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When the mine ran in the late 20/30’s
Jeanette: We were talking about the Presseau family. We were talking about your grandfather, Arthur Presseau, your grandmother Exilda Larocque and your mother Madeleine. Bernie: Exilda, and Arthur married in 1910. |
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Jeanette: So, what is that information you have there.
Bernie: That is the history of the Presseau family.
Jeanette: Who made this up?
Bernie: I think Uncle John (Presseau) made a lot of this.
Jeanette: You said your mother was Madeleine. She married your father John MacEachern.
Bernie: Yeah
Jeanette: And you were telling me about your grandfather. There’s a power plant here in the picture (of the 1930’s) mine and he worked from 1928 – 1942. I think the mine closed in 1939. You said, after the mine closed, he was commissioned to get the power plant altogether and then send (the equipment) back off to Quebec.
Bernie: Yes
Jeanette: And do you know what part of Quebec it was?
Bernie: That’s something I don’t know where exactly he moved it up to, because at that time he was working in the mines but he was a surface manager and also head of power plant so he moved it – where they all landed and where all my cousins are is in a place called Calumet Island in the Ottawa River. I’m assuming, I’m not sure that there was probably a mine there and that they moved the powerplant part up there. I’ve been there.
Jeanette: Oh, yeah, because of the connection here?
Bernie: Oh yeah
Jeanette: you were curious as to what it was like?
Bernie: I went to bring my mother back. My mother went up to visit her sisters because her sisters and other relatives were living there.
Jeanette: OK. They settled there, right?
Bernie: They moved up there with the exception of some of them like Bobby Presseau’s father Armand, Armand and Florence, they stayed around living in Sydney for quite a while and then he went on to the Steel Plant. He was a machinist, Armand Presseau.
Jeanette: He worked at the mine, though, in the 30’s, when your grandfather was there?
Bernie: Yeah
Jeanette: Reading from John’s book “Armand”
Bernie: Armand married Mary Bernard’s (Mary MacPhee Gillis) husband’s (Bernard) sister, Florence Gillis.
Jeanette: Yes, I think she (Mary Gillis) mentioned something about that in her interview with me.
Bernie: And my father, who is another Scotsman, married Madeleine Presseau and they both had a double wedding.
Jeanette: Right, Bob (Presseau -Armand& Florence's son) was saying that – they had a double wedding.
Jeanette: So, then there were the MacEacherns and then the Gillis’ homesteads out there (Grand Mira), right? And, your father’s family’s homestead still remains there in the family so to speak.
Bernie: Yeah. My sister, Mary, is there on the old property and that goes back to 1826.
Jeanette: Oh, “The MacEachern’s”. Oh, I’ll have to read that. Father Norman, Mary’s brother, he just gave me a book yesterday on the MacPhees.
Bernie: I have that book.
Jeanette: Father Norman is a pretty interesting guy. He worked there (Stirling mine) too.
Bernie: Yes, I seen the pictures on the (website). I’m trying to differentiate between the earlier openings and the later openings. And I think it may have opened before that in the 1800’s.
Jeanette: It seems like that, yeah.
Bernie: Somebody was routing around looking for something (Note: Click here on Excerpt from Story of Framboise for more details.)
Jeanette: That Glory hole out there, there is so much stuff in there. I know there’s a keg in there. When my sister and I took over the old homestead, there was a keg there. So, we said, “We got to get rid of this”, so, I said, “Where are we going to take it?” We were pondering that for a while. All of a sudden, we say, “The Glory Hole”. We went over there; we threw the thing in there. The darn thing wouldn’t sink; it was full of air. So, we were throwing rocks at it and gradually, bubble, bubble, it went down.
Bernie: Mom used to talk about that Glory Hole, and I never really knew what that was. Was it something they excavated down or some kind of surface mining or something like that?
Jeanette: Well, I think a Glory hole can be that, but I understood what that Glory hole ended up being was an old shaft and then it collapsed. There are some pictures of the glory hole after it was pumped out and it shows - you can see almost a tunnel in there. So, I don’t know, it may have been that they started digging that out, but it could have been one or the other. Anyways, it’s a dangerous place.
Bernie: That is the history of the Presseau family.
Jeanette: Who made this up?
Bernie: I think Uncle John (Presseau) made a lot of this.
Jeanette: You said your mother was Madeleine. She married your father John MacEachern.
Bernie: Yeah
Jeanette: And you were telling me about your grandfather. There’s a power plant here in the picture (of the 1930’s) mine and he worked from 1928 – 1942. I think the mine closed in 1939. You said, after the mine closed, he was commissioned to get the power plant altogether and then send (the equipment) back off to Quebec.
Bernie: Yes
Jeanette: And do you know what part of Quebec it was?
Bernie: That’s something I don’t know where exactly he moved it up to, because at that time he was working in the mines but he was a surface manager and also head of power plant so he moved it – where they all landed and where all my cousins are is in a place called Calumet Island in the Ottawa River. I’m assuming, I’m not sure that there was probably a mine there and that they moved the powerplant part up there. I’ve been there.
Jeanette: Oh, yeah, because of the connection here?
Bernie: Oh yeah
Jeanette: you were curious as to what it was like?
Bernie: I went to bring my mother back. My mother went up to visit her sisters because her sisters and other relatives were living there.
Jeanette: OK. They settled there, right?
Bernie: They moved up there with the exception of some of them like Bobby Presseau’s father Armand, Armand and Florence, they stayed around living in Sydney for quite a while and then he went on to the Steel Plant. He was a machinist, Armand Presseau.
Jeanette: He worked at the mine, though, in the 30’s, when your grandfather was there?
Bernie: Yeah
Jeanette: Reading from John’s book “Armand”
Bernie: Armand married Mary Bernard’s (Mary MacPhee Gillis) husband’s (Bernard) sister, Florence Gillis.
Jeanette: Yes, I think she (Mary Gillis) mentioned something about that in her interview with me.
Bernie: And my father, who is another Scotsman, married Madeleine Presseau and they both had a double wedding.
Jeanette: Right, Bob (Presseau -Armand& Florence's son) was saying that – they had a double wedding.
Jeanette: So, then there were the MacEacherns and then the Gillis’ homesteads out there (Grand Mira), right? And, your father’s family’s homestead still remains there in the family so to speak.
Bernie: Yeah. My sister, Mary, is there on the old property and that goes back to 1826.
Jeanette: Oh, “The MacEachern’s”. Oh, I’ll have to read that. Father Norman, Mary’s brother, he just gave me a book yesterday on the MacPhees.
Bernie: I have that book.
Jeanette: Father Norman is a pretty interesting guy. He worked there (Stirling mine) too.
Bernie: Yes, I seen the pictures on the (website). I’m trying to differentiate between the earlier openings and the later openings. And I think it may have opened before that in the 1800’s.
Jeanette: It seems like that, yeah.
Bernie: Somebody was routing around looking for something (Note: Click here on Excerpt from Story of Framboise for more details.)
Jeanette: That Glory hole out there, there is so much stuff in there. I know there’s a keg in there. When my sister and I took over the old homestead, there was a keg there. So, we said, “We got to get rid of this”, so, I said, “Where are we going to take it?” We were pondering that for a while. All of a sudden, we say, “The Glory Hole”. We went over there; we threw the thing in there. The darn thing wouldn’t sink; it was full of air. So, we were throwing rocks at it and gradually, bubble, bubble, it went down.
Bernie: Mom used to talk about that Glory Hole, and I never really knew what that was. Was it something they excavated down or some kind of surface mining or something like that?
Jeanette: Well, I think a Glory hole can be that, but I understood what that Glory hole ended up being was an old shaft and then it collapsed. There are some pictures of the glory hole after it was pumped out and it shows - you can see almost a tunnel in there. So, I don’t know, it may have been that they started digging that out, but it could have been one or the other. Anyways, it’s a dangerous place.
From John Presseau's
"A diversified Journey as Factual as I Remember" likely taken in 1930's.
Jeanette: See here it is gated off. This looks like it has been drained out. It would have been drained out back then (30's) and it would have been drained out again when it ran in the 50’s. I think it was 48 or 49 when they started pumping it out.
Glory hole before being pumped out 1949 or thereabouts. Picture obtained from Chrissy (MacLeod)MacMillan
Picture of the Glory Hole after being pumped out in 1949 or thereabouts.
Back of the mine 1930's or thereabouts
And I don’t know if you have this picture here. Here’s the dry house (where the miners came and changed).
Jeanette: That, I don’t think I have. I have something similar to that but not as developed as that. So, the dry is over there and the mess hall, the mess hall and the powerhouse, OK, so that’s up on that hill. That’s the powerhouse and the mess hall over there.
Bernie: I only went up back a few years ago. Joseph MacLellan, which would be Martin MacLellan’s son, him and I are good friends and Greg Gillis, who would be Lawrence Gillis’ son, a relative of Armand and Florence, on Florence’s side.
And I don’t know if you have this picture here. Here’s the dry house (where the miners came and changed).
Jeanette: That, I don’t think I have. I have something similar to that but not as developed as that. So, the dry is over there and the mess hall, the mess hall and the powerhouse, OK, so that’s up on that hill. That’s the powerhouse and the mess hall over there.
Bernie: I only went up back a few years ago. Joseph MacLellan, which would be Martin MacLellan’s son, him and I are good friends and Greg Gillis, who would be Lawrence Gillis’ son, a relative of Armand and Florence, on Florence’s side.
Bernie: We took this, with us, when Greg and I and Joe went up (to the mine) and we were trying to get a visual concept of it.
Jeanette: Yeah, where everything was.
Bernie: And then it finally dawned on us that they completely redid it in the (late) 40’s, in the later time. What was there in the 30’s is gone.
Jeanette: They may have used the odd foundation like this here foundation, there may be a foundation from this building here (mess hall) but most everything (from the 30’s) is back here.
Jeanette: Anyway, where these (three houses) were in the 30’s ended up being where the dining hall was built, in the 50’s. I have aerial photographs which I put with Father Norman’s interview online. It’s a little difficult to see, but you can get a sense of where the old mine (30’s) was and the new mine (50’s) was (Note: Click on Father Norman MacPhee to view his interview).
Bernie: That was something. I was always curious how many people were up there (working). Somebody said it could have been about 500.
Jeanette: Yeah, at one time there, yeah. (In the 50’s), they had those two bunkhouses, they were packed. They had three old bunkhouses, one they used for a theater but the other two, they would use as backup.
The Double Wedding in Grand Mira - Armand & Florence, Madeleine & John Joe
Jeanette: Yeah, where everything was.
Bernie: And then it finally dawned on us that they completely redid it in the (late) 40’s, in the later time. What was there in the 30’s is gone.
Jeanette: They may have used the odd foundation like this here foundation, there may be a foundation from this building here (mess hall) but most everything (from the 30’s) is back here.
Jeanette: Anyway, where these (three houses) were in the 30’s ended up being where the dining hall was built, in the 50’s. I have aerial photographs which I put with Father Norman’s interview online. It’s a little difficult to see, but you can get a sense of where the old mine (30’s) was and the new mine (50’s) was (Note: Click on Father Norman MacPhee to view his interview).
Bernie: That was something. I was always curious how many people were up there (working). Somebody said it could have been about 500.
Jeanette: Yeah, at one time there, yeah. (In the 50’s), they had those two bunkhouses, they were packed. They had three old bunkhouses, one they used for a theater but the other two, they would use as backup.
The Double Wedding in Grand Mira - Armand & Florence, Madeleine & John Joe
Bernie: There ‘s the four.
Jeanette: So, who are these People.
Bernie: Father Angus Bryden married them. They were married in Grand Mira. That would be Raymond, I believe., “brother of the groom”, Yeah, Raymond and best man and the groom, the bride, Claire Gillis, that would be Florence’s sister, “sister of the bride”. The bottom would be my mother and father, that’s my aunt Catherine, Dad’s sister, and my Uncle Gerry. He was standing for my mom and dad. He ended up in the states. After the mine, he went to work for RJ Lougue, I believe, it was, as a mechanic. They were all mechanically inclined.
Jeanette: Wow, that’s pretty neat.
Jeanette: So, your father (John Joe MacEachern), you were saying, he worked in the mine, you were saying in the late 40’s. when they were getting the mine going?
Bernie: He started when he was 18 years old. I think he was born in 1912, so, it could have been in the (late) 20’s when he first started.
Jeanette: So, your father, if he were alive today, how old would he be.
Bernie: He was 85, the day he died. I’m not sure of the date. He’d be 108 years old now.
Bernie: He worked in the cookhouse, either in the cookhouse or the mess hall.
Jeanette: In the 30's.
Bernie: He was only 18 when he went up there. Well, there’s a funny story. Being catholic, when he got his first paycheck, he sent it home. His father and mother looked at the paycheck and they went right to the priest with it. “What’s our son doing up there making this kind of money?”
Jeanette: Oh!!
Bernie: They had to show it to the priest.
Jeanette: Was that Father Bryden?
Bernie: I think it was. They were paying really good money. Like you were in the middle of nowhere, no different than going out where my son is in Alberta.
Jeanette: You don’t know what he would have been paid back then (30s)? In the 50s it was $1.25 (an hour) but then they got extra shifts and then they would get bonuses too.
Jeanette: But it was good money back then (20/30s)?
Bernie: Yeah
Jeanette: So, (in the 20s/30s) was there any kind of a (church) – like in the 50s. There was a Catholic Church. They built a church there.
Bernie: Mom talks about that (Note: click here on Interview Bernie & Madeleine to see what Madeleine says about going to church). They used to go to church. They either went to Grand Mira or they went to L’Ardoise. It was the same distance either way so they would alternate back and forth.
Jeanette: Does she mention about the Catholic church in the 50s?
Bernie: No
Jeanette: So, how did your mother meet your father? He worked there (in the late 20s/30s), right and he worked there again in 49.
Bernie: She talks about that too (in her interview), I asked her that.
Bernie: We had what we call confession. He was going to confession and there was a guy attending to the priest. She must have had her eye on Dad, and she said, “I’m going to marry that fellow.”
Jeanette: Was that in Grand Mira then?
Bernie: No, that was at the mine.
Jeanette: Oh, that was up at the mine.
Bernie: She said it was in the house so I’m thinking it would have been in my grandmother’s place where they lived in Stirling.
Jeanette: What would they be confessing about?
Bernie: Their sins. Laughter.
Jeanette: Oh, OK. Your father was in doing that (confession) and she (Madeleine) was in their presence and saw him and that’s when she decided she was going to marry him.
Bernie: She said, “I’m going to marry that fellow.”
Jeanette: Wow, that’s pretty neat.
Bernie: It was a hard old road after that. She had ten kids. She lost one stillborn.
Jeanette: Wow.
Bernie: There was of nine of us who lived. We lost three so far.
Uncle John
Jeanette: So, who are these People.
Bernie: Father Angus Bryden married them. They were married in Grand Mira. That would be Raymond, I believe., “brother of the groom”, Yeah, Raymond and best man and the groom, the bride, Claire Gillis, that would be Florence’s sister, “sister of the bride”. The bottom would be my mother and father, that’s my aunt Catherine, Dad’s sister, and my Uncle Gerry. He was standing for my mom and dad. He ended up in the states. After the mine, he went to work for RJ Lougue, I believe, it was, as a mechanic. They were all mechanically inclined.
Jeanette: Wow, that’s pretty neat.
Jeanette: So, your father (John Joe MacEachern), you were saying, he worked in the mine, you were saying in the late 40’s. when they were getting the mine going?
Bernie: He started when he was 18 years old. I think he was born in 1912, so, it could have been in the (late) 20’s when he first started.
Jeanette: So, your father, if he were alive today, how old would he be.
Bernie: He was 85, the day he died. I’m not sure of the date. He’d be 108 years old now.
Bernie: He worked in the cookhouse, either in the cookhouse or the mess hall.
Jeanette: In the 30's.
Bernie: He was only 18 when he went up there. Well, there’s a funny story. Being catholic, when he got his first paycheck, he sent it home. His father and mother looked at the paycheck and they went right to the priest with it. “What’s our son doing up there making this kind of money?”
Jeanette: Oh!!
Bernie: They had to show it to the priest.
Jeanette: Was that Father Bryden?
Bernie: I think it was. They were paying really good money. Like you were in the middle of nowhere, no different than going out where my son is in Alberta.
Jeanette: You don’t know what he would have been paid back then (30s)? In the 50s it was $1.25 (an hour) but then they got extra shifts and then they would get bonuses too.
Jeanette: But it was good money back then (20/30s)?
Bernie: Yeah
Jeanette: So, (in the 20s/30s) was there any kind of a (church) – like in the 50s. There was a Catholic Church. They built a church there.
Bernie: Mom talks about that (Note: click here on Interview Bernie & Madeleine to see what Madeleine says about going to church). They used to go to church. They either went to Grand Mira or they went to L’Ardoise. It was the same distance either way so they would alternate back and forth.
Jeanette: Does she mention about the Catholic church in the 50s?
Bernie: No
Jeanette: So, how did your mother meet your father? He worked there (in the late 20s/30s), right and he worked there again in 49.
Bernie: She talks about that too (in her interview), I asked her that.
Bernie: We had what we call confession. He was going to confession and there was a guy attending to the priest. She must have had her eye on Dad, and she said, “I’m going to marry that fellow.”
Jeanette: Was that in Grand Mira then?
Bernie: No, that was at the mine.
Jeanette: Oh, that was up at the mine.
Bernie: She said it was in the house so I’m thinking it would have been in my grandmother’s place where they lived in Stirling.
Jeanette: What would they be confessing about?
Bernie: Their sins. Laughter.
Jeanette: Oh, OK. Your father was in doing that (confession) and she (Madeleine) was in their presence and saw him and that’s when she decided she was going to marry him.
Bernie: She said, “I’m going to marry that fellow.”
Jeanette: Wow, that’s pretty neat.
Bernie: It was a hard old road after that. She had ten kids. She lost one stillborn.
Jeanette: Wow.
Bernie: There was of nine of us who lived. We lost three so far.
Uncle John
John Presseau 1944-1946
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Jphn Presseau 1990
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Bernie: That’s uncle John, I think when he was in the Navy. That’s him close to (what he looks like) now.
Jeanette: He wrote this.
Bernie: (talking about John Presseau's book.) He put this together, he says, “As factual as I can remember”. He stills calls this place home. And he can’t come to Cape Breton without going up to the mine.
Jeanette: Yes, Bob (Presseau) was telling me and you were telling me too that that’s the first place he wants to go.
Jeanette: So, John worked at the mine too, did he?
Bernie: No, what he talked to me about was they, I'm not sure who was doing it, they used to go through the mine and there were clocks they had to punch and they went around making sure everything was good down the mine so they’d get young fellows like him, fifteen or sixteen, he’d run around the mine and punch all the clocks (Note: see John Presseau’s upcoming interview for details).
Jeanette: That must have been near the end (in the late 30s),
Picture of Exilda (from John’s booklet)
Jeanette: He wrote this.
Bernie: (talking about John Presseau's book.) He put this together, he says, “As factual as I can remember”. He stills calls this place home. And he can’t come to Cape Breton without going up to the mine.
Jeanette: Yes, Bob (Presseau) was telling me and you were telling me too that that’s the first place he wants to go.
Jeanette: So, John worked at the mine too, did he?
Bernie: No, what he talked to me about was they, I'm not sure who was doing it, they used to go through the mine and there were clocks they had to punch and they went around making sure everything was good down the mine so they’d get young fellows like him, fifteen or sixteen, he’d run around the mine and punch all the clocks (Note: see John Presseau’s upcoming interview for details).
Jeanette: That must have been near the end (in the late 30s),
Picture of Exilda (from John’s booklet)
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Bernie: (Looking through John's book.)That’s my grandmother. She was as tough as you can get. That’s the oldest fellow (Horence). He ended up running a compressor repair shop in Montreal. They got him down a few times to fix the compressors at the Steel Plant.
Jeanette: Really Bernie: I don’t know where the mechanical ability comes from. And Gerard, that’s Gerry. Jeanette: He worked at the mine in Stirling. Bernie: Yeah, and (his wife) Rolande Theberge – that would be the Theberges from Prime Brook. |
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Jeanette: There’s Madeleine
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Bernie: So, it (John's book) goes through all the (Presseau) family. And one of them, went to a mine up in Eliot Lake and got caught in a rock fall. He got crushed here (in his lower body) and he lost both of his legs. He was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. It was Raymond. (Reading from John’s book about Raymond), “Raymond was born in 1925. He attended Sydney Academy. 1944 attended Ottawa University.” They had the education. “Went to Miranda Mine, worked as a miner at Miranda. In 1948, he was in a serious accident.” That was him.
Jeanette: (Reading from John’s book), “at the 4000 ft level, where his legs were amputated.”
Bernie: Yeah. Horence (mentioned earlier), who ran the compressor shop, in Quebec, he built a car for him to drive.
Jeanette: Really
Bernie: He (Raymond) had no legs. He would drive it with the steering shift on the brake and he had a throttle that he could pull and twist, so he (Horence) geared him up with something to drive.
Bernie: Now I was only a kid and he (Raymond) was hell bent that he was getting back to Cape Breton but because of the accident he couldn’t. It was going to be too long of a drive for him. His first marriage ended, and he married a woman and they had a young boy and when the young boy got old enough to drive, he got down home.
Jeanette: He was quite excited I guess.
Bernie: He was that happy, he baled out of the car, no wheelchair, he came across the lawn, and up the steps, into the house, up into a chair. Oh my God, he was happy to see Cape Breton again.
Jeanette: So, what house was it that he was at, your house?
Bernie: At our house, the old home in Grand Mira on the Campbelldale Rd.
Jeanette: (reading from John’s booklet, “about Rene). He moved from Stirling in 1938 and he studied at MIT, wow. It’s a very prestigious place. And then joined the Navy.
Bernie: (Continuing to read from John’s booklet) Rene, Armand/Florence. That’s Yvette, that’s mom’s sister. It goes through the thing. She was married to Charlie Cote. “Yvette, married Charlie Cote, a Miner at Sterling Mine”.
Jeanette: OK, in 1937, so the mine of course was still going then. And it says, “When the mine closed in 1938, they moved to three Rivers, then to Miranda”.
Jeanette: So, your father and your mother went out to Grand Mira to the old house. Where your father (grew up).
Bernie: They were in the old house. I lived in the old house. The old, old house, the old MacEachern, what would you call it?
Jeanette: Homestead?
Bernie: Homestead, yeah.
Jeanette: So, Madeleine married your father and when the mine closed they moved down there.
Bernie: Yeah. And then they lived there for quite awhile and then my grand uncle who lived up on Campbelldale Rd, had a farm up there. He was moving to Sydney. He was getting pretty old, so he was going to sell the place, so my father bought it and we moved up there in about 1958 or something like that. It was the old manse and uncle moved it down there. We moved up to that place and then in 1963 it burnt to the ground. And there was still a bunch of us kids around there and all that so…
Jeanette: So, where did you all go then, back to the old house?
Bernie: No, we moved up to an old abandoned house in the back of the woods, in the next field. It’s MacKinnon’s.
Jeanette: On the Campbelldale Road?
Bernie: Yeah, the house is gone now. We lived there for the summer and Dad started getting people to build a new home. That’s the home that’s on Marydale, on the top. They sold it. Somebody else is living in it.
John Joe MacEachern’s brass badge
Jeanette: (Reading from John’s book), “at the 4000 ft level, where his legs were amputated.”
Bernie: Yeah. Horence (mentioned earlier), who ran the compressor shop, in Quebec, he built a car for him to drive.
Jeanette: Really
Bernie: He (Raymond) had no legs. He would drive it with the steering shift on the brake and he had a throttle that he could pull and twist, so he (Horence) geared him up with something to drive.
Bernie: Now I was only a kid and he (Raymond) was hell bent that he was getting back to Cape Breton but because of the accident he couldn’t. It was going to be too long of a drive for him. His first marriage ended, and he married a woman and they had a young boy and when the young boy got old enough to drive, he got down home.
Jeanette: He was quite excited I guess.
Bernie: He was that happy, he baled out of the car, no wheelchair, he came across the lawn, and up the steps, into the house, up into a chair. Oh my God, he was happy to see Cape Breton again.
Jeanette: So, what house was it that he was at, your house?
Bernie: At our house, the old home in Grand Mira on the Campbelldale Rd.
Jeanette: (reading from John’s booklet, “about Rene). He moved from Stirling in 1938 and he studied at MIT, wow. It’s a very prestigious place. And then joined the Navy.
Bernie: (Continuing to read from John’s booklet) Rene, Armand/Florence. That’s Yvette, that’s mom’s sister. It goes through the thing. She was married to Charlie Cote. “Yvette, married Charlie Cote, a Miner at Sterling Mine”.
Jeanette: OK, in 1937, so the mine of course was still going then. And it says, “When the mine closed in 1938, they moved to three Rivers, then to Miranda”.
Jeanette: So, your father and your mother went out to Grand Mira to the old house. Where your father (grew up).
Bernie: They were in the old house. I lived in the old house. The old, old house, the old MacEachern, what would you call it?
Jeanette: Homestead?
Bernie: Homestead, yeah.
Jeanette: So, Madeleine married your father and when the mine closed they moved down there.
Bernie: Yeah. And then they lived there for quite awhile and then my grand uncle who lived up on Campbelldale Rd, had a farm up there. He was moving to Sydney. He was getting pretty old, so he was going to sell the place, so my father bought it and we moved up there in about 1958 or something like that. It was the old manse and uncle moved it down there. We moved up to that place and then in 1963 it burnt to the ground. And there was still a bunch of us kids around there and all that so…
Jeanette: So, where did you all go then, back to the old house?
Bernie: No, we moved up to an old abandoned house in the back of the woods, in the next field. It’s MacKinnon’s.
Jeanette: On the Campbelldale Road?
Bernie: Yeah, the house is gone now. We lived there for the summer and Dad started getting people to build a new home. That’s the home that’s on Marydale, on the top. They sold it. Somebody else is living in it.
John Joe MacEachern’s brass badge
Bernie: There’s the proof in the pudding.
Jeanette: Oh yeah (reading from the Brass badge “Mindamar Metals Corp Ltd”. So, he worked there the last time it ran, as well as the 30’s.
Jeanette: Oh yeah (reading from the Brass badge “Mindamar Metals Corp Ltd”. So, he worked there the last time it ran, as well as the 30’s.
Excerpt from "Gates of Heaven" St Margaret's Church, Grand Mira
Bernie: And before we forget, Victor Vankoski. Dad knew him.
Bernie: This is the little book from the Cemetery in Grand Mira.
Jeanette: “Gates of Heaven”. That was a lot of work that she did to compile that.
Bernie: As I had mentioned that’s Johnny MacPhee’s wife. He’s gone now. That would be Father Norman’s brother.
Bernie: (Reading from the booklet) Victor Vankoski 23 Poland.
Jeanette: Victor VANKOSKI. Polland. And it says, “1936, St Margaret’s.”
Bernie: Yeah, Pa was kind of upset over that fellow. And I’m thinking he was killed underground. I talked to Dad a little bit about it and that. Dad was awful careful with young people. I met a guy that worked with Dad down in the rolling mills at the steel plant. He was only about 18 years old, he said, “and I went down there, and the clanging and the banging and the stuff going back and forth.” My father was an operator and this fellow said he was scared to death. He told me my father came over and he said, “You come with me and I’ll tell you what to look out for and where to go, to be careful.” He said, “I didn’t have to worry after that. He said, “He looked after me.”
Listening to Madeleine’s tape
Bernie: Mom died in 2007. I had the tape for a long time since around 1995. I took it to a place in Sydney to get it done. They were able to remove most of the noise from it.
Jeanette: You said your mother went to Cheticamp (to school), does she talk about that experience in her tape?
Bernie: Yes, she talks a bit about it (Note: Click here on Interview Bernie & Madeleine to read what she says)
John Joe’s dynamite story
When he worked underground, my father, like I said he kind of liked (dynamite)- I think he must have worked around the dynamite and stuff like that because he kind of liked to blow things up (Laughter). Somebody had a big rock in their driveway, and it used to annoy them, and they couldn’t get it flattened. It was somewhere between Stirling and Grand Mira, somebody’s driveway. So, they kept asking Pa, “When are you going to blow that rock up for me.” Laughter. So, he was coming home one night - one morning, he was after coming off nightshift (from Stirling). He said, he went, “It was early in the morning.” He said, “I stopped at the end of the road. I walked up; I packed it with dynamite; lit the fuse; and drove away. They got woken up that morning,” he said, “with some alarm. I blew it to smithereens.”
Picture of the old Stirling school
Bernie: This is the little book from the Cemetery in Grand Mira.
Jeanette: “Gates of Heaven”. That was a lot of work that she did to compile that.
Bernie: As I had mentioned that’s Johnny MacPhee’s wife. He’s gone now. That would be Father Norman’s brother.
Bernie: (Reading from the booklet) Victor Vankoski 23 Poland.
Jeanette: Victor VANKOSKI. Polland. And it says, “1936, St Margaret’s.”
Bernie: Yeah, Pa was kind of upset over that fellow. And I’m thinking he was killed underground. I talked to Dad a little bit about it and that. Dad was awful careful with young people. I met a guy that worked with Dad down in the rolling mills at the steel plant. He was only about 18 years old, he said, “and I went down there, and the clanging and the banging and the stuff going back and forth.” My father was an operator and this fellow said he was scared to death. He told me my father came over and he said, “You come with me and I’ll tell you what to look out for and where to go, to be careful.” He said, “I didn’t have to worry after that. He said, “He looked after me.”
Listening to Madeleine’s tape
Bernie: Mom died in 2007. I had the tape for a long time since around 1995. I took it to a place in Sydney to get it done. They were able to remove most of the noise from it.
Jeanette: You said your mother went to Cheticamp (to school), does she talk about that experience in her tape?
Bernie: Yes, she talks a bit about it (Note: Click here on Interview Bernie & Madeleine to read what she says)
John Joe’s dynamite story
When he worked underground, my father, like I said he kind of liked (dynamite)- I think he must have worked around the dynamite and stuff like that because he kind of liked to blow things up (Laughter). Somebody had a big rock in their driveway, and it used to annoy them, and they couldn’t get it flattened. It was somewhere between Stirling and Grand Mira, somebody’s driveway. So, they kept asking Pa, “When are you going to blow that rock up for me.” Laughter. So, he was coming home one night - one morning, he was after coming off nightshift (from Stirling). He said, he went, “It was early in the morning.” He said, “I stopped at the end of the road. I walked up; I packed it with dynamite; lit the fuse; and drove away. They got woken up that morning,” he said, “with some alarm. I blew it to smithereens.”
Picture of the old Stirling school
Stirling School copied from John Presseau's book "A diversified Journey As Factual as I Remember"
Bernie: This is John’s picture
Jeanette: this is the old Stirling school. This is probably after it was added on. The mine added on three rooms in the 50’s.
Jeanette: Did you learn any French?
Bernie: No, well, a little bit
Jeanette: What about Gaelic?
Bernie: A little bit. A little bit on both sides. The problem was the government at the time, English was (in their opinion) the Universal language - no Gaelic, no French, no Mi’kmaq, no other language.
Jeanette: You said when your mother went to school she only spoke French. When my father went to school he only spoke Gaelic. They hit him with a ruler when he’d speak Gaelic.
Bernie: Yeah, Dad Spoke Gaelic. He knew it 100%. I’d be around when they were milking cows and stuff with the neighbours and they’d be yacking away in Gaelic so we wouldn’t know what they were talking about.
Jeanette: That’s the way it was with us, my parents spoke it well but didn’t speak it much in front of us. I was catching it pretty good with my father there. I haven’t been practicing since he passed away. There are a lot of people who are reviving the language. There are groups that get together.
Bernie: They had a couple of sessions in Grand Mira. I’m not sure how that turned out. But I always wanted to learn French, but I never got around to it. I would have liked to have been able to speak it with mom.
Jeanette: Yes, that would have been a good opportunity, right, to learn it?
Bernie: Yeah. But when her brothers and sisters came down for a visit, they’d all be “Parle vous Francais?’ And you’d be surprised how quick you’d start picking stuff up.
Jeanette: Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, I would have liked to have learned to speak French, too. I learned a little bit in school.
Bernie: There’s two Gerry’s in there. The first Gerry I was talking about is the older fellow and then the baby that came down was, they called him in French, Gedeon, which translates into Gerry. He lived in BC and it’s not so many years ago since he died. He was the baby they were trying to fix up (Note: click on Madeleine & Bernie for the story about the baby)and they said he’d never live. He was 82 when he died.
Jeanette: Did he work in the mine?
Bernie: He was a baby when he came down, so I doubt if he ever worked in the mine.
Bernie: The other Gerry was the older guy. He worked for RJ Lougue and in the mine and then he went down working in Boston and he never came back.
Jeanette: In the interview you did with your mother, she tells the story about the horse and sleigh on their way to Stirling
Bernie: Yeah, when she’s talking about going over to Martin D’s, She wouldn’t come back with my father because he was driving that crazy stallion. She went up with him but that’s when she said the horse, if there was another one ahead, it would catch it and pass it. I guess the sleigh was bouncing around and she wouldn’t come back with Dad. Laughter. So, she (got another ride home from Stirling) to the other side of the river to Martin D’s which would be Bobby’s mother’s place Martin D. Gillis
Bernie: So anyway, she went down there and then they walked, she mentioned (in her interview) to Johnny Jim’s. That’s John Jim Mac Eachern and then Dad walked over there and met her and then they walked back across the river and then they were coming in around Currie’s which would be farther down, around Campbelldale. And I think what they got into was, the brook comes out there, and the water must have rode up on the ice so they started going through it a bit, not right through, so Dad said, "come on we have to go this way back and around this." (Note: Click here on Interview Bernie & Madeleine for Madeleine's account of this and other stories.)
Jeanette: this is the old Stirling school. This is probably after it was added on. The mine added on three rooms in the 50’s.
Jeanette: Did you learn any French?
Bernie: No, well, a little bit
Jeanette: What about Gaelic?
Bernie: A little bit. A little bit on both sides. The problem was the government at the time, English was (in their opinion) the Universal language - no Gaelic, no French, no Mi’kmaq, no other language.
Jeanette: You said when your mother went to school she only spoke French. When my father went to school he only spoke Gaelic. They hit him with a ruler when he’d speak Gaelic.
Bernie: Yeah, Dad Spoke Gaelic. He knew it 100%. I’d be around when they were milking cows and stuff with the neighbours and they’d be yacking away in Gaelic so we wouldn’t know what they were talking about.
Jeanette: That’s the way it was with us, my parents spoke it well but didn’t speak it much in front of us. I was catching it pretty good with my father there. I haven’t been practicing since he passed away. There are a lot of people who are reviving the language. There are groups that get together.
Bernie: They had a couple of sessions in Grand Mira. I’m not sure how that turned out. But I always wanted to learn French, but I never got around to it. I would have liked to have been able to speak it with mom.
Jeanette: Yes, that would have been a good opportunity, right, to learn it?
Bernie: Yeah. But when her brothers and sisters came down for a visit, they’d all be “Parle vous Francais?’ And you’d be surprised how quick you’d start picking stuff up.
Jeanette: Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, I would have liked to have learned to speak French, too. I learned a little bit in school.
Bernie: There’s two Gerry’s in there. The first Gerry I was talking about is the older fellow and then the baby that came down was, they called him in French, Gedeon, which translates into Gerry. He lived in BC and it’s not so many years ago since he died. He was the baby they were trying to fix up (Note: click on Madeleine & Bernie for the story about the baby)and they said he’d never live. He was 82 when he died.
Jeanette: Did he work in the mine?
Bernie: He was a baby when he came down, so I doubt if he ever worked in the mine.
Bernie: The other Gerry was the older guy. He worked for RJ Lougue and in the mine and then he went down working in Boston and he never came back.
Jeanette: In the interview you did with your mother, she tells the story about the horse and sleigh on their way to Stirling
Bernie: Yeah, when she’s talking about going over to Martin D’s, She wouldn’t come back with my father because he was driving that crazy stallion. She went up with him but that’s when she said the horse, if there was another one ahead, it would catch it and pass it. I guess the sleigh was bouncing around and she wouldn’t come back with Dad. Laughter. So, she (got another ride home from Stirling) to the other side of the river to Martin D’s which would be Bobby’s mother’s place Martin D. Gillis
Bernie: So anyway, she went down there and then they walked, she mentioned (in her interview) to Johnny Jim’s. That’s John Jim Mac Eachern and then Dad walked over there and met her and then they walked back across the river and then they were coming in around Currie’s which would be farther down, around Campbelldale. And I think what they got into was, the brook comes out there, and the water must have rode up on the ice so they started going through it a bit, not right through, so Dad said, "come on we have to go this way back and around this." (Note: Click here on Interview Bernie & Madeleine for Madeleine's account of this and other stories.)