​Secord Memorial belongs in front of Kincardine Library

To the Editor:
RE: “Kincardine council to determine fate of Secord monument next month”

Apparently, the Municipality of Kincardine is not going to allow Dr. Solomon Secord to rest in peace.

Living on the main street, we went to the pre-construction meetings and asked about the Secord Memorial that has stood for more than 100 years in front of the Kincardine Library. We were told that it would be moved a few feet to allow for the new entrance to the library.

Staff told council at a recent meeting that the new location will not allow for the memorial to serve effectively as a sundial. (I don’t know anyone who used it to check the time!)

In the grand scheme of things, it’s not really very historic. The memorial shows the affection that the people of this area had for a long-serving doctor. The people of the community raised the money and had a memorial erected. It’s part of Kincardine’s history. Most towns guard their history – that’s what makes them interesting.

But Secord committed a mortal sin in the eyes of those who want to erase anyone, historical or not, who didn’t abide by today’s standards regarding diversity, equality, etc. Unfortunately, in the past decade, many of the statues of our first prime minister have been relegated to the dust bin as have the reputations of many others who helped build this great country.

Secord’s supposed sin: he served as a doctor in the American Civil War in the army of the south. Following a stint as a prisoner of war, he was put in charge of hospitals for the Confederate army and given the rank of surgeon-general.

In 2018, council denied a request by a Kincardine resident, who grew up in the United States, to have the memorial removed. He suggested anyone in the southern army was a racist.

Scott McFadyen has an interesting article on Secord in “Kincardine – Glimpses of the Past,” published in 1980.

McFadyen writes: “Although urged by his father not to go, Dr. Secord went to Georgia just prior to the civil war, not believing there would be a major outbreak. He was an abolitionist and had the courage to speak his mind. This quality got the doctor into serious trouble and he was tried, in a rigged trial, and found guilty. Very few men have come as close to hanging as Dr. Secord did, and lived to talk about it. He would have hung but was saved by armed friends who whisked the good doctor away at the last minute.”

Secord, great-nephew of Canadian heroine Laura Secord, was not a racist. The people of Kincardine loved him. And his experience operating on wounded soldiers during the war no doubt helped make him one of the better doctors in Canada.

Hopefully, council sticks to its word and keeps the memorial in front of the library – and in the sun. The memorial is part of our history.

Eric Howald
Kincardine