My grandmother, Jessie ( Nickle ) Wright, lived in North Prince from 1899 to 1906. When she was only three years old, Jessie's family left their home on the Manitoulin Island and came to North Prince to try their hands at farming. The Nickle family (Richard and Janet and four of their six children) settled near the corner of Sixth Line and Creek Road, within walking distance of Lake Superior. My grandmother was the youngest of the six children. Her two oldest sisters, Mary and Esther, had already left home, leaving Jessie, Annie, Albert and Jack.

"Nana" loved to tell stories of her days in North Prince. She and Annie had to find ways to amuse themselves while the boys helped their father with the farming and fishing. Not having a doll to play with, the girls would dress up their cat and could sometimes coax the calf to pull the cat around on a homemade sleigh.

A real treat for the family was to stop at the Conway house on the way home from a trip to town. The Conway house was known to be the most modern in the area. It had a "dumbwaiter" that lowered the milk and butter down into the cellar to keep cold. Such a modern convenience! This same Conway home has recently been relocated behind the Prince Township Museum, but the dumbwaiter is no longer there.

Other North Prince neighbours were the Tom Parrs, the Alec Wrights, the Allens, the Lefflers, the Alec Stewarts, the Allards, and the Carrols.

Dick Nickle was a fiddler and played at most dances in the Township. He was also a carpenter and was often called upon to construct a coffin when someone in Prince Township passed away. His wife, Janet, would line the wooden boxes with black muslin.

Times were hard in Prince Township in those days, but "Nana" claimed that these were some of the best days of her life.