Amesdale School Toboggan Hill

Throughout the boreal forest, stretching across the northern regions of North America, toboggans developed by the Indians for winter travel through deep powder snow, became a means of entertainment in therse northern communities during long winter months.  Every community had a small hill where you’d find young and old alike enjoyed sliding on their toboggans. Amesdale’s was at the school, on the hill that rose behind and to the left as viewed from that road to Richan.

Presumably, the Amesdale School Toboggan Hill was inaugurated in 1930 when the school first opened, and the Ames, Radford, Thompson, Nelson, and Stouffer kids clamored up its snowy slopes at recesses and lunch hours for the thrill of a toboggan ride down its slick runs.  As they became more adventuresome, with fear and trepidation they became amateur skiers who swooshed down the hills on skies as rudimentary as barrel staves lashed to the skier’s feet.

Later, Swedes established themselves on homesteaders in the area, bringing with them their own professionally constructed skis, and with the introduction of greater expertise to the community, the hill behind the school was relegated to bunny hill status.  On the slopes of a big hill belonging to Ed Breau’s homestead the “skiing club” was established just east and north of Twenty Mile Creek.  Here, the young people built a run with a big skin jump, and a spectacular toboggan run beside it where the young, and the young at heart congregated for ski tournaments.  The Scandinavians like the Rudds, who lived in that neck of the woods always did well at these events.  Win or lose, participants and spectators alike enjoyed the fun of the day, complimented with big pots of moose stew during the competitions. There was certainly no better way to spend a winter's day than tobogganing with family and friends on one of these great tobogganing hills.

When the school reopened after the war, a second generation of students enjoyed adventures on that hill behind the school – including a bit of mischief unrelated to tobogganing.  Terry Houston recalls that “on that bit of a hill behind the school, there was a pretty big rock or so it seemed at the time.   Any way some of us boys got to working on that rock and finally dislodged it where upon it went rolling down the hill, just missing the girls outhouse before coming to rest in the playing field." 

Once the snow flew however, tobogganing remained the perennial favourite at recess and lunch.  Pam Manning, who attended grade 5 during the 1952-3 school year, remembers the fine tobogganing sliding hill just behind the school, where in the early winter the boys would make it an excellent slide by pouring water on the slopes every few days, until it was almost too slippery to walk up.  As the complexity of the course increased, something best described as a two-tier jump was introduced, and it was deemed far too dangerous for younger kids to slide down, from the very top. 

Nevertheless, Pam with young Louise Thompson who was only in grade one in toe, ascended the slope to the very top and defied the restrictions.  “What a ride” she now says, “we sailed down the first part then at the jump, became airborne and didn't land until we were at the bottom of the hill. We had the wind knocked right out of us, and a sore backside that wasn't so nice, but it was sure fun.  Jean Thompson, Louise’s mother wasn't happy with me at all.”

It was all good fun, and besides sore bottoms and an occasional bit tongue few injuries were reported, except of course for the teacher.  Somehow, Mrs. Lynch who reopened the school in 1946 ended up pulling all the ligaments in her leg one Saturday evening on that hill.  Nevertheless, undaunted and wearing a cast, she still made it to school on Monday morning for class, with all the big boys from the community pulling her to school on a sled!  

Amesdale Post Office

     

 As the tiny community of Freda began to grow and prosper with the arrival families. With its increase social and economic activity, came the need for a more effective postal system. The mail at that time came on the way freight and was handed to anyone on the railway platform. It would then be tossed on the shelf in the station waiting room where people would pick up any addressed to them.

Recognising the necessity of a proper post office to serve the growing community, Sam Ames wrote to the government of Canada requesting for permission for the post office in Freda. The government gave permission for the post office, but not under the name of Freda.  As it turned out there was another Freda post office in Canada. The settlers therefore made a list of names which the preferred. The list was submitted to the government and the name of Amesdale as chosen. In 1926 a post office was established in the corner of the Ames and Son General Store, with a legal description of W 1/2 of N 1/2, Lot 12, Con. 3 Rowell Twp. Gordon Ames became postmaster, a position he held until 1958. Near the end of his tenure as Postmaster, Gordon was honoured to attend a Post Office meeting in Brandon Manitoba where he was honoured as one of the very few to have served in the position for 30 years.

The Amesdale Post Office located in Rowell Township, of the Kenora Rainy River Ontario Federal Electoral District was established on 1 June, 1926 and closed July 13, 1962. During that period there were four postmasters / postmistresses, namely:

• Gordon Ames:                            1 June 1926 to 1 May 1958
• Ellen Maria Dahl (Acting):        1 June 1958 to 3 September 1958
• Katherine E. Carlson (Acting): 3 September to 10 January 1959
• Katherine E. Carlson:               12 January 1959 to 10 October 1960
• Elizabeth Bakala (Acting):       1 December 1960 to 19 December 1960
• Elizabeth Bakala:                     19 December 1960 to 13 July 1962

Source: Government of Canada, National Archives of Canada, Post Offices and Postmasters

A Prayer of Hope, Consolation, and Thanksgiving

At the Table of the Giesbrecht Family

by Andy Clement

In the fall of 1945 the Giesbrecht family of eight children, Lisbeth, Greta, Katy, Jacob, Gerhard, Peter, Helen, and Henry moved in from Manitoba, with their parents George and Katherine.  Of the Mennonite persuasion they took up a partially cleared former homestead.  Their home was over five miles from the school car. There were three girls of thirteen, eleven, and nine years, and a boy of eight, for school.  A note of their mileage walked in June to get to the school for a four day stop totalled forty-four or eleven miles a day.  Also noted was that the eldest daughter, perhaps because of other work at home, showed the most fatigue.  The youngest kept right up with the rest!

In the winter they arrived by sleigh. With daylight saving they would leave home in the dark.  Trained in Manitoba they suffered only for the slow tedium of the ride.  But the father made the sacrifice of hanging around the little store all day till four o'clock.

I was invited out to supper in the spring.  This was their way of saying thanks.  I was prepared for a frugal meal as I had seen those kids take only bread in their lunches at school.  Bless their hearts they had a chicken.  And they had vegetables, and some sort of dumplings, and dessert and tea.

There was a closing of the meal with a prayer.  Nowhere is a prayer more impressive than at the table of the poor.  Hope, consolation, thanksgiving are all there.  It was a godsend that the buses would call for them in the fall.  I heard later that the Giesbrecht family turned out really well.

Source:  A passage taken from by Andy Clement’s book, "The Bell and The Book" with minor corrections by Gerhard Giesbrecht, now George Grant from Eagle Lake, in Haliburton County, Ontario.

Annual Flag Day Ceremony

Amesdale Cemetery - June 10, 2012

For their size, the communities of Amesdale and Richan sent a disproportionate number of "boys", as my mother would call them, to serve in the Second World War.  I don’t recall the number now, but she would gratefully report that they all "came home".  Many of those "boys", have now come home to rest among the pines of the Amesdale Cemetery.  

Myron Thompson
Roy Thompson

Nick Bakala

Gordon (Spike) Cole

Wilfred Hewitson
Jack Hewitson

Joyce Wright
Donald Wright

Joseph McKay

Lorne Ramstead

Carl Dahl

William Paton

Donald Ames

On June 10^th at 11am, at the Amesdale Cemetery the Legion will perform the annual Flag Day Ceremony, and the Cemetery Board is hoping that a representative of each family will participate in the service.  Later, during lunch the annual general meeting will be held, followed by opportunities for socializing under happier circumstances that those that often bring us together.  Anyone who can participate in the annual clean-up is invited to remain afterwards to help.  In the past the grounds, gardens, and headstones have been maintained, and work parties have been organised for special projects like the new fence that was installed a few years ago.

The Cemetery Board greatly appreciates your help as it helps to keep our costs to a minimum.  They also comment that "Without YOU our Cemetery would not be as beautiful as it is, and the envy of small Woodland Cemeteries." 

You are reminded that the Amesdale Cemetery is now a registered charity, and as such tax receipts can be issued for donations.   Plots can also be purchased by contacting:

Joanne Brown

Amesdale Cemetery Secretary/Treasurer

1-807-755-1582 or 1-807-216-8381 cell

Box 98, Eagle River, Ontario P0V 1S0

terry056@drytel.net

Amesdale Emergency Landing Strip

Airport Construction - Unemployment Relief Camp 1936

 

In 1920, when the idea of a national air service was conceived, Canada was one of the very few countries of the world that had no organized air service connecting its principal cities.  Geography and climate conspired to restrict trans-continental air travel within Canada.  Owing to its numerous lakes and freezing temperatures, the Canadian airline industry operated on planes equipped with pontoons in summer, and skis in winter.  Twice a year, at break-up and freeze-up , operations were shut down for three to six months; a situation unacceptable for the establishment of a national air service.

Back in 1871, the encroachment of U.S. railroads on the 49th parallel, had alarmed the MacDonald government, and resulted in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.  Similarly, the threat of U.S. inter-city air services extending into Canadian cities convinced the government that  developing a Canadian transcontinental airway was a national imperative, and in 1928 it was decided to span the breadth of Canada, from Halifax on the Atlantic to Vancouver on the Pacific, with a year-round air service. Like the railway before it, in the words of C.D. Howe, Minister of Transport in Prime Minister Mackenzie King's cabinet, the airway would “overcome vast geographical barriers, thwart the Americans, reassure the British and unite the country."

 

By 1930 the western section from Winnipeg to the Rockies had already been built, but if Canada was to have a national airway, the wilderness of Northern Ontario needed to be safely traversed.  Therefore, in the interest of safe travel, a chain of emergency landing strips at approximately 100 mile intervals had to be established through sparsely populated Northern Ontario.   Amesdale, like Sioux Lookout and Armstrong to the east, was among the 42 locations designated for the construction of an emergency airfield. 

By 1934, nearly 8000 men were mobilised for construction of Canada’s transcontinental airway.  At the worst part of the Great Depression, under the Unemployment Relief Scheme, the Bennett government provided food and shelter and five dollars a day for the growing numbers of single unemployed men, in exchange for their labour.   From Quebec to Manitoba an army of workers braved wintery blasts of twenty to thirty below zero and summer’s plague of big, black flies to cut down trees, level off fields, dynamite, and burn stumps and fill muskeg swamps with rocks and boulders.  Even after the fields had been cleared it was no small task to prevent the fast growing bush from reclaiming the land.  Thus were created small oases in the desert of forests where planes might land in an emergency.  Though rarely used, lonely airfields such as the one at Amesdale provided the security necessary for the establishment of Trans-Canada Airways, the forerunner of Air Canada.  

With its three sand runways standing like a white cross among the green spruce, the little airfield, situated one mile north of the Amesdale general store and train station and above what came to be known as Airport Lake,  was a beehive of activity during the Depression.   Construction was initiated at the south-east end of the lake.  Frank Douglas Austin came to Amesdale and worked as an engineer to build the airport at Amesdale in about 1936. He and his wife Hattie were housed in a small cottage by the lake near the construction camp site. Larry Pinkerton of Dryden, served as the foreman for the project.

Upon completion, Jack Nelson became the manager of the airport, and was assigned to report any activity, especially during the war.   He had a horse and a mower to keep the grass down.   He kept one building open and lived in a white frame cottage with red trim, where his wife Ella had a big garden and was noted for her lovely flowers.   For a time the five bunkhouses were used for summer youth camps, and Larry Sward eventually took over the foreman’s house down by the lake.  The large fields served as the ideal setting for Dominion Day celebrations, witnessing sack races, three-legged races, and tug of war games.  Softball tournaments, horseshoes, and a dip in the cool water of spring-fed Airport Lake which lay just over brow of the hill, became regular summer fare for the citizens of Amesdale.

With the exception of a pilot named Jones, flying across northern Ontario when engine trouble forced him to make a belly landing at Amesdale, it is uncertain how many planes actually landed on the 3700 foot long landing strip at Amesdale.  

The sandy clearings that still exist are a witness to Amesdale’s part in providing security for the establishment of the Trans-Canada Airways.  They also remind us of the many memorable community activities, as well as happy reunions of Amesdale family and friends, after the store and station were long gone.

Clarence Tillenius: Painter and Homesteader

1913-2012

 "The paintings of Clarence Tillenius transport you to the wild open plains of the past, into the protective and secretive worlds hidden around us, and lift you to where you can feel the primeval vastness of the forest and the mountains. Life as it was, as we often nostalgically wish for, will be opened up to you, evoking both joy and sadness and a peaceful sense of appreciation for the man who painted it, Clarence Tillenius." Dr. Philip H.R. Stepney, Director Provincial Museum of Alberta.

 

Message of Farewell to His Friends 

I believe that there is in the universe an underlying rhythm, a stream of life common to all ages; that the work of an artist who could tap into that rhythm would be timeless, it would be understood in any age, since man himself is bound by, and responds to, the same rhythm as the animals.

When that rhythm calls me to a universe other than this one; I ask each of you, who wish to remember me, to look at my paintings or my dioramas. As long as my work is appreciated by the generations that follow, my work will have tapped into that rhythm and will be timeless; even though I have now crossed that great Divide.

 Clarence Tillenius

Observations of a Personal Friend

by Clarence Tillenius

"Just finished re-reading your history of your father Gordon Ames: I must tell you I had both sympathy and deep admiration for Gordon - in contrast to all his brothers and sisters who were all tall and good looking, Gordon with his hunchback suffered many indignities what he largely - and usually successfully - hid from the world.

To give you an example: one morning early I was alone in his store with Gordon when a man walked in - someone I had not met but I think probably some distant relative of Gordon's - and his opening greeting was: "Haven't yet gotten your head up off your shoulders, have you Ames?" Gordon, quick witted as always, came back with: "If your head was so full of brains as mine is, ya' wouldn't care where it was!!"

I, myself, had been deeply disgusted at such a comment being directed to Gordon - who can help such a disfigurement caused by no fault of his own? And I sensed then - as I did many times after - that Gordon's constant high spirits and public merriment disguised a sensitive nature often and deeply hurt by these supposed joking references to his handicap.

What I admired in him then, as I do to this day, was his ability to make the best of his handicap and try his best to provide the good life for your mother and you in spite of those lapses when the black moods would overcome him and alcohol to drown his handicap would -though rarely enough- take over.

This is just a personal observation, Brian, but one I thought I should pass on to you."

Best Regards,
Clarence

"If"

Joseph Gordon Ames – A Favourite Poem

As a child, I remember my Dad reciting Rudyard Kipling’s didactic poem, entitled "If".   To “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs” was his personal maxim.  

 

If...

Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE7Rkcn33gg