Tom Thomson: Death in Algonquin Park

Apr 26, 2012

Photo: Lynne James with students Ashlee Redmond, Lauren Desarmia, Rose James and St. Clair School principal Mark Millan present "Searching for Tom" at Barrie Hall in Cloyne.

Students unearth Harrowsmith connection in Tom Thomson’s mysterious death

Sometimes it takes the minds of curious youngsters to shed new light on some very well trod ground. That was the case for a group of nine students from St. Clair School in Kingston, whose project last year on the mysterious death of famed Canadian wilderness landscape painter Tom Thomson, which was titled “Searching for Tom”, won them a gold medal at the Kingston Regional Heritage Fair in May 2011.

Three of the nine students and their former school principal at St. Clair, Mark Millan, presented their project at the Cloyne and District Historical Society's (C&DHS) AGM at Barrie Hall in Cloyne on April 16.

To this day Thomson's demise (photo right) on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917 remains a mystery. It was on that day that his signature slate grey canoe was found overturned in the middle of Canoe Lake. His badly decomposed body was recovered eight days later with 17 strands of copper fishing line wrapped around one of his legs and there was a significant gash on the left side of his head.

Accidental drowning is listed as the official cause of his death, but suicide was also suspected since the artist was known for fits of melancholia. There are also multiple murder theories. One is that he was murdered by poachers in the park, and there is a second theory that Martin Blecher Jr., a regular summer resident at the park who was known to be jealous of Thomson's relationship with Winnie Trainor (who some think was carrying Thomson’s child at the time) killed him.

What do the students think? Manslaughter. It was through in-depth research at the Queen’s University archives that the students unearthed new information about J. Shannon Fraser, postmaster and proprietor at Mowat Lodge on Canoe Lake, who they believe was responsible for Thomson's death. Their information prompted a letter from author Roy MacGregor to principal Mark Millan. MacGregor has written a book about Thomson called Northern Light, which also alleges that Fraser is the prime suspect in Thomson's death, and his letter to the principal states that the students’ findings were “all new information to him and represented new original research important to the Shannon Fraser file."

Just what did they find out about J. Shannon Fraser? First, that he was born in Harrowsmith in 1883 to Skyler, a labourer, and Annie (Ferguson), a weaver. The couple moved to Kingston and lived at 217 and 277 Earl Street. Fraser married Annie Stewart from Westbrook, ON in 1903 and they had a daughter, Mildred. The three would all come to know Tom Thomson at Canoe Lake years later. Fraser lived at 105 and 119 Lower Bagot Street in Kingston before ending up at Canoe Lake as the postmaster and proprietor at Mowat Lodge with his wife Annie.

Why and how do the students think Fraser was involved in Thomson’s death? They believe that the night before Thomson died, he and Fraser had argued about a debt Fraser owed to Thomson. They also believe that Fraser could have been encouraged by Winnie Trainor's father, who may have been trying to persuade the painter not leave his daughter. Thomson was apparently planning to head out west to paint in the Rockies.

Student Ashlee Redmond explained that theory in the presentation. “It is thought that Tom and Fraser had a heated exchange, with Fraser pushing Tom into the hearth of the fireplace where Tom likely fell and hit his head on an andiron, which caused his death and accounted for the gash on his head.”

The students’ theory is based on a confession that Fraser's wife Annie reportedly made to her friend Daphne Crombie, that she and her husband Shannon had dragged Tom's body to the lake. In part of their research the students quote Crombie, who 60 years later, on January 4, 1977, stated in an interview with Algonquin historian Ronald Pittaway, that “she (Annie Fraser) never told me lies, ever.”

The students feel that this is the most likely explanation of what happened to one of Canada’s best-known painters.

The mystery, however, continues and the subject has been recently unearthed again with the recent news of a new Thomson painting that was bought for $50 at a flea market in B.C. The sketch-style painting, thought to have been painted in 1915 from his canoe in Algonquin Park, is estimated to be worth anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000. Further information uncovered by the students shows that a B.C. connection to Thomson's work is not so unusual. Their research at Queen’s University archives shows that the Frasers’ daughter Mildred married Arthur Victor Biggs in 1922, eventually moved to B.C. and had a son, Lorne, who is still alive and who reportedly lived in B.C. until just one year ago. So the plot thickens, as they say, and the theories continue.

In the meantime Tom Thomson's name and paintings (Photo right, West  Wind by Tom Thomson) will forever be enshrined in the Canadian imagination and now there is a possible connection to the village of Harrowsmith, the birthplace of J. Shannon Fraser. The “Searching for Tom” project will be on display at the Cloyne Pioneer Museum, which opens on Saturday, June 23.

Following the students’ presentation, NAEC teacher, painter, photographer, graphic designer and writer Katie Ohlke also made an equally compelling presentation about her forays into Algonquin Park last summer, where she followed in the footsteps of Tom Thomson and discovered many of the exact sites where certain of his works were painted.

In other C&DHS news, On May 19 at 9 a.m. the Pioneer Museum will be holding its annual garage sale at Barrie Hall.