THOMAS BONE [1825-1906]

[excerpts from the book “Thomas Bone the sailors friend by Jesse Gibson”]

The children loved him, and listened eagerly to his thrilling story, and teachers and ministers took up their work with renewed zeal as they saw how this aged worker packed his days full of loving service for his Master, and seized opportunities which most men would never have noticed.

Thomas Bone ministered to a moving, floating parish, and he had ever to be on the alert so as to make the most of his opportunities. For example, early in the morning he would go to the telephone at St Catharines to find out the movements of vessels. Perhaps he would learn that a down vessel had just passed Welland, and by experience would know that by taking a street car he could meet her at Lock 25. Consequently, when the vessel tied up at the brow of the mountain he would step on board.

Not every sailor can be talked to, but Mr Bone had other means of reaching his parishioners. Strapped over his shoulder he invariably carried a capacious leather bag filled with literature; fresh, clean, racy, pointed tracts, booklets, papers, and magazines. Copies of the Bible and New Testament, were always carried, and these, with other literature were sold or given away. In addition to  books and papers, he carried a supply of comfort bags, made by friends of the society. Rolled up they looked like large woollen wallets; opened they revealed pockets filled with needles, buttons, thread, yarn and such things. No bag was complete without a New Testament, and frequently a letter from the donor was added.

On the canal Father Bone was a familiar figure. Few men were better known among the sailors, and none better loved. He had remarkable qualifications for the work to which he devoted his life. Possessing tact to an unusual degree. He was able to succeed where another would have failed. He was also endowed with a quick mind and a keen sense of humour, and his readiness at repartee gave him control many a trying situation. It was his knowledge of the Bible, however and the atmosphere of love which he carried with him, that most fully equipped him for service, and made him the successful soul-winner he was.

In this way Mr Bone spent over thirty-eight years among the sailors passing through the Welland Canal. He was one of the few links that connected the old regime with the new, He had seen the towing horse supplanted by the steam tug, and had watched the schooner give place to the large steamer and the whaleback. He had ministered to two generations of sailors, and was making the acquaintance of a third. He had laboured on two canals and had lived to hear the proposition of a third discussed.

Thomas Bone was born and raised in a typical Scottish home.” Bannocks of oatmeal, bickers of porridge, and the Shorter Catechism were my daily food in my boyhood,”

Coarse, but wholesome, fare, a severe climate, hard work, the Bible, the home, the church. The school, the catechism, all conspired to develop in him that gentle, patient, firm, loving, original character that we all learnt to love. His parents belonged to that better class of the common people, who are the back-bone of any country, and whose intelligence, industry, God-fearing uprightness, honest pride, and genuine piety contribute so much to the true prosperity and glory of a nation. He was born in the village of Belhaven, County of Haddington, on the first of January, 1825.

From his father he seems to have inherited that ruggedness and fearlessness of character which every one admired in him, combined with the Celtic fire which fused all his powers into one great all consuming passion; whilst from his mother he seems to have derived the sound common sense, the irrepressible wit, the sparkling repartee, and the boundless generosity which were among his chief characteristics

His education was limited both as to subjects studied and as to time occupied. It finished when he was thirteen, and he began to learn his trade as a stone-mason with his father.

His marriage took place on the eighth of October, 1847. The union was a very happy one. For over a half a century he and his partner were spared to each other, and were permitted to celebrate their golden wedding in 1897, when they received  many tokens of love and esteem from a wide circle of friends. In February, 1899, Mrs Bone was called to her reward.

In the opening of 1849, for the sake of employment, he left his native village for Edinburgh. Here he was fortunate in coming under the pastoral oversight of the Rev Francis Johnston, a man of the truly evangelistic spirit, who took great delight in training young men to labour in open air and cottage meetings. His training and experience here, and also at Houghton, England, as assistant to the village missionary, were very valuable to him. His position at Houghton might have been permanent, had he so  desired, but the call of the New World appealed to him, and in September, 1852, he sailed with his family, from Glasgow, landing in New York on the eighth of October. After a few months with his brother-in-law, Mr Gardner, at Byron Centre, he crossed to Canada and settled in St Catharines.

In June 1867, a special work among the sailors passing through the Welland Canal had been begun by the American Seamen’s Friend Society of New York, working through an advisory committee in St Catharines. The Rev. A McGlashan, the first superintendent, lived only a few months after his appointment.

Mr Bone’s special gifts attracted the attention of the advisory committee in St Catharines, he was then urged to apply for the position of Missionary to the Sailors. His peculiar fitness for the work was recognized by the Board and he was appointed, entering upon his work on the 24^th of May, 1868. His many fine qualities soon manifested themselves. Speedily he got in touch with the sailors, and steadily and surely he won his way into their hearts. By the grace of God he was permitted to spend over thirty-eight years on this field, and in that time developed rare skill in ministering to the men and in winning their confidence, so that in later years he was the best known and best loved man on the Lakes.

At the time Thomas Bone entered upon his work, the canal was not what it is to-day. It twisted around between shoulders of the hills, following the course of the Twelve Mile Creek until it reached the foot of the mountain between St Catharines and Thorold, which it ascended by means of a series of small locks huddled closely together. Those were the days of the small wooden steamers and schooners, which were built in the busy shipyards then in operation along the canal. The sailing vessels and barges had to be towed through the canal by horses and mules. Large barns for stabling were built at certain points. On the banks at almost every lock, taverns and low groggeries abounded.

I suppose that the picture by which Mr Bone is best known among the sailors is that of the man with a bag of  books and tracts, who, with cheery voice and countenance, talked to them of religious things. Certainly dwellers along the canal, farmers in the market-place, sufferers in the hospital, inmates of the poor-house, and prisoners in the jail will ever have hung in memory’s gallery the picture of the old man who loved them so that he found his highest delight in scattering among them tracts–”leaves from the tree of life,” as he was in the habit of calling them.

Thomas Bone died November 22, 1906 and is buried in Victoria Lawn Cemetery, St Catharines.

Nowhere was Mr Bone more enthusiastically received than in the factories at the various olaces he visited. In Hamilton, London, Brantford, Toronto, and other places he gladly spoke to the workingmen as he had opportunity, and always had a warm welcome.