Arthur 'Babe' Therriault of Chapleau pioneer family follows career as a boxer starting at age 13 with a win over Stan Deluce

Arthur 'Babe' Therriault, a member of one of the first families to settle in Chapleau after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway shares his life and times in a really fascinating book that takes us from his career as a boxer, to the navy in World War II, to work in Chapleau and on to other places, and now retirement.

Babe, as he was known to everyone in Chapleau, is the son of  Steve and Gertrude (Stapley) Therriault, and the grandson of Majorique Therriault who arrived in the community in 1885. 

His grandfather secured work in the shops.

In 1886, his grandfather brought his wife Angelina Morin and children "to the newly established little village, living in one of the vacant boxcars provided by the CPR to temporarily house their employees."

Angelina died in 1891, and Majorique met Margaret Sabourin who had come to Chapleau to work as a pastry cook in the Queens Hotel. They married and she was Babe's grandmother.

I received a copy of "The Life and Times of Babe Therriault" written by Babe,recently from Brenda and David May. Brenda is Babe's daughter and David, who many will recall was an outstanding hockey player in Chapleau, the son of Roy and Carmen May. 

This week I am going to share some highlights from Babe's boxing career, and in another column more of his life and times that has been a pleasure to read this summer. Thanks Brenda and Dave.

Born on November 11. 1923. Babe celebrates his 90th birthday this year..

He started his boxing career when he was 13 at 115 pounds. "One of the boys I remember boxing was Stan Deluce who I defeated. Stan Deluce later founded White River Air Services and other airline services.

"There was also a guy from Localsh who came to Chapleau to fight and I again defeated him. Then when I was still in school, the police chief came in the morning to get me to go to Sudbury to fight because he had some position in the boxing club. ... ther best coach was a Scottish man by the name of Jack Brough who also worked at the CPR as a boiler maker. He was one great guy and i would have walked through hell or high water for him.

"I was the last one picked to go to Sudbury. The other boys were Freddy Welch, Ken Crowhurst, Cecil McAdam and I think Harvey Glabb was also there.

Babe won his first fight but in the championship round he faced Cecil Fielding getting his first lesson in losing. However, he notes that Fielding ended up owning Fielding Lumber Company and became a millionaire, "so I don't think I did any harm to him! Anyway I got a medal for all my trouble."

The next year Fielding came to Chapleau and knocked Babe out in the first round. "Boy was my mother ever frightened. She came rushing to the basement in the town hall right into the kitchen which we were using as a dressing room. I was quite embarrassed but I was OK and lived to fight another day".

By the time he was 15, Babe won his first title as the Sudbury district lightweight defeating  Freddie O'Hagen. A news report said: "Therriault registered four knockdowns before he could find and opening for that lethal punch that spelled doom for the popular O'Hagen. Trainer Murphy was so excited that when his boy scored the final knockout, he was counting with the referee to make sure it was really a victory."

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In 1941 his parents arranged for him to go to Fort William and he got a free ride on a passenger train with Mr. Bob Faught as the conductor. However, in due course Babe enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy as a Stoker Second Class. He did some boxing while in the navy.

After the end of World War II, Babe returned to boxing heading to Toronto from Chapleau to see Jack Allen, the top promoter. He was pretty successful amateur boxer fighting in various cities including some in the United States.

Here is part of a story by boxing writer Claude Kewley about one of Babe's fights at Maple Leaf Gardens.

"In Art Therriault... promoter Deacon Allen at Maple Leaf Gardens introduced the possessor of the deadliest right cross seen in local cauliflower circles in several years. It might be added, Therriault is the only fighter the writer has seen in more than two years here who knows how to use his right and when to use it.

"Down for a nine count and apparently on the ice for keeps in the second, Therriault arose to score a sensational clean-cut third round win over New Toronto's hardpunching welterweight Johnny Wilson." More than 5,000 people were at the Gardens.

Babe's boxing career ended following a fight in Buffalo in which he broke his right hand, losing it in a split decision. I have only tried to capture some of the highlights.

He returned to Chapleau where the life and times of Arthur 'Babe' Therriault continued, including his marriage to Victoria 'Vicky' Mallek. More to come about Babe in a later column. My sincere thanks to Brenda, David and Babe for sharing. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

ARTHUR GROUT OF SMITH AND CHAPPLE IMPROVED QUALITY OF LIFE OF CHAPLEAU IN MANY AREAS

Grace and Arthur Grout

There I was, sitting in the Starbucks of the new Target store in Cranbrook, chuckling to myself and thinking about Arthur Grout, of Chapleau.

Mr. Grout, one of Chapleau's best known citizens, and as Dr. Bill Pellow, writing in Chapleau Trails noted, he had "his fingers in the pie, many pies and sometimes both feet in every aspect of Chapleau's existence" at one time.

But, it was one of the Target managers, they call them "team leaders" that had captured my attention with his clipboard. In fact, it seems like all the team leaders scurry around the store with their clipboards.

Out of the mothballs of memory, I saw Mr. Grout, president of Smith and Chapple Ltd., never without a clutch of papers or a clipboard as he seemed to be always in a hurry, going somewhere, but never failing to stop to talk with a customer.

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE!!!

When I got home I went to Bill's piece about Mr. Grout, and he too, had taken note of the clipboard. "Remember him racing around from one department to another with his clipboard, jotting down memos to refresh his memory and putting order into a very busy day..."

In fact, when I was going to high school and university, and working part-time at Smith and Chapple, Mr. Grout once confided in me that if I wanted to be successful in business, always carry a bunch of papers -- looked impressive to people.

No way that all these years later, Target would have received advice from Mr. Groutto include in its team leader training program, that all carry clipboards, but there you have it, in more ways than one, A.J. "Art" Grout was ahead of the curve.

As a Smith and Chapple alumnus, I worked in the men's wear, furniture, grocery and garage, as well as at Mid North News and CHAP TV in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Mr. Grout started as a messenger boy at the store, and in 1930 with his business partner D.O. Payette, took it over with Mr. Payette as president.

When the end of an era came for Smith and Chapple Ltd. on April 30, 1987, although Mr. Grout had retired in 1962, Bill Payette, commented in an article, "My father was a great businessman and he and Art got along very well." Bill had joined the store in 1941.

In the 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression, the Chapleau Winter Carnival was founded with Mr. Payette, the catalyst with meetings in his office, but Mr. Grout was more the public face as carnival chairman.

Also, in 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were visiting Canada and the Royal Train would be passing through Chapleau. Mr. Grout and Earle Sootheran, manager of the jewelry department chartered a plane for a fishing excursion to the Goose River. The plan was to catch some speckled trout to present to their majesties.

It worked. The fish were accepted and Mr. Grout received a letter of appreciation from the Royal couple.

Mr. Grout took over the business in 1949 when Mr. Payette retired, and during the 1950s the physical face of Chapleau changed. Mr. Grout expanded the store to "the other side of Main Street" where CPR houses had been, and is now Collins Home Hardware. He established a real estate business and built houses at the end of Monk Street as well as several on King Street primarily to house CPR employees as the diesel shop was established.

When oldtimers, like me now, talk about major activities we remember from Chapleau, two are always recalled -- the draws at Christmas held at Smith and Chapple and Dr. G.E. Young's Christmas display.

After Mr. Grout established Mid North News and CHAP TV, I got my start in journalism writing a Chapleau High School column with Joy (Evans) Heft and hosting a television program with Phyllis Chrusoskie. Imagine, a small place like Chapleau, had a television station in the 1950s.  In fact it had two competing cable television companies after Dr. Young established one too.

In  a 1958 store advertisement in Mid North News, I counted over 120 employees of the company, making it a very large employer in Chapleau.

Although business was always on his mind, Mr. Grout was also very much involved in the community and the province. In Chapleau, he was active in St. John's Anglican Church, the chamber of commerce, the hospital board, and served as a township councillor as well as reeve for short time -- and that is likely only a partial list. He was also on the committee that built the Chapleau Memorial Arena on Lorne Street.

He was also a member of the boards of the Northern Ontario Development Corporation, Northeastern Associated Chambers of Commerce and the Northern Tourist Outfitters Association.

Also active in the Chapleau Rotary Club, he commissioned Frank Barberio to build the Rotary Table depicting wood from every country in the world that has Rotary. It is now located in the civic centre.

A major part of Mr. Grout's legacy to Chapleau occurred in 1964 when he arranged to purchase CPR Engine 5433, and bring it to Chapleau to be placed in the park by the station. The engine was moved to its present location by laying a special track from the shops to the park with J.M 'Bud' Park as the engineer of 5433, and Earle Freeborn on the engine pushing it to its new home.

Mr. Grout also headed the Chapleau Centennial Committee which built the centennial museum, now called the heritage musuem which I understand has now been closed for more than a year.

After he retired from Smith and Chapple in 1965, when Gene Bernier and Robert Warren took it over, he continued to promote Chapleau. In 1978 at the official openings of the Chapleau Civic Centre, Chapleau Recreation Centre and Cedar Grove Lodge in June, he seemed to be everywhere and made a donation of paintings to Cedar Grove. He also loaned his Cadillac to transport dignitaries.

For many years, Mr. Grout's first wife Nettie worked with him at the store. After she died, he married Grace Hartman who had been a councillor and mayor of Sudbury.

For sure, Mr. Grout could be controversial, and not always appreciated. It goes with the territory when you are as active as he was in the life and times of Chapleau, but he made a difference that improved the quality of life for us in the community's boom years. Mr Grout died in 1980. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Chapleau Cree First Nation seeks help with names in St. John's Indian Residential School Graveyard restoration project

Donald and Ian White at Fox Lake Memorial Service

As Chapleau Cree First Nation continues the process of restoring the St. John’s Indian Residential School Graveyard beside the Blue Heron Inn at Chapleau, assistance is needed in confirming the names of all those who are buried there.

Donna Byce, the economic development officer of CCFN contacted me asking if I may have information that may help, but although I am aware of the graveyard and was on Chapleau council when Tom Corston, now bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Moosonee, headed a restoration project in 1973, I do not know  the names of students who attended the school..

However, after a delightful telephone chat with Donna, I told her I would help spread the word and hopefully someone will come forward who is more familiar with the school and its students from when it opened in 1921 until its closure in 1948.

Donna explained: "Currently we have a hand drawn map with most of the names of the deceased, I was wondering if you would happen to have any information on this as it is difficult to read the hand writing and we would like to have all the names put on a commemoration cairn."

She added that they have been working at this project for the past two months removing brush, raking, identifying graves and replacing old grave markers.

Although restoration of the Residential School burial ground located on the outskirts of Chapleau within the area of Chapleau Ojibwe First Nation is one of the project goals,  "Raising awareness and educating everyone on the history of Residential Schools and securing a dignified resting place for the deceased is the main goal.  A Commemorative Plaque will be created and displayed for visitors."

On August 16, a day before the CCFN Traditional Gathering and Pow-Wow is held on August 17 and 18,  "Ceremonies... for the welfare of our elders and families affected by Residential Schools and  to pay respect to the former Indian Residential School survivors and those who have passed" will be held.

While chatting with Donna, I could not help but ask her if she would extend my warmest regards to folks in Chapleau, but my list kept getting longer and longer, so I will say "HI" to everyone there, with special thoughts to my First Nation friends as they hold ceremonies in connection with the residential school and participate in their traditional gathering and pow-wow.

Thank you Donna for the kind invitation to attend, but I will be unable to do so this year.

 If anyone can assist with the names, please contact Donna at e-mail: ccfn.edo@chapleaucree.ca

After receiving the email from Donna and chatting with her on the telephone, I thought about an email, among many that I have received from Ian White, whose older brother Donald lives on the Fox Lake reserve. Donald was one of the 1932 adventurers who made the canoe trip from Chapleau via Missanabie to Moose Factory.

Ian shares an anecdote regarding my mother, Muriel E. (Hunt) Morris, my grandmother, Edythe Hunt, and him which took place shortly after he was born in 1920.

Ian relates that his family lived in a flatroofed cottage at the corner of Grey and Birch streets where eventually Henry Pellow built a log house.

"When i was about four months old for some unknown reason I stopped taking food. This lasted for many days and caused my mother much anxiety. At wits end and very discouraged about her baby she decided to take me out into the cool Autumn air hoping it would create an appetite.

"While pushing the carriage and crying at the same time two little girls who were out walking and munching on oatmeal cookies stopped and asked why she was crying. So she explained what the cause was. One of the little girls asked if she could give the baby some of her cookie. My mother consented and the youngest girl (your mother) put a piece of her cookie in my mouth. The taste must have been good because it was the first piece of nourishment I had for many days and apparently I finished the rest of the cookie.

"My mother told me this story many times and insisted your mum saved my life because I started eating after that..." My mother would have been about nine years old at the time

Ian added that for about six years of the Great Depression he had an arrangement with my grandmother to bring her two rabbits every second week during the Winter for which she paid him 50 cents.

Although my father, Jim Morris was older than Ian, closer to Donald's age, they knew each other through the Youth Bible Class at St. John's Anglican Church. Ian told me that when he was in Toronto waiting to leave for overseas during World War II, my parents came to visit with him. At the time  my Dad was a Flying Instructor with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan after having enlisted in the RCAF. Donald also served in the Canadian forces in World War II.

Every so often, I receive an email about something or other that I have written, and the person comments, referring to me, "You can take the boy out of Chapleau, but you can't take Chapleau out of the boy." As I write I have lived in British Columbia 24 years now, but I will do what I can to help with the Chapleau Cree First Nation project to restore the residential school graveyard.

And as Ian White tells us in his anecdotes, Chapleau friendships last a long, long time. My email is mj.morris@live.ca