Mapleton Musings-by Jean Campbell
(Added script Info for Harry)
Harry”s gr gr grandfather was Captain John McIntosh who built and sailed his ship called THE BROTHERS with passengers from England Ireland and Scotland to Canada-many of whom settled in Southwestern Ontario. Captain John was born in 1754 in Colariah, parish of Logierait, Scotland and married Anne Ferguson. They had 5 children all boys, John James, Charles, William and David. They came to Canada in 1801. John”s son “Harrys Gr grandfather” Captain Charles was born Aug 1 1800 and died aboard his ship which he had built in York ON at his brothers shipbuilding yard. Captain Charles was on a trip with passengers from Ireland and arrived at York ON where one passenger from Ireland had
Malaria and Captain Charles had to remain with him aboard the ship. Both Captain Charles & the Irish passenger died aboard the ship called the Colborne at York ON in 1834 when his son Charles McIntosh II was a month old. Captain Charles was buried at York ON. His wife and his son Charles II and daughter Susan remained at York ON until the mother passed away shortly after Susan was married and moved to New York with her husband. Charles II at the age of 14 went to live with the MacPherson family who were close friends of the McIntosh family. They moved from Guelph to Puslinch and eventually Charles II married Janet MacPherson and moved to Farewell ON with their family which included Marjorie, Peter Margaret, Isabella and Charles III -father to Harry McIntosh. Charles the father had 3 sons Harry, Elgin and Ivan. Each owned 2-100 acre farms. Harry had emphysema quite often found in his mothers family-the Corrigans. His father died of cancer and due to ill health from the emphysema sold the farms and moved to Drayton ON.
At 14 years of age he went to live with his Uncle Henry Corrigan in Saskatchewan who owned 3,000 acres of land and the grain mills that had the Corrigan name on them if you travel out west. He worked for him while continuing his schooling and then went to Vancouver where he attended a college and graduated. He returned to Henry Corrigans and became a log roller on the Saskatchewan River, eventually becoming the head log roller. He still had and was very proud of his boots which I seen many times as a young girl. His high leather boots with the cleats on and the pole with the steel pointed end. The steel cleats were on the boots to be able to jump from one log to the other and the pole was to guide the logs down the river. After this job he went back to Vancouver and joined a crew to fall trees to build a road from Vancouver to Quebec. He understood and spoke some French but always said the French in Canada is a combination of Cree and French in the west and from Northern Ont to the east was a combination of English and French.
On his first trip west at the age of 14 he took the train. In 1923 he rode horseback along with many different men as he journeyed back to Ontario taking over 2 weeks from Saskatchewan. He returned by train and left his dearly beloved horse at his fathers farm. In 1925 he returned home as his mother informed him that his Grandfather McIntosh was in poor health. At the train station he didnt have a ride home so he said there was a pretty fine looking lady and he asked her to give him a ride to Farewell Ont from Mount Forest ON. She did even though she lived at Ayton ON-North of Mt Forest and he lived South of Mt Forest. The next year they were married and settled at Farewell ON.
The thing that I remember most was the fact that he was one of the finest pool players in Mt Forest and Ernie Hanna who had a gas station in later years at Alma owned the pool room. I used to go with my dad and Ernie sat on a stool by the window as my dad and I played Boston and if Ernie saw the policeman coming he would tell my dad and I was promptly rushed to the stairway and the door closed as no girls were allowed in the pool room. My dad always carried a roll of dimes in his pocket and stood outside the poolroom both in Mt Forest and Drayton and gave the dimes to children to get ice cream cones. No child went without when my dad was around. The other thing was my dads love to Skate-which he taught me and baseball and an especial love for football.At the age of 92 while living in Drayton ON and playing football with the children of Lloyd McIntosh in the front yard-He twisted his ankle. He never complained but my sister in law Christine said he came finally went out to their part of the house and she said What happened to you Harry you are limping. He said oh I was playing football with the boys out front and twisted my ankle when I went to kick the ball as their was a spot on the lawn that had a dent in it. He never went to the doctor and bandaged his ankle himself. He had to be really sick to go to a doctor. He was a staunch United Church member and first joined at the church at Bethel ON was built by his grandfather, father and his fathers brother along with many homes and barns along the 11th of Arthur. He had no fear of heights and when I was about 10 years old and he needed help to shingle a barn I went up with him and chalked the roof with him. He only said never look down–Years later I helped him again and had the occasion to peek over the side-It sure looked like a long way down. My Brother Lloyd McIntosh provided the land for the church that sits next to the McIntosh property in Drayton today and he attended their first service where they presented him with a Prayer book in their language. However he remained a staunch United Church member until the day he passed away.
I can never remember when we didnt go to church every Sunday and he would drive a load of teenagers to the Teen nite at the church on Friday nites and pick us up at Bethel.
I was not at all surprised when he said he drove a ball team to play ball. He loved to coach young people in sports. He taught me and I later became catcher for Kitchener where we won the title in 1958. He was a very kind hearted person and if something was wrong he would come to me and say lets sit down for a chat. From the time that I got married and moved away from home and to Sarnia he phoned me every Friday morning at 10 a.m to see how I was doing as I owned a bus line from Sarnia via Port Huron to Detroit MI Metro and Int airports and the bus terminal for out of town buses where I worked 12 hours a day 7 days a week for 25 years before I sold it. The last time he came to Sarnia was around 1989 and he turned his licence in at 90 and passed away at 92.
Of the millions of people I met in the bus terminal with 10 buses coming in every day-he was the most enjoyable and interesting person to talk to. I loved his jokes and his great ability to remember everything in detail right to his last day as I stood beside his bed. When my son read the writeup by Jean Campell called Harry-He only had one remark and that was Mom are they talking about you-In Mt Forest they always called me Harry’s daughter-and in Drayton at the Driftwood-Anna said it is Harrys daughter. She was a very dear and beautiful lady and I truly miss her fine meals which I never missed her place when I went back home.
Thanks Jean -for the great writeup
Marjorie Peters
P.S. Please put this in your paper under Mapleton Musings-It would be unfair if the people didnt know the whole story.
If there is a charge-please send me the bill.
Marjorie (McIntosh) Peters