Category: History Publisher: Borealis Press of Ottawa
ISBN-10: 0888876505
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 248
Copyright: Oct 28, 2016
ISBN-13: 9780888876508
Presents 30 historical tales spanning Canada and the centuries from the 1200s to the 1900s.
Published by Borealis Press of Ottawa, YesterCanada: Historical Tales of Mystery and Adventure presents 30 historical tales spanning this great land and the centuries from the 1200s to the 1900s.
Here are a few of the mysteries you'll find in YesterCanada's pages: Where in the icy Arctic is the lost Vancouver-based ship Baychimo? Did fur trader Venant St. Germain really see a mermaid in Lake Superior? Who rang the chapel bell in Tadoussac, Quebec one foggy April night in 1782? Why did a Minnesota farmer abandon his farm, walk to Saskatchewan, and build an ocean-going ship far from any ocean?
In YesterCanada you'll also meet adventurers like Ottawa's daring Lady Agnes, pious Nova Scotia pioneers, gold-seekers of Alberta, and the Manitoba Cree chief who gave his life for the woman he loved.
Author Elma Schemenauer says, "I love Canada, and have had the privilege of living in four of its provinces. I grew up in Saskatchewan, taught in Nova Scotia, and worked in publishing in Toronto for many years. I now live on a sagebrush-dotted hillside in Kamloops, British Columbia."
Elma's published books also include the 1940s-era Saskatchewan Mennonite novel Consider the Sunflowers.
YesterCanada is a248-page paperback including 30 illustrations and a bibliography, ISBN 978-0-88887-650-8, $19.95.Ask for it in a store or library. Or order online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo, or Borealis Press. E-book coming later.
Excerpt
From Ottawa to British Columbia
with the Daring Lady Agnes
Lady Agnes Macdonald was as excited as a child at a birthday party. A smile tugged at her lips. Her eyes shone
as she bustled about, supervising the servants who were taking care of the last-minute details of packing.
The date was July 10, 1886. That evening Lady Agnes and her husband, Sir John A. Macdonald, prime minister of Canada, would board one of the first passenger
trains of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It would carry them from Ottawa clear across the country to the Pacific
Coast.
For years Lady Agnes had encouraged her husband as he worked toward the completion of this railway. The
great dream of their lives was to see Canada become a strong and united country.
A railway already connected
the Maritime provinces with Quebec and Ontario. The Canadian Pacific Railway promised to be the “ribbon of
steel” that would tie all these provinces to western Canada.
The great task was completed on November 7,1885, when the Honourable Donald A. Smith drove the last spike. Then for the first time, mail, freight, and passengers could travel easily from the cities of the east across the prairies and mountains to the Pacific Ocean
in the west.
The first regular passenger train left Montreal on June 28, 1886. It reached Pacific waters at Port Moody,
British Columbia on July 4, just six days later. Unfortunately Sir John was too busy with his duties as prime
minister to participate in that history-making journey.
However, he had promised Lady Agnes that he would try to get away from his office to make the trip with her by
July 10.
It was late in the evening of July 10 when he and his wife arrived at the train station. No crowds had gathered
to see them off since their plans had been kept secret.
Lady Macdonald’s voice echoed through the empty building as she talked excitedly with the handful of other
passengers who were to accompany her and her husband on the trip.
Soon everything was ready. The Macdonalds settled into the railway car that had been prepared for them. It
was called the Jamaica in honour of Lady Agnes, who had lived in the West Indies as a child. Its walls and ceiling
were finished with richly carved panels of polished wood. Thick velvet cushions covered the seats. The windows were fitted with fine-mesh screens to keep out dust and insects.
The doors clanged shut and a shudder ran the length of the train. The Macdonalds felt a sudden jolt.
Slowly the locomotive pulled out of the station. Sir John and Lady Agnes watched the lights of Ottawa glide past
their window. Little by little the train gathered speed.
Soon it was rumbling through the dark countryside. The engine whistle gave a full-throated roar that echoed, reechoed, and died along the track behind the speeding train. Lady Agnes’s eyes sparkled. What an adventure!
325 letters my father wrote to my mother during his time in World War II.
Woven together in a timeline of events of three of his brothers, 5 brothers-in-law, and one cousin, all 10 of them were in WWII at the same time.
