insurrections, viewed as a potentially serious mission given the example of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. But mostly the militia was called out for other, less serious reasons, none of which tested its military muscle. Just before Low volunteered, the 43rd enforced the collection of taxes in the Township of Low (the name is purely coincidental) about 50 kilometres north of Ottawa in the Gatineau River valley.38 While good at cowing local farmers, the Canadian militia was recognized as “useless for military purposes” by its commander.39 A.P. Low was promoted to the rank of full lieutenant on April 6, 1897,40 but resigned on February 28, 1901.41 One wonders why Low would have joined in the first place? However, the militia at the time was important for social and political reasons, and becoming a officer was a sure route to social acceptability. Men of lower social origins could be received by the governor general (the pinnacle of the social pyramid), provided they were in uniform. But any pay received was handed over to the regimental fund to purchase prizes for competitions and, with the expense of uniforms,42 it is not likely that Low actually made any money from joining. Maybe he signed up for fun, and maybe he wanted social advancement. As a lieutenant, he may even have met the governor general while in uniform; Low did name a large lake in Ungava after the Earl of Minto (Governor General 1898–1904) in early 1899. Low's resignation from the militia almost coincides with his resignation from the Geological Survey to take employment with the Dominion Development Company.
Officers of the 43rd Militia Regiment on training in Pembroke, Ontario, 1896. Provisional Second Lieutenant Low is in the middle row, extreme left, in a crouching position. Photo from Captain Ernest Chambers, A Regimental History of the Forty Third Regiment, Active Militia of Canada, (Ottawa: E.L. Ruddy, 1903) 48.
LOW THE FAMILY MAN
Low was also a family man. On January 6,1886, he married Miss Isabella Cunningham,43 the daughter of C.R. Cunningham,44 a Scottish businessman and Ottawa alderman who later became chair of the City Improvement Commission. Low was 25 years of age and Isabella was 26. How or when he met her is not known. They must have met before he left on the Mistassini expedition in the summer of 1884, as he makes a passing reference to her in one of his poems45 at the back of his 1885 field notebook. This verse from a longer poem is indicative of the quality of his poetry and seems to have been written to Andrew Cunningham, his future brother-in-law:
now if you would learn more
of the poor lonesome lad
just read the letters written to your sister
also the one to your dad
Perhaps they first became acquainted during a social function at the Knox Presbyterian Church where Low and the Cunnigham family were members.
Dating in Ottawa in the 1880s was a chaperoned affair, and, unlike today, going to restaurants was not an option. Not only were such places expensive and the food mediocre at best, but they were also considered somewhat disreputable since they were frequented by out-of-town politicians and their questionable female companions. Worse still, they sold liquor. There would have been visits by Low to the Cunningham's house for discussions in the parlour and Sunday dinners after a long Presbyterian service. The romance survived his absence in the Mistassini region during 1884–85, when he was away for 16 months, except for the brief time in March 1885 when he returned to Ottawa by snowshoe to get authority over the Mistassini Expedition. Perhaps seeing Isabella was another motive for the long and arduous trip. While work, and not romance, appears to have been Low's primary motivation, it seems more reasonable to us to walk that far for love rather than for bureaucracy.
Isabella had grown up in Ottawa in a family involved in both the local dry goods and the banking business. She would have gone to high school, but not university. It is known that she had two brothers and a sister, but no other information about her has survived. A.P. and Isabella were married on January 6,1886, at the home of the bride's father, in keeping with the custom of the time. As the house was not large, only close friends and family were invited. Low's sporting chums and friends from the Geological Survey must have added a raucous touch to the party. On that early winter evening, a sumptuous dinner was served — likely roast beef and pork, with potatoes and turnips, and apple pie for dessert. We imagine the piano being played until late at night, with everyone singing the latest ditties. Perhaps the men slipped out on to the porch in the cold January night for a cigar and a furtive drink. Following the wedding, the Lows lived in a boarding house until their first child, was born in December 1886,46 after which they moved into a house on Wellington Street owned by his father-in-law.47
For Isabella, being married to A.P. Low must have been like her peripatetic husband's expeditions; it was no cakewalk. Money, as for others in the Geological Survey, was always in short supply. Low was absent every summer during their marriage and away one winter as well. Based on the dates of his expeditions from the Geological Survey reports, Low was in the field almost 1600 days, the equivalent of more than four years, during their marriage — a third of their married lives.
The pattern of his annual departures was likely quite consistent. After Low left for his survey expedition by train, Isabella would receive a final letter mailed from the last post office he encountered or, as he sometimes noted in his field notebook, brought by a returning canoeman. She would not know of her husband's fate until he reached “the wire” months later, telegraphing her to announce his return to Ottawa a few days later. As well, his departure timings often provided for awkward family timing. He was absent for much of the pregnancy of his first child. He missed the birth of his second child, in 1889, and left on a trip within a few days of his death the next year. In 1895, he departed two weeks after the birth of their third child.
When in Ottawa Low was extremely busy in his work, sports and militia, and one wonders when and if he found the time for his family. Even when he was at home during the late fall, winter and early spring, free time on weekends was devoted to playing football or hockey. Several evenings a week were dedicated to fulfilling his positions as an executive officer in sporting clubs. Between 1896 and 1901, he had the added obligations as a part-time soldier in the militia.
Nevertheless, the couple found time to have children. Their first child, Estelle, was born on December 6,1886. Their second, Andrew, was born on August 29, 188948and died the following May of unknown causes. By then the family had moved to a house owned by his father-in-law on Wellington Street, near the then plentiful sawmills and lumber piles close to the current Chaudière Bridge.49 It was not in a prestigious part of the city, being surrounded by piles of drying lumber and close to the area where the mill hands lived. In fact, the piles of lumber caught fire in April 1900 and burnt a large section of Ottawa, including this house. Fortunately, the Lows had moved out two years before. In June 1895, their third child, Albert Reginald, was born.50
It seems incredible that Low was able to devote so much time to sports, and to the militia and scientific clubs, while at the same time raising three children, coping with a low salary, and enduring long office hours, along with extensive annual absences. The secret seems to have been that his family relied heavily on the extended family of in-laws with whom the Lows lived, and who would be of enormous help to Isabella and her children while her husband was away. In an age when political influence was very useful, having an influential father-in-law would likely have helped Low's later career. His connection with the Cunninghams would be lifelong.
Isabella and A.P. had been married for twelve years at the time of her death from consumption in April of 1898. She had been suffering for more than a year. Given her husband's busy working and sporting life, it is no surprise, to learn that, according to her obituary, in the last few years before she died in 1898, Isabella devoted her time to the Knox Presbyterian Church. After Isabella died,51 Low, his two surviving children and his widowed
