When his remains were found in Kempenfelt Bay six weeks after his disappearance, the people who knew him were shocked. Up until that point, no one had even realized he was missing.
In the not-so-distant past, people regularly packed up and left suddenly to start afresh somewhere else. Men in particular were prone to disappearing as they abandoned families, ran from the law, relocated for work, or simply neglected to keep in touch with friends and family.
Reinventing yourself was easy. A change of name and location was all that it took.
John Tomlinson was new to Barrie in 1910 and worked in a rather itinerant industry. He was a night porter at the Barrie Hotel on Dunlop Street, but also took shifts at the nearby Queen’s Hotel.
Hotel workers came and went. Indeed, even hotel owners and innkeepers were constantly moving between the many local establishments.
The Barrie newspapers reported on the finding of the body, but neither of the two had published anything about his disappearance in early May. No one would have hurried to the police station to file a missing persons report.
The Barrie Examiner reported that Tomlinson was a Welshman while the Northern Advance believed he was English by birth. The details of his life given on his official death registration were largely filled in as “unknown,” but it did state that Tomlinson was Welsh, so we will go with that.
John Tomlinson’s age was given as anywhere from 35 to 48 years of age. Whoever he was, somewhere out there, someone must have wondered what ever became of him. Did his family in the United Kingdom ever receive the sad news of his passing? Somewhat unlikely.
What is known is that Tomlinson immigrated first to the United States and settled in the Detroit area. He appears to have had no wife or children and had lived in a series of lodgings as opposed to having a home of his own.
Not long before his unfortunate demise, Tomlinson had been boarding with a family by the name of Jamieson. When the Jamiesons left Detroit and came to Barrie, they brought their lodger with them.
Who were these Jamiesons, and were they American or Canadians returning home? A number of families by the same name lived in the Barrie at this time, so their identity also remains unclear.
John Tomlinson went to work for Harry Boag at the Barrie Hotel in mid-1909. Boag had overseen the Clarkson Hotel before taking over the Barrie Hotel in 1908.
Just before Christmas of 1909, Tomlinson left the Barrie Hotel and went to parts unknown. In March of the following year, he was back and working in his previous porter position. As you can see, the disappearance of John Tomlinson, or any other hotel worker, was not something that anyone panicked about.
So, it was an unpleasant surprise for Kenyon Lount and a pal, who were out canoeing on the bay one June day, when they spied a body floating on the water. They rowed back to shore and alerted A.B. Thomas who ran a small engine and boat repair business near the dock at the foot of Bayfield Street.
The trio travelled out to the scene in Thomas’s motor launch and pulled the remains onto the boat. At the dock, the coroner was called for. Boag was brought to the scene and identified his employee.
The coroner declined to call for an inquest. It was evident to him that the body had been in the water for considerable time and that nothing of value would be learned from an inquest.
Tomlinson was last seen by a witness on May 5 around midnight. He was reportedly observed walking up Bayfield Street.
Rumours did swirl around that John Tomlinson may have had some sort of drug addiction. Some theorized that he may simply have walked into the bay while in a drug induced stupor.
The mystery as to what happened to John Tomlinson remains.
His true identity is also unknown. The local chapter of the IOOF had welcomed Tomlinson to meetings so they were happy to take care of his final arrangements. He rests at Barrie Union Cemetery.
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