After another hugely successful production of our annual Guided Spirit Walks, we’d like to say a big “THANK YOU” to the many volunteers – cast and crew – who make it all happen. In case you missed the walks this year, we’d also like to share a bit about the people who are buried at Victoria Lawn that we included this year.

About the Walks

Those unfamiliar with “spirit walks” might be interested to know a bit about their long history at museums, parks, cemeteries, and battlefields throughout North America. Spirit walks are a popular mode for sharing history because of their theatrical and accessible nature. The audience gets to “meet” someone from the past and hear about their lives.

The Guided Spirit Walks at Victoria Lawn Cemetery have been running every September since 2012 and they have covered a wide range of topics including the War of 1812, the First World War, Confederation, the Welland Canal and its Fallen Workers, and much more, all highlighting the people buried there and our rich history.

Learn more about the walks from our Virtual Museum Lecture Series:

What Good is History?

Updated excerpt from the Director’s Notes:

This year’s walks asked the audience to play members of the 1900 Board of Trade. As members of modern society, they were asked to measure the value of history through the presentation.

The tour this year was presented as a meeting of the members of the Board of Trade (the audience) convened by Mayor J.B. McIntyre. McIntyre expected the meeting to encourage the Board to agree with his view: that there just isn’t enough space in the Yearbook for the boring old history of the city. The meeting had been secretly diverted by his history-loving secretary Alice, who had recruited the historic characters the audience met on the tour to help convince McIntyre and the Board to save the history section.

The history section of the 1900 Board of Trade Yearbook is significant and reveals much of what the business elite thought of the city, and the proud history they used to leverage investment in the community. Of note are the several pages dedicated to the waterworks system. Also of note are the stories left out: not a trace of women or People of Colour or non-British immigrants appear, another reflection of the stories prioritized to fit the purpose of the book. While the characters will ask you to measure the value of history in the Yearbook, audiences were asked to reflect on the value of history in their lives and in their community.

David and Goliath, mixed with a little Ebenezer Scrooge, were useful story and character tropes for building a story based on the all-too-familiar sentiment that perhaps history isn’t as valued by our society is it should be. History (as knowledge and as a practice) has been and can be seen as disposable, unimportant, costly, and as J.B. says “boring!…People just want to get on with their day.”

As Alice and her (strategically selected and preassembled) guests argued the opposite: when we know and appreciate our local history, we know and appreciate our community.

Thank you!

The biggest of “thank yous” go out to our hard-working volunteer cast and crew:

• Alice, secretary to Mayor J.B. McIntyre, played by Eva St. Laurent
• Mayor J.B. McIntyre, played by Ian Ashman
• Christine, friend of Alice, played by Abby Saj
• Jane, sister of Alice, played by Chelsey Parsons
• Martha Burgoyne, played by Brenda Schultz
• Fonce Val “Jack” Haney, played by Raiden Hearn
• Minnie Phelps, played by Meaghan Lamothe
• Dr. Lucius Oille, played by Des Corran
• Mary Aletta Coy, played by Jacqueline Conway
• Isabella Frampton Hawken, played by Rachelle Longtin
• Eliza Sophia Fitzgerald, played by Kathie LeBlanc

Thank you also to Stanlee Hickey and Barb Aubin for their skilled and talented work on the costumes for the ladies.

Thank you to our crew volunteers for helping with parking and traffic control during the tour:

• Dan McKnight
• Shannon Duggan
• Amanda Balyk
• Amanda Stansfield
• Benjamin Stansfield
• Chloe Matone
• Dallas Matone
• Lee Middleton
• Joe Lamothe

Biographies of the Historic People on this year’s tour

J.B. McIntyre (1845-1927)

John Brewer McIntyre was born in St. Catharines in 1845. He was educated in the town and later joined his father’s furniture and undertaking business. Later, he became founder of the Canadian Embalmers Association and was one of the first to adopt and teach the art of embalming in Ontario. He served as alderman from 1875-1884, then as Mayor in 1889, 1890, 1901, and 1902. It was his 1902 letter to Andrew Carnegie for funds that sparked the establishment of a new public library, which opened in 1905. McIntyre also spearheaded the construction of the Lake Street Armouries. He was a director of the General Hospital, on the Board of Health, Board of Education, and the Board of Trade. He was a tireless booster of St. Catharines as a place for heavy industry and improved regional services.

Martha Burgoyne (1831-1900)

Born in 1831, Martha Wright was the youngest daughter of Rufus Wright, who settled in St. Catharines in 1816 and established the first Methodist Church, which was later transformed into St. Paul Street Methodist (now Silver Spire United Church) by her husband Henry Burgoyne. Her son, William Bartlet Burgoyne, established the Daily Standard Newspaper, the precursor to the St. Catharines Standard.
Her obituary reads in part: “…If she had a fault it was her devotion to home and her love of peace and quietness… She has seen St. Catharines grow from village to city.”

Fonce Val “Jack” Haney (1889-1935)

Born in 1889 in North Baltimore, Ohio, Jack Haney grew up with a passion for automobiles. He began his work at the REO Motor Car Company in Lansing, Michigan. In 1910, he seized the opportunity to work as a troubleshooter for the Canadian branch of the company, located in St. Catharines. It was here that the REO company decided to promote its vehicles with a transcontinental trip wholly within Canada. In August 1912, accompanied by Thomas Wilby, Haney set out from Halifax, and arrived in Victoria, 52 days later, with many harrowing stories. Haney left the company in 1913 when it left St. Catharines and opened his own garage, Haney Auto Service. Ever the gearhead, Haney co-founded the St. Catharines airport in 1928. He died in 1935.

Minnie Phelps (1859-1920)

Lillian (Minnie) Phelps was an internationally renowned activist and speaker from
St. Catharines. Born the daughter of a blacksmith in 1859, Phelps used her education and skill to gain a place at the Philadelphia School of Oratory. She dedicated her life to public activism with much success. Phelps was a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and served in various capacities at both the national and local level between 1877 and 1900. She was also a member of the
Canadian’s Women’s Suffrage Association. In 1890, Phelps wrote “Women as Wage Earners” which argued for equal work opportunities and equal pay for women. She spent her life touring the lecture circuit in North America and Europe. The reviews were glowing too: “the address was scholarly throughout showing Phelps to be a student of sociology and an accomplished historian…” She died at Merritton in 1920.

Dr. Lucius Sterne Oille (1830-1903)

Born to Loyalist parents in Pelham in 1830, Oille attended Grantham Academy, then the University of Toronto, and returned to St. Catharines to establish his medical practice in 1859. He was the first in the province to install an X-Ray machine in his practice in 1900. Oille was first elected to town council in 1869, and served as reeve and alderman through the 1870s, then elected mayor in 1878. In 1875, he chaired the committee which was responsible for installing the waterworks system, and became its primary booster. At the opening of the system in 1876, his personal gift to the city was a fountain and horse watering trough at the Lincoln County Court House (the fountain still stands today). He was a member of the Board of Health, the
Board of Education, the Board of Trade, and president of the early street car system in the city. He died in 1903.

Mary Aletta Coy (1854-1904)

Born in Rochester, NY, Mary Aletta was the daughter of R.H. Smith, who settled his family in St. Catharines in 1866. Smith operated one of the largest saw mills in the city. She married Frank E. Coy in 1877 at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church. With her husband and brother-in-law, the Coy family grew their father’s hardware store to great success. Her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (5th generation) continued the family business until its closure in 1991. Mary Aletta died in 1904. Her obituary noted: “…though she is of a naturally retiring disposition, has led materially the promotion of many enterprises of business and charity…”

Isabella Frampton Hawken (1876-1948)

Born in St. John’s, NL, and educated in Montreal, Frampton Hawken moved to St. Catharines with her family in 1896. Her engineer father was friends with the Packard Brothers and was involved in the company in both Montreal and St. Catharines. Both Frampton Hawken and her two brothers were employed at Packard, and she became foreperson of the female workers in the lamp department in 1898. The Packard Brothers sold their interest in the company in 1909 and Frampton Hawken stepped in and established her own company: the Dominion Electric Company in 1910, which renewed burnt-out lightbulbs. She took out a patent for the recycling process in 1914, but under her husband’s name, James Hawken, who was a pharmacist and likely had little to do with the business. When he died in 1918, the company, then known as the Dominion Tungsten Lamp Factory was finally listed under her name. The company was a major employer through the 1920s. She died in 1948.

Eliza Sophia Fitzgerald (1858-1932)

Born in St. Catharines in 1858, Fitzgerald was the eldest daughter of a prominent local grocer. She attended St. Catharines Collegiate, and then studied privately in Toronto (since the University of Toronto would not accept women) until she was admitted to Queen’s University in 1883 (and awarded two years of credit for studies already completed). In 1884, she was one of the first five women to graduate from Queens. She focused her career on teaching and held a number of positions in Niagara. She became the first female principal of an Ontario high school as principal of Stamford High School in 1904. She was also principal at Thorold High School (1909-1914) and wrapped up her teaching career at St. Catharines Collegiate (1914-1918). She was awarded an honourary Master of Arts by Queens University in 1911 and served as the first woman on the University Council. A former pupil established a scholarship at Queens in her memory in 1954, which is still awarded today. Fitzgerald died in 1932.

Join the Cast!

Want to join in the fun? Please get in touch with us to join the cast of next year’s walks via email for more information about the rehearsal and performance commitment.