by Cathy McKey

My great grandparents, Richard and Janet Nickle, and four of their six children, settled in North Prince in 1899. With dreams of becoming farmers, they left their home on the Manitoulin Island and traveled by boat to the Sault. Once here, they settled in North Prince near the corner of Sixth Line and Creek Road (within walking distance of Lake Superior.) Their nearest neighbours were the Tom Parrs, the Alec Wrights, the Allens, the Lefflers, the Alec Stewarts, the Allards, and the Carrols.

Richard (Dick) Nickle was a fiddler and played almost 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.

All four of their children (Jack, Albert, Annie, and Jessie) attended the Fifth Line School. They walked a mile to school, through the bush carrying their lunches in red metal lard pails. My grandmother, Jessie (Nickle) Wright, was the youngest of the children.

"Nana" loved to tell us stories of her days in North Prince. She often said that a real treat for her family was to stop at the Conway house on Third Line. The Conway house was known to be the most modern in the area. It had a "dumbwaiter" on ropes that lowered the milk and butter down into the cellar to keep cold. Such modern convenience! Part of this same Conway home has now been restored and relocated behind the Prince Township Museum on Second Line.

"Nana" (Jessie Nickle Wright) passed away in 1996 in her 100th year. Oh, the stories she could have contributed.

Although times were hard in Prince back in her day, "Nana" claimed that these were the best days of her life.