Flint and Feather Read online

  Evelyn Johnson’s 1913 letter to James Goulet came into the possession of Juanita Staples Brumpton in about 1942; a copy was kindly sent to me by Harry Brumpton of Windsor, Ontario.

  Chapter 15

  Women of Canada: Their Life and Work was compiled by the National Council of Women of Canada at the request of the Hon. Sydney Fisher, Minister of Agriculture, for distribution at the Paris International Exhibition in 1900. The material about Charles Wuerz draws on the detective work of Betty Keller for her 1981 biography, supplemented by material in the J. E. Wetherell Papers in the University of Toronto Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. The fragment of a poem by Pauline about residential schools is quoted on page 148 of Paddling Her Own Canoe by Strong-Boag and Gerson.

  I am particularly grateful to Carole Gerson and Gail Campbell for alerting me to the Mrs. Laura Wood material from the Public Archives of New Brunswick.

  Chapter 16

  Walter McRaye recorded his own life and partnership with Pauline in two boisterous memoirs, Town Hall Tonight (Toronto: Ryerson, 1929) and Pauline Johnson and Her Friends (Toronto: Ryerson, 1947), from which I drew extensively for this and subsequent chapters. He recalled reading Swinburne to Pauline in a letter to Lorne Pierce, written on March 20, 1943, that is in the Walter McRaye Collection in the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections at McMaster University.

  Achille Fréchette’s letter is quoted in James Doyle’s Annie Howells and Achille Fréchette (University of Toronto Press, 1979). Pauline’s letter to Miss King was sent to Peter Unwin by Miss King’s daughter, Julia Hickey Sporka, who read an article by Peter about Pauline that appeared in The Beaver in November 1999; Peter kindly passed it on to me.

  The Johnson–McRaye partnership’s touring itineraries were a tangle of one-night stands and branch-line travel. I have relied on the research in local newspapers done by Betty Keller for her 1981 biography and for an article she wrote for the December 1986–January 1987 issue of The Beaver.

  Getting to know the history and geography of the Kootenay area of British Columbia was one of the pleasures of writing this biography. Some of the books that proved useful were The Silvery Slocan Heritage Tour Guidebook, by Dan Nicholson, Jan McMurray, Robert N. Riley and Rodney Huculak (New Denver, BC: Word Publishing, 1998); R. G. Harvey’s Carving the Western Path: By River, Rail, and Road Through B.C.’s Southern Mountains (Surrey, BC: Heritage House, 1998); and Robert D. Turner’s The S.S. Moyie: Memories of the Oldest Sternwheeler (Victoria, BC: Sono Nis, 1991).

  Information about the 1903 camping trip on Stony Lake comes from Bertha Jean (Thompson) Stevinson’s memoirs of her friend Pauline. Mrs. Stevinson’s son Harry, who lives with his wife, Isabel, in Ottawa, kindly showed me the inscribed copy of Canadian Born and lent me the five articles Jean wrote between 1931 and 1935 about her friend Pauline Johnson.

  Chapter 17

  Details about the CPR’s passenger liners come from George Musk’s Canadian Pacific: The Story of the Famous Shipping Line (Toronto: H. Rinehart and Winston, 1981). John A. Cherrington’s wonderfully imaginative Vancouver at the Dawn: A Turn-of-the-Century Portrait (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1997) included the anecdotes about Mr. and Mrs. Charles Henshaw. Betty Keller described Ernest Thompson Seton’s interest in native rituals in Black Wolf: The Life of Ernest Thompson Seton (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1984).

  Books by Benson and Gillies already cited for Chapter 11 proved useful for Pauline’s return to London twelve years later. The anecdote about Pauline’s electrifying effect on Lord Cecil Manners appears on page 52 of Mrs. Foster’s biography. Additional material for this chapter comes from Seated with the Mighty: A Biography of Sir Gilbert Parker, by John Coldwell Adams (Ottawa: Borealis, 1979); Donald B. Smith’s biography of Grey Owl, From the Land of Shadows: The Making of Grey Owl (Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1990); and Lord Strathcona: A Biography of Donald Alexander Smith, by Donna McDonald (Toronto: Dundurn, 1996).

  Pauline’s letters to “Little Divil” Archie Morton are in the Chiefswood Collection at the Woodland Cultural Centre Museum, Brantford.

  Chapter 18

  Pauline’s letter about the Bridgewater fire is in the Trent University Archives, and her letter about the Chautauqua disaster is in the Thompson Seton Papers in the Philmont Museum and Seton Memorial Library in Cimarron, NM. Her correspondence with Prime Minister Laurier is in the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Papers at the National Archives of Canada. To learn about the Chautauqua movement, I read Chautauqua in Canada, by Sheilagh S. Jameson (Calgary: Glenbow-Alberta Institute, 1979), and Chautauqua: A Center for Education, Religion, and the Arts in America, by Theodore Morrison (University of Chicago Press, 1974).

  Pauline’s poignant comments on her advancing age were made in a letter to J. D. Logan, dated December 5, 1912, which is reproduced in Appendix 1 of John C. Adams’s MA thesis, “English-Canadian Poetry and the Critics,” Acadia University, 1955.

  Chapter 19

  Vancouver’s colourful history has generated many lively books. I relied on Michael Kluckner’s Vancouver: The Way It Was (North Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 1984); Bruce Macdonald’s Vancouver: A Visual History (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1992); Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver, by Paul Yee (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1988); and Vancouver Past: Essays in Social History, edited by Robert A. J. McDonald and Jean Barman (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1986).

  Harry Stevinson lent me the book of columns written by his mother, Bertha Jean Thompson Stevinson, privately published as Up and Down the Pacific Coast in 1989. Much of the material in chapters 19 and 20 comes from Jean’s articles written between 1931 and 1935 and printed in various Western Canadian newspapers on the anniversaries of Pauline’s death.

  A particularly interesting book about early attitudes to and treatments for breast cancer is A Darker Ribbon: Breast Cancer, Women, and Their Doctors in the Twentieth Century, by Ellen Leopold (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999).

  The description of Chief Joe Capilano’s funeral appeared in the Daily Province, Saturday, March 26, 1910.

  Chapter 20

  A letter to Lorne Pierce in the Queen’s University Archives from a clever young writer named Beatrice Nasmyth is the source of the information about Pauline’s feather boa and the raincoat row with Evelyn. Monica Newton, Beatrice Nasmyth’s niece, told me a little more about the friendship between Pauline and her aunt, and about Pauline’s corrections to the proofs of Flint and Feather. Charles Mair described his last visit to Pauline in “Pauline Johnson, an Appreciation” in The Canadian Magazine, July 1913, pp. 281–283.

  Elizabeth Rogers’s account of Pauline’s cremation and burial, and information about Pauline’s will, is lodged in the Vancouver City Archives. Both Marega’s death mask of Pauline and Pauline’s Indian costume, including the silver trade brooches, scalp, wampum belt, bear’s claw necklace and George Johnson’s dagger, are stored today in the Vancouver Museum.

  PICTURE CREDITS

  BHS: Brant Historical Society, The Brant Museum & Archives

  CVA: City of Vancouver Archives

  NAC: National Archives of Canada

  NLC: National Library of Canada

  PAA: Provincial Archives of Alberta

  ROM: Royal Ontario Museum

  VPL: Vancouver Public Library, Special Collections

  p. 2: BHS 1374

  p. 4: BHS 1679

  p. 11 BHS 1203

  p. 18: Courtesy, Collection of the Albany Institute of History & Art

  p. 42: ROM, 77 Eth 128 / 922.1.103

  p. 49: BHS 257

  p. 50: NAC, pa 48104

  p. 51: ROM, 85 Eth 175, 930.31.29

  p. 52: BHS 258

  p. 54: BHS 418

  p. 59: NAC, PA 26916

  p. 60: BHS 1678

  p. 62: ROM, 85 Eth 180 930.31.42

  p. 68: NAC, PA 71.295

  p. 74: BHS 259

  p. 76: BHS 633; Photographer, Park & Co., Brantford

&
nbsp; p. 82: NAC, c 2291

  p. 84: BHS 780

  p. 85: BHS 1662

  p. 87: NAC, c 51848

  p. 89: BHS 634; Photographer, J. Fraser Bryce

  p. 93: William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University

  p. 99: Katharine Hooke, Peterborough

  p. 105: BHS 563

  p. 112: NAC, PA 132150; Photographer, Frank Micklethwaite

  p. 129: NAC, C 56072

  pp. 134–135: NAC, C 149034–149035

  p. 151: William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University

  p. 159: VPL 9429; Photographer Cochran, Brantford

  p. 162: NAC, PA 122594

  p. 165: NLC, C 5350

  p. 171: ROM, 85 Eth 192

  p. 176: NAC, C 10109

  p. 178: BHS 620; Photographer, Cochran, Brantford

  p. 184: BHS 627; Photographer, Cochran, Brantford

  p. 195: BHS 3789

  p. 197: NAC, C 9485

  p. 199: NAC, PA 41344

  p. 208: PAA, B49

  p. 209: PAA, B10595

  p. 213: BHS 491

  p. 218: Grand Forks Archives, PG181 BM 991–055–049

  p. 234: BHS 540

  p. 244: BHS 1306

  p. 249: NAC, PA 63175

  p. 254: NAC, PA 30212

  p. 262: NAC, PA 27869

  p. 268: PAA, OB540

  p. 281: Courtesy of Sheila Johnston

  p. 289: BHS 563a

  p. 295: NAC, PA 29547

  p. 296: Archives of British Columbia, hp 25606

  p. 312: NAC, C 14100

  p. 314: BHS 1653

  p. 315: NAC, C 68847

  p. 318: Courtesy of Steinway Bros, London

  p. 321: Courtesy of Sheila Johnston

  p. 323: CVA, P.41 N23 #1

  p. 333: Courtesy of Sheila Johnston

  p. 341: Courtesy of The Chautauqua Institution Archives, Chautauqua, NY

  p. 342: Lorne Pierce Collection, Box 14, Folder 1, No. 29: Archives of Queen’s University

  p. 350: VPL, 12768

  p. 351: CVA, IN. p.3 N13

  p. 355: VPL, 5211

  p. 356: Courtesy of Harry Stevinson

  p. 358: Courtesy of Sheila Johnston

  p. 360: BHS 1270

  p. 377: Courtesy of Harry Stevinson

  p. 379: BHS 249

  p. 382: CVA, P.10 Port N200

  p. 390: CVA, Port P.1422 N 742

  p. 393: VPL, 7145

  p. 401: BHS 630; Photographer, Cochran, Brantford

  INDEX

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

  Abbott, Sir John, 281

  Aberdeen, John Campbell Gordon, Earl of, 177

  Aberdeen, Lady Ishbel, 262–63

  Adam, Frances, 150

  Adam, Graeme Mercer, 140, 149–50

  Ahearn, Mrs. Thomas, 263

  Ahrens, Carl, 265, 345

  Aidé, Charles Hamilton, 182–83, 185, 310, 315

  Albani, Madame, 282, 314

  Alexander, George, 182, 183

  Alexander, Jessie, 162, 220

  Alexandra (Queen of Great Britain), 310, 325, 326

  An Algonquin Maiden (Adam and Wetherald), 149, 150

  Allen, Grant, 190

  Alma-Tadema, Lawrence, 182, 185–86

  American Revolution, 24–26, 26–27

  Among the Millet (Lampman), 130, 131

  The Angelus (Millet), 136

  Ansley, Elizabeth, 304, 330, 333–34, 347

  Argyll, Niall Diarmid, Duke of, 311

  Arnold, Matthew, 131

  Arthurs, Mrs. G. Allan, 261

  Asiatic Exclusion League, 352

  Athenaeum, 156

  Atwood, Clinton, 236

  Atwood, Margaret, 398

  Austen, Jane, 7

  Australia, 271, 274

  Baden-Powell, Agnes, 315

  Baldwin, Rev., 81

  Banff (AB), 213–14

  Barrie, J. M., 316

  Bath (Engl.), 6

  Battle of Lake George, 23

  Beardsley, Aubrey, 189

  Beddoe, Bert, 77

  Belaney, Archie (Grey Owl), 312

  Bell, Alexander Graham, 58–59

  Bell, Charles, 137, 138

  Benson, E. F., 177, 181, 309

  bentwood canoes, 108–9

  Bernhardt, Sarah, 179, 195, 282

  Big Bear, 207, 211

  birchbark canoes, 106, 107, 108

  Blackfoot nation, 72, 208, 211, 269, 290–91

  Black Patti (Matilda Sissieretta Jones), 162

  Blake, Edward, 317

  Blake, Sir Henry Austin, 179, 311

  Blake, Lady, 179, 194, 311, 328

  blanket, scarlet, 58, 86, 158, 380, 383, 386

  Blood nation, 208

  Bodley Head, 189, 191

  Boer War, 261–62

  Bonaparte, Basil, 322

  Bonaparte, Napoleon, 45, 52

  Boomer, Mrs. Dean, 263

  Booth, Edwin, 136

  Borden, Mrs. R. L., 263

  Boston Herald, 166, 344

  Bowell, Mackenzie, 281

  The Boys’ World, 304, 330, 347, 354, 363–64, 366, 384

  Brant, Joseph, 26, 27, 28, 82, 90–91

  Brant, Molly (Mary), 26–27

  Brantford Canoe Club, 110, 111, 199

  Brantford Central Collegiate, 67

  Brantford Courier, 69, 118, 241–42, 246

  Brantford Expositor, 69, 103, 139, 195–96, 244, 246, 334

  Brantford (Ont.), 49, 68–70, 88, 90–91, 97–98, 168, 170

  No. 7 Napoleon Street, 84, 85–86, 122

  Brantford Players, 86, 111

  Brassey, Thomas, Lord, 310

  breast cancer, 367–68, 381

  Bridgewater (NS), 331–32

  Briggs, William, 384

  Bristol (Engl.), 6–7, 9, 11

  British West Indies, 328, 332–33

  Bryan, William Jennings, 342

  Buddy (neighbour), 360

  Burne-Jones, Edward, 79, 182

  Burney, Fanny, 367–68

  Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 11, 53, 79

  By Track and Trail (Roper), 210

  Campbell, William Wilfred, 129, 130, 140, 141–42, 317, 384

  Camp Knockabout, 114

  Canada (London, Engl.), 311, 337

  “Canada” (Roberts), 130

  Canada West, 3. See also Ontario; Upper Canada

  Canadian Gazette, 224

  Canadian Illustrated News, 71, 302

  Canadian Magazine, 225, 256, 303, 334

  Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), 197, 198, 201, 202, 205, 207, 259, 290, 292–94, 313

  Canadian Women’s Press Club, 373–74, 391

  cancer, 367–68, 381

  canoes and canoeing, 3, 99–100, 106–11, 192, 365–66. See also under Johnson, Pauline

  Capilano, Emma, 326, 353, 369

  Capilano, Joe Su-a-pu-luck

  death and burial, 368–70

  in England, 322–24, 325–26, 352–53

  relationship with Pauline, 347–48, 362–63, 364, 365–66, 391–92

  Capilano, Mary Agnes (Lixwelut), 353, 356, 369, 373

  Capilano, Matthias, 353, 369–70, 373, 390

  Carman, Bliss, 125, 127–28, 130, 131, 169, 316, 384

  Carnegie, Andrew, 316

  Cawthra, Edith, 241

  Cayuga nation, 21, 32

  Chamberlain, Joseph, 316

  Charlesworth, Hector, 161–62, 225

  Chautauqua movement, 328, 336, 340–44

  Chesterton, G. K., 79

  Chicago Tribune, 232–33

  Chiefswood, 1–2, 3, 4, 45–46, 56, 84–85

  rents from, 271, 308, 374

  visitors to, 57, 58, 60–61, 64, 68, 75

  Chippewa Indians, 115–16

  Chips (dog), 2, 52, 53

  Chums (mag
azine), 311

  Churchill, Winston, 316

  The Circus Rider, 137

  Clark, William, 176, 188

  Claus, William, 26

  Clayton Lyceum Bureau, 341, 342

  Clench, Norah, 220

  Coal Harbour (BC), 353–54

  Coast Salish nation, 107, 352–53

  Cochran, Mr. (photographer), 175

  Cochrane, William, 90

  Cockshutt, William Foster, 90–91

  Cody, Buffalo Bill, 156, 177, 312

  Coleman, “Kit,” 288

  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 7

  Columbus (OH), 12

  Confederation poets, 125–31

  Connaught, Arthur, Duke of, 58, 69, 86, 158, 382–83, 384, 392

  Connaught, Louise Margaret, Duchess of, 382–83

  Converse, Harriet Maxwell, 133

  Cope, Bert

  as performer, 307, 314

  relationship with Pauline, 306, 318, 320, 329, 335, 337–39, 347, 360, 361, 386

  Cope, Fred, 337–38, 349

  Cope, Margery, 306, 337–38, 361, 387

  Cornyn, Clara, 278

  Cornyn, Thomas E., 247, 278

  Cottle, Joseph, 7

  Crate, Joan, 401

  Crawford, Isabella Valancy, 131, 398

  Cree nation, 72, 208, 210

  Crowfoot nation, 208, 210

  Curtis, David, 67

  Curtis, Emily, 68, 76

  Curtis, Mary, 68, 76

  Curzon, George Nathaniel, Lord, 171

  Daily Express, 317, 326–27, 335

  Daily News-Advertiser (Vancouver), 219, 300, 307

  Daily Telegraph, 188–89

  Daily Tribune (Toronto), 168

  David (admirer), 77

  David C. Cook Publishing Company, 333

  Davidson, John, 190–91

  Davies, Robertson, 398

  Davin, Nicholas Flood, 281

  Deacon, W. A., 397