Owen Sound: The Port City

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

Something quite admirable is occurring in Canadian historiography. Many
university-employed historians are conveying the benefits of scholarship
to a general readership by putting narrative up front and keeping
theory, research, and their Ph.D.’s in the “back office.” Some
“amateurs,” on the other hand, have discovered the merits and
pleasure of documentary research, as well as the heuristic advantages of
theory. Their works are often well written, well informed, and replete
with citations. Paul White’s slim history of Owen Sound, Ontario, is
an example of the latter.

The book reveals White’s acute understanding of the complex relation
between marine and terrestrial environments. In lucid prose, he explores
Owen Sound’s mid-19th-century beginnings in the settlement of
Sydenham, explains the change of name, discusses the political economy
of marine communications in a period when the roads were execrable, and
emphasizes the importance of rail connections in the formulation of Owen
Sound’s golden age around the turn of the last century.

Along the way, we learn about the city’s rise and fall as a grain
trans-shipment point and a prominent, prosperous manufacturing centre.
We become acquainted with the local versions of sabbatarianism,
prohibitionism, and corporate welfarism. Best of all, almost every
chapter contains a story bound to elicit a chuckle, a chortle, or a
burst of unrestrained belly laughter; the tale of Hinchcliff’s chair
alone is worth the price of this highly recommended book.