The Legends of Lake on the Mountain
Read The Legends of Lake on the Mountain Online
Authors: Roderick Benns
Leaders & Legacies
The Legends
of Lake on
the Mountain
An Early Adventure of
JOHN A. MACDONALD
With a Foreword by former
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
By Roderick Benns
Fireside Publishing House
This book is fiction but many of the characters and events are based on real people and actual historical events.
© 2011 Roderick Benns All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of Fireside Publishing House.
ISBN 978-0-9812433-2-0 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-9812433-1-3
eISBN 978-0-9812433-4-4
$12.95 CDN.
Fireside Publishing House
www.firesidepublishinghouse.com
For an Access Copyright license, visit
www.accesscopyright.ca
or call (toll-free) 1-800-893-5777.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Benns, Roderick, 1970
The legends of Lake on the Mountain : an early adventure of John A. Macdonald / by Roderick Benns ; foreword by Brian Mulroney. -Collector's ed.
(Leaders & legacies series ; bk. 2) ISBN 978-0-9812433-2-0
1. Macdonald, John A. (John Alexander), 1815-1891--Childhood and youth--Juvenile fiction. I. Title. II. Series: Leaders & legacies series PS8603.E5598L44 2010 jC813'.6 C2010-906596-4
Printed and bound in Canada by Maracle Press Ltd.
Cover art, book design and illustrations by riad
eBook Development by Wild Element
www.WildElement.ca
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of Joli Scheidler-Benns, an outstanding editor and partner. What a fantastic series this is becoming because of her efforts.
A special thank you and sincere note of gratitude to the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney for his time and generosity in supporting this book and series concept with his Foreword. To Arthur Milnes, Francine Collins and Robin Sears, thank you for your facilitation and support. For author-historians Richard Gwyn, Jack Granatstein and Patricia Phenix, I truly appreciate your willingness to share your names and credibility to this project.
Many people were there for me during the writing of this book with their specialized knowledge, their contacts and their enthusiasm. Thanks to Janet Kellough and Steve Campbell for their knowledge of Prince Edward County. On a related note, thanks to The Historical Archives for the County of Prince Edward. The staff was most helpful while I conducted research.
Thanks to Ted Hazen of Pennsylvania for sharing his deep knowledge of historical grist mills on both sides of the border.
Thanks to my younger brother, Captain Brad Benns, for imparting his military knowledge for key scenes in this book.
Books in the Leaders & Legacies Series
Book One
The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder:
An Early Adventure of John Diefenbaker
Book Two
The Legends of Lake on the Mountain:
An Early Adventure of John A. Macdonald
Upcoming
An Early Adventure of Paul Martin
An Early Adventure of Lester Pearson
An Early Adventure of Charles Tupper
An Early Adventure of Kim Campbell
...and more
For Brothers
For Captain Bradley E. Benns
of the Canadian Armed Forces
For Clayton, the one I never knew
“...I have fought the battle of Confederation, the battle of union, the battle of the Dominion of Canada...I know that, notwithstanding the many failings in my life, I shall have the voice of this country...”
â Prime Minister John A. Macdonald
November 3, 1873
Late August, 1828
in Stone Mills, Upper Canada
(known today as Glenora, in
Prince Edward County, Ontario)
Foreword
by
The Right Honourable
M. Brian Mulroney
18th Prime Minister of Canada
Sir John A. Macdonald never forgot what it was like to be a child. Shortly before his death in 1891 he took the time to answer a letter from a young girl in Ontario's Prince Edward County, the place where he had spent many of his childhood years. The girl told the Prime Minister that she had previously written to a young man and that her letter had not been answered.
“My dear little Friend,” John A. wrote back, “â¦I think it was mean of that young fellow not to answer your letter. You see, I have been longer in the world than he, and know more than he does what is due to young ladies. I send you a dollar note with which pray buy some small keepsake to remember me by.”
On the same winter that Sir John A. and the girl had their exchange of letters Macdonald faced Canadians in an election for the final time. As cold winter winds chilled his weary bones, the 76-year-old John A. travelled the young country speaking in person to Canadians a final time. He was greeted by the same shout wherever he went. “Sir John,” people yelled in respect and affection, “you'll never die.”
As we can see from books like this Leaders & Legacies series volume on Sir John A. that you are about to read, the Canadians who shouted that prophecy more than one hundred years ago were correct. Sir John A. Macdonald's life and legacy continues to stir and inspire us to this very day. And because, in part, of books like The Legends of Lake on the Mountain:
An Early Adventure of John A. Macdonald
, he remains with us still.
One of my fondest memories of my own service as Prime Minister of Canada was a trip to Kingston, the Canadian home of Sir John A., which I took on June 6, 1991. It was the one hundredth anniversary of Sir John A's death. At the Macdonald family plot at historic Cataraqui Cemetery it was my honour to represent all Canadians that day in paying respect to the memory of our greatest Prime Minister.
As they do every year on that date, Kingstonians had gathered in great numbers at the cemetery. People from all walks of life and all political persuasions were united in paying tribute to Canada's Father of Confederation. I returned to my duties in Ottawa energized by my visit to Kingston and inspired again by Sir John A's example and story.
Like all Prime Ministers, I began my life-long love of books and reading during my childhood. As a class project in Grade 5 in Baie Comeau, my teacher required me and my fellow students to keep a daily diary for one term. My late mother, Irene Mulroney â just as I suspect your own parents have done â kept my diary long after I'd forgotten it. Only recently, I reviewed this diary as I was writing my Memoirs.
When Roderick Benns first approached me about contributing this Foreword to his adventure book about our first Prime Minister, I immediately thought of one of the diary passages I had written in Baie Comeau more than 60 years ago and only recently read again.
“Yesterday I finished my story-book about Buddy and the G-Man mystery,” I wrote on October 10, 1947. “It was a very good book and I liked it very much.”
Written by legendary children's author Howard Garis, Buddy and the G-Man Mystery or, a Boy and a Strange Cipher, was first published in 1944. Like countless other young people across North America, I spent hours enthralled by that adventure story. Decades later, I can recall how the book and so many like it I read after my frequent visits to the town library inspired me and stirred my imagination.
In addition to serving as Prime Minister, John A and I had something else in common â we have both lost a brother. I was always struck by the fact that even late in life John A. had never forgotten his brother, even recording his death in the family's memorandum book where, for some reason, it had been left out.
My brother â who was also named John â sadly passed away shortly after he was born. While I never knew him I often wonder what it would have been like to have had an older sibling. I wonder about the kind of person he might have been. I wonder how our lives might have been shaped by one another.
Prime Ministers are human beings, as the Leaders & Legacies series shows through storytelling. They suffer devastating personal tragedies, sacrifice their personal freedom, and agonize over the issues that might threaten their beloved country. They do this on behalf of all Canadians. But they persevere. If I were to take on the role of mentor for even a brief moment, I would say to any young person reading, persevere. Persist as John A Macdonald did. Find your own unique way to serve your family, community or country.
I am confident that young Canadians reading The Legends of Lake on the Mountain:
An Early Adventure of John A. Macdonald
will find themselves inspired and engaged like I was upon reading my first adventure novels in Baie Comeau as a boy. This wonderful story will also serve to inspire young readers to learn more about Sir John A. Macdonald and early Canada along the way.
Mr. Benns and his wife, Joli, who served as editor of The Legends of Lake on the Mountain:
An Early Adventure of John A. Macdonald
, are to be congratulated for all the work they have done in bringing this important book to fruition.
The Right Honourable M. Brian Mulroney
18th Prime Minister of Canada Montreal,
Quebec September 2010