by Elizabeth French-Gibson | Dec 15, 2014 | Huron Historic Gaol, Investigating Huron County History, Uncategorized
By Emily Beliveau, Digital Project Assistant
7 December 1869.
Earlier this month, we marked the anniversary of the last public hanging at the Huron Gaol. One hundred and forty-five years ago, Nicholas Melady was executed for the murder of his father and stepmother. The hanging took place outside the walls of the Huron Gaol in front of a few hundred spectators. We believe this was the last public hanging in Canada. It’s often difficult to make these kinds of historical determinations with total certainty, but we make this claim because we don’t know of any other hangings that occurred between then and 1 January 1870, when the law changed to prohibit public executions.
Public vs. private hangings
Until the law changed in 1870, executions in Canada were public events that were held outside of jail walls and attracted spectators. (For most of Canada’s history, the only legal method of execution was hanging, and the only crimes punishable by death were rape, murder, and treason.) When public hangings were abolished, private hangings continued. Private hangings occurred within the wall of the prison, which curtailed the crowd of potential spectators, but didn’t necessarily eliminate viewing possibilities. Enterprising citizens could perhaps catch a view from a nearby rooftop or other structure.
In 1976, capitol punishment was abolished in Canada by Bill C-84. The last executions to be carried out were in 1962 at the Don Jail in Toronto (a double hanging).
Confirming the claim
At the beginning of this post, I said we believe the execution of Nicholas Melady at the Huron Gaol was the last public hanging in Canada. Why can’t we say for sure? As I mentioned, it can be very difficult to verify claims about lasts, firsts, and other seemingly definitive events in the historical record, for a number of reasons.
We have a strong case to make, but with caveats. Canada in 1869, for instance, only included the present-day provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Public hangings may have occurred in areas that are now part of Canada, but were out of the jurisdiction of the 1870 law at the time. These are the kinds of things that complicate the certainty of such claims.
Further reading
In 2007, Carling Marshall-Luymes, an intern at the Huron Historic Gaol, wrote a series of blog posts about researching the last public hanging. Her work contributed to the exhibit that is on display in one of the first-floor cell blocks of the Gaol.
Read her posts here:
Blogging Behind the Bars
Canada’s last public hanging
Legislating an end to public hanging…a clarification
Why did Canada abolish public hanging?
Capitol punishment: Opinion in Huron County in 1869
Semi-public? Hoag Hanging, Walkerton, 1868
by Elizabeth French-Gibson | Nov 10, 2014 | Archives, Artefacts
By Emily Beliveau, Digital Project Assistant
115 years ago:
Canada sends troops to South Africa to fight with Britain in the Boer War (1899-1900). It is the first official dispatch of Canada troops overseas.
Handkerchief with blue border from the South African War 1899-1900. EMPIRE WELDERG is written across top. Col. Baden Powel and Lord Methuen pictured in the top left corner; Gen. Gatacre and Gen. Hildyard pictured in bottom right corner; South African map in centre. The initials “RM” are embroidered in the lower left corner. Object ID: M951.0339.001.
100 years ago:
World War I starts. The 161st (Huron) Battalion, a unit of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was formed in 1916. We will be featuring much more WWI history related to Huron County over the coming years, following the 100-year anniversaries of various events.
World War I artifact belonging to Gordon Cameron of Brussels who was born on July 3, 1897, and who died during World War I on August 27, 1918 in France.
This Victory Medal was awarded to British and Imperial Forces for Campaign Service during World War I. Never awarded singly, this Victory Medal was given to those who received the 1914 Star or the 1914-1915 Star, and to most of those who received the British War Medal. Over 6 million were awarded. Object ID: 2005.0027.409
95 years ago:
Remembrance Day and Armistice Day are observed for the first time, marking the first anniversary of the end hostilities on the Western Front of World War I.
Canada at War by J. Castell Hopkins. Object ID: M951.0049.001. Image from a full-text scan available at the Internet Archive.
75 years ago:
World War II starts. Over the past year, we’ve featured many images taken by J. Gordon Henderson at WWII air training sites in Huron County. A less-publicized component of the Henderson Digitization Project are the oral history excerpts that are also available online. Hear about wartime life in Huron County directly from those who were there.
Jeff Mellon on flight instructor liquor runs:
Donald Bruce on surviving a crash landing:
Transcripts and additional recordings available here.
by Elizabeth French-Gibson | Oct 31, 2014 | Artefacts, Image highlights, Special Events, Uncategorized
By Emily Beliveau, Digital Project Assistant
This year, our museum pumpkin is inspired by the History Hall funeral parlour display — it’s a jack-o’-lantern hearse, complete with casket and occupant. The styling was based on a horse-drawn hearse on display at the museum, a late-1800s model that was used in Dungannon, as shown in the photo below.
Horse-drawn hearse with Robert Bowers, driver, (left) and William Sproul, undertaker, (right) in Dungannon, Ont. in the late 1880s. Photograph by J. W. Trussler, Object ID 1950.1459.039. You can see this hearse in person in the History Hall gallery at the Huron County Museum.
by Elizabeth French-Gibson | Oct 31, 2014 | Archives, Collection highlights
By Emily Beliveau, Digital Project Assistant
Happy Halloween! Behold this postcard image from our collection featuring pumpkin-headed melon people cutting a cake to mark the day. Every year, I marvel at this image and wish that vegetable people were still a common Halloween motif. The postcard itself was sent on October 31, 1908 from Helen to Mrs. G. H. Green in Goderich, and is part of a series of Hallowe’en postcards by British publisher Raphael Tuck & Sons. These kinds of postcard images were very common during the postcard boom of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and if you’re looking for more, check out some additional examples from the Toronto Public Library’s Halloween postcard collection.
by Elizabeth French-Gibson | Sep 29, 2014 | Archives, Exhibits
By Emily Beliveau, Digital Project Assistant
Twenty-five years ago, on 30 September 1989, the newly redeveloped Huron County Museum officially opened to the public. Just a few years earlier, the fate of the Museum was in question after part of the main building was closed due to structural problems. Seven years later, the Huron County Museum was reborn for a new era with the completion of a $4 million dollar renovation delivered on time and on budget.
Museum exterior before the 1988-1989 renovation
Originally housed in the 1856 Central Schoolhouse building, the museum first opened to the public in 1951. From there its footprint gradually grew as other buildings were constructed to house additional exhibits, most notably the 1913 CPR shunting locomotive purchased in 1958.
In the photo below, you can see the locomotive in its permanent home covered by orange tarpaulins while the new museum building goes up around it. The train is now the central feature of the History Hall gallery, a streetscape of town life from around Huron County in the early 1900s. The redevelopment gave the museum the ability to showcase old and new by building a modern facility around the schoolhouse–itself a historic artefact.
Aerial view of museum construction during redevelopment
From the museum’s Archives, here is a rare glimpse of the empty upper hallway in the schoolhouse while it was being restored as well as a view of the exhibits before redevelopment. The redeveloped museum purposely retained some of the character of our original curator’s displays while also using modern display techniques to tell the story of Huron County.
Empty second floor hallway during restoration of the schoolhouse, circa 1989, Huron County Museum
Displays in the second floor schoolhouse hallway before restoration, c. 1986
If you visit the museum today, you will find a mix of old favorites and new things to discover. You can still turn the handles on Mr. Neill’s wooden models, see the two-headed calves and ring the train bell, but you can also learn something new from a temporary exhibit or do something new at a special event. Twenty-five years later, our new building might not be so new anymore, but it serves us well as we continue to share the evolving history of Huron County in new and old ways.
