The 125th anniversary of FireRanger service to Ontario in 2010 provided an opportunity to look back into history to research and present this story on Aubrey White, a founder of forest fire fighting strategy in Ontario. Research and article by Ken C. Veitch, a Bracebridge, Ontario resident with a long standing interest in early pioneers of the District of Muskoka, including Aubrey White.
One of the earliest pioneer settlers in the Upper Canada community of North Falls, (later to become Bracebridge Ontario), in 1860 was a man by the name of Alexander Bailey. He decided to settle in “North Falls” because he possessed an entrepreneurial and adventuresome spirit and recognized the great economic opportunity available in the numerous water falls and huge stands of trees in Bracebridge and Muskoka. He developed a number of enterprises including a hotel, saw mill, grist mill and, of special note for the purpose of this article, a general store, no doubt one that provided only the very basic of necessities to meet the needs of the settlers of the day.
With his numerous operations he obviously needed staff and the person he chose to be assistant in his general store was a lad by the name of Aubrey White. He had no idea that he was starting the young man on an incredibly successful career in business and public service.
Aubrey White was born in Ireland on March 19, 1845 and at the young age of 17 immigrated to Canada. Like Bailey, he must have had a very determined and adventuresome spirit to take on the challenge of a new country where he knew he would be facing an uncertain future containing many difficult and unknown obstacles. He arrived in “North Falls” in 1862. Why he chose “North Falls” is not known; perhaps he sensed the great opportunities the north offered in its various attributes- dense forests, rivers, waterfalls and wildlife that was the inspiration for many of the pioneers who came to settle in Muskoka.
White was not destined to stay very long in the position of “assistant” in Bailey’s general store. His character and ability was obvious and he was spotted by A. P. Cockburn who was in the process of creating a fleet of large steamships for his new venture, the Muskoka Navigation Company, which for many years would provide transportation services for passengers, freight and pleasure cruises on Lakes Muskoka, Rosseau and Joseph. Aubrey White was one of Cockburn’s first employees in 1866 and rose quickly to the position of Captain, piloting the huge vessels on their voyages in the uncharted waters of these large Muskoka waterways. He would have been just 21 years old.
From there he joined the A. P. Dodge Company of New York, USA when they commenced operations in Muskoka harvesting the huge stands of white pine for distribution to world markets. It was in 1878 however, that he assumed a position that would lead him into a long, interesting and influential lifelong career. He succeeded George Lount as Crown Land Agent for Muskoka. It was a perfect fit for White. He knew the water and wilderness of Muskoka well, the people and the problems new settlers would face as they struggled to carve a homestead out of dense bush on their Free Grant Land Act properties. He received applications for land acquisition, directed each settler to the location of their property and approved final patents for deeds once the settlers proved they had fulfilled the conditions set out in the purchase agreement under the Act. During these years, long before the introduction of the federal income tax system, it was a municipal responsibility to levy a tax on their residents based on their income. In the 1879 assessment role he was shown to have the enormous salary of $200.00 per year.
Aside from his work, he was very socially active during his years in Bracebridge. He served as an officer for the Mechanics Institute (the predecessor of the public library system), Superintendent of Algonquin Park, Warden of St. Thomas Church, assisted in the production of the important promotional and historical book “Guide Book & Atlas of Muskoka and Parry Sound Districts 1879”, a member of the Agricultural Society and in 1879 became a member of the Masonic Lodge where, several years later, was elected to the lofty position of Grand Master for all of Ontario. Robert J Boyer in his book “A Good Town Grew Here” quotes W. E. Hamilton as noting that Aubrey White was “gifted with a phenomenal memory and could tell the names of all the sitting members of all the parliaments, great and small, of Canada, their antecedents and their constituencies, together with the dates of the various by-elections since Confederation.”
He married Emily Agnes Bridgland and after her death in 1880 married her sister Mary Bridgland, daughters of a prominent Bracebridge family. Aubrey Street in Bracebridge is named in his honour.
Aubrey White was Crown Land Agent for Muskoka until 1882. His success in that position must have impressed his superiors because he was asked to transfer to a more prominent assignment in Queens Park. It is unclear what his duties were immediately following the move but clearly they were of significant importance because within 5 years he was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands and Deputy Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines; a position he held until 1915.
White is distinguished by a number of achievements during his term as Deputy Minister in that Ministry. His succinct definition of the jurisdiction of authority over road allowances along navigable waters, in a letter dated October 15th 1896 to Monck Township in Muskoka, is a good example of his clear view on such matters when he said “..although the freehold of all roads is in Her Majesty, yet the jurisdiction is in the Municipal Council and it is conceived that the Municipality has the same powers as to preventing trespasses upon the particular road reservations…”. Another example of his authority and respect is shown when he dealt with the serious conflict between the Navigation Company and the logging industry regarding the use of the Muskoka River for moving logs cut far upstream down to the mills concentrated in other areas along the shore Muskoka Lake.
Since the beginning the Muskoka River had served as a transportation route, especially important in pioneer days for getting people upstream to work in the logging camps and for floating the resulting cut logs down to the mills. To say the river was taken for granted would be an understatement. As Muskoka developed and the Muskoka Navigation Company added more and more steamships to Muskoka Lake and the Muskoka River upstream to the growing village of Bracebridge, conflicts ensued. The logging companies were of the determined opinion that they had absolute domination over the use of the river. Not so, said Mr. Cockburn; he knew ‘the times they are a changin’ long before the popular song made that prophecy, no doubt because he saw how the logging companies were rapidly decimating the great Muskoka forests.
The river was increasingly used by his large boats and with logs clogging the route, colliding with and even smashing holes in the hulls of his expensive crafts, the river was in fact prevented from being a navigable water way. In 1913 the local Member of Provincial Parliament, former Mayor and Bracebridge resident Sam Armstrong, met with H. J. Foy Attorney General of Ontario to discuss the matter of logs blocking the river for navigation and Deputy Minister White was dispatched to resolve the problem.
Into this lengthy dispute waded Aubrey White. He knew the river, he knew the lakes, he knew the log run, he knew the people and he knew the boats; he had done it all. He met with representatives of the logging industry, the Bracebridge Council and Board of Trade and, in spite of industry representatives declaring it impossible, ruled that all logs in the river had to be tied together and towed downstream from Bracebridge to the mills safely. To accommodate those involved, the logging companies were given until the end of July that year to remove their logs in this manner and leave that part of the river clear thereafter.
Aubrey Whites greatest achievement though came from another direction. His experience in Bracebridge had taught him the importance of the massive stands of forest that blanketed Ontario and the numerous economic opportunities it provided. But they were of no value if a wildfire swept through them and left in its wake blackened stubs and a decimated landscape. Forest fires were an enemy in the rapidly developing Province. Aubrey White set about developing a fire fighting plan for Crown forests for all of Ontario where he recommended appointing fire rangers and building fire towers. In 1885 the Honourable T. B. Pardee approved his plan and 37 fire rangers were placed on duty. White’s advantage in setting up the system was that he was a skilled navigator, no doubt learned scaling the wilderness of Muskoka and driving big steamboats on Muskoka Lake, so he was at ease venturing into unsurveyed and unknown territory in association with this work.
Aubrey White was Deputy Minister until his death on July 14th 1915. He never severed his ties with Muskoka and it was at his cottage on Chief Island on Lake Muskoka, after enjoying a day of rowing, swimming, and fishing that he passed away. He is buried in the St. Thomas Cemetery in Bracebridge.
On the fiftieth anniversary of his death the Ontario Ministry erected a cairn in his honour at High Falls Park in Bracebridge. Over 100 people from the Provincial Government and across Muskoka attended the unveiling ceremony on July 14th 1965. Deputy Minister of Lands and Forests, Frank A. MacDougall, spoke at the ceremony, noting that since Confederation Ontario has had 17 Prime Ministers and 42 Ministers of Lands and Forests but only 6 Deputy Ministers; citing that Aubrey White served the longest in that office and was one of the most distinguished. He mentioned in particular his abilities as an aviator which enabled him to travel extensively over the Province to carry out his important work. White’s interest and participation in early aviation again confirms the dedicated spirit of adventure of this great leader.
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMQF5_FIRST_Fire_Rangers_in_Ontario_Aubrey_White
Research and article by Ken C. Veitch
http://www.bracebridgemuskokahistory.com
