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7193 East Bay Hwy
Big Pond, NS
B1J 1V2
(902) 828-3138
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THE BIG POND
TIMES
AUGUST
2001 VOLUME VII No. 8
Big Pond Community Council July 4, 2001 Meeting opened by president, Mel Currie. A motion was made requesting the BPCC look into the possibility of a lookoff being created where “Sandy’s turns” are located. It was noted that due to high costs we will not be getting sidewalks between Glengarry and Loch Lomond Road. A motion was made that we look into getting new tennis, basketball and soccer nets for tennis court – Ron McCarron will look into this. Sherise MacKeigan reported we had a very successful beach patrol over grad week and she would like to express her thanks to all who helped out. A great deal of discussion took place concerning the role the community council will play in the management of the new facility. A motion was made to maintain the status quo by Blair McDonald. After some discussion another motion by Don MacGillivary was made tabling the original motion. The Steering Committee reported that a meeting had been held with Mayor Morgan concerning the removal of old school. Although no formal commitment was made, it was felt the municipality would look after the cost of this. It was reported that we will have a one story structure with seating for approximately 300 persons – Information concerning site clearances, environmental concerns, building plans and septic system are being looked into so a building permit can be obtained. The next meeting of the Community Council will be held on Wednesday, August 1st at 7pm in the basement of the Glebe. Please plan on attending. STAY OF EXECUTION WITH JUST HOURS TO SPARE
On Monday, 16 July Cape Breton Regional Municipality council passed a motion to
have the Lakeview House property in Big Pond designated as a heritage site. The
motion was vague so clarification was sought by Transportation & Public Works
and others as to whether the poplar trees bordering the house were included. The
Heritage Advisory Committee of CBRM scheduled a meeting for Tuesday evening, 24
July to clear it up. On Monday morning, 23 July A/District Director Don Carter
(Bruce Fitzner, the director, started his vacation that day but doubtless had
left a list of "things to do") came to Big Pond and identified to Andrew
MacDonald (MacDonald Landscaping and Tree Service Ltd.) the fourteen trees to be
cut down on Tuesday morning, just hours before the clarification meeting. By
mid-morning Monday Don MacGillivray had worked out an alternative, not with TPW
but with the contractor and sub-contractor, to leave them alone for a few days.
The trees are not even in the way of the highway construction. Tuesday evening's
meeting stated very clearly the trees were included in the designation. CBRM
will hold a public meeting on the heritage designation on 3 August, or earlier.
The public will be notified. Everyone is welcome.
Fire Department Report
Rebuilding the fire hall continues to be the main focus of
the Fire Department. The department is still operating out of temporary
headquarters and although construction has yet to begun on the new hall, much
work is being done behind the scenes by the community steering committee and by
the Fire Department. Many of the obstacles encountered have been overcome and
there is hope that actual construction will begin soon. There are lots of
fundraising activities happening. The Fire Department plans to canvass the
entire community in the month of August for donations towards their goal.
Although departments in other areas canvass their territory yearly, Big Pond has
always had good community support for the hall and has not had to resort to a
door-to-door campaign. However, this is an out of the ordinary situation and
the department is hoping for a favourable response. There are also even split
draws and a draw on an oil painting donated by local artist Ruth MacNeil.
A recent
meeting of the department was interrupted when a motor vehicle accident occurred
on the highway turns currently under construction. The department answered the
call and although injuries were minor, one of the victims remarked to
firefighters that he was very happy that Big Pond Fire Department was still
operating. Many people are not aware, but the Fire Department responds to a
number of motor vehicle accidents during the run of a year and is able to render
assistance in the form of first aid, traffic control and fire suppression.
Quite often ambulance and police services take up to 30 minutes or more to
respond whereas the Fire
Department is usually on the scene within 5 minutes.
The Fire Department is also happy to announce that Christine
McDonald was the recipient of the Francis MacNeil memorial award for 2001. This
is an annual award presented by the department to a student exhibiting high
academic achievement and community involvement. The award consists of a plaque
to be displayed at the fire hall as well as a financial contribution of $400
towards the student’s further education. Fortunately the plaque had been taken
from the fire hall to be engraved at the time the fire occurred.
Congratulations Christine!
Community Notes:
St.
Mary’s Parish
would like to thank all those who donated to our flea market
Congratulations to Keith McCarron who received the
Lori Murphy – Cheryl MacAulay Award at East Bay Complex.
Big Pond Webpage
There has been a new homepage made up for the Big Pond Community the new address is http://thebigpond.tripod.ca. Please be sure to check out the new site.
Young Trees by an old Home Site
Passers-by on Saturday evening of Concert Week may have wondered who were the
people who had gathered below the barn at
22 Glengarry Road, and what they were doing. They were descendants of
Stephen MacNeil and his wife Christy MacNeil, and they
were planting sugar maple saplings at the site of Stephen and Christy's home.
Stephen was born in Brack's Brook, as it was then
called, and which is now the eastern part of Big Pond. His parents were John
MacNeil and Catherine MacKinnon.
Christy was born in Glengarry and was the daughter of Rory Eoin MacNeil and
Flora MacInnis. They were married on
February 6, 1858. Oldest to youngest, Stephen and Christy's eight
children were John, Jonathan, Catherine, Neil, Donald, Mary,
Roderick, and Angus. As "Stephen's children ", they were known as John S,
Jonathan S, Catherine ( or Kate) S, and so on.
As a child, I heard my father or my grandfather speak about the Old House and
its location. Time, along with plows and harrows
and mowing machines, had erased all visible traces of the site, but I knew
roughly where it was. And a few years ago I would learn
the exact location when a friend plowing in the area uncovered the outlines of
the rock foundation. ( It just occurs to me that the
man who did the plowing, Roy MacInnis, is off the same MacInnises as Flora,
Christy's mother.)
Some older residents of the area will remember the building - we called it the "
carriage house" - that stood a little east of a line
between the present house and the barn. The carriage house was Stephen and
Christy's house which had been moved up there
some time after the move to the new house was made around 1910. I suspect that
the larger stones on which it rested were brought
up also. The building was gone by 1950 or thereabouts, but I don't remember any
details about its removal. ( Strange how we forget
these things. Not long ago two people with good memories were trying to remember
what happened Johnny Lamb's Store. Does
anyone know? Stevie John S told me, as I recall, that it was moved up to the
Johnstown area or beyond.)
Stephen's house, like all the houses of that generation in The Brook, was quite
small - mainly, I suppose, because building materials
were not easily come by, timbers being laboriously hewn out of logs with broad
axes, and boards painstakingly sawed out of logs
with whip saws. ( It would be fanciful to suggest that the small houses were
deliberate dispersal tactics of the early Brookers, but
no doubt the cramped quarters pretty well guaranteed that the large families of
the day got out on their own as soon as they could.)
I've always intended to mark that site in some fashion, and this summer I
decided that I had better make a start. The
years are going by and, as someone has reminded us, our aspirations may remain
the same as we grow older, but our hopes are diminished: we just aren't going
to do all the many things we intend to.
So I got six trees - one for Stephen and Christy and one for their four children
who have descendants- the others will get their trees next year-and waited until
I would see which descendants of Stephen and Flora would be around for concert
week. I didn't let anyone know of my plans in advance, because I didn't want any
people putting pressure on themselves to come home or perhaps getting the
impression that something very elaborate had been organized. ( A very small
percentage of the people connected with that home live on The Island). I waited
until the last moment - literally until the night before in some cases- to
spread the word.
Everyone who could showed up.
John S's tree was planted by great grandchildren Catherine Martin MacNeil and
Duncan Martin MacNeil; great great grandchild Janet MacKinnon; and great great
great grandchildren Ardell and Ian MacKinnon.
Kate S's tree was planted by great grandchildren Cecelia Lamb, Mary Nee, and Bob
Wilkins.
Dan S's tree was planted by his only descendant in Cape Breton, great
grandchild Wayne MacNeil. ( There must be at least fifty descendants of Dan S
somewhere in this world. Two of his sons , Daniel Ross and Iain , went to
Ontario or to the West many, many years ago. Perhaps they or one of their
children will come across this article on the internet and make contact with The
Times.)
Rod S's tree was planted by
great grandchildren Roddy Smith, John R Smith, Catherine Allan, Genevieve
Gentles, Sharon Digout, Brother MacNeil and Jack MacNeil; great great
grandchildren Ann Marie Allan, Wendy Digout, Ann Marie MacNeil, and Donnie
MacNeil; and great great great grandchildren Caitlynn MacDonald, Alanna MacNeil,
Breagh Macneil, Jessica Allan, and Justin Allan.
Everyone present had a hand in planting Stephen and Christy's trees. I felt a
little twinge of guilt as we planted those two trees, for, in the mind's eye,
I could see Stephen and his brothers and his father clearing the land,
cutting down their little acres of the "forest primeval, the murmuring pines
and the hemlocks", and wrestling with the great tree stumps. I hope they didn't
turn over in their graves when they saw what we were up to.
On Saturday of next year's Concert Week, we will, I hope, once again gather at
the site to do some more of the work in progress.
Anyone who would like to visit the site is very welcome to do so at any time.
Just walk down past the barn and you can't miss it.
I often wonder if anyone has a picture of Jonathan or Angus. It seems that there
should be one of Jonathan at least, for it's only sixty years since he died.
Also there should be one of Dan S. I suppose that it's too much to hope that
someone has a picture of Christy. She died only in 1919. She, and maybe even
Stephen ( he died in 1899),
may very well be among the nameless souls that stare at us from tintypes in
old photograph albums, sad reminders that we should somehow " mark" our
precious pictures. (c. Jack MacNeil) ......................
Can someone help with these inquiries. My
phone number is 828-2282. My e-mail is jackmacneil@auracom.com
(1) McLean
My name is Terry Botha,I live in Errington, B. C. My father Anthony (Tony) J.
McLean died here about 32 years ago. I was very young when my dad died so I
never really knew him. As I mentioned on the phone I am trying to find
information on my dad's family. I do know my grandfather's name and when he
died. He was John McLean and he died in 1926. His wife's name was Mary
Campbell. They had 11 children. My dad was youngest. They lived at Hay Cove
,Cape Breton. I Wrote the Nova Scotia Archives to get my grandfather's death
certificate ,which they did send me after a process of elimination. I never
realized that there were that many John McLeans. Any way, through that I found
out my great grand-father's name was Neil McLean and that he married Kate
McDonald. Now comes my questions. Would you happen to now if I have any living
relatives still in Nova Scotia? Cousins maybe? I know of only a couple so far:
Mary MacKinnon at Hay Cove and Brian MacNeil in Antigonish.Or maybe you might
have some information on my family. A chapter from Joe MacNeil's book I have
been told is on my family. Thank you for any information that you can give.
(2) MacDonald My name is Florence MacDonald and I'm inquiring
about my husband's lineage. Bernard MacDonald was born October 29, 1941 in New
Waterford. He moved to Ontario and has lived there for 35 years. My husband's
great grandfather , Roddie MacNeil, may have moved from Red Islands to Middle
Cape. The only information that I have on Roddie and his wife Elizabeth is that
they had five children. Catherine, Bernard's grandmother, was the oldest. The
second was Roddie who lived in Gloucester, Mass. The third and fourth children
were named Michael and Mary. The fifth child- I don't know her name- married
Johnny Philip MacDonald's father. Any help would be appreciated.
BIG POND TIMES
is financially supported by the Big Pond Community Council. Contact Don
MacGillvary. 7271 East Bay Hwy, Big Pond, Cape Breton, B1J 1V2.
dmacgill@uccb.ns.ca “It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news and raise
hell.” Chicago Times. 1861. Contact Josephine McCarron 7584 East Bay Hwy, Big
Pond, B1J 1Y6 for subscriptions. This issue was brought to you by Don
MacGillvary, Jack MacNeil, Josephine McCarron, Ron McCarron, Anne MacPherson,
and Angela MacPherson.
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