Amesdale Population - 1950 and 1951

Informal Census of Amesdale Population (Data provided by Gerti Aspling Maunsell) _________________________
Name	January 18, 1950	June 3, 1951
_________	___________	___________
Ames, G.	2	2
Ames, S.	6	6
Asplin	4	4
Asselin	3	2
Breau. E	1	1
Cromp	-	2
Dahl	4	-
Dubitz, I.	-	1
Dymetrios	6	-
Giesbrecht	10	10
Giovanoli	1	1
Gulbrants	2	-
Huber, H.	1	-
Hewitson	4	3
Jackson, B.	1	-
Kerney	3	2
Laramie	2	3
Lynch, D.	1	-
McClughan, J.	1	1
Mercier	-	4
Nelson, Jack	3	2
Nelson, Jim	2	2
Paradis	-	4
Paul	5	5
Peters	5	-
Porteus, C.	1	1
Premack, J.	1	-
Premack, M.	6	6
Radford, B.	4	4
Radford, E.	2	2
Radford, G.	4	4
Ramstead	2	2
Rud	2	2
Sanness	8	-
St. Onge	1	1
Stirling	2	2
Swardfagger, L	1	1
Thompson, M.	4	4
Thompson, R.	3	3
Zolob ===========	3 =============	- =============
Total	111	87
Camps	200	?

A History of Eric and Emmy Aspling

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Eric and Emmy Aspling were born in Sweden and immigrated to Canada in the mid 1920’s. During their first few years in Canada, they lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba where they owned and operated the Grill Café. During this time, their son Frank was born on January 23^rd, 1929.

In the early 1930’s they moved to Ontario and settled on a homestead midway between Amesdale and Richan. Their first home was built out of logs. A barn and hay shed were also built. The land was cleared, fences were put up and soon after there were cows and chickens roaming the property. Occasionally there would also be a couple of pigs in a pen. Gardens provided fresh vegetables and they would pick blueberries and raspberries to preserve for the winter.

Eric began working for the CN Railway. For several years, before purchasing a vehicle, he walked, cycled and would ski after a winter snowstorm, five miles to his job in Richan.

Eric and Emmy were pleased when a Norwegian family, Magnus and Sara Rud and their two children, Peder and Edith settled on a nearby homestead. Now there would be playmates for Frank and their daughter Gertrude (Gertie) who was born on September 17^th, 1935. A larger house was built on the property in the mid 1940’s. Amid their busy lives, the family took time for entertaining and visits with neighbouring families. They enjoyed the Amesdale and Richan’s annual picnics, baseball games, concerts, dances and whist drives. In later years, they would often take a drive to Dryden to watch movies in the Strand and Royal Theatres.

Emmy joined the Women’s Institute who met once a month in the members’ homes. When Gertie was old enough, she also became a member. Emmy had the opportunity to travel to Toronto to attend the World Wide Women’s Institute Conference held at Maple Leaf Gardens.

In the mid 1950’s Eric and Emmy sold their home and property and bought a home near Richan.

On December 1^st, 1956, there was a tragic event in their lives when their son Frank was killed in a car/train collision at the Dinorwic railway crossing.

Eric retired in 1962 and in 1966 they sold their home and bought a house on Glengoland Road near Oxdrift. A year later, on August 15^th, 1967, Emmy had a stroke and passed away.

Their daughter Gertie worked at Booi’s store in Richan in 1951-52, then moved to Dryden to work. In 1959, Gertie married Tom Maunsell and they have 3 daughters and seven grandchildren.

After Emmy passed away, Eric eventually moved to Dryden. He travelled to Sweden a few times to visit family and spent a few winters with friends in Arizona. In 1978, Eric married Nora Nymark and they lived at 10 Victoria Apartments. Nora passed away on Christmas Eve in 1996.

On August 26^th, 1997, Eric passed away shortly after celebrating his 100^th birthday.

Written by Gertie Aspling Maunsell

A Detective Story From Long, Long Ago

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It was April 28, 1950 and the three woodcutter were in their shack in the bush near Amesdale. They had been drinking all afternoon, and as evening came they realized that they had nothing to eat in the shack.

They walked to Amesdale and knocked on the door of Gordon Ames’ General Store. It was after hours however, and he store was locked for the night. The men forced their way into the store and began to help themselves to the stock. One of them cut a large chunk of hard cheese and began to eat it. After several bites he tossed the remainder aside. The men left taking over $50 worth of food and cigarettes, and returned to their shack in the woods.

When Ames arrived the next morning and found the break-in, he immediately phoned for the police. A constable arrived shortly and began to examine the crime scene for clues.

Coming across the partly eaten chunk of cheese, he observed that it contained a very visible set of teeth prints. Returning to Dryden, he went to Dutton, the local dentist and had him take a mold of the teeth marks. Dutton then gave the police a description of what sort of teeth they should look for.

Arriving back in Amesdale the next day, several suspects were approached, and soon one was found with teeth that seemed to match the dentist’s description. The man was taken into custody and directly to the dentist office in Dryden. Dutton took and impression of the suspect’s teeth, and when compared to the cheese bite, the match was obvious. The accused confessed the crime and named his accomplices. They were arrested and all soon came before the magistrate. In the annuls of crime perpetrated within our district, this one perhaps should be known as ‘The case of the chomped cheese’.

By Gerrie Nobel and the Dryden & District Historical Society

Dryden Observer September 10, 2003

Miss LaRamie

Miss LaRamie was our teacher. She taught grades one through seven in the little schoolhouse. The little schoolhouse was located in the village of Amesdale. The population would have be perhaps fifty people, including Miss LaRamie. The storekeeper and postmaster was an Ames, and half the student body went by the name Ames.

The school itself was very basic by today’s standards, no electrical power, and no running water. A large wood and coal heater supplied the necessary heat. Two wooden outhouses severed the student body, that being about fifteen kids.

Miss LaRamie was a very interesting teacher, of perhaps forty years of age. Subject to migraine headaches, she would suffer tremendously with them. More than once we would walk the four miles to school only to discover that there would be no school that day, as Miss LaRamie was having a migraine attack. There are many stories that could be told about Miss LaRamie and thee little one roomed schoolhouse, but I’m only going to tell you one today. Learning under the guidance of Miss LaRamie was almost always interesting, and this day was to be no exception. It was in fact going to be a red-letter day, one that would live on in the memories of her students for decades to come.

The day was a Monday. I know this because there was a dance on Saturday night and we had to drag the desks back into position. At first everything seemed to be going along as usual, but then things started to change just a bit. Miss LaRamie began to become more assertive, and then it was noticed by the older kids at least, that Miss LaRamie was really not herself. You see Miss LaRamie had been drinking. It seemed that she had come across a bottle of wine in the cloak room. This explained her frequent trips there. As the morning wore on, and Miss LaRamie slipped under the influence more and more, I think she decided to settle a few outstanding items. First and foremost of these items was kid by the name of Norman Ames, and the fact that a poetry assignment was very, very overdue.

Now every kid in the school from grade one up knew the poem, and could recite it as will, except Norman! Now Norman was one of the older kids; he was in grade seven I think, and he was not stupid, he just did not like poetry. When Miss LaRamie called upon Norman he as instructed stood up beside his desk, then despite prompting from every kid in every grade in the school could not get more than a few hauling words out.

COME UP HERE!!! Commanded Miss LaRamie, reaching into her desk drawer for the strap. For a long moment Norman just stood there, considering his options. He them stepped forward and extended his hand, prepared to receive his punishment. Clutching the strap firmly, the teacher raised her hand high to execute the punishment. As the arm descended with full force and just as leather was about to meet flesh, Norman pulled his hand back and the strap bit into the teacher’s thigh. Norman bolted for the door. Miss LaRamie uttered these words. GET HIM Jerry! At her command Jerry sprang to his feet. Maybe I should tell you a few things about Jerry. At fifteen years of age and six feet tall, he was by and far the biggest kid in school. The fact that he was fifteen in a school that went to grade seven will tell other things about him as well.

Norman was just going through the door, when Jerry started to move, and move quickly. We kids ran to the window to watch the action. Outside the door was a landing and six steps leading down to a rather large mud puddle. When I peered out the window I could see Norman running down the steps, he was almost to the bottom, when Jerry appeared at the top step. Almost instantly he launched himself, booted feet first. He struck Norman right-square in the middle of his back, driving him down face first into the mud puddle. Upon hearing our collective gasp, Miss LaRamie looked out the window, and almost fainted.

Norman was lying face down in the puddle, not moving an inch, while Jerry stood beside him awaiting further orders, on can only think. Miss LaRamie rushed out. In the end Norman had only had the wind knocked out of him. And we all got the rest of the day off.

Written by Terry Houston, a student 1951-52

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Mrs. C. LaRamie taught from 1949 to 1952. She was replaced by Mrs. Olive Ames Lynch in the fall of 1952.