Interview with Pearl MacLeod MacDonald May 4, 2019 re the Stirling Mine
JEANETTE: How old were you when the mine worked in the 50’s?
PEARL: It started around the 50’s. I’d be around eleven.
JEANETTE: And then it closed around 56?
PEARL: And then they dismantled it.
JEANETTE: So, you didn’t know Allister then?
PEARL: No, later.
Where People lived/the stores
JEANETTE: You were saying, from the Stirling Rd heading over to the mine road (from Loch Lomond) you come to the Catholic Church on the right and then…
PEARL: Dan Alex’s (MacLeod) and then over in the field was Angus Archie and Maude’s (MacQueen) and down below the driveway at Angus Archie’s right before you get on the main drive, there was another bungalow and it was Annie and Kenny Strachan. Then you went up over the hill. There was Dolena and Buddy (MacAulay). There was Angus and Marion (MacDonald) and they had a son Jimmy and a daughter Loretta. They were from Big Pond. After that there was Doreen and Donny Shaw. He was from Loch Lomond. And then after that you went across – there was a driveway and there was Norman Johnson and Aurora and their daughter Edna. Norman Johnson would be Diddy’s brother. And then the next house to that was Angus and Lily (MacLeod) and then the road going up between – I know the house way up was Dan and Alice MacDonald and that’s the fellow they used to call Kilowatt Dan because he was doing electrical work. They were from Gabarus.
JEANETTE: Were there any other houses up that road.
PEARL: There was. Not that it went up too far.
JEANETTE: So after you pass that road heading towards the mine road….
PEARL: Yes after you passed Lily and Angus’s then you went up a piece and then on that side (the left-hand side) was the mill and then right across from that was Jean Taylor -the bungalow there. And then there was the five Island Rd. And then when you kept going straight was Spinner’s and then the lane going up to John G’s.
JEANETTE: The road to John G’s was before Spinner’s right?
PEARL: Yes. Right by the lane was this big building and it was Spinner’s. And then when you were going down to the mine, there was a bungalow and it was Hughie and May MacDonald’s.
PEARL: then the next place going to the mine was Charlie Hooper’s store and the next one was Danny Shaw’s store and then the next one was Chan’s restaurant and across from it was the theatre. Then when you kept going straight (on the main road toward Framboise) was Alex Morrison’s store and across was the garage (Strachan’s) and then down below was the school.
JEANETTE: Yes a little farther down (on the left).
JEANETTE: Those three stores: Morrison’s, Shaw’s and Hooper’s, they were all general stores?
PEARL: Oh yes
JEANETTE: Did they sell the same stuff?
PEARL: Hooper, Charlie Hooper, had a lot of guns and he had televisions. The first television we had I’ll never forget it. Black and white. And the test pattern was round, and you’d see this test pattern and you’d think it was the greatest thing. Laughter.
PEARL: Morrison’s store sold just general stuff. If you wanted something different they’d order it for you, and they’d get it. That was the same with Danny Shaw.
JEANETTE: And they had groceries as well?
PEARL: Oh yes.
JEANETTE: Say if you needed fencing material would you get it at those stores?
PEARL: Yes, they’d order it.
JEANETTE: Who’d you get it from?
PEAR: You could get it from Morrison’s, Hooper’s or Danny Shaw’s.
JEANETTE: About Strachan’s Garage, Edwin Severance worked there right?
PEARL: Yes, he had something wrong with his leg.
JEANETTE: He had Polio. He was Elmer (MacGillivary’s} uncle. My brother Donald (Strachan) said that he got along well in the garage despite that.
PEARL: Yes. He was strong as a horse.
JEANETTE: Do you remember anyone else who worked there?
PEARL: No. I remember him (Edwin). I couldn’t believe it the way he was. He was strong.
JEANETTE: So the meat market….
PEARL: I don’t remember that
The Stirling School
PEARL: I remember Dan Morrison, that’s Melvin’s brother. When it was a one room schoolhouse, he used to come across the field and put the fires on. Oh god could he ever draw. He’d draw a big gorilla on the blackboard and write “Teacher" underneath it. Laughter
JEANETTE: I guess everybody figured out who it was. Nobody else could draw like that, I guess.
JEANETTE: So, that school, it was a one room school (at one time)?
PEARL: And when the mine started they added two more rooms to it and when the mine closed Dan Alex bought it (and set up his mill there). Editor's Note: Donald M. told me it had four rooms in the end and when the mine was going the teacher, Kenneth Morrison lived in a room upstairs.
The Stirling Road past the School to the Four Corners (aka Barker's Corner)
PEARL: (After the school), there were three houses (on the right-hand side going to Framboise and there was one that was way off the road and then there was Dogpatch.
JEANETTE: There was a man there (in the bungalow on the right side of road) who made wooden shoes. Do you remember him?
PEARL: Well, I remember he was a Dutchman but don’t ask me what his name was? Norman MacDermid could make the shoes right on his feet. He was an excellent carpenter just like your father, but he told the fellow that he could make his shoes right on his feet.
JEANETTE: This other fellow apparently made shoes?
PEARL: Oh Yes, the Dutchman, yes.
JEANETTE: Do you know anyone who bought them?
PEARL: No
JEANETTE: We had a pair up home and, oh my god, we had fun with them when we were kids. They were this big (a foot long) and we’d clump up and down the stairs in them. Laughter
JEANETTE: Before you got to Dogpatch were there houses on the other side of the road?
PEARL: On that side (the left) there was a bunch. There was Dan Alex and Adelaide. Howard lived in one of them. And there was John Alex MacAskill. That was on the left going to Framboise. Dogpatch was on your right.
PEARL: Across from Dogpatch- a piece of the road- there was a house there.
JEANETTE: Talking about Barker’s corner. The man that lived at the corner.
PEARL: I can’t remember his name
JEANETTE: He was a school teacher.
PEARL: Yes, he was a school teacher. And that’s where Charlie and Dena bought the house there.
JEANETTE: but that house didn’t come from the mine, right.
PEARL: No
JEANETTE: Going down the North Framboise Rd, down where Douglas and Sarah (Morrison) live, there was a family.
PEARL: Yes. That was MacPhee. Mary MacPhee and her husband (Bernie Gillis).
JEANETTE: Were they miners.
PEARL: He (Stevie) went to school but Mary’s husband was a miner. They were real good friends of Bessie and Melvin’s. Her brother Stevie MacPhee lived with them. He went to school in Stirling.
JEANETTE: So, her mother was a MacPhee. We’re talking about Mary and Bernie Gillis.
PEARL: And her brother was the priest, Father Norman.
JEANETTE: The priest out in Stirling?
PEARL: No, no, the priest lives over in French Road. Editor's note: Father Norman MacPhee lives in Glace Bay where he continues to provide services at Holy Cross Church. He continues to visit his home in French Road. He worked as a student at the Stirling mine in the 50's. click here Father Norman MacPhee to read his interview.
PEARL: There was Norman, Johnny, Stevie, Allan. There was a whole slew of them.
JEANETTE: So Mary’s parents, they didn’t live in Stirling.
PEARL: No.
JEANETTE: I was told that Bernie was a Hoister.
JEANETTE: She (Mary) would know some stories, I would think. Editor's Note: Click here on Mary Gillis to read her story.
PEARL: I would say so. She lived up there (Stirling).
The Stirling Bus
JEANETTE: And the Stirling bus...
PEARL: I got the song for the Stirling bus (“The Rattling Stirling Bus”).
Jeanette: Yes, I have a copy Donald Morrison gave me. Editor's note; Click here The rattling Stirling Bus to view it.
PEARL: I remember the bus. It was the funniest looking thing. (Editor's note: Click here on Photos page to view a picture of the bus.) And it rattled let me tell you. They’d go right up to Stirling and then down by the co-op (Framboise) if there was somebody on it that you’d have to leave off. And then they would come down here (Gabarus Lake) and it was Hughie from down here who was one of them who drove it.
JEANETTE: Would they come the North Framboise Rd?
PEARL: No, they’d come down through Fourchu. They’d come the Grand Mira Rd (from Sydney) to Gabarus Lake and then through Fourchu (and Framboise) to Stirling.
JEANETTE: How often would it run?
PEARL: It might be once a week. I guess if there was enough on it. They’d take them up (to Stirling) and perhaps they’d say, “I have to go back in three- or four-days time”. They’d go up and pick them up and take them to Sydney.
JEANETTE: Did it look like a bus?
PEARL: Yes. It looked like a stubby bus.
JEANETTE: It was the King’s bus line, I think.
PEARL: Yes, that’s the name of it.
PEARL: First there was Leo. He was driving it first. Then there was Neil (MacDonald), that would be Hughie’s brother. He drove it. Then Hughie went on it. They all loved Hughie because Hughie didn’t give a dam for nothing. (laughter)
JEANETTE: Was Leo a brother of theirs?
PEARL: No, I never heard of him before?
The Carpenters
PEARL: I’d say your father would be the head one.
JEANETTE: Yes, he was a foreman there.
JEANETTE: Do you know if they (the carpenters) built all the other buildings there.
PEARL: I can’t say. I would say they would have had to have built the bunkhouses.
JEANETTE: So, you said he (Alister) worked underground for a little while?
PEARL: Yes, and when they were through with something he was working on the surface.
JEANETTE: Did he say any other thing about the mine. Did he have any other stories?
PEARL: No, nothing that I could say (laughter).
JEANETTE: Did he work there from the beginning to the end.
PEARL: I can’t say about the beginning, but he worked until the end. I can tell you that. Allister was underground and then he came up and he was on the surface. He worked with your father (Soutter). He said they had lots of fun. I’m telling you the truth. I can’t remember who was here and he (Allister) was telling them, “I’m sure he (Soutter) could look like that (eyeballing it) and go back and get a stick and cut it and stick it right up (and it would fit). I’m sure he wouldn’t need a tape. I never seen the like”. “I used to watch him”, he said, “because it was really funny. He’d look back and forth then cut the stick and slap it right in”.
The Catholic Church
Pearl: I guess when they were building the Catholic Church... That was big - the catholic church.
JEANETTE: So the carpenters did that too?
PEARL: It was the mine that built it and the other miners who were there (carpenters and labourers). (Editor's note As per Mary Gillis and Father Norman MacPhee's interviews, the Parish of Johnstown had the church built. It seems that the people working at the mine had a hand in the actual building of it.)
PEARL: When, we were going to school, they always had a Christmas concert and we’d have to go up to the church. That’s where we had to go to practice.
JEANETTE: Did they have a hall there?
PEARL: It was a hall and a church- a big long thing. And on the top they had the alter and then when we had the concert they would push all that away and we’d have a stage.
JEANETTE: So it was a church that was used as a hall?
PEARL: And there was a well in the basement. And they would pray over it. And that was the first time I was ever in a confession. So here was Bunny Ames, Mary. I’d say now, “You go in and I’ll take your confession”. If we ever had got caught!! And I’d never seen one before.
JEANETTE: So did she confess to you?
PEARL: Oh, I won’t tell you what she told me. (Laughter)
JEANETTE: Was it true or was it just made up?
PEARL: Made up. It was just a riot.
Other People who worked there
JEANETTE: Do you remember any other people who worked there.
PEARL: Well there was Wesley MacDonald from Gabarus. He worked there. Angus MacDonald and Donald MacDonald worked there.
JEANETTE: Were Angus and Donald brothers?
PEARL: Yes.
JEANETTE: Who was Anne’s father?
PEARL: Angus.
JEANETTE: Ramsey (MacLeod) and Charlie (MacLeod) worked there.
PEARL: Oh yes, and Norman D (MacLeod).
JEANETTE: What did they do?
PEARL: Surface work.
JEANETTE: (talking about persons working in the assay office) Dolena MacLeod.
PEARL: She married a Tremblay
JEANETTE: Where was he from?
PEARL: Quebec.
JEANETTE: So, did she meet him at the mine?
PEARL: Yes
JEANETTE: Did you know how she met him?
PEARL: I guess from just working there.
PEARL: She, Dolena, was Kenny Williams daughter who used to live over North Framboise just before John Alex’s (MacAskill). There was a house there.
JEANETTE: Kenny Williams.
PEARL: Yes
JEANETTE: Who was the lady that married the man from Sydney, Claude Byron?
PEARL: Was her name Florence? That was Dolena’s sister. I think she was the oldest.
JEANETTE: And Claude Byron and Florence. Donald Morrison told me they met when he was working at the mine (driving a truck).
JEANETTE: Do you remember the Parkers?
PEARL: Parker, he worked in the mine. He had two sons and a daughter. Shirley Parker was her name. Then I think they moved to Fourchu.
JEANETTE: Were they in Annie and Neil MacIntosh’s house?
PEARL: I don’t know. There was a Neil MacIntosh, His father (Allister) worked at the mine (when it ran in the 30's). They boarded or rented at the MacIntosh’s – Allister and his mother and father and his brother Angus. He (Allister) was only four at the time. That’s the road going up the hill to the right coming up MacDermid’s hill there.
JEANETTE: In the 30’s. Right, well we used to call that Parker’s.
PEARL: I guess the family after that was Parkers.
JEANETTE: Do you remember Calvin Hastings. I guess he was a real funny guy.
PEARL: Oh yes. He had a Yolkswagon Beetle. Oh, he was funny. He was an old fellow. He was a riot. And he drove this – it was almost a white color. He’d go like a bat out of hell. Laughter
The Recreation Centre
JEANETTE: Was there a recreation center (on the mine property)?
PEARL: Well dear, they had a baseball field. You’d go through the mine. Right on top of the hill. They had picnics there. Some would come in and play, the miners.
JEANETTE: Was there a hall up there?
PEARL: Oh yes, and they’d have dances. It was so weird. You’d have to go like this (fishy tail) to go around the mine, not right through it.
JEANETTE: I suppose they’d have to go around the glory hole. I gather it would be up the hill and maybe a little to the left.
JEANETTE: Bessie told me that when Mamie (Morrison) and Johnny) (MacMaster) got married, that’s where the dance was.
JEANETTE: They must have had a lot of stuff going on.
PEARL: Oh you want to believe it.
People who died working at the mine
JEANETTE: So you told me about Howard (Burns), who died at the mine. Did you hear how that happened?
PEARL: I think he got hooked in the belt.
JEANETTE: In the mill where they grind up the ore?
PEARL: He got stuck. They got him out, but he had died. They (Danny and Adelaide) never ever got over it.
JEANETTE: Did his father, Dan Alex Burns work at the mine too?
PEARL: Yes
JEANETTE: Was he working that night?
PEARL: I don’t know.
JEANETTE: There was another fellow who died there from Quebec, a Bedard fellow. Do you remember anything about him?
PEARL: No
Telephones, Telegraphs & Power
JEANETTE: Do you remember when we got the telephones?
PEARL: I remember when the power came through. That was in 49.
JEANETTE: Bessie told me when she first started working there (at the mine) they just had one of the first (old) bunkhouses as a working station and they had no power (lines).
PEARL: The mine probably got it going (the power).
JEANETTE: Did you know they had a telegraph office at the mine?
PEARL: No, but I know that Jean Taylor had a telegraph office (in her house).
JEANETTE: Yes, and then they ended taking her and the telegraph down to the mine until they closed. She was in the office with Bessie and Dolena (As per Dolena MacLeod MacLean’s interview)
JEANETTE: Did you remember who the Gate Keepers were?
PEARL: Enos Sampson was one. There was a James MacDonald.
JEANETTE: The land around the lake, do you know if Dan Alex leased it?
PEARL: No, I don’t know.
The Mine Houses
PEARL: It was a beautiful house (the manager's house). It was at the beginning of the road going up back of John G’s (on the right side of the mine road).
Jeanette: This is the house at the Meadow's Road?
PEARL: Yes a way up (from the road).
JEANETTE: Margaret Norman Alex’s house. The first one came from the mine, but it burnt and the second one came from the mine (as well). (Editor's Note: See Angus A. MacLeod’s interview).
PEARL: I think the last one was one of the bunkhouses. It was long. They fixed inside. Angus (and Lily’s) house that was a mine house. Then he built (a story) up on it.
JEANETTE: Did he build out, too?
PEARL: Yes
PEARL: Then Boston Danny bought one of the houses and moved it down to where Gordon (MacDonald) owns it today.
JEANETTE: Oh Kenny Dan’s, OK.
PEARL: That’s who bought that.
JEANETTE: and Dan Norman had one.
PEARL: Dan Norman that’s right.
JEANETTE: Who owned that land before Dan Norman moved there.
PEARL: She was a teacher Isabel. She had two kids. Donnie and Sandra. That’s who was there first.
The Movie Theatre
JEANETTE: Did you ever go to the movie theatre?
PEARL: Oh yes
JEANETTE: Would they just have it on Fri and Sat night?
PEARL: Oh, they’d have it through the week.
PEARL: I think it might be two nights a week.
PEARL: There was this Bunny (Mary) Ames and the Chan fellow, and we went to school and the teacher said if you don’t make 75% there’s no skating, and no movies. Laughter
PEARL: There was a movie coming up and it was named “A man called Peter”. I never forgot it. So, Mark Twain, I think it was Mark. His father ran the movie theatre. So, he said we’ll all go. We’ll go upstairs. There was a canvas upstairs (they would hide under it).
JEANETTE: I take it you didn’t make the 75%
PEARL: No. Laughter
PEARL: I’ll never forget it as long as I live. I was kind of shaken because I didn’t want to get hell from the teacher. He was a good teacher but he was strict- that Kenny Morrison.
JEANETTE: Was that Kenny Morrison from Loch Lomond?
PEARL: Yes
PEARL: In the theatre after the first hour on the big roll, they would have to reroll it, for the movie you know. It was a big film.
JEANETTE: Half- way through the movie, you mean?
PEARL: (After) about an hour and they’d have to stop because they would have to put another one (reel) on to finish it. I remember this day, I skinned my knee.
JEANETTE: So you did it more than once obviously?
PEARL: Yes, (and this day) didn’t he (Kenny) stick his head up and said, “did you see any school students in here” and the fellow (who ran the projector) said “no” and there we were under the canvas.
PEARL: His father (Twain) was the one that ran the theatre.
JEANETTE: Did he work for the mine?
PEARL: Oh, yes
JEANETTE: Did they have anything else going on in there (the theatre) during the day? Did they have anyone sleeping in it, sort of like a bunkhouse?
PEARL: No, there were chairs all through it and the big screen was right there.
JEANETTE: Do you remember any other movies that were there.
PEARL: I remember that one (because of the episode with the teacher)!!
JEANETTE: Do you remember who starred in it?
PEARL: No
JEANETTE: Would you say that was around 54?
PEARL: I’d say.
JEANETTE: And the movies: Were they current or were they old movies?
PEARL: Oh no. They weren’t that old.
PEARL: This movie came out and it always stuck in my head, “a man called Peter”. (Editor's note – “A Man Named Peter” was released in 1955.)
Editor's note: Pearl was telling me about skating on the lake. They weren’t supposed to be skating unless their marks were 75 %. The miners would play against the school children. The school children usually won. They would put a hole in the ice to get water (to flood the ice). They wouldn’t get too close to the pumphouse as it would be drawing the water out of the lake up into the mine. I asked about the dam and she remembered that (close to the pumphouse). She didn’t know why it was there.
JEANETTE: How old were you when the mine worked in the 50’s?
PEARL: It started around the 50’s. I’d be around eleven.
JEANETTE: And then it closed around 56?
PEARL: And then they dismantled it.
JEANETTE: So, you didn’t know Allister then?
PEARL: No, later.
Where People lived/the stores
JEANETTE: You were saying, from the Stirling Rd heading over to the mine road (from Loch Lomond) you come to the Catholic Church on the right and then…
PEARL: Dan Alex’s (MacLeod) and then over in the field was Angus Archie and Maude’s (MacQueen) and down below the driveway at Angus Archie’s right before you get on the main drive, there was another bungalow and it was Annie and Kenny Strachan. Then you went up over the hill. There was Dolena and Buddy (MacAulay). There was Angus and Marion (MacDonald) and they had a son Jimmy and a daughter Loretta. They were from Big Pond. After that there was Doreen and Donny Shaw. He was from Loch Lomond. And then after that you went across – there was a driveway and there was Norman Johnson and Aurora and their daughter Edna. Norman Johnson would be Diddy’s brother. And then the next house to that was Angus and Lily (MacLeod) and then the road going up between – I know the house way up was Dan and Alice MacDonald and that’s the fellow they used to call Kilowatt Dan because he was doing electrical work. They were from Gabarus.
JEANETTE: Were there any other houses up that road.
PEARL: There was. Not that it went up too far.
JEANETTE: So after you pass that road heading towards the mine road….
PEARL: Yes after you passed Lily and Angus’s then you went up a piece and then on that side (the left-hand side) was the mill and then right across from that was Jean Taylor -the bungalow there. And then there was the five Island Rd. And then when you kept going straight was Spinner’s and then the lane going up to John G’s.
JEANETTE: The road to John G’s was before Spinner’s right?
PEARL: Yes. Right by the lane was this big building and it was Spinner’s. And then when you were going down to the mine, there was a bungalow and it was Hughie and May MacDonald’s.
PEARL: then the next place going to the mine was Charlie Hooper’s store and the next one was Danny Shaw’s store and then the next one was Chan’s restaurant and across from it was the theatre. Then when you kept going straight (on the main road toward Framboise) was Alex Morrison’s store and across was the garage (Strachan’s) and then down below was the school.
JEANETTE: Yes a little farther down (on the left).
JEANETTE: Those three stores: Morrison’s, Shaw’s and Hooper’s, they were all general stores?
PEARL: Oh yes
JEANETTE: Did they sell the same stuff?
PEARL: Hooper, Charlie Hooper, had a lot of guns and he had televisions. The first television we had I’ll never forget it. Black and white. And the test pattern was round, and you’d see this test pattern and you’d think it was the greatest thing. Laughter.
PEARL: Morrison’s store sold just general stuff. If you wanted something different they’d order it for you, and they’d get it. That was the same with Danny Shaw.
JEANETTE: And they had groceries as well?
PEARL: Oh yes.
JEANETTE: Say if you needed fencing material would you get it at those stores?
PEARL: Yes, they’d order it.
JEANETTE: Who’d you get it from?
PEAR: You could get it from Morrison’s, Hooper’s or Danny Shaw’s.
JEANETTE: About Strachan’s Garage, Edwin Severance worked there right?
PEARL: Yes, he had something wrong with his leg.
JEANETTE: He had Polio. He was Elmer (MacGillivary’s} uncle. My brother Donald (Strachan) said that he got along well in the garage despite that.
PEARL: Yes. He was strong as a horse.
JEANETTE: Do you remember anyone else who worked there?
PEARL: No. I remember him (Edwin). I couldn’t believe it the way he was. He was strong.
JEANETTE: So the meat market….
PEARL: I don’t remember that
The Stirling School
PEARL: I remember Dan Morrison, that’s Melvin’s brother. When it was a one room schoolhouse, he used to come across the field and put the fires on. Oh god could he ever draw. He’d draw a big gorilla on the blackboard and write “Teacher" underneath it. Laughter
JEANETTE: I guess everybody figured out who it was. Nobody else could draw like that, I guess.
JEANETTE: So, that school, it was a one room school (at one time)?
PEARL: And when the mine started they added two more rooms to it and when the mine closed Dan Alex bought it (and set up his mill there). Editor's Note: Donald M. told me it had four rooms in the end and when the mine was going the teacher, Kenneth Morrison lived in a room upstairs.
The Stirling Road past the School to the Four Corners (aka Barker's Corner)
PEARL: (After the school), there were three houses (on the right-hand side going to Framboise and there was one that was way off the road and then there was Dogpatch.
JEANETTE: There was a man there (in the bungalow on the right side of road) who made wooden shoes. Do you remember him?
PEARL: Well, I remember he was a Dutchman but don’t ask me what his name was? Norman MacDermid could make the shoes right on his feet. He was an excellent carpenter just like your father, but he told the fellow that he could make his shoes right on his feet.
JEANETTE: This other fellow apparently made shoes?
PEARL: Oh Yes, the Dutchman, yes.
JEANETTE: Do you know anyone who bought them?
PEARL: No
JEANETTE: We had a pair up home and, oh my god, we had fun with them when we were kids. They were this big (a foot long) and we’d clump up and down the stairs in them. Laughter
JEANETTE: Before you got to Dogpatch were there houses on the other side of the road?
PEARL: On that side (the left) there was a bunch. There was Dan Alex and Adelaide. Howard lived in one of them. And there was John Alex MacAskill. That was on the left going to Framboise. Dogpatch was on your right.
PEARL: Across from Dogpatch- a piece of the road- there was a house there.
JEANETTE: Talking about Barker’s corner. The man that lived at the corner.
PEARL: I can’t remember his name
JEANETTE: He was a school teacher.
PEARL: Yes, he was a school teacher. And that’s where Charlie and Dena bought the house there.
JEANETTE: but that house didn’t come from the mine, right.
PEARL: No
JEANETTE: Going down the North Framboise Rd, down where Douglas and Sarah (Morrison) live, there was a family.
PEARL: Yes. That was MacPhee. Mary MacPhee and her husband (Bernie Gillis).
JEANETTE: Were they miners.
PEARL: He (Stevie) went to school but Mary’s husband was a miner. They were real good friends of Bessie and Melvin’s. Her brother Stevie MacPhee lived with them. He went to school in Stirling.
JEANETTE: So, her mother was a MacPhee. We’re talking about Mary and Bernie Gillis.
PEARL: And her brother was the priest, Father Norman.
JEANETTE: The priest out in Stirling?
PEARL: No, no, the priest lives over in French Road. Editor's note: Father Norman MacPhee lives in Glace Bay where he continues to provide services at Holy Cross Church. He continues to visit his home in French Road. He worked as a student at the Stirling mine in the 50's. click here Father Norman MacPhee to read his interview.
PEARL: There was Norman, Johnny, Stevie, Allan. There was a whole slew of them.
JEANETTE: So Mary’s parents, they didn’t live in Stirling.
PEARL: No.
JEANETTE: I was told that Bernie was a Hoister.
JEANETTE: She (Mary) would know some stories, I would think. Editor's Note: Click here on Mary Gillis to read her story.
PEARL: I would say so. She lived up there (Stirling).
The Stirling Bus
JEANETTE: And the Stirling bus...
PEARL: I got the song for the Stirling bus (“The Rattling Stirling Bus”).
Jeanette: Yes, I have a copy Donald Morrison gave me. Editor's note; Click here The rattling Stirling Bus to view it.
PEARL: I remember the bus. It was the funniest looking thing. (Editor's note: Click here on Photos page to view a picture of the bus.) And it rattled let me tell you. They’d go right up to Stirling and then down by the co-op (Framboise) if there was somebody on it that you’d have to leave off. And then they would come down here (Gabarus Lake) and it was Hughie from down here who was one of them who drove it.
JEANETTE: Would they come the North Framboise Rd?
PEARL: No, they’d come down through Fourchu. They’d come the Grand Mira Rd (from Sydney) to Gabarus Lake and then through Fourchu (and Framboise) to Stirling.
JEANETTE: How often would it run?
PEARL: It might be once a week. I guess if there was enough on it. They’d take them up (to Stirling) and perhaps they’d say, “I have to go back in three- or four-days time”. They’d go up and pick them up and take them to Sydney.
JEANETTE: Did it look like a bus?
PEARL: Yes. It looked like a stubby bus.
JEANETTE: It was the King’s bus line, I think.
PEARL: Yes, that’s the name of it.
PEARL: First there was Leo. He was driving it first. Then there was Neil (MacDonald), that would be Hughie’s brother. He drove it. Then Hughie went on it. They all loved Hughie because Hughie didn’t give a dam for nothing. (laughter)
JEANETTE: Was Leo a brother of theirs?
PEARL: No, I never heard of him before?
The Carpenters
PEARL: I’d say your father would be the head one.
JEANETTE: Yes, he was a foreman there.
JEANETTE: Do you know if they (the carpenters) built all the other buildings there.
PEARL: I can’t say. I would say they would have had to have built the bunkhouses.
JEANETTE: So, you said he (Alister) worked underground for a little while?
PEARL: Yes, and when they were through with something he was working on the surface.
JEANETTE: Did he say any other thing about the mine. Did he have any other stories?
PEARL: No, nothing that I could say (laughter).
JEANETTE: Did he work there from the beginning to the end.
PEARL: I can’t say about the beginning, but he worked until the end. I can tell you that. Allister was underground and then he came up and he was on the surface. He worked with your father (Soutter). He said they had lots of fun. I’m telling you the truth. I can’t remember who was here and he (Allister) was telling them, “I’m sure he (Soutter) could look like that (eyeballing it) and go back and get a stick and cut it and stick it right up (and it would fit). I’m sure he wouldn’t need a tape. I never seen the like”. “I used to watch him”, he said, “because it was really funny. He’d look back and forth then cut the stick and slap it right in”.
The Catholic Church
Pearl: I guess when they were building the Catholic Church... That was big - the catholic church.
JEANETTE: So the carpenters did that too?
PEARL: It was the mine that built it and the other miners who were there (carpenters and labourers). (Editor's note As per Mary Gillis and Father Norman MacPhee's interviews, the Parish of Johnstown had the church built. It seems that the people working at the mine had a hand in the actual building of it.)
PEARL: When, we were going to school, they always had a Christmas concert and we’d have to go up to the church. That’s where we had to go to practice.
JEANETTE: Did they have a hall there?
PEARL: It was a hall and a church- a big long thing. And on the top they had the alter and then when we had the concert they would push all that away and we’d have a stage.
JEANETTE: So it was a church that was used as a hall?
PEARL: And there was a well in the basement. And they would pray over it. And that was the first time I was ever in a confession. So here was Bunny Ames, Mary. I’d say now, “You go in and I’ll take your confession”. If we ever had got caught!! And I’d never seen one before.
JEANETTE: So did she confess to you?
PEARL: Oh, I won’t tell you what she told me. (Laughter)
JEANETTE: Was it true or was it just made up?
PEARL: Made up. It was just a riot.
Other People who worked there
JEANETTE: Do you remember any other people who worked there.
PEARL: Well there was Wesley MacDonald from Gabarus. He worked there. Angus MacDonald and Donald MacDonald worked there.
JEANETTE: Were Angus and Donald brothers?
PEARL: Yes.
JEANETTE: Who was Anne’s father?
PEARL: Angus.
JEANETTE: Ramsey (MacLeod) and Charlie (MacLeod) worked there.
PEARL: Oh yes, and Norman D (MacLeod).
JEANETTE: What did they do?
PEARL: Surface work.
JEANETTE: (talking about persons working in the assay office) Dolena MacLeod.
PEARL: She married a Tremblay
JEANETTE: Where was he from?
PEARL: Quebec.
JEANETTE: So, did she meet him at the mine?
PEARL: Yes
JEANETTE: Did you know how she met him?
PEARL: I guess from just working there.
PEARL: She, Dolena, was Kenny Williams daughter who used to live over North Framboise just before John Alex’s (MacAskill). There was a house there.
JEANETTE: Kenny Williams.
PEARL: Yes
JEANETTE: Who was the lady that married the man from Sydney, Claude Byron?
PEARL: Was her name Florence? That was Dolena’s sister. I think she was the oldest.
JEANETTE: And Claude Byron and Florence. Donald Morrison told me they met when he was working at the mine (driving a truck).
JEANETTE: Do you remember the Parkers?
PEARL: Parker, he worked in the mine. He had two sons and a daughter. Shirley Parker was her name. Then I think they moved to Fourchu.
JEANETTE: Were they in Annie and Neil MacIntosh’s house?
PEARL: I don’t know. There was a Neil MacIntosh, His father (Allister) worked at the mine (when it ran in the 30's). They boarded or rented at the MacIntosh’s – Allister and his mother and father and his brother Angus. He (Allister) was only four at the time. That’s the road going up the hill to the right coming up MacDermid’s hill there.
JEANETTE: In the 30’s. Right, well we used to call that Parker’s.
PEARL: I guess the family after that was Parkers.
JEANETTE: Do you remember Calvin Hastings. I guess he was a real funny guy.
PEARL: Oh yes. He had a Yolkswagon Beetle. Oh, he was funny. He was an old fellow. He was a riot. And he drove this – it was almost a white color. He’d go like a bat out of hell. Laughter
The Recreation Centre
JEANETTE: Was there a recreation center (on the mine property)?
PEARL: Well dear, they had a baseball field. You’d go through the mine. Right on top of the hill. They had picnics there. Some would come in and play, the miners.
JEANETTE: Was there a hall up there?
PEARL: Oh yes, and they’d have dances. It was so weird. You’d have to go like this (fishy tail) to go around the mine, not right through it.
JEANETTE: I suppose they’d have to go around the glory hole. I gather it would be up the hill and maybe a little to the left.
JEANETTE: Bessie told me that when Mamie (Morrison) and Johnny) (MacMaster) got married, that’s where the dance was.
JEANETTE: They must have had a lot of stuff going on.
PEARL: Oh you want to believe it.
People who died working at the mine
JEANETTE: So you told me about Howard (Burns), who died at the mine. Did you hear how that happened?
PEARL: I think he got hooked in the belt.
JEANETTE: In the mill where they grind up the ore?
PEARL: He got stuck. They got him out, but he had died. They (Danny and Adelaide) never ever got over it.
JEANETTE: Did his father, Dan Alex Burns work at the mine too?
PEARL: Yes
JEANETTE: Was he working that night?
PEARL: I don’t know.
JEANETTE: There was another fellow who died there from Quebec, a Bedard fellow. Do you remember anything about him?
PEARL: No
Telephones, Telegraphs & Power
JEANETTE: Do you remember when we got the telephones?
PEARL: I remember when the power came through. That was in 49.
JEANETTE: Bessie told me when she first started working there (at the mine) they just had one of the first (old) bunkhouses as a working station and they had no power (lines).
PEARL: The mine probably got it going (the power).
JEANETTE: Did you know they had a telegraph office at the mine?
PEARL: No, but I know that Jean Taylor had a telegraph office (in her house).
JEANETTE: Yes, and then they ended taking her and the telegraph down to the mine until they closed. She was in the office with Bessie and Dolena (As per Dolena MacLeod MacLean’s interview)
JEANETTE: Did you remember who the Gate Keepers were?
PEARL: Enos Sampson was one. There was a James MacDonald.
JEANETTE: The land around the lake, do you know if Dan Alex leased it?
PEARL: No, I don’t know.
The Mine Houses
PEARL: It was a beautiful house (the manager's house). It was at the beginning of the road going up back of John G’s (on the right side of the mine road).
Jeanette: This is the house at the Meadow's Road?
PEARL: Yes a way up (from the road).
JEANETTE: Margaret Norman Alex’s house. The first one came from the mine, but it burnt and the second one came from the mine (as well). (Editor's Note: See Angus A. MacLeod’s interview).
PEARL: I think the last one was one of the bunkhouses. It was long. They fixed inside. Angus (and Lily’s) house that was a mine house. Then he built (a story) up on it.
JEANETTE: Did he build out, too?
PEARL: Yes
PEARL: Then Boston Danny bought one of the houses and moved it down to where Gordon (MacDonald) owns it today.
JEANETTE: Oh Kenny Dan’s, OK.
PEARL: That’s who bought that.
JEANETTE: and Dan Norman had one.
PEARL: Dan Norman that’s right.
JEANETTE: Who owned that land before Dan Norman moved there.
PEARL: She was a teacher Isabel. She had two kids. Donnie and Sandra. That’s who was there first.
The Movie Theatre
JEANETTE: Did you ever go to the movie theatre?
PEARL: Oh yes
JEANETTE: Would they just have it on Fri and Sat night?
PEARL: Oh, they’d have it through the week.
PEARL: I think it might be two nights a week.
PEARL: There was this Bunny (Mary) Ames and the Chan fellow, and we went to school and the teacher said if you don’t make 75% there’s no skating, and no movies. Laughter
PEARL: There was a movie coming up and it was named “A man called Peter”. I never forgot it. So, Mark Twain, I think it was Mark. His father ran the movie theatre. So, he said we’ll all go. We’ll go upstairs. There was a canvas upstairs (they would hide under it).
JEANETTE: I take it you didn’t make the 75%
PEARL: No. Laughter
PEARL: I’ll never forget it as long as I live. I was kind of shaken because I didn’t want to get hell from the teacher. He was a good teacher but he was strict- that Kenny Morrison.
JEANETTE: Was that Kenny Morrison from Loch Lomond?
PEARL: Yes
PEARL: In the theatre after the first hour on the big roll, they would have to reroll it, for the movie you know. It was a big film.
JEANETTE: Half- way through the movie, you mean?
PEARL: (After) about an hour and they’d have to stop because they would have to put another one (reel) on to finish it. I remember this day, I skinned my knee.
JEANETTE: So you did it more than once obviously?
PEARL: Yes, (and this day) didn’t he (Kenny) stick his head up and said, “did you see any school students in here” and the fellow (who ran the projector) said “no” and there we were under the canvas.
PEARL: His father (Twain) was the one that ran the theatre.
JEANETTE: Did he work for the mine?
PEARL: Oh, yes
JEANETTE: Did they have anything else going on in there (the theatre) during the day? Did they have anyone sleeping in it, sort of like a bunkhouse?
PEARL: No, there were chairs all through it and the big screen was right there.
JEANETTE: Do you remember any other movies that were there.
PEARL: I remember that one (because of the episode with the teacher)!!
JEANETTE: Do you remember who starred in it?
PEARL: No
JEANETTE: Would you say that was around 54?
PEARL: I’d say.
JEANETTE: And the movies: Were they current or were they old movies?
PEARL: Oh no. They weren’t that old.
PEARL: This movie came out and it always stuck in my head, “a man called Peter”. (Editor's note – “A Man Named Peter” was released in 1955.)
Editor's note: Pearl was telling me about skating on the lake. They weren’t supposed to be skating unless their marks were 75 %. The miners would play against the school children. The school children usually won. They would put a hole in the ice to get water (to flood the ice). They wouldn’t get too close to the pumphouse as it would be drawing the water out of the lake up into the mine. I asked about the dam and she remembered that (close to the pumphouse). She didn’t know why it was there.