Spring 1915

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Spring had come to the Pontiac region of Quebec in 1915, but the usual chatter of seed time and maple syrup was overshadowed by the booming echoes of a world tearing itself apart. Through the pages of the The Equity, these months see the First World War unfold not as a distant European quarrel, but as a deeply personal tragedy that reached right into the farmhouses and shops of the Ottawa Valley.

The paper captures the beating heart of a proud Anglophone community living within a Francophone province. The editorial voice of The Equity championed the British Empire, taking immense pride in the belief that Canada’s destiny was to be the “Granary of the Empire” or the “Bread Basket of the World,” as noted in the April 29, 1915, issue. Yet, the dual linguistic and cultural identity of the region regularly spilled onto the pages. For example, the June 17, 1915, issue reported that Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden branded statements made by Francophone Liberal politician Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux regarding the war and elections as an “unqualified falsehood”

But the true, unifying story found in the columns of The Equity is one of local sacrifice. The war was no longer just headlines; it was the boys from the local townships bleeding in the mud of Flanders. Readers were met with the heartbreaking story of Private Archibald Hobin, a North Clarendon native, who fell in battle, reported on June 3, 1915. The tragedy was magnified by the haunting local detail that his sister had mailed him a letter less than an hour before receiving the official notification of his death.

The community also read with horror of the enemy’s new weapon during the struggles near Ypres, with a May 13, 1915, report detailing that “poisonous gases added in no small measure to the death roll among the Canadians”

Back home in Pontiac, the war transformed daily life. The government launched a massive “Patriotism and Production” campaign, holding agricultural conferences on April 8, 1915, in towns like Ladysmith, Fort Coulonge, Calumet Island, and Chapeau to urge farmers to increase their yields for the war effort.

There was an urgent realization that Canada’s most vital contribution was to feed the dependent millions of England. But the locals sent more than just grain. In a uniquely Canadian gesture, the Red Cross pleaded for donations of maple syrup and sugar, noting in the May 6, 1915, issue that the boys at the front went “fairly crazy with delight” when a few cakes of local maple sugar arrived in the trenches.

The women of Pontiac mobilized with equal fervor. The Homemakers’ Clubs of Yarm, Shawville, and Elmside turned their social gatherings into industrious knitting bees. The Yarm club, for instance, gave a supper to buy materials and spent the afternoon sewing, turning out pyjamas, bed jackets, socks, and sheets for the Red Cross, as reported on June 3, 1915

Even local entertainment, like lawn socials and the new “moving picture shows” at the Shawville rink, became avenues to raise funds for the patriotic cause

When the Lusitania was torpedoed without warning in May, the shockwaves rocked Pontiac County. On May 13, 1915, The Equity reported the disaster with fierce indignation, quoting Theodore Roosevelt to call it “piracy on a vaster scale of murder than any old time pirate ever practiced.”

Through the lens of these weekly dispatches, the timeline of World War I becomes the story of the soul of a community. Anglophone farmers and their Francophone neighbors were bound by the terrifying demands of history, sending their sons across the ocean and turning their quiet Quebec fields into the lifeline of an Empire.

Soldiers Mentioned in The Equity

These names have been extracted from copies of The Equity by AI and may have mistakes. Please let us know if you catch any at jon@theequity.ca.

Mentioned	Soldier / Personnel	Status / Details
Apr 1, 1915	Cpl. Cameron Mackay	Only son of S. A. Mackay (Shawville); First Contingent. Killed in action.
Apr 1, 1915	Pte. Donald L. Kemp	Son of John Kemp. Reported seriously wounded in action.
Apr 1, 1915	Lieut. Thacker	1st Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery. Reported wounded.
Apr 1 / 15, 1915	L-Cpl. H. V. Naylor	Nephew of Ven. Archdeacon Naylor; former Shawville student. Killed in action.
Apr 1 / May 13	I. Wilkie & R. Anderson	Shawville men with the 21st Battalion; trained at Kingston before leaving for France.
Apr 1 / Jun 24	Pte. Willie Creek	38th Battalion; trained at Barriefield before leaving for the front.
Apr 1 / 8, 1915	Col. Farquhar et al.	Officers of the P.P.L.I. (including Rivers Bulkeley and Newton). Killed in action.
Apr 8, 1915	Sgt. Arthur Harrold	Canadian Field Engineers; former Shawville Electric manager. Honored by comrades.
Apr 8, 1915	Bell-Irving	Canadian Engineers. Officially reported killed.
Apr 8, 1915	H. Hammond et al.	Macdonald College graduates (Robinson, Green, Ness) left with No. 3 General Hospital.
May 13, 1915	Fred H. Hodgins	Son of W. H. Hodgins; enlisted in the 48th Battalion, C.E.F. at Victoria, B.C.
May 20, 1915	Pte. Archibald Hobin	24-year-old from North Clarendon; 43rd Battalion. Killed in action.
May 20 / Jun 24	Miss Mabel Hamilton	Daughter of William Hamilton (Quyon); sailed on the Metagama to serve as a nurse.
May 27, 1915	Lts. Plummer & Arnoldi	Field Comforts Commission; distributed gifts to Canadian troops from Amesbury, England.
May 27 / Jun 17	Dr. A. A. Mackay	Medical officer with No. 4 General Hospital; honored by C.A.S.A. before departure.
Jun 3, 1915	Major Gordon Wright	3rd Field Co. Engineers; killed in action during engagement near Ypres.
Jun 3, 1915	Lawrence Grant	Son of John Grant (Morehead); enlisted for service in the Third Contingent.
Jun 3, 1915	Sgt. Michael O'Leary	Irish Guards (V.C. recipient). Reported killed in action.
Jun 17, 1915	Tierney & Lederoute	First soldiers from Arnprior to fall on the battlefield in France; First Contingent.
Jun 17, 1915	Pontiac Field Engineers	Local detachment sent to Petawawa to oversee Austrian prisoners on bridge construction.
Jun 24, 1915	McKeown & Amyot	Medical personnel (U of T) established a 1,040-bed Base Hospital in France.