Acknowledgements

Although Thaddeus Lewis, the hero of this work of fiction, is a documented historical figure, I have taken many liberties with the story of his life, and deviated greatly from the details in his autobiography of 1865. I have, however, attempted to portray him as the upright and honest man that he was. I tried to do the same with Archibald McFaul, who was for many years one of the leading citizens of Wellington, and whose house, Tara Hall, still stands majestically on that village’s main street.

Many sources were consulted in an effort to provide authentic background details for this novel. With regard to what Wellington and Prince Edward County might have been like in the 1840s, a number of publications were invaluable: The County — The First Hundred Years in Loyalist Prince Edward by Richard and Janet Lunn (Prince Edward County Council, 1967); The Settler’s Dream: A Pictorial History of the Older Buildings of Prince Edward County by Tom Cruickshank, Peter John Stokes, and John de Visser (the Corporation of the County of Prince Edward); Tremaine’s Map of the County of Prince Edward Upper Canada, 1863 (Philip J. Ainsworth’s transcription of 2006).

Special thanks to naturalist Terry Sprague for his description of the Sandbanks of the 1840s and his knowledge of the habits of muskrats.

Information on food, furniture, and decoration was found in At Home in Upper Canada by Jeanne Minhinnick (Clarke Irwin, 1970; Stoddart Publishing, 1994); and Home Made by Sandra Oddo (Galahad Books, 1972).

Details of Lake Ontario shipwrecks were taken from Canvas & Steam on Quinte Waters by Willis Metcalfe (South Marysburgh Marine Society, 1979).

A history of the introduction of the Orange Lodge into British North America was found in The Sash Canada Wore: A Historical Geography of The Orange Order in Canada by Cecil J. Houston and William J. Smith (Global Heritage Press, 1980, 2000).

A number of medical websites provided descriptions of some of the many syndromes associated with cleft palate.

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” by Edgar Allan Poe, was first published in Graham’s Magazine in 1841 and is often cited as “the first detective story.”

And, as always, Colony to Nation, by Arthur R.M. Lower, Ph.D., F.R.S.C., Longmans, Green & Co. provided a succinct summary of the politics of the day.

Thank you to my editor at Dundurn, Allison Hirst, for her astute observations and for knocking the rough edges off my County accent. And again, many thanks to Rob for his patience and support.