Interview with John MacEwen son of Ken and Cecelia MacEwen
Where the MacEwens lived in Stirling
Jeanette: So, you said you came in (to Stirling) around 54/55 and you were over around the lake for a while.
John: Yeh
Jeanette: How long were you around the lake?
John: I don’t have any memories of living over there. Any memories I would have personally would be when we went into, I’ll call it, “the company house”, heading down the road to the mine and then up the hill to the right, at the top of the hill there (behind John G MacLeod’s). We lived right next door to Chisholm’s.
Jeanette: So, Chisholm was the President?
John: Yeah the Manager or whatever you call it.
Jeanette: So, you would have been in the second house.
John: Yes
Jeanette: There was another man who contacted me, and he said they were in the Vice Presidents house. And I assumed it was the second house up. That family lived there for two years, 1952-54, so you probably moved in there when they left.
John: Could have been, yeh.
Jeanette: Their name was Sisco. I’m trying to figure out where all the houses went. And I think that house went – there was a family down in Trout Brook Rd, Reginato. You may have seen the picture of them moving the house.
John: Yes
Jeanette: That house may have been the house you lived in. It has on the back of it a dormer. You can see that in the picture when they are moving the house. That’s the back of the house you can see. You can ask your mom if the house you lived in had a dormer. And if so that was probably the house.
John: I can remember coming out our front door and I could look down the power line where the power line was cut, and I could see people skating on the lake.
Jeanette: Ok so you weren’t far from the lake when you were up there in those houses. They were very high on the hill. You probably remember that it was a steep hill
John: Yeah.
Jeanette: Could you see the pump house? That’s where they took the water from the lake. It would have been right on the edge.
John: Yes, yes.
Jeanette: Do you remember seeing any pipes that would have come from there. They would have crossed underneath the road, I guess in a culvert, and then right up past where the houses were? I believe they were wood stave piping (as per Harvey Freeman) - big round pipes.
John: That’s something I can’t remember. I’ll could check with mom she may remember that.
Jeanette: I’m not sure if you are familiar with Lidar. It’s a program where you have aerial photographs, but they take away all the trees (and other vegetation) and you see things that are elevated off the ground. I could see some of those houses (foundations). Some of them have collapsed but I could see 13 good impressions of those houses and you can see the pipeline or the ditch that goes from across the road up where the water tower was. Then it crossed over the road over near the houses and then over to the pump house.
John: I can remember coming out our front door and I could look down the power line where the power line was cut, and I could see people skating on the lake.
Jeanette: Ok so you weren’t far from the lake when you were up there in those houses. They were very high on the hill. You probably remember that it was a steep hill
John: Yeah.
Jeanette: Could you see the pump house? That’s where they took the water from the lake. It would have been right on the edge.
John: Yes, yes.
Jeanette: Do you remember seeing any pipes that would have come from there. They would have crossed underneath the road, I guess in a culvert, and then right up past where the houses were? I believe they were wood stave piping (as per Harvey Freeman) - big round pipes.
John: That’s something I can’t remember. I’ll could check with mom she may remember that.
Jeanette: I’m not sure if you are familiar with Lidar. It’s a program where you have aerial photographs, but they take away all the trees (and other vegetation) and you see things that are elevated off the ground. I could see some of those houses (foundations). Some of them have collapsed but I could see 13 good impressions of those houses and you can see the pipeline or the ditch that goes from across the road up where the water tower was. Then it crossed over the road over near the houses and then over to the pump house.
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Jeanette: The company houses. They were quite different from the company houses here in Glace Bay.
John: Oh yes, when I went to Eastern Tech, I lived in one of the row houses on Foundry Street.
John’s Memories of Stirling
Jeanette: I don’t know if you got a chance to look at the interviews.
John: Oh yeah. I looked at them all.
Jeanette: That’s good. And what was your impression of that?
John: Oh, it’s very interesting. Some of the names don’t mean anything but some of the memories they had do. I have a lot of memories of Morrison’s store there, of Frankie Boudreau and Fox because obviously they’re from St Peter’s and Frankie and his wife became good friends of my parents. You know, when I was young, I’d go in the store and they’d give me chocolate bars and different things like that.
Jeanette: So, those memories - is there anything that stands out in your mind right now?
John: Well I remember my mom didn’t want me going in the store looking for chocolate bars. So, I went in one day and Frank said, “You have to have money.” Of course, I was only four years old, I didn’t have any money. And then he said, “or you’d have to have a check or something”. So, the next day I found a check book at home in the house and I scribbled something on it. Like I say I was only four. I walked down to the office at the mine, big trucks going by, and a guard took me in the office. I told my dad he had to sign the check so I could get some chips and chocolate bars.
Jeanette: (Laughter) And what did he say?
John: He just about fell through the floor. Of course, my mother was mortified. I think Morrison’s store, for a while, was off limits for me. (Laughter)
Jeanette: Yeh, I suppose. There were other stores there too.
John: I can remember the garage that was there, across the road from Morrison’s. That structure I remember. I personally can’t remember anything about the restaurant or the clothing store but I’m quite sure my mother would.
Jeanette: The garage across the street was my Dad’s. Did you read the article in the newspaper? Is that how you got on to the website?
John: Yeh. That’s exactly right.
Click here www.capebretonpost.com/lifestyles/local-lifestyles/cape-breton-miners-dug-for-more-than-just-coal-430528/ to view the article.
John: I can remember going home, back to St Peter’s to visit. Every few years I’d go down to Stirling for a drive myself. Obviously, the mine was all gone, and you could drive around, and I could find where our foundation was of the house we lived in.
Jeanette: So, back when there weren’t so many trees and that?
John: That would be back in the 70’s and 80’s.
The Men’s Baseball Team
John: I can remember the baseball team because, of course Dad was involved with sports. I remember I had Dad’s uniform with “Mindamar” across the front of it, until I was thirteen or fourteen.
Jeanette: He was in the Men’s league?
John: He would have been involved with coaching. My Dad basically did that when we lived in St. Peter’s. Dad had Polio when he was a kid so he couldn’t play as much but he was always involved with coaching and score keeping and things like that in baseball. And my uncle Bill who was the postmaster in St Peter’s, for eons. He played ball with St. Peter’s and Mindamar played in what they called the RABA, intermediate baseball league, for a couple of years. (Editor's note - The RABA is an acronym for Richmond Amateur Baseball Association. The league is still active with these teams: Little Anse Hawks, Louisdale Baracos, Petit de Grat Red Capes, Isle Madam Mariners, St Peter's Royals, Inverness Athetics. To view their website click on sportsdesk.com/leagues/standingsTotals.cfm?leagueID=20678&clientID=5405.
Jeanette: Really.
John: Yeh
Jeanette: Where would they play- Port Hawkesbury? St Peter’s?
John: The league would basically be in L’Ardoise, River Bourgeois, St Peter’s, and then teams from Isle Madame, Louisdale, and Petit De Grat, and probably Port Hawkesbury, yes.
Jeanette: So, when your Dad was working down (in Stirling) at the mine site, he played ball or coached?
John: Yeh. He was involved with – I think you did an article (where you talked) about a gentleman. I think he was from Glace Bay who was involved with recreation at the mine.
Jeanette: Oh Yes. I didn’t get to talk to him because he died (last year).
John: I remember his name and he and Dad and a couple more guys got the baseball going and of course they played up at the field up to the left.
Jeanette: Would that have been Eddie Murin?
John: Yeh.
Jeanette: Yeah, I was trying to track him down because somebody had mentioned him and that he was into sports. He did graduate from St FX University. He had quite an impressive career (as per his Obituary Feb/2019) in Sports.
Jeanette: So that was the Adult team. Jeanette: So that was the Adult team. And the baseball field - you remember it being up across the brook and up a hill on the left- hand side? Do you remember going up there?
John: Yes
The Jr Baseball Team
Jeanette: The Jr baseball team – there’s a picture on the website.
John: Yeah, I did see that.
Jeanette: Did you know anybody in it?
John: No. I don’t know. We were good friends with MacLeods - Roddie and Annie and their boys. They may have played (on the team).
Jeanette: OK. they lived on the stretch.
Jeanette: What about the school picture; did you happen to notice anybody in there, or any names that were familiar to you?
John: I would suspect that some of Annie and Roddie’s boys would be in it, but I wouldn’t be able to pick them out. They were a little older than me, just a year or two. I know they went to school there.
The Stirling School
John: I know in some of the articles (interviews) they talk about the school that was there. I read a book a few years ago and you may have too, Jeanette. It’s called “The One Room School”. In it, it talks about one room schoolhouses throughout Nova Scotia and on the back cover of the book is a picture of the Stirling school. I was reading the book. I was interested in it and didn’t even look at the back cover until I was halfway through the book. I said, “holy smoke, I know where that school is.” There’s a nice picture of the school in the back. It looks like it’s taken in the wintertime.
Jeanette: When it was one room?
John: Yeh
Jeanette: I’ll have to get that book. There is a picture (on the website) of the Stirling school after it was added on to in the 50’s. Doug Landry, you probably know him, from St Peter’s, mentioned that Jimmy Fougere, from Sampsonville, added on a few rooms to that school (on contract from the mine).
To St Peter’s
John: I was four. We moved, I would say in the summer of 55 back to St Peter’s, but Dad stayed on with the mine. He looked after shipping the ore by rail in St. Peter’s.
Jeanette: OK. He did that from St Peter’s.
John: Yeh. My mom says that’s the best pay that he ever made when he was in St. Peter’s (laughter). The trucks would come in and he had to look after the lading, making sure what was coming out of the mine was going onto the train there.
John: Oh yes, when I went to Eastern Tech, I lived in one of the row houses on Foundry Street.
John’s Memories of Stirling
Jeanette: I don’t know if you got a chance to look at the interviews.
John: Oh yeah. I looked at them all.
Jeanette: That’s good. And what was your impression of that?
John: Oh, it’s very interesting. Some of the names don’t mean anything but some of the memories they had do. I have a lot of memories of Morrison’s store there, of Frankie Boudreau and Fox because obviously they’re from St Peter’s and Frankie and his wife became good friends of my parents. You know, when I was young, I’d go in the store and they’d give me chocolate bars and different things like that.
Jeanette: So, those memories - is there anything that stands out in your mind right now?
John: Well I remember my mom didn’t want me going in the store looking for chocolate bars. So, I went in one day and Frank said, “You have to have money.” Of course, I was only four years old, I didn’t have any money. And then he said, “or you’d have to have a check or something”. So, the next day I found a check book at home in the house and I scribbled something on it. Like I say I was only four. I walked down to the office at the mine, big trucks going by, and a guard took me in the office. I told my dad he had to sign the check so I could get some chips and chocolate bars.
Jeanette: (Laughter) And what did he say?
John: He just about fell through the floor. Of course, my mother was mortified. I think Morrison’s store, for a while, was off limits for me. (Laughter)
Jeanette: Yeh, I suppose. There were other stores there too.
John: I can remember the garage that was there, across the road from Morrison’s. That structure I remember. I personally can’t remember anything about the restaurant or the clothing store but I’m quite sure my mother would.
Jeanette: The garage across the street was my Dad’s. Did you read the article in the newspaper? Is that how you got on to the website?
John: Yeh. That’s exactly right.
Click here www.capebretonpost.com/lifestyles/local-lifestyles/cape-breton-miners-dug-for-more-than-just-coal-430528/ to view the article.
John: I can remember going home, back to St Peter’s to visit. Every few years I’d go down to Stirling for a drive myself. Obviously, the mine was all gone, and you could drive around, and I could find where our foundation was of the house we lived in.
Jeanette: So, back when there weren’t so many trees and that?
John: That would be back in the 70’s and 80’s.
The Men’s Baseball Team
John: I can remember the baseball team because, of course Dad was involved with sports. I remember I had Dad’s uniform with “Mindamar” across the front of it, until I was thirteen or fourteen.
Jeanette: He was in the Men’s league?
John: He would have been involved with coaching. My Dad basically did that when we lived in St. Peter’s. Dad had Polio when he was a kid so he couldn’t play as much but he was always involved with coaching and score keeping and things like that in baseball. And my uncle Bill who was the postmaster in St Peter’s, for eons. He played ball with St. Peter’s and Mindamar played in what they called the RABA, intermediate baseball league, for a couple of years. (Editor's note - The RABA is an acronym for Richmond Amateur Baseball Association. The league is still active with these teams: Little Anse Hawks, Louisdale Baracos, Petit de Grat Red Capes, Isle Madam Mariners, St Peter's Royals, Inverness Athetics. To view their website click on sportsdesk.com/leagues/standingsTotals.cfm?leagueID=20678&clientID=5405.
Jeanette: Really.
John: Yeh
Jeanette: Where would they play- Port Hawkesbury? St Peter’s?
John: The league would basically be in L’Ardoise, River Bourgeois, St Peter’s, and then teams from Isle Madame, Louisdale, and Petit De Grat, and probably Port Hawkesbury, yes.
Jeanette: So, when your Dad was working down (in Stirling) at the mine site, he played ball or coached?
John: Yeh. He was involved with – I think you did an article (where you talked) about a gentleman. I think he was from Glace Bay who was involved with recreation at the mine.
Jeanette: Oh Yes. I didn’t get to talk to him because he died (last year).
John: I remember his name and he and Dad and a couple more guys got the baseball going and of course they played up at the field up to the left.
Jeanette: Would that have been Eddie Murin?
John: Yeh.
Jeanette: Yeah, I was trying to track him down because somebody had mentioned him and that he was into sports. He did graduate from St FX University. He had quite an impressive career (as per his Obituary Feb/2019) in Sports.
Jeanette: So that was the Adult team. Jeanette: So that was the Adult team. And the baseball field - you remember it being up across the brook and up a hill on the left- hand side? Do you remember going up there?
John: Yes
The Jr Baseball Team
Jeanette: The Jr baseball team – there’s a picture on the website.
John: Yeah, I did see that.
Jeanette: Did you know anybody in it?
John: No. I don’t know. We were good friends with MacLeods - Roddie and Annie and their boys. They may have played (on the team).
Jeanette: OK. they lived on the stretch.
Jeanette: What about the school picture; did you happen to notice anybody in there, or any names that were familiar to you?
John: I would suspect that some of Annie and Roddie’s boys would be in it, but I wouldn’t be able to pick them out. They were a little older than me, just a year or two. I know they went to school there.
The Stirling School
John: I know in some of the articles (interviews) they talk about the school that was there. I read a book a few years ago and you may have too, Jeanette. It’s called “The One Room School”. In it, it talks about one room schoolhouses throughout Nova Scotia and on the back cover of the book is a picture of the Stirling school. I was reading the book. I was interested in it and didn’t even look at the back cover until I was halfway through the book. I said, “holy smoke, I know where that school is.” There’s a nice picture of the school in the back. It looks like it’s taken in the wintertime.
Jeanette: When it was one room?
John: Yeh
Jeanette: I’ll have to get that book. There is a picture (on the website) of the Stirling school after it was added on to in the 50’s. Doug Landry, you probably know him, from St Peter’s, mentioned that Jimmy Fougere, from Sampsonville, added on a few rooms to that school (on contract from the mine).
To St Peter’s
John: I was four. We moved, I would say in the summer of 55 back to St Peter’s, but Dad stayed on with the mine. He looked after shipping the ore by rail in St. Peter’s.
Jeanette: OK. He did that from St Peter’s.
John: Yeh. My mom says that’s the best pay that he ever made when he was in St. Peter’s (laughter). The trucks would come in and he had to look after the lading, making sure what was coming out of the mine was going onto the train there.
Jeanette: The old railway station up there, that’s probably where he worked. There was another guy, I did a phone interview with him from Framboise, Murdock Morrison. He did some work up there too, something similar to what you said your dad was doing.
John: Yeah, Dad had a building right down across the tracks, right by the two loading (areas)- where the trucks drive right out and then back up the load on the trucks and go right into the rail cars.
John: I don’t know if you are familiar with St Peter’s.
Jeanette: Oh, yes. I worked there for twenty some years.
John: Well you know the lane going down from the Cozy Corner, there.
Jeanette: Yeah
John: If you go down there, the house on the left, just before you went over the tracks, that’s where we lived. That house belonged to my Dad’s family.
Jeanette: Oh, OK. Did you continue to come back there over the years?
John: Oh yes, definitely yeah.
After the Stirling Mine closed.
After the mine closed and everything shut down, we moved to Newcastle, New Brunswick and Dad went to work at Heathsteel. They had a mine outside of Newcastle, New Brunswick. A number of people, I don’t know what the number would be, but I know the MacLeod’s -Roddie and Annie and their Kids moved up there also. And we were up there for the better part of two years. Then that mine petered out and a lot of the people including the MacLeod’s went to Eliot Lake, Ontario with the same company.
Jeanette: Did your father go there?
John: No, we weren’t going to be that far away from home, so we moved to Liverpool, Nova Scotia and Dad went to work for Stenpro which was a company owned by Irving Oil.
Jeanette: Was that a mining Company?
John: No. They had a ship repair yard in Liverpool and a Foundry. They also built the outside oil drums for houses and commercial buildings.
Jeanette: So was your father working in accounting.
John: Exactly, yeah.
Jeanette: Was he an accountant?
John: Yes, he was.
Jeanette: So, when he was in Heathsteel, he was doing that type of work too?
John: That’s correct.
Jeanette: And when he was at Stirling, he did that in the office?
John: Yeh. He was bookkeeper/payroll person. There wasn’t a lot of them in the office, so they did a number of things.
John: When we left Liverpool, Dad got a job with an insurance company in Halifax. At the end of February, 1959, my mother and my sister and I moved back to St. Peter’s and I finished grade four there and then we moved to Halifax and my Dad retired from Bell & Grant Insurance as Comptroller. Our immediate family never lived back in St Peter’s, but we were back and forth with the rest of the family.
Jeanette: Where does your mom live now?
John: Mom lives in Hammonds Plains just outside Halifax. She’ll be 91 in September. She lives on her own. She has her own mini home. My younger sister lives in Mount Uniacke so she’s back and forth. She (Mom) does her own cooking. Just a couple of years ago, she stopped driving.
Jeanette: Really, well isn’t she smart. A lot of the people I interviewed are in their 90s and it is amazing how independent and clear of mind they are. The information they have!
John: We talked about your articles (website) and the information that was in there and she recalls a lot of that stuff. Living in the little house by the lake was pretty rough going.
Jeanette: Yeah, I would think so. They’d have to get a place together pretty fast.
John: Correct, exactly.
Jeanette: Can you think of anything else right now?
John: Not right now.
John: Yeah, Dad had a building right down across the tracks, right by the two loading (areas)- where the trucks drive right out and then back up the load on the trucks and go right into the rail cars.
John: I don’t know if you are familiar with St Peter’s.
Jeanette: Oh, yes. I worked there for twenty some years.
John: Well you know the lane going down from the Cozy Corner, there.
Jeanette: Yeah
John: If you go down there, the house on the left, just before you went over the tracks, that’s where we lived. That house belonged to my Dad’s family.
Jeanette: Oh, OK. Did you continue to come back there over the years?
John: Oh yes, definitely yeah.
After the Stirling Mine closed.
After the mine closed and everything shut down, we moved to Newcastle, New Brunswick and Dad went to work at Heathsteel. They had a mine outside of Newcastle, New Brunswick. A number of people, I don’t know what the number would be, but I know the MacLeod’s -Roddie and Annie and their Kids moved up there also. And we were up there for the better part of two years. Then that mine petered out and a lot of the people including the MacLeod’s went to Eliot Lake, Ontario with the same company.
Jeanette: Did your father go there?
John: No, we weren’t going to be that far away from home, so we moved to Liverpool, Nova Scotia and Dad went to work for Stenpro which was a company owned by Irving Oil.
Jeanette: Was that a mining Company?
John: No. They had a ship repair yard in Liverpool and a Foundry. They also built the outside oil drums for houses and commercial buildings.
Jeanette: So was your father working in accounting.
John: Exactly, yeah.
Jeanette: Was he an accountant?
John: Yes, he was.
Jeanette: So, when he was in Heathsteel, he was doing that type of work too?
John: That’s correct.
Jeanette: And when he was at Stirling, he did that in the office?
John: Yeh. He was bookkeeper/payroll person. There wasn’t a lot of them in the office, so they did a number of things.
John: When we left Liverpool, Dad got a job with an insurance company in Halifax. At the end of February, 1959, my mother and my sister and I moved back to St. Peter’s and I finished grade four there and then we moved to Halifax and my Dad retired from Bell & Grant Insurance as Comptroller. Our immediate family never lived back in St Peter’s, but we were back and forth with the rest of the family.
Jeanette: Where does your mom live now?
John: Mom lives in Hammonds Plains just outside Halifax. She’ll be 91 in September. She lives on her own. She has her own mini home. My younger sister lives in Mount Uniacke so she’s back and forth. She (Mom) does her own cooking. Just a couple of years ago, she stopped driving.
Jeanette: Really, well isn’t she smart. A lot of the people I interviewed are in their 90s and it is amazing how independent and clear of mind they are. The information they have!
John: We talked about your articles (website) and the information that was in there and she recalls a lot of that stuff. Living in the little house by the lake was pretty rough going.
Jeanette: Yeah, I would think so. They’d have to get a place together pretty fast.
John: Correct, exactly.
Jeanette: Can you think of anything else right now?
John: Not right now.
The old railway station St Peter's 2020. Heading East into St Peter's.
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The old railway station St Peter's 2020. Facing Southeast.
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