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  • Stephen, William Davidson and Dorothy Ainslie

    Bill and Ainslie lived in the same Tadoussac cottage at different times, met in Montreal, and married! Stephen, William Davidson and Dorothy Ainslie Bill and Ainslie lived in the same Tadoussac cottage at different times, met in Montreal, and married! Back to ALL Bios Dorothy Ainslie Evans 1922 - 2017 & William Davidson Stephen 1907 - 1974 Dorothy Ainslie Evans (known by all as Ainslie) was born in Montreal, Quebec on August 6, 1922, the daughter of Trevor Ainslie Evans and Dorothy Gwendolyn Esther Rhodes, both summer residents of Tadoussac. Ainslie embraced Tadoussac’s summer community and all the usual activities including tennis, golf, beach walks, and picnics, as well as the occasional brief dip in the bay. She served for many years on the Executive of The Tadoussac Protestant Chapel. In addition to spending every summer in Tadoussac, she was a lifetime resident of Montreal, having received her schooling at Miss Edgar’s and Miss Cramp’s School as a child. William Davidson Stephen (Bill) was born in Montreal, Quebec, on October 24, 1907, the son of William Davidson Stephen and Eleanor Longmuir White. Tragically, Bill’s father died of pneumonia prior to the birth of his young son and namesake. As a child, Bill would accompany his mother and older brother, and sometimes his maternal grandmother, to Tadoussac, where they would stay as guests of Alfred Piddington in his newly built summer cottage. Theirs are the first three names in the guest book of Mr. Piddington’s house in 1914, and the guest book survives to this day. As a child, Bill attended The High School of Montreal, whereafter he joined what would become The Canadian International Paper Company (CIP). There he remained for his entire career, retiring from the Treasury Department on his 65th birthday. As a young man in Montreal, Bill participated in many sports, including lacrosse, water polo, sailing, tennis, and particularly golf, which he continued to enjoy all his life. In his management role at CIP, he worked with a young lady named Ainslie Evans. When Ainslie was preparing to leave for her summer vacation, Bill inquired where she would be going, to which she replied “a small place that you would have never of heard of”. One can only imagine the discussion that followed that statement. Not only had Bill visited Tadoussac many years earlier, he’d actually stayed in the same house that Ainslie’s parents had bought from Alfred Piddington’s Estate! One likes to think that this surprising Tadoussac connection led to what followed. Bill married Ainslie in Westmount on April 15, 1944, and thereafter spent his summer vacations at Tadoussac with his family, returning to the same house that he had visited as a child. Their three children (Margeret, William and Peter) and two grandchildren (Alexander and Mary), have always been, and remain, Tadoussac enthusiasts. In Montreal, Ainslie volunteered for many years with Red Feather (Centraide) campaigns, as well as in the Hospitality Shop of The Montreal General Hospital. She was an enthusiastic gardener, golfer, badminton player, and skier (both downhill and cross-country), and participated in all sports well past the age when most have retired. She also played a strong game of bridge and enjoyed its challenges with her friends and family in both Tadoussac and Montreal. Bill was a lifetime resident of Montreal. He died there in 1974 on his 67th birthday, two years to the day after his retirement. He is remembered by his children as a somewhat quiet man with a splendid sense of humour; a dedicated, supportive, and loving father. Ainslie loved to reminisce about her early years spent in Tadoussac with her parents, siblings; Phoebe, Trevor (Bucky) and Rhodes Bethune (Tim) as well as her friends and cousins. She loved to look back on how much things had changed since the days of steamboat travel and dances at the Hotel Tadoussac when there was no electricity and all meals were cooked on a wood stove. She remembered well when local travel was by horse and buggy over unpaved roads. She was also a fount of knowledge on her family’s history. She is remembered by her children as a dedicated, loving spouse, mother and grandmother. A lifetime Tadoussac summer resident, Ainslie celebrated her 95th birthday there with family shortly before her death on November 7, 2017. She lies next to her beloved Bill in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal. Photos below Phoebe, Trevor, Ainslie and Tim Phoebe, Susie Russell, Ainslie and Betty Morewood (Evans) Back to ALL Bios

  • Evans, Thomas Frye Lewis, Marie Bethune, Emily Bethune & Cyril

    The Anglican Dean of Montreal and the first of the Evans families to come to Tadoussac Evans, Thomas Frye Lewis, Marie Bethune, Emily Bethune & Cyril The Anglican Dean of Montreal and the first of the Evans families to come to Tadoussac Back to ALL Bios The Very Reverend Thomas Frye Lewis Evans 1846 – 1919 Marie Stewart (Bethune) 1850 – 1903 Emily Elizabeth (Bethune) 1866 – 1947 Cyril Lewis Evans 1882 – 1887 The Very Reverend Thomas Frye Lewis Evans served as a summer minister in Tadoussac for thirty-five years back between about 1884 and his death in 1919. He married Marie Stewart Bethune in 1874 and with her had five children, Basil (1873), Muriel (1877) Trevor (1879), Cyril (1882), and Ruby (1885). Little is known about Marie except that she was said to have been a lively and engaging woman and usually called May. She married Lewis Evans in 1873 at the age of twenty-three. She is named Maria in her birth record, and Marie in the marriage index, (and Marie on her plaque). Her full name was Maria Stewart Bethune, born in 1850, the second of four children (all girls) of Strachan Bethune (1821 - 1910) and Maria MacLean Phillips (1826 - 1901). She died in 1903 and is buried in The Mount Royal Cemetery. Included in that list of Marie’s children is Cyril who died at five years old. There is a small window in the back wall of the chapel that is dedicated to the memory of Cyril Lewis Evans. He died of hydrocephalus at the age of five. It is hard to imagine now how that tragedy played out, the little boy dying in 1887. Hydrocephalus (sometimes called water on the brain) can cause brain damage as a result of fluid buildup. This can lead to developmental, physical, and intellectual impairments caused by Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) which flows through the brain and spinal cord under normal conditions. Under certain conditions, the amount of this fluid in the brain increases if there is a blockage that prevents it from flowing normally, or if the brain produces an excess amount of it. In the 1880s treatment for this condition was in its infancy, so it must have been a very difficult time for Cyril and his family. 6 After Marie’s death, the Dean married her cousin, Emily Elizabeth Bethune (1866 – 1947), and had one more child, Robert Lewis Evans (1911) when he was about sixty-five years old and Emily was forty-five. This family was not connected to any of the other summer cottage families until son Trevor, and later son Lewis married into the Rhodes family and both had cottages in Tadoussac. Dean Evans was the rector of St. Stephen's Church in Montreal, a church on Atwater Street, and stayed there for forty-six years. While there, he served as an Honourary Canon, Archdeacon, and then was named the fifth Dean of Montreal Diocese, but would only accept the position if he could stay at St. Stephen's and not move over to the Cathedral. In 1908 he was within a whisker of being elected Bishop. It was an actual split vote and they had to adjourn for three weeks to sort it out in typical Anglican political manoeuvring. They picked the other guy, John Craig Farthing. The Dean died in 1919. It is said that he had pneumonia, collapsed in the pulpit on a Sunday morning while delivering his sermon, and died a few days later. Very few of Dean Lewis Evans’s writings remain but it is clear from them that he was a devoted churchman and that he had worked hard to help in the development of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal. A school in the St. Henri district was named after him, and he was very insistent that all of the Anglican clergy should be able to speak French. In Tadoussac, he lived in what was then the furthest east Price house, the Beattie/Price house. It was built along with the other Price houses for the administrators of Price Brothers Lumber, but this one was lent to Dean Evans and he eventually acquired it by squatter’s rights. From him, it passed to his wife, Emily Elizabeth (Bethune) Evans, and then to their son, Lewis Evans, who sold it to James and Anne Beattie. The Dean had also owned a part of the tennis club property which he bought from the Price family, but he sold his portion to Jonathan Dwight and Mr Dwight sold it to the tennis club. Dean Evans was an avid fisherman and actually had built for himself a small log cabin about nine miles up the Saguenay on the west side of the river at a place called Cap à Jack. It seemed he needed a cottage to get away from his cottage! He had a little powerboat called Minota which he would take up there towing a couple of nor'shore canoes to fish out of. One of the local men, André Nicolas, in speaking about the Dean, said he had seen photos of the fishing camp on the website, tidesoftadoussac.com, that grandson Tom Evans set up. He said that where Lewis Evans had his camp was, and still is, the best place on the river to catch sea trout. It is interesting, a hundred years later, to hear a local fisherman say that the Dean got it right! Alan Evans Photos above Dean Lewis Evans, The Cottage in Tadoussac, Cap a Jack on the Saguenay, Emily with Lewis and Kae Photos below ~1900 Tadoussac Dean Lewis Evans (sitting), his first wife Marie, his 4 children Basil, Trevor (with pipe), Muriel and Ruby ~1918 Tadoussac back row Dean Lewis Evans with sons Basil, Trevor and Lewis front row second wife Emily (Mother of Lewis), Kae Evans, Miles and his mother Muriel Back to ALL Bios

  • Glassco, William (Bill)

    Theatre director and translator, Bill loved Tadoussac from childhood and shared it with theatre artists from around the world Glassco, William (Bill) Theatre director and translator, Bill loved Tadoussac from childhood and shared it with theatre artists from around the world Back to ALL Bios William Glassco (Bill) (August 30,1935 - September 13, 2004) Bill’s birth was recorded by his maternal grandmother, Lady Blanche Price, in the pencilled diary she wrote on her bedroom wall at Fletcher Cottage in Tadoussac. William was the youngest child of Willa (nee Price) and J. Grant and as he was born on the same day as his grandfather, Sir William Price, was named in his honour. Bill and his siblings, June, Dick and Gay were each born in Quebec City, raised in Toronto, and summered in Tadoussac. Together with a gaggle of cousins who would spend summer days in unlimited adventures, Bill formed a connection to Quebec and Tadoussac that ran throughout his life. Educated at Upper Canada College, Ridley College, Princeton University and as a Rhodes Scholar, Oxford, Bill was settling in for a stable career as a tenured English professor at the University of Toronto. Maybe it was the memory of Tadoussac dress-up boxes and the elaborate plays and musicals he produced, casting any available cousins and performing for dour aunts and exasperated nannies. Or how he cajoled all the neighbourhood kids to perform in his basement on Dunloe Road in Toronto’s Forest Hill, for parents and friends. But Bill took a leap of faith and abandoned his tenure in 1969 to move his young family to New York City for two years so that he could become a theatre director. Upon returning to Canada in 1971 he and his wife, Jane (nee Gordon) started the Tarragon Theatre, committed to developing the works of Canadian Playwrights, both French and English. He nurtured and produced many of Canada’s foremost playwrights, David Freeman, David French, Judith Thompson, James Reaney, and, with John Van Burek, translated many of the plays of Michel Tremblay. Michel-Marc Bouchard was a life-long friend and he both translated and directed many of Michel-Marc’s plays. He also formed what is now CanStage in Toronto in 1988. In 1990 he moved to Quebec City to further his freelance career in French Canada and then to Montreal where he founded the Montreal Young Company in 1999. When his marriage dissolved in 1976, Bill brought his three children to Tadoussac for the first time. They stayed in the hotel and Bill set his eye on his grandmother’s house, Fletcher Cottage, which was owned by two distant cousins who were tiring of maintaining such a huge property. By the next summer Billy owned the house and was a Tadoussac boy once more. He used the large house facing the bay as the ultimate salon, inviting people all year to come and stay for a week in the summer. He would entertain family, theatre artists, and old university friends from across the globe. Dinners of 25 were not uncommon and luckily the house could stretch to fit most of them. There would be morning swims across the lake, outings to Bon-Desir, hikes up the fiord and jam-making sessions that would last days. He was a gifted pianist, a master of the American Musical Songbook, and evenings were full of music and singing. The chapel will remember Bill for his consummate organ playing. He loved the formal traditions of Tadoussac and the unique social spiritual mix that happened on Sunday mornings at 10:30. At 6 foot 4 inches he was a total gentleman with a passion for theatre and Quebec and a terrific sense of fun. Bill died of thyroid cancer at his daughter’s home after one last summer in Tadoussac in 2004. Fletcher Cottage carries on Bill’s traditions through his children and grandchildren: Daniel and Karen and their son, Tyler; Briony and Clive and their children, Max, Zoe, and Kyra; Rufus and Dinora and their two boys, Sebastian and Benjamin. In 1998, Bill started the Tadoussac Playwrights Residence, which his family have carried on to this day in Bill’s honour. Now called the Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac, 4 pairs of playwrights and translators are invited to work together at Fletcher Cottage for 10 days each June under the mentorship of award-winning translator, Maryse Warda. This nationally recognised program, run in collaboration with Playwrights Workshop Montreal has introduced many playwrights and translators to Tadoussac and to Quebec and allowed them to flourish and write in this special place producing plays that would make Bill proud. Briony Glassco Back to ALL Bios

  • Whitley, Lt.-Col. Frederick Whitley & Jessie (Chouler) & daughter Jessie Margaret Whitely

    A family most remembered for the 3 front windows of the church in memory of their infant daughter, Jessie Whitley, Lt.-Col. Frederick Whitley & Jessie (Chouler) & daughter Jessie Margaret Whitely A family most remembered for the 3 front windows of the church in memory of their infant daughter, Jessie Back to ALL Bios Jessie Margaret Whitley - 1882 Most of us who attend services at the chapel have probably read the inscription beneath the front windows of the chapel hundreds of times. It is both sad and funny. Read by itself, the left-hand window reads “To the Glory of God … died at Tadoussac, August” which may draw a smile to the faces of the faithful who never subscribed to the “God is Dead” movement of the 1960s. But to read across the three windows as we are expected to do, we learn of a baby who died in 1882 at the age of five months. There is sadness, and we can only wonder, well over a hundred years later, about the reason for the child’s death and the sorrow it must have inflicted on the family and friends, but particularly to her parents. Jessie Margaret was born on February 27th and baptized on April 7th of the same year in which she died and, while named after her mother and her maternal grandmother, the family actually called her Daisy. She died on August 3rd in Tadoussac, and was buried on August 5th in Montreal. Her father was Frederick Whitley who was the son of John Whitley and Sophie Hardy of “La Solitude”, St. Martin’s Parish, Jersey, Channel Islands. He was educated at Victoria College, St. Helier’s, Jersey and at Dijon, France, and came to Montreal around 1873-1874. Frederick was first employed in the firm of Thomas Samuel and Company, then established the firm Fred’k, Whitley and Co. Leather Importers, importing high quality leather mostly from England. He served as an officer in the Montreal Garrison Artillery and was later transferred to the Montreal Squadron of Cavalry (about 1896), which became the Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars. He was also very interested in the Church of England, was a Lay Reader in the Diocese of Montreal, and was Superintendent of St. Martin's and St. James the Apostle's Sunday schools. Frederick returned to England in 1877 to marry Jessie Chouler and brought her back to Canada with him. She was the daughter of Christopher Chouler and Margaret Wilson of London, England. Her father, Christopher Chouler, was a member of the firm of Howell’s, Drapers, St. Paul’s Churchyard, London. He was the son of Christopher and Mary Chouler, Falcon Lodge, Althorp Park, Northampton. (That Christopher, Jessie’s grandfather, was the Estate Manager of Althorp, Princess Diana’s family estate.) Together, Frederick and Jessie had five children: Frederick, Henry, Ernest, Elsie and Jessie. Frederick and Jessie’s son, Frederick, became an Anglican priest, married, and had one daughter, Ruth, who never married. It was in about 1941 that he gave the brass candlesticks on the altar in the chapel in memory of his parents. Frederick died in 1914, just before WW I and his wife Jessie died in 1940. Ernest joined his father in business. He married Gertrude McGill and had one daughter, Barbara Jane Whitley, who was never married. She was well-known at the Montreal General Hospital where she volunteered for sixty years. She also started the Whithearn Foundation, a family foundation that was set up to fund research on diseases and disorders of the eye. Barbara passed away at the age of one hundred in 2018 but remembered Tadoussac very well and provided this family information just before she died. Henry also worked with his father. He and his wife had one daughter Phyllis Rosamond, who married Ralph Collyer and had three children – John, Peter, and Jane (Wandell). Phyllis passed away in 2002, in her ninety-first year at St. Lambert, Quebec. Her daughter, Jane Wandell, is currently a director of the above-mentioned Whithearn Foundation which her aunt, Barbara Whitley, founded. Elsie married C.S. Bann and had one child, Joan, who married Gordon Rutherford and had one child - Hugh. The youngest child was Jessie, usually called Daisy, whom we remember in the chapel’s front windows. Cynthia Price, Karen Molson, Alan Evans Back to ALL Bios

  • Alexander, James (Jim) Okeden

    An avid sportsman, Jimmy's life as an RAF pilot was cut short in a bombing raid during World War 2 Alexander, James (Jim) Okeden An avid sportsman, Jimmy's life as an RAF pilot was cut short in a bombing raid during World War 2 Back to ALL Bios James Okeden Alexander 1918 - 1941 Born in 1918, at Caterham, Surrey in England while his father was fighting in the trenches during World War I, he was the eldest grandchild of Bishop Lennox W. Williams and Annie (Nan) Rhodes. At age twelve Jimmy went to BCS. He ran in five cross-country races, wrote poetry, became a marksman and in 1935 won the Greenshields Scholarship to McGill University, which he declined because he entered the Royal Military College in Kingston. He graduated from RMC in 1939 with the first prize in mechanical and electrical engineering and the Harris-Bigelow trophy for the best combination of athletic and academic ability. Jimmy’s summers were spent in Tadoussac at his grandparent’s house, Brynhyfryd, with his mother, his sister Jean Aylan-Parker, and cousins Nan (Wallace) Leggat and her brother Jackie Wallace. Among his many childhood friends were Ted and Evan Price, Billy Morewood, Betty (Morewood) Evans, Phoebe (Evans) Skutezky and Ainslie (Evans) Stephen. In July of 1935, Jimmy and his friend Teddy Price stood on the wharf as the CSL steamship pulled in and a roadster bumped its way up the gangplank onto the dock. In the back were two beautiful young sisters Bar and Mary Hampson aged sixteen and seventeen. Teddy said to Jimmy; “That one’s mine!” and Jimmy replied; “the other one’s for me!” Four years later as World War II began, Jimmy married Bar and Teddy married Mary. When Jimmy graduated from RMC, he decided on a career in the air force. He trained with the RCAF at Camp Borden and Trenton and was awarded his wings and the Sir John Siddeley trophy for the highest marks and qualities as a pilot. As the then small Canadian force had few career opportunities for flying, he chose a career in the Royal Air Force and on graduation from RMC he was granted a regular commission in the RAF. The dark clouds of World War II were approaching and the summer of 1938 was the last time the family was all together in Tadoussac. His father, Major General Ronald Alexander would assume Pacific Command as the war began. His mother Gertrude would also move to Victoria B.C. with his brother Ronnie (aged seven). His sister Jean would marry John Aylan-Parker and go overseas to the war in early 1940. Jimmy sailed to England in March 1940, to join the RAF for a career in the permanent force. Bar followed soon after and they were married in England in early May. Jimmy went over to France with the Air Advanced Striking Force. As the German forces drove the allies back to the English Channel and France collapsed, the historic evacuation from Dunkirk and other French ports saved the retreating armies and brought them back to England to fight again. Jimmy’s squadron abandoned their aircraft and he found himself on the liner Lancastria being evacuated with over five thousand others. The ship was bombed and quickly sank. Jimmy went overboard, was rescued but soon dove in again to save a woman’s life and was later awarded the Royal Humane Society Medal for Valour. During 1940 and 1941, Jimmy and Bar moved with his squadron wherever it was based. After a few months with his squadron in Iceland, he went to Northern Ireland. Bar was in Suffolk in December 1940 when their son Michael was born. They all settled in Belfast in January 1941, but their home was bombed while they were away at Easter. As war raged and the German Luftwaffe was bombing England’s cities, they were able to get together with Ted and Mary Price (Bar’s sister) and John and Jean Aylan-Parker (Jimmy’s sister) who were also stationed in England. Michael, Greville Price and Ronnie Aylan-Parker were all born within months of each other. Jimmy was now flying almost daily raids over enemy territory with RAF Bomber Command Squadron 88. In the summer of 1941, as Flight Lieutenant with two crew members, he flew his Blenheim bomber from their base in Norfolk. Their targets were the factories and shipping in German-occupied Rotterdam, Holland. The Dutch were friends and allies. Jimmy’s squadron flew in daylight, as low as possible over the factories, so they could bomb accurately and avoid killing the civilian population. Winston Churchill described it. “The devotion and gallantry of the attack on Rotterdam is beyond all praise. The charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava is eclipsed in brightness by these daily deeds of fame.” On August 28, 1941, Jimmy and his crew were shot down over Rotterdam. He is buried there in Croswijck Municipal Cemetery beside the graves of his two crew. He was twenty-three years old. Today, one hundred and thirty-five graves of young fliers from Commonwealth countries who were killed over Holland, 1940 - 44, lie there in rows. They were all under the age of twenty-five. In his memoirs, his father Ronald describes Jimmy’s outlook on life as “such a happy one and he hated seeing anybody unhappy. He loved all games, flying, seeing new places, and his fellow men. His God, his faith and his religion meant a great deal to him and were very real. Poetry appealed to him. In one of his letters from RMC he wrote: ‘Sometimes I think I’d like to take up poetry seriously, but it is rather a life for men of mind and not men who have physical abilities. But a poet does so much for mankind.’” While at BCS, seven years before, Jimmy wrote a poem titled ‘To Friends’. This is the final verse: Long after friends have left us, their memory still will last; The memory of those happy days, those days that now are past: And we will not forget them, until at last we be With them once more united, for all eternity. Jimmy’s short life was full. However, life goes on in his legacy: his wife, Bar (Hampson) Campbell who died in September 2008; his son Michael and wife Judy; his two grandchildren, Nan (Doyal) and Jim Alexander and five great-grandchildren, Alexander and Aidan Doyal and Joe, MaryJane and Rosemarie Alexander. They all spend part of their summers in Tadoussac. Michael Alexander Photos above Jim and sister Jean (Aylan-Parker) Jim and Bar (Hampson) Jim Jim Photos below Jim, Michael, and Bar (Hampson) Alexander, Mary (Hampson) and Ted Price and Greville Family Group at Brynhyfryd late 1930's Back Row Jack Wallace, Jim and Gen. Ron Alexander, Jack Wallace Middle Row Mary Wallace, Nan Williams, Jean Aylan-Parker, Nan Leggat, ?, Lennox Williams, Gertrude Alexander Front Row SIdney Williams with kids Jim, Susan and Joan, not sure who the boy in the middle, Michael Wallace on the right Back to ALL Bios

  • Stairs, Dennis & Sue

    Very athletic, Dennis and Sue loved to be outdoors with their many children Stairs, Dennis & Sue Very athletic, Dennis and Sue loved to be outdoors with their many children Back to ALL Bios Dennis W. Stairs 1923-1975 & Susan E. (Inglis) Stairs 1923-1978 Dennis was born and grew up in Montreal. After attending Bishop’s College School, he joined the Royal Navy and served on the British aircraft carrier Indefatigable as an airplane navigator. He started coming to Tadoussac at an early age, and in his teens went on trips to Les Escoumins and the Marguerite in nor’shore canoes with his brothers and his cousin Peter Turcot - twenty miles rowing is a long way! He was a tennis and skiing enthusiast and was on the McGill University teams for both sports. He graduated from McGill with honours in engineering and took a position with what was then the Price Brothers Company in Kenogami. He married twice having four children by his first marriage and three by his second. Sue Inglis was born and grew up in Pittenweem, Scotland. She moved to London during the war and served in an anti-aircraft unit defending the city. She married Dennis Stairs in 1957 and together they had three children, Alan, John, and Sarah to add to Dennis’s previous four, Judy, George, Felicite, and Philippa, and she treated all seven with the same mixture of poise, no-nonsense strength, and kindness. Sue had left her home in a thriving metropolitan city to move to Kenogami, a small town a mere ninety miles from Tadoussac. She adapted well, learning skiing as well as other winter activities. She also learned French well enough to lead the Girl Guides in the Lac St Jean region! She came to Tadoussac soon after arriving and embarked on the full range of activities – witness her name on the Mixed-Doubles Tennis Trophy in more than one place, her embroidery creations in the church, and the Scottish-dancing parties she hosted - not to mention numerous picnics around Tadoussac on the beaches, in the hills, and along the shores in the freighter-canoe Seven Steps. She tirelessly nursed Dennis when he took ill, enabling him to spend the last few years of his life in the relative peace and comfort of his own homes in Montreal and in Tadoussac. Dennis passed on to us all, with varying degrees of success, his love of the outdoors whether hiking, cross-country skiing, chopping wood, or fishing. He passed along to us his love of small boats, be they canoes, rowboats, motorboats, or even how to use a freighter canoe as a sailboat! And of course, he led by example in tennis and skiing. Perhaps most of all he tried to teach us to be honest, fair, hard-working, and family-oriented people. Many a time we were cajoled into doing unpleasant tasks with the words "you're not going to let your poor father do everything are you?" Dennis and Sue's children and the entire Tadoussac community remember them as good parents. George Stairs Back to ALL Bios

  • Williams, Caroline Anne (Rhodes) & The Right Reverend Lennox Williams

    Lennox and Nan worked hard in their church and played hard in their holidays in Tadoussac! Williams, Caroline Anne (Rhodes) & The Right Reverend Lennox Williams Lennox and Nan worked hard in their church and played hard in their holidays in Tadoussac! Back to ALL Bios Caroline Anne (Nan) Rhodes Williams 1861 - 1937 & The Right Reverend Lennox Williams 1859 - 1958 Caroline Anne (Nan) Rhodes Williams was the seventh child of Col. William Rhodes and Anne Catherine Dunn. She was born in Sillery, Quebec on January 10, 1861 and died at Tadoussac on July 30, 1937. Her family called her “Annie”, but to her children she was known as “Nan”. The ages of her brothers and sisters were spread over almost 20 years, yet they grew up actively engaged with each other. Army, her eldest brother made her a big snow house; Godfrey took her and her sister Minnie skating and sliding. They all spent summers in Tadoussac together, Nan with her dog “Tiney”. She and her brother Godfrey frequently “apple-pied” all the beds, causing bedlam in the house. Growing up at Benmore the family home in Sillery, she was surrounded by an endless collection of birds and animals - geese, chickens, bantams, rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks and ponies and even beehives. All were welcome inhabitants of her family’s farm. Her brothers, Godfrey and Willy procured a bear cub and had a pole for it to climb. The family meals often included Caribou and rabbit meat from her father’s hunting trips. Croquet was a favourite family game on the lawn. In winter, Nan and her sister Minnie traveled by sleigh through the deep snow to their lessons at dancing school. Nan was a lively young girl who always loved jokes. Her father described her as “full of play”. Nan became engaged to a young clergyman at St. Micheal’s Anglican Church in Sillery. She and Lennox Williams were married there on April 26, 1887. Her sister Gerty and her best friend Violet Montizambert were her bridesmaids. Their first child, James, was born in 1888, followed by Mary (Wallace), Gertrude (Alexander) and Sydney Williams. As their children were growing up in Quebec, Lennox served at St.Michael’s. His work always involved people and when he became Dean, and later Bishop of Quebec, his duties extended over the vast geography of the Quebec Diocese. Assisting him in his work brought Nan in contact with the many different people in the City and the Province, some of whom would go overseas to serve in the South African (Boer) War, WW1 and WWII. Winter of 1913-14 in Quebec was the last carefree time before WWI began. Nan always welcomed her children’s friends around the Deanery for supper or tea. According to one of her future sons-in-law, “On some evenings it was quite amusing. The Dean and Mrs. Williams sat in his study, Jim Williams and Evelyn Meredith sat in an upstairs sitting room, Mary Williams and Jack Wallace in the drawing room, and Gertrude and Ronald Alexander in the dining room. Mrs. Williams was a very understanding person.” This was still the age of chaperons. Before going overseas, Jim and Evelyn were married, and both enjoyed summers in Tadoussac with the family at Brynhyfryd. In November, 1916, Nan received the news that her son Jim was killed at Grandcourt, the Battle of the Somme. Two months later in January 1917, she and Lennox, accompanied by their daughters, Mary and Gertrude, sailed to England. Mary went to see Jack Wallace and Gertrude to be married to Ronald Alexander. They stayed in London at Queen Anne’s Mansions and remained there until April. After the War, Nan and Lennox continued their active life together as Lennox had been consecrated as Bishop of Quebec in 1915. The Rhodes family house in Tadoussac, built in 1860, had been left to Nan. It was to burn down in 1932 and be rebuilt the next year. Brynhyfryd remains in Nan’s family today. When Lennox retired in 1934, they had more time to spend in Tadoussac and ten grandchildren to enjoy it with them. One day, walking to town with one of her ten grandchildren, Nan discovered that her grandchild had lifted a bit of candy from Pierre Sid’s general store. She marched her back to return it and to apologize. To one of her grandchildren “Granny was always game for some fun and she had lots of energy”. Nan loved to be out rowing the boats and like others her age, she swam regularly in the refreshing salt water of the Bay. On June 30, 1937 she climbed up the path from the beach and reaching the house feeling a bit tired, she took a rest and died suddenly that evening. Michael Alexander Photos below Family Group at Brynhyfryd late 1930's Back Row Jack Wallace, Jim and Gen. Ron Alexander, Jack Wallace Middle Row Mary Wallace, Nan Williams, Jean Aylan-Parker, Nan Leggat, ?, Lennox Williams, Gertrude Alexander Front Row SIdney Williams with kids Jim, Susan and Joan, not sure who the boy in the middle, Michael Wallace on the right Brynhyfryd in the 1890's John Morewood sitting on the rail at left Lennox Williams at the right Back to ALL Bios

  • Languedoc, Erie (Janes) & George de Guerry

    Erie was a third generation Russell who bought and developed Parc Languedoc Languedoc, Erie (Janes) & George de Guerry Erie was a third generation Russell who bought and developed Parc Languedoc Back to ALL Bios Erie Russell (Janes) 1863 - 1941 & George de Guerry Languedoc 1860 - 1924 Erie Russell Janes (b. 1863 in Montreal) was the daughter of Mary Frances Russell and her husband, William D. B. Janes. Soon after her birth, Erie’s mother died and she went to Quebec to live with her grandparents, Willis Russell, and his wife, Rebecca Page Sanborn. Willis Russell, her grandfather, was one of the first Quebec residents to build a summer home at Tadoussac and from her childhood until her death, Erie spent many summer months there each year. When Willis died in 1887, Erie sold out her share of the family house in Tad (Spruce Cliff) and built a house opposite the Roman Catholic Church called Russellhurst. In 1911 at age forty-eight, Erie married the widower, George de Guerry Languedoc who brought with him his daughter Adele. In his lifetime, George Languedoc was a civil engineer and architect, and for the first two years of their married life, they lived in Port Arthur, Ontario. Subsequently, they moved to Ottawa where Erie remained until her husband’s death in 1924 when she came to Montreal to live with her step-daughter, Adele Languedoc who was in charge of the McLennan Travelling Library at Macdonald College. She later sold Russellhurst in the Tadoussac village and bought what is now known as Languedoc Parc from Henry Dale, an American. She designed and built Amberley which is now (much renovated) the Gomer home. Dale also had a carriage road going down to Pointe Rouge. The circular “Fairy Circle” was its turnaround. During World War I, Erie organized a Red Cross Society branch at Aylmer, Quebec, and after the war, she was instrumental in setting up seven chapters of the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (I.O.D.E., a Canadian national women’s charitable organization) in the Ottawa district. In 1940, just before her death, Erie organized a Red Cross branch in Tadoussac. She was a life member of both the Red Cross Society and the I.O.D.E. Erie did much to promote interest in, and the sale of, handicrafts indigenous to the Saguenay region and was an authority on the folklore of this district in Quebec. Recognition of the work she had done for Tadoussac came with her election to the honorary presidency of Le Cercle des Fermieres of Tadoussac which still exists today. Ann Stevenson Dewart relates memories of her first cousin, Erie. “In those days the Park was truly a private enclave, dominated by Cousin Erie Languedoc. No one passed her door without her scrutiny, and French and English alike walked in awe of her flashing, black eyes and outthrust jaw. ‘You, there, what's your name?’ she would ask, poking her crooked walking stick at the trespasser's stomach. If it was a French child, she would want to know his parents' names. She persuaded the Curé to declare the Park off-limits after dark for the village youths, as much to protect her rest as their morals. Only visitors were allowed to come in by the front gate opposite the Golf Club. Tradesmen and the solitary motorcar had to use the back entrance near Hovington's farm. If anyone came to our door after dark, uninvited, Mum would first get down the .22 rifle before calling out, ‘Who is it?’ Fortunately, she never had to use either it or the revolver. Cousin Erie, however, wasn't afraid of man or beast and often stayed alone in the park until the boats stopped running late in September. She and her walking stick were a match for anything, but Mum was more nervous. Erie gave her a big brass dinner bell to ring if she needed help. Erie had one even bigger. As the only two women alone in the park it was a kind of mutual aid pact in case of fire or illness.” Erie died in 1941 when Amberley then went to Adele and later, after Adele's death, was acquired by Adelaide Gomer. Brian Dewart (with excerpts from Ann Stevenson Dewart’s writings) Back to ALL Bios

  • Smith, Amelia Jane (LeMesurier)

    Matriarch of the Smith family in Tadoussac as her son, Robert Harcourt Smith, bought Dufferin House Smith, Amelia Jane (LeMesurier) Matriarch of the Smith family in Tadoussac as her son, Robert Harcourt Smith, bought Dufferin House Back to ALL Bios Amelia Jane (LeMesurier) Smith 1832-1917 Amelia Jane LeMesurier was born in Quebec City in 1832. She was the fourth daughter and one of twelve children of Henry LeMesurier and his wife Julie Guerout. In 1857 she married Robert Herbert Smith (1825-1898) also of Quebec City. He was involved in the Timber and Shipping business, and it is this business that may have brought the family to Tadoussac. They had eight children, Robert Harcourt (1858), Edith (1862, who married Henry Baring Powel), Amelia Blanche (1863, who married Sir William Price), Herbert (1866), Charles (1867), George (1870), Edmund (1874), and Arthur (1875). There are memorial plaques for all of these children except Edith. Amelia’s oldest son, Harcourt, was also in the lumber business and he bought Dufferin House from the Dale family. It may have been he who brought the Smith family to Tadoussac, currently in its sixth generation. Amelia Jane died in Quebec City in 1917 having been predeceased by her sons Robert Harcourt in 1913 and Herbert in 1915. She is buried with her husband in Mount Hermon Cemetery, in Quebec City. Because these are the first Smiths to come to Tadoussac it is worth noting here that first, it is unknown whether Amelia’s husband Robert ever holidayed here. It may be that Amelia and her other children only came after her son Harcourt bought Dufferin House in 1911. Also, because Amelia Blanche married Sir William Price, and Edith married Henry Baring Powel, the Smith, Price and Powel families became connected. Coosie Price, Harky Powel and brothers Lex, Gordon and Guy Smith were all first cousins. It should be noted that the name Carington is not part of the Smith surname, but a frequently used middle name.   Eve Wickwire Photos ~1906 shows Amelia Jane Lemesurier Smith, her son Robert Harcourt Carrington Smith, and his son Gordon Smith, father of Eve Wickwire! ~1894 the children George (1870), Herbert (1866) Robert Harcourt (1858), Amelia Blanche (1863, who married Sir William Price), Charles (1867) Arthur (1875), Edmund (1874) missing Edith (1862, who married Henry Baring Powel) Back to ALL Bios

  • Leggat, Robert William Leggat

    A glowing personality whose life was all too short Leggat, Robert William Leggat A glowing personality whose life was all too short Back to ALL Bios Robert William Leggat – May 14, 1987 – March 12, 2000 Robert William Leggat (Robbie) was born on May 14th, 1987, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was the second son of Michael and Stephanie Leggat, had a younger brother Alex, and was predeceased by an older brother, Matthew. Robbie was a fine young man who was loved by all who knew him, both young and old. An infectious smile and glowing personality always met you upon greeting him. Robbie spent almost every summer of his life in Tadoussac and had many fond memories. He particularly liked playing golf at the Tadoussac Golf Club with his brother Alex and his dad. He enjoyed going on picnics to the “Flat Rocks”, swimming in the lake, hiking to “Bon Desir” and, of course, whale watching. He lost his first tooth at the age of 5 in Jannie Beattie’s back yard and was thrilled when the tooth fairy left a dollar under his pillow even though he didn’t put the tooth there for her. On March 12th, 2000, Michael, Stephanie and Alex lost Robbie in a tragic car accident while going on a ski vacation in Maine. He was a loving son and brother, a good friend, a talented piano player, a fine athlete (he was going to play in the NHL when he grew up!) and an excellent student. It is these attributes that we will forever hold in our hearts Back to ALL Bios

  • Skutezky, Ernie & Phoebe (Evans)

    After serving in World War 2, Ernie fell in love for life with Phoebe and Tadoussac Skutezky, Ernie & Phoebe (Evans) After serving in World War 2, Ernie fell in love for life with Phoebe and Tadoussac Back to ALL Bios Ernest Skutezky 1918 - 2011 and Phoebe Maye (Evans) Skutezky – 1921 - 2008 Ernest Skutezky was born in Opava, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now the eastern part of the Czech Republic, on 1st day of September, 1918, the son of Hans and Lily Skutezky. In the mid-1930s he attended Dundee Tech in Scotland to learn about the textile trade which was his father’s business in central Europe. In 1938, his father advised Ernest that he was moving the family to North America - the United States or Canada - to get away from the oppression being invoked by Nazi Germany. Apparently, he said if the destination for the family was Canada, he would come. Ernest was accepted in the Commerce program at McGill University and enrolled in the ROTC program. World War 2 began, but his father would not permit him to “join up” until he had completed his degree. He graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree at McGill University in 1942, before joining the Canadian Army. After undergoing officer training at Brockville and Petawawa, he was posted to England. Ernest was commissioned as Lieutenant and was first in the artillery and then was seconded into intelligence. Two weeks after D-Day he landed at Juno Beach and his duties were to set up prisoner cages to interrogate prisoners. He also would travel by motorcycle to German holdout positions to encourage them to surrender using a megaphone in his German mother tongue. The holdouts were not always cooperative and answered with machine gun fire. He travelled with the Canadian advance all the way to Holland. Phoebe Maye Evans was born on the 12th May, 1921, in Montreal, Quebec. Her father was Trevor Ainslie Evans (born 1879) and her mother was Dorothy Gwendolyn Esther Rhodes who was born in 1892. The families of both Phoebe’s parents were summer residents of Tadoussac and both her parents served their country during the Great War. Phoebe was the eldest of four children which included Dorothy Ainslie Stephen, Trevor Armitage Evans and Rhodes Bethune (Tim) Evans. After the cessation of hostilities in Europe, Ernest was introduced to Tadoussac by his bride to be, Phoebe. Apparently, Phoebe indicated that he would have to like Tadoussac if they were to be married. He very sensibly did, and in August of 1945, Ernie married Phoebe at St. Matthias’ Church in Westmount, Quebec, where Phoebe had been baptised. Ernest became a fixture in Tadoussac and all it had to offer including tennis, golf and his Shark sail boat, Nirvana. Tadoussac reminded him of St. Gilgen, Austria on the Wolfgangsee where the family had a villa which was seized by the Nazis and sold to a German. The villa was later recovered. At home in Montreal, Phoebe was an enthusiastic member of the Montreal General Hospital auxiliary working in the Hospitality Shop, always making time to listen to those that needed that kindness. Her participation at the Atwater Club spanned half a century playing badminton and tennis well into her eighties. In the 1970s, Phoebe was crew to sailor husband Ernest, sailing in 420 regattas off Dorval Naval Base and upriver. Phoebe was always involved in her children’s activities either on the sidelines watching as a hockey Mom, choir mother, Tawny Owl or coaching Ringette. She was one of the 'pioneers' of Ringette, co-coaching a Canadian Championship Team. She was also a proud member of the 78th Fraser Highlanders. A lover of family, nature, and all its creatures great and small, Phoebe enjoyed being 'out in it' whether it was from 'le Petit Train de Nord' in the Laurentian mountains as a teenager and young adult, in the Morgan Arboretum well past middle age, or as a summer resident of Tadoussac, from the age of 3 months. She enjoyed the view and activity of the St. Lawrence and Saguenay Rivers and environs from her front verandah in her later years. She served on the Executive of the Tennis Club and the Tadoussac Protestant Chapel taking her turn arranging flowers and cleaning the Church for Sunday service. In the mid-seventies, Ernest commissioned Gaeten Hovington, a local wood sculptor, to carve a “Minke Trophy” to be awarded to the winners of an annual round-robin mixed doubles tennis tournament in the month of July to promote community participation, good sportsmanship and competitive play in tennis. The tournament continues to be played in July of every summer. Ernie and Phoebe’s legacy lives on in their 3 children: Michael (Judy Shirriff), Victoria, BC; Trevor (Gail Goodfellow), Montreal; Gwen (the late Alan Sawers), West Vancouver. He was the proud grandfather of Trevor, (Ben Fischer), West Vancouver; James, (Silje Albrigsten, Tromso, Norway) great granddaughter, Viktoria, great grandson William), Pemberton, BC; Ruth, (Jesse Wheeler, great grandsons Thomas and Max), North Vancouver, BC; Dorothy (Montreal), Charles (Brittany Cairns) and great grandson Harrison, Montreal and Evelyn (Michael Price), and great granddaughter Lilly Belle, Montreal; Christopher Sawers (Lace Kessler) and great granddaughters Stella, Charleigh and Isla and Gordon Sawers (Sarah Rush), great-granddaughter Avery and great-grandson Hudson), North Vancouver BC. Phoebe died in Tadoussac, Quebec on the 4th July, 2008, and Ernest died in Montreal on December 18, 2011. Ernest and Phoebe are interred together in the Memorial Garden on the grounds of the Tadoussac Protestant Chapel. Back to ALL Bios

  • Morewood, Gertrude Isobel (Billy)

    Everyone's "Aunt Bill", she loved children and was like a second mother to her nephews, Harry and Frank Morewood Morewood, Gertrude Isobel (Billy) Everyone's "Aunt Bill", she loved children and was like a second mother to her nephews, Harry and Frank Morewood Back to ALL Bios Gertrude Isobel Morewood 1891 - 1977 Gertrude Isobel Morewood was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on June 13, 1891. She was the fourth child (of five) of Harry and Minnie Morewood, and throughout her life she was known as Bill or Billy. She trained as a nurse, but nothing is known about her working career. When she was about 18 years old, (1909) her parents moved the family to a house called Benmore, in Quebec City, which was the house her grandfather had bought in 1848. It is believed that Billy was interested in a Jewish man for some time, but marriage to him was not acceptable to her mother, and Billy never married. She loved small dogs and often had two. She was excellent at training them to do tricks and delighted many children by showing them what her dogs could do. She always kept a pack of small playing cards in her purse and in her house, she kept a drawer full of toys to amuse visiting children. She was a keen gardener and they had a large garden at Benmore with vegetables in the middle of a huge square border of flowers. There was also a large lily pond at Benmore that had been created by Billy. The pond had not only lilies, but also goldfish. In the fall she would capture as many goldfish as she could and they would spend the winter in a barrel in the basement at Benmore. In the spring she would usually find a few goldfish that had escaped the capturing procedure in the fall and had wintered in the pond, presumably by burrowing into the mud at the bottom. When Harry and Frank Morewood were small children, their Aunt Bill took them to Tadoussac each summer to their Uncle Frank (Morewood’s) newly built cottage (Windward). They would stay for a month under Billy’s care and thereby give parents Bobby and Margaret a break. They traveled on the CSL boats to get there and back, which was probably a good thing as she was not a gifted driver. She was so short she actually looked through the steering wheel in her car so perhaps being able to see properly was a difficulty for her. Billy had a strong love for children and was adored by them in return. In Tadoussac she often took numbers of children out in the Williams’s Whiteboat, rowing them about in the bay and around Pointe Rouge for picnics. Many people remember her joking and making kids laugh. She used to visit for days at a time when family members had babies, to help the mums in the first week or two at home. She was also known for helping older relatives as they became more helpless toward the end of their lives. At the de Salaberry house, Billy lived as an adult with her sister Nancy, who also never married. She was devoted to Nancy and looked after her until she died. The two of them used to make wooden jigsaw puzzles together. Aunt Bill, again, had a flower garden and a rock garden. After Nancy died in 1946, she invited her brother, Bobby, his wife, Margaret, and Harry and Frank to live with her at that house. Frank was about 12 years old and Harry 15 at that time. Aunt Bill continued to be very much a second mother to the two boys. There were a few disagreements between the two ladies of the house but it was mostly a harmonious relationship. The house had six bedrooms so there was plenty of room for everyone. Aunt Bill had a life-long friend whom she had met when she was training to be a nurse, who became an Anglican nun. Sister Jane Frances, usually called Peg, was a frequent visitor at Benmore and the de Salaberry house. Billy’s younger brother Bobby died in 1964. Aunt Bill and Margaret were alone – the boys now in their 30s had long since moved out – so they decided to sell the house and move into an apartment, not much more than a block away, on St. Louis Road. Aunt Bill died December 5, 1977 at the age of 86. Alan Evans Photo above With Carrie Rhodes (Morewood) on the dock Photo Below Godfrey Rhodes, Minny Morewood, Dorothy Rhodes (Evans), Amy Burstall, Billy Morewood, Carrie Rhodes (Morewood) Back to ALL Bios

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