WATERLOO — Joanna Rickert-Hall is, simply put, the Sherlock Holmes of local history.
Give her an archival file, a tattered journal plus a few hours of free time and the Waterloo-based historian will ferret out a good story and, of course, one story leads to another like a spider web of connecting threads, each taking her research in a different direction but all coming from a similar source.
That’s the beauty of history, she said, you just never know where you will end up and on Monday, Oct. 15, 1:30 p.m. Rickert-Hall will share some of what she has discovered related to early black history in the region.
Her talk, entitled Tales of Humanity and Hardship: An examination of Early Black Migration in Waterloo-Wellington Counties, is the first time she will speak publicly about her discoveries as part of the Waterloo Region Museum TALKS series.
Rickert-Hall, who holds several graduate degrees, describes herself as a history presenter and heritage planner, a professional historian and academic who teaches on contract at the University of Waterloo and works as a weekend supervisor at Joseph Schneider Haus museum. She lives and breathes history and thankfully, Waterloo Region provides plenty of fodder.
To her, history is about more than dates and events. “What interests me is, what mattered to people, what did people believe in?” she asked. “What did people do to get by?” It is stories about the everyday life of early settlers that intrigues Rickert-Hall, particularly those stories she uncovers unexpectedly.
“You start with bread crumbs,” she said. “It is a very difficult story for some of the people that came here, poor, uneducated, with few skills. Sometimes they had help from the community. Sometimes they were isolated (geographically).”
There were also positive elements to her research. She said that though written history tends to favour the stories of white immigration, Rickert-Hall was excited to learn of the cultural mix in the early 1800s.
“I began to realize what a multi-cultural community we were,” she said. Black families and individuals, mostly escaped American slaves, often found their way here through the Underground Railway and fully integrated.
“There was a significant group of people here,” she said. “Little is known about them. They were here and made significant contributions.”
One of the most fascinating stories is of Levi Carroll, the last person to actually occupy the 1820 historic log school house which was moved to Waterloo Park in 1894. In typical Mennonite tradition of nothing going to waste, when the school became too small to serve the growing population it was simply moved to a different location and became Levi’s home for 50 years.
“He had three wives he outlived,” said Rickert-Hall, who added, Carroll lived to “a ripe old age” but after his last wife died, the poor man ended up in the poor house, unable to care for himself given he only had one leg.
Then there was the story of little Issac Jones who managed to get lost in the thick woods surrounding Waterloo and after a relentless seven-day search by his white caregivers, he was finally discovered huddled up and in the protective company of a couple of dogs. Such care in searching for the child indicated a depth of feeling and caring, said Rickert-Hall.
She also learned that it was common for many of the Mennonite families to take in black and aboriginal children who didn’t have families of their own, in something akin to foster care.
In her research, she also read about many black communities that existed in places such as Bloomingdale and Wallenstein and how Addie Aylestock, who grew up in Glen Allen, became the first ordained female minister of the British Methodist Episcopal Church and the first black female minister in Canada.
In her 20-year career, Aylestock set up other congregations around Ontario.
“There are so many of these stories out there,” said Rickert-Hall. “And they are all intertwined.”
Waterloo Region Museum TALKS Series
10 Huron Rd., Kitchener,
Monday, Oct. 15, 1:30 p.m.
Joanna Rickert-Hall, Tales of Humanity and Hardship: An examination of Early Black Migration in Waterloo-Wellington Counties
Single ticket price $8 or pass $40 plus HST, in advance only for all eight talks.