http://www.fepl.ca/localhistory/files/original/cace79d1ec6c881a79ba33f7f1c350a1.pdf 0032c3e72d3a57df0524bca71ec0ca8a PDF Text Text This is Shelley Richer interviewing Mr. Howard Fretz in his home at 4990 Sherk Road on July 5, 1985. S.R: Hello Mr. Fretz and how are you? H.F: Just fine thank you. S.R: What is your date of birth? H.F: August the 19th, 1904. S.R: Where you born in Fort Erie? H.F: I was born near Ridgeway? S.R: Where about would that be? H.F: On the Bertie Road. S.R: Have you lived in the area all your life? H.F: Yes. S.R: Going back to your school days could you tell me what school you went to and where it was located? H.F: Number 14 school. It was on the GilmoflE. Road and still is on the Gilmoae. Road. There's a dwelling place there now. But I remember the old school before that, I visited with my grandmother one time when she went to visit the teacher but I never went to the school. The school was built I think in 19 1 1. S.R: How far away would it have been from your home to school? And how long would it have taken you to get to school in the mornirig? H.F: Around the roads it would be about a mile. Usually I went across the fields, about a half a mile, oh maybe a half an hour. In the winter time and when it was raining my father used to take us or the neighbour would take the children to school in the morning and bring us home at night. But usually we're ah, barefoot in the summer. S.R: You said a friend of your fathers took you to school, on horse back or buggy or ...? H.F: Buggy usually buggy. My father or a neighbour, they change off. A person would go one day and another the next. S.R: Could you describe your school , your teachers name or the number of students in the school? H.F: Yes, I suppose there would be fifteen to twenty and there were grades, well the premier to grade eight. We used to call them junior premier , senior, junior first and senior first, junior second and senior second. That's the way it went up to senior fourth. That was it. ( 1) �S.R: Do you remember your teachers name? H.F: Yes Miss Maitland and Miss Hooper and, oh we had several and Mr. Disher. S.R: Could you describe the school a little bit? H.F: Yes. It was heated with gas but sometimes the gas didn't work so we burnt wood in it. And there were .. we had a basement and sometimes we got water in the basement and it freezes so us kids, we would be down there skating. And sometimes at noon hour, we would take a long noon hour and cut off our recess and go across the fields to the woods and there was a nice pond there where we skated. And I had a pair of old wooden skates with a file for blades and they curved at the toes, and we strapped them on, and very good skates. And we, for hockey sticks we'd get a nice curved stick out of the woods and ah. .l never had a boughten hockey stick when I went to school but we played lots of hockey, and we had very good times. S.R: Any other good times you can remember from school? H.F: Oh yes, Arbour Day when we had to work to clean up the place and I enjoyed that, and sometimes we had to mow the lawn. We had a little hand mower and we'd hitch each other up and one would pull, two or three others would push. I think I would take the handles. And one day on the way home from school we saw a lot of smoke down the field, across the fields, and my grandfather was thrashing with a steam engine and the sparks lit the barn on fire and the barn burnt down. Another time, after the first war started, the first world war started, I heard a noise and we ran out and there was a plane, just a small plane going over, that was the first plane I ever saw. And those days, we'd ah, I remember one time there was a bunch of soldiers marched from Port Colborne to Fort Erie and marched near my folks place and we had ran out and watched them go past. Oh and a Christmas concert that was something else. We had drills and plays and songs and wonderful times and candy, the works. S.R: Are you a member of a church? H.F: Yeah, Bertie Brethren in Christ Church. We went to Brethren in Christ church at Church Road right above Stevensville, it's still there, for years. And then, we have eight children and about half (2) �of them with another young felow that attended the Falls Market started a sunday school and this thing expanded so they decided to build a church and so they said to some of us, they won't miss you at Bertie, come with us. We went down there and, three older couples went down with the young folks and helped in church and we still go to church there. My mother attended church at Bertie as long as she lived and she lived to be S.R: 93. Do you remember any special events that the church had to offer the family? H.F: Oh many, yeah, there was sunday school and the evening services in those days were large and the people in the surrounding neighbourhood drove the horses and the young fellas took the girls there. And the special revival meetings which were held and bible conferences. And we ate in the church, and there was a lot of singing but no musical instruments but very good singing which everyone enjoyed. And those revival meetings went on as long as sometimes six weeks. In the winter we went in the sleighs and it was sometimes muddy and the rain. . . we always drove horses. And there was sheds around, all around the church, and we would tie the horses in there. And the love feast, the special meetings spring and fall, we had a two day meeting and we had special times then. When we had baptisms in those days we did it out to Lake Erie, Point Abino and they did baptism. They do that same thing in the churches now. Sometime later after NCC started we went down there a few times. S.R: Were there any tricks on trying to keep warm going to church in the winter time like if there was a six week meeting? H.F: Well some said they'd take two or three rabbits and put them in a bag. But I remember taking stove lids and stones and making them hot and putting them by your feet. And sometimes we had to take a lantern and set it under the rug we had, a big rug we had. I wonder why it'd never catch fire, lantern. I don't know, with a coal oil But there was no lights on anything, and the horses, they went with no accidents at all. And in the wintertime there was always bells, and in those days when we were here for instance and we hear the sleighs going on Point Abino Road or the Burger Road we knew the sound of those bells. different sounding bell, and when knew which neighbour it was. I Every neighbour had a heard the Burger Road bell I And likewise they came from down (3) �Stevensville way, but I didn't recognize any of those bells, but the neighbours bells I knew. S.R: Do you remember any prominent members of the church or community and any special things they may have done? H.F: Well Asa Bearss, and Jonus Winger was bishop in those days, several ministers(it was a multiple ministry) and Alva's father Bishop Bert Sherk. Another preacher was Alvin Winger, Albert Riegel, Jess Winger, Warren Winger, William Charleton, EdwardNigh. Being they weren't paid anything most of them were farmers and one was a mailman but they weren't paid anything. Once in a while they would have a little offering but they worked and didn't expect pay. S.R: Was there anything special that you can think of that the church did to help out the community? Like during the depression you said they didn't get any offering ... H.F: Well yeah, sure, yeah they have a sunday school offering and those days the first of the month they'd say where will we send this offering and someone would say well, this person has had a bad accident or this person had.. .I remember one time someone lost a horse and somebody was in need and where there was a need... so this offering for the month went for that project. There was a box at the door to put your money in there for years. It was a long time before they passed out envelopes like we do now that you put in. And a special need was the missionary need. would come and that was a big day. The missionaries The return missionaries or somebody that was starting out for the mission field, they would take them offerings and they just passed the hat. S.R: Two fellows would pass the hat. Is there anything else that you would like to mention about your church? H.F: Yes I think so because we only have to thank the Lord, he's been so good to us and merciful...had all these years together. The different activities in the church and even on the farm how we've been taken care of and we thank him for that. We're known as the Plain People in those first early days, all the members dressed plain. Recently the Bertie Church had a hundred and ten year anniversary. been there a long while. They've In those days there was no wedding in churches at all, they were all in the homes and after NCC got started they started having weddings in the NCC building and now they (4) �and now they have most weddings in the churches. enjoyed singing together. Music, we really It was mostly all in unison in those days. Later on my wife tells me when she was very young, she was a good alto singer, she was singing parts and her mother nudged her to stop that and to sing in unison. But that's changed now and we enjoy music in parts and we have a church choir. We are members of the Coral Society for several years and we enjoy singing prayer... its's all scriptural to sing praises onto the Lord. . . we enjoy it. S.R: What is the Coral Society? H.F: Well it began back at NCC. There was John Ire started first I guess and then Sam Herr and Charles Lady. We sang in those .. we practiced for several weeks and then we sang our program, we sang together. When .. six years we sang, we were one of the oldest couples there. Now we enjoy this. . . like in the Stevensville hall recently they had another weeks meetings and the min.ister from the Falls had a weeks revival meetings. in this. Several, I think seven churches participated He had Kirk Martin preaching, powerful preaching, and many people sought the Lord in those meetings. It was a success. S.R: What are some of the changes that are taking place in the area? H.F: Well that's a big one. Going back to my early days on a farm, my father had a hundred acres and a team of horses, some cows and pigs and sheep and chickens and that's the way we lived in those days. We had to cut wood in the winter for the next year with a cross-cut saw. warm. We had a big air-tight heater which kept the house My mother used wood in her cook stove. and she heated her irons on the stove, and ironed her clothes. · We had a washing machine we ran by hand. We also churned butter in those days. Mother would call Mr'. Smith at Sherkston and give him orders by phone and then he came out once a week with the groceries and she would trade the butter and eggs for the groceries and get some cash. Later on we sold cream and milk. In those days there were no hay loaders and they coiled the hay up by hand and pitched it on by:nand and later we got a hay loader. We took the hay off with a hay fork and the horses pulled the rope to take the hay off. It went from there onto the tractors. When I was home we didn't have a tractor until a couple years after we were married and we got a tractor. In 29 like a plow and disk. we got the first tractor, and some implements I think the greatest, maybe one of the greatest things on a farm is the hydrolics that came in. (5) In those days with �our cows we naa [0 use a iever ana lt was very nresome. S.R: What are levers? H.F: Levers you work with your hand and cranks there was a screw that you put the implement in deeper or shallower. Now you simply push a button and it's got callipers or whatever implement that you are using. And now tractors got so large and implements got so large. .. of course in those days we had the horses to pull the binder and we stocked the grain then you pitched it on and thrashed it and now we have combines of course. In those days we thought it would spoil if you didn't leave it sit in the fields for at least a week to dry it out real well. But in those days sometimes the horses run away. I remember one time my team run away with the mower and kinda broke the mower up a little bit. And in those days sometimes when you hollared whow they would stop but now with the tractors you can talk to them but they keep on going. I found this our when I got in trouble one time and the tractor passed over my body and did a lot of damage and put me in the hospital for three months. I am so thankful that I was spared to see this day. years old but in 73 I am now eighty nobody thought I'd live for several days. So again I thank the Lord for all I have. S.R: Could you describe a typical days work? H.F: Then? S.R: The way it used to be on the farm. H.F: Well we went out and milked the cows, and fed the cows and fed the horses. The horses had to be fed. S.R: What time would that be that you would have gotten up to do this? H.F: It would be seven o'clock. Then we had to..those days we had to lead the horses out to the pump and water them 'lllp a,t the trough. We had another trough for the cattle in the barnyard. We had a big barnyard where we'd thrash and have the big straw stack. . . the cattle could be around there to eat off it. and chickens to feed. We had hogs too to feed And in the winter time especially before I would go to school we'd take water out to feed the chickens and water the chickens and give them some feed and hunt the eggs when we got home. Mother would take care of them in the winter during the day and see that they didn't get out of fresh water? Cutting the wood was an everlasting job. Saturdays we'd go out into the woods and cut with a cross-cut saw in short lengths for (6) �.::.c011e 1engrn.;. nnu 1acc:r 0n df"Cc:r .vc were marrieu i. useu co cue wood for wale and I sold wood stove lengths right here on the farm for two dollars and fifty cents a cord. Erie for three dollars a cord. And I would haul it to Fort And I also sold dressed pork at six cents and dressed beef at five cents and eggs got us. . . after 19:;:,q when things began to go bad in this country all I could get for eggs was thirteen cents a dozen, for a short time. I sold wheat for forty-five cents a bushel. And one time I think We didn't have any registered Holstein cows at that time, I bought my first pure-bred Holstein heifer at a sale for forty-two dollars and fifty cents. later she gave me a nice heifer calf. About a week That's kind of the way we got started in pure-breds and today our herds are all pure-breds. I enjoyed. . . through the years I had cattle buyers come from the states, mostly from Pennyslvania, and we went ai�� ound through the country and bought cattle. I hired a truck to take them down and sometimes when there were some calves to go I would take my pick-up truck and half a dozen calves across the river and take then to Pennsylvania. During the first world war prices of cattle got a little out of hand. . . that was from ( 1914 to 1918 and I suppose right now I should never forget the day the war ended. I was. . . I know right where we were standing in the field and it was such a nice warm day and the bells started to ring all over the place, and the whistles started to blow in Buffalo and you could hear it in Buffalo and Welland. The railway trains blew their whistles and the war had ended and everybody was so glad the war had ended. There was going to be no more war. . . that was the war to end all wars. How wrong we were. spared this long again. But we're thankful that we have been In those days during the war I mentioned some prices but nowadays when we sell our beef we get nothing for the hide but in those days the hide was worth quite a bit of money, maybe perhaps fifty dollars or more, and they were in demand for making shoes and so forth. And of course they used a lot of hides in making harnesses, harnesses for the teams and harnesses for the driving horses which were quite different. of hides over for a good dollar in those days. That took a lot At that time those that grew corn stocked it up in the fields and then later drew it in the barn and they had husking bees from neighbour to neighbour and husked the corn. And likewise those that grew marrow fat beans would have a bee and the neighbours come in and have a good time and separate (7) �time and separate the bad beans from the good. Later when more silos were built we cut the corn for the cows; cut it down and threw it on the ground and later picked it up and put it on the wagon and took it up to the silo. engine from a tractor. They ran a cutting box by a little gasoline Later on they had the corn binders and now they have the corn harvesters of different types and the corn doesn't touch the ground when it's cut. We also had sheep. We used the wool. . . we also sheared the sheep by hand and took it to the mill and the different processes and brought them home. grandmother had a spinning wheel and she could spin wool. My She also knit different kinds of clothing for us like mittens and stocking and hoods and so forth, so everything was utilized. My mother made also rugs from wool and woolen material of different kinds. We had one black sheep and mother made a rug. We still have that rug which is more than seventy years old I suppose, but it's still a natural black .. .a beautiful thing. S.R: What effects did the Depression have on the farm and the family? H.F: Well, great effects. You know that the people that lived through the depression still have the "invisible scar" that we'll always have when we think of what happened and could happen, which they say can't happen. But when we see the prices of today and see the conditions that the... we can't get away from that feeling that came over us in those days. It was kind of scary but yet we were never hungry and people helped each other and we're more closely knit than today. We were concerned, I think, about our neighbours but we could help, in any way, each other. .. and so that made strong ties in the neighbourhood. Now of course, every man has his own implements and we don't change work as much, and we're very thankful for it. But those days gave us great concern for one another and our dependance on the Lord through it all because we knew that his word never fails and if we simply trust it would become alright. behind with our taxes and different things. But we'd get We raised our eight children during the thirties and they. . . when I look at the toys the present generation has I think of the little presents we were able to give our children at Christmas time which were pretty insignificant but they were always appreciative of everything. Looking back on my own childhood at Christmas time we had a few gifts and we were always thankful for them. But present day there is no �end of what people of all ages expect from the economy. S.R: Were you a frequent visitor to Buffalo and how did you get there? H.F: Yeah, we were quite frequent. In the wintertime we crossed the ferry at Fort Erie. . .the ferry took us across. I remember one time my father had grown quite a few marrow fat beans and he went over; took samples over and got orders in Buffalo on the Chippawa Market and the A & P store. We took a team of horses in those days and drove across the river, and down town he'd deliver his beans. In the summer time there was two boats at Crystal Beach, the Americana and the Canadiana that made trips. Every hour you could leave the beach and come back on the hour. In those days there were live bands and there was dancing and different kinds of ammusements. And also there was a little launch that went from the beach up to the Point Abino. .. those that lived at Point Abino could go take a little launch. Before the cars were very plentiful.. there was a lot of Americans that lived along the shore and they'd either come that way or they could come from the train. There was a station at Point Abino and it went in on the road. . .and there were buses. The buses in those days were big wagons with seats along the side and drawn by horses and people made a business of this. And also our school inspector.. .that was about three miles from our school. . . our school inspector would get off the train and walk out to fourteen and walk in the school. Usually he'd take the premier class and maybe the grade eight during their periods and ask questions and look at so�e of the records and so forth. He did this at number thirteen as well. I think he walked at number thirteen. ..walked form our school down to number thirteen which was quite a walk. S.R: Do you know what his name was? H.F: That was Mr. Marshall. S.R: Have you ever visited Crystal Beach? H.F: Yes when we went over on the boat of course and I remember they He was my old. .. had amusements there, like a merry-go-round and the little railway was there which is still there I believe. went into Bay Beach. And then further west was. . . it l worked for a man for three years and in the spring and fall we'd do painting and carpentry work and in the winter . .. He had two ice houses and we took a horse, one horse on what they called an ice plow which plowed the square ice chunks (9) �about two feet square and about eight inches or a foot thick. local farmers aroung come in with their teams. The A gang of men would be on the lake cutting the ice chunks and filling them up in the sleigh and another gang would be at the ice house, and they unloaked the ice and took it in the ice house and packed it tightly together. Around the side about eight inches to a foot of sawdust was packed carefully and then it would save until the summer when we took the old horse and delivered the ice to the customers. I knew the name of every American from Point Abino Road to the entrance to Crystal Beach in those days. There was one place that my boss said, now yourdon't need to take ice in there because they have an electric ice box that you could hear running back to the Erie Road. It was a big refrigerator, a big motor on it and it was called an electric ice box. That's the first time I knew there was such a thing as a refrigerator. S.R: Do you remember what the person's na me was that had the electric ice box? H.F: S.R: ( I believe it was Benne!Rs. Who was the person that.. . who was your boss? H.F: Joe Adams. He was the son of the old Captain Adams. from England. He came He was captain on a ship for years and he came over and settled at the beach. He had two sons and one son. . . I mentioned about the little launch that went from the boat up to the Point Abino .. . it was Charlie Adams, and he had this launch that's called the Marion L. It was a nice little thing. waves were hig � It bobbed· along when the and took people from the boat up to the Point and vice versa; in the morning they'd come back. And when the beach kind of went flat then they sold the big boats. Marion L. to a rum runner. He also sold She finished her days in that business which was quite a profitable thing in those days. They'd get export papers from booze, for the booze, to someplace like Cuba and they started out across the lake or across the river and they would be back the next morning for another load. This thing went on and there was violence sometimes and sooting. I rmeember that fishing on the river I'd hear shooting and when one of the Coast Guards on theAmerican side would contact a boat on the river they'd bear violence. And also one time right out at the Point, the Coast Guards came too close to the shore, which was illegal, they were in Canadian (lr\\ �waters, and there was quite a scrap between the rum runners and the American Coast Guard. S.R: This was during the days of prohibition? H.F: Yes. Yeah, on the American side but the breweries were running full force here. went on. But we had prohibition here of course too but that It was illegal. That was kind of a blot on both Canada and the United States. S.R: Do you remember the Bertie Fair at the Old Fort Erie Race Track? H.F: Yes I do. there. I was about twenty years old I suppose when I went down It was kind of an agricultural show they had .•• all kinds and vegetables on display and a racetrack. poultry of The local fellows around here would enter their horses and they had races. But one thing that was highlighted for me...they, Six Nations Indians came down from Oshwegan and Brantford and native people came over from Buffalo and they had a lacrosse game. game. Was that ever a lively The Indians really put themselves right to it and it was a real thrilling thing to watch...they were very fast. I also saw the Indians play ball up at Moose factory and I think that they could beat the Blue Jays the way the kids played ..• S.R: girls and everything. Do you remember what the fair looked like...the buildings or anything like that that were around? H.F: Well. it's a grandstand of course but just nothing like it is today. ••• I haven't been in it for years but I know that it's much larger and there's much more activity around there. S.R: Would you remember the approximate years it took place? H.F: Well, I remember, I suppose around 1919 or 20, around there. S.R: So it was only open for a couple years? H.F: Oh no. S.R: How old were you when you got your first car? H.F: Well, I believe it was 1929 that we got the first car, Elva and I, They ••• it was open but I never went very often. and we had a couple of children. It was a used Ford touring car which we bought dollars. off of Harve Fretz for I believe five hundred And we were so thrilled about it that we went up to my parents home that night, and Mirium said that we've got a car that we can all sit down at once. else. She thought that that was something We had had a little Ford coupe of Elva's fathers that we used before that and she had to stand up on the seat and Elva held the S.R: Do you remember the prices of gas? (11) .•• Catherine. �H.F: No, I don't really. I suppose about twenty-five cents a gallon. .! . may be wrong on that. The speed limit wasn't very high either. Forty miles an hour in those days and you were speeding. I think the speed limit was posted on a big, long, big sign on the Garrison Road, #3, and I believe it was about twenty miles and hour. You were in danger if you ran those cars much faster than that. S.R: Did you need to have a licence then? H.F: No. I, yeah... when I worked out at the lake my boss had bought a truck and he couldn't drive it so I got a chauffeur's licence, and I renewed that for years and years. I don't know when they had a car licence, I'm not sure. S.R: Do you know when approximately? H.F: Elva's father got his first car in 1914 and he had to have a licence for the car of course but they didn't require a drivers licence at that time. I don't really know when they were required to get a driver's licence...like I say, I had my chauffeur's licence which I kept up. S.R: Were there mechanics or was it up to you to fix your car when it broke down? H.F: Well, we did a lot of fixing ourselves but there was a mechanic in Stevensville and one in Ridgeway. And also in those days when we took our horses to get shod we'd take them down to Stevensville, Ben Anger Senior and Junior had a blacksmith's shop there. In Ridgeway there was another one... Sam Anger had a blacksmith's shop. They could also repair machinery parts, like Mr. Ott on Ott road. He came over from Germany. He He was a terrific welder in fire. didn't have electric weld in those days but he could weld steel in a fire, and shoe horses also. S.R: He was a blacksmith. When you were a young man of twenty years old and you were going on a trip into Stevensville could you describe what it was like to take a little trip down the main road in Stevensville? H.F: Yes. We usually went over the tracks west of town and started down Main Street. It was all mud of course. First...L suppose the first main building we saw was Houses Mill, and across the road there was a church which later became the office for Houses Mill, and later burned down last year, though..and then there was the United Brethren Church on the north side of the street going east, and the cider mill which was quite a big business...those autumn (12) �when everybody took their apples down to get, to make cider vinegar and apple cider •• and Mr. W\ale, Charlie Wtale ran that and it ran for a number of years. natural gas. He had a gasoline engine there, it ran on You could hear it in the evenings. of the machine. We. miss the sound When it quit it didn't seem natural in the fall not to hear that old mill running. Going north of course there was a blacksmith's ship, and Mr. Robinson's store on the corner where the bank is, and also there is ••• of course there was the hotel on the corner, but right west of the hotel there was a little building, they called it the commercial travellers. Those days when they came to take orders to the store, for instance dry goods or anything, he came on a train. He had his big suitcases or even trunks and they'd come over and display their wares in the store. The store keepers would go over there and make their orders and they delivered not by truck but by rail in those days. that boomed in those days. The railways were the things There was a couple fires, I believe the United Brethren church burnt down and they made it on the .•• made another one where it is at present on the east side of the street going south. S.R: About what year would it have burned down? H.F: I suppose in the mid teens. S.R: Could you describe Ridgeway the same way? H.F: Well, there were two hotels and several store and a couple barber shops. A Mr. Allan ••• ! got my hair cut there, and my dad cut my hair quite often, but we could a quarter in those days ••• ••• a man could get his hair cut for he cut all the years he lived. grandson cut hair for a quarter for a few years. shop, a drugstore •.• In fact his There was a bake it was a little larger than Stevensville .•• there - was a United Church and also a Methodist Church, Anglican Church and Methodist. There was a couple of mills in town, quite a large mill, Mr. Disher's mill. You'd take grain there to get ground and he also made flour there. And the Young Lumber, he had two stores where you could go there and get mill work done. And on around a little further, on the edge of Crystal Beach was a big mill, a Mr. Haun ran that. at ••• We always heard the Haun town whistle right he had perfect timing. noon. You would hear that whistle blow at The present owner, his great granddaughter I believe, has that clock in the mill, or in her office, that used to activate the (13) �whistle in those days. Of course the stations all were supposed to have the right time but we didn't know the right time of day many times. You could call up Central and ask for the right time in those days and she'd tell ya. S.R: What's Central? H.F: Well, you'd call Stevensville .and you'd get Central. There was an old dutchman in the. .. told about this old dutchman. up and it rang at Central. is that? 11 He called He said, "Is dis der middle? 11 "Is dis der middle? " "No this is central." "What He said, "Isn't this the middle of centre you fool? " S.R: Are Young lumber and Disher feedmill still operating? H.F: Young lunber is operating but not on a large scale. He don't do mill work but he has supplies like lumber and cement and all that, something like Sherk's Hardware. there for years. It was another establishment But Disher's feedmill isn't operating anymore. S.R: Do you know why? H.F: Well, the old fellow died and the young fellow died later and they just a. . .they had made a. . . in the days before there were farm freezers around, they had these set-ups where, they had buildings where you could rent a locker and you'd put your meat in there, or whatever, and you could go there and get it out for a small fee. That was quite a booming thing for a few years but of course when you got our home freezers that kinda went out of business as well. S.R: Do you remember Ridge dairy and what year it might have started? H.F: Ridge dairy, I don't know what year it started. man that started Ridge dairy. I remember the Mr. . . anyway he started very small, very small, and he bought a little milk through the country and the farmers hauled it in there. Then later, Archie Malloy bought him out and expanded and went to the Beach, in the entrance to Crystal Beach, and put a larger dairy. he sold out to Avondale. He got quite large until Things change very quickly in those days. But I remember the dairies around, before there was pasturization. Like Cecil Climenhage down below Stevensville, he had a horse and he delivered milk around through Stevensville. And the Millers, Fred Miller, he delivered unpasturized milk for years in Fort Erie and Ridgeway. I don't really know the year that compulsary pasturization came in. S.R: Do you remember the ship yards? ( 1 A\ �H.F: Yes, very well. did. I never worked there but many of the neighbours The older fellows would go their horses down there. got quite large. It was, They had some big, quite large, hotels and bunk houses and slips that they made the ships but I don't know ... I know there was one big ship launched but someone said there was two or three others made. But it didn't last very long, and now they've got. . . they have that marina which has expanded. But they had a lot of large buildings in those days. The equipment to make a ship took some cranes and whatever. It was quite a going concern. A lot of people worked there. S.R: Do you remember any of your jobs that you had? Starting from your first job. H.F: Well the first one .. .l guess the first money I earned.. . those days when you stoned the roads we went to the quarry out near Ridgeway on number three and my father told me I could take our tea m and go out and load up and bring it on these roads. money I earned. That's the first In those days, there wasn't too much stone around. I remember when number three, the Garrison Road we called it in those days, was stoned and also, like Stevensville, and the road ( to. . . Sodom Road to the Falls. In those days it was. . . to go around there when it was muddy, some problem when your horses walked all the way. S.R: Would you remember any of your wages earned? H.F: Well, yes. When I worked to the lake I got two and a quarter a day to start, and some carpenters I knew, worked around the lake, they got four dollars and a half and four dollars and seventy-five cents a day. I think that was pretty big wages. Another activity in those days was building moving, like... we'd move barns and houses in the winter time. The neighbours would gang together if there was a building to move, and they'd put two big timbers under this building and hitch about. . . oh it depended on the size of the building ... why sometimes half a dozen teams. In the winter time that would slide along, a building, for many miles in those days. And also in those days when they were drilling gas wells, there was another job for the teams around the country. teams to move this gas well. It took maybe three or four or five They moved from place to place and they they set up and when they finished out, they'd move it again. But the barn raisings in the same era, when there was a barn to build .. . the main carpenter would go and with his helper / 1 ,... \ �and he'd tell the size of the logs he wanted sawn. to hew some logs in those days. Also he used If there was a straight log, they'd put it up on some timbers and score it with an axe. I mean, just go around the... stand on the log and chip it on the side, stretch a line . And then those chips. . . they'd take a broad axe and they'd do a good job. It would just be as nice and straight as if it was sawn in the saw mill. Then he'd lay it out and that... they had to have the braces and the joists and the girts and the posts, plate, rafters, and they mortised and they made tenons that mortised. · They had a two inch bit which would bore a two inch hole about four inches, three or four holes and then they would chissel out... and they had the hole about four inches long and about two inches wide. Then they'd make a camber to fit in there and it was all put together with wooden pegs. there was a gang or men. When the time of the raising came The main carpenter would be at work at the building site and the helper would be where all this timber was laid out...he'd tell him to take this piece and go to your right and lay it down so and so, and then he'd send the next piece up and when they got it all up they would usually make a bense. I ( mean they would do a, put the plate, or the girts and the posts together and they raised it and so on until they had the whole frame up. Then they would put the plate on and the rafters and they would raise the barn in a day. Of course the ladies had the. .. out in the yard they had big tables and they fed the men that had milled. It was quite a day for everybody. They enjoyed it. S.R: Is there anything extra you would like to mention in closing? H.F: Yes. I recall that ah.. . looking back over my life that I had seen Hailley's Comet in the year 19 10. It appeared as a, like a. .. quite a large shooting star, larger than any shooting star ever saw, and it had quite a tail on it. and several days. It was across the sky for quite a while. . . And a friend o f mine told m e at that time, when that appeared. . . some people didn't know what it was and they fell on their faces and prayed. They were very fearful of this thing that they thought would wipe out the world. But, they told us then that there would be some people that would see this thing twice. . .they'd be alive when they see it again. '86 it will appear again. So as scheduled, next February I think this was a wonderful thing when you think of it, how the Lord has created all these things, and that man is able to predict those things. . . how they could tell in 19 10 �that it would appear at ...again in 1986. and the greatness of God. j I think that shows the ma esty We're pretty insignificant and •.. although it's wonderful that we've permitted some scientists to predict those things for today. I think that anybody that's tempted to think about being no God, all they have to do is look up in the sky and look around and see the beauty of the earth and how it functions right true to form. Every minute of God's time is right on the dot in no variation and that man can predict those things. The Lord has permitted something to be understood and many things that are not understood. If we could understand everything we would be pretty bad off. But we're thankful for God's greatness and all we have to do is trust him and if we have our , his peace in our hearts we're happy regardless of all else. S.R: Thank you very much for the interview Mr. Fretz. H.F: You're welcome. I've enjoyed it and I thank you. (1 7\ � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Crystal Beach Subject The topic of the resource Crystal Beach, Ontario Description An account of the resource Select historical photos and documents digitized from the Fort Erie local history and Louis McDermott collections Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived FEPL -LH - Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Fort Erie Public Library and Louis McDermott Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Shelley Richer Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Howard Fretz Original Format If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Cassette tape Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral History - Fretz, Howard Description An account of the resource Provided here is Howard Fretz's interview. He discusses such topics as: Ridgeway Schools Transportation Churches Life on the farm The Depression Crystal Beach amusement park Buffalo Ridgeway Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Fort Erie Public Library Local History Collection Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource July 5, 1985 1980s 1985 Buffalo churches Crystal Beach amusement park Fort Erie Great Depression Oral history ridgeway schools transcripts transportation