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FAMILY RECOLLECTIONS
The Archives Department is launching a new section to our web site, entitled, Family Recollections.
The idea was created when one of our members, Jeane Corey donated personal family history notes compiled by her late mother,
Edna MacLeod Corey.
Jeane told us that her mother used to tell her stories of years gone by, and like each of us, wanted to keep these memories alive.
Eventually Jeane typed these "memoirs" up which will now be available for everyone to see.
We hope that this will encourage other people to come forward with their own "Family Recollections".
The following are notes written by Edna MacLeod Corey during 1983, when it was customary each Sunday to sit down and jot down notes of things that she remembered. Jeane asked her mother if she could type us these notes to have for keepsakes. These notes are typed as written.
"The older I get the more I want to write what I can,
and in my own way, about our parents and grandparents.
They were amazingly capable and clever,
or they wouldn't have survived.
They were the "boat people from Lewis" and some of them,
the first generation of the boat people".
Annie Edna MacLeod Corey
The tragic story of those beautiful simple people who, forced off their small crofts by greedy landowners who wanted the land for themselves, is an old very sad and well known story. However the suffering they must have endured to come from a small, almost treeless island to virgin forest to carve out homes for themselves must have been almost insurmountable.
Our grandparents MacDonald came from Lewis with two young children. Uncle Malcolm and Aunt Bella.
Our grandparents MacLeod came as younger people and married here.
Grandma MacLeod came over when she was 10 years old in 1842 on a sailing vessel that took six weeks.
I never heard how old grandpa was.
These were all god fearing people and had large families. MacDonald grandparents had eleven and grandparents MacLeod had seven. Our MacDonald great grandparents came here also to live.
However, schools were few and short terms at that, so that generation had little education in schools but managed very often to acquire knowledge in their own fields in wondrous ways. Their language was Gaelic and so that made it more difficult as education was in English.
In our father's family were four girls and three boys. Aunts Mary, Effie, Katie and Annie. Uncle Malcolm died when a young man with what we think now was appendicitis. Uncle Dan worked in the granite sheds in Graniteville, VT., and died with stone cutter's consumption (from granite dust), when Harry was in his early teens. Our father's name was Murdo Hughie.
Murdo Hughie MacLeod (1857-1945)
Ora MacDonald MacLeod (1867-1949)
Aunt Mary never married. Aunt Effie married Norman MacIver and they had one daughter Evelyn, who was about my age. They lived in Barre until Evelyn was about ten. They moved to Edmonton where Uncle Norman was in construction business. Aunt Effie was sick for many years so to help out, Aunt Mary went there to live. Evelyn was a teacher in the high school there and taught for many years. Evelyn had a sad life. In his late middle age or later Uncle Norman found out he had a brain tumor so committed suicide. Evelyn lived alone then and still taught school, but was planning to retire and come east to live where her "family" was. One Monday morning she didn't get to school and they found she had died alone in her house from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Aunt Katie married Alex Morrison from North Hill. It was such a happy marriage as I remember it but Uncle Alex had worked in the granite sheds too long. They moved to Colorado hoping for a cure but it didn't work out and he died there. While there they had a baby girl who only lived a short time.
Aunt Annie married Wallace Marvin who had a farm "Marvin Farm" between Barre and Montpelier, Vermont. They had one son Hugh. He (Wallace) was hit by a car in about 1928 when he was crossing the road, so never could work as hard again and died in about 1936. Aunt Annie and Hugh sold the farm and moved into a smaller house across the road where she died in 1949.
Hugh married Louisa Albertino and they have two children, Susan and David. Hugh and Louisa live in Burlington, VT.
Uncle Dan married Lilla Bratford. They had one son Harry. He married twice and had one son, then in the second marriage a son and daughter. The second wife Anne is still living; lives in Wisconsin with her daughter, Annabelle.
In our Mother's family there were eleven children. Her father John MacDonald and her mother Ann MacLeod were married in Lewis, Scotland, and had two children (Malcolm and Bella, I think) before they came to Canada by sailing vessel, a trip that took about six weeks.
Our great grand parents John and Annie MacDonald may have come at the same time. They died - great grandpa in 1869 and great grandma 1878. Grandpa MacDonald died in 1902, aged 84 and grandma in 1912, aged 86.
Aunt Bella married Norman MacDonald and had six children. She was widowed when the family was young. She lived about a mile out of Milan. Her children were Annie, Normina and Katie, Johnnie, Donald and Malcolm. Uncles Malcolm, Norman and Hector went to the Western states when young men; married and lived there. Uncle Malcolm had three children, Linwood, Lida and George. At this date (1983) Lida is still living, will be 94 in April. Uncle Malcolm and Lida came back East to visit in the winter of 1896.Uncle Hector had one son Clarence. None of them ever came back here.
Uncle Norman lost two little girls with diphtheria, and then had three more; May who was a singer by profession, she had one son Norman, Hazel married Alex MacAskill formerly from Keith, and they had a daughter Christie (Hazel was a teacher), and the third daughter, Eora who had one son, I believe. Eora is still living, has Parkinson's, I believe and is in Northern California.
Aunt Maggie married Donald Morrison and lived in Keith. They had four children - Lily, Eddie, Flora and Dannie. Lily married Eddie (Evander) MacLeod and had two children Lester and Peggy. Eddie married Elsie MacLeod and had one daughter Katherine. Flora married Willie Lefebvre, they had no family. Dannie was a veterinary; he lived in Edmonton, died leaving two young boys.
Aunt Effie married Donald MacDonald and they lived in Gould most of their married life. They sold the farm and moved to Sherbrooke where he died. They had four children; Dannie, Margaret, John and Laura. Margaret and Laura are still living. Dannie had four children and lived in Fort William. Laura had two, lives in Ottawa, and is now a widow. John lived in Sherbrooke all his life; Myrtle, his wife lives in Windsor, Ont. They had one son, Gordon. Margaret never married.
Aunt Christie married in Western U.S.A. to John Hague. She came home to visit with two children John and Marion. For some reason unknown to us young children at the time, she never went back. She kept roomers and boarders in Boston; married a widower Dan McSween, a fine man who had three children. They moved to Arizona in their later years and were both killed in a tragic car accident. John and Marion both are gone.
Aunt Annie in 1919 married her childhood sweetheart Donald Shaw, a splendid man; they lived in Lennoxville and were very happy. He died in his own home, then she went to live with Peggy and Harold Munkittrick where she had good care and love; she died in 1957.
Uncle Donald married Katie Campbell, they moved to Liberty, Saskatchewan had four girls and a boy who died a teenager from a ruptured appendix. Our Mother's name was Ora.
Now for our own family.
Our father and mother were married in 1893. Our mother's home was in Hampden, about a mile from Milan. It is said that father walked to Hampden when courting, which is probably quite true. He was making a good living doing carpenter work building stations in the West when the railroad went through.
Incidentally when Leslie and I went West by train in 1977, he mentioned different stations that he might have helped to build.
When his younger brother Malcolm who was running the farm died of what they called then inflammation of the bowels, and we think now may have been appendicitis; our father had to come back to the farm. Then he began to fall in love with our mother, walked those miles to Hampden and in 1893 were married.
They lived with our grandparents in the "old house" that they had built. It was a nice old house, not a log house; but as the babies came was too small.
I was six years old when grandpa died in 1902. I remember him very well sitting in the rocking chair and holding me to comfort me after I had been scolded. There were three of us born there; myself in 1895, Catherine in 1898 and Hugh in 1900. Our father bought the farm across the road from the "old house" and built the lovely new house there,and we moved in on Christmas Eve,I think in 1901.
Murdo Hughie & Ora's house ca. 1900-1901.
There were no partitions in the house but we had a furnace and a good kitchen stove. It wasn't too warm but mother said that no one in the house had a cold that winter. That winter the partitions were built and the next fall we moved back to the old house while the new one was plastered. I had started school while we still lived in the old house in September 1901. My first teacher was Miss Margaret Morrison from Lake Megantic. I met her daughter this winter (1983) and we talked about her mother and I heard stories of her mother's life after that. I think probably we were the first ones in the district to have a furnace, possibly because we were the only new house, and later on we were the first ones to have a bathroom.
Our house was finished entirely by our father except for help with the stairs by Uncle Norman, Aunt Effie's husband; but cupboards and all the beautiful finishes in the different rooms were done entirely by him. Drawers under the stairs opened into the dining room and into the hall etc. Our farm by standards then was the usual large farm, 200 acres including wood lots. It was some years before we finally had water in the house that didn't freeze in the winter.
With a big family and lots of washing it was a chore to bring water from the barn and the brook. There were no electric pumps then so the wells had to be higher than the house. After the house was finished a barn was built across the road from the house.
There was a big barn not far from the house but as steers were one source of income, there had to be a barn to hold steers, milking cows and horses; so the new barn.
Later on after this building more money was needed to feed, clothe and educate seven children so our father took a course learning how to scale lumber and worked away from home every winter in lumber camps and in woods walking many miles to lumber camps. He came home most weekends, leaving home early Monday mornings until lumbering was finished for that winter.
Our mother had the load of everything. A distant cousin lived with us for a few years and he looked after the chores. After he left there was a hired man who was able to do chores, but not much more. One man, a one armed man, a real Christian, was with us for a few winters. It was remarkable what he was able to do. In summer, he painted houses for a living. Grandma MacLeod always lived with us, she was well and active and a big help with the work and the knitting. When I was ready to go away to school, I went to Gould and my first teacher there was Miss Lena Wilson, a marvelous teacher. Aunt Annie taught the Elementary Dept. We boarded with two sisters, Miss Jennie and Miss Claira Hanright; their father lived with them also, George Cowan and his daughter Belinda (Bea). Her mother was a sister of the Misses Hanright who died when Bea was born. The next year Aunt Annie married Wallace Marvin and went to Montpelier (Vermont) to live.
Catherine and I went to Gould and boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Smith. We had to carry lunches as it was too far to go home at noon. It wasn't a very happy year; at least we weren't happy where we boarded. The next year I was in school in Scotstown Grade 2 Academy and worked for my board for Mrs. George Scott, and had Miss Maude Pearson as teacher. Mrs. Scott is still living at the McConnell-Griffith home in Montreal (1983). My last year in school was in Cookshire. I had a nice boarding place, Miss Annie MacDonald and her aunt Mrs. Keenan; and another special teacher Mr. J.T. Allan for his first year of teaching.
Typical photograph of early school house.
All this time our mother was bringing up the other six children, doing so much work and so much of it the hard way; although she had many things the neighbours didn't have, she still washed with a wash board although in set tubs, made all the bread, mountains of barley scones, all the butter, some was sold but in the fall some packed away for winter when there wasn't as much milk. In between times she made our clothes, girls dresses and the boys suits, even father's pants and vests with Grandma's help, our winter stockings were knitted, mittens for the family, socks for the men.
Every farmer kept sheep for wool and meat and to have lambs to sell. Our wool all went to Sherbrooke woolen mills where it was exchanged for cloth and yarn. We girls picked out from the samples sent us, the material for a new winter dress; last year's for school and the new one for best. Usually grey for the boys' suits and different colors for father's pants, yarn for mittens and stockings.
Grandma was such a wonderful help in every way until she had the stroke on the way home from church in late August 1915. She died September 15.
Catherine was also a year in school in Scotstown and worked for her board too for Mrs. Scott. She taught school a couple of terms, worked in the office of Brompton Pulp and Paper in Gould, then went to Montpelier, stayed at the Marvin's, took a business course there in 1918, and worked in Montpelier for the Light, Heat and Power Co. until she left to be married in 1936.
Hugh stayed home on the farm for a few years then worked in Montpelier a while in a garage, went to Chicago; learned the garage and car business and had his own business after a while. He married Ruth Schnaible, had two daughters that he adored; Ora Ann and Phyllis Jane. Hugh died in 1969. His wife and daughters who are both married live in San Diego, California now.
Edith taught school after she finished grade 2 academy, as it was then called, taught for a couple of years to earn money for her nursing course. She trained for three years at the Montreal General when it was down on St. Lawrence Blvd., I believe. She graduated as an R.N. in June 1925. For a while she worked there in the operating room with Dr. W. Penfield; then went to Virginia where she did the same. On one vacation home she met Rev. George Murray who was the Presbyterian Minister in Scotstown, and on her next vacation she came for good and they were married in Montreal on August 9, 1933. They had two children, George born in 1935 and Ora in 1938.
Malcolm went to Boston to find work. He stayed at our Aunt Christee's, met Florence Sears there and they were married in Cambridge, Mass. on July 26, 1930.
Leslie now the youngest of the family was home and took over the farm as our father couldn't by that time. It wasn't "his cup of tea" as they say, but he carried on, went to work for the Brompton Pulp and Paper as it was then, studied for different kinds of work; then was fluent speaking and writing French and worked for them for years as Woods Manager. In the meantime he married Thelma MacAulay in Sherbrooke on October 1, 1941. They had two children, Douglas Corey, born May 1943 and Cheryl Lee born January 1948. They lived in East Angus for several years, then moved to Wethersfield, Conn. in 1966.
In March 1918, our baby sister, Ora Jeane, who was then nine years old, died with a ruptured appendix. She was operated on in our kitchen but it had ruptured and in those days before penicillin and sulpha were discovered which would have saved her life. It was our first great sorrow and we were heart broken. I am sure our parents didn't get over it for a long time, if ever.
When I finished school I borrowed a little money to help out our father; and went to MacDonald College, got my teacher's diploma. My first school was in Stanbridge East where I had three grades, all such nice children, not a problem child in the lot. I taught there three years, boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Hunt, a lovely old couple whom I didn't appreciate as much as I should have at the time. It was a nice time to be here or anywhere as there was so much good clean fun to be had.
I got engaged, then I went home to teach two years, and was married in October 1919. I meant to add that I was the only one married at home.
We had three children; Douglas Earle in 1920, Hugh MacLeod in 1922 and Eleanor Jeane in 1925.
Frank, Edna and Douglas Earle
It was a lovely big home wedding; everyone we knew from far and near were invited. We went on our wedding trip to Springfield, Lowell and Boston. Frank's mother was living then, but wasn't well. She had a stroke in June 1920 and died in October 1921. After we were all on our own it was easier for our parents. They had a car and could get out more.
Corey Family Coat of Arms
In the summer mother kept tourists. She was a marvelous cook, the house was large and comfortable and it gave her a little spending money. She also usually boarded the teacher and often men who worked in the woods. Even then she had a lot to do. The winters were lonely as father still worked away in the woods so she couldn't get out much. She sewed; knitted, spun yarn from our own sheep, made quilts etc. I marvel more and more when I realize now how capable those two were.
With all the advantages we had and have now, there is no one in our generation or in any succeeding generations who can come near the achievements that they in that generation accomplished.
The heart breaking tragedy that happened in October 1937 when that lovely home burned early one morning, and about the only things saved were the sideboard, rocking chair, sewing machine and a few clothes. They were all ready for a comfortable winter really more than they had ever been. Thanks to good neighbours and especially to Mr. and Mrs. Alex Morrison, who gave mother and father a home for the time being; and also Mr. and Mrs. Peter MacIver. A new home was built in record time and they spent most of the winter in it. It wasn't the lovely old home but very comfortable.
In November of 1943 they sold the farm and moved to Scotstown where they were very comfortable. In the winter of 1943 mother fell and put her shoulder out of joint. I was able to leave here and stayed with them for three weeks until she was well enough to manage with the help of a young girl who was quite capable. In Scotstown we were fortunate enough to have a wonderfully kind Mrs. Bennet to keep house for them. She stayed there until after father's death in 1945, when the home was sold. Mother stayed a few months with Leslie and Thelma in East Angus, then came to live with us. She stayed one winter in Newton, Mass. with Edith and George, but it was hard for Edith for as a minister's wife she was involved in so many things and couldn't stay home with her as I had to. After a year or so her memory had failed and she seemed to want to "go home". As I write this I realize now how she suffered and I know I lost my patience some times. I hope she didn't know that, for no one could have had a kinder mother. She took care of two grandmothers and a great aunt and never lost her patience.
There are many little things happened or went on that we laugh about or sometimes cry about that I will add.
Edith was very sick when she had whooping cough. It took so much out of her that we were worried, but after a long siege of it she got her strength back. She was only about eight then. Catherine used to hop about on one foot a lot, and write in the air with her hands. She was five or six before her hair began to grow, they used to think she was a boy, then it came in a beautiful red and curly. Red hair then wasn't as fashionable as it is now.
Hugh was Aunt Annie's pet, and Edith was cute and had beautiful curly hair so she was a pet. Malcolm and Leslie for years used to go around with their arms around each other. Jeane of course the baby, was special and when we lost her we were all broken hearted. As for me I was the tom-boy. I used to help outdoors and loved it, so it was only natural that Edith and Catherine who didn't like working outdoors in the fields, and with the horses and cattle, should turn out to be much better housekeepers and cooks than their tom-boy sister.
Little anecdotes of our childhood. Malcolm broke his arm twice, I believe. He had it set by Dr. Smith. He began to wear glasses when he was about 14. We thought then it might have been caused by measles. We had an idea when anyone had measles the room should be kept dark to protect the eyes. Maybe it wasn't necessary as it isn't done now, but it did no harm.
Leslie had an operation for appendicitis when he was young, maybe 14, I am not sure. Anyway he was sent to the hospital in time. I don't remember anything special happening to the three older ones, Hugh, Catherine or myself. We had whooping cough and measles. I had whooping cough when I was three months old and survived. Naturally this is what I remember about myself. I was old enough to drive a horse and help in haying, but couldn't rake because I wasn't strong enough to use the heavy old fashioned one. About that time the rake that was dumped by a foot lever was available; we had one and I was so happy because I was the one to do it. After that I rode the rake for hours and hours, and did many miles of raking. Another one of my haying jobs was to drive the horse that unloaded the hay with a hay fork. I liked doing that too. I had two signals or orders: When the fork was dumped in the mow, it was "come back" to get another fork load; when the load was finished it was "unhitch" which was to take the horse off the fork-rope and back on the hay wagon.
To sum all this up as I think I should -I married a farmer with a small farm; Frank often worked away doing carpenter work, one winter and summer near Cowansville renovating a house for a Montreal business man and building a barn.
Corey House Ridge Road Stanbridge East ca. 1860
Also one winter in Arvida when the aluminum company was there. We went through the depression with no problems and our three children grew up in a good period. I think those children in that time had the best time to grow up that I can think of. They studied hard, worked at home and had the most fun of any time. It seemed to me that for fun there were parties; at homes, in the schools, and, or, in connection with the churches. There were no dull moments in those days, all good clean fun, no worries about when they would come home or how or in what condition they would be.
Douglas, the one we lost was a fine clean living young man and we hoped had many years ahead of him but that wasn't to be.
Pilot Officer Douglas Earle Corey
"P.O. Douglas E. Corey enlisted in the R.C.A.F. on October 10, 1940. He was stationed in several places in Ontario, St. Jean's, Québec, Summerside, P.E.I. and Gander, Newfoundland.
At the time of his death on July 10, 1942, he was at Gander, NFLD. The duties of the crew that he was with was guarding a convoy through the Strait of Belle Isle.
The plane and bodies of the crew of six were found 14 years later where they had crashed in the Long Range Mountains of Newfoundland's northern peninsula.
The bodies of the six men were brought down from the mountain and laid to rest in the Military section of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in St. John, Newfoundland.
**** For many years Edna MacLeod Corey was the "Silver Cross Mother" for the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 82 in Philipsburg, Québec. The Silver Cross Mother is chosen annually by The Royal Canadian Legion to represent the mothers of Canada at the National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa on November 11th. The Silver Cross Mother lays a wreath at the base of the National War Memorial on behalf of all mothers who lost children in the military service.
The Memorial Cross, the gift of Canada, was issued as a memento of personal loss and sacrifice on the part of widows and mothers of Canadian sailors and soldiers who died for their country during the war".
Hugh, the second one had always been the same and is now a Minister with a fine wife and family.
Jeane is my right arm and shoulder to lean on in every way. She did her time in the army, her wish after we lost Douglas. Since then she has worked for the Torrington Co. (now called Exeltor Co.) and lived at home with us and for the last twenty years with and for me.
Catherine and I are now widows. Her husband was in the mining business connected with construction there. They were married and lived in Mexico, then spent a few years in Bolivia, S.A. and afterwards a few years in Cuba. He then retired and lived in a lovely home he built in Los Angeles. She and her daughter, Marilyn, still live there.
Hugh worked in Montpelier, VT. for a few years, then went to Chicago where eventually he had his own Ford car business. They had two girls, Ora Ann and Phyllis Jane. Hugh died in 1969, both girls are married and now live in San Diego, CA. Their mother Ruth, who had been still living in Chicago now lives there too.
Edith, as I have written married a Presbyterian minister who died very suddenly soon after he had taken a church in Philadelphia. Edith then came back to Newton, Mass. where their two children and families lived; bought a house there and started nursing again. For a while she also kept semi-invalids. She was a marvelous cook and had a flair for making a house look so comfortable and inviting. Edith had a stroke and never recovered, had a series of them, was in nursing homes for a few years and died in 1981.
Malcolm, the next went to Boston and stayed for a while at Aunt Christie's as so many did. He met and married Florence Sears there. He worked his way up in a Cambridge company and retired in 1970.
Leslie was the lumber man. He scaled for a while then got to be Woods Manager for Brompton Pulp and Paper where he put in many years of cold hard work.
I know a great deal of this is repetition but just remember who is writing it!!!
Now with all our advantages, and I hope a few brains, we got where we now are, but I mean this and hope all you who read this will too; there is not one of us who can come anywhere near accomplishing what our father and mother did in their life time. They started with very little education and money and we, I hope, all understand what they accomplished and the good life they lived".
Hugh Corey in front of family home in Stanbridge East
Frank Leslie Corey (1888-1963) and Edna MacLeod Corey (1895-1994)
POST SCRIPT:
Sixty-eight years after my brother, Douglas Earle Corey was killed in Newfoundland, I was privileged to meet the daughter-in-law of one of the men in a group of hunters that discovered the remains of the accident. This discovery was 14 years after the plane crash.
This has brought our family such joy and satisfaction to know more of the story.
Jeane Corey
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