TRIBUTE TO THE DOYLES AND PEOPLE OF MARGAREE

This article was published in The Maple Leaf, Vol. XXI - No. 1, Oakland, California, January 1927, of which I have a photocopy. The author was a native of Friar’s Head, Inverness County, Nova Scotia. TheMaple Leaf was a monthly publication “Devoted to the interests of Canadians at Home and Abroad”. The editor and publisher was M.A. McInnis. There was also a “Maple Leaf Club” in Oakland. The article is transcribed here exactly as it was published. AWM

After Forty Years

by Richard E. Delaney, M.D.

Forty years make quite a difference in one’s lifetime, does it not? A short while ago I was not a little surprised and glad in this distant part of California to meet the daughter of a very popular and well known family of Margaree Forks, Cape Breton, whom I had not seen for forty years. This is no other than Mrs. John McFarlane, whose maiden name was Agnes Doyle. There are few people throughout the Maritime Provinces but what have heard of the Doyles of Margaree. While at Riverside on this occasion I was visiting the priest of the parish and I happened to mention to him Mr. and Mrs. John McFarlane of Riverside. “Yes,” said the priest, “they are members of my parish, and most excellent people they are.” Now this was coming from a clergyman who did not know that I knew the family for forty years. When I told him Mrs. McFarlane came from a family who gave two priests and two nuns to the world he was not in the least surprised.

Forty years ago the writer remembers when she was a little girl who would climb to her daddy’s lap, and daddy was very fond of her as he was of all his children. The Agnes Doyle of forty years ago had five little sisters and four brothers, and is it not interesting to know or to read here what has become of them all in all these years?

Mary is now Sister Mary St. Columba, and is in the Community of the Good Shepherd Convent at Quinpool Road, Halifax. Henrietta is Sister St. Michael in Hotel Dieu, Chatham, New Brunswick. Teresa is Mrs. Jos. Powers, Springfield, Mass. Emma is the accomplished wife of Dr. Miller, New Waterford, Cape Breton, and Sarah is Mrs. John S. MacDonald, also living at New Waterford. Two of the boys became priests. Rev. Dan. Doyle is now the parish priest of Louisburg, Cape Breton. Rev. John O’Neil Doyle was pastor of a parish at Little Rock, Arkansas, until he was taken ill. He returned to Margaree and died, surrounded by his family. What a loss he was to the church and his good parents. Another son, Bertram, married a Miss Kelley of Springfield, Mass. And passed away in that city a few years ago. Michael, the youngest, is on the old homestead and is doing well.

Mrs. John McFarlane, the subject of this sketch, was a school teacher in Sydney for a number of years before she married, and her fine personality made her popular with everyone.

Who will deny at this day, then, that Matthew Doyle of Margaree who brought up so respectable a family, has every reason to feel happy in his old age. Am pleased to learn he feels quite young and active at the age of 83 summers. He lives at New Waterford with one of his married daughters. I am glad to write of this good old friend after forty years. He often stayed at my father’s place at Friars Head, in his journeys to Cheticamp, years ago, and he was the best of company. So, my meeting his daughter in Riverside brought home to me many memories of the past. I wish I could hear his baritone voice once more. He was a salesman and a tanner of most excellent leather.

Mr. and Mrs. John McFarlane live in the pleasant part of Riverside and are very comfortable. My meeting this happy couple in far away California was as if I had been visiting my native home of Friars Head after an absence of years. John McFarlane is a son of the well known Malcolm McFarlane of Inverness. During the pleasant visits I had with them, I was happy to learn that James Doyle of Grand River, Newfoundland, is hale and well at the splendid age of 86 years.

As he is an uncle to the subject of this letter, I have all the more pleasure of writing a few deserving words about him. There are many sons and daughters of Margaree, now scattered far and near, who owe their start in the intellectual and professional world to this earnest teacher of other days. He was a teacher who inspired as well as instructed. He was one of the pioneer settlers of Grand River, Nfld., and he pointed the way to many settlers in that valley. He had much influence in the Newfoundland government, He was always known as a most excellent neighbor. He too, brought up a very respectable family. The presence of this pioneer teacher and social leader every summer in Margaree of late, therefore, must bring gladness and cheer to the heart of those who knew him as a teacher. The recollections of his educational work of fifty years ago and his students who represent the various professions, must give him much satisfaction now while he is spending the evening of his life where he first lived.

Mrs. McFarlane informs me that her venerable uncle comes back to Margaree every spring and spends the summer with his old friend Michael Coady at the Forks. Mark Twain used to wish his friends a long life by saying “May your years be long and broad,” and that is what I say to James Doyle.

It is well that this good old teacher should read in print that he has thousands of friends scattered in Canada and the United States who still think of him and respect him. And that is why I am penning this humble effort of mine.

I suspect that the original Doyles, Coadys, McGarrys and Tompkins of Margaree came from County Kerry, Ireland, because their families have given so many priests and nuns to the world.

Don’t think for a moment that the picturesqueness of Margaree Valley alone, nor the excellent salmon fishing with rod and line, is what attracts tourists from abroad. It is the kind of people I have tried to describe in this letter. Ask the American people who visit Margaree every summer if I am right. Ask Rev. Father McDougall, the distinguished Chaplain of Margaree Forks parochial school, if I am exaggerating. I like to remember this venerable scholar of other days. It is wonderful how the “old timers” come back to Margaree. I am glad to learn from Mrs. John McFarlane that Rev. Father Finlay Chisholm of Southwest Margaree is still active at the splendid age of 80 years.

Modesty, decency and hospitality are perhaps the three words that describe Margaree best.

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AWM Note: The Doyles and Tompkins hailed from County Wexford, southeast Ireland; the Coadys from Tipperary (south central), and Dennis McGarry was allegedly born in Dublin (east central). County Kerry is on the southwest corner of Ireland.