Pontiac Archives

Due to lack of participation, there will be no further sessions of Tale Spinners.  Anyone interested in recording stories of interest may contact me, Venetia Crawford, at 647 5685.  The following story was prepared for the last session of Tale Spinners.

MAIL DELIVERY IN CAMPBELL’S BAY

By Sadie Lett  April 7, 2006

My father, Ernie Gillis, started to deliver the mail when I was going to school.  He used to give us pennies to go down and buy candy at Bolam’s store.  He was still delivering the mail when my daughter Gail was a child.

The mail came to Campbell’s Bay by train from Ottawa every day except Sunday.  My father picked it up at the Post Office in the Doyle Building on Front Street. He drove a Model T Ford in the summer time and a horse and cutter in the winter.  The mail route started at the Post Office, down the Highway to Carswell’s, up the Moorhead Road to the Campbell’s Bay Road, on to the Hayes Line and back to Ernie Stevenson’s. In the winter time, he took a short cut down the winter road that went through the fields down to Dick Moorhead’s home on the Beauchamp Road and then back to his home on Temperance St.

In the winter time he used to deliver groceries along the way.  He hardly had room for his feet sometimes.  He also sold stamps at the mailboxes where he had to pick up the cold pennies to pay for them.  At Christmas he used to get lots of nice gifts – cakes and puddings.

Elwin Brown’s father, Eric Brown, got the job when the government changed.  After that my father went to work at the mill.

We have a number of old photographs at the Archives for sale at a small price. Most of the photos were taken during Rev. Emard’s time. Some are of weddings, family reunions, graduations and other miscellaneous things, some are unknown.