Ruby M. Cusack
J.C. Laughy and Sons Hotel, at Norton, ca. 1891.
It was destroyed by fire February 12, 1892.
http://archives.gnb.ca/Exhibits/HistoricalImages/Details.aspx?culture=en-CA&ImageID=P58-181
More pictures of Norton are on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick website at
http://archives.gnb.ca/Exhibits/HistoricalImages/Search.aspx?culture=en-CA&query=full&data=bhc5IBjNi6JDWZlTqPFVSqmKj7zfomnzRiLIvlDtOY0=
By the way the Historical Images of New Brunswick database contains 2,271 historical images of New Brunswick. http://archives.gnb.ca/Exhibits/HistoricalImages/?culture=en-CA
Preserving Memories
We had waited all winter for Spring to come. Actually, I think Cliff and I started way back in January to figure out the best places to go fishing. We even cut a couple of alders and tied on the string line.
Spring was now here. Last evening we dug a can of worms. After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast we were set to take off to Amor’s brook, even though the sky looked dark. About ten minutes after we dropped our lines into the water, Cliff felt a bite on his line and he pulled out a beautiful trout.
Just at that moment, the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down. We started running as fast as we could through the field but decided to take a shortcut which turned out to be a swampy area. I slipped and fell and was covered with mud.
When we arrived home, Mum brought us towels and dry clothes. Gramp said we looked like two drowned rats.
Then we noticed that company had arrived. They were most anxious to tell of their experiences of fishing and getting caught in the rain and many other tales.
Fortunately memories live forever when they are written down for future generations.
“Sharing Our Stories: A Collection of Works by Emerging Writers over Fifty” that was edited by Cathy Fynn has wonderful personal stories that will keep the knowledge of yesteryear alive with memories from those who lived through a different age.
Visit https://sharingourstoriessj.wordpress.com/stories-by-contributor/ to read these interesting stories, information on the contributors and how this book came about.
In the 1980's Lillas Reid diligently searched for pictures and placed more than one hundred in the publication “The Road To Norton” to present an informative and pictorial history of this village.
Some of the memories that she brought to our attention include:
Abigail Baxter, daughter of Simon Baxter chose John Lannen for her third husband. About 1830, they donated the land for the St. Stephen Catholic Church.
In 1881, the Chapel of Ease, St. Luke’s was constructed with the inside walls being sheathed with black ash.
Pekaboo Corner was given its name in the1800's because a woman living at that corner was often seen peeking through her curtains as travellers passed by.
Mrs. Rebecca Guiou taught five of her children and several of the neighbourhood children in the mid 1850's from her home on Dickie Mountain.
In April 1830, a Temperance Society was organized in the Parish of Norton with approximately four hundred members.
Every child has memories that linger into adulthood of the school they attended.
In 1983, the Kings County Retired Teachers' Association, after many hours of research and personal interviews, obtained as much information as possible on the180 schools in Kings County to publish ‘Early Schools of Kings County, New Brunswick” which holds not only information on the 3 R's of education but lots of ABCs for the family tree.
Oak Point had a one-room, log school, which was vacant in 1844 as there was no teacher available that term. Fifty years later, in 1894, a larger one-room school was built. The first teacher was Amelia Heustis.
Schooling like religion was important to the Kingston Loyalists. In many areas, lessons were given in private homes before schools were built. The first log school was built in the heart of Kingston village in 1787.
The Carleton County Retired Teachers Association also compiled a history of schools of their area.
Winnifred Conrad Thomson, in her publication “The Joys of Teaching” reminisces about many of the incidents in her school days and in her teaching career, which commenced in the 1930s.
"Of Mines and Men" by Marjorie Taylor Morell depicts not only the world of coal mining in Minto but gives information on churches, schools, doctors, businesses and families up to the 1960s along with many pictures.
Ron Jack lives in British Columbia, having moved there from the Valley area of Saint John, yet he keeps alive the memories of North Enders with “The Lost Valley” project at http://thelostvalley.blogspot.com/.
Harold A. Blaney, a former lumberman, farmer and carpenter had many true stories about lumbering and life in general in central New Brunswick from the 1920s onward which he compiled into a 142 page book, “The Way It Was Back Then - Grampy Remembers - A Collection of Stories”. He wanted to give the younger generation a glimpse at a way of life that has disappeared.
"Mount Carleton Wilderness - New Brunswick's Unknown North" by Marilyn Shaw of 1987 gives a look into life of a rugged area and of the people who ventured into it.
As time goes by, houses, barns, mills, schools, churches, factories and stores disappear. Death takes its toll as each generation passes, and a little more knowledge gets lost or distorted. Yet the days of the past will live forever, thanks to those who have done research, shared their memories and information by using the pen.
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