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 father-in-law shared a house with Isabella's unmarried sister Jessie Cunningham, at 154 McLaren Street in Ottawa. Jessie would likely have been a surrogate mother to Estelle and Reginald, until he died in 1918, before the Spanish flu epidemic of that year. Low and Jessie continued to live in the same house for 40 years until her death in 1938. After her death, Low then moved to a nearby rented apartment until his demise in 1942.
An 1890s view of the Confederation Bridge area of Ottawa. From 1887 to 1898, A.P. Low would have walked along this street twice a day while traversing between his office and home. Courtesy of LAC photo collection, PA-008344, Topley Studio.
Low's life and career was played out during an exciting and formative period for Canada. He was six years old at the time of Confederation. The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1886. The Northwest Rebellion occurred in 1885. The Liberal government gained power in 1896, after nearly 30 years of near-continuous Conservative government under Sir John A. MacDonald. And in the 1890s, the immigration floodgates were opened and millions of people emigrated to Canada over the next decade. The Yukon gold rush of 1898 was the prime geological event absorbing the energies of a number of Low's colleagues at the Survey. In 1899, the Boer War broke out in South Africa, and Canadian militia volunteers were called to serve with British troops. Although Low was a militia member at the time, he did not sign up, but a number of his militia colleagues did. He did, however, play a part in the assertion of Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic, a process which took on greater importance after Canada lost the Alaska Boundary Arbitration in 1903.52 A.P. was appointed somewhat surprisingly, as director of the Geological Survey in April 1906. He fell seriously ill in December of that year, after devoting much time drafting legislation to create the new Department of Mines. Even with a recovery that was only partial, he was appointed as deputy minister of the new department in 1907, but, except for some business travel, his illness prevented him from playing any role in its management. Although he had a severe attack of “cerebral meningitis” in late 1908, the government kept him on. He officially retired in 1913, but lived another 29 years.
A.P. Low: THE NATURE OF THE MAN
What sort of personality did Low have and what was he like to talk to? We can say that he did not seem to be as gregarious as some of his colleagues, such as Robert Bell or Joseph Tyrrell. In his written reports, found in the annual reports of the Geological Survey, his language is to-the-point, with a great economy of words which make for accurate, if dry, reading. The prose is devoid of sentiment. While this might be expected from an official government publication on geology, Low's writing seems to specialize in this style, when compared to the written works of other geologists of the time, such as those of Tyrrell. Low's almost total lack of use of the pronoun “I” in his reports stands out in comparison with those of his geologist colleagues.
His writings for outside publications, such as for The Ottawa Naturalist,53The Geographical Journal54 and his chapter in Dr. Grenfell's book Labrador the Country and its People55 are a bit more lively and provide further details of the hardships that he endured on his trips. In several sections in The Cruise of the Neptune, Low makes his feelings known when he decries the futility of polar expeditions that have as their goal the attainment of the North Pole without scientific research. In describing the marriage customs of some of the Inuit he met during this expedition, Low avoids a Victorian moralization of the exchange of spouses, noting that, “Judged by the standards of sexual mores of civilization, the Eskimo is a minus quality; but who is to say what is right in this respect among a people situated as they are.”56
When speaking to groups, he never used prepared notes or flowery embellishments of oratory which were the hallmarks of presentations during this period. In January 1905, his talk to the Canadian Club in Toronto was described as “…a plain concise recital…He made no pretense to literary or oratorical style, but just talked in what may well be described as a quiet, homely way.”57 In private, he seems to have had a brighter style, as Frank King, one of the Geological Survey personnel on the Neptune described him in 1905, “A.P. Low is fat and sassy as usual.”58 Perhaps middle age and a reduction of activity in vigorous sports and expeditions had allowed him to gain weight. Low also possessed some leadership qualities, as shown by his executive roles in various sports clubs, his position as a lieutenant in the militia, his command of the Neptune, his directorship of the