Month: September 2018

The McIntosh Tree: From Apples to Computers, The Legacy Of A Lone Tree South Of Ottawa


The Macintosh Apple from Dundela, On, one hour south of Ottawa, was the favourite apple of Apple employee Jef Raskin, who named his 1984 computer after the crisp apple. (wikipedia)

In 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh, the first personal computer to be sold that featured an integral graphical user interface and mouse. It was a turning point for Apple Inc. that would later develop the popular iPhone that so many of us use today. The Macintosh helped launch Apple’s success, and that name has its roots, literally in a small town south of Ottawa. Within the woods of Dundela is where the McInstosh apple was first discovered in the early 1800s that would later become Apple computer designer Jef Raskin’s favourite apple. The Macintosh would grow to be one of the world’s most recognized computers, and a legal dispute resulted in the apple name being spelled “Macintosh” instead of “McIntosh”.


Steve Jobs and the 1984 Macintosh Computer.

Back in 1811, John McIntosh, a transplanted American from New York discovered an apple sapling on his farmland about an hour south of Ottawa. While clearing the overgrown plot of land, McIntosh discovered some wild apple seedlings on his farm. He transplanted the seedlings next to his house. One of the seedlings bore particularly good fruit and his son, Allan, learned about grafting tress and began cloning apples so the McIntoshes could maintain the distinctive properties of the fruit from the original tree.


Farmer Macintosh, standing next to the original Mac tree, circa 1900.

The “McIntosh Red” entered commercial production in 1870 and the apple became widely popular after 1900. Sadly, a fire damaged the original McIntosh tree in 1894 and it last produced fruit in 1908, then died and collapsed in 1910. The original tree discovered by John McIntosh bore fruit for more than ninety years, and horticulturalists from Upper Canada Village Heritage park saved cuttings from the last known first-generation McIntosh graft before it died, and have produced clones that now grow in a fenced garden in their heritage park.

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This small marker indicates where the first Macintosh apple tree grew, spawning a history of crisp tasty apples, and computers. (Google Streetview)

Now 207 years old, the McIntosh apple still has highly desirable taste, texture, aroma, and appearance, and is also suited for growing in this country’s cold climate. Hybrids, such as the Cortland, Empire, Lobo and Spartan, were all derived from this original tree.

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This map indicates the general location of the first Macintosh Apple tree. (Google Maps)

It’s popularity as an apple certainly resonated with Apple Inc. employee Jef Raskin, who in the late 1970s envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the average consumer. It would be a few years later that the “Macintosh” or “Mac” computer was introduced in January 1984 named after his favourite fruit…the Macintosh apple. It came bundled with two applications, MacWrite and MacPaint, and later MacOffice. So that old apple tree south of Ottawa is responsible for not only years of being the product of pies and school lunchboxes, but also the current iMac desktop computers and laptops, the MacBooks.

Next time you take a bite of one of those fresh McInstosh apples this fall season, remember its literal roots south of town, and the computers it spawned.

Andrew King, September 2018


Google Maps


Library document reveals Canada’s first Prime Minister was a member of the Knights Templar

The title of “Sir” was bestowed upon Prime Minister John A. Macdonald on the morning of July 1, 1867, Dominion Day, in Ottawa. It is common for most Canadians to refer to our first Prime Minister as “Sir John A”, but the knighthood that made Macdonald Knight Commander in 1867 was not his first ascension to an order of knights. A document in the Ottawa archives shows he was appointed a member of the Knights Templar 13 years earlier.


Macdonald’s family immigrated to Kingston, Ontario in 1820 from Scotland, where John Alexander would later begin his practice as a lawyer. Twenty years earlier in the same town, according to the 1890 document “History Of Knights Templar In Canada” by J. Ross Robertson, the first encampment of Templars in Canada began.

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From the “History Of Knights Templar In Canada” detailing how the ancient order of Knights Templar began in Kingston, On.

This Encampment was known as “No.1 or St. John’s in the Town of Kingston”, and met in the house of Sir George Millward, known by the sign of the Old King’s Head. This Templar encampment was also known as St. John’s Encampment No.1.

Macdonald would enter politics at a municipal level, serving as alderman in Kingston from 1843–46. He took an increasingly active part in Conservative politics and by 1844 (at age 29) was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province Of Canada to represent Kingston. A year later he was made a Royal Arch Mason.


Sir John A. Macdonald’s Royal Arch Mason Certificate from 1845. ITNOTGAOTU is an acronym for “In The Name Of The Great Architect Of The Universe” (Library and Archives Canada)

Ten years later Macdonald became a member of the Knights Templar. How do we know this is true?

In Ottawa, within the Library and Archives Of Canada, there lies a document “e008303514-v6” that looks to be Sir John A. Macdonald’s registration certificate with the Masonic Knights Templar, dated June 15th 1854.


Dated June 15th 1854, Canada’s First Prime Minister’s certificate as a member of the ancient order of the Knights Templar. (Library and Archives Canada)

Written in brush script are the words:

“This is to certify that Companion John Alexander Macdonald of the Royal Arch Chapter 491 meeting in Kingston in Canada West and called The Ancient Frontenac Chapter and who was installed on the 10th day of April AL 5858 a Knight Companion of the Order of Masonic Knights Templar in the Hugh de Payens Encampment meeting in Kingston…”

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Hugues de Payens was the co-founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar in 1118 AD.


Hugh de Payan, left, co-founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar in Jerusalem. (Wikipedia)

It seems the Templars were alive and well operating their first encampment in Kingston, and Macdonald became a Knight of the Order 13 years before he would be given his official title of “Sir” as Prime Minister of Canada.


So what did our first Prime Minister, being a member of the Knights Templar, mean for Canada? Well, one could speculate that a large network of Templars and members of the related Masonic order were working together to shape this country. The founding fathers did the same in the United States. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and James Munroe were all part of the Masonic order shaping America to their doctrine.

In Canada it was no different, Sir John A Macdonald, and the Fathers Of Confederation were part of this secret society, including the second Prime Minister, Sir John Abbott. There were thirty-seven men called the “Fathers Of Confederation” that shaped this country as we know it. Eleven of these men were Freemasons.


11 of the 37 Fathers Of Confederation were Freemasons or Templars.

Hewitt Bernard, Sir Alexander Campbell, Sir Frederick Bowker Terrington Carter, Edward Barron Chandler, Alexander Tilloch Galt, John Hamilton Gray, Thomas Haviland, William Alexander Henry, William Henry Pope, Sir Leonard Tilley, and Sir John A. Macdonald. Whether by coincidence or planning, almost a third of Canada’s Confederation Fathers were part of this ancient order.



The capital of Canada, OTTAWA, was not only being governed by the Knights Templar and Freemasons, but it was also being built according to their ideals and symbology, hidden in the architecture that we see today. (More on that in a previous post HERE)

Many of Ottawa’s parliamentary buildings built during the time of Confederation were designed with a Templar and Masonic theme, with Dominion Architect Thomas Fuller, also being a member of the Masonic Templars. There was no escaping it.

Proof of our first Prime Minister being a Templar Knight is not only in the the document within the archive building, but it can also be seen in Kingston, where it all began.

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Behind the windowless lodge of the Kingston Masonic Temple, in a glass case there lies Macdonald’s gilded apron and gauntlets, along with his regalia as Past Grand Senior Warden of the ancient order.


Further proof of Macdonald’s Templar past lies behind a glass case.

It is not known how many current members of parliament are members of this ancient order, but I’m sure they are some still operating as they have been for centuries, Knights Of The Political Round Tables of this country…

Andrew King September 2018


Library and Archives Canada