James S. Ramage’s Memoirs, Revisited

By Jazmine Aldrich

In the Spring 2006 issue of the Journal of Eastern Townships Studies (JETS), published by the Eastern Townships Resource Centre, historian Dr. Jack Little contextualized the memoirs of James S. Ramage in an article entitled “A Wilderness Boyhood: The Lake Megantic Memories of James S. Ramage, 1868–82” (pp. 5-22). In the article’s opening paragraph, Dr. Little acknowledged that it was uncertain whether the memoirs were complete, for they ended abruptly at the end of page fourteen. What Dr. Little could not have known, however, was that nearly twenty years later, the remaining twenty-four pages of Ramage’s incomplete memoirs would find their way to the ETRC’s archives.

On November 22, 2024, the ETRC received an email from Bernard Boulet of Marston, Quebec. Mr. Boulet explained that at the end of the 1990s, his uncle Georges Martin (son of Ernest Martin – longtime mayor of Marston) gave him a fourteen-page long document written by James S. Ramage, recounting stories of his upbringing around Lake Megantic. Mr. Boulet was likely unaware that a copy of the same document had been deposited into the ETRC archives by Robert Walters of Sherbrooke in 1994.

In the spring of 2024, Mr. Boulet decided to translate Ramage’s memoirs into French. On a whim, he called the municipal library in Marston to ask if they knew about Ramage’s story. Mrs. France Morin told him that the very same day of his call, someone had dropped a copy of Ramage’s memoirs in the book return. To Mr. Boulet’s great surprise, the copy at the Marston library included pages 15 to 38!

Jumping ahead, once more, to November 2024, Mr. Boulet offered to loan the complete document to the ETRC so that we could make a digital copy. Mr. Boulet’s granddaughter, a student of the campus, facilitated the loan. I scanned the document, which is 52 pages in total and includes handwritten notes added by an unnamed grandchild of Ramage, after his death; it also includes a photocopied newspaper clipping, a family roster, and a copy of a map showing Lake Megantic.

The version of the memoirs donated by Mr. Boulet in 2024 is by far the most complete. The original typewritten text is dated February 16, 1951, and a handwritten annotation below indicates “His story to 1951, and after writing that he continued to work and fish for another 5 years” – indicating that Ramage died in Spokane, Washington in December 1956.

As an added layer of intrigue, the handwritten annotations following the memoirs include a note indicating that the unnamed author “met Mr. Walters at Mario Lapoint’s B+B in town – He is from Sherbrooke – Very into history of the area”, so it would appear that Robert Walters, who donated the fourteen pages to the ETRC in 1994, was actually in contact with the descendant of Ramage who annotated the more complete copy.

The note about meeting Mr. Walters is followed by a copy of a letter to the same, which begins as follows: “Recieved [sic.] your letter and will try to give you lots of information – Been looking thru [sic.] old family books ets. [sic.]”; it is in this letter that the author reveals themselves to be the grandchild of James S. Ramage. The plot thickens!

The photocopied clipping seems to originate from an Idaho Springs, Colorado newspaper; it is a biographical write-up and obituary for James D. Ramage – James S. Ramage’s father, who died September 24, 1900.

Rather unexpectedly, our knowledge of James S. Ramage’s life has more than doubled; the remainder of his memoir speaks of life following the Ramage family’s move to the mid-western United States, business ventures, becoming a father, the death of his siblings, and more. We have a more complete picture of Ramage’s life because of Mr. Boulet, who seeks to make this story known. If you are interested in reading James S. Ramage’s memoirs, or if you have archival materials of enduring value, please contact the Eastern Townships Resource Centre’s Archives Department.