[ad_1]
Breadcrumb Trail Links
Letters Editorials Columnists
Article content
Municipal history is a field broadly, but lightly, touched by historians across Canada.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Some Canadian cities have full-fledged municipal histories which offer insights into politics and people. Sometimes those histories touch upon key areas such as clean domestic water, sewage disposal, street lighting and much more.
Article content
Many smaller towns either in response to grants or as community initiatives have produced detailed local histories.
Locally, for example, Amherstburg, Maidstone and Kingsville have substantial volumes recording almost every aspect of each community’s historical development and its people. Many churches have produced publications related to their origins.
Yet, sometimes a local history is written but remains relatively unknown. For example, a type-written history of Romney Township in Kent County. But as Romney Township was merged into Chatham-Kent who knows where that document finally settled?
Advertisement 3
Article content
Scholars in cities such as Halifax, Charlottetown and Winnipeg have published accounts of the struggle to convince politicians to invest in paved streets, organized markets, fire and police services.
Windsor has a spotty record of documenting its municipal development. Marty Gervais, as much as any other local author, has documented specific histories — border police, Prohibition, Hotel Dieu-Grace Hospital and more.
Walt McCall’s passion for firefighting equipment has somewhat covered fire services. And certainly Chris Edwards and Elaine Weeks have published some exceptional works related to Walkerville and other local entities.
Yet, for me perhaps one of the most interesting Canadian books on municipal history was edited by Douglas Baldwin and Thomas Spira titled: “Gaslights, Epidemics and Vagabond Cows: Charlottetown in the Victorian Age.”
Advertisement 4
Article content
Contents include essays on lighting streets of Charlottetown, creation of a sewerage system, the struggle for pure water, enforcing the law and one essay devoted to hospitals and public health services titled: “Pigs, Epidemics and Hospitals.”
There is even an essay on the town’s efforts to develop a central market.
Having read the book it led me to wonder whether Windsor had a Victorian history. Where to begin?
Perhaps the city of Windsor’s planning department might have some leads. So on May 21, I sent a series of 10 questions to the city’s planning department which included queries related to when and under what circumstances was water made available to residents for consumption and fire safety.
When, and under what circumstances, were sewers installed in Windsor? At what point in time did Windsor cease draining sewage and other runoff water into the Detroit River?
Advertisement 5
Article content
When was public street lighting launched and was it initially gas or electricity? And was there discussion as to whether such services would be provided by private companies or strictly public utilities?
I asked when were paved streets introduced in Windsor and which streets were the early ones paved.
Did Windsor experience outbreaks of typhoid, diphtheria, smallpox and tuberculosis and if so, what if any measures were taken publicly to control the spread of disease? Did Windsor ever have a Poor House or an asylum?
When did Windsor move from a volunteer fire department to a full-time fire department? And approximately when did Windsor establish a constabulary?
And finally assuming these questions are not readily able to be answered, who might the planning department suggest as prospective sources for early history?
Advertisement 6
Article content
Two months have now passed and not a peep or courteous acknowledgment from the planning department.
So, I thought why not see what themes members of the University of Windsor’s history department might be exploring. One faculty member appears to be treading much the same territory as Rev. Ernest J. Lajeunesse in his monumental 1960 work, “The Windsor Border Region: Canada’s Southernmost Frontier.” Essentially, a pre-19th century study.
You see, history is not necessarily about great people and great events. History is also about people and how they lived and survived in communities.
My parents understood this when they wrote their autobiographical book, “Up The Creek Without …” as a record of their lives under often dreadful circumstances.
I feel Windsor really needs a systemic history of its municipal services and social development.
Did cows ever wander the muddy filthy streets of Windsor?
In the meantime, I’m taking a vacation and resting up for my autumn ElderCollege course on Expulsion of Acadians in 1755 from Nova Scotia.
And I’m not even a historian.
Lloyd Brown-John is a University of Windsor professor emeritus of political science. He can be reached at lbj@uwindsor.ca.
Article content
Share this article in your social network
[ad_2]
Source link
