Interview with Irene Sampson Carter, Sampsonville April 2, 2019 re Stirling Mine
JEANETTE: The mine didn’t operate that long, did it?
IRENE: I don’t know how many years it was.
Editor's Note: As per information gathered after this interview was conducted, the mine started construction in 1949, started operations around 1951 and closed around 1956)
The Stores
JEANETTE: Could you tell me where the stores were?
IRENE: There was Danny Shaw’s store, (then) there was Hooper’s store, then there was the (Chinese) restaurant and across the road was the movie theatre. And then there were the bunkhouses up on the hill.
IRENE: The restaurant and the stores were all on the same side. The movie theatre was on the other side of the road. The movie theatre - we used to go over there. I think it was 25 cents to get into the movies.
JEANETTE: My brother, Donald, thought it was in one of the bunkhouses. (Editor's note: Donald likely was referring to the old bunkhouses which would have been across from the restaurant.)
IRENE: No, it was across from the restaurant.
JEANETTE: Going down the mine road (from the main road) the stores were on the right?
IRENE: Yes.
JEANETTE: From Framboise Morrison’s store was on the corner?
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: Then you made a left and turned into the mine road and then on the right side of the road is where the stores were?.
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: So, Spinner’s was over by where John G’s was?
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: There was a little post office in there?
IRENE: Yes, I think so
JEANETTE: Then, the post office got moved down to…
IRENE: The little house on the corner.
JEANETTE: Morrison’s’ store. Was like the main store on the (left) corner.
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: What would they sell at Morrison’s store?
IRENE: They had everything. They had groceries meats (and candies) tobacco and pop.
JEANETTE: Did any of those stores have a license to sell alcohol?
Irene: No
JEANETTE: Would they sell material to make clothes?
IRENE: They wouldn’t have material but they may have sewing needles and thread.
JEANETTE: So, Kay - her husband – did you know his name?
IRENE: We always called him Fox. Charlie was his name. but we called him Fox. His last name was MacDonald.
JEANETTE: So, they ran the store in St Peters but mostly down there (Stirling) during the mine time
Irene: They had an apartment upstairs. She would spend a lot of time in St Peters. She wasn’t always down there (Stirling).
JEANETTE: Then after they closed your family took over (ran a small convenience)?
IRENE: Once they sold the mine houses, we had no place to go. So that’s where we went; into the store.
JEANETTE: So, you still had the log cabin around the lake. What happened there?
IRENE: I’m not sure what happened. I think they moved dad up to the company house when the mine closed so he could still look after the equipment.
JEANETTE: I think there were people working for about a year afterward dismantling and things like that.
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: And your dad would still be keeping an eye on the gate?
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: And across from there my father (Soutter Strachan) had a garage.
IRENE: Yes.
The Gate Keepers
JEANETTE: Did your father drive a truck?
IRENE: No, he was a Gatetender; he and Jim MacDonald. Norman Alex MacLeod worked with my father too. I thought it was at the gate -Perhaps Jim left or it may have been at the end when they were dismantling. When the mine was closing down; Dad, Norman Alex (MacLeod) and Duncan Walker stayed in the mine houses (behind John G's).
JEANETTE: My dad was in the carpentry shop and he did some dismantling as well.
JEANETTE: Do you remember where the gate was – Was it past the stores heading into the mine.
IRENE: Yes.
JEANETTE: What would they do (the gatekeepers)?
IRENE: They would check all the trucks coming in and out. And they would have to be there at night to make sure nobody went through. They would have to keep the gates closed and if a truck would come through, they would have to open the gate to let the truck in to get his load and out again.
JEANETTE: Would they be checking to see what they had in the truck?
IRENE: No. They were coming to get the ore to bring back to St Peters. The gate was open during the day.
JEANETTE: Did they just work night shift?
IRENE: No, they still had to be there during the day too.
JEANETTE: Why was that?
IRENE: They had to check the trucks I guess to make sure whoever was going in was allowed to go in.
JEANETTE: They didn’t weight anything?
IRENE: No, I don’t think. There was no weigh station there (at the gate).
JEANETTE: It was the two of them, so they did shifts then. Did they work 8 hrs or 12 hours?
IRENE: It must have been 12 hours because there was only the two of them.
JEANETTE: So, they would switch shifts?
IRENE: Yes. They would work one week, nights, I suppose, and the next week, days. I’m not sure.
The Cooks
JEANETTE: did you know any other Jobs that the people did out there.
IRENE: The cooks- Willie and Gertie Landry- they lived right in behind Morrison’s store there. They had a little house in behind Morrison’s store.
JEANETTE: I was wondering who fed all the people.
IRENE: He was the cook. Bella MacDonald MacLean (from Gabarus, formerly from Stirling), and Mary her sister worked there.
JEANETTE: We called her Mary Sandy. They lived out around the lake around Murdock Dan’s (MacLeod).
IRENE: They were all cooks.
JEANETTE: The cookhouse - was that one of the bunk houses or was it another building?
IRENE: No. It was up on the hill on the left had side after you went through the gates.
JEANETTE: Looking at the picture of the mine you gave me (See photo #2); Where would the cookhouse be?
IRENE: It would be this one here I believe, pointing at the third large building in.
JEANETTE: Did everyone who worked at the mine go in there to eat at lunch time?
IRENE: Yes.
JEANETTE: Would they have to pay for it or did the mine pay for it?
IRENE: That's more than I can tell you.
JEANETTE: So those cooks would have to make a big pile of food?
IRENE: Aha
JEANETTE: They’d have big pots and a big kitchen there, I guess.
IRENE: And many dishes going through. I know, in the summertime they used to get us to go and help with the dishes.
JEANETTE: Would you have big sinks.
IRENE: They would have big washers.
JEANETTE: Like dish washers?
IRENE: Yes. There must have been two because they would come in at different times. They’d take different shifts to eat. They wouldn’t all come in at one time.
JEANETTE: So, they’d come in around 11 am, 12 noon, then around 4 pm.
IRENE: yes
JEANETTE: Would they come in at night?.
IRENE: I don’t know what they’d do. I think they (the cooks) would have made their lunches and gave it to them for the nighttime.
Other Jobs
JEANETTE: Can you think of any other workers, there were cooks, and gatekeepers, mechanics, engineers, electricians?
IRENE: Doug Landry He worked there I don’t know what he did. He was a young fellow then. His father Willie was the cook.
IRENE: George Boudreau from River Bourgeois, he was another one, another cook. George may have stayed in the bunkhouse because I don’t think his wife and kids were down there.
Where people lived
JEANETTE: Morrison’s store did you always live there, in an apt there?
IRENE: No, No. We lived on the Five Island Lake (Stirling Lake) Rd.
JEANETTE: Did you remember any of the families that lived down there beside you folks?
Irene: Bessie Morrison’s father in law (Melvin’s’ father) lived in the first house on the left-hand side going down the road. There was an old house, but it was vacant and then when you went down the road, there were ours, uncle Martin’s (Sampson), That was on the right side (going down the road). There was only one house on the left side (lake side) and that was Fanning’s (Note: Dolena MacLeod/McLean indicated that the Fanning’s were from Guysborough Co- see her interview) and then their was Farrells, who lived up on the hill where we lived and Joe Pottie and his family and the Carpenters and then you went over a little farther and then the first aid man,
JEANETTE: The medic. Do you remember what his name was?
IRENE: No. (Editor's Note Elmer MacGillvary and others said his name was Jim Mitchell). Then Joe Carter and then Bella was down there. And then there was Murdock Dan’s a way out - the point.
JEANETTE: So that was mostly all the people who lived there.
IRENE: I think so.
JEANETTE: Did people buy properties there, or did people just build a place (anywhere) while they were there?
IRENE: Dad built a log cabin. He had a lot of help because he only had the one arm. He lost his arm in a truck accident.
JEANETTE: Other people who lived around the lake (would help him)?
IRENE: Yes, and some of the fellows who worked at the mine who knew dad came over and gave him a hand. It was Dan Alex MacLeod who loaned him a horse to switch out all the logs out to build the house.
JEANETTE: Where did he get the logs; just in the woods close by?
IRENE: I guess so.
JEANETTE: Was it a big log cabin?
IRENE: Yes. It was a good size. There were three bedrooms, I think. The kitchen was huge. We had a wood stove.
JEANETTE: Did you have electricity then?
IRENE: Yes.
JEANETTE: What happened to the house afterwards?
IRENE: Oh, somebody from Sydney had bought it and the last time we were out there (thirty years ago or more), it was starting to fall apart. It was still there. They hadn’t moved it, no.
JEANETTE: There’s a cabin down on the left side and is quite dilapidated now, that may have been one of the houses.
IRENE: Maybe. Fannings had a small house, cottage (around there).
JEANETTE: So, the land there, do you think they would have bought it?
IRENE: I don’t think we would have bought it. It might have been Dan Alex’s land I don’t know.
JEANETTE: It might have been, because he had a lot of land out there. He leased some land to people (since this time) so maybe there was a lease on it. You don’t remember that?
IRENE: Not that I know of.
JEANETTE: My brother Donald was telling me down from Morrison’s store (toward Framboise- across from where the school was)- there was a Dutchman from Holland who sold wooden shoes. Do you remember him? IRENE: Yes.
JEANETTE: Did you buy any?
IRENE: No.
JEANETTE: The kids you went to school with, have you kept in touch with any of those people?
IRENE: The Holmes. the McDonnells, Pearl MacLeod.
IRENE: The students from Framboise went to the high school in Stirling.
JEANETTE: I didn’t know that.
Note See photos of school children provided by Irene.
JEANETTE: Do you remember going from Stirling to Framboise, on the right-hand side? There were little houses there too.
IRENE: Yes. They used to call that Dogpatch.
JEANETTE: I think these were temporary houses. I think those persons came from other mines and just stayed there for a short period of time. Do you know any kids who lived there?
IRENE: Some of them in here (See photos and lists of names of the children provided by Irene) probably did but I don’t remember their names. I know Peggy MacRae lived up there - Lloyd MacRae and his wife and the kids.
JEANETTE: My aunt had bought a bungalow from there. She moved it but she ended up Paying taxes for years and years on that property (but she never had the land in her name). I don’t think it was elaborate in any way.
JEANETTE: The mine didn’t operate that long, did it?
IRENE: I don’t know how many years it was.
Editor's Note: As per information gathered after this interview was conducted, the mine started construction in 1949, started operations around 1951 and closed around 1956)
The Stores
JEANETTE: Could you tell me where the stores were?
IRENE: There was Danny Shaw’s store, (then) there was Hooper’s store, then there was the (Chinese) restaurant and across the road was the movie theatre. And then there were the bunkhouses up on the hill.
IRENE: The restaurant and the stores were all on the same side. The movie theatre was on the other side of the road. The movie theatre - we used to go over there. I think it was 25 cents to get into the movies.
JEANETTE: My brother, Donald, thought it was in one of the bunkhouses. (Editor's note: Donald likely was referring to the old bunkhouses which would have been across from the restaurant.)
IRENE: No, it was across from the restaurant.
JEANETTE: Going down the mine road (from the main road) the stores were on the right?
IRENE: Yes.
JEANETTE: From Framboise Morrison’s store was on the corner?
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: Then you made a left and turned into the mine road and then on the right side of the road is where the stores were?.
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: So, Spinner’s was over by where John G’s was?
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: There was a little post office in there?
IRENE: Yes, I think so
JEANETTE: Then, the post office got moved down to…
IRENE: The little house on the corner.
JEANETTE: Morrison’s’ store. Was like the main store on the (left) corner.
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: What would they sell at Morrison’s store?
IRENE: They had everything. They had groceries meats (and candies) tobacco and pop.
JEANETTE: Did any of those stores have a license to sell alcohol?
Irene: No
JEANETTE: Would they sell material to make clothes?
IRENE: They wouldn’t have material but they may have sewing needles and thread.
JEANETTE: So, Kay - her husband – did you know his name?
IRENE: We always called him Fox. Charlie was his name. but we called him Fox. His last name was MacDonald.
JEANETTE: So, they ran the store in St Peters but mostly down there (Stirling) during the mine time
Irene: They had an apartment upstairs. She would spend a lot of time in St Peters. She wasn’t always down there (Stirling).
JEANETTE: Then after they closed your family took over (ran a small convenience)?
IRENE: Once they sold the mine houses, we had no place to go. So that’s where we went; into the store.
JEANETTE: So, you still had the log cabin around the lake. What happened there?
IRENE: I’m not sure what happened. I think they moved dad up to the company house when the mine closed so he could still look after the equipment.
JEANETTE: I think there were people working for about a year afterward dismantling and things like that.
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: And your dad would still be keeping an eye on the gate?
IRENE: Yes
JEANETTE: And across from there my father (Soutter Strachan) had a garage.
IRENE: Yes.
The Gate Keepers
JEANETTE: Did your father drive a truck?
IRENE: No, he was a Gatetender; he and Jim MacDonald. Norman Alex MacLeod worked with my father too. I thought it was at the gate -Perhaps Jim left or it may have been at the end when they were dismantling. When the mine was closing down; Dad, Norman Alex (MacLeod) and Duncan Walker stayed in the mine houses (behind John G's).
JEANETTE: My dad was in the carpentry shop and he did some dismantling as well.
JEANETTE: Do you remember where the gate was – Was it past the stores heading into the mine.
IRENE: Yes.
JEANETTE: What would they do (the gatekeepers)?
IRENE: They would check all the trucks coming in and out. And they would have to be there at night to make sure nobody went through. They would have to keep the gates closed and if a truck would come through, they would have to open the gate to let the truck in to get his load and out again.
JEANETTE: Would they be checking to see what they had in the truck?
IRENE: No. They were coming to get the ore to bring back to St Peters. The gate was open during the day.
JEANETTE: Did they just work night shift?
IRENE: No, they still had to be there during the day too.
JEANETTE: Why was that?
IRENE: They had to check the trucks I guess to make sure whoever was going in was allowed to go in.
JEANETTE: They didn’t weight anything?
IRENE: No, I don’t think. There was no weigh station there (at the gate).
JEANETTE: It was the two of them, so they did shifts then. Did they work 8 hrs or 12 hours?
IRENE: It must have been 12 hours because there was only the two of them.
JEANETTE: So, they would switch shifts?
IRENE: Yes. They would work one week, nights, I suppose, and the next week, days. I’m not sure.
The Cooks
JEANETTE: did you know any other Jobs that the people did out there.
IRENE: The cooks- Willie and Gertie Landry- they lived right in behind Morrison’s store there. They had a little house in behind Morrison’s store.
JEANETTE: I was wondering who fed all the people.
IRENE: He was the cook. Bella MacDonald MacLean (from Gabarus, formerly from Stirling), and Mary her sister worked there.
JEANETTE: We called her Mary Sandy. They lived out around the lake around Murdock Dan’s (MacLeod).
IRENE: They were all cooks.
JEANETTE: The cookhouse - was that one of the bunk houses or was it another building?
IRENE: No. It was up on the hill on the left had side after you went through the gates.
JEANETTE: Looking at the picture of the mine you gave me (See photo #2); Where would the cookhouse be?
IRENE: It would be this one here I believe, pointing at the third large building in.
JEANETTE: Did everyone who worked at the mine go in there to eat at lunch time?
IRENE: Yes.
JEANETTE: Would they have to pay for it or did the mine pay for it?
IRENE: That's more than I can tell you.
JEANETTE: So those cooks would have to make a big pile of food?
IRENE: Aha
JEANETTE: They’d have big pots and a big kitchen there, I guess.
IRENE: And many dishes going through. I know, in the summertime they used to get us to go and help with the dishes.
JEANETTE: Would you have big sinks.
IRENE: They would have big washers.
JEANETTE: Like dish washers?
IRENE: Yes. There must have been two because they would come in at different times. They’d take different shifts to eat. They wouldn’t all come in at one time.
JEANETTE: So, they’d come in around 11 am, 12 noon, then around 4 pm.
IRENE: yes
JEANETTE: Would they come in at night?.
IRENE: I don’t know what they’d do. I think they (the cooks) would have made their lunches and gave it to them for the nighttime.
Other Jobs
JEANETTE: Can you think of any other workers, there were cooks, and gatekeepers, mechanics, engineers, electricians?
IRENE: Doug Landry He worked there I don’t know what he did. He was a young fellow then. His father Willie was the cook.
IRENE: George Boudreau from River Bourgeois, he was another one, another cook. George may have stayed in the bunkhouse because I don’t think his wife and kids were down there.
Where people lived
JEANETTE: Morrison’s store did you always live there, in an apt there?
IRENE: No, No. We lived on the Five Island Lake (Stirling Lake) Rd.
JEANETTE: Did you remember any of the families that lived down there beside you folks?
Irene: Bessie Morrison’s father in law (Melvin’s’ father) lived in the first house on the left-hand side going down the road. There was an old house, but it was vacant and then when you went down the road, there were ours, uncle Martin’s (Sampson), That was on the right side (going down the road). There was only one house on the left side (lake side) and that was Fanning’s (Note: Dolena MacLeod/McLean indicated that the Fanning’s were from Guysborough Co- see her interview) and then their was Farrells, who lived up on the hill where we lived and Joe Pottie and his family and the Carpenters and then you went over a little farther and then the first aid man,
JEANETTE: The medic. Do you remember what his name was?
IRENE: No. (Editor's Note Elmer MacGillvary and others said his name was Jim Mitchell). Then Joe Carter and then Bella was down there. And then there was Murdock Dan’s a way out - the point.
JEANETTE: So that was mostly all the people who lived there.
IRENE: I think so.
JEANETTE: Did people buy properties there, or did people just build a place (anywhere) while they were there?
IRENE: Dad built a log cabin. He had a lot of help because he only had the one arm. He lost his arm in a truck accident.
JEANETTE: Other people who lived around the lake (would help him)?
IRENE: Yes, and some of the fellows who worked at the mine who knew dad came over and gave him a hand. It was Dan Alex MacLeod who loaned him a horse to switch out all the logs out to build the house.
JEANETTE: Where did he get the logs; just in the woods close by?
IRENE: I guess so.
JEANETTE: Was it a big log cabin?
IRENE: Yes. It was a good size. There were three bedrooms, I think. The kitchen was huge. We had a wood stove.
JEANETTE: Did you have electricity then?
IRENE: Yes.
JEANETTE: What happened to the house afterwards?
IRENE: Oh, somebody from Sydney had bought it and the last time we were out there (thirty years ago or more), it was starting to fall apart. It was still there. They hadn’t moved it, no.
JEANETTE: There’s a cabin down on the left side and is quite dilapidated now, that may have been one of the houses.
IRENE: Maybe. Fannings had a small house, cottage (around there).
JEANETTE: So, the land there, do you think they would have bought it?
IRENE: I don’t think we would have bought it. It might have been Dan Alex’s land I don’t know.
JEANETTE: It might have been, because he had a lot of land out there. He leased some land to people (since this time) so maybe there was a lease on it. You don’t remember that?
IRENE: Not that I know of.
JEANETTE: My brother Donald was telling me down from Morrison’s store (toward Framboise- across from where the school was)- there was a Dutchman from Holland who sold wooden shoes. Do you remember him? IRENE: Yes.
JEANETTE: Did you buy any?
IRENE: No.
JEANETTE: The kids you went to school with, have you kept in touch with any of those people?
IRENE: The Holmes. the McDonnells, Pearl MacLeod.
IRENE: The students from Framboise went to the high school in Stirling.
JEANETTE: I didn’t know that.
Note See photos of school children provided by Irene.
JEANETTE: Do you remember going from Stirling to Framboise, on the right-hand side? There were little houses there too.
IRENE: Yes. They used to call that Dogpatch.
JEANETTE: I think these were temporary houses. I think those persons came from other mines and just stayed there for a short period of time. Do you know any kids who lived there?
IRENE: Some of them in here (See photos and lists of names of the children provided by Irene) probably did but I don’t remember their names. I know Peggy MacRae lived up there - Lloyd MacRae and his wife and the kids.
JEANETTE: My aunt had bought a bungalow from there. She moved it but she ended up Paying taxes for years and years on that property (but she never had the land in her name). I don’t think it was elaborate in any way.