Winnie's Story

Girls,

This is a story of your Great Grandmother Winnie (Winifred Bourassa), as told to Gram:

Marie Winifred Theresa Blais Bourassa (08 October 1912)

“I was born in Wolf’s Cove (Quebec City) in 1912. From there I was put in the Jeffrey Hale Hospital in Quebec City because I was 2-l/2 lbs when I was born (I was premature). At that time, I think my father (George Augustus Blais) was working for V.Z. Boswell. He was a bear brewer, and sold Boswell’s beer in Quebec City. Dad was looking after their horses, and riding as a jockey for them in horse races. Mr. Boswell had cars which they only used in the summer. In the winter, they used coaches – which are sleighs, drawn by horses. You would cover yourself with fur blankets and my father would drive the sleigh.

"My father was born in Quebec City. His father was a carriage maker, and his mother was Irish and she came from one of the Eastern States (USA). Her name was Ellen Barrett and they could never find her background history. My father had many siblings: Theophile (brother), Frank, Ned, Alec, Josephine (sister) and George (my father, who was the baby of the family.)

"My father’s mother died young, and apparently the kids went wild. They ran around barefoot in the cold spring weather in Quebec City. My father threw an inkwell at the religious brother who was his teacher because he got angry. The brother gave him the strap. When the other siblings heard about their brother being flogged, they all beat up on the religious brother and they were all expelled from school. This is the reason they could barely read and write.

"My mother, Alicia Winifred Baker was born ~ 1887 in Liverpool, England. (She was named “Nonney” by Grams’s sister, Louise {Batchelor}. Louise also named Winnie’s father, George Blair, “Daggy”.) Her mother came from Ireland (Kathlene Keily) and her father was an Englishman, Fred Baker – whose career was the British Army. He met my grandmother in Ireland when he was stationed there and they got married in a Protestant church. Horrors!!! My mother had several siblings: Sisters Louis, Elizabeth, Clara, Florence and a brother Fred. Nonney’s mother died while she was in final exams in High School. She died of the “dropsy” which is a disease not noted in any medical dictionary. Nonney went into Nursing after she finished high school, but was expelled for fraternizing with the doctors. (She told Denyse that she used to go with the doctors on the ambulance runs, which were horse-drawn carriages.)

"Nonney was a rebellious child so the family arranged that she take the boat to Quebec City (the boat was called the Lucitania) and from there she went to see the parish priest (St. Patrick’s in Quebec City) and he got her a job as a governess for the Boswell’s because she had an education. She taught the 2 Boswell children (Jimmy and Margaret) school, went to tea parties, and worked as a Nanny. In those days children from rich parents didn’t go to the public schools. They were tutored at home.

"That’s how my mother and father met: they both worked at Boswell’s. Nonney became pregnant with Winnie, and they got married. After Winnie was born, they left Boswell’s and Daggy went to work in Montreal for the Campbell family. Winnie moved to Montreal before she was 1 year old, because she remembered seeing a photo where they used to carry her around in a basket. In the summertime, the Campbell’s moved to Mont- St-Hilaire (Quebec) and Nonney and Daggy moved with them. My mother and father used to talk about the St. Lawrence River, the boats, etc. Daggy did not like Mrs. Campbell but Nonney loved her. The brother of the man Daggy worked for was Sir Bruce Campbell, who was the Engineer who designed the Quebec City bridge. (the 1^st bridge collapsed, and it was rebuilt).

Note: Gram went to Mont-Saint-Hilaire on business while Winnie was still alive and described to Winnie that she had stayed in a wonderful chateau-turned hotel called “Manoir Rouville-Campbell”. The hotel turned out to be the estate where Nonney and Daggy worked!

"From there Daggy worked for the Davis’s on Drummond Street, in Montreal. (PS: The Davis House was still standing when Denyse went to McGill to register for Physiotherapy – the Davis House was the same house in which Nonney worked.) My sister Eileen was born in February 1914. Her name was Eileen Gertrude Blais. She was born when my father was working for the Davis’s.

"That’s where Nonney and Daggy made all their money. The Davis’s were friends of the Molson’s, and the Molson’s had a cock fight pit which may have been illegal at the time and they got Daggy to get the roosters (Bantam Roosters) to fight. He trained them to fight. He also organized the fights for the bosses. The fights took place at Molson’s house in Montreal!! (This period was probably shortly before prohibition.) The “big shots” would bet on the fights. Daggy also bet on the fights because he probably knew which cock would fight. Nonney used to act as hostess during these parties.

"Then Nonney saw an ad in the newspaper for land in Daytona, Florida for ~ $200-300. She wrote away, and bought the land that they were going to grow bananas and oranges on. Winnie was about 2 years old and Eileen was 1 year old. This was probably 1915 which was the same year the 1^st World War began. I think we took the train to Florida. They took a boat from Jacksonville to Daytona, and Daggy got very sick on the boat.

"We stayed in Florida for 2 years until my parents went broke. Daggy had blacks working for him, and Nonney told Winnie that he used to love listening to their music and that’s how he learned to play the mouth organ and tap dance. They traveled to Boston and they rented a cottage at Lake Winnipesoki (Mass, USA) and that’s where my brother Reginald (Reggie) was born. Daggy was working for a doctor there, and Nonney was put in the hospital to have her baby (born in 1915) – in Boston. He weighed 12 pounds, and won a prize for being the biggest baby. There was a picture taken, and he was in the middle of the picture. He was fat, fat.

"While Mum was in the hospital, some rich people took care of Winnie in their home. They had a large home, with 2 large dogs. These people wanted to adopt Winnie, because they didn’t have any children. (named Hill) They had a huge summer home at Lake Winnipesoki.

"One time, Winnie and Eileen were sitting on a rock by the lake and she had a little rubber horse which she always kept with her. She dropped the horse in the water and she started to cry. I said don’t cry, I’ll hold you and you can reach down and get it. Winnie held her, but the horse kept riding further away with the waves. Winnie lost her strength, and said she would have to let her sister go and went to get her mother. She screamed her lungs out, and Nonney went into the water up to her chin (she couldn’t swim) and pulled Eileen out of the water. Winnie remembered this well. The doctor came and pumped water out of Eileen.

"The Hills wanted to adopt Winnie. They wouldn’t bring Winnie back to the cottage. Daggy kept saying “when are you going to get her!!”. So finally Daggy told Nonney to get Winnie. The Hills kept coming to the cottage in their big car (convertible) and they offered a lot of money to Nonney and Daggy for Winnie’s adoption with the proviso that Winnie would always know who her parents were. Daggy said NO – even though they didn’t have a cent!”

Note: Unfortunately, Gram didn’t record any more stories about Winnie and her life. Winnie’s sister, Eileen, died during the Spanish Flu epidemic, while they lived in Thetford Mines, Quebec. Reggie was in the Royal Air Force and worked as a navigator on a bomber. He died during World War II when his plane was shot down. Brothers Brian, Gerry and Gordy were a close-knit trio, who loved to work on their cottage at Lac des Piles (Quebec), water ski, and party! They took great delight in stirring up arguments with their sister.

Gram’s grandfather, George Blais, had his name changed to George “Blair”. All Winnie’s siblings had their last names changed to Blair as well. We don’t know why the name was changed, but this apparently was arranged by Nonney.