The Tayles of Emileeeeee Mcpheeeeee

By February, I’ll be standing in snow up to my knees saying, “I’d give anything for summer.” We humans are kind of fascinating creatures, and we carry the remarkable ability to complain about the very things we spent six months wishing for. Still, when the warm weather finally arrives, I always find myself thinking about the summers of childhood. Funny how one hot afternoon can transport you…

If there were awards for the shortest honeymoon in Canadian history, Brockville’s most spectacular marital meltdown of December 1867 would deserve at least an honourable mention. Forget champagne toasts and moonlit strolls. This newlywed adventure featured tug-of-war, public humiliation, runaway sleighs, and an audience that treated the whole affair like front-row seats at the theatre. The tale,…

The Great Sunday Milk Scandal of Almonte Imagine causing a courtroom commotion over… a bottle of milk. That was exactly what happened in Almonte in the late 1890s when five milk vendors found themselves standing before Squire Robert Smith, accused of the shocking crime of selling milk on a Sunday. By today’s standards it sounds almost laughable, but under Ontario’s strict Lord’s Day laws, even…

Illustation base came from a photo- Gillies/ McLaren Mill Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum The Ottawa Citizen Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Sat, Jun 18, 1932Page 28 If there was ever a man who could turn loading lumber into an Olympic sport, it was Phil Wright. Back in the early 1890s, Phil was offered a shipping job at Peter Maclaren’s famous mill in Carleton Place. Before hiring him,…

( you can see my house in the background) Also read- Crams Tannery Before and After Campbell Street When Cram & Munro opened their wool-pulling and tannery business in Carleton Place around 1870, they probably imagined years of honest work, steady profits, and the occasional complaint about the smell. They likely did not expect their greatest enemy to be the very machine sent to save them. The…

Toronto Star, 1901 Newspapers have always loved a good mystery, but they positively swoon over one involving disguises. Mention a young woman in men’s clothing, a moonlit hospital, desperate fugitives, and one very nervous police inspector, and suddenly every respectable citizen becomes Sherlock Holmes after two cups of tea. In the aftermath of the sensational murder and attempted escape,…

CLICK ABOVE READ-The Hopetown Murders Revisited.. These are the kind of stories that small communities carry quietly for decades — the ones where someone always knows just a little more than they’ve heard. Today we’re in that territory: an unsolved double murder in rural Ontario that’s been open since 1987, and why it still matters now. Let’s start with the Hopetown farmhouse. On a quiet…

Little John Island may be small enough to miss if you sneeze while boating, but it has spent centuries sitting front-row to the history of the Rideau Lakes. Tucked beside Rideau Ferry where Big Rideau meets Lower Rideau Lake, the island has watched pioneers paddle past, log drives thunder through, and elegant steamers weave among the channels. Nearby waters even guard the resting place of the…

In 1928 there was a newspaper article about the local municipal government in 1885. They tackled a sort of issue that could only exist before the invention of social media, cable television, or people having hobbies. They didn’t argue about taxes, nor roads or even the economy. What did they argue about for land’s sake? They argued about shovels, yes shovels. Specifically, whether city labourers…

If you ever want to know something just email me at [email protected] .. Thanks to Hillary Bayne for asking.. There are moments in history that are difficult to read about because they reveal both the very worst and the very best of humanity. Canada’s typhus epidemic of 1847 is one of those moments. It was a year when fear walked beside compassion, when death travelled aboard every tide of the…

The Sutton Flats Murder is going to be published as my Sherbrooke Record column this weekend and today I had an email from Evan Mercy, from Vermont about Fred Wheeler the photographer. He was very curious as to where F.W. Wheeler (Frank William Wheeler) lived on Intervale Street in Richford, Vermont. Thank you to the Richford, Vermont Historical Society for allowing me to a historical deep dive…

Photo- Marion Rogers 1974- The Ottawa Journal Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Sat, Oct 26, 1974Page 29 History in 1974… If walls could talk, St. James Anglican Church in Carleton Place would probably begin with, “Pull up a pew—I’ve seen a few things.” The congregation traces its roots back to 1834, when worshippers gathered in a modest Georgian-style frame church measuring just 64 by 32 feet. It…

There are churches, and then there are churches that practically deserve their own endurance medal. St. Andrew’s in Lanark belongs in the second category. Imagine arriving in the summer of 1820 after crossing the Atlantic, looking around at an endless forest and thinking, “Yes, this seems like an excellent place to build a community.” The early Scottish settlers, many of them Paisley weavers,…

I want to thank Victoria Edwards for posting this on Facebook as I had no idea– and now its going to be documented forever. Did you know? There are two Commemorative Banners by Mrs. William W. Horton 1870 from Carleton Place, Lanark County in the Canadian Museum of History. Loyal Orange Association, a prominent Protestant fraternal organization that wielded substantial social and political…

CLICK HERE to listen If you have ever looked at a canal and thought, “what this needs is a floating Victorian hotel with monogrammed silverware,” lindaseccaspina has found your boat. This episode follows the Rideau Queen, a palace steamer that ran the Rideau Canal between Kingston and Ottawa in the early 1900s — her luxury, her close calls, and her long, quiet decline. Let’s start with the boat…

In 1829, the Gatineau Valley narrowly escaped becoming Britain’s version of, “Congratulations—you’ve been sentenced to spectacular scenery.” Oui, c’est vraie!! That is a fascinating piece of local history! John MacTaggart, who served as the Clerk of Works for the Rideau Canal project under Colonel John By, was notorious for his bluntly honest and often cynical observations of the Canadian…

Here’s my thought to everyone- Liking something doesn’t really require an explanation. It feels good, it’s coming at time when absurdism has started to move into mainstream’s eye. Good timing, good music, good shit. That is all! There comes a moment in every cultural phenomenon when you begin to suspect you have accidentally wandered into a parallel universe. Mine arrived while reading the six…