Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 2.
Letter from Woburn
Mrs. CR. Holt
Ottawa
Woburn, Mass.
Oct. 22 / 66
Dear Mrs. Holt
I hope you will pardon a stranger for taking the liberty of writing to you, but your “Up the Gatineau" story in Ottawa Journal of October 1st took me back to my boyhood days, many of which were spent up the Gatineau.
I am 84 years of age and about 70 years ago, in the latter part of the 1890's, I began to wander over the former domain of Philemon Wright, from Hull's Wrightville and Wright’s Creek northward to about Wakefield and about twice in the Fall to the end of the line at Maniwaki.
I left Ottawa in 1905 and came to live and work in Boston where I was in the Graphic Arts (steel and copper plate engraving) for 55 years, retiring in 1960.
But reading “Up the Gatineau" brought back a flood of memories of my younger days in the kind of world I love best — the great outdoors.
Wandering with camera and my dog, with fishing rod and flies or just walking at dusk along the riverbank, tossing small pieces of folded white paper into the water to see the fish strike at them.
In the Fall the flocks of noisy “Whiskey Jacks“, the flocks of migratory birds covering acres or the uncertain flight of woodcock, scared from brush piles — all were a part of Up the Gatineau.
You wrote of the “sweeps” and their boats so I went into my negative "morgue" and found a few old negatives which were still printable.
I am inclosing a few prints for you as visible reminders of" ...All the beautiful pictures that hang on Memory's wall..."
Sincerely yours
Arthur H. Shearman
This letter was prompted by Mrs. Holt's "Up the Gatineau" which was reprinted in our last issue.
Mr. Shearman died a little over three months after writing this letter. Note that Woburn, where he lived, is within ten miles of Boston and is the small town from whence came Philemon Wright in 1800 to found the community now known as Hull. One of Philemon's ancestors was co-founder of Woburn in 1640.