Stirling Mine Interview with Bessie Morrison August 2018
People who worked at the Stirling Mine
Jeanette: You were hired as a secretary in 1950.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: So the people who ran the place (Stirling Mine) was Stronach?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: Who else was there, Chisholm?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: Where was he from, Chisholm?
Bessie: He was from over the other side.
Jeanette: The other side of Cape Breton?
Bessie: And Michaelson. He came from Quebec.
Jeanette: Michaelson?
Bessie: Yes. They were all working at a mine (up there). They all came down here.
Bessie: Who else- Bunclarke ran the machine shop. They hired a bunch of laborers. People from Fourchu. Most of the people from Fourchu were working out there.
Jeanette: What about people from Framboise.
Bessie: Yes, there were people from Framboise. John James, Billy and Angus (MacLeod brothers) got work and Lawrence and Kenny (Morrison brothers) were working there.
Jeanette: What were they doing?
Bessie: They did labour work. John James was working at putting the oil in the oil stoves. They didn’t have furnaces and all that at first. They just had shacks.
The buildings/ the Main office
Bessie: Do you remember the building that is down at Dan Normans.
Jeanette: Yes
Bessie: Well that was one of the buildings where the men were staying at.
Jeanette: Oh like a bunk house. Editor's note: This may have been converted into the Theater after the larger bunk houses were built. Dan Norman MacLeod's daughter, Diane, said that this building was once used as a theater over at the Stirling Mine.)
Bessie: And then they built two new bunkhouses when things got going.
Jeanette: So when you started working there (in Stirling), were there any of the old buildings (from when the mine worked previously in the 30s) or was there just nothing?
Bessie: Nothing, nothing, nothing. There was just woods.
Jeanette: So, where was your office, in one of those (earlier) bunkhouses?
Bessie: First we were in one of them but then we moved into another place. They didn’t take long building.
Bessie: Walter MacDonald (Fourchu) was time keeper and Arthur LeBrun from Arichat was time keeper. He was in the office. And there was Bern Kelly. He was the Accountant.
Jeanette: Bern Kelly. Where would he be from?
Bessie: He was from away.
Jeanette: From Ontario or out West?
Bessie: Yes from that area somewhere. I think they were mostly from Quebec. Bern Kelly and Kenny MacEwen from St Peters (they worked in the office).
Bessie: Lloyd MacDonald (Fourchu) worked there and Walter (MacDonald Fourchu) worked in the office. Oh, it was quite the racket. And Dolena MacLeod/MacLean -she was there and I was like there at the wall. LeBrun was behind us and Walter was behind there too. And then there was a comical fellow there, Calvin Hastings. He would take the socks that the miners would throw away and he would rip them and knit them all over again. But the day he got locked in the Vault!!!
Jeanette: Is that where the money was?
Bessie: That’s where everything was. Papers and all the different things. I don’t know what he was doing but anyway I went to go in and I said “the door is locked." I don’t know who, but somebody said, “ you know what to do” (to unlock the door). (Editor's note: According to Wendell Holmes, Calvin Hastings worked as an electrician. He likely was doing some work inside this room.)
Jeanette: How long would he have been in there.
Bessie: He was in there a while. (When he got out) he said, “I’ll never go in there again”. Laughter.
Bessie: He and his wife lived in Dogpatch. She was always on the go. She used to cook for some of them.
Bessie: Did you know that we didn’t have the power then. They had generators.
Jeanette: I think they had two big generators.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: So when did they start getting the power?.
Bessie: They got the power coming from Glace Bay in 51 or 52. In 51, I think they got the power.
Jeanette: So in your office, you were the secretary. What did you do there?
Bessie: I ordered everything that came into the mine. I tell you it wasn’t easy with all the machinery numbers and names.
Jeanette: So how did you know what to order?
Bessie: I was given a list. And lumber, lumber was just crazy and that Stephens and them; They made a fortune on the mine out here. I think that’s how they got their start. Lets see: There were the two bunkhouses and there was a mine office and there was the machine shop. Dan Alex had all those pictures.
Jeanette: Would they have been of all the buildings here?
Bessie: Yes all the buildings.
Jeanette: So, they had a machine shop and a mine office and some bunkhouses.
The Houses/company homes
Jeanette: Didn’t they have some big houses, like the company houses.
Bessie: Oh they built those homes. Everybody (mine bosses) had a brand new home. The majority of the homes cost $1000 a room.
Jeanette: $1000 a room – that was a lot of money back then.
Bessie: The houses at that time cost about $7000 (to build).
Jeanette: Now would they be the houses as you would be going down the road on the right hand side?
Bessie: Back of John G’s (MacLeod). There was a road back there. He sold some property to them. They were in a row. There were different rows. They were all gravel.
Bessie: There were three (houses) as you go down on the road before you got to the gate where they checked people going in.
Jeanette: On the left side?
Bessie: Yes, on the left side.
Bessie: There was Michaelson, Bunclarke and Bardswick. They were on the upper side, somewhere near where that (internet) tower is now, I think.
Bessie: And then there was a road that went up like that (hand pointing to the right).
Jeanette: And that’s on the right (behind John G’s)?
Bessie: The bosses, Chisholm was up there and MacLeod was up there.
Jeanette: Were they smaller houses then that were on the left side of the road?
Bessie: The big ones on John G’s Side (Right side of Mine road) were bigger. Some of those houses are down in East Bay.
Jeanette: Yes there is one down near the Meadows Road.
Bessie: That one down there where Pottie (Stirling Rd-formerly owned by Christian and Geska Claussen)- that is one of the mine houses and down there where Kennie Dan was- that was another one. His brother Dan bought that I think.
Jeanette: Was that one that the bosses had, that kind of style?
Bessie: Yes, one of those houses was Lily and Angus’s (MacLeod), but they made it bigger.
Jeanette: They added on.
Bessie: Yes. and Dan Norman’s (MacLeod), big Dan Norman’s house.
Jeanette: So they were all the bosses’ houses?
Bessie: Yes, they were all the bosses’ houses.
Bessie: Mary Malcolm (MacLeod) worked for the women. She’d be babysitting. Mary Malcolm would have them out in the wintertime in the sleigh.
Jeanette: Dan Norman’s house was a little smaller right?
Bessie: Yes. They were smaller. Who else, Catherine’s house (Dan Alex’s mother’s house)- the one where Evelyn was that burnt by Dan Alex's there. That was a big house. That was Michaelson’s house. Oh, that was a beautiful house.
Jeanette: That's where Danny and Anne (MacLeod) lived, right?
Bessie: Yes, that is where Danny and Anne lived when they got married.
Jeanette: Dan Alex brought that over from (the mine)?
Bessie: Yes. Well Dan Alex moved them all. He moved that big house down (to the Meadows Rd)
Jeanette: And Duncan’s (MacLeod) house?
Bessie: Well Dolena (your Aunt Dolena) bought that house and then Duncan bought it.
Jeanette: They brought it from the mine and took it over to North Framboise?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: So all along there on the left- hand side and the right-hand side (of the road going down to the mine) were the bosses?
Jeanette: I looked up there at the foundations (on the right- hand side). It was kind of funny like the foundation was square but in the front there was another piece of concrete going across the front. I wonder why that was. Why they would have had that there.
Bessie: I think it was the front porch.
Jeanette: Was that what that was.
Bessie: Sort of a ….
Jeanette: Footer for the porch?
Bessie: What would you call it - a veranda maybe. Now they call it something else. I think it was a Veranda as far as I remember.
Jeanette: Down at Margaret’s Norman Alex (MacLeod) that was a mess hall wasn’t it- that house.
Bessie: I don’t believe.
Jeanette: So was it a regular house. Because when I was a Kid that was an open concept. There were just partitions in it. See Angus Alex MacLeod's interview for info on Norman Alex's two houses he bought from the mine.
Bessie: Now Dan Norman had a building- the house that Roddie John Alex had out the Stirling Road. I think that Dan Norman bought that. Another one was Angus Alex Red John (MacLeod). Well they must have got married around that time or he got the house before he was married. And they moved it down there (Marion Bridge) and put a foundation under it. (See Angus MacLeod’s Interview re his house.)
Jeanette: How many houses do you think there were?
Bessie: There were a bunch of them and they sold them all (when the mine closed). As far as I know they were all sold.
Bessie: Lets’ see. MacLeod was the assayer and Chisholm.
Other homes
Bessie: Who else was there - There was a fellow in the mill. He lived over Duncan’s way (on the other side of the Stirling Lake). He had a little place over there. (Editor's note - this was likely Laurie Fanning and his Family) as per Zane Fanning's interview.)
Jeanette: So, quite a lot of people had homes along the (Lake).
Bessie: Some of them were around the lake - little bungalows and at Dogpatch. Note: Dogpatch was a nickname given to this stretch of road as there were several homes in a large open field. The homes were often small and temporary with several people coming and going depending on what their job was at the mine. At the time there was a popular cartoon strip "L'il Abner" and the place they lived was called Dogpatch. One of the homes was bought by my aunt Wilma (Strachan) and moved to Morrison Rd, Framboise.
Jeanette: So around the lake, did those people buy those properties? Did the mine have anything to do with that?
Bessie: No, I think most of the people who built over there had little places. They had a kitchen and a bedroom. They had no elaborate place.
Jeanette: Did they own the land themselves?
Bessie: I guess they did.
Jeanette: They bought it?
Bessie: They bought it or were paying poll tax or something.
Jeanette: What was poll tax?.
Bessie: That was a tax they had on the people - $10 a head or something
Jeanette: To use the land?
Bessie: Because they were on the land. Now down in Gabarus, all the ones from Gabarus brought their receipts because they paid poll tax down in Gabarus or where ever they were. They all paid the poll tax.
Jeanette: Now Dogpatch, who lived there?
Bessie: It was the Miners. I don’t know how many were out there. Alex MacDonnell (St Peter’s) was the hoist man. He worked with Melvin. And there was Donald Archie MacKinnon. He was sinking the shaft. That was another bunch that came in later. They were sinking the shaft. Jim MacLeod was there. He was the mine captain. Murdock MacKinnon, Donald Archie MacKinnon and Harry Gillis that would be Wally Gillis, the teacher that was up in St Peter’s, that would be his father. He was a big man. There were other ones.
Jeanette: So did they build them themselves?
Bessie: They built those places themselves. Some of them were just there when they were sinking the shaft then they left and went to some other job. I think they came from Buckans. What a bunch.
Jeanette: So all those people you named were from Buckans?
Bessie: No, they came from there. They had been working there. They came to sink the shaft. And Bernie Gillis from Grand Mira. He was a Hoister. Melvin was a Hoister. Archie MacDonnell, Dan (Morrison).
Jeanette: What did a hoist man do?
Bessie: They hoisted. Down in the shaft, Yes. A big, big machine.
Bessie: And who else? a MacGillivary fellow. He was from up Nova Scotia somewhere. Now there was a George Burke. He just died here lately. He was in his 90’s. He lived in a bungalow just as you turn up to St Peter’s in L’Ardoise. He was a very, very good electrician.
Jeanette: What about the Mercers?
Bessie: They were down there as you were making the turn down toward Donna and John Norman's (MacQueen) (Crooked Lake road).
Jeanette: Did he work at the mine?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: He came from Lunenburg right?
Bessie: Yes, the boy (Barrie) comes down every year to the picnics and that.
Jeanette: Somebody lived behind John G’s - that little house in the back
Bessie: Yes, Mary Ann and Malcolm Dan MacIntosh.
Jeanette: Donald (Morrison) was telling me that they lived there.
The Assay office
Bessie: She (Mary Ann) was working in the Assay office.
Jeanette: What did an assayer do?
Bessie: They tested the ore for the percentage of gold or lead or Zinc or (copper or lead).
Jeanette: She did that?
Bessie: Yes. And Mamie did too.
Jeanette: Mamie?
Bessie: Morrison (MacMaster). And Chrissie (MacLeod MacMillan) as well.
Dept of Mines
Jeanette: Chrissie’s husband; wasn’t he involved in getting the mine all ready (when the mine reopened). I guess they would have had to pump out the old mine shafts. What was his job?
Bessie: What in the world were they? They worked for the Dept of Mines. Johnny A was Chrissie’s husband. There was a Sample fellow. And I think Dan Morrison worked for them.
Bessie: Another person who worked at the mine out here was Margaret May’s husband Rod MacLeod.
Jeanette: Yes I remember him. What did he do?
Bessie: He worked at the mine not the last time but the first time (in the 30’s). He was only a young man. They married and had two sons.
Diamond Drilling
Jeanette: So the diamond drilling. When we were kids we would come out here (Framboise) in the summer and we’d hear drilling over here (Stirling). We used to always call them the diamond drillers. Was there some exploration that was going on then in the 70’s.
Bessie: They drilled over near Neil MacQueen’s (North Framboise). They drilled out here, just the other side of Julia’s (Barkers’ corner) on the upper side of the road.
Stores/businesses
Jeanette: My father’s garage, (Strachan's Garage) do you remember anything about that?
Bessie: Yes there was a service station there. It was pretty busy.
Jeanette: That’s what Duncan Murdock Dan (MacLeod) said. He worked there for a year. He said it was a happening place.
Bessie: That’s where they gathered to have a good chat.
Jeanette: Do you remember anything in particular about that garage?
Bessie: Well he had a pump. He was selling gas and fixing tires and he was – I think they were busy.
Jeanette: He had someone working for him didn’t he, because my father was working in the mine (as a carpenter)?
Bessie: I think Edwin Severance worked there. He was crippled.
Note Edwin had polio but managed very well despite this. See Elmer MacGillivary and Donald Strachan's Interviews with reference to Edwin.
Bessie: Morrison's store was almost below them- the store on the corner there.
Jeanette: I believe it was at the beginning of the road on the left.
Bessie: Yes. On the left. They had a big store there and then there was another house back there. And somebody was in there.
Editor's note: This would be Gertie and Willie D Landry’s house as referenced in Irene Sampson Carter’s interview.
Bessie: And then Mary MacKinnon’s brother Angus MacKinnon’s wife’s brother had a Meat Market and then Danny Shaw had a store. He had most everything, so did Morrison’s. If Morrison’s didn’t have the thing (you wanted) in the store they’d get it in St Peter’s. They’d bring it down.
Jeanette: oh ok
Bessie Kay Fox
Jeanette - Kay (Morrison MacDonald). She was Alex’s (Morrison)’s sister right?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: Kay and her husband ran that store.
See Irene Sampson Carter’s interview with reference to Kay and Charlie "Fox" MacDonald.
Bessie: You could get a nice $5 roast for the weekend. It was a good size roast and if they didn’t have what you asked for she’d bring it down the next time she was up in St Peter’s.
Bessie: And then there was Spinner’s. They had John G’s old store. And then they had the post office. Diddy (MacLeod) worked in the post office.
Jeanette: oh did she?.
Bessie: Yes Diddy worked there quite a while.
See Marjory "Diddy) Johnson MacLeod's interview in reference to her working at the post office and Spinner’s.
Jeanette: The post office would be pretty busy I would say.
Bessie: Oh I guess it was. And then when Spinner gave up the post office, Hughie and May had the post office on the corner. They were at Babcock’s house. They were renting it.
Jeanette: Ok they took over that. Why did Spinner’s not bother with that (anymore)?
Bessie: I think they just went to the clothing because people didn’t always get to Sydney.
Jeanette: There was a little convenience store, wasn’t there? The Sampson's from Sampsonsville.
Bessie: They were in Morrison’s store at the time the mine closed after Kay and Fox gave up.
Jeanette: They (the Sampson’s) kept it up.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: It was probably one of the last places to close then?
Bessie: I’d say so.
Jeanette: Who would be going there after the mine closed?
Bessie: Oh different ones would go out there to get different things.
Jeanette: That was more like a convenience store then.
Bessie: Oh well, they had different things. I think they had bread and essentials like that. Then they tore that down. They must have moved that back to St Peter’s or did something with it.
And then there was, who was it? Chan, bought the old school house in Fourchu and Dan Alex moved that up. They had a little restaurant there.
Jeanette: OK that was the Chinese restaurant.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: And where would that store have been when you were going down the mine road?
Bessie: It would have been about halfway down, on the right. Because the bunkhouses they built first were on the left. I don’t know now what went on with them.
Editor's note : I think the old bunkhouse became the theatre (which was on the left across from the Chinese restaurant) which was later moved down to Dan Norman MacLeod’s.
Jeanette: And Tom’s Tea Room where was that?
Bessie: That’s the Chinese (restaurant).
Jeanette: Why was it called Tom’s?
Bessie: Well it was Tom Chan.
Jeanette: Did he have a slot machine in there?
Bessie: I think he did about everything to make a little money.
Jeanette: So where did he come from?
Bessie: I don’t know, perhaps he came from Sydney or somewhere.
Jeanette: And did you hear where he went afterward?
Bessie: Well the boy, I don’t remember the boy’s name but anyway when Gerry Ames was here and Betty and the two children: Bunny and the little fellow Brian, I think, (I was told )Brian and he joined the services up in Halifax together and they were in the services together. (Editor's note; this would be Kenny (not Brian) as per email from Ken's son Brian Ames. He notes, that according to his aunt, Bunny, his father was never in the services but that his father and one of the Chan boys were very good friends.
Bessie: They were here, a number of years ago. They wanted to know if the house was still standing and if there was anyone living in it. And they said when they were little fellows, he used to go with his father Gerry Ames. He was the mechanic and he worked in the machine shop. There was another fellow who worked in the machine shop. I don’t remember his name.
Bessie: Oh, there was so many different names. There were the Bushnicks. They were from Sydney Mines or North Sydney. They landed here one day and there were some women that landed here a couple of years ago from over Inverness and their father worked out here in the mine.
Jeanette: What did they want to know from you?
Bessie: Oh they wanted to know where exactly the mine was. Some of them had been over here, were born in Stirling.
Those who travelled
Bessie: A lot of them, they travelled back and forth. Donald MacDonald, and Alister (MacDonald -Pearl’s husband from Gabarus.
Jeanette: How did they get back and forth? Did they drive?
Bessie: Donald MacDonald had a truck and there was a bunch of them. He had a box on the truck and a bunch of them sat on the back of the truck and came to work. They paid so much.
Bessie: Donald MacDonald, Anne’s father. Their house is in back of the Gabarus hall. I don’t know who owns it now. They sold it.
Bessie: Anne was a youngster I don’t know if they were all born at that time. Anne, Donna and David.
Jeanette: So they’d all pile in the vehicle and take off (to Stirling).
Bessie: They used to come up in the vehicle. I don’t know what Angus did. I believe he worked in the mill. He wasn’t working underground
Bessie: Who else was there – Roddie MacDonald worked there. And, oh my goodness if you would come to think of all the people (that worked there). Malcolm MacDonald, he worked there from Fourchu.
Jeanette: What did he do?
Bessie: He was working in the mill.
The Mill
Jeanette: And what did they do in the mill?
Bessie: They had the concentrates and they would send that up to St Peter’s and then it was taken from St Peter’s and sent where ever.
Jeanette: So they got the ore there and they milled it down crushed it up?
Bessie: They would have Gold, Zinc, Lead, Copper and there was another one (Silver). Well anyways there were five different mineral concentrates. They had bought trucks, there were different trucks drivers.
Editor's Not: According to Murdock Morrison, the mine owned two trucks which they used to haul ore. They also contracted with Malcolm S MacDonald trucking, They had five bigger trucks which they used to haul the ore to St Peter’s.
Jeanette: They would separate it. That’s probably what happened in the mill. They would separate different…?
Bessie: Minerals.
The Glory Hole
Jeanette: The Glory hole. What was that all about?
Bessie: That Glory hole is where they dug it out for the mine when the mine was working before.
Jeanette: Did they use it this time?
Bessie: I imagine the water was going in there. It seems to me. They had a fence around it anyway.
Jeanette: I think there was a dam there. My brother Donald was saying that there was water that was redirected from a river.
Bessie: That river came down through here, the land here. Well this River here (on barren road- 3 River Road), the majority of this river is bottomless.
Jeanette Really?!
Jeanette: So that’s the River that flows at the bottom of MacDermid’s hill.
Editor's note - This brook comes from MacLean’s lake through the mine and across the barren road (3 Rivers Rd) and across the Stirling Rd where Potties are now and then into the Framboise River. It is called Strachan’s Brook. Check out this link novascotia.ca/natr/meb/data/pubs/ofr_me_1996-016.pdf
Bessie: Yes. Well there were three bridges there. At one time, right alongside one another. There was that much water coming through and now there is only the one.
Jeanette: So why was there all the water? Is it because they had it dammed (up at the mine and then let it go at one time?
Bessie: Well, I don’t know. There were three bridges there as far back as I can remember.
Bessie: Annie And Neil MacIntosh - They lived over there. They had it cut and then somebody bought it. Somebody that was out at the mine. They had a big family. And they were over there.
Editor's note: This family may be the Parkers. See Mary Ann MacIntosh Troke’s interview.
The Catholic Church
Jeanette: Did you know the Catholic church?
Bessie: It was quite a good size building. They cleared the land and built a church and that church - I don’t know if that church is in East Bay. (Editors note: As per Father Norman MacPhee, the building was taken apart and the material was used to build the Glebe House at St Leo's Church in "The Sterling" , Glace Bay, NS. The foundation remains in Stirling on private property and with permission of the owner was measured and found to be approx 60 ft x 25 feet).
Jeanette: (you were saying) there were a lot of people attending that church.
Bessie: Most of the people that came in were Catholic and they were, you know, very staunch Catholic.
Jeanette: And the Catholic church (building) was just there since the last time (50’s)
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: And do you know when it was built; 53 or 54 something like that?.
Bessie: It was built before that because it (the mine) closed in what - 56.
Note -See Pearl MacLeod MacDonald’s & Mary Gillis' interviews for more information about the Catholic church.
Those whose Children attended Boarding Schools
Bessie: Now Gaudet, he was the Office Manager. And Fornier was the Warehouse Manager. And Gaudet had 6 or more children. He had his children going to a school over in Mabou.
Note - Dolena MacLeod McLean talks about his daughter Clair in her interview.
Jeanette: Really, and he was living over here in Stirling?
Bessie: He had a house, he and his wife.
Jeanette: In Mabou - what kind of school would that have been? Like a boarding school?
Bessie: Yes, they boarded over there. It was the Catholic school over there. I don’t know if it is over there now or not.
Jeanette: Was there anyone else that did that with their children there?
Bessie: The Presseau (s). The Presseau (s) were there when it was working before. Well Madeline would be the same age as Melvin and Sam and all them.
Jeanette: So Madeline was the daughter of Presseau?
Bessie: Yes and there was Jackie and John
Jeanette: Was he (Presseau) a Mine Manager?
Bessie: Yes.
When the mine worked in the 30's and 50's
Jeanette: Was this when the mine worked in the 50’s.
Bessie: No that was before. We went to school with them (Presseau). When I first started going to school, they went to school. I was born in 1931. I went to school in 37, I guess.
Jeanette: So that was after it was opened in the mid thirties. That was probably the British Metals.
Bessie: Yes the British Metals.
Jeanette: This is the picture of the mine back in 30’s (See Photo #1). I know you said it was all torn down. When it started up in the 50’s, did anything look like that in the 50’s.
Bessie: Oh yes
Jeanette: So do you think they built on the same foundations.
Bessie:. No. They’d have new foundations.
Jeanette: So, they weren’t built in the same place.
Bessie: They were somewhere in the vicinity of the (other) buildings, different parts. These houses weren’t like that then (photo #1 forefront left). That area there, that’s where the bunkhouses were (in the 50s). (See Photo #2 . The bunkhouses were on the spot where the three big houses were in photo #1).
People who worked at the Stirling Mine
Jeanette: You were hired as a secretary in 1950.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: So the people who ran the place (Stirling Mine) was Stronach?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: Who else was there, Chisholm?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: Where was he from, Chisholm?
Bessie: He was from over the other side.
Jeanette: The other side of Cape Breton?
Bessie: And Michaelson. He came from Quebec.
Jeanette: Michaelson?
Bessie: Yes. They were all working at a mine (up there). They all came down here.
Bessie: Who else- Bunclarke ran the machine shop. They hired a bunch of laborers. People from Fourchu. Most of the people from Fourchu were working out there.
Jeanette: What about people from Framboise.
Bessie: Yes, there were people from Framboise. John James, Billy and Angus (MacLeod brothers) got work and Lawrence and Kenny (Morrison brothers) were working there.
Jeanette: What were they doing?
Bessie: They did labour work. John James was working at putting the oil in the oil stoves. They didn’t have furnaces and all that at first. They just had shacks.
The buildings/ the Main office
Bessie: Do you remember the building that is down at Dan Normans.
Jeanette: Yes
Bessie: Well that was one of the buildings where the men were staying at.
Jeanette: Oh like a bunk house. Editor's note: This may have been converted into the Theater after the larger bunk houses were built. Dan Norman MacLeod's daughter, Diane, said that this building was once used as a theater over at the Stirling Mine.)
Bessie: And then they built two new bunkhouses when things got going.
Jeanette: So when you started working there (in Stirling), were there any of the old buildings (from when the mine worked previously in the 30s) or was there just nothing?
Bessie: Nothing, nothing, nothing. There was just woods.
Jeanette: So, where was your office, in one of those (earlier) bunkhouses?
Bessie: First we were in one of them but then we moved into another place. They didn’t take long building.
Bessie: Walter MacDonald (Fourchu) was time keeper and Arthur LeBrun from Arichat was time keeper. He was in the office. And there was Bern Kelly. He was the Accountant.
Jeanette: Bern Kelly. Where would he be from?
Bessie: He was from away.
Jeanette: From Ontario or out West?
Bessie: Yes from that area somewhere. I think they were mostly from Quebec. Bern Kelly and Kenny MacEwen from St Peters (they worked in the office).
Bessie: Lloyd MacDonald (Fourchu) worked there and Walter (MacDonald Fourchu) worked in the office. Oh, it was quite the racket. And Dolena MacLeod/MacLean -she was there and I was like there at the wall. LeBrun was behind us and Walter was behind there too. And then there was a comical fellow there, Calvin Hastings. He would take the socks that the miners would throw away and he would rip them and knit them all over again. But the day he got locked in the Vault!!!
Jeanette: Is that where the money was?
Bessie: That’s where everything was. Papers and all the different things. I don’t know what he was doing but anyway I went to go in and I said “the door is locked." I don’t know who, but somebody said, “ you know what to do” (to unlock the door). (Editor's note: According to Wendell Holmes, Calvin Hastings worked as an electrician. He likely was doing some work inside this room.)
Jeanette: How long would he have been in there.
Bessie: He was in there a while. (When he got out) he said, “I’ll never go in there again”. Laughter.
Bessie: He and his wife lived in Dogpatch. She was always on the go. She used to cook for some of them.
Bessie: Did you know that we didn’t have the power then. They had generators.
Jeanette: I think they had two big generators.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: So when did they start getting the power?.
Bessie: They got the power coming from Glace Bay in 51 or 52. In 51, I think they got the power.
Jeanette: So in your office, you were the secretary. What did you do there?
Bessie: I ordered everything that came into the mine. I tell you it wasn’t easy with all the machinery numbers and names.
Jeanette: So how did you know what to order?
Bessie: I was given a list. And lumber, lumber was just crazy and that Stephens and them; They made a fortune on the mine out here. I think that’s how they got their start. Lets see: There were the two bunkhouses and there was a mine office and there was the machine shop. Dan Alex had all those pictures.
Jeanette: Would they have been of all the buildings here?
Bessie: Yes all the buildings.
Jeanette: So, they had a machine shop and a mine office and some bunkhouses.
The Houses/company homes
Jeanette: Didn’t they have some big houses, like the company houses.
Bessie: Oh they built those homes. Everybody (mine bosses) had a brand new home. The majority of the homes cost $1000 a room.
Jeanette: $1000 a room – that was a lot of money back then.
Bessie: The houses at that time cost about $7000 (to build).
Jeanette: Now would they be the houses as you would be going down the road on the right hand side?
Bessie: Back of John G’s (MacLeod). There was a road back there. He sold some property to them. They were in a row. There were different rows. They were all gravel.
Bessie: There were three (houses) as you go down on the road before you got to the gate where they checked people going in.
Jeanette: On the left side?
Bessie: Yes, on the left side.
Bessie: There was Michaelson, Bunclarke and Bardswick. They were on the upper side, somewhere near where that (internet) tower is now, I think.
Bessie: And then there was a road that went up like that (hand pointing to the right).
Jeanette: And that’s on the right (behind John G’s)?
Bessie: The bosses, Chisholm was up there and MacLeod was up there.
Jeanette: Were they smaller houses then that were on the left side of the road?
Bessie: The big ones on John G’s Side (Right side of Mine road) were bigger. Some of those houses are down in East Bay.
Jeanette: Yes there is one down near the Meadows Road.
Bessie: That one down there where Pottie (Stirling Rd-formerly owned by Christian and Geska Claussen)- that is one of the mine houses and down there where Kennie Dan was- that was another one. His brother Dan bought that I think.
Jeanette: Was that one that the bosses had, that kind of style?
Bessie: Yes, one of those houses was Lily and Angus’s (MacLeod), but they made it bigger.
Jeanette: They added on.
Bessie: Yes. and Dan Norman’s (MacLeod), big Dan Norman’s house.
Jeanette: So they were all the bosses’ houses?
Bessie: Yes, they were all the bosses’ houses.
Bessie: Mary Malcolm (MacLeod) worked for the women. She’d be babysitting. Mary Malcolm would have them out in the wintertime in the sleigh.
Jeanette: Dan Norman’s house was a little smaller right?
Bessie: Yes. They were smaller. Who else, Catherine’s house (Dan Alex’s mother’s house)- the one where Evelyn was that burnt by Dan Alex's there. That was a big house. That was Michaelson’s house. Oh, that was a beautiful house.
Jeanette: That's where Danny and Anne (MacLeod) lived, right?
Bessie: Yes, that is where Danny and Anne lived when they got married.
Jeanette: Dan Alex brought that over from (the mine)?
Bessie: Yes. Well Dan Alex moved them all. He moved that big house down (to the Meadows Rd)
Jeanette: And Duncan’s (MacLeod) house?
Bessie: Well Dolena (your Aunt Dolena) bought that house and then Duncan bought it.
Jeanette: They brought it from the mine and took it over to North Framboise?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: So all along there on the left- hand side and the right-hand side (of the road going down to the mine) were the bosses?
Jeanette: I looked up there at the foundations (on the right- hand side). It was kind of funny like the foundation was square but in the front there was another piece of concrete going across the front. I wonder why that was. Why they would have had that there.
Bessie: I think it was the front porch.
Jeanette: Was that what that was.
Bessie: Sort of a ….
Jeanette: Footer for the porch?
Bessie: What would you call it - a veranda maybe. Now they call it something else. I think it was a Veranda as far as I remember.
Jeanette: Down at Margaret’s Norman Alex (MacLeod) that was a mess hall wasn’t it- that house.
Bessie: I don’t believe.
Jeanette: So was it a regular house. Because when I was a Kid that was an open concept. There were just partitions in it. See Angus Alex MacLeod's interview for info on Norman Alex's two houses he bought from the mine.
Bessie: Now Dan Norman had a building- the house that Roddie John Alex had out the Stirling Road. I think that Dan Norman bought that. Another one was Angus Alex Red John (MacLeod). Well they must have got married around that time or he got the house before he was married. And they moved it down there (Marion Bridge) and put a foundation under it. (See Angus MacLeod’s Interview re his house.)
Jeanette: How many houses do you think there were?
Bessie: There were a bunch of them and they sold them all (when the mine closed). As far as I know they were all sold.
Bessie: Lets’ see. MacLeod was the assayer and Chisholm.
Other homes
Bessie: Who else was there - There was a fellow in the mill. He lived over Duncan’s way (on the other side of the Stirling Lake). He had a little place over there. (Editor's note - this was likely Laurie Fanning and his Family) as per Zane Fanning's interview.)
Jeanette: So, quite a lot of people had homes along the (Lake).
Bessie: Some of them were around the lake - little bungalows and at Dogpatch. Note: Dogpatch was a nickname given to this stretch of road as there were several homes in a large open field. The homes were often small and temporary with several people coming and going depending on what their job was at the mine. At the time there was a popular cartoon strip "L'il Abner" and the place they lived was called Dogpatch. One of the homes was bought by my aunt Wilma (Strachan) and moved to Morrison Rd, Framboise.
Jeanette: So around the lake, did those people buy those properties? Did the mine have anything to do with that?
Bessie: No, I think most of the people who built over there had little places. They had a kitchen and a bedroom. They had no elaborate place.
Jeanette: Did they own the land themselves?
Bessie: I guess they did.
Jeanette: They bought it?
Bessie: They bought it or were paying poll tax or something.
Jeanette: What was poll tax?.
Bessie: That was a tax they had on the people - $10 a head or something
Jeanette: To use the land?
Bessie: Because they were on the land. Now down in Gabarus, all the ones from Gabarus brought their receipts because they paid poll tax down in Gabarus or where ever they were. They all paid the poll tax.
Jeanette: Now Dogpatch, who lived there?
Bessie: It was the Miners. I don’t know how many were out there. Alex MacDonnell (St Peter’s) was the hoist man. He worked with Melvin. And there was Donald Archie MacKinnon. He was sinking the shaft. That was another bunch that came in later. They were sinking the shaft. Jim MacLeod was there. He was the mine captain. Murdock MacKinnon, Donald Archie MacKinnon and Harry Gillis that would be Wally Gillis, the teacher that was up in St Peter’s, that would be his father. He was a big man. There were other ones.
Jeanette: So did they build them themselves?
Bessie: They built those places themselves. Some of them were just there when they were sinking the shaft then they left and went to some other job. I think they came from Buckans. What a bunch.
Jeanette: So all those people you named were from Buckans?
Bessie: No, they came from there. They had been working there. They came to sink the shaft. And Bernie Gillis from Grand Mira. He was a Hoister. Melvin was a Hoister. Archie MacDonnell, Dan (Morrison).
Jeanette: What did a hoist man do?
Bessie: They hoisted. Down in the shaft, Yes. A big, big machine.
Bessie: And who else? a MacGillivary fellow. He was from up Nova Scotia somewhere. Now there was a George Burke. He just died here lately. He was in his 90’s. He lived in a bungalow just as you turn up to St Peter’s in L’Ardoise. He was a very, very good electrician.
Jeanette: What about the Mercers?
Bessie: They were down there as you were making the turn down toward Donna and John Norman's (MacQueen) (Crooked Lake road).
Jeanette: Did he work at the mine?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: He came from Lunenburg right?
Bessie: Yes, the boy (Barrie) comes down every year to the picnics and that.
Jeanette: Somebody lived behind John G’s - that little house in the back
Bessie: Yes, Mary Ann and Malcolm Dan MacIntosh.
Jeanette: Donald (Morrison) was telling me that they lived there.
The Assay office
Bessie: She (Mary Ann) was working in the Assay office.
Jeanette: What did an assayer do?
Bessie: They tested the ore for the percentage of gold or lead or Zinc or (copper or lead).
Jeanette: She did that?
Bessie: Yes. And Mamie did too.
Jeanette: Mamie?
Bessie: Morrison (MacMaster). And Chrissie (MacLeod MacMillan) as well.
Dept of Mines
Jeanette: Chrissie’s husband; wasn’t he involved in getting the mine all ready (when the mine reopened). I guess they would have had to pump out the old mine shafts. What was his job?
Bessie: What in the world were they? They worked for the Dept of Mines. Johnny A was Chrissie’s husband. There was a Sample fellow. And I think Dan Morrison worked for them.
Bessie: Another person who worked at the mine out here was Margaret May’s husband Rod MacLeod.
Jeanette: Yes I remember him. What did he do?
Bessie: He worked at the mine not the last time but the first time (in the 30’s). He was only a young man. They married and had two sons.
Diamond Drilling
Jeanette: So the diamond drilling. When we were kids we would come out here (Framboise) in the summer and we’d hear drilling over here (Stirling). We used to always call them the diamond drillers. Was there some exploration that was going on then in the 70’s.
Bessie: They drilled over near Neil MacQueen’s (North Framboise). They drilled out here, just the other side of Julia’s (Barkers’ corner) on the upper side of the road.
Stores/businesses
Jeanette: My father’s garage, (Strachan's Garage) do you remember anything about that?
Bessie: Yes there was a service station there. It was pretty busy.
Jeanette: That’s what Duncan Murdock Dan (MacLeod) said. He worked there for a year. He said it was a happening place.
Bessie: That’s where they gathered to have a good chat.
Jeanette: Do you remember anything in particular about that garage?
Bessie: Well he had a pump. He was selling gas and fixing tires and he was – I think they were busy.
Jeanette: He had someone working for him didn’t he, because my father was working in the mine (as a carpenter)?
Bessie: I think Edwin Severance worked there. He was crippled.
Note Edwin had polio but managed very well despite this. See Elmer MacGillivary and Donald Strachan's Interviews with reference to Edwin.
Bessie: Morrison's store was almost below them- the store on the corner there.
Jeanette: I believe it was at the beginning of the road on the left.
Bessie: Yes. On the left. They had a big store there and then there was another house back there. And somebody was in there.
Editor's note: This would be Gertie and Willie D Landry’s house as referenced in Irene Sampson Carter’s interview.
Bessie: And then Mary MacKinnon’s brother Angus MacKinnon’s wife’s brother had a Meat Market and then Danny Shaw had a store. He had most everything, so did Morrison’s. If Morrison’s didn’t have the thing (you wanted) in the store they’d get it in St Peter’s. They’d bring it down.
Jeanette: oh ok
Bessie Kay Fox
Jeanette - Kay (Morrison MacDonald). She was Alex’s (Morrison)’s sister right?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: Kay and her husband ran that store.
See Irene Sampson Carter’s interview with reference to Kay and Charlie "Fox" MacDonald.
Bessie: You could get a nice $5 roast for the weekend. It was a good size roast and if they didn’t have what you asked for she’d bring it down the next time she was up in St Peter’s.
Bessie: And then there was Spinner’s. They had John G’s old store. And then they had the post office. Diddy (MacLeod) worked in the post office.
Jeanette: oh did she?.
Bessie: Yes Diddy worked there quite a while.
See Marjory "Diddy) Johnson MacLeod's interview in reference to her working at the post office and Spinner’s.
Jeanette: The post office would be pretty busy I would say.
Bessie: Oh I guess it was. And then when Spinner gave up the post office, Hughie and May had the post office on the corner. They were at Babcock’s house. They were renting it.
Jeanette: Ok they took over that. Why did Spinner’s not bother with that (anymore)?
Bessie: I think they just went to the clothing because people didn’t always get to Sydney.
Jeanette: There was a little convenience store, wasn’t there? The Sampson's from Sampsonsville.
Bessie: They were in Morrison’s store at the time the mine closed after Kay and Fox gave up.
Jeanette: They (the Sampson’s) kept it up.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: It was probably one of the last places to close then?
Bessie: I’d say so.
Jeanette: Who would be going there after the mine closed?
Bessie: Oh different ones would go out there to get different things.
Jeanette: That was more like a convenience store then.
Bessie: Oh well, they had different things. I think they had bread and essentials like that. Then they tore that down. They must have moved that back to St Peter’s or did something with it.
And then there was, who was it? Chan, bought the old school house in Fourchu and Dan Alex moved that up. They had a little restaurant there.
Jeanette: OK that was the Chinese restaurant.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: And where would that store have been when you were going down the mine road?
Bessie: It would have been about halfway down, on the right. Because the bunkhouses they built first were on the left. I don’t know now what went on with them.
Editor's note : I think the old bunkhouse became the theatre (which was on the left across from the Chinese restaurant) which was later moved down to Dan Norman MacLeod’s.
Jeanette: And Tom’s Tea Room where was that?
Bessie: That’s the Chinese (restaurant).
Jeanette: Why was it called Tom’s?
Bessie: Well it was Tom Chan.
Jeanette: Did he have a slot machine in there?
Bessie: I think he did about everything to make a little money.
Jeanette: So where did he come from?
Bessie: I don’t know, perhaps he came from Sydney or somewhere.
Jeanette: And did you hear where he went afterward?
Bessie: Well the boy, I don’t remember the boy’s name but anyway when Gerry Ames was here and Betty and the two children: Bunny and the little fellow Brian, I think, (I was told )Brian and he joined the services up in Halifax together and they were in the services together. (Editor's note; this would be Kenny (not Brian) as per email from Ken's son Brian Ames. He notes, that according to his aunt, Bunny, his father was never in the services but that his father and one of the Chan boys were very good friends.
Bessie: They were here, a number of years ago. They wanted to know if the house was still standing and if there was anyone living in it. And they said when they were little fellows, he used to go with his father Gerry Ames. He was the mechanic and he worked in the machine shop. There was another fellow who worked in the machine shop. I don’t remember his name.
Bessie: Oh, there was so many different names. There were the Bushnicks. They were from Sydney Mines or North Sydney. They landed here one day and there were some women that landed here a couple of years ago from over Inverness and their father worked out here in the mine.
Jeanette: What did they want to know from you?
Bessie: Oh they wanted to know where exactly the mine was. Some of them had been over here, were born in Stirling.
Those who travelled
Bessie: A lot of them, they travelled back and forth. Donald MacDonald, and Alister (MacDonald -Pearl’s husband from Gabarus.
Jeanette: How did they get back and forth? Did they drive?
Bessie: Donald MacDonald had a truck and there was a bunch of them. He had a box on the truck and a bunch of them sat on the back of the truck and came to work. They paid so much.
Bessie: Donald MacDonald, Anne’s father. Their house is in back of the Gabarus hall. I don’t know who owns it now. They sold it.
Bessie: Anne was a youngster I don’t know if they were all born at that time. Anne, Donna and David.
Jeanette: So they’d all pile in the vehicle and take off (to Stirling).
Bessie: They used to come up in the vehicle. I don’t know what Angus did. I believe he worked in the mill. He wasn’t working underground
Bessie: Who else was there – Roddie MacDonald worked there. And, oh my goodness if you would come to think of all the people (that worked there). Malcolm MacDonald, he worked there from Fourchu.
Jeanette: What did he do?
Bessie: He was working in the mill.
The Mill
Jeanette: And what did they do in the mill?
Bessie: They had the concentrates and they would send that up to St Peter’s and then it was taken from St Peter’s and sent where ever.
Jeanette: So they got the ore there and they milled it down crushed it up?
Bessie: They would have Gold, Zinc, Lead, Copper and there was another one (Silver). Well anyways there were five different mineral concentrates. They had bought trucks, there were different trucks drivers.
Editor's Not: According to Murdock Morrison, the mine owned two trucks which they used to haul ore. They also contracted with Malcolm S MacDonald trucking, They had five bigger trucks which they used to haul the ore to St Peter’s.
Jeanette: They would separate it. That’s probably what happened in the mill. They would separate different…?
Bessie: Minerals.
The Glory Hole
Jeanette: The Glory hole. What was that all about?
Bessie: That Glory hole is where they dug it out for the mine when the mine was working before.
Jeanette: Did they use it this time?
Bessie: I imagine the water was going in there. It seems to me. They had a fence around it anyway.
Jeanette: I think there was a dam there. My brother Donald was saying that there was water that was redirected from a river.
Bessie: That river came down through here, the land here. Well this River here (on barren road- 3 River Road), the majority of this river is bottomless.
Jeanette Really?!
Jeanette: So that’s the River that flows at the bottom of MacDermid’s hill.
Editor's note - This brook comes from MacLean’s lake through the mine and across the barren road (3 Rivers Rd) and across the Stirling Rd where Potties are now and then into the Framboise River. It is called Strachan’s Brook. Check out this link novascotia.ca/natr/meb/data/pubs/ofr_me_1996-016.pdf
Bessie: Yes. Well there were three bridges there. At one time, right alongside one another. There was that much water coming through and now there is only the one.
Jeanette: So why was there all the water? Is it because they had it dammed (up at the mine and then let it go at one time?
Bessie: Well, I don’t know. There were three bridges there as far back as I can remember.
Bessie: Annie And Neil MacIntosh - They lived over there. They had it cut and then somebody bought it. Somebody that was out at the mine. They had a big family. And they were over there.
Editor's note: This family may be the Parkers. See Mary Ann MacIntosh Troke’s interview.
The Catholic Church
Jeanette: Did you know the Catholic church?
Bessie: It was quite a good size building. They cleared the land and built a church and that church - I don’t know if that church is in East Bay. (Editors note: As per Father Norman MacPhee, the building was taken apart and the material was used to build the Glebe House at St Leo's Church in "The Sterling" , Glace Bay, NS. The foundation remains in Stirling on private property and with permission of the owner was measured and found to be approx 60 ft x 25 feet).
Jeanette: (you were saying) there were a lot of people attending that church.
Bessie: Most of the people that came in were Catholic and they were, you know, very staunch Catholic.
Jeanette: And the Catholic church (building) was just there since the last time (50’s)
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: And do you know when it was built; 53 or 54 something like that?.
Bessie: It was built before that because it (the mine) closed in what - 56.
Note -See Pearl MacLeod MacDonald’s & Mary Gillis' interviews for more information about the Catholic church.
Those whose Children attended Boarding Schools
Bessie: Now Gaudet, he was the Office Manager. And Fornier was the Warehouse Manager. And Gaudet had 6 or more children. He had his children going to a school over in Mabou.
Note - Dolena MacLeod McLean talks about his daughter Clair in her interview.
Jeanette: Really, and he was living over here in Stirling?
Bessie: He had a house, he and his wife.
Jeanette: In Mabou - what kind of school would that have been? Like a boarding school?
Bessie: Yes, they boarded over there. It was the Catholic school over there. I don’t know if it is over there now or not.
Jeanette: Was there anyone else that did that with their children there?
Bessie: The Presseau (s). The Presseau (s) were there when it was working before. Well Madeline would be the same age as Melvin and Sam and all them.
Jeanette: So Madeline was the daughter of Presseau?
Bessie: Yes and there was Jackie and John
Jeanette: Was he (Presseau) a Mine Manager?
Bessie: Yes.
When the mine worked in the 30's and 50's
Jeanette: Was this when the mine worked in the 50’s.
Bessie: No that was before. We went to school with them (Presseau). When I first started going to school, they went to school. I was born in 1931. I went to school in 37, I guess.
Jeanette: So that was after it was opened in the mid thirties. That was probably the British Metals.
Bessie: Yes the British Metals.
Jeanette: This is the picture of the mine back in 30’s (See Photo #1). I know you said it was all torn down. When it started up in the 50’s, did anything look like that in the 50’s.
Bessie: Oh yes
Jeanette: So do you think they built on the same foundations.
Bessie:. No. They’d have new foundations.
Jeanette: So, they weren’t built in the same place.
Bessie: They were somewhere in the vicinity of the (other) buildings, different parts. These houses weren’t like that then (photo #1 forefront left). That area there, that’s where the bunkhouses were (in the 50s). (See Photo #2 . The bunkhouses were on the spot where the three big houses were in photo #1).
Photo #1 1930's mine, Stirling, Richmond County, NS
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Photo #2 1950's mine, Stirling, Richmond County, NS
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Recreation
Jeanette: Do you remember anything about a recreation center in the back there (far left)?
Bessie: It was William MacLean’s property. They had a building there. They had a hall. Oh Yes. They had the hall. When Mamie and Johnny got married they had the dance and everything up there.
Jeanette: So they had a kind of recreation center.
Bessie: They had dances and shows.
Jeanette: And there was a movie theater? Is that where that was?
Bessie: The movie theatre was down below. They had one of the places there, more up toward the main road. Jeanette: On the left- hand side near the stores?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: And they had a baseball field I think.
Bessie: Well that was up at William MacLean’s.
Jeanette: Yes, up there. A few years ago, I walked up there. And I came across a foundation.
Bessie: It may have been the hall.
Jeanette: It could have been. It looked like it was stone but in the middle of it was a concrete pier holding up the building which looked modern and it was right on the edge of the hill.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: and then it looked like the foundation was cut out so maybe a vehicle could drive into the basement. Maybe it was the doorway to the hall. Do you think it could be the hall.
Bessie: Could be. They had different things going on there. They had picnics and all that stuff. They really had a lot of stuff.
Jeanette: Who would organize that. Would you be the one doing that?
Bessie: No usually the men. There was a couple of young fellows there. Leon LePrairie and Joe Mason worked there married to Peggy Red John (MacLeod) and O’Shaunnesey.
Editor's Note: There may have been someone assigned/employed to do this task. See Marjorie Johnson MacLeod's interview note re Eddie Murrin.
Jeanette: Now, would they be managers or bosses?
Bessie: No, they worked with the Engineers. I think most of them worked with Michaelson. Surveying and all that.
Jeanette: So they did some surveying and
Bessie: Oh, Yes
Jeanette: So they had courses under their belt, probably, formal education?
Bessie: Oh yes. Some of them I think, Joe Mason- That was another fellow who was working there- Joe Mason’s father. And Singer was another fellow.
Jeanette: Where would he have come from?
Bessie: The Valley I think
Jeanette: Was he a manager or a boss?
Bessie: No, he worked in the mine. He had been working around the mines.
Jeanette: Did he take his family down here with him.
Bessie: No he wasn’t married. I don’t think, at the time.
People who died at the Stirling Mine.
Jeanette: There were a few people who died in the mine in Stirling the last time (it operated).
Bessie: I recall a Bedard fellow from Quebec. He died and Robert Burns brother’s (Dan Alex) son, only son. He was killed in the mill.
Jeanette: What was his name?
Bessie: Howard Burns. He was only 19, I think. He was in the mill. I think it was a piece of clothing that caught in the rollers.
Bessie: We were in Sydney and we came home and Melvin went to work at 4 O’clock. And then when he came home he said there had been a bad accident. And he said they didn’t do much that night. He said they were investigating (it). But it happened up at the mill.
Jeanette: You said that Bedard from Montreal Quebec died there. How did he die?
Bessie: He was killed in the mine.
Jeanette: Did something fall on him like a rock?
Bessie: I imagine, yes. In the mine down underground. And Howard (the other man who died) was working in the mill.
Jeanette: Was there another death (when the mine ran in the 50’s)?
Bessie: I don’t know.
Jeanette: There was Enna’s brother.
Bessie: That was the other time (30's).
Jeanette: So he died at the mine when it ran in the 30’s.
Bessie: Yes his name was Kenny (MacLeod). That was the only brother they had.
Editor's note: Bessie also noted that a boy, drowned in the Lake behind the mine when the mine ran in the 50's. He was the son of Charlie MacDougall. As per Earl MacLean, his name was Freddy MacDougall.
The Mine Muck
Bessie: The mill was a big place. And that ore or that stuff - that was slimy (shivers). Do you know what? If you went over there over at the mine muck – that’s what I call it-you would find gold.
Jeanette: I suppose there was a lot of it that didn’t (get processed).
Bessie: There was a fellow here a number of years ago. He was from up in Seabright or wherever, and he wanted to do some digging but they wouldn’t let him. He was at your father’s too. He was very interested – He was very anxious (to find out) if there was gold, because when you dig up the muck you can see the gold.
Jeanette: A lot of it wasn’t refined, right?
Bessie: No. This fellow wanted to dig some up and take some sample but they wouldn’t let him.
Jeanette: So that slimy muck killed all the trees and everything down there. Now they are finally growing back.
The Pumphouse
Jeanette: Now the pump house over by the lake, that brought water into the mine right.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: Why didn’t they get it from MacLean’s lake. Was it too far. Or too small a lake...
Bessie: Well they had a pipe line from the lake a way back.
Jeanette: by Dan Alex’s
Bessie: No, Rory Allen’s by the lake (MacLean’s ?) . There was a river there. Further back there is a lake.
Jeanette: It didn’t come from the Stirling lake?
Bessie: It came from the Stirling lake. When the lake would go low, this water was pumped to the lake and then it was pumped to the houses.
Jeanette: Yes because we used to swim down there at the old pumphouse, behind there was a dam. Is that where the water was coming in?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: They would hold it back?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: I think that's what happened one time when George Angus’s (Strachan) daughter, Catherine, was born. The lake was flooded at the time and they had to take (a boat across).
Bessie: Don’t be talking- he came into the office. He was wild. The water came up over the bridge and they were scared of the bridge going but it didn’t. It was underwater. He had to take a boat (to the other side of the lake), I think to take Mary expecting the baby Catherine to Sydney (to the hospital).
Jeanette: So what did he say?
Bessie: What didn’t he say!! Laughter
Jeanette: There was no warning right?
Bessie: Oh, we had an awful heavy, heavy rain.
Jeanette: So, that was what that was about. It wasn’t that the water in the lake was held back?
Bessie: No
Jeanette: So the water was pumped from the Stirling lake and sometimes they would have to get it from the lake behind there.
Bessie: There was quite a bit of work the laborers put in big pipes so that the water would flow through the pipes. Oh it was quite an operation.
Note: From Bessie’s conversation it is obvious that a lot of people who had connections to the mine continue to visit and have an interest in it.
Thanks to Bessie for all the valuable information she has provided to me for this project. Bessie has passed away since this interview was conducted and so many times I want to call her and ask her more questions. With all the names she gave me, I have started a list of names of people who worked around the mine. My list is growing everyday. To view them click here on List of names
Jeanette: Do you remember anything about a recreation center in the back there (far left)?
Bessie: It was William MacLean’s property. They had a building there. They had a hall. Oh Yes. They had the hall. When Mamie and Johnny got married they had the dance and everything up there.
Jeanette: So they had a kind of recreation center.
Bessie: They had dances and shows.
Jeanette: And there was a movie theater? Is that where that was?
Bessie: The movie theatre was down below. They had one of the places there, more up toward the main road. Jeanette: On the left- hand side near the stores?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: And they had a baseball field I think.
Bessie: Well that was up at William MacLean’s.
Jeanette: Yes, up there. A few years ago, I walked up there. And I came across a foundation.
Bessie: It may have been the hall.
Jeanette: It could have been. It looked like it was stone but in the middle of it was a concrete pier holding up the building which looked modern and it was right on the edge of the hill.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: and then it looked like the foundation was cut out so maybe a vehicle could drive into the basement. Maybe it was the doorway to the hall. Do you think it could be the hall.
Bessie: Could be. They had different things going on there. They had picnics and all that stuff. They really had a lot of stuff.
Jeanette: Who would organize that. Would you be the one doing that?
Bessie: No usually the men. There was a couple of young fellows there. Leon LePrairie and Joe Mason worked there married to Peggy Red John (MacLeod) and O’Shaunnesey.
Editor's Note: There may have been someone assigned/employed to do this task. See Marjorie Johnson MacLeod's interview note re Eddie Murrin.
Jeanette: Now, would they be managers or bosses?
Bessie: No, they worked with the Engineers. I think most of them worked with Michaelson. Surveying and all that.
Jeanette: So they did some surveying and
Bessie: Oh, Yes
Jeanette: So they had courses under their belt, probably, formal education?
Bessie: Oh yes. Some of them I think, Joe Mason- That was another fellow who was working there- Joe Mason’s father. And Singer was another fellow.
Jeanette: Where would he have come from?
Bessie: The Valley I think
Jeanette: Was he a manager or a boss?
Bessie: No, he worked in the mine. He had been working around the mines.
Jeanette: Did he take his family down here with him.
Bessie: No he wasn’t married. I don’t think, at the time.
People who died at the Stirling Mine.
Jeanette: There were a few people who died in the mine in Stirling the last time (it operated).
Bessie: I recall a Bedard fellow from Quebec. He died and Robert Burns brother’s (Dan Alex) son, only son. He was killed in the mill.
Jeanette: What was his name?
Bessie: Howard Burns. He was only 19, I think. He was in the mill. I think it was a piece of clothing that caught in the rollers.
Bessie: We were in Sydney and we came home and Melvin went to work at 4 O’clock. And then when he came home he said there had been a bad accident. And he said they didn’t do much that night. He said they were investigating (it). But it happened up at the mill.
Jeanette: You said that Bedard from Montreal Quebec died there. How did he die?
Bessie: He was killed in the mine.
Jeanette: Did something fall on him like a rock?
Bessie: I imagine, yes. In the mine down underground. And Howard (the other man who died) was working in the mill.
Jeanette: Was there another death (when the mine ran in the 50’s)?
Bessie: I don’t know.
Jeanette: There was Enna’s brother.
Bessie: That was the other time (30's).
Jeanette: So he died at the mine when it ran in the 30’s.
Bessie: Yes his name was Kenny (MacLeod). That was the only brother they had.
Editor's note: Bessie also noted that a boy, drowned in the Lake behind the mine when the mine ran in the 50's. He was the son of Charlie MacDougall. As per Earl MacLean, his name was Freddy MacDougall.
The Mine Muck
Bessie: The mill was a big place. And that ore or that stuff - that was slimy (shivers). Do you know what? If you went over there over at the mine muck – that’s what I call it-you would find gold.
Jeanette: I suppose there was a lot of it that didn’t (get processed).
Bessie: There was a fellow here a number of years ago. He was from up in Seabright or wherever, and he wanted to do some digging but they wouldn’t let him. He was at your father’s too. He was very interested – He was very anxious (to find out) if there was gold, because when you dig up the muck you can see the gold.
Jeanette: A lot of it wasn’t refined, right?
Bessie: No. This fellow wanted to dig some up and take some sample but they wouldn’t let him.
Jeanette: So that slimy muck killed all the trees and everything down there. Now they are finally growing back.
The Pumphouse
Jeanette: Now the pump house over by the lake, that brought water into the mine right.
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: Why didn’t they get it from MacLean’s lake. Was it too far. Or too small a lake...
Bessie: Well they had a pipe line from the lake a way back.
Jeanette: by Dan Alex’s
Bessie: No, Rory Allen’s by the lake (MacLean’s ?) . There was a river there. Further back there is a lake.
Jeanette: It didn’t come from the Stirling lake?
Bessie: It came from the Stirling lake. When the lake would go low, this water was pumped to the lake and then it was pumped to the houses.
Jeanette: Yes because we used to swim down there at the old pumphouse, behind there was a dam. Is that where the water was coming in?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: They would hold it back?
Bessie: Yes
Jeanette: I think that's what happened one time when George Angus’s (Strachan) daughter, Catherine, was born. The lake was flooded at the time and they had to take (a boat across).
Bessie: Don’t be talking- he came into the office. He was wild. The water came up over the bridge and they were scared of the bridge going but it didn’t. It was underwater. He had to take a boat (to the other side of the lake), I think to take Mary expecting the baby Catherine to Sydney (to the hospital).
Jeanette: So what did he say?
Bessie: What didn’t he say!! Laughter
Jeanette: There was no warning right?
Bessie: Oh, we had an awful heavy, heavy rain.
Jeanette: So, that was what that was about. It wasn’t that the water in the lake was held back?
Bessie: No
Jeanette: So the water was pumped from the Stirling lake and sometimes they would have to get it from the lake behind there.
Bessie: There was quite a bit of work the laborers put in big pipes so that the water would flow through the pipes. Oh it was quite an operation.
Note: From Bessie’s conversation it is obvious that a lot of people who had connections to the mine continue to visit and have an interest in it.
Thanks to Bessie for all the valuable information she has provided to me for this project. Bessie has passed away since this interview was conducted and so many times I want to call her and ask her more questions. With all the names she gave me, I have started a list of names of people who worked around the mine. My list is growing everyday. To view them click here on List of names