Ekfrid

Articles about the village of Appin, Ekfrid Township, Maxville and area.

Peter McArthur: the “horrible, horrible” war

Peter McArthur: the “horrible, horrible” war

Glencoe & District Historical Society

Part 1: Peter McArthur, the hardest question and the “horrible, horrible” war

By Stephanie McDonald, December 2024

It’s a question from a child no parent is equipped to answer: Should I go to war? It was what Daniel, eldest son of Mabel and Peter McArthur, asked of his father in the early years of the First World War. 

Even as prolific a writer as Peter McArthur was, one can imagine how the man dubbed the “Sage of Ekfrid” struggled to find the right words to share with his son. His response reveals both his wish for his child to come to his own decision as well as the urge to protect and keep him safe.

Peter penned his answer to Dan’s question in a letter on January 25, 1916, a year and a half into the war. 

My Dear Dannie-boy:

The question you have asked me is the hardest I have ever had to face and I am afraid I cannot give you much help. You know my position is that such a question is one that a man must settle with his own soul. Under the military law you are now a man and expected to arrive at your own decision without guidance or interference. Think it out for yourself. If you feel in your heart that you should go I cannot tell you not to, for by doing so I might ruin your after life. If you feel that you should not go and I told you to go the result might be equally disastrous. Only keep this in mind, that if you come to the decision that keeps you true to all that is best in yourself, whether it be to enlist or to serve to the best of your ability at home you will always be equally dear to me.

If you decide to enlist I should favor the signalling corps. The work is as dangerous and requires as high a courage as any other but would not make it necessary for you to do actual fighting and shed blood.

I cannot tell you how much my heart is with you in this trial you are passing through. It is such a trial as never came to me. But whatever decision you make, try to make it without thought of what others may say or think. 

“To thine own self be true and it must follow as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” (From Act 1, Scene 3 of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare.

Your loving father,  Peter McArthur

It is all horrible, horrible. Why don’t they take old cusses like me who, as a friend said, “has seen most everything and should be ready to go.” Canada is being raked over for recruits just now and thousands of boys of eighteen to twenty are enlisting.

Peter McArthur

Dan did enlist in the Army, and as a signaller as his father had suggested. We can trace his journey over the next few years from letters that Peter wrote to his friend and fellow writer C. Bowyer Vaux of Philadelphia, whom he had met in 1894 in New York City. These letters are held in the archives at Western University. 

Just a month before writing the letter to Dan, McArthur tells Vaux that Dan was home from college for the Christmas holidays and talked of enlisting, but expressed skepticism it would happen. In March 1916, at the age of 18, Dan was one of the newly enlisted. As was common when major events happened in his life, McArthur wrote to Vaux to share the news, perhaps seeking some solace from his old friend. 

Got your letter this morning and it came at a time when I needed a word of cheer. Dan has enlisted for overseas service and we find it hard to let him go. He has enlisted with the college battery and is taking a special course as a signaller. He seems such a little boy to go into this terrible thing. But there are hundreds of thousands of parents in Canada who are feeling as we do.

With thanks to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Peter McArthur for permission to share the 1916 letter from Peter to his son Daniel, as well as the family photos used in this piece. 

Part 2: Peter McArthur, the hardest question and the “horrible, horrible” war

On 15th March 1916 Daniel McArthur, son of Ekfrid Township writer, poet, farmer and philosopher Peter McArthur, enlisted in the 56th Battery (commonly known as the O.A.C. Battery as most recruits were students at the Ontario Agricultural College) in Guelph. Two months later, in mid-May 1916, he was stationed closer to home, in nearby London. 

Peter wrote to his friend and long-time correspondent C. Bowyer Vaux, saying they saw Dan “every week or two but we can’t get used to seeing him in uniform.” At the end of the same month Dan was still in training in London but in a few weeks was to go to the training base in Petawawa, “and we shall not see much more of him before he goes across to the war.” 

By September of 1916 Dan was in England. Another update was shared with Vaux in November.

We hear from Dan regularly and he seems to be having a great time in England. It is not likely that he will reach the trenches for some months yet as their final training is being delayed for some reason. But I have very little hope that the war will be ended before he reaches the front. 

As 1916 drew to a close, on December 30th, McArthur added a note by hand in the margin of his typewritten letter:

P.S. Dan writes that he expects to be in France early in January. Then our real time of suspense and dread will begin.

But in February he remained in England,  

for which we are duly thankful. The battery he went with was broken up and he was placed with a battery that needs further training. He seems well and cheerful.

By July of 1917 Dan was still in England (“we are expecting to hear all the time of his going to France”), but McArthur now had a new worry to contend with. He told Vaux that McKellar, his second born, 

was also bound to enlist but as he is only seventeen I refused to allow him. He is busy farming and we have in the largest crop we have had since we returned to the land.

By the fall of 1917, the time that Peter and his wife Mabel had been so anxious about, had arrived. On November 4th he wrote to Vaux with the news. 

Dan is now in the thick of the fighting in France and from what I am able to learn his work – artillery signaller – is about the most dangerous in the army. He writes very cheerfully, but we are worried all the time. Some of his friends have appeared in the casualty lists already.

In the spring of 1918 McArthur wrote to Vaux with an apology. 

I know it is inecuseable [sic] that I should be so long without writing to you, but for months past I have been under such a strain that I simply couldn’t write. Dan has been in the front trenches for the past seven months and though the major of his company has been killed, and some of his friends killed and others wounded he has escaped so far. During the long winter the strain told heavily on Mrs McArthur and for the past six weeks she has been in the hospital in London, suffering from anaemia.

Mercifully, the McArthur’s continued to get “good news” from Dan through the summer and early fall of 1918, though a year after first wanting to, McArthur shares that “MacKellar is going to enlist as soon as the fall work is done on the farm – so the war is coming home to us.” On October 13, 1918, McArthur tells Vaux that McKellar has passed the preliminary examination for the Royal Air Force, though there were more tests to come. “He was not old enough for any other branch of the service as he is only eighteen, but he was bound to go.”

And then, at last, on November 11th, 1918, the war ended. Four days later, on November 15th McArthur wrote to Vaux. 

I am several letters behind and haven’t much to say but feel I must exchange a good word with you about the coming of peace. It is surely the greatest news this old world has heard for many a day. To have the slaughter of our boys stopped gives us heart to face whatever the future may have in store.

While the war had ended, the McArthur’s didn’t get immediate news from Dan. In that same November letter, McArthur told Vaux that 

the little yellow envelope telling us that Dan had been “gassed” gave us a shock but we got a cablegram from himself telling us that it was “Not serious. Back on duty.”

He continued:

We are now anxious to hear that he got through safely to the end. I really think I have done more worrying about him since peace was declared than in all the months he was in France – a year and four months. But no news is good news just now. We should soon hear from him about how he fared in the last weeks of the war.

The end of the war was just the start of the long wait for Dan to return home. In March 1919 McArthur told Vaux that Dan was still in Belgium. “We are hoping to get him home soon though I am afraid he will be among the last to get back.”

It wasn’t until June 1919, seven months after the Armistice and nearly three years since he went overseas, that Dan returned to Canada and was discharged from the Army. McKellar meanwhile, no longer needed in the Air Force, was at home. McArthur told Vaux that 

MacKellar has been doing big work on the farm – has forty three acres under crop. I have to keep at it pretty regularly helping him out.

In a letter dated October 5th, one sentence stands out. An ordinary update at any other time, but after years of upheaval and uncertainty, it signalled a return to normalcy. 

Everybody well – Dan back in college.

In the years that followed, the war’s presence didn’t completely go away. In September 1921 McArthur wrote to Vaux saying, 

Things have been quiet with us this summer. We had the whole family at home for some months for the first time since the outbreak of war. Dan was run down – a “heart murmur” that he brought out of the war – and I insisted on his staying at home for the summer. He took things easy – spent most of his time cartooning and sketching and last week a specialist pronounced him cured. He is now on his way to New York to study art.

A year later, in a letter from July 1922, McArthur reports having 

a glorious summer with everyone in good health and busy. They are all at home today – Dan and also his fiancee – Miss Dorothy Day who started to college with him and waited for him through the Great War. They hope to be married this fall. MacKellar is also engaged – Miss Frances Moss – daughter of the Glencoe lawyer.

While McArthur worried about hard times ahead for the country, re-adjusting to a new reality, he wrote of his personal contentment. He concludes his letter to Vaux by saying, 

no man can predict the future and as “This little world of mine” is happy we have not much to complain about.

Daniel Carman McArthur served with the 56th O.A.C. Battery (which was combined with two other units to form the 55th Battery) as a signaller in the First World War. After graduating from the Ontario Agricultural College, he worked as an agricultural journalist at The Globe newspaper, then with The Farmer’s Sun where he later became editor. In 1940 he was appointed the first chief news editor of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and held this position until 1953. He then relocated from Toronto to Ottawa where he worked as director of special program events for the CBC until his retirement in 1962. Dan died in 1967 at the age of 69. He and his wife Dorothy had six children. Read more about Dan McArthur here. 

Peter McArthur was born in 1866 in Ekfrid Township and died on October 28, 1924, following an operation in Victoria Hospital, London. He was buried under a maple tree “flaming with autumn crimson” in Eddie Cemetery close to the graves of his mother and father. Read more about Peter McArthur from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography here

Daniel Carman McArthur (from Canadian Singers and Their Songs)

Beginning of letter from Peter McArthur to his son Dan (Courtesy of Catherine Burns)

End of letter from Peter McArthur to his son Dan (Courtesy of Catherine Burns)

The McArthur family. From back left: Jim, Dan, a friend. Middle: Peter, Mabel. Front: Ian, McKellar, Elizabeth. (Courtesy of Charlotte Waller)

Peter and Mabel McArthur on their Ekfrid Township farm. (Courtesy of Charlotte Waller)

My Friends, The Trees

My Friends, The Trees

Glencoe & District Historical Society

By Peter McArthur

Near the house there is a sturdy oak tree that I always think of as one of the oldest of my friends. I grew up with it. Of course that is not exactly true, for I stopped growing many years ago, while it kept on growing, and it may keep on growing for centuries to come. But when I was a growing boy it was just the right kind of a tree for me to chum with. It was not too big to climb, and yet it was big enough to take me on its back and carry me into all the dreamlands of childhood.

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They Settled in Riverside – family history book

They Settled in Riverside – family history book

Glencoe & District Historical Society

By Bob Gentleman and Kathy Evans. Review printed with kind permission from the Middlesex Banner.

In July of this year, family and friends gathered at Arrowwood Farm, a beautiful property in Riverside, just south of Melbourne, to celebrate the publishing of a book written by my uncle, Bob Gentleman. The farm that is now called Arrowwood Farm (6460 Riverside Drive) has sentimental value to our family, as it was once owned by the Gentlemans, purchased in 1870. 

Bob’s book, titled “They Settled in Riverside,” is largely a family history, documenting the arrival of our ancestors in the Riverside area and describing their family branches. But Bob also captures an era now decades past as he shares stories of early Riverside neighbours and of growing up in Melbourne in the 1930s. He recalls his paper route, the school, town merchants and businesses, the railroad, and the neighbours and friends who were important in his life.

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WWI Sacrifice – Private Ellwyne Ballantyne

WWI Sacrifice – Private Ellwyne Ballantyne

Glencoe & District Historical Society

Ellwyne Ballantyne’s twenty-two years of brief, bright life are summed up on a simple plaque attached to a majestic buttonwood tree in Carruthers Corners. When local author CJ Frederick first saw the memorial tree in the rural area just outside of Glencoe, ON, she experienced a keen reverence. “It’s just a dot on a map. I was not prepared for how beautiful the tree was. It looked like it was wearing a cloak; as my mother says, ‘wrapped in a queen’s robe’. Knowing that this tree was dedicated to the life of someone who had given that life in a faraway, long-ago conflict really made me stop and think about remembrance and the enduring nature of love.” Ballantyne’s story had to be told; Frederick was eager to record it.

Ellwyne  Ballantyne’s buttonwood tree at Carruthers Corners

Frederick’s father, Butch Frederick, had mentioned the plaque years earlier, and it weighed on her mind until the pandemic in 2020 provided time to investigate. An article about the plaque’s dedication in 2012 led her to James C. Carruthers of Mossley, ON. Frederick accepted an invitation to Carruthers’ farmhouse for what would be the first of many hours of ruminative local history conservation, and dutifully inspired imagination.

For James Carruthers, the tree and its plaque represents his childhood spent listening to his grandmother’s stories about the kind, lonely boy from India she took under her wing and treated as her own. Ellwyne Ballantyne, born in Calcutta, India in 1895 to a steadfast mother, was orphaned by the age of 11. His stepfather steered Ballantyne and his half-sister first to Scotland, then to North America. Soon after he landed, in the dead of winter, at the doorstep of James A. and Betsy Jane Carruthers in 1906 at Carruthers Corners. During his years working the land with the Carruthers family, Ballantyne discovered a buttonwood tree thriving completely out of its element. The striking metaphor between tree and boy ignited a stewardship within Ballantyne that rooted him in his newest land, and family. This cultivated kinship matured with Ballantyne’s voluntary enlistment to serve on behalf of Canada overseas in World War I, where he was summarily sent to France. He was killed in action in September, 1917.

Lost, but not forgotten by James A. and Betsy Jane Carruthers—Ellwyne Ballantyne lived on through their stories, and also the land. Indeed, the buttonwood tree of this historical youth is the towering tree of his present memorial.

Though delighted to share Ballantyne with the rest of the world—Carruthers had waited a long time to share Ballantyne’s story with an audience outside of family—he held back the finer details at first. “My admission ticket to the full Ellwyne story, as far as James Carruthers was concerned, was that I grew up close to where Betsy Jane [James C.’s grandmother] was raised, I knew the area quite well, that I had a strong interest in the past, and that my grandfather had also served in World War I.” Frederick’s great grandfather also enlisted, but was honorably discharged when needed at home. “I feel a connection to what that generation endured.” Carruthers’ expansive archive included not only the cherished memories of his grandparents, but also a photo of Ballantyne and his birth mother in India, handwritten letters, and a wooden carving handcrafted by Ballantyne.

Sometimes the story keeper and the story teller is the same person, handing stories on to the next generation. Sometimes they are two different people.

Frederick grew up in a farmhouse on a concession fatefully renamed Buttonwood Drive, near the Sydenham River, home to many flourishing buttonwood trees. “I helped my dad plant more than 5,000 trees as we reforested a corner of our farm property with conifers. I have always been fascinated by the stoicism and beauty of trees.” She had initially set out to write a short story based on the plaque and its buttonwood tree, but as a few phone calls and visits stretched into over fifty hours of remembrance, Frederick knew it was a full-length novel. “When I told James C. that the story was far too complicated and long for a short story, I asked if I could try to construct a [fiction] novel. This thrilled James because he wants the story to be shared with others before it is lost to the memories of those who will pass and take it with them.” With Carruthers’ permission, Frederick used the factual pieces of Ballantyne’s history to fully immerse the reader in the fictionalized, fully-realized details of his life from beginning to end.

“Lots of people go through the motions of saying that they remember or they give thanks for the sacrifice of others,” says Frederick when asked what drew her to tell this deeply personal story of strangers, “but the Carruthers family has set a fine example of what remembrance means and how it looks. It doesn’t have to be big and showy, but it can be meaningful and real. And worth sharing.”

A technical writer by trade, Frederick is a creative fiction author by inspiration. “I spend all day storytelling business concepts, but I’ve always wanted to write a novel. Small towns and family-owned farms are disappearing, and when they’re gone, they’re just gone. I want to tell rural stories and find an audience who will appreciate them. And the memory of Dad talking about this plaque on a tree all but in the middle of a twentieth century farm field pulled at me. The pandemic made me feel like if not now, when? So I took the opportunity to spend my lockdown time researching, connecting, and writing about this incredible tale.”

Rooted and Remembered by CJ Frederick is a fiction novel based on the real life of Ellwyne Ballantyne, a remarkable boy from India who bestowed a legacy of love and compassion to a rural Ontario family before his life was cut short in World War I. To purchase a copy of the book (available in paperback or ebook), visit the Amazon website or order it from any bookstore. 

Frederick’s just published book was launched at The Archives in Glencoe on October 23, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.  This story was written by CJ Frederick and published in a September edition of the Middlesex Banner.

Jim May is also a story keeper for Ellwyne Ballantyne. Here he is with Chris Carruthers and Harold Carruthers after a presentation to the historial society about a pilgrimage to France to pay respects to Private Ballantyne
Lorne Munro, Past President

Lorne Munro, Past President

Glencoe & District Historical Society
Lorne Munro in the early yers
Lorne Munro in the early years


Lorne Munro – I became interested in historical events in the 1970s. My interest grew after attending the 25th Anniversary banquet of the Glencoe & District Historical Society at the Glencoe Legion in 2003. We presently have eight family genealogy books in our home that I manage and update. Ancestry.ca has been a great help and I correspond with family members to gather information.

During my tenure as President in 2018, the Society’s collection moved from our rooms on Main Street to the old library at 178 McKellar Street, Glencoe. I have served as secretary, first vice president, president (a couple of times). I’m slowing down now, just working on Wednesday afternoons in The Archives and enjoying any other projects that come along.

Peacefully at Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital , Strathroy on Monday, March 18, 2024 William “Lorne” Munro passed away in his 91st year. Predeceased by his wife Phyllis (2023). Dear father to Janice and Tom McCallum, Susan Sinclair and Steve Schneider and Cheryl and Roy Neves. Cherished Grandpa to Matt and Becky, Kimberly and Paul, Adam and Kirissa, Andrew and Reilly, John and Stacey, Scott and Mandy, Jacob, Emily and Brandon. Great-Grandpa to Isabelle, Josephine and Elliott. Lorne will be missed by many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by his parents Neil and Florence Munro, his sister Anna and his brother Keith.   Link to Photos reel 

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The Appin Cemetery Commemoration

The Appin Cemetery Commemoration

Brien Page

Appin Cemetery Commemoration   July 28, 2024

As part of an annual commemoration of area cemeteries, Glencoe & District Historical Society (G&DHS) organized a presentation and community walk at the Appin Cemetery. Prayers, dedications, singing, and community conversation were key parts of the afternoon.

Members of the G&DHS and guests offered welcome, poetry reading, and historical insight to the cemetery and its connection to the community.

Jim May, Appin Cemetery board member, offered an historical account of the origins and continued support for the cemetery “on the sandy knoll above the town of Appin”. His address mirrored a, 10 year ago, presentation at the hundredth anniversary celebration of the Appin Cemetery. Here it is at this link.

The cemetery land was procured in 1914 and a company was formed, Appin Cemetery Co. Ltd., by a group of community members. Eleven men agreed to pay $15 per share to form the company to purchase the land. The property, 4 acres plus roadway, was purchased for $400.00.

The price of a plot, which included 8 burial sites, was $15.00. Several families representing early shareholders, (Johnson, McFee, May), purchased large family plots with 32 graves each. This provided early operating funds for the new company.

There was a total of 6 burials in the first year.

The stone gates were built at the entrance in 1957-58. The iron arch was added in 1974 and has since been refurbished.

Women have played a key role in the development and maintenance of the cemetery. Appin Women’s Institute helped create the roadway and tree planting efforts. They also offered the first donation for the stone gate construction and maintained persistent pressure for its completion through organizations such as the Appin Dramatic Club, headed by Ivy Galbraith.

Marj Zavitz was the first female Secretary-Treasurer of the cemetery board and many other women followed to support and lead the board.

David May, current President of the cemetery board spoke and offered welcome and highlighted the current situation with the Appin Cemetery. He indicated that land had been purchased to expand the cemetery from its current location, along the laneway to Thames Road at the gates.

Having a place of remembrance and honour was the focus for those original settlers. They envisioned and built a resting place for community members in and around the town of Appin.

The Appin Cemetery has been part of the community for over 100 years and is a reflection of the people who were and are in our midst.

Like the toils on early farms and settlements that made up Ekfrid and Appin, much hard work and dedication was necessary to have a lasting and sustainable place for family members to find their final rest.

The Glencoe and District Historical Society are thankful to The Appin Cemetery board for the cooperation and support for this commemoration event. Community spirit creates strength for all.

Mary Simpson, President of Glencoe & District Historical Society, and Ken Beecroft, Past President start the afternoon program.
James May shares the history of The Appin Cemetery

History of The Appin Cemetery

Glencoe & District Historical Society

By Jim May

Presented to the Appin Memorial Day gathering August 1, 2000 by Jim May, whose family had a long association with Appin Cemetery. Jim’s first recollection of the cemetery was a phone call in the early 1950s: “Could my Dad come with his truck to help collect up stones for the cemetery gates?” This presentation tells the history of the Appin Cemetery, Appin, Ontario, Canada

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Peter McArthur: Our Famous Canadian – 1866 – 1924

Peter McArthur: Our Famous Canadian – 1866 – 1924

Glencoe & District Historical Society

Marie Williams, Glencoe: The huge crowd that packed into the Glencoe and District Historical Society Archives on February 22 proved that the “Sage of Ekfrid” is as popular today as he was over 100 years ago. In addition to 30 viewing online, over 50 turned up in person.

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The Appin Community Garden Project

Glencoe & District Historical Society

By Dylan Grubb, Appin, ON

The sense of community is one of the best aspects of living in a small town. Amongst these many things that gives Appin this feeling is the community gardens. Inspired by the World War II victory gardens used to help provide produce to towns and cities in Canada, the project started early in the spring of 2023.

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