Gratitude Season, Warm Spices and War

Mable Hunter Stewart’s war effort and her fruit cake.

Harvest, Thanksgiving and Remembrance Day draws us toward feeling gratitude for nature’s bounty, for the effort, and sacrifice of others. Fall is a sort of Gratitude season that comes scented with warm spices. This guest blog post recalls a time when cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove were more associated with molasses, candied peel, dried fruit and rum, than pumpkin.

Mabel Hunter Stewart and Sgt. Ronald P. “Jerry” Gerelli

Janet Stewart Lindstrom does not remember her Grandmother well, she was only 8 years old when Mabel died. Mabel Jewett Hunter Stewart is no mystery to Jan, her quiet goodness and steadfastness remains vivid, thanks to memories of their shared time but more directly in the quiet, steadfastness and goodness inherent in a man far more familiar, her father. Jan describes her grandmother Mabel and her father Andy as deeply proud of their Hunter Family Highland Scottish heritage as well as tried and true Royalists.

A Highlander and a Royalist? That Mabel was a Royalist is not in the least surprising, despite the complicated history between the English Crown and Highland Scots. Mabel lived thru two world wars, wars fought for King and country. Mable knew well the sacrifice families made on both sides of the Atlantic. She understood the worry, loss and grief faced by families at home and she was grateful for the young pilots and flight crews training at the nearby Moncton site of the The British Commonwealth Air Training Program (BCATP)1. Mabel knew the risk these men faced, and that there was a good chance some would die in defense of King and Country. She made her war effort a personal expression of gratitude that came flavoured with warm spices.

A group of Airmen, gathered in the home of Mabel Stewart, Moncton, NB c. 1942

Jan wrote this short story about Mabel’s ‘War effort’ to share with her children and Grandchildren. I am thrilled she has agreed to share both her Grandmothers’ war effort and her recipe with My Mother’s Cookbooks.

Janet Stewart c. 1949

Mabel’s War Effort…

So…you say you don’t like Fruitcake…

Picture this – Your Grandfather Stewart’s mother in her home in Moncton during World War II “entertaining the troops”. My Grammie at the piano playing for a sing-song, and leading good conversation, never allowing talk of religion or the war of course. This on top of serving a wonderful meal to the small groups of British airmen she hosted. My Grammie always called this her ‘war effort’. Grammie knew the young men, who were in Moncton getting their “wings” so they could return to the UK to take part in the war, would be lonesome for their families and wishing for a good family meal.

The Stewarts entertaining the troops Moncton, NB c.1942

One of the highlights of the meal was the serving of a plate of her fruitcake on her prized Limoges China, just like in the photo above.

If you love a house filled with the aroma of a spicy, fruity, nut filled cake being baked or if you enjoy a quiet time with a cup of tea and a piece of cake, this cake is for you!

From Mabel Hunter Stewart’s Guest book, with notes and gifts of gratitude

My love of this fruitcake is not just because it was my Grammie’s cake but because of memories of Mum and I baking it annually, in October around Thanksgiving. Why so early, if it is intended for Christmas? It gives the cake time to “ripen”, and moisten, in it’s wrapping of cheesecloth soaked in rum or brandy!

Sgt ‘Jerry’ Gerilli and what Mabel Stewart’s war effort meant to him… It seems Jerry’s prediction was correct he remembered Canada since he remained in contact with Mabel’s family until his death in 2010.

I can see the three of us, getting out the fruitcake pans and lining them with greased brown paper. The large bowl filled with the carefully measured fruit pieces coated with flour. After mixing up the cake batter in a separate bowl, the fruit was poured in, and then came my favourite part…
getting my hands right in the bowl in order to mix it all together. Messy, but fun.

Its baking for four hours filled the house with that wonderful fragrance! If we could only bottle the smell!

I wondered how long fruitcake recipes have been around? So, I checked, some historians claim fruit cakes have existed since ancient Egypt, BCE (Before the Common Era)! We are told that Roman soldiers took them into battle and that fruitcakes were taken on the Crusades in the Middle Ages.

The church had quite an influence, regularly making pronouncements the faithful were expected to honor, like in the 1400’s when they prohibited butter during Advent. The boatloads of sugar which began arriving in Europe in the 1600’s saw its use in preserving fruit including for use in cakes. In the 1800’s when the church tried to declare fruit cakes “too decadent’, style won out when Queen Victoria served Fruitcake as her wedding cake,

When your father (Papa) and I were married in 1967, we had a white wedding cake which we cut for guests to eat at the reception. We also had a fruitcake, cut up and sent home with the
guests to sleep on!

The Lindstrom’s c,1967

But, of course, you want to know where this recipe came from!
Well, I don’t know the origin, for me it will always be “Grammie Stewart’s Fruitcake”. The recipe is at least 80 years old. Not a lot has changed in the recipe in that time except….it
would have taken Grammie a lot longer to prepare than it does me: the recipe calls for 1½ lb of blanched almonds – she would have had to actually blanch the almonds, I can buy them already blanched; the recipe calls for 1 lb pitted prunes – she would have had to cook the prunes, let them cool and pit them herself, I can buy pitted prunes. Lastly, the recipe calls for specific measurements of lemon, orange and citron peels- which she could buy individually, but which more and more only comes as “mixed” peels. So things have changed!

Here is My Grammie Mabel Hunter Stewart’s Dark Fruit Cake
Ingredients:
1 lb. butter, softened
6 cups flour – use 4 of those cups of flour to mix with the fruit
9 eggs
1½ lb. (675 grams) citron
1½ lb. (675 gm) lemon peel
½ lb. (227 gm) orange peel
1 lb. (450 gm) pitted prunes
1½ lb. (675 gm) whole blanched almonds
1 cup strawberries
1 cup molasses
2 tsp each lemon flavouring and vanilla
2 tsp each cloves, cinnamon, allspice and mace
1 glass brandy or rum (2 oz)
1 tsp baking soda
4 lb. (1.8 kg) seedless raisins
4 lb. (1.8 kg) currants
1 lb. (2 cups) brown sugar
Notes and Method:
1) If you can’t find the 3 different types of peels, use mixed peel. I can usually only find the orange peel and so use a combination of that and mixed peel.
2) Cook the prunes in about 1/2 cup water until soft. Let cool.
3) In a very large bowl, mix together the fruit, fruit peel and almonds with 4 cups of flour.
4) In a separate mixing bowl, beat the eggs, butter, molasses, flavourings, spices, rum, soda, brown sugar and the remaining 2 cups of flour.
5) Combine the two mixtures in a very large bowl using your hands if necessary (I do!) until there is no sign of dry flour.
6) Pour into 3 brown paper lined and greased fruit cake tins and one 9”x9” cake pans. Put a pan of water on the bottom rack in the oven.
7) Bake at 280°F for 4 – 4½ hours. Remove and cool.
8) When cold, wrap in brandy soaked cheesecloth followed by plastic wrap and foil.
9) Let “ripen” for at least a month before eating.

The Stewart family – Mabel seated between her husband Charlie (center) and Jan’s Mum Marion, Dad, Andy in front.


Janet Stewart Lindstrom describes herself as a Maritimer, despite being a resident of Northwestern Ontario for several decades. Jan prepares her Grammie Mabel’s Fruit cake each holiday season. Thank you Jan, for these memories, and gratitude in warm spices.

Janet Stewart Lindstrom c. 2024

Molasses cookies and knitted bandages…

The second blog profiling the life of women during war, and the service of veteran Marion Leane Smith Walls. The first blog War, Women and Warcake.

The My Mother’s Cookbook recipe for Molasses Cookies, the rolled out version, demonstrates the skill of home cooks to ‘make do’. The recipe is an older style which dates back beyond its contributor Marguerite Stillwell, to her mother Bertha Blanch Barton Stillwell.

New Brunswick munition workers, at McAvity’s, St John. Photo courtesy of the PANB image #P149/11

Molasses has been a staple in Atlantic Canadian and New England Kitchens since ships from the West Indies began arriving to collect timber bound for Europe in the earliest days of British colonial settlement1. Cheap molasses had little or no market in Europe but filled the needs of settlers to the colonies. The trade soon grew to include fish from Atlantic Canada shipped to the West Indies as a cheap source of protein to feed enslaved and indentured sugar and cocoa plantations workers. It is small wonder molasses and salted /smoked fish maintain a presence in the diet of both Atlantic Canada and Caribbean nations such as The Dominican Republic, Trinidad & Tobago and Haiti, among others even today.

Women stringing herring to cure, Grand Manan c. 1945 Photo courtesy of the PANB Image # P93-CH/204

Growing up in the rural farming community of The Range, Waterbourgh Parish, Queens County, New Brunswick, Bertha Barton Stillwell’s diet was comprised in large part by dried salted meat, fish, beans, buckwheat and molasses. As other foods like sugar and wheat became more affordable, there is every likelihood Bertha’s family table still saw a pitcher of molasses and many a meal ended with bread and molasses.

Rural New Brunswick at Doaktown c.1890 Photo courtesy of the Our Miramichi Heritage Family FB site.

The dawn of the 20th century saw many rural Canadians choosing a life different than those of their parents. Limited economic opportunities, over crowding, poverty and the promise of an easier path saw many choosing to relocate to larger centers. Out migration was motivated by need in many cases, but not all, some families chose to leave, drawn by the promise of a modern life2.

Fredericton Junction, NB Train station c. 1915 Photo courtesy of PANB Image number P55-8

Bertha and her husband Thomas’ decision to move from their family farm to Fredericton might well have been motivated by the lure of town life and the modern conveniences it provided. Certainly, they were successful, Thomas found work in the Hartt Shoe factory working his way up to Foreman by 1921, they rented a home in North Devon (a neighbourhood of Fredericton’s Northside). Eventually the Thomas and Bertha would purchase a home in an upscale neighbourhood on Fredericton’s south side. Despite the resources they had, life presented challenges the First and second Wars, Influenza Pandemic, the Great Depression impacted everyone.

Hartt Boot and Shoe Company factory c. 1940, Photo courtesy of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Image Number P194-466

During the First War, women at home did everything they could for the war effort, the Canadian wing of the Red Cross3 together with their church and community auxiliaries provided the vehicle. The Red Cross had established it’s self during the Boar War as an organization able to provide the necessities of life to those impacted by war, soldiers, and civilians.

Canadian Women’s Motor Ambulance c. 1940 Photo courtesy of the PANB Image # P249/25

Bertha, a young mother, would have volunteered her time knitting bandages and comfort items; scarves, mittens as well as contributing to care packages being sent to POWs and those recovering from wounds and injuries in United Kingdom hospitals and convalescent homes. The Red Cross provided the organizational and logistical supports necessary to deliver the efforts of Canadian women in to the hands of those who needed it, loved ones and strangers.

Train station Newcastle, NB awaiting a troop train. c1918 Photo courtesy of the Our Miramichi Heritage Family FB site.

At the beginning of the World War 1, Bertha found herself depending upon the old skills and techniques she’s once considered outdated. As some of the products she’d once depended upon in her modern city home became scarce, she would revisit old ingredients, old recipes and old habits. Even the old habit of collecting fat and bones became popular again, not for making soap but for use in munitions.

Nursing Sister assists a wounded soldier aboard an British Ambulance Train in France c. 1916

In her role as Nursing Sister on the Hospital trains4 in Northern France and Italy, Marion Smith Walls saw first hand the devastation war produced. She also saw the practical ways the Red Cross aided those suffering its effects. Marion would have used more than a few of those home knitted bandages to bind the wounds of her patients and seen the expressions of joy on the face of young soldiers receiving a care package from home. It is not in the least surprising that at the out break of the second World War Marion, with the aid of the Canadian Red Cross began to develop a similar program in her adopted home of Trinidad and Tobago.

Victory Parade Float with young girls c. 1919 Photo courtesy of the PANB Image # P140-156

In November of 1924, Marion and her husband Victor Walls made the voyage to San Fernando, Trinidad. Victor had been appointed as Principal at the long standing Presbyterian education mission at Naparima College5. The College, a residential school had been founded in 1894 by Dr. Kenneth Grant a fellow Atlantic Canadian, friend and mentor of Victor’s. Naparima served the educational needs of the male children of indentured Indian sugar, and chocolate plantation workers.

Nursing Sister Marion Leane Smith c.1918 Photo courtesy of the Australian War image #P01651.001

During their first 15 years in Trinidad and Tobago, Marion and Victor continued to build on the school’s success, and infrastructure. Marion established a school infirmary and assured nutritious and sufficient meals for students. She began educational programs on first aid and nursing, established the country’s first Nurses council and wrote text books on first aid and nursing in tropical climates. Marion was a nurse, she did what she knew to do, and that which needed doing. At the onset of World War 2, Marion and Victor mobilized, using the resources and network they had established at Naps, to begin Trinidad and Tobago’s contribution to the war effort.

Not only had Marion and Victor established themselves as excellent school and community leaders, they found themselves in the heart of the community’s very white elite, whites comprised only 3% of the population but controlled 99% of the political and business power. When Lady Young, the Australian born wife of the Governor Young decided to establish a Red Cross Committee both Marion and Victor agreed to be members. Marion and Victor realized the value a powerful figurehead would bring to the program, they placed their full support and resources behind the new organization.

Sadly, Lady Young’s leadership of the committee was fraught with conflict, some of which which grew to include accusations of racism during a spat with another high profile community member. Despite the dissension and the specific challenge of being the only ‘non white’ on the committee Marion faced, she managed to do her part. The committee and its work continued apparently in large part because of the hours of dedicated service of Marion Walls, the first Commandant of the Red Cross in Trinidad and Tobago. Marion Smith Walls was awarded the Distinguished War Service Medal for founding the Red Cross in Trinidad and Tobago and for her contributions to nursing and community development.

World War 2 in Canada saw an immediate upswing in support for the Red Cross, as the familiar programs from the first war were revisited with renewed vigor. The Canadian government played a far more active role, promoting nutrition guidance, encouraging Canadian’s to eat ‘patriotic foods’, teaming up with the Red Cross to engage Canadians in the cause. City dwellers dug up what ever land they had, backyard or front lawn to grow food, and create Victory Gardens. Young women worked in farm fields and became factory workers. Bertha, now in her sixties, drew on her old fashioned skill set, guiding and encouraging, as she watched her children and Grandchildren rediscover the value of the tried and true.

Formal food rationing programs began in January 1942, with sugar first, it would be followed by tea, coffee, butter and finally meat. This traditional recipe includes warm tea, a rationed commodity…waste not, want not!

My Mother’s Cookbooks rolled out Molasses Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup molasses
1 egg at room temperature
1 cup warm tea
5 cups sifted flour
1 tsp salt
3 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp soda
3 tsp baking powder
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F
2. In a mixing bowl cream sugar and shortening, add molasses, well beaten egg and tea;
2. In a second bowl sift flour and other dry ingredients together;
3. Add the dry ingredients to first bowl and mix to combine; set aside to rest for 10 minutes;
4. Roll out thick (1/2 inch /15 mm) and cut into cookies;
5. Bake 12 -14 minutes or until done.

About the contributor of this recipe…

Marguerite Bertha Stillwell born 1916, the youngest child of Bertha and Thomas, grew up in North Devon. After high school, Marguerite trained as a secretary, eventually working in government where she served as secretary to various provincial government leaders. The last number of years before retirement, Marguerite served as Executive Secretary to Premier Richard Hatfield.

Marguerite never married, choosing to live with her family until her father’s death. In the 1960’s Marguerite purchased a new home in a neighbourhood bordering the Universities, her elder brother Percy made his home with her until his death. I know Marguerite made these cookies, back in the early 1980’s she shared this recipe with me after she’d made a batch for our shared nephew, Chris. I have every confidence Bertha was smiling down at her daughter sharing old fashioned molasses cookies with her Great Grandson.

Bertha Blanch Barton Stillwell

Bertha was born 3 May 1876, The Range, Waterborough Parish, Queen county, NB. Her parents Mary Jane Flower and John William Barton were descendants of Loyalists settlers to Queens county.

Bertha and Thomas Stillwell had 7 children, sons: Cleveland, Percey and Ernest, daughters: Velma, Gladys, Doris and Marguerite.

Marion Elizabeth Smith

Marion Elizabeth Smith was born in Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia on 12 Mar 1892. Her parents George Smith and Elizabeth Leane Smith welcomed Marion to their family of two. When Marion was two years old her parents took their growing family first to England then to Canada, finally settling in Fredericton Junction, New Brunswick.

Marion Elizabeth C.1913

George Smith was a native of Hambledon, Hampshire, England and Elizabeth Leane Smith was born in Liverpool, Australia to William Leane and Lucy Walker Leane. It is with out doubt Elizabeth’s parentage through her Mother Lucy, was a major part of the family’s decision to leave Australia.

Elizabeth Leane Smith and George W. Smith c.1910

The Dharug peoples traditional lands are in what is now known as New South Wales, in the immediate area of Sydney, Australia. All Aboriginal nations in Australia have been negatively impacted by European settlement, but none more than those of the south including the Dharug clan.

The traditional way of life of the Dharug was hunting and gathering, lacking the necessary ‘farming’ relationship to the land to be viewed by European settlers as owners. Disease, violence, displacement and famine during and after colonization decimated first nations clans, including the Dharug. The social and political environment for a couple of mixed race was characterized by discrimination and violence. These conditions experienced first hand by Marion’s mother Elizabeth would have impacted the family’s decision to relocate.

William Leane and Lucy Walker Leane – Marion’s Grandparents. c. 1890

Mixed race children like Elizabeth were caught between two worlds, never really being fully a part of either. The decision to leave Britain after several years and the arrival of several more children was also very likely driven by opportunity for their family. The legacy of Elizabeth’s Mother Lucy’s Dharug heritage would follow the family, particularly Marion, as she and Victor set out on their lives together as Presbyterian missionaries in the West Indies.

There is little doubt had the Smith family remained in Australia, Marion would never have been able to complete school and train as a nurse. Australia’s only known Aboriginal woman to serve during the first world war, Marion Elizabeth Smith would not have been.

Explanations and Resources:

1. Triangular trade is the pattern of trade established by the European empires, where raw materials from the colonies were transported to Europe for processing and manufacturing. The slave trade, where Africans from West Africa were transported to the West Indies to toil in the sugar plantations, was key to triangular trade. The end of slavery did not end the lucrative trade. Trinidad and Tobago, a nation of two islands in the former British West Indies, was home to both sugar and cocoa plantations. Depending first on the labour of African slaves, by the mid 19th century, indentured servants from the Indian sub continent joined former slaves, toiling in the islands’ plantations.

2. Between 1900 – 1911 a full 25% of the population of Queens County New Brunswick moved out of the county. A prosperous farming area, the out migration has been explored by academics who have determined many of the migrants were seeking a modern life, feelings of isolation and being left behind encouraging families to move. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/JNBS/article/view/24244/28027

3. The history of the Canadian Red Cross: https://www.redcross.ca/about-us/about-the-canadian-red-cross/historical-highlights

4. Ambulance Trains – or mobile hospitals, saw service in conflicts before 1900, and would continue service through both World Wars. The trains were staffed by 3 medical officers, 3 nursing sisters and a large number of orderlies. Ambulance trains could transport as many as 500 wounded. The trains contained not only stretcher wards but operating theaters.
5. Naparima College Naparima College (informally known as Naps) is a public secondary school for boys in Trinidad and Tobago. Located in San Fernando, the school was founded in 1894 but received official recognition in 1900. It was established by Dr. Kenneth J. Grant, a Canadian Presbyterian missionary working among the Indian population in Trinidad. The school was one of the first to educate Indo-Trinidadians and played an important and crucial role in the development of an Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian professional class. Naparima is derived from the Arawak word (A) naparima, meaning ‘large water’, or from Nabarima, Warao for ‘Father of the waves’.

War, Women and Warcake

On this Indigenous Veterans Day I am happy to reshare this blog. It is one of two featuring the service of Marion Leane Smith Walls, don’t miss the new release which explores Marion’s WW2 service which lead to her being awarded the Distinguished War Service Medal… Molasses Cookies and Knitted Bandages.

There are no less than three versions of Warcake in My Mother’s Cookbooks, which is not surprising since a large number of the recipes originate with women of a certain generation. Women like Myrtle Walls Leban’s and Marion Smith Walls’ who were born at the beginning of the last decade of the 19th century. Women whose lives were marked by two world wars.

Female clerks with customers in front of Blackville, NB store, c. 1900 Photo courtesy of Our MIramichi Heritage Facebook site

By 1900 the constraints on young women were loosening, with employment and educational opportunities opening up for ‘respectable’ young women. For many this afforded employment locally in shops and offices, before eventually marrying, and having a family. For others employment or advanced education meant leaving for larger centers, often to areas where other family had already settled.

In eastern Canada, the larger center often meant “the Boston states”. Marion Leane Smith, sought opportunity and education in Massachusetts. Marion studied nursing at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, then took a job in Montreal with the Victorian Order of Nurses in 1913.

By 1914, Aunt Myrt had married John Lebans, was mother of two and was living in Blackville, NB. John was a millworker, during the following 10 years, Aunt Myrt and the family would live in several Miramichi communities as John sought employment in mills across the region. Myrtle’s experience of the war was similar to most other rural Canadian women and vastly different than Marion’s.

Mill at Mouth of the Bartholomew river, a tributary of the Southwest Miramichi c. 1915 Photo courtesy of the Our Miramichi Heritage site.

When the war began support for it was high, and remained so, despite sacrifice, change and loss. On the home front, Aunt Myrt dealing with restrictions, shortages and limits saw it as doing her part for the war. She probably experienced concern about the social change her country was experiencing. Change such as young women, and others previously denied access to the jobs in factories and other workplaces filling the labour shortage. Labour unrest, women’s suffrage, prohibition, and taxation were altering the lives of Canadians, even as strict moral standards remained largely unchanged.

On a personal level both Aunt Myrt and Marion experienced fear, worry and grief, as their brothers, uncles, cousins and friends went off to war, some never to return. Working as nurse in the urban center of Montreal, Marion would also have had direct involvement with those devastated by the war, those marginalized and blamed for the social ills plaguing the country, the poor, those with venereal diseases, unwanted pregnancy, etc.

In 1917, Marion enlisted1 with the Queen Alexandra Imperial Nursing Service and saw service with the 41st Field Ambulance train2 in France. Ambulance trains were difficult and dangerous workplaces, despite their white cross designation, they were not immune to attack by enemy forces.

Nursing Sister assists a wounded soldier aboard an British Ambulance Train in France c. 1916

After completing her contract with the train ambulance service, Marion served in Italy with the Italian Expeditionary force and at the University War Hospital in Southampton UK. At some point during her work with the British forces, Marion met a young medic from back home in New Brunswick. Victor Walls, Myrtle’s brother, left his studies at Dalhousie University, putting his plans to become a Presbyterian minister on hold temporarily, to serve his country. At the end of the war, Victor returned to his studies at Dalhousie and Divinity School. Uncle Victor and Aunt Marion married in 1924.

Marion and Victor Walls c. 1924

Now about the Warcake… When things get restricted, limited and difficult, we all rely on tradition to aid and comfort us. So of course women in this region, including Aunt Myrt, used molasses when sugar was expensive, scarce or rationed (as it was during WW2). Warcakes were made throughout both wars, and appeared on tables regularly for many years after.

The ties which bind Atlantic Canada and the West Indies did not end with the disappearance of wooden sailing vessels and slavery. The connections established more than 100 years of trade were not just commercial, they were personal as well.

In the following weeks we will look again to Marion, this time to her World War 2 service which would bring her the Distinguished War Service Metal for her work in the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago.

So here is the recipe from My Mother’s Cookbooks which Mum used most often…. And yes it does contain some sugar.

Warcake – aka Molasses cake

Ingredients:
1 egg at room
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup of lard or shortening
1 cup molasses
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp soda
pinch of salt
pinch of spices
1 cup boiling water
1 cup raisins (optional)
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease and flour a 9 inch x 13inch pan;
3. Cream shortening and sugar together add egg;
4. Add molasses;
5. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients, Add raisins if using;
6. Add flour to shortening sugar mix, combine thoroughly;
7. Add boiling water, beat well;
8. Pour into pan and bake until cake tester comes out clean. About 45 to 50 minutes.

Marion Elizabeth Smith

Marion Elizabeth Smith was born in Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia on 12 Mar 1892. Her parents George Smith and Elizabeth Leane Smith welcomed Marion to their family of two. When Marion was two years old her parents took their growing family first to England then to Canada, finally settling in Fredericton Junction, New Brunswick.

Marion Elizabeth C.1913

George Smith was a native of Hambledon, Hampshire, England and Elizabeth Leane Smith was born in Liverpool, Australia to William Leane and Lucy Walker Leane. It is with out doubt Elizabeth’s parentage through her Mother Lucy, was a major part of the family’s decision to leave Australia.

Elizabeth Leane Smith and George W. Smith c.1910

The Dharug peoples traditional lands are in what is now known as New South Wales, in the immediate area of Sydney, Australia. All Aboriginal nations in Australia have been negatively impacted by European settlement, but none more than those of the south including the Dharug clan.

The traditional way of life of the Dharug was hunting and gathering, lacking the necessary ‘farming’ relationship to the land to be viewed by European settlers as owners. Disease, violence, displacement and famine during and after colonization decimated first nations clans, including the Dharug. The social and political environment for a couple of mixed race was characterized by discrimination and violence. These conditions experienced first hand by Marion’s mother Elizabeth would have impacted the family’s decision to relocate.

William Leane and Lucy Walker Leane – Marion’s Grandparents. c. 1890

Mixed race children like Elizabeth were caught between two worlds, never really being fully a part of either. The decision to leave Britain after several years and the arrival of several more children was also very likely driven by opportunity for their family. The legacy of Elizabeth’s Mother Lucy’s Dharug heritage would follow the family, particularly Marion, as she and Victor set out on their lives together as Presbyterian missionaries in the West Indies.

There is little doubt had the Smith family remained in Australia, Marion would never have been able to complete school and train as a nurse. Australia’s only known Aboriginal woman to serve during the first world war, Marion Elizabeth Smith would not have been.

Explanations:
1. In 1917, George H. Smith, Marion’s younger brother was killed in France while serving with the Canadian Expeditionary force.
2. Ambulance Trains – or mobile hospitals, saw service in conflicts before 1900, and would continue service through both World Wars. The trains were staffed by 3 medical officers, 3 nursing sisters and a large number of orderlies. Ambulance trains could transport as many as 500 wounded. The trains contained not only stretcher wards but operating theaters.

Resources:

  1. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wartime-home-front
  2. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-i/recovery-on-rails-ambulance-trains.html
  3. https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/ambulance-trains-bringing-first-world-war-home
  4. https://www.deadlystory.com/page/culture/articles/anzac-day-2018/marion-leanne-smith


War, lobster and Lottie

A sheep shearer’s war effort, and My Mother’s Cookbook’s lobster roll.

This blog is 3rd in the series Atlantic Canadian Women of the Cloth – Homebased textile production.

Happy to reshare this blog from 2024, about one woman’s war effort, and a recipe for lobster roll too.

I have difficulty believing people order lobster in the shell in high end restaurants. It’s not that I don’t see lobster as luxury food, or that I don’t love the taste. For me a ‘feed’1 of lobster from the shell, is an outdoor activity. One that requires, all the tools, a newspaper covered picnic table, and freedom to let the juices drip off my elbows. Fortunately, I am local to two lobster fishing seasons, and to a large lobster processor. I have options and unless it is a family lobster boil, I usually buy fresh cooked (same day) and shelled by the processor. A feed of lobster is very much a luxury in our home.

Marie Doucet feeding the cows in Cape St Mary’s 1950 Photography by John Collier, JR in the collection of Alexander H. Leighton NS Archives 1988-413 #2504-d

Charlotte (Lottie) Melanson2 loved the physical demands of farm life but when it came to suppling herself an income her options were limited. The time Lottie’s father John Melanson spent working as a carpenter, assured his children were well equipped with skills like, sloping pigs, milking cows, tilling, planting, harvesting crops, and shearing sheep. From an early age Lottie preferred outside work, and did not take well to life in the classroom or one involving refined womanly activities.

Wool being washed and hung to dry. Richards, Dufferin Collection: the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Ref # P368-32.

In 1930’s Nova Scotia paid work was still highly gendered, women could choose jobs in retail, as housemaids, as factory workers, they could be teachers, or nurses but not paid farm labourers. Acadian women like Lottie and her sisters, faced the additional disadvantage of open and accepted discrimination against them for nothing more than their being Acadian. Many single women left Atlantic Canada for work in the factories or large homes of the “Boston States”3. If like Lottie, they wanted to stay local it often meant working in a lobster cannery.

Lobster processing c.1950 Cheticamp, NS Nova Scotia Information Service – Nova Scotia Information Service Nova Scotia Archives #13392

Fishing lobster for export began in Atlantic Canada as soon as canning technology allowed the preserving of the tasty fish. When markets in New England and Britain beaconed, Atlantic Canadian fishers stepped up. The Lobster industry like any built on a luxury item, is subjected to market forces which are unpredictable and capricious4. Boom bust cycles effected fishers and processors alike from the very beginning. Market cycles which took lobster from ordinary food on Atlantic Canadian dinner tables to New York and London luxury restaurants, delivered it back with regularity5.

The period between the first and second wars was dominated by the Great Depression, high unemployment and widespread suffering. The depression halted a period of mechanization, the move away from subsistence farming and development of specialty farms. Textile production moved from spinning wheels to factories6 that depended upon imported wool. Although some farms still raised sheep, by the end of the 1930s they were in far fewer number.

Bottle fed lambs at Portage Pork Plus Farm, Portage, Westmorland, NB. Owned and operated by Arndt & Gabriele Becker and family who supplied this photo

Canada’s declaration of war on Germany in 1939 further entrenched the austerity began during the Depression but finding work was no longer the problem. Self sufficiency intensified further, cows and sheep repopulated farms and front lawns became vegetable gardens. Choosing homegrown and homespun became patriotic7 again, and the lobster on dinner tables and in school lunch cans was rebranded as patriotic too.

Grazing sheep and Lobster pots. W.R. MacAskill Nova Scotia Archives 1987-453 Ref #1317.

The recruitment of troops from rural Canada, emptied farm fields of labourers and raised a new problem. Who would till the soil and raise the animals? Just like in armament factories, the answer was women, women were now welcomed as employees on farms and in farm fields. For Lottie the war was an opportunity, she put her skills to work in aid of her country and earned income while her husband John MacPherson served overseas. Lottie found her niche as a farm hand with a particular skill set, she was a fast, efficient and effective sheep shearer.

Charlotte (Lottie) Melanson MacPherson at work using hand powered shears c.1943 Photo courtesy of Find a grave and Photographer/Contributor David Phillips.

During shearing season, Lottie moved from farm to farm in Antigonish, Guysborough and Inverness counties shearing sheep as she went. As an itinerate worker, Lottie depended upon farm families to host her during her time shearing their sheep. Lottie took to life on the road well, she used her work hours to hone her skill as a shearer and spent her leisure hours enjoying the company of her host families, attending local parties and social events.

A tolerant Mama and triplet lambs -Portage Pork Plus Farm, Portage, Westmorland, NB. Owned and operated by Arndt & Gabriele Becker and family who supplied this photo

Lottie, was a sturdy farm woman, tall, strong and willing, she was also what my Mum called ‘rough around the edges’. Lottie challenged gender norms with a salty tongue8, and a reputation for being able and willing to use her physical strength to contain wayward men as easily as the sheep she was shearing. The strong affection for Lottie held by those who remember her from those years, proves Lottie was more than a man-ish woman with a skill set. Her love of telling ghost stories to the children in the families she visited, and the respect other women had for her proves a depth of character beyond her sheep shearing capacity.

As a shearer few could surpass her ability, using only hand powered shears9, Lottie averaged about 80 sheep per day. In 1945 Lottie sheared more than 5700 sheep in her work season, and proved her capacity to shear a sheep in a record 2 minutes 45 seconds.

Shearing at Portage Pork Plus Farm, Portage, Westmorland, NB. Owned and operated by Arndt & Gabriele Becker and family who supplied this photo

The end of second world war began a period of intense modernity, sheep raising, and homebased textile production waned. Lobster stopped being a patriotic food choice and disappeared from lunch cans. Lottie’s war effort ended too, sheep ranching for textile production all but stopped in the region, only resurging minorly after Lottie was beyond her ability to shear.

By the time I encountered Lottie, her physical health was failing but her reputation as a champion sheep shearer remained intact. I wish I had taken more time to know her and learn more about her life, I might have confirmed the good possibility, that some of those farm house tables delivered Lottie a feed of lobster.

Because I purchase lobster already cooked and shelled, I can serve it as lobster salad or build a fancy version of the school lunch box sandwich, the lobster roll .

A buyer’s basket of lobsters Cape St Mary’s 1 Dec 1950. Photo in the collection of Alexander H. Leighton at the NS Archives 1988/413 #1317. Photographer John Collier jr.

My Mother’s cookbooks Lobster Salad / Roll:

Ingredients:
3 cups of chopped lobster
1/2 finely chopped celery
1/4 c My Mother’s Cookbook cooked salad dressing
up to 1/4 c Mayonnaise
salt and pepper
Method:
1. Place ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine, adding 1 T at a time of the mayo until it reaches desired consistency.
2. Serve with sides of potato salad, and mixed greens, or toast a brioche bun, slather with garlic butter and stuff with lobster salad.

My Mother’s cookbook cooked salad dressing:

Ingredients:
3 T flour
6 T sugar
1 egg
2 tsp dry mustard
6T white vinegar
1/2 c milk
2 T butter
Method:
1. In a medium sauce pan, combine flour, sugar, mustard together and mix well:
2. Add vinegar and egg which has been beaten, mix well;
3. Add milk and place over medium heat;
4. Stir constantly until the sauce reaches a soft boil and thickened,
5. Remove from heat, add butter, permit to cool and refrigerate.

*** Homemade boiled salad dressing can be used to replace sweetened dressings in potato salad, chicken salad, Cole slaw, etc.

Boiled salad dressing – Photo Elizabeth Lyons Morrison

Footnotes:

Atlantic Canadian Women of the Cloth – Homebased textile Series Reference list:

  1. “Flax, Farming and Food: How Scottish – Irish Immigrants Contributed to New England Society in the 18th Century”, Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester, Mass. https://worcesterhistorical.com/worcester-1718/flax-farming-and-food-how-scotch-irish-immigrants-contributed-to-new-england-society-in-the-18th-century/#:~:text=Accustomed%20to%20spinning%20wool%20and,fever’%20in%20the%20local%20population
  2. Bitterman, R. “Farm households and wage labour in the Northeastern Maritimes” Labour/LeTravail, 1993. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/1993-v31-llt_31/llt31art01.pdf
  3. Rygiel, J. A “Women of the cloth – weavers in Westmorland and Charlotte Counties New Brunswick 1871 -1891”; UNPUL thesis Carleton University, 1998.
    https://repository.library.carleton.ca/concern/etds/37720d
  4. Rygiel, J.A. “Thread in Her Hands –Cash in Her Pockets; Women and Domestic Textile Production in 19th-Century New Brunswick” UNPUL thesis Carleton University,
  5. MacLeod, E. and MacInnis, D.; “Celtic Threads: a journey in Cape Breton Crafts”; Cape Breton University Press, Sydney, NS. 2014
  6. Introduction to the Spinning Wheels collection in the National Museum of Scotland https://blog.nms.ac.uk/2020/12/14/introduction-to-the-spinning-wheel-collection-in-national-museums-scotland/
  7. Goodrich, W.E. “DOMESTIC TEXTILE PRODUCTION IN EARLY NEW BRUNSWICK” Keillor House Museum.
  8. Toal, Ciaran “Flax to Fabric – The history of Irish linen and flax” Lisburn Museum https://www.lisburnmuseum.com/news/history-of-irish-linen-flax/
  9. Dunfield, R.W. “The Atlantic Salmon in the History of North America” Fisheries and Oceans Canada 1985. https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/library-bibliotheque/28322.pdf
  10. Wallace -Casey, Cynthia “Providential Openings – The Women Weavers of Nineteenth-century Queens County, New Brunswick” Material Culture Review. 46, 1 (Jun. 1997). https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17740/22230
  11. Eveline MacLeod and Daniel W. MacInnes “Celtic Threads: A journey in Cape Breton crafts” Cape Breton University Press, Sydney, NS 2014.
  12. MacMillan, A.J. “A West Wind to East Bay: Short History and a Genealogical Tracing of the Pioneer Families of the East Bay Area of Cape Breton.” Music Hill Publishing, Sydney, NS 2001.
  13. Campbell, Joseph “Information regarding the avalanche at John Campbell’s farm 5 Feb 1856”, a recording by Mrs. Archie MacDougall 25 July 1966. In the holdings of the Beaton Institute, Sydney, NS.
  14. Roach Pierson, Ruth. “Canadian Women and the Second World War” The Canadian Historical Association. Ottawa 1983.
Spring lambs and their Momma at Portage Pork Plus Farm, Portage, Westmorland, NB. Owned and operated by Arndt & Gabriele Becker and family who supplied this photo

Acknowledgement: I acknowledge that the land on which I live and write about is the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq Peoples. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship” which Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations.

Plum pudding, Cook Scows, and Bake Ovens.

A seasonal reshare… It is pushing it a bit to call this recipe seasonal…ideally preparation of this traditional Christmas pudding would have happened long before the first week of November but ideal is not reality. The product will be delicious regardless, admittedly even more so the longer it has to cure. Betsey probably made one every fall but it would not be consumed until the following Christmas.

Cast iron cookware seems everywhere at the moment, although only skillets and frying pans and not the large pots, bake – ovens1 (aka Dutch Ovens) and utensils once common in households. Cast iron cookware retains heat wonderfully, and provided it is properly seasoned is non stick2! Although the newly manufactured variety come pre-seasoned, many people choose vintage cast-iron cookware. Yes, cast iron cookware is durable too.

Hearth cooking methods used 1850 – Photo courtesy of the NS Archives Ref: Highland Village Museum H2013.30.37

My Dad and his brother’s learned early to cook, or at least sustain themselves with minimal parental intervention. After my Grandmother Florence died, Grandfather did not remarry despite having 6 young sons to raise. Grandfather Tully was a woodsmen, a teamster with a knack for getting the best from horses. His gentle and quiet style earned him high respect from both man and beast but delivered little in the way of monetary benefit. Most Logging industry Walking Bosses, the successful ones at least, understood good horses and teamsters, were as important as a good cook to a logging operation. That knowledge did not however translate in to high wages for either teamsters or cooks, especially in central New Brunswick of the 1930s.

Lumber camp c.1900 – Photo courtesy of the PANB ERB, Isaac C-Photographs # P11-71

When Betsey and her husband Jeremiah Lyon moved to what would become Carrolls Crossing, Northumberland County, New Brunswick she brought her kitchen furniture with her. The move which ended more than 30 years of displacement for her family3, solidified their dependance on the region’s natural resources, particularly timber.

Logging Cook house c. 1900 Photo courtesy of the Our Miramichi Family Heritage FB site – Charles Asoyuf Album

Betsey’s first Miramichi home was humble, made of freshly felled trees and boasting at most a window, door and fireplace. It took a variety of implements, fire irons, utensils, pots and Dutch ovens (aka bake ovens) and lots of know how for Betsey to produce food for her family. Some of the cast iron Betsey depended upon, she might have inherited, since it was common for kitchen ‘movables’ to be included in wills during the colonial period.

Some of the original Jeremiah Lyons land grant of 1809 at Carrol’ls Crossing c.2020. Photo courtesy of Catherine S. Colford on the Family Connections of the Upper Miramichi River Valley, FB site.

By 1809, Betsey’s family had already begun to dabble in the timber industry, harvesting and selling timber, as well as buying and selling timber land, but they did not ignore the other resources the land provided. Food was both foraged and grown, Betsey’s table included fish, game, wild fruits and greens from the natural environment along with buckwheat, oats, barley and potatoes from the land they cleared and farmed.

Iconic Atlantic Salmon – The Southwest Miramichi River once teamed with fish, jumping and rolling their way up river to spawn. This photo courtesy of the Our Miramichi Family Heritage FB site – Charles Asoyuf Album

Trade in timber was not the family’s only industry either. When a natural sand stone quarry was discovered on their son Daniel’s adjoining property, they became stone cutters as well as timber harvesters and bosses. For Betsey cash income helped build a permanent wood frame home in a familiar Colonial style, equipped with two fireplaces4. It also meant Betsey was able to purchase familiar food stuffs including spices5 to add variety to their largely monotonous diet.

Fish Stone Quarry at French Fort Cove, Northumberland county, NB. c.1890 Photo courtesy of Our Miramichi Family Heritage FB site – Charles Asoyuf Album

Despite the remoteness of Betsey’s home in Carrolls, ‘industry’ inserted traders and merchants in to the mix, and gave her access to products from all over the world, all be it limited access. Sugar and molasses from the West Indies, rum and corn meal from the United States, indigo from Spain, spices like mace, nutmeg, cinnamon, from the Spice Islands, ginger from South East Asia, were all available provided she had cash (or could arrange credit). Of course access was limited, once or twice a year at most, with cash in hand Jeremiah and their sons would make a trip to the trading centers at the mouth of the river, or to the capital Fredericton to collect supplies for the family.

Interval land along the Southwest Miramichi River at Carrolls Crossing, was included in the land granted to Jeremiah Lyons, 1809. During the spring freshet, interval lands flood as the winter’s snow melt and fills the steep valley. Photo courtesy of Catherine S. Colford on the Family Connections of the Upper Miramichi River Valley, FB site.

For much of the year the absence of roads thru the dense forest meant several days journey, by canoe and portage. In spring however things changed, the melting snow and resulting rise in water levels made the Miramichi river system navigable. The Timber which they had cut and yarded was ‘driven’ down river to the port and awaiting ships. The log drive provided opportunity to pick up a bit of spice which could be tucked in to a pocket for the trip home, but only as money or credit allowed.

Betsey used her stash of spices, dried fruits, wheat flour and other value ingredients to maximum effect, carefully assuring a reserve for the Christmas celebration. In colonial New Brunswick, there was neither the tradition nor capacity for lavish celebrations even at Christmas. The one exception was food, foods too ‘dear’ for daily consumption, were used to make the Christmas season.

What Betsey prepared depended upon what she had available, but it had also to be manageable over a fire. Feast food like pies and cakes required Betsey to use her Dutch Oven (aka bakeoven). The lidded cast iron pot with legs was large enough to accommodate a second pot or pan. Betsey would strategically place the bake oven in to the fire, using the additional insulation it provided the smaller vessel which contained a pie, tart or a cake, to create an oven effect. Betsey’s supplies might well extend to treats like blueberry pie(reconstituted) and mincemeat tarts, but only after the Christmas pudding6 was complete. For plum pudding Betsey’s dutch oven was used as a steam bath, filled with water to surround and moisten the fruit pudding as it cooked.

Large cast iron pot on an outside hearth, Gabarus, NS c.1930 Photo courtesy of the NS Archives – W.R. MacAskill NS Archives 1985-452 #4183.

Eventually, the cast iron pots no longer needed legs or hanging handles, fire irons and cranes were removed from the kitchen as cast iron cook stoves appeared in their place. The old style cast iron pots were often modified for use on top of the cookstove. Even the larger pots and bake ovens did not go far, despite their drop in value.

Over time change effected industry too, the timber trade became lumber trade, ships made and sailed out of foreign ports, were replaced with those built in New Brunswick. Eventually, the railway arrived meaning more jobs and local mills producing every thing from shingles to windows. Despite these changes, the industry still demanded a large work force to fell, deliver and process the logs in to lumber.

Mill Cook (in white) Bernard Lyons s/o Hollingworth Tully Lyons and Florence O’Donnell Lyons with Tim Story. C. 1947 Photo courtesy of Manny Stewart and the Family Connections of the Upper Miramichi River Valley Fb Site.

By the 1930’s and 40’s when Dad and his brothers were entering the work force, options were few, camp life or mill life. Since Grandfather Tully could not supply them with horses, becoming a teamster was out of the question, that left cooking. Only the oldest Marple avoided a career in the cookhouse, although Dad spent only a short but memorable period as a cookie, before moving on to harvesting and eventually mill work before and for a period after the war.

Two teams hauling logs to the yard. c. 1900 Photo courtesy of the PNAB ERB, Isaac Photographs # P11-75.

Lumber camps were hard places, requiring hours of physically demanding work. As Dad loved to point out, working in the cookhouse ‘looked’ like easier work, but it was just a ‘different kind of hard’ work. What his brothers Gerald, Bernard (Bun) and Leonard (Len) avoided in the way of the physical demands of felling, and yarding trees was replaced with long hours spent toiling over a hot fire, driven by deadlines, balancing likes and demands of both bosses and harvesters. The harvest crew worked from just after sunrise to near dark, with meal breaks mid morning, and again at noon, before heading back to camp for supper. Four meals each day were prepared and delivered on time and as necessary on location. The Cook who had to brew the coffee and prepare breakfast before the men rolled out of their bunks for the day, was woken by his cookie who had already built and lit the fire, every man in camp did their part.

Riverside camp site Photo courtesy of Our Miramichi Family Heritage FB site – Charles Asoyuf Album

As a Cookie, Dad tended fires, peeled potatoes, washed, cleaned and prepared basic foods. Nothing was more ‘basic’ in the diet of lumbermen than baked beans. All day everyday beans were in various stages of preparation. Cheap, high in protein, and carbohydrate, beans played an essential part in fueling the industry for more than 100 years. In camp or on the drive, beans were placed before the crew of more than 20 hungry men at every meal. With pancakes and biscuits for breakfast, with stew at lunch and with meat and potatoes at supper, beans appeared in their huge cast iron Dutch oven. Of course there were also pans of cakes and cookies, biscuits, and bread, because the cookhouse of a the 1940’s had a stove with an oven. So why the continued use of the heavy cast iron?

Camp cooks did not spend time preparing for Christmas. There was no need, weather permitting the men and horses, harvesters, cooks and walking bosses returned home for the holiday season. After Christmas, the harvest would continue until the snow began to melt and the focus became getting the yarded timber to market. The drive presented challenges to everyone, the water was cold, snow, ice and mud combined to make an already perilous job even riskier still. It was no easy feat to produce and deliver sustenance to the crew while afforded the conveniences of a cookhouse, the cookscow was whole new challenge and those old cast iron Dutch ovens played their part.

If the logging camp cookhouse was a rough and tumble place, a cook scow was even more so. A cooks scow consisted of a rudimentary cookstove precariously perched on a raft of timber, and covered by a make shift roof and walls comprised in part by canvas. The scow would be pulled along by horses, delivering the cook to the next camp site in time to prepare and deliver the next meal. The cast iron dutch oven filled with beans would stay warm for hours, and could be hung over an open fire when necessary. Although heavy and cumbersome they were durable enough to take the abuse the cookhouse and cookscow entailed.

A Sabbies River(a tributary of the Southwest Miramichi) Cook scow c. 1938 Photo courtesy of Our Miramichi Family Heritage FB site – Charles Asoyuf Album

I make no claim about Betsey’s cast iron being used in her family’s logging operations. There is no doubt that logging and wood camps played an important role in supporting her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Even today many of Betsey’s descendants make their living from harvesting timber. So who was Betsey? The answer is we really don’t know much about her origins. We know her husband Jeremiah was born in Colonial New York, and that he served with the New York Volunteers a Loyalist unit during the Revolutionary war. Hollingworth Tully Lyons descended from two of Betsey’s sons, Joseph on his mother’s side and David on his paternal line. Patterns of marriage and intermarriage with other early Miramichi families assures a bit of Betsey lives on in a large number of us with roots in Northumberland county, the Upper Miramichi River Valley particularly.

My Mother’s cookbook’s Plum Pudding

Ingredients:
1 pint of dried bread crumbs
1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. brown sugar
1 pound seeded raisins -soaked in Brandy or Rum
2 c. mixed fruit
2 c. dried glazed cherries – soaked in Brandy or Rum
1 pound dates –
1/2 pound of raw suet
1 c. molasses
1 tsp soda
2 Tbsp hot water
2 well beaten eggs at room temp
Juice of 1 lemon
Method
1. Roll and sift 1 pint of dried bread crumbs, place in a large bowl;
2. Add flour, sugar, fruit, cherries, dates, suet, molasses;
3. Dissolve soda in hot water and add to fruit mix;
4. Add the eggs and lemon juice;
5. Line a heat proof bowl or mold with 3 layers of cheese cloth fill with pudding;
6. Place the bowl in a large Dutch oven;
7. Place Dutch oven in a 280 degree oven, fill the pan with boiling water about 1/2 way up the side of the bowl, cover with aluminum foil and the lid to seal the steam inside, Steam 3 hours, add more water as needed.

References and Sources:
1. Bake – oven also known as a Dutch oven, was a large lidded cast iron pot, with legs which permitted it to be set directly in a fire. The Dutch ovens we know today are very different, they don’t have legs, and are much smaller. Cast Iron Dutch ovens today are almost always lined with ceramic.
2. Seasoning cast iron is required if the cast iron is not lined with ceramic and has not been seasoned. Seasoning involves building up a film of oil on the interior of the pot / pan which is cured with high heat. After use cleaning involves washing the pot/pan, and retreating it with oil and time in a hot oven.
3. Exactly when Jeremiah and Betsey married is as yet unknown. Jeremiah and his wife Elizabeth sold the land he had been granted on the Keswick River in 1787. Since most of the older children were born in the Nashwaak River Valley, York county, NB, it is probable they lived on property owned by Jeremiah’s brother Daniel Lyon in Penniac, NB until relocating to Northumberland county. The brief two years, Jeremiah owned the grant in Keswick represents the only period of land ownership until 1809, the pattern of displacement appears to have haunted the refugee family.
4. The foundations of the first wood framed house on the land grant in Carroll’s Crossing, were integrated into a barn after the house was replaced about 1900. The foundations were removed later and revealed two chimney’s at either end of the house, remeniscent of colonial style homes of the period.
5. Spices and spice routes: https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/what-are-spice-routes
6. Christmas Pudding – By 1800 even those with Puritan heritage had begun to celebrate Christmas once again, Plum Pudding and/or its cousin the Christmas Cake (dark fruit cake) was found in most English speaking homes in North America as well as Britain.

Kindness with a side of German Apple Cake…

It’s a great time to revisit some of the seasonally appropriate recipes, Gussie’s German Apple Cake recipe fits to a tee. The recipe in My Mother’s Cookbooks first blog is on repeat in my home at this time of year. When the varieties of apples available is at its peak, this recipe works with minimal sugar, allowing maximum opportunity to enjoy the refreshing tart sweetness we all love.

Most of My Mother’s cookbook recipes are handwritten, a distinct few are typewritten in a cursive font. I have never seen this contributor’s handwriting, the cursive typewritten “Gussie” was her only signature.

Augusta C. Deuchler Mills was a typist. The 1925 census of Staten Island New York reveals Gussie’s career as a typist began before she was 16 years of age. By 1968 when we moved to Advocate Harbour, Nova Scotia, Gussie and her husband Carl had retired to Carl’s home community.

Augusta D. Deuchler c. 1923

The first and most significant shift for our family came in 1968 when my Dad entered ministry with the United Church of Canada and we moved to Advocate Harbour. Reputed to have been named by European explorer, John Cabot, Advocate is nestled on the shores of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Minas Basin. Tucked between Cape D’or and the mighty Cape Chignecto. Advocate and surrounding area had been a major shipbuilding center during the age of Wood, Wind and Sail, by the late 1960’s it was reduced to a shadow of it’s former glory.

My parents could not have known how challenging this change would be for our family, Mum in particular. They could not know the extent to which the little woman, with a thick New York accent, would play in helping us settle into a new community and into our new role as the Minister’s family.

Two friends, left Evelyn Lyons and right Gussie Mills enjoying a family BBQ at horseshoe cove, NS c.1971

Gussie’s kindness came in many forms… Her support of our family, particularly my Mother, was unfailing and instant. An organizer by nature, she quickly assumed the volunteer position as ‘secretary’ to my father. She nattered at him for his bad handwriting and tut-tut-ed at his atrocious spelling.

But it was her underlying kindness which left the greatest impression. The fine china she gifted knowing the countless large lunches Mum was expected to hostess1. Or the large pots of fish chowder and plates of German Apple cake awaiting Mum after a busy day being the Minister’s wife2.

It was certainly not a given that my parents and the Mills would become friends, as couples or individuals. Nearly 20 years her senior Gussie’s life and up bringing had been vastly different than Mum’s life in rural New Brunswick. Gussie was born and raised in the traditional German enclave in Port Richmond Staten Island, New York. Gussie’s father John immigrated from Hesse Germany to New York in 1894 and later married Louise, Gussie’s Mother. Louise, born in Stapleton Richmond County NY was first generation German American, her parents having arrived in the 1870’s.

German immigration to New York began in earnest in the 1840’s and grew steadily, by the 1860s German immigrants numbered 200,000. The Stapleton community of Staten Island became a center catering to the entertainment of the large German community. Gussie’s Grandparents John and Augusta Feldmeyer spent the early years of their marriage running one of the many Breweries; saloons; beer gardens and theaters which dotted the community.

The New York German immigrant community was close knit, family centered and insular in the period leading to the turn of the 20th century. By the time of Gussie’s birth, the nature of the community was changing, anti German sentiments fanned by the first world war were forcing the community to identify more as Americans and less as German Americans.

Despite the negative sentiments toward German heritage resulting from the period of the two great wars, Gussie remained justifiably proud of her ancestry, and of her small but close knit family.

Her choice to first share her family’s German Apple cake and then supply the recipe to our family is a great honour. Her cake was always delicious, but when served with a side of kindness it is out of this world, capable of forging friendships and bridging diverse experience.

My Mother’s Cookbooks… Gussie’s German Apple Cake

Ingredients Recommended Ingredients
2 cups corded, peeled and sliced cooking apples i.e. McIntosh or Gravenstein
1/2 cup sugar (or if desired reduce to 1/4 c for a less sweet version)
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg (room temperature)
3/4 cup milk
Cinnamon
Confectioners sugar



Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 1/4 sheet pan.
2. In a mixing bowl cream sugar and shortening, add slightly beaten egg.
3. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients.
4. Add milk and dry ingredients alternately until incorporated, do not over beat.
5. Spread the batter on prepared pan.
6. Arrange the apple slices on the batter in overlapping rows and dust with Cinnamon.
7. Bake ~ 25 -30 minutes until cake is cooked and lightly browned.
8. Dust with confectioners sugar before serving.

Notes of interest:

1Rural Churches in the 1960s often were not heated except for Sunday service. Many community churches supplied a fully furnished home for the Minister and his family. It was common practice for those communities to expect to use the manse for meetings, especially in winter.

2 The UCC at this time expected the Minister and his wife to be a ministry team. My Mother was interviewed as well as my Dad before he was accepted into Ministry. When he was called to a new pastoral charge, Mum was interviewed too. As the Minister’s wife Mum was expected to participate in all activities, from church suppers to United Church Women(UCW) meetings, etc. Sadly few recognized the challenges of doing this when the pastoral charge has 7 churches, 7 UCW groups, 7 sets of fund raising, etc. The Minister’s performance was in large part dependent upon his wife’s performance.

Augusta C. Deuchler Mills

Parents: John Deuchler and Louise Feldmeyer Deuchler

Born: 17 May 1909

The family of John Deuchler and Louise Feldmeyer Deuchler:
1. Margaret Deuchler m. Harry Baham
2. Delia Matilhda Deuchler m. William Filmer
3. Augusta D. Deuchler

Married: Carl Morris Mills

Died: 27 May 1994, Florida

When Gussie was born her mother Louise was a 27 years old homemaker, her father John a 37 years old foreman in a soap factory. Born youngest in a family of three girls, after completing grade 8, Gussie followed her older sister Delia into working as a Stenographer in an insurance company beginning about 1923.

The financial and social boom period which followed the first world war was experienced across the western world, but no area was effected more than the City of New York. The largest city in the country, New York had every modern convenience, skyscrapers, public transportation, and people, lots of people, some wealthy, many middle class, and a large group of working poor.

Carl Morris Mills c. 1925

In 1927 Gussie met and married Carl Morris Mills a young man from a small Nova Scotia village. Carl had followed his father and many others from his home town to the United States to find work. By 1930, the young couple are residing in the Bronx, Carl was working as a deck hand on a steamship line, and Gussie a typist.

One can only imagine the effects of the stock market crash on ordinary citizens, watching the tragic desperation in the immediate period following Black Tuesday, must have been horrifying and frightening. The lives of ordinary middle class families like the Deuchler’s/ Mills were forever altered and unrecognizable from the roaring 1920s. Suddenly, the risks were real, bread lines, homelessness and the threat of job loss and further insecurity was ever present. Yet growth in New York City continued as iconic buildings like the Empire State and Chrysler buildings were completed, as the gap between those with plenty and those with nothing, grew.

Despite the challenges during this period Carl would take his bride (and some of her family) to Nova Scotia, introduce her to his large extended family and to the little village which would eventually become her home.

Taken during 1934 visit of Gussie, Carl and her sister Delia to Advocate Harbour with the extended Mills family.

Living in a city with all of the conveniences came with benefits but also risk. During a commute to her job, Gussie was involved in a fatal train crash. Pinned in the wreckage she suffered a back injury which would leave her with limitations for the rest of her life.

Eventually, Gussie and Carl moved to New Jersey and into a suburban lifestyle, like many city residents of their time, home ownership was not a given but manage it they did. When it came time to retire they decided to pull up stakes and moved home to Nova Scotia. When I say they moved home I mean it, they packed up and moved their mobile home from New Jersey to Advocate Harbour, Nova Scotia, a distance of more than 500 miles.

Over the course of the next years Gussie and Carl would split their time between Nova Scotia and Florida. The Deuchler family maintained their close connections, Gussie and Carl would bring Louise Gussie’s mother to live with them in Advocate until her death in 1967. Winters were spent in Florida with Gussie’s sister Delia until Carl’s death in 1978. For a period after Carl’s death Gussie continued to return to Nova Scotia, but eventually she would settle in Florida until her death there in 1994.

Gussie and Carl Mills with their beloved dog Ginger. c.1965

A bit about Advocate Harbour, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia

Situated between Cape D’Or and Cape Chignecto, Advocate Harbour was built upon and still relies heavily on fishery and timber as economic base. In the 1800’s the vast stands of timber which lined the shores of the Bay of Fundy, and an abundance of fish assured the area’s settlement and growth.

Initially, timber was harvested and shipped to England. Soon enterprising timber and land owners realized the real opportunity lay in building and supplying ships. During the period from 1812 to 1900 the collection of coastal communities known as the Parrsboro shore produced 700 wooden sailing ships, the majority from 1860-1890. The communities grew and thrived, large stately homes, roads, shipyards, tramways, stores, lighthouses were all built to support the community and its primary industries.

Local ships captains and crews sailed the worlds oceans, Europe, West Indies, Africa, New Zealand, etc. These men and women created relationships and grew familiar with the exotic locations they visited. The close relationship between the communities of the Parrsboro shore and the New England region of the US grew and deepened. Aspiring young men and women from the region, inspired by the tales of the opportunities and attractions of cities like Boston, and New York, were drawn there, establishing even stronger links between the communities.

By 1900 steam technology had all be ended the need for wooden sailing vessels, despite that it would take until 1927 for the final wooden sailing vessel to be produced in the area. As shipbuilding transitioned from sail to steam, ships carpenters, shipwrights, caulkers, captains and crews were displaced. For a time the greatest export from the area were the ships captains, crews and the building tradesmen who found work on ships, in ports and in the manufacturing plants of New England. The link between the large centers of the Eastern seaboard of the United States and coastal Bay of Fundy communities endured well into the 20th century.

By 1968, Advocate Harbour was a community in shadow of its previous prosperity. The large stately homes and other buildings from the age of sail were still obvious, but the tram lines, wharves, and lighthouses were either gone or threatened. The population of the community was dwindling and aging, some of those retiring from their jobs in offices and factories of New England and central Canada returned, many did not.

The areas natural resources would serve to carve a path forward, fishing would remain a thriving and profitable industry, timber would continue an important source of income. The features of the natural environment which once drew men and their families to settle this challenging landscape, now draws visitors and tourists. Those drawn to the seascapes, the hiking trails, and museums from larger centers like Boston, New York, and Toronto might be surprised to learn that this small hamlet in Nova Scotia was once well known in the ports and shipping offices of the world. A few of the areas tourists might even have shared ancestry with those who continue to live in its awesome beauty.

Resources and Links:

Wood Wind and Sail links:
https://archives.novascotia.ca/communityalbums/agesail/
https://ageofsailmuseum.ca/?page_id=214

Staten Island history links:
https://www.silive.com/guide/2010/04/history_staten_island.html
https://www.britannica.com/place/Staten-Island

Santa’s Helpers – A child’s Christmas 2.0…

My Mother’s Cookbooks Sugar doughnut recipe

There is nothing quite as wonderful as the awe and happiness on a child’s face on Christmas morning. The novelty, the excitement, and their joy makes the effort and preparations for Christmas, worth it. We know it and yet it is easy to miss the underlying message…

A New Brunswick Country Christmas. Courtesy of Pam Irvine Christensen, Photographer.2024.

A minister’s house was the right place to experience the full meal deal when it came to Christmas. Christmas preparations began in advance of Advent and escalated quickly into a rush of special church services, rehearsals, concerts, pageants and parties culminating with Christmas eve service. Christmas eve was the last of Dad’s1 busy period, and marked the beginning of our ‘family’ Christmas.

Christmas morning c.1980. Note the Grandparents (partially out of frame on the right) watching on.

As Dad reminded us every Christmas morning, he really didn’t have ‘a Christmas’ until he married our Mum. Dad, the second youngest of 5 boys in a single parent household during the depression did not experience a traditional childhood Christmas. Grandfather did his best to raise his sons after their mother’s early death, but it was not the same and didn’t extend to Christmas trees and gift giving. So, Dad loved Christmas…he loved the whole shebang! Yes, it was fundamental to his deeply held religious beliefs, but he embraced Christmas in it entirety. The music2, the food, the gift giving, particularly the gifting.

Fredericton, New Brunswick’s Green and Christ Church Cathedral in Winter Photo courtesy of photographer Michael Lyons c.2018

Rural Atlantic Canada in the 1960s and 70s did not offer a wide variety of shopping opportunities, and money was tight. My folks like many other Santa helpers depended upon Sears and Eaton’s catalogue order service3 for much of their Christmas shopping. The Wish Book4 in particular played a pivotal role in our family Christmas.

Christmas Tree c. 1942 Photo courtesy of the NS Archives E,A, Bollinger 1975-305 #555-15.

The arrival of the Wish Book signaled start of Christmas excitement, as my brothers and I took turns pouring over its contents. In October an evening was set aside for our consultation with Santa thru his helpers. My parents seated next to each other at the kitchen table, the annual catalogues for both Sears and Eatons to one side, the Wish Book open in front of Dad and a tablet of lined writing paper in front of Mum. Each wish was listed, the description, page number, product order number, and price diligently recorded in Mum’s careful hand. During the exchange, it was made clear to each of us, not to expect everything we wished for…

Winter Central New Brunswick c.2020. Photo credit Florence Elizabeth Morrison

Their deliberations were carried out in private, once we had provided our wish list, the real work began. Balancing budget, and availability5 with wishes took hours of work over several days, all carried out in secrecy worthy of Santa’s Workshop. Christmas gift buying was and remains stressful enough to tarnish an adult’s enjoyment. But it never tarnished Dad’s love of Christmas. He did however challenge Mum’s tolerance by providing a steady stream of hints, risking their careful secrecy.

Photo credit Florence Elizabeth Morrison

Come Christmas morning Dad was always the first to arrive in front of the Christmas tree, ready to begin the gifting. As we grew older, our Santa wishes were replaced with Santa stockings, individual items carefully wrapped, no matter their size or value, Dad loved it. And of course he did it all while reminding us of his Christmas-less childhood, it wasn’t a complaining sort of reminder, more commentary on his thoughts.

When my folks retired from Ministry they returned home to central New Brunswick. The first year in their new home, I travelled from Nova Scotia a few days in advance of Christmas day, with plans of finishing my shopping in Fredericton. The next morning as Mum, my brother Tully and I were preparing to head out shopping, Dad once again mentioned his Christmas barren childhood. I can’t say for sure whose idea it was, but one of us decided it was time to address the elephant in the room and provide Dad a real childhood Christmas memory.

Photo credit Florence Elizabeth Morrison

We had a blast, secretly planning his Child’s Christmas 2.0. We giggled over the surprise and the enjoyment it would deliver him. Christmas morning Dad who impatiently waited for others to catch up, and for the festivities to begin had no idea what was to unfold. His childhood Christmas came first, a big Christmas stocking filled with everything a Depression era boy could wish for and topped with his very own Christmas tree (a candy filled one). With each gift Dad’s joy increased, as he carefully unwrapped each his face took on a happiness beyond what we could have imagined. The toy truck, sling shot, hand knitted mittens, marbles, jacks, barley toys, pocket knife, ribbon candy, each and every item admired and memories shared. When he reached the orange in the toe of the stocking, his joy was complete, and tears began slow coursing down his cheeks…He never again mentioned his Christmas-less childhood, he had a new memory. How his wife and adult children gave him the childhood Christmas he’d been missing…

Maxine Andrews d/o Reginald and Alice Foster Andrews c.1951 Photographer John Collier Jr. Alexander Leighton and NS Archives 1988-413 negative # 2930d

I have tried to not miss or loose sight of the message…Christmas is made by children, of all ages. My Christmas preparations always include toys for the kids and adults alike. I have yet to find an adult who doesn’t respond. Afterall who can resist… those dinky toys are begging to have their engines revved and those sleeping dollies simply must be cradled… A bit of childish wonder is exactly what makes Christmas, and there is no age cap on wonder.

Although Dad loved Christmas he also loved good food, at Christmas doughnuts were a favourite. Christmas in the Lyons household offered two types of homemade cake doughnuts, My Mother’s Cookbook Molasses doughnuts and My Mother’s Cookbooks ‘Sugar’ doughnuts.

My Mother’s Cookbooks Sugar doughnuts

Ingredients:
4 tbsp melted butter
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
2 cups milk
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp soda
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
7-8 cups all purpose flour (or more)
vegetable oil for frying
sugar for dusting
Method:
1. Combine melted butter with sugar in a large mixing bowl, add well beaten eggs, add vanilla and set aside;
2. In a separate bowl combine 7 cups of flour (reserving 1 cup for reaching a workable consistency), cream of tartar, soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg;
3. Add 1/4 of the dry ingredients to the bowl with butter, sugar mixture, – alternate with the milk until all of the milk and dry ingredients are combined;
4. The dough will be sticky, cover, let rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes;
5. Add enough flour to make the dough workable for rolling out;
6. place about 2 cups of dough on a well floured surface, roll out to 1/4 inch thickness, and cut using a doughnut cutter;
7. Fry in 350 degree F oil until golden brown, turning 1/2 way thru, drain on paper towel;
8. If desired, place 1/2 cup of white sugar in a brown paper bag, add warm doughnuts and shake until coated.

References:

  1. Willard Bruce Lyons was born 9 Oct 1925, in Carrolls Crossing, Northumberland County, NB the son of Tully Hollingsworth Lyons and Florence Marjorie O’Donnell. Dad was raised in Carrolls on the banks of his beloved Miramichi River. He left school at 16 years old to work in the lumber camps and then to serve his country. After the war Dad settled into family life after meeting Mum but a comfortable job at the local Naval Munitions Depot did not satisfy his calling. In 1967, Dad finally finished high school and in 1968 he accepted a position as a Lay/Student minister with the United Church of Canada in Advocate Harbour, Nova Scotia. He realized his dream of Ordination in 1972. ↩︎
  2. The music, the only secular Christmas music I recall my Dad favouring was Christmas in Killarney, Dad was proud of his mother’s Irish heritage. The standard Christmas music in our house were Christmas Carrols, the old standards particularly, usually being sung or hummed by one or several of us. Of course at church Christmas music began with Advent. ↩︎
  3. Sears Canada and Eaton’s operated catalogue ordering service, for a time they succeed in dominating the retail industry and carried everything from house kits, clothing, household goods to tires for your car. ↩︎
  4. The Wish book was a special seasonal catalogue from Sears, featuring a large toy section, as well as clothing, and gift ideas, it was published first in 1933 by Sears Roebuck the USA company, Sears Canada followed course of their sister company soon after. Did you know some Wish books are now collectors items, fetching nearly $75, for a mint copy. ↩︎
  5. Availability of catalogue items was never assured, especially if Santa’s helpers were tarty in getting their list compiled. The only way to know if a product was available was to call, it still might be back ordered or a alternative shipped, which you didn’t know until the parcel arrived or not. ↩︎
Dad’s death in Dec 2017 left us missing his presence, his great niece Melissa Lyons – Hunt sent me this photo of her Christmas tree 2017 He looks a bit pleased to be “an Angel”, as he would say with his characteristic grin, “it’s a first”.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Poutine Râpée – Feast Food

A holiday feast recipe from the Acadian community of Southeastern New Brunswick…

Resharing a post from 2021 in My Mother’s Cookbook 2024 Christmas preparation Series.

I am amazed at home cooks and their ability to transform the ordinary into extra ordinary. There is proof of the importance of this in our traditional foods, which are celebrated locally, regionally and internationally. Look at almost any ‘traditional’ feast food and at its roots are ordinary ingredients. Whether the approach is to add ‘special’ ingredients (more valuable, scarce, expensive) or by the processing of ordinary ingredients differently, the result is beyond ordinary.

Early Acadian Cottage at Rockwood, Fredericton, NB (Formerly St Anne’s) Photo courtesy of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Image #P4-2-18

My Mother’s Cookbooks has many examples of the innovation and creativity of home cooks, most represent cooks coping with adversity. Poutine Râpée, a dish found most commonly in the recipe collections of Southeastern New Brunswick Acadian families is a wonderful example. It appears in the collection because of my friends the Melanson family of Amherst, NS.

The area we now call Atlantic Canada is the traditional home of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), Mi’kmaq; Beothuk; Passamaquoddy, St Lawrence Iroquois; and Innu peoples. Over generations of interaction the Aboriginal peoples of the region, developed relationships which permitted them to live peaceably, interact and share resources.

Mary Francis Dominick (Mrs Mitchell Dominick), Burnt Church, NB 1896 in traditional Mi’kmaq dress. Photo courtesy of the Our Miramichi Heritage Family FBsite

Ida Richard Melanson’s was born Aboujagane, Westmorland County, New Brunswick about 1878. Ida’s Richard family were among some of the earliest Acadian settlers to the region, starting in Port Royal (now called Annapolis Royal, NS) the earliest European settlement in Canada.

Port Royal located on the Bay of Fundy would be come home to an industrious group of farmers primarily of the Southwest region of France. French traders would also build settlements from Cape Breton to the Gaspe and of course beyond to Quebec. The French government and settlers alike sought to developed peaceful relationships with the native peoples, while fostering cooperation and trade.

Ice fishing at Caraquet, NB C.1905 Photo courtesy of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Eudist Fathers Photographs Image # P38-364

A testament to the relationships which developed, is the oral history that it was at the invitation of their Mi’kmaq neighbours that the eldest sons of five Port Royal (including the Richard family) families moved northward to the shores of the Cumberland Basin to settle in an area called ‘Menoodeh’ (now Minudi, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia)1.

C. 1912 Mi’Kmag people bending wood for making toboggans. Photo courtesy of the Our Miramichi Heritage Family Facebook site.

The French Colonial period in Acadie saw farmers reclaiming saltmarshes, cultivating a variety of crops, establishing orchards and taking advantage of an abundance of fish and wild game. By all reports the diet of Acadians of the time was generally plentiful and varied. Winter demanded storage, preservation and planning to assure adequate vegetable to balance the more plentiful fish and game.

During the period, the prosperity of Acadia grew, with close ties to their First Nation Allies and relative peace it brought, shielding them from the broader geopolitical issues including France’s war with the British.

Burnt Church, NB c.1890 Photo Courtesy of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Image # P251-119 Ganong Collection.

Both Acadians and First Nations people suffered at the hands of relentless Empire building by European nations. Britain’s reign of terror which began after the Treaty of Utretch, culminated with the fall of Fort Beausejour and the expulsion of Acadians in 1755 is an outstanding example.

c. 1963 Steamer and small fishing crafts share the wharf at Richibucto, NB Photo courtesy of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Travel Bureau County Series Image # P93-KE-32

The lives of many settlers were precarious for the first few years after settlement. For Acadians the threat was real and on going. British authorities and local settlers emboldened by the Colonial world view were unwilling to afford even the most basic rights. Many Acadian families existed on a scarce diet of potatoes, salt pork, fish, molasses and tea. Potatoes were one of the few crops the poor soil and cool damp climate supported. Molasses was a cheap and readily available because of triangular trade. Locally caught, salt/smoked fish made its way as cheap protein for sugar plantation slaves and indentured workers(including deported Acadians) in the West Indies.

Not snow but salt. C.1890 Men preparing salt for drying fish. Photo courtesy of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Blackwell Family Collection Image #P478-3

Elizabeth Lorette Babcock was born in Upper Sackville, as a child Lizzie and her family lived in both Upper Sackville and the community of Dupuis Corner, Shediac Parish, Westmorland County, NB. It is not entirely clear the reason, it is possible their movement was related to work in the fishing industry. Subsistence farms at the edges of prime farming areas were common and required off homestead work. Lizzie’s father Phillipe returning to his home area for work fishing or in processing fish is very likely. Eventually, the family would settle in Upper Sackville, on a farm near that of the Babcock family.

The history of Poutine Râpée is unclear, made of just two ingredients, both of which were eaten daily, it is the process which transforms them in to feast food. I can only imagine the originating cook whose deep desire to serve something different to their family, their love and dedication reflected in the multi -step process. Poutine Râpée has become associated with holidays, Christmas particularly, in many Acadian homes. Made of a mixture of raw grated and cooked mashed potatoes formed into a ball about the size of an orange, around a 1 inch ball of ground salt(soaked )pork. The potato dumplings after several hours of cooking in simmering stock, can be served in two ways. A savory version is served with salt and pepper, the sweet with molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup.

I know from Ida’s family’s stories that Poutine Râpée was a feast food from her kitchen. I can not say for certain that Lizzie served Poutine Râpée to her children but it is entirely possible.

Poutine Râpée

Ingredients:
2 parts Raw finely grated potato
1 part cooked mashed potato
Ground salt pork
Seasoning
Flour for dusting the surface
Method:
1) Combine potatoes and mix well
2) Gather a portion of meat and form into a 1 inch ball
3) Gather a portion of potato, form into a ball and press the meat into the center, assuring the potato completely surrounds the meat.
4) Roll prepared balls in a small amount of flour
5) Place balls in a large part of simmering stock or water and simmer gently for 11/2 hours.

Ida Richard Melanson

Born: 2 Feb 1881, Haute Aboujagone, Westmorland County, NB
Died: 23 June 1968, Amherst, NS
Parents: Aldolphe Richard and Marie Richard
Married: Edmond Melanson, 2 Feb 1904, Springhill, Cumberland County, NS

Ida was born 3rd in a family of at least 6 children born to Adolphe and Maria Richard. Sometime between 1901 and 1904, Ida left the farm to seek work in Springhill, Cumberland county, NS at the time booming mining town. Ida like many other young farm women sought employment as a domestic, choosing a location which family and friends had already settled. Ida met and married in 1904, Edmund Melanson, a labourer from the Memramcook Valley, NB. During the early part of their marriage, Ida and Edwin returned to his home area in Memramcook to start their family.

Childhood mortality rates during the late 1800s in New Brunswick were grim, and is reflected in Ida’s experience. Ida and Edmund faced the loss of at least 6 children, 2 sets of premature twins as infants, a girl named Mary who died of pneumonia at 11 months and a girl named Ellurey who died of whopping cough at almost 4 months. Despite this loss they managed to have and raise a family of at least 6 other children.

Around 1914, the family relocated to Amherst, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia where Edmond was a grocery merchant. Their home located on Foundry Street was surrounded with family, Edmond’s Melanson family and eventually several of their children purchased or built homes on the same street. Ida and Edmond would live among family on Foundry street until their deaths, Edmond in 1964, Ida in 1968.

Elizabeth Ann Lirette Babcock

Born: 27 October 1871, Upper Sackville, NB
Died: 19 Dec 1956, Amherst, NS
Parents: Phillip Lorette and Rose Ruth McPhee
Married: David Purrington(Purnt) Babcock 12 Oct 1888 in Amherst, NS
Lizzie was born second eldest in a family of 12 children, the family lived in her father Phillip’s home area of Cap Pele, NB and her mother Ruth’s home area of Upper Sackville, NB

The decision for the Lirette family to move to Sackville parish is not immediately clear but the complexity of raising a family in what would at the time would have been seen as a ‘mixed marriage’ would not have been an easy one. Discrimination and intolerance against those of French heritage was further complicated by religious intolerance. Being Roman Catholic in a community which was predominately Protestant would have added an additional layer of difficulty.

After her marriage in 1888, Lizzie and Prunt settled on the Babcock family farm a short distance away. They would raise their family of 7 children on the Babcock farm. Prior to her death Lizzie moved to Cornwall Street in Amherst, NS to live with her youngest son Bill and his family.

Did you miss the first blog in this series? Check out Hay making and Blueberry Shrub…https://my-mothers-cook-books.ca/2021/09/18/hay-making-and-blueberry-shrub/

Explanations and Resources:

  1. Minudi, Cumberland County, NS located on the Cumberland Basin began the settlement by Acadians leading to the eventual founding of Beaubassin.
  2. Burnt Church indigenous Settlement – 1928. Located on Miramichi Bay, the village got its English name after British Col. James Murray was sent in in 1758 to destroy the Acadian settlements in the Miramichi area. He reported that, “On the evening of the 17th September, in obedience to instructions, embarked the troops, having two days hunted all around us for the indigenous and Acadians to no purpose, we destroyed their provisions, wigwams and houses. The church, a very handsome one built with stone, did not escape.” According to Place Names of Atlantic Canada, written by William B. Hamilton, it was this incident that resulted in the English name of Burnt Church.
  3. History of Acadie – Canadian Encyclopedia https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/history-of-acadia
  4. Acadian History – https://acadie.cheminsdelafrancophonie.org/en/historical-capsules/

War, lobster and Lottie

A sheep shearer’s war effort, and My Mother’s Cookbook’s lobster roll.

This blog is 3rd in the series Atlantic Canadian Women of the Cloth – Homebased textile production.

I have difficulty believing people order lobster in the shell in high end restaurants. It’s not that I don’t see lobster as luxury food, or that I don’t love the taste. For me a ‘feed’1 of lobster from the shell, is an outdoor activity. One that requires, all the tools, a newspaper covered picnic table, and freedom to let the juices drip off my elbows. Fortunately, I am local to two lobster fishing seasons, and to a large lobster processor. I have options and unless it is a family lobster boil, I usually buy fresh cooked (same day) and shelled by the processor. A feed of lobster is very much a luxury in our home.

Marie Doucet feeding the cows in Cape St Mary’s 1950 Photography by John Collier, JR in the collection of Alexander H. Leighton NS Archives 1988-413 #2504-d

Charlotte (Lottie) Melanson2 loved the physical demands of farm life but when it came to suppling herself an income her options were limited. The time Lottie’s father John Melanson spent working as a carpenter, assured his children were well equipped with skills like, sloping pigs, milking cows, tilling, planting, harvesting crops, and shearing sheep. From an early age Lottie preferred outside work, and did not take well to life in the classroom or one involving refined womanly activities.

Wool being washed and hung to dry. Richards, Dufferin Collection: the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Ref # P368-32.

In 1930’s Nova Scotia paid work was still highly gendered, women could choose jobs in retail, as housemaids, as factory workers, they could be teachers, or nurses but not paid farm labourers. Acadian women like Lottie and her sisters, faced the additional disadvantage of open and accepted discrimination against them for nothing more than their being Acadian. Many single women left Atlantic Canada for work in the factories or large homes of the “Boston States”3. If like Lottie, they wanted to stay local it often meant working in a lobster cannery.

Lobster processing c.1950 Cheticamp, NS Nova Scotia Information Service – Nova Scotia Information Service Nova Scotia Archives #13392

Fishing lobster for export began in Atlantic Canada as soon as canning technology allowed the preserving of the tasty fish. When markets in New England and Britain beaconed, Atlantic Canadian fishers stepped up. The Lobster industry like any built on a luxury item, is subjected to market forces which are unpredictable and capricious4. Boom bust cycles effected fishers and processors alike from the very beginning. Market cycles which took lobster from ordinary food on Atlantic Canadian dinner tables to New York and London luxury restaurants, delivered it back with regularity5.

The period between the first and second wars was dominated by the Great Depression, high unemployment and widespread suffering. The depression halted a period of mechanization, the move away from subsistence farming and development of specialty farms. Textile production moved from spinning wheels to factories6 that depended upon imported wool. Although some farms still raised sheep, by the end of the 1930s they were in far fewer number.

Bottle fed lambs at Portage Pork Plus Farm, Portage, Westmorland, NB. Owned and operated by Arndt & Gabriele Becker and family who supplied this photo

Canada’s declaration of war on Germany in 1939 further entrenched the austerity began during the Depression but finding work was no longer the problem. Self sufficiency intensified further, cows and sheep repopulated farms and front lawns became vegetable gardens. Choosing homegrown and homespun became patriotic7 again, and the lobster on dinner tables and in school lunch cans was rebranded as patriotic too.

Grazing sheep and Lobster pots. W.R. MacAskill Nova Scotia Archives 1987-453 Ref #1317.

The recruitment of troops from rural Canada, emptied farm fields of labourers and raised a new problem. Who would till the soil and raise the animals? Just like in armament factories, the answer was women, women were now welcomed as employees on farms and in farm fields. For Lottie the war was an opportunity, she put her skills to work in aid of her country and earned income while her husband John MacPherson served overseas. Lottie found her niche as a farm hand with a particular skill set, she was a fast, efficient and effective sheep shearer.

Charlotte (Lottie) Melanson MacPherson at work using hand powered shears c.1943 Photo courtesy of Find a grave and Photographer/Contributor David Phillips.

During shearing season, Lottie moved from farm to farm in Antigonish, Guysborough and Inverness counties shearing sheep as she went. As an itinerate worker, Lottie depended upon farm families to host her during her time shearing their sheep. Lottie took to life on the road well, she used her work hours to hone her skill as a shearer and spent her leisure hours enjoying the company of her host families, attending local parties and social events.

A tolerant Mama and triplet lambs -Portage Pork Plus Farm, Portage, Westmorland, NB. Owned and operated by Arndt & Gabriele Becker and family who supplied this photo

Lottie, was a sturdy farm woman, tall, strong and willing, she was also what my Mum called ‘rough around the edges’. Lottie challenged gender norms with a salty tongue8, and a reputation for being able and willing to use her physical strength to contain wayward men as easily as the sheep she was shearing. The strong affection for Lottie held by those who remember her from those years, proves Lottie was more than a man-ish woman with a skill set. Her love of telling ghost stories to the children in the families she visited, and the respect other women had for her proves a depth of character beyond her sheep shearing capacity.

As a shearer few could surpass her ability, using only hand powered shears9, Lottie averaged about 80 sheep per day. In 1945 Lottie sheared more than 5700 sheep in her work season, and proved her capacity to shear a sheep in a record 2 minutes 45 seconds.

Shearing at Portage Pork Plus Farm, Portage, Westmorland, NB. Owned and operated by Arndt & Gabriele Becker and family who supplied this photo

The end of second world war began a period of intense modernity, sheep raising, and homebased textile production waned. Lobster stopped being a patriotic food choice and disappeared from lunch cans. Lottie’s war effort ended too, sheep ranching for textile production all but stopped in the region, only resurging minorly after Lottie was beyond her ability to shear.

By the time I encountered Lottie, her physical health was failing but her reputation as a champion sheep shearer remained intact. I wish I had taken more time to know her and learn more about her life, I might have confirmed the good possibility, that some of those farm house tables delivered Lottie a feed of lobster.

Because I purchase lobster already cooked and shelled, I can serve it as lobster salad or build a fancy version of the school lunch box sandwich, the lobster roll .

A buyer’s basket of lobsters Cape St Mary’s 1 Dec 1950. Photo in the collection of Alexander H. Leighton at the NS Archives 1988/413 #1317. Photographer John Collier jr.

My Mother’s cookbooks Lobster Salad / Roll:

Ingredients:
3 cups of chopped lobster
1/2 finely chopped celery
1/4 c My Mother’s Cookbook cooked salad dressing
up to 1/4 c Mayonnaise
salt and pepper
Method:
1. Place ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine, adding 1 T at a time of the mayo until it reaches desired consistency.
2. Serve with sides of potato salad, and mixed greens, or toast a brioche bun, slather with garlic butter and stuff with lobster salad.

My Mother’s cookbook cooked salad dressing:

Ingredients:
3 T flour
6 T sugar
1 egg
2 tsp dry mustard
6T white vinegar
1/2 c milk
2 T butter
Method:
1. In a medium sauce pan, combine flour, sugar, mustard together and mix well:
2. Add vinegar and egg which has been beaten, mix well;
3. Add milk and place over medium heat;
4. Stir constantly until the sauce reaches a soft boil and thickened,
5. Remove from heat, add butter, permit to cool and refrigerate.

*** Homemade boiled salad dressing can be used to replace sweetened dressings in potato salad, chicken salad, Cole slaw, etc.

Boiled salad dressing – Photo Elizabeth Lyons Morrison

Footnotes:

  1. In our house lobster is a luxury, like many in our region the expense limits access. Instead of regular and frequent meals of lobster, we have 2 or 3 ‘lobster feeds’, a year. A feed is a meal where the focus is lobster, sides a minimal and mostly condiments, garlic butter, vinegar, mayo and crusty rolls to soak up the liquor. A feed of lobster always assures sufficient for a next day salad or roll. ↩︎
  2. Charlotte (Lottie) Irene Melanson MacPherson was born New France, Antigonish, NS in 1914, the daughter of John Melanson and Charlotte DeLorey Melanson. Charlotte died in 1990, in Antigonish, NS. I am unclear about when Lottie married John Roderick MacPherson, some online trees suggest they were married about 1934, I find this unlikely since John would have been only 14 years old at the time. Additionally, a 1945 newspaper article regarding her career, refers to her as Miss. Melanson. ↩︎
  3. “The Boston States” is a Maritime Canadian term referring to Northern New England, Maine and Massachusetts in particular. ↩︎
  4. The Lobster fishing and processing industry in Atlantic Canada has experienced what can only be described as a wild ride. Beginning with canned lobster, Canada’s first lobster cannery was built at Portage island at the mouth of Miramichi bay about 1845, less than five years after the development of the Stamp can. The movement from canned to live and eventually freezer pack processing were punctuated by crippling losses and low prices. In local terms lobster is a luxury, the cost of which is beyond many but most locals understand that when the price is low, fishers and factory workers are suffering. ↩︎
  5. Many Maritimers remember when taking lobster sandwiches to school in their lunch can was tantamount to declaring themselves poor. Such was the nature of the lobster market, on New York restaurant menus one month, scattered on farm fields as fertilizer the next. The processing industry began in earnest by the 1872 with 44 Canadian canneries, by 1900 the number had grown to 700 despites the ups and downs. Canneries were built on the Bay of Fundy, Northumberland strait, and the Bai du Chaleur where Acadian fishers and processors were and remain heavily involved in the lobster industry. ↩︎
  6. Homespun cloth and other textile production endured far longer in the Atlantic Canadian region, driven by the need for warm clothing and lagging investment in textile mechanization. By the end of the Great Depression, many families had packed their spinning wheels and looms away, expecting the march of ‘progress’ to continue. ↩︎
  7. The declaration of war put many things in flux, to mitigate the effects government developed programs designed to encourage and educate Canadians on how to aid the war effort. Eating lobster was sold as patriotic, just as saving fat and abiding by rationing were consider the least those at home could do to support the war. ↩︎
  8. The stories about Lottie’s manner endure, her salty tongue particularly while shearing might have had Mother’s banning children from the shearing shed, but those same Mother’s welcomed her in to their homes and allowed her to spend time with those same children when she was not working. Those who remember Lottie express awe at her physical strength, her endurance, they remember her gruff demeanor and talk about how they and their mother’s liked and enjoyed her time with them. ↩︎
  9. Hand powered shears are exactly that powered by the hand, the wrist and hand strength to sustain 8 + hours of shearing is mind boggling, despite this Lottie could and did out perform those using powered shears. ↩︎

Atlantic Canadian Women of the Cloth – Homebased textile Series Reference list:

  1. “Flax, Farming and Food: How Scottish – Irish Immigrants Contributed to New England Society in the 18th Century”, Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester, Mass. https://worcesterhistorical.com/worcester-1718/flax-farming-and-food-how-scotch-irish-immigrants-contributed-to-new-england-society-in-the-18th-century/#:~:text=Accustomed%20to%20spinning%20wool%20and,fever’%20in%20the%20local%20population
  2. Bitterman, R. “Farm households and wage labour in the Northeastern Maritimes” Labour/LeTravail, 1993. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/1993-v31-llt_31/llt31art01.pdf
  3. Rygiel, J. A “Women of the cloth – weavers in Westmorland and Charlotte Counties New Brunswick 1871 -1891”; UNPUL thesis Carleton University, 1998.
    https://repository.library.carleton.ca/concern/etds/37720d
  4. Rygiel, J.A. “Thread in Her Hands –Cash in Her Pockets; Women and Domestic Textile Production in 19th-Century New Brunswick” UNPUL thesis Carleton University,
  5. MacLeod, E. and MacInnis, D.; “Celtic Threads: a journey in Cape Breton Crafts”; Cape Breton University Press, Sydney, NS. 2014
  6. Introduction to the Spinning Wheels collection in the National Museum of Scotland https://blog.nms.ac.uk/2020/12/14/introduction-to-the-spinning-wheel-collection-in-national-museums-scotland/
  7. Goodrich, W.E. “DOMESTIC TEXTILE PRODUCTION IN EARLY NEW BRUNSWICK” Keillor House Museum.
  8. Toal, Ciaran “Flax to Fabric – The history of Irish linen and flax” Lisburn Museum https://www.lisburnmuseum.com/news/history-of-irish-linen-flax/
  9. Dunfield, R.W. “The Atlantic Salmon in the History of North America” Fisheries and Oceans Canada 1985. https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/library-bibliotheque/28322.pdf
  10. Wallace -Casey, Cynthia “Providential Openings – The Women Weavers of Nineteenth-century Queens County, New Brunswick” Material Culture Review. 46, 1 (Jun. 1997). https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17740/22230
  11. Eveline MacLeod and Daniel W. MacInnes “Celtic Threads: A journey in Cape Breton crafts” Cape Breton University Press, Sydney, NS 2014.
  12. MacMillan, A.J. “A West Wind to East Bay: Short History and a Genealogical Tracing of the Pioneer Families of the East Bay Area of Cape Breton.” Music Hill Publishing, Sydney, NS 2001.
  13. Campbell, Joseph “Information regarding the avalanche at John Campbell’s farm 5 Feb 1856”, a recording by Mrs. Archie MacDougall 25 July 1966. In the holdings of the Beaton Institute, Sydney, NS.
  14. Roach Pierson, Ruth. “Canadian Women and the Second World War” The Canadian Historical Association. Ottawa 1983.
Spring lambs and their Momma at Portage Pork Plus Farm, Portage, Westmorland, NB. Owned and operated by Arndt & Gabriele Becker and family who supplied this photo

Acknowledgement: I acknowledge that the land on which I live and write about is the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq Peoples. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship” which Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations.

Work, Frolics and Tragedy

Cape Breton Oatcakes – A milling frolic favourite.

This blog completes… Homespun and Mrs. Campbell and is 2nd in the series Atlantic Canadian Women of the Cloth – Homebased textile production.

Today, crafters buy cotton / yarn in the colours they desire and get busy weaving, knitting, crocheting, etc. Homebased textile producers no longer need to raise and shear sheep, wash, pick, card, spin, dye, weave or full1 fabric. The tradition of women sharing work, particularly the activities of homebased textile production is well documented in many cultural traditions, none more than in Scotland.

Winter in Atlantic Canada, a century old barn built by the Hovey family of Ludlow, NB.

The rich Gaelic tradition of songs and storytelling, combined with work were an important cultural vehicle. Assuring local history was recorded in memory if not in ink. From the shearing of sheep onward, where necessary and possible Scottish women shared their textile work, accompanied by their work songs, and food.

Janet Hendry MacDonald2 and Mrs. John Campbell3 willingly participated in work frolics hosted by family and neighbours, they knew they could count on a full house when they had laborious and/ or tedious work to do. Frolics not only provided a means to accomplish work, they provided an opportunity for social contact and alleviated the grind of the constant effort required to sustain a household.

Mama Ewe ‘Big Red’ and her quintuplets. May 2024, Portage Pork Plus Farm, Portage, Westmorland, NB. Owned and operated by Arndt & Gabriele Becker and family who supplied this photo.

Despite having a Scottish born father, and a husband with roots in the Western Isles, Janet’s language of life was English not Gaelic. Janet was well read, enjoyed poetry, keeping up with current events and for a time kept written records of her daily life. Janet’s diaries give us a glimpse into her life and her production of textiles. In today’s terms Queens county, New Brunswick was not ethnically diverse but there was diversity of backgrounds, culture, tradition, experience, skills and resources. Among Janet’s neighbours were families with generations of history in North America, some like her mother’s family were Loyalists from New York. Others like her husband, Alexander MacDonald’s family were Scots who settled first in North Carolina, or Pennsylvania, as her Grandfather and father had planned to do.

Newly shorn sheep and fleece. The first step in producing wool yarn and cloth. June 2024, Portage Pork Plus Farm, Portage, Westmorland, NB. Owned and operated by Arndt & Gabriele Becker and family who supplied this photo.

Janet’s diaries include references to spinning bees, quilting and sewing bees, but not carding bees or fulling frolics. By the time Janet and Alexander were establishing their homestead in McDonald’s Corner, Queens county, services like carding and fulling of wool cloth were being offered by local mill operators, who might also mill grain, or even lumber. The benefits to Janet’s textiles of machine carding, can’t be over stated, uniform carding leads to easier spinning and better yarn, better yarn leads to better…etc. Mechanical fulling saved loads of physical labour and assured uniformity of processing, which required skill if done by hand.

A spinning frolic at the home of Angus “Ban” MacFarlane. Featured in the image are: Mrs. Angus “Ban” MacFarlane (standing in doorway), Mrs. Duncan Y. Gillis (standing at back). Seated: Mrs. Sandy Gillis, Mrs. Malcolm Gillis, Mrs. Johnny MacLellan, Mrs. Dougald John MacFarlane, and Mrs. Hugh MacKenzie. c. 1928 Another example women being recorded by their husband’s name. Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University bi-79-1173-4153

Mrs. John Campbell was a Highland Gael, it is possible she might have spoken English, but her language of life was Gaelic. I can say these things with some confidence, despite the absence of specific documentary proof. The diversity inherent in Queens county, NB, did not exist in Big Pond Cape Breton in the 1850’s. Although Cape Breton island had initially seen European settlement by the French and Acadians, the 19th century saw large numbers of Highland Scots immigrate to the area.

Loom frame, c. 1820 on display at Campbell Carriage house museum, Middle Sackville, NB July 2023 Elizabeth Lyons Morrison

Despite fleeing dire economic realities in Scotland, families like the Campbells, MacDougalls, MacPhersons, etc. did not receive support or assistance from the Crown. Any immigration incentives from their previous landlords did not extend to previsions. Their response to this insecurity was to choose locations near those they knew. So family and neighbours from home, became neighbours in their new home.

Many of those who Mrs. Campbell knew and shared life with were former residents of the Western isles of Scotland, like the island of Barra, as were both the Campbell and McDougall families. Of course Cape Breton Scottish enclaves did interact, but for a significant period following arrival, language and religion drove contact, relationships and economic development.

Flett Carding mill, Nelson, NB Built in 1850 the mill was one of the busiest of the region. The mill was dismantled in 1931. PANB reference # P194-237

Services like carding and fulling mills were slower to develop in some areas of the Atlantic region, unlike Queens county NB investment in the milling of wool in Cape Breton did not begin immediately. The combination of physical isolation, differences in language and religion served to create a unique cultural milieu. Mrs. John Campbell depended upon many of the traditional ways of producing yarn and cloth, just as she depended upon other women to help full her homespun.

Featured in this iconic image from left to right: John Alex ( John X. ) MacDonald, Neil R. MacDonald, Gwennie Pottie, Jessie Mary MacLeod and Alex Kerr. c.1984  Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University bi-84-426-14526

7pm Feb 5th 1856 Big Pond Cape Breton.*

Gently swaying the whimpering child in her arms, Mrs. John Campbell reached to tuck a fringe of brown hair back beneath her Kerch4, she was sure it looked as tired and rumpled as she felt.

Turning toward the older woman who sat knitting in a chair to the left of the fire. “I am going to lay with the child awhile, maybe she will finally sleep.” Her voice sounding slightly hoarse to her own ears, too much singing and not enough sleep.

“I think you’d best just head to bed. I’ll be sending the girls to bed in the loft shortly. The men will soon be finished with the grain and want an early night. They’ll no be wanting women underfoot.” her mother in law replied, knowing with the house crowded, John and neighbour young MacDougall would bunk on the floor in front of the fireplace.

“I will” She replied thankfully, stifling a yawn. Biding John’s mother and nieces a “Oidhche mhath”5 she collected a candle from the mantle, pausing only briefly to light it before turning toward the bedroom.

Raising the candle high enough to peer in to the smaller of the two box beds6 which lined one side of the room, she was relieved to see both of the older children were sleeping soundly. The music and laughter had disrupted their sleep, leaving them tired and cranky. Just like baby Mary, she thought looking down into the child’s sweet face, grateful that she was finally quiet, if not sleeping.

Carefully sliding the child on to the larger bed she arranged the cradle next it, so she could transfer her later. Removing her kerch and outer clothing she blew out the candle and tiredly eased on to the bed beside her daughter, who seemed content to chew on her tiny thumb.

A soft smile of satisfaction crossed her lips as she mulled over the frolic. She was well pleased, her clo mor had actually drawn a compliment from her Mathair cheile7. The evening had been a great success, the arrival of MacPherson with his fiddle an unexpected treat. Even Mathair cheile seemed to enjoy herself, which was never guaranteed. The older woman, like many of her generation, preferred the old ways.

The only tension filled moment had been between MacDougall and her Mother in law. When the senior MacDougall, who taken over singing when the men joined the waulking8, made it known he considered the cloth needing only one more course to be fully milled, sparks flew.

Her Mathair cheile insisted there would be no seanchas, or dannsha9 until the her meur10 told her the cloth was milled. Thankfully, MacDougall agreed out of respect for the older woman, helped along by her being Grandmother to the MacPherson girl his son fancied11. John said he was sure, MacDougall nearly biting through his tongue when his mother held out for four full verses, would surely make it into one of his songs12. But the older women’s success put her in a good mood, the music and food met her approval, even the sweetened oatcakes. Yawning, her eyes closing as she drifted toward sleep.

A strange rumbling sound jolted awake her, she reached instinctively for the baby…

* This is a fictionalize account.

Sometime on the evening of the 5 Feb 1856, the John Campbell homestead was destroyed by a snow slide. When Stephen MacDougall did not return home as planned on Wednesday morning, his brother went in search of him. Finding no sign of a house or barns on the Campbell property, he raised the alarm.

Grand Bra D’or at Johnstown, Cape Breton 2014 Elizabeth Lyons Morrison

Stephen MacDougall, and John Campbell were found trapped in the debris and unable to aid the women and children. John’s mother Mary Campbell was discovered in a corner under a cabinet, she too survived the ordeal. Baby Mary was found unharmed lying next to her mother on the box bed. In total five people lost their lives, Mary Campbell, Mary MacPherson, Mrs. John Campbell and the two older Campbell children.

In the distance St Mary’s Roman Catholic church, Big Pond, Cape Breton 1936. Department of Highways Nova Scotia Archives 2009-023 no. 001 p. 8

The records of the tragedy at John Campbell’s farm are very sparce13. In the absence of victim names, details of destroyed buildings, livestock and potatoes being found more than 200 feet away, seem to our sensibilities a bit cold and lacking basic humanity. It would be wrong to view the past by our current experience.

Record keeping during the 1850s was uneven and reflected the social conditions at play. Newspapers of the time demonstrated a generalized disinterest in women’s lives, and marginalized further those who spoke Gaelic and were Roman Catholic. A tragedy that killed 3 women and 2 children engendered less interest in publishers than the cautionary tale about snowslides endangering other farms and livestock. So the personal memory of the event and those who died was left to family and community.

Washing and processing fleece. PANB RICHARDS, DUFFERIN: COLLECTION Reference # P368-32

It is hard to imagine the scars an experience like this leaves on survivors. John Campbell lost almost everything in the blink of an eye, in what can only be described as a freakishly rare event. His wife, two of his children, and his nieces, his house, farm, and most of his livestock, all gone. The older Mrs. Campbell lost 4 grandchildren and a daughter in law, she like John and Stephen would surely be haunted by the hours of helpless suffering as she listened to the desperate cries from her dying loved ones.

John Campbell eventually rebuilt a home and farm on the property, although his new house was located as far from the hill side and previous site as possible. He also remarried, his second family beginning to arrive some 5 years after the loss of his first wife and children. Sadly, John Campbell died himself in February 1870 leaving his wife to raise their young children aided by kin and community.

The tradition of milling or fulling frolics lingers today in Cape Breton. As was always the case milling frolics are about language, music, tradition, and the joy of sharing, the only thing missing today is the work. Cape Breton’s unique ‘Scottish’ culture should not be mistaken as just the result of people repeating what they knew. It was never the case, from the onset Scottish settlers adapted. They made modifications and adjustments in what and how work was approached, new techniques and resources were always being applied.

When Mrs. Campbell worried about her Mother in law’s love of the old ways, she might have been referring to everything from men being involved in waulking the cloth to whether frolic oatcakes should contain wheat flour and sugar. Traditions don’t continue without alteration and without a good reason. I would say both Cape Breton oatcakes and milling frolics have proven themselves to be good reasons.

August 2014 Highland village Milling Frolic Iona, Cape Breton

My Mother’s Cookbooks Cape Breton Oatcakes

Ingredients
2 1/4 c scotch oatmeal or rolled oats
2 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 c each brown and white sugar
1/2 c + 2 Tbsp cold water
1/2 c lard

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Combine oatmeal, flour, salt, soda and sugar together in a bowl;
3. Cut lard into the dry ingredients;
4. Add water and stir to combine;
5. On a well floured board, pat into a rectangle, then roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thick;
6. Cut in to rectangles or continue to triangle shapes;
7. Place on a cookies sheet and bake for 12 -15 minutes or until golden brown.

Cape Breton oatcakes with butter, a treat the Cape Breton Highland Gael in this house can’t resist. Oct 2024 Elizabeth Lyons Morrison

Footnotes:

  1. When homespun cloth is removed from the loom, the weave is course, rough, loose and thin. To convert cloth in to soft, warm and wearable cloth, mechanical agitation (beating and pounding) combined with either water or other substances like urine to shrink the fibers. All woolen Cloth required some milling, to reach Clo Mor stage, the cloth would be milled until is was thick and essentially water proof. ↩︎
  2. Janet Hendry MacDonald born 7 Feb 1795 Cambridge, Queens county, New Brunswick Canada, died 22 Apr 1887 McDonald’s Corner, Queens county, New Brunswick. Janet’s father George Hendry born c. 1764 Elgin, Moray, Grampian, Scotland died 1830 Wickham, Queen, New Brunswick. Janet’s Mother Susannah Belyea born c.1781 Cortland Manor, Westchester, New York. died 1842, Cambridge, Queens, New Brunswick. Janet married 9 July 1818, Alexander ‘Black’ MacDonald born 4 October 1794 Hillsborough, Albert, New Brunswick died 29 March 1880. Three of Janet’s siblings Elspeth, Mary and James Hendry married Alexander’s siblings, Lewis, Donald and Delilah MacDonald. The MacDonald family operated a grist mill in Cambridge, Queens, NB. Janet and Alexander MacDonald farmed the portion of George Hendry’s property which was her inheritance. ↩︎
  3. Mrs. John Campbell, birth date, location, and name unknown, died 5 Feb 1856, Big Pond, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She married John Campbell born ~1810 probably in Barra, Scotland died 22 Feb 1870 in Big Pond, Cape Breton. John was son of Donald and Mary Campbell, who settled in Irish Vale, Cape Breton. Some of John’s siblings settled in Middle Cape, and Grand Narrows, Cape Breton. ↩︎
  4. A kerch is a traditional head covering worn by married Scottish Gaelic women. Made of white cotton, the white crispness of her kerch was a sign of a woman’s quality. ↩︎
  5. Oidhche mhath – Good night greeting in Scottish Gaelic. ↩︎
  6. A box bed is a type of wood framed cabinet bed often incorporated in to the walls of a house. When equipped with curtains or shutters box beds offered additional privacy. ↩︎
  7. Mathair cheile Scottish Gaelic term for Mother in law. ↩︎
  8. Waulking, Milling, fulling cloth are terms used to describe the process of shrinking wool cloth. In the Western Isles, women were primarily responsible for milling fabric. The addition of men, and the extension of the activities into the evening hours contributed in large part to milling frolics continuing in Cape Breton even today. ↩︎
  9. Seanchas – storytelling, dannsha – dancing in Scottish Gaelic. ↩︎
  10. Meur is finger in Gaelic, determining how much shrinkage cloth had experienced involved measuring the cloth prior to milling and regularly during processing. The measurement tool was a woman’s finger. ↩︎
  11. Social events, including milling frolics were opportunities for courtship. ↩︎
  12. Gaelic milling songs, are essential to delivering a fine evenly milled cloth. The cadence of the song helped to assure consistent and even milling. Cape Breton singers and bards were inspired by real events, funny happenings, conflicts and excesses were the stuff of their creativity. When Mrs. Mary Campbell insisted on her finger measurement she risked regular embarrassment at the hands of local bard. ↩︎
  13. The details of the avalanche at John Campbells farm are those related for generations by the people of Big Pond. Written accounts, and recorded oral accounts were not contemporary to 1856, some only recorded more than 100 years later. Those written resources are provided in the reference list. ↩︎

Atlantic Canadian Women of the Cloth – Homebased textile Series Reference list:

  1. “Flax, Farming and Food: How Scottish – Irish Immigrants Contributed to New England Society in the 18th Century”, Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester, Mass. https://worcesterhistorical.com/worcester-1718/flax-farming-and-food-how-scotch-irish-immigrants-contributed-to-new-england-society-in-the-18th-century/#:~:text=Accustomed%20to%20spinning%20wool%20and,fever’%20in%20the%20local%20population
  2. Bitterman, R. “Farm households and wage labour in the Northeastern Maritimes” Labour/LeTravail, 1993. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/1993-v31-llt_31/llt31art01.pdf
  3. Rygiel, J. A “Women of the cloth – weavers in Westmorland and Charlotte Counties New Brunswick 1871 -1891”; UNPUL thesis Carleton University, 1998.
    https://repository.library.carleton.ca/concern/etds/37720d
  4. Rygiel, J.A. “Thread in Her Hands –Cash in Her Pockets; Women and Domestic Textile Production in 19th-Century New Brunswick” UNPUL thesis Carleton University,
  5. MacLeod, E. and MacInnis, D.; “Celtic Threads: a journey in Cape Breton Crafts”; Cape Breton University Press, Sydney, NS. 2014
  6. Introduction to the Spinning Wheels collection in the National Museum of Scotland https://blog.nms.ac.uk/2020/12/14/introduction-to-the-spinning-wheel-collection-in-national-museums-scotland/
  7. Goodrich, W.E. “DOMESTIC TEXTILE PRODUCTION IN EARLY NEW BRUNSWICK” Keillor House Museum.
  8. Toal, Ciaran “Flax to Fabric – The history of Irish linen and flax” Lisburn Museum https://www.lisburnmuseum.com/news/history-of-irish-linen-flax/
  9. Dunfield, R.W. “The Atlantic Salmon in the History of North America” Fisheries and Oceans Canada 1985. https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/library-bibliotheque/28322.pdf
  10. Wallace -Casey, Cynthia “Providential Openings – The Women Weavers of Nineteenth-century Queens County, New Brunswick” Material Culture Review. 46, 1 (Jun. 1997). https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17740/22230
  11. Eveline MacLeod and Daniel W. MacInnes “Celtic Threads: A journey in Cape Breton crafts” Cape Breton University Press, Sydney, NS 2014.
  12. MacMillan, A.J. “A West Wind to East Bay: Short History and a Genealogical Tracing of the Pioneer Families of the East Bay Area of Cape Breton.” Music Hill Publishing, Sydney, NS 2001.
  13. Campbell, Joseph “Information regarding the avalanche at John Campbell’s farm 5 Feb 1856”, a recording by Mrs. Archie MacDougall 25 July 1966. In the holdings of the Beaton Institute, Sydney, NS.

Acknowledgement: I acknowledge that the land on which I live and write about is the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq Peoples. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship” which Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations.