Duane Hicks
The Fort Frances Museum has received a boon from the Archives of Ontario in the form of a collection of pioneer photography by late Devlin resident William Tener.
And now local resident and historian Merv Ahrens is in process of using a selection of those images for a new book to coincide with “Canada 150.”
With help from museum volunteers Nell Laur and Maxine Hayes, and not a small amount of legwork, Ahrens has been working diligently to decide which photos to use, and to gather information about and investigate clues within, that depict life in the Rainy River Valley from 1898 to the 1920s.
Ahrens said the aim of his book is to portray pioneer life in the district–and he feels area residents will find Tener’s images compelling.
“It’s a window into the past, which is remarkable,” he remarked.
“You can build your image of what pioneer life was like based on many of the photos that Tener has captured.
“I, for example, had no concept of what a pioneer farm would look like when it was first starting. He documents it,” noted Ahrens.
“He has his homestead documented from about 1899 to the 1920s.”
Museum curator Sherry George said she finds Tener’s photos provide a revealing look at pioneer life in the district.
“The most important aspect, in my mind, is that normally it was the more wealthy families that could afford a photographer,” she noted.
“It means that our ideas of the past are based on their homes, their lives, clothes, etc.
“Tener photographed people in the community doing ordinary things: building a barn, harvesting a crop, relaxing on a Sunday,” George added.
“At times you can see they are in their best attire but in a tiny one-room home,” she remarked.
“We see simple furnishings, daily chores like bread-baking, children peeking out from behind long skirts.”
Through his research, Ahrens discovered a land agent named Burriss had a lot to do with Tener, along with his uncle and two male cousins, coming to the Rainy River Valley in 1898.
And in fact, he used some of Tener’s images to promote the area to recruit more settlers to come here.
“With Burriss’ efforts, Tener’s photographs take on a small but very important part as Burriss attempted to advertise this district at the turn of the last century to potential settlers,” Ahrens explained.
He noted Tener was shocked to find out he could not take the steamboat S.S. Keenora all of the way from Lake of the Woods to Emo because the water was too low, and had to board Indian canoes to make the final leg of the trip.
But even upon that moment of arrival, Tener had his camera on hand to record the faces of the first 20-30 incoming settlers Burriss had recruited.
In researching each image he’s selected, Ahrens also is trying to connect the past to the present.
For example, in the caption for the aforementioned photo of the S.S. Keenora, he noted it was first launched in 1897 and at that time was called “a floating palace.”
It later was sold at auction in 1917 and today sits in Selkirk, Man. as a centrepiece for the museum.
Due to the crispness of many of the images, and the fact the digital scans are “raw images” and able to be blown up on a computer screen, Ahrens said he’s able to pick out fascinating details.
For example, a photo of three men standing in front of general store is interesting enough. But by zooming in on the photo, Ahrens has been able to pick out details ranging from their clothes and what they’re carrying in their hands to a fish being hung up to dry to what kinds of seeds are on display for sale.
At some point in the future, the Tener collection will be put up online–likely on the museum’s page on the town’s website–where the benefit of being able to zoom in on details will be apparent.
“The detail in these photos is fabulous,” George agreed.
“One can zero in on something in the background and it comes up crystal clear.”
Having the photos online also will enable more people to see the photos, including descendants of individuals in the photos, who may be able to provide the museum and the Archives of Ontario with help identifying them.
While the original plan was to get the Tener book completed before Canada’s 150th birthday celebration this summer, the wait to get to the images from the Archives of Ontario makes that unlikely.
Ahrens said he may be able to provide a poster display of some images by July 1 to provide a sneak preview to the public, but the book itself won’t be ready until later in the year.
The book will be sold as a fundraiser for the Fort Frances Museum.
As far as funding to produce the book, the museum will help pay for a good part of it.
Ahrens also will be approaching some district municipalities to see if see if they’ll make a donation.
For example, he will be at the council meeting in La Vallee next month to ask for their support.
Quest for photos
The process of getting the Tener collection is a story in itself–and has connections to the Fort Frances Times.
Back in 1972, Willard Price gave the Times a collection of glass plates bearing Tener’s photos.
The Times reproduced the photos and then editor Carl Schubring did a series on Tener in the newspaper.
In 1989, then Times’ owner Bob Cumming sent the glass plates to the Archives of Ontario in Toronto, where they now are on file.
Then last year, Ahrens approached Times’ publisher Jim Cumming and together they made a request to the Archives of Ontario.
Cumming explained that when the Times donated the slides back in 1989, it was on the condition not only that they be preserved, but that a copy of the complete collection would be provided to the Fort Frances Museum for display purposes.
This was a verbal commitment, however, and as of last year, the Archives of Ontario staff were not aware of it.
“And so on behalf of the museum, I had to explain the commitment,” noted Cumming.
“With a copy of the letter the [archives] had given my father, they started researching back and found they had no recollection of how they ever arrived at having the collection,” he added.
“They were hesitant to get involved in doing anything.
“Finally, through moving through enough channels, and their discovery that nobody at the [archives] really knew anything about it, they agreed that because we had the letter and I was an immediate member of the family, that I had clear knowledge of what the decision was and they decided the museum here could get copies,” Cumming added.
“My responsibility was strictly to get them back to Fort Frances.”
Last month, the museum received a total of 384 digital images of Tener’s glass plates, though some of the images were not usable as the plates they were scanned from had deteriorated over time.
The photos Tener took date from 1898 to some point in the 1940s, although the later work is comprised of portraits as opposed to images of daily pioneer life.
Tener passed away at his home in Devlin on June 10, 1948 at the age of 88.
Cumming feels the Tener collection has significant historical value to Rainy River District.
“It’s interesting–when you look at them, they are a slice of time,” he remarked.
“Tener captured a whole lot of interesting things,” Cumming noted. “He captured the various boats on the river.
“He captured the building of roads–I presume it’s the River Road, where they had to put down all kinds of corduroy and the whole bit.
“He captured families, he captured barn-raisings. He captured indigenous families in their full regalia,” Cumming continued. “He captured scenes from Fort Frances and Emo and Devlin-La Vallee. . . .
“Literally anything and everything that happened, he captured.”
There’s even a picture of the fire pumper in Fort Frances that stayed on the docks while everybody argued who was going to pay for it as Front Street burned, Cumming said.
He noted the images are sharp considering the cameras used in Tener’s time.
Cumming added it’s impressive that there are photos of people in a buggy and a boat, as those vehicles would have to remain very still to be successfully photographed.
Hopefully, district residents who see the photos will recognize their ancestors in them and be able identify them because they were some of the earliest settlers in Rainy River District, Cumming noted.
“I suspect that some of the long-time families in the district have relatives in those photographs,” he reasoned.
