In April 1917 Tom arrived at Canoe Lake for the last time. On July 7 of that year Tom and a number of local cottage residents met at George Rowe’s cabin for some merriment. Drinking at these social events usually led to storytelling. The topic of the war arose and Tom spoke of his determination to join up as a fire ranger. His earlier attempts to join had been thwarted because of his flat feet. That night Martin Blecher, who was considered to have a bad temperament only exacerbated by heavy drinking, arrived at the party.
Few photographs exist of Winnie Trainor. Even her home in Huntsville was torn down shortly after her death. Winnie is seen here on the left.
Judge Little wrote, “One young American cottager in particular, Martin Blecher, who was of German background, was most outspoken regarding the progress of the war and his forecast of ultimate German supremacy. During the early summer Tom and Martin seemed to share a mutual dislike. These two men, during this Saturday evening, were actually prevented from coming to blows only by the good-natured efforts of the guides. On leaving the cabin before midnight, Blecher hurled a final threat, ‘Don’t get in my way if you know what’s good for you’.”
A love triangle can be a source of great pain and jealousy. Secret love is even more entangling and complex. Winnie Trainor was, by all
As an expert outdoorsman, fishing was a passion of Tom Thomson’s.
accounts, a beautiful, mysterious woman. Hidden to most, Winnie and Tom shared a secret love. Judge Little said, “Not until Miss Trainor’s death in 1962 has it been known authoritatively that Thomson intended to marry her. Did Martin Blecher resent Tom’s visits to Winnie Trainor, just next door to him, during those long summer evenings? Did Tom resent Martin’s presence so close to Miss Trainor’s cottage?”
Terence Trainor McCormick, the nephew and beneficiary of Miss Trainor’s estate, once stated about the letters written between Winnie and Tom, “… the correspondence gave undisputable evidence that Tom and my Aunt were engaged to be married.” Their covenant remains a secret known only to them.
It was a rather dull morning and wet on Sunday, July 8, 1917. Shannon Fraser and Tom threw a line in the water at the dam between Joe and Canoe Lakes. Mark Robinson caught sight of the men returning. Tom waved to Mark and called, “Howdy, Mark.” Mark acknowledged the greeting. It would be the last time he ever saw Tom alive.
Tom returned to his quarters where he gathered up his tackle box and a loaf of bread and some bacon from Mowat Lodge. He bid farewell to Shannon as his canoe cut a path across the waters of Canoe Lake. Shannon watched Tom disappear past Little Wapomeo Island only one and a half kilometres (one mile) away.
The following day Martin Blecher casually remarked to some guests at Mowat Lodge that he had spotted an upturned canoe between Little and Big Wapomeo Islands. Apparently, he and his sister had not stopped, but continued on for an afternoon fishing excursion. On their return trip the canoe had disappeared.
No one seemed too concerned about such a report. It was a strange reaction by such a small community of residents who all knew the boats on the lake. Judge Little adds, “Furthermore, Canoe Lake residents considered it strange that Martin Blecher could not have recognized Thomson’s grey-green canoe with a metal strip on the keel side; it was known to everyone on Canoe Lake at the time.”
Charlie Scrim found the craft the following morning behind Big Wapomeo Island. Mark Robinson said, “Contrary to some people who may tell you the canoe was floating right side up, there was none of his equipment in the canoe, except his portaging paddle, which was lashed in position for carrying, and the ground sheet with bread and bacon in the bow section. There were no fishing poles, no gear; even his small axe was gone.”
Robinson immediately reported to Park Superintendent Bartlett who authorized a search. Tom’s brother George was contacted. He arrived at Canoe Lake on July 12. Dynamite was exploded in the lake without the desired results — no body surfaced.
The sharp eyes and minds of guides George Rowe and Charlie Scrim noted that Tom’s own working paddle was missing. Especially strange was how the portaging paddle was lashed in a position to portage. It had been knotted in a most unorthodox way. Only an inexperienced canoeist would fashion such a knot. Thomson was an expert canoeist and outdoorsman.
On July 14 George Thomson gathered up a number of Tom’s sketches and caught the train back to New York. He felt there was little he could do.
On the morning of July 15, 1917, Dr. G.W. Howland spotted something lying low in the water by Hayhurst Point on the east shore of Canoe Lake. At first he thought it was a loon. At the same time George Rowe and Lowrie Dickson were paddling down the middle of the lake when they saw the doctor hailing them. The canoeists aimed for the object. It was Tom. He was dead.
They towed the body to a campsite on Big Wapomeo, approximately 100 yards (300 metres) ahead. There at Big Wap, a campout halfway down the west side of the lake, they tied the body to tree roots in a shallow. The guides then notified Dr. Howland and Mark Robinson who contacted Superintendent Bartlett.
Dr. A.E. Ranney, a coroner living in North Bay, was notified. He did not arrive on the train the next day. Robinson was frantic and informed his Superintendent that something needed to be done with the body. It was not right to leave it in the blazing sun. The Superintendent informed Mark to have Dr. Howland examine the body. Dr. Howland was a Toronto medical doctor and a professor of neurology at the University of Toronto who was vacationing on Wapomeo Island. Mark then ordered a casket and rough box for the burial.
On the morning of July 17 Dr. Howland examined the deceased. Mark helped to remove a length of fishing line that was wrapped 16 or 17 times around Tom’s left ankle. That was odd. There was no water in the lungs. Across the left temple was a mark that looked as though he had been struck with the edge of a paddle. The doctor’s report read: “A bruise on left temple the size of four inches long, no other sign of external marks visible on body, air issuing from mouth, some bleeding from right ear. Cause of death, drowning.”
Tom was placed in a casket and moved to the mainland for a hurried funeral. A small congregation of Canoe Lake residents and guides, including Miss Trainor, witnessed the burial at Canoe Lake Cemetery. Miss Trainor caught the evening train for Huntsville. She would never again greet her lover by the water’s edge. Or would she?
A short time later a telegram arrived to the attention of Shannon Fraser. It was a request by Mr. H.W. Churchill, a Huntsville undertaker, to exhume the body. Apparently the family had requested that Tom be interred near the family home at Leith, Ontario. At 8:00 p.m. Fraser met the eastbound train at Canoe Lake Station. Churchill got off the train wearing a dark suit, and bowler hat. He informed Fraser that he had a metal casket with him and asked that Fraser give him a hand to put it on his wagon.
The cross marks the original gravesite of Tom Thomson. It was here that Judge Little and his friends uncovered a body in a grave alleged to be empty.
With a call to the horses they were off. Fraser was stunned to learn that Churchill was going to remove the body that very night. It all seemed very strange. Fraser remarked that he couldn’t get any help until the next day.
Judge Little quoted the following conversation, “The undertaker replied, ‘I don’t need any help, just get me a good digging shovel, a lantern and a crow bar and I’ll do the rest.’”
“‘Here we are,’ announced Shannon. ‘Do you still want to do this job tonight without any help?’”
“‘Just pick me up about midnight and I’ll be ready,’ replied the undertaker.”
Fraser returned at midnight to give Churchill a hand to place the casket on the rear baggage floor of the coach and transport the body to the train station.