Revealed Might 22, 2024 • Final up to date Might 22, 2024 • 4 minute learn
Dr. Solomon Secord was a Kincardine household physician for 50 years. His service within the Accomplice Military through the American Civil Struggle has created a cancel tradition with some Kincardine residents. – Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre, A2019.075.022, R.J. Merritt
Article content material
By Robin Hilborn
Bruce County Historic Society
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
Article content material
Article content material
For 50 years Kincardine’s well-loved Dr. Solomon Secord was the city’s household physician, “devoted to benevolence and charity”, as his tombstone says.
But he travelled to the U.S. Deep South because the Civil Struggle loomed and served as a surgeon within the Accomplice Military. It stays a permanent thriller why he did so.
Solomon Secord (1834–1910) was born by Burlington Bay, close to Hamilton, a baby of the well-known Secord household—he was a grand nephew of Laura Secord, who warned the British about American plans for a shock assault through the Struggle of 1812.
He got here to the Bruce within the late 1850s as Dr. Secord, working towards medication for a short while in Walkerton, then shifting to Kincardine. He frolicked away solely twice: 4 years in Georgia within the early 1860s, and a yr in Sedalia, Missouri, within the late sixties.
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
It’s his first absence which has generated an issue. Listed here are the details, as recited in his obituary within the Kincardine Evaluation of April 28, 1910.
In opposition to his father’s needs he travelled to Georgia simply earlier than the beginning of the Civil Struggle. When struggle broke out in April 1861 he signed up as a surgeon within the Accomplice Military. He was captured by the Union Military, held hostage for a number of months, escaped and returned to his place as Surgeon-Main, in command of hospitals. He resigned (in late 1864) and returned house.
The obituary makes one factor clear: “The doctor was an abolitionist and, having the courage of his convictions, he said so, and that was a dangerous thing to do in a southern state. He was arrested and tried. The proceedings were wholly irregular and unauthorized by law but each district was a law unto itself in those days. Few men ever escaped hanging as narrowly as did Dr. Secord at that time, but he had some friends there who armed to prevent it. Although an abolitionist he served as a surgeon in the Southern army during the whole course of the war. He was enrolled in the 20th Georgia Regiment.”
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
It’s not clear why Dr. Secord went south. One concept is that he had kinfolk in Georgia he wished to go to, presumably to relaxation up from a spell of ailing well being.
In any case, Secord returned to Kincardine and stayed till he died on April 24, 1910. 4 days later the Kincardine Evaluation printed his obituary, “The last words of Solomon Secord, M.D. of Kincardine, who passed away on Sunday morning after a life of hard work and kind deeds.” The Evaluation referred to as him “one of the best-known physicians in Bruce”.
His monument in Kincardine Cemetery is inscribed, “Erected by his friends to a man who was unalterably opposed to all forms of insincerity, cant and hypocrisy. He loved children and animals and was rich in all the things worth while. His life was devoted to benevolence and charity and he still lives in the affection of the people.”
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
As well as, a grateful citizenry donated over $700 for a granite memorial topped by a sundial, to be positioned within the city sq..
Its inscription, now controversial, reads, “To Solomon Secord, 1834-1910. Our family physician for 50 years. This memorial was erected by his loving friends. Served as surgeon with the Southern Army during the American Civil War. All that lived he loved, and without regard for fee or reward, he did his work for love of his fellows.”
In spring 2023, through the reconstruction of Queen Road, the Secord memorial was faraway from exterior Kincardine library and put in storage. It will probably’t be returned to its unique location, so the query is whether or not, and the place, to reinstall it.
That revived a problem which first surfaced in 2018 when a resident requested council to take away the memorial, however was denied.
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
The difficulty appears to be that the sundial monument says Dr. Secord served within the Accomplice Military, implying that he accepted of slavery, on condition that the Confederacy was in favour of slavery.
Some folks take exception to that wording and would ban the monument. Others object to everlasting elimination as being disrespectful to Secord’s service and as constituting erasing or denying historical past.
There isn’t a dispute that the physician served on the Accomplice facet within the Civil Struggle. A couple of hundred Canadians did battle within the Accomplice military however most—about 40,000—joined the Union Military (many already lived within the U.S.). Nevertheless Dr. Secord was not a soldier. As a physician he was categorised a non-combatant.
The city has employed a advisor, Dr. Laura Mae Lindo, to collect group enter on the destiny of the Secord memorial.
A web-based survey closed on March 31, 2024. Interviews of group teams befell in April and group conferences in Might. Council will determine the monument’s future in August. For a background doc, see “www.kincardine.ca/Secord
The destiny of the Dr. Solomon Secord Memorial is within the arms of Kincardine politicians. It was moved from in entrance of the Kincardine library throughout highway building final yr and might’t be returned to that location. Some in the neighborhood wish to ban the memorial primarily based on Dr. Secord’s service within the Accomplice Military through the American Civil Struggle. – Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre, A2014.008.0401, Frank J. Lee
Article content material
Share this text in your social community
