Ghostly and Supernatural Tales from Quebec Province, by Kathy Fischer-Brown

photo © Janice Lang

Our assignment for the month of October on BWL’s “Canadian Historical Brides” blog is ghost stories, tales of haunted places, and other supernatural phenomena related to our books’ settings.

Ask anyone who knows me. I do not enjoy scary books, ghost tales, or frightening movies. Maybe it’s the creepy music in the flick added to augment the buildup to a blood-curdling moment that sends my heart thumping to near lethal levels and my blood pressure rising. My husband and daughter love them. Even coming through a closed door, that sinister music has its desired effect on me.

Not to say I don’t believe in the unexplainable. Two days after our beloved springer spaniel Casey crossed over the Rainbow Bridge at the age of 14, I was watching TV. Something in the periphery of my vision caused me turn away from the Yankees game. Not trusting what I thought I saw, I did a double-take. To my astonishment, there was Casey standing in the open doorway, her head hanging, ears forward, attention focused on me—a familiar posture in life when she wanted something. We made eye contact for a long moment. And then she dissipated like smoke in the wind. Some have told me that Casey probably just wanted to say goodbye.

Years ago, when I was still living in my parents’ home during summer breaks from college, I was having trouble falling asleep one night. Maybe I was suspended on that fragile boundary between dreams and consciousness when something tangible brushed my cheek and rustled the hair falling over my ear. And then a woman’s whispered voice announced (to whom or what?), “She’s asleep now.” Shortly after, a deep, sonorous baritone from beyond my open window began intoning what sounded like “Pil…grim’s…Pri-i-ide.” If I wasn’t 20-something at the time, I probably would have high-tailed it into my parent’s room and begged to let me sleep with them.

OK. This is supposed to be about ghosts, ghoulies, and other bump-in-the-night stuff from Quebec Province. As a Connecticut Yankee, no one deserves a mention here more than Mark Twain. This is from a piece by Mark Abley in the Montreal Gazette (October 17, 2014)

In December 1881, one of the most celebrated writers in North America came to

Mark Twain

Montreal on a lecture tour. Mark Twain … was then near the height of his fame. …

“That afternoon, a reception had been held for him in a long drawing room of the Windsor Hotel on Peel — recently built, and at the time the most palatial hotel in Canada. There, Twain noticed a woman whom he had known more than 20 years earlier, in Carson City, Nevada. She had been a friend, but they had fallen out of touch. … She seemed to be approaching him at the reception, and he had ‘a full front view of her face’ but they didn’t meet.

 “Before he gave his evening speech in a lecture hall, Twain noticed Mrs. R. again, wearing the same dress as in the afternoon. This time they were able to speak, and he told her that he’d seen her earlier in the day. She was astonished. ‘I was not at the reception,’ she told him. ‘I have just arrived from Quebec, and have not been in town an hour.’”

All right. I agree. This is kind of “woo-woo,” but hardly the stuff that inspires goose bumps. But both Quebec and Montreal, with their long and illustrious histories, are rife with tales of the mysterious and macabre. There are so many such stories that I’ll limit them both by time and necessity. As a writer of historical fiction, I’m drawn to some of these older stories. For example, McGill University is Montreal’s oldest (founded in 1821) and also one of the most haunted in a city of multiple haunted places. Its Faculty Club was once the opulent mansion of the German-born sugar magnate, Baron Alfred Moritz Friedrich Baumgarten.

Baron Alfred Moritz Friedrich Baumgarten

At the turn of the 19^th century, the Baumgarten house was a center of social activity, so much so that it became the favorite stopping place of Canada’s governor-general when in Montreal. The start of World War I ended all that when anti-German hysteria forced him to sell off his assets and lose his standing in society. He died in 1919, a broken man. In 1926, McGill University bought the mansion to house the school’s high chancellor, General Sir Arthur Currie. After Currie’s death in 1933, the building was repurposed for use as a faculty club.

From the beginning, faculty and staff at the club reported feelings of unease when in the building, while others experienced some truly strange happenings. A piano in the basement began playing itself and no manner of trying to stop it succeeded. Doors opened and closed of their own accord. Elevators ran between floors with no one inside to operate them. In the billiard room, balls moved on the table and into the pockets as if a game were being played, and portraits on the walls appeared to follow people with their eyes as they walked past them down the halls. Even its phones had a life of their own, calling college offices late at night when no one was in the building. And then there’s the fireplace, closed off for decades, still emitting the smell of ash and smoke. There are tales of murder, particularly that of a young servant girl whose untimely death had been covered up and whose spirit has been seen wandering aimlessly, apparently seeking justice. Some postulate that many of ghostly happenings are the work of Baumgarten himself, whose restless soul attempts to regain what had been lost.

On the Plains of Abraham in Quebec on September 13, 1759, the battle between France and England for supremacy in the New World ended with the death of the charismatic British General James Wolfe and took his opponent, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, who died of his injuries the following day. Here some 258 years later, ghosts of the dead from both sides can be seen drifting across the battlefield, particularly one lone soldier at the entrance to Tunnel 1, accompanied by the acrid smell of sulfur smoke and the sound of cannons.

From Montmorency Falls in Quebec comes a sad story and one that seems to have many similarities to other tales of such nature. That of a beautiful young woman whose fiancé was called off to war and died in 1759 during the French and Indian War. Legend has it that the grief stricken maiden donned her wedding dress and went out in the evenings calling his name in hopes that he would return. The Lady in White has often been seen in the mist of the falls, tumbling to her death.

Of course there are more such stories, many more, but for now that’s all folks.

Wishing you all a ghoulishly Happy Halloween...but please keep the music down.

 

 ~*~

Kathy Fischer Brown is a BWL author of historical novels, Winter Fire, "The Serpent’s Tooth" trilogy: Lord Esterleigh’s Daughter, Courting the Devil, The Partisan’s Wife, and The Return of Tachlanad, an epic fantasy adventure for young adult and adult readers. Check out her Books We Love Author page or visit her website. All of Kathy’s books are available in e-book and in paperback from a host of online and brick and mortar retailers. Look for Where the River Narrows, the 12^th and final novel in BWL’s Canadian Historical Brides series, coming in July 2018.

The Challenges of Historical Fiction

by Kathy Fischer-Brown 

In celebration of Canada’s 150^th birthday, Books We Love has published the first of 12 historical novels, each set in one of the provinces and territories. The Historical Canadian Brides series is funded by the Canadian government and will be covered by Publishers Weekly. The first two books, Brides of Banff Springs, by Victoria Chatham and His Brother’s Bride, by Nancy Bell, are already generating great enthusiasm and readership. Where the River Narrows (Quebec), the book I’m writing with assistance from Canadian BWL mystery, suspense, and thriller author Ron Ady Crouch will cover an interesting area of Canadian history that is as fascinating to research as it is to write.

As a writer of historical fiction (all but one of my BWL books are historicals, and that other being a fantasy), I have no problem with diving head first into the research. In fact, it is for me one of the more exciting aspects of the writing process. Finding source material can be challenging, but it is also inspirational. I can’t enumerate the incidents of finding a particularly interesting bit of history that not only sparks the need to find more information but, more important, gives my muse something substantial to chew on (and my muse loves to chomp on tasty morsels).

My biggest challenge in writing Where the River Narrows has to be the fact that, as someone who is U.S. born and bred (and having gone through an American education), I’m writing a book that has as its focus the American Revolution through the point of view of “the other side.” (Something not covered in great detail in our curriculum.) Then again, it’s always cool to learn new things, and my submersion in early Canadian history has been eye-opening. But getting into the point-of-view of my heroine, Elisabeth Van Alen, a young woman from a family of “Loyalists” or “Tories,” has been downright mind-changing. It’s been a real stretch to look at the incidents of the War for Independence from another perspective—and make it believable—when for my entire life, I’ve viewed the “rebels” as “patriots” as being in the right in their decision to break from British rule and set up their own country and government at the risk of their liberty and their very lives.

On the other hand, reading depositions and documents about the women who made perilous journeys from their homes to escape persecution—who sacrificed everything to join their men in exile with the hope that life would return to “normal” when the war was won by the Crown—has been a fascinating part of the process of building a story. Along the way, I’ve met some incredible people: re-enactors of the King’s Royal Yorkers (the regiment of loyalists established by Sir John Johnson, a historical personage and Canadian founding father who appears in the book), who devote their leisure time to recreating the lives of people I’m attempting to create in the pages of this book. Historians who have written extensively on the subject of loyalists refugees, and photographers whose work has been enshrined in the works I’ve been studying.

All in all, I’d say that this is and has been one of the more exciting projects I’ve been involved in to date.

~*~

Kathy Fischer Brown is a BWL author of historical novels, Winter Fire, Lord Esterleigh's Daughter, Courting the Devil, The Partisan's Wife, and The Return of Tachlanad, her latest release, an epic fantasy adventure for young adult and adult readers. Check out her Books We LoveAuthor page or visit her website, www.kfischer-brown.com. All of Kathy’s books are available in e-book and in paperback from Amazon, Kobo, and other online retailers.

 

Elisabeth Van Alen, heroine of "Where the River Narrows" (Quebec)

by Kathy Fischer-Brown 

In celebration of Canada’s 150^th birthday in 2017, Books We Love has taken on an exciting project: the publication of 12 historical novels each set in one of the 10 provinces, the Yukon Territory, and a combined Northwest Territories and Nunavut. As I’m American, I’ve been teamed with Ronald Ady Crouch, a Canadian BWL author who brings a unique set of talents and interests to the project.

Scheduled for publication in the summer of 2018, Where the River Narrows (which is a translation from the Algonquian, “Kebec”) is set during the years of the American War of Independence. This was a tumultuous time for all involved, but especially unsettling (both figuratively and literally) for those who chose to remain loyal to King George III of England.

The story begins in June of 1774. Elisabeth Van Alen is the second child and eldest daughter of Cornelis and Catrina, well-to-do New York Dutch landowners in Tryon County, New York, on the Mohawk River. Her life has not been an easy one, however, as her mother has abdicated her role as matriarch after a succession of heartbreaking losses, leaving 19-year-old Elisabeth in charge of the daily chores of running the household and looking after Catrina, her younger siblings and father. Beth proves herself capable and industrious, but has relegated to the back of her mind any thought of marriage and having a family of her own.

Loyalists Drawing Lots For Their Lands,
1784 by C. W. Jeffreys
(Ontario Government Art Collection)

When her older brother Samuel returns home from Kings College in New York accompanied by his darkly handsome friend, Elisabeth’s life takes on new meaning and her dreams are rekindled. She finds in Gerrit Bosch a soulmate, a man of wit and intelligence, but lacking in family and means. He’s indebted to Sir William Johnson, the Superintendent of Indian affairs and undisputably the wealthiest man in all of New York. Sir William has underwritten his education and has promised Gerrit a position assisting Mr. Hall, the teacher in his settlement of Johnstown.

A month later, following an impassioned address to a convention of Indian leaders at Johnson Hall, Sir William is suddenly stricken and dies a few hours later, an event that changes the course of history.

The thirteen colonies have been in an uproar for years and are now on the brink of revolution. Sir William had been a source of calm and caution, especially where the Mohawk and other members of Iroquois Confederation were concerned. His son and heir, Sir John Johnson, is not so much so. A year later, after all-out war has broken out in Massachusetts and spread to New York, John Johnson and his supporters, in defiance of the new authority in Tryon County, declares himself for the king. In May 1776, he and over 170 of his followers escape arrest and undertake a daring and dangerous escape to Canada, where he musters a loyalist regiment, the King's Royal Yorkers. Among his followers are Samuel Van Alen and Gerrit Bosch.

The consequences of this action are dire for the Van Alen family. When he refuses to sign an “association” (a declaration of allegiance to the new government), Cornelis is hounded and persecuted by neighbors and committee members, ultimately leading to his death. Not long afterwards, the family’s house and lands are seized by the local authorities, and Elisabeth, her two young siblings, her mother and devoted servants, the Freemans, are forced to flee.

The story from this point follows their harrowing trek through the wilderness in late fall into early winter, and the survivors’ arrival at Fort Chambly, and from there to a refugee camp in Sorel and later at Machiche. Details of Elisabeth’s journey are drawn from numerous accounts and depositions of women who made similar journeys during this time: Tales of overcrowded camps teeming with disease and insufficient food, of hastily constructed barracks shared by more people than could safely be accommodated, and of a provisional government barely able to accommodate what would become a flood of immigrants by the end of the war, placing demands on the limited resources needed to fight in a losing cause.

Needless to say, this is a story of survival and endurance, which ends happily for Elisabeth and Gerrit. It is after all, a “Canadian Brides” tale :-) 

~*~

Kathy Fischer Brown is a BWL author of historical novels, Winter Fire, Lord Esterleigh's Daughter, Courting the Devil, The Partisan's Wife, and The Return of Tachlanad, her latest release, an epic fantasy adventure for young adult and adult readers. Check out her Books We Love Author page or visit her website. All of Kathy’s books are available in e-book and in paperback from Amazon, Kobo, and other online retailers.