Local Residents Working on the Road 1941

     The Province has a new website listing their documents since 1894 - below is one I found which shows local residents, mostly men, who worked on the road that year and how much they were paid.  The higher paid men were likely Road Overseers.

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Annual Report of the Department of Public Works

and Highways of the Province of Prince Edward Island

for the Fiscal Year Ending December 31,  1941

cf.  http://www.peildo.ca/fedora/repository/leg%3A6250?startpage=&solrq=george%20jeffery

Details of Expenditures

R O A D S - Prince County

Section No. 8

Donald Barbour $6.75; Waldron Leard $6.51; Frank Barbour $10.00; Eldon Barbour $4.50; Arthur Barnett $2.50; Claude Barnett $6.84; Charles Barnett $5.00; Harold Bearisto $1.75; Roy Burns $59.40; Lloyd Burns $14.22; Hubert Burns $10.78; W.H. Burns $7.27; William H. Burns $3.78; John Cannon $16.75; Edward Clements $12.75; Antoine Clements $2.78; Frederick Clements $0.25; John A. Clements $0.25; George Costain $25.65; John W. Costain $0.25; John A. Costain $8.60; Gordon Costain $0.25; Raymond Costain $0.25; Wallace Costain $0.25; Tennyson Costain $9.31; Chester Costain $0.25; Ralph Costain $6.25; Clifford Costain $4.00; Daniel Dalton $17.87; Daniel Danton $4.78; Wallace Donald $0.86; Peter Donahue $0.28; Gregory Donahue $6.75; Mrs. Gertrude Doyle $2.28; Ralph Duggan $22.50; Hudson Duggan $5.44; Roy Duggan $0.36; Isaac Dunbar $0.78; Howard Dunbar $0.28; Leo Ellsworth $0.25; Robert Fitzgerald $2.02; Kenneth Gordon $2.50; David Gordon $1.06; Sanford Green $0.78; Veniah Green $17.53; Sanford Green $36.87; Reginald Green $2.00; Richard Hustler $16.00; Louis Jeffery $22.50; David Jeffery $0.78; Gordon Jeffery $9.12; George Jeffery $4.82; john R. Jones $3.75; Edward Jones $10.12; Alberton Jones $0.25; James Jones $0.25; George Jones $2.50; John A. Jones $9.00; Keith Kelly $4.50; Edmund Kelly $0.28; Paulinus Kelly $0.28; Herman Kennedy $2.25; Austin Kennedy $14.40; Frank Kinch $1.53; Benedict Kinch $2.75; Andrew Kinch $$11.75; Earl Kinch $4.50; James Kinch $0.78; Charles Mallett $5.74; Mrs. Clarence Murphy $0.26; Wilbert Murphy $6.99; Ernest Myers $60.26; Mrs. Elizabeth Myers $1.75; Patrick McIntyre $4.75; Wilbert McInnis $0.78; Robert McInnis $0.78; Guy McInnis $0.25; John McLean $19.76; Harry McLean $1.25; John McLellan $19.59; W.B. McLellan $3.32; Irvin McLellan $5.75; Stanford McNeill $0.61; Anselm J. O’Brien $7.06; Peter O’Brien $1.36; Albert O’Brien $1.25; Roach O’Brien $4.20; Jervis O’Brien $14.00; George O’Brien $0.78; Cornelius O’Brien $2.53; Hedley Palmer $7.23; Hedley L. Palmer $16.92; James Palmer $2.25; Heber Ramsay $41.04; Frederick Rennie $2.80; Arthur Rennie $9.72; Harvey Rix $14.92; Mrs. Lida Rix $0.60; John Sawyer $6.50è Emmett Sentner $1.96; Wilfred Shields $13.00; George Shields $2.25; John J. Smith $8.91; Bertram Smith $9.60; John H. Smith $15.43; Sidney Smith $13.75; John D. Thompson $3.75; John Wedge $14.75; Joseph White $5.50.

Meeting the Train in Alma - 1940's

     I was quizzing my father, Wilbert Jeffery, about who was responsible for the Alma Train Station in Alma.  In those days at the small, whistle stop stations, like Alma, had no Station Agents like some of the bigger stations like Alberton - so there was a local person who, "met the train", in the morning and in evening.  Wilbert recalls the person in Alma was Tommy Henderson who lived on the Western Road in the hollow below the Anglican Church, next to the Curries, in the house where in the latter part of the 1900's Keith and Blanche Bowness lived.

     Tommy Henderson met the train to get the mail and would take it over to Wallace and Annie Donalds who had the post office in their home (Desmond & Hazel Gallants today) on the Western Road near Alma Corner.

     Above: Carter's photo of the old Alma Train Station -see upper right where

the Alma sign used to be - most recently owned by James *Jim* MacNeill.

     Wilbert said when he was young, in the mid-1940's, he and other local fellows use to go out to the station mostly on Saturday evenings (there wasn't much else to do) to hang out and wait for the train with Tommy and when he got the mail would go with him to the Donalds.  The train came up from central PEI every evening, ending in Tignish, then leave the next morning to the middle of the Island again.

     Wilbert couldn't recall who met the train after Tommy.

Above image, by Massey F. Jones, cf.

http://yourrailwaypictures.com/OldDiesels/indexCN-Diesels.html

George Hilton Barbour

     There was a new website launched today "Prince Edward Island Legislative Documents Online"  www.peildo.ca   There's quite a variety of searchable information on this site.  One such category is Biographies - we had a local Alma born resident, Hon. George Hilton Barbour -  MLA and Minister of the Prince Edward Island Government.  Here's a photo of Mr. Barbour from the new website and a link to his biography 

http://www.peildo.ca/fedora/repository/leg:25510

See previous post on this blog -

http://almalauretta.blogspot.ca/2012/03/hon-george-hilton-barbour-mla-senator.html

Dance Halls in Alma

     My Dad, Wilbert Jeffery, has always told me about the dance halls on the Centerline Road - so the other day I sat down with him and quizzed him about what he remembered about them. There were two built around the same time in the late 1940's.
     The first dance hall that was the "New Look", owned and built by Hilary Kinch of Alma, brother of Edna (Kinch) Dunn.  He had a house, west of Archie/Bobby Barbour's home - there's an empty field there today.  Wilbert thought Hilary built the hall in 1947 or 1948.  The hall was a fairly simple building with a low pitched roof.
     I'm not aware of any photos of the Halls - so I sketched out something to give the impression of they might have been like.
     Hilary hired Russell Warren from St. Louis as his main fiddler - Russell won awards for his fine fiddling skills.  Russell was the son of blacksmith Harold Warren.
     Hillary operated the New Look for a year or two then sold the house and hall - Stanford MacNeill bought the house and used it as a granary and someone else bought the hall and moved it away.  Hillary went on to work with Roy Kennedy in his saw mill.  Hilary was in WWII - Wilbert recalls him telling stories about being in London.

     The second dance hall was built a year or so after Hilary's by his brother-in-law Wilfred Dunn.  Wilfred called his dance hall, "The Bright Spot".  It was built to the south of the driveway into Wilfred & Edna's homestead on Centerline Road.
     Wilbert thought the Bright Spot was a building similar to Hilary's, cedar shingled with a low roof.  Wilbert recalls being out to Rennie's Store at Alma Corner and a bunch of men around talking - Wilfred told them of his plans to build a dance hall too - Fred Rennie said, "if you build it I 'll be there the first night." And sure enough he was - Fred died not long after in 1949.  Wilbert thought Russell Warren played the fiddle at the Bright Spot too.
     After a couple of years Wilfred sold the hall to Frank Barbour (Adams lives there today on the Western Road) who moved it out to his place - the hall was cut it in two to move it.

     I asked Wilbert if he knew of any other dance halls in Alma or Lauretta - he said no.  Most events were held in the school and dance halls were something new after the War - there was also a hall further though on the Centerline Road in St. Lawrence.