The Bell and the Book cover

The Bell and the Book
by Andrew Donald Clement

In early July 1923. after a long. hot day of haying. a young man reposes on the verandah steps while the cool breezes of the night soothe his tired bones. His older sister joins him and the conversation drifts to future plans. The suggestion is made that he enrol at North Bay Normal School where they not only pay students to attend but they also give them return train fare. Behind him is a cow. a bull or two, a couple of cranky horses. A manure fork and tools for farm repair; in front of him is a bright, perhaps gleaming future in education. So begins Andrew Clement's colourful career and his autobiography The Bell and the Book.

After four years in a couple of District bush schools and a brief interlude in Toronto. the government asks him to take on wheels. The reader is then carried away on a descriptive journey through Northern Ontario in its early years of development. In the pages of this book live the pioneers of the railway, their children, their survival techniques. . .and their outlaws.

Finally, as the sun slowly sets on railway school cars we are left with a legacy—the outstanding endurance and dedication of a unique breed of people who "rode the rails" to bring knowledge and understanding to the youth of the north.

Limited number of copies left from the former Highway Book Shop.

Go Here for Table of Contents

ISBN: 0-88954-315-1 | WMPub#1250 | 8½" x 5½" | Hard cover with dust jacket | 325 pages; 113 photos, maps and diagrams | $34.95


Table of Contents

viii In Appreciation

ix Introduction

Part I

1 Shaping of a Bell Ringer -North Bay Normal School

13 Bell Echoes in Miscampbell Woods -Finn and Kentish pioneers

41 Echo from Algoma Rocks

61 Toronto lnterlude

Part II

71 The Creation of a Railroading School

74 Bell and Book Takes Wheels

82 Bear Pass

90 Huronian -la famille Chenier

101 Keego -Jack Antoniuk‘s first day in school

115 Rocky Inlet -Fort Frances. route of the Voyageurs

139 Sapawe -sweet words from a backwood hand. Graham Harris; disturbing case of Albert Maki

156 Glenorchy -in the middle of shanty town

168 Elizabeth -a typical Zorba the Greek

172 A School Car Auxilliary

174 Crilly

175 La Seine

Part III

185 Move to C.N. Line -a bit of railroad history

190 Richan -homesteaders

204 Amesdale -more pioneers. a golden wedding

217 Niddrie -superman on the coal dock. Blackspit Mousseau

220 Morgan -we bring an infant home

223 Hudson

245 Malachi -Indian burial ground; Policeman of the prairies, I890

254 O.N.R. North Bay -new wheels for bell and book

260 Mulock -from trackman to roadmaster

265 Tomiko -vigours of travel on Old Tomiko Road

275 Redwater -Chateau Clement. a tarpaper castle; Dr. Dunning makes a call

290 Rib Lake -home of the Middaugh

292 Cobalt -"town that would not die"; Paddy Martin‘s piano takes wheels

302 Osborne -shades of Old Quebec. the Lacombes

307 Last Days -a school car fades into history; list of railway school car teachers

312 Epilogue -Convocation Hall