Members of the Hargrove branch of the extended Belding family have had close ties to Partridge Island having served in various capacities with the Quarantine Station there and the Light and Fog Horn as well. Below are two accounts of that Hargrove experience, the first by Betty Rose and the second by her brothers Lloyd and Clifford Hargrove.
My Memories of
Partridge Island
Written 1988, continued 2006 by Betty Rose nee Hargrove
When we lived on Partridge Island, there were the 1st, 2nd and 3rd class hospitals - one for each class of ship’s passengers. There was also a general hospital for soldiers stationed there in the 1st World War and a small pox hospital, but they had been torn down before my time.
Our home was once a live-in-hospital, maybe 150 years old. It had 12 rooms, ceilings 12’ high. The hall floors were hard wood. The rooms were softwood. It had stained-glass at the top of each window and a wrap-around sun-porch.
The original gas light fixtures were still there. It had hot water heating (radiators) and took 10 tons of coal and 12 tons of coke, plus a lot of wood, to heat it for a year. This was brought by barge and delivered by horse and wagon from the wharf and up a steep hill to home. The kitchen had a coal stove. We had a telephone so Mom could order groceries in town. Supplies were delivered by boat, and again, brought to the homes by horse and wagon.
After I was born, my parents, Olive Amelia (nee Kingston) and James William Hargrove took me by boat to our home on Partridge Island. I had two brothers, Lloyd & Clifford. The island had a lighthouse and a fog horn on it, to warn ships of the hazards regardless of how dark the nights or how thick the fog.
It was also the quarantine station to which passengers, coming to Saint John by ship, could be treated, if they had a contagious disease such as small pox, typhus or cholera, etc. There was a power plant on the wharf where the passengers’ clothing could be fumigated plus showers to clean and delouse them with kerosene.
The plant also provided “The Island” with Hydro from dusk until about 11:00pm on one day a week so that the women could do the wash using their new electric washing machines in the plant working with Mr. Belyea and Mr. Robertson. Dad also did any blacksmithing necessary such as shoeing the horse. He had a huge garden and raised chickens behind Uncle Fred Hargrove’s vacant home in little houses that Uncle Fred’s son, Allen, built to practice carpentry.
Dr. Reid and his family moved off “The Island”. Miss O’Leary, an elderly cook who had lived in the 3rd class hospital moved into their home and was later joined by Miss Annie Delaney, equally elderly, who earlier had been the head nurse on Partridge Island.
One of my memories is when my friend Iris Belyea, and I used to pay them a visit. We would often find one or the other with the flat iron heated on the stove. They wore grey and white striped seersucker crêpe dresses. In those days, crêpe shrank dreadfully when washed and had to be pulled and tugged into proper size and shape using the flat irons. There was an un-used bathroom off the kitchen, in the bathtub, of which, they sometimes made huge batches of ginger cordial. Occasionally, when Iris and I visited they would dip into the bathtub and fill glasses of it for us. It was the best tasting ginger cordial that I ever recall having.
There were two stationary engineers. Mr. Robinson who lived in the first of three cottages; Mr. Belyea, his wife, and their three children, Shirley, Donald and Iris, my friend who lived in the cottage by the edge of the island. The middle cottage was vacant.
The Allen’s, and later the Lauder’s, looked after the fog horn and the McKay’s looked after the Lighthouse.
There were five of us in this one room school beside the lighthouse. G. Forbes Elliott was our teacher when I was in Grade 1 and 2.
Shortly before war was declared, the army arrived on Partridge Island. That day stands out in my memory. The date was September 8th, 1939. It was a lovely day, bright and sunny, and we had all the windows open in our house while my family and I were sitting, virtually glued to the radio in the den, listening for news bulletins. At the same time, army officers’ heads were constantly popping in through the open windows asking, “Have you heard anything? What is the news?” as they were going back and forth organizing and preparing our island for war. Finally, we heard, “WAR HAS BEEN DECLARED!”
Whereas we had once played amongst the old cannons and gone to school, we now tagged after the soldiers at their modern gun emplacements, learned to swear, quickly forbidden, and much more extraneous information (e.g. “How to roll a soldier over a barrel after the dire effects of taking an aspirin with coke”). I was told to go home because there might be shooting, as a U Boat was reported to be in the area.
My brother Clifford delivered the newspapers and sold comic books to the soldiers, who also, often came to our house to read them.
We civilians were all invited to go to the army movies and dances. Even I, at 9 or 10 years of age, danced “Hands, Knees Boomps-a-daisy” with the soldiers. In short, the army became our friends. Previous to the coming of the army to the island, our only method of hauling supplies was by horse and wagon, another of my father’s jobs. The reason was, I have since heard, that regardless of the weather conditions or depth of snow, only one horse, Ned, could be relied upon in case of emergencies because of the steep hill going up from the wharf.
With the army came a truck, a doctor, and the army boat.
The island was beautifully maintained. Dad planted dahlias all along the fence and there were large round gardens on the lawn. Mr. Belyea was also a very good gardener. A big event in the fall was when we were all armed with wet potato sacks. The grass would be burned and we could control the fire.
Dad has his own fishing boat and he kept us supplied with lobster, in season, haddock, halibut and dulse.
To look at Partridge Island in the harbour of Saint John, N.B., there doesn’t appear to be much to do. But the opposite was true. We walked and ran over the rocks and dared the tides. The boys fished and hunted. One teenager, Douglas Allen, built a camp in the bushes, on the back of the island, which we all played in.
We picked periwinkles from under the seaweed hanging on the rocks. Iris and I borrowed a pan from her house. We made a fire and cooked them in sea water then picked them out one by one with a pin. This event always took place in a secluded spot, like the hospital ruins or a spot amongst the rocks, to avoid the scrutiny of adults. We must have eaten thousands and enjoyed every one.
We skied and skated in the winter and slid downhill on sleds by the 3rd Class Hospital, making sure the sled went half way over the edge of the island with about an 18 foot drop below, and we were only able to pull it back with our toes.
As the men worked on The Island, the women, or at least my mother, did the business in the city leaving on the 8:00am boat Salucan and returning on the 4:00pm boat Salucan. Dad always made a delicious hash or soup which we really looked forward to.
We children hung around where the men worked in the power plant and the horse barn.
After the war started, we had to go to school in the city, as the island became a top-secret place and teachers were not permitted access. So began some exciting trips – often through very harrowing weather conditions. Heavy seas, thick fogs, and twice, near misses with the Loyalist Ferry as Captain Kinghorn searched blindly through the heavy fog and vapour for our dock. Once, he went into the ferry dock (right before ours). Suddenly, we heard the heavy thud, thud, thud of the ferry boat engine, somewhere, unseen, but astern and definitely coming closer.
The emergency! The urgency! Whistles blowing! Signals ringing to the engine room as we desperately tried to get around the pilings in time. We made it! So close, we could have stepped onto the Loyalist Ferry’s great metal-clad prow as the Salucan slipped between the ferry and the pilings to our dock.
Every Sunday, we dressed up, polished our shoes, and took the book to go to our individual churches. After, we went to the west side of Saint John, where Aunt Lottie Fullerton lived and Dad had built a garage for the car. We then took trips to visit relatives. Mom’s, on Long Reach and Dad’s, in Chance Harbour (see web sight) or just a short trip – always having to get back in time to the 4:00pm boat.
One time, Dad and I went to town in his fishing boat. It had a one lunger engine. On the way back, strong winds came up, and the waves were huge. Suddenly, the engine stopped. We were being blown towards the breakwater with its huge sharp rocks. Dad desperately tried to get the engine started by pulling the starting rope on the engine. Finally, he said, “Betty, you’d better get the oar out, and hold us off the rocks.” I was only 7 or 8 years old and the wind was strong. The waves were high, and we were getting closer and closer to the razor sharp rocks!
About a foot from the rocks, with me holding the oar out, Dad gave another desperate tug on the starter rope. The engine caught! We were safe and going home.
Another time, I refused to stay any longer at my cousin’s because I was annoyed with her. It was pouring rain and the wind was blowing outside. Aunt Lottie insisted that I take an umbrella. Immediately, it blew inside-out. I caught the Streetcar and went to the city to get the boat home, but the Salucan was vacant, so I went to the soldier’s dock. A soldier saw me standing in the blowing rain and took me into the office. Mr. Belyea was there. At the right time, we went down the steep wet steps and got onto the boat. Mr. Belyea and I had to go below deck into the bow. Potatoes were cooking on the stove which had a railing around it. Rifles were hanging on the sides of the boat.
By the time we arrived at Partridge Island, the potatoes were rolling about the floor, the rifles were banging back and forth. There were bunks, too, and all the soldier’s shaving cream and paraphernalia rolled from under pillows and mattresses to join everything else on the floor. However, we made it!
We had traveled in a Hurricane! Mom and Dad were waiting for me on the dock with a raincoat. Now, a little history.
The Malacites called Partridge Island “A piece of the great Beaver’s Dam” which blocked the Saint John River where the Reversing Falls are now. Their God, Glooscap broke the dam with his great war club and this formed the little islands by the Reversing Falls and the bigger Island in the harbour.
The French explorer, Dumont and Samuel de Champlain sailed into the harbour in 1604 on the Feast day of Saint John the Baptist and got the credit for naming it “Island de Perdrix” or “Island of the Partridges”
Partridge Island was the site for the first steam foghorn, which was invented by Robert Foulis. That invention was stolen, and patented by an American so he never received any payment for it.
I had heard that he once played the organ, and that gave him the inspiration for developing the steam fog horn.
Prior to the fog horn, the warning system was two great bells suspended from a crosspiece pole held on two high wooden tripods. My cousin, Alan Hargrove, once of Partridge Island, had a painting of it which I saw when visiting him out west at Powell River in B.C.
The lighthouse was erected in 1791 and was the 3rd lighthouse in Canada. Our home was once a live-in hospital. IN the 30s, it was thought to be about 150 years old. It had 12 rooms with ceiling 12 feet high. The original gas light fittings were still there, but the power plant on the dock provided the hydro.
We had hot water heating and for some reason, I remember it took 10 tons of coal and 12 tons of coke to heat the house for a year. This was brought to the island on barges and delivered by horse and wagon from the horse to our house. We all had telephones, so if necessary, groceries could be ordered and delivered to the boat.
My father, James William Hargrove, when he first went to Partridge Island was hired as secretary to Dr. Brown, then Dr. R. T. Rutherford.
When Dr. Rutherford left, my father stayed on as Chief Steward. Eventually, wrote his Stationary Engineer Exams and worked in the power plant with Mr. Burpee Belyea and Mr. Robinson. He also did any blacksmithing necessary, delivered the mail and drove the horse and wagon for whatever task was necessary. My brother Lloyd said that Mr. Allen was looked after the horses.
The reason a horse and wagon were used was because of the very steep hill leading from the wharf. A horse could make it up the hill regardless of how deep the snow or how slick the ice.
By Lloyd and Clifford Hargrove
With
a special thanks to MARGARET (Hargrove) CARKNER, who helped us reason with
dates, and remarks.
.
This
is a short trip down memory lane for Clifford and Lloyd Hargrove. In it we try to recall some family history
and tell some tales of our lives on Partridge Island. We were children of Jim and Olive Hargrove
and spent our childhood on the Island from 1926 to 1941. The Island was the quarantine station for
immigrants coming to Canada through the port of Saint John. It had several hospitals, a medical team and
a boat which met the ships and brought any patients to the hospitals on the
Island.
The
Hargroves and Partridge Island
Two
members of the Hargrove Family worked on Partridge Island in the first half of
the last century. They were Fred and Jim, both sons of George Luther Hargrove
and Drusilla Belding of Chance Harbour. Fred (our uncle) was the captain of the
Island’s government boat and Jim was eventually chief steward. They both lived on the Island and raised
their families there. Fred arrived in 1902, and Jim app 1920.
The
Chance Harbour Hargrove Family
George
Luther Hargrove was born in 1838 and married Drusilla Belding of Chance
Harbour. They set up a family home in Chance Harbour. They had seven children; William Emerson
(died at app 12 years), George, Bristall, John
Frederick, Jane Sophia (Aunt Jenny), Eliza Ann Caroline, and James William
(youngest). The family young people grew
up, and were educated in Chance Harbour
Uncle
Fred, (John Frederick) was a government employee, Department of Health and
Welfare. He lived in the house on the hill (House beside the Battery). His
family consisted of his wife, Margaret Elizabeth McGowan (Bessie), and their 3
children, Fred Emerson, (named after the brother who had died) Margaret Helen,
and Alan Baird. Margaret lived on the island 1913 to 1927. Today she lives near
Lloyd and Bev in Surrey.
Fred
was many years older than Jim. He skippered the Quarantine Boat. It brought the
provisions to the Island, took people between the Island and the city, took the
doctors to meet incoming ships if they had people with contagious diseases
aboard, and brought the patients back to the Island.
Margaret
tells of an early boat, the Eleanor. Fred nearly met disaster in it. He was
taking Dr Rutherford, the Island medical doctor, to a freighter. Dr. Rutherford
made it onto the ship, but one of the tugboats accidentally crushed the Eleanor
against the freighter. Fred was saved by the tug, but suffered serious head
injuries. The Eleanor floated for a time, but sank before it could be rescued.
Bessie and Margaret saw the Eleanor leaving the side of the freighter, but didn’t
watch any more to see her sink. They did not know until Fred was brought home.
Fred was lucky indeed. The government
replaced the Eleanor with the Salucan II. Fred was
still the skipper. This was before our time.
Harry
Horse, and Ned, There were different horses, one at a time.
The
Island had no motor driven vehicles. Our
only source of transportation was Harry Horse.
He lived in the barn and was used to bring the supplies from the dock to
the various buildings. This could be
quite onerous because all of the buildings were heated by coal and so the horse
had to haul this coal up from the dock and then it had to be unloaded and put
into the coal bins of the buildings. The hill up from the dock was quite steep
so this wasn’t an easy job. Looking after Harry Horse was one of Dad’s
jobs. We went down in the evenings to
watch this process. One of his other
jobs was shoeing the horse. Cliff can still remember watching him pounding the
nails through the horseshoes into Harry’s hoofs and
wondering why it didn’t hurt.
Uncle
Fred moved to Saint John from the Island in 1927, so Margaret and Alan could go
to a bigger school, to acclimatize them for High School. Fred’s son Emerson, went West to Vancouver in 1926 and the rest of the
family moved there in 1928. It is true that there was a problem in which
Government Department
was to provide Fred’s Pension. Fred felt he did not need to stay.
He followed other family members west.
Jim
Hargrove (our father) and Family
Uncle
Fred talked Dad into applying for a position on the Island. Dad had his grade 8,9 or 10! We each think differently on this. Whatever, it
was more education than most people had in those days. He started on the island
as a Secretary to Dr. Brown and then to Dr. Rutherford.
Dad
grew up in Chance Harbour. The first wife was Agnes Helen (Nellie) McGowan.
Nellie grew up on the island. Her father Thomas McGowan,
was working in the Lighthouse section. Jim and Nellie were married 10 years.
They lived in Chance Harbour with Grandma and Grandpa Hargrove. Nellie died of
heart failure. (Died app 1918).
Jim’s
second wife was Phoebe Elizabeth Vincent (Lydie). She had been Nellie’s nurse. She died in
childbirth, after a bad fall. They lived on the island in the big Doctor’s
house alongside the first class building. (Died in 1922).
His
third wife and our mother was Olive Amelia Kingston. She came from the Kingston
peninsula. She was teaching in the Latour School in West Saint John at the time of their
marriage. They were married in 1924 or
5. Lloyd was born in 1926, Cliff 1928, and Betty, 1931. .)(Jim died April 1946)
(Olive died Oct 1990).
First
Dad lived in the big Doctor’s House. He then moved his family to Uncle Fred’s
house, after Fred left. Mother found it very drafty, so the family moved back
to the Doctor’s 12 room home.
Lloyd
has only vague remembrances of living in Uncle Fred’s house. In one of those memories he was swinging on
the gate, and fell. He had a green stick leg fracture.
Lloyd
was always told that he was 5 days old when he had his first boat-ride, coming
home from Saint John’s Grace Hospital, Aug 25th, 1926. He uses that to explain
his lifelong love affair with boats. He has built and sailed most of his life.
In Wanderer VII, Bev, Jim, and Lloyd motored from Ottawa to Vancouver.
As
the number of sick immigrants decreased, the Island population got much
smaller. Dad was made steward. Being Steward, he was responsible for all the
buildings. Notably he had to keep them warm in the winter.
One
of his jobs was raising the Island Union Jack every morning and lowering in the
evening. Lloyd remembers trying to raise it once, and getting the lines very
badly twisted.
Dad
looked after the first class building and the third class building where the cook,
Miss O’Leary and the head nurse, Miss Delaney lived. The second class building
was shut down.
Dad
and Mr. Lauder played badminton in the Auxiliary Building. Mother thought the dust in that building
started Jim’s Asthma. The coke from the furnaces would trigger an attack. Dad
was not a well man.
We
cannot remember all the buildings Dad looked after. Only a few were being used.
There was the barn and the Laboratory. Two of the three cottage houses had
people living in them, the Belyea’s, and Mr.Robertson.
The Lauders lived about half a mile from us, down near the foghorn
Kid’s life on the island.
We
kids loved the Island. We could roam the rocks on the shore. There was hockey
on the pond. We used to slide down the hill beside the light house, where the
old black muzzle loading cannons were. We roamed the island at will. We fished
off the rocks, picked and cooked periwinkles, and watched the tides come and go
(av. 28 ft.) In season we picked Cranberries, rode our bikes all over, helped
Dad in his garden and looked after his chickens, watched him shoe the horse and
put new bearings in his boat’s engine. There was always something interesting
going on.
Only
once, we took dad’s row boat and got caught in the tide. At low and high water
the current past the Island was so great that we children couldn’t row against
it. We were not very old and not big enough. Lloyd beached the boat on the
sandbar. Dad got the boat back later.
We
went to Chance Harbour in the summer. We picked the low blueberry bushes. Dad
bought a summer cottage down there. We still have cousins and relatives in
Chance Harbour
Salucan
IV
We
remember the Quarantine Boat, the Salucan IV, with
her twin Grey Marine Gasoline Engines. The Captain was George Kinghorn. His Daughter was Sally. Averd
Johnson was deckhand. Ozzie Haines was the engineer.
The
Salucan IV was about 45 feet. It stayed over night in Saint John where the Fisheries and Custom
boats were. One we remember was named the Bayman. The Salucan came
and went twice a day to get people on and off the island. We went off most
Sundays to Central Baptist church. We went in for Sunday Service and afternoon
Sunday school. There were relatives we could visit. We stayed often with
mother’s cousin Lottie Fullerton in West Saint John. Dad built a 2 car garage
on her lot. He rented one of the garages to Mr. Lauder, and we kept our car in
the other.
The
first car Lloyd remembers was a ‘26 Essex, then we had a ‘29 Essex. After we
moved to the city we had a ‘38 Hudson.
Dad
loved fishing and boat building. He had a 25-foot salmon skiff with a 3-horse
power Mianus engine and he built an 18-foot rowboat
with Gunter sail rig and a centreboard. We often went
fishing for trout at Cowan’s Hole, on the way to Chance Harbour.
Dad’s
Salmon skiff
This
skiff was powered by a single cylinder Mianus
two-stroke marine engine. This engine
was always a delight and we used to watch it to see if Dad could prevent
disaster. It had a fairly big flywheel and a petcock at the top of the
cylinder. The engine was fired by a make-break device on the front of the
engine, activated by an induction coil and a 6-volt battery. So to start it,
you filled the petcock with gasoline primer. The flywheel had a handle which
came out to turn it to start. You cranked it around with the handle and hoped
that it fired and away you went. The problem was that sometimes it didn’t make
a full turn and backfired causing the wheel to go back while you still had your
hand on the crank. We don’t think Dad
ever had this happen but he told us that there were a few broken arms when
things didn’t go right.
Another
way to start was to fill the petcock, then suck the gas into the cylinder by
rocking the flywheel back and forth till you gave an extra hard pull backwards
until it fired, starting the engine in forward.
The
other problem was reversing the engine. Suppose you were bringing the skiff
into the dock. You needed to reverse the engine to slow it down and stop a
crash. The procedure was as follows; To stop the engine you took the wire off the ignition
coil. But you had to start it again in
the opposite direction. The way to do
this was to watch the engine slow down and eventually it got to the point where
the compression in the cylinder was large enough to stop the flywheel and start
it back in the opposite direction. When
this happened you put the wire back on the ignition coil and the engine fired in
reverse and you slowed the boat down until it glided neatly into the dock.
Don’t miss that fly back of the flywheel or else!!!!!!!!!!
Dad
had very bad Asthma. Working on the Island, he was capable. He was a determined
person. He went to Winnipeg for a Sinus operation that did not help.
We
often went hunting with our dad. He had a Winchester self-loader
rifle, calibre 35 SL. Also he had an Iver Johnson 12-gauge shotgun and an old 22 rifle. He
hunted for ducks, partridge, and he regularly shot one deer. Lloyd doesn’t know
how he ever killed a deer with that rifle. (It was like a pea shooter) He also hunted moose before the season was
closed.
We
remember using a Dad’s 22 on the island to shoot tin cans. Lloyd’s love of guns
came directly from Dad. He still has all 3 of Dad’s guns locked in his gun
chest.
Fred
Belyea, the contractor who repaired the Dock for the
island, used to come and play cribbage with Dad. Dad was very good. He taught
us to play crib, and we still do.
Dad
caught Lobster in Season. The island people shared the Lobsters dad caught.
Twice a week, during the lobster season, we had a lobster dinner. Mother
usually made a lobster thermidor. We kids would pick the remains of the lobster
to pieces to get at the smallest pieces of meat. Dad had been a commercial fisherman. He just
did Lobster on the Island. He kept his Lobster license active, but was not in
the business. It was a hobby and we all benefited.
Mr.
Lauder and Dad would put herring in a brine. Then they
would have the bait for the traps. There was never a commercial fisherman on
the Island. Fred Belyea’s son Anthony took over the
salmon weir on the sand bar, but he lived in the city.
Schooling
Because
Lloyd taught himself to read he skipped grade one and went into grade two.
Mother got us the Books of Knowledge at home and we were enthralled with the
stories and pictures. Reading is still one of our passions today.
Lloyd’s
first teacher (Grade 2) was Jean MacCallum. He was
always youngest in his class. Jean became Jean Sweet, and she became a well
known New Brunswick poet.
For
grade 3, Lloyd’s teacher was Miss Irene Macauley. She
married Harry Ennis.
For
Lloyd’s grade four & five, the teacher was Bill MacIntyre.
Lloyd thinks Bill must have taught both years. Bill went on to teach in the
Saint John High School. Then, he became the City Secretary. He was a very
clever man.
For
grade 6, his teacher was Arthur Edgar. Mr. Edgar went to University and became
a Medical doctor.
Lloyd’s
grade 7 & 8 teacher was G. Forbes Elliot. He went on to teach in Saint John
High School, and in 1941, Lloyd was in Forbes’ Grade 9 Class. Later Forbes was
President of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, and also he was the first
President of UNB, Saint John.
We
had good teachers. We were sent beginning teachers on the Island, but they were
the best. Sometimes there were only 5-6 kids. Miss MacCallum
probably had the most, because the Reids were still
on the island. They had 4 children, Thora, Neil,
Margery, and Eleanor.
Lloyd was in school with Thora and Neil.
High
School
Lloyd
went to High School in Saint John for Grades 9 to12 in 1940 and 43. Clifford
went to grades 6 and 7 in the old Victoria school. From the island we had to go
in to the city and return every evening. We had moved to Prince St. in Saint
John in 1941 and went to city schools from then on.
Mention
of the Reids:
Dr.
Reid was head of the Quarantine Department. He replaced Dr Rutherford. They
were already there when Mom moved to the island. Mrs. Reid was a friend of
mother’s. Dr Reid died of Prostate Cancer in Saint John.
The
power station
A
big single cylinder semi-diesel engine generator supplied the power for the
island. It was direct current. It only ran for a few hours in the evening. One of the big moments of our day was the
starting of the engine. The engine had a very large diameter flywheel and its
cylinder was higher than a man. It had a glow plug which had to be heated to
start it. So the procedure we watched
with delight almost every evening was: Turn a blow torch on the glow plug until
it was red hot. Then put a rod in holes
in the flywheel and lever it down until it was over top dead centre, close the
compressed air valve to start the engine turning and wait for the piston to
fire. As soon as it fired we kids would run outside and watch the exhaust. The engine would blow the most beautiful
smoke rings which started out about 2’ in diameter and come out slowly at first
and then faster and faster and smaller and smaller until they disappeared.
The
Water supply
One
of the other problems which occasionally came up was the water supply. The
water was piped from Saint John. Every
so often the pipe between the Island and the city would develop a leak. The result was no water. So our house had a big reserve tank in one of
the bedrooms to keep us from dying of thirst during these emergencies. Also our
house was heated by hot water heating and we had to have reserve water for the
system. When a leak happened the water department would send out a diver to
find and repair it. It was great fun for
us kids to see the diver in his helmet and air pump come to the Island and
prepare himself to go down and get us going again.
Some
other people:
Alice
Bisson’s father, Henry and Mr
Ennis were
called working staff on the island. They were older.
The
Belyeas: Burpee Belyea was in charge of the Light and Disinfecting Plant on the wharf.
The staff waited there for the boat. When the sick and other exposed passengers
came off the ships, they had to have their clothes go through the steam
disinfector. They themselves had a kerosene shower and a warm water rinse. That
was after the worst was over. It was the Irish immigration that filled the
island. Graves abound where these poor people died in this strange new land.
The
1st class building was for Officers. It was right next to our house. The third
and second class hospitals were intended for passengers. The auxiliary building
was reserved for ships crew. Also there was a special
building for Smallpox.
The
Belyea children were Shirley, Donald and Iris. Betty
was a lifetime friend of Iris.
Mr.
Robertson was a bachelor, and he worked as an assistant to Mr. Belyea.
The
Marine and Fisheries people looked after the fog horn and the light house. The
dock was looked after by the Federal Government, Department of Public Works.
The
Marine and Fisheries Boss was Harold Lauder. His oldest son was Harry, and the
younger was Charles. On the island everyone had coal or coke fired furnaces.
Charles and Harry threw a bottle of Kerosene into the furnace to make it burn
better, but it flashed back and burned Charles badly. Charles died shortly
after. This accident was one of the real tragedies of our stay on the Island.
Harry
and his wife Amy Pearl, were Lloyd’s friends in Ottawa, He is still in contact
with Amy. Harry died app. 35 year ago. They have two Children, Wendy and Kim.
Harold
Lauder’s assistants were the Lynches at least one of whom was in school, but
not in our time, followed by Mr. McKay. His son Donald was Lloyd’s friend. They came from
Penfield originally.
Grandpa
George and Grandma Drusilla Hargrove:
These
two spent their last days on the island. Grandma died while Fred and family
were still with us. Grandpa lived with Jim and family. Jim’s niece Atha Hepburn came home to nurse him. He died app 1934.
1941
The
army came to the island in 1939. In 1941 we moved to Prince Street. The time of
the small close community was over. Our cousin, Murray Thompson, was on the
island during the war. Dad took an ICS correspondence course to acquire his
papers for Stationary Engineering, to prepare us for life after the Island.
Dad, and Mr. Belyea, and Mr. Allen, got new jobs in
the boiler room in the Lower Veteran’s Hospital.
Lloyd’s
Love of Radio
When
the army came, there was a Sergeant who ran the Army’s Signal’s Building. Lloyd
was a constant visitor. He fell in love with radio. He pursued that passion to
UNB and earned an engineering degree in Communications, which later grew to
computers. He was a Ham Radio member in Ottawa before he married Beverley
Morris. (52 year ago). In Surrey today, he is back to being active in the
Surrey Amateur Radio Club and also in the Surrey Emergency Amateur Radio
Service, call letters, VE7JLH.
Leaving
Partridge Island:
All
the Quarantine civilians were moved off the island in 1941. The only ones who
stayed were the Lighthouse keeper and his assistant. The army took over, and
our time was up.
Memories
We
have island pictures on the walls in our homes. On Lloyd’s visit in 1996, he
took the Digby Ferry back to Saint John. He asked to go
to the bridge and they called him in time to see his old home, Partridge
Island. It sure brought back memories.
We
both believe Partridge Island shaped our lives. It was a good place to grow up.
J. Lloyd Hargrove and Clifford K. Hargrove.
Oct
2008
FIN
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Harry MacDonald
2 Jackstraw Lane
Gananoque, ON K7L 2V4
6133828607