Events of My Life – memoirs of Alfred McDonald

Friday 23 February 2007

The following was recorded by Marian Kay (McDonald) when she was a teenager.

My old home in Iroquois was built of stone. There used to be a back kitchen attached to stone building and it used to be covered with hops. They used the hops in those days for yeast to bake bread. My Grandfather ran the butcher shop. The old barn we tore down had the windlass in it where they killed the cattle and strung them up when they killed. People came to buy their meat there. My grandfather died when he was about 60 years old, and my Grandmother lived to be 82 years old. I never saw my Grandfather, but remember my Grandmother.

Grandfather was drowned coming home from Cardinal where he had been visiting his sister, Margaret Brennan, over the Christmas holidays. As he hadn’t attended mass at the Catholic Church, the Priest refused to perform funeral services. The Church of England stepped in and performed them. From that day on the McDonalds have been Protestants. He left four children to mourn – Sarah, Bridget, Maria, and James. He left a brother Patrick McDonald who lived in Odgensburg.

James, my father, married Marianne Martin of Pittson Corners, and had three living children. James, Alfred and Mae were their names.

When I was about seven years old, my Dad bought me my first pair of skates, They cost about 40 cents, but in those days that was a lot of money. There was a plate in the heel of my shoe and a strap across my toes. Well, I got down as far as Becksteads when I stepped on a stone and the skate broke in half. That finished me.

I came very near to being drowned, when a boy. There used to be iron rods under Beach’ s Mill and we used to jump across them. Well, I missed the rods and there was a swift current there. As I was being carried out into the river, Bill Doran who ran the store there saw people making a fuss. He ran and dove in and brought me up. I sure was a goner and I guess I owe my life to him.

When I was about 12 or 14 years old, there used to be a passenger boat that ran from Waddington to Odgensburg. It was owned and run by Captain Hatch. It ran up the outside and called at all the Islands. Lotus Island across from Cardinal had 25 or 30 houses on it. The fare was 50 cents and it got you home about 5 o’clock in time for supper. The boat was called Cresco. This boat burnt at Waddington some time later. He then bought the Tug Boat “Mary” from Larkin and Sangster. He reconverted it into a passenger boat and ran excursions for the Sunday School up to Brockville and Morristown. Mr Hatch
died and that was the end of the boat trips.

I left home when I was 18 years old to play hockey in Smiths Falls. I stayed there two years, then went to Brockville for one year. The next two years I played in Pittsburg then I went to Calumet, Michigan, and played there two years, then back to Pittsburg for another year. From Pittsburg I went to Brantford and played there three years. I played my last year in Sydney and won the cup [this would be the Maritime Professional Hockey League Crosby Cup], then played off against the Quebec Bull Dogs for the Stanley Cup. That was my last year in hockey.

I met my first wife, Julia Gilligan, in Smiths Falls, and when I went to Pittsburg, I sent for her to come to Brantford as her brother, sister and mother were living there. We had two boys — one called Garnet and the other Ernie. One summer when I was up in Muskoka Lakes working, little Garnet took a sun stroke and he never got over it. My wife died about a year later and I always blamed it on taking her to Niagara Falls as I was playing baseball there, and there is always a wet damp fog.

Alfred on left, and son, Ernie in middle. Man on right is unknown. Brantford. Date unknown.

After Julia’s death, my mother came to Brantford for the funeral. We brought little Ernie with us home to Iroquois. My Dad was working in Ottawa, so I went there and worked with him. We boarded with a woman called McGuirl. They had a boy called Allie. He would tell me about a nice girl he had he wanted me to meet. Well there was a masquerade and I borrowed some women’s clothes and dressed up and went to the masquerade. I won a pair of gold cuff links for first prize. Essie [Esther Lancaster] was dressed as a nurse and also won a prize. She invited me down to her house and we started going together. I guess it was love at first sight and we were married in three month’s time.

Sydney Millionaires in 1913. Alfred McDonald was team captain – center of top row.

That winter, we went to Sydney. I was coach and played defence and we won the cup of that league [Maritime Professional Hockey League – Crosby Cup – Feb. 1913 – see above photo – click on it for a larger view]. We went to Quebec to play for the Stanley cup and were beaten. That was my last game. I was 36 years of age and Essie was carrying Don, our first baby.

We came home from Sydney with the full intention of going to California but Essie’s father persuaded us to stay in Ottawa by giving us a lot. We built our first house — the Conley family live there now. Donald and George were born.

In 1917 we moved to Danforth Avenue in Toronto where we built a home with the money from the sale of the Conley house. Jimmy was born, four months previous Georgie took polio. In those days they did not take them to the hospital or even quarantine them. We took him to the Sick Children’s hospital where they showed us what exercises to give him. After Jimmy was born we moved to West Hill where Bobbie, Lionel, and Mary were born.

Mother McDonald was ill and Dad asked us to come home to Iroquois. We packed up our belongings, rented our house and took the train home. We lived in a little home (Service’s) near the Public School. Dad started to work on the locks. Elinor, Bill, Marian & Bert were born. Mother died in 1934. Dad had died in 1926. We moved into the old home.

When I played hockey in Brantford, the team was managed by a fellow called Westbrook he had a partner called Hackett. They were the only ones who rode a bicycle with the head to head balancing act. They travelled with the Ringling Bros Circus. We played a game in Guelph and coming home the next morning the train ran off the track. Four or five got cut up with glass and bruised. Anyway Westbrook had three of the players in the hospital and he had them bandaged from head to foot, all you could see was their eyes, and they were groaning and could hardly talk.

I played hockey. Baseball and Lacrosse. About Lacrosse – I played with a Toronto team called the Ontarios, it was run by a man called Mr. S, and Mr. W was the manager. We played over at the Island. I got 30 dollars a week which was very good money in those days. The last two weeks Mr. S beat us out of our pay and we never got anything for it. Mr. W was refereeing hockey games in the winter and I had my revenge on him. I shot the puck at him every chance I got and believe me he got hit lots. A goal never meant anything to me if I could hit him with that puck. This took place when I was married to Julia and we didn’t have any children then.

Iroquois had a thirty piece silver band called the Sherman House Band. This band was started by a man called Tom Sherman. He started a Tailor Shop in the store now occupied by Davidson Drugstore. He made Dress Suits (black) for each individual in the band, also Plug hats. Tom Sherman was a fine looking man and was a striking figure when he led the band and swung the big silver baton. He was also the catcher on the baseball team We had a covered rink built north of the Methodist Church and it was lit by gas. We had teams from Ottawa come out and they ran a special train. The train would stop at the rink and let the people off and after the game there was a supper and a dance at the town hall. We had a good hockey team, beat
Cornwall and played Queen’s University off for the cup. When we played them in Kingston, we drove to the rink from the hotel in a glass covered sleigh. The roads ware covered with ice and the sleigh got sliding down a hill and hit a pole. Our boys got cut up with the broken glass, the game was delayed quite awhile but the Doctor patched them up. Believe me, they were a sorry sight when we began playing. We got beat, but no wonder, that was the best team we ever had in Iroquois. The players were: Art Sangster – Goal; McRobie & McDonald – Defence; Coulter – Centre; Hall-Rover Donnelly – wing; Strader – wing.

My father was caretaker of the rink in Iroquois years ago. It burned down a few years ago. Dad was Chief of Police and caretaker of the town of Iroquois for over thirty years. He was born in Iroquois and lived there at the old homestead all his life. Mother had the name of the greatest coffee maker Iroquois ever had. She made the coffee for all the dances and church suppers in the town hall up until she died. The old locks are there yet and mostly all barges were on the river then. There were tug boats by the name of Thompson, Hiram, A. Walker, the Nellie Glide and the Bronson. We had side wheelers that towed rafts of logs down the river. On Saturday night at twelve o’clock, the locks closed until Sunday night at twelve. It was nothing to see eight and ten barges tied up below the canal. Hiram Strader and John Black were the lock men and Kenny Stamp was Lock Master. There was only one shift.

Mr. Abbott built the Westley Hare House. He had two(?) boys, Henry and Fred and Lou. Henry and a fellow by the name of Tom McGimm started a store right up in the wilderness of Quebec, now called Calabogie and the old sign is still there yet “Abbott and McGimm General Merchants”.

This is the second cottage, built after the first cottage was torn down

When I built our first cottage, I bought the horse shed from Malon Beach for $50.00. The cottage was built with bedrooms upstairs. The bottom floor was left to run our boat in. I bought an inboard motor boat from a Mr. Brouse in Brockville. It was 27 ft. long and we used to run it under the cottage, then the water went down in the river and we had to keep in tied up down by the old locks. Our next boat was also run with a Grey motor and someone stole it and I never found it. We tore down the first cottage and built the present cottage and have had many happy days there.

How the weather has changed! I left to play hockey in Calumet, Michigan, on the first day of December, and the season ended on March the 15th. All these games were played on natural ice except Pittsburg – they had artificial ice. Calumet was as far north as you could go in those days, it was a great mining country. Copper and Silver. There was five mines within a radius of 8 miles. They had street cars running, the railroad ran as far as Houghton and Calumet was 15 miles from Houghton. When the mines opened, the shares sold for 10 cents a share and when I left, the shares sold for over $100.00. There were about 50 old timers had their club rooms and we were welcome to the club where there was a pool and billiard table, bowling alleys and where we could play cards for fun. That was the one restriction — they never allowed gambling in the club. Every week we had a free supper in the club room. Each member had a ball seat for the games. They never depended on gate receipts to keep the team going – money was no object. I made hockey sticks in Calumet, Pittsburg, Toronto, New York, Brantford, and also in Ottawa. I did this as a side line and I was always kept busy. As I said before, my last game was against the Quebec Bull Dogs who were the Stanley Cup winners [in 1913].

One time there was a big rough cast building just below where Johnnie Johnston has his cottage. There used to be two tall pine trees on the property. A. U.S. veteran called Jim Corey came over from the states. He was a painter and decorator and had only one arm but he could sure hang paper. He had a wife and a son called Milt and played third base for our ball team. They had a tame crow and this crow had a nest up in one of the Pine trees. The nest was getting bigger all the time but no one saw any young crows come out of it so they decided to investigate. Now the people on the Point were missing knives, spoons and forks and were wondering where they were disappearing to. One day the boys got two long ladders and tied them together and went up to look at this nest. Well the nest was full of knives, forks, spoons and anything shiny. That crow would watch people and when their backs were turned, would fly in and steal some of tha silverware. You can bet people kept their doors and windows shut after that.

The Iroquois Hockey Team was called the Iroquois Indians and we have heard people say they were pretty good looking.

I played baseball on the american side of Niagara falls. One day a fellow asked me if I ever done any painting, so I told him yes I had. Well he says they want a man at the Shredded Wheat Plant, he says this will get you some extra money on the side. I was getting $15.00 playing base ball every week and though it isn’t very much now, I boarded at one of the better class hotels for $3.50 a week, the pay wasn’t bad. Well I started on the job and got 75 cents an hour. The plant fed the employees their lunch each day. Well, one day I was working on a window right at the kitchen when a girl stuck her head out the window and started talking to me. She asked me where I came from and I said you wouldn’t know if I told you. “Well,” she says, “I might.” I told her I was born in a little town called Iroquois, and that’s in Canada. She stood there for a minute and then said, “Would you believe me if I told you I was born there also?” She said her name was Jane Skelton but not to say
anything about her family to any one. I wouldn’t say anything even now, but I’ve often thought of the people I meet.

Background information:

* Sydney Millionaires page from Lloyd MacDonald’s website.

* Maritime Professional Hockey League.

* Stanley Cup history page.
From this page, the scores for the Stanley Cup Challenge for 1913:
March 8, 1913 — Quebec Bulldogs 14 – Sydney Millionaires 3
March 10, 1913 — Quebec Bulldogs 6 – Sydney Millionaires 2
Quebec wins series 2-0

* Quebec Bulldogs – a few brief notes on the 1913 game against the Sydney Millionaires.

* Page on Ken Randall, one of Alfred McDonald’s team mates from the 1913 Sydney Millionaires.