A (Back)Story of a Drowning: John Mortimer, St. Vincent, & the Red River

John Thomas Mortimer – Portrait of a Radical

by Isabel Watson

When we were children, my Mother often talked about her childhood: her parents, her brothers, their home life. She had a fund of stories too about aunts and uncles, many of whom we had never met but whom we came to know through the many retellings. This is often the starting point for family history exploration. One detail frequently mentioned was that her father had farmed in Canada at one point in his life and one of his sons from his first marriage had died tragically by going through the ice on the Red River "near Winnipeg" (read: St. Vincent, Minnesota) and his body had not been recovered until the spring. We knew nothing more than that bare outline of a story. It was not until I began to research my Grandfather's life that I came to discover the full extent of the story of John Thomas Mortimer.

My Grandfather, James Mortimer, was born at the Home Farm, Kirkton of Tealing, in the rural hinterland of Dundee in 1841. He came from generations of farm workers, many of whom had had small-scale tenancies on the Glamis estate, especially at Upper Arniefoul. Although James's father Alexander had moved to nearby Tealing, then to Balbeuchley at Auchterhouse, James returned to Glamis to serve his apprenticeship as a blacksmith with Peter Anderson at the smiddy there. Perhaps looking for more lucrative employment after his time was served, he moved to Dundee to one of its many jute mills, Ladybank Mill, and in 1864 married Ann Russell, a steam loom weaver, in Lochee. They were to have six children before Ann's untimely death from cerebro-spinal meningitis in 1876.

John was the fourth of the children, born on 3 March 1871 at 3 Laing Street, Dundee, becoming the eldest son, as the first-born boy, Samuel, had died aged two in 1867. After Ann's death, James was married for a second time in 1880 to Helen Innes (nee Watson), widow of a blacksmith journeyman. Their marriage certificate provided a surprising piece of new information: James's occupation was given as 'Insurance Agent'. From blacksmith to insurance agent – how had this transformation occurred? My Mother had always favoured the Prudential Assurance Agency because of her father's connection to that company. So I felt it would be worthwhile to approach their Head Office in the hope that they might have some archive material about former employees. Their Archivist was able to provide me with a full account of my Grandfather's career with them – treasure trove indeed!

The  history of the company, A Sense of Security: 150 Years of Prudential, gives an idea of how field staff were recruited, being 'only capable men of thorough respectability, and of favourable appearance and address'. In his latter years, my Grandfather continued to demonstrate a lively mind and interest in a wide variety of subjects. It is likely that he had pursued evening class studies as a young man and was eager for self-improvement, thus fulfilling the requirement of being seen as capable.

In the Census of 1881, the family was living at 13 North Wellington Street, Dundee, with father working as an Insurance Agent and Helen established as wife and mother to the five children, all still at home, Maggie (13), Annie (11), John (10), Alexander (8) and William (6), all scholars. Between his initial appointment to the Prudential in 1876 and 1884, James held contracts of employment in Dundee and Forfar, then in February 1884 he was appointed to a position in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, where he was to remain for most of the rest of his life.

By the 1891 Census, James and Helen were living at 13 High Street in Airdrie and had only two of the family still living at home, Alexander aged 18, a schoolmaster, and William aged 16, a letter carrier. The daughters had moved out, perhaps into employment, and John was in lodgings in Glasgow at 113 McAslin Street (St. Rollox) and working as a tailor. His fellow-lodger in the home of John and Mary Mitchell was Peter McPherson, who would become his brother-in-law by marrying his sister Maggie.

A moment of serendipity

I need to digress at this point to explain how it was I came to learn of the Canadian part of the story. What follows is a moment of serendipity. I had joined the Tay Valley Family History Society and being distant from the Research Centre in Dundee, was delighted when an e-mailing group, Tay Valley Bridges, was set up to bring into contact the many members worldwide who were not able to visit Dundee regularly. On one memorable occasion, an online conversation was taking place which involved Winnipeg. On a whim, I posted a request to see if anyone could tell me how to go about tracing the death of a young man named Mortimer by drowning in the Red River, on some unknown date. Back came the reply from fellow-member Susan Bethune, who happened to have in her possession a copy of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, with an entry about John Thomas Mortimer, tailor and Trade Union activist. And so his story unfolded.

It is by no means clear when John first went to Canada. He was registered as an American citizen in St. Vincent, Kittson County, Minnesota, on 11 June 1906, having 'landed at the port of St. Vincent on or about the month of November in the year eighteen hundred and ninety'. This information seems at least debatable.¹ His entry in the 1891 Census in Glasgow is quite clear and credible. There would not be any obvious reason why, having made the journey to the USA or Canada, he should immediately return to employment in Glasgow. His connection with St. Vincent came about through his wife, Lena Cameron, of whom more later. The first mention of him living in Winnipeg is in 1895, when we find him listed as a tailor in the Henderson's Directory and resident at 326 McDermot Avenue, Winnipeg. along with Wm. Mortimer, described as an engineer. The brothers remained at that address for each year until 1898.

The year 1895 certainly does seem significant. My Grandfather James and  his wife Helen also travelled to Canada in that year. James resigned from his employment with the Prudential in April 1895 and was awarded a gratuity of £30. He and Helen sailed from Glasgow on 25 April, occupying a second-class cabin on the SS Samaritan, and arrived in Montreal on 8 May. They would then have made their way overland to Winnipeg. Little is known of their time there. James had a farm near Brandon, north-west of Winnipeg, which he eventually sold to a James Fraser in 1897 before returning to Scotland. It was always related within the family that Helen was unwell and yearned to go back home to Scotland. Indeed she died in Airdrie in 1898 and is buried in the New Monkland Cemetery. Grandfather James subsequently married for a third time, to Isabella Ann Power, my Grandmother, and had a new young family of which my Mother was the only daughter.

John's involvement with the Trade Union movement in Winnipeg is well documented. John Hample, in his entry about John Thomas Mortimer in the Dictionary Of Canadian Biography, states: After September 1896 he began a rise to prominence in Winnipeg's working-class movement by helping to rebuild Local 70 of the Journeymen Tailors' Union of America (JTUA), affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

Local 70 had originally been formed in 1892 to give the tailors of Winnipeg protection from the sweatshop practices of the men's custom-made tailoring workshops. After a fruitless strike over an attempt by the merchant tailors to cut wages, Local 70 had been adrift. In 1897, JTM was elected its President and promptly set about galvanising the union, urging the City Council to impose conditions in their contracts for the manufacture of clothing and intervening on behalf of factory seamstresses during a strike which led to the establishment of one of the first unions of women workers in Canada.

By 1899-1900, he was President of the Trades and Labor Council of Winnipeg, representing that organisation at meetings of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada. During this period at the turn of the 20th century, he developed a close association with Arthur W. Puttee, acting as his election agent in a Winnipeg by-election which made Puttee Canada's first independent Labour MP in 1900. Puttee acted as John's best man at his marriage to Lena Cameron on 2 September 1901, immediately after the Labor Day Parade through Winnipeg.

Lena was the daughter of Edmund Cameron and Allis Clow, who had settled in St. Vincent, Minnesota, just south of the Canadian border on the east side of the Red River, having moved out west from Prince Edward Island, and like John she was a labour activist. John had begun to make a name for himself as an uncompromising militant, considered 'impossibilist' by some in his demands for workers' rights and justice, but was highly regarded within trade union circles. He had reputedly been saving money to enable a visit home to Scotland, but a major national strike of the JTUA saw him invest his money into the strike funds, only to be fired from his job, reviled in the press and ultimately blackballed from employment in the tailoring trade in Winnipeg.

So John and Lena headed westward and took up residence in Vancouver, where they lived from 1902 till 1906. Two daughters were born there, Dorothy in 1902 and Kathleen in 1903.

In Vancouver, JTM continued his political activity, standing unsuccessfully in the General Election of 1903 as a Socialist candidate, both he and Lena having joined the Socialist Party of Canada. He was outspoken, frequently clashing with those of more moderate views, including the British Labour leader, Keir Hardie. It seems that he took great delight in his reputation as a firebrand and he is quoted as having stated in 1908: 'Time was when in the labor press I saw an individual with a contrary opinion to mine, I could not rest until either I knocked him out, or – which more often happened – he put me to sleep!' Newspaper coverage and minutes of trade union meetings afford us plenty of evidence of the eloquence and cogency of argument which characterised John (sometimes known as Jack) Mortimer's oratorical skills. He was a fearless champion of the cause of working people.

In 1906, JTM returned to work in Winnipeg where he resumed his participation in trade union activities and he and his family were living near Lena's relatives in St.Vincent. A third daughter, Annie Esther, was born in 1906. Her death in 1908 would sadly lead to her father's death too. On 26 November 1908, John was due to attend a meeting in Winnipeg and to pick up a photograph of their little daughter Annie, who had died in September, and so he headed out to catch a northbound train at Pembina, a walk which involved crossing the Red River over the ice. He was due to return home on Saturday and it was only when he failed to appear that Lena was concerned and subsequently got in touch with friends in Winnipeg, only to learn that he had never arrived. A search was therefore carried out and the tragic truth emerged, with a body being detected beneath the ice which had given way beneath it.

The news was announced to the Winnipeg Trades Council by none other than Arthur W. Puttee and covered widely in the press, notably the Winnipeg Voice, the newspaper of the labour movement. Tributes poured in for this young man of courageous principles in all the local newspapers, and the Western Clarion, which was headed with the banner 'Workers of the World Unite', published the following tribute:

We have seldom been accorded a more painful task than that of recording the death of Comrade John T. Mortimer, who was drowned in the Red River near Pembina, Minn. (sic), on Thursday Nov. 26th.

Comrade Mortimer was widely known throughout Canada as an able and courageous champion of the cause that makes for the overthrow of Capital and the emancipation of Labor from the yoke of bondage.

Earnest and thorough as a student of economics and history, with a well-developed faculty for keen analysis and clear presentation, and an utter contempt for the shams, hypocrisies, prejudices and conventionalities of present class-ruled society, Comrade Mortimer was one of the most effective men, either upon the platform or with the pen, that the Socialist movement has yet produced.

On behalf of the stricken wife and children of our dead comrade the heart of every Socialist will throb with sincerest sympathy in this hour of their affliction.

The esteem in which JTM was held was apparent when the Trades and Labor Council established the Mortimer Memorial Fund when his body was eventually recovered in April 1909 after the ice had melted. He lies buried in the Cemetery at St. Vincent, alongside his little daughter Annie. Lena and the two older girls eventually left this scene of sad remembrance and returned to Vancouver.

In 2002, my husband and I were fortunate enough to take a trip across Canada by train from Toronto to Vancouver, and especially delighted to have a stopover in Winnipeg, where, ably and generously assisted by fellow TVFHS member Susan and her husband, I was able to gather much documentary evidence of the career of my uncle whom I had never known, and indeed visit the site of his death and his grave just south of the US-Canada border at St. Vincent. As I stood beside the grave, how I wished that my Mother had still been alive so that I could share with her the story of her courageous half-brother John. She had been born in Airdrie in 1904 and fate decreed that she never met this much older half-brother. I would be born in 1941, some hundred years after my Grandfather's birth in 1841. What a long way to have travelled in that hundred years! And what a remarkable career John Thomas Mortimer had had in Canada, over a century ago.

The gravestone

On the joint headstone of his and his daughter's grave are inscribed the words:

They are dead but we are glad they once lived,

for their memory abideth with us

like a sweet fragrance forever.

¹ - U.S. Naturalization records confirm both a Declaration of Intention and a Naturalization exists...