[Copyright 2017: Dennis M. Doiron]
Part 1
On June 21, I set off on a pleasure trip to Canada with my sister, Éva. We left home at eleven-twenty after saying goodbye to our family and receiving their best wishes. Arriving downtown, we met Miss Rose Parent who works at Mr Samuel Smith’s store. She only spoke a few words to wish us a good trip, and then we boarded the trolley car at twenty minutes to noon. We made it from Sanford to Springvale in a quarter of an hour.
The Opening of the Trolley Line Between Springvale and Sanford, May 27, 1893.
Collections of the Sanford-Springvale Historical Society, Sanford, Maine.
Collections of the Sanford-Springvale Historical Society, Sanford, Maine.
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Monsieur George Lizotte
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assisted us with our trunk, and at noon we departed on the Portland and Rochester Railroad. We were among twenty or so Canadians from Sanford heading for Canada. One of our young men came and took a seat next to us and often gave us the eye, but we made it all the way to Portland without him ever saying a word to us.
The Sanford-Springvale Railroad Station, circa 1900.
Collections of the Sanford-Springvale Historical Society, Sanford, Maine.
Nothing very unusual happened along the way. While leaving Hollis Center, we looked out onto a magnificent field of corn which was decorated by the most beautiful scarecrow made in the old Canadian way - a man’s hat held up by a stick and a suit of clothes - which served as a public warning to all animals in the farmyard and any others who would want to enter the huge field. Continuing along, we met a train at the Gorham station which carried a coffin, but because we didn’t know the person in it, we didn’t pay it much attention, although
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it is always striking to see a coffin.
Finally we arrived in Portland. It was twenty minutes till two, but we had to wait an hour before we could enter the main station. Mademoiselle Clarice Porell, having been informed that her aunt Delphis Porell was on the train, came for a short visit at the small station. After exchanging some words, we boarded the train again to go to the central office where we had to go to buy tickets.
But to our great disappointment, we had to get off again at the small Portland and Rochester station because we were told that it would be necessary to wait until eight o’clock that evening. Some Canadians who were working on the tracks joked while
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leaving on a hand-car that we were going to have plenty of time to go sight-seeing. But I thought that they did not seem more independent than we were, because I preferred to wait several hours rather than have to leave by operating a hand-car.
Seeing that we had to wait so long, Monsieur Lizotte and Monsieur Brouillard took charge by going to the central office on foot. It was only a twenty-minute walk. Upon arriving, they telegraphed us to not be discouraged, that a train at five o’clock would bring us to the main station. We boarded at five o’clock, very happy to be leaving this beautiful small place, which only had a pretty, little station and several small boats in the water to entertain you.
When we arrived in Portland, we found Monsieur Lizotte busy preparing our excursion tickets, but as our trunk had stayed in Cumberland Mills and we had been prepared to
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take the Maine Central excursion train, we were a bit disappointed. Monsieur Lizotte helped us by sending a telegram to Cumberland Mills asking that they send our trunk to Saint-Samuel, Beauce County [now, Lac-Drolet, Granite Regional Municipal County], where we were going after visiting Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.
As we could no longer think of taking the Maine Central, we prepared to board the Grand Trunk Railroad. After consulting with Monsieur Carrian, who was the director of the excursion trains and who had made the mistake of selling us the wrong tickets, he advised us to board with those tickets and said we could exchange them at Sherbrooke where we would be given a pass for Trinq-Jonction on the Québec Central Railroad.
We should not leave Portland without mentioning the several pleasurable hours we had in Portland in the company of Monsieur Charles Langlais, former store clerk at Monsieur
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Lizotte’s store in Sanford, and whose marriage to Mademoiselle Odelie Pelletier had taken place Monday morning, after which the young couple left for a wedding trip to Canada. Because Monsieur Langlais and his wife had been staying in Somersworth[, New Hampshire] for only a short time, they were happy to talk several times about the most recent news from Sanford.
After having informed him as much as possible, I took a walk with his wife while he went to smoke a cigar. He came back with several friends. Thinking that I should leave him alone with his wife, I thought of returning to the station, but they told me that they truly wanted me to keep them company. I quickly agreed to stay with them because I was enjoying their company so much. We again started to talk about Sanford. I believe we once again covered every topic.
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The The Grand Trunk Railroad station at the corner of India and Commercial Streets in Portland, built in 1855, was torn down in 1902-1903 to make way for a new station in 1903.
Collections of the Maine Memory Network: https://www.mainememory.net/media/images/625/75/5785.JPG.
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While entering the Station, he introduced us to Monsieur Demers, a lawyer from Somersworth. I hardly made his acquaintance when we had to take our seats in the cars which would bring us to Québec, although we still had to wait another hour. Monsieur Demers came and took a seat next to us, all the while talking to us. We were enjoying ourselves very much right up to the time the steam engine put the train in motion.
Trying to make the long night go a little faster, several men started to organize a card game. Messieurs Lizotte, Pelletier, Demers, and a young woman from Biddeford, of whom I didn’t know her name, started playing “four-seven.” Monsieur Lizotte was paired with the young woman and they believed themselves the champions since they had the honor of making the first drawing, but they hadn’t noticed that it did not contain a single
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point. To our great satisfaction, our champion Monsieur Lizotte held a small “dog,” if I can use the common name for it. As it was the first deal of the game, I found that it was a fact remarkable enough to write in my travel notes.
Beginning to be a little bored with the card game, the gentlemen took their leave to smoke a cigar. Monsieur Pelletier stayed with us after first speaking to us. We continued our conversation until we started to be overcome with sleep.
I thought of resting a little. After eating a light meal and upon closing my eyes, I slept peacefully. I was transported quickly to Sanford where I was busy picking strawberries in our garden, but as everything changes quickly in dreams, I woke up observing that we had arrived at the station in Gorham[, New Hampshire]. I was very
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tired and wanted so much to have just a few minutes in my own bed.
Our young gentlemen had taken up their card game again with an enthusiasm which was a pleasure to see. But a young man, seeing his girlfriend busy playing cards with men unknown to him, came for her to return with him. It was now necessary for them to find a replacement. They vowed to find a young man this time so that they would not be inconvenienced in the future.
The night seemed very long too us. At dawn, Monsieur Charles Langlais came to spend some time with us, serving us a good glass of wine which was welcomed and drunk to the health of the newlyweds, Monsieur Langlais and his bride. Messieurs Pelletier and Lizotte spent several hours with us while telling us interesting stories which were perfect for this trip.
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Several other young men of whom I did not know their names, but who acted very childishly, found seats next to us and often spoke to us. Despite their sophisticated manners and magnificent stories, we did not want to begin any conversation with them, finding their play a bit much.
They looked at all the train stations to see if they would be able to see young ladies strolling with their boyfriends on the station platforms like their mothers told them they had done when they were young women. They had heard about the station platforms for so long that they were happy to know what they were. Now they could describe them to their good chums that they had left behind in Manchester[, New Hampshire].
Arriving in Stanfold[, Québec], they saw a poor old woman wandering barefooted and aimlessly, but they
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thought surely it was an old woman who came from Cuba. They saw again a warship in the Nicolet River, but they were fearless - they were prepared to battle the Spanish! I believe that they had stories prepared for the entire, long trip. We had a great time listening to them talk. Fortunately, they spoke very politely.
With us in the car was a poor old man who was highly eccentric, his mind a bit affected by a glass of whiskey. He was preoccupied with knowing if he was on the line to Montreal and also whether we had passed the border with the United States. After we arrived in Québec, he was still asking if we had yet arrived in Island Pond[, Vermont].
As we were on our way to Sainte-Anne, our young gentlemen now wanted to work up a proper devotional spirit. They began to sing “Daignez Sainte Anne,” but as they did not appear to be too troubled with the religious spirit, they changed their hymn to a song.
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I would have liked to know their names, but we were not permitted the liberty to ask that of them. While crossing the Sainte-Julie River, they saw the battleship “Maine” which had just been sunk in Cuba by the Spanish. They still saw masts and even sailors who were still in the ocean.
To calm themselves down, our young lovers started to play cards, which was much welcomed, and while hearing them talk, we learned that the name of the finest was Monsieur Roy. While passing Methots Mills, we saw Adeline Aubin, formerly of Sanford. We were not able to talk to her, but could only wave to her in passing.
Arriving at Saint-Agapit, a young girl of only four years, the daughter of Monsieur Nazaire Bedard, was killed accidentally by the train we were on. Her head was completely severed from her body. She was playing on the railroad tracks with several other
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children and, to the best we could determine, she had tried to cross the tracks when she saw the train speeding toward her but was struck instantly. The accident happened not far from her home. Her parents were completely unaware where their child had been when they were told of the accident.
The conductor had not noticed anything on the track, but perceiving by the motion of the cars that something strange had happened, quickly stopped the train while saying that they had killed someone. And then we saw the awful accident. The child’s parents were not present to claim the mortal remains of the dear, small being who now counted herself already among the great family of the dead. Nobody on the train knew who the child was until a woman arrived and announced that
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the child was her young niece and the child of Monsieur Nazaire Bedard. Someone hurried to tell the devastated family, but they had already learned the awful fact of what had just occurred upon seeing everyone running to the site of the accident and noticing that a member of their family was missing. Judge the pain of the poor parents in seeing the tiny being that had been so dear and now was no more than a bloody mass, but who, from heaven, was praying to God for her devastated parents.
Her body was placed in a tramway car and brought to the station so that the jury could render its verdict of accidental death. We were delayed at the site of the accident for a quarter of an hour, and then went to the station where we were delayed for another twenty minutes. Each person sympathized with this good Canadian family that God had just plunged into pain while lifting from them this white and pure soul that was now one of the angels in heaven.
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I did not see up close the corpse because it frightened me to see this small victim who was the hero of a scene so sad that I will keep it in my memory forever. If I ever pass through Saint-Agapit again, I will say to myself, “Here is the place of that accident.”
The train was very late. It was ten-twenty when the accident occurred, and we arrived in Lévis at a quarter to eleven. [Note: One of these times given must be incorrect; if not, only 25 minutes would have passed between the time of the accident and the train´s arrival in Lévis. Perhaps the time given for the accident should have been twenty minutes to ten, rather than twenty minutes after ten.]
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Le Soleil, page 6, June 22, 1898. Québec City.
The day following the accident, this brief article appeared on the last page of the newspaper Le Soleil. Although it describes - by use of the pronoun “il” - the victim as a boy, the account generally confirms Odelie’s account of the accident. The article reads: Child killed on the Grand Trunk. The child who was struck by the train at St-Agapit, Lotbinière County, was about three years old. He was playing on the rail tracks when a train arrived. The engineer could not stop the train in time, which ran over the body. Translated by Dennis M. Doiron.
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