Garden Island Biographies 2

Born on Garden Island, Ontario in 1894, Ira G. Menard was one of seven children. His mother, Elzida Gobeil was the daughter of Philomene Gobeil and Edward Gobeil. The Gobeil family originated from St. Roch de Quebec district and Elzida Gobeil was born in Quebec city about 1863. She came with her parents initially to Kingston when she was about 6 months old, and lived on Ontario St. Shortly afterward, the Gobeil family moved to Garden Island where Edward Gobeil took work as a ship's carpenter for the Calvin Company for almost 35 years.

Ira's father, George Menard (son of Antoine Menard and Melina Forest) came from Coteau-du-Lac, Soulanges, Quebec to work on Garden Island as a raftsman for the Calvin Company. Elzida, having grown up on the island probably met George Menard through her father.

Ira's parents married in Coteau-du-lac, Quebec in 1883 and they lived there for a short while before moving back to Garden Island, where they lived from about 1885 to 1911-1912. During that time, Garden Island was almost a small city, with Calvin company employing hundreds of people, most of whom lived there. The children attended a regular school on the island. Ira had six brothers and sisters who also grew up on Garden Island. Their names were William, Archie, Nelson, Edna, Rhoda, and Reta. Archie died young in 1908 of spinal meningitis at age 20 shortly after he had re-located to Watertown, NY from Garden Island, and Nelson later became Captain of the ill-fated lake freighter Maplehust, which sank in Lake Superior in a winter storm in 1922, claiming his life.

Around the age of 15, Ira left the Garden Island school to begin work for Calvin Shipyard Company initially as a raftsman, helping to build and float the timber rafts. According to an interview of Ira in early 1978, by his son, Albert Menard, his job involved firing boilers, helping the Culler measure up the timbers, running the withe machine which was used to twist the sappling trees into bindings for the raft timber, and using a team of horses to drag the withes to the water. He also ran a boring machine putting 3 in diameter holes, 15 feet apart in the binder logs used to hold the rafts together. The rafts were usually 3 decks thick, and laminated with the bottom and top layers pointing "for and aft". A platform 8 to 10 feet high was erected on each side of the raft for the men to get on while going through the St. Lawrence rapids. About 10 to 12 men were needed to ride the rafts, using pole sticks and oars for steering and guiding.

There were usually about 3 rafts towed one behind the other, end to end, by a paddle wheel tug boat with about a fifty foot tow rope. Normally, the three rafts went through the rapids tied together without the tug, while the tug went through the Lachine Canal. However, the raft width was later narrowed so that the rafts could also go through the canal.

Around 1900, Amil Amey was in charge of moving the rafts to Montreal. Later, George Menard (Ira's father), took charge of the operation. Most of the crew on the rafts were Iroquois Indians who were recruited around Caughnawaga or St. Regis area. The rafts were taken as far as the basin in Montreal harbor, where they were cut apart and loaded on to ocean boats going overseas.

On August 20, 1911, Ira's father, George Menard, died tragically in a boat collision as a member of the crew aboard the Chieftain III after it collided with the Steamship Hero in the St Lawrence River near the Quebec border. As a teenager, Ira continued to work for Calvin as a Raftsman until about 1912-1913, when his widowed mother and family moved to Montreal St in Kingston, where Ira Menard took work as a sailor out of Kingston on the coal boats.

He often told stories of adventurous sailing trips from Kingston to the United States as a youth. On one occasion, he had to shimmee up and secure a rope high on the main mast of a ship. The boat swayed so much, he almost fell. When he finally made it down, another Captain from a close ship was so impressed, he asked Ira to do the same for his boat -he refused! On another occasion, he claimed he jumped ship and had to make his way back from the Boston area on his own after his shipmates "tried to kill me".

In 1914-1915, Ira Menard joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force of WWI. Before going overseas, he was stationed in the Citadel in Halifax when the great Halifax Explosion occurred, and helped in the cleanup of the city afterward, having to clear bodies and debris. He often shared stories of tragic loss from that event. Afterward, he served in the 16th Battery in France and was discharged in 1917. After the War, he stayed with the army of occupation in Germany for another year.

After the war, Ira came back to Kingston and got a job with the Bell Telephone Company working with his brother "Willy" and brother-in-law, Euclid Seguin. One of his army buddies from WWI, Joe Downey, married his sister, Rhoda. Ira did numerous jobs for Bell, including Lineman, Installer, and Repairman. In 1925, Ira Menard married Elizabeth Lillian Clarke, daughter of James Clarke Jr. of Howe Island and Catherine Groves of Portsmouth. Lillian Clarke also worked for Bell Telephone as one of the Operators.

After marrying, the couple lived at 38 Ordinance St. in Kingston and had two children, Albert and Betty. However Betty died tragically when she was about 4 years old.

Most of the time, Ira worked with "the Gang", a crew of 4 or 5 men putting in new poles and stringing line for Bell Telephone on Howe Island and Wolfe Island. Having grown up on Garden Island, many of the Island residents were very social towards Ira. He often stopped for lunch at the Cox's homestead on Howe Island. Agnes Cox Oakley told a story once that her mother (Mary Ellen Mahoney) tried to refuse payment for the lunch, and Ira promptly threatened to stop coming to visit unless she accepted due payment for the lunch! Occasionally, he would take his young son, Albert along in the repair truck as long as Albert would duck down when any people were around.

His mother, Elzida, died in Kingston in 1943. During the second world war, Ira was a member of the Princess of Wales Own Regiment. He separated from his wife around 1945 or so and lived at a Hotel on Brock St. for a while until moving to an apartment at 227 Brock St, where he lived when the cottage was unavailable. He continued to work for Bell Telephone until he retired in 1956, when Bell had a big party for him at the RCHA club. He was member of Telephone Pioneers of America.

Having grown up on Garden Island, Ira loved to spend time near the water. He first had a summer cottage at Eastview off Highway #2 in the early 1930's. In 1933 or 1934, they bought a cottage on Dead Man's Bay where the land was leased from the government. That cottage burned down in 1947. Another cottage was ordered from Haliday company in 1951, and assembled at his wife's house on Division St., then moved it, with the help of his son and a friend, Alfred MacDermot (Mac), on a giant float to a water front lot he leased from a farmer off Picket's Ferry road, directly across from Howe Island, .

During his retirement, Ira would take care of his grandchildren for the summer and entertain lots of other visitors. He loved to spend time hiking, fishing and swimming with his grandchildren. In the winters he would drive his rambler down to Ft. Lauderdale in Florida where he would stay to watch the winter baseball games of the major leagues. He was also a very talented bowler once scoring a record high 366 in an intercity province league, and enjoyed attending regular service at St. Mary's Cathedral church in Kingston. His only other brother,William died in Kingston in 1961 at age 75.

In 1975 he sold the cottage, and lived with his sister Reta Fowler for a while. After Reta became ill and moved to the hospital, Ira lived with two of his grand-daughters for almost a year in Kingston. In the fall of 1976, he moved to Kitchener, Ontario, to live with his son, his son's wife Marcella, and some of his grandchildren. Sisters, Edna and Reta passed away in Kingston in the following year (1976-1977), shortly after Ira moved to Kitchener (Rhoda would later pass away in 1987). In early 1978, Ira G. Menard died at St. Mary's Hospital in Kitchener after a brief illness at the age of 83. A service for Ira Menard was held in Kingston and he was later buried in St Mary's cemetary, Kingston, Ont in the spring of 1978. He will always be fondly remembered by all those who he spent time with, especially his grandchildren.