14
Kenneth M. JonahChairman of the Building Committee and Part-time Angler
Kenneth M. Jonah was born in Chipman, NB, on January 10, 1916, the son of the late Wilson and Alma (West) Jonah. He came to Doaktown as a young boy, and here attended school. Ken was an excellent carpenter and for 42 years he was employed at Doaktown's only Woodworking Factory, which was located near the Doaktown Bridge. It was there he encountered the many anglers and guides as they came and went. He also served for several years on the Planning Advisory Council for the village.
Ken, being a gentle and temperate man, always found time for his family, his church, his friends, and for FISHING! He has always had a great love and respect for all God's creatures and their habitat, but especially the Atlantic salmon. He was concerned about environmental practices long before the idea seemed to catch on. Though many commitments only allowed him to be a part-time fisherman, he was a skilled one, and usually successful.
After Ken's retirement, he and his wife Juanita became loyal members of the Central Miramichi Historical Society which was the body responsible for the planning and building of this museum. He was involved with this facility from the beginning and acted as Chairman of the Building Committee. He was a Provisional Director, and still sits actively on the Board. He also acts as consultant when problems arise requiring his expertise.
Through the years Ken and Juanita have supported the museum with their presence at fund raising events, and when they enjoyed better health one would usually find fresh flowers in the foyer, courtesy of the Jonahs.
Ken's advise to all retied fishermen: "When fishing begins to interfere with your work-it's time to quit work".
1998
15
J.C ''Clovis'' Arseneault1999
Atholville, New Brunswick, Canada
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J.C. "Clovis" ArseneaultFly Tying Master and Originator of the Legendary "Rusty Rat"
1902-1980
J.C. Arseneault was born in Black Cape, PQ, on May 1, 1902. He was the son of the late Felix and Eva "Pichette" Arseneault. He married Jeannette Thompson and they had two daughters, Betty-Anne and Denyse. Clovis worked as a shoemaker for many years.
On November 12, 1934, he tied his first salmon fly and his love for fly tying began. He opened his shop at Atholville, NB in 1929. Jeannette can be remembered as saying, "Clovie knew what the fish liked".
In the summer of 1949, the venerable Rusty Rat was originated through the collaborate efforts of Joseph Pulitzer II and J. Clovis Arseneault. Joseph D. Bates, Jr. and Pamela Bates Richard's book "Fishing Atlantic Salmon - The Flies and the Patterns" features an article on J. C. Arseneault, "The origin of the Rusty Rat".
J.C. Arseneault's flies were sold worldwide and his scrapbook contains letters from both statesmen and business, too numerous to mention. In July 1982, Premier Richard Hatfield presented NASA astronaut Col. Jack Lousma with several salmon flies tied by Clovis Arseneault. This internationally known fly tier has been featured in many magazine articles including: Life Magazine in 1954, front cover of the Atlantic Salmon Journal in 1971, and Atlantic Salmon Journal in 1971, and Atlantic Salmon Journal in the summer of 1955.
In January of 1982, J. Clovis Arseneault was elected to the Mitchell Canadian Fishing Hall of Fame.
1999
17
Melvin ''Mel'' James Brophy1999
Howard, New Brunswick, Canada
18
Melvin "Mel" James BrophyGuide
1918-1975
Melvin "Mel" James Brophy was born at the Brophy homestead in Cains River (near Howard) on January 12, 1918. He grew up and lived there for 32 years. He married Mary Julia Flanagan in 1947 and they were blessed with four children: Donnie, Darlene, Bernadette, and Linda. In 1950, he moved to Howard and lived on the banks of the Miramichi River until his death on January 11, 1975.
Mel grew up on the river. It was the love of his life and no kinder man than Mel ever stepped into a canoe. He loved everything about the river and nature itself: the birds, the trees, the animals, the plants, the beaver ponds, and how he loved fishing!
As a boy growing up on the Cains River, Mel learned river ways as a necessity. He learned to canoe through turbulent waters where sometimes, ice flows or extensive log jamming was very much a reality. He would often canoe to the nearby community of Howard, at the mouth of Cains, in order to attend school, church, or many other functions.
One could safely say that Mel grew up in a canoe and the river ways he gained in his youth served as an apprenticeship for his career as a fishing guide and canoe man. He was a tall, rugged river man usually spotted wearing a mackinaw jacket, breeches, and high, tightly laced leather boots.
Mel continued to guide each fishing season for some forty years, working with the different outfitters: Harry Allen's, Charlie Wade's, Doctors' Island, Jack Sullivan's, Kingsley Brown's, and others. However, most of his years were spent at Charlie Wade's camps. He began guiding in the thirties while still in his teens with Charlie Wade and Allen's Fishing camps. Charlie and Mel became lifelong friends.
Mel also worked with his father (John W. Brophy), a lumber contractor, at a very young age, rising before dawn and working in the lumber woods until dusk. However, he still looked forward each spring to fishing camps, the sportsmen, the canoes, the river-the love of his life and his dear friends. Mel guided until 1974, the year he passed away.
1999
19
Alexander ''Sandy'' Price, Jr.1999
Priceville, New Brunswick, Canada
20
Alexander "Sandy" Price, Jr.Guide
1900-1985
Alexander "Sandy" Price, Jr. was born in Priceville, NB, on April 28, 1900. He married Ruby Catherine Stewart and they were blessed with one son, Lawney.
Sandy started angling with a bush rod and homemade fly when only a young boy. He later became a licensed guide for Wilson's Sporting Camps, where he was employed on a regular basis for many years. (1940-1970).It was during these years, that the angling skills he learned at an early age proved to be a great asset. He was well known for his safe handling of a boat and for his excellent angling skill from a boat.
While acting as a licensed guide for Wilson's, Sandy's woodworking abilities were notable. He constructed a number of wooden boats that were used for guiding and transportation purposes on the Miramichi River by Wilson's and their guides.
At Wilson's, Sandy was known for his pleasant personality and good sense of humor. He always had a good fishing story to tell the sportsmen, which brought a chuckle to their day.
One morning on the veranda at Wilson's, the question arose as to if there were any fish in the river this morning. A certain guide was quoted as saying, "The river was so full of fish this morning, instead of crossing the Priceville Footbridge, I just walked across on the backs of the fish".
1999
21
Eldon Alexander Taylor1999
Doaktown, New Brunswick, Canada
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Eldon Alexander TaylorBuilder
1933-1988
The first fishing that Eldon Taylor probably did was for smelt in the Miramichi Bay. For a young man working on the family farm in Napan, the smelt fishery was a seasonal event. Only when he reached his middle years and moved to Doaktown did Eldon take up salmon angling. Eldon enjoyed leisurely fishing, and spent many enjoyable hours with his friends on the river and in the camps around the area.
Eldon Taylor was born in Chatham, NB in 1933. He moved to Montreal as a young man and entered the food service industry where he worked for 20 years. Eldon married Helen Dickson in 1956 and they were blessed with two sons Brent and Byron. Eager to return to New Brunswick, he obtained a transfer and moved with his family to Moncton in 1975. Just a year and a half later, he purchased a retail business and moved once again- this time to Doaktown.
Not long after moving to Doaktown and settling down, Eldon was approached and asked to play a role in the founding of the Miramichi Salmon Museum. Serving on the Board of Directors of the Museum for many years, Eldon assisted with organizational and fundraising tasks that eventually bore fruit as the Atlantic Salmon Museum that we have today.
Eldon never caught the biggest fish and never with the famous, but his donation of time and effort played a key role in the conservation of this fine facility for present and future generations. Following his sudden death at age 55 in 1988, Eldon's family asked permission to hold a reception in remembrance of him in the River Room here at the Museum. This Museum, that Eldon worked to bring to fruition, will always have a special place in the hearts of his family and friends.
1999
23
Richard N. Adams1999
Sillarsville, Quebec, Canada
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Richard Nelson AdamsGuide
Richard Nelson Adams was born October 13, 1910, the son of Hudson and Mina (Pratt) Adams of Sillarsville, Quebec, near Matapedia. He grew up in a family of 9 children and started guiding at the early age of 12, with his father. Although he guided the lower reaches of the Matapedia and the Restigouche when he was a boy, he was first introduced to the upriver beats he loves best in 1939 by R.J. Cullan's, then president of the International Paper Company. Richard quickly became Cullan's personal guide and confidant, and when Cullan "went to heaven, like all salmon fisherman and pretty girls", Richard was inherited by his successor, John Hinman. In 1969, the Province of Quebec bought up the company's river holdings on the Matapedia and Causapscal rivers. Richard now guides on the prime stretches, dubbed by anglers "the millionaires zone".
Former US president Jimmy Carter summed it up best when, after spending a week with Richard on the Matapedia, said, "Richard Adams is one of the five most impressive men I've ever met". He continues to guide on the Matapedia's "Glen Emma Zone", the Restigouche, and for special sports. On October 18, 1985, the "Richard Adams Foundation, Inc" was founded to preserve, develop, sustain, and insure the survival of the salmon resource in the Matapedia river system.
In both the 1981 Spring Edition of the "Fly Fisherman" and the 1989 Summer Edition of the "Atlantic Salmon Journal", Art Lee, refers to Richard Adams as "the dean of Atlantic salmon fishing guides on Quebec's Matapedia River". He personifies the unaffected man in an unaffected setting, master of river and forest, so famous thereabouts that he has been sought out by Canadian television for interviews, is guest of and companion to millionaires, and, occasionally, even signs an autograph. Those who receive his letters, including corporation presidents, cherish them. Each signed, "Always Richard", which his sports will tell you, says it all.
To Richard it's simple, "I try to please everybody the best I know how," he says, "and, I try never to dress better than my sport. Do I love the salmon? Christ almighty, I guess I do. I owe the salmon everything. Do you think I'd be standing here right now with the likes of all of you- with so many friends and stories to remember- if it wasn't for the salmon?"
2000
25
The Late Roy M. Curtis1999
Grey Rapids, New Brunswick, Canada
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Roy Montgomery CurtisGuide
1921-1988
Outfitted with patience, reserve, and innate fishing skills, and further equipped with determination and fierce loyalty, Roy Curtis epitomizes the true Miramichi guide. He was best known for guiding baseball legend Ted Williams, but Roy created his own legend on the banks of the river he loved.
Roy was born in Grey Rapids, New Brunswick on April 27, 1921. He was the eldest son of Elizabeth (Coughlan) Curtis and George Curtis. Roy married Edna Brycie Curtis and together they raised 10 children. He started fishing when he was scarcely old enough to walk, and by the time he was 18, he was already an accomplished angler and guide. After serving in the Canadian Armed Forces from 1942-1944, he returned to his beloved Miramichi and settled into life as a fishing guide. Perhaps no one has ever been better suited to his occupation. He could read more from subtle shifts and rolls of the river than many a seasoned mariner could discern from a raging storm at sea. His gentle, thoughtful manner and amiable disposition won respect from everyone who fished with him.
During his forty-nine years as a professional guide, his services were utilized by such outfitter as the Miramichi- Renous Club, Herb Wade's Hunting and Fishing, Bill Boyd's Fishing Club, and Paul O'Hara's Island Club. His guiding companions included Mr. Pat Brophy, the late John Brophy, Everett Price, Maxwell Gillespie, and Max Vickers, to name a few. Roy played host to some of the most famous and powerful people from around the world.
Just as surely as it molded the valley through which it courses so majestically, Roy's character was shaped by the Miramichi River: he was straightforward, as steadfast, as unspoiled. Ted Williams and Roy were the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn of the Miramichi; the former outspoken articulate, and challenging; the latter taciturn and courageous. Leave it to Ted, then, to have the last word on his friend and fishing companion: "Roy was a Big League Guy all the way, as a guide he was unsurpassed. He passes cum laude in a test of all the good things that a guide should do for his customer and for the future of the Atlantic salmon. For me, Roy and the Miramichi are inseparable and I can never think of one without the other."
2000
27
Guy I. Silliker1999
Sillikers, New Brunswick, Canada
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