58 CIM Magazine V ol 15 No 3 F or over a hundr ed y ears the childr en of Timmins Schumacher neighbour hood ha ve r e c eived a lit tle some thing under their Christmas tr ees fr om a special benef act or a min ing entr epr eneur named F r eder ick W Schumacher Schumacher a Danish immi gr ant w as working as a pharma cist and pat ent medicine wholesaler in W a co T e xas in the lat e 19 th c entury when he or der ed a full tr ain car of Peruna medicine meant t o cur e ex c e s sive cong estion known as cat arrh When Dr Samuel Hartman the highsociety doct or of Colum bus Ohio who in vent ed Peruna hear d the siz e of the or der Hart man decided t o personally deliver the shipment t o T e xas U pon meeting Schumacher Hart man ask ed Schumacher t o come t o Ohio and work f or him In Columbus Schumacher eventually t ook over the adver tising f or the drug Peruna became extr emely popular acr os s the country A t it s peak pr oduct sales r eached US100 000 per day and Peruna became the lar g estselling pr o priet ary medicine in the U S despit e it being lit tle mor e than a mix of w a t er and alcohol Peruna s suc c e s s turned Schumacher int o one of the Colum bus s wealthiest men Af t er the F ood and Drug A dministr ation pas sed a new P u r e F ood and Drug A ct in 1906 leading Hartman and Schumacher t o dilut e the medicine Schumacher made a car eer chang e He joined the rush t o northern Ont ario t o f ind pr ecious met als T he Por cupine ar ea had become the sit e of a g old rush af t e r sever al pr ospect ors struck g old in 1909 T he ar ea known as the Golden st airw ay would become home t o the Dome Holling er and McIntyr e mines By 191 4 Schumacher had sunk a shaf t and st art ed a mine on a lot he had pur chased f or 25 000 by the t o wn of Aur a L a k e in the Por cupine camp Schumacher soon became well acquaint ed with the t o wn and it s people F or the Christmas of 1916 he made the g old f ever induc ed pr omise of pr esent s f or the childr en of every miner in t o wn By 192 2 Ont ario w as pr o ducing one million ounc es of g old annually Schumacher had acquir ed multiple mining oper ations in northern Ont ario the U S and Mexico over the y ears and he beg an selling the oper a tions and land f or gr eat pr of it s He sold his oper ation near Aur a L a k e t o the Holling er Compan y f or 1 7 million Schumacher continued t o build his f o rtune Af t er a f e w at t empt s he ultimat e ly sold another one of his Por cupine lot s t o the Dome Compan y He had f i rst off er ed t o sell the land t o the compan y in 1911 at the height of the rush asking f o r 7 5 000 When the compan y r eject ed this initial pric e he doubled it Each time Dome s manag ement r eject ed his off er he would double the pric e until neg otiations f inally br ok e down at 600 000 It w as Schumacher who g o t the last laugh in 1936 Dome w as desper at e as it w as now c e rt ain it s or e continued ont o his land Dome f inally bought the lot f or over 11 million and 20 000 compan y shar es which wer e themselves worth 600 000 at the time Onc e Schumacher s mines wer e all sold he continued the tr a dition of giving back t o the community and eventually Aur a L a k e became the t o wn of Schumacher E v en when the t o wn of Schu macher became incorpor at ed int o Timmins he k ept up his y early tr adition of distributing Christmas gif t s t o the community s childr en Schumacher died in Columbus Ohio in 1957 at the ag e of 93 He included a pr ovision in his will t o est ablish a f oundation t o k eep the gif tgiving tr adition g oing the F W Schumacher Christmas Gif t F und In the 197 0 s the volunt eer f i r e brig ade of Schumacher t ook over buying the pr esent s f or the neighbour hood childr en on behalf of the fund Each y ear the volunt eer f i r e f ight ers man y of whom gr ew up in the Schumacher neighbourhood and r e c eived gif t s fr om the fund themselves pur chase wr ap and distribut e gif t s t o the element ary school ag ed childr en T he childr en of the neighbourhood continue t o r e c eive gif t s in the name of F W Schumacher snak e oil pit chman mining spec ulat or and community benef act or CIM M INING L ORE O v er a c entury of giving By Tijana Mitr ovic Frederick W Schumacher became the namesake of the Schumacher neighbourhood in T immins Ontario Courtesy of Columbus Library