Old Newpapers and New In The Tradition Of The Community Chronicle and How GreatIt Was At Christmas To Be At The Helm

 

 

ANOTHER GLIMPSE AT THESE HISTORIC NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS

     "LET US GLANCE FOR A MOMENT, AT ALL THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THESE TWO EDITORS," WRITES CAPTAIN LEVI FRASER, IN HIS BOOK, "HISTORY OF MUSKOKA," CIRCA THE 1940'S.

     "GEORGE (G.H.O.) THOMAS CAME TO BRACEBRIDGE WHEN ABOUT TWENTY YEARS OF AGE, TO FILL A VACANCY ON THE TEACHING STAFF (SCHOOL) FOR SIX MONTHS. THE COUNTRY LOOKED SO FORBIDDING TO HIM THAT HE WONDERED IF HE COULD ENDURE THAT LONG. BEFORE THE SIX MONTHS HAD EXPIRED, HE BECAME ENGAGED AS PRINCIPAL FOR THE FOLLOWING YEAR, 1885, A POSITION HE HELD FOR MANY YEARS DURING WHICH TIME HE BECAME ENGAGED IN THE JEWELRY BUSINESS, MARRIED AND OF HIS THREE SONS, ONE IS AN OPTOMETRIST (PHILIP), THE OTHER TWO STUDIED LAW, AND NOW ARE PARTNERS IN A LAW PRACTICE (DOUGLAS AND REDMOND). THE OLDEST (REDMOND) IS ALSO A MAGISTRATE AND EDITOR OF THE BRACEBRIDGE GAZETTE. D.E. BASTEDO CAME FROM BAYSVILLE TO BRACEBRIDGE, ON FOOT, IN 1870, WITH HIS MEAGRE BELONGINGS TIED IN A COLORED HANDKERCHIEF, ACCEPTED THE POSITION OF 'PRINTER'S DEVIL,' ON THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE, AND LATER WAS ON THE FREE GRANT GAZETTE. HE MARRIED AND RAISED A FAMILY OF FIVE BOYS, AND SEVERAL GIRLS; OF THE BOYS THREE ARE LAWYERS, ONE A HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER AND ONE A DOCTOR (DR. A.F. BASTEDO OF BRACEBRIDGE). THESE ARE NOT ONLY MUSKOKA PIONEER FAMILIES, WHO HAVE TURNED OUT PROFESSIONAL MEN. THE BACK TOWNSHIPS AS WELL AS THE TOWNS, HAVE PRODUCED THEIR QUOTA. I ONLY MENTION THESE TWO FAMILIES, BECAUSE THEY ARE CONNECTED WITH THE PRESS, OUR PRESENT SUBJECT."

     CAPTAIN FRASER ADDS, "THE GRAVENHURST BANNER WAS THE LAST MUSKOKA PAPER, TO BEGIN PUBLICATION. IT MADE ITS APPEARANCE IN THE 1880'S. THE BANNER WAS THE FIRST NEWSPAPER THAT I EVER READ, AS AT THAT TIME, I WAS JUST LEARNING TO READ. IN MY CHILDISH IGNORANCE, I THOUGHT THAT A NEWSPAPERMAN MUST BE A WONDERFULLY WISE MAN. I WONDERED HOW HE COULD KNOW ALL THE THINGS THAT APPEARED EVERY WEEK IN THE BANNER. I ANXIOUSLY LOOKED FORWARD TO ITS ARRIVAL EVERY WEEK. IN THE EARLY DAYS THE BANNER WAS ABOUT THE ONLY PAPER THAT CAME TO OUR SETTLEMENT. LIKE ALL OTHER DISTRICT PAPERS, IT WAS A GREAT BOOSTER OF MUSKOKA. ITS WEEKLY BUDGET OF NEWS, TOLD OF NEW SETTLER ARRIVALS, OF NEW ROADS BEING BUILT AND OF THE EVER-INCREASING LAKE TRADE. SUCH NEWS HAD THE EFFECT OF MAKING OUR PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THEY WERE LIVING IN A FAVORED LAND. NOTHING STIMULATES CIVIC PRIDE LIKE GOOD NEWSPAPER LEADERSHIP AND SUPPORT. ALTHOUGH MANY OF OUR PEOPLE FOUND THE GOING TOUGH ENOUGH, THEY RESENTED ANYTHING THAT CAST A REFLECTION ON THE COMMUNITY. AN INCIDENT OCCURRED IN THE MID 1880'S, WHEN AN ELDERLY CLERGYMAN, WHO HAD CALLED TO ONE OF THE TOWN CHURCHES, (AND WHO EVIDENTLY HAD COME FROM A MORE ADVANCED COMMUNITY), MADE A REPORT, THAT APPEARED IN THE PRESS (NOT IN THE BANNER), DEPICTING MUSKOKA AS A POVERTY-STRICKEN DISTRICT. FEW INCIDENTS IN THOSE DAYS CAUSED SUCH WIDESPREAD INDIGNATION, AS DID THIS REPORT; THE RESULT BEING THAT THE REVEREND GENTLEMAN'S STAY IN GRAVENHURST WAS OF SHORT DURATION.

     "THE BANNER WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1882 BY W.R. TUDHOPE, LATER IT WAS TAKEN OVER IN TURN BY A. FAWCETT OF UFFINGTON, THE GRANT FAMILY, G.H.O. THOMAS, DALTON CAMPBELL, MR. REYNOLDS, AND FINALLY BY ALF AND R.T. DASS, OF WHOM ALF IS STILL THE PUBLISHER (CIRCA 1942). IN THE EARLY PART OF THE 20TH CENTURY, ANOTHER GRAVENHURST PAPER, THE HERALD, FOUNDED BY DR. BEATTIE NESBITT, RAN FOR AWHILE, AND WAS THEN ABSORBED BY THE BANNER."

     CAPTAIN FRASER ASTUTELY OBSERVES, THAT, "AS AN UNBIASED OBSERVER, WITH NO AXE TO GRIND, I WOULD SAY THAT THE PRESS OF MUSKOKA DESERVES THE COMMENDATION OF THE WHOLE DISTRICT, FOR THE PART IT HAS PLAYED IN PROMOTING THE VARIED AND NUMEROUS INTERESTS OF THIS FAIR LAND OF OURS. TO THE PRESS, I WOULD SAY, 'DO NOT REST ON YOUR OARS FOR THE GOAL HAS NOT BEEN REACHED; MUSKOKA IS NOT YET FULLY DEVELOPED AND THE PRESS CAN BECOME A POWERFUL INSTRUMENT IN STIMULATING INTEREST IN SUCH PROPOSITIONS, AS RE-FORESTATION AND TREE-PLANTING ALONG OUR HIGHWAYS AND THE BANKS OF RIVERS AND STREAMS, TO PRESERVE MOISTURE AND KEEP THE LITTLE BABBLING BROOKS ALIVE AND ACTIVE TO THE DELIGHT OF THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN FROM MANY LANDS. STAY OUT IN FRONT; GIVE US LEADERSHIP AND EARN THE GRATITUDE OF AN INTERESTED PUBLIC; FOR AFTER ALL MUSKOKA IS DESTINED TO BE JUST WHAT WE MAKE OF IT."

     THIS WAS THE PERSPECTIVE OFFERED IN MUSKOKA, BY A MUSKOKAN, DURING YEARS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. WHY WOULD THE MEDIA EVER BE OF LESSER CONCERN, AS A LEADERSHIP MODEL, EVEN IN THIS, OUR MODERN ERA OF DEVELOPMENT?

_______BEGINNING TOMORROW ON THIS SITE_________CHRISTMAS MEMORIES IN MUSKOKA AND ALL THAT JAZZ

     I was the happiest rookie writer on earth, or at least in Muskoka, when I was appointed editor of the Bracebridge Herald-Gazette back in the very early 1980's. It was a typical small town newspaper with a modest staff, a printing business in the back, and a publication that had a storied past in the history of what had become my hometown as of the mid 1960's. I had begun working as a cub reporter for the Muskoka Lakes-Georgian Bay Beacon in West Muskoka, in the winter of 1979, and I guess I must have shown some potential, because they soon raised my stock in Muskoka Publications, which also owned The Herald-Gazette and The Muskoka Sun at that time. When I began first as news editor, it wasn't long before I got a chance to go one step beyond to a full editorship, and I have to admit, for the first time in my young life, I began to feel adult-style stress. I had two reporters under my watch, Brant Scott and Judith Brocklehurst, two exceptional writers, a photographer, Harold Wright, and later John Black, and summer assistance from my own Muskoka Sun colleague Tim DuVernet, one of the best I've worked with over the years for his creative enterprise in photography. Tim and I actually published a book in the early 1980's, and the launch was at University of Toronto's Hart House, courtesy of his mother, Sylvia, a well known author who had association with the university. It wasn't a big deal book but it sure was a rush having a book launch at such a prestigious location in Toronto. I took Suzanne to this event and I guess it must have demonstrated to her I had a wee bit of potential to offer, because we were married soon after. Point is, a lot of good stuff happened because of my association with Muskoka Publications and the great folks I had to work with each week, to "put the paper to bed." Val, Chris, Ida, Norman, and many others who made it a hoot to go to work each day; and then there was the history we all made by putting these chronicles of town life and times together, weekly, imprinted for the record.....and for sure, we took this part of the job very seriously, because we all knew that mistakes also made history for all the wrong reasons, so everybody became a volunteer proof reader so we didn't have to offer any apologies when the paper hit the news stands the next morning. Gosh we worked well together when we weren't bickering and feeling overworked.

     The best time of the whole year for me, was during the Christmas period. I felt like a modern era Charles Dickens and the old Herald-Gazette building at 27 Dominion Street was my oasis from which to work and observe. And that I did. Please join me for some Christmas-time recollections of the town I loved to chronicle.