by Petra Wall
Eric and Betty Russell
Eric and Betty live in the heart of Tehkummah, right next to the community centre, on the same property where Eric grew up. He and Betty are long-term Islanders, several generations back. Their property has been a gathering place for family and for the friends of their children, Tammy and Derek. A charity horse-pull and plowing match for the Michael’s Bay Historical Society was held there as well. Eric has spent much of his career farming, working for Domtar as a machinist, doing home renovations as well as creating and repairing custom golf clubs. Betty has helped Eric with all their projects and cared for young children over the years. She also worked at the Espanola Mall. The couple has endured some serious accidents from which they have emerged relatively unscathed and stronger. The writer was happily received, with notes, photos, delicious banana bread and a hot cup of tea.
Eric begins, “The farm was first settled by my Irish great grandfather, Joseph James Russell in 1873. Joseph served on the first Tehkummah council when the township was initially organized in 1881. All Russell men were on council. Joseph James died with a heart attack, on January 18, 1886 while walking from his farm to a council meeting at Michael’s Bay.” Eric recently completed 12 years himself, several terms as councillor and one as reeve.
“My Russell great-grandparents arrived here from Orangeville, looking for new land. They started with 100 acres and this built up to 700 acres. My dad Rozzie was the sixth of 10 children of Joseph’s son Robert and his wife Cassie (Pyette) Russell. Robert donated land for the Tehkummah hall next door. In 1988, Betty and I also donated half an acre, at the back of the property, for an expansion of the hall. My maternal grandparents are Andrew and Jennie (Ballentine) Turnbull. They farmed on the Manitou River and Andrew worked on the roads for the Township. He was also on council.”
On February 19, 1947, Eric was born to Rozzie and Nellie (Turnbull) Russell in the Mindemoya Hospital with the help of Dr. McQuay. Eric lived in a log home with his parents and four older siblings. “Dad farmed, raising beef cattle, and worked on the roads for the Township.” Eric’s older siblings include Marilyn who moved to California and still lives there with her daughter and grandson, Garth who worked on the big lakers, Glenora, who was a secretary for a church in Bracebridge and Dianna, who did secretarial work in Ottawa. Only Dianna and Marilyn are still alive.
“I remember the X-Lax adventure at age six,” Eric smiles. “I found all this chocolate beside my grandmother’s bed and decided to eat it all. I found out the hard way that was a bad idea. They took me to the hospital to have my stomach pumped. Nevertheless, I still love chocolate. I was 10 when I broke my leg playing softball after running into another player.” He also recalls living beside the hall had some concerns: lots of broken glass in the flower beds after the dances. “However, the bottles helped buy my first bike. Fishing in Blue Jay Creek with dad was fun. One afternoon we caught 15 trout.” This created an indelible memory.
Eric started his academic years at the Tehkummah Public School. “I was five. I liked math, but not English, French and spelling. I had to walk to school, until Grade 8, when the first buses arrived. When I was 13, our new house here replaced the log home on our property,” Eric continues. “In high school I played baseball and hockey. About that time, dad and my brother both underwent surgery and had to recuperate. I took over their jobs on the farm, but they needed a fourth player for cards. I could hardly comply. I was too busy with their chores, my chores and homework.”
“Each summer, on weekdays, I bunked and worked at the Mindemoya golf course for Jack Seabrook. The Seabrooks always treated me like family. I cut grass and helped take care of the grounds. I also took turns with Maureen Smith at the clubhouse, making and selling sandwiches and pop at the snack bar after supper. Sometimes, at night, I could play a round of golf, with my best pal Lloyd. In 1964, I got a permanent, Monday to Friday job at the golf course. Weekends were reserved for work on the farm.”
“I met Betty in August 1967 at a Providence Bay dance. Dad had lent me the car. I spotted her among the other girls sitting at the side and I asked this pretty girl to dance. Betty and I hit it off and we started to see each other, mostly at dances or on picnics to places like Michael’s Bay.” Betty begins to share her early years. “My paternal grandparents are William and Alice (Stevens) Granger. William was a beef farmer as well, just outside of Gore Bay, near where their golf course is today. Alice, originally from Rockville, helped on the farm. Betty’s maternal grandparents are Norman and Katie (McAllister) Lewis.
Betty was born on April 14, 1949, to George and Doreen (Lewis) Granger in a birthing house in Gore Bay with the assistance of Dr. Strain. She weighed a healthy 11 lbs. “Mother told me that it was so cold in the house, that when my brother Ted had been born there the pot under the bed had frozen. Mother was glad to get back home both times.” Betty’s older brother Ted worked in the Espanola mill and retired to the Sault with his wife Irene, a teacher. Betty had two younger sisters, Janis, who spent her last working years at Wendy’s in McKerrow and Cathy who worked at John’s Flower Shop outside of Espanola on Highway 17.
“Our family raised chickens and sold eggs to the Central Store, and to Steve Fletcher’s store in Gore Bay and to tourist resorts like Long Bay Lodge in Perivale and the Twilight Isle, owned by Americans Bill and Grace Liptak. Doreen also worked on the switchboard for the local telephone company in Gore Bay. She was a member of the Women’s Institute and a great baker. When you visited, you had to eat at least one piece of each item she had prepared.”
“I remember getting our television, in 1959, the first in the area. All the neighbours would gather at our house to watch it. I used to hurry to eat supper, so I would get a good seat in the living room. For a short while, that strange antenna on the roof was a bragging right for me. Another more poignant memory was the birth of my little sister Cathy when I was 13. I remember the call to grandmother from dad at the hospital in Little Current saying I had a new little sister. That was a big special change in our family, and I loved having a little sister.”
Betty was five when she started at the one-room school situated by the present-day golf course corner. She was one of three girls in a class of boys, and the other two girls were older. Betty felt out of place in this one-room schoolhouse. She asked to use the washroom and decided to run back home to safety, about 400 yards away. Mother let her stay home, knowing it would be easier for her to stay there, next year. Betty did attend the following year. “We had a nice teacher, Mrs. Slomke, who would reward us with really big suckers when we did well.”
For Grades 5 to 8, Betty was bused into Gore Bay to the school where the nursing home is now. Her favourite subject was math. “I disliked history and geography. During the summers at high school in Gore Bay, I worked at Twilight Isle in Evansville. I was in Grade 12 when I met Eric at a dance.” For a short while, in 1967, Eric worked in Toronto doing house renovations with his brother-in-law. He got tired of subways and street cars and returned home the following February.
The couple were wed on August 10, 1968, at the Gore Bay United Church. “It was a beautiful day, but a bit windy. We had a small gathering and shared supper with our guests at the Queen’s Hotel.” This was followed by a reception at the Granger home where more treats were offered and wedding gifts were opened.
The next day, it was off to Montreal for the honeymoon to see ‘Man and his World’ the Expo of 1967 held in that city. They also planned to see a baseball game there. “We had an interesting time exploring the site of the exposition and seeing the attractions. When we got home, we were temporarily homeless so we spent a few weeks in each of our parents’ homes before we found a rental house in Espanola, five minutes from the local golf course.”
In 1968 Eric began to work at Brown’s Forestry Enterprises, (later E. B. Eddy) and finally Domtar. He was doing shift work in ‘production’ for the first few years before he was transferred to the mechanical department as an apprentice machinist. For two months over each of three years, he successfully completed his machinist certificate at George Brown College. Eric stayed with Domtar for 37 years. Betty worked in retail at the Espanola Mall at the Met and then at the Saan store for 10 years. She also took in one or two kids at a time for babysitting.
“We had our daughter Tammy in 1969 and our son Derek in 1973. On June third of that year, I was involved in a head-on collision and Derek, three months old, suffered a fractured skull. He recovered well and walked at nine months. Oddly enough, Tammy and I were in another car accident on June 3, 1978, on Panache Lake Road, when a car turned in front of us. Again, no serious injuries resulted. On September 13, 1982, I was caught in a bus accident and Bill Sloan saved our lives.”
“The Women’s Institute of Manitoulin and Espanola had chartered a tour bus for 28 of us. We were heading down Hamilton’s steep Dundas Hill with 80 feet of open escarpment on the right when the brakes failed. Bill drove to the left side of the road taking signs and streetlights down. Oncoming traffic swerved to avoid us. We finally stopped on the railway tracks beside the train station. We were quickly warned a train’s arrival was imminent, so Bill had to maneuver the bus off the tracks with just moments to spare. We owe Bill much gratitude for his quick-thinking actions to save us all. I was happy to see that he was later awarded ‘Senior of the Year’ in Gore Bay.”
“While we were in Espanola for 37 years, we renovated a three-story brick century home, purchased in 1974. The restored natural woodwork, including the stairs, made the house shine. The new cupboards boasted black cherry wood from our Tehkummah farm. Eric also built a skating rink in the back yard which encouraged many youthful visitors to the rink and to our new family room. I was glad our kids and their friends were so happy.”
Eric and Betty enjoyed curling in Espanola. Eric took care of the ice, cleaned it, flooded it, and shaved it on Sundays and before events. Betty and her dad would help. Eric took two ice technician courses in 1970 for that role and he also took a night course to get his Real Estate license in 1982, at Cambrian in Sudbury. This qualified him for possible retirement work, selling real estate on the Island and in Espanola. Eric also joined the Masons and the Elks in Espanola. During these years, the couple would often visit Eric’s parents on Manitoulin.”
Daughter Tammy finished 23 years of employment in Ottawa, and now works online from home, right across the street. Her fiancée Jeff works with the LCBO in Mindemoya. They have a rescue dog named Piper from the Dominican Republic. “Piper is also Eric’s sidekick and I see both watching television with Piper on his knee. Son Derek and his partner Cathleen work and live in Toronto. They spend time here on the island every chance they get. Derek helps with repairs on the farm and Cathleen cooks tasty Chinese food for us all.”
Betty and Eric made the Manitoulin abode their cottage until 2005, when both retired, and made it their home. Eric added two rooms in 2000, helped by Derek and a friend, Bob Beard. Eric also took a golf club-making course in Ottawa and started the successful Island Clubs to create and repair golf clubs. Until 2022, for six hours two days a week, Eric also returned to the Mindemoya Golf Course to help manage the grounds.
“I used to get up early to get ahead of the golfers so I could cut the grass in peace with no danger of being hit by a ball. I could set my watch by the appearances of the repeat golfers,” Eric adds, smiling. Betty resumed her care-taking role with one or two neighborhood children. “The parents always made me feel like family.” She also volunteered for the Library Board, the United Church Women and the Women’s Institute.
There was one incredibly challenging day for Eric, in his garage, formerly a service station. In the summer of 2016, a neighbour’s cat, Ivy, saved his life. Eric was on the ladder fixing his 13-foot garage door. The powerful spring broke loose and caught the material of his latex jacket, progressively twisting and tightened it on his arm, dislocating his shoulder and reducing the circulation to that arm. Eric called for help, but nobody could hear him, save for Ivy the cat, who lived across the street. Ivy began to jump repeatedly from the couch to the window of her home. Finally, after many such jumps back and forth, Mary, her master, was curious, and stepped outside.
Mary followed the moaning sound to her neighbouring garage. She ran in to see Eric trapped and immediately got Betty who called 911. Before the ambulance came, Bob Beard and Don McMurray carefully got Eric down. Eric was later told a few minutes more and he might have lost his arm. After Eric came back from the hospital, Ivy was heartily thanked, and her owner was given a gift card to a local pet shop. A cat tree was purchased. This newspaper nominated Ivy for a Purina Hall of Fame award and a column in ‘Women’s World’ was also dedicated to the event. Physio, acupuncture, and a new shoulder four years ago put Eric into a much better position. Eric has continued the gift giving to Ivy each year.
“Any travelling?” A special trip for Eric and me was to Scotland in 2010. We just loved the old buildings, the castles and the ambience of our ancestral home, the British Isles. We also travelled to Calgary for a curling match representing Ontario for the Elks in 1991.”
“Responsibilities as a child?” Cleaning, bringing in the wood, dishes for me and barn chores for Eric who also could bake bread and darn socks.
Favourite season? Summer, the sun, and the heat (Betty) and Spring for Eric, the season for “maple syrup, hockey and cross-country skiing.”
Collections? Clown figurines for Betty and hockey and baseball cards for Eric.
Special family holidays? Birthdays and Christmas family visits. “We decorate our tree with the traditional red and green decorations.”
Favourite television show? “The Young and the Restless and W5, sports and history shows.” Favourite sports? Hockey and golf for Eric and line-dancing for Betty. “I met a lady who became a good friend line-dancing. The two of us started the gift shop in our garage in 1999. It ran for five years, selling Eric’s woodworking projects and various knitted and sewn items, like place mats. We met people from all over the world.”
What are your strengths? “Looking after small children and older folk and hosting Wednesday morning social meetings for the library board in the municipal building. For Eric, now it’s building and repairing golf clubs and wood crafts.”
Something you still want to do? “See Ireland and Newfoundland.”
Any charity projects? “Old-fashioned plowing matches and horse pulls, held right here for the Michael’s Bay Historical Society. We had 17 teams of horses, from on and off the Island, between 2007 to 2012.”
What are you most afraid of? “Caterpillars and anything that crawls,” Betty says.
Anything you wanted to do as a child, when you would become an adult, that you didn’t do? Become a pilot (Eric) and work at the Idylwylde Golf Course. The offer was made but I wanted to stay at home then.”
Anyone who inspired you? “My parents taught me about positive thinking (Betty)” and for Eric, “dad taught me about ethics and honesty.”
Hope for the future? “That we stay healthy.” Recipe for happiness? “Give and take, compromise. We work well together, especially for renovations to the house. Eric builds and I help by covering all the trim when he paints, and with cleaning.”
“Manitoulin represents a strong connection with our ancestors. We have our own roots here too. Tammy and I spend time together for many events now, including shopping and visiting friends. Eric and I were in Espanola for many years, but we always came back home to our Island farm here, on weekends. When we compare living on Manitoulin to living in a city, the positives of living here far-outweigh any benefits of living in a big city. Here, the ambience, the beaches, and the culture are inspiring. Our farm is now 150 years old, and we will be erecting a plaque to commemorate that milestone. We can’t really see living anyplace else.”
