|
a.
|
Note: REFERENCES: My visit with 'great' Aunt Jessie on Saturday, April 10, 1976 at her home at 257 Carruthers Avenue, Ottawa, Ont. Aunt Jessie had lived in the same house since 1917. She showed me many photographs, picture albums, paper clippings and post cards etc. She had an excellent memory for names, places and dates of events. When she celebrated her 90th birthday. she received telegrams from John Diefenbaker, Lorry Greenburg (Mayor of Ottawa), Pierre Trudeau, and Robert Stanfield. She met Uncle Fred in Shawville while attending 'model school' with Aunt Louella. Her family home was in Yarm, Quebec, only a few miles away. Aunt Louella invited Aunt Jessie to the Dale home one evening and she met Uncle Fred. She said, "Soon I was sitting next to him on the sofa and he asked me out'. Aunt Jessie and another girl shared a small apartment in Shawville during the week when they were attending school. She went home to Yarm on the weekends. One weekend, she told her girlfriend to tell her parents that she had a date with Fred Dale and would not be going home. Her mother remarked, "Not one of those wild Dale boys!" Apparently, the Dale men were known to partake of "spirits" now and then and her parents were abstainers! Aunt Jessie told me that she and Fred eloped. They were married on August 11, 1905 in Renfrew, Ont. by Rev. W.S. Jamieson. Other Stories by Aunt Jessie Aunt Jessie's father kept a general store and he was also a 'bee- keeper'. Her father built a luxurious outhouse in the back yard. It was a 'four-holer'. After supper, Aunt Jessie and her three sisters would head out there and sit and discuss all of the day's activities. Aunt Jessie had a picture of this outhouse and told me (in 1976) that it was still standing. The Dav'y Tree When Aunt Jessie's three older sisters and brother were young, their father (Mr. McJanet) planted four trees on the property on their behalf. Young David died when he was three but his tree was the only one to survive. It was a most unusual shape...one tree with four distinct prongs or branches standing together. This tree was about ninety years old when it was hit by lightning. It remained standing for some time before it was finally removed. Aunt Jessie showed me a picture of the "Dav'y Tree" as they called it. Aunt Jessie's 95 year old sister, who was living in Port Alberni, B.C. at the time of my visit, had two of her poetry books published. One of her poems was about this Dav'y Tree. The Widow of Carruthers Avenue When Aunt Jessie and Uncle Fred moved to Carruthers Avenue in 1917. an old widow owned the house. They rented it for $9.00 a month. The old lady remained in the house and stayed in one bedroom upstairs. This widow was determined to find herself a husband! She first met quite a nicely-dressed gentleman from Perth. One day Aunt Jessie was visiting in Shawville and received a phone message from the widow. Aunt Jessie had left her oldest sons at home and thinking that a family emergency had developed, took the train next morning for home. The old widow had asked her Perth suitor for dinner and couldn't cook- some emergency! The old widow finally met a man from Dacre, above Eganville, who apparently had lots of money! She liked money and agreed to marry him. Uncle Fred picked the soon-to-be-bridegroom up at the train station. The man was wearing an old raccoon coat and hat, much to the widow's disappointment. The wedding went ahead the next day. On the marriage certificate the old widow reported her age as 57. Aunt Jessie told me that she had the numbers mixed up and it should have said "75". Some time shortly after the wedding, the widow's ex-suitor from Perth showed up at Aunt Jessie's door. When Aunt Jessie wrote a letter to the widow informing her of the visit, the widow wrote back, "I should have married him!" Newspaper clipping (courtesy of Shirley Davidson Gamble) "DALE, Jessie Cecilia- In hospital Monday, March 16, 1981. Jessie MacJanet, aged 95 years; beloved wife of the late Frederick Dale and dear mother of Ken and Hollis Dale, of Ottawa; pre-deceased by Arlington F. Dale and Marjorie (Mrs. William Welsh). Survived by 15 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Friends may call at The W.J. Hayes and Sons Funeral Home, Shawville, after 7 p.m. Tuesday. Funeral service in the funeral home, Wednesday, at 2 p.m.Inerment Village Cemetery, Shawville. Ottawa arrangements by Tubman Funeral Home".
|