Elizabeth Bloomfield and Gilbert A. Stelter
with Jane Turner, Joe Gabriel, Patricia Abbott and John Warecki
The purpose of this introduction to our bibliography of the area is, first,to explore some of the questions surrounding the study of this and other local areas. How do the general concepts of regionalism in Canada apply to the study of a particular area? Second, this introduction will attempt to be an informal guide to the research and publication which has already been done on the area. While this area has not been studied as extensively as that of Kingston or Niagara, for example, both the quantity and the quality of that which has been done constitutes a necessary basis for further work.
Unfortunately, there is a large gap between the public's experience and interest and what scholars know about the nature of local region. On the one hand, a popular concern for the local dimension reflects, as one historian puts it, "a more general, positive concern for the localities as centres of loyalties and identities, and a feeling that their histories were as important as what happened in distant places."5 But there is no generally accepted scholarly model which would help us explain what a local region is like and how it relates to the rest of a province, country, or the rest of the world.
This does not mean, however, that the theoretical literature is of little or no value in our search for an approach. It may be possible to integrate two well known concepts, that of metropolitanism, and that of central place theory, into something usable at the local level. The metropolitan thesis is an attempt to explain the relationship between groups of people in terms of economic and cultural power. At the centre of a hierarchy of communities is the metropolis, which not only dominates but also develops a series of reciprocal relationships with a hinterland of smaller cities, towns, and countryside. Central place theory tends to be more local in its application, helping us to understand the market functions, the size, and the spacing of settlements.6
What these two approaches have in common is an assumption that cities and towns are central elements of regions. The word "region" from the Latin regionem, carries the notion of being ruled, of being directed. In this case, the central, regionalizing principle, the source of the direction and organization of an area, is a "nucleated settlement," a town or city which effectively organizes the space around it. The definition of a region, therefore, would be an area - a geographical space - centered by a town or city.7 The region's core would then be definite, while the edges or boundaries remain vague where they merge into adjacent regions based on similar criteria. In the cases of most city-centered regions, a map of a core-periphery model would look something like an amoeba with a central nucleus.
When using definitions of this sort, it soon becomes obvious that the boundaries of Wellington County do not correspond to the shape of a region centered on Guelph (Figure 1). The city is not located near the centre of the county, but is actually close to the southern edge. So any functional definition of a city-centered region, based on the constant interaction between a central city and surrounding towns and countryside, would not correspond to the county boundaries, especially because Guelph appears to have little direct connection with the northern portion of the county in a metropolitan sense. A possible solution might be the establishment, in functional terms, of the boundaries of a Guelph-centered region. This task has been attempted,based on central place theory, with Guelph located near the bottom of an oblong-shaped region stretching north to Kenilworth, east to Erin, and southeast to Campbellville.8 But anyone familiar with this area will soon realize that this solution raises more problems than it solves. For one thing,it virtually ignores the presence of another, nearby urban complex, the twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo. In many respects, the territory delineated by scholars as being Guelph's region is also part of Kitchener-Waterloo's region.
This does not mean that the concept of a city-centered region is of no value for the purposes of understanding the nature of this local area. It simply means that we must raise our sights to the next level of region. It is not enough to define regions by what they are in functional terms. We also have to ask where the region is in relation to other regions in the vicinity and beyond. Even a cursory glance at a map of southwestern Ontario suggests the presence of three major city-centered regions which virtually surround the local area - Toronto to the east, Hamilton to the south, and London to the west. Is the local area merely what is left over in a space between these well-defined city-centered regions? The space itself seems to have some geographic homogeneity in that it essentially represents the watershed of the Upper Grand River. Is this Upper Grand River Valley area only the peripheral edge of several city-centered systems, or does it constitute a system, a city-centered region in its own right?
If we were to consider the Upper Grand River Valley as a region in the terms we have been discussing, we would have to allow for the possibility of variations from the normal single-city-centered regional model. At the local level, there would be three cities: Guelph, Cambridge, and Kitchener-Waterloo (these twin cities are counted as one place), each with its own small local system. But at the level of the space of the Upper Grand River Valley, it would appear that this region is centered by three urban nodes, perhaps collectively acting as a single entity. In other words, this particular universe may be revolving around not one sun, but three, to use an analogy from astronomy which seems particularly appropriate in visualizing the nature of urban systems.
The model presented here could be a fairly useful representation of how a system of cities, towns, and countryside now function as a city-centered region. Historically, however, this probably was not the case, for the geographical space of the valley was occupied in earlier eras by a society that was fragmented on the basis of ethnicity. This fragmentation did not come about accidentally or spontaneously, but was the product of several directed group migrations which resulted in the settlement of specific portions of the valley. The first of these migrations involved the Pennsylvania Germans who purchased and settled the "German Block" after 1800 and developed a highly German society centered on Berlin/Kitchener-Waterloo. The second was the result of William Dickson's entrepreneurial activity in purchasing Dumfries Township in 1816 and promoting Scottish settlement focused on the town of Galt (Cambridge). The third was the founding of Guelph in 1827 by John Galt to act as headquarters for the development of the Canada Company's landholding in the area. This project attracted a mixture of basically British settlers and was soon followed by a similar but smaller version by William Gilkison, who founded Elora as the centrepiece of his Nichol Township property in 1833. The following year, 1834, Adam Fergusson began the neighbouring settlement of Fergus as a consciously Scottish community. It is not yet clear just how segregated these various ethnic groups remained during the nineteenth century. Ethnicity must have coloured the perceptions residents of the Grand River Valley had of region, and probably tended to localize their notions of community.
We have suggested that the formal boundaries of Wellington County did not correspond either with a homogeneous geographical entity or with a functional, city-centered region. However, if one puts the map of Wellington County together with that of Waterloo County, it is almost as though one is putting together two halves of a jig-saw puzzle. In combination, the two formal boundaries cover much of the natural and functional area, suggesting a high correlation between several ways of defining the local region. The point to be emphasized here is that it is necessary to see Guelph and Wellington County as part of a larger, evolving, local region, a region referred to here as the Upper Grand River Valley.
A conceptual framework such as the one outlined above can contribute to our understanding of this and other local regions in several respects. First, a regional framework leads to a clearer picture of the relationship between regions and between town and country. At the provincial level it should make us conscious of the extent to which the local region has been a part of Toronto's metropolitan empire. The economic dimension of this metropolis- hinterland relationship is usually well understood, but there is a cultural aspect as well. Architectural design is one example. The major churches and public buildings of Guelph were designed by Toronto architects such as William Thomas, Henry Langley, and Joseph Connolly, symbolizing the way Toronto's aesthetic tastes permeated its hinterland.10 At the local level, a regional framework allows us to see the smaller places, the towns and villages, and the rural population as integral parts of the complex web of the region's society. And finally, a look at the regional system in different periods of time will make us realize how relationships within and beyond a region change over time. The power of the central metropolis is more obvious now than it was in the nineteenth century. And, internally, a system which once had three relatively equal central nodes is increasingly dominated by one.
This bibliography lists material of varying quality. Our annotations after each item should allow researchers to make at least a preliminary judgement as to whether a particular article or book will be of use to them. What follows is a rough guide to some of the various categories of material listed.
For Wellington County itself, the essential starting place is the reprinted Historical Atlas of 1906, with its detailed maps and town plans and historical sketches of each community in the county. This volume is also the most reliable source of biographical information about important families such as the Bells, the Goldies, or the Guthries. The compilers appear to have made a special effort to get accurate genealogical information from residents, and the assessments of the significance of an individual's activities are remarkably objective and sound.
An important overview of county history is provided by Stephen Thorning's recent article which traces the historical tradition from the journalists' accounts of the 1860s to the publications of the historical societies.13 Thorning shows how the basic form of local history was the topically organized account with separate chapters on economic development,various institutions, and families. The form, as he points out, tends to isolate various aspects of community life and inhibits any conception of a community's development over time.
For Fergus, the autobiographical account of A.D. Ferrier, The Early Days of Fergus (1866), and Hugh Templin, Fergus: The Story of a Little Town (1933), provide general outlines of the Scottish element of this community. A large compilation edited by Pat Mestern-Mattaini, Looking Back: The Story of Fergus Through the Years (1983), 2 vols, contains much important information on families, institutions such as churches and schools, and major commercial and industrial firms. The most detailed scholarly study of early Fergus is Elizabeth Morgan, "Visions of Improvement," a Ph.D. dissertation which contrasts Adam Fergusson's goals with the actual development of the town.15 An article by Otto Bouwman places the planning of Fergus into the Scottish town planning tradition.16
The writing of Elora's history begins with John Connon's The Early History of Elora and Vicinity (1930), a quixotic combination of family histories, reminiscences and unattributed primary sources. A collection of brief historical sketches, History of Elora (1992), has been compiled by Roberta Allen from Tweedsmuir histories. The role of William Gilkison in founding Elora has been examined,17 but an understanding of the evolution of the community from its origins to the present awaits the appearance of Stephen Thorning's forthcoming study.
Several local histories of other communities in the county warrant mention as compilations of useful information. These include Arthur Wright's Pioneer Days in Nichoi (1924), and Memories of Mount Forest (1928), and an outline of Mount Forest's early history by William Edwards, Mount Forest: The Way We Were (1979). Of the compilations for townships, competent examples are: Campbell Cork, Arthur Township From Then to Now, 1850-1985 (1986); and David M Beattie, Pillars and Patches Along The Pathway: A History Or Nichol Township (1985).
A second type of special edition was the trade edition, designed to publicize and promote the growth of the area. These editions collected economic statistics and biographies of firms and entrepreneurs. An early version was the Guelph Herald of May 22, 1878. During the 1890s both the Mercury (June 23,1894) and the Herald (December, 1895) produced editions of this kind. The most ambitious (and useful) example was the Mercury's special issue of 1908 entitled Guelph and Her Industries, which included about 200 surveys of the city's businesses.
Related to the trade issues which concentrated on urban places was the periodical, The Canada Farmer, which emphasized the rural dimension of life. For the years we indexed it, 1847 to 1876, The Canada Farmer carried more than 100 articles dealing with the local region. For part of this time, its editor was W.F. Clarke, a Presbyterian minister in Guelph. While The Canada Farmer regularly carried articles on everything from prices and farming methods to the design of farm buildings, we have cited only those articles concerned specifically with our region, notably the regular reports on regional and provincial agricultural fairs in which local farmers and breeders exhibited their crops and livestock.18
Because social history has been fashionable for the past decade, a good deal of graduate work has been done on the structure of society and on social institutions. The most detailed analysis of any regional community's society has been done by Debra Nash-Chambers, whose M.A. thesis dealt with Guelph during the mid-19th century, and whose Ph.D. dissertation dealt with Guelph during the early industrial era. With the assistance of sophisticated computer programming, she was able to link the data in the manuscript censuses to that on assessment rolls in an effort to reconstruct the changing character of households and neighbourhoods.20 Mary Rae Shantz has studied the Irish Catholics of early Guelph and concludes that their attempts to define themselves as a distinctive ethno-religious group were inhibited by the church's local clerical leadership.21 In an examination of Protestant sermons reprinted in the Guelph Mercury in the 19th century, Alex McEwen shows how sermons reflected the major social issues of the day.22 Joe Gabriel has described the several public county and private Roman Catholic relief institutions and demonstrates how religion was a divisive influence in the case of the poor.23 Barbara Sibley's study of the Guelph Mechanics' Institute outlines how the institute was used by society's established elements to encourage socially acceptable thoughts and behaviour.24
Biographies continue to be a rich area for historical research. Several students have recently reexamined the role of particular local entrepreneurs and have ended up questioning perceptions that these were uni-dimensional people. Joe Gabriel, in studying William Bell, found that Bell's development of new technologies allowed the Bell Organ Company of Guelph to compete successfully in the international scene.25 John Hyde's biography of Guelph publisher J.W. Lyon demonstrates how this entrepreneur's activities combined personal gain and the promotion of public good.26 According to John Warecki's work on Guelph industrialist Charles Raymond,-Raymond's activities in education, the church and charities dominated much of his life.27
A potentially rich area for research is the built environment which includes everything from planning and land development to architecture and construction. Good examples of recent work include Marilyn Armstrong's innovative study of how developers shaped the character of mid-19th century Guelph.28 There has been surprisingly little research on individual buildings: Robert Miller's examination of the use of stone as a building material in Guelph is a useful basis for further work.29 The best scholarly work on local rural buildings is Janine Grant's study of six farmhouses in Eramosa Township.30 A good example of how one Institution's planning and architecture can be related to larger community and social trends is Maria Kaars Sijpesteijn's thesis on the evolution of the campus of the Ontario Agricultural College.31
These two elements are evident in some of the best writing on the region. The examples below have been chosen from different eras in the region's history. The first novel to use the local region as a setting was Bogle Corbet, published by John Galt in 1831. This was a thinly veiled account of Galt's own ideas and activities in founding Guelph. The town of "Stockwell" is pictured as a planned, centrally directed community, designed to be a vanguard in the occupation of a fearful wilderness. The central crisis in the book is the tension between the town's founder and leader, Bogle Corbet, and the settlers who make up the population. Corbet represented the notion of strong leadership and group solidarity, symbolized by the image of "A Bundle of Sticks". On the other hand, the settlers tended toward an individualistic approach to authority and landowning -"every man for himself".33 The relationship between the author and the community is similar to that in Galt's other novels about towns in Scotland and the United States and reflects a sophisticate's pride in standing above and beyond the local.
This developing Canadian tradition is perhaps even more clearly illustra- ted by Mary Leslie who wrote The Cromaboo Mail Carrier in 1878. This savage satire uses the name Cromaboo for the Village of Erin. The opening lines leave no doubt as to the author's attitude toward the community: "Cromaboo is the most blackguard village in Canada, and is settled by the lowest class of Irish, Highland Scotch and Dutch. It consists of seven taverns, six churches, and about one hundred shabby frame houses built on little gravelly mounds. Fights are frequent, drunkenness flourishes, vice abounds...." The author suggests that outsiders were usually not immediately aware of the local disharmony, for Cromaboo seemed to be "such a pretty pastoral little village...each little white dwelling looked like a home, an abode of peace and conscience." (p. 48) But appearances were deceiving; the pleasant "village murmur" was in reality "a chorus of oaths, screams and drunken songs, rising higher and louder as the night advances." (p. 49) Erin's residents were incensed by Leslie's depiction of their activities and apparently tried to have the novel banned. While Leslie was born in the local region, much of her education took place in Europe and the novel reflects a cosmopolitan's perspective on a small, relatively primitive frontier village.
A more nostalgic atmosphere is established in a novel set in Elora, Day Before Yesterday (1925), by journalist Fred Jacob who was born in Elora before moving to Toronto. A central theme is the decline of upper class exclusiveness. The central character, the town's banker, was more willing than his wife to accept "an increasing tinge of commonness" in the town's social relationships. (p. 92) Jacob sadly recalls the spirit of the decade of his childhood, the 1880s, in Elora, when "the older towns of Ontario were self-contained social entities, loosely connected with the world outside their walls." By the 1920s, in contrast, society had "been ironed out, and standardized, and knit more closely together town to town." (p. 319)
Jacob's astute commentary on the changing nature of society could well serve as a theme for the study of this local region, and for others in Canada, for that matter. Perhaps, as Northrop Frye suggests, the "artist seems to draw strength from a very limited community...." The more a writer concentrates on a particular locality, "the more intelligible he becomes to readers all over the world."34 The point to be made here, in conclusion, is simply that a study of local history is not necessarily a parochial activity. Rather, a serious approach to "limited identities" can be the basis for a real insight into the meaning of community and region.