Cobourg resident recalls role in Springhill relief efforts
November 4, 2008
Reprinted from Northumberland Today
Cobourg octogenarian Mary Corbett observed a date last week that was significant to the entire country -- the 50th anniversary of the Oct. 23, 1958, Springhill mining disaster.
The underground earthquake at the Nova Scotia facility was the most severe disaster of its kind in North American mining history in what was then one of the deepest coal mines in the world.
The cave-in turned into everyone's vigil, as it was the first major international event to appear live on the CBC. Hampered by rock slides and debris, rescuers brought out survivors over a matter of days. Contact was established with a group of 12, who were saved at about 2 a. m. Oct. 30, for example. A final group was found in early November.
Of 174 miners on the site when disaster struck, 74 were lost, devastating the small community.
As a leader of a St. Peter's Anglican Church women's group, Miss Corbett took it upon herself to do something for the children of the lost miners. The church agreed to advance her some $25 for her efforts, and she decided to buy dolls, make clothes for them and ship them out. Everyone opened their hearts to help her in her plan.
"We bought 18 dolls, and I was worrying about material (for doll clothes)," she recalled. "I went to the Fashion Shop owned by Moe Margles and I was talking about the project, and Moe overheard it. He walked up and said, 'Mary, don't you worry about material. I'll get it for you.'"
Mr. Margles went to the Toronto garment district and presented Miss Corbett with a dress box packed with the most fabulous fabrics and laces imaginable.
Miss Corbett organized her group of about 15 women (of whom only she and Gladys Mouncey remain). They would meet weekly to work on their project for about five weeks, during which time the word spread.
Mustard Dobkin, owner of Durham Furriers, donated three furs his customers had brought in to trade in on something newer.
Bruce Walker, owner of The Book Mark, gave her a bunch of teddy bears he couldn't sell that were a bit dusty but otherwise OK. Miss Corbett set one of the non-sewers in her group to cleaning them up with a mixture of cornstarch and talcum powder, and they came out looking in mint condition.
A scruffy man appeared at her door with some Tonka toy trucks and backhoes that, with a little spit and polish, would have delighted any boy. Dizzy Prentice, who owned a garage on William Street, set to work repairing and repainting them until they looked fresh off the showroom floor.
For sheer effort, she would have to cite Marjorie Pewtress, who'd gotten top prizes in washing and ironing at Whitby Ladies' College. She worked hard on the outfit of a donated doll, a pink-and-blue organdy dress, pants and bonnet. She washed and dried and ironed them in Miss Corbett's kitchen until they were perfect -- it took three washings, dryings and ironings to get the crease out of the bonnet brim, but she eventually triumphed.
The population of beautifully dressed dolls grew weekly, each with a spare outfit as well, filling the Corbett couch fuller and fuller. Their black spaniel Smudge even did his part, guarding the dolls against any non-family member who tried to take a look.
Miss Corbett was aware of the worries of many miners' widows that their children would have nothing for this very bleak Christmas, so she made sure to ship off what they had in time for the holidays -- 75 pounds of toys in all, she said.
She would make her own trip to Springhill five years later, visited the Springhill Miners Memorial and had the privilege of meeting Maurice Ruddick, one of the trapped miners who kept his colleagues' spirits up for more than a week with hymns and encouragement.
"He even told the fellows, 'You have to drink your own urine because we're out of water,'" she added. "Nobody realized they were there. It was 10 days or so before anyone heard them pounding on a pipe."
It was only three years ago she heard that the response to the Springhill disaster inspired the founding of the Primate's World Relief Fund -- which is celebrating its 50th anniversary -- so that there could be a quick response to other emergencies.
"In actual fact, we were part of that!" she said proudly. Though she spearheaded the effort, she insists the credit belongs to everyone who pitched in -- especially her ladies' group. "I may have organized it, but they did the work," she said.
Miss Corbett has lost a lot of the letters she had in regards to the project, but she still has a lot of the photographs that were taken of the growing doll population, the toys being taken away by the CN Express truck, the train leaving to carry them east from Cobourg, the Cobourg Salvation Army volunteers in their tents passing out coffee and food.
She also cherishes photos of the Springhill children's faces lighting up as they received the Christmas toys they hadn't dared hope for. One of her favourites is the little girl holding up the doll dressed in the outfit Marjorie Pewtress worked so hard on -- the crease somehow back in the bonnet so that the hat brim was bent over the doll's face.