Living in the same town as Donald Combe has ensured that even the lesser-known characters of history are recognized and commemorated.
Combe, 91, a retired teacher and long-time sexton for St. Mark’s Anglican Church, has been researching the stories of many of the residents in St. Mark’s graveyard for decades.
However, it is the story and life of Robert Addison, Niagara’s first rector, that has inspired Combe.
“Not only did he baptize my great great grandmother,” says Combe, “but he is quite possibly the most significant person in Upper Canada’s history.”
Addison was integral to early settler life, documenting births, marriages, and burials, and providing what for many was a moral compass for their growing communities. His ministry stretched from Niagara to the Six Nations of the Grand River, and down to Fort Erie and Long Point. And all points in between.
It was Combe’s passion that inspired St. Mark’s to commission the making of a short documentary on the life of Addison, courtesy of an New Horizons for Seniors' program grant.
Joe Lapinski, videographer, and local writer/director Barbara Worthy, teamed up with Combe and Peter Babcock, to highlight the 37 years of Addison’s missionary in Niagara.
And what better location to depict that life than the beautifully restored home of Rev. Addison, Lake Lodge, near Four Mile Creek, under the careful stewardship of the Ed Werner family. The original home was built by Addison in the early 1800s, shortly before the completion of St. Mark’s Church, and both have become visible legacies of the Addison era.
St. Mark’s has also opened the invaluable Addison library to the filmmakers, and for the first time some of the 1,500 volumes dating back to the 1600s, will be carefully filmed and featured in the documentary.
The team also solicited the acting skills of local history enthusiasts Rick Meloen, Andrea Douglas and Jane de Munnich, to portray Addison, his sister Mary, and his children’s companion, Rebecca. After the death of his first wife, Rebecca would eventually marry Addison after being his companion for nearly 20 years.
But there is a slight chance that the star power of Cinderella, the 17-year-old, 17.2 hands Percheron loaned to the production by Sentineal Carriages, might steal the show.
The documentary will be released in the new year, and available on St. Mark’s website, and the NOTL Museum website.
