A few weeks ago this column carried a summary of the career of Howard Coughlin, a young petty criminal who soon found himself in jail in 1912.
This week the topic is another young man who ran afoul of authorities in north Wellington County and elsewhere in 1916.
Henry King spent his earliest years in Brant County, where he began his criminal career at the age of 11. His parents told the court that they were unable to control the boy. The judge made him a ward of the Children’s Aid Society, and sent him to the Mimico Industrial School in an effort to reform his character.
Young Henry soon showed himself to be a model inmate, and convinced the staff of the school that he was well on the way to a reformed life. They released him on parole into the hands of foster parents. No sooner was he out of custody than he resumed his fondness for petty theft. The couple returned him to the Mimico School after a couple of months, explaining that they were unable to handle him.
Henry’s acting abilities became more and more convincing. The Mimico School paroled him a further four times.
Each term of freedom was brief. His guardians always returned him, saying that he was shiftless, lazy, a compulsive liar, careless, and a general no-good. After the fifth unsuccessful parole, the authorities at the school realized that it was best to keep Henry in custody. He retaliated by becoming a very troublesome and unco-operative inmate. They were relieved when he left the school for the final time on his eighteenth birthday.
That was in early 1916, and World War I was in full swing. Henry should have been able to find work almost anywhere at that time. Army recruitment had depleted the ranks of workers in all industries, and many were busy completing war contracts. Henry, though, showed no interest in holding a regular job.
After drifting for a few weeks between Toronto and Hamilton, where his parents were then living, Henry King enlisted in the 164th Battalion at Oakville. Later, he deserted when he heard that the 164th would be soon called to active duty.
Henry then moved north, to Guelph and Mount Forest. He seems to have supported himself with occasional casual employment and by resorting to his old trade as a petty thief. He thought it wise to move from place to place before his youthful and handsome visage became known to local police authorities.
Henry’s exact movements through the spring and early summer of 1916 are not known. He was in Guelph as late as the end of May, and by July he was in Mount Forest. Farmers between those two points were desperate for help, and most factories had signs reading “Help Wanted” posted on their doors, but Henry had no interest.
He enlisted with the 153rd Battalion at Mount Forest. When the 153rd was called to active duty and training at London a short time later, Henry feigned illness. He promised to join the battalion later when he recovered. The officers were skeptical, but took no immediate action to get Henry on the London parade grounds.
In late July the village of Arthur hosted a day of horse racing. The event appealed to Henry, who had been keeping a low profile in Mount Forest. He dropped by Bright’s livery stable, and rented a horse and carriage for the day. The proprietor was either an extremely trusting sole, or was anxious to secure any business he could. Bright demanded neither a deposit nor the names of guarantors before allowing the 18-year-old to drive off in the rig.
Henry told Bright that he only would be driving a few miles to the farm of a friend. Instead, he headed for Arthur, as fast as he could urge the horse to go. He apparently enjoyed the day of racing. He returned to Mount Forest late in the day, and turned the exhausted horse back to Bright, who was not happy to see that the animal had been worked hard.
Bright was even more enraged when Henry King admitted that he had no money. He tried to grab the scamp, but Henry easily evaded Bright’s grip. He fled the livery stable on foot. Assuming that his welcome in Mount Forest was over, Henry headed for the railway yards, and jumped aboard an eastbound Canadian Pacific freight train.
Henry hopped off the train as it entered the Orangeville yards early the following morning. Later in the day he went to White’s livery stable, and rented a horse and buggy. White proved to be as accommodating to a stranger as Bright had been in Mount Forest. He told a similar story to what he had used in Mount Forest, telling the liveryman that he was driving a few miles into the country to visit a friend.
Henry’s trip turned out to be a lot longer than that. He headed east and south from Orangeville. At Sandhill, near Caledon East, he begged overnight accommodation from a farmer. The next day he arrived in Brampton about 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
In Brampton he stopped at a livery stable operated by a man named Albert Kee. He offered to sell the rig and horse to Kee for $75. Kee was suspicious–he estimated the buggy and horse to be worth at least $250.
Kee managed to detain Henry King, while an assistant found a policeman who placed him under arrest.
While in custody Henry admitted that he had hired the horse and rig in Orangeville. Brampton police called White’s livery stable by telephone. White had already done some investigating, and he readily shared what he had found out about Henry King.
An Orangeville police officer took a train to Brampton and brought Henry back to Orangeville for a trial. He elected trial before a magistrate only, probably fearing that a jury would be less lenient.
The magistrate heard evidence from all the liverymen involved in the escapade. As well, W.E. Braiden of the Mimico Industrial School came to the trial to testify. He had nothing favourable to say about his former charge, and urged the magistrate to levy a stiff sentence. The magistrate found Henry guilty of theft, and remanded him for a week before sentencing. He contacted the officers of the 153rd Battalion, asking whether they would accept their missing recruit.
Not surprisingly, the Battalion turned down the chance to have their wandering recruit join the Battalion. The unit was undergoing training prior to leaving for action in Europe. Henry King was not the kind of man anyone wanted on active duty.
The magistrate levied a sentence of two years less a day, to be served at the new Guelph reformatory facility. He hoped that the manual and agricultural training there would do more good than sentencing Henry to a longer term in a penitentiary, where he would, no doubt, have received advanced training in criminal activities from seasoned and experienced convicts.
The jail term ended Henry’s military career. The war ended three months after he left jail. The 153rd Battalion had managed quite well without their prize recruit.