Person:Howard Jackman (1)

Howard wasn’t a teacher, politician, minister or founder of a major business. This short story is about a “regular guy.” Although born in Farnham, Quebec, Howard grew up in Sutton, Quebec where his father was employed as a railway conductor. When asked once if he spoke French as a youth, his reply was “only enough to hassle the French-Canadian kids.”

Some Youthful Antics

Modern Sutton’s mountain is a venue for winter sports however in the early 1900s there was only a bobsled run which was off limits to kids. That didn’t stop Howard and some friends from trying it one day. He claimed they lost control and hit a house porch knocking down one of the porch roof supports. He owned a horse and one day decided he and the horse could dive into a quarry pit full of water as the cowboys used to do in the old movies or comics. The stunt went as planned except he hadn’t thought about how his horse would climb up the banks of the pit. He quickly found some men to rescue his horse. Of more significance was the time he and a buddy “stole” a steam engine. The boys were familiar with engines, switches and timetables because they lived in a railway town and had fathers who worked on the railway. On a regular basis the yard crew would bring an engine into town and leave it unattended while they went for coffee at a location from which they couldn’t see the engine. The boys took the engine out to the main line, then to a siding and fled. Howard claimed the incident was hushed up to prevent the head office in Montreal finding out how careless the section crew had been.

From Horse to Motorcycle

His first job was at a large farm tending the horses. This was probably the year 1920 and there is only a poor quality photo of him with a horse to corroborate the story. By 1921, at age 17, he was living in Toronto on Alcorn Avenue with his mother and sister Irene and recorded in the census as working as a shoe cutter although the 1921 Toronto Directory listed him as a messenger at the Hamm & Riley Silk Co. Hamm & Riley Silk Co. also employed him as a warehouseman in 1924 and 1925 but that ended in early 1925 when Hamm & Riley filed for bankruptcy. He didn’t appear in the Directory again until 1928 as a sales clerk at the Eatons department store and in 1929 as a salesman with Kennedy and Menton.

At some point in the 1920s he became very interested in and apparently gained employment as a Highway Traffic Officer based on a photo of him on a Henderson bike with 1926 plates at what appears to be the property of the Six Pines Inn in Wardsville, Ontario. That job didn’t last and he went back to Toronto and in March 1927 the Globe and Mail reported that he had been elected vice president of the Toronto Motorcycle Club and Harry Lemon elected as president. It was during this period that he participated in many Motorcycle Club events and often won a trophy. Also in March, 1930 the Toronto Star reported that Howard was treated at the Toronto General Hospital for a hand fractured in a traffic accident. In July of 1930, while visiting his sister Bernice at Calef Rd, Manchester, New Hampshire he was photographed on a motorcycle with a Kennedy and Menton plate mounted on the front fender. It was probable that on his return to Canada he joined the OPP in time to be part of the Maidstone photo group.

Ontario Provincial Police

There is a photo of a large group of officers, including Howard, with their motorcycles at the Maidstone weigh scales, near Windsor, Ontario. The OPP cites 1929 as the date of the photo but this is likely wrong for two reasons: first, in 1929 Howard was in Toronto working for Kennedy and Menton and second, all the officers had OPP uniforms which weren't required until 1930 when Traffic Officers were incorporated into the OPP. It appears then that Howard left Toronto and signed on with the OPP at about the time that Highway Traffic Officers became uniformed OPP. His first residence in south-western Ontario may have been at Thamesville which was where the Toronto firm of Kennedy and Menton sent him a letter suggesting possible employment. By 1932 he was lodged at the Six Pines Inn which was operated by Frank and Edith Henderson and it was there that he met his future wife Nora Henderson, one of the two daughters of Frank and Edith. In May, 1932 Nora graduated as a nurse from Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario. In September, 1933 Howard by order OPP # 10 was transferred to London and replaced by John Leo “Jack” Whitty. For more details of his time with motorcycles and the Police, see Howard and Harley and the OPP.

Marriage

For sure Howard had girl friends in Toronto and the Wardsville area and even dated Nora Henderson's older sister Lorine, so the story goes. In May, 1934 Howard and Nora were married in a ceremony at the Henderson home in Wardsville performed by Rev. George W. Moore and among the guests were OPP Jack Whitty and his future bride Rhea McRae. It is believed Howard and Nora honeymooned by travelling to New Hampshire to visit his sister Bernice. In 1935 to 1937 Howard and Nora lived in London at 1049 Patricia and for one summer cared for Ron Byron, the son of his sister Irene. In January 1937 another transfer was ordered for officer #431 and the couple moved to Richmond Hill, Ontario and rented a house on Roseview Avenue, now numbered 63 and around 1940 moved into a new house at 101 Roseview burdened by a mortgage payment of 16 dollars a month.

Richmond Hill

A Major Change

Community Service

He continued in community service, chairing the Committee of Adjustment for some years and even chaired a group which surveyed the community on behalf of the local religions. His major interest was the Lions Club and he was an active member when the Lions Community Centre was built at the south west corner of Centre St. E and Pugsley Ave. He had the honour of being Club President when the Richmond Hill Teen Town was formed, a very successful teenage organization which operated with the guidance of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Butlin. The teens held conventional or theme dances at the Lions Centre generally with recorded music and one of the teens acting as disc jockey. Mrs. Butlin had training in square dancing and almost every teen who came to Teen Town knew how to square dance, so much so that the teens could put on demonstrations at public and commercial events.

Retirement

The Haliburton cottage was repurchased sometime early in the 1960s. Howard could often be seen with a wheelbarrow moving sandy soil from a high spot here and filling a low spot there. On calm summer mornings he liked to slowly tour the lake in his boat, stopping and talking to anybody who was down by the shore. On other mornings he would sit with his coffee and cigarette, either reading a western pocket book or just contemplating the view across the bay. If the dirt moving needed a break on a hot day he would sometimes slowly swim across the bay with his head well above the water to avoid distinguishing the cigarette in his mouth. In his later years he knew smoking wasn’t good and he almost beat the habit by sucking peppermint candies but eventually he succumbed and ended up both smoking and eating candy. It was at his cottage on Thanksgiving 1975 that the aneurysm struck and by the time he went to the local clinic and an ambulance rushed him south to the Peterborough hospital it was too late.

Eastern Townships, Age 3

In a canoe, Age 42

Richmond Hill, Age 58

Christmas 1971, age 67

1. ↑ Canada. 1911 Census of Canada. (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada).
2. ↑ Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 1921 Census of Canada. (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada).

   Ward 3, North Toronto.

3. ↑ Howard F. Jackman, in Find A Grave.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Cowansville Methodist United Church CE611,S37, in Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Registres de l'état civil du Québec des origines à 1915
   Page 3B, 1905.
   
5. ↑ Baptised at Cowansville Methodist, now called Emmanuel United.
   1905 Drouin collection for Cowansville Methodist, folio 4, 1905: Howard Fay Byron, son of Edric Fay Jackman of the town of Farnham, County of Missisquoi, Province of Quebec, CPR conductor and his wife Thora E. Rollins, was born on the 23rd day of May in the year of our Lord 1904, and was baptized by me on the 7th day of April in the year of our Lord 1905 in the presence of the subscribing witnesses - J.M. Larmour. Witnesses [signed] Mrs. E.F. Jackman [mother]& Mrs. M.N. Rollins [grandmother].
6. ↑ On October 15, 1975 his death was reported in The Toronto Star, page B6 and The Globe & Mail, page 17 as occurring on October 13th.