Tompkins-Murray Family Stories

as told by Patty Flemming, née Tompkins

Plus: Bradstreet Tompkins’ Autobiography up to 1944

Deborah Waddell, editor.

TOMPKINS-MURRAY FAMILY STORIES

As told by Patty Flemming, née Tompkins

Plus: Bradstreet Tompkins’ Autobiography up to 1944

Copyright © 2022

Preface

This book was inspired by recorded stories told by Patty Flemming, née Tompkins:

1. A videotape recorded with Mary Fontenot née Tompkins, her sister, on a visit to Pennsylvania Date unknown.

2. A conversation recorded in 2007 on digital audio file between Patty and her niece, Deborah Waddell, while looking at photos of the family in Patty’s home in Fredericton.

3.Recorded telephone conversations between Patty and Deborah in October and November 2021.

Additional details were provided by Mildred Kaarsoo, née Tompkins from a recorded telephone conversation in October 2021. Other commentary and editing assistance were provided by Helen Waddell, née Tompkins.

The main story is told in first person from Patty’s point of view and in her words for the most part. Her oral comments were edited and reorganized for brevity and clarity. Many characteristics of spoken expression were removed although some remain to allow Patty’s personality to shine through. Relevant comments by Mildred are indicated with her name and written in italics.

Comments and additions by the editor, Deborah Waddell, are inserted in [square brackets].

Birth marriage and death information is formatted as in Family Group Records based on information documented on the Family Tree on Ancestry.ca named “Family2.FBC” and maintained by Deborah Waddell, username: debrobertson190 As this is not strictly a genealogical report, each piece of information has not been footnoted. The abovementioned tree contains the documents.

The story, originally handwritten, by Bradstreet Tompkins, the father, of his life up to 1944 was used as a reference to confirm dates and his work history and to provide additional perspective on the years he was mostly away from home. His story, transcribed, is included at the end of the book as an appendix, with little change except spelling and punctuation modernized.

Several old black and white photos are included here in colour after being colourized using an app at MyHeritage.

The photos used in this book come from many family members and are now held in my computerized archive. Published with permission.

Deborah Waddell

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I am grateful to Patty Flemming for sharing her firsthand accounts and memories of the people and events of her childhood in Kingsclear and Fredericton, New Brunswick. Patty is a natural storyteller who spent many years practicing her craft writing stories for the Daily Gleaner in Fredericton. Her sister, my mother, Helen, was of great assistance advising on and editing the stories. Mary Fontenot’s concern that Patty’s stories be preserved was an inspiration to getting this done and Millie Kaarsoo also added details and another point of view.

Thanks to Patricia Flemming Lefort for suggesting that I find a way to interview Patty over the phone, bridging the distance between Alexandria, Ontario and Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The Tompkins-Murray offspring and their children are family-oriented and interested in preserving the history of the extended family. Examples of those whose assistance made this book possible are: Anne Hodgson, who shared her mother, Pauline’s, photo collection as well as Aunt Amy’s photos; Charles McAllan who collected, saved and shared family photos in 2007; Carol Presley and Michael Tompkins and his mother, Joan, who answered questions and provided photos; and Dawn Elgee who also provided photos and spoke with Patty in person.

And to my grandfather, Bradstreet Tompkins, much appreciation for writing down memories of his childhood and family life until 1944. I’m sure we all wish he had been able to cover later years but the stories of his experiences in the first half of the 1900s are of great value to us.

Finally, a thank you to all our ancestors who loved family and preserved their links to the past.

Homes

Fredericton

I was born in Fredericton at the old hospital [17 March 1931, Victoria Public Hospital]. We moved back and forth [Between Fredericton and Woodstock] We lived in a big yellow house in Fredericton

The Rubber Doll

I can't remember how many years we were in Fredericton in that house I remember when we lived there, I had a big rubber doll. In those days you could buy a doll all made of rubber I bathed it and put it in the oven to dry. They had the oldfashioned stove where you put the fire on. So, all of a sudden you could smell this rubber all over the house because I put the doll in the oven to dry after a bath.

Woodstock

We lived in Woodstock in another big house 1 . That's where my brother Charles was born. When he was born everybody was happy because he was the first boy. Babies were born at home then a lot. The nurse came to the top of the stairs, and she said, “It’s a boy! It’s a boy!” I was just a kid four years older than him and I was so excited.

Marion Lettuce

I had an imaginary friend when I was a child. Her name was Marion Lettuce. I remember telling my mother to set a place for her at the table. She went along with it and put a plate and the knife and fork and set a place for Marion Lettuce. The chair was empty, but I pretended she was sitting in it. Marion was very real. My very best friend.

I was jealous of Dorothy Ann and Pauline because they were old enough to go to school

1 Bradstreet’s story mentions the house in Woodstock being owned by Josephine’s father and formerly owned by Dr. Prescott who had been married to a sister of Josephine’s mother, Alice Bertha Ferris (original page 32)

https://mynewbrunswick.ca/fraser-memorial-building-oldvictoria-public-hospital/ Photo by Steve Rogers. Edited.

https://mynewbrunswick.ca/woodstock-historic-properties/ The Prescott House, 712 Main Street, was built circa 1840.

In the morning I used to get up early and walk along the street in Woodstock and call out looking for my friend Marion who didn't exist. I’d say, “Marion, I’m here.” I’d grab a book and pretend we were going to school.

It went on for quite a few years and then after I was a little older, I was embarrassed about it and that was the end of Marion.

One time, I went to a birthday at Dorothy Ann's house and her girls had found a dummy and they fixed it up and called it Marion Lettuce, the imaginary friend. They said, “Your birthday is coming, and we have a surprise for you. Marion Lettuce is coming.” I just thought it was a joke I got in the door and here was this doll on the couch. They even had nylon stockings on her and a hat and glasses Marian Lettuce grew up. We’re a crazy bunch!

Brother John was invited because he was living handy then.

Kingsclear

We moved to Kingsclear in Spring 1936. The house we lived in was given to us by Grandfather Murray 2 The next year, dad got a job in Grand Falls doing bookkeeping and working at O.B. Davis Co. Ltd in the store for $100 a month 3. He came home once a month by SMT Bus Line 4

The house was great for us but there was no running water. We had to pump the water out in the shed and bring it into the house. It had an old-fashioned toilet. We had to go out to the shed to go to the bathroom in the cold. In the winter, we had pee pots inside.

We lived just up the hill from the Murray farm That’s the reason we call it on the house on the hill. We were in Kingsclear quite a few years.

2 See Bradstreet’s Story, page 31.

3 See Bradstreet’s Story, page 33.

4 See Bradstreet’s Story, page 34.

Patty's birthday party at Dorothy Ann's attended by a grown-up Marian Lettuce on the left. Patty is holding her granddaughter, Adriana.

Tompkins family home in Kingsclear

Bath time

On Saturdays, we usually had homemade beans and brown bread for dinner Then we had our baths on Saturday night. To heat the water, we filled a tank attached to the stove. The bath was like an oldfashioned washtub. We had fun after the bath; we used to chase each other around the house naked. We laughed in later years because the first one in the tub had nice clean water, but when you get down to the last one the water wasn’t very clean.

Millie: Helen and I used to have our baths down at the Murray home once in a while because they had a bathroom with a bathtub. We didn’t have a proper bathtub at our house.

Helen remembers that the bathroom in their grandparents’ home was off the kitchen on a lower level.

The icehouse in the barn

I can remember one time we had nine kids and nine cats. Everybody had their own cat because we had a barn. In the barn we had Helen’s pet goat. The barn belonged to the property, and it was an icehouse in the winter. We didn't have refrigerators then. Granddad used to get the ice out of the river. He always chose the ice when the river was solid and buried it in clean sawdust. The ice was clean too. A lot of men had icehouses in their barn to keep things cold.

Helen’s goat

Helen had a goat named Dotty. The goat was very intelligent. She followed Helen everywhere she went. At night it would start to cry because it was lonely out in the barn. One time, Helen started to cry, and she said, “Dotty’s lonely.” And I said, “Well, let’s go out and pet Dotty and then maybe Dotty will sleep better after.” So, we went out with a flashlight and patted the goat and then we went back in and the Dotty quieted right down.

The odd time Dotty would eat the clothes on the line. My mother would hang up clothes on the line, and then she’d come out and almost cry because the goat had torn aprons and things all to pieces. We used to say the goat ate tin cans, but actually it liked the glue on the labels. Finally, we got a Billy goat because we wanted Dotty to have babies. Helen tells me that Dotty did have babies, but I don’t remember that.

Gathering Eggs

Mother decided to get some chickens because she thought it would be a little income and we’d have free eggs. Gathering the eggs was fun. You’d go around with a basket and collect them. You’d reach in the nest, and they were always nice and warm because the chicken had just laid them. You needed to wipe them off and then go wash them. Every time a chicken would lay an egg it would go, “dic”. They make a funny noise.

Millie: When mom kept chickens, she’d get them as little chicks and they had [a chicken run with lights] outside that kept them warm. When they became hens, mom used to have Carrie Mills and some other people come and pluck those chickens and she took them to the market on Saturday mornings.

Helen with Dotty the goat

The Pigpen Playhouse

We had a playhouse that was a former pig pen. We worked very hard to clean it out. We had to scrub and scrub and scrub. After we got it all cleaned up it wasn’t too bad. Finally, when we were a little older, we had a party, a little dance, in the pig pen. We had a cousin of ours come and play the fiddle. The few people we didn’t invite were very insulted, so they peeked in through the windows.

One night in the summer, we wanted to stay all night. Dorothy Ann and I used it as a sort of a camp or a cottage. My mother didn’t think much of it, but we made a bed of chicken wire and wire fencing for the mattress somehow. We even had an alarm clock In the middle of the night, the bed went crashing to the floor and our backs ached At night we could hear the cows banging up against the side of the building because they were scratching their hips on the edge of the walls of the pig pen.

We went down the playhouse one day and we were very shocked because Charles and Brad had killed birds and tacked them up around the playhouse. They were so proud because they had BB guns and they were bragging about how many birds they had killed. I think they were black birds.

Millie: We used to clean the stalls in the barn and have playhouses too. We’d also make mudpies. We made a lot of mud cakes. We’d take mud and mix it with water and then we’d put them in the sun to bake and then put little daisies and that sort of thing on top.

Winter

We always looked forward to the first snow. We’d jump up and down and run when we saw it snowing and we enjoyed it. We used to make angels in the snow. Of course, we always had warm snow suits.

We had a lot of fun in winter. We didn’t seem to notice the cold. I think children don’t notice the cold like adults do if they’re busy sliding and skating and tobogganing. Dorothy Ann and I froze our toes once because we stayed out skating too long. I remember coming home and our toes were all white. It took hours to get the freezing out and was very painful.

One thing I remember about the cold winters though, is when we’d get up in the morning, it was so cold we used to gather around the pot belly stove to put our clothes on.

The local store

One time on the way to school I lost 3 pennies and I felt so bad. Or was it on the way to the store? In those days you could buy a little bag of candy for only a penny or so. I kept looking for these pennies for years. I’d walk along the road, looking to see if I could find those 3 pennies. I often wondered who did find them.

When we’d go to the store, if you bought some sugar the sugar was weighed. Or a pound of flour. At that same store, my brother Charles told me he remembered Mother sending us there to buy fish. When you bought the fish, they kept it cold in the brook. So, we paid for the fish, and then the storekeeper would say, “Now, you go down to the brook and take out five fish.” We’d put them in a pail of water and take them home.

The Orchard

We had our own orchard and every Fall we sold apples at the edge of the road. We used the money for going to the fair, the exhibition, in the fall. Also, we paid for our pencils and scribblers to start back to school. In those days the government didn’t give us any books You had to go buy them We really depended on that money. The odd time my mother and father even sold bags of apples door to door.

While Mom’s away…

We used to have to babysit a lot when Mother and Father would go shopping in Fredericton We would take turns and maybe the next week we would be able to go. Usually we were babysitting Charles, Brad and John.

Mildred said that Charles used to run away and hide, and she couldn’t find him. One day, we didn’t have any cookies in the house, so Brad and Charles went down to the basement. That was during the depression years, and they didn’t have any sugar. They were hungry for sweets, and I caught them eating the jam. They each had a little bottle. I said, “I’m gonna tell on you! You stole the jam!” I felt so bad afterwards because Brad took the spoon and threw it! They were just enjoying some strawberry jam!

Another time, Dorothy Ann and I almost set the house on fire burning grass. Our grandfather used to burn grass so it would turn green. It was in the spring, and we were going to burn the grass and we knew it would turn nice and green afterwards. First thing you know the wind was blowing and the fire got out of control. It was just a foot from the house. The only thing that saved us is that Burnett’s taxi came along, and a lot of people were in the taxi. They said, “Well, we’d better put this fire out.” So, they all jumped out of the taxi, ran in the house and they took pots and pans and we had to pump water. We took turns pumping. We didn’t have a hose or fire trucks in the country in those days. Everybody in the taxi filled all the pots and pans and helped put the fire out. My mother, thank goodness, wasn’t home because we would be in BAD trouble. So, when she came home, the fire was all out, and that was ok.

Speaking of the rest of my brothers and sisters, we used to fight a lot. But we loved each other, we still do. When we were children, we always had a friend. Whenever I wanted to go somewhere, even when I became a teenager, we didn't have to call someone up to have a friend to go somewhere with.

Hand-painted photo of the Tompkins children selling apples from their orchard at the side of the road. From left to right: Pauline, Dorothy Ann, Patty, Charles, Helen, Millie.

Jack, the dog

We had a dog named Jack My dad ordered it from the Family Herald 5 We used to buy everything through the Family Herald, a regular newspaper.

The dog grew up with us and in fact I remember the dog jumping on the back of the toboggan and sliding with us. Also, it seemed to know the time of day.

Afraid of the Dog

Once in a while, the local people from the Kingsclear First Nation would put a note in the mailbox: “We need clothes but are afraid of dog.” My mother would always put a few clothes in the mailbox and leave them there. The funny part of it is, the clothes were already worn out that she gave to them because we passed them on from person to person in the family. One time I got on the bus and there was a young girl wearing my coat. The coat was worn right down to the elbow, and she was wearing it anyway. I felt so bad!

Jack and the lemon pies

Mom used to love inviting the Minister and his wife for dinner. At the time it was Reverend A.F. Bate. He was our minister of the Anglican church in Springhill then. They were friends of ours for years. One special Sunday they said yes, they would come for dinner. In those days everybody loved their church and their minister.

Mom worked hard to get the meal ready with so many kids and a dog. Mom was a very good cook and made beautiful lemon pie and when it came time for our dessert, she had to go outside in a snowbank to get the lemon pies because we didn't have a fridge. She had just made the pies and they were cooling off. Well, when she went out to get them, she found the dog had eaten up the pies completely! Three lemon pies! She had put them in a high snowbank and had thought they'd be safe, but the dog ate the dessert for this very special meal. Nothing you could do. The dog couldn't resist eating nice lemon pies! You couldn’t blame him.

When we moved to Fredericton, in the late 1940s, we wanted to take our dog Jack with us, and the poor dog wasn’t sure that we were going to take him. I think the dog was last on the moving truck. We took Jack with us but once we arrived in the city, he kept running at large. We couldn’t keep him tied. The neighbours were complaining about Jack. So, we had to put him to sleep 6 .

5 See Bradstreet’s Story, p. 40 ½

6 See Bradstreet’s Story, p. 40 ½

The family dog, Jack.

1944 - Brad, John, and Charles with Jack.

McKinley school.

McKinley School in Kingsclear was the first school I went to in grade one. The schoolhouse is no longer there.

We had a very long walk to school. We walked about 2 miles to school [1 mile each way].

We always took our lunch because we all were a long way from the school except for one family. I’ll never forget my first day in grade 1 when the time came for recess, I was so hungry I sat and ate my lunch. Then when lunchtime came, I said, “Oh, I already had my lunch, I ate it at recess.”

On the way home, there were arguments along the way and the odd fight.

It was a one-room schoolhouse with a pot-belly stove in the middle. In the winter, we used to put our mittens all around the edge of the stove at the floor to dry our mittens and boots out. Usually, we kept our shoes on.

The school outhouse was sort of a dangerous place because you never knew who was going to be looking underneath or in the windows. Every time, we were very nervous when we went to the outhouse at school because the boys might be out there banging on the doors or looking underneath.

‘Course the teacher rang the old-fashioned bell to call everyone into school.

I hated that old schoolhouse. I didn’t mind the schoolhouse as much as I did the nasty teacher. We were scared to death of her For time out she’d make you go to the wall and stand there for hours until you behaved and then you could go back to your seat

We would watch each day to see which colour dress she was wearing. In those days women never wore pants or shorts. If she wore a blue dress, we’d say, “Oh, she’s gonna be in a good mood today.” If she wore a brown dress that was really, really bad. The brown dress meant that she was going to be cranky and nasty that day. Whenever she wore the brown dress, I can remember her banging her foot on the floor. And she’d say, “Stop that noise!” And the old dust would fly.

At that school I got the strap for dropping paper on the floor beside my desk We used to get the strap quite often. One teacher we had would line up the naughty ones and would make them put their hands in water and then strap them, which I thought was cruel. After about four years we got a new teacher who I loved. Her name was Ruth Moore. She never gave us the strap

Left to Right: Back Row: Boy, Boy, Audrey Goodine, Pauline Tompkins, Shirley Hallet, Boy (top of head). Middle Row Boy, Isabel Dunphy (with hat), Girl, Johnny King.

Front Row: Boy, Millie Tompkins, Helen Tompkins, Rowena Scott, Patty Tompkins, Bertha Hallet, Bonnie Burnett, Joan Dunphy. Approximately 1940.

There’s the school on the closing day. School’s out. I remember I wore my mother’s watch, and I was so proud because I had never worn a watch before. She said, “Don’t lose the watch! And be careful.” As soon as I got home, I gave it back to her. I’ve got the watch now on a chain.

Circa 1942. Front: left end, Rowena Scott, girl, boy, Brad Tompkins, boy, Charles Tompkins, girl, boy, girl, boy, Ethelyn Burnett, Bonnie Burnett Miss Ruth Moore, teacher, in back.

End, left: Patricia Tompkins, tall boy, back row, Russell Wright, Back row second from right, Margaret Estey, far right, Bonnie Burnett. Front row from left: Helen and Charles Tompkins, Rowena Scott, Ethelyn Burnett

In class, if you did well, you'd get a pin. The teacher would get them from the government with a picture of the queen on them. If your work wasn't good, no pin! I’d cry if I didn't get a pin. Oh, my land! That was so important! A picture of the Queen!

Then we had one student, my cousin, jump out a window right when school was going on. The teacher went outside to look, and he was gone! She couldn't figure it out. She came back in, and he was sitting at his desk. He came through the window. Crazy things like that went on.

Our Christmas concerts were lots of fun. They were up the stairs in this old schoolhouse in the auditorium and that was a big deal We really enjoyed getting ready for them and planning them.

One Christmas in particular, during the war, we put Santa Claus in a barrel. ‘Course when we were that young, we didn’t realize that Santa was in the barrel. I remember singing, “Roll out the barrel, we’ll have a barrel of fun, roll out the barrel.” So, anyways, we kept rolling the barrel across the stage and out popped Santa!

When I left McKinley School, I was in grade 7 Dorothy Ann and I went to school in Fredericton at Smythe Street School

Second cousin, Margaret Estey (left) and Patty Tompkins outside the school the day of the Christmas concert.

This was my favourite teacher when I left McKinley School in grade 7. Her name was Ruth Moore.

Picnics

We had a lot of picnics That’s the reason I love picnics. They just put up an old table and benches in the yard. They didn’t have picnic tables. There weren’t any barbecues, either. We often had family picnics at Granddad’s brook. We called it the Murray brook. Now they call it the Indian Brook. Usually, the Esteys 7 would come; sometimes friends also. It was a rocky beach but that didn’t bother us any.

We’d have a great big, potato salad and beans.

At one point when we were having a picnic by the St. John River, Brad almost drowned. The funny part of it is, we had such a crowd down at the beach and food and that sort of thing and all of a sudden, Charles looked out on the water, and he said, “Oh, look at Brad! He’s swimming!” Actually, he was drowning. Here’s this little blue bathing suit, he was only two years old, and he was bouncing up and down in the water, floating down the river My mother ran out and pulled him out of the water, turned him upside down and tapped him on the back and finally he came to. He was just as blue as he could be. Brad was a cutie! He used to call water “Na”. I remember him sitting there

after. Everybody was gathered around to see if he was coming to and he said, “I not go in the na again!”

Annie Gordon Wood8

On the same day, our cousin, Annie Gordon Wood, stepped into a great big pot of homemade beans.

She would bring food for dinner sometimes. Whenever she decided to cook, we were a little worried about it because you never knew what she was going to bring! It seemed unusual to us. [Mary] We used to get a kick out of her coming to visit us. She’d stay for about a week. We’d take turns combing her long gray hair.

7 Granddad’s sister Margaret married Zebedee Estey and their children and grandchildren lived nearby.

8 Patty calls Annie Gordon Wood a cousin but the relationship is unclear. Her mother was Mary E. Davidson, descended from Thomas Davidson who was born in Scotland abt 1810. It is possible, but just a hypothesis, that he could be related to Josephine Murray’s great grandmother, Margaret Davidson b. bet 1805-1813 in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Annie Gordon Wood, Grandfather Murray, and Aunt Margie.

Family picnic at the brook at Murray farm

Granddad Murray

Charles Campbell Murray (24 July 1873 - February 1968)

I spent a lot of time on the farm with Granddad and Grammy because I had a lot of attention there. Granddad loved his grandchildren. In fact, I guess he was strict with his own children with grandchildren they couldn’t do anything wrong.

He was a very successful farmer for years. He raised cattle and they had a huge farm, and he was never without anything. He had a lot of land and there was a lot of work to be done in the gardens. He always had farm hands. He would jump on the end of the wagon and stand there and pay them in cash every Saturday night. Of course, we wanted him to pay us as well because we used to pick potatoes and help him out. The most he ever gave us was 10 or 15 cents. We were a little disappointed, but I suppose he thought that we were children and that that’s all we deserved.

Granddad Murray was one of the richest men in the neighborhood. Or the richest at the time when we lived in Kingsclear. He sold cream at the market. Every Saturday he’d take his goodies to the market and sell them. Besides that, he bought and sold houses in the city of Fredericton, because after the war, they were hard to sell. He played the stock market too and very few people did in those days. They couldn’t afford to. A very smart man for that time in his life.

Murray Farm, Kingsclear, NB

Grandfather: Charles Campbell Murray

Millie remembers helping bring in the cows: I’d sit on the fence and say, “Co Boss, co boss,” that meant “come boss”, but co was maybe Indian because he used to speak some Indian every once in awhile.

We had a fence to keep the cows in. The cows had to be milked morning and night. I don't remember much about the morning. The cows were brought into the barn for the night They all had their place when they came in and found their stall. Then they were milked and milked again in the morning. There were quite a few cows to milk for a small farm, maybe 20.

Granddad didn't have the milking machines until later on. He used his hands to squeeze the teats. We loved watching him milk the cows.

Millie: He was quite a joker you know. He'd be milking the cows and he’d spray milk all over our legs. He also used to make Grandma Murray mad by throwing water or something up on the ceiling.

When we got older and we went to visit him, he’d say, “Which one are you?” Then he’d take his cane and he’d lift up my skirt with his cane. He was kind of a dirty old man in a way. He never ever did anything to us, but he loved us.

Most of the time what I remember was him lying on the bench you know on the trunk with a big Buffalo blanket under him. We used to lie beside him, and he loved it. [Millie]

Dorothy Ann told me that Granddad Murray had two horses, King and Queen. They were huge workhorses. He used to put us on to take a picture, but we weren't allowed to go for a ride. He was afraid we would fall off. Every time he needed some help, he’d ask Aunt Allie to come along and help him drive the horses. She knew how to drive horses. He taught Dorothy Ann and I to drive a horse too. You just pull the reins, made of leather, to the right when you want the horse to go right. Then when you want it to go left you pull the rein to the left. Every Saturday he’d take us in his car though. He had a car too.

I have great memories of my grandfather and the farm.

He always had a big, fat, white peppermint for us. We’d sit in his lap, and he always had a pocket with peppermints in it. Every time I’d go see him the first thing I’d do was go to his pockets.

Even today, I love those white peppermints. I always have them in the house [2007] It seems to me that other people in the family like the peppermints, too. They’re Ganong’s peppermints 9 . They’re real hard.

9 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/ganong-mints-discontinued-1.5039136 Ganong Bros. Ltd stopped making the traditional peppermints in 2019 after 140 years.

Grandmother Murray

Alice Bertha Ferris (24 July 1878 - 6 February 1946)

People say that I’m the spitting image of Grandmother Murray. I don’t know if I look like her, but they say I act like her.

Millie remembers her father saying, “Grandma Murray will never be dead as long as Patty’s alive!”

My Grandfather went every Saturday to the farmer’s market. which was around the City Hall. He would take his cream and his butter, whatever he had. While he was gone my Grandmother would give away eggs and milk to people at Kingsclear First Nation. Even to this day if you mention the name Bertha Murray, they’d say, “Oh, I remember her!” Everybody knew her. After the milking at night, she’d walk up the hill with this pail of milk for our family. She supplied milk for us and probably kept me alive

She was very kind. Whenever she went shopping, she never bought anything for herself. She bought something for all of her grandchildren and for my mother. Sometimes she would get us a little scarf, a bandana we called it. We always looked to see what she brought us. It just seemed to be her fun thing to do, to give us a gift. Most of the money my grandmother had was from selling the eggs, because my grandfather had chickens.

And butter. Oh, my land! My grandmother made beautiful butter. It’d just melt in the mouth. She used to get Dorothy Ann and I to help churn the butter. You’d push the churn back and forth like a cradle.

Sometimes she’d be upstairs knitting. She used to get us to hold the yarn too, because yarn was usually in skeins and then she’d get us to turn the skeins into a ball. I had my own afghan from Grandmother Murray She made an afghan for every one of her grandchildren. She’d knit squares and then sew them together.

Grandmother was always busy working in the kitchen. At lunchtime, she always had fried potatoes with onions and every time I fry potatoes and onions, I think of her. [Millie]

Josephine Murray (Mother)

Margaret Josephine Coleman Murray (14 July 1900 – 08 September 1953)

Mother used to make all our clothes. She could sew anything. She’d tear other old coats apart and make clothes out of them.

Every night, even though she was very busy, she came upstairs and gave us all a kiss goodnight. After she put us to bed, she started working. You could hear her down in the kitchen. She’d be washing dishes and there was no dishwasher of course If she wasn’t doing that, she would make bread at night. My mother made homemade bread every day, not just once a week. Every night you’d go to bed or get up in the morning the bread was just flopped over the sides of the pans. It had risen up. Other times, we’d be in bed at night and could smell the bread. It was delicious homemade bread. We used jam and molasses on it. I can taste it now. Nice hot bread!

She was a beautiful cook but the odd time we wanted cookies from the store. We had so many in the family we were only allowed one cookie or one piece of cake

My mother had a brownie camera and so she was great for taking pictures. She taught me how to take pictures with the brownie camera.

Mother had a couple of miscarriages too. Once in Kingsclear, Pauline looked after her when she was only 12 years old We didn’t even have a phone then. My mother sent Dorothy Ann and I down the hill to use the phone at our grandparents and call Dr. Turner because she was having a miscarriage. Muriel, my aunt, told the doctor “Don’t rush now.” She was more worried about the doctor rushing out in the dark in the middle of the night. When he got there, he said, “She told me not to rush and she could have died.”

A revolver for Protection

Millie: I can remember my mother having a revolver up in her cupboard in her bedroom. Nobody else remembers that.

Mother lived in Kingsclear alone for so many years, my father worked away from home, she had to guard the house. We had a long road into our house which we called the gate. I remember that during the war the soldiers used to come down the gate. They thought it was a road, and she’d come out with her gun. I don't think there were any bullets in in it. It was just something to scare people with because she was there all alone. She told me they said to her: “We fought for the likes of you?”

Mother belonged to the I.O.D.E. (International Order of Daughters of the Empire) That’s one reason Pauline and I joined the I.O.D.E.

Helpers for Mother

We were poor but we didn’t know it. We weren’t as poor as some. In fact, we always had a maid. People who have a maid aren’t usually poor.

Carrie Mills

Carrie used to work for us. She helped my mother out.

Millie’s memories of Carrie Mills: She lived up in Kingsclear, further up than we did and she used to come and help mom every once in awhile when she was able to.

Grammy Baker

Grammy Baker was a short, old English lady who used to come and stay with us She was no relation, but we’d call her Grammy Baker She used to help Mom out a lot. She’d get up in the morning and get us ready for school and we just loved her. She said, “Just call me Bakie.” Dad invited her to come She was staying with her son after the war. She didn't have any income at all and dad suggested she work for our mother and she may not get paid much but she'd have free food and help my mother with us, the children, putting us to bed at night. My mother needed help because she had so many children. She used to help my mother iron and with the dishes at night and things like that. Dad was happy about it because he was away a lot for his job.

Mary remembers sitting on her lap.

Millie remembers: Grammy Baker lived with some people she was related to. They put her in the basement of their house Mom thought that was terrible that they put her in the basement to sleep because it was cold. Mother made a bedroom downstairs where Pauline and Dorothy Ann used to sleep. After Pauline left, Mrs. Baker slept in the bedroom downstairs. She stayed there in the winter; I think. [Millie doesn’t think any money changed hands. She didn’t pay for her room or get paid for the work she did.]

Pregnant Girls

Mom used to have these girls who were pregnant and would come to the house and work and help her with all of us kids. All of a sudden, they’d be gone because they were expecting. I remember even when we were living in Waterloo Row and I was working at UNB I said to my mom, “What happened to so and so?” “Well, she had a baby.” I thought she was just fat. She used to employ people who needed a place to stay. [Millie]

Bradstreet (Dad)

Bradstreet Tompkins (30 July 1897 – 18 August 1975)

Dad lived away from home for 15 years. He’d come home about once a month. When he did come home, we were kind of afraid of him because we hardly knew him. Not only that, all the time he was away, my mother said, “Well, you wait ‘til your father gets home. You’re going to get it.” Even Charles talks about it today. He was worried about the spanking he was going to get when his father came home. He didn’t even want to see him. The boys would hide behind rocks. They thought that instead of a hug, that they were going to get a beating. So did I, too. Usually, the dog got to him first. He’d give my mother a big kiss and hug and then the dog wanted to be hugged and would almost knock him down. Finally, we were glad to see him. We’d go and get a hug and we were always looking for a little present. My mother usually got silk stockings because that was a big treat.

My mother and father were very much in love. I remember them looking at each other across the table and winking, so I knew they were very much in love. They were always hugging and kissing.

We used to all sit around the dinner table, and he would have a little stick on his lap. We didn’t have television, so we ate at the table. There was a lot of fighting and arguing going on. If we didn’t behave, he’d take that little stick and you’d get it over your knee or the fingers. There was no reaching for bread across the table. If you reached, you’d get smacked with a stick. So, we had to behave.

When we moved to Waterloo Row, Dad was very, very protective of his daughters. If you brought a boyfriend into the house, he would look them over first and he would look over his glasses and read the newspaper and he wasn't too fond of any of them

Dad was a good father. He wanted us all to have a university education. Of course, a lot of us just weren't ready for it. We hadn't had good schooling in the early days. It got it us off to a bad start. Pauline went for her university education. The rest of us did ok.

Bradstreet’s work

Dad went to a business college where he learned math and accounting. His job was working for a big company called McCain 10 [1932-1934] in Florenceville and I think the McCains are the ones that came up with the idea in later years for the French fries. He looked after all their books. He was very good at what he learned at business school. He was an accountant. He met people in later years who gave him a good job as an accountant. He used to go round to the various grocery stores and ask them if they wanted their taxes looked after. He made money that way too.

10 See Bradstreet’s Story, p. 27

Bradstreet with Pauline (left), Patty (middle) and Dorothy Ann (right).

I can remember when he was working away from home in this big store up in Florenceville, he was able to put groceries on the truck that belonged to the company, and they would deliver them to our house, but it was on the wrong side of the river. We lived on the other side, and we'd go pick them up in the toboggan and take the groceries home. I think he might have even got them for a good price because he worked there

When I was young, we moved back and forth from Woodstock to Fredericton because dad couldn't find a decent job wherever he went. He told me that in those days you couldn't even buy a job. He even worked with granddad Murray on the farm for awhile 11. When Millie was born in 1932, he was picking potatoes for Grandfather because it was during the depression 12 . He couldn't handle that because he knew nothing about farming. My dad always worked in an office.

Grandad Murray gave us the house on the hill in Kingsclear 13 [April 1936] because dad was working but he wasn't making a good salary. He was working away from home and Granddad thought he should come and live in Kingsclear with his big family. He couldn't live at home while we were living in Kingsclear.

He worked in Grand Falls 14 [May 1937 – April 1944] in a store and did all of the accounting for that store. He liked it but he wanted to get a job nearer home to help mom. You could only get one bus a week to come home. We didn't have a car. A car cost a lot of money and with so many children and expenses they couldn't afford it

He couldn't stay home until he got a job closer to home. He got one in Fredericton [Fall 1944]. Dad and his boss turned out to be very good friends. They worked together for quite a few years up in the Ryan building where the Ross Drug was located on the corner of Queen across from City Hall. His job there worked out well and he had a car because when Aunt Amy died, [1955], she willed her car to dad.

11 See Bradstreet’s Story, p. 32

12 See Bradstreet’s Story, p. 27

13 See Bradstreet’s Story, p. 31

14 See Bradstreet’s Story, p. 33

Josephine and Bradstreet Tompkins on the Green in Fredericton, 1951-1952

Fredericton – 10- 14 Waterloo Row

When we moved to Fredericton, we moved to that big house on Waterloo Row We loved it. Mom and Dad bought it with the money they got when they sold the house in Kingsclear. Mom wanted her children all to go to university. Of course, Pauline is the only one that did get to university, and Brad later on. The rest of us got to high school.

Another reason we moved there is because dad had a good job in Fredericton and he wanted us all to marry people with a good education. Every one of the girls married university men except for me, I was the black sheep.

At first, we had students who boarded in the house next door. They were from everywhere. We even had one from Newfoundland. Mom got meals for them everyday. My mother would make great big pots of stew and great big, huge pots of soup. We all had to help with the boarders. We usually served them, and we had card tables all over the huge living room where the students had their dinner.

I'd finished business college and started working in an office and I’d come home everyday at noon and clean the rooms where the students were sleeping. A lot of them were foresters going to university. They left their sandy boots behind every time they went to school at UNB. I can remember sweeping up a lot of sand. I’d even swept sand off the sheets because of these students. Every day I went upstairs and made the beds, cleaned up.

We had a houseful of students, and they were all interested in us, the girls. They were all guys at UNB So, Millie, Helen, and I, we had lots of dates with guys at UNB. Millie often says that mom and dad did us a favour by moving from Kingsclear to Fredericton

At night my mother always had hot chocolate for them before they went to bed. And we'd play records and dance to the records. That was a fun time. I remember the dancing and singing and the old songs we used to sing: "This old house" and "Bless this house.” We had a piano; my mother played the piano and so did Pauline and Dorothy Ann. 'Course Pauline and Dorothy Ann took lessons and I did too.

Anyway, our days in Waterloo Row we did have some bad times, but we had some happy times as well. The fun part of it was our courting days. I can remember a couple kissing in the living room and another couple in the dining room and another couple in the den. We all chose a favourite spot. There might be a couple in the entryway and another couple out on the verandah and so we were all over the house. When my mother was alive, she'd come to the top of the stairs and she'd say, "Girls! Time to go to bed!"

12-14 Waterloo Row after it had been painted white by the Tompkins family The house on the corner on the right side (#10) is where the boarders stayed.

So, that was a hint for all the boyfriends to go home. We always made sure our boyfriends had a lunch before they went home.

We had a television so some boys would come in to watch television and we would sit around as though it was a movie theatre. As soon as the tv went off the air, they'd go home. Of course, television was black and white still.

We also had a washer and a dishwasher. You could wash clothes and dishes in the same machine.

Taking in boarders didn’t last too long. Mom had kidney disease and she got very thin. She had to stop having boarders. Some students stayed and had meals outside. In 1952, Helen left her last year of high school to look after mother and keep house. Dad wanted me to go to work.

Mom died when she was 53 and Mary was only 8. She only lived to see Millie's wedding and Pauline's first wedding and only one grandchild, Betsy.

Helen took care of Mary in the mornings everyday. She looked after getting her up out of bed and to school in the morning At night was my turn to hear her lessons and to get her off to bed Helen had her hands full getting meals. After Helen married in October 1954 that changed At one point Dorothy Ann took a turn keeping the house She came home after her first twins were born. Around that time, Dad hired a lady and she came half a day everyday and cleaned the house and so forth.

Eventually our dad took over and he became a good cook. And Mary, too.

Pauline and her husband lived in the corner house [#10 After Pauline’s first husband died, she lived in #14 on the other end. The family lived in the middle house, #12] The three houses were all filled Dad had to get up every morning to put the furnace on in two or three houses all stuck together there. They each had their own basement.

Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, Fredericton

We lived handy to the cathedral. Church was a very important part of our lives since we lived so close to it. It was a beautiful church.

We went to church at the cathedral and every one of us sang in the choir. At one time there were six of us in the choir, even the boys. Brother John was in the choir and he could sing. Sometimes I remember going to church twice a day, morning and night.

In later years I played badminton at the church. I made a lot of friends playing badminton. I remember Dean Gray; he was our minister at the time, and he was also my godfather when I was baptized in Woodstock. He also married me. Seems to me he married quite a few of my sisters.

Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, Fredericton

Bradstreet Tompkins and Josephine Murray

Married 15 September 1926 at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Springhill, NB.

This is Mom’s wedding. She made her own wedding gown and she made her own wedding cake. She even made dresses for all her sisters for the wedding.

[These two photos were taken on the veranda of the Murray home in Kingsclear. In the photo below, some of the guests are recognizable.]

Back row: far left, unknown man. Grandfather Murray (Charles C.) and Grandmother Murray (Alice Bertha Ferris). Unknown behind her. Mildred Tompkins? and Grandmother Tompkins (Maud Bertha Dyer) and two unknown women.

Front row, far left, Weldon Tompkins. Next to him is likely his wife-to-be, Alberta Knox. Bradstreet and Josephine. Bessie Murray behind Jo. Margie Murray with her pet dog in front of her, Averil Tompkins, and Jean Estey.