September 24, 2004 Books for fall reading

The readers of this column may be interested in some new history books that have come to my attention.  Some I have purchased, others have been sent by publishers, and Gulliver’s Books in North Bay are always willing to loan new books I want to review.  The first book below is one I was responsible for getting reprinted through the new “books on demand” process where you redo the book on disc and a company prints out as many bound copies as you need.  In the future there may be places where you can go to get a book and they will reprint it while you wait, giving you a better price. 

Tom Cummings’ Gopher Hills 

I have written about Tom Cummings’ Art Show currently at the W.K.P. Kennedy Gallery in the Capitol Centre in North Bay (until Sept 25) and mentioned that he was also an excellent author.  His 1983 book of 26 short stories about the life of a pre teen “Tom” on a farm is fascinating, funny and at times sad.  Copies of the book have been reprinted for the North Bay and Kingston shows and are available at the Gallery, Gulliver’s, or at libraries. 

Gopher Hills by Tom Cummings

John Macfie’s Great North Road 

The venerable and prolific John Macfie from Parry Sound grew up on one of the 20 colonization roads that helped open Northern Ontario.  In our area the Muskoka Road pushed north through Muskoka and the Nipissing Road ran from Rosseau to Nipissing Village.  The farthest Ontario colonization road to the west was the Great North Road which ran from Parry Sound to Commanda in the 1870’s.  Farms were surveyed along these roads and thousands flocked in as settlers started farming and providing labor for the logging operations, sawmills, etc.  The Great North Road now Highway 124 did eventually reach Commanda before dying and going back to nature north of Dunchurch. 

Macfie’s book “Up the Great North Road – the Story of an Ontario Colonization Road” (Boson Mills Press 2004) describes the entire development of the road to its present status.  John’s grandparents settled on the road at Dunchurch where 5^th generation Macfies farm today.  John covers every aspect of life on the road, all of which serves as a profile of settlement life in Ontario generally.  The terrible roads, the isolation, the building of homes and making a living, the development of communities, schools, churches etc. are all covered. 

John Macfie’s new book on the life of a The Great North Colonization Road.

John has been collecting and taking photographs and recording oral histories for decades and some of this work appears in the book and provides a remarkable authenticity.  In the latter half of the book he gets into the character and personality of life along the road.  He describes “Weddings, shivarees & booyaws” and profiles some of the memorable people that lived on the road over the years. 

The book covers Canada’s first 100 years from 1867 to 1967 providing a vivid picture of the life and times of the road to the present day when tourism is a major way of life along with the things that survive from the past. 

Cup Gunning’s “North Bay’s Homefront 1939-1945” 

Cup Gunning’s North Bay’s Homefront 1939-1-45” is the latest in a series of North Bay books by this former reference librarian at Nipissing University.  He has also written a children’s book and a fascinating family history.  Like Tom Cummings he received an honorary doctorate from Nipissing University.  Many will remember the weekly full page “Our History & Heritage” column he wrote during the Millennium Year in the Nugget. 

Much of Gunning’s material comes from a reading of the North Bay Nugget and categorizing his findings in the various chapters or sections.  Personal interviews and references to other local history sources flesh out the era of WWII.  The book contains a list of North Bay veterans in WWII along with information on every aspect of life in North Bay 60 years ago.  (A Beatty Printing Book 2004). 

A.J. Telfer’s Worth Travelling Miles to See 

A.H. Telfer has provided an in depth study of the early surveying of the Lake Temiskaming area where his grandfather was a part of the initiative.  Using his grandfather’s diaries and many other sources a fascinating story of the life and times evolves with maps and photographs and direct quotes from the diaries.  Much like John Macfie’s book we experience the life of those early pioneers.  The book is published by Natural Heritage Books 2004. 

John E. Guppy’s Temagami’s Story 

Doug Pollard’s Highway Book Stop has published Temagami’s Story by John Guppy a member of the well-known Guppy family.  This interesting overview of Temagami with some good photographs and some family history is available at your local bookstore, Gulliver’s and the North Bay Area Museum. 

More books will be discussed before Christmas.