1910: Behind Every Man…
While the Bonnechere was definitely a man’s world, women played an important role in day-to-day life. Margaret McGuey and Gusta Garvey, and their daughters Hannah and Mary, worked from dawn to dusk running the stopping places; Annie Roche taught school; and Bella Lafleur kept the family together. And when sickness struck, they did the best they knew how.
"There really wasn’t any doctors at that time. But I mind mother telling me, [grandmother] walked… along the river bank and she picked up some kind of a herb. And she chewed it and it took all that pain away from her stomach and for awhile she felt good and then it just crept back on her and she only lasted a short time until she died." ~ Hannah McGuey Hyland
Photo: Hannah McGuey Hyland
