Tributes
Whatever Happened to Ambroise Meunier?
The Low Down to Hull and Back News, May 16, 1985
For a number of years, Ambroise Meunier was likely one of the best known men in West Hull - and for good reason. He could either tow you out of the ditch, put you in jail, or maybe even both!
Ambroise was born at the time of the First World War in Farm Point, Quebec. In those days the village boasted a couple of mills, a few factories, a hotel, a big power plant supplying electricity far and wide, plus all the makings of a thriving place. And so it was for over 30 years. Shortly after the stock market crash, the local dam burst and the river was flooded by the opening, or more properly closing, of the Chelsea Power House. Only the Akan Plant kept things going.
Ambroise's father came from the Lac Phillippe area and his mother was from Duclos. She was the cook for Freeman Cross, and his Dad jobbed for him. Freeman was one of the builders of the big Cross mill and assorted other enterprises associated with this local baron.
Ambroise was a witness to the beginning of the downfall of the Cross empire. Freeman's power plant used the waters of Meech Creek to turn its turbines. The dam holding back this cascade was about 75 feet high, concrete on the front with the back shouldered by large rocks. Well something went wrong, according to Ambroise: "It was late April, early May, I was about 17 years old, and we were having breakfast in our house which was close to the dam. It was about 6.30 a.m. We heard rocks falling. My father, brother and I, ran out to see what was happening. Men were on the dam trying to get the stop logs, or drops, out.
"We saw the dam start to move. We yelled at the men and they jumped clear, just in time. It took only about ten seconds and it was all swept away. A four foot diameter pipe flew about 90 feet through the air, took the side off one of the mill buildings, the one housing the business files. Then the blacksmith's shop came floating down, hit the bridge and took it away. A tall pine tree on the side of the hill came sailing by, and a big chunk of ice from up the creek swept down on the power house and took out its thick concrete and mesh walls."
The collapse of the town's main industry, coupled with the depression, meant hard-times for Farm Point and its working men.
"My brother who was 11 years old at the time would walk the five miles with me back to the Meech Creek to cut wood. We would cut two-and-a-half cords a day with a crosscut saw, at $1 a cord. We had lots of bread to eat, with lard and brown sugar. When I was cutting alone in the bush I would tie heavy wedges to the end of the saw with baling wire, just to keep it weighted down. Sometimes I'd go back in the bush after eating and cut cedar logs by lantern light. There was nothing else to do."
Jobs were pretty scarce those days, and Ambroise, like everyone else, would take what he could get. He managed to find a job driving a truck for Freeman Cross. He remembers that it was an International C35 six-cylinder, with a 20-foot trailer that could hold eight cords of slab wood. The pay was $1 per day, but the day always seemed to last about a day and a half!
In 1939, Ambroise was working on the boats for Gatineau Boom, when in November, just before he was about to be laid off, he was asked by Ebert Morrison to drive a truck for him at the Akan Plant. The shift was three eight-hour stretches. Once, Ambroise remembers, he wanted to catch a little shut-eye while a big hopper filled with dust from the crusher. Unfortunately his alarm didn't go off and the hopper overflowed leaving him to shovel his way out of the place. The wages on that job were 45 cents an hour. After four years' experience, he got an extra three cents an hour.
Being known as a hard worker got Ambroise a job with Ross Meagher, a big Ottawa construction company. He worked on the Government Energy Mines and Resources buildings on Booth street until he decided to come back and work in Farm Point.
A lot of West Hull residents who were around in the late 1950s and early 1960s will remember Ambroise on at least two counts. He could well have plowed your driveway with his trusty jeeps, or pulled you out of a snowbank with his tow-truck in his capacity as owner of Meunier's Garage and its 24-hour towing service on Highway 105 at Farm Point. Or, he just may have stopped you for speeding, as he was Hull West's only police constable, and latterly the chief of the one-man department. He was, of course, the one-man. Incidentally, Ambroise sold out to Del McCambley who operates at the old stand as a body repair shop and towing service.
Ambroise tells some pretty hairy tales about death and destruction on Highway 105. The blood and gore was much the same back then as it is today. He remembers having a backyard full of 30 or more wrecks accumulated over just one winter. He even admits to being pretty sick after helping out at the scene of some more messy accidents.
Once in a while he would have trouble collecting his towing charges - a modest $12 for a past-midnight call. He recalls once being called down to Burnett Road to tow a chap out of the ditch. The guy wouldn't pay Ambroise his money, and a fight ensued. Shots were fired and the provincial police arrested the guy, but not before Ambroise had the foresight to block the exit road with his plow.