Dr. John Rae came to Hamilton in 1857, or 1856, depending on the authority you choose. We are told that he stayed until 1859, but perhaps he may have stayed until 1860. He was certainly in the city in late 1859, as I shall explain in a short while.

Eighteen fifty-seven was the year of the train disaster on the Desjardins Canal bridge. It was the year the construction of a water-works was decided on. By 1857 Hamilton had been a city for ten years. Its population was increasing rapidly, from under 7,000 in 1846 to over 21,000 ten years later. In 1846 the city boundaries had already reached Paradise Road in the west, Emerald St. In the east, with Aberdeen to the south and Bay front to the north. In the middle of the nineteenth century Hamilton was a thriving, exciting city. The Arcade Saloon offered "Oysters, Lobster and Sardines; Wines, Liquors and Cigars of the best quality; Ale and Porter bottled or draft". Dining was available from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. And the Arcade Saloon was not without competitors. The Red Mortar Drug Store at the corner of King and Hughson, offered a stock of combs and brushes "not surpassed by any house in Canada". And on hand from the first establishments of London and Paris a full and varied assortment (of what we are not told) "which the proprietor will warrant pure and without adulteration". On the corner of King and John was Miles B. Stennett, Surgeon Dentist. He too was not without competition. A large choice of hats was available at J. Hutchins Hat Emporium. And if nothing else satisfied there were those offering phrenological analyses.

To this city came Dr. John Rae, FRGS, famous arctic explorer. He had left employment with the Hudsons Bay Company. Why did he, a man given to extensive travelling, both before and after his stay in Hamilton, come to Hamilton, and why did he stay so long? What did he find to attract him? He was a total stranger to the area. In 1845 he had spent some time in Toronto.

In 1857 John Rae was 44 years old, and a bachelor. Two of his brothers were living in Hamilton. Or was it cousins? Again it depends on the authority you choose. Richard Rae was the government emigration agent and Thomas Rae a lumber merchant. Thomas had recently moved from 49 West Main to an attractive stone house on the north-west corner of Bay and Hunter. Here it was that John Rae stayed.

One of the interesting things about John Rae, instructive to all of us particularly today, was his extreme adaptability. It is the ability to adapt that makes for survival. Much of his success in the Arctic was, unlike the rather stiff-necked naval explorers, due to his ability to adapt to the ways of the native people of the area. In Hamilton he adapted to the life of a city. We presume he practised medicine but he also dealt in real estate, owning several lots on Nelson Street between Locke and Pearl. And he took part in the intellectual activities of the city.

Life in Hamilton was in marked contrast to that experienced by Rae in the Arctic. Hamilton in 1857, a thriving city socially, had an appealing setting, with the clear water of the Bay and the forested areas bordering what we know as Cootes Paradise, and abundant game in the surrounding countryside. Rae had enjoyed hunting since his boyhood in the Orkneys.. In contrast, we know he also enjoyed Scottish dancing.

The Bay and the marshes of Cootes Paradise formed important stopover places (as it still does today) for all manner of water fowl travelling along one of the major migration routes of North America. At that time there must have been huge flocks of migratory birds in the spring and the fall. Rae would once again have seen birds he was familiar with in the Arctic. We see Rae’s keen sense of scientific observation and wide interests in his letters that appeared, two or three decades after he left Hamilton, in the prestigious British scientific publication, Nature. In one he wrote, "at Toronto large flocks of pretty little plover called the black-heart pass along the islands flying northward on St. Georges’s day [April 23] and [are] seldom or never seen a day before or a day after." He feels sorry for the birds, as many are shot.

John Rae was already recognized as an accomplished scientist before he came to Hamilton. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and later he was to become a Fellow of the Royal Society, the oldest scientific society in the world. So it is of particular interest that the Hamilton Association for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art was founded while he was here. There can be little doubt that Rae must have played a leading part in its establishment. In the first year of its existence he was the First Vice-President and in the second year, 1858, he was the Association’s President. The Association was to become involved in many of the intellectual developments of the city. It published original papers by its members and had corresponding contact throughout the world. It is of course still in existence. Today it provides a series of free public lectures throughout the winter, supports Science Fairs, including the 1995 International Science and Engineering Fair to be held in Hamilton this May, and awards prizes, the Silver Quill Award, for its annual essay competition for high school students.

It seems reasonable to suppose that Rae was attracted to the general tenor of life in Hamilton, to what it had to offer intellectually and to the surrounding area rich in natural phenomena. But was there anything else? We are told he walked to Toronto, for dinner, and that it took him seven hours. We are also told that he was married in Toronto in 1860. It has been reported that he left Hamilton in 1859. We know he was in Hamilton in October of that year, for he gave a well-attended lecture on his Arctic explorations on October 28, possibly organized by the Hamilton Association, and he was in Toronto in 1860 for his wedding. Perhaps he didn’t leave Hamilton until that date.

Rae was married to a Catherine Thompson, daughter of a George Thompson, from, according to an article in The Hamilton Spectator dated February, 1933, “the good old County of Tyrone”, which was to become one of the counties now composing Northern Ireland. I don’t suppose Catherine Thompson arrived at Pearson International by jet a day before the wedding. There is no record of John Rae being in Ireland. So how did he come to meet his future wife? A number of Thompsons lived in Hamilton in the 1850s but no Georges or Catherines. Perhaps the Hamilton Thompsons had relatives in Toronto. As Rae was married in Toronto it would make sense to suppose that his wife’s home was in Toronto. It would not be unreasonable to suppose that the Thompsons of Toronto visited back and forth with relatives in Hamilton. There were also Orange Lodges in Hamilton. Orange Lodges of course are associated with Protestant Northern Ireland. Perhaps one day John Rae and Catherine Thompson met for the first time, in Hamilton. There is a curious statement in the 1933 Spectator article: accompanying the signature of John Rae, as owner, on the deed of the property in Nelson street, was that of "his lady who barred her dower". So were the over-riding reasons for John Rae’s long stay in Hamilton courtship and marriage? I ask you, what would have induced you to spend seven hours walking to Toronto, of all places, a dinner?

Stephen Threlkeld, Hamilton, Ontario, November 1993.