Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 12.
Harry Carruthers, Kazabazua Blacksmith
Gunda Lambton
Harry Carruthers was born in 1895 on his father's farm in the township of Hinks. The farm house, originally a Reid farm, is situated on the east side of the Gatineau River, opposite the village of Aylwin, (north of Kazabazua), roughly opposite the former Methodist (now United) Church there. The Carruthers thought of their farm as being just below the "Ogilvy" mountain (named after the Ogilvy family - one of whom married into the Molineux family). Harry Carruthers knew a number of people buried in the cemetery of that little church - Mr. Armstrong, for instance, whose gravestone features the photograph of the man buried there.
There were nine children in the family of Archibald Carruthers, Harry's father. Harry, in 1927, left the farm to establish a blacksmith's shop in the centre of Kazabazua village, opposite the present Irwin's store. This first shop was a rented site, and soon Harry located further south, closer to the Kazabazua River - where the old blacksmith shop still stands, with some of its former fittings.
During the first World War Harry Carruthers went overseas, but did not see action in Central Europe. Like so many others he was s victim of the flu epidemic which, in 1918, effected such a large number; in Harry's opinion this epidemic was one of the reasons why the war simply had to end. When he was sick, he was sent to a large hospital in England, Thorn Cross Hall (he believes is the name). The number of those sick with the flu, in the army, was so large that they were packed like herrings into a flat building near the "Hall" destined to be their hospital, in beds that were mere boards with side pieces about 4 inches high, all around. Much later he met the very doctor who had sent him there, right here in Kazabazua.
In l919, when Harry Carruthers was home again, he married Pearl Joynt. He and his wife celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary in 1982, in the "Foyer d'Accueil”, where they then lived. It was a great occasion, They were photographed for the papers. But before the next anniversary could be celebrated, Harry lost his wife. He now rooms with William Kealey from Venosta, who also lost his wife (Nellie McSheffrey).
Pearl Joynt’s sister married Henry Mulligan, one of the Mulligans after whom the Mulligan Ferry north of Aylwin was named. Close to the ferry road from the present Highway 105, the small cemetery may still be seen, where many Mulligans were buried, and others from the perish of “St. John-in-the-Wilderness", the Anglican church which was the mother church to the other Anglican churches in the area, and which is now merely commemorated by a plaque. The actual church was taken down and moved to Val David, north of Montreal. Harry Carruthers knew this church very well when he was young. His family would cross the river in their own boat and walk a mile north to attend Sunday services. His older sister married the Reverend Fred Allen.
Archibald Carruther's wife had been a Sparks from South March and her gravestone is among those in the small cemetery of the former "St. John-in-the-Wilderness". His brother, Clifford Carruthers, lives on a farm to the west of Highway 105, almost opposite the former Methodist (United) Church. When Harry had married Pearl Joynt and they had moved to Kazabazua after the birth of their first son, Douglas, Pearl Joynt-Carruthers' two brothers helped to build an addition to the building which was their house, (not the blacksmith shop, which was closer to the road). This addition, for many years, became the office of doctors from Wakefield, including the Geggies, who maintained a small clinic there for the immediate vicinity.
The Carruthers’ son, Wayne, was born after they had settled in Kazabazua, where Harry soon put his hand to much more than regular black-smith's work. He made cant-hooks, (cant dogs, as they are sometimes called), axes, wheels, sleigh runners and large kettles for potash or boiling maple syrup. The sleigh runners were bent on a special wheel bender, which, as far as he knows, is still somewhere in front of the old shop. The Kazabazua house is now used by his eldest son, Douglas, who was in the air force during the second World War, and then became a fireman in Ottawa, but is now retired. The younger son, Wayne, lives in Chartery (Pontiac County) where his wife works at Hodgins' store.
Asked whether he, like so many others, had ever worked in a lumber camp, Harry Carruthers said that he drew logs for some people, but not for the large lumber companies. However, he had known the large depot of these logging companies and had been instrumental in tearing down some of the old buildings; only two of which, he mentioned, are still standing. In those days the mills to the east of the present Highway 105, on the Kazabazua River, were very active. One was used for grist, the other for wool.
While he could do anything that involved metal, he felt that axe handles did not turn out well for him, and he had them done by another man. Many of the woodsmen who had worked in the bush were experts at making handles, as their workshops show.
For hunting and fishing the men went north of Maniwaki and in those days got quite large fish, mostly pickerel. Moose and bears frequently crossed over uninhabited areas near the Picanoc River; they still do, but the fish are now inferior, mainly catfish (barbottes). Going up the Coulonge River the men used a light, thinking it would keep the bears away; but it did the opposite, it showed the bears the way: there were marks of bears all around the truck parked near the river, looking for fish kept inside the vehicle, and all around the bay where the fish were cleaned. Harry Carruthers knew most people in Kazabazua, when active there. He was a member of the Junior Orange Lodge. The Orange Hall was the long building now used as an antique store by Joey Peck.
Asked if he knew the Molineux family in Aylwin, from whom I had received some literature on the Methodist Church in the Gatineau, he said he knew the very Mrs. Molineux who had shown me around the church. He and she had been crowned King and Queen of a Kazabazua festival, which I assumed to have been in their youth. But on my next visit to Mrs. Molineux she produced an excellent photograph of this event, which had been taken fairly recently, and which I photographed for Mr. Carruthers, who was delighted to receive it on my next visit.
On the visit we also discussed the Paugan dam. Harry Carruthers thinks that it was an expensive thing to build and that brass valves and other costly equipment were left under water: “the more you spend, the more the building seems to gain in reputation.”
When the Paugan dam was opened, one time, and the water had carried off the bark and other waste lying at the bottom of the river, one could see why water should be cleaned, and why there was typhoid in the village of Bouchette some years ago; though, Carruthers laughed when he said it: "they also had let their sewage go into the river above the place where they got their drinking water."
About fishing, he added that in some areas the barbottes which came up from the mud were so plentiful at one time, that one man simply lowered an old bedspring into the shallow part of the river, stirring up enough mud to bring a lot of fish to the surface.
Harry Carruthers thinks highly of the "Centre d'Accueil", where he is living now; he only regrets that he never learned French, for most of the old people there speak it. William Keeley, his room mate, had a photograph (part of the Citizen Newspaper) of the Wakefield bridge, which had just been burnt. The bridge was a topic of many excited discussions that day, but William Keeley thought it was about time the old thing was removed.