Odds ‘n’ Sods — Little Johnny: An unsung hero remembered

On my trips up north, I try to keep in touch with various of the now-old-timers with whom I worked in the Timmins camp of Ontario during the 1930s and ’40s. Lately, however, there have been fewer personal visits than there have been trips to graveyards.

I recently chanced upon Johnny Nadeau’s plot in a cemetery and became filled with fond memories of a great little guy (he never weighed more than 100 lb.) who left his mark on northern Ontario. Johnny was born in Cobalt, where he received his public school education, but graduated from high school in Montreal after his family relocated. In the top 5% of his class, he spoke and wrote French and English flawlessly. His father became mechanical superintendent at a paper company in Espanola, Ont., and Johnny was hired at Inco in Sudbury, becoming a “high rigger” and working mainly on smelter stacks.

In 1931-32, the railroad was being constructed from Cochrane to Moosonee, and Johnny was employed as a steelworker on the large Moose River bridge. In the winter months, the fierce winds that came up the river from James Bay (Johnny called it “the Bay Jim”) made steel erecting especially dangerous. One day, he was heating rivets when a gale force wind blew him off the bridge. His co-workers figured he would be smashed on the ice and rocks below, but, as fate would have it, Johnny was blown sideways onto the roof of the compressor building. He landed flat on his back, without any broken bones but with one ear pressed up against the hot exhaust pipe of an engine. This caused him to lose part of an ear lobe, and, naturally, he suffered a sore back as well, but in a few days Little Johnny was back heating rivets.

Upon completion of the bridge, Johnny started work at the Paymaster mine near Timmins. We worked together there until he went on to help erect the Pamour operation. He followed with construction of Hallnor and Aunor, and stayed on at the latter as my assistant.

During my term in the navy, he took my place and, in the post-war period, became a mechanical superintendent on a large construction job in the Ottawa Valley. Fate, however, saw fit to intervene on this project, for one sad day, after the weekly blast was detonated, Johnny was hit by a flying rock. He died instantly.

Cobalt has produced some excellent men and little Johnny Nadeau rated with the best. May he rest in peace.

— A.E. Alpine, a frequent contributor to the column, resides in Boyertown, Pa.