Tag Archives: Sudbury

Genealogy

Memories of Mom

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Over thirty years have passed since my Mom died. Lately, she has been in my thoughts as I ponder a sad part of her life. Estelle Anita Jodouin, the eighth child of Louis Joseph Jodouin and Louisa Seraphina Fortin, came into this world on January 22, 1909, in Sudbury, Ontario.

During Labour Day weekend of 1930, at the age of twenty-one, she married a young Finnish mining engineer, and they settled in the area. Over the next eleven years, they had five children. Aunts and cousins were always around to give a helping hand with caring for the children, and they were a tremendous support for Mom, as at the time, Dad was working shifts.

                          Mom and Dad on their Wedding Day                              

In 1945, Dad was offered a job in Asbestos, Quebec, a mining town in the rolling countryside of the Eastern Townships. It was a promotion for him. It meant he would no longer be working shifts, but, rather using his skill at designing a shaft for the development of underground mining. At that time, the company had been concentrating on open pit mining of asbestos, a fibre that does not burn and is used in firefighters’ gear, brake linings in cars and home insulation. It was a job for which Dad was well qualified.

It was a difficult move for Mom. She did not know a soul, and her family support system had vanished. She missed her parents, sisters and nieces.  Deep down, I do believe she was heartbroken and had difficulty coping with the move, far from family.

 In the summer of 1947, Granny, her mother, and Aunt Ted drove down to Asbestos for a visit. Mom was delighted to welcome them. Shortly after their visit, Mom was hospitalized in Montreal for an extended period. Dad visited her regularly and made arrangements for Mrs. Robinson, an elderly lady, to care for us. ( I never knew the reason for the hospitalization as I was 7 years old at the time, and I still do not know all these years later. Was the hospitalization a mental breakdown or perhaps the loss of a child?)

Uncle Leo, Aunt Dickie, Aunt Ted, Gran, Mom,

Paul, Claire,and Cousin Denise

In the summer of 1948, Mom drove my sister Ruth, brothers John and Paul, and me to Sudbury to visit family. On the way, we stopped in Pembroke and visited Mom’s spinster Aunts and continued to Sudbury. Mom had learned to drive at the age of fourteen and was undaunted when undertaking such a long drive. After seeing the scorched land and forests fires we arrived and greeted relatives with open arms and warm hugs. Mom had finally arrived home.

We spent time with Granny Jodouin, aunts, uncles and cousins which created many fond memories. Mom was happy.

On our way home, we stopped in Senneville and visited with Aunt Aline, one of Mom’s older sisters and Uncle George, an avid stamp collector, where I learned about stamp collecting. We then continued our way home.

Around this time, (1948-1949) I vividly remember Mom sitting at the typewriter in the solarium where Dad had a large desk with his CB (Citizen Band Radio). She would be typing letters to Gran and her sisters. At Christmas time she would be in the kitchen making fruitcake to send to family in Sudbury.

For a long time she hung on to her thoughts of home and the family members she had left in Sudbury, so far way.

Her life and our family’s lives were changed. In January of 1950, when at the age of forty-one, Mom gave birth to a little sister, Vicky, while at the same time, Dad received a big promotion. Life was taking on new challenges. These positive events were the beginning of a new outlook on life for Mom. Her loneliness was slowly disappearing. She now had new challenges.

Mom and Vicky

Vicky’s arrival was a blessing for all of us. At 10 years old I now had a real live doll to care for.

Mom had help when a young girl, Ghislaine, came into our lives. She developed a close bond with Vicky, and Mom’s overall health was much better. Her loneliness no longer seemed to trouble her. Her health improved and before long she was able to travel. She visited New York City and attended Broadway plays , enjoyed shopping at Berdorf-Goodman, along with company jaunts to the Carribbean .

Mom in 1963

Over the years she visited Africa, Europe, Japan and became a world traveller with Dad.

Mom’s life was filled with many ups and downs, but with Dad’s support she overcame her difficulties. Her life had taken on a new look, and her loneliness was a thing of the past. She enjoyed life to the fullest!

Mom and Dad on their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1980

Genealogy

Uncle Bill and His Five Daughters

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On August 23rd, 1886 in St. John’s, Antigua, British West Indies Mary France, the wife of William Percival gave birth to a son, William France Anthony Percival, my Uncle Bill.

Little is known about his early years in Antigua. At the age of eighteen in 1904 he immigrated to Canada. Records indicate that on the 13th of June 1909 at the age of 23 he converted to Catholicism and was baptised at the Holy Rosary Parish in Toronto.

Baptismal Record

In 1914 Bill settled in Sudbury, Ontario and began working as a dispatcher and later became the Assistant Chief Clerk for Canadian Pacific Railway. A job he held for 33 years.

Bill began courting Alice Jodouin, the daughter of Louis and Louisa Jodouin.  Before long the customary banns announcing the upcoming marriage of the young couple were published. Banns are a notice read out on three successive Sundays in a parish church, announcing an intended marriage and giving the opportunity for objections.

The banns

Uncle Bill and Aunt Alice were married on the 3rd of July 1917 in Saint Anne Church, the French Parish in Sudbury.

The church record of the marriage

The officiating Priest

The 1921 Canadian Census shows Uncle, Aunt Alice and their first daughter, Mary.was born in 1919.Later in 1921, Madge was born, followed by Frederica (Freddie)  in 1923, then Natalie in 1925 and Willena (Billye) in 1927.

The 1921 Canadain Census

After raising 5 daughters they were hoping for a son. In 1934 Aunt Alice was expecting another child. Would it be a boy? The family would be complete with the son they had always wanted and a little brother for all the girls

Alas! It was not meant to be. John Allan was stillborn. This tragedy, the loss of a son caused many heartaches for the family.

The Percival Sisters
Back row: Freddie and Billye
Front Row: Natalie, Madge and Mary

I never knew Uncle Bill, however, he enjoyed quiet moments sailing on Lake Ramsey, according to my older brother Karl, who had the good fortune of knowing him. At the time I was too young and our family moved from Sudbury to the rolling hills of the Eastern Townships in Quebec. I do not remember Uncle Bill.

Shortly after retiring Uncle Bill passed away on December 8th, 1948 at the age of 62.

Aunt Alice surrounded by her many grandchildren.

Aunt Alice lived another 25 years after Uncle Bill’s passing and continued as the church organist. She died in 1973  and is resting beside him  in the LaSalle Catholic Cemetery in Sudbury, Ontario

Over the years I  have visited many relatives in Sudbury and have fond memories.

Sources:

Familysearch.org

Personal photo collection of the author

Genealogy

Bottles, Boats and Blocks

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by Claire Lindell

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, many enthusiastic young men with entrepreneurial spirits set out to make their fortunes. L.J Jodouin, my maternal; grandfather was among them. It was said that where there was a need he found a way to fulfill it. L.J.’s business ventures were a great success.

Louis Joseph Jodouin was born in 1861 in Montebello, Quebec, the third of five children of Joseph Jodouin and Leocadie Fortin. When he was a young man his family moved to Hull, Quebec where he was schooled by the Christian Brothers and attended college in nearby Ottawa.

In 1891, at the age of twenty-seven, he went to Sudbury, Ontario where in nearby Copper Cliff prospectors found nickel and mines were being opened. It is there he started his first enterprise, L. J. Jodouin Bottling Works. With six employees he bottled and sold ginger ale, lemon soda, cream soda, and mineral water. Due to the influx of miners, the Sudbury area was a new and growing community, and L.J.’s business was profitable

            Louis and Louisa

              1893

With financial security assured the young man decided it was time to seek a bride and start a family. Although the couple had the same grandfather and different grandmothers, they received dispensation and were married in Saint Columbkille Cathedral in Pembroke, Ontario in January of 1893. The young couple settled in Sudbury where they built their home and raised nine children, three boys and six girls.

In 1903 the bottling works were sold to the Taylor and Pringle Company of Owen Sound. His next venture was an ice business. He built a huge icehouse in the rear of his home along with a stable for the horses. At the time people had wooden iceboxes where the top section was lined with metal and large blocks of ice were placed within. Foods that needed to be kept cold were placed on shelves below. Ice was delivered regularly in the same manner as milk and bread from house to house by horse-drawn wagons and later years by truck.

Over the years Louis Joseph had many enterprises. He built a boathouse on Lake Ramsey, a large lake nearby. He rented boats and canoes. He ran a water taxi service and a huge gasoline-powered barge to transport large quantities of building and personal supplies for the people building cottages along the lake. The boat house was also used for storing huge blocks of ice during the winter months.  

The ice business was my grandfather’s lifelong enterprise and the most successful. A key to the success was the annual contracts with both railways. The Canadian Pacific and the Canadian National Railways. This arrangement continued until the mid-1940 when the trains acquired powered refrigeration.

My cousin Madelyn Percival described how Grandfather would spend his days.

  “In the winter months, Grandfather would often go out on Lake Ramsey to oversee the ice operations wearing his long raccoon coat and fur hat and fur mitts, but for the most part, he ran the business from a rocking chair near the dining room window overlooking the backyard where the horses were kept so he could see all the action!”

He was a good employer, and an active citizen, a town councilor, a school trustee, a voluntary fireman, and a member of the Board of Health. He played in the town band, sang in the church choir, and was an avid lacrosse player until he was hit in the head and lost his hearing.

“L.J. bought one of the first motor cars in Sudbury, although he could not drive because of his deafness. His eldest daughter, Alice Percival was the first woman driver in Sudbury and for many years she was his chauffeur.”

            In 1943 on the eve of his seventy-ninth birthday Grandpa Jodouin passed away. His son, Arthur, continued the ice business into the late 1950s and early 60s supplying the many cottagers in the area until electricity became available.

References:

  • Ancestry.com Quebec, Canada Viral and Church Records. Drouin Collection 1921-1968 database online.
  • Sudbury Star newspaper article., Author, Gary Peck. “The Not-so-distant Past, Jodouin Steam Soda Water Works.” October 2, 1981
  • Ancestry.com. Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records. Drouin Collection 1802-1967 database online.
  • Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Canada Registration of Marriage, 1869-1928 Series MS032:Reel 70 source ancestry.com and Genealogical Research Library( Brampton, Ontario, Canada Ontario Canada Marriages Ancestry.com Operations In.,2010.
  • Excerpts from an interview with the author and her cousin Madelyn Percival Smith , Louis Joseph’s granddaughter, Toronto Canada, August 2010.
  • Below is a video: cutting ice on Lake Ramsey

This biographical sketch of my maternal grandfather was first published in our book “Beads in a Necklace” published in 2017 by our Genealogy Ensemble group. It seems appropriate to include it in our ongoing blog.

Ontario, Writing

Life Decisions

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A simple act followed by a statement can be life-changing. Such was the case for Kaarlo.

Several  years of study at Michigan College of Mines in Houghton, Michigan had prepared Kaarlo, a young Finnish boy from Ashtabula, Ohio  for a career in the mining industry. He had worked as a cook on the ore boats on the Great Lakes and knew he wanted something more fulfilling, much as he loved sailing the lakes.

In 1928 he graduated with a degree in Mining  Engineering. There was a job waiting for him at  Royal Tiger Gold Mines in Breckenridge, Colorado. He packed his Model T Ford and set out for the west with high hopes and dreams of creating a good life, doing something he truly enjoyed.

It wasn’t long after arriving at the mines that he found the owner-manager tampering with the assays (the device used to measure gold). Once the owner realized that the young man was aware of his actions, he ordered him to be “out of town by sundown!”.  Kaarlo didn’t back down and stated that he would leave as soon as he could get his car on a railroad car to carry it  over the mountains.

Dreams of working in the gold mines were crushed. Being young and a go-getter,  he immediately contacted the College to see if they knew of any openings for newly graduated engineers. They responded that there were openings in Canada in the nickel mines in Copper Cliff, Ontario.  It was time to head north.

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                                    The Big Nickel in CopperCliff, Ontario,  now part of Greater Sudbury

Kaarlo Victor Lindell crossed in to Canada on the 31st of January 1929 at Bridgeburg, Ontario1 with hopes and dreams of a rewarding career and a new challenge. He found a room in a boarding house and began working for the  International Nickel  Company(INCO) and never looked back. He spoke Finnish and soon made friends with his coworkers, among them many Finns. His employer took advantage of his knowledge of Finnish and in 1934 was sent to Northern Finland where he was actively involved in opening a nickel mine in Petsamo. In 1939 that part of Finland was seized by the Russians.

Along the way he met a pert, pretty, vivacious young lady, named Estelle (Esty) and sought her hand. They were married on September 6th 1930 in Sudbury. In the meantime Kaarlo had legally changed his name to Karl and took religious instruction in the Catholic faith having been a Lutheran all his life.

In 1939 with WW11 on the horizon Karl wanted to serve his new country. He became a naturalized citizen on the 8th of August 19392, however, with four children and a fifth on the way,  (me) his services were needed in the nickel  industry. He remained at work for INCO. Nickel production was crucial for ammunition during the war years.

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Royal Tiger Gold Mines thrived from 1918 and into the 1930s, however, it declared bankruptcy in 1938 and in 1973 the town and all the buildings in it were torched to keep the “hippies” from squatting.

Northern Ontario, on the other hand has over time developed  and prospered.

It is interesting to speculate how Kaarlo’s life might have been, especially  if he had stayed in Colorado?

 

I would not be here to tell the story!