Our Orange Heritage

In an article entitled ‘Order and Respectibility’ The Glorious Twelfth in St.Marys, Richard Holt reviews the history of the Orange Order in Perth County and speculates on the social and political role which the Orange Lodge played in the community. The Orange Order is important in our family. Lois’ father Bob Hearn was a lifelong, ardent Orangeman. He never missed a twelfth of July parade. By the very fact of his membership in the organization Bob Hearn must have acknowledged and supported the strong pro-Protestant and anti-Catholic philosophy of the Orange Order. And yet, he and his family regularly socialized with their Catholic neighbours. Lois’ best friend was Mary Riley. There are pictures of the two families exchanging Sunday afternoon visits. In his article, Richard Holt suggests that this disconnect between the biased philosophy of the order, and the realty of the social and commercial world of Perth County was not atypical. The first Orange Lodge, LOL 518, was established in St. Marys in 1853, just 10 years after the first settlement. These first settlers were largely Protestant, with large groups of Ulster and Palatine Irish living on the west of the Thames River, and Scots and English settling on the east of the river. Interspersed among these Protestant groups were a few Catholic families, with larger concentrations of Catholics in Hibbert Township and in the Gore of Downie. As could be expected, some of the biases and historical feuds from the old country were transplanted into Perth County. The result was a strong sentiment in favour of the Orange Lodge in the St. Marys area. At the height of its power, there were seven LOL lodges in St. Marys, Downie, Blanshard and East Nissouri. On the 12th of July lodges throughout the county came together to parade in celebration of the Battle of the Boyne - "The Glorious Twelfth" - a small battle in which the forces of King William of England in 1690 defeated the Catholic Jacobites. These 12th of July marches were often followed by intemperate harangues provided by local clergy who railed against the evils of Jesuitism and exhorted the marchers to stand firm against the power of Catholicism. Over time, however, and faced with the broader realities of life in Ontario, Holt suggests that these sentiments gradually lost their meaning and, inevitably, they became empty rhetoric, a part of the tradition, but one which in itself, had little power or meaning. Like formalistic bedtime prayers, the rhetoric was repeated mindlessly and then forgotten. Gradually, the LOL lodges evolved into fraternal clubs for working class protestant men and women who came together for social outings and to be part of an organization with its rituals and ceremonies. Holt offers a couple of anecdotes to support his hypothesis. In the County parade of 1906, for example, John Walsh a wealthy Catholic store owner opened up his eleven acre property in Ardmore Park, to serve as the destination point for the Orange Parade. In a similar vein, Erma Keine a member of a Catholic family living in Perth County reminisced that all of the Catholic children in her area would go to watch the parade because they knew that Mr. Dunbar a neighbour and friend would be riding the white horse and carrying the open Bible in his role as King Billy. If it is true that the rhetoric did lose its meaning and it faded into irrelevancy, then that process may explain why John Walsh, a Catholic shopkeeper, could welcome the 12th of July marchers on to his property, why the parents of Erma Keine saw no problem in allowing her to watch the parade, and why Bob Hearn could attend a Orange Lodge meeting on one day and invite the Riley family to his home for a meal on the following day.