The following is a document that has been in my family since1984.
The Lost Trails of Paul d’Allmen
Part One
Joseph Graham
While ‘Jackrabbit’ Johannsen has been celebrated for his dedication to skiing, he was far from the only person out in the woods developing trails. Another pioneer, too long unsung, cut, marked and documented many trails in the Laurentians, and started before the famous Maple Leaf Trail was conceived. His maps survive, but for the most part, his trails have disappeared beneath the developing communities between Ste Anne des Lacs and St. Sauveur, or have lost their identity, being absorbed into other trail systems. And St. Sauveur, or have lost their identity, being absorbed into other trail systems. Nothing is named in Paul d’Allmen’s memory, Yet he was present, not just in skiing, but like d’Allmen, stories of people who arrived in Canada like unwanted plants pulled from like d’Allmen, stories of people who arrived in Canada like unwanted plants pulled from a garden and thrown to the side, but determined to survive in the soil. Some had a garden and thrown to the side, but determined to survive in the new soil.
Elizabeth Schurch von Allmen had to care fully examine her options in 1893 after the death of her husband Fritz. Living in Interlaken in the canton of Bern in Switzerland, a region that had not yet discovered its modern vocation as a premier tourist destination, she lacked the resources to properly provide for her 10 children. Among the options open to her was to emigrate. Leaving what had been home to the Von Allmen family since the 1200's was a drastic measure, but even their new life in Geneva could not supply them with the essentials for survival. A resourceful woman, she found a position for herself with the Parkers, a wealthy family from England, and soon departed, leaving her teenage daughter, Emma, in charge of the younger children.
While some of the older kids adapted to their new life in Geneva, others, including Paul, followed their mother. The Swiss government had a policy of encouraging emigration as a means of reducing the human burden on the Swiss infrastructure. The local council offered the equivalent of six month’s wages for anyone who emigrated, but if an emigrant returned, he would have to pay the money back with interest. It was a cold, hard policy aimed bluntly at reducing the numbers of society’s most needy. Six months’ wages must have seemed like a considerable grubstake to someone who could not find any wages at all. Elizabeth, their mother, hod earned the respect of her British employer and could help her children find work, so she could boldly encourage them to leave. She found her daughter Martha a position as the nanny for the Holt family, and she encouraged Paul to leave Switzerland. He began working for the Parker family, and within a year he was hired as a butler for the Drummonds, while his older brother became their groom.
Paul von Allmen arrived in Canada in 1910 with Lady Drummond. He became the butler at their home on Sherbrooke Street in Montreal, and being only 16 years old, was soon as much a part of the family a he was a servant. He must have idolized his employer’s dashing sonvGuy, who volunteered for service when the Great War began in 1914. Guy enlistedvin the 5th Royal Highlanders.
When the Canadian armada set sail in October 1914, it was the largest army that had ever crossed the Atlantic. Most of the soldiers, Canadian volunteers, had never seen action and, in Flanders, would participate in one of the most horrific battles in the history of war. By late April 1915, both German and Allied forces were locked in conflict in the two-dozen kilometers between Ypres and Passchendaele, digging themselves into defensive trenches, churning the ground into a sea of mud. To break the stalemate, the Germans introduced the use of poison gas to the battlefield. The first victims, soldiers of the French army, were overwhelmed, and being unfamiliar with his new weapon., retreated downwind – and therefore moved with the gas. They sustained heavy casualties leaving the Canadians almost surrounded by numerically superior German forces. Incredibly, the concept of defeat or surrender did not occur to the isolated Canadians, Thanks to the quick thinking of the Canadian front-line doctor, A.C. Scrimger, the stubborn Canadians adapted to the gas attacks by holding urine-filled kerchiefs over their faces. They rapidly replaced a series of fallen officers, advanced on the German positions, and regained the line. At one point, when a particularly popular leader was killed, a cry of anguish could be heard and the soldiers pushed on, the deaths making them more determined. As romantic as it might sound today, these men were trudging them more determined. As romantic as it might sound today, these men were trudging through thigh-deep mud and the abandoned corpses of soldiers in a garish nightmare world of barbed wire and exploding shells. In the midst of this madness, working to help the French re-establish their line, Captain Guy Drummond was killed.
In Montreal, Paul was twenty-one and had married a co-worker in the Drummond household named Rhoda Clark. When the news of Guy’s death got back to them, Paul von Allmen presented himself for enlistment and Lady Drummond closed down her home. To his surprise, Paul learned that his very name, von Allmen, centuries old and meaning ‘public pastureland’ in the mountains of Switzerland, was too German. He had to change it for his own safety: Dropping the prefix ‘Von’ he added a d’ and on May 15th Paul d’Allmen enlisted in the 2nd University Company of McGill.
BY November 1915, d’Allmen fell victim to influenza, the killer that took the most lives during that war, but he recovered. He was wounded a year later at the Battle of the Somme, but again returned to active duty. Another year later, he was wounded in the First Battle of Passchendaele on October 19th, but again returned to the front lines. Finally, hew, as reported killed on the first day of the Second Battle of Passchendaele on October, one of the most vicious battles of the war, and notice was sent to his wife Rhoda.
Back home in Montreal, Rhoda had endured her own hardships, losing her two-day-old daughter. It may have been receiving the news of the death of her husband that finally broke her resistance, and she also contracted influenza. Cared for by d’Allmen’s mother, both women suffered the burden of the loss, but soon it was followed with a message that Paul had survived. Initially, placed with other corpse, he was listed as dead, but on October 31 someone saw him twitch, and he was rescued and sent home.
A part of d’Allmen’s skull had to be replaced with metal, and when Lady Drummond later offered to pay his tuition at McGill University. He tried, but in spite of a solid grounding in school in Switzerland, he could not keep up. As he described it, he had forgotten all he had learned. That part of his brain had been irrevocably damaged. While he was recovering in the Ste Anne Military Hospital, his wife Rhoda passed away.
After the war and his recovery, d’Allmen found a position with Montreal Light Heat and Power Consolidated, a firm in which the Holts, the employer of his sister Martha, were founding partners. It is a testimonial to the impression that the von Allmen made upon their various employers that he was offered a job at all. He had been discharged from the military as unfit, and had to teach himself to walk. Rising to the challenge, he became involved in yoga and became an expert canoeist. His second wife, also named Rhoda, was eleven years younger than him, and they eloped in 1926. He certainly wasn’t a catch in the eyes of her family. She herself was raised by her aunt and her uncle, and was rejected by her adoptive parents because of her decision to marry, but even she got cold feet after the wedding and fled from her husband. Three months after their marriage Pail came to find her, having secured a place for them to live, and when their first child was born in 1927, her adoptive parents forgave and became more involved.
They had two sons, and taking long walks with them as children, Paul taught himself to walk with crutches. He also taught himself nutrition, discovering what he could and could not eat. He knew his survival was a miracle, and that he had to look after himself with great care. Those who knew him marveled at his need to meditate, and knew better than to disturb him when he retreated into a trance-like state in order to preserve his health.
Many Montrealers first began to go to the country for the summer because it was cheaper than staying in Montreal. They would give up their city lodgings when the children got out of school and rent very inexpensive lodgings from a farmer. These summer homes and were in boasted no plumbing and because they were situated in farming country, food would also be reasonably priced. The children could run wild, finding new friends or even making themselves useful, and being free of the city also meant cool, quiet nights and clean air. The d’Allmens came north that way, with Paul staying in the city in cheap, simple lodgings in Verdun, and taking the train up north for the week ends.
Like many others, the d’Allmens became attached to the Laurentians. As they prospered, they found a permanent home in Ste. Anne des Lacs, and soon came up north in the winter also. Having grown up in the mountains of Switzerland, Paul cherished the stability of skis, and found peace cutting through maple stands or crossing a snow. Covered farmer’s field on the side of a hill. He soon began to map the trails he travelled.
In 1931 he produced his first map, calling it simply ‘Laurentian Ski Map.’ Carefully drawn in India ink on a sheet a bit shy of four square feet, representing about 300 square miles, it shows Ste. Agathe in the top left corner (northwest limit). Mont Rolland dead centre, and encompasses the area south of Lesage in the bottom right (south-east limit). It includes Ste. Margeurite du Lac Masson, Ste. Adele, St. Sauveur, Morin Heights, Shawbridge, Val Morin, Val David, Ste. Margeurite Station and St. Hippolyte complete with the roads, railways, contours, miles of ski trails with their names, and about ten resorts. The names on the map include Lover’s Leap, Devil’s Jump, Cote du Sac au Dos, and intriguingly Trail of the Fallen Women, a name that seems associated with nothing more than a couple of amusing spills. Skiers would recognize most of the resort names –Chalet Cochand, Laurentian Lodge Club, Bellevue and others. While there is a trail called Johansen(sic), and the trails connect right across the territory, there is not yet any trail called the Maple Leaf. It would come later, as Paul d’Allmen would eventually draw over 40 such maps of the region. His son, Fred, still a resident of Ste. Anne des Lacs, can account for 43, and there are likely others that were lost or destroyed. Some of the maps were hung in railroad stations to guide skiers, and one was copied and made into a place mat for The Pub in St. Sauveur. Many of the maps are signed Paul d’Allmen, Chairman of the Trails Committee of the Laurentian Zone.
D'Allmen used a compass and an altimeter, basing the maps on aerial and geodesy information. He walked and skied the trails, marking and cutting, and in the process left us documents of a much different time, when people skied through pristine woodlands and open fields with a specific destination in mind. One of his maps shows St. Sauveur with every street and house marked in with the owners’ names. His maps were not a commercial venture but a passion, and he did not encourage their commercialization. His son, having inherited a bit of his artistic flare, illustrated some with trains, buses and skiers, and today he and his wife are the custodians of this unique heritage,
Pauld’ Allmen died on May 3, 1981. He spent over 30 years mapping, marking and skiing trails, and some of his maps have been given to the Laurentian Ski Museum. There are many great names associated with skiing in the Laurentians. There is Emile Cochand, Hermann Johannsen, the Wurtle sisters, Gault Gillespie-we all know the list. It is time we add Paul d’Allmen and acknowledge his contributions to our skiing history.
References: Canada in Flanders by Sir Max Aitken, M.Þ. The Official Story of the Canadian Expeditionary Force; Canadian Armed Forces war records information and personal and ski history generously contributed by Fred and Shirley d’Allmen.
Shirley d’Allman was my mother’s cousin, daughter of her Aunt Nancy. Shirley used to type my papers for McGill because I had no typewriter. She was married to Fred d’Allmen, a plumber, who built his house on the top of Mont St. Anne much of which he once owned and then sold to a ski resort. He built his house (literally) room by room.
