Johnny Buck is long gone.
So too is the Johnny Buck maple tree.
Who was Johnny Buck and what was the Johnny Buck Tree?
The Johnny Buck story starts with Alexander J. MacDonald of Cornwall making his way home from California where he had gone during the gold rush.
While portaging across the Isthmus of Panama, the narrow land bridge that connected the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea (this was long before the Panama Canal) a band of robbers made off with everything he owned.
Undaunted, MacDonald made his way to New York City in 1861 just in time for the Civil War.
Years earlier, when he was a teenager, MacDonald left Cornwall to enlist with the U.S. Army. He served at Oswego, N.Y. He quit the army to join the California gold rush.
Needing a job after being robbed, MacDonald re-enlisted with the army.
He rose to a captain and with the rank came a batman (aide), a negro slave called Johnny Buck.
When the war finished in 1865 and Johnny Buck became a free man, MacDonald came home with his faithful servant.
His sister, Pearl, joined him and worked in and around the town as a housekeeper for well-to-do families.
Buck worked on the MacDonald 200-acre farm between what is now Notre Dame Street and Brookdale Avenue, just north of Ninth Street. All that remains of the 200-acre farm is the farm house on, of course, Capt. MacDonald Road. The house – 1128-1130 – is a designated heritage property.
The other farm in the area was the large Hebert farm … thus Hebert Street.
At the same time Johnny Buck was working on the MacDonald farm, another former slave, John Baker, resided in Cornwall. Baker, who died in 1871 and is buried in Trinity Anglican Cemetery, is believed to have been the last surviving Upper Canada slave.
On can only wonder if the two knew each other.
What about the tree?
Every afternoon in the spring, summer and fall, with the morning chores done, Johnny would stretch out and take a snooze under the towering maple tree at the back of the farmhouse.
Somebody, perhaps Capt. MacDonald, christened it the Johnny Buck Tree.
The name stuck until it was taken down years ago..
All that remained was a large stump and the legend of Johnny Buck.
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Foundation excavation work on Cornwall Jail in 1938 dug up a dark side of the old gaol’s past.
While digging for the new kitchen foundation, workers, all prisoners, discovered a buried dungeon that had been filled in with broken stone and rubbish then cemented over.
Unearthed were three underground cells, six by 10 feet, with neither doors nor windows. Nobody alive at the time could recall their existence.
Officials believed the underground cells were part of the jail when it opened in 1833 and were used to punish prisoners who broke the rules. Each offending prisoner was lowered into the dark, damp cell through a trap door on the main floor. There was no record of how long a prisoner would remain in the coffin-like cell. It not only lacked any source of light but lacked proper ventilation.
Even at a time when the lash was common punishment – records showed that a man convicted of petty larceny received 39 strokes of the lash in a public whipping – banishment to the underground cells was cruel and unusual punishment.
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BACK IN 1934 – The era of silent movies in Cornwall came to an end with the announcement by Clarence G. Markell, secretary-treasurer of Palace Amusements, that the Palace Theatre on Pitt Street would become the company’s second theatre to show ‘talkies’. Equipment to convert to ‘talkies’ from silent movies had been installed at the Capitol a year earlier. … A hotel at Brennan’s Corners (Marlborough and Water streets) was under construction. Owner Adolphus Miron expected it to be ready in early 1935. The new hotel – The Grand- was attached to Miron‘s restaurant. … At age 36, Cornwall businessman William Parisien became Cornwall’s youngest mayor. He was acclaimed to succeed Aaron Horovitz who retired after five years in office. Horovitz would return and serve another 13 years as mayor before losing in December 1956. … The Standard-Freeholder moved to its modern new building at 44 Pitt St. from 109 Pitt St. where it was printed three times a week. The new building was heralded as one of the finest small city newspaper plants in Canada. … Alexandria lawyer Percy C. Bergeron, a native of Cornwall, was named junior magistrate for Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry. He grew up on Lennox Avenue. … City council voted to hand over full control of the Athletic Grounds to an athletic commission made up of local citizens. … Courtaulds was building a new main office building in front of the main plant on Montreal Road. … The oldest living person in the United Counties died in July. Catherine Lalonde was 101 years old. She died at the home of her nephew Rudolphe Lalonde on Burton Avenue. Her mother, Rose, had lived to 102. … A large barn and farm house on Carleton Street, just north of Montreal Road, was destroyed by fire. Firefighters managed to keep it from spreading to near-by houses.
TRIVIA ANSWER: Tommy Douglas implemented Saskatchewan’s medicare program, the first universal health care program in North America. This was an act for which he is always remembered and in 2004, he was voted “The Greatest Canadian” by CBC TV viewers. Actor Keifer Sutherland is Douglas’ grandson as Keifer’s father Donald was married to Tommy Douglas’ daughter Shirley.
TRIVIA: Phil Marchildon was a professional athlete who spent one season with a Cornwall team in the 1930s before a pro career. His professional career was put on hold when he served with the Royal Canadian Air Force as a tail gunner during the Second World War. In 1978 he was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. What sport did he play? 1) lacrosse, 2) hockey, 3) baseball, 4) soccer, 5) basketball.
QUOTED: “Some men are good because they find it cheaper than being wicked.” – Writer and publisher Bob Edwards.
