Miss C.: You know I Just read in the paper the other day that they are going to republish that book of D.A.Smith's. (At the Forks of the Grand) I'm sure that he was mistaken when he said that John Penman built Broadway Manor, fhe Penman Company built it but John Penman had nothing to do with it. It was originally the TWCA built for women during WWI because girls were coming here, working on army orders and there was no place for them to lire. They had a matron down there. Well, the girls gradually went away and alot of school theachers boarded there and other people did as well.
Q: was that after John Penman sold Penmans?
A: I guess so. It was in the first war of 1914. John Penman built the YMCA downtown.
A: I've got it in the back of my mind that I should write down what I know about the Garnies. I'm the only one that knows much about them and the reason I know is that after my grandfather died my grandmother and my aunt eame and live. with us for t ten years and that's how I happen to know about it.
Q. We would like to ask you about the Quas.
A. well my grandmother was Margaret Craigie and she was born and raised on a farm in Scotland. I think the nearest iown was Kircaldy and it wasn't too far from flunflrmland. Her father didn't own the farm, the farm is called Brubyside but he was overseer. There were six girls and four boys and Margaret was the second child. The oldest one was Jane. Their mother's sister was married to the second Presbyterian minister in Ayr (Ontario). She thought it was terrible, after the mother died that those girls were over there alone without their mother. Well my grandmother was twenty-one and their father was alive; anyhow, with the exception of one brother, they all came out here in a sailing vessel. They drove from Hamilton up to Ayr. None of them could get along with the old aunt so they moved to Paris. Thefee father eame with them and one brother didi also. I don't know where they lived when they eame to Paris but I think the girls did dressmaking. Well, my grandmother married my grandfather who had come out from Aberdeen. He was a stone mason and he helped work on the Anglican Church in Paris. He married Margaret Craigie. Jane her sister married Samuel Qua.
Qua Children: There was a Sam and a George. They both married Bursnalls. Goerge lived in the double house on Charlotte street. They had one daughter, Ruth who married Cliff Knowles. She had two sons and after Cliff died Ruth went to live in Pickering.
Sam and George had a sister named Nellie. There was a John who married Martha Thomson. His second wife was Annie capron, Emily's sister. John had one son, Richard.
There was an Arthur Qua who waa an uncle to these children and he lived on Grand River Street N. across from Paris Nursing home. He had: two sons. Harper end Norman and two girls, Bessie and Annie. Harper was killed in WWI and Norman went to California after the war. Bessie married a chap from California (North) and Annie worked in Fenmans General Office. When she left there she went to California to live with Normam.
Interviewer: (George McVicar married Martha Qua and they had a daughter, Martha who married John Penman. Mertha Penmen had a sister, Minnie.
Q: Do you know about any Kays who lived in Paris?
A: There was a John Kay who had two old maid daughters Elisabeth and Mary. For years one of his daughters carried on the weather observation (for the Newspaper). He had one son. who became a jeweller and went out west somewhere. John had one sister, Mrs. Hunter who lived in uppertown. She was the grandmother of Geo.. Hunter who lives in Falkland and works In .Penmans General Office.
There was another family of Kays. Contact Georgina Bxeoughton. She was a Kay and she had a sister who married Bill Cavan . Their father was Alex Kay.
Q: Please tell us about John Penman?
A: Penman as a young man lived in the house next door. (4? Broadway E.) My father was a builder and he did a lot of work for J»P. Penman got to be a very religious man. I think he was fair and square. He left Penmarvian to the Presbyterian Church.
Q: Why did he sell Penmans?
A: Well he was an old man. He started the Mercury Mills in Hamilton. I went to work in the Penmans office in the # 1 mill on Jan. 2, 1912.
Q: Bo you know who built the Inksater house (42) next door?
A: Reg Turnbull was a school teacher here before my time and he married the daughter of R.L. Murray, a tailor downtown. She died and then he married her sister. At one time the Turnbulls owned the house and this lot (40) went with it. My father built this house but not for himself but for Mrs. Jefferson, when we came up here people by the name of Hammond lived in it. He was the manager of the # 2 mill. They came from the states. Hammond had a ford roadster. He and Mr. Wentworth worked on it in the cellar. They enlarged the foundation to get it out.
Mrs. Hammond sold the house after he died to Mulharen.
Percy Mulharen came here to teach music In the schools and he was also organist at the United Church. He died and they gave the house up. It was rented for awhile and theft the Inkteters bought it.
Q: DO you remember when the Whitbys lived in the Pines? (Banfield St.)
As Yes, The first Mrs. Whitby was my aunt. She was my father's sister. She was about seven years old when my father was born. My grandfather was quite a musician. not professional, but he sang and he had the first melodionin town. He would bring all the young chaps that came out from the old country home and he brought this Oliver Whitby home and he married Mary. At that time Oliver worked with John Penman in #1 mill. Mary had Eugene and Evan, Olive and Clarence. She died when Clarence was quite young. Whitby remarried to Mary Craigle, the first cousin of his first wife. Her father was James Craigie who came from Scotland with the others. She was the mother of Gwen? and Harry. First they lived in a double house up at the Station and then he built the Pines. My father built that for: him. The top floor Whitby had fixed as a Billiard room. That is where the tower is. I think it had five bedrooms and one bathroom.
Qt What buildings did your father build in Paris?
As I remember the fire of 1900. Several years later my father built the YMCA downtown. I think he built where the bake shop is and he bought part of the block and built a building. Inksater who had the shoe store rented It and eventually bought it. I imagine he built Toughs’s corner. He built 42 Broadway E. and some houses on the flats ie. Dr. McAlpine’s who has a plaque of all the names of the workmen.
