James Edward Lawton, ( Jimmy or Jim ) was the fourth child of Private Edward and Muriel Lawton. He was born during WWII when his father was serving as a volunteer soldier. Jimmy was born and bred on the Old Black River Road and has lived there, outdoors mostly, all of his life. He fed himself and the family from the land, starting as a young boy. He trapped weasels, martins and rabbits. He sold the pelts or the meat and put meat in our cooking pots. He fished trout and ate them boiled in the woods or brought a mess home for supper. Soon he was providing deer meat and moose meat for the family.

Jimmy lived outdoors, playing in the woodpile, in the watery ditches, skating on the pond, riding bikes to Mispec Stream, swimming in the lake on the Proud Road, camping in hand made camps in the middle of winter and eating small animals for weeks at a time. He made a camp well with dynamite, played with marbles, traded comics, listened to Boston Blackie, collected pop bottles, cut and sold Xmas trees, picked berries, knitted his own mittens, tamed a crow and lived for and in the woods.
Jim, walking.




Jimmy and Jimmy and Carole in Old Black River Road landscape.



My brother, Jimmy, is two years older that I. I worshipped him as a child. He was always busy outdoors and I was busy following him around. Jimmy was a born woodsman , hunter and fisherman. Both of us had bee-bee guns and we caused some trouble with them, shooting people in the backside and once shot a bird. Woolen pants protected our victims and we never shot a bird again, we were so sorry.

Jim graduated to a 22 and then to a rifle and shot-gun. He hunted deer in grade school. He set snares for rabbits and weasels; selling the rabbit meat and the pelts in the City market. We ate lots of rabbit stew. Jimmy had a pet crow that sat on his shoulder. It got run over in the road one day.

We built a log cabin in the woods complete with a roof and a door. Jimmy cleaned hundreds of little trout that we boiled in cans down Beyea's Brook. For Xmas, he cut and sold trees in King's Square. he stood alone, in the cold and the dark, trying to earn a few bucks.

We were always on the lookout for food. We used to sneak down cellar and eat preserved peaches. Then we hid the empty bottle in the back of the small, earthy, crawl space.We loved to get a pound cake from the store to share.

Jimmy was always building things such as wagons and carts. He would join in the scrub baseball games over at Stewarts but he could never catch the ball. He would spread his arms and his fingers wide as if he were trying to catch the whole world. He was all angles. He struck out, called Sonny Stewart names and got chased home.

As a kid, Jimmy played with his cousin, Charlie Lawton. We went to bed early to listen to Boston Blackie and Inner Sanctom on the radio, so Jimmy often had to jump out of bed when he saw Charlie coming across from Sprague's store. We kicked obout the road, playing cowboys, marbles, picking berries, biking to Mispec stream, hunting, fishing, or burning grass.

Jimmy loved to read and to trade comics. He traded marbles with me. he would get two big ones for one small black one that I called the black pretties. Jimmy was as black and shiny as these were.

We made sling-shots with sticks shaped like a Y and rubber strips. Home made bows and arrows came in handy. Snowball fights, snow tunnels and skating on the pond kept us busy. I saw " us" because where he went, so did I. We burned tires at the pond for heat and light and got mostly smoke.

When Jimmy became a teenager he had his own friends and would tease me. " What do you charge to haunt a house?" he would say. Sometimes he tempted me to put my hand in a hole with a snake in it or to drive down a dump on my bike.

Jimmy was the rebel without a cause in high-school and could have been a movie -star with his black hair with forelock and duck-tail. He looked cool and tough in jeans and jacket. He went to work early, returned to school, became a plumber and started his own business.

Jimmy married and raised a family and now has grandchildren. He still lives on the road he loves. Beaver Lake Fishing Club is dear to his way of life. He still fishes the little brooks and hunts the woods. He recorded all of his vast knowledge of the woods and of hunting and has written hunting stories for magazines.

On Monday, August 28, 2006, I went home with Jim to pass the time until the evening......






Jim as baby, boy and man.



















Jim at Crawfords Plumbing., back, 2nd from right.





to be continued


Page Links Reorganized