Flemming’s Ferry crossed about a half mile north of Eaton Chute, a narrow picturesque waterfall that made many travellers nervous, but no boat or scow is ever remembered going over it. From Hellard Road to Prud‘homme Road in Cantley is presumably the same crossing used by Kirk.

Paddy Fleming operated the ferry from sometime after the turn of the century until his early death in 1923, at which time Christie, a relative, took over until the completion of the Chelsea Dam in 1927.

Fleming operated with large oars, but at a later date a submerged cable was added. Oars were still needed in the spring, as the cable wasn‘t attached until after the high water period. There were also times when a rowboat with a motor would be chained to the side of the ferry to speed up the trip.

The cable was submerged in the water, but came up and over two pulleys mounted on posts on the upstream side of the ferry. The operator pulled the scow along the cable with a notched board. This cable still exists in Cantley.

Paddy is remembered as a practical joker—not above telling an evening passenger that they were at shore only to have him step out into the dark night waters. He, apparently, wouldn‘t try to collect that fare. Hector Milks of Cantley recalls the winter night he ignored Paddy’s shouts, only to discover the next day that he had been walking on the ice dangerously close to open water, as he crossed the river.

Though the ferry-scows coincided more closely with the horse and wagon period, cars started to appear about 1912. The toll regulation of 1920 issued by the West Hull Council included both:

For each passenger ten cents; luggage belonging to or carried by passengers and exceeding 25 pounds and not over 100 pounds, ten cents; for each additional hundred pounds or fraction thereof, ten cents. For each horse or single vehicle, thirty cents; for team of horses, fifty cents; for each sheep or hog, twenty-five cents; for hoofed cattle, twenty-five cents; and all other goods and materials ten cents per hundred pounds or fraction thereof.

Presumably Paddy had an arrangement, based on weight, for the mica and phosphate wagon loads he ferried to the train for Walter Cross.

Copeland’s Ferry

Copeland’s Ferry served about dozen east bank families who lived along what is now the Edelweiss Road and in toward Wilson’s Corners. The William Copeland farm and the Rockhurst train station were purchased by Eli Scharf in 1905. The municipally funded ferry continued to run from the Copeland/Scharf landing until about 1918. By that time, its patrons had access to the covered bridge, known as Gendron’s located in the north end of Wakefield village, built in 1915

Ira Scharf remembers the last scow built at his father’s landing by John O‘Connor and Charlie Stevenson about 1912–14. This was the period when second scows were built at various places along the river. As a young lad Ira recalls the supplies for Deziel’s store in St. Pierre de Wakefield coming over on the ferry. People seemed to prefer to use the toll road along the west bank of the river rather‘ than the east bank road.

To the south of Copeland’s were four scows maintained by the farm families who used them.

The Bradley scow, as well as having an elevated cable, also had a board on the upstream side. It operated until about 1925, when the Bradleys got road access out to Edelweiss. They crossed to the Moffat-Craig farm. To the south, the Clark, Daugherty and McBryde families crossed by scow with an elevated cable, to the town line of Hull and Wakefield. Their scow had a four foot long pine board, pivoted in the middle, with a chain and crank at each end to raise and lower it into the water. Their water travels ended when the river road was built about 1925.

Joe Burnett and Hugh Clark, just north of Larrimac, used the scow built, among others, by Davey Caves, to move farm machinery across to the west bank until about 1904.

MacDonald, Joanne, Up the Gatineau! Vol. 6, 20–21