“Believed to have been the oldest resident in the Orillia district, James Scott Johnston passed away peacefully at his home ‘Airdrie’, Forest Home, on Friday, July 10, 1936, at age 100 years, six months and ten days.”
The short piece in the July 23 edition of the Barrie Examiner appears on the surface to be nothing more than a notation about the natural passing of a local man. What the paper doesn’t mention is that the cause of death listed on his death registration was hyperpyrexia, the medical term for an extreme elevation of body temperature.
When Mr. Johnston died on July 10, he joined a growing list of people in Ontario who were suffering adversely and dying under the conditions of the worst heat wave in Canadian history. From July 8 until the 16, as the daily temperatures hovered around the 100-degree Fahrenheit mark, people began to die. Nearly 2,000 deaths were directly attributed to the heat wave but many more occurred due to drownings as the population sought relief in cool lakes.
“Barrie and district, in common with other centres, is experiencing the worst heatwave for many years. On Wednesday at 2 p.m., according to W.H. Buttery the official weather man, the thermometer registered at 98, though many thermometers on Dunlop Street showed as high as 106. The record for Barrie, according to Mr. Buttery, is 102 some 20 years ago.” – Northern Advance, July 9, 1936
The Town of Barrie soon appealed to its citizens to conserve water as their supply had become so depleted that it was doubtful that any serious fire that erupted could be controlled in any way.
Gardens and farm crops began to dry up and wither, which resulted in poor produce displays in local shops. Even bee keepers lamented that the honeycombs melted and carried the bees away as the melted wax flowed from the hives.
“Owing to the extreme heat, Mel Waldruff of Bradford on July 9 lost 110 laying hens which he valued at $110, apart from the loss of the egg revenue from these lost fowl, and Frank Saint lost a valuable stallion.” – Barrie Examiner, July 23, 1936
And the human losses continued. As July went on, numerous deaths in the Ontario Register of Deaths, particularly those of the elderly, or inmates of the Ontario Hospital School in Orillia and the Ontario Hospital in Penetanguishene, were attributed to heat prostration, cerebral congestion due to extreme heat, sunstroke, heat exhaustion, excessive heat, and other related terms.
Finally, after setting a record ‘low’ (overnight) temperature of 80 Fahrenheit on July 13, the heat wave began to lose its grip in Barrie and the rest of Ontario. By the 16th of the month, the deadly stretch of extreme heat was declared over.
Each week, the Barrie Historical Archive provides BarrieToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past. This unique column features photos and stories from years gone by and is sure to appeal to the historian in each of us.
