George Calder with his second historical book, Saugeen: A fine Speculation of a Probable Harbour, at his book launch at the Historic Saugeen Métis Interpretive Learning Centre, October 4.

Hub Staff

Local historical author, George Calder of Southampton, debuted his new book, Saugeen: A fine Speculation of a Probable Harbour, October 4, at the Historic Saugeen Métis Interpretive Learning Centre.

Patsy McArthur of the Historic Saugeen Métis welcomed all to the book launch and spoke about the Red River Métis, the Hudson Bay Company and how Saugeen was once the most southerly Hudson Bay post in Canada.

McArthur went on to say that locals like Calder, who stop in to learn more about the local history and are willing to make a contribution are “valued visitors”.

Calder’s book focusses on a proposal made by an influential group for the development on a harbour in Southampton in the early 1850s, said McArthur. “There was a time when all about the country any port or harbour that could position itself as a turbulous of a railway would be rewarded with widespread prosperity. George writes about the times and the interesting people that tried to make it happen.”

Calder’s first inroad into publishing took place in 2015 when he wrote about one of the first European settlers of Southampton, William Kennedy. While researching Kennedy for his book, The William Kennedy Story, he learned of a company that was going to be put together in the 1850s. “It was called the Saugeen ‘Harbor’ Company,” said Calder, making note of the spelling of ‘harbor’, “so I got digging into it and found it really fascinating.”

Calder said the book took him four to five months to create and it focusses on some interesting characters: Alexander McNabb, a crowed land agent who purchased 200 acres just south of South Street; Sanford Flemming, a surveyor at the time who purchased 400 acres; and Samuel Zimmerman, a developer from the Niagara region.

“They figured that if they could build a big harbour here, there would be a lot of development and maybe they would make a lot of money out of their land,” said Calder, adding that, unfortunately that didn’t turn out, for several reasons, which can be discovered in the book.

Calder said that he does not distracted during the writing process. “I like to get right at it and find out as much as I can about the people that were involved and all of that. And you see way back when there were not many newspapers, and i couldn’t find anything.” Calder said that at the time there was only one newspaper in Goderich and the years that he was looking for were missing.

“There was about four to five years and I don’t know if somebody ripped the pages up, they didn't want to read about this, or what; but I couldn't find much, so I had to go right back to the minutes of the legislature,” said Calder.

The author believes that if things had have turned out differently for the Saugeen Harbor Company that Southampton as we know it now would not be the same. “It would be more like- or bigger- than Goderich, so probably a lot of people were glad it never happened,” Calder suspected.

He praised the cover art for his book which was created by Tara artist, Ken Thornburn of Northern Flyer. He also made special mention of the Chesley printing company, Country Squire Printing for their reasonable prices.

Currently, Calder and the Historic Saugeen Métis will be selling Saugeen: A fine Speculation of a Probable Harbour for $12.

Patsy McArthur of the Historic Saugeen Métis introducing author George Calder at the launch of his new book.