Autobiography of Nettie Covey Sharpe
New Horizons
I’ll tell you about the first time I went to Quebec City.
You know that at home, at Woburn, there was lots of fishing. There were many small lakes. There were two fishing clubs, one of which was on the other side of the Canada-U.S. border; but there was also Lac des Araignées. There was a clubhouse there, the Arnold Fish and Game Preserve, nicknamed “Arnold Bog”. The people there came from New York, from the DuPont Corporation, a big financial house on Wall Street. At the time, the people who came to that club were brought there by my father. He was the one who took them down to the lake and who often went to pick them up at the station in Sherbrooke.
On this one particular day, there were two couples who wanted
to be driven to Quebec City. I was fifteen years old at the time [1922],
and I had never been there before. I remember it very well. They asked me if I would like to come along. “Ah, yes!” It was all very new to me. I couldn’t believe it! I had never been away from home before.
I was particularly affected by the narrow dirt roads, the small houses of the Beauce. It’s a completely different type of house, you know. I had never seen anything like it, and I found it all quite charming. Not only that, but there were also many types of calvaires [roadside shrines]: big ones, all glassed-in, with four or five statues inside. I had never seen anything like that, either! And we saw all sorts of wayside crosses and lots of small grottoes. Ah, yes! I found it all lovely.
We drove the guests right to the Château Frontenac and took out their bags. Then my father said, “Now, we’ll have to have lunch before we return. We are going to have lunch at the Château. In the main dining room.” It was summer. The windows were open and there was a lovely breeze. It was so nice at the Château Frontenac. I will remember it always. My father also said to me, “Now, when we go back, don’t tell your mother we had lunch at the Château.” Because she was Scottish, so it was always all about money, and it would have been, “You had no business going there . . .”
I will remember it always, and the impression it made on me. Particularly down below, where there are boats and the crossing to Lévis. All those little French houses — narrow, with four or five storeys — in Old Quebec. Ahhhh! It was all so beautiful!
Gallery
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Carl Covey, Nettie’s father, was a good builder. He constructed two large houses to welcome visitors, one of which served as a hotel.
CMCC Archives
2002-F0008.35
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American members of the Arnold Fish and Game Preserve, commonly called “Arnold Bog”, in transit here, posed with their employees and the Coveys, 1922.
Taken from a photo album, “Arnold Bog 1922”, Collection of Nettie Covey Sharpe
CMCC Archives
2002-F0008.36
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Taking pictures in a wagon pulled by oxen, Woburn, ca. 1922.
From a photo album in the collection of Nettie Covey Sharpe
CMCC Archives
2002-F0008.37
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Purchases could be made at Rich’s, ca. 1922. From a photo album in the collection of Nettie Covey Sharpe.
CMCC Archives
2002-F0008.38
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Members of “Arnold Bog” arrive at the main lodge of the hunting and fishing club, ca. 1922.
From a photo album in the collection of Nettie Covey Sharpe.
CMCC Archives
2002-F0008.39
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Interior of the main lodge at the Arnold Fish and Game Preserve, a private club for executives from the DuPont Company.
Dr. Fred A. Wardenburg — founder of the club and one of its most energetic members.
Courtesy of David Covey
CMCC Archives
2009-H0015.1.5.3.6
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Houses with mansard roofs and dormers, Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, 1918.
Marius Barbeau
CMCC Archives, Marius Barbeau fonds, no. 43467
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House with mansard roof, Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, 1918.
Marius Barbeau
CMCC Archives, Marius Barbeau fonds, no. 43466
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Where roads intersected, people raised crosses, often topped with roosters. This one is decorated with the instruments involved in the Passion of the Christ, including a hammer, tongs, a spear and a crown of thorns. A small niche with a saint would have completed the roadside shrine. Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, 1918.
Marius Barbeau
CMCC Archives, Marius Barbeau fonds, no. 45893
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The Quebec docks with the Canada Steamship Lines cruise ship
Richelieu in the foreground, and the Château Frontenac in the background, ca. 1930.
CMCC Archives, Marius Barbeau fonds, no. B562-7-7-001
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The Champlain Market at the port of Quebec, ca. 1930 — handpainted lantern slide.
Juliette Gaultier de la Vérendrye
CMCC Archives, Marius Barbeau fonds, no. E2002.42-730-6-4-LS
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Rue Sous-le-Cap in Quebec City, ca. 1930 — handpainted lantern slide
Juliette Gaultier de la Vérendrye
CMCC Archives, Marius Barbeau fonds, no. E2002.42-730-6-1-LS
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Notre-Dame-des-Victoires church in lower Quebec City, 1951.
CMCC Archives, Marius Barbeau fonds, no. B568-9-1-001
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