Interview with Elsie Munroe formerly of Sydney/Fourchu March 24/19 for the web
Where Elsie and John Archie lived
JEANETTE: Where you married to John Archie when he was working out at the mine?
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: Did you move up with him?
ELSIE: I moved up. We built a little bungalow up there. We moved up and that was just the year Donnie was born.
JEANETTE: I think I know where it was. It was on the Stirling Road, on the right- hand side (of the road) going out to Stirling.
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: And across from you, would be what they called Dogpatch?
ELSIE: Yes, Dogpatch.
JEANETTE: When you built the house would you have built it all yourself?
ELSIE: Yes, Johnny Walker (Fourchu) did the carpentry work for us.
JEANETTE: Did Johnny Walker work in the mine?
ELSIE: No
JEANETTE: Were there other people living on the same side of the road close to you?
ELSIE: Yes, there was Martell from L’Ardoise. Johnny Martell and his wife. Then there was Roddie MacLeod, Roddie John Alex they called him.
JEANETTE: Where was he from?
ELSIE: Grand River.
JEANETTE: Was he married?
ELSIE: Yes, he was married and had three boys I think. They were all small when they left. Then there was Dan Alex Burns from Gabarus. He had a little house right next to where we were.
JEANETTE: So, there were about three or four houses on the right-hand side there.
ELSIE: There were a lot of people who moved in there and moved out again.
JEANETTE: So, they would come to do a job at the mine and then leave.
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: Did you know anybody who lived at Dogpatch, there?
ELSIE: I knew them at the time, but I don’t think I can remember their names.
JEANETTE: Do you have any idea how many houses were there?
ELSIE: There were quite a few. I’d say there must have been eight or ten there. But I can’t think of the names of the people.
JEANETTE: There were a lot of people who lived on the Stirling road past the mine too.
ELSIE: Yes, there was a lot of people living out there then. Angus Archie (MacQueen) and Dan Alex and Catherine (MacLeod). There was a lot of people there who died after the mine closed.
JEANETTE: Do you remember Dan Alex’s mother?
ELSIE: She came to my place in Stirling. She came to get some information. She was making a story about something. She had this paper and she was asking many questions and I told her I wasn’t brought up here. I was born in Sydney and moved to Gabarus when I got married and then we moved to Stirling. I said (to her) that I don’t know too much about that.
JEANETTE: When you built your house, did you buy your land from somebody?
ELSIE: We leased it from Bessie (Morrison). She owned all that land there.
JEANETTE: Really, Bessie was telling me something about a poll tax. Do you know anything about that?
ELSIE: No
JEANETTE: So, you leased it?
ELSIE: Dan Alex Burns had a bungalow there and there was quite a bit of land around his bungalow and he told John Archie, “If you want to build right next to mine”, he said,” we can be on the one lot”. So, then they went up and they measured. There was lots of room there, so we built on the same piece of land.
JEANETTE: So, the other people a few doors up from you, probably leased the land from her too.
ELSIE: Maybe they did.
ELSIE: There was a Brent Langley on the lot next to ours. And then there was Lugo who lived in Gabarus. He had a little bungalow there on the same side. That’s all that was the same side we were on.
JEANETTE: What happened to your home when the mine closed? Did you sell it?
ELSIE: No, we moved it. We had it jacked up, moved it down to Fourchu. We put it on Dan MacLeod’s property. It was only temporary. We didn’t know what we were going to do so Dan told us to put it on his property. And then we would decide what we were going to do. It was too small. I said, “We’d either have to build or add a piece on or else build another house, one or the other.” So, we were there for a year, I guess, when we bought the house we are in now (in Fourchu). The other house was too small. We had three kids and my mother in law was living with us. We were really crowded.
JEANETTE: You were happy as clams, probably.
ELSIE: Yes.
JEANETTE: What happened to your little house?
ELSIE: We sold it to Marion MacLeod and little Kenny (MacLeod). They moved it up to Billy MacIntyre’s store.
JEANETTE: Its not still there is it?
ELSIE: No. I don’t know who she sold it to.
JEANETTE: There’s a bigger house there now.
ELSIE: Yes, that was Nickerson’s.
Note: Elsie’s son-in- law, Don Neil MacCormick, told me that Elsie and John Archie’s house was later moved to Gabarus lake. You can see it on your way to Sydney (from Fourchu) on the right side of the road.
What John Archie did at the mine
JEANETTE: What did John Archie do out there (at the mine).
ELSIE: He just did labour work at the first but then he ended up working in the mine. Going down below and coming up.
JEANETTE: Underground?
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: Did he ever tell you any stories there?
ELSIE: Oh, he used to talk about the men all the time. He liked it. He enjoyed up there.
JEANETTE: What would he say about them?
ELSIE: Oh, he’d just tell me stories – some of them would go on a big drunk and they’d come back to work, they couldn’t go to work and they’d be making up all kinds of excuses and sometimes he’d have one of them in the car coming home and he’d say. “I have to drive this fellow to Grand River. I have to drive him somewhere” and I said, “you’re crazier than he is.” (laughter)
JEANETTE: Do you remember how much John Archie made a week, an hour or…?
ELSIE: If I was in my own house, I’d be able to tell you that. There are old slips and that in the house.
JEANETTE: From the mine. Really!
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: My father (Soutter) had the garage out there. Do you remember?
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: I came across a gas receipt with the name of his garage on it.
ELSIE: For God’s sake. I know I saved a lot of junk like that. Like I said if I was in my own house.
JEANETTE: Were you ever in there?
ELSIE: No, I had the kids, I didn’t do too much travelling. Donnie was born one year and then Ian was born 1 ½ years later and then Collen so I never got a chance.
JEANETTE: You were there all that time?
ELSIE: Yes.
JEANETTE: They didn’t go to school there, did they?
ELSIE: No. We moved home just the year before Donnie started school. Donnie is 64 now and the year he was born was the year we moved up there.
JEANETTE: There was a schoolhouse just before you got to my father’s garage. The school where all the kids went to.
Other people who worked at the mine
JEANETTE: Did you know any other people who worked in the mine with John Archie. Some of those guys John Archie worked with - did he say what their names were?
ELSIE: He often talked about them, but I don’t recall their names.
JEANETTE: I think Ramsey worked there too
ELSIE: Ramsey worked there.
JEANETTE: Angus Alex MacLeod from Marion Bridge worked there.
ELSIE: Yes, he did
JEANETTE: My father was there as a carpenter.
ELSIE: He worked there the whole time it was going, didn’t he?
JEANETTE: I knew he was a carpenter (at the mine) but I never asked what he did there. Mary Anne said that her husband was a carpenter (at the mine) too and they built all the buildings.
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: I guess they would. I imagine.
ELSIE: Your father was a good carpenter.
JEANETTE: So, he (John Archie) liked being down at the mine?
ELSIE: He liked it.
JEANETTE: There was quite a few people from Fourchu who (worked there). Do you remember some of the names of the people from Fourchu? Elmer MacGillivary worked there as a young man. He and his father, George.
ELSIE: Yes. There were a lot from Fourchu who worked up there.
The Stores
JEANETTE: Do you remember the stores they had down there - the Morrison’s store?
ELSIE: Yes. Charlie Hooper had a store.
JEANETTE: What did he have in his store?
ELSIE: Everything you could think off. All kinds of canned stuff, packaged stuff. He had a good business there.
JEANETTE: That was the store in Fourchu.
ELSIE: Yes. The store we’d go to in Stirling was Morrison’s. Hooper had a store in Stirling.
JEANETTE: And would he have the same things he had at his store in Fourchu.
ELSIE: Yes, and Danny Shaw, he had a store in Stirling.
JEANETTE: So, were they sort of the same. Those three stores. Morrison’s, Hooper’s and Shaw’s. Would they be similar (what they sold)?
ELSIE: Yes, something the same.
JEANETTE: It’s funny they’d have the same things in these stores.
ELSIE: There was another store there from Sydney.
JEANETTE: Spinners?
ELSIE: Spinners.
JEANETTE: And there was a little post office in there one time.
ELSIE: Yes, and Diddy used to work there at the post office.
JEANETTE: So, (eventually) the post office was closed and there was a little house next to it…
ELSIE: Right in the turn there, yes. Hughie MacDonald’s house.
JEANETTE: Hughie Mac Donald and his wife ran that (the post office after Spinner’s gave it up).
ELSIE: Spinner’s - They had lots of nice clothes.
JEANETTE: Did they have women’s and men’s clothes?
ELSIE: Yes, women and men’s and they had good brands. They didn’t have cheap stuff. They were good clothes.
JEANETTE: And did a lot of people buy from them?
ELSIE: Yes. I always went up there if I was getting clothes for John Archie for work. That was the best place you could get them. Everything was good. You knew it was good when you bought it.
JEANETTE: Did they have shoes and boots?
ELSIE: Yes. They had everything.
JEANETTE: It used to be John G’s store then Spinner’s bought it (or leased it) from them.
JEANETTE: Was Morrison’s store on the main road or was it on the mine road?
ELSIE: you’d have to go off the main road.
The Stirling Bus
JEANETTE: Do you remember the bus?
ELSIE: Yes. I travelled on the bus. (laughter)
JEANETTE: I’m getting different stories as to when it was running. When the mine was going, did it go everyday or …
ELSIE: The bus was only coming up to Stirling once a week. He’d come up on Friday and then go back home and then he wouldn’t be on the road again until Monday?
ELSIE: No. He just came up on Friday and stayed for the weekend then he’d go back. She was living in that house there. When he’d come up, he’d just stay there.
JEANETTE: Yes, because she was running the post office.
ELSIE: I think Hughie was the only one who was on the bus. I remember when he was coming up to Stirling on Friday. I don’t know how we got talking to him about this, but he said, I’ll bring you some good fresh fish if you want fresh fish”. “I’ll take you four big slices”, he said.” I said, “Yes, OK, and I’ll pick it up on Friday when you come.” John Archie came out. He had his Halibut all ready. John Archie paid him. And he went up to Stirling then. I don’t know how many people were buying the Halibut from him. Beautiful Halibut. It was on ice all the time. But it was good.
JEANETTE: He did a lot of errands too.
ELSIE: Yes, a lot of errands. Someone would send for parcels by him and he’d deliver them. He was good on the bus.
JEANETTE: So, you went to town on the bus once or twice?
ELSIE: Yes. If John Archie was working and I had to go, I’d go on the bus. After the kids came I didn’t go too much on the bus because I’d be dragging the kids.
The Movie Theatre
JEANETTE: Do you remember a movie theatre?
ELSIE: I remember going to a movie up there.
JEANETTE: Do you remember any movies you saw at that time?
ELSIE: I can’t remember which one, but I made a plan with some woman to pick me up because John Archie would be home with the kids. We’d go together and then she’d drive me home.
JEANETTE: Now, do you remember what building it was in?
ELSIE: I can’t tell you what building it was in, but I know you went down to the mine and it was on the left-hand side.
People coming and going
JEANETTE: So, a lot of people came and went there?
ELSIE: There was a lot of people living in Fourchu who worked in the mine. They moved in and rented houses and then went up to work and they’d get tired of it, I guess, and then they’d move out.
JEANETTE: Do you remember the couple that lived at Dan Neil’s and Georgie’s?
ELSIE: German
JEANETTE: I don’t know if they were a German couple. They may have been. He was single then got married and both he and his wife boarded there.
ELSIE: Yes. They were German I think.
JEANETTE: You don’t remember their names?
ELSIE: No
The Dutchman who made shoes
JEANETTE: Do you remember anybody who made wooden shoes there.
ELSIE: Yes, a Dutchman. When you leave our place going up to the mine they had two or three bungalows up a hill on the left-hand side of the road. A Dutchman was living in one of those houses. He would make anything you could think of. His son, who was following in his father’s footsteps, used to start making things. He made little things. It ended up that he’d make a horse and he’d paint the horse and then he may make a sleigh to go with the horse. He’d put them out for sale, and he’d make a fortune on them.
JEANETTE: Is that right, people around had extra money then, right?
ELSIE: People didn’t see anyone doing that at home. He’d build anything at home like that.
JEANETTE: So, at Christmastime they’d make Christmas decorations?
ELSIE: Yes and sell them. I don’t remember their names.
JEANETTE: My brother was telling me just before Morrison's store on the left- hand side in one of those houses there, that’s where they lived.
JEANETTE: Do you know anybody who had those shoes?
ELSIE: No.
Note Jan 20/20: Walter Martell, Grand Greve, identified this Family's name as Devriendt. He knew the three sons.
The People
ELSIE: It was quite a little city up there one time.
JEANETTE: a going concern for sure.
ELSIE: There was a lot of people. I remember the first time I went to Stirling after the mine opened. I don’t think I had any children at that time, but my aunt and uncle moved out from Sydney. He was working in the mine. She had an apt in an old house that was in Stirling. Now if I could think of the name of the man who owned the house, but I can’t think if it. There was an upstairs in it. He rented the upstairs to my aunt and uncle and a man and his wife were downstairs. That was Joe MacLeod. He was married to Phobe Severance. Did you know Annie Shepard?
JEANETTE: No but I know they were from Fourchu.
ELSIE: She was living in Sydney. She was married to Joe MacLeod. And she was only a kid when she got married. And he was older. She (would say), “You know I’m related to you.” And I’d say, “yeah, I know that”. Laughter
JEANETTE: That may have been down the Five Island Lake road?
JEANETTE: Do you remember the house Jessie Tonet lived in (after the mine closed) over by Jack MacAskill’s.
ELSIE: Yes, I do now.
JEANETTE: Jean Taylor had a place there.
ELSIE: She lived there a long time. She must have been a school teacher.
JEANETTE: I think she was, and she ran telegraph too.
ELSIE: Yes
ELSIE: I remember your mother (Edith). Your father (Soutter) came to our place asking me to join the lodge. I said, “I don’t know the first thing about lodges.” I know there was such a thing as the Orange Lodge, but I didn’t know what they did. I said, “I don’t know nothing about it.” And he said, “that’s a good place for you to learn. I think you’d be good there. Will you let me put your name down?” I said, “Yes, put my name down, I don’t care. If there is anything I can do to help, I’ll do it.” “Well”, he said, “that’s what I like to hear, and I’ll take that to the office when we get together again, and I’ll give them your name and we’ll take it from there.”
JEANETTE: We were talking about Mary Anne Macintosh.
The Christening
Elsie: Roddie, John Alex, we called him, he and Annie, they lived on that same strip that we lived on and I used to spend a lot of time with her. When I decided to get the children christened, Donnie and Ian. I called our minister and asked him if he would come up and he told me the day he would come and what time he’d be up here. It was that old MacPhail we had at that time.
JEANETTE: Down at Fourchu?
ELSIE: So, he came up and I had the kids all dressed and everything. He was going to christen the two of them. John Archie was home. He wasn’t working that day. So, then Roddie MacLeod and his wife, they had three little boys at the time. When she heard that I was getting the kids christened, she said, “I should take my kids up there and get them christened.” I said. “When he comes I’ll ask him or when you go home, I have his number,” I said, “Call him up and ask if he’ll do them and he’ll tell you “Yes” or “No”. So, she went home, and she called him. Then he said, “Yes, I certainly would”. I ended up putting something on for supper. I think I made stew or something. I knew MacPhail would be staying for supper so, then I said if Roddie and Annie are coming with the boys, we can all have supper together. I only had the little kitchen. I don’t know how I put them there. But anyway, I set the table. I had everything on the table. He came and Annie and Roddie came with the boys. He christened the five of them and when he was all finished he started putting his things away and he said, “I’m going to let you people have your supper.” I said, “No, you are going to wait for supper.” He said, “No, no, no, that’s too much trouble.” I said, “Look, supper is on the stove all cooked and… you are going to have your supper before you leave because you don’t have a wife home to cook your supper. And he said, “Yes, I know that”.
JEANETTE: He was just dying to have supper with you. Probably could smell that stew cooking.
ELSIE: I set the table and he had supper with us. Roddie and Annie had supper. John Archie and I and the kids were there. I said we can feed the kids after, there’s lots of time. They were playing and having a good time. So, then he left and Roddie and Annie stayed, and we had a great time. They were good neighbours. They were wonderful.
JEANETTE: You said your neighbour called the minister. Did they have a phone then?
ELSIE: We didn’t have a phone. II think she went up to the office and …
JEANETTE: Probably used the telegraph. They had the telegraph in the office there. I don’t know when they had the phones, but they didn’t have them initially.
ELSIE: They didn’t have them when I left Stirling, not our own private phones.
The trucks taking the ore
JEANETTE: Do you remember the trucks taking the ore up to St Peters. That road was busy all the time.
ELSIE: Yes, the traffic, oh my God. And they were always repairing it and those trucks would go over it and beat it (down) again. They’d have to patch it again.
JEANETTE: Would it be mucky in the springtime?
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: Would those trucks go all night long.
ELSIE: No, just during the day. I don’t think they traveled at night.
When Elsie left Stirling
ELSIE: I loved up in Stirling. I hated to leave there.
JEANETTE: It was quite a community wasn’t it? It was a nice way of life. Everyone I talked to so far really liked being there.
ELSIE: The night before we left, the house was jacked up and we had to get out. We couldn’t stay in it any longer. And all these people, and cars were coming stopping, people getting out walking around and I was in the house gathering stuff up to take with me and I went out - there they all came up saying goodbye. I’ll never forget that. I had Donnie with me, and I had Ian. Ian was a baby and Donnie was a toddler. Everyone was coming to say goodbye, kissing the kids. It was the saddest thing.
JEANETTE: And where were all those people going?
ELSIE: They were going all over the place.
JEANETTE: They were leaving too?
ELSIE: They were going to New Brunswick and Ontario.
ELSIE: You can meet strangers and they can be very nice too. But the old families - I remember Bessie (Morrison) coming down when I was a kid, coming down to my grandmothers. She lived in Malquish, they called it. And Bessie’s aunt was married to Percy MacKay and they built a little bungalow down in Malquish and Bessie used to come down, her and her mother. They’d spend the day down there visiting. Rita And Percy and Bessie would come over to my grandmother’s and we’d get playing with something and we’d go back over to Percy’s, they weren’t too far apart. – the two houses. We used to have a good time together.
Where Elsie and John Archie lived
JEANETTE: Where you married to John Archie when he was working out at the mine?
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: Did you move up with him?
ELSIE: I moved up. We built a little bungalow up there. We moved up and that was just the year Donnie was born.
JEANETTE: I think I know where it was. It was on the Stirling Road, on the right- hand side (of the road) going out to Stirling.
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: And across from you, would be what they called Dogpatch?
ELSIE: Yes, Dogpatch.
JEANETTE: When you built the house would you have built it all yourself?
ELSIE: Yes, Johnny Walker (Fourchu) did the carpentry work for us.
JEANETTE: Did Johnny Walker work in the mine?
ELSIE: No
JEANETTE: Were there other people living on the same side of the road close to you?
ELSIE: Yes, there was Martell from L’Ardoise. Johnny Martell and his wife. Then there was Roddie MacLeod, Roddie John Alex they called him.
JEANETTE: Where was he from?
ELSIE: Grand River.
JEANETTE: Was he married?
ELSIE: Yes, he was married and had three boys I think. They were all small when they left. Then there was Dan Alex Burns from Gabarus. He had a little house right next to where we were.
JEANETTE: So, there were about three or four houses on the right-hand side there.
ELSIE: There were a lot of people who moved in there and moved out again.
JEANETTE: So, they would come to do a job at the mine and then leave.
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: Did you know anybody who lived at Dogpatch, there?
ELSIE: I knew them at the time, but I don’t think I can remember their names.
JEANETTE: Do you have any idea how many houses were there?
ELSIE: There were quite a few. I’d say there must have been eight or ten there. But I can’t think of the names of the people.
JEANETTE: There were a lot of people who lived on the Stirling road past the mine too.
ELSIE: Yes, there was a lot of people living out there then. Angus Archie (MacQueen) and Dan Alex and Catherine (MacLeod). There was a lot of people there who died after the mine closed.
JEANETTE: Do you remember Dan Alex’s mother?
ELSIE: She came to my place in Stirling. She came to get some information. She was making a story about something. She had this paper and she was asking many questions and I told her I wasn’t brought up here. I was born in Sydney and moved to Gabarus when I got married and then we moved to Stirling. I said (to her) that I don’t know too much about that.
JEANETTE: When you built your house, did you buy your land from somebody?
ELSIE: We leased it from Bessie (Morrison). She owned all that land there.
JEANETTE: Really, Bessie was telling me something about a poll tax. Do you know anything about that?
ELSIE: No
JEANETTE: So, you leased it?
ELSIE: Dan Alex Burns had a bungalow there and there was quite a bit of land around his bungalow and he told John Archie, “If you want to build right next to mine”, he said,” we can be on the one lot”. So, then they went up and they measured. There was lots of room there, so we built on the same piece of land.
JEANETTE: So, the other people a few doors up from you, probably leased the land from her too.
ELSIE: Maybe they did.
ELSIE: There was a Brent Langley on the lot next to ours. And then there was Lugo who lived in Gabarus. He had a little bungalow there on the same side. That’s all that was the same side we were on.
JEANETTE: What happened to your home when the mine closed? Did you sell it?
ELSIE: No, we moved it. We had it jacked up, moved it down to Fourchu. We put it on Dan MacLeod’s property. It was only temporary. We didn’t know what we were going to do so Dan told us to put it on his property. And then we would decide what we were going to do. It was too small. I said, “We’d either have to build or add a piece on or else build another house, one or the other.” So, we were there for a year, I guess, when we bought the house we are in now (in Fourchu). The other house was too small. We had three kids and my mother in law was living with us. We were really crowded.
JEANETTE: You were happy as clams, probably.
ELSIE: Yes.
JEANETTE: What happened to your little house?
ELSIE: We sold it to Marion MacLeod and little Kenny (MacLeod). They moved it up to Billy MacIntyre’s store.
JEANETTE: Its not still there is it?
ELSIE: No. I don’t know who she sold it to.
JEANETTE: There’s a bigger house there now.
ELSIE: Yes, that was Nickerson’s.
Note: Elsie’s son-in- law, Don Neil MacCormick, told me that Elsie and John Archie’s house was later moved to Gabarus lake. You can see it on your way to Sydney (from Fourchu) on the right side of the road.
What John Archie did at the mine
JEANETTE: What did John Archie do out there (at the mine).
ELSIE: He just did labour work at the first but then he ended up working in the mine. Going down below and coming up.
JEANETTE: Underground?
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: Did he ever tell you any stories there?
ELSIE: Oh, he used to talk about the men all the time. He liked it. He enjoyed up there.
JEANETTE: What would he say about them?
ELSIE: Oh, he’d just tell me stories – some of them would go on a big drunk and they’d come back to work, they couldn’t go to work and they’d be making up all kinds of excuses and sometimes he’d have one of them in the car coming home and he’d say. “I have to drive this fellow to Grand River. I have to drive him somewhere” and I said, “you’re crazier than he is.” (laughter)
JEANETTE: Do you remember how much John Archie made a week, an hour or…?
ELSIE: If I was in my own house, I’d be able to tell you that. There are old slips and that in the house.
JEANETTE: From the mine. Really!
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: My father (Soutter) had the garage out there. Do you remember?
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: I came across a gas receipt with the name of his garage on it.
ELSIE: For God’s sake. I know I saved a lot of junk like that. Like I said if I was in my own house.
JEANETTE: Were you ever in there?
ELSIE: No, I had the kids, I didn’t do too much travelling. Donnie was born one year and then Ian was born 1 ½ years later and then Collen so I never got a chance.
JEANETTE: You were there all that time?
ELSIE: Yes.
JEANETTE: They didn’t go to school there, did they?
ELSIE: No. We moved home just the year before Donnie started school. Donnie is 64 now and the year he was born was the year we moved up there.
JEANETTE: There was a schoolhouse just before you got to my father’s garage. The school where all the kids went to.
Other people who worked at the mine
JEANETTE: Did you know any other people who worked in the mine with John Archie. Some of those guys John Archie worked with - did he say what their names were?
ELSIE: He often talked about them, but I don’t recall their names.
JEANETTE: I think Ramsey worked there too
ELSIE: Ramsey worked there.
JEANETTE: Angus Alex MacLeod from Marion Bridge worked there.
ELSIE: Yes, he did
JEANETTE: My father was there as a carpenter.
ELSIE: He worked there the whole time it was going, didn’t he?
JEANETTE: I knew he was a carpenter (at the mine) but I never asked what he did there. Mary Anne said that her husband was a carpenter (at the mine) too and they built all the buildings.
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: I guess they would. I imagine.
ELSIE: Your father was a good carpenter.
JEANETTE: So, he (John Archie) liked being down at the mine?
ELSIE: He liked it.
JEANETTE: There was quite a few people from Fourchu who (worked there). Do you remember some of the names of the people from Fourchu? Elmer MacGillivary worked there as a young man. He and his father, George.
ELSIE: Yes. There were a lot from Fourchu who worked up there.
The Stores
JEANETTE: Do you remember the stores they had down there - the Morrison’s store?
ELSIE: Yes. Charlie Hooper had a store.
JEANETTE: What did he have in his store?
ELSIE: Everything you could think off. All kinds of canned stuff, packaged stuff. He had a good business there.
JEANETTE: That was the store in Fourchu.
ELSIE: Yes. The store we’d go to in Stirling was Morrison’s. Hooper had a store in Stirling.
JEANETTE: And would he have the same things he had at his store in Fourchu.
ELSIE: Yes, and Danny Shaw, he had a store in Stirling.
JEANETTE: So, were they sort of the same. Those three stores. Morrison’s, Hooper’s and Shaw’s. Would they be similar (what they sold)?
ELSIE: Yes, something the same.
JEANETTE: It’s funny they’d have the same things in these stores.
ELSIE: There was another store there from Sydney.
JEANETTE: Spinners?
ELSIE: Spinners.
JEANETTE: And there was a little post office in there one time.
ELSIE: Yes, and Diddy used to work there at the post office.
JEANETTE: So, (eventually) the post office was closed and there was a little house next to it…
ELSIE: Right in the turn there, yes. Hughie MacDonald’s house.
JEANETTE: Hughie Mac Donald and his wife ran that (the post office after Spinner’s gave it up).
ELSIE: Spinner’s - They had lots of nice clothes.
JEANETTE: Did they have women’s and men’s clothes?
ELSIE: Yes, women and men’s and they had good brands. They didn’t have cheap stuff. They were good clothes.
JEANETTE: And did a lot of people buy from them?
ELSIE: Yes. I always went up there if I was getting clothes for John Archie for work. That was the best place you could get them. Everything was good. You knew it was good when you bought it.
JEANETTE: Did they have shoes and boots?
ELSIE: Yes. They had everything.
JEANETTE: It used to be John G’s store then Spinner’s bought it (or leased it) from them.
JEANETTE: Was Morrison’s store on the main road or was it on the mine road?
ELSIE: you’d have to go off the main road.
The Stirling Bus
JEANETTE: Do you remember the bus?
ELSIE: Yes. I travelled on the bus. (laughter)
JEANETTE: I’m getting different stories as to when it was running. When the mine was going, did it go everyday or …
ELSIE: The bus was only coming up to Stirling once a week. He’d come up on Friday and then go back home and then he wouldn’t be on the road again until Monday?
ELSIE: No. He just came up on Friday and stayed for the weekend then he’d go back. She was living in that house there. When he’d come up, he’d just stay there.
JEANETTE: Yes, because she was running the post office.
ELSIE: I think Hughie was the only one who was on the bus. I remember when he was coming up to Stirling on Friday. I don’t know how we got talking to him about this, but he said, I’ll bring you some good fresh fish if you want fresh fish”. “I’ll take you four big slices”, he said.” I said, “Yes, OK, and I’ll pick it up on Friday when you come.” John Archie came out. He had his Halibut all ready. John Archie paid him. And he went up to Stirling then. I don’t know how many people were buying the Halibut from him. Beautiful Halibut. It was on ice all the time. But it was good.
JEANETTE: He did a lot of errands too.
ELSIE: Yes, a lot of errands. Someone would send for parcels by him and he’d deliver them. He was good on the bus.
JEANETTE: So, you went to town on the bus once or twice?
ELSIE: Yes. If John Archie was working and I had to go, I’d go on the bus. After the kids came I didn’t go too much on the bus because I’d be dragging the kids.
The Movie Theatre
JEANETTE: Do you remember a movie theatre?
ELSIE: I remember going to a movie up there.
JEANETTE: Do you remember any movies you saw at that time?
ELSIE: I can’t remember which one, but I made a plan with some woman to pick me up because John Archie would be home with the kids. We’d go together and then she’d drive me home.
JEANETTE: Now, do you remember what building it was in?
ELSIE: I can’t tell you what building it was in, but I know you went down to the mine and it was on the left-hand side.
People coming and going
JEANETTE: So, a lot of people came and went there?
ELSIE: There was a lot of people living in Fourchu who worked in the mine. They moved in and rented houses and then went up to work and they’d get tired of it, I guess, and then they’d move out.
JEANETTE: Do you remember the couple that lived at Dan Neil’s and Georgie’s?
ELSIE: German
JEANETTE: I don’t know if they were a German couple. They may have been. He was single then got married and both he and his wife boarded there.
ELSIE: Yes. They were German I think.
JEANETTE: You don’t remember their names?
ELSIE: No
The Dutchman who made shoes
JEANETTE: Do you remember anybody who made wooden shoes there.
ELSIE: Yes, a Dutchman. When you leave our place going up to the mine they had two or three bungalows up a hill on the left-hand side of the road. A Dutchman was living in one of those houses. He would make anything you could think of. His son, who was following in his father’s footsteps, used to start making things. He made little things. It ended up that he’d make a horse and he’d paint the horse and then he may make a sleigh to go with the horse. He’d put them out for sale, and he’d make a fortune on them.
JEANETTE: Is that right, people around had extra money then, right?
ELSIE: People didn’t see anyone doing that at home. He’d build anything at home like that.
JEANETTE: So, at Christmastime they’d make Christmas decorations?
ELSIE: Yes and sell them. I don’t remember their names.
JEANETTE: My brother was telling me just before Morrison's store on the left- hand side in one of those houses there, that’s where they lived.
JEANETTE: Do you know anybody who had those shoes?
ELSIE: No.
Note Jan 20/20: Walter Martell, Grand Greve, identified this Family's name as Devriendt. He knew the three sons.
The People
ELSIE: It was quite a little city up there one time.
JEANETTE: a going concern for sure.
ELSIE: There was a lot of people. I remember the first time I went to Stirling after the mine opened. I don’t think I had any children at that time, but my aunt and uncle moved out from Sydney. He was working in the mine. She had an apt in an old house that was in Stirling. Now if I could think of the name of the man who owned the house, but I can’t think if it. There was an upstairs in it. He rented the upstairs to my aunt and uncle and a man and his wife were downstairs. That was Joe MacLeod. He was married to Phobe Severance. Did you know Annie Shepard?
JEANETTE: No but I know they were from Fourchu.
ELSIE: She was living in Sydney. She was married to Joe MacLeod. And she was only a kid when she got married. And he was older. She (would say), “You know I’m related to you.” And I’d say, “yeah, I know that”. Laughter
JEANETTE: That may have been down the Five Island Lake road?
JEANETTE: Do you remember the house Jessie Tonet lived in (after the mine closed) over by Jack MacAskill’s.
ELSIE: Yes, I do now.
JEANETTE: Jean Taylor had a place there.
ELSIE: She lived there a long time. She must have been a school teacher.
JEANETTE: I think she was, and she ran telegraph too.
ELSIE: Yes
ELSIE: I remember your mother (Edith). Your father (Soutter) came to our place asking me to join the lodge. I said, “I don’t know the first thing about lodges.” I know there was such a thing as the Orange Lodge, but I didn’t know what they did. I said, “I don’t know nothing about it.” And he said, “that’s a good place for you to learn. I think you’d be good there. Will you let me put your name down?” I said, “Yes, put my name down, I don’t care. If there is anything I can do to help, I’ll do it.” “Well”, he said, “that’s what I like to hear, and I’ll take that to the office when we get together again, and I’ll give them your name and we’ll take it from there.”
JEANETTE: We were talking about Mary Anne Macintosh.
The Christening
Elsie: Roddie, John Alex, we called him, he and Annie, they lived on that same strip that we lived on and I used to spend a lot of time with her. When I decided to get the children christened, Donnie and Ian. I called our minister and asked him if he would come up and he told me the day he would come and what time he’d be up here. It was that old MacPhail we had at that time.
JEANETTE: Down at Fourchu?
ELSIE: So, he came up and I had the kids all dressed and everything. He was going to christen the two of them. John Archie was home. He wasn’t working that day. So, then Roddie MacLeod and his wife, they had three little boys at the time. When she heard that I was getting the kids christened, she said, “I should take my kids up there and get them christened.” I said. “When he comes I’ll ask him or when you go home, I have his number,” I said, “Call him up and ask if he’ll do them and he’ll tell you “Yes” or “No”. So, she went home, and she called him. Then he said, “Yes, I certainly would”. I ended up putting something on for supper. I think I made stew or something. I knew MacPhail would be staying for supper so, then I said if Roddie and Annie are coming with the boys, we can all have supper together. I only had the little kitchen. I don’t know how I put them there. But anyway, I set the table. I had everything on the table. He came and Annie and Roddie came with the boys. He christened the five of them and when he was all finished he started putting his things away and he said, “I’m going to let you people have your supper.” I said, “No, you are going to wait for supper.” He said, “No, no, no, that’s too much trouble.” I said, “Look, supper is on the stove all cooked and… you are going to have your supper before you leave because you don’t have a wife home to cook your supper. And he said, “Yes, I know that”.
JEANETTE: He was just dying to have supper with you. Probably could smell that stew cooking.
ELSIE: I set the table and he had supper with us. Roddie and Annie had supper. John Archie and I and the kids were there. I said we can feed the kids after, there’s lots of time. They were playing and having a good time. So, then he left and Roddie and Annie stayed, and we had a great time. They were good neighbours. They were wonderful.
JEANETTE: You said your neighbour called the minister. Did they have a phone then?
ELSIE: We didn’t have a phone. II think she went up to the office and …
JEANETTE: Probably used the telegraph. They had the telegraph in the office there. I don’t know when they had the phones, but they didn’t have them initially.
ELSIE: They didn’t have them when I left Stirling, not our own private phones.
The trucks taking the ore
JEANETTE: Do you remember the trucks taking the ore up to St Peters. That road was busy all the time.
ELSIE: Yes, the traffic, oh my God. And they were always repairing it and those trucks would go over it and beat it (down) again. They’d have to patch it again.
JEANETTE: Would it be mucky in the springtime?
ELSIE: Yes
JEANETTE: Would those trucks go all night long.
ELSIE: No, just during the day. I don’t think they traveled at night.
When Elsie left Stirling
ELSIE: I loved up in Stirling. I hated to leave there.
JEANETTE: It was quite a community wasn’t it? It was a nice way of life. Everyone I talked to so far really liked being there.
ELSIE: The night before we left, the house was jacked up and we had to get out. We couldn’t stay in it any longer. And all these people, and cars were coming stopping, people getting out walking around and I was in the house gathering stuff up to take with me and I went out - there they all came up saying goodbye. I’ll never forget that. I had Donnie with me, and I had Ian. Ian was a baby and Donnie was a toddler. Everyone was coming to say goodbye, kissing the kids. It was the saddest thing.
JEANETTE: And where were all those people going?
ELSIE: They were going all over the place.
JEANETTE: They were leaving too?
ELSIE: They were going to New Brunswick and Ontario.
ELSIE: You can meet strangers and they can be very nice too. But the old families - I remember Bessie (Morrison) coming down when I was a kid, coming down to my grandmothers. She lived in Malquish, they called it. And Bessie’s aunt was married to Percy MacKay and they built a little bungalow down in Malquish and Bessie used to come down, her and her mother. They’d spend the day down there visiting. Rita And Percy and Bessie would come over to my grandmother’s and we’d get playing with something and we’d go back over to Percy’s, they weren’t too far apart. – the two houses. We used to have a good time together.