Ice harvesting for CPR passenger trains enjoyed banner year in 1958 with over 15, 000 tons garnered

Harvesting ice in the winter months was at one time a major project for the Canadian Pacific Railway at Chapleau, and in 1958, it was considered a banner year as over 15,000 tons were garnered from the ice fields.

In an interview with Margaret Costello, Assistant Superintendent Jim Haddow. roadmaster Sidney Baker and ice harvesting foreman Eldon Eveline noted it was "clear blue ice 40 inches thick".

For about seven weeks during the coldest part of a Chapleau winter, heavily laden sleighs could be seen hauling ice from the river near the old pumphouse to the ice houses.

I never caught a ride on the back of the sleighs but would watch them go by the home of my grandparents Harry and Lil (Mulligan) Morris on Elgin Street when visiting them. As I lived on the "other side of town" this was something enjoyed more by my friends who lived "over the bridge".  

In her story Maggie pointed out that Chapleau was the only point on the CPR that had its employees do ice harvesting. Others contracted it out.

Mr. Eveline pointed out that he had about 49 workers  -- six were loaders, 20 were on lake operations, and 20 were at the ice houses, plus cooks and watchmen.

Ed Swanson standin and unknown

In early December when the ice was about three inches thick, clearing the ice field was started using bulldozers and other equipment. At 12 inches thickness trucks and sideplows moved in. The first cut was made in January when the ice was 16 inches thick.

Blocks of ice were taken from the river by jackladder one at a time and moved on to the waiting sleighs for their journey to the ice house.

"There the hefty ice cubes are taken off the sleigh by an elevator and slid down a cute to the bins By the time the ice reached a thickness of 40 inches the blocks weighed 500 pounds each and a sleigh .load weighed 10 tons."

Maggie's story also revealed that about 8,000 tons were stored in the two Chapleau ice houses: 7.000 tons were shipped to White River in wooden box cars, and 420 tons to Schreiber.

The ice was used to air condition cars on passenger trains cool liquids as well as on meat cars.

The story also made the point that the project provided employment for about 50 workers during a time when employment was not so plentiful in Chapleau.

loading ice on passenger car

Dr. Bill Pellow worked at the ice houses during the winter months on weekends. He described what it was like.

"Saturday mornings freezing to death working on the ice gangs for the CPR made a body wonder about an inside job where you could "look out" and always be warm. It was a perpetual dream and the thought crossed my mind many a Saturday. Two pairs of pants, sometimes overalls three sweaters, Stanfield long underwear was standard apparel, flight boots and heavy woollen inserts over leather mitts, a beaver hat with lugs, ( my head at least was always sweating) and scarves just would not keep you warm.

"You couldn't put on more clothes even if you had them, because you had to navigate and work and there was a limit on wearing too much bulky clothing and being practical. Work was the salvation. So you constantly kept moving, and kicking your toes against something to remind you that your feet were down there and they were not turning to ice although it felt like that and maybe your feet could fall off if you didn't keep the circulation moving."

Bill became a dentist after working on the CPR running trades.

My good friend Louis Fortin. who worked on ice gangs in the 1950s while still attending high school provided this description of his work:

"Our first job was to literally chop, saw, chisel the large blocks from the ice house and load the large steel carts in preparation for train arrival. The original blocks were approximately 3 feet high by 2 feet. We sawed the blocks in half and with the use of steel chutes sent the ice down to the platform level where it was loaded in the steel carts. At train time we met the train, opened the bunkers on the side of the passenger cars into which we loaded these blocks of ice each weighing approx. 100 lbs. This function was performed manually. We had to literally bend down below the bunker doors and slide the ice into the bunker. It goes without saying that the ice was necessary for air conditioning purposes."

From an article I was able to find by an H.B. Bowen, chief of motive power and rolling stock of the CPR, the railroad was using ice on some trains by 1936. By the 1970s it was part of history. Thanks Bill and Louis. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Olive Warren who started teaching career at Nicholson honoured at retirement party from Chapleau Public School staff in 1971

Frank Coulter, Olive Warren

Tributes were paid to Olive Warren, a long-time member of the Chapleau Public School teaching  staff when she retired in 1971.

Born and raised in Chapleau she was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Leigh, one of the community's pioneer families. She attended Chapleau Public and Chapleau High schools.

After attending North Bay Teachers College then called Normal School, Mrs. Warren recalled that her first teaching position was in 1934-35 during the Great Depression at Nicholson Siding on the Canadian Pacific Railway 22 miles west of Chapleau. In those days Nicholson was a "flourishing community, with a two classroom school, complete with a wood burning stove, "... a far cry" from facilities available in most schools of 1971.

Her salary?: "$600 a year."

Mrs. Warren worked as a supply teacher at Chapleau Public School from 1935 to 1941, then became full time. She took some years off to raise her children, Leigh and Bert, then was fulltime until she retired. She married R.L. "Bob" Warren.

For most of her teaching career she taught Grades 3 and 4.

The decor in the Trinity United Church Hall where the retirement party took place was "hearts and flowers"  created by Maartje Doornekamp and Gail Poulin, with the assistance of students.

Referring to the decor, Rev. Murray Arnill, chair of the Chapleau Board of Education,  commented that it was suitable for "a happy and sad occasion" paying tribute to Mrs. Warren's contribution as a teacher, but adding she would be missed.

Public school principal Foy Wright said that Chapleau can be grateful for the contribution that Mrs. Warren had made to the teaching profession, adding that she was "always trying to think of something new, always striving for improvement."

Names not with photo about 1969 though

Board of education member Frank Coulter made a presentation on behalf of the board while Lillian Robinson presented a gift on behalf of the teachers. Both paid tribute to Mrs. Warren in their remarks.

In her remarks, Mrs. Warren said that kindness and understanding play an important part in molding and developing desirable characteristics in pupils, and that proper attitudes must be taught. To accomplish this teachers must always seeking new methods to make it happen, she added in a Sault Star story about her retirement.

Mrs. Robinson greeted the guests who filled the church hall to pay tribute to Mrs. Warren, while Mrs. Jack Cockburn, Mrs. Opal Simpson, and my mother, Muriel E. Morris, who had retired from the public school staff in 1970, served them.  My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Living in 'grand old days' of Chapleau after CPR arrived in boxcars and tents during 1885-86

Photo credit below

Looking back at Chapleau's early days in 1885-86, after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway, an unidentified writer of several articles included in the Richard Brownlee Papers, talks about Old and New Chapleau which seem to have had little contact with each other.

Apparently written in 1935 to mark the 50th anniversary of the community (not the incorporation of Chapleau as a municipality in 1901), the writer refers to the time  as "those grand old days".

"Old Chapleau was on the hill but a few company houses were built for the employees near the railway." There were also some boxcars.

At first read I could not figure out where the hill was, then recalled that Mr. Brownlee's first barber shop was in a tent on the hill near where the Lady Minto Hospital was built at Elm and Queen Streets.

The writer noted that the "first time a small group of people went to view where the (Roman Catholic) church was to be built ... they thought they would never get there. It was a long tedious tramp through the bush (to where Collins furniture store at Birch and Lorne Streets is now). They were living in tents in Old Chapleau.

Also, at this time they were "doing most of their shopping at the Hudson's Bay store" which was then located at what is now commonly referred to as the Memegos Property near the intersection of Highway 101 to Timmins, and Highway 129.

This meant that during the winter of 1885-86. those living in Old Chapleau would walk on present Elm. but a trail through the bush then,  to the CPR tracks, and along them, then crossed the Nebskwashi River to the Hudson's Bay store, and then back home. Amazing.

There has been some dispute by Chapleau researchers over the years about where the Hudson's Bay store was actually located before being relocated into the community, but this article, adds more credibility to the work done by Michael McMullen and Ian Macdonald. They placed it on the Memegos Property. Both Ian and Michael have also written about Chapleau's early years.

Also interestingly, the article notes: "Strange as it may seem, the young people living in company houses seldom went tp Chapleau on the hill, as they were barely acquainted with the residents up there."

Turning to "New Chapleau" the article notes that at the same time, some of the first settlers lived in tents located at about where the old overhead bridge was located, while others lived in two rows of boxcars -- on streets called Godin Avenue and Stovepipe Avenue.

Meanwhile, as I wrote in my 1984 book 'Sons of Thunder ... Apostles of Love' the history of St. John's Anglican Church, by the end of 1885, the CPR had built a roundhouse with turntable, and a water tank. The first station was in a boxcar but one was under construction. "Chapleau had become a town made up of surplus boxcars and tents. The population consisted of about 400 people, ninety-five percent of them men."

I also wrote that the winter of 1885 was very strenuous for the early citizens of the fledgling community. They had left their old way of life to build a new one far from any comforts they might have known. It was apparently a very cold winter and disease was rampant.

Yet, despite the obstacles, folks in Old and New Chapleau came together and created a thriving community very quickly. Just imagine, if you will, early citizens like J.T. Serre, Richard Brownlee and others would also party at the Hudson's Bay store on the Memegos Property walking there and back. 

Amazing people. Again my thanks to Margaret Rose (Payette) and Bobby Fortin, who by the way are both members of Chapleau pioneer families. for loaning me the Richard Brownlee papers. Thanks as well to Ian and Michael for their research. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Photo credit  

          HBC Chapleau Outpost under Construction (1884) CP Archives and Ian Macdonald