Chapleau Huskies coached by Buddy Swanson win Max Silverman Trophy as NOHA Intermediate 'B' champions in 1965

Names at bottom

Charlie Purich gives Keith J. 'Buddy' Swanson the credit for teaching him the "fine art of goal scoring" back in the 1960s when he was playing for the Chapleau Huskies. 

Charlie, back in those days, was also referred to as "the catalyst" of the Chapleau High School (CHS-TEEM), which played in the town league and against other competition.

In a recent exchange of email telling me that Laurentian University was reviving its hockey program and that he would be travelling to Sudbury on March 28 for a fundraiser and alumni game, Charlie  also advised that as he played for Laurentian in 1965, he could just be "the veteran" on the blades. Charlie still plays in a Hamilton Oldtimers' League and is the leading scorer on his team.

When Charlie told me that Buddy had taught him the fine art of goal scoring, I got back to him, asking if he would once again explain the "breakaway pass" he learned from his hockey mentor.

Charlie replied: "Speed toward the net.  At the last second a hard drift to the left while the goalie flops.  Continue to drift until the goalie is flat on the ice.  Lift the puck over him and through the space between the post and his raised stick.  Keith Swanson special.  A thing of beauty to see him perform that move."

Buddy Swanson

As so often happens when talk turns to Chapleau hockey, one thing leads to another, and Charlie's sister Pat (Purich) Russell sent me photos of medallions and a team photo of the Chapleau Huskies from 1965.

Coached by Buddy Swanson and managed by Jimmy Dillon in 1964, the Huskies won the Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA) Intermediate "C" title but upped the ante in 1965, the first year there was artificial ice in the Chapleau Memorial Arena, and entered the Intermediate "B" category, playing for the Max Silverman Trophy.

The Huskies won the Max Silverman Trophy defeating the Espanola KVees in a two game total goals to count series played on the new artificial ice in the memorial arena. They had  defeated the Wawa Ironmen three games to one in the semi-final series.

Obviously, Buddy taught the fine art of goal scoring to many players, including Jim St. Amand, who was 19 at the time and scored four goals in the final two game series.

In the finals, the Huskies played without Earle Freeborn, Merrick Goldstein and Gerard Pilon, all of whom had suffered injuries in the Wawa series.

To honour the champions, the Township of Chapleau hosted a banquet for the Huskies in the Legion Hall. In his welcoming remarks, Reeve F.A. 'Nick' Card said the victory meant a "new beginning" for hockey in Chapleau with artificial ice in the arena. He paid tribute to the players on winning a championship in their first season playing on artificial ice. It also meant a longer hockey season.

Reeve 'Nick' Card

J.M. 'Jack' Shoup, the community's longest serving councillor ever and longtime chair of the Chapleau Recreation Committee proposed a toast to Mrs. A.W. "Mrs. Hockey" Moore, without whom the artificial ice project would never have been completed.

Jim Dillon, the manager of the Huskies, noted that Mrs. Moore had raised a total of $17,000, with $12,000 going to the project. It was "the nucleus" for artificial ice, he said, according to a a report in the Chapleau Sentinel.

Mrs A.W. Moore

Andre Rioux, a player on the Huskies, paid tribute to Buddy Swanson for his efforts in coaching the team to its success. In 1966-67, Buddy, with his friend Lorne Riley teamed up as manager and coach respectively - and then Buddy took over coaching duties when Lorne became ill - to launch the Chapleau Junior "B" Huskies,and win the championship in their first year in the International Junior "B" Hockey League. They also won the NOHA championship.

At the banquet master of ceremonies Jim Lane read a telegram of congratulations from Mr. Silverman, who at the time was mayor of Sudbury. Mr. Silverman had coached, managed and owned the Sudbury Wolves, and been president of the NOHA.

Good luck to Charlie in the Laurentian University alumni game, and thanks to him, to Pat (Purich) Russell, and to Doug Greig, a special thanks for finding information on the 1965 champion Huskies. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Chapleau Huskies 1965. Winners of Max Silverman Trophy as NOHA Intermediate 'B' Champions Back:J.St.Amand,J.Babin,M.Goldstein,J.Bignucolo,D.Mizuguchi

Front: A.Bignucolo,C.Purich,J.Dillon-Manager,G.Pilon,K.Swanson-Coach,E.Freeborn,J.Grenon
Centre: A.Rioux,A.Madore,R.Bouillon,A.Martel,D.Futhey,R.Morin,A.Tremblay
 Absent:J.Hong,M.Mizuguchi,J.Paquette-Trainer (Courtesy Pat (Purich) Russell and Charlie Purich)

Patrick Mulligan founds Murrays and Mulligan in 1886, serves as Chapleau postmaster, attends Sacred Heart Church, builds camp at Mulligan's Bay by Michael McMullen

Patrick Mulligan and family 1895

Here is Michael McMullen's story of the Mulligan family, particularly Patrick Andrew, who arrived in Chapleau almost at the beginning of the community's life, and played various roles in its early years. Patrick Mulligan was Michael's great-great uncle, and mine, as our grandmothers, his nieces, May (Mulligan) McMullen and Lil (Mulligan) Morris were sisters.Since the Chapleau High School reunion, I have been working on several family histories, and will share more as they are completed. My thanks to Michael for the Mulligan story.

by Mike McMullen

In 1885, as the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was constructing its main line west through northern Ontario, it began providing a monthly general store on wheels or as it was commonly called ”a store car” that offered merchandise (dry goods, groceries, etc.) to those living and working along the line. The major supplier of these products was T. & W. Murray of North Bay. One of their senior clerks, Patrick Andrew Mulligan, was in charge of these Murray-supplied store cars that went to construction camps and permanent settlement locations along the developing CPR line, including Cartier, Biscotasing and Chapleau.

Murrays and Mulligan was located in Dominion Store building

In 1886, Patrick joined in partnership with the two Murray brothers, Thomas and William, who were merchants, financiers, politicians and entrepreneurs, to purchase lots and invest in Chapleau. On one of these lots, at the northwest corner of Birch and Young streets, Patrick constructed a two-storey general store that was under construction in 1886 and fully open for business in early 1887. This store became the third permanent general store in Chapleau, following shortly after T. A. Austin & Co (mid-1886) and the Hudson’s Bay Company (late-1886). Murrays and Mulligan, General Merchants, operated until 1897 when the business and the property were sold to Patrick McCool, a long-time Murrays employee and associate. 

Five years later in 1902, the business was sold to Alex Langis and James Jackman and then in 1908 a change in ownership was made to Desjardins (Albert) and Langis. The following year, these partners relocated their general merchant business to the southeast corner of Lorne and Birch streets. From there, that business evolved over time into what is today Collins Home Hardware and Building Centre and Collins Home Furniture.

Following the departure of Desjardins and Langis in 1909, the Murrays and Mulligan building, 4 Birch Street W., among other uses, became the location of the Macnamera general store, a Dominion store, head office for Austin and Nicholson Lumber Company and a branch of the Bank of Montreal. The building was demolished in late 1980.

Patrick was the oldest of seven sons and two daughters born to Hugh and Mary (Griffin) Mulligan in Quyon, Quebec, a village located on the Ottawa River, west of Ottawa, now part of the Municipality of Pontiac. Like many in the Ottawa valley in the 1880s, Patrick moved up the Ottawa River on the Ontario side to places, such as Pembroke and Mattawa, and then on to North Bay and Northern Ontario as the CPR was being built. Not only was there work available with the railroad, but towns were being established and services were needed for both.

He was working in Pembroke as a store clerk in the early 1880s, when he met Julia Catherine (Kate) Flannery. They married in September 1882 at nearby Chapeau, Quebec, on Allumette Island. She was the daughter of William and Catherine (Wells) Flannery, and the family lived in the Pembroke area. Her father died at an early age leaving a wife and five young children. Willietta, a younger sister, married Thomas Mulligan, one of Patrick’s brothers, also in Chapeau in August 1890. Thomas worked for Murrays and Mulligan, and his brother Patrick, as an accountant and clerk in Chapleau. A brother of Catherine’s, Maurice Flannery, originally a merchant, became town treasurer and Divisional Court Clerk in North Bay. Patrick and Kate had four surviving children: Effie, William, Inez and Beatrice.

Besides managing the Murrays and Mulligan store, Patrick developed contracts with the CPR to supply the work crews between Cartier and White River and to supply the CPR restaurants at Cartier, Chapleau and White River. He built a large warehouse near the corner of Birch and Lisgar streets to service these contracts. Today, the Bridgeview Motel, 16 Birch Street W., built by Yen Hong in the mid-1950s, is on the lot where this warehouse was located.

As well, he became the town’s fourth Postmaster in late 1896 (1896-1913). He followed T.A. Austin (1886-1890), J. M. Austin (1890-1892) and H. Nicholson (1892-1896). His sister-in law Winnie Flannery was the Assistant Postmaster for some time around 1900. While Postmaster, he built a small Post Office just to the east of his warehouse on Birch Street. It was the first stand-alone post office in Chapleau as all former facilities were in stores. This building would have been located where an addition was made to the original Boston Café building on Birch Street in the early 1970s. My grandfather, William McMullen, was the fifth Chapleau postmaster (1913-1919) and worked in that post office building.

At least three of Patrick’s brothers worked in Chapleau at various times between 1886 and 1913. In the mid-1890s all four brothers, Patrick, Thomas Michael, John George and Charles R. were in Chapleau at the same time. Patrick and Thomas were working at Murrays and Mulligan, John was the agent for Dominion Express (later named Canadian Pacific Express) and Charles was a carpenter.The Mulligans were involved in Chapleau community activities and attended the Roman Catholic Sacred Heart Church. In 1909, Patrick built a new house at 49 Monk Street, which is still standing today.

Another brother, who never lived in Chapleau, but had an impact on Chapleau, was James Edward Mulligan, my great-grandfather. Originally a storekeeper, he was working as a bailiff in North Bay in the mid-1890s when he died suddenly in December 1895. At the time, he was the father of five children aged 10 and under (three girls and two boys) and his wife, Jennie was pregnant with another daughter. In large part, because of the Mulligan presence in Chapleau, members of this family moved to Chapleau in the early 1900s and some became long-time Chapleau residents.

T hree of the daughters (who were brought up Anglican by their mother) met future husbands in Chapleau and lived there for many years. May married William McMullen, Lillian married Harry Morris  and Kathleen married John Hogg. The other daughter, Nellie, did not live in Chapleau. The two sons, Griffin and Charles, worked for the CPR out of Chapleau, served in World War 1 and subsequently, moved to the United States after the war.

Patrick died in Chapleau in April 1913. Later that year, Kate sold their house to Frank Keenan and moved to North Bay with her two daughters, Inez and Beatrice. Effi, their first born child, died when she was nine years old in 1891. Their son William had left Chapleau and apparently was not actively involved in his father’s business activities in Chapleau at the time of his father’s death. It is likely that Kate sold most of Patrick’s business ventures before she left Chapleau. However, she maintained ownership of property in Chapleau and in 1918 sold three contiguous lots on Birch Street to Hong Fong and Hong Sam. On one of these lots, Hong Fong built the Boston Café in the mid-1920s. The restaurant, now called Hongers Redwood Restaurant and Tavern, 12 Birch Street W., is still in the Hong family in 2013 with Jim Hong the owner and manager. Kate died in April 1945 in Toronto.

One would be hard pressed to find any traces of the Mulligans in Chapleau today. As far as I can determine, this line of the Mulligan family in Chapleau ended with Michael Morris, a grandson of Harry and Lillian (Mulligan) Morris. He grew up in Chapleau,  worked as a journalist, then became a high school teacher and reeve in Chapleau before moving to Cranbrook, British Columbia to continue his teaching career. There is not a Mulligan street sign or a house referred to in the community as the “Mulligan House.” The only legacy would be Mulligan’s Bay. Family history has it that Patrick was the first to build a permanent camp on Brownlee Island (Card Island) in the 1890s and as a result the area became known as Mulligan’s Bay.

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Mileage 615.1 becomes Chapleau as Canadian Pacific Railway contruction makes impossible dream a reality

Chapleau Plan 1886. courtesy Ian Macdonald

Just imagine for a moment that you were moving to Chapleau as the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks were nearing Mileage 615.1. The train stops seven miles east of the fledgling community, and you are told that is the end of the road. Pack up your belongings and children and walk the rest of the way pushing a cart that is provided. Or, perhaps, you might have enjoyed the experience of walking the entire CPR line from Sudbury to Chapleau, and maybe even as far as Port Arthur, a distance of about 2,000 miles.
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 Maybe you were coming to Chapleau from James Bay by canoe with some family members walking along the shore as there was only limited room in the small crafts. Just imagine!

You have learned that Sir John A. Macdonald's government had decided to turn the impossible dream into a reality. Across this vast land called Canada, a nation only since 1867, a transcontinental railway was being built to link it from sea to sea. The Canadian Pacific Railway would stretch from settled sections of the young nation, through the forests, muskeg and rock of Northern Ontario; across the flat lands of the Prairies; through the Rocky Mountains into the valleys of British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean.

First station. courtesy Ian Macdonald

 Welcome to Chapleau. In 1885, instructions were given to put a spur for a car to be set out at Mileage 615.1 on the CPR line, which was in the centre of the new community of Chapleau. This car became the first station, office building and train dispatcher's office. In no time, or so it seemed, a roundhouse with turntable and water tank had been built. A station and office building were under construction and Chapleau had become a town made up of surplus boxcars and tents with a population of about 400 people, ninety-five percent of them men as 1886 began.

 Reports from the time indicate that the first winter was very strenuous for the early citizens of the community. That is really an understatement as they had left their old way of life to build a new one far from any comforts they might have known. Apparently it was also one of those bitterly cold winters, to which Chapleau citizens became accustomed, and disease was also rampant.

 Lambert Lafrance arrived in Chapleau in 1885 and was joined by his wife Adele Roy and children in 1886. According to a biography of Father Albert Burns, their grandson, the train stopped seven miles east of Chapleau and they had to walk the rest of the way pushing a cart with all their worldly belongings. Members of the family still live in Chapleau.

 Rev. Gowan Gillmor, commonly called 'The Tramp' because apparently on many occasions he walked the railway track from Sudbury to Chapleau and on one occasion at least to Port Arthur. Rev. Gillmor, who was in Chapleau in late 1885, conducted a meeting in the partially completed CPR station which resulted in the decision to proceed with the building of St. John's Anglican Church. The first St. John's was on the old tennis court and was opened and dedicated on July 1, 1886 with Rev. Gillmor in attendance.

 As an aside Rev. Gillmor was also instrumental in the establishment of Church of the Epiphany in Sudbury where Thomas Corston was the rector before becoming Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Moosonee. As many readers will know, Tom was born and raised in Chapleau, the son of Frances (Jardine) and the late Henry 'Chicken' Corston.

 Rev. Gillmor provided an insight into his life and the situation along the CPR line. "I ministered to the construction people numbering about 5,000, holding services as I went along in camps, shanties and box cars and sleeping in these overnight; my experiences were the roughest. These people were from all parts of America and Europe. "Typhoid fever was the scourge of railway construction. Hospitals (Note: Not in any sense, a hospital as we would know one today) were filled with the sick and dying. My experiences ... were varied, solemn and awful."

For many years, he literally lived with the railway men, often pushed a handcar from section house to section house, drank tea from the same pan, ate green bacon from the same plate and often slept under the same blanket, according to Archbishop Robert J. Renison. Although First Nation people had travelled through the Chapleau area, they now began to move to the new community and settle there. Although Rev. John Sanders, perhaps the first aboriginal Anglican priest in Canada, never lived in the the community, members of his family have moving from James Bay by canoe. One of his trips after becoming based at Mattagami, was to go to Flying Post and then reach the Loon (Borden) Lake portage to the Chapleau River into Chapleau. He did conduct services at Chapleau.

 Although there were a number of Roman Catholic Jesuit priests in Chapleau, Father Louis Cote may have been the first to live in Chapleau, and helped establish Sacred Heart Church.

 Notwithstanding the horrendous challenges facing them in the beginning, by the summer of 1886, the tents and shacks which had comprised "Old Chapleau" -- a term used by the settlers to distinguish it from the "New Chapleau" -- were being replaced with permanent structures. The thoroughfares of the community were being set out, as land was cleared and replaced the forests.

John Young who became Earl of Lisgar

 The CPR prepared a diagram of the community including the streets -- north and south after Governors General of Canada and east and west after trees. Interestingly, and I only discovered it as I was examining a copy of the diagram, provided to me by Ian Macdonald, Chapleau has two streets named after the same Governor General -- Young and Lisgar. John Young became the Earl of Lisgar.

 Meanwhile, general stores were established as well as private residences. The CPR had completed its station and office building. It had also built a general store, fueling plant, freight sheds, two boarding houses and residences for local officials. Life was not easy. For example in 1888 an outbreak of diptheria struck and several, including young children, died during the epidemic. Fire was also a constant threat.

 However, these amazing pioneers, who really did carve a community out of the wilderness, never looked back as they established churches, a school, curling and skating rinks, a town band, sports teams, organizations, businesses, and continued to lay the foundations of their community in so many ways despite the obstacles.

 By 1901, with the leadership provided by George Brecken Nicholson, as the first reeve, Chapleau became incorporated as a municipality, and continued to move forward, demonstrating so often that the greatest resource any community has is its people.

 Ian Macdonald, who is always so helpful, has kindly agreed to share his research into the building of Chapleau in a future column. Ian who lived in Chapleau and attended Chapleau Public and Chapleau High schools also worked for the CPR. He is retired head of the department of architecture and professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba. My email is mj.morris@live.ca