Skull Rock Scandal: One Woman's Life and Death at Silver Islet

Susan Patrick is a librarian at Ryerson University in Toronto.

MacDonald has been given the rare opportunity of getting to know his
great-grandmother, Esther O’Neill, through her diaries and letters. He
has reconstructed her story as a lively, entertaining tale of life in
the primitive mining town of Silver Islet (a.k.a. Skull Rock) on Lake
Superior, and later in Port Arthur and Fort William, from the latter
part of the last century to the First World War. The scandal in the
title could well have been in the plural, as plenty of what would have
been considered family skeletons at that time are found, from
prostitution through alcoholism, suspicious deaths, illegitimate births,
family feuds, homosexual relationships, and supernatural occurrences.

Although MacDonald’s prose is a little clunky at times (e.g., “This
may be as good a time as any to mention the fact” is repeated several
times throughout the book), he writes with heartfelt emotion for his
forebears. The most interesting parts of Skull Rock Scandal are the
quotations from Esther’s own writings (with details of life at the
time) her reactions to new inventions (like the telephone and streetcar)
and changing ways of life, and her rather modern opinions on men, sex,
and female independence. This book will appeal to those interested in
local and family histories.