Can you help former resident compiling family's history here?

SooToday.com has received the following letter from a loyal reader with deep roots in this area who is now living in southwestern Ontario:

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Tier family history request

This being the 100th anniversary of the city of SSM, I am compiling a Tier family history and am looking for some memories of my family from the Sault and surrounding area.

My family is the Tier family and we have resided in the Sault North area for many generations.

Did you know that there was a Tier Lake north of the Sault?

Did you know that when Tarentorus was still an adjacent township to the city that there was a one room school house at the top of the Landslide Hill?

My mother, Hilda Tier, taught at that school house ...and later in life Gord and Hilda lived on the Fish Hatchery Road with a number of us young guns going to G.M. Johnston Public School.

In fact we bought and lived in G.M.’s (George Martin's) century-old farm house on the Fish Hatchery Rd ... before that was a cool thing to do.

“Us young guns” included Peggy, Lois, David, Ray, Paul, Dan (myself) and Susan.

Prior to living in G.M.'s old house, we lived in a small place Gord built on Morin Street adjacent to the North Street ballpark.

Our Uncle Frank Tier was a long time employee of Algoma Steel and lived with his wife Doris over on Bush Street.

Our Uncle Stafford Tier was a stone mason, after returning from WW II, and lived at the corner of Malabar and Willow, with his wife Verna.

Our Aunt Jessie (the boys' sister), married Jack Mullins and also lived on Bush Street ... near St. George's Ave.

One of Dad's cousins, and partners in crime, was his cousin Cy Thayer .... whose family owned Thayer Lumber (I think still run by cousins Tim and Joel) ... also known for Thayer's Acres,( the Boy Scout's home), Hiawatha Park, (where Gord got one of his first teenage summer's jobs) .... and how many of you know of Thayer's Fish Hatchery ... the old one off of the Fifth Line.

I went fishing there as a youngster and learned the first rule of bear etiquette ... run like hell!!!

We had a family camp at the far end of Pine Shores Road in Goulais Bay ... not far from the mouth of the Cranberry Creek.

There were many summer memories spent with the Smythe, Baldwin, Stadniski and Kennedy families ... as well as others ... on the sandy shores of Goulais Bay long before there were power or plowed roads.

It is also where Gord and Hilda retired in the early 70s.

Our Goulais ties always ran deep and Lois (Gareau) and her family and Paul and his family both resided there for periods of time.

Uncle Frank, and his family, also had camp property at Blue Water Bay.

My father's life was heavily involved with the families of the communities north of the Sault extending all the way to Pancake Bay and the McGovern family, who rented cabins there.

He was also very connected to the Haviland Bay McAuleys.

The story was that Mary McAuley had been severely hurt by a horse kick and was in dire straights when a group of men (including my father) took her by horse-drawn sleigh from Haviland Bay to Sault Ste. Marie for medical attention.

Anyone who remembers Mary McAuley remembers the limp she had had from a bad leg.

So now let's get down to it.

These are events as I remember them and as have been told to me.

I would very much appreciate any knowledge that you have of my family ... their life in days gone by ... any lore you may know of them ... any stories involving them ... and your own personal remembrances and fibs .... lies ..... truths .... whatever!!!

I would especially like to hear from the Thayer and McAuley families and any of your memories and knowledge of the interconnection of our heritage.

To me, it is especially significant in this centennial year of the City of Sault Ste. Marie.

Please feel free to contact me by e-mail, or mail to Dan Tier, 12 Selkirk Court, Kitchener, ON  N2E 1M3, with any information you might be able to share.

- Dan Tier

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