Thelma and Louise they were not. Two women of a similar age, fast friends, both just trying to get by in this world but when things went badly and the law got involved, they quickly turned away from each other.
Mary Ann Slater was married young. At 17, she married Alexander Summers who was 12 years her senior. They had one child, a son named George William, who tragically drowned near his parents’ Muskoka home when he was two years old.
Some time after the passing of her son, Mary Ann left her husband and moved to Humphrey Township in the Parry Sound District. There, she found employment as a domestic servant and apparently met John Frederick Cornish. They married in 1902.
John Cornish got work with the railway which brought the couple to Barrie. By early 1921, John was a locomotive engineer and apparently without a wife. He rented a room in a house on Bradford Street just north of Prince of Wales School.
Where was Mary Anne? Married again and living on nearby John Street.
In 1918, she had become the bride of Ralph McEwen, a railway labourer who had just returned from the Great War and had been badly injured. This time, Mary Anne stated that she had been a widow on her wedding day and boldly subtracted 14 years from her true age!
Coffee breaks around the railyards must have been uncomfortable at times. At the end of 1921, John Cornish packed up his engineer’s hat and moved to Toronto where he too married again.
During the Depression years, Ralph was often away with the railway. Sometimes he was stationed at Mimico or distant Hornepayne. Meanwhile, Mary Ann was at their home, which was now 189 Bradford St., struggling to support herself and a son and daughter.
Mary Ann McEwen, always quick to find a solution to a problem, began renting out rooms in her good-sized brick home. One of her tenants was Madam Larkin, palmist and fortune teller.
Now, Patricia Larkin had a story of her own. In 1912, Patricia and her young daughter, Bertha, left Kent, England and immigrated to Canada to join Patricia’s husband, Frederick Larkin. The family lived on Dundas Street West in Toronto and Frederick supported them with his carpentry work.
In August 1930, Frederick Larkin suddenly died. In October of that year, widow and daughter made a trip home to Kent and returned a few months later. On the voyage to England, Patricia stated that her occupation was nurse and that Bertha was a student. The return sailing found them as a housewife and a teacher.
At the end of her life, Patricia Larkin’s death certificate noted that she was a retired florist, a line of work that she had reportedly laboured in all of her life. Reinvention was often key to the survival of women in years gone by, but it was one such adjustment of her personal narrative that sent Patricia in a direction that she had not intended.
In 1933, Patricia’s only child, Bertha Larkin, married in Collingwood. A few weeks later, ads began to appear in the Barrie Examiner. ‘’Madam Larkin will be in Barrie to introduce Mrs. Wm. Ayers The Seeress of Powassan who has a great many people from Barrie and Allandale consult her in the north country. Take advantage of her coming to you. 189 Bradford St., Barrie. Friday, Saturday and Monday.’’
Madam Larkin’s next advertisement included the word palmist after her name. It would appear that she was quite inspired by the popularity of her guest from Powassan and so she set herself up in business in her rented room and began offering readings there from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. daily.
Palmists weren’t unheard of in Barrie. Since the beginning of the 20th century, traveling hand readers would book a day or two in a local hotel, sometimes calling themselves scientific palmists to add a layer of authenticity to their practice. Madame Nadia came and went, as did Madame Starr, but Madam Larkin decided to stay.
Through the autumn of 1933 and into the early weeks of 1934, Madam Larkin did very well. In fact, she had relocated to her own apartment in the Moore Block on the north side of Dunlop Street and begun offering tea cup readings and holding parties for ladies. All the while, she kept in touch with friend and former landlady, Mary Ann McEwen.
The trouble started on Feb. 9, 1934 when an afternoon fire in the McEwen house sent domestic servant, Anna Quance, running into Mr. Cole’s grocery shop on Bradford Street to have the alarm sounded. What followed was a parade of visitors from the fire department, Ontario Fire Marshall, Guardian Insurance Company and finally the police.
Ten different fires had popped up in various parts of the house, it was discovered. Arson could be the only conclusion and Mary Ann McEwen was arrested as it was she who had purchased $3,000 of insurance on the contents of the house.
At the McEwen trial, Anna Quance gave damning testimony. She declared that she been promised pretty clothes and a share of the insurance money if she did not tell what she had seen which was Mary Ann’s deliberate attempt to torch the house. The result was a guilty verdict and three years in Kingston Penitentiary for arson.
However, the McEwen trial brought about evidence that roped in another suspect who, despite her claimed clairvoyant abilities, failed to see it coming. Anna Quance testified that Madam Larkin had been involved in the plot.
In question was a large amount of furniture that had been moved from the McEwen home to Madam Larkin’s apartment just before the blaze. Mary Ann McEwan was behind in her bills and the furnishings were to be repossessed and this was her reason for the removal. Anna Quance said that they had been taken away ahead of the planned fire. Madam Larkin stated that she was unaware of any of this and only required the items to set up her new home.
When arrested for arson and conspiracy, Madam Larkin collapsed and had to be hospitalized for some time.
When Madam Larkin’s day in court came about, Anna Quance was there to give evidence once again. She told the judge that she had heard Madam Larkin lament, “I told Mary Anne to set the fire in one place and not all over the house.”
In June 1934, Madam Larkin was found guilty of arson and not guilty on the other charge. Fortunately for her, she received only a suspended sentence.
She swiftly left the town of Barrie. Anyone could have predicted that.
Each week, the Barrie Historical Archive provides BarrieToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past. This unique column features photos and stories from years gone by and is sure to appeal to the historian in each of us.
