He was a deceiver of women (including his wife) He extracted money for his pockets by the wiles of his mysteries. Standing over 6 feet tall, almost the size of a grand bear and occasionally sporting a turban G. S. Howard– The Sage of Aru/Carleton Place definitely created the crime of the century in our town, yet no one in Carleton Place questioned his guilt– ever. He was always considered one of the pillars of the town and was said to be treated unfairly.
Another chapter about Dr. Howard of Carleton Place
Dr. Howard, who claimed to have been descended from one of the original 13 Barons of England, was a big man, soft spoken, and used to relate to me about his turkey hunting trips in the U.S.A. He had a law suit with the Montreal Daily Star and lost. The Star published a pamphlet about him and distributed it to the householders of Carleton Place.
He was a deceiver of women (including his wife) He extracted money for his pockets by the wiles of his mysteries. Standing over 6 feet tall, almost the size of a grand bear and occasionally sporting a turban G. S. Howard– The Sage of Aru/Carleton Place definitely created the crime of the century in our town, yet no one in Carleton Place questioned his guilt– ever. He was always considered one of the pillars of the town and was said to be treated unfairly.
In December of 1922 the fact was being deplored that Canada had let “slip over the border” one of the finest art collections on this continent.” This collection” had been housed at Carleton Place and was said to be priceless, containing as it did works by such artists as Gainsborough, Titian, Rubens. Rembrandt, Greuze, Veronese and Raphael and others of like renown.
For this act of dereliction of duty the National Gallery of Canada was being chided. Now there has come a sequel. The owner of the collection, one Dr. Howard, from Carleton Place is at present a fugitive from the law in Bermuda. The “priceless” collection which he sold to a New York collector for $300,000 has been pronounced by experts as practically worthless and a series of copies and imitations. With this view Mr. Eric Brown, director of the National Gallery, agrees, as also does Mr. Ernest Fosbery, of Ottawa, both of whom had an opportunity of inspecting the best of the collection at Perth, where it had temporarily been removed.
According to the American Art News of New York, he is a native of the southern United States and was a resident of an Ontario town, which is Carleton Place. On November 16th and the 22nd there were letters in the Toronto Globe and an Ottawa paper from Mr. E. Billing, of Carleton Place. In these letters Mr. Billing, no doubt convinced of the genuineness of the canvases as others had been, said that he could not help deploring the apathy of “our art directors in Canada,” adding that a truckload of valuable paintings had just crossed the St. Lawrence into the United States.
The next chapter in the story, following the crossing of the border, is that printed by the American Art News for December 31st. It said: “in New York city at the present time is an aged man, ill in body and with mind distraught, because he paid more than $300,000 for old masters which art experts have declared in affidavit not to be worth more than $500.
Back in Bermuda, watched by detectives, was Englishman called Dr. Howard, of courtly appearance, who sold him the pictures, and who sailed from New York on the day following the discovery of the true value of the property, lie claims the right to the title of nobility. His activities in the art world would have extended over several years. He is declared to have been the owner of three old masters which ex Senator Clark purchased in 1910.
The victim of the transaction whose name is not divulged, out of deference to the wishes of his family, is a retired New York business man. He had the acumen to amass a comfortable sum of money and he ‘fell for the lure of old masters or the idea of fabulous riches to be made out of them forgetting that the making of money honestly in art transactions is the work of specially trained minds and of a knowledge so highly specialized that it takes years and years of experience to acquire it.
Mcliurk was the first New York expert to denounce the pictures,
“There Is not one picture in the whole collection,” was Mr. Mcliurk’s verdict.
“What do you mean?” asked the victim, who had lost a fortune.
“I mean that there is not a picture here which would bring more than ten dollars on the market,” replied Mr. Mcliurk. Augustus Lefevre, of Silo’s, was called, and corroborated Mr. Mcliurk.
Last Saturday’s issue of the American Art News retracts its reflection saying:
“We owe an apology to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and all the rest of the British Empire, with the exception, perhaps, of Canada, because it said an Englishman had sold a retired New York business man a collection of 85 old masters which experts had valued at $500. It goes on to say that the man was a native of the southern section of the L S. A., albeit a resident for a number of years of a small city in the province of Ontario.
This man, it adds, is now about 80 years old and is extremely picturesque, in the proverbial southern colonel style. He wears a long goatee, is declared to be about six feet tall, and to be a most convincing talker. He bears the appellation of ‘doctor’ and is a maker on a small scale of patent medicines.
It appears that G. Frank Muller, another expert, had before inspected the pictures and placed their value at $1,500. Mr. Muller found on the pictures labels of Budworth’s and of the Manhattan Storage Warehouse, and of different New York auction houses. Thanks to the “apathy” of Canada’s art directors, this country was not victimized by the picturesque Carleton Place “art” salesman.
In 14 February 1922, Granby Billings, a 90-year-old chemist, arrived at Southampton from New York. Billings was described as having lived in Canada; with him was Edith Billings, a 42-year-old widow from New York. Both gave the same London address: 7 Endsleigh Gardens. Soon after, in 2Q 1922, it is recorded that Edith S. Billings married Granby S. Howard in Pancras, London.
It is thought that this was Granby Staunton Howard who had quite a fascinating background. In 1894, Howard — then around 60 years of age — was accused of swindling $5,000 from Mrs. Joseph H. Sprecht, wife of a wealthy St. Louis clothing dealer who lived at Gunton Hall, VA.
Howard was living in Montreal and styling himself as “Dr.”, although he held no medical license in Canada and was making a living selling patent medicines. Dr. Howard stood over six feet in height, and was described as having “a really handsome face and courtly address, he has the added advantage of a splendid education and great power of self-command.” Howard claimed at various times to have been descended from the historical Howards of Norfolk on his father’s side; that he was a baron by descent, one of the original thirty barons of England; that while he was heir to the baronial estate he went to India, entered the Brahmin-Indian order and gave up his heirship to his younger brother.
The libel action failed and costs were awarded against the plaintiff. It was not the last time that Dr Howard found himself in trouble. The New York Times on 24 January 1922 reported that a New York pearl merchant named David I Rogow was launching an action against Granby Staunton Howard of Carleton Place, Ontario, for selling him $150,000 worth of paintings which Howard claimed were the original works of old masters and famous modern artists but proved to be copies.
Three weeks later, “Granby Billings” and Edith S. Billings arrived in Southampton aboard the Cunard liner Aquitania. Howard, over six foot in height and reputedly aged 90, accompanying Edith Billings, under half his age at 42 and small at 5 feet 2 inches, with blue-eyed with dark brown hair. They must have made an interesting couple.
After their marriage in 1922, there is almost no trace of Granby or Edith Howard. Edith’s novel, Cleomenes was re-registered for copyright by Edith S. Howard, of Rutherford, N.J., in 1944, so we have to presume that she returned to the United States some time in between. By then she was in her late 70s, so it seems likely that she died in New Jersey.
As for Granby, he is even more elusive. Virtually nothing turns up on a search for him, other than two passenger records noting his arrival in Canada in 1921, where his age is given as 60 and his birthplace as Northumberland, England, and his arrival in New York on 29 December 1921 from Bermuda. Again, the age is 60 and he is English. In the latter it would appear, although the record itself isn’t easy to read, that he is travelling with his niece.
Are 60-year-old Granby Howard and 90-year-old Granby Howard one and the same? Was Edith Billings the niece he was travelling with from Bermuda to New York in 1921 and was Howard the “Granby Billings” who travelled from New York to England in 1922?
Was Granby Howard even his real name? It doesn’t turn up on any birth records in the UK (although if he was born in c.1831, that would predate births being centrally registered) or marriage records — and the court case in 1898 revealed that he was married. It is also known from the court case that he adopted the name Wilson for some time, so other identities are also quite possible.
And how did Edith Billings end up marrying a man who appears to have been a serial conman?
He was a deceiver of women (including his wife) He extracted money for his pockets by the wiles of his mysteries. Standing over 6 feet tall, almost the size of a grand bear and occasionally sporting a turban G. S. Howard– The Sage of Aru/Carleton Place definitely created the crime of the century in our town, yet no one in Carleton Place questioned his guilt– ever. He was always considered one of the pillars of the town and was said to be treated unfairly.
His home was burned in the great fire of 1910 and when was living on Beckwith Street-When The Streets of Carleton Place Ran Thick With the Blood of Terror!- Volume 1- Part 2 E.T. Wilkie, Civil Engineer, lost his dwelling which was valued at $5,000. A house owned by his mother Mrs. W.W. Wilkieand occupied by Dr. Howard, was destroyed. Dr. Howard left only a few days ago on a trip to New York.
This is J.G. Lancaster’s Grocery Store in 1947 – now the Eating Place in Carleton Place on Bridge Street. Before Lancaster opened, our dastardly devil of Carleton Place, Dr. Howard, was busy making and marketing his elixirs in that every same building. Knowing of his past history in Carleton Place I have no doubt there was probably some dispute over rent, and he moved on from Lancaster’s to the building once know as Carleton Mill Supplies on Franktown Road. I can bet my last dollar it was somewhere in the back property where the new Tim Horton’s now exists.
In late nineteenth-century physicians were scarce and poorly educated. Treatments were based on the now-discredited theory of the four bodily humors that had to be kept in balance. These might include such treatments as bleeding (sometimes using live leeches), cold baths, blistering agents, and other remedies that were worse than the ailments that they were meant to treat!
Many people placed their faith in patent medicines, pitched by traveling salesmen who never failed to entertain the crowds before offering cure-alls. Modern advertising was born during this area, as patent medicine companies printed almanacs with useful information and humorous quotations mixed with plenty of advertising for mail-order herbal remedies. The newspapers and magazines of the day were crammed with ads for medicines and miracle-cure devices. Most of these medicines were at best harmless; many contained generous quantities of alcohol, opium, or cocaine, ensuring a quick feeling of well-being for first-time customers, followed by the possibility of habitual use. Bayer was the number one producer of heroin for their medicines and arsenic was used for arthritis.
Howard’s popular “Stop That Cough!” – was made at his Orien’s Manufacturing Co in Carleton Place. He had elixirs that cured everything from hair loss to cancer. Consider some of the names of once popular forms of medicine—sugartits (sugary medicine for babies), booty balls (silver mercury pills), cachets (crude precursors to capsules) and folded powders (easier to swallow than pills or tablets). And consider some of the medicines themselves:bat dung (guano), juniper tar, nux vomica, turpentine, hog lard, nutgall, pomegranate, stinging nettle and sarsaparilla..
Howard’s building on Franktown Road that he rented from Mrs. Gillies was painted with huge signs claiming:
“Orien’s Manufacturing Co.”
“Lumbermen and Contractors Supplied at Wholesale Prices”
“Manaca Bitters- guaranteed to cure Dyspepsia–Torpid Liver and Constipation”
“Dr. Howard’s Great Tonic- Only five drops make a dose. 200 Doses for One Dollar”
“Use Oriens Sure Cure for Corns”
“Oriens Linfament relieves Muscular pains, sprains and bruises, frostbites,chilblains and sore joints
and the list went on.
Modern-day medicine has its faults, but it’s is a lot better to be sick today than in yesteryear.I don’t think I could have put my faith in Dr. Howard in anything.
One thing always leads to another researching things about Carleton Place. From one advertisement found, comes a mountain of deceit, a man sued for libel, and one of the biggest frauds ever tried in the Dominion of Canada. All this from one local Carleton Place man called Dr. Howard who made medicine and religious quackery his forte, and was also into green silk robes.
This tidbit found this week in some notations from Howard Morton Brown
Dr. Howard had quite a large collection of oil paintings that were supposed to be worth a fortune in his home in Carleton Place. He sold the collection to a New York art firm, reportedly for a whopping sum of $400,000. The art firm later declared the paintings were worthless, or nearly so, and attempted tor recover the money from the good doctor. Of course they were unsuccessful as they had put their own valuation on them. If you read his ad above, he stipulates that all wide awake dealers carry his medicines. Some even were touted as curing cancer. Too bad some of these folks he swindled were asleep at the switch– so he could get his just desserts. Stay tuned for more!
Buy Linda Secaspina’s Books— Flashbacks of Little Miss Flash Cadilac– Tilting the Kilt-Vintage Whispers of Carleton Place and 4 others on Amazon or Amazon Canada or Wisteria at 62 Bridge Street in Carleton Place
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