My Dad, John Finlay Conroy, was the first-born child of Emily Lindsay and Richard Conroy. He was born February 24, 1890 in Sheet Harbour. N.S.
Sometime around 1910, he and his brother, Hadley, left N.S. for the west. They worked in the forestry industry in and around Vancouver for 2 few years ending up harvesting in Saskatchewan during the war years.
Sometime around 1918, he was working on a farm either in Wilkie or Unity, Sask., when he met Susan Agnes Tardic, whom he marricd in Edmonton on April 2, 1919.
Mom, Susan Agnes, was bom April 15,1900 in New Castle, New Brunswick. Her parents were French Canadian: I believe Grandmother Tardic nee Mary Dupleises, was born in eithor Remouski or Chicoutimi, Quebec. Tt is rumored that she was a quarter Mi’kmag Indian. Where she met Grandpa John Tardie is not known. They had ten children not necessarily in the order given; Mary (Minnie), Nellie, Joseph, John, Frank, Robert, Susan, Gertrude, Isadore and Pius. The four oldest sons were ali killed during the first world war. The two youngest served Canada during the second world war.
It is rumored that Isadore lied abont his age and scrved as a Bugle boy in World War 1. He then lied again in the reverse to join the Air Force in World War 2.
Dad also lost a brother, Gerald, in World War L His other siblings and his parents moved west and at one time they all lived in Lumberton. Dad's family consisted of Dad, Hadley, Mary, Frank, Gerald, Lindsay and Joseph (fondly known as Ike).
Mom and Dad were married in Edmonton, Alberta They were living in Hutton Mills, B.C. between Jasper and Prince George when their first child, Francis John Finlay, was born May 7. 1920.
Mom was always angry with Dad because he was in Edmonton when Finlay was born. It was years later that I learned Dad was in Edmonton because his mother was dying. What a dilemma he must have been in having to make such a decision, I don’t think Mom ever forgave him.
John and Susan Conroy
Although Finlay was their first-born, it took seventeen years for them to produce their ninth and last child,
Richard Gerald AKA Buddy was born in Edmonton, February 3, 1922.
The family then moved to Lumberton where they set about in earnest to increase the population of the small community
James Lindsay was born in 1923, He died as the result of a fall from his bath table at about 3 months of age. He is buried in the old Catholic Cemetery in Cranbrook.
Patrick Lindsay was born on June 19, 1924 followed closely by Bernadine Winifred born June 30, 1925
We then moved to Rossland, B. C. and Warida Emily was botn on April 26, 1927. At that time, Dad was working as a carpenter for the CM&S, Co. (Canadian Mining and Smelting Co.) and was transforred to work on a power dam at Bonnington, B. C. We lived in Crescent Valley. My earliest memories begin there.
Anna Gertrude was born at home (as were Finlay, James Lindsay, Patrick Lindsay and I) on Tune 12, 1929. Mom had a midwife, housekeeper to help at that time. Lindsay and T were convinced Mom had had a “negro” baby as Anna was very blue when the midwife held her by the heels and spanked her to make her cry.
A week later, Lindsay and T sat on the back steps eating delicious scones in celcbration of his birthday.
Finlay and Buddy went to the little school in Crescent Valley. Lindsay and I used to be allowed to walk to the school to meet them at the end of the day. Occasionally, the local freight train would slowly creep past the school and the conductor or brakeman would let us climb onto a flat car and ride the short way to our home.
One day, Lindsay, who was 5, and I, aged 4, decided 10 try smoking behind the outhouse. We managed to set a pile of straw on fire and subsequently, the outhouse. Who knows, we may have been the ones to inspire the Sons of Freedom, a Doukabour sect, to start their protest burnings.
Crescent Valley was a small community on the shores of the Slocan River. At that time, fishing was excellent and I remember Dad bringing home live trout so that we could watch them swimming in a tub of water.
The company transferred Dad lo Kimberley shortly after Anna was born. My first memory of Kimberley is a vivid picture of me running down sidewalk on the townsite to greet Cousin Hilda, Mom’s nicce. As I ran, the wind blew my apron up into my face and I fell flat onto the cement. I cried, everyone else laughed: Fortunately, I wasn’t badly hurt,
When we first went to Kimberley, we lived with a Mr. Colthorp on the townsite, who was a widower. The next-door neighbours were the McKenzies. Mr. Mckenzie was called Mac. 1 think his proper name was Lester. Mrs. McKenzie, Connie, and Mom became life long friends. They had two daughters, June, my age and Margaret (called “BoBo”) who was Wanda’s age. While we were at Colthorp’s, Dad was busy after work building our home in the Morrison Subdivision. We used to go down on weekends and watch Dad work sometimes helping but more than likely just getting in the way. Our house was built between the creek and a hill, much closer to the hill than the creek. T recall filling in the land in front of the house with fallen trees, tin cans and other garbage. I'm sure an anthropologist could have some fun digging there to learn what kind of cans and bottles are buried.
The neighbors on the downtown side were the Striechs. They had two children, Martha and Andrew, who were round Finlay and Bud's age. Our favorite neighbors were the Douglasses on the upper side. They had one son, Bill, who was twelve years older than I and the first man T ever had a crush on. We always thought “Dougie”, as we fondly called Mrs. Douglass, looked just like George Washington. “Pop” Douglass had the baldest head I'd ever seen. Dougie was from Lancashire, England and Pop was from Oncida, N.Y. We loved them dearly. As T look back now, I realize they were surrogate grandparents to us.
Shortly after moving to Kimberley, Dad broke his leg in an accident at the Mine. When he recovered he was transferred to the “mill” or concentrator where he worked building the flumes to remove the tailings to the millponds until his retirement in 1955.
During the next several years life went on depression, or not. Dad had a job, we were able to shop at the Company Store, which meant Dad never received much cash pay so he worked after work doing carpenter work for the merchants and others.
Brother, Joseph Hadley was born on August 27, 1932 in the hospital. Brother Robert Daniel, was born on February 1, 1937. Dad wanted to call him “Quits” and Mom gladly agreed. We called them Joe and Dan.
