Beattie, James R. & Anne Macfarlane

James R. Beattie 1900 – 1989 & Anne Macfarlane Beattie 1908 – 1984

James was born in Montreal in March 1900 - so we always knew how old he was! He was the youngest of four, preceded by brothers William and Donald, and sister Jessie Bertram. He spent his career in real estate.
Anne was born in Montreal in August, 1908, and graduated with a B.A. from McGill University. It was while working in the library that she first met James, and they were married in August, 1934. Anne was the eldest of four children, followed by Isobel Farquharson, Robert Macfarlane and Alice Konow, all of whom later visited Anne and James in Tadoussac with their families. James and Anne bought an old stone house on the Richelieu River in Chambly, about 30 km southeast of Montreal and there they had four children; Nancy, Benny, Alison and Janet.
James and Anne loved living in Chambly, where they had a large garden with lawns, grape vines, vegetable and flower gardens, six apple trees and a pond for James’s goldfish in the summer. He enjoyed fishing in the rapids behind the house, and in the fall, shooting woodcock in the woods nearby. In the winter, he used to shoot foxes, and there were a number of fox fur blankets in our Tadoussac house.
During World War II, Anne did volunteer work with the local Red Cross. She was an avid reader, went for daily walks, and enjoyed skiing in the Laurentians. In Montreal she was active with the Grenfell Mission, the University Women's Club, the Red Feather (Centraide), as well as volunteering at the Montreal General Hospital cafeteria gift shop.
James was first attracted to Tadoussac because it is hay fever free. As a child, Anne had summered with her family across the St. Lawrence in Cacouna, but after she was married, it was Tadoussac for the rest of her life. Here she swam in the lake and played golf and tennis. James, however, had absolutely no interest in using a racquet to hit a ball back and forth over a net stretched between two posts, nor using a club to hit a little white ball around a mowed field. His love was fly fishing; speckled trout in his secret lakes, sea trout in the Saguenay with Lewis Evans, and salmon fishing on the Saint Marguerite River. And he always wore a tie (usually a Macfarlane tartan tie, same one he wore gardening and going to church!) and jacket, even while gardening, fishing and at picnics on the beach. He often had a cigarette or cigar stub in his mouth, but never inhaled. (In 1919, a doctor advised him to try smoking to help his asthma!)
His trademark was the jeep, an old Land Rover which he drove everywhere including down to the beach at Moulin Baude. James and Anne both loved picnics, be they day-long visits to Moulin Baude or birthday bonfires at night on the beach. They loved the fresh, Saguenay-mountain air and the Lower St. Lawrence salty air, and Anne never missed a chance to dash quickly in and out of the water, always accompanied by the shrieks and sounds familiar to those who brave these frigid waters.
And berry-picking. Berry-picking was always an important household activity; wild strawberries, followed by raspberries and then blueberries. The house rule was “if you don't pick them, you don't eat them”. And always, those black flies! In late August, the adults picked cranberries, then spent an evening in the kitchen around the woodstove making the cranberry sauce for Christmas dinner.
James was treasurer of our Tadoussac Protestant Chapel for a number of years. He and Jack Molson spent endless hours planning and creating the Canadian Heritage of Quebec in an effort to preserve both artefacts and some of the historic properties that were in danger of development along both coasts of the St. Lawrence River. They bought Tadoussac’s original Pilot House which was the red brick house beside Tadalac. This became part of the Molson-Beattie Museum, and is now a summer rental property.
For many years, James and Anne would drive down to Tadoussac for May 24th and Thanksgiving long weekends to add to their summers here. Dad loved Tadoussac so much that he never wanted to travel anywhere else.
Mom was happiest when her sisters and their families were holidaying with us. In the evenings after a day filled with various activities, she enjoyed a quiet read or a game of bridge.
Anne died in her beloved Tadoussac at the age of 76 in the summer of 1984. James died in Montreal in the early summer of 1989 at the age of 89.


Bottom Photo Trevor Evans, James Beattie, Stockwell Day on Lewis Evans's Yawl "Bonne Chance" in the 1960's