Sir William Mulock was a home-grown pioneer farm boy who brought fame to our community in the days when our land was young. He had a spectacular career and when he died at age 101, he was known as “the grand old man of Canada” and the Prime Minister said, “He will be remembered as being among the makers of Canada.” Not bad for a boy born on a farm near Bond Head.

A lot of fine people came to this area from Ireland in the 1800s and William’s father was one of them. He was an Irish doctor who came to this part of Upper Canada in 1836. Life in Ireland was not very promising in those days due to poor economy, violence and English domination as well as the Great Potato Famine, so it seemed practical to accept the offer of good land so readily available in the new world.

In those days, the brave young folk who decided to emigrate knew that they were kissing their loved ones goodbye for the last time. It must have been a heartbreak to know that they were not likely to see the faces of loved ones ever again. Even crossing the Atlantic was perilous in the old sailing vessels and storms and disease claimed some people before they ever saw the shores of the new world.

Land had become available around Bond Head in the first quarter of the new century and although Dr. Mulock was trained in medicine, he had little alternative but to try his hand at farming and if possible, try to establish his medical practice too. Of course, this land of ours was heavily wooded with virgin forest when he arrived. Most of the trees were very big and many of them were hardwoods. It must have been a very daunting challenge to tackle a big elm four-feet across with only an axe and a crosscut saw. There was no opportunity to learn to cut trees in Ireland, which had, in those days, little or no forest.

No doubt, many of the original settlers gave up or died before their land was cleared. Dr Mulock had a wife and a little boy named William and that wee lad lost his father when he was seven years old. Life in the new world had been too much for his daddy. It is a tough question for the clergy to answer when asked why a young father would be cut off in his prime but as we read God’s words in the Holy Book, He says that His thoughts are not the same as our thoughts. No doubt, He had his own reasons and in His mercy, he had plans to bless young William and grant him a long and prosperous life on this earth.

The widow, Mulock left the land claim at Bond Head and bought a farm near Newmarket. Apparently she came from a successful family of lawyers and she wanted to raise her son for the same occupation. When he finished his backwoods education, she sent him off to the University of Toronto to become a lawyer.

William was an intelligent young man and he graduated from school as a lawyer and got a minor position in a law office but he earned only $80 per year so he got a part time job as a house master to earn enough money to survive. He must have wondered if he would ever have a worthwhile career. He did not realize the spectacular future that was before him and the important things that he would accomplish during the many years that his Creator would grant him on the earth.

In 1867, he was called to the bar and he began to build a successful law practice. Many lawyers seem to be attracted to politics and William was one of those lawyers. In 1882 he ran as a Liberal candidate in North York where he and his family were well known. He was so successful in his riding that he held it for 23 years. For the next 14 years in parliament he advanced quickly and when the Liberals came to power under Sir Wilfred Laurier, he became postmaster general of Canada.

At that time, Mulock’s department was losing a million dollars per year and that was a lot of money in those days. After studying the situation he came to the conclusion that what he needed was a greater volume of mail so he introduced the two cent postage rate between Canada and all the countries of the British Empire. Soon, in 1898, an Imperial conference in London England adopted his proposal for “penny postage” and within a few short years his department was showing a million dollar profit.

Success gives people a feeling of confidence and it also helps others to be confident in us. People in high positions were waiting to see what great proposal he would come up with next and he didn’t disappoint them. Soon, he introduced a grand plan to lay a publicly owned cable all the way across the Pacific Ocean to connect our country with Australia and New Zealand.

William had always had an interest in the working man so in the year 1900 he established our first Federal Department of Labour and of course, he became Canada’s first minister of labour.

One of Mulock’s friends had a son whose name was also William. One day that young man came to him saying that it was shameful that his letter carriers were wearing uniforms made in “sweatshops” where the poverty stricken female employees worked 15 hours a day for less than five cents per hour. He agreed that it was outrageous and he introduced a system of minimum wages and also chose young William as his first Deputy Minister of Labour. That young man was William Lyon MacKenzie King who would go on to become Prime Minister of Canada in 1921.

In 1905 Mulock retired from political life to accept a very important position. He became Chief Justice of the Exchequer Division of the Supreme Court of Canada and then in 1923 he became the Chief Justice of Ontario. By that time he was an old man so he accepted a position as the chancellor of the University of Toronto. He held that position for the last 20 years of his life. Even there he accomplished good things such as the establishment of the Banting Research Foundation. Of course, he named that after a hometown farm boy from Alliston, Sir Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin.

Well, time passed quickly for this accomplished old gentleman and the day of his 100th birthday, Prime Minister MacKenzie King joined him for breakfast to talk and enjoy a few laughs about the years they had worked together. Somewhere along the line, the old gent had become Sir William Mulock, knighted as was another farm boy from the Bond Head area, Sir William Osler, also born in the 1800s. The Prime Minister owed a lot to his old friend William.

The great man finally passed on in his 101st year and, of course, the Prime Minister was one of the great men who carried his coffin to the gravesite.

Someone said, “His death was like the fall of a mighty oak which had towered above the others for longer than most folk could remember.” The Prime Minister said, that “he would be remembered as being among the makers of Canada.”

For more stories about the yesteryears of our community see next edition of the Alliston Herald.
The first 65 stories have been sent to a book publisher this week and books may be ready in time for Christmas.

Correction:

In last week’s story (Applegate’s I.G.A.) I said that Gar. Armstrong Jr. was the best man at the Applegate wedding. Sorry, this was not correct.