First Person. Valerie Knowles
and Company and then proceeded to work side by side with his employees in all departments of the mill’s operations, from the cutting and hauling of logs to the driving of the steam engines and the shipping of the lumber. A man of great zeal and energy, who routinely worked fourteen to sixteen hours a day, Edwards built the business into a flourishing enterprise that spawned a second mill in Rockland and then expanded to Ottawa. Here, the lumber magnate acquired several industrial properties on both sides of the Rideau Falls, which he proceeded to convert into an impressive wood manufacturing complex consisting of a planing mill, a sash and door factory, and a mill for shaping hardwood lumber. When these buildings were destroyed by a spectacular fire in 1907, the Senator took the insurance money, added to it, and built one of the most modern fireproof sawmills in Canada.
The W. C. Edwards and Company, therefore, was one of the largest and most prosperous lumbering manufacturing firms in the country when Norman Wilson stepped down from Parliament in 1908 and became manager of the large mill on Edwards Street and the smaller one on Woods Street. The town that became his second home and to which he brought his bride in 1909 owed its existence and prosperity largely to these sawmills. From six in the morning to six at night, six days a week, they screeched away, relentlessly cutting Ottawa Valley lumber into lengths that were sorted and then pulled by horse-drawn trolleys on rails to vast lumberyards for storage. Most of this lumber, along with such secondary products as boards, slats and shingles, was shipped across Canada and out of the country. Some, however, was sold at nominal cost to company employees to encourage them to build their own homes. Still more wood was used in the construction of company houses that were rented for three to four dollars a month to employees. Rockland was nothing if not the quintessential company town. W. C. Edwards even served as the town’s mayor from the time of its incorporation in 1908 until the next year when he and his wife Catherine moved to Ottawa and into the large, picturesque stone house, which in 1949 would be designated the official residence of the prime minister of Canada.
The large red-brick residence with the impressive facade and circular driveway that became Cairine Wilson’s new home and that was occupied rent-free by the family belonged to Senator Edwards. Three storeys high, with a verandah that opened off the second floor and a palpable air of prosperity, it stood beside a clump of pine trees on a hill that overlooked the sprawling white mills and huge piles of drying white and red pine and spruce that stretched as far as the eye could see. Nearby on the grassy slope were the homes of other members of the Edwards’ entourage and their families — the Binks, the Murrays and the Reeces.
In keeping with the estate of a lumber king, there were stables, where Cairine could keep her pair of Roan ponies, a garage for the family’s Franklin car, and large vegetable and flower gardens. But, apart from these features and a contingent of servants, there was little to remind her of the life-style that she had left behind her in Montreal, except perhaps the visits of family members and Montreal friends. Among the first arrivals was sister Anna who visited her sister and brother-in-law in August 1909. Then that autumn Cairine’s parents came to pay their respects and find out how their daughter was faring. Brother Edward arrived in May 1910 as did a close childhood friend of Cairine’s, Mildred Forbes. Mildred would pay several visits to the Wilsons when they lived in Rockland, and when she served overseas as a nurse during the First World War Cairine would arrange for numerous food parcels to be dispatched to her.11
Family members and old Montreal friends were not the only visitors to find their way to Rockland from larger, more sophisticated urban centres. During their years in this out-of -the-way town the Wilsons also drew visitors from New York, Liverpool, Washington, D.C., Tokyo, The Hague, Glasgow, London, San Francisco, Kansas City, Chicago and Montevideo.12
No sooner had she settled into her new home than Cairine found herself pregnant. On 16 January of the following year, the first of the Wilsons’ five daughters, Olive Mackay, was born at Kildonan where Cairine had returned for the birth, for in those days a baby invariably entered the world in the family home rather than in a sterilized hospital maternity ward. Less than a year later, on 13 November, Janet Mary was born at the Rockland home13 Then, the following September, an event occurred which was to sadden Mrs Wilson and alter the tenor of life at Rockland. Her gentle mother died at St Andrews, New Brunswick following an “attack of paralysis.” The end came suddenly during an xillness that occurred when Cairine was at Clibrig. News of the death was emblazoned across the front page of the 21 September issue of the Montreal Star, which noted that the late Mrs Mackay had always been interested in “private benefactions” and had been associated with several charitable institutions, including the Mackay Institute for the Protestant Deaf-Mutes and the Women’s National Emigration Society. At the age of sixty-two, Jane Mackay’s not too robust constitution had finally caught up with her. At her death, though, she was still a handsome woman with the golden hair of her youth.
Cairine Wilson with Rebecca and Rowena c 1909-1910.
After her mother’s death, life became more complicated and taxing for the young Mrs Wilson because now that her father was a widower she felt obliged to make frequent trips to Montreal to supervise Kildonan. In fact, her strong sense of duty goaded her into spending the next four winters at the old family home, overseeing the servants and attending to the needs of her aging father and her taciturn brother, Edward. Her daughter, Janet Burns, who was only a toddler when her grandmother died, recalls with affection the sleigh ride across the Ottawa River to catch the train for Montreal, a journey that was not without its diversions because one horse loved to lie down in the snow! For her mother, though, the memories would have been less rosy because she was attempting to juggle two very different lifestyles, run three large households (at Rockland, Montreal and St Andrews, New Brunswick), and raise a growing family, often with inexperienced help. Life at Rockland was further complicated by Senator Edwards’ predilection for looming up, unannounced, for lunch with his business associates. When the small, dapper figure in the dark suit appeared on the front steps about mid-day he was not always a cause for rejoicing, especially after a particularly hectic morning. Fortunately Cairine Wilson was genuinely fond of the endearing senator. “Uncle Willie,” as he was called, also had a warm affection for his young sister-in-law whose energy and vitality made a deep impression on him. Later he would be one of the small coterie of male admirers who encouraged her to become involved with politics.
However, if life was difficult in these years, it was not without its bright spots. One was the birth of an eagerly awaited son, Ralph, on 15 March 1915 at Kildonan. From England, where the Lorings then lived, sister Anna wrote in her large, bold hand:
I was simply delighted at the news contained in the cable which came today, and I hasten to offer you our heartiest congratulations on the arrival of a son. I have not dared mention Norman jr all these months in case it might have a bad effect, but now I rejoice with you in the glad tidings. May your boy grow up to be a great comfort and blessing to you. I do hope everything went well and that you did not have too hard a time. How thankful I am that it is over! I have been thinking of you so much lately, especially after receiving yr. letter of the 2nd for things seemed to be made so difficult for you.14
As married women, Cairine Wilson and Anna Loring became very close, so it was a matter of no small regret that her older sister lived so far away when Cairine desperately needed her understanding and support. For female companionship she had to turn to Rockland’s English-speaking community, where she found her confidantes among the wives of company officials, Julia Binks being one who became a lifelong friend. It was almost as if Cairine Wilson had left one insular society for another, but with this difference: Rockland’s English-speaking elite, unlike the residents of Montreal’s Square Mile, made a practice of learning and speaking French. This increased opportunity to practise her French would pay big dividends when Mrs Wilson entered the political arena.
In Rockland, however, politics had to take second place to other considerations. With the birth of her namesake, Cairine Reay, on 18 October 1913, followed by that of Ralph in 1915, and her long sojourns in Montreal, Cairine Wilson had little opportunity to pursue outside interests. Part of what little time she did have was devoted to working for the small Presbyterian church (now St Andrew’s United Church) erected on Marston Road