Shaking the branches of the family tree

I spend a lot of time among the various branches of the family tree. It is an endlessly fascinating way to learn about people and to place them in history in a way that makes events and people come alive.  

I was settled on the couch with my laptop preparing to hunt through a newly found source of newspapers, for obituaries and random facts. Lynn was sitting close by reading his book. In recent days I had found out the temperature in Montreal on the 22nd Aug. 1865 as reported by an optometrist as well as what ships were in the harbour and what they carried;

The front page of the Sherbrook Daily Record for 1st Jun. 1961 reported that a federal census was being taken so expect someone at your door;

in 1935 there were interesting remedies offered for a variety aches and pains common to man;

and that in 1955 you could buy a pie for $.49 at A & P.

So many interesting things as times and styles and ideas changed, but also strikingly similar in the kinds of issues being addressed.

(La Presse 29 Nov 1927)

So I was at this moment scrolling through a 1963 edition of the Sherbrooke Daily Record for a particular obituary. Obituaries are different from death notices. They can give dates of birth and marriage, names of all family members including parents, and then tell a whole life story of work and interests and where a family might have come from. They make a name and facts into a person. 

(Mom's landlord from the big house at the corner of King and London)

At the top of the page was a photo of a group of men who were the newly appointed executive of the bowling league. I scanned through the names, just in case, and it said that the league had eight teams for duck pin. So I asked Lynn, 'Do you know what 'duck pin' is?' He said, 'Yes! I never found it played in Ontario, but it is when small pins are set up, and a smaller bowling ball used.'

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duckpin_bowling#/media/File:20190107_Bowling_balls_andpins.png)

He said, 'I used to be a pin boy'. My eyebrows raised; a new story. 'When I was about 13 there was a bowling alley in the basement of this big house on Montreal Street and William, I think. Opposite where Grace Chapel is. Bowling wasn't mechanized, so the pins had to be reset by hand. Had to be quick!  I was in a duck pin league with Uncle Maurice (Maurice Cutler, Aunt Ruby's husband) and others from the Sherbrooke Hospital when I worked there.' Then we wondered how it was that there was a bowling alley in that building, because it was a residential area. So we Google 'walked' that area of the street to pin point the building.

(Grace Chapel, formerly the Masonic Temple of the Victoria Lodge, where Mom attended church)

(307 Montreal where Aunt Mildred lived, with the Chapel on the right)

(This section of the 1963 Voters List shows Aunt Mildred, Mrs Osborne Young, at 307. There were cousins at 266 and 268. It also shows some of the local employers; Allatt's Bakery, American Biltrite, Paton's, CNR and the Army.)

(the building in question, in an isosceles triangle to the other two)

We confirmed that the side street was William, then we read the sign 'Ecole Plein Soleil' and Google that in order to come up with the street number. The Ecole is now open and the website offered a history of the building so we learned that the building was originally the YWCA, so it suddenly made sense that there could be a bowling alley in the basement. 

This reminded me that Mom and Aunt Ruby used to stay at the YWCA and I thought that it was a large white building on the corner of Dufferin and Montreal. Lynn said that he was sure that it was on Moore St. So I checked into that and found that Walnut Place, later known as the Howard Residence was where they stayed, but the activities, like dances with the soldiers, took place on Montreal Street. 

(5 Moore St. in 1941, 165 rue Moore now)

I read to Lynn the history of the building, how it was built as the residence of William White, then became the residence of a Mr. Howard; the same Howard, Charles Benjamin, that later was Mayor of Sherbrooke and a Senator and later lived here.

(Domaine Howard, Sherbrooke)

This sparked another remembrance for Lynn. He and his twin brother Lloyd had lived with their grandparents for their first years as their parents were away working in Montreal. When they went to live full-time with their parents for the first time, they moved into an apartment on Montreal Street. He remembers that the kitchen was red and white and had a restaurant style booth, which must have had a deep impact on him because he still hankers for one. He thought the street number was 394, so we Googled it to be sure. 

He said that they lived on the third floor and the lady who owned the house was a Mrs. Walters. He said that Senator Howard was a 'gentleman caller' of this lady. When I looked up Senator Howard I found that , Simone Lemieux, widow of Dr. Albert Walters, became the third Mrs. Howard in 1959. (Astonishing that Lynn remembers these details, and so interesting to verify them.)

(https://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&id=26927&type=pge)

The third floor aerie of 394 Montreal allowed a view to the yard of the Winter Street Jail where the last local hanging was of Albert St Pierre in 1932, for the crime of murder.

Lynn then recalled that he took cigarettes to his father, who was currently residing at this address, when he was around 14. He had to enter the building by that green door. The Winter Prison is over 150 years old and the oldest stone building in Sherbrooke. It is no longer used but its stay of execution is still uncertain because although it  has some historic significance it is would be expensive to even restore it to be safely used as a museum. Lynn finds it of interest that his father stayed in cells once occupied by the Megantic Outlaw, Donald Morrison. Another notorious visitor to these illustrious premises was Harry Kendall Thaw, wealthy socialite, who was accused of the murder of Stanford White, architect, in New York City in 1906 at Madison Square Gardens. Harry escaped an asylum and fled to Canada, where he was recaptured in st Hermengilde just across the border, and sent to the Winter Street facility to await extradition.

(from the front page of the Sherbrooke Daily Record 6th May 1932)

(Harry K Thaw was BIG news for quite a time and even had Louis St Laurent on his extensive legal team. He was treated more as a celebrity than a criminal.)

Today's search was for an obituary, instead what I discovered was more of my husband's personal history and more about the town where he grew up.