TRANSCRIPTInterview of Eddie Duke by Marlene Gamble July, 2003
There were two gentlemen who were working on the railway. One was Morris Breland and the other was Jack Kussner. They were approached by another gentleman working on the railway at the time, this takes place around 1914, I would say between 1912 and 1914. I don't have the dates exactly but anyway, they were approached by a Mr. Perkus, also working, they were just working as roustabouts on the railway carrying ties and rails and working hard, and he approached them and said that he had a family in Romania. He had a father and mother there and two daughters. He said, "The two daughters would make wonderful wives for you." They were at the right age and of course in those days weddings were arranged and this was not unusual. He said, "You know, if you like the girls they would make wonderful wives for you. If you will help me to bring them over from Romania, if you will give me enough money to send them tickets, they will come over here and maybe something - maybe weddings will happen, you know." So anyway, Jacob Kussner and Morris Breland agreed to supply him with the money to bring his family over. They were some place in Romania, in the Russian Pale of Settlement in to Romania. And they did come over. They came over and came all the way to North Bay and in North Bay they went to . . . What's that point in the southern end of the lake? Mattawa. And in Mattawa they got on a boat and came all the way up Lake Temiskaming by boat.
In those days, that's the way people came north. The boat in those days used to go as far as Tomstown. Now, Tomstown was about twenty miles, I think, from Krugerdorf by river. They decided to finish the rest of the trip and to join Mr. Kussner and to join Mr. Breland at Tomstown. They would come by boat. Now, I don't really know what kind of a boat it was but whatever it was it was overloaded. That's a long paddle from Tomstown down the Blanche River to Krugerdorf, and on the way they tipped the boat. Mr. Perkus, who was bringing his mother and father and the two daughters, was drowned and his father was drowned but his mother was saved and she eventually lived in Kirkland Lake for many years until she died. She was later buried in Krugerdorf. Morris Breland and Jacob Kussner married the two Perkus daughters. They were beautiful girls. I met them both. More or less I knew them all of my life. They treated me as if I was a part of the family. Wonderful people. They married and raised families.
Morris Breland and Jacob Kussner formed a company, a partnership, and they named it Perkus Limited in honour of their father-in-law. |
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