Order and the Toronto Island Constable

In the early twentieth century, Toronto Island was a work in progress. The city’s sand pump was constantly creating new pieces of land, while the city’s dredging equipment was digging out channels. The island was alive, shaped by the forces of nature and man. Parts of the island were park spaces, parts were leased to “campers” while other sections were still being “improved.” But the city was increasingly trying to put order into the unruly landscape and peoplescape of the island. I’m interested in pulling together a few examples of that process and then looking at how that same process all came crashing down upon William Ward, one of the island’s most famous residents.

A look at Toronto Island in 1913. (Plate 1B, Goads Fire Insurance Plans 1913, Toronto City Archives)

Turner’s Baths had operated on the west side of the island since 1883. But in the early part of the twentieth century the city was taking over the property and trying to bring some of the unruly campers around it into order, which lead to a report from the island committee in 1906 looking at where people south of the baths should set up their summer homes. The report recommended that, “… in order that there might be some uniformity in the location of future houses on this section of the Island, the land be sub-divided into twelve fifty-foot lots as per plan submitted and rented to those of the above owners who applied for the same on the understanding that those securing lots were to erect houses similar to those north of the Baths, and be restricted to the regulations adopted for the northern lots …”[1] The requirements specified the size of the summer cottages and what was allowed in and around them. Cottages that had been in the area previously and met those standards were allowed to move to a new more orderly location while those that didn’t, and most of them didn’t, had to be pulled down.

On the eastern side of the island, the city was planning to play land developer as detailed in Report no. 17 of the Island Committee;

“The assessment commissioner has submitted for the approval of your committee and the council, a plan for improving the eastern portion of the island. The plan as outlined provided for the filling in of the lots fronting the lake and making them suitable for leasing for residential purposes; the construction of a 50 foot roadway, and 200 foot channel north of the said lots, and the making of a small island about 20 acres in extent north of the said channel. This island to be connected with the main land by two rustic bridges.
The assessment commissioner’s plan when carried out will certainly be a great improvement, not only to this portion of the Island, but the Island generally, and will greatly improve the sanitary condition of the locality.”[2]

Bathers were also on the minds of the city’s island committee members. The committee pitched the idea of building bath houses at both sides of the island. Initial plans for a new bath house to replace Turner’s Baths included a women’s section with room for 24 changing rooms and a men’s section with room for 50 changing rooms. The cost would was estimated at $5,000.[3] The city’s board of control, which controlled the city’s cheque book, wasn’t thrilled with the idea of spending money on bath houses, however, and the project went back and forth between the committees throughout the rest of the year. Interestingly, by fall, when the island committee was submitting a revised and more thorough sketch of the proposed bath house to the board of control it included an equal number of changing rooms for men and women; each of them would get 84 cubicles.[4]

And finally, the city was also trying to control the natural environment on the island; in this case our old friend the mosquito. At its June 3, 1907 meeting the island committee discussed a request it had received from Mr. J. Lockhart Gordon “asking the assistance of the City in the matter of exterminating the mosquito on the Island.”[5] Gordon wrote that while the island residents were doing their part to snuff out the mosquito on their land, they needed the city to tackle the stagnant ponds on city property to be truly successful. The committee concurred and passed a motion to pitch in $100 to purchase crude oil to spray on the stagnant water ponds.

So how does William Ward fit into this discussion?

Ward’s name appeared in the city council minutes and appendix for 1906 when the island committee decided at its Feb. 22 meeting by a vote of 3 to 2 to terminate his work as island constable.[6] The Ward family had been on Toronto Island since at least the mid-nineteenth century and Ward’s Island, where they lived, had taken its name from the family. William Ward operated a hotel on the island and had been named island constable in the late nineteenth century, primarily due to his track record for rescuing people from Lake Ontario.[7] Ald. Sam McBride, a colourful figure in Toronto’s history and future mayor of the city, was highlighted in the Toronto Daily’s Star’s coverage of the vote, which was headlined, “Civic Employe without duties: Ald. McBride Appears to Have About got the Scalp of Island Constable Ward.”[8] The initial goal of McBride and the others might have been cost cutting; the city had started to place members of its regular force on the island, rendering Ward’s job, which had been created to serve the island, redundant.

At its March 5 meeting the island committee argued with Ward and his lawyer, W.H. Lockhart Gordon (and no, I’m not certain whether W.H. is located to the J. Lockhart Gordon mentioned above) about his role on the island. The issue now seemed to be far larger than whether Ward was needed as the island constable or not. According to the Toronto Daily Star, Ald. McBride led the charge against Ward stating;

“I have been on the Island three years and the only clothes Mr. Ward has worn was a pair of white socks and sweater … He allows his cows to run all over the Island, and the people thought he owned the Island. He also allowed his bull to run wild to the danger of the children. People are allowed to go in bathing without proper uniform. Mr. Ward has been collecting rent from a house built upon city property, and has been pocketing money the city should have. He has never done his duty as the Island constable, and has used a Government lifeboat for about four years and never saved a life.”[9]

In McBride’s comments Ward becomes the focal point for everything the city is attempting to control; his cattle scatter into an area meant to be park space, he flouts controlled behaviour by allowing people to bathe while improperly dressed and his property tumbles outside its proper limits. Despite the family’s long standing connection with Toronto Island, Ward was, like everyone else, leasing his property from the city. The question was, and apparently people hadn’t worried about asking before, where was the boundary of Ward’s lease? Ward was also improperly dressed; he wasn’t filling the visual role of appearing to be a constable, according to McBride. That was a conceptual problem but it was also a practical financial one; the constable’s position included an annual $60 stipend for two constables’ uniforms and McBride clearly thought that if Ward wasn’t wearing a uniform that was $60 not well spent by the city.[10] Along with removing him from his position as island constable, the city pursued a legal challenge against Ward, demanding that he repay rent that had been collected from tenants who in fact had been sitting on city property rather that property within Ward’s lease.[11] It’s a clear example of how the city’s efforts to police its territory were increasing and long-time residents like Ward were caught in the middle.

Gordon pointed out at the March 5 meeting that Ward had saved 120 people in the waters around the island, including ten in the last year but it won him no friends with the island committee members who still wanted him out as constable. Toronto’s board of control was more sympathetic to Ward and argued that while they could accept him losing his position as constable, they still wanted to see him maintained in a life-saving capacity on the island.[12] And, indeed, the city was in the midst of debating the creation of a life-saving unit for the waterfront and Ward was held up, albeit by the Committee on Property this time,  as the ideal candidate to lead that group.[13]

The positive views of Ward were certainly justified later that summer when Ward, three of his sons and a group of volunteers were given a commendation from the city for rescuing seven people aboard the three-masted schooner Reuben Dowd, which had run aground 600-yards east of the eastern channel at 4:30 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 24, 1906, in the midst of a gale. At the time of the rescue, the Toronto Daily Star noted that, “Those who witnessed the rescue, and they were many, emphasize the fact that Ward’s life-boat has proved its usefulness in an incontrovertible manner.”[14] Unfortunately the story contained no quotes form McBride to see if he felt the same way. The city went on to give each of the people involved in the rescue $50 in recognition of their efforts.[15] (It’s not clear to me yet what McBride had to say after that rescue, but I’m still checking.) However, the legal wrangles between Ward and the city continued over several years with the city suing Ward for what it considered lost rental income and Ward countersuing for lost wages.[16] This legal wrangling has certainly had no impact on Ward’s legacy in Toronto, writers like Bill Freeman have recognized Ward as the “Island Lifesaver” and credit him with saving 164 people during his life.[17]

But in some ways Ward’s struggles in the new century represent the changes that were happening on the island and the changes in the way the city thought about nature, land, ownership and people. Ward just happened to come together at the confluence of so many of these themes.

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[1] Report No. 2 of the Island Committee, Feb. 5, 1906, Toronto City Council, 1906, Appendix A, Page 133, Toronto City Archives.

[2] Report No. 17 of the Island Committee, Nov. 19, 1906, Toronto City Council, 1906, Appendix A, Page 1533, Toronto City Archives.

[3] Report No. 5 of the Island Committee, March 20, 1906, Toronto City Council, 1906, Appendix A, Page 319-320, Toronto City Archives.

[4] Reprot No. 13 of the Island Committee, Sept. 20, 1906, Toronto City Council, 1906, Appendix A, Page 1215, Toronto City Archives.

[5] Report No. 11 of the Island Committee, City Council Appendix A, June 3, 1907, Pages 815-816, Toronto City Archives.

[6] Report No. 3 of the Island Committee, Feb. 22, 1906, Toronto City Council Appendix A, Page 191, Toronto city Archives.

[7] Bill Freeman. A Magical Place: Toronto Island and Its People. James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers: Toronto, 1999, 26

[8] “Civic employe without duties,” Toronto Daily Star, Friday, Feb. 23, 1906, Page 2.

[9] “WM. Ward to Lose Place,” Toronto Daily Star, Tuesday, March 6, 1906, Page 2.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Toronto City Council Minutes, 1906, March 12, 1906, item 242, Page 77, Toronto City Archives. Report No. 9 of the Island Committee, June 4, 1906, Toronto City Council Appendix, 1906, page 773, Toronto City Archives.

[12] Report No. 4 of the Island Committee, Toronto City Council Appendix A, 1906, March 5, 1906, Page 255, Toronto City Archives. The matter had initially been moved at the Island Committee’s Feb. 22, 1906, meeting. Report No. 3 of the Island Committee, Feb. 22, 1906, Toronto City Council Appendix A, 1906, Page 191, Toronto City Archives.

[13] Report No. 10 of the Committee on Property, June 5, 1906, Toronto City Council, 1906, Appendix a, Page 757.

[14] “Big Schooner Wrecked, Gallant Rescue Made,” The Toronto Daily Star, Friday, August 24, 1906, Page 1.

[15] Report No 21 of the Board of Control, Toronto City Council, 1906, Appendix A, Sept. 7, 1906, Toronto City Archives.

[16] “City and Ward are advised to settle,” Toronto Daily Star, Thursday, March 12, 1908, Page 14.

[17] Bill Freeman. A Magical Place: Toronto Island and Its People. James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers: Toronto, 1999, 26.