Tom Longboat was born on the Six Nations Reserve on June 4, 1886 and was the middle child of George and Elizabeth Longboat, sandwiched between older sister Lucy, and a younger brother Simon.
As soon as Longboat could walk, he was running.
He ran amongst the cows on his family’s farm.
He raced his mother’s wagon 40km from Hamilton to Brantford.
A residential school survivor, he was inspired by Bill Davis of the Six Nations Reserve who finished second in the Boston Marathon in 1901.
On Victoria Day 1905, Longboat ran in his first race in Caledonia, Ontario. The 19-year-old finished second.
After that race, he began to train under Bill Davis and a few months later he ran the prestigious Around the Bay Road Race in 1906
This time, he won!
Defeating his closest competitor by three minutes and nearly breaking record time in the process.
Eventually, in 1907, he won the Boston Marathon, setting a new course record.
But this episode isn’t about the running career of Tom Longboat. If you want to learn more about his running and life, then check out my episode about him from my other podcast Canadian History Ehx.
No, today we are looking at his life as a soldier, which is too often ignored in the larger story of his athletic heroics.
Longboat volunteered for service in February 1916 in Toronto. He originally had the plan to enlist with the scout section of the 125th Battalion in Brantford, but when he learned that there was a Sportsmen Battalion, he decided he wanted to enlist with that battalion instead. To do so, he walked from Brantford to Toronto in two days.
The Montreal Gazette wrote,
“The famous marathoner was very much disappointed when he learned that he would have to be formally transferred from the 125th to the 180th and wanted to know right away what the prospects of the change of unit are. He will apply for the transfer at once.”
Longboat was given the rank of private but even though he was choosing to fight for a country that didn’t even allow him to vote, the media criticized him. The Montreal Star wrote,
“All the experts select Longboat as the most difficult recruit to train in the British Empire as he was always unmanageable. But Tom merely smiles and says, “The time has come for married men to enlist.”
Longboat would prove everyone wrong with his war service.
While he waited to be shipped off to France, Longboat continued to compete in races among the other recruits with him. He also took part in a boxing match with another member of his battalion named Thomas Daly.
Longboat stated that Daly never saw the day that he could defeat him, while Daly stated Longboat would wish he left with the first contingent.
The Toronto Star reported on March 10, 1916, the day after the fight,
“Both the Toms were going along well for two rounds with honors about even. In the first minute of the third round, Daly swung his right from the floor that brought the Indian flush on the jaw and it looked all over but the shouting.”
On April 13, Longboat was promoted to Lance Corporal, along with his sparring partner Thomas Daly.
Two months later, Longboat raced Ted Woods and Jim Corkery in a five kilometre race at the Exhibition Grounds in Toronto where he won the Toronto Daily Star Trophy.
When he was transferred to Camp Borden, Longboat commented on the ease of military life and how much he enjoyed spending his days speaking with Father Kelly at the camp. He said,
“Nothing to do and a dollar ten a day for doing it.”
On Sept. 8, 1916, he raced against Ted Wood, another member of his battalion and easily won the race.
Finally in October, Longboat and his battalion began their journey to the east coast to begin heading over to England. After waiting in Newfoundland, where he raced a few more races, Longboat travelled to Scotland with his battalion, where he continued to race in small competitions with other soldiers.
However, it was a few weeks after he reached England that reports started to appear that Tom Longboat was far from his unit. The Daily News Advertiser reported that Tom Longboat was in Hot Springs, Arkansas, training for professional races, rather than with his unit. Then a month later the same newspaper reported that Longboat was in England, where he raced others on Feb. 26 in his unit during a sports day.
This confusion was finally reported when it was revealed that there was a man in the United States claiming to be Tom Longboat. At the time, no one thought to verify any of the information and just assumed that Longboat was in the United States, rather than serving his country.
All because of a man named Edgar Laplante.
Edgar Laplante was a conman and liar.
Born in Rhode Island, he spent his adult life conning businessmen, befriending politicians and seducing women by posing as everything from Chief White Elk to American war heroes.
He was able to meet Edward VIII during a visit to England by calling himself Prince Tewanna Ray and left behind a series of unpaid bills and loans he never intended to repay.
Unfortunately, the most famous marathon runner in the world, Tom Longboat, was just another victim of Laplante.
Laplante didn’t steal money directly from Longboat. Instead, he stole his identity to con others out of their money.
While Longboat was serving his country overseas, Laplante started to travel around the United States giving concerts and lectures while collecting a lot of money in appearance fees in the process.
And it seemed that no one in the United States cared to double check just how Longboat could be in Europe and the United States at the same time.
In August 1917, Laplante, under Longboat’s name, enlisted as a civilian crewman with the US Army Transport Service.
This made news across the United States and most newspapers used a photo of Laplante who looked nothing like Longboat.
To add insult to injury, when a newspaper did question who the real Longboat was, the one in France or the one in the United States, they often sided with Laplante.
In Canada, the newspapers were less fooled. The Vancouver Province wrote,
“The Tom Longboat faker has sprung into notoriety again. This time he has, according to the latest information, joined the United States transport service. The bogus Longboat is evidently the same individual who worked the trick in California until exposed. One thing to the faker’s credit, is that he is persistent.”
In Europe, Longboat heard about Laplante, and he wrote a letter to the imposter threatening legal action. quote
“I am going to have three charges against this man. One for making false statements, second for impersonation, third for intent to defraud the public at large.”
Yet even when American newspapers circulated the letter by Longboat, they ran photos of Laplant instead.
Eventually, Laplante gave up the Longboat charade and moved on to other cons.
He made his way to Switzerland where he was arrested and spent a year in jail.
Then in 1925, he was arrested in Italy and spent four years in jail.
He eventually died in New York City in 1944.
In February 1917, Longboat was transferred to the 107th Timber Wolf Battalion. In England, he mostly did agriculture work but eventually he would find his way to France, where he was given the job of dispatch runner.
In May 1917, he wrote home from England just before he transferred to France. In his letter he stated that he wanted to study law when he got home to Canada after the war. He wrote to Tim O’Rourke,
“I want to take up law course for seven years. Would that be plenty long enough? So that is the consequences over this war. Oh well, I appreciate it anyhow. That gave me a great encouragement and great development of knowledge and I support you heard about Canadians’ big successes at the front. Do you think that you can recognize me when I go back? I am getting bigger every day.”
There couldn’t have been someone better suited for the role of dispatch runner.
However, being a dispatch runner was an incredibly dangerous job.
They had to deliver urgent orders and messages between headquarters and military units. When communication lines were cut during a battle, the dispatch runner was an important part of keeping communications intact.
While everyone sought shelter during a battle, dispatch runners had to leave the safety of the trenches to transport messages amid gunfire and shell explosions.
On Aug. 16, the Ottawa Citizen once again stated that the real Tom Longboat was in France, while the fake one was touring the United States.
Throughout the summer, Longboat continued to race against Canadians and British soldiers, while serving as a dispatch runner. The Times-Transcript wrote,
“Tom Longboat, whose doings while in Canada were somewhat erratic towards the end, has been defeating English, Canadian and other runners of repute at the front. Service in the ranks evidently has put the Indian on his sturdy feet again.”
The terrible reporting on the activities of Longboat continued and twice in the autumn of 1917 he was reported to be killed in action. Both times, it was proven false.
The Ottawa Journal reported on Oct. 15, 1917, stating:
“Word has received here from Tom Daly, former trainer of Tecumseh Lacrosse Club and Toronto Baseball Club, who went overseas with the sportsmen’s battalion, that Tom Longboat, the famous Indian marathon runner, has been killed in action.”
In a letter he wrote home soon after he was reported dead, Longboat said,
“You may think this is because I wanted an easier job. I don’t want the job, and another thing, there is nobody else that can talk my language. I am all alone but I know the Mohawk people can do it. They have education and I have none. I only have my brains. I only self made man.”
One rumour swirled that Longboat had entered a communication trench and was buried by a shell blast.
For six days, he was buried until he was finally rescued.
In 1919, Longboat stated this was not true.
These false reports had a major impact on Longboat’s personal life.
His wife, who had believed he was dead, remarried. After she found out he was alive, she decided not to leave her new husband.
In March 1918, Russell Love wrote home stating he had seen Longboat. He wrote,
“I saw Tom Longboat some time ago. He is fine and fit.”
On May 13, 1918, Longboat wrote home about the two things he hoped to achieve before he died in France. He said,
“I would like to win a Military Medal to go with my track prizes and I would also like to meet the man who impersonated me when enlisting in the United States army.”
In August 1918, Longboat wrote home that he hoped to take a civil engineering course. To help with that, he wrote to the City of Toronto and asked for the $500 they promised him over a decade earlier when he won the Boston Marathon. He had never received the money and he never would.
Longboat returned home from the First World War in May 1919, ready to return to civilian life.
The Toronto Star wrote, on May 10, 1919, when Longboat arrived back home in Toronto.
“Tom didn’t have much to say but smiled a broad smile when another Tom, Tommie Church, Mayor, took off the Indians khaki cap and commented upon his luxuriant growth of black hair.”
Lou Marsh interviewed Longboat after he arrived home. He asked how he liked soldiering, to which Longboat responded it was okay. When asked if he was ever hit, he responded no but he was hit with mud in explosions and locked down. Marsh asked him what he did in the war, Longboat responded,
“Oh, anything. Carrying messages, running dispatch riding and digging ditches.”
During the war, Longboat served in both Passchendaele and Vimy Ridge, rose to the rank of Lance Corporal, and won several inter-battalion sporting contests including a 13-km race at the Canadian Corps Dominion Day competitions on July 1, 1918.
After the war, Longboat found a job with the City of Toronto, in the street cleaning department where he cleaned the streets and collected garbage, which delighted some journalists who wrote,
“A rubbish man! A particularly nice rubbish man, an Indian rubbish man!”
Longboat worked for the department for the next 19 years and during that time things began to improve.
He met Martha Silversmith in Toronto, with whom he had four children.
His legend still loomed large as well. Runners often sought him out for advice. The Windsor Star wrote,
“His advice was something to be sought, and his wide experience helped many young men in the marathon field. His great bit of advice was to save strength at the beginning of a race and use it in the finish.”
When reporters took pictures of him working in his overalls and asked him what it was like to be cleaning streets when he was once racing for thousands of people. He said,
“I’m doing alright, just living along.”
When the Second World War broke out, “Garbageman Longboat” as the newspapers insisted on calling him now, enlisted to serve with the Home Guard.
During this time, a new imposter stole r his identity to get drinks at taverns.
It led to newspapers writing stories about Longboat’s alleged alcoholism, when that was not the case at all.
It got so bad that Longboat eventually sent a picture of himself to the newspapers to stop what he called a two-bit imposter from damaging his reputation.
In 1944, Longboat retired to spend his time with his family and took long walks to Hagersville and back, 11 kilometres, each market day.
On Jan. 9, 1949, Longboat passed away in Brantford from pneumonia.
Upon his death, the Calgary Albertan wrote,
“The courageous Indian brought many running titles to Canada and made Ontario running mad. It is said the parks and back lanes of the Ontario capital were cluttered with aspiring youngsters whose ambition was to become his successor.”
