One of the more fantastical rumours regarding Tom
Thomson’s death is that he was killed in a fight over the war that had been raging in Europe. These
stories hinge on the idea that Tom Thomson, lover of nature, nationalist, &
good-humoured prankster – the model Canadian man – was killed by a rude German-American
who sympathized with the ‘Huns’. Smacking of period propaganda and stereotypes,
these stories wildly misrepresent the facts.
In
1917, no one suggested that a foreigner murdered Tom Thomson, or even that he
had gotten in a fight over the war.
So where does this story originate?
The closest contemporary (1917) documents come to
suggesting a German sympathizer was skulking around Canoe Lake is a notation in
the daily diary of Mark Robinson. In May 1917, Robinson wrote, “I am of the opinion that [Martin Blecher Jr. ] is a German spy.” Robinson, it might be
recalled, was the Algonquin Park Ranger responsible for the Canoe Lake area
where Thomson was staying in the spring and summer of 1917.
What
were Blecher’s ties to Germany?
Before looking at some facts of Blecher’s life, it
might be useful to contextualize Robinson’s comment. From November 1915 through
March 1917, he had been serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Robinson
had only returned to duties as a Park Ranger in April 1917, a few weeks before
writing his comment about Blecher Jr., and three months after having returned
from European military service.
What can we make of Robinson’s suspicions? As Mary
Garland has established, Martin Blecher Jr.’s closest tie to Germany was through
his German-born grandfather, Henry Blecher, who died thirty years before Martin
was born. Martin Jr. was born a US citizen, as was his father. Both were
life-long residents of Buffalo, New York. Nonetheless, Mark Robinson’s
identification of Blecher with Germany would persist. In 1930, he would
describe Blecher Jr. as an “American German tourist.”
Where did this sentiment come from? In 1910, Robinson
had asked Blecher Jr.’s father to stop flying the US flag on his Canoe Lake
cottage, a request with which the man complied. Could this have planted a seed
of hostility towards the Blecher family? Alternatively, Robinson may have
overheard Blecher suggesting the Germans could win the war and interpreted this
as sympathy for the German side. We will likely never know what prompted
Robinson’s perceptions.
Was
Blecher a ‘draft dodger’?
Regardless, Robinson’s persistent biases would later
affect how those interested in the Thomson case made sense of things. In 1931, after
corresponding with Robinson, Thomson biographer Blodwen Davies would intimate that
Blecher Jr. was hiding in Canada to avoid being drafted for the US Army. She reported a rumour she heard at Canoe Lake that a representative of the US War Department had actually visited the area to summon Blecher back to the United States!
The rumour does not make much sense once we know the history of how Blecher was drafted. Blecher Jr. registered for the United States draft in
November 1917, seven months after the US entered the war (and four months after
Thomson’s death). He was not called to service until August 1918. In 1931, the US War Department would outline Blecher’s draft record to Davies, indicating
that it was correct that he did not report for the draft when called, but that
upon investigation (during the winter of 1917/18) his lack of appearance was deemed ‘nonwilful’.
Despite the assurances of the US War Department to Davies, the rumour that Blecher was a draft dodger (and a German) would continue to circulate, being repeated decades later by commentators such as
William Little, and Roy MacGregor, as well as ‘eyewitness’ Daphne Crombie.
Did
Tom and Blecher get in a fight?
Davies certainly believed that Thomson had been in a
significant fight before his death, and intimated that Blecher was involved. In
her 1931 letter to the Ontario Attorney General, Davies reported that Thomson
had gotten in a fight with an American tourist. Around this time, she likely
inquired whether Tom’s brother, George, had heard anything about a fight when
he had been Canoe Lake during July 1917. George responded that he had heard
that “there was some ill feeling between Tom and some man in that region”, but
offered no more details. George suggested that he had perhaps heard the story
from one of the Rangers, but “I didn’t at the time attach any serious
importance to the report.”
Decades later, it was suggested that Blecher and Thomson might have fought not because Blecher was a draft dodger, but because Thomson suggested he was a coward. In 1970, Dr. Noble Sharpe
would suggest that Tom had gotten in a fight after having “accused the other man of being a deserter from the American Army."
Also in 1970, William Little added to the groundless claims about a fight between Blecher and Thomson. In The Tom Thomson Mystery, Little concocted a conversation between the men, writing that an angry exchange between the two men concluded with Blecher exclaiming, “Stay out of my way if you know what’s good for you.” This was the first time anyone had much such a blatant claim, let alone provided the dialogue that took place between the two men. Nonetheless, Little’s almost surely fictionalized account has since often been repeated as if it must be fact.
Also in 1970, William Little added to the groundless claims about a fight between Blecher and Thomson. In The Tom Thomson Mystery, Little concocted a conversation between the men, writing that an angry exchange between the two men concluded with Blecher exclaiming, “Stay out of my way if you know what’s good for you.” This was the first time anyone had much such a blatant claim, let alone provided the dialogue that took place between the two men. Nonetheless, Little’s almost surely fictionalized account has since often been repeated as if it must be fact.
Conclusion:
Suspicions about Martin Blecher Jr. are built upon
misrepresentation and errors. In 2010’s Northern
Light, Roy MacGregor stated that “almost all versions of the Tom Thomson story”
include the fight. While this is not entirely true, the story has often been
repeated since publication Little’s book. Perhaps most importantly, Roy
MacGregor certainly gave the Little account credence. In 1973, he would repeat
the comments Little likely imagined Blecher having said. He would repeat the
doubtworthy statements in his 2010 book (although he did not use them to argue
that Blecher killed Thomson).
These suspicions
regarding Martin Blecher Jr.’s involvement in Tom Thomson’s death may have been,
as Webb has suggested, a product of wartime anti-German sensibilities, as well
as later anti-American sentiments. Aside from errors, gossip and groundless
impressions, though, no evidence indicates Thomson and Blecher had anything
other than occasional neighbourly interactions. Nonetheless, through
repetition, flawed speculation about Martin Blecher Jr. has helped to give the
false impression that the man is a viable suspect in the stories that Tom
Thomson was murdered.
Gregory Klages - © 2018
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Gregory Klages was Research Director for the website Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy, launched by the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project in 2008. Klages is the author of the 2016 book, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction (Dundurn Press).
