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By T. A. Chénier
Tiffany Chénier volunteers with the Eastern Townships Resource Centre. This article is derived from the now-transcribed oral histories captured by Daniel McKeage and housed in the Townshippers’ Association fonds (P038) at the Eastern Townships Resource Centre.
During the warm summer of 1984, one teenager and a handful of retired granite miners found themselves in a fishing boat. What brought them there was no ordinary trip but rather that the young summer student, Daniel McKeage, was hired to capture a moment in history. The Townships, in an era of increased discussion of linguistic rights, were faced with the loss of the lived-anglophone history. In response, McKeage’s job was, in theory, simple: find retired Beebe granite workers and interview them about their lives.
While nautical adventures were clearly not what he expected as a condition to meeting some of these men, Mr. McKeage was, eventually, returned to land. And, as any good student would do, he came prepared with questions for each of his unmistakably eager subjects, with their recorded answers taking them into conversations neither could have anticipated. Yet, one of his questions, asked over and over, came back with a surprising response. All interviewees agreed that the Great Depression of 1929 didn’t come to the granite industry in Beebe until 1931-2. Why you might ask? The SunLife Building in Montreal.
The economic boom the decade prior had given these large corporations the disposable income to be able to afford to build on these grand feats of architecture. But such grandeur demanded the labour to make it a reality. Not yet met with the innovative tools that were present by the 1980s, the industry in Beebe had employed a large portion of skilled men like blacksmiths, who helped ensure the upkeep of tools vital to their granite operations. However, by the time of these interviews, blacksmiths had largely been replaced by new innovative implements such as carbide-tipped drills, where previously crafted tools were switched out with cheaply manufactured parts, rendering them, and their labour, nearly obsolete in the eyes of many.
While the SunLife’s construction took place over the course of many decades, it seemingly saw no expense spared with new specialised technology introduced to the shop floors to help speed up the process. This specialisation was not reserved for machines. One owner, Mr. McIntosh, was credited with sponsoring the migration of over ten skilled men from Scotland, notorious for their knowledge of granite, for the project. These good times, nevertheless, came to a grinding halt at the completion of the building, when these same workers were met with mass layoffs and little work in the area.
This is not to say that this trying time was without its fun. The interviewees were clear to highlight that point. With Charles Bullock, stating “[W]e never had as much fun in our whole lives as we did during the Depression,” as he and his peers formed an almost-decade-long travelling orchestra until they returned to work. As employment picked up, the nature of the industry allowed many of these same men to be rehired by these same employers. This same sense of community, present amongst these workers, can be credited with making these interviews possible and now, even in 2026, cause us to reflect on the technological strides made not only in mining but in capturing history before it’s gone.
If you are interested in learning more about the granite industry or about the Townshippers’ Association, please contact the ETRC Archives.
By T. A. Chénier
Tiffany Chénier volunteers with the Eastern Townships Resource Centre. This article is derived from the now-transcribed oral histories housed in the Townshippers’ Association fonds (P038) in the Eastern Townships Resource Centre Archives, as well as the final publication by Barbara Verity entitled A Community with Deep Roots: Tenth Anniversary Commemorative Volume of the Townshippers’ Association (1989).
When thinking of summer in the Townships a few images may come to mind: time on the lake, a hike up one of the mountains or even a visit to a local museum. Perhaps less explored is the impact of the Townshippers’ Association, known for their lobbying on behalf of the English-speaking community since 1979, in helping curate these imaginings. Still working diligently today, the first decade of their existence relied heavily on them deepening their knowledge of the area’s history and embracing many of the elements that now make up our collective imagination of the season in the region.
Toponymy, the study of place names, was a key feature of their early efforts. Utilising what little government grants existed to their advantage and playing into the need to employ English-speaking youth, summer students were hired in 1980 to track down the histories of these early anglophone historical sites like Bolton Townships’ Smuggler’s Highway. Witnessing this program’s success, a student-aided research campaign took place again in 1984 through oral histories with the elderly residents of Leeds Village and Kinnear’s Mill. This intergenerational collaboration proved critical to the Townshippers’ effort to combat the francisation of local place names, arguing that this change undermined their cultural and historical importance of Anglophone communities. Armed with these histories, the Association used this knowledge to hold a series of consultations leading to briefs brought to the provincial and national level. Widely successful, these efforts contributed to the later naming of two mountain peaks in 1983 and 1984 after influential women of the Townships; Lily Butters, founder of the Butters Home for children with cognitive disabilities, and the creator of a maternity home for unwed mothers, Florence Bradford.
There was also a focus on what has now become a key contributor to summer in the region: Bed & Breakfasts. The Townshippers saw the tourism industry, and its accompanying entrepreneurialism, as an ideal way to help Anglophone employment. With a committee formed in 1985 to increase their involvement within the region’s tourism initiatives, they undertook marketing aimed at English-speakers in Canada and the United States hoping to appeal to a larger seemingly bypassed clientele. Further responding to B&B’s increasing popularity throughout the decade, the regional association worked cross-linguistically to promote this form of revenue generation. One of their biggest triumphs being the coming together of twenty local English and French B&Bs for a bilingual brochure, leading to the later inclusion of the B&Bs in the Association touristique de l’Estrie’s 1989 tourist map. The first decade of the Townshippers’ Association, therefore, saw a great deal of energy poured into helping the community, young and old, share in their efforts to showcase the region and its businesses. Yet, many of their initiatives continue to characterise our summer. In other words, youth employment, local entrepreneurial pursuits, and the bridging of community have unmistakably become part of its Deep Roots.
By Jazmine Aldrich
Regular readers of this blog may recall that in January 2025, I wrote about the Eastern Townships Resource Centre (ETRC)’s project to digitize, transcribe, and describe the oral histories within our holdings. This post will serve as an update on that project and a vision of what is still to come.
To recap, the ETRC had over 700 audio and audio-visual recordings digitized from magnetic tape media in 2024. These archival treasures come from 11 different fonds and collections held by the ETRC and range from ethnographic interviews to organizational histories and beyond. Once digital copies were secured, we hired two capable archives technicians – Kevin Mancini and Anna-Karina Poronovich to transcribe and describe the recordings.
This project was initially funded by Library and Archives Canada’s Documentary Heritage Communities Program (DHCP) for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 fiscal years. This nearly $100,000.00 investment in local heritage allowed us to embark on a project that we could have only dreamed about as a small heritage not-for-profit.
As of early 2026, the DHCP program has been permanently discontinued; while our funding is secured through the end of our project, never again will community-based organizations such as the ETRC have access to this federal funding. If you would like to stand with Canada’s heritage institutions to protest this and other cuts to critical funding, please write to the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages.
Though our DHCP funding for transcription and description ran out around the turn of 2026, we were able to secure funding to continue description work through Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)’s Programme de soutien au traitement des archives privées. Kevin and Anna-Karina continued their work through the first quarter of this year, culminating in a presentation at the ETRC’s 14th Annual Colloquium on Quebec Studies, Quebec Past and Present (QPP) on March 27 of this year.
Kevin and Anna-Karina’s presentation at QPP, entitled “From Farm to Archive: An Exploration into Oral Histories of the Eastern Townships” highlighted the richness of the oral histories that they have worked with over the last year-and-a-half. The presenters also offered important takeaways about the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in heritage work. Audience members were fascinated with the project, expressing their interest in a lively question period and in conversation after the panel. Colloquium participants were interested in using the project as a case study for using AI tools for transcription in other heritage projects, and in using the oral histories themselves for a variety of research projects.
The ETRC also benefitted from the support of four practicum students in the McGill University School of Information Studies to advance this project; those students are Leo Jones, Emily Jarjour, Sam Davin, and Jess Flacksenburg. Each student received course credit in exchange for 100 hours of transcription, description, and archival research to write biographical sketches for the interviewees.
There is a second component to the DHCP-funded project that began last August, and that is to record new oral histories to complement our existing holdings. In particular, the focus of the new oral histories is to diversify the voices represented in our holdings by inviting people who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+, BIPOC, immigrants, and other cultural and religious minorities to co-create their own narratives.
As an institution of memory, we know that our collecting practices have historically focused on the dominant members of society; as a result, our archives disproportionately represent Caucasian, heterosexual, cisgendered people who practice Christianity. As people who live in the Townships, however, we know that this does not accurately represent the vibrant society that we live in today, nor has it for much of our Townships’ history. We cannot fabricate historical documents, but we can try to make our archival memory inclusive of more lived experiences moving forward.
Through this component of the project, we are interested in documenting a variety of experiences of living in the Eastern Townships right now and in the last few decades. Following up on the legacy oral histories in our archives that were recorded from the 1970s to the late 1990s, this project serves as an update on life in the Townships from a greater variety of participants and perspectives.
Last summer, the ETRC hired Dr. Ann Scowcroft to conduct the new oral histories. Dr. Scowcroft’s educational, professional, and personal background means that she is well-placed to facilitate these interviews with compassion and curiosity. Dr. Scowcroft has already completed ten interviews with more scheduled in the coming weeks – our goal for the project being twenty new interviews in total.
I will close by saying that the ETRC is actively seeking funding to continue both components of our oral history work. We welcome all suggestions for funding opportunities that might further this work. We also accept monetary donations through the Bishop’s University Foundation. If you are interested in learning more about our work, please contact the ETRC Archives.
By Jazmine Aldrich (ETRC Head Archivist) and Etienne Domingue (ETRC Director)
For many Townshippers, “Marjorie Goodfellow” is a household name. Marjorie Elizabeth Goodfellow (1938-2024) was the only child of Edgar and Annie (née McElrea) Goodfellow, Ms. Goodfellow was born and raised in Sherbrooke. She spent much of her life on her family’s farm on Chemin des Écossais. She earned two undergraduate degrees in two of Quebec’s anglophone universities (Bishop’s University ‘59 and McGill University ‘60), followed by a Master of Library Science degree (McGill University ‘67) that would launch her career in the library world. Ms. Goodfellow worked in Ottawa and Montreal before returning to the Townships following the death of her father in 1971. She continued to work as a library consultant and a genealogical and historical researcher—a passion that remained with her until the very end of her life.
Ms. Goodfellow is remembered by many as a founding member of the Townshippers’ Association where she defended the rights of English speakers to the provincial and federal governments. She was adamant that the same standards in healthcare should apply to members of both official language communities and served on the Board of Directors of the CUSE (now the CHUS) for 13 years. The Quebec government chose Ms. Goodfellow to represent the Eastern Townships on a provincial committee to advise the minister of health on service issues in the English-speaking community.
Ms. Goodfellow nurtured a passion for local history, sitting on the Board of Directors of the Sherbrooke Historical Society and was a founding member of the Eastern Townships Heritage Foundation—the precursor to the Eastern Townships Resource Centre. She also helped found the Sherbrooke and District University Women’s Club and the Sherbrooke Library Board. In 1985, she became a Trustee Member of Bishop’s University and was part of the University’s Planning Committee. In 1993, Bishop’s University conferred Ms. Goodfellow with an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Civil Law.
Ms. Goodfellow was involved with the Eastern Townships Resource Centre from its founding, serving many terms on the ETRC Board of Directors and the ETRC Archives Committee. Her passion for Eastern Townships history and her confidence in the ETRC led her to entrust her rich documentary legacy to our archives. Though she began depositing archival material with the ETRC in 2010, she held on to much of it until the end of her life – drawing on material for her yet-unpublished manuscript.
The ETRC received generous funding through QAHN’s Supporting Heritage Awareness, Recognition and Engagement (SHARE) program to begin processing the extensive and complex Marjorie Goodfellow fonds (P180), which comprises the largest single donation of archival material received by the ETRC to date. This grant also supported the inaugural Goodfellow Memorial Keynote Address—a public lecture given at the 2026 edition of Quebec Past and Present: the 14th Colloquium on Quebec Studies, hosted by the ETRC at Bishop’s University on March 27 and 28.
Dr. Thierry Nootens—director of the Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises and professor at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières delivered this year’s lecture. Dr. Nootens drew upon the Marjorie Goodfellow fonds as the basis of his presentation, following several wintry days spent poring over the semi-processed archives.
Dr. Nootens’ talk was entitled “’Will you see if you can find my white Ban-Lon sweater’ : les lettres de Marjorie Goodfellow à ses parents, 1959-1961” and took place on Saturday, March 28 at 11:15 am in Bishop’s University’s Tomlinson Hall, located on the ground floor of McGreer Hall. Dr. Nootens delivered his talk in French with a bilingual question and answer period. The first of its kind, the ETRC hopes to make the Goodfellow Memorial Keynote Address an annual tradition to underscore Ms. Goodfellow’s innumerable contributions to our organization and to Quebec heritage, more broadly.
Meanwhile, the project to process the Marjorie Goodfellow fonds is progressing well and we are looking forward to sharing the product of this monumental effort, later this summer. We are grateful for the support that QAHN has provided in order to ensure that Ms. Goodfellow’s legacy is preserved through her archives, and that her mission lives on through the ETRC’s public programming.
By Jazmine Aldrich
Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh!
Come on it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you!
What would holiday carols be without sleighing? From Santa’s magic sleigh pulled by a team of reindeer to tales of joyous sleigh rides in good company, sleighs are an indispensable part of our holiday traditions.
Though rarely used by most Townshippers, nowadays, sleighs were a staple of wintertime transportation into the early 1900s. The idyllic scenes of horse-drawn sleighs painted by Melbourne artist Frederick Simpson Coburn (1871-1960) certainly attest to the prevalence of sleighing in Townships history. Without touching on their industrial importance, let’s explore the importance of sleighing in transportation and recreation.
In 1903, J.S. Mitchell & Co. in Sherbrooke advertised its “Fine Swiss Sleigh Bells” as a New Year’s gift idea, while E.W. Abbott & Son in Lennoxville recommended the whole “two-seated and one-horse sleigh” as a gift. F.L. Bean, whose business was situated across from the Albion Hotel in Sherbrooke, proposed that “a pair of fur robes for your friend’s sleigh would probably suit him first rate for a New Year present.” In the same issue of the Sherbrooke Examiner – predecessor to the Sherbrooke Record – P. Biron of East Sherbrooke proclaims the superior craftsmanship of his own handmade sleighs and carioles.
By 1915, the shifting means of transportation was making itself known in local advertising: J.S. Mitchell & Co. endorsed the Clark Heater – “a neat, compact, durable and finely finished device that yields just [the] degree of heat desired” – achieved, they claim, through the burning of its Clark Coal Brickletts (sold separately). Before the Clark Heater, however, sleigh-riders were already finding a myriad of ways to keep their feet warm; for example, A.H. Foss sold soap stone foot warmers for 25 cents each at his shop on Wellington Street, in Sherbrooke. “There is nothing quite so satisfactory,” proclaim J.S. Mitchell & Co., “as comfortable, warm feet on a cold day whether in an Auto, Sleigh or Carriage.” I can’t argue with that!
Sleigh rides were not all comfort and luxury, however: many sleighing accidents resulted in a range of injuries, from dislocated shoulders, to cracked ribs, or worse. These accidents sometimes reveal further evidence of shifting modes of transportation; for example, Mr. S.L. Spafford’s horse was frightened by the Lennoxville street car in January 1899 and backed into the car, smashing the sleigh but fortunately, sparing Mr. Spafford any bodily harm. In other instances, sleigh runners caught on obstacles such as railway tracks and caused accidents, including at least one that involved the driver being dragged 30-40 feet by the reins and – fortunately – coming out of it without any serious injuries.
Sleighing was still important enough in 1921 to make it into the weather report. A report on Christmas weather forecasts across Canada indicated the relative temperature (mild, cold), the weather (overcast, snow, clear), and the sleighing conditions (good, fair) – where applicable; Vancouver and Victoria’s sleighing conditions are notably absent, on account of the forecasted “green Xmas”.
No matter the weather or the sleighing conditions, we at the ETRC hope that a happy holiday season is enjoyed by all, and offer good wishes for the New Year. If you are interested in learning more about our local history, please contact the ETRC Archives.
By Jazmine Aldrich
A little birdy told me that our friendly local English daily celebrates its 129th birthday, this month, so I am joining in the festivities with a peek at their history through their archives!
Did you know that the Eastern Townships Resource Centre (ETRC) holds the archives of the Sherbrooke Record? The archives were first loaned to us in 1980, and formally donated in 1997 on the occasion of a second donation. Perhaps their one-hundredth anniversary in 1997 felt like the right occasion to commit their legacy – so far – to the safekeeping of an archive, or perhaps they felt a premonition of disaster to come.
In the early morning hours of Saturday, January 2, 1998, the building, presses, and equipment belonging to The Record were destroyed in a devastating fire, along with many of their archives not yet deposited with the ETRC. Not accepting defeat, however, The Record was back to publishing by the following Wednesday out of temporary offices borrowed from the Eastern Townships School Board.
The archives in The Record fonds (P101) at the ETRC do not include copies of the newspaper, itself; being a publication, The Record is preserved by Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) and back issues can be consulted for free using the digital platform called BAnQ Numérique. Many of the ETRC’s other archival fonds and collections include clippings from the newspaper relating to the subjects of those fonds and collections.
Rather than keeping copies of the newspaper, The Record fonds contains documentation relating to the management of the business, including carriers’ route lists, circulation records, press room production reports, and more. The archival fonds also contains over one thousand photographs, and that number is growing rapidly.
Since early 2025, the ETRC has been collaborating with the Sherbrooke Record to gradually acquire its photographic archives, which number in the tens of thousands of photographs. Four Bishop’s University students completing internships with the ETRC have had the opportunity to sort through some of the photograph subject files, deciding which photographs will be kept and which will be returned to The Record. The interns then scan the photographs that are retained for our archives so that The Record can have digital copies for future use. Each file that is kept is described and labelled for easy retrieval and the photographs are rehoused into archival-grade plastic sleeves for long-term storage. We at the ETRC are proud of this collaboration between our organization, the newspaper, and Bishop’s University’s History department. Looking ahead, I hope that we will continue to mark these important milestones in the Sherbrooke Record’s story – documenting it all through their archives. If you are interested in consulting the archives of The Record or any other archives in our holdings, please contact the ETRC Archives.
By Jazmine Aldrich
Coming on the heels of Remembrance Day, many of us have recently reflected on the sacrifices that our forebears made to build a more peaceful world. Both of my great-grandfathers served – one in the First World War and the other, in the Second World War. The stories of battles, trenches, bombings, and incredible loss of human life echo around the world in November. While our soldiers were on the front line, our homemakers were contributing to the war effort in their own ways – including through handicrafts such as sewing and knitting.
Thanks to the excellent work of Kevin Mancini and Anna-Karina Poronovich – the ETRC’s archives technicians who have been working on a digitization project since the autumn of 2024 – we now have hundreds of transcripts to accompany interviews which are part of the Ian Tait collection (P163). Many of these interviews were created by Ian Tait’s students at Champlain Regional College in Lennoxville, in the 1980s and 1990s. The students were tasked with interviewing senior citizens living in the Eastern Townships about their memories of the early 20th century, including the two World Wars.
On April 3, 1990, a student named Guylaine interviewed Beatrice Bouchard (née Bushnell). Beatrice was originally from Rock Island but was living in Sherbrooke at the time of the interview. When prompted by Guylaine about her mother’s involvement in WWII, Beatrice explained that “the government would furnish cloth and stuff and send it to where […] they had this meeting place and they would fix it up […] for overseas.” Beatrice went on to explain that “it was for mittens, knitted mittens, scarves for the men during the cold weather […].” Beyond scarves and mittens, Beatrice’s mother also taught the women that she worked with how to make quilts out of different pieces of cloth, donated by community members; once finished, the quilts would be sent overseas for the soldiers.
Thérèse Messier of Saint-Armand was also interviewed around the 1980s or 1990s in Bedford, recalling her own experience in wartime crafting. “I remember we used to have in wartime, even if we were working, […] we used to have to knit,” recalls Thérèse. She goes on to correct herself: “We didn’t have to, but we just used to join to knit for the soldiers.” Thérèse explains that the headquarters of these knitting efforts in her area were located in Philipsburg. The women knit mittens, stockings, and scarves for the soldiers with army green wool.
Originally from England, a Mrs. Bennett was interviewed by a student named Eric on April 6, 1991, in Lennoxville. She was also involved with wartime knitting efforts, making navy blue and army green sweaters, heavy socks, and other essentials for soldiers weathering the cold European winters. When asked by the interviewer where she learned to knit, she answered that “you learned some of it […] in school. And of course, your parents, my mother could do all these things. We were taught at home to do these things.”
Though undervalued, home front contributions also moved the needle in the two World Wars. Homemakers and youth saw it as one way that they could help the cause from across the globe. As Donna Murray put it in her 1990 interview, “everybody had to dig in.”
The ETRC is grateful to Library and Archives Canada for the financial assistance provided through the Documentary Heritage Communities Program (DHCP), which has allowed us to digitize, transcribe, and describe the interviews quoted in this article. If you are interested in learning more about Townships history, please contact the ETRC Archives.
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.