Health care in "ancient Chapleau" precarious but improved when Lady Minto Hospital opened 100 years ago in 1914

Health care in "ancient Chapleau" was precarious for its citizens, according to George Evans, in an article he wrote about it in the community's early years.
For those of us who knew George, we will appreciate his play on the word "ancient" given his love of the history of ancient Greece, and to some extent Rome.

George was referring to Chapleau in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the beginning when the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in 1885 until the Lady Minto Hospital opened in 1914, 100 years ago.
Before professional medical help was available on a regular basis, "death struck often and hard" George wrote, not only in Chapleau, but in all the remote communities along the main line of the CPR.
He cites some evidence from Chapleau alone between 1888 and 1918. In the old Roman Catholic Cemetery in that time period there were 74 burials he noted and 44 (59.9%) of them were children who died before their fifth birthday.
In my book 'Sons of Thunder ... Apostles of Love' the history of St. John's Anglican Church, I wrote that in 1888, life was not easy for the early citizens, and t o add to the hardships disaster struck when "an outbreak of diphtheria of the most virulent type inflicted the residents. Several, including young children died from the disease."
In Chapleau, over those early years first aid centres and a "cottage hospital" were established and medical doctors seemed to come and go.

The pressing need for a hospital was recognized and in 1914 the Lady Minto Hospital was officially opened at the corner of Elm and Queen streets. There was a public fund raising campaign led by the CPR and the Victorian Order of Nurses with donations of $5000 and $3000 respectively.
It was the only hospital between Sudbury and Fort William now Thunder Bay.
An early form of health insurance was implemented whereby married CPR employees paid $1.00 a month and single 50 cents.
By 1914 there were two full time doctors in Chapleau -- Dr. J.J. Sheahan, who was the "house surgeon and physician in charge" at the hospital and Dr. Steve Wilkinson.
George wrote that in 1916, the "good people" of Chapleau gave Dr. Sheahan a brand new Ford making him the first person with a car in Chapleau. It was black with nickel plated door handles and nickel plated rims on the headlights.
He couldn't go very far out of town for a ride though as the road ended at about the old power dam.
After receiving the car, Dr. Sheahan is said to have quipped, "Instead of babies coming in a little black bag, they will now come in a little black car,"

I have no official records of babies born at the Lady Minto Hospital but Jim Morris, my father; Dr. G.E. "Ted" Young, and F.A. 'Nick' Card were all born there in 1914, the year it opened.
By 1914, Chapleau also had a branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society, just as World War I was beginning and it did much work in sending parcels overseas.
It met in the newly completed Town Hall on Pine Street, and I have  read minutes from one of the first meetings. I was browsing through the now Chapleau Public Library web site of Chapleau history founded by Hugh Kuttner, and thought I recognized the handwriting in scan of the minutes.
I did. My grandmother Edith Hunt, who had arrived in Chapleau in 1913 was the "honourable secretary", and furher, my great aunt, May (Mulligan) McMullen was the president. She and my grandmother Lil (Mulligan) Morris were sisters.
Other members of the executive included Rev. Father Romeo Gascon, of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church as first vice president; Mrs. L. Copping as second vice president, H.B. Pelton  as treasurer and my grandmother, secretary.
G. B. Nicholson, who served as first reeve of Chapleau from 1901 to 1913, was also active in the branch as well as a large number of volunteers.
Lady Minto Hospital is gone now but it is good I think to reflect for a moment on those years in the life of "ancient Chapleau" as my good friend George put it, and celebrate 100 years of having a hospital in the community. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Adults 'homeward bound' when entering child's world, Muriel (Hunt) Morris says at retirement party in 1970

Muriel E (Hunt) Morris

After 32 years as a teacher at Chapleau Public School, Muriel E. (Hunt) Morris, my mother, retired at the end of June 1970.

Looking through my stacks of newspaper clippings recently, I came across the story about her retirement party written by Margaret 'Maggie; Costello in the Sault Star.

My mother came to Canada from England as a young child in 1913 with her parents Edythe and George Hunt, and her older sister, Elsie, and they settled in Chapleau. She attended Chapleau Public and Chapleau High schools then Normal School in North Bay and upon graduation taught four years "in the country" as she would say at Kakabeka Falls.

Our lives take some twists and turns we never anticipate, and such was the case with Mom's. She had come home to Chapleau to teach in the 1930s, married Jim Morris, my father in July 1940 and moved to Hamilton where he was in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and  became a Flying Instructor in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

I was born in Hamilton in November 1941, and in 1942 we returned to Chapleau  when he went overseas. It was never the plan of my parents that we would remain in Chapleau after the end of World War II.  Mom and I lived with my aunt and uncle Elsie and B.W. "Bubs" Zufelt, and at times grandparents Harry and Lil (Mulligan) Morris.

Auntie Elsie, Nanny and Mom at their mother's 80th birthday

My grandfather George Hunt was with us while my grandmother Edythe Hunt was back In England serving as a nurse during the war.

On July 16, 1943, my father was killed on active service in the RCAF, and that single act, made all the difference in our lives.

My Mom and Dad

Mom decided we would stay in Chapleau, and to this day, I am so thankful she did. It was the greatest place to grow up and live.

Enough background, and now on to the retirement party according to Margaret Costello. I wish my friend Maggie was still here so I could thank her for the story.

"Every now and then, unlike the prophets who are not honoured in their own country, an outstanding citizen of a community receives honour and tribute from friends and associates of all ages on the local scene. Such was the case when Mrs. Muriel Morris was guest of honour at a reception of the Chapleau Board of Education in the Legion Hall," Maggie wrote.

Describing the decoration in the hall all made by students of Chapleau Public School, she wrote that it was "a riot of colour provided by a tree decorated with multicoloured gigantic blooms, a bower of sunshine yellow with a proliferation of more huge flowers and individual big blossoms hung from the ceiling".

Rev. Murray Arnill, chairman of the Chapleau Board of Education, welcomed the guests -- packed with friends, fellow teachers and students past and present.

"The school choir, trained to a high polish by Mrs. Jeannette Gjoni and Mrs. Wilma Schmidt who also provided the piano accompaniment, sang four bright selections with such verve that they won rounds of applause," according to Maggie.

Heading to visit Maw and Grandpa Morris

As an aside, Mom particularly loved this part of the program as music was such a part of her life and she directed many concerts and plays including HMS Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan. It was also great to see Wilma directing a choir at the 90th anniversary reunion festival of Chapleau High School in 2012.

Mrs. Olive M. Card, deputy reeve of Chapleau extended congratulations commenting that my mother must "be proud to have played a part in the education of Chapleau children many of whom had gone on to distinguish themselves in a wide var iety of professions.

Board member Mansel Robinson presented gifts of a lawn table, umbrella and portable television.

In her comments Mom said "the entire occasion" was beyond anything she had ever dreamed of.

She only hoped that some of the things she had taught the boys and girls would stay with them and help make them better men and women, and was proud to have had a part in  their education and that Chapleau would be proud of them.

Then, she addressed parents, and like it was only yesterday, I recall Mom preparing her comments at home on Grey Street.

Maggie captured her words: "There have been many changes in education, but the function of teacher and parents has not changed. It is to guide children into self development, to create a climate for learning in school and at home.

"The home and school cannot be divorced if we are to be successful. The child must be encouraged to make the most important discovery of all -- himself or herself!.

"The major concerns of childhood continue through the years."

She concluded with "When we enter into a child's world we are not in a strange land -- we are homeward bound."

School principal Foy Wright commented that long before current concepts were accepted, she was among the first "to think of the child as an individual. She had a wonderful sense of responsibility not just for her own room, and a sense of dignity and quietness."

Mrs. Opal Simpson of the teaching staff made a presentation of a coffee table. Mrs. Simpson added that "To those of us who have worked with her, she has been a warm personal friend, and her departure will leave gap hard to fill."

Thomas Corston, recently retired as Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Moosonee on behalf of former students and friends presented her with a purse.

As a young teacher

Mom was active in the choir of St. John's Anglican Church where she served as choir director for many years, in the Sincerity Rebekah Lodge and the Anglican Church Women. Sonia Lucas, Margaret Fife and Margaret Turner presented gifts from each respectively.

Mrs. Mary Campbell of the teaching staff had organized a book with the hundreds of names of former pupils over the 32 years. My mother treasured this gift greatly and used it to comment when one of them got married, graduated, had children, etc.  It became her personal journal about her pupils.

Over the years, so many of my Mom's pupils have shared comments and memories of her with me which I have so much appreciated. I would never have attempted to do a column on Mom, but as another school year draws to a close, I believe her comments to parents, indeed all of us, apply today as much as they did in 1970. It is also Mother's Day on May 11.

And, Margaret Costello supplied most of the content.

Mom died on March 4, 1989. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Counting boathouses along front river in Chapleau among great memories of those were the days in 1950s

Jim Schafer, Des Delaney

Looking back to the 1958-59 school year at Chapleau High School recently brought back many fond memories perhaps summed up best by the line from a song "Those were the days my friends..."

I have been reading some of the columns that Joy Evans and I wrote for the short lived Mid North News where it seemed we touched not only high school news but youth activities generally in Chapleau.

Why did I turn back the clock to those years, you ask? Well, in 2014 I am celebrating 50 years of doing and teaching journalism and communications in one form or another, but it was at the Mid North News when I was in Grade 12 that I wrote my first regular column, sharing the space with Joy.

In fact, the "sound of story" as the American writer Reynolds Price called it, has likely been a major force in my life since I was a child playing with toys on the living room floor as my grandfather George Hunt taught me the history of England -- you know, the exciting stuff about castles and knights in shining armour.

My mother, Muriel E (Hunt) Morris, instilled a love of reading in me before I could walk, and it remains with me to this day.

I shake my head a bit. All these years later, the wheel has come full circle as I write Chapleau Moments for the Chapleau Express, a weekly column for the online Cranbrook Guardian and edit and write for three blogs owned by Uneek Luxury Tours in Orlando, FL.

In one of our columns we reported that Angelo Bucciarrelli, president of the Rotary Club of Chapleau and Des Delaney, chair of the club's vocational service committee, (both of whom had attended CHS), were present to present a Rotary plaque to the 120 students at the school.

They attended the morning assembly that marked the start of each school day, and Alison McMillan was the pianist for the song singing that was part of the daily ritual.

Des Delaney presented the plaque to Jim Schafer, the student council president. It was also announced that popular English teacher Richard (Murch) Murchland had joined the Rotary Club. Mr. Murchland also directed the annual school play.

Despite the fact that the school had low ceiling gym, sports were popular. Girls volleyball had been started under the direction of Betty Ann (Payette) Morin while Mr. Murchland coached a boys' basketball team that was challenging all comers. I was on the team but don't recall if we won or lost games.

Tom Bateman, who was in Grade 11 took on the responsibility of teaching Grade Nine boys tumbling.

John McClellan, who had been teacher and principal at CHS for 30 years had retired in 1956 but had donated a trophy for annual high school hockey competition. Mr. McClellan had returned in 1957 for the annual inspection of 1181 Chapleau High School Cadet Corps and the cadet banquet as guest speaker.

The annual inspection, banquet and dance  which included the Girls' Precision Squad was a big part of CHS life

CHS had been defeated in its first bid to win the trophy by Sudbury Mining and Technical School but there were high hopes to win.. My memory fails me and I don't have a column on the 1958-59 game but I think CHS won! Someone remind me!

Harry Pellow. secretary of the CHS hockey club, told us that he would be calling a meeting to get the all star team organized. CHS also played in the town league and a school league -- at time of writing playing without team sweaters which made it a bit confusing to differentiate who was on which team. I do recall as I referred those after school games.

Joy and I also wrote about the activities of the Catholic Youth Club and the Anglican Young People's Association with the main focus on dances, banquets and other social activities.

Jim Bucci organized a scavenger hunt, and one of the hardest challenges was to come up with the number of boathouses along the front river. Just imagine going out on a cold Winter night and trudging through the snow from the trestle to the forestry point counting boathouses. Great fun though!

For after the hunt though, Naomi Mizuguchi had organized a lunch and dance in the basement of St. John's Anglican Church for everyone.

By 1959 I had expanded my journalistic activities to include a weekly youth television program on CHAP-TV. Imagine, Chapleau had its own television station for a few years.

While attending Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University) I was the editor of the student newspaper 'The Cord' for two years, and on August 31, 1964, my uncle B.W. "Bubs" Zufelt, and my grandmother Edythe Hunt drove me to Timmins to start my first job as a reporter at The Daily Press.

I agree to this day with Reynolds Price, the writer, that to "tell and hear stories is essential" - and the "sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths."

Thanks to Doug Greig for sending me scans of our columns from Mid North News, to Joy (Evans) Heft for sharing a column with me, and to everyone else I have met along the way, and to the many who have listened to my stories, and shared theirs with me, all of you have made that dominant sound come alive. My email is mj.morris@live.ca