Mattinson, Benjamin | genealogyhistory

Benjamin Mattinson (c1849 - Nov. 22, 1926)

My grandfather, Benjamin Mattinson, married Mary Eliza Demings ( c1848 - July 19, 1926), on February 10, 1875. She was the daughter of Joseph E. Demings and Margaret Anderson. Benjamin and Mary Eliza had 7 children: George, Fred, and Charles, Lilla, Margaret, Elizabeth and Ethel. The children were all born in Thompson Station.

My grandfather was in partnership with his brother Dan in a woodworking and construction business in the early 1890's in Springhill, when a severe explosion in the local mine killed over 130 men and boys. With that many men gone, there was no urgent demand for new houses. By the late 1890's, there had been several disastrous fires in Pugwash, so grandfather decided to move down here. He swapped his big house in Springhill for the farm owned by his daughter Margaret and her husband Jonathon Patterson. This farm is now owned by Lionel Welsh in Pugwash River, then known as Upper Pugwash.

He looked around Pugwash for a property to set up a woodworking factory. A field owned by Alexander Wilson, one of the upper class citizens of the village, took his eye. Upon inquiring, he was told who owned it and that Mr. Wilson always said it would not be sold. Grandfather went to see him and came away with the property but would never tell anybody what he paid for it. Digging in the archives in Amherst one day, I discovered that he had paid the exorbitant price of $300 for what was supposed to be ten acres. At that time, you could buy a sizable farm for that price. The field included the land where the Roy Mattinson House is and over to and including where Mrs. Kraupa now lives.

Grandfather’s theory was that he could cut logs on his property in Pugwash River, raft them through the train bridge to his mill and haul them up to be sawed. The mill had two stories, and when he built his house on the same property, he said he made everything for it in his mill except the nails and the plaster.

All of the boys worked in the business either in logging, milling or construction and as each child married, materials were made available for them to build a home. A store was built for one of his daughters to work in as clerk (she really wanted to go to Mt. Allison, but her father saw no sense in education girls who were only going to get married anyway).

One son, George, was in the First World War. Men were coming home wounded, minus arms, legs, etc. Grandfather was so sure he would be the same that he built a hotel, “The Empress” for him so he could sit behind a desk and run the business. In fact, early in the war, it was discovered that George was a millwright, and he was taken out of the trenches and sent to Paris where he spent the war setting up and maintaining steam engines. So, when he came back and expressed no interest in being in the hotel business, Grandfather sold “The Empress”.

My grandfather wanted to buy Goat Island to dump sawdust on, but the government wouldn’t sell it to him because it would cause too much pollution.

All the three boys and grandfather loved fishing with a hook and line. They had a dory, and whenever possible, they would row up the river for trout. There were many good salmon fishing holes too for the more patient. In season bass could be caught at the train bridge.

Behind the house on the flats, smelt nets were set up in season. Even to the 1960's, my dad, Charles, had a net which supplied the household until my poor mother was very tired of cleaning, cooking and eating smelts.

Grandfather and Mary Eliza both died the same year, 1926, she on July 19th and he on November 22. It was said that once she was gone, he didn’t see much point in keeping on going and that he died of a broken heart.

Prepared by Thelma Colbourne