Inverness Miners' Museum
Inverness, Nova Scotia

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The Broken Ground: A History of a Cape Breton Coal Mining Community

 

 

Interview with Dan MacDonald

Narrator: Here we are in Westmont. I have the honour of having an interview today with Dan MacDonald, a senior citizen. He is formally from Cape Breton now living in California. We are going to talk about old times, particularly old times in Inverness County.

Q. Now, Dan, you were born in Cregnish weren't you?

A. Yes.

Q. How many years ago?

A. Uh, Ninety one years ago. I was born in 1885.

Q. You were born on a farm in Cregnish weren't you?

A. Right near the church, Cregnish church.

Q. Was your father a farmer? What did he do for a living?

A. He farmed and he fished.

Q. How was the fishing in Cregnish at those times?

A. It was pretty good then, very good fishing. We fished lobsters, cod, herring, and all kinds. I was twelve years old when I started fishing, hauling lobsters with my father. He was quite old when he got married.

Q. What was your Father's name?

A. Dan MacDonald

Q. What was your Mother's name?

A. Mary (MacLellan) MacDonald.

Q. Where did your parents come from?

A. They were both from Glenville.

Q. Did you go to school in Cregnish?

A. I didn't get much schooling, part of three years. I went to school first for half of a term. Then there was a dispute over where the school should be. The students were without school for four years.

Q. Was it a male teacher or a female teacher in the school?

A. A male teacher.

Q. Were the teachers good to teach?

A. Yeah, I guess so, as far as I know.

Q. Who was the priest in Cregnish?

A. Father Alexander Mackenzie was the priest who baptised me. Then the next priest was Fr. Colin MacKinnon, then, Fr. Joe Chisholm from Long Point then, after him was Fr. Archie Chisholm.

Q. Now, after you were fishing with your father, you went to look somewhere else, did you?

A. Yes, I worked wherever I could get a job. The first job away from home was in New Glasgow. I was putting in the sewer from New Glasgow to Trenton.

Q. How old were you then?

A. Oh, seventeen. I got there by train. I worked with a pick and shovel, ten hours a day for 25 cents a day.

Q. Did you have to pay your board?

A. yes, we had to pay the board. We slept on floor beds. When I came home I worked at the Makon Coal mines. They had a railroad there.

Q. Was there a coal mine there then?

A. Yeah

Q. Who was running that mine?

A. An American Company.

Q. So, you were there when they laid the foundation for the railroad?

A. Yes. I worked on the railroad laying steel. Then I worked down at the Coal Mines when they were building the Bankhead.

Q. Was there a railroad from Point Tupper to Inverness at that time?

A. Yes, there was. They were going to connect the Mabou Gulf railway to the Inverness Railway but it never came that far. It came as far as Northeast Mabou. They built a shipping pier; they were going to ship from the harbour. The thing went dead, no money I guess.

Q. Did they stop mining then too?

A. Yes, they stopped mining. It was good coal. The mining only lasted for a short time, 3-4 years, I guess. The mind had a very steep slope.

Q. How long did you work there?

A. Two summers.

Q. Where did you go to work after that?

A. I made applications to go on the railroad, I was accepted.

Q. How old were you when you went on the railroad?

A. 19 ½ years old.

Q. How long did you work for the railroad?

A. 45 years and six months.

Q. You must have liked your job on the railroad?

A. I liked being a brakeman. After that I went to work in the roundhouse in Inverness for awhile. Then I worked three months in the machine shop there. I used to go clean the fires and the engines. That was when I didn't have a job on the railroad. I worked on the Bankhead shovelling coal in boxcars.

Q. At that time the town of Inverness was a new town. Wasn't it?

A. It was a few years old. When I went there Mackenzie was the manager, general manager.

Q. Did they have the company houses?

A. They were just building them. There was just three company houses.

Q. How did the people react to the company houses?

A. Oh, I guess they were in favour of them. They were good houses then. The church wasn't built in Inverness at that time. Church services were in the hall at the corner.

Q. Who was the priest then?

A. Father Alex L. MacDonald.

Q. Where was the hall?

A. The hall was down at the corner, halfway between the town and the corner, near the Inverness hotel.

Q. Was there a hotel in Inverness at that time?

A, There was the Grand Central hotel, it was located down at the corner. The corner was where the town began.

Q. Was there a main store?

A. Originally, Eddie MacIsaac had the first store, he moved it up town and then Levine bought it. The company started building houses closer to the mine sites, so the people started moving up.

Q. What kind of pay did you get when you started to work for the coal company?

A. 15 cents an hour, 8 - 10 hours a day. It depended on the run, some days were better than others. 25 cents to 35 cents a month, back then it was pretty darn good.

Q. Were there many ways of spending your money in the town back then?

A. There was lots of liquor.

Q. How did you get the liquor? Was there a liquor store?

A. There was the Grand Central hotel, Inverness hotel, the Imperial hotel, Allan MacMillan, the Imperial drug store all sold liquor. There was no problem buying, they didn't need a licence.

Q. How come they had so many hotels in the town?

A. There were lots of travellers coming into Inverness on the trains. Inverness was pretty busy at that time with new businesses and people coming to the area.

Q. How much would a bottle of beet cost in those days?

A. 15 cents a bottle. The liquor was $1.70 for a bottle of brandy, the other liquor was $1.25.

Q. There was no moon shining in those days was there?

A. No, not that I knew of, that came later.

Q. Who was the first mayor of Inverness do you remember?

A. D.R. MacLean. The MacIsaac's and the MacLean's owned most of Inverness.

Q. Was was father Alex L. MacDonald a busy man?

A. He was a busy man. He was responsible for all those buildings the convent, the school, the church and the hospital. He was a good businessman.

Q. What else do you remember about Fr. Alex?

A. He and I were good friends. We always talked, I liked him. He was a good preacher. He was alone at first and then a Father DeCoste joined him in the parish. He was a nice man.

Q. Who was the curate after Father DeCoste?

A. Father Keats, I think, then came father Kyte.

Q. Do you remember anything about politics in those days?

A. When I went to Inverness Dr. MacLellan was the member. He was a powerful man, a fighter.

Q. Did he practice medicine in Inverness?

A. Yes, at first. One night, I remember, they had a big meeting in the hall, a joint meeting. A lot of us young fellows, oh by gosh, this could be good. We all went over early to the hall. They came in, Dr. MacLellan, Dr. Chisholm, Dr. MacMillan. They fot up on the stage and they started talking what we done, what each political party did for the area. They kept it up until the meeting was over. The meeting was over and a fight started on MacIsaac Street. So, we came out and said oh my god those fellows will never speak to each other again. We went down street to see them coming from the hall and we were looking and looking until the street cleared up. We heard clapping coming, we looked. They were coming arm in arm, patting each other on the back. We didn't know what to make of it they put on a real show.

Q. Do you remember Little Danny MacLellan who succeeded Dr. MacLellan in politics?

A. Oh yes, I remember Little Danny but I don't know much about him. He was a very cross fellow, wasn't afraid of anything.

Q. Do you remember Father Ronald MacDonald who came after Father Alex L.?

A. Yes, I knew him well.

Q. Were you there when he was having trouble with the mine?

A. I was there. I knew Father Ronald long before. He used to visit down in Inverness. He had a tough time during that mine struggle. There was a lot of religion and politics involved, that's all I know.

Q. In the early days of Inverness, what else did they do besides drinking?

A. They use to have beautiful dances, big balls. The CMBA, I was in the CMBA too, use to have a big ball every year, hot dinners. The very best music, Ron Kennedy and Dan MacLellan, all those fellows, played very good music. Jessie Maggie use to play piano.

Q. Would you have sports?

A. Yes, we played baseball and hockey. They had a rink one time here. They use to come in from other places to play hockey. There were lots of fellows from Westville and Pictou working here in Inverness and they were damn good hockey players.

Q. What was the name of the newspaper published here in Inverness?

A. The Inverness News.

Q. Who was publishing the Inverness News?

A. Hamilton.

Q. How many years did he publish the paper?

A. I'm not sure. After that, Hamilton committed suicide.

Q. Who was working on the railroad with you?

A. Keeber was the conductor. He was from Yarmouth. I think he got fired after awhile, a few years later. Jack Ryan was baggage master for him at that time. Tom Tannery was brakeman.

Q. When did Jack Ryan take over?

A. After Keeber left, he was there for 40 years, I suppose. Then Jack MacEacheren was freight conductor and Angus MacDougall, Rory McFadden from Hastings. There was Smith fellow, but he went out west.

Q. Were you involved in any bad train wrecks?

A. I was in the wreck in Glendyre when Campbell was pulled, the driver. It wasn't Campbell's regular run at all; the regular driver was going to a picnic in Brook Village, the 12th of July. This fellow took his run. I was talking to him at the water tank in Black River. We left and came around a curve, she jumped the tracks. Poor Campbell was underneath. Dave Gillis was with him and he didn't get a scratch. He was fired out on the other side. I was on the train when we went over in Little Judique, big storm. The driver was killed there. That was 1949 - 50. A year before I retired. It was a big storm, it was level as can be and he was split wide open. He was a young fellow too. I was in the baggage can. They couldn't get in because the road was blocked. We use to deliver big cans of milk to Sydney. I was fired down the other end of the can, I was lucky there wasn't those milk cans in the baggage can, I'll tell you. I tried to get up, but the car took a swing the other way and I was fired down the other way. The stove was pulled out of the floor and there was smoke going out of the pipe. So, anyway, I got up and out. I could see the train was over the bank and I could see the fireman soaking down the train. I didn't get a scratch. There was a lot of snow storms, the train wreck happened in Judique, we were there for 4 days before we got out. We use to go across the ice and sleep at Neil Alex's at night. We were away New Years, didn't get home. One other time we had to go to Point Tupper with two engines, there was a snow storm. Later it started to rain. The next day we started back to Inverness, heavy, heavy, snows. We got to Judique and the water was getting kind of low. We were going to try to make it to Port Hood; it was getting dark and starting to freeze again. We went along pretty slow we met ice; we were there 3 - 4 days before we got back on the track. The ice that would be on the rails would be a real hazard. There would be good times on the Judique Flyer. People would be singing and playing the fiddle. There would be a lot of drinking going on.

Q. How did they handle the drinking on the trains?

A. We had to break up fights on the train when drinking; it would get out of hand. One time Hughie MacEacheren of Inverness and John Y. MacNeil, John Y. was on his way to Sydney to visit some people. Hughie had some up; he had a sister in Port Hawkesbury. They met in Hawkesbury when John Y. came down. They were all day around there, they were drinking you know? They got on the train, the old I and R. They came down near to Strathlorne. Someone came in fighting. I went in; I knew both of them well. I got them talking, I asked Hughie to come out. I got Hughie out to the rear end, you know. Stayed with him till he got to Inverness and then I let him go. Oh, we use to have a lot of stuff like that. We had to put people off the train sometimes. We couldn't do anything else with them, but put them off the train because they bothered everybody.

Q. Do you remember the prohibition days when you couldn't get liquor, when you only got it by prescription?

A. You'd go to the do for give him a dollar get the prescription and go to the liquor store. Malcolm Campbell was in the store, he couldn't see nothing, he was half blind. You'd give him the paper; he didn't know what it was. I wrote one myself. There was all kind of liquor oh Inverness didn't make anything of it.

Q. Was there a lot of bootlegging or moon shining going on back then?

A. yes, I guess so. They use to make moon shine up at Foot Cape. Alex MacLellan at the corner use to make moon shine. They used to make it in Glendale; Mabou Coal mines, all them places.

Q. Do you remember Father Donald MacPherson?

A. He was quite a warrior. Oh, well, he use to be back and forth on the train with us all the time. He'd have a big pair of army boots on, I liked him, he was a good friend of mine. He was quite hard on the liquor. Minister Grant would travel with him on occasion. He use to work with Father Donald on the temperance business. One time, I remember, there was this fellow in Port hood. He was bootlegging. Him and Sidney MacLean, he was a Mountie too, how he got to be a Mountie, I don't know. They were trying to catch this fellow from Port Hood bootlegging. Anyway, this fellow from Port Hoof went to Port Hawkesbury to get a load of liquor, you know. So, anyway, he got off at Maryvale. He put the liquor in the back of the train. As we were coming up to the station, I could see something white moving,. I was watching it; Father Macpherson came out like a shot. He made it to the rear end and Sidney Maclean on the other end. They caught the bootlegger from Port Hood. He didn't get very far with his load. They were looking for him all the time, so they must have known that he went that day.

 

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