Woodstock pays homage to 'renaissance man' more than 70 years after his death

At first glance, the site of Tappan Adney's old cabin in the woods in Woodstock looks like a forgotten crime scene. There's a string of red tape surrounding a small patch of land, and the cabin itself is long gone. 

But small hints of Adney's humble existence remain.

"These would've been the bricks from his fireplace. The lily of the valley plant has grown all the way through there. … That must've been the windows of his cabin," Daryl Hunter says, pointing at shards of broken glass on the ground.

Hunter is a historian and an enthusiast of all things Tappan Adney — the artist, writer, naturalist and one-time Woodstock character. 

Hunter thinks more New Brunswickers should know about Adney, and it's why he's been working on walking trails and signage around the site of Adney's old cabin.

The trail is just one example of several recent projects around town, showing a renewed interest in Adney's memory and legacy in Woodstock more than 70 years after his death.

Edwin Tappan Adney was born in Athens, Ohio, in 1868. His mother ran a boarding house in New York City, where Minnie Bell Sharp was staying. 

Sharp was from Woodstock, and when she returned home, she invited Adney and his mother for a visit. Soon enough, Adney fell in love with Sharp, and Woodstock.

"Nothing had a more positive influence upon my life … no woods had ever impressed me as these woods did," Adney wrote of his fascination with the oldest town in New Brunswick.

One day, Adney came across a Wolastoqey man by the name of Peter Jo building a birchbark canoe near a small creek. That chance encounter changed the course of Adney's life.

Peter Jo agreed to mentor Adney in the art and craft of birchbark canoe-making, and Adney detailed and preserved this technique in writing. Adney's book, Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, is considered today to be the bible of canoe construction.

To better understand the technique, Adney and Wolastoqey canoe makers would often construct mini canoes — one-fifth scale models made of birchbark, cedar, spruce, and moose hide.

This month, the Connell House museum in downtown Woodstock acquired three of those model canoes, on loan from the New Brunswick Museum. They're part of a whole room dedicated to Tappan Adney.

"Things come and go, but there's always been an attachment with Tappan, in the Woodstock area anyway. I think right now seems to be a good time for a Tappan Adney revival, somehow," said Joanne Barrett, executive director of the Connell House.