Sweetsburg: A glance backwards

(This text was written by Réal Hébert and published in The Sherbrooke Record, on Friday, September 5, 1980.)

 

Modern life gives us little time to cast a glance backwards into the past. We are so taken up with the present and future.

However, the good old days, as we are pleased to call them, had their moments and if you will permit me, I'll take a few minutes to lead back into the 1920's, in a little corner of the Eastern Townships to which I am very much attached. I spent a part of youth and my adult life there, in Sweetsburg.

The courthouse

Sweetsburg, which is now part of the city of Cowansville, was a very busy municipality, and with reason. It was the centre for the district of Bedford for all activities of the judiciary for Missisquoi, Brome and Shefford.

All cases from the magistrate's court: the criminal and Superior Court cases, were heard at Sweetsburg. The district of Bedford extended east to west from Bonsecours to Clarenceville and from south to north from the American border to Valcourt. This means there was a fair amount going on at the Palais de Justice.

Moreover, the courthouse was blessed with several lawyers' offices fo which a certain number lived right in the village. The sheriff, the prothonotary, the official stenographer, the jail-keeper and several bailiffs also lived there.(top)

Other institutions

The hospital, at the corner of Main Street on the same side as the courthouse, was the only one to serve Brome and Missisquoi counties. Doctor Follin H. Pickel was also the mayor of Sweetsburg, a post he occupied for nearly 50 years without interruption. He was always elected by acclamation. He was also deputy for the riding of Brome-Missisquoi in Ottawa.

Another institution which existed in Sweetsburg was a detention centre foryoung English-speaking girls. It was situated where now stands the Yamaska Hotel, opposite the Ste. Rose de Lima Church.

Incidentally this church was the only one to serve the Roman Catholic population of the municipality of Sweetsburg and of Cowansville. There was an Anglican church next to the courthouse.

Clearly, all the bustle at the courthouse, the lawyers' offices and the hospital meant the town required a hotel. This was on Main street opposite the courthouse. (top)

The hotel

The hotel was a wooden structure of which the main part had three storeys. Behind was added an annex of two storeys containing the dining-room and the kitchen on the main floor. A large room for meetings on the second storey served as a salesroom for travelling businessmen and as a room for dancing.

In the main part on the first floor was the lobby and the office where visitors registered, a big reception room, three smaller private rooms and the tavern.The second and third storeys contained 35 bedrooms and bathrooms.

If I describe all this to you with so much precision and detail, it is because the hotel was the property of my father from 1917 to

1932. (top)

Carriages and automobiles

At the back of the hotel was a stable capable of putting up more than twenty horses, and a carriage-and-harness shed. You must remember that at the time, automobiles did not enjoy the popularity they do today and those who owned them could use them only six months a year because of the state of the roads.

Thus it was a horse-drawn vehicle that people used most, or the railroad which was practical for people living on the doorstep of Canadian Pacific, between Farnham and Highwater. The others who lived in the region of Frelighsburg, Dunham, Waterloo, Granby, Knowlton all had to use horse-drawn carriages six months a year if they came to Sweetsburg on business. If the hotel had to shelter travellers, it also had to house horses and carriages.(top)

Selling beer

The Sweetsburg hotel was the last in Missisquoi County to hold a permit for the sale of beer. And Brome County was under the prohibition act, which meant that Brome County hotels were dry and had to sell beer by the black market. They were caught three or four times a year, paid the fine, and began again, as merrily as ever.

As they could not be supplied by the breweries, several of these hoteliers bought their beer from my father. Thus if was, we supplied the hotels of Brome Corner, Sutton, Abercorn, Knowlton, and a group of American bootleggers as well. Prohibition, of course, was in force in the United States.

Of course we sold a good volume of beer at the hotel, and carried on a takeout service too. There was at that time no sale of beer in the grocery stores. Only licensed hotel-keepers had the right to sell beer for consumption on the premises or to take home. The hotel-keeper who was a permit holder had to meet a lot of government requirements, such as a minimum of 25 bedrooms, a dining-room of 25 covers, and a tavern equipped to departmental norms. Finally the approval of the municipal council was required and that of Monsieur le Curé, too, before the government would consider granting a permit for the sale of beer.

My father had no difficulty in obtaining the permit because of the importance of having a hotel in Sweetsburg with its numbers of travellers, many occasioned by the courthouse, the prison, the detention home and the hospital.

Beer arrived by the freightload, and was placed on the siding at Sweetsburg. It was taken from there to the hotel by a car drawn by two horses. To unload a carload of beer took a whole day of work. The beer was packed in wooden cases to be re-wrapped in jute sacks. This was to make less weight and to economise on space for clandestine transport, usually undertaken during the night.

Our three main provisioners were the National Brewery which made Black Horse, Dow and Kingsbeer. The Molsons Brewery made Export and White Label. Frontenac Brewery made Frontenac Blue Label. This was popular with the American clientele. We also sold Silver Spring beer from Sherbrooke, but in limited quantities.

The retail price at the time was $0.35 for a large bottle, and $0.20 for the small bottle. The price was the same for beer consumed at the hotel in the tavern, for taking out, and even for black market beer, plus a $0.05 deposit for the bottle if the beer was not drunk on the selling premises.

There was no price reduction. An agreement on the subject existed between my father and Mr. Hauver, the owner of the Ottawa Hotel in Cowansville, and he and my father were very great friends. The Ottawa Hotel was the only one in Cowansville.(top)

Prices and wages

At the time, room prices were $1.00 a night, breakfast $0.50, dinner and supper $0.75. Board for horses was $1.00 per day, which included stabling, three meals, and the use of the carriage-shed.

A good hotel cook was paid $35.00 a week. The day began at 6 a.m. and ended at 8 p.m. Chambermaids who also had to wait on tables in the dining-room received $40.00 a month. They had the opportunity to make tips in the dining-room as well. A dishwasher was paid $35.00 per month, the tavern-keeper, $60.00 per month and the yardman, $35.00 per month. They also received room and board in addition to their salary. The work week was six days and each employee had the right to one day off.(top)

A busy place

Without doubt, the hotel was the busiest place in Sweetsburg. All these people who had business directly or indirectly at the courthouse found themselves, sooner or later, at the hotel for lodging, for a meal or for a drink in the tavern. There were also the villagers who came without fail to take their daily beer, the travelling salesmen and the farmers who came to do their shopping in the two general stores. One store was next to the hotel and the other was at the corner of Main Street and the road leading to West Shefford. The farmers took advantage of the visit to come and quench their thirst.(top)

The black list

If the hotel business at the time was quite remunerative, it also had its inconveniences. It was, first of all, confining. Seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and having to deal with sometimes fussy public was not easy. Some clients were not very desirable and some were fight-starters.

Besides having to keep all those people in order, the hotel-keeper had to obey the requirements of the mayor, the councillors and the priest. A single complaint from the council or from the priest directed to the government in Quebec was enough to cause the lost of the permit for the sale of beer. Of course, occasionnally there were little disagreements between the tavern customers, but my father quickly resolved the problems by threatening to put offending parties on the black list if the quarrels did not instantly cease. Once on the black list they had no more access to the tavern and could not buy beer, even to take out. This policy of the black list was very effective in the majority of cases.(top)

An amusing incident

There were some exceptions, which makes me recall a story with a dramatic beginning and an amusing and quite a wet ending.

At this time I was about 17, still in school. During the summer holidays I was at the hotel and did all kinds of work assigned to me by my father, whether the duties were to my taste or not. As always, I took the relief for the bartender who had his day off. In the middle of the afternoon, as everything was pretty quiet, my father decided to go to Cowansville on business, an hour at the most. Hardly had he left, when four drunkards from Knowlton came into the tavern. They were quite tipsy and had the reputation of being fighters.

They were drinking their beer which I had just served them when another group of four, also recognized fighters, took their place in the tavern. These two groups detested each other like cat and dog and of course, what had to happen did happen and a fight broke out between the two groups.

What does a boy of 17 do in such a situation? I did not plan to intervene publicly to put an end to the fight. I did have a marvelous idea.

At the foot of the staircase leading to the upper floors we had a fire hose, on a support, in case of fire. It was two inches in diameter and, after opening the valve I took it and directed the jet of water on the squabblers, which put an end to the combat quite quickly. Both groups disappeared, much disgruntled. I had plenty to do for the rest of the afternoon collecting the water accumulated on the floor, with a mop and pail. A large number of the kitchen personnel came to my rescue and were busy sponging the ceiling and walls of the tavern. When my father came back and I told him what had happened he was for once, in full agreement with me.(top)

The horse-traders

Another activity which went on in the yard or in the stable of the hotel and more often than not ended in the tavern, was the horse-trading. Horse-traders were known as maquignons at the time. Certain traders chose their victims among the more tipsy customers to encourage them to trade horses. They took advantage of them to unload old plugs, often riddled with faults or carrying an invisible disease. The poor victim sobered up only to realize he had been gypped on the exchange.

These are my souvenirs of Sweetsburg in the 1920's.(top)

 

Réal Hébert, September 5, 1980