Low, however, led an active life in Ottawa. Organized sports were a significant social focus at the time and provided Low and others with an outlet for energy, and a place to make valuable contacts. Having helped introduce organized hockey to the town, he was a member of the Ottawa Hockey Club. He played in a key game at the Montreal Winter Carnival in 188427 when Ottawa succumbed to sudden death in overtime in the final game, in a series with five teams playing. Whether or not Low scored in those games is not recorded, but he played a leadership role in the field of sports. In 1889, he was a founding member of the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Club.28 The newspaper announcement of his wedding in 1886 describes him as “well-known in athletic circles.”29 His sports participation continued into the 1890s when he was elected president of the Ottawa Football Club for the seasons 1892–95. A photograph of the team from those years shows him in the centre, looking vigorous, fit and somewhat dashing. He was so well thought of that he continued as president during the 1893 season, even though he was absent for the entire season in Quebec-Labrador, canoeing on the Eastmain and Caniapiscau rivers.
A.P. Low played football for Ottawa in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Although not named in this Novermber 1890 photograph of the club, he is in the centre, holding the football. Courtesy of LAC photo collection, PA-027219, William James Topley.
For the 1897–98, season, Low was elected vice-president of the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Club. He was also active in the Rideau Curling Club, and served as secretary in 1895–9630 and vice-president in 1905.31 There he would have met François Gourdeau who, later, as deputy minister of Fisheries, appointed Low as the commander of the Neptune expedition in 1903. Low was also a member of the Ottawa Country Club.32 His participation in sports was clearly central to his life. He played in regular games and held executive positions, and made a major commitment of energy and time even though he was often absent from the Ottawa scene for long stretches of time.
In addition to sports, Low also joined scientific clubs. In 1887, he was a founding member of the Geological Survey's still active Logan Club,33and until the mid-1890s was an active member of the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club34 where he presented several papers on his explorations in Quebec-Labrador. He was also elected fellow of the U.S. Geological Society and, in 1905, elected fellow of the UK-based Royal Geographical Society. In 1908, he was awarded an honourary doctorate from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
As if the long trips and long hours in the Geological Survey building were not sufficient to occupy his time, Low volunteered for the militia in 1896, receiving an appointment on June 13 as a provisional second lieutenant in E Company of the Ottawa-based 43rd Regiment of Rifles “Ottawa and Carleton.”35 This was an infantry regiment, part of Canada's part-time military units which, in 1897, had 36,000 men and 3000 horses.36 It was not a glamorous regiment and did not have the prestige or the splendid uniforms of the Governor General's Footguards which attracted Low's flashier colleague, Joseph Tyrrell. Low's uniform, shown in an 1896 photo of the regiment's officers, was plain dark blue with minimal trim.37 While the regiment would train on weekends throughout the year in the armoury drill hall on Cartier Square in downtown Ottawa, Low's long summer field trips would have precluded participation in the annual summer field exercise.
However, Low did not miss much military training in the summer, as little was provided. The militia's purpose was not so much to defend the country against invasion but to be on hand to quell internal insurrections, viewed as a potentially serious mission given the example of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. But mostly the militia was called out for other, less serious reasons, none of which tested its military muscle. Just before Low volunteered, the 43rd enforced the collection of taxes in the Township of Low (the name is purely coincidental) about 50 kilometres north of Ottawa in the Gatineau River valley.38 While good at cowing local farmers, the Canadian militia was recognized as “useless for military purposes” by its commander.39 A.P. Low was promoted to the rank of full lieutenant on April 6, 1897,40 but resigned on February 28, 1901.41 One wonders why Low would have joined in the first place? However, the militia at the time was important for social and political reasons, and becoming a officer was a sure route to social acceptability. Men of lower social origins could be received by the governor general (the pinnacle of the social pyramid), provided they were in uniform. But any pay received was handed over to the regimental fund to purchase prizes for competitions and, with the expense of uniforms,42 it is not likely that Low actually made any money from joining. Maybe he signed up for fun, and maybe he wanted social advancement. As a lieutenant, he may even have met the governor general while in uniform; Low did name a large lake in Ungava after the Earl of Minto (Governor General 1898–1904) in early 1899. Low's resignation from the militia almost coincides with his resignation from the Geological Survey to take employment with the Dominion Development Company.
Officers of the 43rd Militia Regiment on training in Pembroke, Ontario, 1896. Provisional Second Lieutenant Low is in the middle row, extreme left, in a crouching position. Photo from Captain Ernest Chambers, A Regimental History of the Forty Third Regiment, Active Militia of Canada, (Ottawa: E.L. Ruddy, 1903) 48.
LOW THE FAMILY MAN
Low was also a family man. On January 6,1886, he married Miss Isabella Cunningham,43 the daughter of C.R. Cunningham,44 a Scottish businessman and Ottawa alderman who later became chair of the City Improvement Commission. Low was 25 years of age and Isabella was 26. How or when he met her is not known. They must have met before he left on the Mistassini expedition in the summer of 1884, as he makes a passing reference to her in one of his poems45 at the back of his 1885 field notebook. This verse from a longer poem is indicative of the quality of his poetry and seems to have been written to Andrew Cunningham, his future brother-in-law:
now if you would learn more
of the poor lonesome lad
just read the letters written to your sister
also the one to your dad
Perhaps they first became acquainted during a social function at the Knox Presbyterian Church where Low and the Cunnigham family were members.
Dating in Ottawa in the 1880s was a chaperoned affair, and, unlike today, going to restaurants was not an option. Not only were such places expensive and the food mediocre at best, but they were also considered somewhat disreputable since they were frequented by out-of-town politicians and their questionable female companions. Worse still, they sold liquor. There would have been visits by Low to the Cunningham's house for discussions in the parlour and Sunday dinners after a long Presbyterian service. The romance survived his absence in the Mistassini region during 1884–85, when he was away for 16 months, except for the brief time in March 1885 when he returned to Ottawa by snowshoe to get authority over the Mistassini Expedition. Perhaps seeing Isabella was another motive for the long and arduous trip. While work, and not romance, appears to have been Low's primary motivation, it seems more reasonable to us to walk that far for love rather than for bureaucracy.
Isabella had grown up in Ottawa in a family involved in both the local dry goods and the banking business. She would have gone to high school, but not university. It is known that she had two brothers and a sister, but no other information about her has survived. A.P. and Isabella were married on January 6,1886, at the home of the bride's father, in keeping with the custom of the time. As the house was not large, only close friends and family were invited.