JACK (JOHN EDWARD) BROOKES : THE BROOKES FAMILY, 1890 AND ONWARDS.
This family history is about the Brookes family, 1890 and onwards. The main narrator is Jack Brookes, who tells about the coming of his parents from Great Britain at the end of the 19th Century as immigrants to Canada. It tells about why immigrants decide to leave their country, their arrival to a new land, their integration to a new society and difficulties they encounter. This has an autobiographical flavor which we think will shed light on first and second generations of immigrants, wherever they come from.
I have always been reluctant to write about my family, I don't know why, as I am very proud of them. Probably it is a throwback to the English up-bringing, where family matters were seldom discussed outside the circle.
My father came to Canada from Stourbridge, a small town about 15 miles from Birmingham, in England, at age of 13 to live with an older sister, who had married an iron-master. He was the manager of the historic Forge called Radnor, near the town of Three-Rivers. The town of Three-Rivers is about 75 miles down the St.Lawrence River from Montreal,an important Canadian City.
His first job was driving a horse and wagon bringing scrap metal to the mill. In doing so, he was obliged to cross a small stream, which normally was done without incident. However, this day the water had increased significantly and his wagon stuck in the middle with the horse halfway up the bank. He tried to extricate the cart, but it wouldn't budge. Having advised his brother-in-law about the danger of that type of word, he left the Forge.
Looking for another type of work, he walked to the railway tracks nearby and hitched a ride to a nearby town called Shawinigan Falls. In the city was a railroad round-house. He got a job there oiling locomotives and eventually became a fireman on freight trains going going through pioneer country towards the North-West of the province of Quebec called Abitibi. He worked there for a couple of years.