REDCOATS, DRUMS AND MYSTIC BARNS: QAHN VISITS MISSISQUOI COUNTY $10 Quebec

VOL 8, NO. 3 SUMMER 2014 HeritageNews

Happy Canada Day! Now move! Finding Meaning in the Madness January in July Ice Palaces and Winter Camping Containing Typhoid Northern Electric’s Emergency Hospital, 1910 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Quebec CONTENTS HeritageNews EDITOR Editor’s Desk 3 RODERICK MACLEOD Redpath’s many mansions Rod MacLeod PRODUCTION DAN PINESE; MATTHEW FARFAN Letters 5 Don’t wait for the obit Jim Caputo PUBLISHER New England Forgues Eileen Fiell THE QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE HERITAGE NETWORK Heritage News from around the province 6 400-257 QUEEN STREET Jim Caputo SHERBROOKE, QUEBEC J1M 1K7 Jim Caputo’s Mystery Objects Challenge #4 7 PHONE 1-877-964-0409 The Play’s the thing: A theatrical photo mystery 8 (819) 564-9595 FAX Press Pedigree 9 (819) 564-6872 A Brief History of the Quebec Chronicle Telegraph Charles André Nadeau CORRESPONDENCE [email protected] Northern Electric’s Heroic Moment 11 WEBSITES The Montreal Emergency Typhoid Hospital, 1910 Robert N. Wilkins WWW.QAHN.ORG WWW.QUEBECHERITAGEWEB.COM Annual QAHN Convention, 2014 14 Matthew Farfan PRESIDENT SIMON JACOBS Canada Day, Montreal-style 18 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & Elisabeth Dent WEBMAGAZINES EDITOR MATTHEW FARFAN Was Solomon Gursky Here? 20 Literary ghosts in the snow Casey Lambert OFFICE MANAGER KATHY TEASDALE Just Visiting 24 Quebec Heritage News is produced four The world inside the gates of the Trois-Rivières prison Amy Fish times yearly by the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) with the support Discovering the Ice Palace 26 of the Department of Canadian Heritage and Quebec’s Ministère de la Culture et Montreal’s winter carnivals, 1883-89 Justin Singh des Communications. QAHN is a non-profit and non-partisan organization whose mis- sion is to help advance knowledge of the New France Joseph Graham history and culture of the English- The Spanish connection 29 speaking communities of Quebec. Annual Subscription Rates: Individual: $30.00; Organization: $40.00 Review 30 Canada Post Publication Mail Unexpected Fever Rod MacLeod Agreement Number 405610004. A Mind at Sea by John Fry ISSN 17707-2670 PRINTED IN CANADA

Cover photo: Cornell Mill, Mississquoi Museum, Stanbridge East, Quebec. Photo: Matthew Farfan.

2 SUMMER 2014

EDITOR’S DESK Redpath’s many mansions by Rod MacLeod

o the infamous Redpath man- died of typhus in 1834 he farmed the six toward business, there would have been sion is gone. Heritage activists children out to his sister Elspeth near no perceived conflict between Redpath mourn last March’s demolition Kingston. On one of his visits there, he the politician and Redpath the developer, of the house’s remaining fragile also dropped in on an old friend, Robert much less a need for a proto-Charbon- Swalls, although perhaps there is some- Drummond, whose much younger sister neau commission.) Along with fellow thing to be said for being able to ring the Jane was also visiting from Scotland. landowner Thomas Phillips and city sur- curtain down on a particularly nasty, 28- One thing led to another, John and Jane veyor John Ostell, Redpath opened the year battle between developers and were married, and the family returned to mountainside to urban development, preservationists. (See QHN, Spring Montreal. In the spring of 1837, they which followed two general patterns: the 2011.) In the end, one had the feeling moved permanently up to a country villa lots on the higher ground above that all that was holding the mansion to- house in the midst of a 235-acre estate Sherbrooke Street, and a “New Town” of gether was the mud slung by opposing Redpath had purchased on the side of terraced townhouses on the plateau that is factions. Mount Royal. This dwelling was a com- now Montreal’s downtown. Even so, it is a loss. Aside One challenge emerged early from its architectural features, the on, which Redpath easily turned house was the last surviving Mon- into an advantage. Feudal inheri- treal residence associated with the tance practices, still technically in illustrious Redpath family. Their effect in Canada East despite a product, with their name on it, is growing campaign for reform, still a household commodity – dictated that children had rights which is more than can be said for to a portion of a man’s property most of those great nineteenth- even after it was sold. Redpath century purveyors of vice (Mol- feared that potential purchasers of son being the other notable excep- his building lots on the side of the tion, of course.) Yet, of more sig- mountain might be deterred by nificance to Montreal than the the prospect of his heirs making sugar that sweetened its tea (itself special claims later on – which considerable, given that prior to was standard practice under the the opening of the Redpath refin- old regime. His solution was to ery Canada had to import all its draft formal agreements with his sugar) was the factory’s role in children whereby they would re- launching the nation’s industrial revolu- fortable eighteenth-century farmhouse, nounce any such claims in return for cer- tion in the early 1850s, situated as it was which Redpath would later have refur- tain gifts – namely, gifts of land. As they along the newly-widened Lachine Canal. bished as a state-of-the-art mansion came of age, the children received moun- Ironically, the factory is still there, albeit called Terrace Bank. In the autumn of tain lots on which they then built houses. condofied, while all the Redpath houses 1837, he rented the house on Notre Dame As a result, Redpath kept his expanding are now gone. Street to General John Colborne, who family nearby – particularly his sons, These houses, I would argue, played needed a Montreal base from which to at- who would soon be directly involved in an even greater role than sugar in shaping tack rebel forces. running the sugar business. Moreover, by the city. In 1840, when the political situation providing space for his grown children, Long before there was a granular calmed down, and Montreal was incorpo- Redpath was able to seed his property (as twinkle in his eye, John Redpath made a rated as a city, John Redpath got himself it were) with respectable residents, there- fortune for himself in construction and re- elected to council. Here, he served on, by removing any doubt in the minds of al estate. As a master mason, he super- and later chaired, the Committee for prospective lot purchasers that the moun- vised the building of such key 1820s Roads and Improvements, a body that su- tainside was a proper place to move to. stone structures as Notre Dame Church, pervised the building and repair of streets The first of the Redpath offspring to the British and Canadian School (in to- and generally regulated the city’s expan- take advantage of this arrangement was day’s Chinatown) and the Lachine Canal. sion. Redpath saw to it that his own real Elizabeth, the eldest (just four years He lived with his growing family in a estate projects were promptly green lit, younger than her step-mother), who mar- house on Notre Dame Street in the old his streets paved and the sewers dug. ried textile merchant and newspaper edi- town, but when his wife Janet McPhee (Given mid-nineteenth century attitudes tor (the Temperance Advocate and later

Frank Redpath's study, Inglenook, c.1920. 3 Photo: McCord Museum, MP-1986.18.3. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS the Montreal Witness) John Dougall in of the estate, a small piece of land below family physician at the time of the 1840, and received a large lot near Ter- Terrace Bank fronting on Ontario Avenue tragedy (and in whose memory she would race Bank. For a few years, the young (now Avenue du Musée), on which he commission the distinctive entrance gates couple lived in a townhouse in the emerg- built a house, “Inglenook.” Having wait- to McGill University), and later with her ing New Town, one of the fifteen units of ed so long for a place of his own, Frank beloved companion Mary Rose Shallow, Beaver Hall Terrace, which John Redpath did not budge from it, dying there in 1928 who had been a housemaid at the time of had also built. Before long, however, they in his early eighties, two decades after the tragedy. (If any of these three knew moved into a new house on their moun- Caroline. more about the mystery than they let on tain lot known as Ivy Cottage. It was By that time, the Redpaths were al- at the time, such knowledge went with here that their children grew up and most all gone from the mountainside. them to their graves.) Like so many of played amid the orchards: John, who Jane, the matriarch, spent the last 22 her family, Amy died alone in 1954, and would succeed his father as editor of the years of her life alone (except for ser- eventually the house was razed and re- Witness into the 1930s, and Lily, who vants) in Terrace Bank; when she died in placed by the massive and unlovely Port would move to England and have a suc- 1907 in her early nineties, the house was Royal apartments. cessful career as the writer of somewhat torn down and what was left of the estate When Amy died, Frank’s Inglenook moralistic novels. turned into building lots for a last bout of had been empty for over a quarter centu- In time, the other Redpath children mountainside development. ry. It would remain unoccupied another would take up residence in mountainside John Redpath Dougall, Elizabeth’s fifteen years before being used as a con- homes, helping to form the elite neigh- son, lived in nearby Ivy Cottage until a valescent home and then as a homeless bourhood later known as the Golden year or so before his own death, also in shelter. In 1986 it was purchased by de- Square Mile. Eldest son Peter, who would his nineties, in 1934; a bachelor, he went velopers – who might have reconsidered succeed his father as head of the sugar had they known the lengthy battle ahead empire and underwrite the costs of the of them. This Redpath mansion was quite McGill museum and library that bear his typical of the downtown “dinosaurs,” name, lived with his wife Grace Wood in those former mansions rendered obsolete a semi-detached townhouse on Drum- through neglect. For this state of affairs mond Street, on the lower part of the es- one cannot blame the Redpaths, so many tate. His sister Mary and her husband, of whom hung onto their houses into their broker Thomas Taylor, lived in the other lonely old age and had no successors. half. Another sister, Helen, who married One would also be hard pressed to blame their step-mother’s younger brother developers who saw a building that no George Drummond, eventually built a one seemed to care for and that arguably grand home for themselves (George be- could be put to better use. came the brains behind Redpath Sugar in And frankly, though I mourn the the decades after John’s death in 1869) on death of dinosaurs and the disappearance Sherbrooke Street. Slightly further west of Redpath abodes, I am left with the along Sherbrooke Street, the youngest feeling that, so long as we refrain from sibling John James built a mansion on his putting high rises on the side of the land where he lived with his wife Ada mountain, the loss of another decrepit Mills and several children. In was in this mansion will not alter the landscape. house in 1901, many years after John There are other more worrying desecra- James’ death, that Ada and her son Clif- tions, or potential desecrations, that cause ford were found shot to death, a mystery to live with a cousin in Westmount. Ivy me greater angst. that was never solved thanks in part to its Cottage did not survive the eastward ex- A case in point lies just down the hill being quickly hushed up by the scandal- tension of McGregor Avenue in the from the Redpath mansion site. The de- wary Redpaths. But then, everyone has 1950s. veloper in this case is the Montreal Muse- skeletons, I suppose. Peter Redpath and Grace Wood re- um of Fine Arts, which deserves some Frank Robert Redpath was a son of tired to England and died there. The Tay- credit for having objected to the height of the second marriage and came of age af- lors took over both sides of the semi-de- the projected Redpath mansion condofi- ter his father’s death. By then, the build- tached house and held onto it until the cation. (I’m coining this term!) The mu- ing lots had all sold – but the family still 1890s, whereupon it exchanged hands seum directors felt the condos would im- owned a large part of the estate: Terrace several times before being demolished to pinge on the view up Avenue du Musée – Bank itself and surrounding lawns and make way for Emmanuel Church, later by which, presumably, they meant the gardens. Even after marrying Caroline the Salvation Army Citadel. view from the windows of the MMFA’s Plimsoll in 1876, Frank continued to live After the 1901 murder/suicide in fourth pavilion, namely the refurbished at Terrace Bank with his bride, his wid- John James’ house on Sherbrooke Street, Erskine and American Church with a owed mother and several younger sib- the youngest daughter Amy continued to modern annex. (I’ve been reasonably sat- lings. It was only in 1884, when he was live in the house, first with her husband, isfied with this fourth pavilion. Although nearing 40, that Frank obtained a portion Dr. Thomas Roddick, who had been the the historic church is not being used as

4 Frank Redpath, Caroline Plimsol and children, 1886. Photo: McCord Museum, II-80873.1. SUMMER 2014

exhibition space – its interior is viewable Now, of all Montreal’s rich architec- done this a little on McTavish. Crescent only when attending concerts there – at tural heritage, the townscape that is the Street, of course, is famous for its bou- least it has been preserved. And in the saddest to have lost was, in my view, the tiques and restaurants, all located in late- rear annex, aside from the quirky layout New Town that Redpath, Phillips and Os- nineteenth-century terraces. Bishop Street and difficult access we’ve come to expect tell created in the middle of the nine- is nearly as quaint – but that quaintness from the MMFA, the presentation of teenth century. From Beaver Hall Hill to has been significantly diminished by the Canadian art is attractive enough.) Guy Street, Montreal once had a whole loss of the two top-most houses, sacri- But in its apparently endless pursuit neighbourhood of streets lined with ele- ficed to meet the needs of the ever-ex- of lebensraum, the MMFA is planning a gant stone terraced houses, resembling panding museum. Unlike the Redpath fifth pavilion. This latest expansion is os- the Georgian and Victorian vistas in Lon- mansion, moreover, they were in good tensibly for exhibition purposes, although don’s Mayfair or Belgravia, or Edin- shape and not an eyesore on the street. I am suspicious given that the museum burgh’s own New Town. Wherever such Let’s not let the tears we shed over has a habit of earmarking space for its townscapes exist they are cherished. decaying dinosaurs blind us to the threats permanent collection and then devoting it Even where residential use is impractical, facing healthy and useful buildings. Let’s instead to grand entrances, stairways, and such buildings lend themselves perfectly not chant so loud in the street that we fail reception areas. In any event, just weeks to small-scale offices and shops. You can to notice the bulldozer loose in the archi- ago, almost entirely without fanfare, the see surviving examples here and there, tectural china shop. museum demolished two nineteenth-cen- even on St. Catherine Street; Concordia tury townhouses on Bishop Street. These has put such terraced houses to great use will be replaced by a modern glass annex, for university department offices up and albeit one of modest scale. down Mackay Street, and McGill has Letters Don’t wait for the obit nario - they may not let you get past the door. into the French Canadian connection. Accord- And I am taking this unrequested advice ing to my second cousin, living in Burlington, I just finished reading the article concerning myself. I think I will find it rewarding and I “the hills are alive with the name of Forgues.” the passing of Charles Bury by Carla Straessle believe so will you. One very interesting and educational article I (QHN, Spring 2014). What a man! The article read was titled “Emigration from Quebec.” I was both well written and informative. I can’t Jim Caputo learned a lot about the French settlers of the comment on the content of the article as un- Vankleek Hill, Ontario nineteenth century and particularly those who fortunately I did not know Charlie but I can emigrated from the Eastern Townships into say without hesitation – darn, I wish I had got- New England Forgues the U.S.A. ten to know him. I could have learned so Your organization focuses on the English much. Thank you very much for sending me the presence in a French province and this organi- And in this general context I can also say Heritage News. The magazine is really first zation focuses on the opposite settlement. again, without hesitation, that if there is some- class and I enjoyed reading all of it. My fami- Have you ever been in touch with this group? one out there that you know that you have not ly was equally impressed by the high quality It is too bad that we wait to investigate our seen in awhile, don’t text them, don’t email and, of course, the article and photo of good past after all our old relatives have passed them, don’t Facebook them – but instead old Mom. (“A Quebec farming family moves away. Thank goodness for organizations and don’t hesitate, go out of your way if necessary to the Prairies,” QHN, Spring 2014). authors who take the time to investigate and to visit them, face to face, eyeball to eyeball, Recently I discovered an organization in record our history. even if you think they don’t like you for they the New England states, and particularly the may have changed their mind. Worst case sce- Vermont branch, which assists investigations Eileen Fiell Invermere, B.C.

2075-85 Bishop Street, Montreal, before and 5 after the demolition. Photos: Rod MacLeod. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Heritage news from around the province by Jim Caputo

St. Mungo’s United Church

Cecil McPhee has proposed celebrating the 180th an- niversary of St. Mungo’s Church in Cushing, Quebec in 2016. For more on these plans, please contact McPhee at http://www.scotchroadcemetery.com.

Gaspé

Generation Sacrificed

Heritage Gaspe/Heritage Gaspésie presents Tom Eden’s “Generation Sacrificed: The Gaspe Soldiers of Western Quebec the Great War, 1914-1918.” His photo and information exhibit will be held at St. James Anglican Church, The Scotch Road Cemetery Wakeham, from July 28 to August 2, 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. It consists of ten panels, each with a differ- We had the opportunity to visit the old Scotch Road ent theme outlining the activities of the war and the Cemetery thanks to Cecil McPhee, president of the sacrifice of the lives of these young Gaspesians. Scotch Road Cemetery Association. This group is to be Tom will also be available to share his project with congratulated for their efforts in restoring and preserv- the community at a conference to be held at St. James ing this historic site. Please visit http://www Church on August 2 at 1:30 p.m. .scotchroadcemetery.com. A tour of the old Wakeham cemetery will take place and a pamphlet on the history of the church will be made available. The exhibit is free of charge but a good will offering would be appreciated. All proceeds will go towards St. James Church.

Pioneer Days

Once again, Gaspesians and those with Gaspe roots will be able to meet and greet at Pioneer Days – Fort Haldimand Camp this summer, from July 23 to 27. Wine and cheese, activities for both the old and young, handicrafts and exhibits – we have it all, plus the op- portunity to meet people whom you haven’t seen in years, and to appreciate the grand scenery of the Gaspe. A not-to-miss activity.

The Grenville Canal

The walls of this historic canal are crumbling into the water. Evidence indicates that this has happened be- fore. On hearing this news, we visited the canal (Grenville, Quebec) and saw the latest damage. (The photo was taken at the time of our visit.) It is suggest- ed that you contact Mylene Freeman, MP for Argen- teuil-Papineau-Mirabel, at her website http://mylene freeman.ndp.ca. The canal, which dates from the early nineteenth century, was designed by the Royal Staff Corps of the British Army. It was part of a series of canals built to link Montreal to Ottawa, Kingston and the Great Lakes in time of war.

6 Top: St. Mungo’s Church, Cushing, Quebec. Middle: Cecil McPhee in the Scotch Road Cemetery. Bottom: The Grenville Canal. Photos: Jim Caputo. SUMMER 2014

The Birthplace of Canada

The grand opening of “Gaspe: the Birthplace of Cana- da” takes place this summer. This faithful reconstruc- tion of the commercial area of Gaspe, O’Hara’s Point, is something I encourage everyone to visit. Compli- ments of Fabien Sinnett, my family had the opportuni- ty to get a sneak peak of the site. All those involved in making this vision a reality are to be congratulated for their efforts. speaking Gaspesians who have made a significant con- Irish Week tribution to their community or the region. From well- known historical personalities to ordinary citizens, Once again the organizers of Irish Week have put to- achievements at all levels will be presented via text gether a very entertaining group of events this summer, panels, artifacts and photos. The exhibition will travel from July 28 to August 3. For more details: the coast next summer, after which it will be perma- http://www.semaineirlandaise-irishweek.com. nently housed at the Gaspesian British Heritage Vil- lage. An online exhibition will also be launched. Patterson Family Reunion Magdalen Islands All descendents of John Patterson, the first Patterson family member to settle in Gaspe (arrived mid-eigh- Heritage Grosse Ile teenth century), are invited to attend a family reunion from July 27 to 31. For more information, visit This group is attempting to save a heritage building www.gogaspe.com, or contact activity organizer John from demolition. The hall, owned by the Anglican Dio- Patterson: [email protected]. cese of Quebec, was once a centre of community activ- ity but has fallen into disrepair over the years. Heritage Gaspesian British Heritage Village Grosse Ile would like to make the necessary repairs and use it as a community centre once again. Any help In 2014, the Heritage Village in New Richmond will would be greatly appreciated. Please contact Byron create a travelling exhibition celebrating English- Clark at [email protected]. Jim Caputo’s Mystery Objects Challenge #4 Last issue, we ran a photo submitted by Jim Caputo of Heritage Gaspé with an object for readers to identify, with the following clue:

This handcrafted wooden object (machine) would make many a person more comfortable in the summer.

We received the following answer from Shelagh Glover of Montreal:

I believe it is a machine to Here is another instalment in the Mystery Objects compress or crush ice. The Challenge -- a photo (above) of the mystery object and ice was placed in a cloth a clue from Jim: bag and then fed through the crusher and churned into ice cream. What does this item represent? Please be specific. It would have been found in Quebec homes after 1840. While this is incorrect, the suggestion was so imagina- tive we decided to include it. Send your answers to: editor@ qahn.org.

The correct answer is: A machine to flatten straw to make straw hats.

Top: St. James Church, Wakeham, Quebec. 7 Photo: courtesy of Vera Patterson. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

The play’s the thing... A theatrical photo mystery

Ann Wondolowski of Toronto has sent us a curious puzzle. She possesses several old photographs of two plays featur- ing her parents, Charles (Chuck) and Lois Wondoloski. She knows them only as the “staircase play” and the “curtained doorway play” because of their respective set de- signs. She believes they were produced either in Saint-Jean- sur-Richelieu between 1950 and 1954 or in Trois-Rivières between 1954 and 1956. It was an Anglophone company, and included the fol- lowing other actors, whose names are scrawled on the back of one photo: Jim Weeks, Ray Dumas, June Goodall, Trevor Elphick, Dagmar Cutler, Peter Greenaway, Frances Benn, Bert Patterson, and Bill Montgomery. Can anyone help identify the plays, the company name, and the exact performance dates?

The Curtained Doorway Play (right)

Charles is the fellow wearing a vest in all three photos.

The Staircase Play (left and below) Lois is the lady in white in all four photos; Charles is the fellow with the bow tie in one photo.

Photos: courtesy of Ann Wondolowski. 8 SUMMER 2014

PRESS PEDIGREE A brief history of the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph by Charles André Nadeau

n June 21, 2014, the Quebec The Morning Chronicle to his partner William Price bought the business. Chronicle-Telegraph (QCT) and returned to The Quebec Gazette as Shortly after the Morning Chronicle celebrated its 250th anniver- publisher and part-owner. absorbed the Quebec Gazette in 1874, sary. Recognized as North The newspaper had by then become James Carrel founded The Daily Tele- OAmerica’s oldest continuously operating strictly an English publication, unable to graph. The first edition came out on No- newspaper, the present-day QCT is the compete with the many excellent local vember 9, 1875. Carrel's office was at result of the mergers of four city news- papers printed in French. Middleton op- the corner of Buade and du Trésor. papers over the past two centuries. It erated The Quebec Gazette until his James Carrel died at age 47 in 1891 and started as a bilingual publication de- death in 1874. Meanwhile, Charles his 20-year-old son Frank took over. The signed to serve not only the city’s paper supported the Liberal party and French-speaking people, who had not was aimed primarily at the working had the benefits of newspapers in New classes, unlike The Morning Chronicle France, but also the smaller English- which was Conservative and catered speaking community that had recently more to the city's elite. Meanwhile, the arrived in the colony. English-speaking population of Quebec The colony’s first newspaper, The City had been steadily declining since Quebec Gazette - La Gazette de Québec, 1860, and the town wasn’t big enough was founded by William Brown, an for two English dailies. American born in Scotland, and Thomas Following Sir William Price’s death Gilmore, who had come from Ireland to in October 1924, talks began between settle in America. Brown and Gilmore the two competitors and another merger signed an agreement in Philadelphia on was made in late June the following August 5, 1763, to operate a printing year. As the premises at the corner of shop in Quebec City, and published the Buade and du Trésor were the more first edition of their weekly on Thursday modern facility, they became the home June 21, 1764. Initially their office was of the new Chronicle-Telegraph which on Saint-Louis Street, on a site now reached its first readers on July 2, 1925. owned by the Château Frontenac and the It was a rocky marriage but with time restaurant Le Petit Château. The news- the problems were ironed out. The name paper moved a few times in the early was changed to Quebec Chronicle-Tele- years and the business finally settled on Saint-Michel sold The Morning Chroni- graph on February 5, 1934. Côte de la Montagne. In 1772, when cle to Samuel B. Foote in 1860, whose A partnership led by Major Gwyl- Gilmore died, Brown purchased his brother John J. Foote joined him three lym Dunn bought the majority of the share. When Brown died in 1789, his years later. Competition between the two company’s holdings in June 1937. Dunn nephew Samuel Neilson inherited the es- newspapers made life difficult for both had been operating a small paper called tablishment. After Samuel’s premature businesses. Consequently, when there The Quebec News and he merged it with death in 1793, his younger brother John seemed no interested successor to Mid- the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph. In became owner and publisher. The Neil- dleton at The Quebec Gazette, the Foote 1949, the Thompson conglomerate pur- son family continued publication of the brothers purchased their rival in 1874 chased a portion of the shares of the newspaper (which became a daily in and incorporated it with their own paper company. A new facility was also 1832) until November 11, 1850, when under the name The Morning Chronicle. opened that year on Saint-Sacrement Robert Middleton purchased it outright. Samuel Foote left for Montreal in 1878, Boulevard in the Saint-Malo district. Middleton had worked for the Neil- and, after the death of John J. Foote in Lord Thompson purchased the entire sons since 1834, but in 1847 he left and, 1897, a local company was formed to company in 1961. Since then there have in partnership with Charles Saint- buy the newspaper. The president was been a number of owners and office lo- Michel, founded The Morning Chroni- John Sharples Jr., a former mayor of cations. At present the office is located cle, which first appeared on the streets Sillery. The Morning Chronicle’s office at 1040 Belvédère Avenue. In November on May 18 that year. Their office was al- moved to Buade Street, near rue du Fort, 2010, majority shares were sold to Ray- so on Côte de la Montagne, at the corner in 1900. Sir David Watson later pur- mond Stanton of Ontario. His wife, Sta- of Sault-au-Matelot. Shortly after the chased all the shares of the company. cie Stanton, is the editor and together death of John Neilson, Middleton left Upon Watson’s death in 1922, Sir they are the publishers.

First issue of the Quebec Gazette, June 21, 1764. 9 Photo: courtesy of the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

10 SUMMER 2014

NORTHERN ELECTRIC’S HEROIC MOMENT The Montreal Emergency Typhoid Hospital, 1910 by Robert N. Wilkins

hile walking recently in ity of the situation at the end of 1909 was. many well defined areas of the city and the neighbourhood of the Conservative estimates placed the num- its cause is obvious – a polluted water Lucien-L’Allier Metro ber of instances in December of that year supply.” In consequence, the broadsheet Station, I noticed that the at 3,000. constantly encouraged residents and Winterior of an old, derelict building was At the beginning of that same month, schools to “boil the water.” The following quite open to public view. It would seem it was reported that the five public hospi- day, the same journal, in yet another that someone removed one of the sheets tals (Royal Victoria, Montreal General, scathing editorial, accused the town’s al- of plywood used to board up the decay- Western, Hôtel Dieu and Notre Dame) dermen of deliberately neglecting to give ing structure and never put it back. inhabitants pure water. “It is simple I could not resist taking a peek. truth to say that aldermanic stupidity The inside was indeed quite a and graft are responsible for what we mess. are suffering to-day,” bellowed the The Bell Telephone Company of newspaper. Canada constructed the edifice in In fact, it was a commonly held question on Aqueduct Street (today, belief at the time that Montreal’s re- Lucien-L’Allier) in 1891-92. In the curring struggle with typhoid was early twentieth century, it was occu- due to the poor quality of the water pied by the Northern Electric Compa- source. Almost reluctantly, the city’s ny, which had become the manufac- Health Department acquiesced and turing arm of the telephone concern. agreed to allow the water to be tested In 1906, the “Northern” (as the firm at a local laboratory for the presence was affectionately known by its em- of typhoid. Throughout 1909, pres- ployees) moved its operations to Guy sure was increasingly exerted on the and Notre Dame Streets, leaving the municipal authorities to test system- previous structure on Aqueduct Street atically the water, and not just once essentially deserted. Throughout most of were by then no longer in a position to or twice a year. the rest of the twentieth century the build- accept any more typhoid fever patients, Montreal Water and Power Compa- ing was used on and off by various manu- their wards being already full with nearly ny, a private concern created in 1891, facturing enterprises for their own pur- 200 cases in all. That simple fact left hun- supplied the municipality’s drinking wa- poses. dreds of other people at home with the ter. That precious liquid was drawn di- What most Montrealers do not real- disease being treated by their family doc- rectly from the St. Lawrence River (the ize, however, is what the edifice was used tor (if they could afford one), or wander- same body of water into which city for in the first three months of the year ing the streets, all the while carriers of the sewage was disposed of, and not that far 1910. The answer to that is really quite Salmonella bacterium. To illustrate how away from the intake source) and interesting. During that 90-day period, serious the situation was, that same first pumped up to the McTavish Reservoir the old Northern Electric plant on Aque- week of early December, one tabloid re- where it was conserved for eventual dis- duct Street served as a provisional crisis ported that eight people died of the mala- tribution to the residences and businesses facility for those unfortunate citizens suf- dy in the Town of Westmount alone. of the town. It was unfiltered and untreat- fering from typhoid fever. By late December, the typhoid epi- ed in any fashion; nevertheless, Montreal Styled the Montreal Typhoid Emer- demic was spreading into the northern Water always denied responsibility for gency Hospital, the then abandoned suburbs of the city, as well. At the same the epidemic and repeatedly claimed that building was donated by Northern Elec- time, the upsurge in the number of cases the water was, in fact, pure. tric, rent-free for a three-month period, to became the talk in all of Montreal’s It should be noted that because of its help deal with the explosion of typhoid newspapers. uncovered nature, the McTavish Reser- cases in the city in late 1909 and early For instance, an editorial that ap- voir became home to much aquatic life, 1910. peared on December 27, 1909, in the particularly fish. It was not uncommon While periodic outbreaks of typhoid now-defunct Montreal Star declared un- for tiny, and not so tiny, fish to come were nothing new to Montreal, the sever- equivocally that “typhoid is epidemic in through the pipes and into one’s home Edwardian Typhoid advertisement, 1910. 11 Photo: courtesy of Robert N. Wilkins. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS during the Edwardian Era. Indeed, in ear- ly 1910, in the midst of perhaps the worst typhoid epidemic the town had ever seen, a local newspaper reported the odd story of how a family living on Bleury Street hired a plumber to determine why the wa- ter pressure in their house was so poor. To the amazement of all, the work revealed the decaying corpse of a lamprey within a pipe as the source of the problem. The gruesome discovery also accounted for the recent ill health of various members of the family of one Mr. F. F. Meagher. It was in late December that the question of an emergency facility to han- dle the overflow from the established hospitals first came up. A nearly unani- mous demand for one originated from those closest to the problem - the physi- cians of Montreal. The city’s Medical Health Officer, Dr. Louis Laberge, stated that while the building on Aqueduct Street. Following such that by noon the next day there were municipal administration would like to this contact, Starkey, a Professor of Hy- 16 admissions while at the same time an- have created such a resource, he did not giene at McGill University, was offered other 30 were waiting for ambulances to believe that the necessary funds could be the edifice rent-free for three months. The transport them to the Aqueduct Street found, and this despite the fact that local good doctor accepted and work rapidly service. Within a week, there were over hospitals could handle, at best, a small began on making the structure suitable 100 typhoid patients being treated. fraction of all the town’s typhoid patients. for a desperately–needed health facility. Unlike many of Montreal’s institu- One rather influential alderman, Dr. E. G. Volunteers, both men and women, tions during the Edwardian Period, the Dagenais (Chairman of the Health Com- generously came forward and furnished Emergency Hospital was entirely non-de- mittee, no less), went one step further the necessary labour in order to prepare nominational, open to “all creeds and na- when he proffered that “not a cent was the building for its first patients. Men tionalities.” On its very first day of oper- available” from the city to help cope with from both the Prince of Wales Fusiliers ation, Montreal’s (Roman Catholic) Arch- the typhoid question. After further and the Victoria Rifles cleaned, renovat- bishop Bruchesi dropped by to express stonewalling on the part of local authori- ed, sprayed, and whitewashed the interior his full support. The following day, Gov- ties, private citizens came together on the walls and ceilings. Sinks and faucets ernor General Grey and Lady Grey paid a last day of the year and took the deadly were installed, partitions raised. visit, and the day after that, the Anglican matter, as it were, into their own hands. Meanwhile, donations came forth Bishop of Montreal, John C. Farthing, Accordingly, on New Years’ Eve from various members of the city’s busi- was given a tour of each ward of the fa- 1909, fifteen individuals met at the Mans- ness community. Some offered money cility. It seemed that everyone wanted to field Street home of Dr. Thomas A. while others put forward badly needed lend their support to the noble effort un- Starkey to discuss the setting up of just supplies: beds, mattresses, pillows, tow- dertaken by private citizens of Montreal. such an emergency typhoid fever infir- els, ice bags, hot water bottles, bottled Initially, the Emergency Hospital mary. Despite Mayor Louis Payette’s last water, etc. The Northern Electric also occupied the first two storeys of the minute claim that he would act on the provided the edifice with 150 lamps and Northern Electric Building. The men’s contentious question if City Council wired the structure accordingly before ward was on the first floor, while the didn’t, Starkey and his group decided handing it over to the officers of the tem- women’s was on the second. Within days that, in this matter, it would be better not porary hospital. of its opening, however, it became neces- to count on anything coming from Mon- On Tuesday, January 4, 1910, the sary to prepare the third floor as a second treal’s City Hall. Dr. Starkey was a well- Montreal Emergency Typhoid Hospital location within the building to accommo- known critic of the municipality’s water opened its doors and received its first pa- date men stricken with the ailment. For supply, having spoken on the subject fre- tient. Mrs. Alice Sole, 25, living at 1400a some unknown reason, in this particular quently, most notably on February 1, Des Erables Street, was brought to the fa- manifestation of typhoid fever in Montre- 1909, in a lecture at McGill’s Royal cility, accompanied by her husband. Prac- al, twice as many men were being affect- Victoria College. tically delirious from the dreaded disease, ed than women. Finally, with the comple- Working closely with Lady Julia she was unable to speak. Mr. Sole imme- tion of this additional work, the health Drummond (one of the founders of the diately issued a written statement thank- centre could provide for the medical Montreal chapter of the Victorian Order ing the temporary infirmary for taking in needs of approximately 300 patients. of Nurses), Dr. Starkey was approached his suffering wife. Other patients, equally Nevertheless, by the middle of Janu- by Northern Electric about its empty ill and equally poor, quickly followed, ary 1910, the epidemic was already be- Old Northern Electric Building, Aqueduct Street 12 (Rue Lucie- L’Allier). Photo: Robert N. Wilkins. SUMMER 2014 ginning to show signs of abatement, de- was vacated on that date, its last patient spite the fact that there had been 20 being discharged on March 26. Only a PROVINCE-WIDE deaths attributed to the malady in the sec- few days earlier, the one and only birth EXPOSURE ond week of that same month. The cre- had taken place in the building when in- AT A GREAT PRICE!! ation of the “Citizen’s Hospital” (as the fant Antonea Van Minden came into this SPECIAL ADVERTISING RATES Aqueduct Street facility was sometimes world, delivered of a mother stricken 2014-2015 called) seemed to be chasing away the with typhoid. Happily, both survived. typhoid epidemic, which had become a There were other bouts of typhoid Purchase two or more ads of regular autumnal visitor to Montreal. fever within the city in the years that fol- the same size, and receive After denying the severity of the cri- lowed. In fact, smallpox, diphtheria, and 40% off each ad! sis throughout the entire year of 1909, the scarlet fever were also frequent visitors, Purchase a full year and receive an guilt-ridden municipal administration but never anything as serious as the win- additional 10% off! shrewdly offered a grant of $15,000 to ter of 1909-1910. Regular manifestations the emergency hospital within a few days of typhoid in the city dwindled when FULL-PAGE of its opening. Annoyed with the in- Montreal finally established its water fil- 10 inches (25.5 cm) high tractability of the city throughout the af- tration plant around the time of the end of 7.5 inches (19 cm) wide fair, the Citizens’ Committee (the admin- the First World War. However, there was $400.00 (Special: $240.00) istrators of the temporary infirmary) pru- one other major outbreak of the disease Back cover or inside page, colour dently refused to accept the eleventh- in 1927, although this time it was due to hour money. Needless to say, relations the milk supply furnished by one particu- $500.00 (Special: $300.00) between the two bodies were very poor. lar dairy company. HALF-PAGE Near the end of January, and just The battered building that at one two weeks before a critical municipal time served as the Montreal Typhoid 5 inches (12.5 cm) high election, the city administration was Emergency Hospital has once again been 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) wide pleading with the press and others not to boarded up. It is a credit to those devoted, $235.00 (Special: $141.00) belittle Montreal with regard to the ty- hardworking angels of mercy, most of Colour $300.00 (Special: $180.00) phoid situation, lest one bring harm to the whom were volunteers, who toiled there “the city’s good name.” Indeed, Montre- well over a century ago that only six indi- THIRD-PAGE al’s annual winter carnival was scheduled viduals died within its walls from the aw- (COLUMN ONLY) to open on January 27, in the midst of the ful affliction. typhoid outbreak, and the municipal au- 10 inches (25.5 cm) high thorities were already concerned for its 2.25 inches (5.75 cm) wide success. Robert N. Wilkins (robertnwilkins $200.00 (Special: $120.00) By the time the lease for the Mon- @yahoo.ca) is a local historian and treal Typhoid Emergency Hospital was to freelance writer. You can read his blog QUARTER-PAGE expire on April 1, the worst phases of the at rnwilkins.wordpress.com. 5 inches (12.5 cm) high epidemic were over, and the crisis facility 3.25 inches (8.5 cm) wide $125.00 (Special: $75.00) BUSINESS CARD 2.5 inches (6.5 cm) high 3.5 inches (9 cm) wide $75.00 (Special: $45.00)

FREQUENCY, DEADLINES AND SPECIFICATIONS 4 issues annually Deadlines: Spring (early March 2014); Summer (early June 2014); Fall (early Septem- ber 2014); Winter (early December 2014) Resolution required: Minimum 300 DPI By email at: [email protected]

Interior, old Northern Electric Building, 2013. 13 Photo: Robert N. Wilkins. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS 2014 QAHN CONVENTION IN STANBRIDGE EAST by Matthew Farfan record-setting 70 delegates, QAHN’s mission remains as valid today preservation is an uphill battle, and in members and guests from as when it was adopted back in 2009. many cases, a losing battle. But it is a bat- around Quebec took part in the QAHN, he recalled, is “‘engaged in pro- tle that we as a group cannot give up on, annual convention of the Que- moting the preservation of the built, cul- and one that we will continue to wage becA Anglophone Heritage Network. The tural and natural heritage of Quebec,” and on behalf of the heritage community of event took place under sunny skies on “aims to advance the knowledge of the Quebec.” June 7 in historic Stanbridge East in the history of Quebec’s English-speaking QAHN Montreal Committee member Eastern Townships. communities by informing and connecting Carol Meindl outlined her committee’s ac- The annual general meeting was held people through its activities. Membership tivities. She highlighted the Wine and within the cool confines of Stanbridge is open to anyone with an interest in Que- Cheese held at the Black Community Re- East United Church. Built in 1885, the bec history, heritage and culture.’” source Centre in Montreal in April. “That lovely brick church has an unusual fea- event,” she said, “was so successful, we ture: a floor that slopes gently towards the plan to make it an annual thing.” pulpit, theatre-style, providing for greater Heather Darch discussed the 15-month visibility. “Security for Heritage Outreach and Treasurer Richard Evans emphasized Workshop Initiative” (SHOWI). She and the good financial health of the organiza- Dwane Wilkin, she said, had organized tion and the continuing support from the conferences on various aspects of security funders. He also said that he was “pleased at heritage sites, including the security of to see among the familiar faces some new premises, collections, personnel and web- ones, suggesting that QAHN is continuing sites. To date, she said, conferences had to reach new people who share our inter- taken place in Quebec City, New Rich- ests.” mond, Eaton Corner, Montreal and Wake- President Simon Jacobs outlined the field, with another scheduled for Stan- strategies that QAHN would be adopting bridge East. She mentioned also that a se- in the coming years. These, he said, in- ries of 10 handbooks had been published clude increasing outreach, improving and that a CD was in the works. communications, broadening QAHN’s connections with organizations outside of traditional circles, and collaboration with the Fédération Histoire Québec. The president welcomed several new member-organizations that had recently joined the network. He then explained that QAHN would be adopting a new strategic Summing up what had been another plan during the meeting. busy year, the executive director said that QAHN had organized or partnered in four different student contests. He spoke of the Mapping the Mosaic website, which had received an award, and which had been praised in the Senate as “a community- driven chronicle of cultural identity and place.” He outlined outreach at communi- ty events around the province. He men- tioned the Arts, Culture and Heritage Following an overview by Simon Ja- Summit in Montreal, organized in partner- cobs, QAHN’s new 5-year strategic plan ship with the English Language Arts Net- was then adopted unanimously by dele- work and the Department of Canadian gates. The meeting concluded with elec- The result of months of study, the plan, Heritage. Finally, he noted QAHN’s ef- tions, with all directors returned and for- the president said, “would guide QAHN forts on the part of local heritage. He cited mer director Sandra Stock elected to a va- through the next five years.” properties that had not fared so well -- like cant seat on the board. Executive Director Matthew Farfan ex- the Redpath Mansion. “The fate of these After the meeting, participants gathered plained that despite a new strategic plan, sites,” he said, “is a reminder that heritage at the Stanbridge East Community Centre

Top: Stanbridge East United Church. Photo: courtesy. Bottom left: 2014-2015 QAHN Board. Bottom right: SHOWI Project 14 manager Heather Darch. Photos: Matthew Farfan. SUMMER 2014 for an awards ceremony and a delicious According to nominator Jim Caputo of commitment to its heritage mission, its ca- banquet catered by Les Saveurs d’Antan Heritage Gaspé, "No one more deserves pacity to adapt to changing conditions, of Bedford. Following a welcome by Stan- this honour and displays what Marion and its facility in collaborating with other bridge East Deputy Mayor Ron Stewart Phelps stood for." heritage partners. Now in its 116th year, and MRC Brome-Missisquoi Cultural Michel Racicot, of the Sir John John- the historical society is a fitting recipient Agent Edward Humphrey, guests were son Centennial Branch, said they ranked of the Richard Evans Award.” treated to a presentation on the McGill- "among the finest examples of true volun- Des Rivières Family of Notre-Dame-de- teerism." Stanbridge. Brian Young, an emeritus pro- During their acceptance speech, Lank- fessor at McGill University, and Béatrice tree and Hall said that they were surprised Kowaliczko, a passionate local historian, and humbled. “We knew Marion Phelps enthralled guests with a chronicle of a personally, and we feel very honoured,” heritage property known as Malmaison. they said. “We have been members of A highlight of the day was the presen- QAHN since it was founded in 2000, and tation of QAHN’s annual heritage we have many happy memories of this achievement awards. wonderful organization.” For the first time, the Marion Phelps The Richard Evans Award, named after MHS president Michel Barrette accept- Award, named after Quebec’s doyenne of QAHN’s founding president (and current ed the award on behalf of the MHS. "We local history, was presented to two people treasurer), is presented annually to an or- are honoured, and we invite you all to vis- – two remarkable sisters, in fact. The ganization or group of volunteers who, it the museum, which is currently featur- award, which honours outstanding long- collectively, have contributed to preserv- ing an exhibition called '50 Objects for 50 term contributions by individuals to the ing or promoting their community history, Years: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of preservation and promotion of Anglo- including some aspect of Quebec’s Anglo- the Missisquoi Museum.'" phone heritage in Quebec, went to phone heritage. Following the awards ceremony, atten- Louise Hall and Adelaide Lanktree. This year, the Missisquoi Historical So- dees were treated to guided tours of Between them, the sisters have totaled ciety of Stanbridge East was selected for Hodge’s Store and the Cornell Mill, both over a century of outstanding volunteer the honour. within short walking distance of the com- contributions to local community and her- Established in 1899, the MHS is one of munity centre. itage organizations. the oldest historical societies in Quebec. Staff and volunteers with the historical The Missisquoi Museum, established by society then led a convoy to the nearby the historical society 50 years ago this village of Mystic, where visitors explored year, includes the Cornell Grist Mill on the splendid Walbridge Barn, which is Pike River (1830); Hodge's General Store unique in the world. (1841); and the 12-Sided Walbridge Barn in Mystic (1882). In the words of the Hemmingford Archives, the MHS is "an inspiring exam- ple of community museums at their best." Or, as nominators Brian Young and Béa- trice Kowaliczko (themselves residents of For over 20 years, they have been Stanbridge East) have said, "the museum's members of the Sir John Johnson Centen- exhibitions have been central factors in nial Branch of the United Empire Loyal- encouraging an understanding of Mis- ists' Association of Canada. Lanktree is sisquoi history, and objects from its col- This year’s convention was supported the treasurer of La Société de restauration lection have traveled to exhibitions across in part by the MRC of Brome-Missisquoi, du patrimoine Johnson, a group working Canada... Over the past years, the histori- the Municipality of Stanbridge East, and to restore the Sir John Johnson burial cal society has accelerated its involvement local MP Pierre Jacob. vault on Mont Saint-Grégoire. in local heritage. In 2010, for example, it Feedback from participants has been Hall has volunteered at the Brome- erected a panel on the Eccles Hill site of a very positive. One delegate reported that Missisquoi Perkins Hospital in Cowans- Fenian Raid. Hodge’s Store was re- her group had been “inspired." Another ville for an astonishing 70 years. Since designed in 2012 and is now equipped told us that “everyone had enjoyed them- 2002, she has been a member of Le Petit with a multi-media system. Perhaps the selves thoroughly.” Still another called the Musée BMP Heritage, a museum commit- historical society’s most exciting recent AGM “one of the best I have been to.” ted to preserving the hospital's history. innovation was the installation in 2010 of Both sisters have served on the Comité du its agricultural collection at the Walbridge patrimoine in their hometown of Farnham. Barn. This marriage of an outstanding Hall founded the Farnham library, which agricultural collection with one of the ar- now bears her name. Both have been sup- chitectural gems of rural Quebec repre- porters of QAHN since the beginning. sents perfectly the historical society’s

Left: Jim Caputo and his mystery objects. Photo: Matthew Farfan. Top right: Missisquoi Museum. Photo: Kathy Teasdale. Bottom right: New 15 members Vincent D’Agostino and Nathalie Cloutier. Photo: Matthew Farfan. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Lunch time. Photo: Rohinton Ghandhi. Guest speakers Brian Young and Béatrice Kowaliczko. Photo: M. Farfan.

Left to right: President Simon Jacobs; Adelaide Lanktree; Louise Hall; and Michel Racicot. Photo: M. Farfan. Left to right: Executive Director Matthew Farfan; MHS President Michel Barrette; and Simon Jacobs. Photo: Kathy Teasdale.

Hodge’s Store. Photo: M. Farfan. Touring Hodge’s Store. Photo: M. Farfan.

After lunch. Photo: R. Ghandhi.

16 SUMMER 2014

At the Cornell Mill, Missisquoi Museum. Photo: M. Farfan. Walbridge Barn, Missisquoi Museum. Photo: M. Farfan.

Exhibits at Missisquoi Museum. Photo: M. Farfan.

Exhibits at Missisquoi Museum. Photo: K. Teasdale.

Ceiling, Walbridge Barn. Photo: M. Farfan.

Agricultural collection, Walbridge Barn. Photo: M. Farfan.

Scenes from the 2014 QAHN Convention.

17 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

CANADA DAY, MONTREAL-STYLE by Elisabeth Dent

t's July 1st, 2012, and I'm in a car government decided to change the law so by the smug satisfaction I feel when I see stopped behind a large moving students could complete their school year people moving large appliances down rick- truck. People are moving washers, without having to move. Instead of abol- ety winding stairs in the hot sunshine. Glad dryers, fridges, and all kinds of ishing the everyone-moves-in-one-day it's not me. My friends in BC could never “stuff”I into the truck from the sidewalk. rule, they moved it to July 1st. understand. There are more people taking boxes Everyone moving on the same day has The 2012 move actually started in ear- from a different pile of “stuff” and mov- parking, financial, and logistical implica- ly June, and was an exercise in teamwork ing them up the winding staircase to an tions. Moving trucks are booked solid for and logistical planning. My soon-to-be apartment on the second floor. The mov- weeks, and the price goes up exponentially roommate Nick wanted to rent a truck and ing truck is parallel-parked dangerously during this period. And you don't get the move items ourselves. I was having none close to a Hyundai on the right-hand truck all day either, it's booked by the hour. of it. I like to think of myself as a capable side of the one-way street. But woman, but where I come from, I can't get through the left- fridges, stoves, washers and dry- hand side because there is a ers come with your apartment. I car parked there too. I'm have no prior skills for heavy, trapped with cars lining up be- awkward lifting into 100-year- hind me. Impatient honking old doorways. Nick reluctantly squawks from several cars agreed to get movers. To compile back. Damp, hot garbage is our furniture, we coordinated a piled up on the sidewalk and pick-up at his house in St. Henri, the smell intermingles with followed by mine in Verdun. We the exhaust. I'm sweat- then arrived at our new home drenched and only half-way which was still occupied by the through my move. previous tenants for another Since moving to Montreal month. They allowed us to move almost nine years ago, this is my the majority of our furniture into dominant memory of Canada a large, unoccupied bedroom. Day. In Quebec, Canada Day is This saved us from paying the Moving Day. Moving Day is the exorbitant mark-up that movers day on which most of the leases and moving trucks charge within for rental properties begin. That means that It's a race against time and space as you the surrounding weeks of Moving Day. We if you are going to move, you'll likely be move into still-occupied, still-filthy apart- were lucky that the previous tenants (a doing it at the same time as tens of thou- ments. punk-rock couple with matching extended sands of other households (the numbers I've lived in seven different rental earlobes) let us do this; however, it took a vary) on July 1st. apartments since living in Montreal. I've leap of faith to have our stuff sitting in If that sounds insane, it is. From my only moved on Moving Day three times, someone else's house for a month. rudimentary research, it seems that this yet the trauma will be forever etched into For the rest of June, Nick and I slept “tradition” comes from laws from feudal my memory. I admit I've mostly forgotten on the old furniture we no longer wanted at times. Seigneurs were forbidden to evict about Canada Day altogether. Each “sta- our respective homes. We had only our tenant farmers until after the snows had tionary” July 1st is peppered with over- clothes, amenities, and the few items we melted. The old “Fête du déménagement” whelming relief. I escaped la journée na- needed to prepare food that didn't require was May1st. In the 1970s, the Quebec tionale du déménagement! I'm distracted refrigeration. It was kind of like camping. Nick allowed the new tenant replacing him to move her furniture in early. He lived in a This story, and the following ones by Casey Lambert and Amy Fish, are the results maze of her boxes while his cat, Squigit, of the “StoryNet” project, administered by QAHN in partnership with the Quebec hid in the packed furniture. Writers’ Federation and with funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage. Finally, when July 1st rolled around, Emerging authors were matched with established writers who served as mentors we rented a car, collected the cat, and ar- through the process of producing original non-fiction articles. Quebec Heritage rived at our new home. The punk-rock News is pleased to publish these articles as an ongoing feature. couple were still in the process of moving out. There were two large turtles in a tank

18 "Moving Day, Montreal," c.1930. Photo: McCord Museum, MP-1984.105.16. SUMMER 2014 in my new room which terrified the already warned me about the bush party. Unwel- my day was still largely intact. I noticed inconsolable Squigit. We were delighted to come. that, unlike on St. Jean Baptiste, stores, discover that the punk rockers had cleaned This year, having realized that I had restaurants, even grocery stores were open. the house before exiting, which is a rarity never attempted to celebrate Canada Day Canada Day simply stood as one of many here in Montreal – I've never moved into a in Quebec, I set out for le Vieux-Port for excuses to have a day off (or a party) in the clean house before. We offered them some Montreal's Canada Day celebrations. I middle of summer. Except that there was whiskey around 11 p.m., when they had searched for the telltale colours of red and more furniture out on lawns and curbs. come for the last of their things. white as I approached, dressed in a red While the overall sensibility of Que- This year, with all the hullaballoo tank-top and off-white capris. Until mov- bec is heritage and culture-focused, my about the Best Buy flyers and their “Mov- ing to Quebec I never considered my na- Canadian-ness doesn't permit me to be so. ing Day Sale,” I thought about Canada Day tional or linguistic identity. Now “where I Celebrating Canada Day makes sense for – the other holiday. I realized that I had was raised, and the language I speak” are tourists and families, but for me (if I'm not never actually celebrated it since moving to considerations of daily life. I realized, as I moving) it's simply a day off. An extra day Montreal. This wasn't just because of Mov- entered the Canada Day horde, that I rarely to get my groceries, do my laundry, clean ing Day, either. The real national holiday think of myself as Canadian anymore. I'm my house, or soak up the sun. I celebrate here is St. Jean Baptiste. I only attempted a west-coast girl. Nature lover. by not celebrating at all. A day of rest is to partake in Bonne Saint Jeans once but Anglophone. At times, I feel like I have precious no matter what colours you end made a hasty retreat. I've never been able more culturally in common with people up wearing. to sort out the differences between sepa- from Oregon or California than I do with ratism and nationalism with my limited un- people from Ontario or Quebec. Elisabeth Dent ended up in Montreal after derstanding of French and outsider status. Approaching the throng at the Old her employment onboard a passenger train While I live, work, and vote in this Port, I was in a conflux of children, that did trips between “la belle provinc” province, I don't always feel part of its po- strollers, couples, and families. I crossed and her native Vancouver ended abruptly litical debate. the street from Place Jacques Cartier to a in 2004. In order to convince friends at My first exposure to la Fête nationale collection of people who were line dancing home that she wasn't a total loser, she was when I lived and worked in Lake to Lady Gaga music. As I wove between started taking writing workshops a few Louise in 2001. While I had moved there food stands, food trucks and lineups, the years later. She never really learned from BC, the national parks were well- fête reminded me of other popular festivals French very well but she definitely got bet- populated with twenty-something Québé- on the Montreal calendar. Canada Day was ter at English. cois. It was hard to keep staff in the parks, just a re-branded Fête nationale. Red and so youth from all over Canada flocked white instead of blue and there with the promise of guaranteed work white. National holidays and adventure. Ironically, Banff and Lake blend together. When I Louise tourism focuses heavily on market- worked at the hotel in ing Canadiana. Tourists come on the Cana- Lake Louise, we'd serve dian railway to drink Canadian wine. They pieces of a giant white eat Canadian bison burgers on a terrace cake with strawberries flanked by the Canadian Rockies. On June shaped in the Canadian 24th, in the staff accommodations of the flag to tourists on Cana- hotel in Lake Louise where I worked, a da Day. We did the same bunch of the staff were getting ready for a thing three days later on bush party, and I asked Celanie if I could the 4th of July, only the come. cake had strawberries blanchard ad “Um, you can but...well, no one will and blueberries (to show be speaking English there,” she warned, the stars and stripes.) her brow scrunching. Contemplating the I decided not to go. I didn't really fanfare, bouncy castles, know what St. Jean was about, anyway. and children-oriented Since I lived in Montreal, I attempted games, I was ready – the St. Jean Baptiste parade in 2008. I had within an hour – to re- been taking Francization classes through turn home. No fireworks the provincial government and this time for me. Canada Day was ready to use my français. I arrived at wasn't any more relat- the parade, full of folk music and large able than St. Jean Bap- puppets. People were dressed in blue and tiste was. waving Quebec flags. I didn't relate. When I headed home, I found out that Anglophone bands were sweaty and annoyed, as I removed from the celebrations in 2009, I get when I am in masses felt the same way I did when Celanie of people. Fortunately,

19 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

SWA SOLOMON GURSKY HERE? Literary ghosts in the snow by Casey Lambert

t wasn’t the tree-cracking cold spell daylight I was forced to pedal onward, their school in a dog sled and picked nine- of 1851, like when Ephraim Gursky leaving the region without seeing much of year-old Solomon to accompany him on a and his team of twelve dogs anything. long journey. He told a friend they were “emerged out of the winds and That night, I hatched an idea to return heading to Montana, but when they were Iswirling snows of the frozen Lake Mem- to Lake Memphremagog during the win- out of sight he steered the dogsled north. phremagog,” but I still found myself in ter and make myself at home on the ice When Solomon asked where they were the dead of a Quebec winter amidst a just as Ephraim had done in the opening going, Ephraim said, “Far.” stiff breeze strong enough to propel kite- pages of Solomon Gursky Was Here. To which Solomon responded, “Are skiers at breakneck speeds along the Lacking a broadsword and igloo-building you drunk again, zeyda?” lake’s icy surface. Ephraim, the patriarch skills, I read up on how to make a They travelled through the night for of the Gursky clan, Canada’s own Jewish quinzhee (pronounced Quincy), which is the first week and in the morning Corleones, who romp through the Ephraim would brandish his pages of Mordecai Richler’s broadsword to cut snow blocks charged novel Solomon Gursky and build an igloo. After months Was Here, was a small fierce together on the trail they made it character arriving in Magog wear- to the top—the Polar Sea, which ing sealskins with Orthodox Jew- was where Ephraim revealed to ish tassels and a clerical collar. Solomon that he would be staying When asked where he was from, to live among the Inuit. Solomon he replied “the North.” When was given the dogs, one rifle and asked where in the North, he sim- half their ammunition for the re- ply said, “Far.” turn trip on his own. While Magog’s menfolk The notion of being recog- looked on, Ephraim unsheathed a nized by a grandfather as some- broadsword from his sled and one with a unique gift was also a carved out large blocks of hard- theme in Richler’s earlier novel ened snow that he used to build an The Apprenticeship of Duddy efficient igloo. “The men turned Kravitz. Charles Foran’s biogra- up early the next morning, fully expecting just a fancy word for a pile of snow with a phy Mordecai suggests that Richler felt a to find Ephraim dead. Frozen stiff. Instead hole in it. special connection with his maternal they found him squatting over a hole in Part of the allure was to see whether grandfather, Yudel Rosenberg, a promi- the ice.” Not only had he already pulled spending a night out in a frozen landscape nent Montreal rabbi. Although the rabbi some perch from the lake, there was a could bring me a slice of Gursky forti- died when Richler was a young boy, the buck hanging on a pole that had just been tude. Ephraim had it in spades when he impression that his zeyda saw something dressed. swindled himself and his kosher food on- in him was carried well into his adult- I was thinking about Ephraim when I to the Erebus during the Franklin expedi- hood. cycled up the western shore of Lake tion, and his chosen grandson Solomon On a sunny Saturday afternoon I Memphremagog this past summer. I was had it when, as a teenager, he won the stepped onto the frozen Memphremagog looking forward to seeing the lake and the deed to a hotel in a high-stakes poker Lake at the beach in Magog expecting to cottage country that I had read about in game. share the ice with only a few idle ice fish- Richler’s novels. I envisioned setting up Solomon and his brothers, Bernard ermen. Instead, I stumbled into an almost camp on a secluded cove before going for and Morrie, went on to become the conti- carnival atmosphere with colourful kites a drink at one of his old watering holes. nent’s premier liquor barons, bootlegging pulling skiers and snowboarders across But from my bike I managed only cursory their way to immense riches. But before the ice, dozens of mobile shacks scattered glances at the lake’s tranquil waters as all moving into their Upper Westmount man- near the beach, most of them occupied by the lakefront acreage seemed to be swal- sions, the Gursky brothers were kids people waiting for a fish to tug on their lowed up by private cottages, private growing up in Saskatchewan. One winter line, and an assortment of vehicles roads, private yacht clubs. Running out of day, a 91-year-old Ephraim arrived at buzzing along the ice—cars, trucks, quads Author’s quinzhee, Lake Memphremagog, Quebec. 20 Photo: Casey Lambert. SUMMER 2014 and, most of all, snowmobiles. I even best-selling signs at local hardware stores, the caption “my bed for the night.” I am spotted a guy riding a bicycle. There was “private property” and “do not enter”. not sure when I fell asleep but at 10:30 a thin hard layer of snow covering the ice With only an hour or two of daylight p.m. I woke abruptly, no longer pleased. I so I was anxious about where I would left I retrieved a compact shovel from my struggled to loosen the cords cinching my find enough material to build my backpack and started shifting snow into sleeping bag around my face, but that did- quinzhee. Leaving my fellow ice-lake en- what I hoped would soon be a functional n’t alleviate my claustrophobia—some- thusiasts behind, I plodded south on plas- home. For the first ten minutes, my shov- thing I haven’t contended with since I was tic snowshoes hoping to walk as far as el seemed as useful as a spoon, as repeat- a child stuck underneath a bed. I wasn’t in Sargent’s Bay, the location of the Richler ed scoops of snow had no perceptible im- panic mode yet, but, unable to divert my family cottage. pact on the height of my meagre pile. thoughts from the cracked walls and the Noah Richler once called this “the Eventually a hump took shape and hun- mass of snow above me, I knew that the place where my father had been happiest, dreds of shovel loads later it was above status quo was not going to do. and which told him, I imagine, that he’d my knees. I worked continuously for the My backup plan in case my quinzhee arrived.” Mordecai grew up on St. Urbain next hour and was relieved to see a coni- failed was to drive back to Montreal and Street in Montreal, but as a 19-year-old he cal pile of snow that peaked near my spend the night in the dilapidated Morde- ventured across the Atlantic for a short shoulders. I smacked it with my shovel to cai Richler Gazebo in Mount Royal Park. but boisterous stay in France and then a pack the snow and shape it so it would be Not eager to walk three hours back to my much longer stay in England, where he long enough to conceal me while lying car in the dark, I squirmed out of the tun- established himself as a writer, a husband, down. nel and re-entered it feet first. and a father. After a 20-year absence he Ideally the pile should be left alone Sleep would not come easy—I was returned with his wife Florence and their for several hours allowing the snow to now kept awake by a steady assault of five children to his cherished city and, bond, but with daylight fading and no snowflakes on my face. When I did fall like the Gurskys, bought a house asleep, my dreams were vivid but in Westmount. Two years later far from pleasant. In one I was at- they added a second home with tacked by a pack of wolves, in the purchase of a white cottage another by a pack of teenagers, perched above Sargent’s Bay. It and more than once I awoke from had everything they wanted, ac- a nightmare only to discover I cording to Foran, “including a was still dreaming, forced to con- central second-floor space for an tend with some new menace. office for Richler and plenty of As disagreeable as all this fairly level ground for a garden sounds (and I haven’t even men- for Florence.” tioned peeing on the inside walls The cottage is no longer in of my cavern or eating pad-thai the Richler family, and the con- noodles without utensils) part of tents of his second-floor study the reason I was out there was to have recently been transferred to see what happens when forced the English Department at Con- outside my comfort zone—to ex- cordia University. Spread across two adja- idea how long it would take to hollow out plore what suppressed emotions creep out cent rooms on the 6th floor of the Library a sufficient cavern, I started in almost im- in the middle of a cold, lonely night. But Building are Richler’s books, desk, type- mediately. I was half of a body length in perhaps the real payoff from this type of writer, a photo of Maurice Richard and when I heard a thud and felt snow col- experience is seeing how quickly distress even a final Davidoff cigar that he never lapsing on me. Luckily it was only a small and impending doom evaporate at dawn’s got to light up before his death in 2001. chunk above the entrance that had fallen, first light. The doors are locked but one can peer but a fracture on both interior walls was Because of their tribulations in the through the windows any time of the day now visible. Undeterred I kept burrowing Far North, Ephraim and Solomon Gursky or night. on my hands and knees, emerging often to stand apart from the other characters in My march down the lake took most clear the discarded snow. When I thought the novel. They exude extreme confi- of the afternoon. After three hours of un- I was getting close to the end I went out- dence and they instill in others, the reader eventful walking by the wooded shore- side and stuck a series of twigs into the included, the belief that they can achieve line, I came to a small island that had walls. Crawling inside with my headlamp anything, even the impossible: Ephraim been barely visible from the beach in Ma- to see if the twigs were visible, I was surviving the Franklin expedition (in part gog. On the leeward side of what I would alarmed to see almost the full length of because his kosher food wasn’t contami- later learn is Lord’s Island, I was delight- one poking in at the end of the tunnel. nated), Solomon staging his own death in ed to find eight inches of soft snow cover- By 7 p.m. I was inside my sleeping a plane crash during a murder trial and ing the ice. Not far from where I would bag inching my way headfirst into the surfacing years later across the Atlantic as establish camp was a shoddy staircase cave. Pleased with myself, I took a photo a knighted aristocrat. leading to the island’s interior, and at the with my phone looking down towards the His older brother Bernard, partner top of the stairs stood what must be the dark entrance and sent it to friends with and rival, recognized a change in

Shacks on Lake Memphremagog. Photo: Casey Lambert. 21 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Solomon after his return from the north. vantage on the lake’s surface I had seen one.” This was a paraphrased remark In a seminal event in the novel the three what I came to see—Richler’s pocket of from literary critic Cyril Connolly, that Gursky brothers were at the fence watch- the Townships. The wooded hills, twisting Foran claims “had meant so much to the ing their father conduct a horse auction, around the secluded bay, backdropped by young Mordecai Richler.” Asked by Rex when Solomon casually jumped “into the low mountains in the distance. The place Murphy if Solomon Gursky Was Here was flow of nervy horses in the corral.” where he was the happiest. his attempt at a masterpiece, Richler an- Bernard conceded that “Solomon had re- Richler wrote three of his six major swered: “They were all attempts to make turned blessed with a certain grace, an in- novels there, Joshua Then and Now, a masterpiece but they were all failures ... ner stillness. And watching him now, at Solomon Gursky Was Here, and Barney’s You start off with dreams of perfection. It ease with the wild mustangs, Bernard Version. Cottage life on Memphremagog never ends up that way.” grasped that had he been the one to jump appeared in all three novels, but it was Whether or not Richler thought into the corral, probably stumbling in the most prevalent in Solomon Gursky. Not Gursky was his best work, it is undeniable dust, they would have smelled his fear only did Richler write the Gurskys into that he put more into it than any other and reared up on their hind legs, snorting, actual historical events like the Franklin novel. Rex Murphy said it “stole five looking to take a chomp out of him... he expedition, Marilyn Monroe’s death, years from Richler” but the elapsed time watched Solomon crossing that cor- from start to finish was closer to ral, he watched choking on envy 16 years. Foran notes that a and hatred, and yet, for all that, he “small but tenacious group, Flo- yearned for Solomon’s approval.” rence Richler prominent among I am not naive enough to think them, believed the hard-won that one sleep-deprived night on a Solomon Gursky Was Here to be frozen lake will be enough to bless his masterpiece.” me with stillness, grace or Gursky For my part I concur. Gursky chutzpah. My only hope is that any is among only a handful of novels glimmer of wisdom accrued during that I would consider a master- this ice capade will stay with me piece. It is clear to me that I have longer than the blisters on my feet. a better chance making my for- The first thing I did after dress- tune at a high-stakes poker game ing and packing in the morning was than writing anything close to as to climb atop my quinzhee and try complex, biting, imaginative, be- to collapse it. Jumping up and down, it Mao’s Long March, and Watergate, he al- guiling or funny. That leaves me with felt like I was on solid ground. Back on so wrote his real Townships drinking bud- Cyril’s second option, turning my life into the ice with my shovel I was able to break dies into the Gurskys’ fictional world. a masterpiece. Unfortunately my dim fi- off small sections, whack by whack, but I Their local pub the Owl’s Nest became nancial prospects mean that this master- couldn’t trigger the catastrophic collapse I the Caboose, and Richler’s associates piece will have to make do without a had feared all night. Sweet Pea, Dipstick, Buzz, Coz and Buff sprawling cottage in the woods above Determined to see Sargent’s Bay I re- became Strawberry, Legion Hall, Rabbit, Sargent’s Bay. But in the dead of winter I sumed my trek southward. At least ten Bunk and Sneaker. can always go back to the ice, summon centimetres of wet, heavy snow had fallen The more controversial Quebecers to my inner Gursky, and spend the night in a during the night so my pace was sluggish. inspire characters in the novel were the snow cave. Turning the corner at the mouth of the Bronfmans. In the author’s note on the fi- bay, I could see the pyramidal spire of nal page, Richler claimed, “I made the Sources: Saint-Benoît-du-Lac Abbey high above Gurskys up out of my own head.” While Charles Foran, Mordecai, the Life and the trees, but a more interesting piece of that may have been true for Solomon and Times, Toronto, 2010. architecture made to house cattle, not holy Ephraim, there are too many similarities men, was visible in the foreground. Next between the Gurskys and the Bronfmans Rex Murphy, “The Journal,” CBC Televi- to a rare farmhouse persisting along the for Richler’s claim to be taken seriously. sion, November 17, 1989. lakefront is one of only seven round barns Both Bernard Gursky and Samuel Bronf- that remain in the Townships. man got their start on the prairies trading Noah Richler, “My Dad, The Movie, a To find Richler’s cottage, Charles horses and buying up hotels before be- nd Me,” Walrus Magazine, October 2010. Foran had told me to look for a white coming liquor magnates with Upper house in the farthest recess of Sargent’s Westmount mansions, and both counted Casey Lambert is a mechanical engineer Bay. It would be recognizable by an addi- Eleanor Roosevelt as a house guest. and Mordecai Richler enthusiast who en- tion made to accommodate a snooker An epigraph for Solomon Gursky joys traveling and writing in his spare table. Looking towards the deep recesses Was Here reads: “Cyril once observed time. He would like to thank Mark Abley in the bay I saw two white houses perched that the only reason for writing was to for his adept guidance in writing this above the lake; either could have been the create a masterpiece. But if you haven’t article. Richler home. By this point I wasn’t con- got it in you to make a great work of art cerned with its precise location. From my there is another option – you can become

Interior, quinzhee, Lake Memphremagog. Photo: Casey Lambert. 22 SUMMER 2014

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23 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

JSTU VISITING The world inside the gates of the Trois-Rivières prison by Amy Fish

y husband is poring over the travel sec- The toys are interesting, colourful and invite you to explore tion of The Gazette and I’m thinking, oh an alternate world, similar to The Hobbit or the Lion, the good. Maybe he’ll find a cheap trip to Witch and the Wardrobe. Cuba. I must be one of the twelve Mon- Videos explain how the toys were made, and how, had Mtrealers who has never been to Club Varadero Beach they not been encased in glass, they would be able to move Palace. around. The exhibit offers no background about Mr. Pellerin “Hey look at this! Great place to take the kids!” he – we are expected to be familiar with his work. I take a pic- says, tearing out the article. ture of the exhibit sign and make a mental note to read up on I mentally pack my beach bag, wondering if I’ll have him later. time for a pre-flight pedicure. Meanwhile, my eldest beckons me to the next stop: “The Prison in Trois-Rivières has been converted to a Crimes of Quebec. “Razors! Used in a criminal’s suicide! museum. Tours are available every –” C’mon Mom. Seriously.” A prison? In Trois-Rivières? I He is truly amazed by the range glance down at my toes sadly, already of artefacts on display – a bank safe missing Cuba. Instead, I say nothing, blown open, knives used in bank rob- but prepare to let his brilliant idea beries, and a few original police uni- fade. forms from throughout Quebec. Fast-forward a few months. An I notice the explanations are print- old friend of my husband’s invites us ed in English, French and… Spanish. I all to a Nativity-Christmas-in-Bethle- am pleasantly surprised, but at the hem re-enactment. same time wondering what the muse- “I know you’re Jewish,” the um’s motives are. Are they trying to email reads, “but I thought maybe you would be interested encourage tourism? Do they want to accommodate Eng- in learning more about the birth of Jesus Christ.” lish-speaking Quebecers like ourselves? Are they recipients I politely decline the invitation and offer an alternative of a Federal grant that was only willing to support the muse- family outing: Let’s all go to the Prison Museum in Trois- um if there were English subtitles? Rivières. Having grown up in Quebec, I expect language to be And that’s how, on a very cold but not yet snowy day fraught with emotion. Even the telephones you can pick up in November, we came to load our three children (14, 12 to learn more about the exhibits are tri-lingual. I feel a and 8) into the car along with another couple and their 14- twinge of shame for being suspicious of the museum’s mo- year-old to head for a place 86 kilometres northwest of tives. Montreal. My grandmother used to call it Three Rivers. Maybe the Musée québécois de culture populaire is We park across the street from the large, greystone genuinely trying to welcome Anglophones like us. I have no building that looks exactly like what you would expect a reason to think the worst. But I can’t help myself. prison opened in 1822 to look like. A large, rectangular The sudden, familiar sound of shrieking coming from building, surrounded by a tall stone fence, also grey. the hallway snaps me out of skepticism. My boys are hav- We enter through large glass doors by way of an at- ing a wrestling match, just centimetres from the next exhib- tached modern building – le Musée québécois de culture it. While reading them the riot act, I notice a timeline on the populaire – and are confronted by a giant Christmas tree wall, introducing the final exhibit before the prison tour: La with plastic bananas and cherries instead of ornaments. For Petite Vie… which translates literally as the small life. a minute I think they’ve managed to sneak a Nativity re-en- Whose life? I wonder. Francophones living in remote actment past us, but no. rural communities throughout the province? Not knowing Being Jewish, we do not grasp the symbolism, and turn much about the outside world, and therefore having a Petite to our friends for guidance. They’re mystified too. We guess Vie? Or will the exhibit sing the praises of a sepia toned it’s a Trois-Rivières thing, and move on. time when the world was a smaller and therefore a simpler The first section is a series of sculptures and moving place? toys based on fables written by a guy named Fred Pellerin. As it turns out, neither. Never heard of him, but he clearly has a wild imagination. La Petite Vie is the longest running television show in

The young visitors in Trois-Rivières. Photo: Amy Fish. 24 SUMMER 2014

Quebec history. From 1993 to 1999, some 80% of the pos- guage is French but her husband spoke English and so – sible viewing audience tuned in to see the adventures of a typical of most immigrants in those days – they raised their dysfunctional family, week after slapstick week. children in an English milieu. At one point, the show was being aired the same night Her big news was meeting a celebrity. She was on a as a provincial election and there was concern citizens plane, sitting next to young guy. Everyone was pointing at would forfeit their turn at the polls to tune in. Somehow, we him, asking for his autograph, taking his picture. “I think I missed the whole thing. saw one young girl fishing his used napkin out of the trash,” I’m a third generation Quebecer. Fairly – but not per- she tells us, over chicken soup and matzo balls. fectly – bilingual. I have French- “Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. speaking friends and work with many I said to him: you are clearly very impor- Québécois colleagues. tant. Who are you?” Not once have I heard mention of Turned out it was Fred Pellerin. One this popular show that is now com- of Quebec’s most famous singer-per- pared to Seinfeld in terms of shaping – formers, and creator of a fantastical world and reflecting – the culture of an entire that inspired an entire exhibit of Quebec (Québécois) nation. artisans to build toys based on Pellerin’s Shame on me. I’ve spent so much fables. time wondering what “they” think of “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “me” and almost none immersing my- “Here’s this celebrity, everyone making self – or at least becoming passingly such a huge fuss about him. I’ve lived in familiar with – the culture of my own Montreal for decades and I’ve never province. heard his name mentioned. Kind of The mother in the show was played by a man. The fa- makes you think.” ther talks to his garbage. And there’s a running joke about Yes, it does. shepherd’s pie – oddly called pâté chinois in French. I wonder if we’d say the same after a trip to Memories The exhibit turns out to be a recreation of the show’s Paradiso Beach Club. set, including all the living room furniture, the bedroom and the kitchen, where the wallpaper is pink with cherries and bananas. Oh! Cherries and bananas. Amy Fish's first book The Art of Complaining Effective- The universal symbol for La Petite Vie. ly was published in March 2013. Amy blogs regularly Any one of the other eight million Quebecers walking at www.complaintdepartmentblog.blogspot.com. into the Musée would have seen the Christmas tree in the lobby and gotten the joke immediately. I’m on the outside looking in. I’m a tourist. How inter- esting, to see a show that swept a nation. Sort of like being in Charlottetown and first hearing about Anne of Green Gables. After taking pictures of our kids on the set of this TV show that we’ve never heard of, we continue on to the guid- ed prison tour. English tours are available, but we opt for French. I’m not one to order a burger at a pizzeria. Our relaxed and entertaining university student shows us the women’s prison, the men’s cells, the very small eating area and courtyard, and the pitch-black and disturbing soli- tary confinement. Kids were focused on the complete absence of bath- rooms in the prison. The buckets, how they were, uh, filled, The Gallop Group and where they were emptied. Personalized Investment Management For me, walking through the halls of one of the oldest detention centres in the country was made even more poignant in contrast to the evidence of an ever changing and [email protected] evolving Quebec culture that I know very little about. I walked out of the prison both grateful for the opportu- www.3macs.com nity to learn about history and resolved to watch all 59 1-800-567-4465 episodes and 3 specials of La Petite Vie. A few weeks later, my sister’s mother-in-law was at our house for Shabbat dinner. She was born in Egypt and moved to Montreal when she was 11 years old. Her first lan-

Crime and punishment at the Musée québécois de culture 25 populaire, Trois-Rivières. Photo: Amy Fish. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

D ISCOVERING THE ICE PALACE Montreal’s winter carnivals, 1883-89 by Justin Singh

The Ice Palace... reflecting the rays of along the St. Lawrence, made more so by winter season was still a much slower the sun, moon, or lesser constellations, the upgraded Lachine Canal (1840s), al- time of year for many merchants. There or sparkling with the myriad scintilla- lowed for the new, working-class neigh- was a general sense among international tions which their great earthly rival, borhoods of Saint Anne’s Ward or Point investors that Canadian winters were far Electricity, can conjure from its glacial Saint Charles to develop on its banks. too snowy and cold to warrant much trav- angles and prisms... a wondrous play of Closer to the city’s centre, locals would el to the city, not to mention the unfortu- colours. have noticed the fruits of an expanded nate fact that the St. Lawrence River was frozen from November to April. ecently, while search- Commercial activities would ing online through largely come to a stop during some historical web- Montreal’s winters, but in the sites, I stumbled upon a 1880s some intrepid groups of en- Rphoto of a large castle construct- trepreneurs attempted to make the ed in Dominion Square (today’s best of a difficult situation. Dorchester Square). The castle It was a lawyer by the name was in fact made completely of of Robert D. McGibbon who first ice, though easily large enough to came up with the idea to capitalize contain hundreds of people. The on Montreal’s cold season. photo was black and white, but I McGibbon’s idea in 1882 was to could still imagine the bright hold a Winter Carnival, which shimmer of sunshine reflecting would showcase Canadian winter off the central tower, which ri- lifestyle to tourists and upper-class valled the height of the Windsor Canadians alike – all the while Hotel behind it stimulating Montreal’s economy Never having heard of anything like railway network, as the Canadian Pacific during an otherwise slow time of year. this before, I set out to find out more Railway had just completed Dalhousie Leading this endeavour was the Montreal about the structure and where it fit into the Station in 1884 on the corner of Notre- Snow Shoe Club, along with several of city’s past. Although I have lived in the Dame and Berri. Only three short years Montreal’s major hotels and sporting suburbs of Montreal my entire life, it is later it would be overshadowed by the clubs. McGibbon’s leadership would re- only recently that I have taken an interest iconic Windsor Station, which stood as sult in five carnivals being held, in 1883, in the character and culture that has devel- CPR headquarters until 1996. 1884, 1885, 1887, and 1889. Each carni- oped here in the almost 400 years since its This growth stimulated increased val celebrated a variety of winter activi- founding. What I discovered in the photo commercial wealth, as well, and it was ties, including snowshoeing, hockey, to- was one of the earliest examples of our this rising commercial and merchant up- bogganing, skating, and curling. Comple- city’s long-standing and well-earned repu- per class that truly reveled in Montreal’s menting these events were skating mas- tation for festivals and culture: the Ice development, expanding their department querades and a society ball for the more Palace created for a Montreal Winter Car- stores and shops throughout the heart of affluent and well-known Montrealers. nival, five of which were held between the city. While one would still have head- The picture that caught my eye was 1883 and 1889. ed to Saint-Jacques or Notre-Dame streets of the Winter Carnival held from February Walking through Montreal streets in for the majority of one’s groceries, cloth- 4-9, 1884, the largest of the five carnivals the 1880s, one would have seen a rapidly ing, and market items, large department with an estimated 60,000 in attendance. growing city, in fact the most important stores such as W. H. Scroggie, Henry Planning for the event began the previous city in Canada. The population of Montre- Morgan & Co, and Ogilvy all established September. In the new year, locals would al at the beginning of the decade was a new premises on St. Catherine Street in begin to see the sculptures being built, ice substantial 140,000 people (not including the 1880s, slowly transforming it into the rinks set up and maintained, and other the suburbs), but would grow to 180,000 commercial artery we know today. preparations made throughout the city. In in less than ten years. Its crucial position Despite this impressive growth, the particular, walking through Dominion

Alexander Henderson, "Ice Palace, Montreal," 1884. 26 Photo: McCord Museum, MP-1975.19. SUMMER 2014

Square one would have seen the collec- castle. The spectacular light show was de- tion and placement of thousands of blocks scribed as a “fairy land,” with the fire- of ice, which would eventually become works and burning coloured lights turning the centrepiece of the carnivals. Those liv- the sky into a “rainbow hue” that lasted ing in the Golden Square Mile or closer to half an hour. As the battle came to a close, the mountain would have seen the con- the attacking army would overtake the struction of the large ramps and hills to be palace and claim victory. The battle over, used for tobogganing. In the weeks lead- both sides would converge and begin a ing up to the event, pamphlets were circu- torch-lit snowshoe walk up Mount Royal. lated, both locally and abroad, advertising From there, more fireworks were set off the coming event and detailing the variety before the train worked its way back of activities. These pamphlets explained down the mountain. This battle and subse- to foreign visitors, most of them Ameri- quent walk would mark the peak of the can, how Canadian men and women alike Winter Carnival. The ice palace that thrived in the cold environment and em- served as a setting was one of the only at- braced outdoor activity. One could experi- tractions available to wealthy and poor ence the “rush” and “feeling of flying” as- alike. sociated with tobogganing, the “poetry of In contrast to these public events, cer- motion” on the skating rink, and the na- tain aspects of the carnival were tailored tive-inspired yet quintessentially Canadi- exclusively to well-to-do Montrealers and an tradition of snowshoeing. In 1884 in foreign socialites. Masquerades, fancy- particular, one would have seen a descrip- goods and traditional Canadian apparel dress skating balls, and banquets were tion of lacrosse, which was played on ice such as felt and fur boots, tuques, and scheduled throughout the week. While the for the carnival despite being a summer moccasins. The souvenir pamphlets de- initial cost for attendance at social events sport, and was abandoned in subsequent tailed all the best stores and shopping des- was between $4 and $6 for men and years because it was not well understood tinations for those who arrived in the city women respectively, already beyond the by spectators. with money to spend. After all, this was reach of many local working and middle- Arriving in the city on February 4 the main reason behind McGibbon’s plan class families, these further required fancy would certainly have been an impressive for the carnival and the organizers were dress and costumes that had to be ap- sight to any visitor to Canada. The Grand nearly all merchants and entrepreneurs. proved beforehand by the Costume Com- Hockey Tournament had begun earlier in The highlight of Carnival week in mittee. This meant that these events were the day on the outdoor skating rink on the 1884 came on the Wednesday night, and almost exclusively attended by foreign McGill University grounds, drawing sub- centred on the Ice Palace. That year’s businessmen, carnival organizers, and lo- stantial crowds. The inaugural ceremony palace was made of roughly 10,000 cal elites. The largest and most prestigious took place in the evening at the Ice blocks of ice and measured some 160 feet social function was the Grand Ball, held Palace, which was illuminated by electric high – roughly three-quarters the height of on the Friday night of Carnival week. In- lights and a display of pyrotechnics. In the Notre Dame Basilica in Place vitees to this event included Canadian fact, fireworks would be set off every d’Armes, which stands at 220 feet. Situat- Governor General Lord Lansdowne and night of the week! The opening festivities ed across from the Windsor Hotel, the im- were complemented by an Illumination of pressive castle-like structure would catch the Grounds by the Montreal Toboggan- the sunlight during the day and shine with ing Club on Sherbrooke Street, and closed “crystal brilliancy.”At night, the palace out with a hockey game on the Victoria would be illuminated by electric lights so Skating Rink. onlookers could still admire the structure For those willing to take part rather as they walked or took sleigh rides from than observe sporting events, the festivi- event to event. More than just a visual at- ties began the following day. The tobog- traction to locals and tourists, the palace ganing hills were open to all during Carni- was also the stage for the climax of Carni- val week, and with a guide from the Mon- val week. Dominion Square was the site treal toboggan club, men and women of a great battle, a siege between “armies” alike could take part in an exhilarating of hundreds of snowshoe-clad soldiers. slide down the slopes of Mount Royal. Around eight o’clock, as the crowds gath- Skating rinks were also open to visitors to ered in Dominion Square, the attacking the carnival, with free skating before and army would approach and arrange in for- after major games or events. For those mations outside the castle. The defending who did not have the necessary equipment soldiers would line the walls and prepare to take part, there were, of course, ample for the oncoming siege. As the battle be- numbers of merchants and shops through- gan, fireworks would be launched from out the city from which to buy sporting both armies, and from the walls of the

Pages from Souvenir of the Montreal Winter Carnival, 1884, 27 Canadian Railway News Company Limited, Montreal, 1884. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

United States President Chester A. Arthur. were indeed a successful endeavour even palace of 1884, with description, together This event was so exclusive that many of beyond their economic goal. The carni- with cuts of Montreal from the moun- Montreal’s own elites were unable to at- vals had helped to crystallize aspects of tain, Victoria Bridge, Notre Dame tend. Canadian national identity, establish Mon- Church, etc., and information relating to The last day of the carnival saw the treal as a tourist destination, and prove the carnival. Canadian Railway News final matches of the hockey and curling that “Canadian winters could not only be Company Ltd, Montreal, 1884. tournaments, and a last fireworks display endurable, but enjoyable.” https://archive.org/details/cihm_51462. from the Ice Palace as a send-off to the many foreign visitors. The Montreal Justin Singh is a history student at Con- Harper’s Bazaar. “The Montreal Carni- Snow Shoe Club managed, with difficulty, cordia University. He completed an in- val, March 8, 1884.” Victoriana Magazine to have another carnival the subsequent ternship under the joint supervision of Online. year but these events eventually became QAHN and Concordia’s Centre for Oral costly to organize – it was simply too dif- History and Digital Storytelling. Paul André Linteau, Histoire de Mon- ficult to raise heavy sponsorship from the tréal depuis la Confédération. Montreal, local sports clubs. This problem was exac- 1992. erbated by the limited group who could Sources: participate in and support the carnivals; Bettina Bradbury. Working Families: Age. Gillian Poulter. Becoming Native in a the wealthy, Anglophone community Gender, and Daily Survival in Industrial- foreign land: Sport, Visual Culture, and could only do so much. Only one year izing Montreal, Toronto, 2007. Identity in Montreal, 1840-85. Vancou- later, an attempt was made to include ver, 2009. Francophone sport clubs, but tensions be- Souvenir of the Montreal Winter Carnival, tween the groups eventually led to 1884: containing illustrations of winter protests and a withdrawal of the French- and summer sports, with descriptive mat- speaking clubs from the events. Despite ter: also a fine large cut of the ice these internal conflicts, the early carnivals

28 SUMMER 2014

NWE FRANCE The Spanish connection by Joseph Graham

he religious wars of the Iberian cas, where they hoped to practice their reli- before he left for home. Asking to know Peninsula happened well be- gion freely. When news of the settlement at what compatriots the official referred to, he fore those of France and had Quebec spread across France, many deter- learned that his family name, or some vari- much different players. The mined to go there and many succeeded, ar- ation thereof, was on the ministry’s official twinT kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, riving up until the mid-1600s. Over time, list of French Jews compiled during the united through the marriage of King Fer- their descendants forgot their Jewish her- Nazi occupation. Upon exploring further, dinand and Queen Isabella, became a itage as they assimilated into the Catholic he discovered that somewhere close to four force that would ultimately crush the colony. dozen Québécois de souche family names Muslim Moors. In 1492, the last city, In the 1970s, Jean-Marie Gélinas, a figured on the same list, showing to what Granada, surrendered with the under- Quebecer who was responsible for a group extent New France was considered a standing that the Muslim majority would of civil servants visiting France, did exten- refuge of religious freedom, even late in be free to continue to practice its reli- sive research into his family’s roots and the seventeenth century. gion and culture. The Spanish monar- found himself in the small parish of Saint Most of these immigrants, arriving in chy’s promise lasted seven years. Eutrope, inland from both La Rochelle and New France, declared themselves to be While some Jewish families emigrat- Bordeaux. In discussion with the knowl- Catholic because they knew that as Jews ed towards Egypt and Palestine, others ini- edgeable parish priest, he was discouraged they would not be accepted. Still, they be- tially found opportunity among the Chris- to learn that there were no records in the lieved there was a better chance of finding tians, who needed their skills in dealing parish, neither of anyone called Gélinas nor freedom of religion in the colony than there with the Muslims. Jews were so valued in of any of the variations in spelling that he was in France. After all, the whole concept the Christian kingdoms that their rising im- offered. Towards the end of their meeting, of New France had been a French Protes- portance generated a backlash whose the regional vicar, Father Robert, arrived. tant project from its beginning and Cardi- severity grew more serious as the Muslim The priest introduced him to Gélinas who nal Richelieu, who had ruled France in the power waned. In the terms of surrender of asked if he could shed any light on Géli- seventeenth century, had dealt severely the last Muslim stronghold, the Muslims nas’s mission, but the vicar concurred with with French religious minorities. That story were guaranteed religious freedom and the the parish priest that there was no such will follow. Jews were guaranteed protection, but as name in the parish registries. Spain, in attempting to correct the hor- early as 1460 the Statute of Toledo had de- Mr. Gélinas had already discovered rors of the Inquisition, has offered descen- clared that conversion would not be ade- that the first Canadian Gélinas had actually dents of those who fled the Iberian penin- quate to declare a Jew to have become a married a Robert in the seventeenth centu- sula the right to reclaim Spanish citizen- Christian, and a period of ethnic cleansing ry, a woman who was born in the parish of ship. This offer even extends to some Que- began. The Inquisition is remembered for Saint Eutrope. He was delighted to at least becers today, among them my wife and her its public burnings of heretics after they meet a Robert and enthusiastically shared family, whose ancestors fled to Istanbul were offered the opportunity to make an this information, offering his hand in and whose father was born there. Other act of faith. If they professed their conver- friendship. To his surprise and dismay, the Quebecers of Sephardic ancestry might al- sion, they would be mercifully strangled vicar recoiled, visibly angry, and shouted at so be eligible. before being burned. Jews fled Spain in him, “Be assured, sir, that we are not of the many directions, including the Ottoman same race! Be assured that my family nev- Sources: Empire, the American colonies, Holland, er contracted a marriage with anyone of Stephen Rayburn, The History of the Jews Italy and France, while Muslims found your race. Your race has always lived on of Spain, refuge in North Africa. the blood of Europe and of France. Ger- http://kehillatisrael.net/docs/learning During the early 1500s in France, many tried to eliminate your entire race /sephardim.html. Accessed February 2, Spanish, and later Portuguese, Jews were from Europe and France and those of you 2014. perceived as nationals. Their skills were who survived went to America, where you appreciated and, as long as they did not pa- should stay. Europe and France do not need Special thanks to Jean-Marie Gélinas. rade their religion, they were not persecut- you…” If Gélinas was discouraged before, ed. In fact, for the public record, they now he was shocked and intrigued. He fur- Joseph Graham [email protected] is the would declare themselves to be Protestant ther reported that, back in Paris the night author of Naming the Laurentians: A His- or Catholic. They were also among the before his departure from France, an offi- tory of Place Names Up North and a supporters of French Protestants who cial of the ministry of justice offered to in- forthcoming book on the history of the wished to create New France in the Ameri- troduce him to a number of his compatriots Laurentians.

29 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

REVIEW Unexpected Fever A Mind At Sea Henry Fry and the Glorious Era of Quebec’s Sailing Ships by John Fry Dundurn Press, 2013 or centuries, Psalm 107 has en- at Sea takes an unexpected turn before it by is not really enough. There were couraged Englishmen (assum- is through, and one is left reflecting on many kinds of ships, differently rigged ing they had the King James just how brilliant that title is. (one comes to appreciate the distinction Version) to “go down to the sea John Fry might be said to have in- between a schooner, a barque, and a inF ships” and “do business in great wa- herited his subject, but this is much less sloop) and differently powered. Steam ters” – a passage that became the mantra an exercise in genealogical reconstruc- versus sail was not only a question of of early seafaring merchants. The first tion than it is a scholarly treatment of an speed but also of politics, since not part of that verse may also have inspired important, if overlooked, figure from every port could handle the larger coal- poet laureate John Masefield to write the nineteenth-century Quebec and of the burning vessels. It is telling that Henry immortal “Sea Fever,” whose im- Fry almost always made his overseas agery has always thrilled even a con- journeys out of New York, by firmed landlubber like me. The steamship, and yet greatly preferred thought of following “the gull’s way to build wooden sailing ships and and the whale’s way” in a tall ship long resisted the inevitable change to with only “a star to steer her by” is steam in Quebec City. The book’s hopelessly captivating. A part of me many illustrations of Fry’s ships, has always agreed that something drawn by the man himself in pen and truly real lies in putting aside the ink sketches, are not only education- clumsy cares of everyday and sailing al in their own right but allow us a off into the unknown. The saner part further glimpse into this mind so res- always prevails, but… Someday, olutely focused on the sea. perhaps. Except that eventually the fever One such Englishman was took hold of him. The call of the sea Henry Fry, who as a child saw the is a wild call, and one day in his ear- tall ships coming in and out of his na- ly fifties Henry Fry fell into a melan- tive Bristol’s busy port and dedicated choly that would end his involve- his efforts relentlessly to pursuing a ment in business and eventually end career as a sailor, merchant, and ship- his home life. The last two decades builder. He finally shipped out of of his life were spent in various insti- Bristol in 1853 at the age of 27, and tutions or in convalescence in rural after a short spell in New York, set- retreats, far from his wife Mary who tled in Quebec City, where he spent the oft-mentioned but rarely explored world soldiered on in a kind of limbo between next quarter-century making a fortune of ships. Fry, a long-time journalist and marriage and widowhood. A Mind at for himself. Prosperity, a comfortable editor, brings an engaging style to this Sea, the title taking an ironic turn by the residence and a devoted family did not treatment, and the book is replete with later chapters, becomes a tale of unex- ground him in his adopted city, however. photos and sketches for those who like pected decline into bewilderment. The With a regularity that impresses today, their history well-illustrated. author’s straightforward account of his given how long and potentially danger- The life of Henry Fry is engaging ancestor’s failing mental health is all the ous such journeys were, Fry sailed to enough – it certainly meets the challenge more poignant for not engaging in po- England in search of new buyers and inevitably faced by any author hoping to tential explanations or making too much sellers and to keep abreast of the latest hook readers without the bait of high of how the mighty fall. Time waits for in ship design. And then he would sail drama expected from biographies of no man, and neither do the tides when back again. No matter how successful or more famous folk. It is the mark of good the mind is at sea. We can only hope that influential he became on dry land, Fry’s writing and good presentation that we Henry Fry enjoyed a sweet dream when mind always seemed to be at sea. find ourselves truly caring about Henry his “long trick” (as Masefield calls it) The book that Fry’s great-grandson Fry. was finally over. John has written has a brilliant title – But the heart of the book is shipping and an appropriate one, given that so and sailing. I learned plenty. Apparently much of the narrative deals with Fry – with all due respect to John Masefield Reviewed by Rod MacLeod Sr.’s ocean-related exploits. But A Mind – having a tall ship and a star to steer her

Loading ship with square timber through the bow port, 30 Quebec City, 1872. Photo: McCord Museum, I-76319. SUMMER 2014

NOW AVAILABLE!

QAHN has reprinted its publication, Cemetery Heritage in Quebec: A. Handbook

Send $15.00 (incl. s/h) to: QAHN, 400-257 Queen, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 1K7.

Or pay by Paypal to: [email protected].

31 DISCOVER THE OFFICIAL LOCATIONS AND THE FRIENDS OF THE TOWNSHIPS TRAILS

THE TOWNSHIPS TRAIL

DISCOVER: Our spectaculor landscapes Our anglo-american Heritage Our hospitality The New Exhibit www.townshipstrail.qc.ca A Tale of the Townships

Discover the story of the early settlers on the "Townships Trail" June 7 - Oct 15, Wed - Sun, 11 am - 5 pm August 10: Old Fashioned Day Demonstrations and displays of heritage crafts and skills

www.eatoncorner.ca 374, Route 253 (Eaton Corner), Cookshire-Eaton TCE / © Sébastien Larose TCE

— TEMPORARY EXHIBITS — From the 6th of July to From the 17th of August to the Treat yourself to the 7th of September 28th of September The 4th Edition of the “Salon des The duo Norman Brooke and the High Tea or Cream Tea experience! artistes locaux” regrouping Sharon Robinson multidisciplinary approximately twenty artists of artists present the exhibit diverse mediums. “Feral / Ensauvagé”. What a wonderful way to celebrate the Miner family’ family’ss — AFTERNOON TEA — British roots,roots, all the while Every Wednesday afternoon in July and August, showcasing our productsproducts and tea and desserts are served on the veranda of the Museum. those of local farmers! Cozy ambiance and refinedrefined menu. www.museebeaulne.qc.ca New ice creamcream parlour located  RUEDELg5NION #OATICOOK 1#*!9s  RUEDELg5NION #OATICOOK 1#*!9s    in Mr.Mr. Miner’Miner’ss picturpicturesqueesque dairy brick building. Friday,Friday, SaturSaturdayday and Sunday by reservationreservation only: 450 991-3330

100, Mountain st, Granby www.fermeheritageminer.cawww.fermeheritageminerer..ca

WWW.TOWNSHIPSTRAIL.QC.CAWWW .TOWNSNSHIPSTRAIL.QC.C.CA