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By Jazmine Aldrich
As the spookiest night of the year approaches and the veil begins to thin, I thought it apt to look back on the Townships’ “Hallowe’en” celebrations of years past!
In 1899, Mr. and Mrs. Spafford invited guests to a Hallowe’en party at their home in Lennoxville. The invitations were written in rhyme, requesting answers in rhyme to be given by guests at the party – the winners to be chosen by popular vote. The evening also included a goblin as door greeter, old fashioned Hallowe’en games, and a supper which included pumpkin pie and doughnuts.
The Shakespeare Club spent Hallowe’en 1910 on Prospect Street in Sherbrooke at the home of Mrs. Hutchinson, the wife of Hon. Judge Hutchinson. Mrs. Hutchinson, along with her mother – Mrs. McVicar – and her sister – Miss McVicar – both of Montreal, hosted fourteen guests. The event took place around a flickering fire in the drawing room, where the McVicar family regaled their guests with Irish fairy tales and ghost stories. The Hutchinson’s also served guests a decorative feast, including “a hollow pumpkin, adorned with chains of scarlet cranberries, like strings of coral, and heaped with purple, red, and green grapes, and crimson and rose-tinted apples” – just in case you were wondering what to serve at your Halloween party!
Aside from private parties and events, it appears that Hallowe’en socials were popular in the late-1800s Townships. One was held in Sherbrooke on October 28, 1897 by the Ladies’ Guild of St. Peters’ Church; another was given by the Young Ladies Aid of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Sherbrooke on November 2 of the same year. These socials often involved live music, games, and general merriment.
Hallowe’en tricks were certainly in fashion with the youth of the 1890s. The Coaticook Examiner reported on November 3, 1899 that “a few pranks were indulged in by some of our small boys, though on the whole things passed off very quietly”; the paper goes on to report that “some of the young ladies also indulged in making ceremonious calls in rather unusual attire, though there was nothing unbecoming.” It seems that the newspaper was quite forgiving of a little youthful mischief!
Perhaps the forgiveness was only relative, however, for the previous year saw a more elevated level of All Hallow’s Eve trickery. The very same Coaticook Examiner reported on November 4, 1898, that “Hallowe’en was not forgotten by the boys, and we might add, judging by some of the articles that changed places some large sized boys, too […]”. According to one report, these “large sized boys” displaced doorsteps, a horse, and even buildings – though these buildings’ dimensions were not reported.
It seems that the displacement of moveable property was a fairly common Halloween prank into the early 1900s. In the Halloween 1900 issue of the Sherbrooke Examiner, in fact, a polite warning was posted to encourage readers “to remove any loose articles lying about outside.”
The long-held tradition of trick-or-treating is relatively young, in Townships history. The earliest reference that I could find in the newspapers dates from 1945. Pupils of the Gould School celebrated at a Hallowe’en party hosted by their teacher, Miss Edwyna Beaton, after which point, they “went with baskets from house to house for the usual ‘treats or tricks.’”
Perhaps this article has inspired you to partake in the Halloween traditions of yore (aside from the property displacement and damage: please do not do that). Wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween! If you have photographs or other records relating to Halloween in the Townships and would like to donate them to the ETRC Archives, we would love to expand our understanding of this age-old tradition in our region. Please contact the ETRC Archives.
By Jazmine Aldrich
Tis never a dull moment, working in the archives. I am sure that for many of you, reading this, that does not seem possible but I promise you that it is.
A perfect example arrived in my mailbox on a bright August morning, one month past. A package, addressed to the ETRC’s former Archivist and Executive Director, Jody Robinson. It is not unusual for me to receive emails and mail addressed to Jody; she has long been a champion of our organization and her good name still reflects on us, though she now works for the Uplands Cultural and Heritage Centre.
Fortunately, Jody is also Diocesan Archivist for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec and still shares an office with the ETRC on a very-part-time basis. I asked Jody to open the package, since it was addressed to her. Its contents were surprising to us both.
Within this bubble mailer were recipe books and photographs. These are not unusual items to be found in the archives; the unusual bit was that there was no return address on the package. Such lovely gifts, and no person to thank for them! Neither Jody nor I could recall having spoken to anyone about these items.
We can glean a few context clues from the materials within the package. The photographs primarily depict the MacIver family in Scotstown in the 1950s. One of the cookbooks was produced by the Ladies Circle of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Scotstown, while another was produced by St. George’s Woman’s Guild of the Anglican Church in Lennoxville.
There seems to be a concentration of photographs depicting the family of Daniel Alexander MacIver, including his wife Gladys (née Garrett) MacIver and his daughters, Ruth Marjorie (née MacIver) Johnson and Clarissa MacIver. One photograph uses the first person (“me”) in the caption to identify Clarissa MacIver, so these photographs may well have belonged to her.
Other individuals pictured are Galen and Garnet Morrison, Gilbert and Norman Wintle, Howard Beaton, Bill Burton, Mickey MacDonald, Jacky Smith, and Brian Ewing, among others. One photograph from the mysterious package depicts “MacLeod’s Corner Store” and “Ned’s Barber Shop” – location yet unknown. If you happen to know where these businesses were located, please let me know!
We are, of course, eternally grateful to the anonymous sender who forwarded these treasures to us. It is a privilege, as an archivist, to be entrusted with the care of someone’s family heirlooms and not something that I take lightly. It is important, however, for archivists to establish the chain of custody for archives such as these. We also need to document the donor’s wishes with regards to access to these records and their long-term preservation.
Thus, here is my plea, benevolent sender: would you please reach out to me to acknowledge your donation? I assure you that you may remain anonymous to the public if that is your wish but for the sake of the memory-keepers who come after me, I would be thrilled to document your donation. Whoever you are – thank you! If you would like to learn more about the history of the Eastern Townships (or, if you would like to claim your generous archival donation), please contact the ETRC Archives.
By Jazmine Aldrich
The ETRC recently acquired the diaries of Charles Oldfield (1868-1953). At first glance, the diaries – which span from 1904 to 1949 – appear to be relatively mundane; they are the notes of a Townships farmer regarding his crops, his livestock, and a few passing comments about his family life. With a bit of context about Mr. Oldfield’s life, however, the diaries reveal a fascinating tale of a family man who overcame adversity.
Charles Oldfield was born in England in July 1868. He immigrated to Canada in 1884. He married Laura Baird in 1895 and together, they had four children: William (1896-1970), Edith (1900-1946), Ella (1901-1988), and Flossie (1904-1985).
Charles’ only son, William served in France during the First World War. Inside the cover of Charles’ 1916 to 1917 diary, he recorded William’s regimental number as well as his mailing address in London, England. He also recorded the comings and goings of his three daughters amidst his notes about work and the weather.
Charles and Laura’s children gradually flew their nest. On June 22, 1921, Ella married Ralph W. Betts at the Methodist Parsonage in Sherbrooke. Edith married Vernon Ward of Leominster, Massachusetts on June 22, 1926.
Tragedy struck the family shortly thereafter, however, when Laura suffered a stroke on June 29 of the same year and did not recover; she died on July 9, at 63 years old. She was buried at Lakeside Cemetery in Bishopton.
On March 15, 1928, Charles married Laura’s younger sister, Phebe Edith Baird (1872-1960). Flossie married Leslie Orr at Trinity United Church in Sherbrooke on March 21, 1931. Each of these life events warranted its entry in Charles’ diary: “Went to Sherbrooke and got married, Phebe & me” and “Flossie married today”, respectively.
On November 16, 1932, the Sherbrooke Daily Record reported that “Mr. Charles Oldfield, who has been in Montreal, has returned home. His many friends are sorry that he has lost the sight of both eyes.” This abrupt report seems to be the only official trace from that period of Charles losing his eyesight.
In 1976, Record Correspondent Mrs. Lionel Allison – née Daisy Pease (1914-2006) – published a series of articles on the history of Tupperville and Upper Brookbury. In one such article, she discussed Charles Oldfield whom, she explained, owned and operated a farm on the Mill Road to Dudswell.
Mrs. Allison reported that “Charles […] suffered an accident in the barn which cost him his eyesight. He was tying a cow up when a small stick he had in his hand broke and a piece went into his eye. Infection set in and, as a result, he lost the sight of both eyes.”
She goes on to write that “Mr. Oldfield, who was a very clever man, was not discouraged because of his disability. He planted his own garden, hoed and weeded it and did some carpenter work. People could not understand how he was able to do these types of work so efficiently. He even wrote his own letters using some sort of scale he made to guide him along the lines on the paper.”
The accident may explain why there is a gap in the diaries, between 1932 and 1934; while it is possible that one or two diaries are missing, it is also possible that Charles’ near-daily writing habit was put aside while he adapted to life without eyesight and gradually taught himself to write again. When his diaries resume, the handwriting is markedly different but the author’s voice, the use of the first person, and the consistent handwriting all indicate that it was still Charles writing the entries.
William married Eva Mouldy (d. 1966) at St. Peter’s Church in Sherbrooke on November 3, 1934. Charles wrote the following on that date: “Willie got married. Flossie & Leslie went down with them. Had wedding supper here.”
Tragedy once again struck the Oldfield family when Edith died on April 18, 1946. She was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Leominster, Massachusetts. Charles’ diary entries for this and the surrounding days are largely illegible as the pages appear to have been written over twice.
According to Phebe’s obituary, Charles died in 1953. Phebe died on December 3, 1960, at William’s home in Sherbrooke. Both Phebe and Charles were buried in the family lot at Lakeside Cemetery in Bishopton.
William died on March 5, 1970, at his home on London Street in Sherbrooke. He was interred at St. Peter’s Anglican Cemetery in Sherbrooke. Flossie died on February 18, 1985, in Thunder Bay and was interred there. Ella died at the Sherbrooke Hospital on February 9, 1988 and was buried with her parents.
The ETRC is collaborating with the Anglican Diocese of Quebec and the Musée d’histoire de Sherbrooke to rejuvenate St. Peter’s Cemetery in Sherbrooke. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact ETRC Director Etienne Domingue. If you would like to peruse the diaries of Charles Oldfield or other archival records held by the ETRC, please contact the ETRC Archives.
By Jazmine Aldrich
The ETRC’s Executive Director, Etienne Domingue, suggested that our monthly column focus on moving since it is indeed the season. Here in Quebec, many of us take part in the Great Canada Day Move and I was a reluctant participant, this July 1st. For anyone else who endured the alternating rain and stifling humidity to move house – my thoughts are with you!
The topic led ETRC Archivist, Julia Langlois to stumble across a compelling story from 70 years ago. While searching for imagery to accompany this column, Julia came across an album in the ETRC Graphic Material collection (P998) documenting the Thetford Mines relocation project of 1955. Intrigued, I searched the digitized issues of The Sherbrooke Daily Record that can be consulted online.
What I found was the following headline: “Asbestos Industry Expansion Shifts Part of Thetford”. The headline was followed by an even stronger assertion: “Biggest Move Seen In Province Makes Way For Mining Growth”. The article goes on to explain that 140 homes, an Anglican church, a Masonic Hall, and the head office of one of the mining companies were all to be moved to “give the asbestos industry more elbow room”.
The next logical question would be: where did all of the houses go? According to the aforementioned article written by Robert Joyce, a new townsite called Johnson’s Park was laid out “to receive the wandering houses.” The three mining companies in Thetford Mines – the Asbestos Corporation, Johnson’s Company, and Bell Asbestos Mines Limited – paid homeowners twice the municipal valuation plus 10% to purchase their land; in exchange, the homeowners were responsible for any expenses associated with relocating their houses.
The project was budgeted at $5.5 million in 1955 – roughly $640.9 million, today. The budget covered the building of by-passes and a new provincial highway to account for the interception of the main Quebec-Sherbrooke highway and the destruction of several miles of streets. The railroad also needed to be shifted, which meant buying up property for the right of way of the new railway line. Much of this purchasing was done in secrecy by third-parties to avoid the artificial inflation of prices.
As Dr. Jessica Van Horssen explained at the ETRC’s Robin Burns Lecture, a few months ago, we know in 2025 that the extraction of asbestos in the historic Eastern Townships left a lethal legacy. In 1955, however, Joyce claimed that “by old standards, Thetford and the other mining towns are clean, modern communities.” Joyce explained that dust from the mills was being cut and “today the air is clean.”
The author also assured readers that the asbestos industry had announced in 1954 that no new cases of asbestosis – “the lung-scarring disease” – had been reported in five years. I imagine that Dr. Van Horssen would take issue with the offending industry claiming that asbestosis had been eliminated but I encourage you to read her book, “A Town Called Asbestos” (2016) to learn more about her findings. If you have a question regarding the history of the Eastern Townships, please contact the ETRC Archives by email or by telephone.
By Jazmine Aldrich
I hope that our dedicated readership will afford me a terrible pun by way of introduction to this topic. The truth is that I recently noticed a pattern of geological formations in the Eastern Townships with unique and interesting histories.
If you are a regular reader of my monthly columns, you will already know about Potton Rock – a petroglyph within Jones archaeological site on the west side of chemin du Lac, in Vale Perkins. Though the rock’s etchings are now illegible due to its longstanding contact with the natural environment, Leonard Auger of Magog believed that they were traces of an Indigenous presence in the area. Whatever its significance, Potton Rock is a fascinating example of our history carved in stone.
In this article, I wish to focus on two natural, geological formations that attest to human history in the Townships. The first is called Mena’sen; it is a rocky islet located in the Saint-Francis River near the Terrill Street bridge, in Sherbrooke. The name Mena’sen comes from the Abenaki words “menahan” and “sen”, which roughly translate to “island” and “rock”, respectively. The rocky islet was formally designated Mena’sen in 1983, but was commonly referred to as Lone Pine Rock or Lone Pine Island due to the pine tree which stood on the islet until 1913.
Jody Robinson – former Archivist and Executive Director of the Eastern Townships Resource Centre – contributed an article about the Lone Pine to The Record in 2014. Jody nicely summarized the history and lore surrounding the Lone Pine. She traced references to this natural wonder back as early as 1815, to the notes of surveyor Joseph Bouchette, and its legendary significance even farther back, still. Besides the best-known legend of Lone Pine Rock, Jody also recounted the plot of Oscar Massé’s 1922 novel entitled Mena’sen, which weaves a tale of two lovers on the run – the heroine perishing on the rock; the heartbroken hero, burying her there and planting a pine tree to honour her memory.
The best-known legend of the Mena’sen, however, is set in 1692 when the Abenaki presence on the land was dominant and indeed, long before the Eastern Townships even existed as a territorial division. The story goes that an Abenaki warrior and an Iroquoian warrior met on the islet and chased each other around in combat until the Iroquoian warrior succumbed to exhaustion, and the Abenaki warrior triumphed.
I would be remiss if I did not mention that on May 22, the Musée d’histoire de Sherbrooke opened a new temporary exhibition entitled “Pin Solitaire” (Lone Pine) which will run until June 22 of this year. On June 4, they will host a roundtable discussion about the legend and significance of the Lone Pine and Mena’sen. You can contact the Musée d’histoire de Sherbrooke for more information.
My final ode to Townships rocks is Scout Rock, in Lennoxville. A colleague recently mentioned Scout Rock to me and, though I had heard tell of it before, I was never certain of the story’s veracity. Fortunately, Didi Gorman wrote an article for The Record in 2018 which lends credence to the legend by citing other sources! According to Gorman: “A favorite hike for the Lennoxville Scouts at the time [circa 1930s] was a huge rock at the modern-day intersection of Vaudry and College streets, fittingly dubbed ‘Scout Rock’ by 1st Lennoxville members.” I am told that Scout Rock is, in fact, the large rock in front of the apartment building located at 3069 College. It seems that Scout Rock was a local hangout for Lennoxville’s young people in the 1930s, as attested to by one of the accompanying photographs. I hope that this article has inspired you to take a second look at the natural world around you – especially those longstanding geological elements that now find themselves surrounded by an urban sprawl. If you would like to learn more about our history (it rocks!), please contact the ETRC Archives.
By Jazmine Aldrich
As winter finally releases its cold, snowy grip on the Eastern Townships, it seems fitting to share a piece of wintry history: toboggan clubs!
A toboggan is a long sled, curved up at one end, that usually has handrails or handholds along the sides (Merriam-Webster). The Canadian Encyclopedia tells us that toboggans were historically used by Subarctic Indigenous peoples for hauling small loads or people over snow. Over time, toboggans have grown popular for their recreational use in sledding. By the 1880s, there were toboggan clubs in Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, Magog, and two toboggan slides in Stanstead. (Author’s note: I have my own fond memories of tobogganing with my sister and cousins at my grandparents’ home in Way’s Mills – though, not in the 1880s).
It seems that the early days of tobogganing as a sport were accompanied by a great deal of fanfare. In January of 1886, the Paton Mills Toboggan Club invited the Sherbrooke Snow Shoe Club, the Tuque Rouge Snow Shoe Club, and the Lennoxville Toboggan Club to participate in a torchlight procession. The clubs proceeded through downtown Sherbrooke with Roman candles and blue lights on their way to the Paton Mills toboggan slide. The Weekly Examiner – predecessor newspaper to the Sherbrooke Record – reported that “the flaming flambeaux and shooting lights produced a very pretty effect” for the gathering of more than five hundred people.
A riveting excerpt from The Weekly Examiner tells us of “the grand opening of the Tobogganing Slide on London Street […]” which “was a gay, picturesque and brilliant affair.” It was Tuesday, January 4, 1887 – no doubt, a cold one – yet the article reports that between two and three hundred tobogganers and spectators attended, just to get a glimpse of the new slide “brilliantly illuminated with torches and rendered festive by a profusion of Chinese lanterns.” Among those who took part in the opening were the Sherbrooke Toboggan Club, Paton Mill Toboggan Club, the Lennoxville Toboggan Club, the Sherbrooke Snow Shoe Club, and the Tuque Rouge Snow Shoe Club.
Research in local newspapers suggests that tobogganing as a sport had a revival in the 1910s. The Lennoxville Toboggan and Snowshoe Club was formed once more in 1911, with plans to erect “a first-class slide.” The Cookshire Toboggan Club also made its way onto the scene around the same time.
On March 1, 1912, the Sherbrooke Daily Record includes a report from the Lennoxville Toboggan Club. The Club reports that its slide “was well patronized last evening, a large number of Lennoxville and Sherbrooke people being out to enjoy the sport.” They continue, poetically, to report that “the moon outvied the electric lights and torches, and as the laden toboggans rushed at lightning speed down the long, steep track, the gay scene was typical of the Canadian winter.” The evening ended in the club room with sandwiches, coffee, sugar on snow, song and dance.
As the above report attests, the Lennoxville Toboggan Club encouraged socializing as much as it did the sport. As of 1912, the Club held a weekly social from 8pm to 11pm which included music, dancing, and refreshments in the club room, and tobogganing on its renowned slide. The Club also engaged in charitable activities, including the donation of funds to cover the shipment of parcels overseas to local soldiers during the First World War.
As we bid adieu to winter in favour of the warmer summer months, we tip our tuques to our ancestors for finding ways to make winter fun! If you are interested in learning more about the history of the Eastern Townships, please contact the ETRC Archives.
By Jazmine Aldrich
On Thursday, March 27 at 7pm, the Eastern Townships Resource Centre (ETRC) will welcome Dr. Jessica Van Horssen of McMaster University to speak about Asbestos extraction in the Eastern Townships. The talk will take place in Bishop Williams Hall on the campus of Bishop’s University.
The town presently known as Val-des-Sources was known until December 16, 2020, as the town of Asbestos. With the support of their municipal council, residents of the town voted for a fresh start for their “Valley of the Springs” – its former namesake being indivisible from the negative impact of the asbestosis and cancer-causing minerals.
The town of Asbestos was indeed named for the fibrous minerals that were extracted from its depths for over 130 years; the heat- and corrosion-resistant group of minerals literally made a name for the town.
The discovery of asbestos deposits in Shipton Township dates back to the mid-19th century. At the beginning of the 1870s, there was an observable increase in demand for asbestos from British and American industrialists who were prepared to transform the mineral into commercial products.
Asbestos extraction began in its namesake town along Webb’s Ledge – a long strip of asbestos visible in a hillside on the property of a farmer named Charles Webb, whose family had purchased the property from the British American Land Company in 1849. Webb leased the property to a gentleman farmer from Richmond named William Henry Jeffrey in 1879 and in so doing, facilitated the creation of what would at one time be Canada’s largest asbestos mine and the world’s largest asbestos producer.
As mineral exploitation grew over the course of the 1880s, a community of mine workers grew around the area and constituted the hamlet that would grow into the town. In 1884, a post office opened with the name “ASBESTOS” proudly displayed on its sign – marking the official naming of the town.
The fusion of American asbestos manufacturing companies into the H.W. Johns’ Manufacturing Company at the beginning of the 1890s would prove pivotal to the town of Asbestos. The new Company’s significant investment in Quebec asbestos mines meant that it heavily influenced the price of the raw fiber. Most of the asbestos extracted from the Jeffrey Mine went to H.W. Johns in New York.
In 1892, William Jeffrey decided to purchase the property from Charles Webb that he had leased and exploited for thirteen years; however, Jeffrey declared bankruptcy less than one year later following a drop in the market price of asbestos. In the spring of 1894, James Naismith Greenshields of Danville took possession of the Jeffrey mine and its installations – fusing it with the Danville Slate Company to become the Danville Asbestos Slate Company.
Faced with continually dropping market prices, the mine operators found innovative ways to use shorter fibers of asbestos in construction materials, called asbestic. It was in 1897 that the London-based Asbestos and Asbestic Company invested in the area’s ongoing mining operations. The H.W. Johns Co. was an important client for the new asbestic product. Technological innovations continued to mechanize asbestos extraction and processing over the following decades.
Meanwhile, the H.W. Johns’ Manufacturing Company became the H.W. Johns-Manville Company in 1901 with Thomas Franklyn Manville as its president. Manville and his father, Charles B. Manville, were named to the Board of the Asbestos and Asbestic Company in 1902, with two additional brothers – Hiram Edward Manville and C.R. Manville joining the Board in 1903. The Asbestos and Asbestic Company was undoubtedly under the control of the Manville family and its interests.
By 1916, the Asbestos and Asbestic Co. declared bankruptcy and reorganized under the name Manville Asbestos Company Limited; in 1918, the name was changed to the Canadian Johns-Manville Company, Limited. The Canadian Johns Manville – or C.J.M. – would remain at the heart of asbestos mining in Asbestos through the 1949 Asbestos Strike. The company met its end in in 1982 – declaring bankruptcy on the heels of legal action taken against it by its employees who had developed asbestosis and various cancers from their working conditions. The Jeffrey mine continued to operate under subsequent management until it closed its doors in 2012.
If you are interested in learning more about asbestos extraction in the Townships, please attend Dr. Van Horssen’s free lecture on March 27. You may also contact the ETRC Archives for more information, by email or by telephone.
Much of this historical overview was adapted from research published in the book titled “Asbestos, Filons d’histoire (1899-1999)” written by Réjean Lampron, Marc Cantin, and Élise Grimard (1999).
By Jazmine Aldrich
In the Spring 2006 issue of the Journal of Eastern Townships Studies (JETS), published by the Eastern Townships Resource Centre, historian Dr. Jack Little contextualized the memoirs of James S. Ramage in an article entitled “A Wilderness Boyhood: The Lake Megantic Memories of James S. Ramage, 1868–82” (pp. 5-22). In the article’s opening paragraph, Dr. Little acknowledged that it was uncertain whether the memoirs were complete, for they ended abruptly at the end of page fourteen. What Dr. Little could not have known, however, was that nearly twenty years later, the remaining twenty-four pages of Ramage’s incomplete memoirs would find their way to the ETRC’s archives.
On November 22, 2024, the ETRC received an email from Bernard Boulet of Marston, Quebec. Mr. Boulet explained that at the end of the 1990s, his uncle Georges Martin (son of Ernest Martin – longtime mayor of Marston) gave him a fourteen-page long document written by James S. Ramage, recounting stories of his upbringing around Lake Megantic. Mr. Boulet was likely unaware that a copy of the same document had been deposited into the ETRC archives by Robert Walters of Sherbrooke in 1994.
In the spring of 2024, Mr. Boulet decided to translate Ramage’s memoirs into French. On a whim, he called the municipal library in Marston to ask if they knew about Ramage’s story. Mrs. France Morin told him that the very same day of his call, someone had dropped a copy of Ramage’s memoirs in the book return. To Mr. Boulet’s great surprise, the copy at the Marston library included pages 15 to 38!
Jumping ahead, once more, to November 2024, Mr. Boulet offered to loan the complete document to the ETRC so that we could make a digital copy. Mr. Boulet’s granddaughter, a student of the campus, facilitated the loan. I scanned the document, which is 52 pages in total and includes handwritten notes added by an unnamed grandchild of Ramage, after his death; it also includes a photocopied newspaper clipping, a family roster, and a copy of a map showing Lake Megantic.
The version of the memoirs donated by Mr. Boulet in 2024 is by far the most complete. The original typewritten text is dated February 16, 1951, and a handwritten annotation below indicates “His story to 1951, and after writing that he continued to work and fish for another 5 years” – indicating that Ramage died in Spokane, Washington in December 1956.
As an added layer of intrigue, the handwritten annotations following the memoirs include a note indicating that the unnamed author “met Mr. Walters at Mario Lapoint’s B+B in town – He is from Sherbrooke – Very into history of the area”, so it would appear that Robert Walters, who donated the fourteen pages to the ETRC in 1994, was actually in contact with the descendant of Ramage who annotated the more complete copy.
The note about meeting Mr. Walters is followed by a copy of a letter to the same, which begins as follows: “Recieved [sic.] your letter and will try to give you lots of information – Been looking thru [sic.] old family books ets. [sic.]”; it is in this letter that the author reveals themselves to be the grandchild of James S. Ramage. The plot thickens!
The photocopied clipping seems to originate from an Idaho Springs, Colorado newspaper; it is a biographical write-up and obituary for James D. Ramage – James S. Ramage’s father, who died September 24, 1900.
Rather unexpectedly, our knowledge of James S. Ramage’s life has more than doubled; the remainder of his memoir speaks of life following the Ramage family’s move to the mid-western United States, business ventures, becoming a father, the death of his siblings, and more. We have a more complete picture of Ramage’s life because of Mr. Boulet, who seeks to make this story known. If you are interested in reading James S. Ramage’s memoirs, or if you have archival materials of enduring value, please contact the Eastern Townships Resource Centre’s Archives Department.
By Jazmine Aldrich, with special thanks to Kevin Mancini and Anna-Karina Poronovich
The Eastern Townships Resource Centre (ETRC) is digging into its audio archives to discover fascinating testimonies of life in our region, in centuries past.
ETRC Archives Technicians Kevin Mancini and Anna-Karina Poronovich are undertaking an ambitious project to transcribe and describe hundreds of oral history interviews which were recently digitized thanks to grant funding provided by Library and Archives Canada through the Documentary Heritage Communities Program (DHCP). Though the two-year project aims to process over 700 audio and audio-visual recordings from different fonds and collections, it began with the oral histories found within the Ian Tait collection.
Ian Tait (1947-2005) was a beloved professor at Champlain Regional College in Lennoxville from the 1970s to the early 2000s. Tait was passionate about history, folklore, and folkways, dedicating much of his career to documenting traditional practices of the Townships through the recording of oral histories. As a professor, he also tasked his students with recording oral histories to further this research.
Following Ian Tait’s passing in 2005, his wife, Ginette Bernard, ensured the safekeeping of more than 400 audio tape cassettes by donating them to the ETRC Archives. Up until 2024, however, the only tool available to researchers to discover this fascinating collection was a list of interviewees and dates. Helpful as that finding aid was, it could not capture the full breadth and depth of these interviews.
The first step to making the interviews accessible was to digitize them. As the ETRC does not have the capacity to do this large-scale digitization work, the project was entrusted to the Société d’histoire et de généalogie Maria-Chapdelaine in Dolbeau-Mistassini, Quebec. The tapes made the journey of over 500 kilometers to be transformed into digital audio files which will be easier to preserve over the long term, as their physical carriers naturally degrade.
The first digitized files having been returned to the ETRC meant that it was time to listen. Enter: Kevin and Anna-Karina – two dedicated, recent graduates with a passion for history and the knowledge and desire to make it accessible to the public. Since September 2024, Kevin and Anna-Karina have been working full-time to transcribe these interviews and write descriptive summaries of their contents. The end goal of the project is to make the audio recordings, descriptions, and transcripts available to the public via the Eastern Townships Archives Portal – an online database for discovering the history of the Townships.
The ETRC’s Archives Technicians are being assisted in their work through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Kevin and Anna-Karina are using AI transcription software which takes digital audio files and produces a typed transcription. The Archives Technicians are then reviewing the transcripts and correcting them. While a great deal of human intervention is still required, this software makes a first pass to save time.
Through their work, Kevin and Anna-Karina have unearthed everything from the mundane facts to the extraordinary tales of life in the Townships. When prompted about his findings, Kevin shared that many of the interviews represent individuals from rural backgrounds who recount the rhythms of farming. These testimonies are particularly valuable because, as any farmer today would attest, there is not much time left at the end of the day to spend documenting their experiences. Often, the perspectives represented in archives are those of wealthy, urban folks with ample leisure time to document their lives; these interviews allow for the voice of the Townships farmer to be heard.
Kevin and Anna-Karina have regaled our team with entertaining and downright concerning home remedies including turpentine and sugar for a cough, coal oil mixed with maple sugar for a sore throat, and ingesting kerosene. All of these remedies fall into our unofficial classification of “do NOT try this at home!”
Kevin also noted the resiliency of the interviewees, describing the ways in which they preserved food, made their own goods, and handed down clothing. Though many of the interviewees are now deceased, their recollections of the region’s development and community-building bear witness to the very essence of this region.
If you are interested in learning more about this project, please contact the ETRC Archives.
By Jazmine Aldrich
As the month of December trickles by and the holiday season approaches, so too does the tradition of holiday shopping. I thought it timely to spend this month’s column examining Christmas shopping of years past through 1890s advertisements in the Sherbrooke Daily Record.
McKechnie’s – seller of ladies’ elderdown jackets, cushions covered with sateen or silk, boas, and more – reminds us that “the tendency in holiday shopping is to leave most of it till the week before Christmas. The best plan is to buy now before the stocks are broken.” Some wisdom is timeless, but their motive was undoubtedly self-serving, for the advertisement goes on to remind us, “In buying a present, remember – trinkets and the givers of them are soon forgotten: anything from our store is a lasting reminder of lasting friendship, and always welcome.” There is nothing quite like an elderdown jacket to show a loved one that you care.
A brieflet tells us that “Christmas time brings its cares as well as its joys. It brings trouble to the lady who wants to make a present to a gentleman and ‘don’t know what would suit him’,” but rest assured – “the well-known men’s outfitter, Jno. O. Duncan” was at the ladies’ disposal for such dilemmas.
Duncan’s own advertisement responds to the damsels’ distress: “Now, really, what is more acceptable as a present to a gentleman than a nice silk umbrella! Always a necessity for his wardrobe. Perhaps not at this season, but then ‘there’ll come a time.’” A clever salesman, he was.
If you are unconvinced by Mr. Duncan, next to his advertisement is one from A.E. Kinkead & Co., Tobacconists, with another gift idea. “The gift of a suitable cigar case to a smoker who always carries a supply of cigars around with him will be appreciated, and if you fill that case with K. & C. Bouquet cigars, the recipient will feel, when you wish him ‘a merry Christmas,’ that the wish springs from the heart.” From one heart to another.
À la mode gifts of fine furs and neckties were being sold by A. Codère on Wellington Street, in Sherbrooke, while The Little Grocer, R. Lakeman, would sell you doll chairs for 25 cents and “for the boy, Buck Saw and Horse,” for only 60 cents.
For the intellectuals among us, J.R. McBain asks: “What would Christmas be without books?” The self-proclaimed “Importer of Xmas gifts” goes on to assert that “no Christmas tree is completely furnished, no stocking is well filled unless among the gifts are found books.” Here, here!
If these advertisements were not enough, the Sherbrooke Daily Record even advertises Will. J. Gray’s advertisement-writing business. That’s right: Cookshire’s premier advertisement writer advises merchants: “Don’t skim over the matter of writing ads. Entrust the task to one who has the time and ability to give this detail proper consideration.” The commercial spirit conquers all.
I hope that this meandering through the advertisements of yesteryear has been entertaining, inspiring, or perhaps even enlightening; let us not lose sight of the true magic of the holidays in our quest for gift-giving. For contrast, please enjoy they accompanying photos of happy moments shared amongst family and friends, at Christmastime.
If you would like to learn more about the history of the Townships, please contact the ETRC Archives by email at etrc2@ubishops.ca or by telephone at 819-822-9600, extension 2261. Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season!