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12- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, October 3, 1995 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" - -------- Sketches by Paul Arculus Sketches of Scugog is a historical column wrijten by local resident and historian Paul Arculus and published in the Port Perry Star the first issue of each month. READER response is any indi- cator, then the last two articles in this series; Markham Gang and the "Scandals of the Crandells;" have been the most popular. I have received more telephone calls, letters, and general comments on the street over these two articles than almost all of the others put together. Most of the comments have centred Popularity of column evident from many inquiries Historian pulls skeletons from Scugog's dark closet There were over 80 newspapers and periodicals published on a daily or weekly basis in Toronto before Confederation! Each newspaper had its own area of focus or bias. The Upper Canada Gazette was the official government newspaper. It carried official proclamations and announce- ments as well as general news and adver- tisements. Obviously it was heavily biased towards the government point of view in any editorialization of news. To obtain information on government affairs and the debates, The Observer was one of the better papers to read. One of the many interesting newspa- pers of the Crandal or Crandell? "These parties were charged with the murder of Stephen Smith at their tavern in Reach in the fall of 1841." There it was, our first settler charged with murder! The newspaper account was detailed and extensive. I then went to the Ontario Archives in Toronto where the court records of the 1800s are kept. The records of the Crandal trial show that the Globe reporter was absolutely accurate and he had covered the trial in a thorough and conscientious manner, giving most of the details and statements verbatim. In reading the details of the case, a number of strange details began to around "How did you find all this out?" The answer to that ques- tion is a rather lengthy but The _ Globe. emerge. In his opening statement for the PS eaten nevertheless interesting one. These two articles involved crimes committed in the 1840s and 1850s by various people | | Tn URDAY, JUNK AT. IRAE : 3 v . . messrsare: © ---- non or fOROKTO, CANADA WEAT, pr cunt ~e8Y ETRE X33 re including the sons of Reach's CIIRISTIAN GUARDIAN 'Ol. 1. Crear AL (VIR IV CANAD. BBV 0awy & 7. SRTFALY, woITOR. -- ---- TV ORK, KATURDAY, JULY 12, R30, first settler, Reuben Crandell. Until these articles were pub- lished it seems that no one was aware of the existence of these crimes. Until I discovered the reports of them in the newspa- pers of the 1840s and 1850s, I was also unaware that such events had taken place. Early Newspapers I have found that one of the most fruitful starting points for researching recorded history is the newspaper. As most of you are aware, the first newspaper in the Scugog area was the North Ontario Observer which began its life in Prince Albert in 1857. Copies of almost all the issues are to be found on microfilm in our own Scugog Shores Museum archives. To delve into events before 1857, one has to journey to Toronto to either the Ontario Archives or the Toronto Reference Library on Yonge Street just above Bloor Street in Toronto. In the Toronto Reference Library are all the old newspapers of the Town || « viel ter Bales As \: of York which became the city of So Toronto. Copies of some other papers are kept in the Archives. The first newspaper to be printed in York was Mare wrort, woth of 1s Avw tne? Hm, UUARIMAN HIRE {Tt Greet NI, Bn > i tri -- ---- crown, Solicitor General Smith revealed that the alleged crime had taken place in 1841 and that the reason that the crime not brought to justice until 14 years later was that "the murder was said to have been committed by a gang of per- sons who were confederated purpose of plun- der, who were bound to observe each A] other's secrets \ by the most solemn oaths." He went on to | state that the '\ prisoners at the bar were members of | | that gang as was the alleged vic- tim Stephen Smith and the key wit- ness for the crown John E. Buck. the Upper Canada Gazette. It had begun life in Niagara in 1793, when the capital was located there. It was moved to York and was first published in its new location in October 1798. It continued as the only newspaper until 1820, when suddenly a profusion of papers began to appear; The Observer in 1820, William Lyon MacKonzie's Colonial Advocate in 1824, The Canadian Freeman in 1825, The Courier of Upper Canada in 1829, the Patriot and Farmer's Monitor in 1832. These were accompanied by religi- ous newspapers such as the Methodists' Christian Guardian in 1829, edited by Egerton Ryerson until 1840, and the Anglicans Church in 1837. The Canadian Baptist which was first printed 1856, is still being published. The Christian - Guardian survived until 1925. In the middle of all this newsprint activity, York changed its name to Toronto in 1834. The reform movement which led to the Act of Union in 1841, uniting Ontario and Quebec, gave rise to a number of newspa- pers including George Brown's Globe which first appeared on March 5, 1844. time was the Provincial Freeman with news con- centrated almost entirely on anti-slavery and temperance. It also included a good sample of the literature of the day. There were also humorous weeklies such as the Grumbler and The Latch-Key. They contained amusing and satirical coverage of contemporary politics. The first foreign language newspaper appeared in 1856. It was a German week- ly called the Beobachter. The Globe And The Crandells In February of 1994, I happened to be working my way through the early issues of the Globe, looking for references to events in Reach prior to 1857. When | came to the November 26, 1855 issue, | found an article entitled "Singular Murder Trial." It was a full page article, the feature in that issue. I noticed that the trial took place in Whitby. The first line read; "The Queen vs Reuben Crandal, (the father) and Stephen Elmore and Benjamin Crandal (his sons)." Naturally I was quite taken aback. Could this be our own Reuben In the records it was stated that the Crandells had served a five year sentence for their part in the "confederacy." Also in the trial Abner Hurd, a magistrate in Prince Albert, gave a positive character reference for Stephen Elmore. But in his statement, he said "Their general charac- ter as far as I know has been good since their release from penitentiary." I then returned to the Toronto Reference Library to begin a search for coverage of the trials which resulted in their terms in the penitentiary. The British Colonist The best newspaper for coverage of court proceedings in the 1840s was the British Colonist. It had begun as a mouthpiece for the Scottish Conservatives and the Church of Scotland. In fact the first two issues of the paper in 1838 were called The Scotsman. By 1840 the newspaper had evolved into a good general newspaper but with the best and most detailed cover- age of court proceedings of any contempo- rary newspaper. In June 1845, without any headline, an article appeared which stated "There has together for the : been for a considerable time past, a gang of robbers in Markham and the surround- ing townships whose depredations have been carried on an extensive scale." Later the article reported that "Authority was accordingly granted to Mr.Gurnett, Clerk of the Peace for the Home District to endeavor to discover the gang." In February, 1846 reports of various arrests began to appear and the culprits had by this time been given the title of "The Markham Gang." This was because many of the gang lived in the Markham area and Markham appeared to be the meeting point of the gang. It should be pointed out that several members were from Reach. Beginning in June 1846 and continuing until the end of July, the proceedings of the trails of the various members domi- nated the newspaper. Page after page of the details of the trials appeared. Even a special supplement on the trial of those accused in the attempt on John Morrow's life. This was released on July 9, 1846. Readers may recall that members of the Markham Gang had attacked Morrow and his family at their home in Epsom and had beaten up Morrow and his wife, leaving John Morrow for dead. These were undoubtedly the most sen- sational trials of the decade. In fact, the trials of the members of the Markham Gang received as much coverage as the 1837 Rebellion and the subsequent trials of William Lyon MacKenzie and his Rebels. No other court proceedings in half a century received as much publicity. In checking through the actual court documents, it was plain to see that the Colonist's reporter had also used verba- tim reporting. So thorough and accurate are the recordings of the reporter in the British Colonist that there is little fur- ther information to be found in the actual court records themselves. In his coverage of the trials, the nameless reporter mere- ly quoted the key statements made dur- ing the trials by all the people involved. Strangely, after 1846 there is no detailed reference to the circumstances surrounding the Markham Gang. Until I began this research, I had no idea of these "scandals of the Crandells." It was also a surprise to the living descend- ants of the Crandells to hear of these incidents. Reasons for this absence of information are puzzling. These articles in the Port Perry Star presenting a re-discovery of this gang of Rogues is an attempt to fill the void. This information has certainly shown that all our local heroes were far removed from sainthood. However, George Crandell redeemed himself almost immediately after his release from jail. His contribution to the economic growth and development of Port Perry, Lake Scugog and eventually the whole of the central Kawarthas are of epic proportions. The next articles will focus on this phenomenal era and George's pivotal role in it. Between 1800 and 1867 there were more than 80 daily or weekly newspaper published in Yorkwhich (became Toronto). Some of the mastheads from these newspapers are shown in the centre of this page. When Charles Dickens visited Toronto in 1842, he referred to Torontonians as "a city of newspaper readers." The British colonist ran the reports of the trials of the members of the Markham Gang as its feature articles in June and July 1846. The Globe featured the murder trial of Reuben Crandell and his sons on November 26, 1855.