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as written by Kay Tingle in the Red Lake District News, circa 1976
Clem Wilson first came to Red Lake in July 1927. She was Clem Dupont then, single and only 17 years old.Her father and brother Joe were already here and she came with her mother and two younger brothers to visit for two months.Bruno and Harry
The Journey:
Hudson
The trip was full of suprises for the young Clem: "we came by train from Mattawa to Hudson and stayed overnight in a hotel there. That night there was a terrible fight in the hotel - my mother and I barricaded the door. Next morning we left on the boat, the Miss Winnipeg.
Miss Winnipeg
I was wearing my first pair of high heeled shoes. I was so proud of them , but a woman told me I couldn't travel in them, and she gave me a pair of running shoes. After an hour the boat stopped - it was out of fuel! The captain went back in a skiff for gas.
Dad met us at Gold Pines and we stayed overnight there. Next morning he brought me a pair of breeks,
a man's gray flannel shirt and size 6 men's boots. My mother kept on wearing a dress but she did wear running shoes."Gold Pines
After crossing the portages, the family arrived in Red Lake about ten o'clock and stopped at Bill Brown's tent (he was the first postmaster) where they had supper and bought two loaves of bread. It was midnight when they reached the Dupont camp at Pipestone Bay, where thirteen men were working. That night Clem slept on the ground in a tent and she felt something crawling over her. "at first I thought it was a bear, but by the lantern light. I saw it was a small dog and it stayed on top of my eiderdown all night."
Portages to Pipestone Bay
Red Lake
Pipestone Bay
Sorry no photographs available
Clem's story continues, "There was a beautiful sand beach there. Mrs Salten, the engineer's wife and I would go out fishing in the canoe. One day we were on an island frying fish we had caught and boiling water in a pail, for tea, when all of a sudden, BOOM!
We saw sticks and stones flying everywhere and the pail landed up in a tree. Our hair was burned and we had cuts all over ourselves. Father came over and took us home. It turned out that we had built our fire over some dynamite caps that Sandy McIntyre had left there. We never did find the frying pan."
Mrs. Salton Circa 1927
Sandy McIntyre Circa 1926-27
Melvina, Clems mother, liked to knit, but it was not very comfortable sitting on a box, so Joe, Clems older brother, made a chair out of birch for her, and painted it green. The chair is still somewhere in Red Lake, but Clem didn't know who might have it.
"Living at Pipestone Bay was a lonely life" says Clem but "It was the kind of loneliness I liked. It was so quiet - only the sound of the loons, and other small noises (more loon sounds).
I enjoyed going out in the canoe and I used to sit for hours on the trunk of a tree over the lake, dreaming."Baking powder biscuits, potatoes, beans, fish, salt pork and prunes were all they had to eat. Gus Dupont had to go to Boston on business, so he let the men go. The family decided to stay for the winter.
They built a log cabin and Clem was to teach the younger boys their lessons. They sent to the Eaton's store for a blackboard.They became very tired of their monotonous diet. Clem remembers that they would put magazine pictures of other foods on the wall and look at them while they ate their fish.
In November, Clem became very ill. "I had a fever and my face swelled up with pus pouring out of little blisters. Mother kept a spoon in my mouth so that I wouldn't swallow my tongue and she prayed for she thought I would die.
My brothers started for Red Lake in a boat to get help but they had to turn back because of the ice and the next day they skated to Red Lake. They got some pills from Dr. Goodison but they met Marius Madsen and when they described my sickness to them, he told them it was scurvy.
He told them to get citrus fruits because that was the only cure (Vitamin C) - but where could they buy them at that time of year? They finally went to a few women in town and explained the situation.
They got eleven oranges from one women and she charged them twenty dollars. It was freeze-up time and they were the only oranges in town. During freeze - up, nothing came in or went out of the area.
My mother squeezed the orange juice into my mouth and I gradually got better."My mother hid the mirror in a trunk, but one day Joe Biron showed me a small mirror he had with him. I was horrified at my appearance, my nose was as big as a potato. I thought I would never look like myself again. Mother was furious at Joe for letting me look in the mirror."
Dr Goodison
Marius Madsen
Reminence of the log cabin at Pipestone BayClem's father returned two weeks before Christmas and brought each of the children a musical instrument, none of which they could play, although they tried.
Clem continued to teach her two younger brothers, Harry, 11 and Bruno, 7, and she was learning some new things herself: "I learned to use snowshoes and to set nets for fish. I even chewed tobacco. The boys and I trapped muskrat and otter. With the money from the furs, Harry and Bruno bought their first suits with long pants.
There was a thaw in January and we went paddling in a tub on the ice - that was fun!
We didn't see another white woman all winter. It wasn't until the summer of 1928 that we met Peggy Corbet, now Ross. We had met her before, when Peggy was cooking at Temagami and my father was guiding America tourists at the camp there."
In the fall of 1928, Gus Dupont decided that the family should go back to Sturgeon Falls and live with their grandmother, Josephine Desormeaux, in order that the boys could go to school.
. Josephine Desormeaux
They stayed a year and returned in the fall of 1929. There were many more people in Red Lake by then and the first school started that winter. "There were about twelve pupils", says Clem. "My brothers had not lost their grade. We danced in the school. A group of women started a dramatic club: we put on plays and bought a piano for the school."
First School and First Class Circa 1929"That year I met Ann Haraldson and we were friends for years. She was so pretty but unfortunately she died in 1937 with an attack of appendicitis. They rushed her to Winnipeg by plane but her appendix ruptured on the way"
Ann Haraldson and friends, Circa 1929
That winter, Clem got a job working at the Hudson's Bay Co. Store, then located on Johnson's Point across the bay. Everything came in bulk quantities and had to be bagged. "The first day at work I broke a bag of beans. I thought my job was lost, but the manager, Matt Cook, just laughed.
The local Indian women would come and sit on the floor all day, breast-feeding their babies, who were laced onto papoose-boards. The Indian men brought in piles of furs, and they did all the shopping. During the summer they held pow-wows and we danced with them nearly every night.
The Indian women were lovely, so quiet and gentle.Clem remembers many bad forest fires during the early years, especially the one in the 1930's. Everyone was out fighting the fire, because if the Howey Mine burned that was it- everybody would be out of work.
They dug fire breaks, and poured sand on the flying sparks. "My brother Harry built a raft, Elsie Myers and I made coffee for the firefighters."
forest fire, Circa 1930
The periods of break- up and freeze-ups were memorable. Sometimes meat was dropped from planes to the ice, and there was a race between the butchers and the dogs to get to the meat first. Sometimes liquor was dropped instead of mail and food.
One year there was no salt in town over break-up and everybody had to do without. There was never any fresh fruit or vegetables during the periods of isolation but always plenty of dried prunes.
Clem received several proposals of marriage but one was the result of a practical joke. "My brother Joe was a great one for jokes. A Frenchman named Paul Martin had a house up the lake and he told Joe he was looking for a wife. So Joe said that his sister was looking for a Husband but that he would have to give two bags of potatoes for her.
He was only a little guy about five feet tall, but quite a dandy. He came to our house in a bowler hat and tight pants, bringing the two bags of potatoes. He told me to get dressed and go with him. I was so flabbergasted I couldn't speak, but my mother told him in voluble French and no uncertain terms, to get out.
He ran, leaving the potatoes behind, laughs Clem. My mother realized that Joe was up to his tricks, and she used the potatoes anyway.
Clem eventually met and married Earle Wilson, he was the manager of the Patrica Transportation Company. Theirs was the first car over the new road in 1946: "Norm and Erie Naylor came with us and we had to get out and pick up rocks ahead of the car as we went along."
Clem and Earle had three children: Joanne, Earle and Donald.
Earle Sr. suffered a stroke in 1961 and was confined to their home there after.
Clem recalling the hardships of the early years , she is amazed that the break-up and freeze-ups last only a few days now unlike before and she appreciates having water and sewer facilities.
Joe and Clem Dupont
Paul Martin with pet fox
Earle Wilson Sr. with Patricia Transportation Co. tractor
In Memorial
Earle Sr. passed away n 1977 and Clem passed away in 1989.
They are much missed by their family and friends.May they Rest in Peace
Clemence Victoria (nee Dupont) Wilson - November 1909 - October 1989
Earle and Clem are buried in the Red Lake Cemetery in Red Lake, Ontario, Canada .Visit the In Memorial Web Page for more memorials
Thank You for visiting my web site.
Donelda Louise Dupont
please read further......
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Background Music:
Oh My Darling Clementine
Percy Montross circa 1880.
In a cavern, in a canyon,
Excavating for a mine
Dwelt a miner forty niner,
And his daughter ClementineChorus
Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, ClementineLight she was and like a fairy,
And her shoes were number nine,
Herring boxes, without topses,
Sandals were for Clementine.Chorus
Drove she ducklings to the water
Ev'ry morning just at nine,
Hit her foot against a splinter,
Fell into the foaming brine.Chorus
Ruby lips above the water,
Blowing bubbles, soft and fine,
But, alas, I was no swimmer,
So I lost my Clementine.Chorus
How I missed her! How I missed her,
How I missed my Clementine,
But I kissed her little sister,
I forgot my Clementine.
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