This book represents the fulfilment of a request made by my dad’s first cousin, Charlie Fraser, in May 1973, when, at the age of 92, he gave me a somewhat weathered brown envelope stuffed with documents to be used in writing his official biography later. It is unclear what he meant by later, but now, after more than 40 years, his request is finally being honoured.

Had he been born a few generations later, Charlie might have become another Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple Computer) or Usain Bolt (world champion sprinter). Born in 1881 in the small town of Cookshire in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, Charles Clark Fraser was a man who was, in many respects, miles ahead of his time. In spite of significant disabilities, this remarkable man’s long life was punctuated by many unique accomplishments in a wide variety of fields. Rarely has a single individual practiced so many vocations over a lifetime. To borrow a line from the 18th century nursery rhyme Rub-a-dub-dub, he was neither a butcher, a baker nor candlestick maker, but he was almost everything else. Charlie was a gold prospector, an inventor, a woodsman, an athlete, a mathematician, a chemist, a fox rancher, a numismatist, a philatelist, a photographer, a museum curator, an astronomer, an animal trainer, a dentist, a philanthropist and a jack of all trades. Although a lifelong bachelor, he was, strangely enough, very much a family man.

While known to most people simply as Charlie, he used different monikers when referring to himself. In correspondence and legal documents he signed his name as C.C. Fraser. In less formal notes he used only his initials, CCF. Very often his signature was accompanied by the word OHIXIHO as though it was his address or even a part of his name. The real meaning of OHIXIHO is left for the reader to discover.