Many immigrants coming to Canada as settlers came to the 2500 square miles that lie between the untouched wilderness of Algonquin Park and the rugged Georgian Bay.  Thomas Mower Martin wrote that he 'bought and brought up the first, and I imagine only, pit-saw seen in that Township, for a mill was soon started at the upper Muskoka Falls...'  He immigrated to Muskoka in 1862 when settlers were logging just like this, it was an booming industry in this area for many years. There are still picturesque pioneer farming communities.

Thomas Mower Martin, who had been slated by his father for a career in the East India Company, spent some time in basic training at a military academy near Enfield.  His father died and Martin who had not enjoyed the military life was free to start work at age 15 as a carpenter/draughtsman of houses in England. About the age of 20 he went into business with another draughtsman-builder but by 1862 the country was in the grip of seriously poor economic times and they too faced a business crisis and folded.

Martin's brother had already move to South Africa and now Martin felt motivated to move. At that time the Canadian government was advertising for settlers.  He decided to take Canada up on the offer of free land to homestead.  Soon after, he arrived in Quebec City with his wife Emma in June 1862 with full intentions to be a pioneer on his Lot #5 in Muskoka, Ontario. A year later, realizing the poor soil would not produce food for the larder, and now with the first child of nine they would eventually have, he resettled in Toronto. Poor economic times there showed he could not find a job nor discover a business in which he felt likely to succeed. Two resident artists he met had given up on trying to make a living inToronto and moved on to New York city. Seeing a clear field he drew on his youthful art hobby and opened a studio upstairs at 11 King Street West and set up as a professional artist, perhaps the first in Toronto. That kept him going until his death at 96 in 1934.

Martin traveled extensively throughout Ontario, to and through the Maritimes and later westwards to sketch and paint landscapes, wildlife and native scenes, just as they were. 

In mid-life Martin joined the Swedenborg faith in Toronto and became a popular lecturer there as well as on his travels around Ontario and his trips to the west which included jaunts to Los Angeles, California, Portland, Oregon, Seattle where he sometimes organized local Swedenborg groups. He was often invited to speak on his experiences as an artist painting Canada and especially about his travels in the west.There is much more history, some family photographs and 20 colour photographs of several of his paintings in the biography, some from public collections, others from private colllectors.  

The Father of Canadian Art   Thomas Mower Martin  1838 – 1934  by Toni Graeme

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