A narrow escape

By Jennifer Weymark/Archivist

“A Narrow Escape” is a headline from the Dec. 12, 1866 Oshawa Vindicator newspaper. The short article that accompanies the headline details a rather dramatic meeting between Thomas Henry and J.O. Guy.

“On Thursday last, Mr. J.O. Guy, Reeve of East Whitby, had a narrow escape with his life. He went over to the barn of Mr. Thomas Henry who was there engaged in threshing. Whilst standing near the tumbling shaft talking to Mr. Henry a pin in the shaft caught [Mr. Guy’s coat] and winding it around and around, drawing him closer to the shaft. Mr. Henry seized Mr. Guy and by their united exertions the coat was torn off. When the machine was stopped, there was but a piece of one sleeve left.”

While this encounter is on the side of extraordinary, it showcases an interesting aspect of the history of the families that once lived in the homes that now make up the museum. These families were contemporaries who lived side-by-side and interacted together on more or less a daily basis.

Within the archival collection, we have several documents that highlight the various types of interactions between the families. There is one receipt that we have that shows an interaction between Thomas Henry, J.O. Guy and Cornelius Robinson. The receipt is related to some sort of transition between the Harbour Company, of which Guy was the harbour master, and Robinson. It appears that Robinson was asking Henry to be an intermediary between the two. It is rare to see all three families interacting on one document!

Documents seem to indicate that, at least during the late 1800s, the Robinson family kept more to themselves. The same cannot be said for the other two families. The Henry family and the Guy family were very close. In fact, Thomas’ daughter, Eliza, married J.O. Guy’s brother, Thomas. What gets even more interesting is that Eliza’s brother, Albert, married Thomas’ daughter from his first marriage, Harriet. This means that Eliza was step-mother to her sister-in-law! Sadly both women died from typhoid fever during an outbreak in the late 1860s.

Learning more about how these three families lived and interacted with each other highlights just how unique the Oshawa Community Museum is in that all of the homes are still on their original foundations. These homes were a part of a bustling community that these three families were a part of.