We lived in the village of Tilley, NB. It was located in the Upper St. John River Valley about an hour and a half drive from the New Brunswick/Quebec border. My dad was a ferryman on the river between two rural villages, Tilley on the east bank and Morrell Siding on the West Bank. The about 1944 photo shows my dad standing on the unloading ramp/apron after it had docked on the West Bank.

Our home was on the east bank and can be seen in the photo. Beside the house was a summer kitchen for we had only a wood stove in our home. You can also see the road down to the ferry and the barn at the top of the hill. I only knew the barn as a storage space. The ferryboat was built on flat land beside the bank of the river not far from our back yard.

As a child I remember the boat being built. A lot of hot pitch was used to waterproof the planks of wood used in the construction. As I and my friends would frequently visit the construction site the workmen would treat us to some of the hot pitch. After it had cooled down we would use it as chewing gum. It is a wonder we did not die of cancer! After the boat was built it was launched by raising one side with jacks and it would slide on logs (positioned on the bank of the river) into the river.

The ferry boat was basically a barge with a loading and unloading ramp/apron. It had two windlasses consisting of a frame, wooden horizontal reel/drum and a wooden steering wheel attached to the reel. About a 1/4″ cable was wrapped around the reel of each windlass. There was another cable about 1 and 3/4″ that was overhead and was anchored to the hillside on either side of the river. On it sat a moveable pulley with a u-shaped bolt attached to either side of the pulley at its centre. The cable from each of the windlasses passed over the bottom of the u-shaped bolt and was clamped to itself.

The boat had no motor and was totally dependent on the current of the river for its power. In those days dad could carry three cars. Once the cars were loaded dad would raise the ramp and anchor its arms with a sliding wrought iron ring. He would manually push the boat out into the current with a long wooden pole. Once in the current he would adjust the tension (tighten or loosen) on the cable in each of the windlasses. In this way he would angle the boat to take advantage of the current to propel the boat forward. Once landed dad would let the ramp down to allow the car(s) to leave.

The government of New Brunswick installed the ferry in 1896. My dad was one of three ferrymen to operate the ferry from 1913-1952. In 1956 the ferry was replaced by a bridge about 10 miles upriver. This bridge was the old bridge across the river at Perth-Andover. I lived in Tilley from 1937-47. I have very pleasant memories of my dad’s ferryboat and my stool (made to measure from a log!) on the boat. I hope you have enjoyed meeting my dad (Barney) and his ferryboat.

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A note from Paul Baker, SJ: “An aside, my father’s mother was Priscilla Monteith. She was one of Canada’s first citizens having been born on July 1, 1867. My dad was her first child and the last to be born in the pioneer log cabin in Tilley, NB.”

Source for photos: Paul Baker, SJ