William H. Munro
William H. Munro | |
|---|---|
| 1st Mayor of the City of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario | |
| In office April 16, 1912 – January 13, 1913 | |
| Preceded by | office created |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Edward Simpson |
| 25th Mayor of the Town of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario | |
| In office January 9, 1911 – April 16, 1912 | |
| Preceded by | Thomas Edward Simpson |
| Succeeded by | office abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 August 1860 Appleton, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | 17 January 1918 (aged 57) Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario |
| Spouse | Catherine Munro (nee Morrison) |
| Children | 2 sons (Gerald, Kenneth Harold) |
William Hilliard Munro (August 7, 1860 – January 17, 1918) was a Canadian politician who was the first mayor of the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
He was born August 7, 1860 in Appleton, Ontario (today, Mississippi Mills) the third son of John and Sarah Munro, Lanark County farmers.[1]
A machinist, he moved to Sault Ste. Marie in 1896 to serve as a mechanical advisor to Francis Clergue. For a time he was superintendent of Algoma Iron Works, a foundry and machine shop Clergue established to build equipment for his paper plant and other industries.[2][3]
Munro served seven terms as a town councillor and two terms as its mayor. As mayor he led the initiative to have the town incorporated as a city, petitioning the provincial government for the change.[4] The Act to incorporate the City of Sault Ste. Marie was assented to on April 16, 1912, and provided that the existing town council headed by Mayor Munro would become the first council of the new city until the end of its term early the following year.[5]
Munro served another four terms as a city alderman, being elected to one year terms in 1913, 1914, 1917 and 1918. In the 1915 election, he ran for mayor, but lost to J. A. McPhail.[6]
Disappearance and death
[edit]Munro mysteriously vanished on a foggy evening in early 1918. His disappearance captured newspaper headlines and resulted in an international search that involved police as far west as Alberta.
At around 7:30 p.m. on January 17, Munro left his East Street home for an evening out.[7] He was later seen leaving the Franklin House hotel in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan for home that night. Munro flagged down a bus and asked to be taken to the river where a row boat was operating as a ferry over a break in the ice during the winter months. The bus driver told him that the ferry had stopped operating for the night.[8] Munro was not seen again.
His disappearance alarmed the community. Fearing that he could have attempted to cross the river and fallen through the ice, a search party was organized by police on both sides of the river. There having been no witnesses to his disappearance or body found, he continued to be presumed missing. News of the former mayor’s disappearance was carried through both countries and gripped readers of newspapers in Montreal,[9] Ottawa,[10] Lansing,[11] Battle Creek,[12] Brandon,[13] Kingston,[14] and Moncton.[15]
Eventually the search widened to Alberta, based on the idea that Munro could have had interests in the province. More than a week after his disappearance, the Edmonton Journal reported that a $100 reward had been posted and that police in the city were looking for Munro, described as “six feet tall, large stature and erect, and wearing a blue suit with a hairline white stripe” covered by a long black chinchilla overcoat and a peaked sealskin cap with ear flaps.[16] Another area newspaper wildly speculated that “the missing man may have lost his memory, wandered west and became ill from a nervous breakdown.”[17]
Three months having passed, in May 1918 the city council declared Munro's ward two seat vacant[18] and elected a replacement to fulfill the remainder of his term.[19]
On August 18, seven months after he went missing, a boater discovered Munro's remains on the St. Marys River. Still in his fur coat, Munro’s body surfaced near the government dock on the Canadian side. The coroner, aided by Thomas Simpson, Munro's successor as mayor, and an undertaker himself, positively identified the partially decomposed body from his clothing and effects in his pockets.[20] The coroner listed Munro's cause of death as a drowning that occurred January 17, 1918.[21]
A funeral was held for him at city hall the morning following his body being recovered. Despite there having been no public announcement, the service was well attended by the community and officials.[22]
An editorial in The Sault Daily Star said "Mr. Munro occupied a unique place in the hearts of his townsmen, as was apparent from his practically continuous service on council since 1902, and the memories of his kindly nature as well as his eminent public services will not soon be forgotten."[23]
Munro was buried near his birthplace at St. Fillon's Cemetery in Beckwith, Lanark County, Ontario.[24]
Personal life
[edit]On June 9, 1886, Munro was married to Catherine Morrison in Carleton Place, Ontario. The couple had two sons. Their son Gerald was an ice hockey player who played two seasons in the National Hockey League.
References
[edit]- ^ Dominion of Canada. 1881 Census of Canada. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Canada. pp. Record Group 31-C-1. LAC microfilm C-13162 to C-13286.
- ^ Sault Star staff (May 9, 1918). "The late William Hilliard Munro". The Sault Daily Star.
- ^ "Algoma Iron Works". Archeion, Ontario's archival information network. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
- ^ Sault Daily Star staff (March 16, 1912). "Application for city charter to come up today". Sault Daily Star.
- ^ Government of Ontario. Statutes of the Province of Ontario 1912. Toronto: Queens Printer. p. 998. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
- ^ Sault Star staff. (December 17, 1919). "Sault's mayor's councils, clerks since 1887". The Sault Daily Star.
- ^ Bulletin staff (January 30, 1918). "Soo financial man missing". Edmonton Bulletin.
- ^ "Disappeared at Soo". The Hamilton Spectator. January 22, 1918.
- ^ "Soo alderman missing". Montreal Gazette. January 22, 1918.
- ^ "Former Soo mayor missing". Ottawa Citizen. January 22, 1918.
- ^ "no title". Lansing State Journal. January 22, 1918.
{{cite news}}: Cite uses generic title (help) - ^ "Soo alderman lost; drowning is feared". Battle Creek Moon-Journal. January 23, 1918.
- ^ "Alderman missing". Brandon Daily Sun. January 22, 1918.
- ^ "no title". Kingston Whig. January 23, 1918.
{{cite news}}: Cite uses generic title (help) - ^ "Soo alderman has disappeared". Moncton Transcript. January 25, 1918.
- ^ Journal staff. (January 29, 1918). "W.H. Munro missing from eastern city". Edmonton Journal.
- ^ "Soo financial man missing". Edmonton Bulletin. January 30, 1918.
- ^ Sault Star staff. (May 7, 1918). "Declare Alderman Munro's seat on council vacant". The Sault Daily Star.
- ^ Sault Star staff (May 20, 1918). "W. J. Jeffery is new alderman for Ward no. II". The Sault Daily Star.
- ^ Sault Star staff. (August 19, 1918). "Ald. Munro's body is found in river. Funeral service held at city hall". The Sault Daily Star.
- ^ "Registrations of Deaths, 1918;". Ancestry.ca. Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Retrieved February 2, 2025.
- ^ Sault Star staff. (August 19, 1918). "Ald. Munro's body is found in river. Funeral service held at city hall". The Sault Daily Star.
- ^ Editorial (August 19, 1918). "Mr. Munro". The Sault Daily Star.
- ^ Whig staff. (August 23, 1918). "The funeral of W. H. Munro". The British Daily Whig (Kingston, Ont).