Henry Abramson was born and raised in Ansonville, now part of Iroquois Falls. Through some extensive online sleuthing, it became evident that he was located at the Dean of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences in Flatbush, New York. He received his doctorate from the University of Toronto and has authored many scholarly articles (www.jewishhistorylectures.org ). He had appointments at a number of institutions including Oxford University, Cornell University, Harvard University, and Hebrew University.
In an article ‘ “Just Different: The Last Jewish Family of Ansonville, Ontario,’ “ he sets the scene of a rural and resource- based northern Ontario.
“I was six years old when Ansonville lost its name. Like my father before me, I was born in this remote milling town, located some 450 miles north of Toronto on Highway 67, a spur off Highway 11 just before it begins to curve west. Unlike my father, I grew up as an only child, in two senses: I was the only child of my parents, and I was the only Jewish kid in town, while my father was the second youngest of seven, and grew up in the small but active Jewish community of the 1920s through early 1950s. By the time I was born, a new Jewish child was sufficiently unusual that it was the occasion of general celebration. A
mohel was brought up from Timmins, and a month later Harry Gramm, the snowplow driver from South Porcupine and the Cohen of the North, came to perform my pidyon ha-ben.”
The Abramsons were among the first Jews to settle Northern Ontario. Three brothers — Louis, Nathan and the youngest, my grandfather Alex Abramson — fled Lithuania to avoid conscription for the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, attracted by land grants in the area of Krugersdorf and Englehart.