Interview # 6

Name: Jim Kendall

Sex: Male

Age: 79

Place and date of birth: Morrisville, December 16, 1919

Education: Grade 7

Religion: Anglican

Occupation: Woodsman

Number of children: 12

Names of children and where they live:

Loretta (Head of Bay d'Espoir) Jackie (St. Veronica's)

Eleanor (St. Alban's) Evelyn (St. Joseph's Cove)

Dennis (Ottawa) Sid (Morrisville)

Myrtle (St.Alban's) Jim (Morrisville)

Glen (Ottawa) Brian (Ottawa)

Elise (Emberee) Cory (St. Alban's)

Phone: 538-3162

Place of interview: St. Alban's (KM Homes)

Date of interview: January 13, 1999

Interviewers: Sheri Peters and Pam Organ

Jim Kendall was born in Morrisville on December 15,1919. His father was born in Peccary, which is located out around Hermitage Bay, and his mother was born in Head of Bay d'Espoir. His parents were Jim and Mary Kendall. His grandparents were Robert and Harriet Kendall. They moved to Bay d'Espoir from Hermitage. His uncles, on his father's side, had a sawmill. Their names were J.W. and Albert Kendall. The mill was known as the Kendall Brothers mill which started up in 1911 and closed in 1936.

A school was first built in Morrisville in 1911 which was a one room school house. There were a total of twelve students in one room. All of them were different ages and in different grades but they shared the same teacher. Jim told us about a teacher who was very strict. If a student would not behave, the teacher would take off his belt and whip the student's hands. If the student moved their hands, the teacher would hit the student across the face with the belt. Before Jim walked to school in the morning, he would have to cleave up wood and carry it with him to school. When he arrived, he would have to start the fire. Each person would have to take turns doing this task each week.

Jim remembered having to go to church even if he wanted to do other things such as skating. The priest in St. Alban's at the time was Father St. Croix. The priest in Morrisville was Father Alden from Hermitage. Father Alden would come in every Sunday for mass. Funerals were also held on Sunday and there was Sunday school at two p.m.

Some of Jim's friends that he remembered were Sam Snook and Thomas Walsh. For pastimes, they would play soccer. He remembered playing on a team from Morrisville and they played against a team from Conne River. The Conne team was very good and beat them every game.

Jim started working in the woods at the age of 16. He remembered carrying wood on his back which was very painful. He mainly worked in the woods all of his life, but he also worked with Bowaters for 15 years. For the four years before he retired, he worked with John Augot at Birchy Point. He did carpentry work and painted boats along with other odd jobs. While Jim worked there, a total of 24 boats were built. Jim didn't do much trapping but he recalled that men from Conne River trapped animals such as foxes, muskrats, and beavers. They once built their own fox farms but that soon died out after a while.

Jim got married at the age of thirty. His wife was a homemaker who had many duties. One of her duties was making breakfast for eight children that were living at home at one time. She also had to clean the house, tend to the children's daily needs and cook the rest of the meals.

Jim and his wife's first washer was motor powered and was run on gas. In order for women to wash clothes, they had to make their own soap from left over beef fat. They would boil it on the stove, let it set, and when it hardened, they would cut it into blocks. The women would make clothing such as shirts, underwear, and dungarees out of flour sacks.

The women would scorch flour until it turned a light brown colour and this was used to cure diaper rash. Another home remedy was sticks and a piece of cloth were used to heal broken bones.

Jim and his family lived mainly on bread and molasses but sometimes they had rabbit. They had sheep and would shear the sheep for their wool. They would use the wool to knit guernseys, socks, and underwear. During the winter, they would kill the sheep to have mutton. He remembered that in the Spring of the year it was hard because at that time, there would be a shortage of food.

Jim's grandmother was a midwife in the past. Her name was Harriet Kendall. Other midwives were Harriet Joe and Millie Joe from Conne River. There were no hospitals at the time so women had to have their children at home with a midwife on call. Jim told us that illnesses such as the flu, measles, and mumps where present when he was younger. He said that people who got these illnesses would get plenty of bed rest. "That's all they could do back then because there were no medicines." A disease that Jim spoke of was the Spanish Flu, which the communities believed was caused by pigs and horse manure. He recalled that a great majority of people died from this disease. "It was a very sad time. This disease killed more people than the first World War."

Jim remembered a little bit about the tidal wave that occurred. He could feel the earth move beneath him. A house from Lamiline was torn away from its foundation and washed out to sea, and then washed back in on its same foundation.

During Christmas, people would gather together in people's homes. There would be music and dancing and a lunch would follow. Jim remembered getting apples and a few candies in his stocking.

One store, that was located in St.Alban's, that Jim remembered was The St. Alban's Trade (Co-Op). It was owned by Mr. Garland and operated by George Collier. This store was located where Bayside Marina is today. Items that were sold there were clothing such as duck jackets and food such as sugar, molasses, and flour. He recalled buying a package of cigarettes for only ten cents.

Jim recalled that Carl Kendall had the first radio in Morrisville and George Hoskins had a radio in St. Alban's. His family got their first radio in 1941. They had to use a windmill to charge the battery in order for the radio to work. The post office had the first telephone. It was operated by Olive Rose. Before telephones, they walked from house to house to deliver messages to people. Telegrams were used before that time.

The road around Bay d'Espoir was first built in 1953. Before the road was constructed, people would travel by boats, horses, or foot. Jim remembered having two dogs and a sleigh that brought his family from place to place. Later, they purchased a snowmobile and they would travel from Morrisville to St. Alban's by crossing the ice.

Jim said the best thing that happened to Bay d' Espoir was when Hydro came in because it gave people a lot of work. Hydro was introduced in 1966. Before Hydro, people would use kerosene lamps to light their house and woodstoves for cooking and heating their house.

Jim told us a lot of interesting stories about the past. This brings to our attention how good we have it today.