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    Dew Drop Inn: Lasting Memories of a Cookshire Landmark
    Dew Drop Inn: Lasting Memories of a Cookshire Landmark
    Dew Drop Inn: Lasting Memories of a Cookshire Landmark
    Ebook304 pages2 hours

    Dew Drop Inn: Lasting Memories of a Cookshire Landmark

    By Winston C Fraser

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    About this ebook

    This is a book of memories of a unique place and two very special people.

    Ken and Susie Fraser were a couple from very humble beginnings whose extraordinary lives touched many. Under the roof of their home in Cookshire, Quebec, Canada, known as Dew Drop Inn, together and individually they plied a wide variety of occupations, trades an

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWinston Fraser Consulting Inc.
    Release dateDec 1, 2018
    ISBN9780995084254
    Dew Drop Inn: Lasting Memories of a Cookshire Landmark
    Author

    Winston C Fraser

    A computer consultant by profession, Winston Fraser is a widely published photographer and writer. A book of his photographs, Historic Sites of Canada, was published in 1991. Fraser was the major supplier of photos for National Geographic's Canada Travel Guide. Most recently he has self-published Endangered Species of Country Life. He is a first cousin, once removed, of Charles Clark Fraser.

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      Book preview

      Dew Drop Inn - Winston C Fraser

      Chapter 1 In the beginning

      This story begins more than 100 years before the birth of the Dew Drop Inn, when Ken's and Susie's ancestors emigrated from the British Isles. In 1790, Ken's great-grandfather, Donald Fraser, arrived in Quebec from Scotland as a result of the highland clearances. About 30 years later, Susie's great-grandfather, Bernard McGuire Sr., arrived from Ireland during a time when his country was promoting the colonization of the part of Lower Canada that came to be known as Megantic County.

      Fraser ancestral gravestone, Saint-Gilles, Que. (Photo by Jim Fraser)

      McGuire ancestral gravestone, Sainte-Agathe, Que. (www.ancestry.com)

      Ken's and Susie's respective Scottish and Irish heritages would later play a significant role in their lives at Dew Drop Inn. For example, every July they would attend the annual Orangeman's Picnic that brought together the descendants of Megantic County pioneers. Daughter Mabel's diary entry for 1959 mentions the picnic and indicates that Susie did not attend that year because she was visiting her mother (Granny) who was ill at the time:

      July 11, 1959: Daddy and Charlie went to picnic. Ma & I to Randboro to see Granny. (Mabel Fraser's diary)

      For his part, Ken proudly displayed the Scottish Clan Fraser coat-of-arms in the Dew Drop Inn store.

      Ken's background

      Kenneth Ira Fraser was born in Cookshire, Quebec, on December 3, 1905, the youngest of three children of Charles Ira Fraser and Lilla Joyce. His dad was a farmer who died when Ken was only five years old. Charles, the 10th of 12 children of James Frasier and Abigail Bailey, was born in the original Fraser farmhouse that was said to be the first framed house in Eaton Township.

      Fraser ancestral farmhouse, Cookshire, Que., circa 1898 (Fraser family archives)

      Charles Ira Fraser gravestone, Cookshire (Photo by author)

      James Frasier and Abigail Bailey's 12 children (Fraser family archives)

      Ken's birthplace, Pine Hill Farm in Cookshire (Photo by author)

      Kenneth Ira Fraser baptismal document, 1908 (www.ancestry.com)

      Ken (front) with parents and siblings, circa 1910 (Fraser family archives)

      It doesn't feel cold to me, says young Kenneth (Sketch by James Harvey)

      Cookshire Academy, circa 1900 (Postcard from author’s collection)

      Ken attended elementary and high school at Cookshire Academy, where he won a special prize for history in Grade 5. He worked on the family farm during that time and for a few years afterwards. His older brother Donald (my dad) told me that as a child, Ken was never cold and would often go outside in winter without wearing a coat!

      Cookshire Academy prize list, 1917 (Fraser family archives)

      Ken (right) with siblings Donald and Maude, circa 1914 (Fraser family archives)

      Susie's background

      Susan Elizabeth McGuire was born in Lower Ireland, Quebec, on November 5, 1907, the second-youngest of six children of Bernard McGuire and Hannah O'Shea. Her dad was a farmer who died when Susie was only two years old. Susie's mother remarried George Henderson and had four more children by him. The combined McGuire-Henderson family was reflected in the 1921 Canadian census.

      Susie attended elementary school in Lower Ireland but had no further formal education. A captioned photograph identifying the school's scholars taken in 1919 does not include Susie, suggesting that at age 11 she was no longer attending school. Her childhood was very difficult. Son Charles describes it this way: My mother had a tough time as a child. They were poor, extremely poor. The kids went barefoot most of the time – they saved their shoes for the wintertime and things like that. In spite of these hardships, or perhaps because of them, Susie would accomplish much in her adult life.

      Susan Elizabeth McGuire baptismal document, 1907 (www.ancestry.com)

      1921 Census of Canada listing for the McGuire-Henderson family (www.ancestry.com)

      Lower Ireland School and Class of 1919 (Courtesy of Gwen Barry)

      Susie (far left) and McGuire siblings, 1910 (Courtesy of Johnny Scholes)

      When she was 16 years old Susie and her younger sister, Nellie, moved out of the McGuire-Henderson family home in Lower Ireland. Nellie’s son, Johnny Scholes, recounts the story:

      The two young girls travelled alone by train to Sawyerville where they knew nobody. The only people that they knew in the surrounding area were some relatives of their stepfather who lived in Island Brook, several miles away. Leaving their trunk at the station, the girls walked all the way to Island Brook to the Henderson’s home. Both my mom and Aunt Susie soon got jobs as housekeepers. (Johnny Scholes)

      Portrait of Susie, circa 1925 (Courtesy of Johnny Scholes)

      Love and marriage

      It is very interesting how Ken and Susie came to be a couple. Their son Charles tells the story:

      Mom and Dad first met at the Osgood House hotel in Cookshire. Dad was delivering milk and cream from the farm to the hotel, down at the corner of Main and Railroad streets where the telephone exchange used to be. Mom worked at the hotel as a chambermaid and one of her jobs was to receive the daily dairy delivery. She had previously worked as a chambermaid in Thetford Mines. She later told me that she never minded cleaning toilets as part of her job, but she absolutely hated cleaning spittoons! So that's how they met. Apparently on Dad's first or second visit, Mom was kind enough to offer him a beer. How ironic that was – because, as far as I know, Dad never drank beer in his life! (Charles W.K. Fraser)

      Milkman Ken meets chambermaid Susie (Sketch by James Harvey)

      Osgood House Hotel, Cookshire, Que. (www.stampauctionnetwork.com)

      Ken and Susie’s marriage certificate, 1928 (Fraser family archives)

      Ken and Susie were married in November 1928 at the historic little St. Barnabus Anglican Church in Lake Megantic, which celebrated its centenary in 1991. Ken's sister, Maude, and her husband, Herbert Patton, were their witnesses and gave them a beautiful mantle clock as a wedding gift. The clock told time for more than 60 years at the Dew Drop Inn and is presently in the loving care of their granddaughter, Kerri Fraser.

      Ken and Susie marriage civil return, 1928 (Fraser family archives)

      Susie and Ken at St. Barnabus Church, Lac Mégantic, Que., 1991 (Fraser family archives)

      Mantle clock wedding gift (Courtesy of Kerri Fraser)

      Susie and baby Mabel (Courtesy of Johnny Scholes)

      Following their marriage Ken and Susie moved to Sherbrooke, where they lived in an upper-floor apartment on Mount Pleasant Street. Not long afterwards, they were blessed with their first bundle of joy – a baby girl they named Mabel. Her brother, Charles, who would not be born until seven years later, recalls a story their mom told him about Mabel soon after she learned to walk:

      The second floor tenement where they lived had an outdoor balcony. One day, Mom looked out and was horrified to see that Mabel had climbed up over the railing and was holding on to the outside of the posts. Fearing that Mabel would lose her grip and fall to the ground below, she avoided shouting in order not to startle the little girl. So she quickly and quietly went out onto the balcony and rescued Mabel. But it frightened my parents terribly. (Charles W.K. Fraser)

      Mabel Fraser baby book – birth details (left) and first trip away (right) (Fraser family archives)

      Mabel Susan Fraser baptismal document, 1929 (www.ancestry.com)

      Baby Mabel climbs over balcony railing (Sketch by James Harvey)

      Ken and Susie lived in Sherbrooke for only a couple of years, during which time Ken worked as a painter and as a labourer on the railroad roundhouse construction or maintenance project. Then they moved to Cookshire and launched the Dew Drop Inn. And what a bold move it was, given that it was the beginning of the Great Depression. Writing in the December 2008 issue of the Fraser Family Link, nephew Jim Fraser comments: Launching a new business and making it successful during the Great Depression required much hard work, perseverance and resourcefulness.

      The remaining chapters of this book relate the multi-faceted story of Ken and Susie's Dew Drop Inn as remembered by family, friends and acquaintances.

      Chapter 2 Room at the inn

      Dew Drop Inn postcard, circa 1935 (Courtesy of Roger Dionne)

      The building

      The building that was to become known as the Dew Drop Inn was not an especially attractive structure. In fact it was quite nondescript. It lacked the beauty and majesty of some other buildings in town, such as the Cromwell and Pope residences. However, once Susie decorated it with flowerboxes and Ken applied some paint and dressed it up with advertising signs, it was

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