Phil Egan
One of my earliest memories, from about age four, was strolling through Veteran’s Park (then Victoria Park) with my two great-aunts.
Their names were Lily Rose and Frances Ellen Wigglesworth – hailing from the English half of my father’s family. They were in their early 50s, and both were working at the new Bell Telephone offices at the southeast corner of Brock and Lochiel streets.
It was an exciting time for the company in Sarnia. The new Digby and Edgewater exchanges had just been established. The booming postwar economy was spurring rapid growth in Sarnia, and telephone usage was growing with it.
But in early 1959, Bell employees observed a significant event. The very first Bell operator in Sarnia had passed away at the age of 90. Her name was Nancy Armenia Stuart.
Her family had lived on London Road, in what was then Sarnia Township, and her father, John B. Brown, was a township pioneer.
At age 16, Nancy came to the city to work for A.H. Dalziel – the local agent for the Bell Telephone Company. He had set up a telephone office at the back of his general insurance office on Front Street.
It was 1885, and the only Bell subscribers were doctors and druggists. Nancy was the only operator for the next eight years and her salary was a whopping $14 a month. Out of that amount, she paid $8 for room and board.
By 1893, Bell’s local subscriber list had grown to 30, creating the need for a new switchboard and second operator. In those early days of telephone service, the office closed at 8 p.m. Only the doctors and druggists’ lines were left connected through the night, in the event of an emergency.
Nancy was promoted to the position of chief operator and bookkeeper. Not long after, while earning a salary of $25 per month, she resigned to marry Harry R. Stuart. Their marriage would endure until 1930, when Harry passed away.
The couple raised two sons – R. Douglas and Howard. A daughter, Olive May, died in 1944.
In the mid 1920s, my great-aunts, Lil and Frances, joined the growing team of operators at the busy Bell switchboard. By then, the name Nancy Stewart was unfamiliar to the younger operators.
When Nancy Stuart died in 1959, she left five grandchildren and eight great grandchildren, so surviving family may still live in Sarnia. Nancy lived at 240 Brock Street S. at the time of her death.
If Nancy Stuart was a member of your family, and especially if a photo of Nancy survives in family albums, please contact this columnist at [email protected]