17. Tension in the Bush

The Problem of Being Alone Together

 

Division of labour in the wilderness: Kathrene Pinkerton prepares a meal while her husband Robert writes at their desk. Source: Kathrene Pinkerton, A Home in the Wilds (formerly Wilderness Wife). New York: Tanlinger Publishing Co., [1939], 1967.

“The problem, simply, is that of being alone together. ... Isolation is a special pitfall to the couples in the wilderness. Key to the domestic economy, as crucial as loading firewood, are measures the couple take to avoid crowding each other, rubbing up against each other to the point of irritation."  - Randall Roorda [Source: "Wilderness Wives: Domestic Economy and Women's Participation in Nature," in This Elusive Land: Women and the Canadian Environment. Melody Hessing, Rebecca Raglon, and Catriona Sandilands, eds. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005, p. 46.]

Kathrene Pinkerton and her husband Robert, who, like Nan and Richard Morenus, had moved from New York City to live in a one-room cabin in northern Ontario, recognized that they each needed their own space. Pinkerton wrote the following in her 1939 book Wilderness Wife which Nan had read:

Our winter days fell naturally into a schedule. Robert wrote every morning ... while I inspected the trap line. In the afternoon he was busy out-of-doors cutting wood or doing odd jobs and I had the cabin. This arrangement was not the result of a treaty. It had worked out naturally and was an unconscious recognition of the fact that two people cannot always be together. They must escape from each other occasionally if only to be demagnetized. And everyone must have his own domain. Without separate outlets into the world around us, a one-room cabin life would have permitted no individual privacies. The divergence in our interests gave us supper-time conversation.

Rugged Interdependence

The Morenus' first year at their cabin on the island near Sioux Lookout was spent in what Roorda calls a state of "rugged interdependence" - repairing the cabin, clearing windfall and brush, patching mattresses and bedding, fixing up canoes, and generally putting their camp into shape. There was little time for squabbles. “Less important than what wife or husband can do is what the couple does together," Roorda writes.

In addition, Nan and Richard had a shared interest in writing. "After the first year the typewriter was unlimbered, a certain number of hours each day had to be put in on the keyboard," Richard writes in his Maclean's article "From Broadway to Bush" (September 1, 1946). "Long experience of writing in the States had made our radio contacts not too difficult to maintain, and after convincing our markets that our mail service could meet their deadlines we turned our thoughts script-wise once again." 

Nan and Richard Morenus in northern Ontario. Source

 

Friction

“There’s an odd chemicalization that takes place in the wilderness,” Richard wrote in Crazy White Man (1952). He had noticed while acting as a guide for American sportsmen that, “however good friends two men may be, put them together for any period of time beyond the normal processes of society, and their nerves begin to react. It is almost as though the tempo of living in a city for fifty weeks out of the year acted as a drug, the removal of which caused a drastic mental reaction. By the fifth or sixth day they [start] to argue between themselves. About little things. Their laughter, at first so spontaneous, becomes strained and forced at each other’s attempts at humour.” Had this same “chemicalization” occurred between Richard and Nan?

Richard acknowledges in his Maclean's article that there had been some tough times during their five years on the island. "We have suffered discouragement and ofttimes heartbreaking disappointments," he writes. "There will always be these so long as we live in the bush." He also refers to Nan's independent nature. "Nan will get her own deer, and skin it herself," he says. "Her canoe needs a patch before being stored for the winter. This she’ll want to see to herself."

As the years went by, Nan had found many activities to occupy her time while Richard wrote. She learned how to set snares, how to bake bannock and bread, how to drive a dog team, how to fish through the ice, and how to hunt and butcher venison. She also took her turns at the typewriter.

Was there competition between Nan and Richard as they navigated wilderness living? Was Nan's striving toward self-reliance and expertise in the outdoors a source of irritation for Richard? Did he resent Nan's growing proficiency at tasks one would expect a man to perform - tasks like looking after their dog team? As her strength and skills developed, did Nan chafe against her husband's expectations of domesticity and dependency?

Whatever the causes of the Morenus' tension in the wilds of northern Ontario, their marriage did not survive the strain.

 

NEXT: Road to Divorce - Click HERE

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©Joan Champ, 2021. All rights reserved.

 

15. Nan Buys More Land

 Lakeshore Property

 

Nan's property was on the shore of Abram Lake directly across from the island (now Winoga Island) she shared with Richard Morenus. Google Earth, 2020.

For some reason Nan decided to buy more land in northern Ontario. Perhaps she bought it as an investment. Perhaps she wanted a place of her own, separate from the cabin she shared with her husband Richard Morenus, where she could write. Whatever her reasons, on July 7, 1943, Nan took possession of a four-acre piece of land on the shore of Abram Lake near Sioux Lookout, Ontario, directly across from the island she shared with Richard. At the time, there was no road into the property; it was only accessible from the lake. She paid $100 to Reverend Peter Gordon McPherson and his wife Nettie for the land, Parcel 10836, Lot 11, Concession 1. The transfer of this parcel of land was registered September 13, 1943.

Plan showing Nan's shoreline property, Crown Patent PA7842, April 23, 1932. Source: Ontario Land Titles, Kenora District.

The McPhersons had acquired the property in 1932 as the site for their summer home. They had lived in Sioux Lookout for decades, raising four children - a daughter and three sons - in the small Ontario town. Rev. McPherson, a United Church minister, had arrived in Sioux Lookout in 1916 and moved with his family to Leduc, Alberta in 1928. [The Lookout Post, May 22, 1952, p. 2.] 

 

Nan's Land Changes Hands

If Nan saw this land as an investment, she did not live to see the fruits of her purchase. When she died on September 3, 1950 from complications after giving birth to her only child, she did not have a will. As a result, the dispersal of her estate took years. The administration of Nan's estate, and ownership of her land, was turned over to the Crown Trust Company. It took Nan's second husband John Albrecht more than five years of negotiations to have the land transferred to him, "made in consideration of $200." 

Apparently there was some confusion on the part of the Crown Trust Company's Estates Officer Cyril Melville Corneil about Nan's name and marital status. He needed to ensure that Evangeline [Nan] Albrecht was the same person as Nan D. Morenus - the name on the land title. Also, because her divorce from Richard Morenus took place outside Canada, more paperwork was required. 

Cyril Melville Corneil's affidavit, October 3, 1955, Page 1 of 3. Source: Office of Land Titles, Kenora, Ontario.

During the course of these investigations, mistakes were made. In his Statement of Oath, October 3, 1955, Corneil wrote, "Due to an oversight, the property was not conveyed to the said John Erdmann Albrecht nor was a Caution registered under the provisions of Section 12 of the Devolution of Estates Act within three years after the death of the said deceased." An Administrator's Caution was not issued until November 5, 1955. It was not until January 31, 1956 that Land Transfer 53987 was issued, allowing Albrecht to buy his deceased wife's property for $200 before the disposition of the rest of Nan's estate. 

Disclosure document from John Albrecht's probate records. Source: British Columbia Archives, Royal BC Museum.

John Albrecht held onto Parcel 10836 near Sioux Lookout until his death on September 10, 1991 at age 92. In his last will and testament he bequeathed all his property to his niece, Margret Johanna Gumbolt of Maple Ridge, BC. By then, the land was valued at $5000. I have attempted several times to contact Margret Gumbolt without success, so I have no idea whether or not she ever visited the land she owned in northern Ontario - thanks to Nan and John.

John and Nan’s son John A. Danke, who lived in California, was the rightful heir of his father’s estate but the will was never contested.

Margret Gumbolt sold the lakeshore property in about 2010. The current owners Mat and Bev Lelonde built a home on the property and live there year 'round. Before they bought the land, it was only accessible by water or by ice road in the winter. A number of years ago, a one-lane road was constructed to provide access to the Lelonde property and about 18 other properties on Abram Lake. [Source: Email message from Dick MacKenzie, Sioux Lookout.]

 

NEXT: Nan the Writer, Part 1 - "Jim Chief" - Click HERE

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©Joan Champ, 2021. All rights reserved.

 

13. Life in the Wilderness

 "This is the Bush, and I Love It.”

Nan and Richard Morenus on their island on Abram Lake in northern Ontario, c1945. Source

 

"Our first sight of the island was a teardrop of green against the turquoise of the water. As we neared it we saw it was peopled with stately red pine, balsam and cedar. And, as if acting sentinel on the point, stood a pair of towering Norways, regal in their majesty. The cabin, about 100 feet inland from shore, nestled in a protecting stand of birch. We suddenly felt very small and humble in this overwhelming greatness of the wilderness." So writes Richard Morenus about his arrival with Nan on the island they bought in 1940 near Sioux Lookout, Ontario. [Source: "From Broadway to Bush," Maclean's, September 1, 1946.]

 

Richard's map of the island for his book Crazy White Man, 1952.

When Nan and Richard first arrived in the northern Ontario bush in May 1941, they had only superficial knowledge of how to survive in the wilderness. They knew how to do the basics, like how to build a campfire, catch fish, and paddle a canoe. Nan had read books by Kathrene Pinkerton, including Wilderness Wife (1939) and Woodcraft for Women (1916), and had even begun corresponding with the author. But the Morenuses soon came to realize how unprepared they were for life in the woods.

Nan and Richard's cabin as it looks today (2020) on Winoga Island. Photo courtesy of Kim Clark and Richard Mansfield, current owners of the property.

Lots of Work to Do

A shirtless Richard cutting firewood in this illustration by William Lacky from his book Crazy White Man (1952), an account of six years on the island. Because he left Nan out of his book, this shows him with a man – possibly Indigenous – instead of Nan. Their dog Nik is on the left.

Their first task was to repair the cabin. The log walls were solid and in good condition, but after years of freezes and thaws, the windows needed new casements and screens, the doors needed to be refitted, and the roof, which leaked in at least a dozen places, had to be fixed. Blankets had to be mended and mattresses patched. Firewood had to be sawed, split and piled before winter.

By October of 1941, they had things in pretty good shape. According to Richard's description in his 1952 book Crazy White Man, their 18' x 20' cabin was partitioned into three sections: a kitchen-dining-office-living space; a bedroom with closet; and a food storage-wash room. "There was a cookstove and table at the kitchen end of the room," Richard writes. "Pots and pans were suspended Dutch-fashion from the logs behind the stove." At the other end of the room were bookshelves and a table they used as a desk. Homemade rag rugs covered the floor. 

Keeping Up Appearances

"Up to our arrival the hardest work Nan had done was to hold a script in soft, well-manicured hands and stand before a microphone, or swelter under the blaze of klieg lights before a camera," Richard writes in "From Broadway to Bush." But by that October sore and painful blisters had developed into work-toughened calluses.

"Remember those commercials I used to do where I told the ladies their hands could have a different look in just 12 days?" Richard quotes Nan as saying. "Look what a couple of months this bush beauty treatment has done to mine." He asked her if she missed New York. "This isn’t half as bad as trying to get a part on Broadway, or auditioning for a new radio show," Nan replied. "That’s work. This is the bush, and I love it. This is fun. Now come on, we’ll just have time to get in the last of that red pine we sawed up. That mallard I shot’s in the oven. We’re having it for supper, and can you get that on 6th Avenue?"

Ninety-four-year-old Dorothy Maskerine, a friend of Nan's, told me in a phone call on June 18, 2021 that Nan "always kept herself immaculate." She was attractive - "a real lady," Dorothy said. Her hair, nails, and make-up were always perfectly done. Her clothing was of good quality. Dorothy particularly remembers Nan's rust-coloured suede slacks. It's hard to imagine how Nan managed to maintain these high standards in a bush camp. 

Mosquitoes and Black Flies

In 1927, Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) launched a 17-year-long ad campaign for FLIT, and insect repellent that used mineral oil to kill flies and mosquitoes. DDT was added to the mix after 1944. Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California, San Diego. Source

During their first summer on the island and every summer after that, Nan and Richard were plagued by insects. "There are mosquitoes in maddening swarms, black flies that gouge out bits of flesh as they bite, and tiny 'no-see-ums' - those infinitesimally small gnats that turn skin to a solidly itching surface," Richard writes in Crazy White Man. "These insects drive animals - moose, bear, deer - from the woods to stand neck-deep in water to rid their fur of the biting, stinging insects." They had brought with them a collection of lotions and pastes - pennyroyal, oil of cedar, wintergreen and citronella, but found that these were not much help. "Those northern mosquitoes and flies went for the repellent like a hungry bear for a berry patch," Richard lamented.

Nan Embraces the Wilderness

 

Photo of Nan in her article for Maclean's magazine entitled "The Woman's Bushed," August 14, 1947.

Nan knew how to catch fish and she soon learned a number of new outdoor skills. "One day Nan came back from a snowshoe hike with a strange Indian in tow," Richard recalls in his Maclean's article. "She pointed to a chair by the stove and pushed cup after cup of steaming tea at him. I’d never thought her ability as an actress would be of value in the bush, but by pantomime and sign she cajoled him into showing her how to set a snare. From that time on her snare line augmented our venison fare with delicious rabbit potpie, and stew. That was the winter we learned to make bannock and to bake bread." 

 

Within a year, Nan could hunt her own deer and skin it herself. She could repair her snowshoes, weaving a new babiche [strings] from deer hide.

 

Source

 

"When will we go back?" Richard asked Nan. She said: "My moccasins are soft on my feet when I walk in the woods. I’d miss my canoe. My dog team would be lonesome if I should leave them. I have more freedom than anyone else in the world. And where else is there anything so beautiful. Go back? Go back to what? I have nothing to go back to. I’m where I belong now. I’m home!" 

After only five months, however, Nan and Richard did close up their tourist camp on Winoga Island and leave northern Ontario. They did not return to New York City, but instead moved to Chicago where Richard had been offered a job as the radio director for an advertising agency. Nan was not happy with the move. 

"The five months we spent in Canada put her right back on her feet and when we packed up to leave in October she had never felt better in her life," Richard wrote to his friend Herman Stern on February 12, 1942. "Now, the city is beginning its insidious work, and something has to be done about it. My only interest in life is to see that she has the comfort and happiness that is most certainly due her. ... She has to get live somewhere where she can see the sky and see things living and growing, and a chance to get out in the open. If I could find the right spot where she could have these things, I'd take her there tomorrow, however much my present income would have to be cut in order to accomplish it." Richard was hoping that Stern could help him find a position in a small town, perhaps at Stern's own radio station in Valley City, North Dakota.

Nan and Richard ended up moving back to Winoga Island, but happiness did not return with them.

 

NEXT: Getting Around in the Winter - Click HERE

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©Joan Champ, 2021. All rights reserved.