"Life in a company town was different from other towns; everyone’s dad worked for the same company and life revolved around the mine." The third of Joe and Margaret Baker’s eight children, Fran was born in the Cumberland hospital because there was no hospital in Bevan. She remembers a financially poor childhood made rich by the indomitable spirit and unwavering support of the men and women who were the foundation of a coal mining community in the North Island. Frances’ Story |
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“Dad was a logger at Comox Lake and then moved to Bevan in 1940 to mine. mum only had Joy and Joel then. I was born in April 1941; Jessie, Roberta, David, Judi-ann, and Evelyn followed. We had a house in Bevan, rent was seven to eight dollars a month, and we burned coal and wood at home. On payday, we bought two sacks of coal, the kids would go down to the slag pile to get the coal and the rest of the time we burned wood. “Dad took two sets of clothes with him to the mine - one to change into after work, he never came home dirty. I never went down into the mine, I did not want to. Kids were not always worried when their dad’s went to work because we did not know anything else, but we sure knew what it meant when the whistle blew and it was not lunch or quitting time.
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