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Veranda of
the original cottage on Mazengah Island
The author
"researching" Muskoka granite.
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My
fascination with Muskoka began in the 1960s when, as a teenager, I stayed for
weeks every summer at my friend's cottage on Mazengah Island on Lake Rosseau.
The cottage had been built by her great-grandfather in 1879, so a family
compound developed around it over the next century. Hearing wonderful tales of
the "old days", I knew then that one day I would write about that genteel time
in legendary Muskoka. My deepest thanks to Fay (Patterson) Willsie, her
parents, Art and Isla Patterson, and her large, extended family for introducing
me to Muskoka and a unique way of life. Thanks to Barb Mason for lending the
impressive Mazengah history compiled by her father, Arthur D.
Blachford.
Readers
who enjoyed A Place To Call Home may be interested to know that
descendents of Rowena O'Shaughnessy play major roles in the Muskoka novels,
although these are not sequels to A Place To Call Home. Fans of
Moon Hall will meet ancestors of Kit Spencer.
Although
The Summer Before The Storm is a work of fiction, a few historical
personages do mingle with the fictional characters.
Here's a list of real
people mentioned or appearing in the novel:
- Woodrow Wilson -
President of the United States - owned an island in Muskoka
- Timothy Eaton -
founder of successful department store and mail order business
- (Sir) John Craig
Eaton - his son, who took over the business (knighted in 1915)
- Josephine Burnside -
daughter of Timothy Eaton - on Lusitania - survived
- Iris Burnside - her
daughter - died in the Lusitania tragedy
- Sir Henry Pellatt -
financier - built Casa Loma
- (Sir) Joseph Flavelle
- Wm. Davis Meat Packing, later Canada Packers - was made a Baronet in 1917 for
his war work
- Sir William Mackenzie
- railway entrepreneur - for a definitive look at Mackenzie, see The Railway
King of Canada by R.B. Fleming
- Tom Thomson - one of
the Algonquin Group of painters, later known as The Group of Seven, although
Tom was already dead by then
- Herb Ditchburn -
world-renowned Muskoka boat-builder
- Lieutenant Porte - of
the Royal Naval Air Service
- Sir Robert Borden -
Prime Minister of Canada 1911-1920
- Count Jacques De
Lesseps - an aviator and son-in-law of Sir William Mackenzie
- Mary Pickford -
renowned Hollywood star, originally from Toronto
- Pauline Johnson - part
Mohawk Canadian poet
- Commander Stackhouse
- explorer - died in the Lusitania tragedy
- Sir Hugh Lane - art
expert and director of the National Gallery in Ireland - died in the Lusitania
tragedy
- Captain Turner -
captain of the Lusitania - survived
- Staff Captain John
Anderson - died in the Lusitania tragedy
- Alfred Vanderbilt -
famous American multi-millionaire - died in the Lusitania tragedy
- Charles Frohman -
renowned impresario - died in the Lusitania tragedy
- Rita Jolivet - actress
- on the Lusitania - survived
- Josephine Brandell -
actress - on Lusitania - survived
- Dr. McDermott -
ship's doctor - died in the Lusitania tragedy
- Winston Churchill -
First Lord of the Admiralty
- William
Rhodes-Moorhouse - first airman to receive the Victoria Cross, 1915, but
posthumously
- Max Immelman - famous
German aviator - killed in 1916
- Ivor Novello - singer,
composer, actor, playwright
- Lord (also Major) and
Lady Astor - owned Cliveden which they turned into a Canadian convalescent
hospital during the war
- Rudyard and Mrs.
Kipling - on executive committee of the Maple Leaf Clubs
- Rupert Brooke - poet,
died en route to Gallipoli, April 1915
- Sir Max Aitken -
became Lord Beaverbrook in Dec. 1916
- Lady Drummond - from
Montreal - established an Information Bureau within the Canadian Red Cross in
England
- Nurse Edith Cavell -
executed by the Germans in Oct. 1915
- General Haig -
Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force
- The Stinson sisters -
of San Antonio, Texas, taught Canadian pilots
- Major-General Hugh
"Boom" Trenchard - in charge of the Royal Flying Corps in France
- Albert Ball - RFC ace
with 44 victories - died in 1917
- Lieutenant Colonel
John McCrae - Canadian doctor and poet who wrote the famous call to arms, "In
Flanders Fields", in 1915
Readers'
comments are always appreciated at info@mindshadows.com |
