The Real Tom Thomson Mystery is Told by The Jive Bunny

Hi, I am the Jive Bunny,

My father was a fisherman all his life, and was an avid outdoors man who loved boats and camping, and I will be comparing my father to Tom Thomson. Joseph Abe Joseph grew up in a small town of North Bay, just like Tom Thomson who was from Clairmont, Ontario and later moved to Toronto. My Father who made it to his 100th year, just passed away on the Spring Solstice on March 20th of 2010.  Of Scottish descent, as my father was born in Glasgow, Scotland, February 24,1911. His parents and sister were booked on the ill-fated Titanic, taking the Cassandra instead and landing in new Brunswick on April 30th,1912.
Thomson was a graphic Artist that did lay out and paste up advertising at Grip Ltd on Richmond St. in Toronto from 1912-14. He met most of the artists that originated the group of 7 at this Studio. Lawren Harris from Brantford, and Toronto, was the Artist with the Money to start up a Studio building built in 1914 to house these Artists that had a passion to paint. Thomson lived in the Studio Building with Carmichael and AY Jackson. When rent could not be paid, Thomson moved into the shack in the back of the building, so he would have shelter during the winter months in Toronto.
Every Spring, he would head north to Huntsville to work as a Park Ranger and to fish.
The Grand Trunk Railroad was a wonderful way to travel Canada and Tom Thomson would head north to stay at Mowat Lodge in Huntsville, when the weather was too cold to pitch a tent. He started painting around 1912, the boys would go up to Georgian Bay,
to fish, and camp. For the Future Group of Seven, Algonquin Park was a place of beauty. Tom Thomson, Fred Varley, Frank Carmichael, AY Jackson, Jim MacDonald,
Lawren Harris,  Franz Johnston , and Arthur Lismer had a desire to paint the outdoors with a passion, to paint the Canadian Landscape that was like no other, in all it's glory..
Thomson was the first of the Artists to have his works of Art noticed with the Northern River, and the large painting was sold to the National Gallery in Ottawa in 1914.
During the beginning of the First World War in 1914-1917, War Artists were employed to record the war; and Fred Varley, AY Jackson,A. Lismer, and F.Carmichael all recorded what they experienced. As Varley's war painting "For What", the experience of the carnage of war would be an influence on these Artists after the WW1.
Tom Thomson had a physical health condition as a young boy and with flat feet, that would prevent him from entering the war effort.
My Father entered the second World War in 1939, and at the age of 28, became a flight instructor to teach the RCAF and RAF in British Columbia until the end of that war in 1945. Awarded with the Flying Cross for saving his crew after a plane crash, my father wrote 3 journals about the war from 2005-2010. A war Hero and great sportsman and fisherman all his long life, Joseph A. Joseph was the last of a great generation of heros.
Tom Thomson was a woman's man, tall and handsome. The local people of a small town like Huntsville would not have the culture of a big city like Thomson had in his artwork; and he was an athlete who could swim and fish. The women loved him.
An Artist meant nothing to them and a Park Ranger was a threat to the poachers who caught animals in the Algonquin Park for the furs. There was also a war going on.
I am sure many of the local men would have been jealous, or would not have appreciated Tom Thomson's talents.
While working in the Thomson Gallery from it's beginning in Sept 1989-1999,I was able to study the paintings and the Artists. The Ken Thomson private collection of Canadian Artists were the best of all their works of art, all the paintings had the sketches as well as the large finished canvases. The sensual colours of Tom Thomson's rare paintings,
made Tom Thomson one of Canada's greatest Artists as well as the Group of 7.
To Lord Thomson collecting great art was a passion; and Tom Thomson was one of his favourite painters.  The best paintings of Tom Thomson and the Group of 7, belonged to this collection; and now after Ken Thomson passed away in 2006, the Thomson Collection is now housed in The Art Gallery of Ontario.
One of the last paintings Tom Thomson painted was a piece, Behind Mowat Lodge, and this was given to Daphne Crombie ,whose husband who had TB, stayed at Mowat Lodge with Thomson in the early Spring. She knew Thomson did not drown on that hot day in July in 1917. He set out fishing in his red canoe and never returned.
Several days later his body was found floating, after a tourist's fishing line caught him.
He had been murdered, and fishing wire was wrapped around his foot, a wound found on the left temple. He had been shot by poachers or murdered by a jealous husband.
No water was found in his lungs, so he did not drown. Algonquin Park was a place where a murder could happen, a body buried and nothing more would be noticed.
A Coroner from North Bay came to dig up the body to take it to Owen Sound at the request of Tom Thomson's brother George. His body never left Algonquin Park.
Tom Thomson was an unknown Artist who loved fishing and life. His spirit lives in Algonquin Park on Canoe Lake to this day; and my Father Abe Joseph is fishing with the The Ghost of Tom Thomson as we speak.
This is dedicated to the Father of Canadian Art, Tom Thomson whose passion was to paint and fish, and to my own beloved Father, Joseph Abe Joseph who lived a long life because he was a fisherman  and War Hero, my Captain of the Clouds, who will be forever young like Tom Thomson who painted the land, sky and clouds in all their glory. ALL MY LOVE to MY  HEROS. The Jive Bunny