On Wednesday, June 18th, Debbie Marshall, one of our regular book club members, presented Too Many To Mourn: One Family’s Tragedy in the Halifax Explosion by James and Rowena Mahar at our monthly meeting. The book was published in 1998 by Nimbus Publishing, and it won the Dartmouth Book Award in 1999. It has just been reprinted with an updated cover, and copies arrived at the Nimbus warehouse on June 18th, the day of our meeting.
“It had taken less than ten seconds to destroy a city and the lives of thousands. For the survivors it had been a hundred lifetimes.”
― James Mahar, Too Many To Mourn
Debbie is the niece of James and Rowena Mahar; Rowena is Debbie’s mother’s youngest sister. Rowena is still alive, but her husband (Uncle Jim) passed in the fall of 2015. Uncle Jim’s mother was Mary Jean (Jackson) Hinch, who was pregnant at the time of the Explosion. She lost her husband and 10 of her living children to the Explosion. They were living in Richmond, at 66 Veith Street in the South End, Halifax.
“Fewer than eight seconds after the blast more than a thousand were dead. In the next days a thousand more would die. By far the largest percentage of those who died were children.”
― James Mahar, Too Many To Mourn
When he was growing up, her Uncle Jim always wanted to know more about his family and what happened during the explosion, but his mother never discussed the event. It was much too traumatic for her. But his Aunt Ada, his mother’s sister, always wanted to talk about it. His Aunt Ada is pictured on the front of the book with her second husband, Howard Sperry; her first husband died in the explosion. This was typical of people who survived the explosion, they would either talk about it or not talk about it. Debbie’s grandmother was 15 and her grandfather was 17 at the time of the explosion, and he carried the bucket of eyes for the oculist, Dr. Cox, and they never talked about it either.
Despite all the articles and books written about the event, the Halifax Explosion remained a mystery to the descendants of the Jackson family. They couldn’t understand why nobody would talk about it, other than Aunt Ada, who would not talk about it in front of Uncle Jim’s Mother. So, James and Rowena decided to research and piece together what had happened on the day of December 6th, 2017. With the help of Veterans Affairs, they got permission to access the restricted Halifax Relief Commission files. Debbie’s aunt worked as an archivist for many years and was very good at research.
“If you look at all the acknowledgements at the beginning of the story…There were a lot of threads that had to be pulled together to come up with the actual story.”– Debbie Marshall
As they untangled all the information, the full horror of the tragedy grew clearer. After three years of painstaking research, they found that it was “the largest loss of life suffered by one family group in the Halifax Explosion.” Yet, this story never came out, so they decided to write it themselves.
“Of the sixty-six members of the Jackson family who were in the Richmond area the morning of December 6th, 1917, forty-six were killed. Of the surviving twenty, the majority were seriously injured. This was the largest loss of life suffered by one family group in the Halifax Explosion.” ― James Mahar, Too Many To Mourn
The family of Joseph and Mary Hinch sustained the largest loss of life for a single family unit. Mary (Jackson) Hinch was severely injured and buried under debris for twenty-four hours. Her husband and all ten of their children were killed.”
― James Mahar, Too Many To Mourn
The book is a combination of fictional accounts and the raw facts about the cause and the devastating effects of the disaster. They used a combination of science, physics, and geography to explain the horrific events, which depended on how far away from the epicenter of the explosion you were, right down to the seconds. They recreated fictional accounts of the morning of December 6th based on normal morning routines such as getting ready for work or coming off a night shift, getting kids off to school. Her Uncle Jim recreates conversations based on his family’s personality traits and turns of phrase he heard growing up. At the beginning of the book, there is a family tree to help the reader keep track of the rather large extended family.
The book is an interesting read for history buffs and local interest enthusiasts. It explains to the reader why things happened the way they happened, such as why some houses the windows blew in and some blew out, why some houses were spared and others were not. The mechanics and the timings of the explosion are all explored in this heart-wrenching but informative novel.
