John 'Mac' McClellan liked partridge so Charlie Evans inherited .22 rifle

Louise Cooper, a member of the Nixon family of Chapleau sent out a request I made for stories about John McClellan, teacher and principal at Chapleau High School for 30 years.


Here is the story of Charlie Evans, "Mac', the game preserve, and the .22!

Her request was relayed  to Charlie Evans.  Louise wrote that Charlie grew up in Chapleau and went to CHS from 1939 to 1943.  He said that the boys were encouraged to leave high school and go to work on the railway because they were in need of workers and he did work for the CPR for a short time, working for your grandfather Harry Morris.  But he didn't particularly like railroading so he enlisted in the RCAF along with Elwood Glabb.  He told me amusing stories of his leave in Edinburgh where Elwood tracked him down.

Charlie is 88 years old, and he returned Louise's  call  after spending the day with Seniors' Canoe Club.  They had driven to Bobcaygeon from Oshawa and had canoed on a river in that area.

She spent 45 minutes on the phone with Charlie to get his story and "I'm going to try to put it into his words.  I hope I've got the gun vocabulary right!"


By Charlie Evans as told to Louise Cooper

Mac taught us Science.  I played the bass drum in his Cadet Corps and he gave us target shooting lessons with his .22.  The government supplied him with .22 long-rifle bullets which we used.

Mac lived about a block away from my home and there was a lane beside his house which led to my father's boathouse.  I used to walk down there to cross over to the game preserve where I hunted partridge.  (The game preserve is the biggest in the world.)  I had a cocker spaniel which would help me track partridge and I would return home with some, walking by Mac's house.  One day he saw me walking by and knew that I was hunting the partridge illegally, but he said he really liked partridge so I gave him a couple.

I had a single shot short .22, the cheapest gun available at the time.  It probably cost only $5 or $10.  Mac had a pump action .22, and he lent me the gun and ammunition for my hunting expeditions in return for the partridge which I supplied to him.  This trade continued until I left Chapleau to enlist.

When I returned from the war I lived in Oshawa as my parents had moved there.  When Mac retired he moved to Whitby.  Over the years, my wife Mary and I invited Mac and his wife for dinner, and they in turn invited us to their home.

When Mac died, I learned that he had left me his .22 in his will.  I attended his funeral.

Thanks Charlie and Louise.. mjm