Myron Iotis & Irene Myrtle Paradis Thompson

Myron Thompson was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on October 26, 1920, the oldest son of Iotis and Phoebe Thompson, the first Whites to live in Amesdale.   Iotis, a seasoned trapper from the United States, had met pretty young Pheobe Cody, age 19 years of Chippewa County, Michigan.   Shortly thereafter they were married in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan prior to emigrating from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to establish themselves as trappers in the then lucrative Canadian fur industry.   Otis and Phoebe decided to locate in the bush of North-western Ontario at a location on the Canadian National Railway known as Freda-Richan area.  First they went to Richan where he built his cabin, then to Freda when he got the homestead.  The trap line, and what eventually became the family homestead, was located near Mile 51 crossing on the north side of the only artery of communication with the outside world, the Canadian National Railway. 

Owing to the remoteness of the place, and the absence of a doctor or mid-wife, Phoebe went to Winnipeg for Myron's birth.  Just fifteen months later, on December 5th, 1921, his younger brother Roy was born in Sioux Lookout for the same reasons.   By the time the boy’s only sister Marion Joyce Thompson was born thirteen years later, a second artery of communication had been opened up.  The community was now connected to the Canadian Pacific Railway, just 17 miles to the south, along what was then considered to be a good gravel road.  With the birth of Joyce in Dryden, Ontario on November 28, 1935 the family was complete.

Their homestead was just east of the Freda station, which was later to be renamed Amesdale.  From the road leading north from that crossing, the cabin was set back a good city block to the east.  Interestingly, the cabin had been constructed in Richan and hauled on Iotis’ back to Amesdale, log by log.  Later, and before Joyce’s birth, the original structure had been added on to making it a two story log cabin, with one big room downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs.   By Amesdale standards it was a good sized cabin.

Myron’s father’s large trap line extended northward into the seemingly endless wilderness. Trapping was a family affair. During the winter, the front room was often shared with beaver, weasel, fox, and wolf hides stretching on hoops, or fastened to boards for drying. Years later their children would recall the drying pelts spread inside and outside of the house, as well as fleas transferred to the kids, which caused memorable discomfort.

Ote was keenly interested in the establishment of a school for his children, so in 1928 he was elected Chairman of the Amesdale School Board, and with others petitioned the government to open a school.  In the meantime Myron took correspondence courses.  Then on November 3, 1930, with an enrolment of nine students, classes commenced in the newly constructed Amesdale School, with Rhonda E. Marks of St. Catherines, Ontario as the first teacher.  Myron and Roy Thompson were members of that inaugural class, along with seven classmates, namely Donald Ames, Jim Nelson, Jim Radford, Fred Radford, Beatrice Radford, Ken Stouffer and Mary Stouffer.  It was a rough year for this first year teacher who was not only homesick but had to deal with kids of all ages who had not attended or had not been regular attendees at a formal school before.      

Nevertheless, five years and five teachers later, seven of the nine original students completed Grade 8.  Myron was one of the seven and at fourteen years of age his formal education was complete.   Graduation was followed by high school entrance exams, and the five boys travelled to Quibell for the exams, but only one of the five boys one passed.  Myron was sick while writing the exams and failed, so his Dad said “If you aren’t going to go to school you better get to work.”  By age fifteen he had left home and was working out west for farmers every summer.  Each winter he returned to help his Dad on the trapline.  Myron was smart, and he was no slouch when it came to understanding world affairs.  He had a great memory.  Although he had no high school education, he was self taught, and knew a lot. 

In 1937 or 1938, presumably due to financial difficulties related to the Great Depression, the Thompsons moved to Hayden (near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.), and at that time the whole family also took a trip south to visit Uncle Levi and his family in Walkerville, Michigan before returning to Amesdale.

On September 10^th, 1939 regular CBC Radio programming was interrupted by a brief news bulletin declaring that Canada was at war with Germany.  Myron was eager to enlist, but his parents insisted that he wait for his younger brother.  In 1940, shortly after Roy turned eighteen, the brothers enlisted in the armoured division of The Lake Superior Regiment of the Canadian Armed Forces, a unit that traces its creation to the response to the second Riel Rebellion. During the Second World War, the "Lake Sups" (pronounced soups) was mobilized as a Motor (motorized infantry) battalion for the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division.

Myron learned the trade of Heavy Duty Mechanics, and served in the first line behind the lines fixing the trucks and tanks being sent to the front.  Myron and Roy saw active duty, serving mostly in Holland.   Roy didn’t talk about the war.  Myron didn’t talk much about the war at first, although he did talk about the fun part, the parties and such.  Later he shared a story about a sniper who was shooting at him.  In response, he crept closer as he kept shooting, until the sniper’s shooting stopped.  The Dutch people loved the Canadian soldiers for their dominant role in liberating large portions of Holland.  For years after his return, Myron continued to correspond with a Dutch family.

While the boys were overseas, on the eve of a heavy snowfall in January 1943 their father passed away, leaving a widow and daughter with no means of support.   With her two sons overseas, and not really liking Amesdale, Phoebe went to Sioux Lookout where she found work as a waitress in Clark's Café.   There she met a young lady by the name of Jean Paradis, who had moved to Sioux in 1944 with her parents and five siblings, including a younger sister named Irene.  Both girls were working at the café, and Jean, who was just 5 years younger than Pheobe’s youngest son Roy, began corresponding with him as part of her contribution to the war effort.  

 

Near the end of the war, with savings and insurance money, Pheobe decided to build a new house on the homestead in Amesdale, in anticipation of her sons' return.  She hired Bert Ames to build a second house on the homestead, a small one bedroom wood frame building, not 400’ from the road. However, upon his return in December 1945, Roy got a good job the CNR mechanics shop in Sioux lookout, and started dating Jean Paradis.

Myron didn’t return immediately either.  He suffered a bout of poor health at the end of the war, contracted chicken pox, pneumonia, then had a mastoid operation which resulted in him being kept in England to recover.  While in England he was somewhat sweet on an English girl, whom he said he almost married.  However, after a recovery period of four months he returned home at Easter of 1946, and upon release he joined Roy in Sioux Lookout.    He got a job at Fullers Garage as a mechanic.

Jean and Roy were already going together when Myron got home, and announced that they were getting married.  Whereupon, Myron looked at Irene and said, that sounds like an idea, what do you think?  He bought a ring and gave it to Irene.  So the older brother, and the younger sister, now engaged to be married were enlisted to stand up for Roy and Jean, the younger brother and the older sister.  Unfortunately, in the meantime Irene got mad and Myron and threw the ring back at him, so they didn’t have a double wedding as planned.  Nevertheless, they still stood up for Roy and Jean, and teased them about getting married on June 21^st 1946, the shortest night of the year.   Amidst the teasing, and the romance of their siblings' wedding Myron and Irene made-up and were married on 19 Aug 1946, in Sioux Lookout.  Their wedding photo was taken in front of the Paradis home up by the Indian hospital. 

Soon after the weddings, the Thompson boys decided take their brides back to Amesdale to go trapping.  After the rigors of war, something just seemed to just pull them back to Amesdale.   Their nerves were shot and they needed to be out in the bush silence to recover from four years of war.  Roy suffered even more so than Myron who tended to play the “tough guy”.  Maybe he felt it inside but he didn’t show it.

Myron and Irene moved in with Phoebe for a while, but soon rented one of the whitewashed log cabins south of the station.  Roy, who loved the bush and the life of the backwoods, came down later that fall, planning to move into the old family cabin.  He tore off the top story and tried to make it presentable with imitation brick asphalt sheets, and got it all fixed up nicely before Jean came down.  Jean, who was now pregnant, and unhappy about the move to Amesdale, came anyways and set up housekeeping in the renovated old cabin, which Roy had made to look pretty good by then.

Mrs. Thompson and Jean always got along well, and on occasion she had even visited Phoebe in Amesdale before she and Roy were married.  Irene and Phoebe didn’t always see eye to eye on things, but since both had come to Amesdale from larger communities, they shared a lack of enthusiasm for the community.  Having lived in Brandon as a young teenager, Irene figured Sioux Lookout was small enough, so going to Amesdale was a tough change for a city girl.  It was like walking into the bush and saying this was home.  However, Myron moved her there and she was there for 7 years, taking the new but smaller house, located about 400’ from the road.

Laurie Ames was Irene’s best friend.  She had married young Sam Ames before the war and already had children. She knew how to tend a housed so she taught Irene a lot about cooking and how to look after a home.  They also shared the experiences of having husbands recently returned from the war, raising families, and living in a remote community.  For entertainment, there was lots of time to sit around and gossip.  

But community life was changed from what it was before the war.  The boys who went off to war, matured and came back as men, hardened by some pretty tough experiences.  Dryden seemed closer as everyone got cars, and prosperity increased.  There were nights of tobogganing on the hill behind the school.  There were frequent dances in Amesdale and Richan, and drinking seemed to factor into these and a few stories can be told of the fights at the dances.  Myron and Gordon Ames were frequent drinking buddies.  Every Friday Gordon and Myron would head to town to pick up groceries at New Dryden Jobbing, and return home drunker than skunks. 

In the spring of 1947 Phoebe moved to Saskatchewan with her new husband, Sidney G. Sears, whom she had met at Clark’s café in Sioux. Joyce remained in Amesdale with her brothers, for the next 6 months until her Mum and step-father were established in Saskatchewan.  After Phoebe went West, Myron and Irene moved into the house and took care of Joyce, but Myron was a tough father figure, and Joyce ended up making the rounds between the homes of Myron, Roy, and Beatrice Ames before she too headed west to live with her Mum and new stepfather..

The two Thompson boys now took over their father's trapline and spent all winter walking and snowshowing his very large route.  In the summer, Myron guided at Wick Cliff Lodge.  Myron and his friend Fred Radford, who had been school buddies, spent a lot of time together. When Fred wasn't working on the railroad and Myron wasn't doing trapping or guiding they roamed the bush in search of game, or fishing. Fishing trips were frequent, and always successful. A favourite spot was Pelican Lake, located south of the store, where there were always lots of pickerel. Irene Pierson remembers coming down from Dauphin, where she lived with her family, to visit her Grandma Harriet and her cousin Fred. On those occasions, Fred and Myron would invite Irene out to lunch - Amesdale style. Off they would go optimistically armed with nothing but fishing gear, bread, butter, a jug of orange juice and a frying pan. They always had fish.

Irene was busy scrubbing cloths on the washboard, and hanging them on the line year round.  Water was hauled from the spring behind the store, at a rate of two pails of water every day.  Folks near the store didn’t have a well, although Myron and Roy tried to dig one, but never found water.  Their neighbours, Laurie and Sam Ames may have had one but the Thompsons were never so fortunate.

In the winter of 1947, Irene went to live with Joe and Marge McKay in Dryden as she anticipated their first child.  The roads weren’t ploughed often during the winter so it was necessary to be close to civilisation at critical times like this.   David Allen, born 27 March 1947 on Irene’s 18^th birthday and Gordon Levi came along shortly thereafter on 6 Sept 1948.

In addition to the two boys, a new member of the Thompson family had arrived in the spring of 1948.  While down at the store, Myron adopted a bear cub that Fred Radford had found in the bush.  He drilled a hole by his house with an auger, put a post in the hole, and tied the bear to it. Myron Thompson and  Fred took that bear and raised it all summer. It was a real pet.  They kept it till fall, then they got a hold of the game warden and told him about it, and he said, “Well why don’t you try and get rid of it”. He says, “I think they need a bear in the Winnipeg Zoo”. So they contacted the Winnipeg Zoo, and yes they wanted one, so they had to get permission to ship it out of the province, which they did. Myron and Fred went into Winnipeg a couple of months later, and as soon as we showed up by that pen he was right there. That was the last time they saw that little bear.

In 1950, Roy worked on the power line from Dryden to Ear Falls, and trapping began to decline due to his new line of work, and declining fur prices. Roy was a bush guy and loved the trap line but times were changing.  Besides, Jean was probably ready to move on, so in 1951 when he found a job as a mechanic at the mill, Roy and Jean built a house just 4 miles out of Dryden and moved out.  

Myron, who really didn’t give hoot about trapping, kept the trapline up until he was ready to move on as well. Myron and Irene followed in 1953, when he got a job in Dryden with Mars Company, selling tractors and construction equipment for two years.  Myron was on the road from Monday till Friday, and Irene was busy keeping him in shirts, five white shirts washed and pressed every week.  Allen started school in Dryden in 1953, and Levi started the year after.

The old house was rented to someone working on the railroad or a woodcutter, but it burned to the ground in what was probably a chimney fire.  Everyone got out ok, but a piece of the old homestead was gone.  Myron and Irene moved back one more time in 1955, when Myron worked for Canadian Forest Products as a mechanic and a scaler for a couple of winters.  They lived at Canadian Forest products camp in a house they had for the boss (scaler) just west of town, and Myron toured the bush camps.  Irene tended her boys who were now in grades 3 and 4, with Ivy Bicknell as teacher.  Among others, their classmates included Arnold, Norman and Eileen Ames, Dianna Paradis, as well as the Saness, Premack, and Bakala kids.

In 1957, they moved to Quibell doing something to do with wood cutting, before moving to Vermilion Bay a year later.  There Myron set up shop in the gas station belonging to his old friends Gordon and Beatrice Ames. He continued to work as a mechanic, but for a time ran his own shop out of Gordon Ames' BA Station along the Trans Canada Highway in Vermilion Bay.  Later he opened his own shop by their house in The Bay. He was a good mechanic and never lacked for business. 

Myron and Irene went to work construction BC in 1967. They lived in Smithers and Merritt for 5 years, but something pulled him back to Dryden in 1972, where he worked for Sheridan as a heavy duty mechanic.

Myron died in the fall of 1976 when the truck in which we was riding was involved in an accident while driving to a job site, in the Township of Ignace, Ontario.  Myron didn’t like to drive, he would rather sleep, and a young fellow who didn’t know the road was driving.  At a curve at the top of the hill, he missed it, flipping the truck, Myron wasn’t wearing a seatbelt so he went out the door and the truck landed on him.

Myron was a good shot and he was a member of a gun club.  When hunting, he would come home with 4-5 turkeys.  When he died he had 37 rifles in his house.  He had a Winchester collection, and was only missing one of the series. 

After Myron’s death, Irene moved to Moosomin, Saskatchewan to be near her son Levi.   Later she moved to Esterhazy, Saskatchewan where she passed away on August 22, 2014 after a lengthy illness.  She fought a good fight and kept her sense of humour. Though quite feeble at the end, she read a book every couple of days and enjoyed crossword puzzles.

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Irene recently passed away August 22, 2014 and as a tribute to her life I post this history which she assisted me in writing some years ago.  She was a dear friend to many, including myself.

Brian