Community Voices

Katie Althea (Frail) was born in 1907 near Scots Bay on the North Mountain. She was 1 of 11 girls and 1
boy, another brother having died in infancy. By the time she was 5 years old, her family moved to
Centreville where she went to school until later attending Kings County Academy in Kentville. In 1926, at
the age of 19, Katie came to the Burlington area to teach at the Woodlawn School. Katie met her future
husband, Raymond Armstrong, through his sister, Thelma, who Katie had befriended. After marrying
Raymond, she spent the rest of her life in this community, raising a family on Armstrong Road.
Katie taught at the Woodlawn School for the terms 1926/27 and 1929/30. She was interviewed in 2002
at her Fundy Villa apartment in Berwick where she had moved following the death of her husband. Katie
was well-loved in this community, her kind legacy living on in her daughters Sandra and Carroll, as well
as several grandchildren and great grandchildren. Katie died in June of 2006 and was laid to rest beside
her husband Raymond in the Burlington Cemetery.
To learn more about Katie and others who once lived here and enriched this community, please see
From the Brow to the Bay, a history of Burlington, Viewmount and Woodlawn.

Photos

Audio clip – Synopsis

Synopsis of Interview with Katie Armstrong

Please keep in mind this was recorded over 20 years ago and the research for what would become our history book, From the Brow to the Bay was just beginning. This interview, recorded on cassette tape in 2002, has been edited for clarity. It is about 23 minutes long. Pat Kemp and Anna Osburn were information gathering for what they hoped would be a comprehensive written history of the area, which came to fruition in 2012. At this time, they knew little about the family connections in this community. Photos of people mentioned in this conversation accompany the audio recording which ends rather abruptly at the end of the tape.

Katie begins by telling where she was born and how the family moved to Centreville before she was old enough to go to school. She recalls living close by the school and watching her older siblings go off for the day and wishing she could join them. She gives her parents names.

Reminiscing about these days reminded her of recent losses and Katie talked about how her two older sisters and son Ross all died around the same time and that it made her realize she was getting older.

Katie mentions her teaching position before coming to Woodlawn was in 1924 at Blomidon School and how she loved the area. She returned to Kings County Academy the following year to finish her grade 12. Katie most likely heard that a teacher was needed in Woodlawn through a Centreville blacksmith, Sam Ogilvie, who was from Burlington and had family still living here. Sam’s brother Earl and his wife, Ida were among the first people she met here. Ida Meisner had been a teacher at Woodlawn before marrying Earl Ogilvie. Katie mentions these names as well as Earl’s father Abram who had died that same year. She remembers Abram’s wife Annie McBride.

Katie said she boarded with the Marshalls on the Nollett Beckwith Road and mentions Roy and Mary Marshall and their 3 little girls by name.

When asked about meeting her husband-to-be Raymond Armstrong she said he was too big to go to school and that she had met him through his sister Thelma who befriended her. She also mentions Raymond’s younger sister Beatrice and Thelma’s husband Gordon McClare.

Katie reminisced about the “McBride Place” on Nollett Beckwith Road where they first lived when they married. She recalled coming to an agreement with Raymond that if he did the repairs needed on the old place, she would furnish it. She went with her mother (Georgie Frail) and shopped for all her furniture in Kentville in a store by the railroad tracks. Katie fondly recounted how her mother and other neighbours, including Mrs. Coleman had helped get the house cleaned up and ready before they moved in.

There is an amusing anecdote from when Katie was a young mother which is endearing to hear.

Katie talked about Raymond’s grandparents who lived at Turners Brook (Isaiah and Charlotte Ogilvie) and mentioned his parents Hazen and Gertrude (Ogilvie) Armstrong. Hazen and Gertrude lived on Armstrong Road in a house that burned in 1935. It was rebuilt on the same foundation and Raymond and Katie eventually moved there, following the death of Raymond’s mother Gertrude.

Katie mentioned her 5 children Ross, Carroll, Sandra, Dean and an infant son. In a difficult moment in the interview, she sadly relates the loss of the baby (Garth) in 1949 and Dean at the age of 24.

Katie remembers Raymond working at cutting a long row of pulp wood to earn enough to buy more land. She mentions Billy Armstrong, a son of her sister Florence and Raymond’s cousin George Armstrong. Katie recalled that after living at the Marshall’s for the first 2 years she taught at Woodlawn, she boarded at Mansfield Armstrong’s (George’s father) on the corner of Armstrong and McNally Road. Katie was also close friends with George’s sister Bernice. Katie was reminded that Jim Baker and Janet Alsop later owned this house and she had fond memories of Jim, expressing sadness at his recent passing.

 

Mary Hirtle

Mary Irene (Carter) was born in 1919 in Lower Sackville. As an infant, she moved with her parents, George and Irene, to a house on the Brow Mountain Road. Though she attended her first school years in Halifax, living with grandparents, she returned to Viewmount for grade 4 and spent the rest of her life here. She was classmates with Everette Hirtle at Viewmount School and so knew him practically all her life; they married in 1940 and shared a home with Everette’s parents, Clarence and Laura, until Everette built a new home for them in 1948. Here they raised a family of 7 children and greatly enriched the neighbourhood with their community involvement and strong work ethic. Their legacy continues with many descendants.

Mary passed away in 2016 and was laid to rest beside Everette in Berwick Cemetery.

To learn more about Mary and others who once lived here and enriched this community, please see From the Brow to the Bay, a history of Burlington, Viewmount and Woodlawn.

 

Photos can be found here

Mary’s Interview Audio

Synopsis of Interview with Mary Hirtle

Pat Kemp and Anna Osburn interviewed Mary in her home in 2008. Mary’s granddaughter Anita was visiting at the time. Mary was seated in a rocking chair in the kitchen and the occasional creaking of the rockers can be heard.

Mary stated where she was born and her maiden name. She mentioned her father, Gordon Carter and that she was the eldest of her siblings. Mary described how the family moved from Lower Sackville to a house on the Brow Mountain Road when she was an infant and that she had lived in Viewmount ever since.

Mary talked about her husband Everette and how most of their children met their spouses by attending the same schools. Mary’s granddaughter Anita can be heard helping her grandmother recall some of these facts.

Mary related how she had lived with her grandmother in Halifax for her first 3 years of school, coming back to Viewmount to attend school with her brother. (Mary had 3 brothers – George, Gordon and Francis) She spoke about the old Viewmount school house and mentioned Albert Scotney who later lived in the same area.

Pat Kemp asked Mary who her neighbours were and she mentioned Sadie Clem who had a house where Wendy and Neil Clem now live. Mary related the names of Everette’s parents Clarence and Laura (Coolen) Hirtle and his sisters Olive and Christabell Phyllis.

Mary was asked about the original Hirtle home and told how it had been razed and that she had lived in the house that she and Everette had built for 61 years. Mary recalled her neighbours Carrie and Austin Clem and Addie and Carl DeEll. She remembered the Emery Swindell house at the top of the mountain which was later razed by the fire department and that her son Brian had previously moved part of that house for his barn. Mary was asked about another house on the Brow Mountain Road and identified it as the Everett Swindell place.

Mary was asked what she did for fun while growing up and mentioned some games she played with others and described pie auctions and dances that were held in private homes. She mentioned Jenny Swindell playing guitar and violin on these occasions. She related a delightful story regarding her future husband Everette asking her to dance.

Mary mentioned a church west of the Lightfoot Road where her children went to Sunday school.

Mary was asked for old photographs and she indicated a painting of done by Geraldine DeEll who was the daughter-in-law of Carl and Addie (Clem) DeEll, previously mentioned. Mary talked about an aerial photograph of the Hirtle property, indicating where the old buildings had been. Anita asked about a photo of her great-grandparents Clarence and Laura. The recording ends with Pat Kemp saying how great it is to have all these old pictures.