was that both Wellington and Perth County included it within their directories.
Later in 1879, 1881 and 1906 County Atlases were produced, again including brief histories and directories of the community along with maps and articles about prominent citizens. These atlases were thankfully reprinted in the 1970's in an effort to preserve their historical detail. In 1902 William Johnston produced the first official History of Perth County, within it he dedicated numerous pages to the story of Palmerston and how it came into existence and eventually separated from the county along with wonderfully detailed histories of the local agricultural, economic and social development of the area. The next phase in history of our history seems to be a few ideal circumstances in the 1930's.
Sometime in 1938 a newspaperman named Art Carr came to town and took on the responsibility of the Palmerston Observer. Only a few years earlier the once prominent building dominating Main St., the Imperial Hotel was torn down, the once beautiful and well loved old buildings of Palmerston were starting to deteriorate and be lost. Finally, the height of the depression proved that the railway was quickly declining and the days of Palmerston being an active hub was slowly dwindling away.
Carr can be credited with making huge inroads into the formal preservation of Palmerston's history. He was a major advocate of promoting local news and stories. Seeing an opportunity to do just this, Carr quickly began researching and printing various articles about "the good old days" and the local heroes of the town. It's perhaps this interest in history that prompted George Donaldson a long time citizen, politician and businessman of Palmerston to right a 5 page article about the town in 1942. For the next thirty years this was seen as the primary history of the town.
The decline of the railway and steam power in particular reignited the nostalgia of the town. As early as 1961, as the new Palmerston Public School was being constructed, it was proposed to repurpose the Continuation School into a community museum. The cost of renovating the 80+ year old building was simply too much and the proposal was tabled for another day. It wasn't until the early 1970's that the proposal was dusted off under the drive to celebrate the 1975 Centennial.
1975 became the peak for Palmerston history. Leading up to the Centennial the community diligently compiled articles, photographs and anything they could muster about the history of Palmerston. Carr and the Observer produced the 100 page Centennial Newspaper which even to today is a wealth of history and stories. Carr with his grandiose story telling abilities was able to lead the way in producing a wonderful legacy.
In conjunction with this Robert "Bob" MacEachern produced "Legacy of the Adam Brown" and small book of articles and historical snippets from the early days of the town history. This fervour of nostalgia reignited the interest in a possible museum, at the time the famous Queens Hotel was scheduled to be demolished and it was proposed to be a community museum, but again the building was not in ideal condition and it was not meant to be.
Whether the next essentially unknown and most detailed account of the town history came to be because of the 1975 Centennial or the opportunistic attitude of Art Carr, we may never know. But a mother of five, who felt she needed to finish her education after a 30 year hiatus decided to write her doctoral thesis on the history of Palmerston. This history became a 3 year study of the town, the author Mary Smith actively worked with many of the citizens through interviews, polls, questionnaires and diligent research in museums and archives across the province. In total she compiled a thorough 200 page history of the town that was all but lost in the archival bowels of the University of Cincinnati. The rough information and notes Smith must have compiled over those years would be any researchers dream come true.
Smith summed up the citizenry perfectly in her conclusion:
Although it has broadened its outlook in recent years due to provincial legislation which has drawn the town more into the mainstream of provincial activity, it has never shaken off its pre-occupation with its own local affairs. Present day Palmerston, while harassed by economic conditions, is a progressive small town capable of instilling fierce loyalty in its inhabitants.
Over the years of my own research I have uncovered no less than 24 books that include a brief history or mention of historical exploits in the town of Palmerston. They all vary from County and Township histories, railway history, clubs, churches and organization histories etc. This doesn't take into account the countless family trees, memoires, articles and so forth all having some piece of local history within them.
As they say 'third time is a charm' and starting in 1996 the Town purchased the eye sore that was the railyards and station, along with one of those perfect sparking points, the Canadian National Handcar Races (starting in 1992) the town was able to muster together and finally get that long awaited museum in the jewel of the town the newly renovated and restored Palmerston train station.
Even after writing this article it still blows me away at how much the community of Palmerston has preserved and documented its history. To have it all slowly build in bits and pieces over the many decades to come to what it is today is astounding. Just the fact it is worthwhile to write the "history of histories" shows how well we've done.
Note: To see and read some of the various histories mentioned above (Including the Mary Smith thesis) visit: http://www.noonegoes.com/research.html
September 19, 2016
In his 1978 book "A History of Minto Township" Clifford Harrison opened his brief history of Palmerston with the line; "Palmerston has done rather well in the chronicle department." While true, it can be considered quite the understatement. Since then a plethora of histories and information has been created as well as found from the past 140 years of Palmerston history. While it may seem odd or a little bit meta, the history of histories for Palmerston is a fascinating story in itself.
The documentation of Palmerston's history has been in a renaissance with the continued growth and development of the Palmerston Railway Heritage Museum, as well as the ability to take a heuristic approach through the endless resources on the internet. It isn't without its own irony that the very thing slowly eroding away at the printed word is what has opened the doors to the discovery of so many pieces written long ago about our little community.
Many times before I have written and spoke about the almost self imposed isolation of Palmerston. As a community physically it is in a central albeit remote area. In its early days the back and forth politics were a key element in the creation of this isolation. Even the encouragement of the railway opening a depot in the area was due to political infighting that moved the fledgling community away from Perth County. The isolationism created a need for determination and self identification of uniqueness. Combined with the settlers closely tied to their own traditions and cultures, with a need to reinforce their ties to their "old country". These ingredients led to a community determined to preserve its stories to acknowledge its place in history.
The scope of written histories about Palmerston is quite varied, far more than one would expect. The isolationism or need for it actually linked the community with many different areas as it bounced from township to township and county to county. For a very long time it was commonly accepted that pieces such as the 1975 Centennial Paper, the George Donaldson article from 1942 and the book "Legacy of the Adam Brown" were the main sources of history about Palmerston.
The first recorded history was a brief synopsis of the community only a year after incorporation; " Few places, if any in Canada can boast of such rapid prosperity as Palmerston, only four years ago the ground where the Town now stands was a wilderness, the first home was built in 1871...". The "Fisher and Taylors Wellington County Directory and Gazetteer" and many like it all produced short but concise histories of communities while also being a great resource for directories and advertisements of the people and businesses of the town. Directories were a common occurrence in the late 1800's, where Palmerston benefitted was that both Wellington and Perth County included it within their directories.
Later in 1879, 1881 and 1906 County Atlases were produced, again including brief histories and directories of the community along with maps and articles about prominent citizens. These atlases were thankfully reprinted in the 1970's in an effort to preserve their historical detail. In 1902 William Johnston produced the first official History of Perth County, within it he dedicated numerous pages to the story of Palmerston and how it came into existence and eventually separated from the county along with wonderfully detailed histories of the local agricultural, economic and social development of the area. The next phase in history of our history seems to be a few ideal circumstances in the 1930's.
Sometime in 1938 a newspaperman named Art Carr came to town and took on the responsibility of the Palmerston Observer. Only a few years earlier the once prominent building dominating Main St., the Imperial Hotel was torn down, the once beautiful and well loved old buildings of Palmerston were starting to deteriorate and be lost. Finally, the height of the depression proved that the railway was quickly declining and the days of Palmerston being an active hub was slowly dwindling away.
Carr can be credited with making huge inroads into the formal preservation of Palmerston's history. He was a major advocate of promoting local news and stories. Seeing an opportunity to do just this, Carr quickly began researching and printing various articles about "the good old days" and the local heroes of the town. It's perhaps this interest in history that prompted George Donaldson a long time citizen, politician and businessman of Palmerston to right a 5 page article about the town in 1942. For the next thirty years this was seen as the primary history of the town.
The decline of the railway and steam power in particular reignited the nostalgia of the town. As early as 1961, as the new Palmerston Public School was being constructed, it was proposed to repurpose the Continuation School into a community museum. The cost of renovating the 80+ year old building was simply too much and the proposal was tabled for another day. It wasn't until the early 1970's that the proposal was dusted off under the drive to celebrate the 1975 Centennial.
1975 became the peak for Palmerston history. Leading up to the Centennial the community diligently compiled articles, photographs and anything they could muster about the history of Palmerston. Carr and the Observer produced the 100 page Centennial Newspaper which even to today is a wealth of history and stories. Carr with his grandiose story telling abilities was able to lead the way in producing a wonderful legacy.
In conjunction with this Robert "Bob" MacEachern produced "Legacy of the Adam Brown" and small book of articles and historical snippets from the early days of the town history. This fervour of nostalgia reignited the interest in a possible museum, at the time the famous Queens Hotel was scheduled to be demolished and it was proposed to be a community museum, but again the building was not in ideal condition and it was not meant to be.
Whether the next essentially unknown and most detailed account of the town history came to be because of the 1975 Centennial or the opportunistic attitude of Art Carr, we may never know. But a mother of five, who felt she needed to finish her education after a 30 year hiatus decided to write her doctoral thesis on the history of Palmerston. This history became a 3 year study of the town, the author Mary Smith actively worked with many of the citizens through interviews, polls, questionnaires and diligent research in museums and archives across the province. In total she compiled a thorough 200 page history of the town that was all but lost in the archival bowels of the University of Cincinnati. The rough information and notes Smith must have compiled over those years would be any researchers dream come true.
Smith summed up the citizenry perfectly in her conclusion:
Although it has broadened its outlook in recent years due to provincial legislation which has drawn the town more into the mainstream of provincial activity, it has never shaken off its pre-occupation with its own local affairs. Present day Palmerston, while harassed by economic conditions, is a progressive small town capable of instilling fierce loyalty in its inhabitants.
Over the years of my own research I have uncovered no less than 24 books that include a brief history or mention of historical exploits in the town of Palmerston. They all vary from County and Township histories, railway history, clubs, churches and organization histories etc. This doesn't take into account the countless family trees, memoires, articles and so forth all having some piece of local history within them.
As they say 'third time is a charm' and starting in 1996 the Town purchased the eye sore that was the railyards and station, along with one of those perfect sparking points, the Canadian National Handcar Races (starting in 1992) the town was able to muster together and finally get that long awaited museum in the jewel of the town the newly renovated and restored Palmerston train station.
Even after writing this article it still blows me away at how much the community of Palmerston has preserved and documented its history. To have it all slowly build in bits and pieces over the many decades to come to what it is today is astounding. Just the fact it is worthwhile to write the "history of histories" shows how well we've done.
Note: To see and read some of the various histories mentioned above (Including the Mary Smith thesis) visit: http://www.noonegoes.com/research.html