QAHN’ S 2 0 0 9 H ERITAGE E SSAY C ONTEST W INNERS $5 Quebec VOL 5, NO. 4 JULY-AUGUST 2009 HeritageNews Joe Beef and John Richardson Point St Charles Celebrates Unlikely Pair Pickles Cradles Donald Davison recreates an exciting incident from American Civil War days Jewish Mechanics Susan McGuire on some early Jewish members of the MMI QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS Quebec CONTENTS eritageNews H DITOR A Word from the Editor 3 E ROD MACLEOD All Heart Rod MacLeod PRODUCTIO DAN PINESE Letters 5 Enchanted by the News Anne Joseph PUBLISHER Diaries need wider audience David Freeman THE QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE ...and the purpose of your trip, Sir? Donald Davison HERITAGE NETWORK 400-257 QUEEN STREET Timelines 6 SHERBROOKE (LENNOXVILLE) Joe Beef Market to honour John Richardson Fergus Keyes QUEBEC J1M 1K7 PHOE The Montreal Mechanics’ Institute 8 1-877-964-0409 Early Jewish Families active Susan McGuire (819) 564-9595 Pickles Cradles 12 FAX Historical Fiction Donald Davison (819) 564-6872 The Emerging Road 16 CORRESPODECE Building a Lifeline Across the Townships Heather Darch [email protected] The 2009 QAH Heritage Essay Contest 18 WEBSITE All About Arvida Kerry-Ann Babin-Lavoie WWW.QAHN.ORG Walking Through the Loyalist Cemetery Marya Gerty A Hard Act to Follow Sean McRae PRESIDET The Abbotts of St Andrews 20 KEVIN O’DONNELL Two Brothers and their Remarkable Offspring Elizabeth Abbott EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DWANE WILKIN HERITAGE PORTAL COORDIATOR Events Listings 22 MATTHEW FARFAN OFFICE MAAGER KATHY TEASDALE Editor’s ote: Quebec Heritage Magazine is produced six times yearly by the Quebec Anglophone Delays within government funding circles, as nu- Heritage etwork (QAH ) with the support merous community organizations have noted over of The Department of Canadian Heritage the past few months, have made it difficult to re- and Quebec’s Ministere de la Culture et lease recent editions of The Quebec Heritage des Communications. QAH is a non-profit and non-partisan umbrella ews in a timely fashion. We apologize to read- organization whose mission is to help ers for the lateness of this and the previous issue. advance knowledge of the history and culture of English-speaking society in Quebec. Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement umber 405610004. ISS 17707-2670 Cover: “Dr James Bell of the General Hospital, Montreal, Sewing Joe Up.” Wood engraving by John Henry Walker, c.1885. McCord Museum of Canadian History: M995X.5.35.11. (Note that this is not the only connection between Joe Beef and the Montreal General Hospital: see p.6.) 2 JULY-AUGUST 2009 AWORD FROM THE EDITOR All Heart by Rod MacLeod t a slightly more innocent life. When it did, surgery became an op- a particular toy a terrible outrage. Not time of my life – last April tion, and when she survived the surgery complaining was second nature to Ta- 18th, to be precise – I en- there was hope that, with good luck and tiana, and trying everything she could joyed an amazing dinner at more surgery down the road, Tatiana was another. It wasn’t advisable for her McKiernan’s Restaurant on Notre Dame would have a reasonable chance at to get into a sweat in gym class, but she StreetA in St-Henri. It is the sister bistro something of a life. That hope brought did her best. She even took part in the to “Joe Beef,” named after the 19th cen- Tatiana, her mother and older sister, to annual Terry Fox run, although in her tury personage who also lent his name to Montreal (from the west coast) and into case it was more of a stroll. Most of the the historical market in Point St-Charles a long relationship with the cardiology time my son walked with her – partly – which you can read about in this issue. department at the Children’s Hospital – out of laziness, but also out of loyalty; (You can also read about Maude Abbott, an institution for which I have infinite he understood that it is easier to see oth- the famously groundbreaking ers racing past you when you female doctor who was a spe- have company in the slow cialist in congestive cardiac lane. disease and who, if she’d In Grade Two, Tatiana lived a century later, might missed a great deal of school have played a part in my sto- in and out of the hospital ry.) with angina and difficult My connection with Joe breathing. This crisis was Beef and McKiernan’s (the eventually overcome by the restaurants) was Tatiana insertion of a pacemaker. Blazevic, who had worked at Her classmates sent her cards both as part of an internship, and toys and cheered her re- helping her on her quest to turn to school, but my son become one of Quebec’s was one of only a few kids great chefs. The occasion of that visited her at the Chil- the amazing dinner was Ta- dren’s throughout this tiana’s eighteenth birthday. process, gaining wisdom by I and my family sat at finding the right things to say one long table, interspersed Joe Beef’s canteen was a landmark of 19th Century (working- and do at a difficult moment. with extended family mem- class) Montreal but has a curious counterpart in the 21st cen- bers and a number of college tury city. A few years ago, food entrepreneurs Allison Cun- ur family and Ta- friends – about twenty peo- ningham, Frédéric Morin and David McMillan opened the tiana’s had be- ple. (We filled the restaurant, eponymous gourmet bistro at 2491 otre Dame Street in St- come close right which gives you some sense Henri, which has since spawned the nearby Liverpool House from the begin- of how intimate the scale of (after the great man’s home town) and the aptly named McK- ning by finding ourselves the place is.) We were special iernan’s – geared towards hungry people. membersO of a committee guests, having known Tatiana planning the redevelopment and her family for thirteen of part of the schoolyard as a years. There were bonds that linked on respect, much of it acquired first hand. natural play area we eventually dubbed several levels, including the unenviable A milestone was reached in the fall “The Green Zone.” This project was a one of having close family members of 1996 when, after several further oper- complete disaster: neighbours were up in with life-threatening health problems. ations, Tatiana was able to start Kinder- arms, parents were horrified, town coun- Tatiana’s eighteenth birthday was a sig- garten. There, she became close friends cillors shrieked in fear – mostly out of a nificant occasion in large part because with my son, who seemed quite fascinat- conviction that creating a beautiful space there had been plenty of moments over ed by this skinny girl who didn’t run behind a school would only attract the previous eighteen years when many around very much or whine or complain hooligans in off hours. Tatiana’s mother doubted she would live to see the day. or burst into tears at the slightest provo- weathered this onslaught with admirable Tatiana was born with a defective cation like many tots. Tatiana under- aplomb; with the possible exception of heart – one that, it was at first thought, stood about intense pain and did not her daughter she is probably the would not see her beyond a few days of seem to find having to wait to play with strongest person I know. Years later I McKiernan’s Restaurant (photo: Alain Lefort) 3 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS saw her chatting with someone I could- do and real shoes but was entirely out- received a call from Tatiana’s mother n’t stand, a person who had stood up at a shone by Tatiana in effervescent chiffon saying Tatiana had gone for yet another town hall meeting and made nasty accu- that only just fit into the car and a hairdo operation that day – her eighteenth, it sations at us. I asked Tatiana’s mother that had taken several days to get right. was, symbolically – and had died in the afterwards if she remembered what that For us, this was a quaint and to some de- middle of it. We had thought she was set person had said at the meeting. “Oh, I gree silly moment, but we knew it meant for life – a life full of ups and downs and remember,” she told me knowingly. the world to Tatiana – and to her mother, considerable limitations but as long a “But I cross paths with her every day – for whom this graduation was yet anoth- life as anyone might expect to have – what’s the point of maintaining a feud? er milestone. When a day does not go by but no. Apparently pain was becoming a It’s too much work.” I had to concede without you wondering if your child will constant in her life, the pain of conges- the point and defer to her wisdom. What be around tomorrow, you learn to mark tive heart failure such as is supposed to need had I to get in a tizzy over one the milestones carefully. be the preserve of old people. comment made years before? Resent- For some years, Tatiana had been The operation ought to have relieved ment certainly can take up a lot of pre- showing a remarkable skill at cooking, the situation, but her heart wasn’t up to cious time. and after high school enrolled at a presti- it. Tatiana’s mother’s eighteen years of When our kids went on to high gious school for chefs, where she ex- wondering were over, and Tatiana was school – Tatiana to Villa Maria, my son celled.