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Goderich Signal Star, 2017-01-18, Page 7Wednesday, January 18, 2017 • Signal Star 7 Nistor �:: www.goderichs;v James Mitchell: Controversial Editor of The Goderich Star n 1881, when 33 -year- old James Mitchell took over the editorship of The Goderich Star, the local Tory newspaper, there was no indication that the amia- ble young man would be locked in a bitter 20 -year feud with Dan McGillicuddy, the Liberal Huron Signal's editor. In later life, Mitchell helped preserve Canada's history as one of the first generation of Dominion Archivists. It may have been a surprise that Mitchell bought the Tory paper to begin with. There is only the word of his archrival, Dan McGillicuddy, to go on but Mitchell had previously supported the Clear Grit party. Mitchell only took on the Star, McGillicuddy later argued, out of opportunism rather than conviction. If true, Mitchell's conversion to Tory- ism was sincere because he became a fierce champion of conservative causes for the rest of his life. James Mitchell was born in Scotland, on May 23, 1848. He was a son of Sergeant William Mitchell of the 79th Highlanders. Mitchell immi- grated to Canada in 1868 and worked as a printer in Toronto and London before purchasing The Goderich Star in 1881. Initially, the rivalry between local papers' editors was ami- cable. When Mitchell married Helen Bluett m a double wed- ding ceremony at St. George's church on Jan. 10, 1884, McGillicuddy was a guest. He devoted nearly a column of glowing tribute to the "fash- ionable" ceremony and wished "the happy couples every blessing that matrimony can bring them, and, figura- tively speaking, thrown the editorial slipper after them." In turn, Mitchell and Thomas McGillicuddy, Dan's brother, served together as Knox church Sunday school superintendents. On at least one occasion, Mitchell stepped in to fill McGillicud- dy's place when the latter could not attend a function. Yet, by November 1885, harmonious relations between the editors col- lapsed. McGillicuddy claimed that Mitchell had personally maligned him in L.t,4,0,7‘4 Huron History David Yates a letter printed in The Star under the guise of "A Bay- field Correspondent." Mitch- ell denied that he was the correspondent but said he would not "shift responsibil- ity from his shoulders" for printing it. McGillicuddy railed back in The Signal that Mitchell assumed "airs of superiority" and that he "was not so bright a star in the social or business firma- ment that his twinkle should daze ordinary folk." After abusing Mitchell as a "wretched being," McGilli- cuddy warned him to "keep the hoodlum out of his col- umns." Whether Mitchell wrote the letter or not, McGillicuddy took the per- sonal attack on him as a betrayal of a friendship. Mitchell became one of the town's leading citizens. He was a long time secretary of the Board of Trade, West Huron Conservative association and the Great Northwest Exhibition. Mitchell was a founding board member and president of the local Children's Aid Society. He supported the Imperial con- nection and Canadian involve- ment in the Boer War. He was also a militant supporter of temperance. Mitchell was one of the area's most influential, if not respected, citizens. In 1892, Mitchell's image was badly tarnished for his part in the. Ellen Lomas seduction scandal. In the February 1892 Huron West by-election, a flyer printed by The Star was distributed through the riding accusing Liberal candidate Malcolm C. Cameron of raping and impregnating Ellen Lomas, his 15 -year-old domestic servant. Lomas died in December 1891 from the results of a botched Caesar- ian section. The scandal cost Cameron the election but were the accusations true? Unfortunately, none of The Star newspapers from this period exist. The Signal is the only local account of Courtesy HCM The man pictured here celebrating the Relief of Ladysmith by holding aloft the Union Jack on March 1, 1900, is believed to be James Mitchell, the editor of The Goderich Signal Star from 1881 to 1915. the scandal. In the resulting libel suit, Robert Gore, Cam- eron's former gardener and the story's main source, was found guilty of perjury. He admitted that it was he who had impregnated Lomas. Gore claimed that he "had been urged" to fabricate the story "by the Conservatives of Goderich." Mitchell was found guilty of criminal libel and forced to print two front- page apologies and fined $5 for knowingly spreading the false story. It was muckrak- ing journalism at the vilest. In 1901, Mitchell suffered terrible personal loss with the death of his wife, Helen, in March, and 15 -year-old son, Philip, in May. Even The Signal expressed "the uni- versal sympathy of our towns people in the sad event." The goodwill, however, did not last. In April 1902, Mitchell was chosen the pro- vincial Conservative candi- date in what became known as the "Whiskey and Water" election. Mitchell walked a political tightrope, as a tem- perance advocate he courted the powerful "dry" lobby for support but the Conserva- tive party was "wet:' It was a dilemma that The Signal" was quick to exploit. McGil- licuddy gleefully called Mitchell's candidacy a "strange story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" where "a man seeks election as a prohibi- tionist as the candidate of an anti -prohibitionist party." McGillicuddy urged his tem- perance supporters to demand that Mitchell pub- licly declare his support for prohibition. Mitchell only promised that he would vote his conscience on the issue. The Signal called it Mitchell's 'fore and aft' policy and wondered if his temperance support was "a matter of principle" or opportunism. Mitchell's predicament was fair political criticism but McGillicuddy, poured venom- ous scorn upon Mitchell that was more personal than polit- ical. McGillicuddy called Mitchell duplicitous, "crooked," a "mediocrity" who drove every organization that he was involved with "to death's door" and the editor of a "crapulent" paper. McGillicuddy advised to "wipe" Mitchell out of "the political arena." In a vicious campaign, the Liberal candi- date won by just 15 votes. Mitchell was defeated but the campaign did little to enhance McGillicuddy's reputation who sold The Signal in 1903. The personal enmity between Mitchell and McGil- licuddy earned a mention in Gavin Green's "Old Log School" (1948). Green imagi- nes the courthouse clock say- ing "I have seen the two old- time editors of the town papers, Daniel McGillicuddy, of The Signal, and James Mitchell, of The Star, pass by one another on the old Square with fire in their eyes." Mitchell edited The Star until April 1915 when he was offered a position with the Dominion Archives. Historian Donald MacLeod in "Quaint Specimens of the Early Days" believes that former Goderich mayor and Member of Parlia- ment E. N. Lewis may have created the position for Mitch- ell as a reward for loyal party support. Lewis recommended Mitchell as "an educated gen- tleman of the student type:' Unsure what his new posi- tion as assistant Dominion archivist entailed, Mitchell went about collecting any- thing that he considered of historic significance. Criti- cized for his eclectic acquisi- tions, MacLeod notes that Mitchell's "good intentions did not always produce sys- tematic results" and that "many, if not the majority, of Mitchell's finds were frag- ments of larger series, widely available published materials, or mere ephemera and curi- osities:" However, lacking any direction from his superiors, even when he asked, it is diffi- cult to know what else he could have done. Mitchell died suddenly in London, Ontario, on Oct. 12, 1925 while visiting a friend in the London Sanatorium. Ironically, his most sympa- thetic obituary was printed in The Huron Signal, which charitably called Mitchell's writing "vigorous and inci- sive." The Signal eulogized James Mitchell "as a gentle- man of the older type, cour- teous and kind."