From Robert Osgood's The Hutcheons in Canada:
Elizabeth:born Sept.16 1894 in Bairdsville Victoria Co. New Brunswick. This community was not part of the “Scotch Colony” but was on the opposite side of the Saint John River and was one of the communities served by the colony church. In a letter received from Rev. Gordon Pringle written Feb. 4 1944 he mentions that he officiated at the funeral of Helen Garvie Hutcheon Aug 1 1896 in the home in Bairdsville and that Elizabeth was “likely the baby when she (Helen Hutcheon) died”.
It should be noted that Rev. Pringle served in the community from 1896 to 1952. This was a 56 year term for which he was awarded an honorary degree from Pine Hill Divinity School in Halifax NS.
Elizabeth’s mother died July 30, 1896 when Elizabeth was almost 2 years old. Elizabeth told her granddaughter-in-law, Claire, that after her mother died she remembers being taken by the hand by her father and walked up over the hill and down to the home of the Malcolm family where she was left. She was, therefore, raised by them. Elizabeth, however, insisted that she was never part of them. She recalls being told that they did not want her but they were doing their Christian duty. The Malcolm’s had been original settlers to the colony but at some time they too like Alexander left for Aroostook County Maine. The Malcolm’s at some time traveled the country as operators of a Merry-Go-Round.
Their son Mr. Francis M. Malcolm wrote to Elizabeth on March 5 1949 from onboard an Alaskan Ferry. He was responding to her letter about teacher qualifications in Alaska as he was the Commissioner of Education in the Territory. They were raised together and could have been like brother and sister but the letter is a very formal Mr. Malcolm to Mrs. Roix.
Early years in Maine
Iva Grace the first born of Elizabeth arrived Jan 7 1913 when her mother was 18. Therefore, Elizabeth and Dudley Bean the father were together in the spring of 1912 when she was 17 and Dudley was 24. At a time near her death in 1983 Elizabeth wrote a note to her daughter Iva stating that Dudley was a neighbor in Fort Fairfield and that his parents did not want her and the marriage broke up after two months. Iva is named after Dudley’s younger sister Iva Grace Bean.
Helen, Elizabeth’s second child was born Dec 4 1915 in Presque Isle Maine. The marriage date of Joe Roix and Elizabeth is unknown but they were together around the autumn of 1914. Joe Roix was born March 01 1869 and was 25 years older then Elizabeth. Joe was 46 and Elizabeth was 21 when Helen was born.
Elizabeth told me that Joe managed a woods operation in the interior of Restigouche County, New Brunswick the winter of 1914-1915 and she was the cook for 20 or so men. Being the cook meant also keeping the wood fires stoked and heating all the water needed for cooking, cleaning and laundry. As well Elizabeth had to care for her year old child with all the work that entails. Just to add to her difficulties before the winter was out she was pregnant with Helen. She certainly knew hard physical labour.
When Iva was born Jan 7, 1913 Elizabeth was living in Fort Fairfield, Maine, but she was in N.B. with Joe for the winter of 1914-15 and returned to Presque Isle Maine for the birth of Helen in Dec.1915 and was also in Maine in Nov 1918 when she received a letter from her brother in France. Some of the time she lived with her sister Annie since Iva remembers Aunt Annie and her cousins on a farm in Maine.
Atholville, NB
She moved to Atholville N.B in the spring of 1919 where she started school in Sept 1919. The Family was Joe and Elizabeth Roix and the two girls Iva and Helen. Joe was an entrepreneur and operated a general store, pool room, ice cream parlor and barber shop in the growing community.
Atholville was a growing community in Northern NB in 1919. There was a Saw Mill in the Village operated by the Shives family and Fraser Co was building a bigger new one that year. Economically the family progressed and the move to Atholville was a good one because Fraser Co continued to expand with the building of a pulp mill in 1929. Then the depression hit. At some point in the 1930s with people unemployed and getting their groceries on credit the wholesaler a Mr Grey asked for cash and Joe could not get it from his customers and he therefore went bankrupt. Joe was around 65 years of age and his life’s work went up in flames. Elizabeth took over. She rented a large 2 story house in Campbellton and took in boarders. As a young child I can remember a father and adult son and an older invalid woman who were long term residents. Joe was bed ridden and dieing from cancer and many others coming and going. She made it her responsibility to insure that all family debts were paid to Mr. Gray and she completed the task. She owned almost nothing at this time.
Elizabeth was a very good grandmother. I remember only the good times that included cookies and lots of love. I was a very special person and I loved going to and staying at her big red house in Campbellton. As an adult I learned that she was tough, resourceful and had an edge when crossed. At one time in the nineteen seventies while visiting in New Glasgow she told Claire that she had never felt loved. Her Mother passed away when Elizabeth was 2, she is then abandoned by her Father who places her with a family that does not want her and finally she is abandoned by her first lover/husband and my belief is that her arrangement with Joe Roix was a marriage of convenience. This all contributed to the person she became and can easily lead to the feeling of not being loved. Joe Roix passed away in Campbellton in April 1944 Elizabeth was 5 months short of her 50th birthday.
New York City
Her children no longer needed her so she started making plans to look after the rest of her life. Her daughter Helen was now living in New York City and she thought she would go there and start a new life.
Helen as you will remember was born in Presque Isle so was a US citizen and able to move permanently from Saint John with no difficulty. Nanny needed a sponsor and Helen was able to do that for her. The many documents required to enter the US permanently were signed in Oct 1944 6 months after the death of Joe Roix. Because Canada was at war at the time she also had to obtain permission from Canada to leave the country. Campbellton had nothing to hold her.
As part of the process to get to the US she had to have a prearranged job. So, she went to work for a Mr. Turner employed as a private nurse for two children aged 4 and 6 because their mother was under the Dr’s care with arthritis and unable to give the children the care they require. From this start she applied for a practical nurse license and was informed that she needed a high school diploma. She started studying and achieved the diploma and obtained her license and worked until she left the city to return to Canada.
While in New York she met, at the Canada club, Al Martell, a bachelor and a Cape Breton electrician. They were very close and she would have married him but he was to be a bachelor all his life. They grew apart when she returned to Canada.
Return to New Brunswick
At some point in time Nanny and the Beckinghams had a verbal agreement were Nanny would build a piece on their house in Dalhousie N.B. and she could use it during her summer vacations and have a home in which to retire. This was done. Nanny paid for the expansion which included two bed rooms separated by a bath with a large living room with a small kitchen and eating area. However, the deed remained in the Beckingham name.
There were no problems until Elizabeth's daughter Josephine contracted cancer of the liver and passed away in 1963 when Elizabeth was 69 and still working. She was asked by Linden Beckingham to come to Dalhousie and care for the three younger children. Since she was close to her chosen retirement time she did so.
But once again, life had played a cruel joke on her. Her happy retirement plans with her daughter were not to be. Also, the good relationship with Lin was soured because she was ordered not in any way to discipline the children. She was, once again, a worker, whose job was to cook, clean, do laundry etc.
When the children were on their own she moved to Campbellton to the “Village” a senior’s complex where her daughter Iva later lived. Her investment in the building lost to the Beckingham family and her friendship with Mr. Martell broken, she had bitterness in her in her final years, but with me she was always my Nanny, good and kind to the end.
Elizabeth died Dec.29, 1983. I was a pallbearer along with the other grandsons.
