Grandad’s Montreal 1901 – “New Century Underway. Ushered in by Religious Observances and Clanging Bells, Followed up by Joyous New Year’s Receptions and Family Social Festivities” proclaimed the headline on the front page of The Montreal Star in its January 2, 1901 edition, as it officially welcomed the first day of the first year of the 20th century.
And what lay ahead for Canada’s largest city and business hub at the time was a landmark year that would be filled with landmark events, such as the death of Queen Victoria, the ascension of King Edward VII to the British throne, a killer heat wave, and the much anticipated Royal Visit in September of the Duke and Duchess of York and Cornwall (the future King George V and Queen Mary).
And in between, there were the usual assortment of happenings, goings-on, accomplishments, mishaps and the other minutiae that are associated with the every day life of a large Canadian metropolis. And in the days before radio, television and social media, the chief source of information for Montreal’s citizens was the daily newspaper, in particular the much lamented Montreal Star (a conservative paper that was a strong supporter of the British monarchy) and La Presse (a French language daily that was more liberal in tone).
Over the last few years, local historian and author Robert N. Wilkins has become known for chronicling the known and not-so-known highlights of Montreal’s fascinating history through articles in The Westmount Examiner and The Gazette, as well as bestselling books such as Montreal 1909 and Montreal Recorder’s Court, 1906. For his latest book, Wilkins has burrowed through the archives of the Star and La Presse to present a complete day-by-day, month-by-month portrait of Montreal at the literal turn of the 20th century with Grandad’s Montreal, 1901.
Wilkins had a family-related reason to why he focused on the year 1901 for his book. It was the year his paternal grandfather, Frederick Thomas Wilkins, met his bride-to-be (and future paternal grandmother) Lea Therrien at a tourist lodge located at Beaver Hall Hill; they married in January of 1902. That’s when the spark hit Wilkins to find out what life in Montreal was like in the year when his grandparents first met.
The end result is this 650+-page tome that is like a literary time machine that will have history buffs, not to mention current and previous Montreal residents, love every page of it.
This is a year in the life of Montreal at a time when the British Empire had a strong presence, the population was over 360,000, the Catholic Church dictated the kind of way of life the city’s French-speaking population followed, a businessman named Raymond Prefontaine was completing his second term as mayor (and was considering running for a third two-year term), and was a mix of prosperity, grinding poverty, social horrors, crimes of every nature, plenty of diversions and entertainment for the family, and rampant diseases that gave the city a much dubious reputation for its high infant mortality rate.
What stood out for me while reading this book is the reporting style of the Star and La Presse when they reported on all types of events that happened at and affected the city. While the latter paper was written in a style of French that was simple and very reader-friendly to even Anglophone readers, the Star’s prose style was, to put it mildly, kind of flowery, with a lot of ten-dollar-words peppered throughout its copy as a means of keeping its snob appeal to its pro-monarchy readership. Take for example this excerpt from the June 24 edition of the Star, and its coverage of that year’s St. Jean Baptiste Day celebrations at Lafontaine Park (which was renamed that day from it’s previous moniker Logan’s Park): “The lighting of the huge bonfire, one of the time-honoured customs of the fete, was accomplished amidst the acclamations of the great gathering, and the stirring strains of the choir and band, in national airs, floated out on the night air, taken up by voice after voice in the mighty throng, and as it died away a great cheer went up.”
As well, there are many instances in the book when you see both papers cover a relevant issue that affected Montreal in 1901 that is just as relevant 120 years later. For example, this excerpt from the November 23 edition of the Star which dealt with an outbreak of smallpox in Montreal, and the vaccination campaign that took place in the city in order to combat this epidemic before it could reach fatal high levels that were similar to the 1885 smallpox epidemic: “Yesterday word was brought to Dr. Laberge (Dr. Louis Laberge, who at the time was in charge of the Board of Health Office at Montreal City Hall) that a drugstore on St. Denis Street had a big sign out with the following words: ‘Be prepared for compulsory vaccination.’ He at once gave word to have the sign taken down, which was done. The party who had put out the sign explained he had done so simply to sell his vaccine. Dr. Laberge pointed out, however, that the sign might easily give rise to much trouble.”
The book Grandad’s Montreal 1901, is chock full of fascinating stories about the happenings in Montreal throughout the year, which range from the sublime to the mundane, whether it be the continuing complaints raised about the less-than-ideal conditions of its roads and sidewalks (and the constant inaction of the Prefontaine administration to this and any other important issue that affected its residents; although city hall’s many committees met frequently and released countless reports about what can be done, very little or nothing was done to resolve these issues, and they were all for the same reason: “no money”), the annual visit of the Ringling Brothers Circus to Montreal, the numerous balls and soirees that were held by Montreal’s elite to benefit a number of charitable causes, the on field exploits of the Montreal Royals baseball club (which was seeking a new owner in 1901), to the latest theatrical offerings at Proctor’s Theatre (which was previously known as Her Majesty’s, and was soon changed to His Majesty’s Theatre), the regular goings-on on the docket filled with minor and petty crimes at the Montreal Recorder’s Court (which the subject of Wilkins’ previous book), and the rowdy actions of McGill University students at the beginning of the school year (which was called “rushes”) that involved pranks, fighting and the vandalism of one of the decorative arches that was built for the occasion of the Royal Visit by the Duke and Duchess of York and Cornwall.
However, one of the most heart-breaking aspect of the book was the items that dealt with the fate of Montreal’s most innocent victims … its children. Whether it be getting involved with all sorts of crimes (mostly robbery and stealing); premature deaths through drowning while swimming the Lachine Canal, accidental scaldings, being struck by horse-drawn vehicles at high speeds, ingesting dangerous household products (including the incident of a three-year-old boy who ate a piece of bread that was smothered with a brand of rat poison, thinking it was butter) and disease; living in abject poverty, or suffering instances of parental neglect, the reader can’t help but feel a sense of empathy for the children of 1901 Montreal while reading these examples of rather melodramatic reporting, at a time when social services for the protection of children were few and far between.
Grandad’s Montreal, 1901 is a fascinating book that offers a microcosm of the many aspects of life in a continuously evolving large Canadian metropolis during the Belle Epoque era that preceded World War I, whether it be the good, the bad or the very ugly. Robert Wilkins has done an exhaustive, diligent job sifting through all of those newspaper archives to present this time capsule in a book, and it certainly shows as you read through each daily entry with an increasing sense of interest. Hopefully, Mr. Wilkins will continue with book projects of this nature that focus on a year in the life of Montreal’s past (maybe one year per decade leading up to 1960); it would be a valiant service to future generations of Montrealers towards learning about the historical evolution of the city they call their home.
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