The Admaston Heritage Book

William F.E. Morley was Curator of Special Collections, Douglas Library, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario.

This work has a marked kinship with the Tweedsmuir Histories which abound throughout rural Canada, and especially Ontario, to the everlasting glory of the Women’s Institutes which sponsor them (and to the Balsam Hill W.I. which is behind the present work): it is alive with colourful information, pictures, and personal anecdote, but somewhat deficient in access to this wealth. Finding one’s way through this Admaston treasure house is made difficult by its lack of an index, or even of a table of contents to orient the reader, so that the only approach to a specific subject is by browsing. As a work of reference, therefore, it will likely prove frustrating. This is a special pity, because I can find no other history of Admaston Township in the usual bibliographical sources (and, sadly, none appears in the book itself). As a matter of fact, while Lanark County is mentioned in several places as being nearby, Admaston’s own county is not conspicuously identified. It is in Renfrew County, and one might think that this, and perhaps the source of the township’s name (a village in Staffordshire, England) would have been stated at the outset. One is also used to finding basic publication details on a book’s title page, rather than hidden on the verso.

These refinements, however, do not detract one whit from the absorbing interest of the work. The historical sweep is created by the arrangement of the sections: starting with pioneer days, conditions, and families (some parts signed by other hands), the tale unfolds through accounts of local industries and services, churches and their congregations, municipal and social activities and personalities, schools (in great detail), railways and farms, all carried forward from the nineteenth century to the Great Depression and the present day, ending with several pages of census (1851) and voters’ (1908) name lists. The whole is richly embroidered with incident, anecdote, and biographical sketches, and numerous black-and-white photographs.

Although deficient in the ordinary appurtenances of a factual record, this is a humane and loving account in a clear, literate style; it makes absorbing reading and is a window to the grassroots history of rural Ontario.