On Nov. 2, 1979 Laura McPhail sat before a cassette recorder and began to talk about her life in Southampton.
She was taking part in a Bruce County Historical Society project—recording oral histories of early life in the county. Tapes made by 15 senior citizens are now stored permanently in the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre (BCM&CC).
Here are the words of Laura McPhail, who was 91 years old when she was recorded by Margaret Gentle of Southampton.
“I was born at home in 1888 and named Laura Elspeth Buckley. Our home was just beyond the railway tracks on the highway into Southampton. The house is no longer there.
Dad had a small farm, just 25 acres. We had our own cows and a horse to do the work on the farm. We grew our own grain to have our own flour, oatmeal and cornmeal. We did own a bush right down to the lake. We cut wood and sold it for $1.25 a cord.
We had rabbits on the farm. My father snared them because they would destroy the garden. We didn’t use them ourselves. There were English families in town and my father gave them the rabbits.
My father was also a landscape gardener. He planted all the big maples that were once lining the streets in town. The trees that were planted on Albert Street in front of the Presbyterian Church and the Masonic Hall, my brother and I watered for days. I was 11
years old. Every day at noon right after having lunch at school, my brother and I took pails and watered them. We pumped the water from a little old house that was on the corner of Albert Street and Thompson Lane where the Balls are now. My father knew if we missed one tree.
I walked two miles to the school from the farm. In the winter we walked down the railway track because it was a good clean road.
We had a curfew for years when all children had to be off the streets by 9 p.m. Davey Duke was the constable; he kept the town hall clean and looked after the fire at the town hall for $5 a month.
In those days, children weren’t out on the streets like today, usually because we had work to do. On the farm we had pigs and chickens to feed, eggs to collect. In the evenings, we had homework to do and then knitting and other things like that to work on.
I quit school when my sister was born and I was 12 years old. I stayed home to help do the work. I had seven brothers and two sisters.
We always paid cash for things. If we couldn’t pay, we didn’t buy. There was only one storekeeper who gave credit and he ran himself right out of business. We didn’t have much to do with the bank in those days; we didn’t have anything to put in the bank. It was used mostly by businessmen.
A rag man came in every week. I can’t remember what he did with them, but he collected the bags every week, something like our garbage men today.
When I was 15 or 16 I learned to dressmake from Mrs. Davis, who lived on Palmerston Street in the house next to where Mrs. Paddon lives now. I did dressmaking after marriage. I made clothes for Mrs. Laird MacAuley, the Bright kids, Babe Morton’s mother and others.
We moved to town in 1905 or 6 to a house on Huron Street next door to Dr. Coleman’s. [They later moved to 23 Grosvenor St. S.]
I joined the Methodist Church, which was where the Baptist Church is now (corner of High and Victoria Streets). My father would sit out on Saturday night and clean our shoes, ready for church Sunday morning. We didn’t wear them either, until church time.
In 1910 l married John McPhail in the Methodist Manse. [Laura Elspeth Buckley (1888-1991) married John (Jack) McPhail (1885-1959).] My husband was a polisher in the Fitton-Parker furniture factory. When they were slack, he was an engineer on the fishing boats.
Skating was our main social outing. There was a large rink on the corner of Huron and Palmerston. My brother skated on Fairy Lake and fell in where they had been cutting ice blocks for the fishing huts. I never skated there.
We had holidays on the first of July and the 12th of July. I remember getting a holiday from school the day the Boer War ended.
At Christmas we hung up our stockings and got money, candy, fruit and generally something to wear.
We usually had goose and always a rag pudding, as the boys called it. (That is a plum pudding wrapped in cloth and boiled in a big black pot.) Mother made doughnuts and Christmas cake. There were a lot of us so we just had a family gathering.
Dad always made sure we had goose on his birthday, Oct. 10.
Dr. Pat Scott brought all our family into the world. Dr. William Scott came in with him later. We really doctored ourselves. We took Thomas Electric Oil for a sore throat.
We had a small hospital run by Mrs. McVittie on Leeder Lane where the Graham’s live. My two daughters had their tonsils out there. We had a specialist come from Toronto to do the operation. He was half drunk and cut the epiglottis right out of my one daughter’s throat. She nearly bled to death. If it hadn’t been for Gladys McVittie taking care of her she would have died.
When I was 18, I had an attack of appendicitis. There was no way we could get to Walkerton for an operation because of the snow. Dr. Laird gave me a dose of olive oil and something else. I got over that attack and I was never operated on.
My grandfather, William Buckley, owned a hotel at Denny’s Dam. He is buried in the old cemetery. The stone was found by my nephew and me all broken up. Someone had made a barbeque pit out of it. He gathered the pieces up and took them away to be put together. It is now in the little house at the cemetery waiting to be put in place.
My husband’s grandmother and grandfather had a lovely big stone in the old cemetery. It was found back in the bushes. You can still see the outline of the name “Pringle” on it. It has been placed in the new cairn.
Southampton has always been a nice, quiet town.”
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By Robin Hilborn
for the Bruce County Historical Society
