Some other Elite Richmondites

Mr. Bieber.

In a 1911 letter, Mr. Bieber has a car accident and his wife is seriously injured. It’s an interesting letter (Look up CAR ACCIDENT on this blog ) in that cars were a new phenomenon, but speeding and wreckless driving was already invented…As I wrote in that post, 14 miles an hour was the speed limit in 1910 in Quebec, in the Country. But the roads were not terrific and the ET was very hilly to boot, so driving a car was both thrilling and dangerous.

I found a Who’s Who for E.T. (post war or during the war) which included a blurb on Mr. Bieber, who lived near the Nicholsons in the fancy part of Richmond, Quebec.

Mr. Bieber, (I wonder if he is an ancestor of Justin Bieber, who is also Canadian)was born in England and came to Canada and was educated at Bishop’s College, Lennoxville and then worked for the Edison General Electric Company in Sherbrooke (how interesting) then went over the the Molson’s Bank (travelled around to Brockville, Victoriaville, etc) and then came to Richmond as the Manager of the Molson’s Bank there. He married and Edith Henry and named one of his sons Earnest Tobin, which makes you think he was good friends with E.W. Tobin…

Marcus George Crombie also has a listing. The Nicholson’s owed their mortgage to him and I believe he moved into the Skinner’s house when they moved out West- and he did a vast renovation.

Crombie was a lumber and mill owner, born in Melbourne. Apparently he took part in the Fenian Raids. He had been Mayor of Melbourne and Brompton Gore and Kingsbury (and I believe he ran for the Conservatives at one point but then went back to Liberals… if a letter I have from 1920 is correct.

He’s Richmond Liberal Association VP in war time Who’s Who.

John McMorine is also in the book. Listed as a merchant and owner of one of the largest retail firms of the area. He was also Mayor or Richmond for four terms in and around 1900 and a big player in the Masons, where he was a member of “ancient Scottish rite.”

And other “player” in Tighsolas listed is George Alexander. In 1912, he sells an insurance policy to Herbert which causes all kinds of financial woes. Herbert takes no responsiblity claiming he was tricked into buying it, but it is likely just an excuse. That was Herbert.

George Alexander lived on College Street (with the fanciest houses) and his was one of only two area homes that had a live in maid in 1911, according to the 1911 Census.

He too is of Scotch heritage and opened his insurance business in 1897, which spread country wide, according to the blurb. Alexander is civic minded and very interested in “the good roads movement” and immigration.

Just to say, the Nicholsons thought themselves part of the elite of Richmond, at least on the Anglo Side.

On one hand, that was good, as it gave them connections but on the other hand it must have been hard, as they had NO MONEY.

When Norman died in 1922, his obit in the Richmond Times Guardian called him “one of the most respected persons of this place.”

I wonder who wrote that line.

The Nicholson Family Saga: Letter 5: Fire!

June 21, 1911

Tighsolas
Richmond Quebec

Dear Father,

Just a few lines to give you a little of the news. The station was burned to the ground this afternoon ! It started about half past four. Flora went down to see it with Paul. And at six Dr. Skinner took Mrs. S, Mother,Flora and myself down in the car. All that is left are the tall chimneys so I guess we shall have a new station at last.

I have been up for breakfast and every morning since I came home. That is quite a record, don’t you think. Monday we had a large washing, got up early and had it all finished and out at a quarter to eleven. And finished the ironing today. We are still busy with the sewing.

Marion’s school (Royal Arthur in Little Burgundy) finishes today so she will be home soon. I saw by the paper last night that Isabel McCoy (teacher and family friend) was to be married July 12th.

I had a splendid trip home to Montreal with the Skinners. It was a beautiful day going out. I will name the places we passed through so you will know the country we passed through. Melbourne, Flodden, Racine, Sawyerville, Warden, Waterloo, Granby, Abbotsford, St Caesar, Rougemont, Marieville, Chambly, Longueil, St. Lambert, Pointe St Charles. In Montreal, we went shopping in the morning,to the theatre in the afternoon and to tea at Dr.Cleveland’s. Then Dr. Skinner took us for a ride, from 8 to 10 at night.It is beautiful riding on paved streets.

Don’t you think I was a very fortunate girl to have such a trip? Tomorrow the 22nd I am going to North Hatley with the Skinners. Will be back that evening. They are very kind to us.

Flora is feeling better since the exams are passed. (Results would be posted in the local paper later on.)

Yvonne Villard (daughter of Principal Paul Villard of Ecole Methodiste) is coming out next week for a few days. Miss Wilson’s barn is not yet finished, Walker is still working. They have the foundation very well along at the Montgomery’s.

Another Bryant preached last Sunday evening. He was through the General Assembly. I cannot think of any more news so will close. Hope you are well and that the fly season will soon pass.

We are all well. Write soon.

Flora got your letter With much love, Your affectionate Edith

….Richmond exists because of the Grant Trunk Railway, which in 1910 was still one of the two major employers in the town. Richmond was a railway hub, poised between Quebec City and Portland, Maine.

Norman Nicholson used the GTR to get his loads of hemlock bark to the tanning businesses in New England (mostly New Hampshire) and in Montreal, all by the Lachine Canal, near Marion’s Royal Arthur School. He left his reciept books behind showing that a great deal of money was flowing, at least in the 1880′s, through his bark business.

This is the year they get a big new station, which stills stands (vacant) today. Richmond was already in decline in 1910 (as the letters clearly reveal) but by the 1930′s the railroad had little business.

According to the 1911 census, Mademoiselle Villard lives with her parents at 1095 Greene, in Westmount, the same address Edith stays at during the school year.

It is likely the site of Ecole Methodiste. Today, 1095 Greene is a site of a more modern post war school.

Edith says she enjoys every minute of a 6 and 3/4 hour drive over 94 miles. But if you crunch the numbers, it is clear that the Skinner’s automobile went an average of 14 miles an hour to make that trip.(15 miles an hour was the speed limit in the country, 8 miles an hour in the city). If you consider that the E.T. is very hilly, the drive was probably more fun than the roller-coaster at Dominion Park, the amusement park opened in 1906, on Notre Dame on the eastern side of the island. Imagine how fast the car went down the hills!

Straight from the Impressario’s Mouth

The Ouimetoscope. 1000 people at the cinema. Full house so its probably Sunday. Oh my!

In my continuing quest to see if there exists any silent film footage of 1910 Montreal, I stumbled upon a gem of a resourse, an 1965 interview (on the Radio Canada archives) with Earnest Ouimet!

You see, on another site, Silent Film Quebec, it is mentioned that this Mr. Ouimet, who I ‘ve blogged about before in my essays on early film in Montreal, not only owned the fanciest motion picture house in town, he also made films!!

He started shooting in 1908 and first filmed his own family, then his surroundings and then special events like the 1908 Quebec Tercentenary and the 1910 Eucharist Congress. (The only YouTube footage of early Montreal is a Gaumont Newsreel clip of the Congress parade.)Illness kept him from filming between 1912 and 1915, but then he continued. (That’s just as more films were being made for the War effort.)

Was some of his footage around, I wondered.

Well, no. That interview of Radio Canada starts out by showing some footage from the thirties or forties of Ouimet’s family and says that that’s the earliest surviving footage.

Well, at least the interview is illuminating. As he sits in his chair, an 88 year old man, Ouimet talks about how he spent his first earnings: on a car, (but of course) and a new kitchen set (for the legs slid on the floor) and on making the large Vaudeville stage at the Ouimetiscope (the first smaller one) smaller. They didn’t need a large one. He showed three films a night and had a singer between the films.

Prices. 35 cents for the loge. 25 for the orchestra and cheaper for the poulerie or something, cheap seats. (More expensive than the Nickel, which cost “a nickel.”)
What kind of people came to your theatre? asks the reporter. Oh, nice ones. Convent girls very Thursday afternoon…With the nuns, asks the reporter. No, school was out, Ouimet replies.

How many seats in the new theatre, built 1906, on Ste. Catherine?
1000
Always filled.
Well, certainly on Sunday. Standing room only. (OOO) (They discuss the Lord Day’s Law a bit.)

Did you have couples kissing in the theatre, like today?

No… We had ushers patroling the place and no man arriving alone was allowed to sit near a woman.. (Editor: That doesn’t answer the question, really, does it.)

Great interview….Now, I tracked down a book written in 1999 about the Quebec Tercentary (which I have blogged about) and the author claims he did track down a few newsreels of the events at that celebration. This book, The Art of Nation Building, which I will have to track down, describes how grand the celebration was and how it has been erased from the history books. My point exactly, in Flo in the City, my book about a girl coming of age in the pivotal 1910 era based on the letters of http://www.tighsolas.ca/
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