Morewood, Frank & Carrie (Rhodes)

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