QHN Winter 2019.MF:Layout 1 - QAHN

HeritageQuebec

NewsVOL 13, NO. 1 WINTER 2019

QAHN HERITAGE PHOTO AND ESSAY CONTESTS

$10

Contested Ground

Lost by a HareChasing the Eastern Townships’ Elusive Witch

Controversial Archeology in Gatineau and Montreal

Letters From Miss Edgar’sMarie Mack Writes Home during WWI

Editor’s desk

Building on Ghosts

Hindsight

The Memory of That Place

QAHN News

Heritage in Brief

Kenogami Cemetery

Donors and Dreamers

The Culture of Gratitude: Donor Stewardship

Digs at Gatineau

Traces of Charity

St. Bridget’s Refuge

Beresford Township, St. Agathe

The Witch of New Mexico Road

Irish Folklore in the Eastern Townships

Letters from 507 Guy Street

2018 QAHN Heritage Photo Contest Winners

2018 QAHN Heritage Essay Contest Winners

Review

Life at the Mill: Through the Mill by Gail Cuthbert Brandt

CONTENTS

Cover: “Indians Paying Homage to Spirit of the Chaudière,”c.1933, by Charles William Jefferys (1869-1951). Watercolour over pencil. Library and Archives Canada.

3

Rod MacLeod

5

Dorothy Williams

6

Matthew Farfan

8

Margaret Mitchell Bernard

9

Heather Darch

10

Roger Fleury (with the collaboration of Wes Darou)

13

Sandra Stock

18

Joseph Graham

19

Grant Myers

22

Ginette Guy

25

28

30

Sandra Stock

EDITORRODERICK MACLEOD

PRODUCTIONDAN PINESE; MATTHEW FARFAN

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HEATHER DARCH

RODERICK MACLEOD

CHRISTINA ADAMKO

BOOKKEEPERMARION GREENLAY

Quebec Heritage News is published quarterly by QAHN with the support

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2

QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Baffling billboards. Photo: Rod MacLeod.3

WINTER 2019

Building on Ghosts EDITOR’S DESK

by Rod MacLeod

One thing I’ve learned fromHollywood movies is thatyou should never, ever buildover a graveyard. They don’t

like it, you see, those people buried be-low. Sometimes they come up and donasty things to the people foolishenough to live in whatever is built on thegraveyard – I mean really nasty, likeyanking little blonde girls through thetelevision or making T-bone steaks crawlby themselves across the kitchen count-er. In any case, it’s just not worth therisk.

The custodians of Montreal’s oldProtestant andCatholic cemeter-ies did not havethe benefit of suchgraphic imagery inthe 1860s, yet theywere sensitive topopular feelingabout buildingover cemeteries,although in a moment of insani-ty the Fabrique ofNotre-Dame didget architect HenriMaurice Perraultto design a planfor the subdivisionof the St. Antoineburial ground intobuilding lots, butsoon came to their senses. (No onewants to live over a cemetery, the formerhead of the Cartothèque at the ArchivesNationales told me many years agowhen showing me this plan, a “duh!”clearly implied.) Instead, they turned thespace into a park, to be known as Dominion Square since Confederationwas in the works. Monuments have beenbuilt on this ground, along with benchesand a Vespasian, but nothing you wouldreally live in. That is possibly why therearen’t many ghost stories connected withthe square (now “Place du Canada”) despite the reputedly 40,000 bodies still

lying just under the surface. The Protes-tant Burying Ground further east was al-so developed as a park (DufferinSquare), even though almost all the bod-ies were removed before hand – thougha few were discovered when they builtComplexe Guy Favreau in the 1970s anda few more found under the street duringrecent repairs to René Levesque Boule-vard. I must confess that, in all the happy hours I have spent in the GuyFavreau building, I never saw a ghost –although the Department of CanadianHeritage has recently moved from therefor reasons that may, or may not, have to

do with increased sightings of crawlingsteaks.

It is possible that the presence orabsence of bodies makes a difference ifone is contemplating building over acemetery. Yet we are also sensitive to theidea of living where people died, or evenwhere they experienced pain; certainlymany ghost stories involve revenantswho haunt such places. Now, from abuilding developer’s point of view, itmay be impractical to take every bit of asite’s history into consideration; thereare surely few urban spaces that havenot witnessed some sort of trauma over

the years. But there are certain sites thatjust seem to call out for sensitive treat-ment. Hospitals and jails may well beappropriate candidates for redevelop-ment as housing or offices, but surely itshould be done with reverence.

I wrote a couple of years ago of theimportance of respecting the site of theMontreal Children’s Hospital (“Remem-bering an old children,” QHN Summer2015), arguing that a place of such in-trinsic sadness (and, yes, joy – but that’sthe other side of the same coin) shouldbe preserved regardless of architecturalmerit because there is something sacred

about it. Or at thevery least, that itsspirit should bepreserved and re-spected. Over thelast few months Ihave been moni-toring the steadydemolition of theold Children’swith a heavyheart. First of all,it’s bloody sad.Waiting for a buson the other sideof Tupper Street,I’ve watched thecranes clawdoggedly throughthe soft brownbrick of the

Children’s, the gaping void spreadingfrom the former Emergency entrance onmy left all the way to Atwater Avenueon my right – and, of course, extendingseveral fathoms down into the earth.There is now nothing left of the hospitalbut the original annex from 1912, supposedly slated for preservation inwhatever new structure emerges.

Yeah, maybe. The odds of anythingof the old Children’s surviving are slim– and even if the annex doesn’t succumbto developmental greed, the spirit will begone. People have been pointing out theneed for community facilities in this


4 Top: Baffling billboards. Photo: Rod MacLeod. Middle: Architect’s Rendition. Photo:Squarechildrens.ca. Bottom: The view from Tupper Street. Photo: Elena Cerrolaza.

socially problematic neighbourhood: affordable housing would be ideal, or acommunity centre, or even a drop-incentre. Hey, maybe a school. But the ar-chitects’ renditions show three or foursleek glass skyscrapers, obviously in-tended for high-end condos. All verynice in their slick way, but just not appropriate.

What’s worse is the sales pitch. Imight have preferred total ignorance,marketing the condos using a nice-sounding if meaningless name – likeVictoria on the Park, an actual condo de-velopment that advertises widely andconfidently despite being neither on Victoria Square nor on a Park. But themarketers of the Children’s site haveopted to exploit its former name, albeitby throwing logic, and reverence, enthusiastically to the wind.

This project is officially called“Square Children’s” – meaning that’s itsname in French. I made fun before of theformer hospital for calling itself “LeChildren,” but this goes one worse, in-volving two English words that make nosense in English. Where to begin? Topoint out that most children are notsquare (in either in geometrical or the1950s hipster sense) would be pedantic.To say that four glass towers cannot be asquare (unlike Cabot Square, a realspace, which would lie in front of thecondo like a cathedral parvis) wouldprobably be wasting breath, since thesedays words mean just what marketerschoose them to mean. And don’t get mestarted on that apostrophe! Idiocynotwithstanding, the name Square Chil-dren’s might have worked well if ap-plied to a school or community centre,suggesting that young people would bewelcome. Applied to condos the term isinappropriate at best; at worst, it is men-acing and downright creepy.

This fact entirely escaped the mar-keters, however. For much of the sum-mer the site (eventually, the gaping hole)was surrounded by a series of brightly-coloured billboards featuring stylized(but clearly adult) figures sveltely ca-vorting about rooftop pools and side-walk cafés, framed by references to“Square Children’s” or “squarechil-drens.ca.” Each billboard was of a dif-ferent colour, and that colour was re-flected in the panel’s bizarre slogans.Each slogan seemingly referred to some

idyllic situation one might experienceliving there: “le rouge profond d’un Bor-deaux en 5 à 7” (a deep red Bordeauxduring happy hour) or “le noir d’un tat-too plein de souvenirs” (a black tattoofilled with memories). I was a bit dis-turbed by the “s’illuminer devant lesjoues roses de sa petite-fille” (light up atthe sight of your little girl’s pinkcheeks), which seemed to be an oddlycontrived reference to a child, in igno-rance of the thousands of hospitalizedchildren whose cheeks were likely notall that rosy – or far too rosy to behealthy. More disturbing was the sloganthat appeared to explain the theme: “re-donnons des couleurs à notre quartier”(let’s bring colours back to our neigh-bourhood). Oh, I see: having a children’shospital around kind of sucked the lifeout of the neighbourhood, and it’s nowup to the yuppies to rejuvenate the place.Divorced of context, these images andslogans are just corny; given the sacrednature of this space they are offensive.

I hope this project manages to in-clude as many community service com-ponents as the community advocates

were originally calling for. I don’t thinkit is too late to incorporate some low-cost housing into the plans or even aservice centre at ground level. But sim-ply throwing around the word “children”in the marketing campaign to score lamehistorical points is just wrong. Buildingover other people’s sadness should bedone with extreme reverence.

Or it could come back to haunt you.

Conrad Poirier, Negro Community Centre. Photo: BAnQ, 06M, P48,S1,P17797.5

WINTER 2019

by Dorothy WilliamsTHE MEMORY OF THAT PLACE

HINDSIGHT

The memory of that place.The smell of that place.The sounds of that place.When I think of the Negro Commu-

nity Centre I think of a building, I thinkof the concept, of an idea that took shapein a financially, economically impover-ished community. Yet the building thatwe call the NCC stood tall and firmthrough my entire life until my latetwenties. This old community building,with its three layers of grey stone andplaster, was filled with “community” formany, many decades even before theNCC inhabited it.

Built as a church in the wan-ing years of the nineteenth centu-ry, it served its religious functionuntil the 1920s, when it gave wayto local community needs. TheIverley Settlement Houseclaimed it for several decades,where the voices of the neigh-bourhood’s poor English-speak-ing Catholic community bouncedoff its walls. Then, in the mid-fifties, when the NCC joinedforces with the Iverley SettlementHouse, the building began toshake to different rhythms as theBlack community made it home.And, once again, for severaldecades, the building stood as abeacon for one of Montreal’s underserved, underrepresent-ed communities.

Yet, the reality is for many of thepeople, the Black people in Montrealand Quebec, the NCC is surely that – amemory.

I didn’t know it then but as a young-ster I was part of that first generationthat climbed the stairs on Saturday to getready for my ballet class. My parentshad not played in that building the waymy friends and my siblings did. The tapdance classes later in the day followedby the piano lessons downstairs roundedout my weekend education in that build-ing. And the lessons there continued.During the after-school, here was the

place I learned how to cook, right in thedownstairs kitchen. That same kitchen,managed by a host of volunteers, fed usday after day every lunch hour rain,shine or snowstorm.

The boys in my class spent hours inwoodworking and carpentry, mentoredby able-bodied, thoughtful men on thethird floor. I am reminded too, of the topfloor where athletically minded youthplayed their hearts out while represent-ing the NCC in basketball and otherteam competitions. There was always astrong cheerleading group in the upper

bleachers, when visiting teams fromacross the city or from another provinceor even from the US came to rival ourdominance.

And yes, its walls heard too ourloud debates as teens are wont to arguetheir ideas with radical fervor, or, asadults, challenged the current mayor, alocal councillor or school board officialto consider the specific needs of theirBlack constituents.

There were times the building wasthe rallying point of a city-wide demon-stration of anger, of social injustice andthe oft-time lethal outcome of racial pro-filing. “Come to the NCC!!” on a poster,or on a flyer, signaled that the NCC wasurgently calling a community to arms. It

meant: Let’s take a stand HERE!Those special moments too always

reminded me that NCC meant solidarity.Here, we rallied for the African Libera-tion marches. Its rooms welcomed anti-apartheid networks and the red andblack posters encouraged pan-Africansolidarity. On its walls, I caughtglimpses of my roots. It was at the NCCwhere I first heard about Haile Selassieand every day I passed by the Budweiserposters of African Queens and Kings. Iam sure it was there, not in school, that Ilearned that Egypt was in Africa…

That building, too, servedas a meeting place for the Con-gress of Black Women and formany other nationally-focusedgatherings. Through the NCC,the entirety of Montreal’s Blackcommunity sat at national tablesas local delegates car-pooled orhopped the train to attend thenext National meeting convenedin Ottawa or Toronto. In a worldwithout Facebook, Skype orMeet-up, the NCC and its affili-ate groups could not miss thejourney. Our presence signalledto the rest of the country thatthe Black community of Mon-treal mattered too.

Thank you, NCC.

Dorothy Williams is the author ofBlacks in Montreal: 1628-1986 An Ur-ban Demography and The Road to Now:A History of Blacks in Montreal. She is the founder of Blacbiblio.com Inc.,which has produced an educational kitfor teaching Black history, ABC’s ofCanadian Black History. She is also adirector of the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network.


Scenes from the 2nd annual Eastern Townships Heritage Fair, Melbourne. Photos: Renee Arshinoff, Matthew Farfan and Ro Ghandhi.6

QAHN Newsby Matthew Farfan

2nd Annual Eastern Townships Heritage Fair, Melbourne

QAHN's 2nd Annual Eastern Townships Heritage Fair took placeon Saturday, October 20, at the historic Melbourne TownshipHall overlooking the St. Francis River. What an appropriate set-ting, given the theme of this year's event, "Nature's Waterwaysand the Web of History," with an accent on the St. Francis Riverwatershed, which covers a vast portion of the Townships, andwhich had such a profound impact on the region's development.

This year's fair featured displays by over a dozen heritage organi-zations, including Copp's Ferry Museum, the Georgeville Histori-cal Society, the Eastern Townships Resource Centre, UplandsCultural and Heritage Centre, the Lennoxville-Ascott Historicaland Museum Society, the Brome County Museum, the Colby-Curtis Museum, the Missisquoi Museum, Townshippers' Associa-tion, Townshippers' Foundation, the Sherbrooke Snowshoe Club,QAHN, and Richmond County Museum, which provided logisti-cal support (and an open house at the nearby museum) through-out the day.

A new traveling exhibition was launched at the fair. "Waterways

of the St. Francis," as it is called, features a series of thematicbanners on the heritage of the St. Francis River and its tributaries.Researched by QAHN's own Dwane Wilkin, with graphic designby Sherbrooke's Museum of Nature and Science, it is now avail-able to museums that wish to borrow it.

Several speakers gave conferences during the fair on subjects re-lated to the St. Francis. These included Dwane Wilkin (the fate ofthe once-thriving local ocean-going salmon population); JulieGrenier of the Conseil de gouvernance de l'eau des bassins ver-sants de la rivière Saint-François (watershed conservation); andJohn Husk of the City of Drummondville (waterway restoration).

A special guest this year was the Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau,Member of Parliament for Compton-Stanstead and Minister ofInternational Development, who was on hand to announce$248,500 in funding from Canadian Heritage for two majorQAHN initiatives: "Diversity and Achievement in AnglophoneQuebec" and "Heritage, Culture and Communication: BalancingTraditional and Digital Media in a Changing World." These proj-ects, the minister announced, will take place over two fiscalyears.

WINTER 2019

7Left: Quebec Heritage News launch event at Concordia. Photos: M. Farfan (top left) and courtesy (bottom left).

Launch Event, Quebec Heritage News, Fall 2018 Edition,

Concordia University

The official launch of the Fall 2018 edition of Quebec HeritageNews took place on November 6, in connection with the AnnualGeneral Meeting of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Story-telling at Concordia University. This issue of the magazine wasproduced in collaboration with history students at Concordia, andfeatured contributions by 19 students as well as by Prof. StevenHigh who is a co-director of the Centre for Oral History and Dig-ital Storytelling (COHDS).

High praised the Cen-tre's partnership withQAHN and called thelaunch a wonderfulevent, sentimentsechoed by many of the students who participated, includingTanya Steinberg whowrote that she was "so proud" of "theamazing work" thatwent into the publica-tion, "as we all are atCOHDS."

2019 Heritage Talks Lecture Series

QAHN's 2nd annual Heritage Talks lecture series will get underway in early 2019. Overseen by project director ChristinaAdamko, this new series will include a range of fascinating talksat historic and cultural venues around Montreal and in the regions. Check out QAHN.org for programming details in thecoming weeks.

6th Annual Montreal Wine & Cheese, Atwater Library:

Mark Your Calendars!

QAHN's ever-popular annual Montreal wine and cheese will takeplace at the historic Atwater Library in Westmount, on Thursday,April 25, 2019, from 5 to 7 p.m. This event, which has become atradition on Montreal's heritage calendar, is an excellent occasionfor heritage enthusiasts, both English- and French-speaking, fromall across the Island of Montreal, to meet and mingle in an infor-mal setting. Check QAHN.org for more details in the weeks tocome. And by all means, mark your calendars!

Right: Atwater Library. Photo: courtesy.


8Photo: www.tracesofwar.com.

Heritage in BriefKenogami Cemetery

by Margaret Mitchell Bernard

Another year has rolled around andmore work has been completed on theKenogami Cemetery.

Some really interesting things hap-pened over the summer months. One daywhile Roger Morel was working in thecemetery, a man by the name of DerekBunn arrived with some very sophisti-cated camera equipment. He was look-ing for the grave of a New Zealand pilotthat had been killed during training exer-cises over Lake St. John during WorldWar II. Mr. Bunn belonged to the New

Zealand War Graves Project and wastraveling the world locating and takingpictures of the fallen New Zealanders ofWorld War II. He was even able to lo-cate the stone he was looking for exactlyby a GPS device that was attached to hiscamera. Later, Mr. Morel sent me ahandout that he was given by this indi-vidual. I will keep in touch with this per-son as he tries to locate any living descendants of the New Zealand pilot.

This is only one example of the ex-traordinary things that have happenedduring the summer as the cemetery con-tinues to attract visitors from many different walks of life.

WINTER 2019

9Photo: Matthew Farfan.

by Heather Darch

THE CULTURE OF GRATITUDE

DONORS & DREAMERS

Donor Stewardship

This is the fourth in a series of articles by Heather Darch addressing the perennial question of fundraising. It was inspiredby her work on the QAHN project, DREAM.

Iused to receive thank-youletters from the charitiesand non-profit organiza-tions I support that had

that “production line” look tothem. They said all the rightthings but they were prettygeneric with formal greetingsand pre-printed signatures. Itwas easy to walk away fromsome of them; some I only gaveto once. There was somethingabout those letters that left me alittle cold.

Even though the notion ofthanking those who donate foryour organization may seemobvious, not doing so, or notdoing it effectively, is a bigmistake. Even if you think you are thanking your donors suffi-ciently, it’s a good idea to consider the thanks from their per-spective. As Juniper Belshaw of the Centre for Community Or-ganizations says, “at the heart of all fundraising, is donor stew-ardship and the progressive building of relationships.”

Engaging a donor is important, but keeping a donor is vital.Stewardship is an integral component of success. At the QAHNDREAM conference in Morin Heights, we heard Juniper say:“What your organization does to retain your donors and how itworks toward building a long-term relationship with thosedonors, speaks to the process and methodology of stewardship.”

Having accountability and due diligence in the care of yourdonors goes a long way. Part of the stewardship process in-cludes administration procedures – meaning you have to be ableto receive money in a professional manner. Donors will bewatching for accountability and how donations are raised, in-vested and spent. Stewardship extends in two directions: back tothe care of the current donors, and forward to those who areconsidering your non-profit for their next gift.

There are great tools for tracking and thanking your donorsin downloadable applications from many companies on the weband for varying fees. For those of us on tight budgets, though, asimple Excel spread sheet can help us keep track of who donat-ed and when, their specific interests in our organization, theirpreferences for donating (i.e. monthly or annually), why they

donate, how much they give and if they have been thanked. Youcan even keep track of personal notes and reminders.

Perfecting and personalizing your thank-you message iscrucial. The rule of thumb for thank-you letters is 10 days,

hand-written and personalized.The message should be simplebut clearly express gratitude andrecognize the impact of the dona-tion. Explaining how their giftwill be used to move your mis-sion forward is an element not tobe glossed over in the letter.Don’t include their donation his-tory in a thank-you letter or askfor more money; that’s a separateletter. Thank-you letters are justthat – to say thank you.

You may have noticed in thepast few years a change in thank-you letters from charities. Formalsalutations are crossed off andfirst names are written in pen.One of my non-profits always has

a small personalized note to me written by the executive direc-tor next to his hand-written signature. That’s commitment. I rec-ognize his effort and the organization’s appreciation of my con-tribution. I keep donating. We have developed a culture of grati-tude.

Our donors should be part of a recognition program orstrategy. If you don’t have a stewardship plan, make one. Itshould outline specifically what you will do to acknowledge allof your donors. According to Juniper Belshaw, “recurringdonors, or those who donate on a monthly basis for example, al-so require acknowledgement beyond the end-of-year thank-youletter and tax receipt.” Consider a mid-year phone call to thankthem or a special recognition of monthly donors in your com-munications. Major gift donors to your organization should berecognized with certificates, wall plaques or forms of publicrecognition – with their permission, of course. An overall recog-nition program, using press releases, websites, social media orother organizational materials, should be adopted to reflect yourdonors’ generous support.

Good stewardship means that donors have a sense of be-longing and an attachment to what you do and why you do it.Through proactive ongoing recognition and by organized ac-tions to help us keep track of our donors, we can all build betterfundraising results for our organizations.

Good stewardship means that donors have a sense of belonging and an at-tachment to what you do and why you do it.

The site with bulldozer, 2014. Photo: Roger Fleury.10


by Roger Fleury(with the collaboration of Wes Darou)

DIGS AT GATINEAU

In the spring of 2014, the City ofGatineau began redevelopmentwork on Jacques-Cartier Street,work budgeted at $43 million, in-

cluding $16 million from the NationalCapital Commission. While buryingsome hydro lines, city workers came up-on First Nations artefacts. The city hireda private archeology company,Archéotec, to conduct excavations thatwere to last three weeks. The ar-chaeological digs, designatedBiFw-172, began at the corner ofJacques Cartier and Saint-AntoineStreets. Archaeologists eventuallydiscovered 110,000 objects, in-cluding arrowheads, axes and acopper spear. The City of Gatineaufirst declared that these objectswere insignificant and withoutspiritual value or even of great im-portance. This perspective wouldchange dramatically over the nextthree years.

The discoveryIn early May 2014, John Savage, a

Métis living on Jacques Cartier Street,asked me in my capacity as Chief forhelp in protecting our ancestral boatingrights, specifically regarding his littlewharf that accessed the Ottawa River.But local city councillor MyriamNadeau and Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin insisted on the destruction of thissmall Métis wharf.

On June 3, 2014, we organized apress conference on the site. JournalistDenis Gratton of Le Droit noted that itwas the first time in his life that he haddone an interview in a teepee! (Gratton,8) A key aspect of this meeting was toemphasize the importance of all peoplesworking together: the Kitigan Zipi Algo-nquins, the off-reserve Anishinaabegsand the Non-Native residents.

Pierre Plouffe from TVA asked me,“Chief Fleury, how far are you willing togo to defend your rights?” My answer:“Our rights are non-negotiable.”

In our efforts to defend our right ofaccess to the river, John Savage told methat there was an archaeological dig go-ing on near St-François-de-SalesChurch. I went to investigate and dis-covered the archaeologists at work.Right off, one of them handed me astone ax. He told me that it was about3,500 years old. Because I am a historyteacher and Anishinaabe, I was moved to

be holding in my hand something thatcame from my so-distant ancestors.

From there, a few Aboriginalfriends and I went to the City ofGatineau offices, and then to a citycouncil meeting. We explained that wewanted to be involved, and to work withthe city, the archives and the archaeolo-gists – nothing more complicated thanthat.

The situation was about to degenerate.

On July 10, John Savage informedme that the city was filling the archaeo-logical site with sand and that a bulldoz-er was stationed on site.

We hurried to the site. To preventthem from burying the artefacts, we in-stalled two teepees. We also lit a sacredfire, of great importance for the protec-tion of the site. So began a 42-day occu-pation.

The siteHistory shows that the Gatineau

River delta has long been an important

location for First Nations. It was thecrossroads of three rivers. The RideauRiver gave access to the south and whatis now known as Perth, Ontario. Rev-erend William Bell described groups ofFirst Nations people from Oka passingby on the Rideau River in 1824 (Shaw,22). The Gatineau River gave accessnorth to the Saint Maurice River and totoday’s Trois-Rivières. The Ottawa

River gave access to the east,Montreal, the Iroquois coun-tries and the Atlantic. To thewest it gave access to JamesBay and Lake Superior.

Archeology confirms thisnotion. Official maps show thatthe tiny BiFw-172 site onJacques Cartier Street is asmall fraction of a large ar-chaeological site north of theOttawa River between theMacdonald-Cartier Bridge andthe mouth of the Gatineau Riv-

er. Indeed, archaeologist Daniel Chevri-er, president of Achéotec, found that thesite is part of a “very old archaeologicalmega-site.”

The city gave a $168,753-contractfor the excavations to Archéotec. Between May and June 2014, the com-pany collected about 25,000 items.Archéotec submitted the results to thecity and received another contract onAugust 22, 2014. These new excavationscollected another 85,000 items.

At this point, Daniel Chevrier an-nounced that the site was “unique butwithout spiritual dimension.” I describethis random approach to funding as “TVdinner archeology.” What does spiritualdimension mean exactly? In our lan-guage, nouns have either an animate oran inanimate designation. A rock is a liv-ing being. If an elder does a ceremonyaround a rock, it becomes a spiritual ob-ject. It's essentially the same thing forholy water. It is nothing but tap water upto the point that it is blessed by a priest!I do not believe that professional archae-

WINTER 2019

11Top: Site, corner of Jacques Cartier and Saint-Antoine streets, Gatineau, 2014. Source: Archéotec.

ologists are able to say which objectsare, or are not, spiritual.

Among the 110,000 objects invento-ried were sacred artefacts, ceremonious-ly buried by our ancestors: arrowheads,axes, a copper spear from Lake Superior,a peduncle of a material found in the extreme south of Ontario, a fragment ofa scraper from Mistassini Lake in north-ern Quebec and an arrowhead made ofNew England rhyolite. The archaeolo-gists found fireplaces containing char-coal that allowed for carbon dating. Theobjects were found to date from 3,500 to6,000 years ago (Tulloch, 12).

It is important to note that in our

protests we never requested possessionof these artefacts. We only wanted to beassured that they would be protected andthat the excavations could continue tothe end. We requested that the city:

-Produce a video of the excavations;

- Store the artefacts in a safe place;-Hire an archaeologist according to the state of the art;-Include a First Nations observer during new searches;-Assure that First Nations will be

informed of future archaeological proj-ects.

At present, we have no indication thatany of our demands have been, or willbe, met.

The sit-inOur occupation of the site began on

August 8, 2014 with our two teepees and

sacred fire. Audrey Redman of StandingBuffalo Dakota First Nation and myselfwere the two permanent protesters,helped by about a hundred proud peoplewho came to support us.

Our sacred duty was to draw to people’s attention that a sacrilege wascommitted at the expense of many sacred artefacts unnecessarily destroyed.Thus began a four-year legal battle, bothcriminal and civil.

On September 10, in an effort toend the sit-in, the city obtained an in-junction demanding that we leave thesite, arguing in court that it was impera-tive that they finish the construction im-mediately because it could not be donein the winter. But we photographed themdoing the work all winter long.

On September 17, 2014, the city de-cided to move the case from civil tocriminal. We view this decision as an in-tentional act meant to intimidate us. I'mnot easily intimidated! If the city hadtaken the civil option, it would havebeen conducted by a bailiff and not bythe police. The city would not have hadto embarrassingly withdraw all criminalcharges a year later. Civil procedureswould have made our lives easier andsaved the public a lot of money.

Six people were arrested: RobertMarois, Alain Lafortune, Albert Bouras-sa, André Lambert (four citizens of thesector), Audrey Redman and myself. Af-ter spending one night in jail (longer inmy case), we were offered release if wecomplied with certain conditions: thatwe not disturb public order and exhibitgood behavior, that we live at our cur-rent address at all times, that we not bewithin 100 metres of the site, that we bein our residences between 10 p.m. and6:30 a.m. every night, and that we re-frain from being in the presence of otheraccused. The last two conditions weredropped on October 9, 2014, althoughfor four years the City of Gatineau Police Service, the Sureté du Québec,the RCMP and Canada Customs contin-ued to go after us, claiming that theywere unaware that these conditions hadbeen removed.

The other five who were arrestedwere released the following day, havingaccepted these conditions. I did not, andwas charged with “mischief.” I was re-leased from jail on September 22 underthe same conditions offered earlier.

Following the sit-in and the arrests,we went to court a number of times andin front of five different judges.

On April 7, 2017, the City ofGatineau Police Service announced that

Bottom: Audrey Redman at the site, September 2014. Photo: Robin Levinson-King, Postmedia.

12


Top: Google street view, October 2015. Bottom: Place Abinan. Photo: Roger Fleury.

the city's charges would not be upheldand that the case was closed.

The city had spent a fortune attack-ing the fundamental rights of citizenswho were simply doing their duty to de-fend an important part of their heritage.

This process could have cost us alot of money. A SLAPP (Strategic Law-suit Against Public Participation) is a“lawsuit aimed at hindering politicalparticipation and activism... and aimedat intimidating the defendant or exhaust-ing it financially in order to silence it.”As I said, I am not easily intimidated.However, in order not to exhaust myselffinancially, I chose to represent myselflegally.

At a court hearing on July 13, 2018,the city withdrew all charges against me.

It remains to be seen what will hap-pen to the artefacts. To my great sur-prise, in 2018 the City of Gatineauclaimed to own the artefacts. This posi-tion goes squarely against federal law C-391, the Repatriation of IndigenousCultural Property Act. The city’s claimis essentially an act of neocolonialism. Ithas shown no signs of respect for Abo-riginal history related to regional her-itage. This is shameful in the NationalCapital Region.

Governments, the city, and the National Capital Commission must stopstealing our heritage objects.

Spiritual or not, the site and theartefacts have great historical and ar-chaeological value. They deserve to beprotected, as have been the objects

found at the Pointe-à-Callières Museumin Montreal, on the HMS Erebus andHMS Terror, the L’Anse aux Meadowssite with its Viking remains, the wrecksof the Basque whalers at Red Bay,Labrador, the submerged Haida sites on

the west coast, and many others. The city could have easily moved

the installation of the pipes ten metres toa place where they would normally beinstalled. But instead, they diverted thepipes over the archaeological site. In thespirit of the Truth and ReconciliationCommission, the city has built a nice lit-tle park on the site of the excavations,named Place Abinan. According to theexplanatory panels, the name was “pro-posed by the Kitigan Zipi community,” acommunity located 150 km fromGatineau. But the park was not approvedby Band Council, and the decision tobuild was hardly made in collaborationwith the local Aboriginal community.The city seems to believe that spendinga few thousand dollars on a pretty littlepark gives it permission to destroy anancient site and bury thousands of artefacts.

It is also obvious to me that an at-tempt was made to divide First Peoples,orchestrated by the City of Gatineau.They tried to play one group against an-other by denigrating off-reserve Aborigi-nals and pitting us against Status Indians.

You can – in fact, you must – fightcity hall. Otherwise, governments willcontinue this behavior.

Chief Roger Fleury was born nearManiwaki in 1942 and raised in Chapeau, Quebec. He studied at St.Mary’s Teacher’s College, the Universityof Ottawa, and Syracuse University.Roger was a trapper and tourist guide, ahistory teacher and a provincial-levelunion representative. In 2011, he waselected Chief of the Quebec Fort Cou-longe Off-reserve Algonquins. Roger’spolitical actions, beyond protecting thearcheological site, include supportingthe rights of the intellectually challengedand disputing Ontario’s sovereignty ofCalumet and Allumette Islands.

Sources:Ron W. Shaw, Influence and Ambition: TheFirst Persons of Perth, Carleton Place, Ontario, 2016.

Matthieu Bélanger, “Un site unique sansdimension spirituelle,” in Le Droit, September 16, 2014.

David Tulloch, “Gatineau construction siteangers aboriginal groups,” in The Equity, October 8, 2014.

Anthony DaSilva-Casimiro, “Les six exi-gences des Algonquins hors-réserve Fort-Coulonge,” in La revue de Gatineau, September 10, 2014.

Denis Gratton, “Un tipi sur Jacques-Cartier,”in Le Droit, June 4, 2014.

Letter from Lt. Sylvie Courville, Service depolice de la Ville de Gatineau, to RogerFleury, April 7, 2017.

City of Gatineau, Executive Committee min-utes, June 28, 2017.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation. Con-sulted: June 21, 2018.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Neocolonial-ism. Consulted: August 15, 2017.

WINTER 2019

13St. Bridget excavations. Photo: Sandra Stock.

by Sandra Stock

TRACES OF CHARITYSt. Bridget’s Refuge

The central area of downtownMontreal, especially the partthat abuts Old Montreal, is amulti-layered heritage site al-

most in its entirety. The sector betweenSherbrooke Street to the north andNotre-Dame to the south is richin historic architecture, both do-mestic and institutional, and fea-tures several important publicand commercial sites.

However, many buildings,very important in the past, havedisappeared in this district. Thisis the natural progression of ur-ban development from the earlyindustrial growth of the first partof the nineteenth century throughto the later movement of Montre-al’s financial and shopping cen-tre from St. James Street (Saint-Jacques) up the slope to Dorchester (René Lévesque) andSt. Catherine streets. As Montreal ex-panded, what were formerly mainly resi-dential and institutional areas becamethe downtown we see today. This led tomany buildings either being repurposedor disappearing altogether.

Often the institution itself survivedbut in a different location: for example,the Father Dowd Home, St. Margaret’sHome, the Montreal General Hospital,the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogueand some other less known facilities,usually tied to religious denominationsor health care. The practical reason forthese moves was to be close to theirpopulation bases, who had moved tonewer residential areas. Many old build-ings were left behind and many were demolished.

One of these buildings was St. Brid-get’s Refuge – later called St. Bridget’sHome, and then called the first FatherDowd Home until the building wasrazed in the 1970s and most of its rem-nants disappeared under a parking lot

just below St. Patrick’s Basilica on de laGauchetière Street. St. Patrick’s Orphan-age, on the same location beside thechurch, was also demolished.

St. Bridget’s was among the firstlarge long-term care residences in Mon-

treal, initially caring for poor, ill and so-cially isolated survivors – mostlywomen – of the tragic Great Famine andensuing typhus epidemic of the 1840s inwhich 6,000 people died in Montreal. Itwas an important institution for Montreal’s Irish community in its time,when funding and support for those inneed had to come from religious denom-inations and private citizens. FatherDowd raised the funds and built both St.Bridget’s and St. Patrick’s Orphanage.

In Saint Patrick’s of Montreal: TheBiography of a Basilica (1998) by AlanHustak, Dowd is described as a “goodand decent man of superior intelligence”who travelled from Ireland to the UnitedCanadas in 1848 to minister to the Irishcommunity of Montreal. He had excel-lent promotional and fundraising abili-ties and promoted the building of St.Patrick’s on what was then a fine loca-tion up on an escarpment – called a ter-race – just outside the then limits ofMontreal. This site had what must have

been a terrific view of the harbour andriver – now totally obscured by high ris-es.

This prime real estate was the siteof a mansion built in 1819 by Pierre deRastel de Rocheblave, a wealthy former

North West Company fur mer-chant who had gone on to in-crease his fortunes by investingin railroads and real estate be-fore entering politics. Surround-ing the mansion was a large par-cel of land, on which fruit treesflourished – a very differentMontreal from today! In 1843,the Sulpicians purchased thisproperty from Rocheblave’swidow, and it became the site ofSt. Patrick’s Church. The largemansion became the first loca-tion for St. Bridget’s Home andRefuge. In 1869, St. Bridget’swas moved to a new building a

short distance away. The Rocheblavehouse was beyond repair, and was de-molished around 1900. By this time, thearea was mainly commercial.

As time went on, most of the rem-nants of both of the two St. Bridget’sbuildings and of St. Patrick’s Orphanagedisappeared under the soil of the greenspaces and parking areas around thechurch. The site’s upper sector, wherethe church sits, has become an attractiveoutdoor resting and stopping off place;the church provides picnic tables fordowntown workers and local residents.The lower green space – down quite asteep slope edging de la GauchetièreStreet – was, and is, an unofficial neigh-bourhood park with large and very oldtrees, many of them maples and elms.This is where many large pieces of theSt. Bridget’s foundations are visible. Theold cement steps leading up from de laGauchetière Street towards the site ofthe former buildings are still evident.

This past summer we became aware


14Top and Middle: St Bridget excavations. Photos: S. Stock. Bottom: St. Bridget’s

Refuge, c.1896. Photo: Notman & Sons, McCord Museum, VIEW-2969.

of the redevelopment of the southwestcorner of the St. Patrick’s property bythe Université de Montréal’s HautesÉtudes Commerciales. St. Patrick’s hassold this part of its land to finance thechurch and ensure its survival as a func-tioning urban parish. The church itself isan important heritage site and still an ac-tive institution for Montreal’s (especiallyIrish) English-speaking Roman Catholiccommunity. Although the decision tosell this land is understandable, we haveserious concerns about the fate of boththe preservation of the St. Bridget’s rem-nants and whether suitable informationon the history of the site will be promi-nently displayed. In an area with almostno green spaces – a real downtown “heatisland” in summer – local residents andthe wider Montreal community wouldlike to be assured that as many of thelarge trees as possible are preserved andas much lawn as possible continue to bepublicly available. This issue is particu-larly important to the residents of adja-cent Chinatown – a sector of great his-torical importance itself – which has re-cently received many threats from inap-propriate development suggestions ofvarious kinds.

An archeological survey of the sitecarried out by the HEC revealed manytraces of both St. Bridget’s Refuge andSt. Patrick’s Orphanage. Whether these

traces will eventually be covered by thenew building and its surrounding land-scaping is still uncertain. What the na-ture of any exterior or interior historicinformation plaques and / or actual incorporated remnants might be is alsostill uncertain.

An article in the Montreal Gazette(July 5, 2018) by Andy Riga quoted aHEC spokesperson as saying “the schoolplans to commemorate the site’s historyby outlining the location of St. Bridget’sin its new building and will use thefoundation stones to build part of ahall.” Fergus Keyes, a prominent Irishcommunity leader, responded to thisstatement by saying that “HEC shouldleave the foundations where they are anda large green space should be preserved.A green space gives you a sense of a me-morial space where you can sit and re-member the importance of the area.”

Phil Chu, who lives two blocksfrom this site and recently led local com-munity opposition to the removal of theYMCA from the Guy Favreau Centre,says that the HEC project should go forward but also wants the foundationsand most of the green space preserved.

It will be interesting to see how thisproject unfolds, especially in regard toits relations with the surrounding com-munity and to its dealings with thoseconcerned about the preservation of her-itage. Given the precipitous decline ofmost traditional religious institutions, so

WINTER 2019

15Top right: St Bridget excavations. Photo: Sandra Stock Bottom left: Henry W. Hopkins’ Atlas of the City and Island of Montreal, 1879.

many of which are sitting on extremely valuableproperties, the progress of the HEC / St. Patrick’ssituation is important in that we may see what thepriorities are for both developers and communities.

Sandra Stock, who is a director of the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network, has written exten-sively on heritage issues, with a special focus onurban archeology and Montreal’s Irish heritage.

Sources:Alan Hustak, Saint Patrick’s of Montreal: The Biography of a Basilica, Montreal, 1998.

John Kalbfleisch, “From the Archives: St. Patrick’sBasilica property once home to Rocheblave mansion,” in Montreal Gazette, May 21, 2011.

Andy Riga, “A city that forgets its history has nosoul,” in Montreal Gazette, July 5, 2018.

2019workshops series

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Stanbridge EastFriday5 April


18William Dallimore, custodian of Bedgebury, UK.

Photo: https://bedgeburypinetum.org.uk.

by Joseph Graham BERESFORD TOWNSHIP, ST. AGATHE

Beresford Township, originallysettled by peaceful French-Canadian farmers, was namedfor a British war hero, a major

general who throughout his careerfought Napoleon and never set foot inthe Canadas. Encompassing St. Agathe,it sits on a high plateau south of the St.Narcisse Moraine and includes a part ofthe headwaters of the North River.

Although the Weskarinis Algonquinleft evidence of their presence, conven-tional history in the area describes it asmost likely an unsettled territory fromthe last ice age until Augustin-NorbertMorin’s first pioneers began arriving inthe 1850s. Coupled with the lack of nav-igable rivers and the very thin layer ofsoil that remained after the passage ofthe glaciers, it has a higher elevationthan its neighbours north of the moraine,and the frost-free season is much shorterthan areas north, west and south. Thefirst settlers found an undisturbed forestrich in pine and maple and discoveredclean, clear lakes teeming with trout.They brought with them a farming cul-ture that was ill-suited to the thin soiland short seasons. However, theydoggedly perceived themselves as farm-ers and stripped the forest away, burningit and selling the residue as potash for afew cents a hundredweight until all thatwas left was the barren soil and the fish-ing season.

Since these hardy, independent peo-ple were Catholics, their own name fortheir settlement owed more to the parishand the priests than to the bureaucraticauthority that had called it Beresford,and it became known as the Paroisse deSainte-Agathe-des-Monts. Rarely wouldthey have thought of the man for whomthe township had been named, or of hislegacy, even as the fields were aban-doned and the forests began their slowreturn.

Major General William Carr ofBeresford was 84 years old when Beres-ford Township was named in his honourin 1852. He died two years later, never

having seen the ill-fated forest. The ille-gitimate son of Lord George De La PoerBeresford, First Marquess of Waterford,in Ireland, and of an unrecorded woman,William joined the British Army at 17years of age. Lord George fathered twochildren by different women prior tomarrying and fathering seven legitimatechildren. It was customary for less ad-vantaged members of titled families tobe given a commission in the army,where they were basically on their own.These commissions were not merit-based, but werepurchased bythose who couldafford them, andit is possible thatit was the Mar-quess who paidfor WilliamCarr’s commis-sion. The evi-dence for this is that William Carr’s eld-er half-brother, born in the same circum-stances, also obtained a title in his life-time after having proven himself as anofficer in the navy. Beresford firstshowed his capabilities in a battle inToulon in 1793, a battle that sawNapoleon rise from captain to general inhis victory over the British. As Napoleonrose to power, the British sought everfurther afield for the trees that wouldmaintain their navy, beginning the longprocess that would eventually contributeto the demise of the forests of BeresfordTownship.

Beresford was among those deter-mined career soldiers who, despite in-juries (he had lost an eye) and setbacks,would dog Napoleon to the end of hiscareer. He served in Nova Scotia, India,Egypt, and Cape Town, South Africa. Herose to the rank of general, capturedBuenos Aires, was forced to surrender it,escaped from prison there and returnedto England. His major military contribu-tion was during the Peninsular Waragainst Napoleon, in Spain and Portugal.He earned the title of Marquis de Campo

Maior from the King of Portugal for hisservices and was an intimate of SirArthur Wellesley, the future ViscountWellington. He is also credited with re-training the Portuguese army while inWellington’s service.

Despite Beresford’s vital contribu-tions to the defeat of Napoleon, the earlybureaucrats of the Canadas who chosehis name may have had a different rea-son to commemorate this great general,a reason that would seem to tie himmore closely to the township. Beresfordis best remembered for the work that hebegan during his retirement. On hisproperty called Bedgebury in Goudhurst,Kent, England, he began a conservatoryof pine tree species that has grown intothe largest coniferous preserve in theworld with “over 10,000 tree specimensgrowing in 320 acres, including rare,historically important and endangeredtrees and is home to some 91 vulnerableor critically endangered species….”(from The Friends of Bedgebury Pine-tum web site).

Our ancient woodlands were lostduring 150 years of peaceful history, butwe can celebrate the legacy of GeneralBeresford while witnessing the occa-sional crown of a white pine breakingthrough the canopy of our young sec-ond-growth forest. Had our earliestfarmers known him, perhaps they couldhave set aside a small portion of our vir-gin pine forest in his honour. Perhaps wecan still do something. The residents ofLac Brûlé in St. Agathe have been pro-tecting their forest for over 100 years,and the white pines are now standinghead-and-shoulders over the forestcanopy.

Joseph Graham, author of Naming theLaurentians, is writing a book that re-ex-amines much of our early history, the elements that drove European society,and the extraordinary damage theseideas inflicted on North America.

WINTER 2019

19Johannes Gehrts, “Ostara.” Felix Dahn et al, Walhall:

Germanische Götter-und Heldensagen, 1901.

by Grant Myers

THE WITCH OF NEW MEXICO ROADIrish Folklore in the Eastern Townships

The graveyard was a quiet andforlorn place. As I enteredthrough a rusty gate, a coldwind blew in from the empty

field to the west, robbing the earlyspring sun of what little warmth it had tooffer. The patches of snow that remainedon the ground somehow emphasized thedecay of time and neglect and suggestedthat those buried in the old cemeterywere forgotten, or would soon be for-gotten, in the memories of the living.

This had to be the right place.The Eastern Townships are

haunted by old tales and legends oftimes past that lurk incomplete or on-ly half-remembered in the collectiveimaginations of families that havelived here for generations. Stories toldby parents, grandparents, aunts or un-cles compete for attention with thecomplex trappings of contemporarylife, and more often than not they arelost to memory. But sometimes, if on-ly by chance, an old tale is recordedor written down and survives in apublished book or manuscript, taunt-ing us by its paucity of detail to unwrap the riddles of its narrative.Such is the legend of Peggy Green,the witch of New Mexico Road.

I first read the story of PeggyGreen in John Robert Colombo’sGhost Stories of Canada (DundurnPress, 2000). According to Colombo,sometime during the 1880s, farmersliving in the vicinity of “the Old Mex-ico Road” just a couple of miles eastof Island Brook, Quebec, were dismayed to discover that their cowswere no longer giving milk. Suspectingthat someone or something was stealingthe milk, a few of the farmers set a trapand, during the night, caught a largewhite hare suckling on their cows. Ap-parently suspecting that supernaturalforces were at play, the farmers releasedthe animal, but not before notching itsears. A short time later, an old womannamed Peggy Green died and it was ob-served at her funeral that her ears were

notched in the same way as the capturedhare. This confirmed suspicions that allwas not as it seemed. Following thedeath and burial of the old woman, thefarmers expected that their cows wouldstart producing. However, this was notthe case. Only after they returned to thecemetery and walled in Peggy Green’sgrave did things return to normal and the

cows again begin to yield milk. The legend rattled around in my

head for a good five years before I tookthe first tentative steps toward furtherexploration. After some deliberation, Idecided that a good place to start wouldbe to find Peggy Green’s final restingplace. Colombo had reported that thegrave could still be seen. To find it Iwould have to locate Old Mexico Roadand the cemetery referenced in the story.The problem was that I could not find a

geographical reference to Old MexicoRoad anywhere in the Eastern Townships.

I turned for help to Stanstead histo-rian Matthew Farfan. Matthew had recently undertaken an assessment of “atrisk” cemeteries in the Eastern Town-ships for QAHN and informed me thatthe graveyard I was searching for was

most likely the Thompson Ceme-tery. It was located just outside Island Brook on “New” (not “Old”)Mexico Road.

The hamlet of New Mexico,Quebec, is today little more than aquiet corner at the intersection oftwo country roads. In the 1880s, itwas a busy agricultural settlementmade up of mostly Irish and French-Canadian Catholics. NewMexico is still listed and recognizedby the Quebec Toponomy Commis-sion. According to the Commission,the community’s first settlers werefrom Mexico, Maine, a farmingtown at the confluence of the Androscoggin and Swift rivers atthe western end of the state. Theycame to Quebec to take advantageof cheap land and abundant forests,and it seems they brought the nameof their community with them.

The Thompson Cemetery wasthe Catholic burying ground for theNew Mexico settlement. Thirty-three existing and legible head-stones, with dates ranging from1873 to 1994, were recorded duringa survey conducted in 2005. With-

out exception, all the recorded stonesdisplayed names of either Irish orFrench-Canadian origin. Peggy Greenwas not among them. If her grave was inthe Thompson Cemetery it was unlikelythat the headstone was extant. But it waspossible that some evidence of the walled-in burial was visible. I wouldhave to visit the cemetery and see for myself.

Perhaps the name Peggy Green it-self held clues to the mystery. The sur-


20Top: Scrub Hare. Photo: Bernard Dupont. Bottom: Legend of the White Hare. www.thefield.co.uk/country-house.

name struck me as English rather thanIrish. Had Peggy Green been an EnglishProtestant in this predominantlyCatholic New Mexico community? If so,as an outsider, had she been the target ofrumours and accusations? Throughouthistory, people accused of all manner ofmisdeeds have often been marginalizedby religion or language. It was a tempt-ing, but highly speculative, theory.

Green or Greene is a very commonEnglish surname and is associatedstrongly with Northampton in the EastMidlands. The name in Ireland, whilecertainly not as widespread as it is inEngland, is still well known. Like mostof the Irish surnames preserved on theheadstones of the Thompson Cemetery,it can be traced back to one or moreGaelic antecedents. Irish family namessuch as O'Huaithnin, McGlashan, Fahy,and Mac Grianna have been variouslyanglicized as Green or Greene.

In the matter of religion, if PeggyGreen was buried in the ThompsonCemetery she must have almost certain-ly been Catholic. Protestants would havebeen granted Catholic funerals and buri-als on only the rarest of circumstancesand then, as now, only with the approvalof the local Bishop. Then again, theremust have been cases where the necessi-ties and circumstance of life in isolatedrural communities would have precludedabsolute adherence to religious tradition.But perhaps I was looking in the wrongdirection. Maybe the key to under-standing the story of Peggy Greenwas to be found not in the pages ofhistory but in the realm of folklore.

The story of the Irish communityin Quebec is long and complex andbegan during the French colonial period. Some historians have arguedthat, in the mid-eighteenth century,the origins of as much of 5% of thepopulation of New France could betraced to Ireland. Irish immigration tothis province peaked in the first halfof the nineteenth century. Some cameduring the Great Famine of 1845 to1852, but most arrived earlier in thecentury as part of a British plan to resettle the Irish poor in their NorthAmerican colonies. According to statistics provided by the Grosse-Ileand Irish Memorial National HistoricSite, over 25% of the approximately1,940,000 immigrants that landed at

the Port of Quebec between 1829 and1867 were from Ireland. Not all stayedin Quebec, but many did.

While these newcomers shared theCatholic religion with their Francophoneneighbours, they brought with them adistinct culture and unique folkloric tradition. Legends and tales from “theold sod” were quite literally uprootedand replanted in a new land. While thesetting was different, the characters andmain elements of narrative remained the same.

The elements of the Peggy Green

legend are well rooted in the folklorictraditions of the British Isles. In thetwelfth century, Giraldus Cambrensis(Topographia Hiberniae, 1188) reportedthat in Ireland, Wales and Scotland itwas believed that certain “old hags”would steal milk by turning themselvesinto hares and suckling on the teats ofcows. He suggested that this belief wasancient.

The story of a shape-shifting hare isjust one of the ancient traditions relatedto the “milk magic” of Celtic peoples.Identified by folklorists as the “Witch asHare” motif, the tale conforms to a moreor less constant formula, with only minor variations. It has been told inprose, poetry and music for millennia: afarmer is concerned because his cowsare producing little or no milk. A largehare is caught suckling the cows, identified as the cause of the poor yield,and is maimed or injured in its attemptto escape. A short time later an old dyingwoman is observed to have the same injury as the hare and thus discovered asthe thief.

In Folk-Lore and Folk-Stories ofWales, Marie Trevelyan (1909) recountsthe following tale:

In a lonely part of South Glamorgana certain hare baffled the houndsfor many years. The animal’s headwas described as being quite greywith age, and it was stated that shehad lost all her teeth. She was seenfrequently in the early morning running among the cows in themeadows, and the farmers knewthat she was a witch because theyield of milk was always less whenshe was about. After years of chasing, both by hounds and hunts-men, she was slain. Because thepeople thought that the hare was awoman transformed into animalshape, they gave the body a ‘decentburial’; and it was asserted thatfrom the moment the hare was killedthe witch disappeared and was never again seen in the district.

The origins of these old storiesare rooted broadly in Indo-Europeanmythology. Many of the deities of an-cient Europe were reputed to haveshape-shifting powers, and supernat-ural references to a variety of ani-

WINTER 2019

21Thompson Cemetery, Compton County. Photo: Leslie Nutbrown,

www.interment.net.

mals, among them the hare, were numer-ous. The Norse goddess Freyja was saidto have employed hares as her train-bear-ers. The Anglo-Saxon fertility goddessOstara, her veneration sometimes identi-fied as a pagan precursor to the Christiancelebration of Easter, was often depictedwith hare’s ears. Cupid, the Roman godof love, was sometimes depicted in thecompany of hares.

In the first century BCE, Julius Cae-sar noted in his Commentarii de BelloGallico that the Celtic inhabitants ofBritain were forbidden, along with geeseand chickens, to eat hare. This reference,supported by iconographical and archaeo-logical evidence, has suggested to somescholars that the animal was somehow sacred or connected to religious practiceand ritual in pre-roman Britain.

With the advent of Christianity, theold gods of pagan Europe became thesubject of folklore and fairy tales: compelling, yet incomplete vestiges ofanother time. Among the rural people inparts of the British Isles and elsewhere,creatures of myth lived on as harbingersof the otherworld: a world of spirits andmagic that, although largely unseen,played an important role in defining thefortunes of the living.

The panicked fears of black magicand Satan worship that gripped most ofEurope during the Protestant Reforma-tion, leading to the witch-hunts of theearly modern era, stood in stark contrastto the world view of the Celtic peoplesliving on the rural margins of the conti-nent. As John D. Seymour points out inIrish Witchcraft and Demonology (1913),

“in Celtic Ireland dealings with the un-seen were not regarded with such abhor-rence, and indeed had the sanction of cus-tom and antiquity.” While the inhabitantsof the otherworld such as fairies, ghostsand witches were often mischievous,sometimes malevolent, and rarely danger-ous, they were nevertheless consideredpart of the natural order. It was this worldview, a thick stew of Catholic faith andpre-Christian belief, that Irish immigrantsbrought with them to the New World.

I did not find Peggy Green inThompson Cemetery on that cold earlyspring day. But I do think I unwrappedthe riddle of her legend. I believe that, farfrom being merely a character in an obscure rural folktale, Peggy Greencan be seen for what she truly is: a remnant of an oral tradition and cosmolo-gy that has spanned two continents andinnumerable centuries to become part ofthe cultural legacy of the Eastern Townships.

Grant Myers is the president of the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network. Aresident of Austin, Quebec, he holds degrees in Social Anthropology (Carleton) and Anthropological Archae-ology (UBC). Grant has had a lifelongpassion for history and material culture,and he usually knows which witch is which.

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22Mary Mack, c.1914. Photo: Douglas Cornwall.

by Ginette GuyLETTERS FROM 507 GUY STREET

While researching materialfor a biography of MaryMack, first female alder-man of Cornwall, On-

tario, I noted a series of letters she wroteto her parents from her Montreal board-ing school. Those letters provide aglimpse into her life as a board-er, and also of events happen-ing in Montreal between 1914and 1918, her time at theschool. Through the eyes of ateenager, in simple terms, andwithin the context of her ownpriorities at the time, she relatesevents that are now part of his-tory.

Mary Agnes Mack (1899-1978) was born in Cornwall, abustling industrial town in East-ern Ontario. Her grandfatherswere businessmen and politi-cians, and she could trace herancestry back to the first set-tlers in the area: Loyalists andScots. Through hard work andperseverance, the families hadbuilt a comfortable living. Asthe only child of William R. Mack and Mary IsabellaSnetsinger, Mary was firstschooled at home, with a pri-vate tutor. To complete her edu-cation, the choice was made tosend her to a private school inMontreal.

Montreal was the logical choice;Mary’s aunts had been educated in Mon-treal, and her mother had attended ButeHouse on Sherbrooke Street at the cor-ner of McGill College Avenue. Both theMacks and the Snetsingers had ties toQuebec; the Macks came from Hunting-don, and the Snetsingers had a villa inCacouna, used by the family for nearly ahundred years. Mary had cousins in Lachine and her half-brother Harold wasa medical student at McGill. The citywas easily accessible by train – the Mocassin made regular runs to and fromCornwall – but the children had to be

boarders. The family chose to send Maryto the new school known as MissEdgar’s and Miss Cramp’s, at 507 GuyStreet.

The school's founders, Maud Edgarand Mary Cramp, were progressiveteachers who strived to equip their

students with knowledge of literature,language, and fine arts, as well as sci-ence, mathematics, and ethics. MaudEdgar was the daughter of Matilda Rid-out Edgar, a historian and feminist fromthe early days of the suffragette move-ment in Canada. Based on this influence,the curriculum supported liberal arts, focusing on leadership and philanthropy.In its beginning, the school had seventystudents; fifteen were boarders.

Mary Mack spent the war years(1914-1918) at the school, and she foundthe life of a boarder, away from home,difficult at first. In letters written to both

her parents when she was between 15and 19 years old, she comes across as atypical teenager from any decade. Hermind seems to be on everything but herstudies. She comments on the food, therules, weekend plans, shopping and going out with friends. The letters high-

light the close relationship withher parents, and provide aglimpse into the world of theprivileged, and of Montreal,during this historically chargedperiod.

All her letters start with theheading “507 Guy Street, Mon-treal.”

Dear Mother,

Doris came in yesterday and be-fore lunch, and we went toChilds and had a deliciouslunch; chicken pie, French friedpotatoes, raisin pie and coffee. Itonly cost 55 cents, Doris took asalad, bran muffins and lemonpie and coffee and hers onlycost 35 cents.

After lunch I took my watch toBirks for repairs. I looked atFairweathers for coats, all theirEnglish coats run around fiftydollars, there was a perfectbeauty the same make as mine,steel grey, woolly cloth, with

black leather buttons and awfullystylish, but it was fifty dollars.

When I looked at Hendersons formy coat they had a stylish, light-weight coat in sort of a covert clothfor $32.50. It was an English coat, itwas Mandalbury make.

Love Mary

On weekends when she was not go-ing home to Cornwall, Mary typicallyspent her Saturdays out with her brotherHarold or her cousins Doris and Violet

WINTER 2019

23Bottom: Letter, Mary Mack to her mother, April 1917. Miss Edgar’s and Miss Cramp’s School Archives.

Top: School photo, c.1918, Mary Mack is second from the left on back row. Miss Edgar’s and Miss Cramp’s School Archives.

for shopping at Morgan’s, tea at theWindsor, or lunch at the Corona. Amidstthe social life of Montreal – the plays,operas, and shows – one could not com-pletely shut out the reality of the times.In 1916, the Infantile Paralysis (polio)epidemic changed the way the youngboarders lived their lives:

Dear Daddy,

You will have got Miss Edgars let-ter about the Infantile Paralysis. Weare not allowed to go to the theatres,churches, on street cars or in shopsor crowded places.

We have to gargle with Listerine orPeroxide and snuff it up our noses.We will not be allowed to go out ex-cept to some private house or driv-ing on the mountain. They say thatfresh fruit is dangerous but as myoranges were from Robertson theygave me one. None of the day girlscan attend except the over fifteenwho do not come on street cars.The little Cowans boy, Mrs. AndrewAllen’s grandson has it, and hiscousin has it also.

With love,Mary

There was a duality of realities forthe privileged students, and the schoolencouraged their charges to help when-ever they could and to participate in

political and social events of the day.Mary led a drive for leather gloves, repurposed for the war effort overseas,and she reminded her mother about twomeatless days a week and about usingbrown bread. The girls were taken to theLiberty Loan parade, and they madegifts and knitting for the less fortunate.Mary also learned about priorities versusthe family rules of her strict Anglicanupbringing:

Dear Mother,

I do not suppose you will like it, butwe have to knit socks on Sundays.That is to say that if Miss Crampsees you not knitting during read-ing, she may tell you to get yourknitting and not to be so lazy. I went

as long as I could but it was notvery pleasant thinking you may belanded on any minute. Anyway, thewar does not stop on Sundays, andyou can get nearly a whole sockknitted while during the week onegets no time for it at all hardly.

Love, Mary

Cornwall's population back in 1917was around 7,000. Mary was aware ofthe sacrifice that many had made in thewar. Receiving the Cornwall papers, shewrites to her brother, “there has beenquite a few killed, and wounded fromnear Cornwall, I hope the ones we know have come through alright.” Mrs.De Sola, the wife of the Belgian consul,asked if the girls would be godmothersto some of the Belgian soldiers and writeto those who had not heard from familysince the beginning of the war. Marythought the idea exciting and an excel-lent way to improve her French. Hercorrespondent was Emile Houssin.

On May 14, 1917, Montreal rolledout the red carpet for the visit of Mar-shal Joseph Joffre, French hero of theBattle of Marne. The excitement washigh, and Montrealers took to the streetwith French flags to see the parade.Marshal Joffre inspected the troops andopened the new library. It was a shortvisit, but Mary Mack was front and cen-tre and wrote with great excitementabout her encounter:

Dear Mother,

We did not go to church this morn-ing but we had all been invited to go


24 Charles E. Goad, Atlas of the City of Montreal and Vicinity, 1912.

and see Joffre from the balcony atthe Royal Victoria College so wehad a splendid view. He was awful-ly well guarded there were detec-tives and secret service men stand-ing facing the crowd on the foot-board of his motorcar and more po-licemen on the side of the road. Ithink they had the Dominion policedown from Ottawa. With our danc-ing display Friday night and havingthe Old Girl (alumni) back anddance last night and seeing Joffrethis morning I have had quite an ex-citing weekend.

On May 30, 1917, Mary was onceagain at the Royal Victoria College, butthis time to see Arthur Balfour, ForeignSecretary, former Prime Minister of theUnited Kingdom, and author of the Balfour Declaration in support of a na-tional home for the Jewish people. Hehad just been to a luncheon at the Wind-sor and had given a speech to a fullhouse from the Canadian Club. At theR.V.C., heads of McGill University con-ferred degrees on Mr. Balfour, Sir CecilSpring-Rice, Rear-Admiral Sir Dudleyde Chair, and General G. T. M. Bridges.The hall was packed, and Mary wrote:

Dear Mother,

You asked if we saw Balfour, I did.We were all, or nearly all of us weretaken to the Assembly Hall R.V.C.,and we saw him receive his degree.He spoke afterward, and I think hehad a very good reception.

We came out afterwards to find anaisle of soldiers, a policeman con-ducted us down and we had just gotto his carriage when he came out ofthe College, of course the crowdpressed forward, and we squashedin just beside his carriage, we gotsquashed against the horses and thepress was heavy but they were fairlyquiet and we got a good view, hepassed within five feet of me. Hehad such a nice smile. He smiled allover his face and seemed verypleased with his reception.

With love,Mary

At the time, thevisits of Joffre andBalfour were seen asan opportunity toboost support for thewar and to fight thea n t i - c o n s c r i p t i o nmovement in Quebec.Riots and civil distur-bances were commonin Montreal in 1917.The young ladies atMiss Edgar’s and MissCramp’s School wouldfeel the tensions in thecity. They were not al-lowed on St. CatherineStreet near Morgan’sbecause of the strikes,and a Scotch Battalionwas drilling on thecampus of McGill.They were there tokeep order in casethere was trouble withthe anti-conscription-ists. Because of herupbringing, Mary waspolitically “aware” at ayoung age, and herroots were loyalist and monarchist. Hergrandfathers had been an MP and anMLA, both Liberals, while other familymembers had been involved in munici-pal affairs. Even as a teenager, Mary hadstrong views and supported the war ef-fort. She did not sympathize with the rioting and striking.

Mary Mack graduated in 1918 andremained in Montreal through the 1920s.She studied art at the Art Institute ofMontreal and in Paris. From the mid-1920s, she was part of the vibrant artis-tic community in the city, herself a land-scape painter, favoring the lower St.Lawrence and the Cacouna area for herpaintings. She returned home to Cornwall in 1930 and dedicated her lifeto helping others. A social advocate, shewas influential in no less than twenty or-ganizations, most of them put in placethrough her leadership. Mary was Cornwall’s first female alderman andkept her seat on the town council for tenyears, chairing the industrial develop-ment committee. She never married buthad an active social life, attending functions in Ottawa, Paris, and London.

It is hard to determine the impact of theyears spent at Miss Edgar’s and MissCramp’s School (marked 1687 on themap) and the historical events of theday, but Mary was more than just a spectator, she had an awareness thatserved her well in later life.

Sources: Mary Mack, Letters to her parents 1914-1917. Miss Edgars’s and Miss Cramp’sSchool Archives, Montreal.

Ginette Guy, Unforgotten Mary Mack.SD&G Historical Society, Cornwall,Ontario, 2017.

Ginette Guy, author of UnforgottenMary Mack, is a volunteer with historical societies and community heritage organizations in Eastern Ontario and Quebec. She enjoys re-searching and writing about the most interesting lives of ordinary people.

WINTER 2019

25

2018 QAHN HERITAGE

PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

FIRST PRIZEKira McGownGrade 8, West Island CollegeTitle: “Spilling the Tea”

Just a regular teacup right? Not to me. From my point of view, thissingle teacup represents my great-grandmother and my family. Sadly, I never actually got the chance to meet her but I did inheritthis teacup instead.

My father has always told me stories of his grandmother andhow important she was to our family. He told me how she was theperson you were looking forward to talking to at family reunions.I’ve also heard that she was a strong woman that nobody dared tomess with.

Looking at this antique teacup makes me think about the num-ber of times she has drank her warm tea on Quebec’s cold winternights with my great-grandfather by her side.

Every time I drink from it, I feel like there’s a piece of her stillwith me and that powerful feeling warms my heart.

The teacup and saucer underneath are full of stains and scratch-es but that’s what makes it perfect. All of its flaws represent everypart of my great-grandma. The shiny gold colour represents herstrength and how kind-hearted she was, and the scratches and stainsrepresent her tough personality.

Lastly, tea and family are extremely similar in the sense thatthey both warm the heart. In the future, I hope to tell stories aboutmy grandparents to my kids as my parents told stories about theirsto me.

SECOND PRIZESimba PellerinGrade 7, Joliette High SchoolTitle: “Gloomy Back Alley”

If you asked me to find this back alley again, I could not. I waswalking around Old Montreal with my uncle in the middle of December. The light was perfect and so I clicked. I like the gloomyatmosphere, it is almost scary. In a way there is nothing special, butit's more about the general feeling.

Montreal is a very old city. 375 years old to be precise. In thebeginning, the streets were cobbled to allow for horse carriages totravel through. Some streets in Old Montreal are still cobbled whileothers have been paved over. This back alley seemed interesting tome because it was still cobbled while being surrounded by pavedstreets. The modern meets the old. The city is full of examples likethat. I find it interesting because I grew up in B.C., where the oldestbuildings are about 100 years old at the most. It has been great todiscover Montreal’s heritage and older architecture. I feel like I amseeing parts of history when I take pictures of old buildings.

THIRD PRIZECassandra OnichinoGrade 11, Rosemere High SchoolTitle: “Thread”

Over the years, my grandmother has accumulated piles and piles ofthread for her sewing machine. Going from a basket next to herironing board to a cabinet full of different threads, the collectiongrew. Yellows, blues, reds. Every colour imaginable can be found inthat cabinet. This cabinet full of thread is a constant reminder of mygrandmother’s passion. My goal is to pass on this passion to mychildren, as she has done to me.

HONOURABLE MENTIONSamantha BlackGrade 7, West Island CollegeTitle: “The Ring”

This ring has been in my mom’s side of family for generations. Itwas given to my great-grandmother on April 19, 1933, and has beencarried on in our family ever since then. Not only is this ring specialto me because it has been around for so long and that it is my great-grandmother’s, but the S symbolizes something very important tome and my family.

On April 19, 1933, the S on the ring symbolized the first letterof my great-grandmother’s name but now it symbolizes all of ournames. My great grandmother's name was Sheila, my grandmoth-er’s name is Susan, my mom’s name is Sarah and my name isSamantha.

I hope that when I have kids I can share this special traditionwith them and it can go on forever. The ring was passed on to mygrandmother and mom and soon it will be given to me to love andcherish.

HONOURABLE MENTIONKeira MorcosGrade 8, West Island CollegeTitle: “Fate Is Real”

Do you believe in fate and how the universe directs and guides us? I never used to until recently.

Since I was two months old, my parents have taken me to asmall town called North Conway. It is a picturesque town nestled inthe Blue Mountains of New Hampshire. My family has been goingthere for many years. It reminds them of their home, Austria. I havealways had a strong connection to it.

For my first birthday, my uncle Wolf bought me an antique,sterling silver tea set. My uncle told me he just could not resist buying it for me which warmed my heart.

Occasionally being polished, but mostly getting tarnished, this

set has been sitting in a cabinet since. One day I pulled it out andtook a good look at it. I noticed an engraved marking on the bottombeside the 925 silver stamp. It was familiar, but I just could notplace it. While visiting my grandparents, I noticed the coat of armsfrom our ancestral village on the wall. Finally... I realized it was thesame marking as my tea set.

Apparently, this tea set belonged to the grandmother of the fleamarket owner. She lived in a small village near Innsbruck, Austria.It was something the woman cherished her whole life. She wouldalways say that one day the tea set should belong to someone who

was family but a stranger. Whenmy Uncle passed the flea market,the woman said she had finallysolved her grandmother’s riddle.In their conversation, my Unclehad mentioned that it was hisniece’s birthday. The womanasked what my name was. Whenhe said Keira, this riddle was final-ly solved. For grandmother's namewas also Keira and she had thesame birthday as me.

HONOURABLE

MENTIONMatthew KornfeldGrade 7, West Island CollegeTitle: “Time to Breathe”

I’m 12 years old but I alreadyknow what I would like to bewhen I grow up. Architecture is

something that has always fascinated me with all the cool photosyou see on the Internet of pictures of dream homes and ultra modernhouses. Something that is also fascinating is heritage architecturalbuildings that you can see in different areas of Montreal. It is alltheir unique styles that I find interesting.

This picture that I took of the Montreal Clock Tower, alsoknown as the Sailor’s Memorial Clock Tower was built in 1919. It isalmost 100 years old which is probably the oldest structure I’ve seenin Montreal. I admire its beautiful white stone that has somehow


26 Top right: Third Prize: “Thread,” by Cassandra Onichino.Top left: First Prize: “Spilling the Tea,” by Kira McGown. Bottom left: Second Prize: “Gloomy Back Alley,” by Simba Pellerin.

WINTER 2019

27Top left: Honourable Mention: “The Ring,” by Samantha Black. Top right: Honourable Mention: “Fate Is Real,” by Keira Morcos.

Middle: Honourable Mention: “Time to Breathe,” by Matthew Kornfeld. Bottom left: Honourable Mention: “In the Air,” by Tania Tkoulakis.

managed to look pristine even with itsage. It is impressive to think how it wasbuilt when people didn’t have access tomodern machinery.

Now that I have become aware ofthis heritage monument, it has made mecurious about other heritage architecturein Montreal.

HONOURABLE MENTIONTania SkoulakisGrade 11, Rosemere High SchoolTitle: “In the Air”

I took this picture at the 2018 Greek Independence Day Parade which takesplace every year on Jean Talon Street inMontreal. Seeing this flag held up in thesky inspired me to take this important shotbecause the flag represents Greek pride inCanadian air.

Although I was born and raised herein Quebec, and have adopted Quebec’scultures, I have also always kept a closeconnection to my Greek roots.

This image of the Greek flag mayseem simple, but it holds strong meaningbehind because of the people who formany years risked their lives to protect ourland and fight for our freedom. This flagholds strong significance, as each striperepresents “Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος,” whichmeans Freedom or Death. This is whyeven Greek-Canadians are proud to cele-brate Independence Day, and that is whywe go out and march in celebration forthis parade while holding our Greek flagswith pride!


28Top: Schoolteacher. Photo: courtesy of Ava Jeuris. Bottom: Bordeaux Jail. Photo: www.exp.com.

2018 QAHN HERITAGE ESSAY

CONTEST WINNERS

FIRST PRIZE“Helen Bachelder: Cat Lover & Teacher”

by Ava Jeuris, Grade 5Hemmingford Elementary SchoolHemmingford, Quebec

Helen Seller was born on April 5, 1927, at theCatherine Booth Hospital in Montreal. She grewup in Sherrington on a farm with her sister Ruthand her two brothers, Eric and Ivan. Her favoritepastime was playing with her cat. She told mehow she used to put her kittens in her doll strollerand push them around the house!

At school, Helen used to wrestle in the snowand play softball. At the French school, she madea friend named Milton Whyte, who was Irish.Milton always got into lots of trouble! Theteacher used to poke him in the back with a longstick when he misbehaved. I thought that wasfunny! Her favorite teacher was Miss Benoit, who always took themoutside to play fun games like tag and hide & go seek.

As she got older, she started teaching at Shields School, whichwas a one-room schoolhouse. She later taught at Hemmingford Ele-mentary School, St. Adele School, Granby School, and then gotmarried and stopped teaching. She married Kenneth Bachelder andhad three kids: Arthur, Carolyn and Brian. She loved to go campingwith them in the summer.

Nowadays, Helen lives in Hemmingford on the same road shegrew up on. She loves knitting hats as well as visiting with her greatgrandchildren, Savanna and Madison. She has a cat named Emma,but she does not get pushed around in a stroller!

I think Helen is a great person because she remembers so muchabout when she was young, even at the age of ninety-one! I hope Iwill be able to remember as much as her when I'm that old!

SECOND PRIZE“Aunt Rose”

by Alessia MorelliGardenview Elementary School, Grade 6Saint-Laurent, Quebec

The person I chose to write about for this essay is my aunt RoseMorelli. She was born in Italy, and at the age of 3, immigrated toCanada with my grandparents.

My aunt went to school at McGill University in Montrealand graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, and then com-pleted her Masters and PhD at Queen's University in Kingston,Ontario.

After all her years of school, she started working at Bor-deaux Prison, and helped prisoners cope with their issues. There,

she was able to help many troubled prisoners.Later on, she realized that she wanted to work with students as

a counsellor. She moved to Sherbrooke, Quebec, in 1990, and got ajob at Bishop's University as the Director of Counselling Service.Here she encountered students experiencing depression, panic at-tacks, and anxiety, some more severe than others. She also created aprogram for special needs students.

One of her biggest accomplishments was when she participatedin a local CLSC committee dedicated to the English speaking com-munity who had serious drug and alcohol problems.

I believe that my aunt impacted the English community inSherbrooke because she helped students and others with their prob-lems. There were not many English speaking volunteers at theCLSC in Sherbrooke. Because she helped out, she impacted thelives of many students and other people with severe addictions andother issues.

WINTER 2019

29Jack Resnick. Photo: Ryan family collection.

THIRD PRIZE“Jack Resnick”

by Ryan WerbittGardenview Elementary School, Grade 6Saint-Laurent, Quebec

Hello, my name is Ryan and today I will be talking to you about mygreat-great grandfather named Jack Resnick.

He was born in Lodge, Poland, on May 15, 1898, and lived ahappy 84 years. I am named after him since my name in Hebrew(Ya'akov) is Jack in English. Jack is and was a very important person in my family.

I admire him because he served as a Private in World War 2. Hewas responsible for all military ammunitions. Sadly, he lost part ofhis leg due to a bomb detonating. He lived, however he was neverable to walk the same way again.

I appreciate everyone who serves and served in the military toprotect our country. According to my family, Jack always told stories about the war. He had so many friends that unfortunately didnot survive the war. Jack was honored with many medals from thewar which very proudly remain in our family. He also saved manychildren from concentration camps.

It's unfortunate that I never got to meet him, since I know howgood he was to everyone. I have a pure gold mezuzah that he passedon to my mother who promised to give it to her future children towear on their bar mitzvah. Luckily... she had me! A mezuzah is avery valuable possession to Jewish people which has writings of theTorah inside. My great-great grandfather was a hero!


30Top right: Workers at the Dominion Textile Mill, Magog. Photo: La Société d’histoire de Magog, Fonds George A. W. Abbott.

Bottom left: Hochelaga Cotton Factory, 1874. McCord Museum, M979.87.360.

Life at the Mill Through the Mill: Girls and Women in the QuebecCotton Textile Industry, 1881-1951by Gail Cuthbert Brandt

REVIEW

Baraka Books, 2018

This thoroughly-researched history of the lives of female textile workers from the late nineteenth centuryuntil the early 1950s illustrates a vanished Quebecfrom before the Quiet Revolution. What makes this

book so interesting is the use of interviews with eighty-four former employees – women born between 1895 and 1934.These interviews were done in 1980, long before the final pro-duction of this book.

Brandt traces the industrialization of Quebec in the Montreal area and the Eastern Townships and the particular his-tories of the major mills where these women were employed.The main focus is on Dominion Textile in Magog and MontrealCottons in Valleyfield, although there is also mention of millsalong the Lachine Canal and in the Hochelaga district in Mon-treal, as well as mills outside Quebec City and the WabassoCotton Company in Trois-Rivières. Some of the earliest entre-preneurs were French-speaking Quebecers; even home-basedoperations from the French colonial period are cited. But thecore of this study is the period from 1895 to 1951, when thesevery large mills – for a while the largest employers in Quebec –were owned and managed by English-speaking Canadians (notalways English-speaking Quebecers) and the work force was almost entirely French-speaking. Although there were manymen employed at these mills, the majority of the labour was byunskilled women.

Until the 1940s, there were also many child labourers, ofboth sexes. School beyond basic elementary grades was notcompulsory in Quebec until 1943 when the leaving age wasraised to sixteen. Often entire families – both parents, children,cousins, nephews and nieces – worked at the same mill. Thisfamily-style employment was encouraged by management andendorsed by the French Roman Catholic clergy, who hadtremendous influence over all aspects of Quebec life and wereseen as colluding with the mill owners to maintain a “docile andobedient” workforce.

Brandt covers the workers’ eventual success in establishingunions to represent their rights at these mills, and the indiffer-ence of the owners and management to working conditions. Thelow wages and insecurity of employment were conditions thatwould never be tolerated today in Canada. In regard to girls andwomen workers, there appeared to be more concern about theirmorality and often their appearance than with their workingconditions and wages. Married women were especially poorlytreated and, until quite recent times, were not welcome as work-ers.

What we have in Through the Mill is an example of the origins of the great economic, social, and political upheavals ofthe 1960s and 70s here in Quebec. Due to the lack of access togood education and opportunities for a large percentage of theFrench-speaking population, and to the almost total control by abackward-thinking clergy (with a few exceptions, to be fair –for example, Frère Untel), along with a dismissive and prejudi-cial attitude from mill owners and upper management, littlechanged in most workers’ lives. It is surprising the Quiet Revolution was so quiet (except for a small criminal element),and not surprising that many subsequent Quebec laws appear tobe over-reactions to this society of our recent past.

Through the Mill also has many interesting and well repro-duced illustrations, largely from various official archives. Mostof them show machinery and the exteriors of the large millbuildings or, in contrast, newspaper coverage – mainly ofstrikes.

–Reviewed by Sandra Stock

WINTER 2019

31

www.barakabooks.com

INDUSTRIALIZATION, IMMIGRATION, RELIGIOUS STRIFE

A Distinct Alien Race

The Untold Story of Franco-Americans

D AV I D V E R M E T T E

Yasmeen Haddad

Loves

Joanasi Maqaittik

C A R O L Y N M A R I E S O U A I D

A N O V E L

THROUGH THE MILLGirls and Women

in the Quebec Cotton Textile Industry 1881-1951

G A I L C U T H B E R T B R A N D T

YASMEEN HADDAD LOVES JOANASI MAQAITTIK Carolyn Marie Souaid“rooted in a deep engagement with

Inuit culture…”, The Gazette

STARRED REVIEW, Foreword Reviews

THROUGH THE MILLGirls and Women in the Quebec Cotton Textile Industry, 1881-1951

Gail Cuthbert Brandt Girls and women were at the heart

of industrialization, particularly in

textiles in Quebec. And they weren’t

docile and quiescent.

A DISTINCT ALIEN RACEThe Untold Story of Franco-Americans, Immigration, Industrialization, Religious Strife

David Vermette“Readers interested in Canadian

and American immigration

history will appreciate the depth

of Vermette’s research and

the fascinating story he tells.”

Publishers Weekly

The 2018 Giller Finalist

SONGS FOR THE COLD OF HEARTEric Dupont (translated by Peter McCambridge)“fiercely readable” (Toronto Star)

“masterful… heartbreaking and hilarious” (Publishers Weekly)

“wildly ambitious in scope and structure…

highly recommended” (Library Journal)

QUEBEC STORIES AND HISTORY FOR ALL

www.qcfiction.com

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