Dear Editor,

I have been a follower of your weekly piece “The Way We Were” since I moved here in 1972 after . . .

marrying Jack Lang. I always hoped that I would find an article that mentioned the Houston family ­– my maternal grandparents. The day came last week in the news of 125 years ago, June 13, 1985, in which there was a piece concerning the Houston boys capturing two bear cubs. Tom Houston was my grandfather.

The Houston family lived on Grand Calumet Island, then moved to a farm at the bottom of Stonewall Hill that later was owned by Nellis Stewart.

The Houston family all moved away. After their father’s death their mother moved to Cobden, Ont. and lived with her daughter, Mrs. R. McKibbon. The four brothers, including Tom’s wife Ellen Rosella Hill moved to Sault Ste. Marie to work on building the locks. In 1906 my grandfater, wife, and my mother Bernice moved to Haileybury in Northern Ontario where he worked in Cobalt building mine shafts during the silver rush. Later he purchased a farm in Earlton, Ont. My mother married Richard Bowman and lived in Thornloe, Ont. My family had never heard the story of the bagging of the bear cub.

Thanks for the memories.

Elaine Bowman Lang

Shawville, Que.