John Howard's Christmas Nightmare
Plus a bizarre week for renaming things, a monument coming down, and more...
It was Christmas Eve Eve and Toronto was sleeping. It was the holiday season of 1832, back in the days when our city was still the muddy little frontier town of York, a quiet British outpost built on land where First Nations had been living for thousands of years. The settlement was less than 40 years old and home to fewer than 6,000 people. But while many of those settlers were peacefully slumbering on one of the darkest nights of the year, John Howard’s sleep was plagued by a terrible nightmare.
He dreamed his brother-in-law was drowning, that he’d fallen through the ice of Toronto Bay and was sinking down through the frigid waters toward death. In this vision, Howard was desperately trying to save him; he dove into the icy water himself, following his brother-in-law down through the depths, far into the darkness to the bottom of the lake. He was trying to catch hold of him, to save him, to bring him back to the surface… to the light… to life… That’s when he must have woken up. But the memory of that nightmare would linger, a vision he would never forget, an image that would still be with him decades later as he looked back on his long life and on the harrowing events that inspired that haunting dream.
It all began on a Sunday morning, just a couple of days before Christmas. John Howard was still a young man back then, only 29 years old. He and his wife Jemima had just arrived in York a few months earlier, having left England behind to start a new life in the Canadian colonies. They made the long trek across the ocean and up the St. Lawrence, finally arriving eleven weeks later, just as the summer was coming to an end. Their first winter in Canada would prove to be a miserable one.
They had found a nice apartment on King Street, on the second floor above a little drug store run by a pharmacist they met on their journey, but it wouldn’t be ready for them until the spring. So, John and Jemima were forced to live in the attic during that first winter. It was awfully cold up there. There was no fire to keep them warm; the skylight was almost always covered with snow. “Both my poor wife and myself suffered very much from the severe weather,” he would later remember. It was a harsh welcome to their new home.
So, you can understand why Howard might have been reluctant to go skating that day, to spend even more time in the cold. It was his brother-in-law’s idea, the man who’d married Jemima’s sister. He’d been down to the waterfront already that morning and had seen that the bay was frozen over. Skating season had arrived.
Skating on the frozen harbour was one of York’s favourite winter pasttimes. And though Howard didn’t love the idea, he reluctantly agreed to go along. He and his brother-in-law headed down to the waterfront near the St. Lawrence Market. There, they found the bay alive with people.
Howard would paint the same scene just a few years later, so we can see what the harbour must have looked like that day. People gliding across the ice on their old-timey skates, blades attached to the bottom of their shoes. Horses drawing sleighs over the slippery surface. Dogs playing. People slipping and toppling over. Others watching from the docks. And on that December day in 1832, there was a picturesque focal point: a ship sat in the middle of it all, a schooner frozen in the ice.
It sounds like it might have been a lovely way to spend a winter morning. But for Howard, things began going wrong very quickly.
His brother-in-law had been in Upper Canada much longer and was a much better skater. So he shot out ahead, slicing across the ice toward the islands — still a thin peninsula back then — and the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse in the distance. Howard followed behind as best he could, using a plank from a barrel to keep himself from falling over.
It wasn’t long before they spotted it. “We saw something black upon the ice,” Howard remembered. “My brother-in-law, being ahead, called to me, asking if I did not think it was a seal.” They didn’t realize there were no seals swimming in Lake Ontario. And so, they headed toward the black spot, lured further out into the bay, away from the rest of the skaters, away from the safety of land.
Lake Ontario can be an incredibly dangerous place to go skating. The ice can be deceptively thin. And, of course, that black spot wasn’t a seal at all. It was a patch of open water. As Howard’s brother-in-law got close to it, the ice beneath his skates gave way. He plunged into the freezing water, his life suddenly in danger.
Howard was about 300 metres away when it happened, and still unsteady on his skates. But he pushed on as fast as he could as his brother-in-law fought for his life and struggled against the cold, trying to reach solid ice. When Howard got closer, he used his plank to test the thickness, getting nearer and nearer, putting his own life at risk. Uncertain on his skates, he tried to take them off but found he couldn’t. Back at home, they’d discovered he was missing the straps needed to secure the blades to his shoes. They ended up having to tie them on with string instead — and they’d tied them too tight. Now, he was losing precious time as he struggled to break the strings and finally get the skates off. His brother-in-law was still far from the safe ice, the cold wrapping itself around him, the minutes ticking by… And even without his skates, Howard found he couldn’t get close enough to reach him; try as he might, he couldn’t bridge the gap of black water.
In the end, it seems to have been Howard’s hatred of the cold that finally saved the day. When he left the house, he made sure to bundle up, wearing two coats. Now, he took them both off, tying the arms together to create a makeshift rope. Still using the plank from the barrel to test the ice, he was able to get within a few metres of the drowning man and threw the lifeline out to him.
By then, his brother-in-law had been in the water for at least twenty minutes. He was nearly paralyzed by the cold. But he was able to summon enough strength to grab hold of the coats and struggle to safety. He was caked in ice, but his ordeal was finally over. He’d survived. Howard had saved his life.
They quickly hurried home after that, heading back into town, heckled by some local boys who made fun of their damp and dishevelled appearance. They ate some gruel for dinner to warm themselves and then they went to bed. It was in that chilly attic on that dark December night, with just two sleeps left until Christmas, that Howard had his terrible dream about what had happened that day.
He would live in Toronto for the rest of his life, becoming one of the city’s leading public figures. He was an architect, engineer, city planner, surveyor and artist. He helped build the city we live in today. You can still visit the country home he and Jemima shared outside town: Colborne Lodge is a museum now, open to the public and free of charge. Toward the end of their lives, they donated the land around it to the city so it could be turned into one of our most beloved public parks: High Park was once their country estate.
But all the while, John Howard never forgot that dramatic day on the ice of Toronto Bay. When he wrote his memoirs decades later, he was sure to include the tale — along with a mention of just how annoyed he was by his brother-in-law’s reaction to it:
“He has been dead several years,” Howard wrote, “but I may say that he never showed any grateful feeling to me for the risk I had run on his account.”
That is far from the only interesting story about John Howard. The reasons he left England in the first place are clouded in mystery. He changed his name at that same time and gave various, conflicting reasons for it — leaving to some wonder if he might have been running away from a scandalous past. And the scandals didn’t end when he came to Toronto. He seems to have truly loved his wife, Jemima, but he also had a secret second family with his mistress, Mary Williams.
We filmed a whole episode of our Canadiana documentary series about the Howards. It tells the story behind their remarkable tomb, which you can still find in High Park today and includes a fragment of a world famous landmark:
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A Bizarre Week For Renaming Things
City council met this week and things got weird. They voted on two big renaming issues — and neither one of them went the way you’d expect just a few months after voters elected a more progressive mayor. At one point, I thought this newsletter might just be one long rant about it all… but I realized I don’t really have much to add that you can’t find from other sources, so I’ll try to keep it short instead.
First up: Dundas Street.
It was during John Tory’s time in office that city council voted overwhelmingly (17–7) in favour of renaming Dundas. As you probably already know by now, the street is named in honour of Henry Dundas; the British Home Secretary at the time Toronto was founded, he is mostly remembered for the role he played in delaying the abolition of slavery across the British Empire. (If you’d like to know more about that history, Robert Jago — who has done much, much more research about Henry Dundas than I have — wrote about it on Twitter this week and in Canadian Geographic back in 2021.)
This week, Mayor Chow called Henry Dundas’ actions “horrific” but also seemed to suddenly reverse course on her promise to go ahead with renaming the street. Now, it seems as if the full plan has been paused — and maybe even scrapped in favour of a strange half-measure: only renaming a few notable landmarks, including Yonge-Dundas Square, Dundas Station, Dundas West Station, and the Jane/Dundas library.
Yonge-Dundas Square will be renamed Sankofa Square, as recommended by an advisory committee whose members have spent the last two years working on a list of potential new names (at least one of whom seemed shocked by the suddenly change of plan). According to the motion approved by city council, “The concept of Sankofa, originating in Ghana, refers to the act of reflecting on and reclaiming teachings from the past, which enables us to move forward together.”
Meanwhile, it looks like Dundas Station will be renamed TMU Station — with Toronto Metropolitan University paying for the change.
And then there’s Rob Ford Stadium.
In an even more shocking move, council has suddenly decided to rename Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke in honour of Rob Ford. I don’t have to tell you that he was the crack-smoking mayor accused of everything from racism and misogyny to having connections to organized crime and a jailhouse beating. You know, the mayor that council decided was so dangerous to our city that they stripped him of most of his powers while he was in office.
This week, they voted to approve the new name of Rob Ford Stadium without any public consultation, while making surreal, gaslighting claims about Ford’s popularity. Councillor Perruzza told Ben Spurr of The Toronto Star that public consultation isn’t necessary because “an overwhelming number of Torontonians loved him” — apparently forgetting that a majority of Toronto voters cast their ballots against Rob Ford even before the scandals that came to light during his time in office.
The move seems so odd, and the rushed timing so suspicious, that some have wondered whether it’s actually part of Chow’s new deal with the province that will see Doug Ford’s government taking over the Gardiner Expressway in return for the City getting out of the way of his dastardly plans to turn much of the public park at Ontario Place into a private spa. But Chow has denied those claims, leaving us to wonder what the hell is going on.
Okay, so it turned to be a long rant after all. Some weeks it really does feel like things would be a whole lot easier if I didn’t love this dumb city so much.
One Of Toronto’s Biggest Monuments Is Coming Down (For Now)
One of Toronto’s most recognizable monuments will be taken down soon — at least temporarily.
The South African War Memorial is the huge obelisk that stands on the island in the middle of University Avenue at Queen. It commemorates our city’s involvement in a horrific war that saw tens of thousands of Boers and Black Africans die in British concentration camps (which I’ve written about in the past). But it’s not protesters or politicians bringing it down, it’s Metrolinx.
I’ve already written a lot about the controversial approach Metrolinx has taken to the Ontario Line construction at the corner of Queen & University, including how they’ve cut down many of the century-old trees on the grounds of Osgoode Hall and plan to remove part of the site’s famous old iron fence. Now, they’ve announced plans to temporarily remove the massive monument.
Metrolinx says the war memorial will be “disassembled” during construction to create room for a lane of northbound traffic, and then reassembled in the same spot once the work is over.
blogTO Paid A Visit To Our Toronto Sports History Exhibit!
The press has started rolling in for the new Toronto sports history exhibit I’ve co-curated at Myseum — including a recent visit from Thalia Gonzalez Kane of blogTO. I had short chat with her about the some of the stories we cover in the exhibition, and the process of creating it. The piece is now up on their site:
“While the exhibit covers iconic moments in Toronto sports history (think the Bautista bat flip, the Christie Pits riots), there is also a thorough amount of information on where our sports culture came from and the people behind it. I was blown away by just how much new information there was to take in. This exhibit shares surprising facts, like how Babe Ruth's first professional home run actually took place in Toronto, and the fact that the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was comprised of over 10 per cent Canadian women.”
If you’d like to visit the exhibit yourself, here’s everything you need to know:
How much: It’s free! (Though donations to Myseum are welcome.)
Where: Myseum of Toronto, which is inside 401 Richmond (right across the hallway from the Spacing Store).
When: It’s open Wednesday–Saturday, 12–6pm, and runs until March 9.
Want A Free Tour? We’ll also be offering some more free tours of the exhibition in January. If you’re interested in joining us for one of those, you can find more info and register here.
Give The Gift Of Toronto History!
Just in case you’re still looking for a present to give a Toronto-lover in your life this holiday season, I thought I’d very quickly mention that I’ve written a couple of books about the history of the city: The Toronto Book of the Dead and The Toronto Book of Love.
I also offer private walking tours on a variety of subjects, which I know some people have enjoyed giving as gifts this year. You can learn more about all the tours I offer here.
QUICK LINKS
The best of everything else that’s new in Toronto’s past…
IDEAS NEWS — I recently wrote about the event held to commemorate the 200th birthday of Mary Ann Shadd, the first Black woman in North America to publish her own newspaper. She’s now the subject of a whole episode of CBC’s Ideas. Listen to it.
ART FRAUD NEWS — One of the people charged in the “largest art fraud investigation in Canadian history” has been sentenced to five years in prison. The notorious forgery ring faked paintings they claimed to be the work of Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau. Read more.
You can also still stream the documentary about the ring, There Are No Fakes, for free thanks to TVO here.
CHRISTMAS WINDOW NEWS — With Christmas coming up fast, Jamie Bradburn share an old post about Toronto’s history of department store Christmas window displays with Spacing. Read more.
FREE JAZZ NEWS — Kyle Resendes shares the story of the Artists' Jazz Band, “a free jazz collective created by some of the most famous abstract artists working in Toronto in the 1960s and 1970s… a case study in how the city went from ‘Toronto the Good’ to ‘Toronto the Cool.’” Read more.
SHIPBUILDING NEWS — Toronto used to be home to plenty of big shipyards. And Adam Wynne recently wrote about one of the rare surviving landmarks of that age: the century-old building at 20 Lower Spadina. Read more.
TORONTO HISTORY EVENTS
LOTS OF LIGHT: VICTORIAN GHOST STORIES
Thursdays & Fridays until December 15 — 7pm — Colborne Lodge
“As the year's longest nights approach, join with us to explore indoor cold weather traditions from the 1800s - decorations that remind us that summer will return, singing to warm the heart and a live candle-lit reading of a unique genre of literature - the Victorian Christmas ghost story. Explore the fears of approaching winter's darkness and the hope of the light to follow. Staff will share these stories after visitors have a short tour of the cozy Colborne Lodge.”
$20
LOTS OF LIGHT: CAROLS IN THE TAVERN AT MONTGOMGERY’S INN
Dec 16 — 7pm — Montgomery’s Inn
“Celebrate the season by singing together. Gather by the fireside in the historic tavern as our host leads traditional Christmas carols to the accompaniment of live music. Includes a light historic meal served buffet style. Drinks available for purchase at the bar.”
$45
LOTS OF LIGHT: SOLSTICE STORIES AT TODMORDEN MILLS
December 21 — 6pm — Todmorden Mills
“Join us at Todmorden Mills to celebrate the longest night of the year. Hear stories of the winter season with Elder Garry Sault, an Ojibway Elder from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, share light refreshments, and craft a tabletop paper lantern to light up winter evenings.”
Free with registration!
LOTS OF LIGHT: HOGMANAY AT MACKENZIE HOUSE
December 30 — 6:30pm — Mackenzie House
“The popular event returns! Enjoy an evening of live music featuring the trio Gin Lane, a diverse selection of festive snacks, and printing a New Year's souvenir on the 1845 press! (Note: the historic house is open to visitors but is currently unfurnished, as the restoration process following a 2021 flood continues.)”
$30
LOTS OF LIGHT: LUNAR NEW YEAR LANTERN MAKING AT FORT YORK
January 6 — 1pm — Fort York
“Head to Fort York for this family-friendly lantern making workshop in preparation for the Year of the Dragon Lunar New Year celebrations. For centuries, lanterns (or sky lanterns) have been made across Asia to signify special occasions and national holidays.”
Free!
LOTS OF LIGHT: FAMILY DROP-IN AT TODMORDEN MILLS
Until January 7 — Various Times — Todmorden Mills
“Enjoy a holiday-themed tour of Todmorden Mills' two historic homes and learn about food and festivities from many traditions, finding the common threads that connect us all. Sample treats and gather with friends and family over crafts and games throughout the day.”
Free!
LOTS OF LIGHT: FESTIVE CARD PRINTING AT MACKENZIE HOUSE
Until January 7 — Various Times — Mackenzie House
“Visitors are invited to choose a picture from Mackenzie House’s image collection and print a festive card on the historic printing press! (Note: the historic house is open to visitors but is currently unfurnished, as the restoration process following a 2021 flood continues.)”
Free!
MICHAEL SNOW: CELEBRATION OF LIFE
January 10 — 7pm — Art Gallery of Ontario
“Michael Snow (1928-2023) was a legendary Canadian artist whose highly acclaimed and influential practice spanned all media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, film, video projection, sound art, bookmaking and experimental music. This free event will include remembrances of his friends, family and colleagues, and photos and film and video footage of Snow through the decades.
Free with registration!
FIELDS OF SNOW: THE FORMATIVE YEARS
January 12 — 7pm — Art Gallery of Ontario
On Friday, January 12, join us for a free screening of Fields of Snow: The Formative Years, which looks back on the artist Michael Snow's early jazz days before Walking Woman and Wavelength.”
Free with registration!