“Rutherglen – in front of the farm house before it was sheeted in. Taken in 1915.”
Dad, born in 1917, isn’t in the picture of course. Aunt Edna said that was a big deal as every time he saw the picture, he’d get angry because he thought he was in the house and no one called him out for the picture.
This house would be our farm house. The thin sapling behind Aunt Edna’s shoulder became a huge lovely tree that shaded and cooled the back yard on hot summer days.
L-R: Chester, Georgina, Grampa, Elmo, Vera, Gramma, Emmett and Edna
Lloyd was born June 17, 1917 to Adoniram Smith and Alice Pennell in Rutherglen, Ontario. He married my mother, Joan Gallson, on June 25, 1943 and they had 4 children. Dad died March 30, 1988.
My Dad learned how to farm from his Dad. He went to a one-room school house, very close to our farm until grade 8. When Mom and Dad were first married, they lived with Dad’s parents until Mom was pregnant with my oldest sister Donna. Then Mom pushed Dad to look for a home of their own. My Grandparents actually considered building another house on the property for my parents, but for whatever reason, decided to move out and give my parents the house and the farm. That would have been in about 1944 or 1945.
There is a lot revealed about my Dad in my Mom’s diary which she kept from 1941 to 1944. The entries are short, but they show a person completely different from the man I knew as my father.
Beginning in October 1941, Dad wrote to Mom about three times a week, and she replied to every letter, and wrote to other guys too.
Mom kept all of Dad’s “love” letters and from what the diary reveals, there were lots. But the story we were told about those letters, was that after they were married, when Mom went to Mattawa to look after her step-mother when she was ill, Dad found all the letters and burned them all. He was embarrassed by them and Mom was furious. There are two that escaped the fire though.
Mom’s diary also tells of times when Dad was angry with her and they argued. This alone is NOT the Dad I knew – a man who never fought or argued. The day Dad ordered her diamond, Mom went on a date with another guy, Mervin. And on the day she saw her diamond, she was still seeing Mervin. Of all the men Mom told me she dated, Mervin was NEVER mentioned.
In my memory, Dad supplemented the small amount of money he made from selling hay and cows, by driving one of the three school busses that w to went Rutherglen Central School which was on Highway 17.
My first memories of my father are from a little girl’s perspective. I remember Dad putting wood in the stove in the kitchen, washing in the sink, soaking his feet in a warm pan of water and then cutting down the really thick corns from the bottoms of his feet. He would help me with math, because Mom said he was good at math. He taught me how to tie a knot at the end of thread for sewing as Mom said the way she did it was too complicated. He’d let me pin-curl his hair while we watched TV in the evenings. I specifically remember watching The Ed Sullivan Show and The Red Skelton Show with him. He also loved Bugs Bunny – we’d laugh so hard. I remember watching a comic on The Ed Sullivan Show, could have been Rodney Dangerfield, and commenting that he was acting stupid. Dad said, if he could get on stage and act stupid and make the money the comic was making, he do it too.
Dad taught me how to play chess, checkers, cribbage and cards, specifically Jack, Jack, Steal The Pack.
We all went to church together, not every Sunday, but most Sundays. Dad helped pass the collection plate and helped count the money after. Dad silently moved his lips when we sang hymns.
Dad let me sit on his lap and steer the tractor sometimes. When we went to Buchanan’s cottage and he’d sometimes swim with us. Once while swimming, I asked him why he stayed in shallow water and he told me he couldn’t swim. He’d been pretending he was swimming by pulling himself along the sand under the water.
Dad loved animals and Mom told me that he hated to kill the farm animals for us to eat. When relatives would come with their rifles and have Dad take them out to our fields for hunting, Mom said he hated that too – killing for sport. When our dog was very sick, he asked Roy’s Dad, Melvin Sullivan, to come over to shoot him. Aunty Jo gave me a bunch of pictures from an old album once, all of animals: a sheep, some horses and chickens. She said, “Here, take these. Your Dad took them. He was always taking pictures of the animals.”
Dad was a mason and went to meetings in Mattawa. He had a secret velvet bag filled with Masonic items including an apron. If Mom found us snooping in that bag, we were in trouble.
Dad was a farmer for over 50 years before he decided to sell the family property and moved to Porcupine, Ontario. His long-time friend, Harry McLaren (also a mason), arranged for Dad to work as a Civil Engineer at Northeastern Psychiatric Hospital there. So in 1968, one month after my sister Carol’s wedding, we left the farm.
Mom always said Dad hated farming, that he had allergies and that his nose ran constantly in the summer with the harvesting. I believe what Dad missed about Rutherglen though was the family. His living siblings were all in either North Bay or Rutherglen. And I believe he had great childhood memories. And many many friends. That was never the same in Timmins and Porcupine.
When we first moved to Porcupine, we rented a house on Duke Street while Dad and Denny Monaghan, a house builder, built our house on Queen Street. Our house was the design of Uncle Phil’s house in Buffalo. Mom loved their house.
The move to Porcupine changed the whole family dynamic. Dad worked three shifts at the hospital. It was hard for my Dad to sleep during the day, so he could be up all night. We had to be quiet around the house. But these shifts meant that my Dad was mostly home when we got home from school. My mother worked at various places during the day, so often my Dad made dinner although I think he may have just cooked things my Mom had pre-prepared, like meatloaf.
It wasn’t until I was in university that I began forcing myself to say “I love you” to Dad on phone. My roommates all said it to their parents and it was so strange that we didn’t. He’d answer, “Me too” which I found very cute and endearing. I never doubted that my Dad loved me – I knew he did. I felt his love just sitting in the room.
I watched an Oprah Winfrey interview this evening (April 26, 2023) with Michelle Obama who was on tour promoting her new book “The Light We Carry”. Michelle talked about how her family never said “I love you” the way Barak Obama’s family did and it was new and strange for her to be saying it so much. She accounted this on the fact that her childhood family saw each other several times a week and they all lived close to each other. But Barak’s family lived in Hawaii, so it was a big deal to say “I love you” because he wouldn’t see them or talk to them for long periods of time. I believe this to be the same reason we never heard Dad say it until he was forced to. It would be something his family never said as they all lived close and saw each other a lot.
Dad went on to enjoy many things that he never would have done had he stayed in Rutherglen. He took up bowling, curling and golfing. I believe a small part of his heart was always on the farm. We also believe that an industrial incident at the hospital may have been what ended up triggering blood cancer. He was the youngest of 7 siblings, yet the first to die of “natural” causes at the age of 70. Uncle Emmett died a few years later after a life of hard drinking and heavy smoking. The others lived well into their 90s.
Dad was a farmer who quit farming when he was 50 because he hurt his back. To go from farming to being an hourly paid employee took a lot of courage. With some help from his friends he pulled it off. One of dads sayings was “If you can’t say anything good about somebody don’t say anything at all” . Dad was a past master of the Mattawa Masonic Lodge 268. Much of what dad did was because he was a Mason. I know they helped many people that were in trouble. Dad was a supporter of… Read more: Admiration for My Dad
Georgena was always known to all as “Jo”. Jo was born September 3, 1912 to Adoniram Smith and Alice Pennell. She married Jacob “Jake” Buchanan, December 24, 1937, and had two sons, David and Keith. She died January 3, 2009 in North Bay, Ontario.
At the time, Jo was working at [Eaton’s] but she had been scheduled to be off on her wedding day. However, as luck would have it, she was asked to fill in for another staff member on that special day. She agreed, but said, “I have to be off by 6pm, because I’m getting married at 7 o’clock.”
North Bay Nugget, 1987, “Honored on 50th Anniversary”
Aunty Jo was beautiful, both inside and out. I remember being at a funeral, sitting beside Uncle Jake. Aunty Jo was across the room chatting with someone. Uncle Jake said to me, “Just look at your aunt. Isn’t she beautiful?” I was very struct by that. I always thought of her as pretty, but Uncle Jake’s comment made me realize just how beautiful she was and how much he loved her after so many years, kids grown and gone.
Going to North Bay meant going to the Buchanan’s. They had a round doorbell and a little 3” x 1.5” plastic plaque on their door with the Buchanan plaid on it. They had a faux fireplace in the living room and a pump organ. The pump organ eventually ended up at their cottage, replaced by an electric fancier organ. The floors creaked in places. They didn’t have a shower in the bathroom, which didn’t mean anything to me until after we moved to a house with a shower in Porcupine.
They had their washer and dryer in the kitchen, like we did in Rutherglen, but theirs was the type with the little round windows in front. Their basement was dark and dank but finished. Uncle Jake had a bedroom down there with a lot of his records and reel to reel recording equipment for his little DJ business. There was actually two bedrooms with a shared bathroom in the middle. I was always forgetting to lock both doors. I think David and Keith slept down there when they were young.
There were three bedrooms on the main floor. They used to rent two of these to students from the teacher’s college, I think. But when there were no tenants, and we stayed overnight, these are the bedrooms we’d use. I remember in particular the front room, as this room faced Fisher Street which was a very busy route into downtown North Bay. The streetlights were so bright compared to Rutherglen, and the windows vibrated when trucks would drive by.
That front bedroom’s closet was also a bit of a treasure spot for me. Aunty Jo kept games and puzzles and books in there. I used to go in there and find things to play with. Uncle Jake had a magic trick kit that he loved to bring out.
The upper floor of their house was a separate apartment they rented out.
They also owned the house next door to them, which they rent out. When my sister Carol and Roy Sullivan married, they rented this house.
Around the corner from their house, I met a little girl my age named April. I used to go and play with her sometimes.
Aunty Jo made her own bread and little buns with 3 balls.
When we’d play 500 with Aunty Jo and Uncle Jake, and Aunty Jo was my partner, she’d wink at me as if she had some really good cards or had a trick up her sleeve. She rarely did, so I’m guessing now that her wink was more of a “knowing” wink, as Uncle Jake was a reckless bidder, and often bid up to 9 without having good cards. They were also bridge players.
Uncle Jake took Wayne and I to his Canadian Longyear’s Christmas parties and Santa would be there with a gift for everyone. He worked there as a purchasing agent. I noted on their marriage registration his occupation is Bookkeeper.
Aunty Jo and Uncle Jake are buried head-to-head with her parents, Alice and Adoniram Smith at Terrace Lawn Cemetery, North Bay. I recall Aunty Jo telling me, on a visit to Terrace Lawn, that she had already bought and arranged for her and Uncle Jake to be buried in the “touching” plots. Logically, I’m not sure how she arranged this with the cemetery, but sure enough, if you visit the cemetery, the “front” of the grave stone is marked with Alice & Adoniram’s names, while the back of the same of stone is marked with Aunty Jo and Uncle Jake.
It is rumoured that Aunty Jo was very frugal. One such rumour was that she controlled the bank book (strange now that I know Uncle Jake was a bookkeeper) and would give Uncle Jake 25 cents weekly allowance. So when I think about her arranging to be buried head-to-head with her parents and then reusing the headstone, it could be possible that there were additional reasons for her to buy the plots where she did.
Terrace Lawn Cemetery
After my Dad passed away, they were always there for my Mom, helping her however they could. My Mom didn’t drive, so Uncle Jake would take her where she needed to go. They were witnesses to my parents marriage and also to my Mom’s 2nd marriage to Albin Miklautsch.
Georgena’s Obituary
Peacefully at Cassellholme on Saturday, January 3rd 2009 in her 97th year. Predeceased by her parents, A.W. Smith (Nide) and Alice Smith (nee Pennell), and all of her siblings, Elmo, Chester, Edna, Vera, Emmett, and Lloyd. Beloved wife of the late Jacob “Jake” Buchanan (1995). Mother of David (Marilyn) and Keith (Maureen). Special Grandmother to Jordan (Brenda), Andrew (Cherie-Lynn), Kevin (Esmeralda), Chris (Debra) and Alison (James Dennis). Grandma Jo will be missed by her great-grandchildren in St. John’s NL, Sudbury, and Russell, Ontario. She will be fondly remembered by her sister-in-law Joan Smith-Miklautch and many nieces and nephews.
Jo was an avid dancer for years in Square, Round and Ballroom dancing with various clubs in the area. She was the past chief of Kintail Camp, Sons of Scotland and enjoyed many social gatherings at Hogmanay, Burns Nights, and the Tartan Balls. She loved playing bridge and enjoyed the Golden Age Club for many years. She was a faithful member of St. Andrew’s United Church and the UCW.
The Buchanan Cottage
Keith Buchanan, Donna Smith with Randy Ollivier, David Buchanan
It was always exciting to go to Aunty Jo’s and Uncle Jake’s cottage and it was a big deal because summertime was a busy time for Dad on the farm and I knew he had to take an afternoon away from the farm to go. Most of the time we’d go as a family, although I don’t remember going with Carol and Donna. Sometimes Wayne and I would go and stay for a couple of days.
It wasn’t that far from our farm – perhaps 20 to 30 minutes. It was on Trout Lake, a lake that is cold and rumoured to have a water monster in it. They had a little sandy beach, a dock, but lots of sand at the end of the dock. There were blood suckers close to shore and I had to get many blood suckers salted off or burnt off my legs.
They had a boat and Uncle Jake would take us out for boat rides around the lake. Uncle Jake and Aunty Jo had two sons, David and Keith, around the same ages as Carol and Donna. So they had water skiing gear and lots of life jackets. This was one of the only places that I ever water skied (or tried!).
I remember Aunty Jo giving me a peanut butter and banana sandwich. I’d never had one before and she was so surprised. They were great. What made their cottage different in my mind was that the kitchen and living room were all one big room. Open concept was so strange.The Buchanan cottage is, to this day, my idea of a “real” cottage: bedrooms with curtains for doors, beds that took up the whole bedroom, hooks for clothes instead of closets, log walls, boats and life jackets, water skiing, swimming, a front porch with screened wall to wall windows, binoculars hanging from a nail on the wall, the call of loons in the night, the smell of wood and water. I think I remember an outhouse and Uncle Jake taking soap down to the lake to bath. Later came an inside toilet and shower.
Georgena Smith (piano, organ) m. Jacob Buchanan (fiddle, bagpipes)
David Buchanan (fiddle, bagpipes, singer) m. Marilyn Brown (artist)
Jorden Buchanan m. Brenda Hulan
Andrew Buchanan (guitar) m. Cherie-Lynn Ervine
Kevin Buchanan m. Esmeralda Galen
Keith Buchanan (bagpipes) m. Maureen McGarvey
Christopher Buchanan m. Debra
Allison Buchanan m. James Dennis
Jake and Jo with 4 of their grandchildren: Jordan, Kevin, Andrew, Christopher.Standing: Jordan , David, Marilyn Andrew, Cherie-Lynn, Maureen, Keith, Christopher. Front: Allison, Kevin, Christopher’s girlfriendMarilyn Buchanan (David’s wife) and only a small collection of her art. Gifted lady!
Vera was born April 14, 1910 and died October 11, 1951. Vera married Cyril Hughes in August 1950 and October 11 the following year, died of complications surrounding childbirth. Mom told me that they received news that a baby boy was born, and both mother and child were well. The story then says that Vera was left alone and hemorrhaged.
I was told that Vera was a very warm and caring person. When her brother, Elmo, was killed March 1950, Vera made many trips to his widow and children, bringing clothes and food.
Chester was born July 16, 1908 and died October 17, 2001. He married Hazel Farmer. They had no children, the reason being (I was told) Chester had mumps as an older youth/man and was infertile. Hazel always called Uncle Chester, “Ches”, and she’s the only person that I remember calling him that.
Their farm was right next (behind) to our farm. His farm was the original farm owned by Willard Smith, Grampa’s step-brother. Uncle Chester and Aunt Hazel treated farming like a business, not a hobby. They invested in machinery that would give them better returns on their sweat and work.
They sold milk, eggs, hay and more. They had a dog named Chum and Chum would like little children ride him. I always thought their house was more beautiful than ours. They had french doors and clear glass door knobs. WOW.
Uncle Chester was a very quiet man. When he laughed and talked, he didn’t open his mouth very wide. He smoked cigarettes.
Elmo holding Eleanor, with Dorothy behind him and Lloyd in the back.
Born January 3, 1907, Elmo was the 2nd child of Adoniram and Alice Smith. He married Marie Transborg and had 6 surviving children. In 1950, when the youngest, Danny, was only 2 years old, Elmo died in a farming accident. His wake was held at Andy Green’s house.
Daughter of Adoniram “Nide” Warner Smith and Alice Maria Pennell.
Born May 17, 1905 in Rutherglen, Nipissing, Ontario, Canada. Died Feb 14, 1994 in North Bay, Nipissing Dist., ON, Can (88 years, 8 months). Married Clifford Charles Ollivier Jan 10, 1928 in Rutherglen, Nipissing, Ontario, Canada.
Edna Ollivier
Edna was baptized into St. Margaret’s Anglican Church by the Rev. Gordon Postlethwaite. She was the only child of Nide and Alice Smith to complete high school and continue to receive her Teaching Certificate. One of her first positions was likely in Earlton, ON. She could also play piano. When Vera Hughes (Smith) died after giving birth, Edna and Cliff adopted the baby (Randy). The Ollivier’s lived in Northern Ontario for about 40 years, including Ramore (1949) and Iroquois Falls (1950). She taught in Porquois Junction, Noranda (1959) and Rutherglen (Principal, 1968).
The Olliviers owned a cottage on Kaibuskong Bay (off the Mattawa River/Lake Talon) that was only accessible via boat, at the time, from the now Lake Talon Marina. Later they would purchase a cottage further west on the bay from Dr. McLaren and convert it into a beautiful 4-bedroom 2-story home. It had white siding and maroon shutters and two fireplaces: one on the main level and the other in a huge bedroom on the second level, which later would be the bedroom of my Grandfather. The home had three garages: one attached to the house through a breezeway; one perpedicular to the attached garage; and one close to the lake where all the fishing rods, tackle, minnow nets, life jackets, water skis and water toys were stored. Later, Cliff built a “Y” shaped dock and had two boats. The “old” cottage was then used/purchased by Edna’s daughter, Dorothy and became known to me as the Mawhiney Cottage.
Edna was a skilled seamstress and quilter. She was a member of the Eastern Star, the Women’s Institute (WI) and St. Margaret’s Anglican Church.
When they both retired and the home on Kaibuskong Bay became too much, they sold it and moved to a condo/townhome in Calender, Ontario. After Cliff’s stroke, he was moved into a nursing home in North Bay and Edna lived alone for a time. However, they eventually were brought together again in a double room at the nursing home (Leisure World).
The Ollivier House
Going to Aunt Edna and Uncle Cliff’s house was like going to a mansion. Their house was huge and was on Lake Talon, down the Pine Lake Road. It had a huge living/dining room with a big wood burning fireplace. The TV was in this room and Grampa Smith, who lived there at the time, had his own chair beside the fireplace and would watch The Edge of Night, his favourite soap opera. His pipe supplies and can of humbugs sat of the right side of the fireplace’s mantle.
There were two huge, massive bedrooms upstairs and two smaller, but still large bedrooms in the main floor. Grampa’s bedroom was upstairs and so was Randy’s. Randy also had his drums set up in his room.
We went to Aunt Edna’s often at Christmas, likely because Grampa was there. The food spread was amazing. Her signature peanut butter balls, plus other standards filled the table. And then there was Skipper, their dog, always ready to eat anything that hit the floor. Wayne even threw the dog candy wrappers which Skipper ate quickly. Skipper was a black terrier, like a Scotty dog.
I remember once going to Aunt Edna’s after I had attended a birthday party at Dianne McLaren’s. I had stuffed my face with “black babies,” a black liquorish jellied candy. While sitting in Aunt Edna’s big spacious luxurious living room chair, at the far end of the room, as far as I could have been from the toilet, I felt suddenly sick to my stomach. Jumping up and running to the bathroom did not prevent me from puking diagonally across the living rug, through the kitchen, finally getting to the bathroom. I was so embarrassed.
Janice Mawhiney was often there too. She is the grand daughter of Aunt Edna, daughter of Dorothy Mawhiney. The Mawhiney’s had a cottage east, down the lake a piece. I think you could drive there, but we always boated there. More about the Mawhiney cottage later. At Aunt Edna’s, Janice knew how to get into the attic, and we would sometimes sneak into this “secret” door and play there.
Usually when Janice was there, so was Tippy. Tippy was the Mawhiney’s dog, a black and white border-collie type dog. We’d have great fun with both Tippy and Skipper
In the summer, there was usually a mosquito coil burning in the corner of the kitchen. There was a little summer-type room that connected one of the two garages to the house. I loved to sit in this room. Outside of it was a cover double swing that faced a beautiful green lawn, huge spruce trees and then the lake. It was so peaceful and beautiful.
At the lake was another garage that smelled of wooden boats, boat motors, fishing rods, life jackets, fishing nets, fishing hooks… smelled like summer. I love the smell of that garage. They had everything in there that a kid could use to have a ball at the lake. Wayne and I would fish from the dock and fill up pails with sunfish, pike and tadpoles, and then throw them all back. We used a big minnow net to catch minnows and an aluminum bait pail with a holed lid to catch frogs. We pulled hooks out of fish’s mouths and felt bad when the hooks went through their eye sockets.
We swam on the right side of the dock, as the left side was mucky. There were occasional blood suckers, but not many. When we’d run and jump of the end of the dock, Skipper was at our heels, trying to nip your legs as you careened off the end.
Aunt Edna’s flower garden was as amazing as Mom’s. She seemed to have flowers everywhere around the house and rock flower garden which edged the forest across the front lawn from the side door (which served as their “front” door).
Uncle Cliff has a wood motorboat, that was brown stained and shiny shellacked. I don’t remember going on the boat very much for joy rides, however we would boat east along the lake to the Mawhiney’s cottage. Before Uncle Cliff and Aunt Edna had the big fancy house, this was their cottage.
Emmett was born January 27, 1915, Rutherglen, Ontario and died March 24, 1990. He was the 2nd youngest son of Adoniram and Alice Smith.
In the summer, Uncle Emmett helped Dad in running the farm as much as he could. He’d often drive over his tractor to pull the plow or the seeder or the rake. While using the bailor, Dad and Uncle Emmett would take turns either driving the tractor or pulling the bails off the bailor and stacking them on the wagon.
