More
About J. H. Alway
To the Editor of the
Reformer:
Dear Sir: -- In reply to the query of Mr. Lewis Brown in the last
issue of The Reformer concerning J. H. Alway, I would say that John
Hatch Alway was a well known and successful public school teacher of
Norfolk. He taught with great acceptance at Wiggins school in
Woodhouse about 1860 and also in other places.
He was a son of Robert
Alway, M.P., for the County of Oxford, who was unjustly banished
from the country for complicity in the Rebellion of 1837, and went
to Texas, where I think J. H. Alway was born.
Mr. Alway was not only an
excellent teacher but also an author of considerable attainment.
Besides the work alluded to, "Mary Putman and her Two
Admirers," I think he also wrote an historical novel entitled
"The Last of the Eries," giving incidents concerning the
extinction of that ill-fated tribe of Indians, somewhat similar to
"The Last of the Mohicans." If I remember rightly this was
published at The Simcoe Standard office, and also ran as a
serial in that paper, when published by Mr. Abbott.
A severe illness ending in
death at an early age suddenly terminated what promised to be a
successful literary career.
I am glad Mr. Brown has
entered upon the labor of rescuing from oblivion the many incidents
in Simcoe's past history, and hope he receives the aid sought from
old residents.
Since writing my paper on
"Pioneer Teachers of Norfolk" for the Norfolk Teachers'
Institute, and reading before it and published in your issue of 22 Dec
1896, I have, by correspondence and interviews with many old teachers
and others, secured much additional important information, etc.,
which I am compiling and hope to have completed in time for the
annual meeting of the Institute in October next.
Faithfully yours,
W. W. Pegg
818 Wall Street
Port Huron, Mich.
27 Aug 1910
