Welcome!

Bethany Keddy and her grandmother, Beryl Fanning Langley
at Beryl's home in Seal Harbour, August 2004

In August, 2004 my new-found cousin Bethany Keddy and I sat down with her grandmother (my 2^nd cousin) Beryl Langley at her home in Seal Harbour and asked her questions about the old days growing up in the Drum Head and Seal Harbour area.  What an interesting and fun conversation it was.

Both of these dear ladies have gone now.  To help preserve the memories Beryl shared with us that afternoon I’ve transcribed the discussion and put it into this blog, arranged by topic. The topics are listed at the right; you can click on any to go directly to that post.

Words in blue italics are Bethany speaking; those in green italics are mine.  All the rest are from Beryl.  Enjoy!

Human Snowplows

Do you remember much about the weather when you were growing up?  What were the winters like?

In the winters, we had a lot of snow.  But then, the men had to shovel the snow by hand--there was no snowplows, that was never heard tell of.  They had to shovel.  They'd go...the Drum Head men went so far, up toward Goldboro, and the Goldboro crowd would meet them.  And the, the Seal Harbour ones...I don't know just how far.  They would go so far towards Coddles' Harbour.  And from there the men would meet them there, you see.  They'd shovel their way up to where they'd meet the Seal Harbour.  

And the doctor, if anyone needed the doctor, he came down what we called the swamp.  He left the road in Drum Head and come down, there's a... you know where Claire Fanning's house is?  Do you remember seeing a little building there like a store, in Drum Head?  Claire's house, and Lorne's, was the one above that.  Well, this swamp was below their place, over that way.  And the doctor would travel down that way.  And there was a road coming up from that, and you'd get on the main--they didn't shovel all the road down to the village--but he would go that way.  Lots of time it was horseback, if you'd go to call.

Where did the doctor live?

Goldboro.  And he went as far as New Harbour; he had patients in New Harbour.

That would be a long way to go.

Yeah.  Well, and then, after another doctor came, there'd always be a bad spot in the road over there, a place they called the green woods.  It just was a stretch of woods on either side of the road.  And the frost would be coming out, and that...you just couldn't get over that.  A car couldn't think to get through it.  But he would go as far as that, and walk across, and somebody else met him, and took him.

Typhoid Fever

Do you ever recall yourself, when you were young, did you get sick and need a doctor?

I had typhoid fever.  And the doctor, that was in Goldboro then, he had to go in the service, as a doctor.  And he had a woman doctor come in his place.  And she was the one that tended me.

How old would you have been?

I don't think I'd be over five or six years, but I can remember.  I can remember lying in bed.  I didn't even open my eyes, but they would come in and look at me, and then they'd go out again.  They'd see I was still breathing, anyway.  But I can remember that part of it.  And I don't know...there was nothing they could do for it.  No, you know, there was no drugs then. And I don't think there's any drugs for typhoid fever anyway...I don't know what they would do for it.

There was a maiden lady, that lived down over the hill from where I lived, she had it at the same time.  

Who was that?

Rosie Burke [Helena Rosamund Burke], you've heard us talk of her.  She'd be...Lester Burke's aunt.

Did she have a store?

Yes, she did, in later years, she had a little store.

She lived, from the typhoid...?

Oh yes, yeah.  Yep, we both struggled through it.  

And I used to go down there and visit.  One day I went down, and they...had duck stew for dinner then, boy, you'd need a stomach!  And then, after a while, this lady looked out the window, and she saw my father looking down my grandmother's well.  And she said--she always called him Willie; his name was William--"Willie must have dropped something...lost a bucket in the well."  And she went to the door and she hollered out--it wasn't too far--she said, "Willie!  Have you lost something?"  He said, "Yes, we lost Beryl, and we can't find her anywhere!"  He thought I had fallen in the well!  She said, "Well, she's here, having dinner with us!"  He said, "Tell her to get home as quick as she can!"  I was enjoying the duck stew.  Oh, dear.

Ancestors and relatives

You said you remember my grandmother [Clarice Edna Crooks] before she went away?

That’s right.

What do you remember about her most, when you think about her?

Well, she was a very friendly lady, and was full of fun.  I can hear her laughing yet.  Yes, she was a great person to be with!

Did she live near you?

Well, about a mile away.  And she used to be around my two sisters a lot.  My sisters, who were around her age. Ethel and Kathleen Fanning, they were then.  Of course, they were married after that.  Ethel became, when she married…. She was a Pinkham.  And the other one was married to a Worth.

And I remember Aunt Nita—Shirley’s mother.  I can remember when she was married.  If I remember correctly, I thought they were married at the church in New Harbour, but I can’t be sure of that.

But it was around here; it was local?

Oh yes.  And then they went to Timmons.

She married….

Coleman Latham.  I can see him as plain as anything.  I remember them.  They always wore…in the summertime he always wore high boots and a brown suit.  The things you remember, don’t you?

He was a tall man, from the pictures I’ve seen…

He was, yes.  And he…he got to be quite fat, too.  In his younger days, he was tall and slender.  Nita was such a good cook, I guess!

Do you remember any of Clarice’s brothers or sisters or parents?

Oh yes.  Graham, and Oswald, and John and Bayfield.  I think that’s all of them.

What do you remember about Graham?

Oh, such a beautiful singer.  Oh, could he ever sing!  I never hear that one piece [unclear] but what he stands before me.  I can still hear that.  Oh, could he ever sing!

So, there was Graham, and…

George.

Now, George was Don’s father?

Right.  And could he ever tell silly stories!  Could he ever. For stories, if Uncle George was living, Uncle George Crooks... my dear man, you'd split your sides laughing!  And he'd say, "It's the gospel truth!"  And he'd add a lot to it, you know.

He and his brother John came here one evening, and John was sitting over there (pointing) and George over there.  And George got to work telling a story.  And I looked after a while and John was sitting with a hanky up to his eye.  He said—he couldn’t talk, he was laughing so hard, and crying with it— “Don’t tell any more, George!”

Oh, yes. He was a great storyteller.  He and my husband used to go deer hunting and moose hunting a lot.

There used to be moose around here?

Oh, yes, there were lots of moose.  Yes, they headed back, in back of the house where you’re staying [George Manthorne’s house] and go back in the woods that away.

Do you remember the parents of that family?

Oh, yes.  I remember.  Well, I was a very little girl when Uncle John, as we called him—the father—passed away.  But he gave the place where the cemetery is…the lot of ground where the [Hillside] cemetery is. And he was the first one to be buried there.  I can remember being to his funeral.

Where was that?

At the church up here [Seal Harbour Baptist].  And I think my mother was the next one that was buried in that cemetery.

Who were her parents?

James and Jane Sponagle.

Did Esther have any brothers or sisters?

They adopted a boy, Vernon…when he was just a little boy.  And she had a sister, Lois, and Geneva, and Laura, and Ethel.  But Ethel died very young.

....

What do you remember about Aunt Bess?

Well, she seemed to be a person that was miserable.  She had—her husband’s sister lived with them, and she was a maiden lady.  Her name was Lydia.

Lydia Crooks…she’s buried there with them.

Yes. “Aunt Liv,” we always called her.  I can remember her.  And she did most of the work.  She mended the men’s clothing, and knit the socks and the mitts, and did most of the work.  And Aunt Bess was going to dress up and sit in the back.  She just wasn’t able to work.  And Nita did a lot of work when she got older, until she went away.  And then Nita took her to live with her, in Timmons.

Your father was…

William Fanning.

He married Esther Sponagle…

Yes.  Then, after she passed away, he married her sister.  She was my stepmother.

Did they have children themselves?

Just one boy.

Do you know any farther back, who the parents of William were?

Edward Fanning…and Levinia, she was his wife.  She was a Langley.  She was a sister to Aunt Bess Crooks.

Thinking again of my grandmother, you said you knew her before she went away.  Where did she go, and why did she go?

Well, I think she went to, as we call it, the States, and she took nursing courses.  That’s what she went for, yes.  And she had an aunt, her Aunt Bertha Colburn, which was a very strict and stern lady…

She was?  Do you remember her?

Do I ever remember!  She was always dressing just so. 

My older daughter has a set of doll dishes that her brother, which would be my daughter’s great-grandfather, gave Aunt Bertha.

I never remember seeing Clarice's mother, Bertha.  She went away.  That's right.  And they [John & Elizabeth Crooks] brought her up. 

[Clarice] and Nita were very close.  Also, she seemed to be very close to one of her brothers, I guess, the youngest one...Graham.  George thought an awful lot of Clarice, too.

....

So, William lived here, and so his father, Edward, did he live here before him?

No; Uncle Ed's...

Where?  Aunt Bernice's?

Yes...but they moved from Goldboro down here.  They did live in Goldboro.  Uncle Ned, they called him.  And I had a grandfather, Edward Fanning, and they called him Uncle Ned.  Two Neds, yes.

Barney's father was married three times.  He had three families.  Married the Penny woman, and then Barney's mother.  The first family, there was a boy and a girl.  The second family was three boys.  And then the next one was one, two, three girls and one boy...two boys!  Barney and Luman.

Ghost Story

Let's see...this house must be nearly two hundred years old.

Maybe not quite.  Kirby was trying to figure it out.

No, I know it's not quite.  But, see, Barney's father was married three times...

'Cause the first two wives died...

Yes, yeah.

Barney's father, William Langley, is that right?  I seem to remember that.

He was married to Jane Crooks.  Then he married Rebecca Penny, yes.  I can tell you a ghost story about his first wife.  

They were living here in this house, and the upstairs wasn't finished.  But he had lumber up there; there was the beams that went across, and he had this lumber up there kind of drying out, you see...it was kind of damp.  And she was here, mixing bread, and she heard this lumber fall....So, when he came home, she said, "Will, some of that lumber fell up there."  "Oh," he said, "It could never fall."  Well, she said, "You go up and look.  I heard an awful noise, and I know it must have been that, because there was nobody up there."  So he went up, and he said, "No, there's no lumber fell."  

And it was two or three days after, some person died in the community, and of course, in those times, they had to make the caskets.  And somebody came to this house and asked him, could he have some of that lumber to build this casket.  And they went up to get this lumber.  "There's the noise I heard!" she said.  When they took the lumber down, it was the same kind of a noise.  So, that was a ghost, wasn't it?

Old photos

That's what this looked like at one time...look at all the rocks.  All taken away...

That's Uncle Matt... Matt Scanlon.  He married Barney's sister.

Now here, there's the fox pens....

That was the old barn, yes...the doors is on the other side, and that was where I used to go to milk the cow.

How bleak looking!  There's all those trees out here now, that make it cozy, but...my goodness!

Yes...a different look.

Crokinole

You didn't meet Don Crooks, did you? 

Yes, I did get the chance...

Don and I are great pals.

He mentioned that.

He did?

He said "You absolutely must not leave without getting a chance to talk with Beryl, because she knows everything."

Well, dear, I always liked Don.  He used to come here a lot.  They played "croak in the hole."  Did you ever hear tell of the game Crokinole?

No, I never did

Didn't you?!

What's Crokinole?

It's got a big board, and there's little round disks, and you sink them, you know.  Yes, my husband made a couple of boards.  He had the pattern, one that was bought from the store.

We would gather at different houses, play games in the winter evenings.

I figure that you must be a Scrabble player, because...oh, here's Crokinole...

Yes...

Did Barney make this board?

Let me see it.  Yep, that's the one he made.

So, two people could play--you and I could play--or four people could play.

...That looks like a fun game!

Yes.  And Don was really interested in that.

Well, I said I knew you must play Scrabble because the other night we were playing, and in the box was a piece of paper that had been used as a score sheet, and one of the names was Beryl.

Yes, oh yes.  Well, the lady from down the road, she was here this afternoon, and I beat her.  Just so happened I got some good letters.

I can remember as a boy, when we visited here, we stayed at the home of Claire Fanning...

Oh, yes...

And I remember playing Scrabble with her.

Is that right?  I love to play Scrabble.

My mother and I...we play a lot...

I live with my daughter over in Sherbrooke in the winter and...oh, she don't like for me to beat her.  She always wants to win!