TOM THOMSON by Ralph Bice Guest Columnist Part 2

Ralph penned this article when he was 77 years of age.

Roy Dixon was the undertaker who prepared Thomson’s body for burial. He stated that there was not a mark of physical violence on the body. He was assisted by Mark Robinson the Ranger then stationed at Joe Lake. Dixon also said that Robinson told him (Dixon) that he (Robinson) had seen the body when it was later exhumed and that the body was in a fine state of preservation after being in the ground for a few weeks. That would almost be proof that the body had been taken to Leith to the family plot, but there are still some who insist it was the artist’s bones that were dug up. To give their side’s a boost there is a man still living, who helped transfer the casket from one train to another who still insists that it was too light to hold a dead person. So the arguments can go on.

So many books and so many theories. One article I read the writer quotes a really old timer at Canoe Lake and put things down as truths that could not be taken any other way except facts. Yet this man came to Canoe Lake several years after the drowning. I have had a number of phone calls and letters from young people who are great admirers of Tom Thomson, or perhaps I should say of his work. They are quite surprised and a little offended when I tell them that I can not go along with most of the stories that have been written about this man who passed on so long ago. One book even goes so far as almost naming his murderer. This book again written by a man who came into the picture years after the incident. This man who often quarreled with Thomson I knew quite well as he was around for almost a quarter of a century afterwards. He was a German, very arrogant and overbearing. It would be very easy to imagine having a quarrel with him. I believe their quarrels began over nationality. This man, an American by birth, still was very pro-German. But if I was correctly informed, the one heavy quarrel started when this man suggested that Thomson, if he was such a loyal Britisher, should be in the army as there was a war on, and not back in the woods painting second-rate pictures and drinking himself to death. In Thomson’s defense some claim he was rejected for army duty because of flat feet, but in 1917 not many were rejected. Then one of his closest friends stated years after Thomson’s death that he did not think he ever tried to enlist.

In spite of his arrogance and his overbearing attitude, at times when you visited this man in his own house he was a very gracious and friendly host. In spite of all the nasty rumours I just could not believe that this man would commit murder.

Once I was sent a magazine with an article “Who Murdered Tom Thomson?” The writer was just taking for granted all the second hand rumours that had been circulated. In this article he tells, and he had it almost like a personal interview, that a young lady had caught her line on the body while fishing. Even gave details. He (the writer) must have believed what he was telling. I talked to several, and Mark Robinson says he was sitting on a cottage veranda with a group one quiet evening when they saw something surface on the quiet water. Two guides, Larry Dixon and George Rowe paddled out and came back and called that it was Tom Thomson. The story about his body being lifted remains a mystery.

There is one book, The Algonquin Years, written by Ottelyn Addison, and Elizabeth Harwood, that is no doubt the most accurate of all the Thomson stories. They deal only in facts, and do not go out of line with personal opinions. (As an aside – In the 1980s I wrote about Dr. Ed. Addison and his moose tick studies in Algonquin Park. Ed’s mother, Ottelyn Addison, was Mark Robinson’s daughter. Mrs. Addison would never speculate. At one time the Bancroft Library had many of the books published concerning Tom Thomson. This material I received from Ralph Bice’s daughter, a personal friend. – Ed.)

Most of us were not too interested in the dead man then. It was said he was a guide but I asked many to see if I could talk to even one party he had guided. Later I did guide with George Rowe and he did not know of him acting as a guide. Too, I was told by Shannon Fraser that when he first came to Canoe Lake he could hardly use a paddle, but had learned very well in a short time. I do know that he did work as a fire ranger one summer.

TBC

Photo – Tom Thomson – thegroupofseven.ca.