Uncle Peg’s
Chronicles
October 15, 2026
“No
Place to Dream On”
“These
were their settlements. And they kept good family records.”[1]
Don’t
forget to look for the title which is embedded in the chronicle.
FAMILY ALBUM
And I Quote:
I
enjoyed reading your "My Story." Byron and I often enjoy walking
through the woods behind our home but also like to find new places to hike and
this time of year is the best. I love seeing the leaves changing color and
raining down upon us as we traverse the trails and enjoy the fall aromas and
sounds of nature the wooded forests offer us. Glad to see you had some nice
visits with cousins too. ~ Annmarie Driscoll Holmes.
Peg,
Loved the story of the violin.
~ Karl
Peg,
Loved the pics as always but was really fascinated by the story of Billy and
the violin. Don't you wish we could go back and spend a day with
them? Billy sounds like he might have become an engineer if born at a
later time. Keep up the good work, interesting stuff. ~ Ruth
– a conversation ensued.
Thank
you for your Oct 2 chronicle Peggy. Lovely story telling as always and good
facts and photo shares. ~ Jolynda
I am so
glad about getting the chronicles that you spend much time writing.
Thanks for including me! ~
Janet.
It was
nice to see you again. Thanks for including me in the chronicle. I really
enjoyed reading it. ~ Tim
The time and
effort in the research you did is amazing, as always. I hope everyone
appreciates the contribution you are making. ~ from Paula, re
my article, not my chronicle.
Thanks,
everybody.
I didn’t have a
photo in mind for the header, so I scrolled down my massive collection of
photos, looking for something fun and different. My father, Donald Moore, is on
the left, and my uncle, Ralph Lutes, is on the right. They are in front of the
farm house in Hill Grove, taking down the willow tree. They look like they are
having fun, but perhaps they just stopped their sawing to grin for the camera.
No idea when they did this. However, the photo reminded me of the quote of
Natalie Goldberg, which is in the section 2026 to 2028. That is the yard that
was recently hayed, where in September, I sat upon a log from one of those felled
trees, to eat my cake. The tire swing is long gone, but I remember it. Once
upon a time, not so very long ago, it was a beautiful lawn.
1926
to 1928
1924 to 1928 are the years that our Holmes ancestors spent
renewing relationships that had somehow fallen by the wayside but with
organization, letter writing, and challenging travel – by hook or by crook –
they managed to come together again. They reacquainted and rediscovered their
family ties. And then, one by one, they died, and many of those ties died with
them.
2026
to 2028
What a relief it is to send off an article to “Generations.”
It’s a release. It is done. Whether or not it is entirely correct or finished
is irrelevant. Too late now. I need to finish up the family version, which will
have some changes and more information for family purposes and not be under the
copyright of the journal.
That will sit on my
shoulders for a while. I also have two articles on the back burner of my brain,
about two men who visited Riverbank House quite often and had stories that
intrigued me, although the gentlemen are not in the family. The articles won’t
be as long, but I’m sure I’ll be just as compulsive about my words and
paragraphs as I am with our family history. No rush on those. For now, I have
something else to concentrate on.
I agreed to give a
presentation to the Saint John branch of the genealogy society at the end of
January. This will be via Zoom, so I won’t have to travel in winter. You can
join me if you like. The topic they asked for is “tips for writing a family
history story.” Title, for now, is the same, although I might squeeze a
sub-title in there – who knows. I want to leave the word “tips” in there to
keep me in blinders – as I cannot teach how to write a full family history
story in forty-five minutes. I am going to focus on William Zinsser’s book, “On
Writing Well,” but I am also reading other how-to writing books. Zinsser’s is
the only book I have found on non-fiction writing. The others concern writing
in general.
So, what does that
have to do with you and this chronicle?
This presentation will
come from two basic sources: my how-to books and my experience. I write for two
audiences – you, my cousins, and those members of NBGS who read my article in
the journal. I practice my writing on you. Some of you edit and read for me.
And some of you comment – see the quotes in the letters to the editor at the
start. I give you excerpts – I don’t often include the personal stuff you share
with me.
I thank you so very
much.
Tip: You have to write
for your audience, but write for yourself as well. Write naturally. Your voice
will eventually find you, as you go along.
It’s like inheriting
land from your family. It’s always been in your family: they have always owned
it. Someone comes along and wants to buy it. Writers, if they are smart, won’t
sell too much of it. They know once it’s sold, they might be able to buy a second
car, but there will be no place they can go to sit still, no place to dream on.
Natalie
Goldbert, “Writing Down the Bones,” page34. That chapter was about many writers’
dream to sell their work and making lots of money. Unless you depend on
royalties for a living, it’s a pipedream.
The quote was a
trigger for me – back to September, when I went to the Cedar Café and bought an
expensive piece of cake and sat on an old log on family property and ate it
before walking the newly hayed imaginary dooryard, front lawn, and orchard.
Tip: Make use of your
verbs.
Verbs are the most
important of all your tools. They push the sentence forward and give it
momentum. Active verbs push hard; passive verbs tug fitfully. Active verbs also
enable us to visualize an activity . . . Many verbs also carry in their imagery
or in their sound a suggestion of what they mean: glitter, dazzle, twirl,
beguile, scatter, swagger, poke, pamper, vex . . . Don’t choose one that is
dull or merely serviceable . . . Be precise, use precise verbs.
Then William Zinsser
goes on to talk about adverbs and adjectives and nouns, in his book on how to
write non-fiction, “On Writing Well,” page 68.
As I research, I
learn. Hopefully, my next articles will be better.
News from Holmes
Ranger – Wesley Hagmann and Bailey
Hamblin – Jon Hamblin and Michelle Holmes (and Rick Morey) – Ernest ‘Butch’
Holmes and Karla Lay (and Connie Lepon) – Jerome K Holmes and Alma Vincent –
Jerome C Holmes and Jennie Edwards – William Holmes and Anna Heath – Daniel
Holmes and Charlotte Hoyt – Samuel Holmes Jr and Phoebe Holstead – Samuel
Holmes Sr and Elizabeth Fountain.
Ask for a photo and I'll send you an email.
FAMILY HISTORY LESSON
Busy, so here is another section from my article for
Generations. I think most of you know that I have Uncle Billy’s guest book. In
the article and CCC, there will be footnotes.
THE GUEST BOOK
1909 – 1915
On the second day of September 1912 there came to this
pleasant valley two young fellows from Montclair New Jersey USA by the names of
Herbert Snead and Ira S Snead, who stayed a week, caught a few fish . . . and
had the time of their lives.
Between Billy and Maggie Snider’s
return from Sussex and 1909, they changed the name of their lodge from Portage
House to Riverbank House. I used both newspaper accounts and the guest book to
research the lodge and some of the guests. Thanks to my research, I changed my
opinion about Uncle Billy from thinking he was a mere tinker to getting to know
a multi-faceted, interesting individual. They were a generous couple. I enjoyed
reading and sharing quotes from their guest book – they are an apt description
of the ambiance of both Portage Vale and the lodge.
Spent a few
days around Portage with H. K.
The guest book remained in the desk in
the farmhouse kitchen for years. When my cousin handed it to me at a family
reunion, Mum remembered seeing it. It is an important family and local
historical list. I scanned it and put it into the New Brunswick Genealogy
Society website so it will not be lost. The fact that the Riverbank House
proprietors hosted people from near and far shows that the Sniders had an
eclectic circle of family, friends, and acquaintances.
8 doz trout and
a Bully Time.
I studied several of the people who signed the Riverbank Visitors guest book. The guest house and fishing lodge opened much earlier than that, but this is the only guest book I have. Some people did not state where they came from. Some people signed the book once; some, several times. Some people’s writing was illegible. Some came for a day; some stayed days or weeks. There were 45 names of Snider and Holmes family members in the guest book.
Dunfield, Gifford, McAnespy and Teakles neighbours could walk there.
Members of the clergy visited. Rev’d Canon Smithers came from Fredericton in 1909. Rev. R Coleman of Petitcodiac came in 1910. Elder Elmer Roman and Elder Jas V Facer, from Utah, also visited in 1910.
From the opposite side of the continent, a Mitchell family travelled from Victoria, British Columbia. Mrs. Herbert A Steeves came from Seattle, Washington.
There were international visitors. Robert Matthew came from Cuba in 1911; Maurice Karn, from London, England, in 1911; and a Mr. Giles, from London, England, in 1912. Frances Smallwood came from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in 1911. Newfoundland was not part of Canada at that time.
They held political meetings there. On March 29, 1911, when the Liberal Conservative Club met, three men signed their names: Frank E Wallace, Kenneth R McLeod, and Walter Murray.
One child, Vivian Mitchell from
Victoria, British Columbia, printed her name in the book. A toddler’s name was
listed: James Hallett from Montreal.
There were two students from McGill University in Quebec: Roy A Davidson
and a Routledge.
April 26 - April 28 – Caught 6 trout April 27th weighing ¾ pound.
Two of their guests particularly intrigued me. D Arnold Fox, who made a G-clef sign under his name and often talked about fish, was the organist of the Stone Church in Saint John. The other was Brigadier General Darias B Warner. Both men signed the first page of the book, several times in between, and Warner, the last page. Perhaps Gen. Warner and Prof. Fox were paying guests who became friends of the Sniders.
. . . Battle of
Kennesaw Mountain 1864
Why did they come? Was it the need for lodging, a meeting,
a little getaway from a busy life, curiosity, a neighbourly cup of tea? It was
probably all that and more.
Plenty of fish and pancakes.
How awesome it must have been for Billy and Maggie to watch auto parties drive up to the guest lodge.
In 1913, a group of Thomas Bell, R G Haley, W B Tennant, and Wm Woodhouse, the chauffeur, all of Saint John, arrived, calling themselves the Pierce-Arrow party. What a beauty the Pierce-Auto was to behold.
Fish feeding well.
The
people who signed the guest book were diverse: family members, neighbours,
friends, travellers, musicians, politicians, competitive bridge players,
automobile partiers, etc. From the few comments, it appears that all enjoyed
the hospitality of the Sniders as well as the locality.
Mid-October
in New Brunswick – a mix of sun, cloud, and rain, depending on the day. You
might need a winter jacket in the morning and shorts and a t-shirt in the
afternoon, but we are edging ever closer to the sweaters and jackets. The
leaves are falling.
This ends
week forty -two of our centennial virtual celebration of 1926 – 2026.
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