Friday, June 8, 2012

E.G. Montgomery, former Verdun Resident

I thought I would re-post this article by this former Verdun resident, E.G. Montgomery:

Guy

ARTICLE IN THE VERDUN GUARDIAN OCTOBER 21ST 1959

 

 

                        VERDUN RESIDENT RECALLS VERDUN'S EARLY YEARS

 

 

                        When the Twentiethg century was just around the corner, E G.   Montgomery of Hampstead, lived on a farm in Verdun. To this day, his fondest and most vivid memories are of early Verdun.

                        Mr Montgomery remembers when they got the idea of developing Verdun and built a bicycle track for the purpose of having bicycle races. There was only one road in Verdun during Mr Montgomery's youth. It was Lower Lachine Road    (now LaSalle). They had'nt put Wellington street through yet.

                        U.H. Dandurand, who had the distinction of owning the first automobile in Montreal, was the man who organized the building of the bicycle track, Mr Montgomery remembers, and had Verdun first subdivided for building purposes.

                        Mr Montgomery attended  the first school in Verdun wich was situated where LaSalle and Gordon are now located. At the same time there was a tollgate across the road from the school. Horses and buggies coming from Montreal on their way west on LaSalle Road paid tolls wich kept the roads in repair.

                        At the back of the school (where the boardwalk is now), they built a dike, the first protection they had against flooding in the spring. The dike ran from where the Grand Truck Boating stood to Riel avenue and from the fields to the high lands.

                        But one spring, the water broke through the dike and flooded Verdun. Travel had to be done in boats. Everyone living downstairs had four feet of water in  their flats. The wooden sidewalks, wich had been sitting on wooden cross-pieces without being nailed down, were floating around Verdun.

                        Mr Montgomery remembers Charlie Baker, probably the first policeman in Verdun, who worked for the city of Verdun for about half a century.

                        He remembers too, Henry Hadley, City Engineer for Verdun, whose father had a farm wich gave some of the streets around Côte St Paul their name.

                        He remembers the family of Montheiths, the family of the present Federal MP for Verdun, (Old Johnny and young Johnny) who had two dairy farms and who delivered milk to houses in the city.

                        He still has a newspaper photograph of the children who went to the first Verdun school with him in 1895.

 

                        Mr Montgomery remembers Verdun as few people do.

 

 

9 comments:

Les F said...

has this been retyped from the original article ? or do you have the original Guardian story,that would be neat to see....
good story....... - Les

Les F said...

Ahh oK i did remember this & reposted the original too....it would still be neat to see that origianl Guardian if possible ,..great old history. - Les

Ian Cordner said...

Interesting......I used to deliver the Verdun Guardian for my uncle, Bill Cordner in the very early 60's.

Guy Billard said...

I will try to find the original Guardian article on my next visit to Verdun as I also would like to have a copy for our archives. As an amature historian, I also find this article fascinating as I have discovered those same events mentioned by mr. Montogmery. I have always maintained that Verdun has a rich historical past which must be remembered and spread to all.
Guy

Guy Billard said...

Now I remember why I did not make aa copy of the orginal E.G. MONTGOMERY article from the Guardian. The original is in a large binder in our archives and too large to copy in our computer. That is why I hand copied the article and typed it in my computer when I got home.

Guy

Les F said...

Guy depending on what features your digital camera has,if you have a 'movie mode' which almost all cameras do theses days (some with sound,older ones maybe not) but you could set up a tripod (my suggestion,for a steady shot) over the article in the binder and then have a very steady shot of the article,if your viewfinder is wide enough it should pick up the whole article in the same frame,let it run for a longer than usual time (allows people to actually read it then) you then can post the video or at the very least email it to the site ,....I am sure we can figure something out.all you have to do is load it into your computer like you do with still photos,.,..& it should work,.Good Luck who knows we may end up with you posting all kinds of old Guardians for us..... - Les

Guy Billard said...

Les,

I have all those features that you mention in my camera althoug it is not a top of the line and I was not successfull in the past. However, I will try again.

Guy

Guy Billard said...

Les,

I have all those features that you mention in my camera although it is not a top of the line and I was not successfull in the past. However, I will try again.

Guy

Les F said...

Have faith my friend I know you will do it. Even pros take a lot of photos & then print the best one,so it's an experiment.They always look like pros cause they don't show you all the 'outakes' - lol - Les