36th ANNUAL BIG POND
FESTIVAL A SUCCESS
The 36th Annual Festival once again proved to be a
hugh success - beginning with the Strawberry
Festival, Pastoral Airs, Tarabish Tournament, Scavenger Hunt, Steak Social, Steak Darts,
Rita’s Concert on Friday evening, Marie & Theresa MacLellan back at the Firehall
for a Round and Square Dance and culminating with the Concert on Sunday afternoon.
The Concert
Committee would like to express their appreciation and thanks to all those who helped in
any way in making this festival the success it was.
Without
volunteers helping, it would be a much harder job
to bring about this success. In
reciprocation we must thank the Concert Committee for their endless hours of time spent in
making sure we have the best week possible. They
begin work on next year’s concert shortly after this year’s has passed. If anyone has any suggestions for upcoming
festival activities, please contact any member of the Concert Committee. They would appreciate any suggestions you may
have.
COMMUNITY NOTES:
Sympathy goes out to Art Lewis on the
death of his wife, Jan. Jan was also the
sister of Alec Fougere and will certainly be missed by members of our community.
Congratulations to Bonnie and Gordie
MacDonald on the celebration of their 25th wedding anniversary.
Sympathy also
goes out to Brother and Jackie MacNeil on the death of their cousin, Norma Coles,
granddaughter of
Nan Smith. Norma died at age 30 after a battle with cancer.
Congratulations to George, son of Alec
and Arabel Fougere, and Kelly, daughter of
Joe and Carolyn Murphy, who will be wed on August 5th.
Congratulations to Selena Hollahan on the
celebration of her 80th birthday. Selena
is a long time summer resident of Big Pond Center.
Congratulations to Laura MacIntyre and
Sheldon Boutilier on the birth of their daughter, Robyn Mary Alexandra. Robyn is the
granddaughter of Ann and Ed MacIntyre.
LOCH
LOMOND MOTO CROSS RACE – August 13th at 1:00 pm – Location 3 miles up Loch Lomond
Road. Come out and see some exciting local
racers perform.
BOOKMOBILE – The bookmobile will be in the area on the following dates:
August 18; September 15; October 13; November
10; and December 8
REPAIRS AT ST. MARY’S – Two months ago a committee was set up by Parish
Council to oversee repairs both to the glebe house and the church. With respect to the glebe house, it was discovered
that there was a moisture problem, mainly in the roof area of the building, which is being
corrected by inserting air flow pipes that will allow for better circulation of air. It is also necessary to replace sofit and facia
boards which were rotted out, due to the moisture problem.
Repairs to the church include exterior painting, roof repairs, and
replacement of the front step. Also, a wheel
chair ramp will be installed on the west side of the church. Our thanks to the committee
for their time spent at meetings and in arranging for this work to be completed. We are hoping to host some fund raisers in the
future to help curb some of the cost of these necessary repairs.
TARABISH TOURNAMENT WINNERS – 1st place – Ronnie McCarron
& Cyril MacPherson; 2nd – Jean
MacDougall & Mrs. MacLean and 3rd - Greg MacMillan & Frank Sampson.
Need your lawn mowed, other yard work done or odd jobs done? Call the
McDonald boys; John, Joe and Jamie at 828-2554
Congratualtions
to Kelly Thomas on the celebration of her 30th birthday.
Redcross’
Aquaquest program at Big Pond Beach started on July 31st and will run until
the 18th of August. There are
almost forty children registered this year. The
instructor is Eileen Boutilier of Coxheath. Those
participating are:
Mallory
Savoy, Keegan Savoy, Josh McDonald, Ronald MacNeil, Holly MacNeil, Jeffrey MacNeil,
Geraldine MacMillan, Helen MacMillan, Natalie MacMillan, Jean Marie MacMillan, Theresa
MacMillan, Andrew Holt, Stephen Holt, David Holt, Matthew Farrell, Katie Farrell, Will
Brien, Jake Brien, Ben Belding, Madeline Belding, Sofie Rose MacDonald, Vincent MacDonald,
Michael MacDonald, Brennan MacDonald, Colin MacDonald, Colin MacPherson, Trudi MacPherson,
Nicole Pronk, John Steven Pronk, Allison Nelder, Ryan Farrell, Gregory Farrell, Alanna
MacNeil, Hillary Tobin, Jillian Tobin, Alicia Tobin, and Ashley Britten. Good luck to all those participating.
Local History Notes
August 1, 2000: 2:30 pm. The parish church
bell is ringing!! Strange that it should be ringing on a Tuesday afternoon! A moment ago I
stepped outside to take a little walk to see if I could think of something easy to write
about for the August Big Pond Times. Perhaps I'm being told to write about the bell!
Years ago I asked Steve MacNeil - Stevie John S.- what he knew about the bell.(Somewhere I
have more detailed interview regarding the bell, but the tape containing it hasn't been
transcribed. ) : " Well, what I was told was that Anthony MacNeil, Alex's grandfather
over there-the merchant- got the bell. This bell was brought to Glace Bay for a church in
Glace Bay (Saint Anne's JMN), and after it came they wouldn't accept it. There was a crack
in the bell. This Anthony heard the story that the bell was going cheap or was going to be
returned, and he had an old gold watch of some kind and he sold tickets on it and he sold
enough tickets to buy the bell. He went to Glace Bay and he got the bell and took it to
Big Pond and that's the bell that's in the church now. And it's a lot better bell than the
bell they got in Glace Bay afterwards. A wonderful sounding bell."
((I'll just continue this rambling little interview as my contribution to this month's
Times.)
Stevie went on to tell about the statue of the blessed virgin: "That was bought by
the women of Big Pond selling butter. I don't know if it was five, but I think it was a
five, pounds of butter they had to donate and the butter was taken and preserved and sold
and the statue was bought. ( Where was he butter sold?) Well, it would be sold to one of
the merchants I guess- or taken to Sydney by someone. There were lots of peddlers in Big
Pond at that time to take it to Sydney to sell it. In my time? No. no. it was in Father
Neil MacDonald's time."
I asked Stevie about the foundation under the church: "Well, it was cut in Glengarry
that year( presumably 1892 when the foundation was laid. JMN) about three miles from where
the church is at, cut by- there were people - the Johnsons - stone cutters by trade. They
worked in the States at that work. It was brought in here by horse and sleigh to the
church. They worked at it all winter.( Were they the Glengarry Johnstons?) Yes, they were
the Johnsons from Glengarry. They were stone cutters. And the MacNeils too- Alex MacNeil
was a stonecutter. And so was- I don't know his first name but he was a MacMullan- he was
a stonecutter and a mason. All those people worked for spells in the States, cutting
stone, long, long ago."
I asked Stevie who made the old altar in the church: "Gillis, a man named Ronald
Gillis. He had a little factory in Sydney. He did a lot of the work. It was him who built
the Glebe house in Big Pond. Did most of the churches around Cape Breton at that time. He
didn't build the church though. "
What priests did Stevie remember? "The first I remember was Father Duncan. I was
baptized by Father MacPherson before Father Duncan's time . He came here in 1905 and I was
born in 1901. And following Father Duncan was Father Lauchie and then Father George
MacLean, then Father Stanley, then Father MacLeod, then Father MacKenzie, then our present
pastor, Father MacGregor.
( What do you remember about Father Lauchie?) He was a hustler and a go-getter. Pretty
cranky, I guess, but I liked him anyway.
(Did Father Lauchie live in the Glebe House?) Oh no. he lived in Johnstown. Father Duncan
was the only resident priest we had. It was only a mission church after Father Duncan's
time- right up to Father Stanley's time.
( I've heard that the big Pond Wharf was built in 1904. Is that correct?) I guess that's
right- the last wharf. There was a wharf before that. It was up near Neilly John the
Widow's house. Right on the point there. That's where the first wharf was.
( Was it a government wharf too?) Oh yes. John A. Macdonald built that one for John
MacNeil. Red John where the Donovans live.
( How important was the wharf to Big Pond?) I don't see how they could have lived without
it. Everything came on the boat. Carloads. Flour, feed. molasses, Everything that was sold
in the stores here. Rolls of cloth and everything else. Shoes and everything else came on
the boat. ( I remember the fertilizer boat. I remember Frank Eoin and Michael Frank coming
off the wharf with fertilizer.) Yes, that was the Scotsburn. That's the last one that came
in. That one came- oh, every month- from Halifax. The agent from Halifax went around- had
cheaper prices I guess than the wholesalers in Sydney. But there was a lot of stuff came
from Sydney too. But there was a fellow by the name of Jim Ross who represented a big
wholesaler in Halifax and he was around all the time. Everybody remembers him.
( Was anything shipped out of Big Pond by boat?) Well, pitprops. Lumber to Glace Bay.
Benny's father shipped props to Glace Bay.I don't know whether it would be the Scotsburn
or the Weymouth or another one of those lake boats.
( Do you remember well the boats coming in?) God, yes. We'd be kids around the boat..
There'd be passengers on board,Sometimes they'd throw us candy. You know, some coming from
the States. They may be going, say, to the northside of East Bay. They'd call here first
you see. And you'd have people from the states going to Loch Lomond. Not very often they'd
get off here. They'd usually get off at Hay Cove, but sometimes they'd get off here.See
there was an hotel in Grand Narrows and they'd wait there a day ( after getting off the
train. JMN) or so until the boat would take them to Big Pond. It was easier to get from
Big Pond to Loch Lomond than from Sydney to Loch lomond at that time. It would only be a
dollar or something from Grand Narrows to Big Pond. They'd have their trunks and
everything on the boat and they'd put them off. Oh, it was quite a thing to go over! Us
kids all went over- ran like hell from here to the wharf . Sometimes there wouldn't be
much on.
I remember one night there was a carload of hay and a carload of flour and middlings and
feed and all that came to Mick MacIsaac's. Two carloads landed kind of in the evening and
they piled it on the wharf. Mick MacIsaac had a great big horse and a truck wagon. Almost
nobody had truck wagons in those days. They had carts. And he came after me to go with him
at five in the evening.- or four or something -it wasn't dark but dammed near dark- and to
take the mare. I had only a little mare asnd we started over and he got Frankie. And
Frankie had his horse and wagon- and there was a strong man!. Well we worked till
daybreak. He had a barn where the hall is- a little this side of the hall. It was Mick
Sandy's old barn- a farm barn dammed near as big as the one you got down there. Not quite
as high. A big barn. Well, we filled that barn, but we couldn't put all the hay in. We
made two divisions. Flour and stuff on one side right to the rafters. I hurt myself that
night. There was a couple of months I couldn't do anything because of my back. I was only
a kid.
(Mick MacIsaac must have had a big business.) Oh a big business! And Morrison the same
way.Morrison was getting just as much- you know, Allan Morrison, A.D.'s father. But A.D.'s
was fading down you know at the last of it. Angus Anthony's sold a lot of stuff too. They
had the store going too. There were a lot of people in Big Pond then. "
In connection with the July Time's article on Mary MacNeil MacKinnon, I mentioned two of
her grandchildren who have residences in the area,-Sara MacKinnon Shaheen and Frank
MacIsaac . I thank Frank for reminding me - how did it not occur to me?-that another
grandchild has a summer home in Big Pond. My apologies to Monica MacKinnon Hollohan,
Monica Steve. Monica is particularly well connected with her grandmother's people, for
through her maternal grandparents she has direct lines back to two other sons of Rory
Breac MacNeil. "c. Jack MacNeil)
