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  • Whitley, Jessie Margaret

    Whitley, Jessie Margaret Back to ALL Bios ​ Jessie Margaret Whitley - 1882 Most of us 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. We do know something of the family, however, both backwards and forwards. 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 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 of which “Daisy” was the youngest. The others were Frederick, Henry, Ernest and Elsie. Frederick and Jessie’s son, Frederick, became an Anglican priest, and his other sons, Henry and Ernest, joined their father in his business. Frederick was 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. In about 1899, he became Lt Colonel and Officer commanding the Duke of Connaught’s Royal Canadian Hussars, and still later, Brigadier for Cavalry in the Military District of Montreal, forming the Infantry Regiments in the country districts into Mounted Infantry. He was also very interested in the work of the Church of England, was a Lay Reader in the Diocese of Montreal and was, at various times, Superintendent of St. Martin’s and St. James the Apostle Sunday schools. Frederick died in 1914, just before WW I. His wife Jessie died in 1940. Of Daisy’s siblings we know that the Reverend Frederick Whitley was the eldest. He married and had one daughter, Ruth, who never married. Ernest married Gertrude McGill and had one daughter, Barbara Jane Whitley, who never married. Barbara Jane would have been Daisy’s niece. She was well-known at the Montreal General Hospital where she volunteered for 60 years. She also started the Whithearn Foundation, a family foundation which was set up to fund research on diseases and disorders of the eye. Barbara passed away at the age of 100 in 2018, but remembered Tadoussac very well and provided this family information just before she died. Henry had one daughter Phyllis Rosamond who married Ralph Collyer and had three children – John, Peter and Jane (m. Wandell). Phyllis passed away May 15, 2002 in her ninety-first year at St. Lambert, Quebec. 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. Cynthia Price, Karen Molson, Alan Evans

  • Languedoc, Adele

    Languedoc, Adele Back to ALL Bios ​ In Memoriam Adele de Guerry Languedoc March 1904 – December 1993 On Sunday, August 5th, 2007 the congregation of the Tadoussac Protestant Chapel laid a headstone in memory of Adele de Guerry Languedoc on the chapel grounds. Adele was born in Tadoussac in the early 1900’s and summered here with her family throughout her life. Adele’s step-mother, Erie Russell Janes Languedoc, was the granddaughter of Willis Russell who, along with Colonel Rhodes, were among the first to build summer cottages at Tadoussac in the 1860’s. Erie purchased the lands that later became known as Languedoc Park after she married the widower, George de Guerry Languedoc. The four original cottages in Languedoc Park were Erie's cottage and the cottages of the three Stevenson sisters who were great granddaughters of Willis Russell. At the time of her death, she was remembered by the National Archives of Canada for her distinguished career as a librarian. Her career began with her undergraduate degree at McGill University including a library diploma and she received a Bachelor of Library Service from Columbia University in 1946. She served for five years with the American Relief for France during the Second World War and her efforts helped to restore the regional libraries that had been so damaged during the war. She also set up the first children’s library that existed outside Paris. On her return to Canada she was hired as ‘accessions librarian’ at the Canadian Bibliographic Centre which was later named the Library and Archives of Canada. She helped to build our now famous collection of Canadian literature and documents. She was named Assistant National Librarian in 1964. Through her work in Ottawa she was asked to represent Canada as a member of the UNESCO seminar on libraries and served as a consultant in Africa. The National Library News wrote of her at the time of her death “To all her work, she brought a broad, deep knowledge and experience of Canada’s French and English tradition. She is remembered by her friends in Tadoussac as a friendly, smiling member of the community sitting on her porch at her cottage in Languedoc Park. Few realised what important work she had done at the National and International level. She was a neighbour and a friend.

  • Alexander, James Okeden

    Alexander, James Okeden 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.

  • Molson, Colin John (Jack) Grasset

    Molson, Colin John (Jack) Grasset Back to ALL Bios ​ Colin John Grasset Molson 1902 - 1997 C.J.G. “Jack” Molson was born in St. Thomas, Ontario to Mary Letitia Snider and Kenneth Molson. The family moved to Quebec City when Jack was two years old, where Kenneth worked as a manager for a branch of the Molson’s Bank. During Jack’s childhood he spent his summers with his grandparents (John Thomas Molson and Jenny Baker Butler) in Métis. He learned to play the violin as a boy, and for his high school years he attended boarding school at Ashbury College in Rockcliffe Park, near Ottawa. He went on to study economics and accounting, and as a young man he was hired by Coopers & Lybrand. Jack met Doris Amelia Carington Smith at a coming-out party aboard the HMS Hood, (built in 1922, the largest military vessel in the world at the time), anchored in the Quebec harbour in August of 1924. They were married in Montmorency two years later. From then on, Jack would spend time with his family each summer in Tadoussac, where the Carington Smiths had a summer home. They had two children: Robin, in 1929, and Verity in 1932. Jack owned a little wooden sailboat called Lilith, but sold the vessel when war started in 1939. He became Paymaster for the Black Watch in Montreal. He and Doris continued to come to Tadoussac with their children through the war year summers. After peace was declared, in 1945, he bought land in Dwight Park and had a house built on it of his own design. Jack Molson continued to work as a chartered accountant in Montreal, while over the years his interest in Quebec’s history and heritage grew. He became one of the founders of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild and was one of the first to support the efforts of Inuit carvers and print-makers. In 1955 when Westmount’s Hurtubise House (1714) was threatened with demolition, Jack mounted an effort to save the island’s oldest home. He persuaded his friend, James Beattie, and his aunt, Mabel Molson, to help him buy the house. In the next few years, he purchased two other properties, including natural sites in Gaspé that were vulnerable to commercial development. By 1960 the Canadian Heritage of Quebec was incorporated and had an active board of professionals as directors. The CHQ foundation, under Jack’s direction, would save Simon Fraser house in Ste. Anne-de-Bellevue, the Laterriere Seigneurial Mill at Les Eboulements in the Charlevoix, as well as Les Rochers, Sir John A. Macdonald’s summer home in St. Patrick, and dozens of other heritage properties on both sides of the St. Lawrence River, including Bon Désir and Point à Boisvert on the north shore. Here in Tadoussac, Jack Molson and James Beattie purchased the Pilot House (Molson-Beattie House) with the intention of converting it to a museum. When historical fishing vessels and sailboats were donated to the CHQ foundation, Jack had barns erected on land behind the Pilot House in order to preserve them. He bought land above the sand dunes which he later donated to the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park. He was also very supportive of the Tadoussac Protestant Chapel. In 1979 Jack Molson was awarded the Order of Canada for his dedication to historical preservation through the Canadian Heritage of Quebec. By then, he had long retired from his work in order to devote all of his time to the foundation. In spite of his remarkable vision of the future and all of his accomplishments, Jack was a modest man who shied away from personal publicity. His manner was unassuming, his personal life pared down to the essentials. One of the things he loved the most was a simple picnic on a St. Lawrence River beach with some boiled eggs and a cup of tea brewed in a billycan over a small fire. On more than one occasion he was known to have said to Doris, “This is a beautiful, unspoiled spot. It would be such a pity if someone decided to develop it. We should buy it.” Predeceased by Doris in 1975, and his daughter Verity in 1995, Jack Molson passed away peacefully after a long illness in 1997. He was 95. Karen Molson

  • Morewood, Frank & Carrie (Rhodes)

    Morewood, Frank & Carrie (Rhodes) Back to ALL Bios ​ Caroline Annie (Rhodes) 1881 – 1973 & Francis Edmund Morewood 1886 - 1949 Carrie was born in 1881, to William Rhodes and Caroline Annie Hibler in Adelaide, Australia. William was superintendent of railway systems and was presumably in Australia to assist in building their railway. Carrie’s first visit to Tadoussac was in the summer of 1882. When in Tadoussac the family stayed at the original Rhodes cottage that was on the same site as today’s Brynhyfryd. In 1885 - 86 Carrie and her mother again visited Australia. A brother Godfrey was born in 1890 and died in 1892. The family lived in Philadelphia, but spent much of their time at Benmore in Quebec City, especially when William was travelling. William’s sister, Minnie, married Harry Morewood. The family lived in New York but spent a great deal of time at Benmore and Tadoussac – important because one of their sons, Frank, born 1886, would eventually marry Carrie in 1919 or 1920. Carrie was thirty-eight when she married, Frank about thirty-five, and they had two children, Bill and Betty. Nothing is known about Carrie’s schooling, but Frank went to Bishop’s College School in Lennoxville at age fourteen. It is believed that Frank was an architect and he designed several houses in Tadoussac: Windward, the Turcot house, and the new Brynhyfryd. He also did a great deal of design work for the chapel, having the steps and the back door added to the building in cement, as well as the rose window on the street side. Frank was said to have had polio; Betty, his daughter, told stories of how he had to manually lift his left leg to step on the brake while driving, which made for a terrifying trip from Quebec City to Tadoussac on the old, narrow, and hilly roads. Frank was an artist and many of his watercolours are hanging in houses in Tadoussac. He died in 1949, having met just one of his grandchildren, Anne, whose only memory of him is having him paint her face like a bunny. After Frank’s death, Carrie lived with their son Bill and his family outside Philadephia. She travelled often to Lennoxville and Tadoussac to spend time with Betty and her family. Carrie was active in the church in Pennsylvania. She was a quiet, gentle woman who did not interfere with the upbringing of her grandchildren but had a big influence on all of them. She was a very positive role model. Granddaughter Anne remembers her catching her doing something she was forbidden to do in Tadoussac, and telling her she would not tell her parents if she promised never to do it again. Somehow when Granny gave a reason why it was dangerous it made sense, so Anne did not do it again. As an old lady Carrie (Granny) had some sort of palsy so she typed everything. When Anne was first married, Granny wrote to her every week and Anne wrote back every Friday while sitting at the laundromat. When Anne and Ian bought their first house, she gave them a washer and dryer! Uncle Bill told Anne that Granny fussed terribly if her note did not arrive on Wednesday. She had a series of heart attacks in her last few years and died in 1973. At that time, she had met her first great-grandchild and knew the second was on the way and would be named Carrie, after her. Anne Belton

  • Smith, Edmund Harcourt Carington

    Smith, Edmund Harcourt Carington Back to ALL Bios ​ Edmund Harcourt Carington Smith 1874-1951 Edmund was born in Quebec City in 1874. He was the fifth son of Robert Herbert Smith and Amelia Jane LeMesurier Smith. He was a well-known banking figure who started his career at the Bank of Montreal in 1892. He was manager of several branches in Canada and England and ended his career in 1932 in charge of the Charlevoix and Centre Street branches of the bank in Quebec City. He was a member for many years of the Royal Montreal Curling Club and the Montreal Athletic Amateur Association. He spent many summers in Tadoussac and loved the beauty of the area and, as a bachelor, he enjoyed the closeness of his extended family. He died suddenly in Tadoussac on August 15, 1951, and is buried at Mount Hermon Cemetery in Quebec City. Eve Wickwire

  • Languedoc, Erie (Janes) & George de Guerry

    Languedoc, Erie (Janes) & George de Guerry 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)

  • Rhodes, Col. William and Anne Catherine (Dunn)

    Rhodes, Col. William and Anne Catherine (Dunn) Back to ALL Bios ​ Lieutenant Colonel the Honourable William Rhodes 1821 – 1892 & Anne Catherine (Dunn) 1823 - 1911 William Rhodes was born in 1821, at Bramhope Hall near Leeds, in England. His father, also named William Rhodes, was a wealthy farmer and a soldier who fought for the British in the War of 1812 in Canada. The older William was a Captain in the 19th Lancers, the former 19th Light Dragoons, and married Ann Smith. Young William was educated in France, and as a second son, knew that he was not going to inherit, so his father bought him a commission in the army. He entered the British army in May 1838 as an ensign in the 68th Foot (Durham Light Infantry). It was in August of 1841 that twenty-year-old William Rhodes came to Quebec from England as part of a military posting, and served in Quebec from October 1842 to May 1844. He fell in love with the land, the river, the people, and eventually with a young lady from Trois Rivieres named Anne Dunn whom he planned to marry. The older William did not want his son to marry a colonial and pulled strings in the military to have him recalled but William returned and married Anne Dunn in the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Quebec City, in 1847, and left the army with the rank of captain. Anne Dunn’s grandfather, Thomas Dunn had come to Quebec in 1760, a year after General James Wolfe’s invasion. He administered Lower Canada from 1805 to 1807, and in 1811. Anne’s parents were Robert Dunn, who was an assistant to the Office of Civil Secretary, and Margaret Bell. Her maternal grandfather was Matthew Bell. In 1848, Captain Rhodes and Anne Dunn purchased the estate of Benmore on Chemin St. Louis in Sillery, where they settled and engaged in horticulture. The house remained in the Rhodes family for a hundred years and still stands, although today it is part of a condo development. William Rhodes was known for his experimental agriculture, learning what crops and cattle would best tolerate the Quebec environment. During the 1860s he got into business where he associated with Evan John Price and others and engaged with them in mining in the counties of Wolfe and Mégantic. He was one of the founders of the Union Bank of Lower Canada and of the Grand Trunk Railway, President of Company Warehouse Quebec and the Quebec Bridge Company which eventually built the first Quebec Bridge. He led a delegation on April 12th, 1888, to meet Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Charles Tupper to lobby for funds to build the bridge. He helped to establish the Quebec and Richmond Railway and the North Shore Line, which later merged with the CPR. In politics, Rhodes was the MP for Megantic from 1854 to 1857. Later, he joined the Mercier cabinet as Minister of Agriculture and Colonization and was elected Liberal MP for Mégantic in the Legislative Assembly in a by-election in 1888. During this time, William and Anne produced five sons and four daughters over a twenty-year period and they were very eager that all of their children be educated and guided into a successful future. Rhodes was an avid hunter and outdoorsman and the boys were taken on lengthy camping trips in the winter with friends, often returning to Quebec City with sleds loaded with enough game to provision the household for two months. The daughters in the family were not neglected in their education. In one of his many letters to the family in England, he wrote: “… the little girls have now music, dancing, and French masters, to say nothing of sewing machines, pudding making, and English writing. In fact, tuition and all its branches are the order of the day.” It was through his friendship with the lumber merchant Price family that William Rhodes first discovered Tadoussac. A businessman and politician at heart, it wasn't long before he was taking leadership here too. He built the anglophone community's first summer cottage and his friends in the Russell family, also of Quebec City, built an exact copy right next door which is still in the Russell family, Spruce Cliff owned by Susie (Scott) Bruemmer. William Rhodes's cottage would have looked exactly like that at first, but then he extended it to accommodate his growing family and it burned down in 1932. It was replaced by the cottage that is there now, Brynhyfryd. Robert Hale Powel was another friend who decided to build a summer cottage in Tadoussac. He bought the next lot, currently the Baileys. It is said the three friends, Rhodes, Russell, and Powel often played whist together. Perhaps it was during such a game that the opportunity was either offered or asked for that William’s sons, Armitage and Godfrey, move to Philadelphia to work in one of Powel’s rolling mills. The boys got experience like any other worker on the machine shop floors where the manual labour was hot and hard. They gradually moved up the ranks learning every aspect of the trade until they became executives in their own right, as leaders in the rail business. William Rhodes and Mr Russell were part of a group that built the original Hotel Tadoussac in 1864, and it was in a meeting in that new hotel that they committed themselves to build the Protestant Chapel in 1866. His son Godfrey kept a diary that records camping trips when they would row locally built Nor'shore Canoes up to Baie St. Etienne to camp and fish. But for all the forays out into the wilds, William remained devoted to his first and only love. He wrote of Anne: “… I find her a valuable assistant, in interpreting to me the characters of the young men I have to deal with. (…) Few women have performed all their duties to their children so well and so unceasingly as my wife”. For all his work in business and politics, it is clear that William Rhodes was a devoted father and, judging by photographs that have survived, he and Anne were lovers of their time with family in Tadoussac. One summer he wrote to a family member: “My family is all down at the seaside at Tadoussac. We are all together which is a great comfort, far preferable to having sons away in India or floating about the ocean on His Majesty’s ships.” Lt Colonel William Rhodes died at Benmore on February 17th, 1892, at the age of seventy. His death was quite unexpected. He had been well but took sick with La Grippe. After the funeral, celebrated in the Anglican Church of St. Michael, he was buried in Mount Hermon Cemetery. 3 The Rhodes had nine children and twenty grandchildren, all of whom spent significant time in Tadoussac, so it is worthwhile recording some of the descendants here. William’s wife Anne (Dunn) Rhodes outlived the Colonel by twenty years, and it is said that she was a sweet lady; however, with so many grandchildren she became a bit vague as to which child was which. Just imagine the struggle she would have in keeping her descendants straight today! The oldest son was Armitage, and his daughter Dorothy (Dorsh) married Trevor Evans and their children are Phoebe, Ainslie, Trevor, and Tim, producing nine more Evans, Skutezkys, and Stevens. Next was Godfrey, who bought the estate Cataraqui in Quebec. He had two daughters: Gertrude who died in infancy; and Catherine, who married Percival Tudor-Hart and lived at the estate until her death in 1972. Godfrey built the Tudor-Hart cottage in Languedoc Park here in Tadoussac. There are no descendants. The third son was William. His daughter Carrie would marry her first cousin, Frank. William and Godfrey had been sent to the United States to work in the railway business, so they lived in the US and William also travelled around the world. The fourth son, Francis, married a Quebec girl, Totie Le Moine, from Spencer Grange, another old house that’s still standing in Quebec – now the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor. Their two surviving daughters (of four) were Lily Bell and Frances, whom many of us remember fondly. The fifth son was Robert Dunn Rhodes who settled in the United States and had eight children who led to Rhodes, Johnson, and Robes descendants who settled in the Boston area. The sixth child, and first girl, was Minnie Rhodes. She married Harry Morewood, an American, and they had five children including Frank Morewood who married his first cousin, William’s daughter, Carrie, above. It was Frank and Carrie who built Windward cottage in 1936 and the Evans family are descendants. William’s other children were Isobel, known as Billy, John, and Nancy as well as Bobby who had two sons, Frank and Harry Morewood. Seventh, there was Nan who married Lennox Williams. Their children were: James, who was killed in World War I; Mary, the matriarch of the Wallace and Leggat families; Gertrude, who led the Alexander and Aylan-Parker families; and Sydney, whose descendants include the Williams, Ballantynes, Websters, and Campbells. The eighth and ninth children were Fanny who died in infancy and Gertrude, who married, but died childless at twenty-six years old. Alan Evans MORE PHOTOS at https://www.tidesoftadoussac.com/colwmrhodes-1821-92--anne-dunn-1823-11

  • Smith, Robert Guy Carington

    Smith, Robert Guy Carington Back to ALL Bios ​ Robert Guy Carington Smith 1908 - 2006 Constance Isobel (Price) Smith 1908 – 1944 Jean Alexandra (McCaig) Smith 1903 - 1988 Known to most in Tadoussac as either Poppa or Uncle Guy, Robert Guy Carington Smith was born in 1908, in Quebec City, to Robert Harcourt Smith and Mary Valliere Gunn Smith. He was the third of three sons. His older brothers were Alexander (Lex) and Gordon. They enjoyed a happy childhood growing up on Grande Allée in the English area of Quebec City. In 1911 Robert Harcourt Smith purchased Dufferin House in Tadoussac, Quebec as a summer home, from Henry Dale of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. After being ceded to all three boys, Guy bought out his brothers’ stake in the house, and Dufferin remained within the family for four consecutive generations. Like his brothers before him, Guy was educated at Bishop’s College School in Lennoxville, Quebec, and the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, from which he graduated in 1929. Guy also attended McGill University for Economics from 1929 to 1930. After his time at McGill University, Guy entered the Department of Trade and Commerce as a Junior Trade Commissioner in 1930. “Iso” was born in 1908, in Quebec City to Henry Edward Price and Helen Muriel Gilmour. Her siblings included Helen Florence (1902), Enid Muriel (1904), Millicent Ruth (1906), William Gilmour (1910), James Cuthbert (1912), Sheila Hope (1914), Henry Edward (Ted) Clifford (1916), Llewellyn Evan (1919), and Barbara Joan (1921), all born in Quebec City. During her young life, Iso saw the passing of her younger sister Barbara Joan at the age of three in 1924, her brother Gilmour in 1940 at the age of thirty, and Evan in 1944 at the age of twenty-five. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the family grew up close in the English section of Quebec City. At the age of twenty-three Isobel travelled alone to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where on April 27, 1932, she married Guy Smith who was stationed in the Canadian diplomatic service. They had three children during their marriage: Valliere Ann (1933) and Susan Pamela (1935) in Buenos Aires, and Penelope Joan (1939) in Rye, New York. In 1931 Guy was posted to Buenos Aires as the Assistant Trade Commissioner and then to New York in 1936. Guy was granted a leave of absence from 1940 to 1945 to join the Royal Canadian Artillery in the war effort. During his time of service, Guy was involved in a motorcycle accident that took him out of active service. At the time of his discharge, Guy had earned the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Sadly, Iso passed away at the age of thirty-six in 1944, in Ottawa, Ontario. Constance Isobel Smith is buried at the Mount Hermon Cemetery in Quebec City. Jean, Mumsie, Aunt Jean, Grannie was born in Quebec in 1903. Her parents were John and Evelyn McCaig. She had two sisters, Ruth, born in 1908, and Ester, and one brother, William John, born in 1911. The family moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 1911. Jean trained as a stenographer and early in her adult life, she developed a love of travel. During the 1920s and 1930s, she visited Vancouver, Honolulu, San Francisco, Berkeley, South Hampton, and Brazil and settled finally in New York in the early 1940s. She was working as a stenographer in the Canadian Consul General/Trade Commissioner’s office when she met Robert Guy Carington Smith. They were married on December 12, 1945. In 1946, Guy was appointed to Havana, Cuba, to continue his diplomatic and trade service. From there, Guy enjoyed a robust career as a Canadian diplomat travelling to posts in many different countries including Rome, London, Paris, Washington, Tokyo, the West Indies, and finally, back to New York where he was appointed as Consul General for Canada for the states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. For the next twenty years, Jean travelled to, and lived in all of these places and became a gracious hostess for Guy as he pursued his diplomatic career. Following his retirement, Guy and Jean moved to Brockville, Ontario where he remained highly involved in both civic and church duties. Always a dedicated subject of the Queen, Poppa faithfully corresponded using only Queen’s head stamps. After career and family, Poppa’s main love was Dufferin House in Tadoussac. Not a summer went by without Poppa spending it in Tadoussac tending the gardens and managing the property. For a while, a main fixture of the house was the old English Taxi (“Gertrude”) that Poppa would drive around the streets of Tadoussac heading to church or a run to the local store. It was Tadoussac’s version of Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman from Driving Miss Daisy with Jean in the back waving to us all! Robert Guy Carington Smith 1908 - 2006 Known to most in Tadoussac as either Poppa or Uncle Guy, Robert Guy Carington Smith was born on 5 January, 1908 in Quebec City, to Robert Harcourt Smith and Mary Valliere Gunn Smith. He was the third of three sons. His older brothers were Alexander (Lex) and Gordon. They enjoyed a happy childhood growing up on the Grande Allée in the English area of Quebec City. In 1911 Robert Harcourt Smith purchased Dufferin House in Tadoussac, Quebec as a summer home, from Henry Dale of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. After being ceded to all three boys, Guy bought out his brothers’ stake in the house, and Dufferin has remained within the family for four consecutive generations. Like his brothers before him, Guy was educated at Bishop’s College School in Lennoxville, Quebec, and the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, from which he graduated in 1929. Guy also attended McGill University for Economics from 1929 - 30. After his time at McGill University, Guy entered the Department of Trade and Commerce as a Junior Trade Commissioner on June 9, 1930. In 1931 he was posted to Buenos Aires as the Assistant Trade Commissioner and then to New York in 1936. Guy was granted a leave of absence from 1940 - 45 to join the Royal Canadian Artillery in the war effort. During his time of service Guy was involved in motorcycle accident that took him out of active duty service. At the time of his discharge from service, Guy had earned the rank of Lt. Colonel. In 1946, Guy was appointed to Havana, Cuba, to continue his diplomatic and trade service. From here, Guy enjoyed a robust career as a Canadian Diplomat traveling to posts in many different countries including: Rome, Italy; London, England; Paris, France; Washington, D.C.; Tokyo, Japan; the West Indies; and finally, back to New York where he was appointed as Consul General for Canada for the states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. During his time traveling the world, his wife (Constance Isobel Price) gave birth to their three daughters: Valliere Ann (born July 30, 1933 – Buenos Aires), Susan Pamela (born May 23, 1935 – Buenos Aires), and Penelope Joan (born May 20, 1939 – Rye, NY). Sadly, Constance Isobel died at the age of 36 in 1944. Following his retirement, Guy and his second wife, Jean, moved to Brockville, Ontario where he remained highly involved in both civic and church duties. Always a dedicated subject of the Queen, Poppa faithfully corresponded using Queen head stamps. After career and family, Poppa’s main love was Dufferin House in Tadoussac. Not a summer went by without Poppa spending it in Tadoussac tending the gardens and managing the property. For a while, a main fixture of the house was the old English Taxi (“Gertrude”) that Poppa would drive around the streets of Tadoussac heading to church or a run to the local store. Guy died in Brockville on January 23, 2006, aged 98, and is buried at the Mount Hermon Cemetery in Quebec City near both wives. CONNECTION TO OTHER TADOUSSAC FAMILIES: 1) Married a Price (Henry) family member. 2) Doris Molson was a Smith family member. Michael McCarter

  • Russell, Willis Robert

    Russell, Willis Robert Back to ALL Bios ​ Willis Robert Russell (1887-1907) Willis Robert Russell (b. 1887) was the son of William Edward Russell and Fanny Eliza Pope. He was the brother of Florence Louisa “Nonie” Russell and Mabel Emily Russell. We don’t know much about Willis Robert other than he lived a short life, dying In Quebec at age 20 from tuberculosis. Brian Dewart

  • Piddington, Alfred

    Piddington, Alfred Back to ALL Bios ​ Alfred Piddington 1859 - 1922 Alfred Piddington was born on August 13th, in 1859. He came to Tadoussac originally because his sister, Eliza Ernestine Piddington and her husband, Dr. G. G. Gale of Quebec City, had been coming here since the 1880s, renting the old Ferguson house. It is believed that Alfred, and his brother Sam, both bachelors, came to Tadoussac to visit their sister, and fell in love with the area. The Piddington family originally came from the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel. They immigrated to Quebec in the 19th century, and invested in companies like the Quebec-Lake St John Railroad, the Canadian Rubber company, Sun Life Insurance, the Royal Electric Company and the Quebec Steamship Company. In 1906, Sam and Alfred bought a house they called Hillcrest after the widow of the owner, Robert Powel, died in 1905. This house had originally been called Ivanhoe, and at this writing is known as the Bailey’s house. The Powels, from Philadelphia, had built the house in 1865 having obtained the land from Willis Russell of Quebec, both of whom were charter members of the St Marguerite Salmon Club. The Salmon Club, Hillcrest and the Protestant Chapel were built in the Gothic Revival architecture style, which was popular during the 1860’s in Canada. Sam and Alfred were avid sportsmen, enjoying fishing and hunting in particular. They made changes in the house that reflected these interests. For example, a wall was removed to create a large central room that would become a billiard room, and in that room, they mounted the spoils of their hunting trips, including a stuffed wooden duck, a brace of grouse, and a moose head. Other additions included a player piano and gothic-style chairs. Sometime between 1906 and 1914, Alfred went on to build what is now the Stephen-Skutezky house. After his death in 1922, it was passed on to Trevor Evans, and eventually his descendants. Alfred called this house Ivanhoe, the original name for Hillcrest. It’s interesting that many items in both houses are similar including furniture, a piano, a brace of grouse, and even a moose head on the wall. Many old family photographs show that the Piddingtons and the Gales enjoyed sailing on the yacht ‘Pirate’ and picnicking in various places up the Saguenay. Many pictures show them enjoying recreational activities on the Hillcrest lawn, which then extended to the Dufferin House property, where the school is today. They enjoyed lawn bowling, lawn tennis, cricket, croquet and horse back-riding. He even made a miniature golf course. The family still has a picture of Alfred Piddington playing golf in the early days of the Tadoussac Golf Club. In addition, their original guestbook records the names of many summer residents who attended elaborate tea parties at Hillcrest. Alfred’s brother, Sam Piddington, died in 1925 and left Hillcrest to his beloved niece, Ernestine Valiant Gale Bailey and it has been in the Bailey family ever since. Besides the memorial plaque in the Chapel, large cottonwood trees, unusual for this region and which are almost 100 years old, were planted in memory of Sam, Alfred, and Eliza Piddington, in front of Hillcrest, facing the bay. Ray Bailey / Alan Evans

  • Scott, Frances Grace

    Scott, Frances Grace Back to ALL Bios ​ Francis Grace Scott 1904 - 1993 Francis Grace Scott was born in 1904, in Quebec City. She lived there until the age of eight when her family moved to Kenmore, New York. She was the daughter of Mabel Emily Russell and Charles Cunningham Scott. Grace taught English at Kenmore West High School for almost forty years. Kenmore was a suburb of Buffalo. Never having married, she lived in the same house for her whole life, looking after her parents. Grace had a commanding presence and was strict and disciplined. Her niece, Susie recalls summers in Tadoussac were quite structured and very social. Grace loved to know what was going on in the village and the door was always open for people to come and visit. For many years she was the President of the Tadoussac Protestant Chapel. One of her lasting legacies is taking her niece, Susie, to church every Saturday morning to practice the hymns for church on Sunday. Grace also had high ideals and morals reflecting the times she grew up in. She was an avid reader and always liked to discuss what people had just read, current events and American politics! She was a devoted lover of dogs, and had several black cocker spaniels. She loved to sit on the back porch with a dog on her lap, looking at the view. Grace loved Tadoussac, and couldn't wait to get there every summer. She inherited Spruce Cliff from her mother Mabel Emily Russell Scott. When summering in Tadoussac, Helen Price, Lily Bell Rhodes, and Adele Languedoc would often stay with her at Spruce Cliff. Her niece, Susie (Scott) Bruemmer also spent many summers staying with her and eventually inherited the cottage. Grace died at the age of eighty-eight in 1993 in Kenmore, N.Y. And is buried in Mount Hermon Cemetery in Quebec City with her parents. Brian Dewart Susie Bruemmer

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