 A Family Man Active in his Community   .W. Edwin Sowter was the
son of
Samuel Sowter, described in 1899 as an "old resident of Aylmer" when he
was in his 80th year and seriously ill. He was originally from
London,
England and we might wonder whether he did not impart to his son a
curiosity
for the natural and historical world from his own upbringing in a land
where connections with long ago abound. On September 4, 1882 T.W.
Edwin Sowter married Theresa Larue (click here
to read her obituary notice), daughter of Aylmer's first notary
(André
Larue and Sara McNally) in Aylmer's anglican Christ Church.
Together
they would have four children: two sons, Edwin and Thomas, and two
daughters,
Maud (later Mrs. John Forsythe) and Dorothy (later Mrs. Joseph
Sullivan).
As a member of the Christ Church anglican parish of the town of Aylmer, Québec, T.W.E. Sowter left a lasting piece of heritage within the walls of the old stone church on Charles Street in Aylmer where he had been married. Quietly stairing down from the top of the walls are gold leaf lettering of holy texts that Sowter painted. They evoke a solid spiritual connection with the church and the community. T.W.E. Sowter's obituary notices speak of his contributions to
history
texts, one in particular being destined for use by primary level
students
(Henry H. Miles' The Child's History of Canada). While
efforts
to relocate these have not yielded sections clearly attributed to
Sowter,
it becomes clear that recognition was not what was motivating his
participation
in these projects, but rather the desire to promote awareness and
appreciation
of the former inhabitants of the Ottawa Valley. Further evidence
of Sowter's realisation of the need to reach out to a larger number of
people with the results of his research is found in a series of Saturday
Evening Citizen articles published in 1926 (click
here to learn more). What greater gift to his community
than
to share his lively and colourful recreations of the past through
widely-read
newspapers and school texts. |
In
an odd twist of cultural mores, prevalent at the time and possibly
still
invoked on occasion today, Theresa Larue lies in St. Paul's catholic
cemetery
within the town limits of Aylmer, while her husband of 40 years, T.W.
Edwin
Sowter, is buried several kilometers out of town in the protestant
Bellevue
cemetery, formerly known as Conroy's cemetery. This burying place
is located immediately east of where Sowter's father Samuel had a farm
and where we might presume T.W. Edwin Sowter was raised (
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