That young Orillia boy ‘never, ever forgot that kindness, the heart, the humanitarianism of the famous man,’ columnist says of Leacock’s gracious gesture
Stephen Leacock is well known as the genial university professor and humorist who lived in Orillia each summer between teaching semesters at McGill University.
He was a familiar sight around town. But few people knew of or remember his act of kindness during the summer of 1912.
Leacock was a great fisherman, and one of his favourite fishing companions was the photographer, BF Stewart, another well known Orillian. Besides operating his professional photography studio, BF, as he was known, also owned an x-ray machine (originally bought for “artistic photography”) and took all the emergency x-rays for the 15 doctors in town.
BF, his wife Florence and their two boys, 13 year-old Emand and 10-year old Clifford, all lived in a small apartment next to the second-floor photo studio on Mississaga Street, just east of Peter Street.
BF was a great outdoorsman and often took Florence on extended canoe trips and fishing trips. His fishing expertise and interest proved the germ of his great friendship with Leacock, as they regularly rowed out to the fishing holes from Leacock’s Brewery Bay cottage.
Stephen Leacock, above, welcomed a young boy with diphtheria to camp out on his property during the summer of 1912. Supplied Photo
One day, 10-year old Clifford had to be practically carried home by his older brother after an excursion up the railway tracks to see some Mallard duck hatchlings. He was ill and so tired he could hardly walk. The doctor was summoned and diagnosed Diphtheria, a deadly and highly contagious disease.
Immediately, the Stewart apartment was quarantined, and Florence was ordered to find an isolated location for Cliff away from other people and the photo studio.
No one would rent them a house so the town secured a field on the outskirts of town where they could live in a tent until Cliff recovered. This was the accepted course of action; several other children were already isolating in tents that summer. Florence was a hardy adventurer with plenty of camping experience, so took this order in stride.
But the farm families next door cringed at the thought of Diphtheria sufferers so close, and immediately let all their horses and cows out into that field making camping untenable.
That’s when Stephen Leacock came to the rescue.
“Frank, bring that boy over to my property on Lake Couchiching. There’s room on the point and I’ll look over every day.”
So, that afternoon Florence packed up the tent and her supplies and BF took them to set up a new camp by the lake with its cooling breezes.
Leacock’s cottage was not the grand home that is there today, but just a small cottage then. He had only been there for three summers, and the property was far from developed into the estate we see today. The point was just a bush, but there was a clearing big enough for a tent and picnic table.
It was mid-July, and Flo and Cliff lived there for six weeks as Cliff fought off the disease. Diphtheria causes an acute swelling of the neck and membranous build-ups in the throat that can lead to life-threatening breathing problems.
At that time in Orillia, Diphtheria had only a 50 per cent survival rate – it was a dire diagnosis. Imagine the stress poor Florence was under, isolated in the bush in a tent watching her boy struggle to breathe.
Every day Stephen Leacock, in his white flannel pants covered in burrs, would holler in from the bush, “How’s the boy? Is there anything you need?”
BF hired a nurse, too, who lived with the pair for the summer to give Florence moral support, if nothing else. In Stewart family lore they remember Cliff had the best arrangement of any Diphtheria patient in Orillia that summer.
They stuck it out for the six weeks, cooking on a fire, huddling in the tent during thunderstorms, sweating out the hot nights. And Cliff got better.
In his account of the episode, Cliff later related he “never, ever forgot that kindness, the heart, the humanitarianism of the famous man.” People, in those days, were desperately afraid of contagious diseases. Leacock’s offer was more than magnanimous, it was brave too.
A vaccine for Diphtheria had been discovered in 1906, just the second vaccine ever found, after Smallpox. Emand, Cliff’s older brother, became one of the first people in Orillia to get that vaccine after this outbreak.
Cliff grew up and after starting a career in radio, took over for his father as the operator of the x-ray machine, that had been moved to the hospital (but still owned and operated by the Stewarts). Both he and Emand had assisted their father in taking x-rays their whole lives, so it was easy for him to pass the training course (Emand by then was a successful dental surgeon). Cliff later got back into radio and during the Second World War had his own show on the CBC.
But all that may never have happened were it not for Stephen Leacock’s gracious act of charity.
David Town is a local chiropractor with a passion for local history. He has written 30 books about Orillia over the past 18 years. They are available at Manticore Books and at the Orillia Museum of Art & History gift shop.