The following letter dated 13 March 1927 has been received by Mrs Edward Moreshead, of Coleman, from her grandson, Astor Byron MacLean, of Hyde Park, Massachusettts, and now of Tela, Honduras...The Pioneer, 2 April 1927.

“Mr MacLean, who was born in Coleman and served overseas in the first World War, Canadian Expeditionary Forces, now occupies a prominent position with the United Fruit Company of Honduras, Central America. The winter months he refers to is about six weeks of almost continual rain.”

He writes, “I suppose you are looking forward to spring now. Our winter weather is over with and we have entered the hot season again. Seems pretty hot this year. I am doing a little hunting occasionally, but the mosquitoes back in the jungle are terrible and if one expects to get much they must be on the hunting grounds at night, early morning or late evening.”

“Turkey are plentiful, if one gets out the right time of day. Wild hog are also plentiful, also another kind of animal whose flesh if something like a hog’s, but better. There are a lot of deer in certain places. They are hunted mostly with lights at night. We brought in a 25 pound ‘tipisquinty’ that made very fine eating.”

“I killed a seven foot snake and a baboon. I only wanted to kill one baboon. I draw the line at shooting monkeys. There are thousands of parrots in the woods here. There hasn’t been a good duck season since the first year I was here.”

“I expect to be up to P. E. Island on vacation in September and if there is anyone going down over the road I surely want to go along. Been working pretty hard since getting back from my last vacation.”

Kildare Cape Native Dies in Florida, 1927...The Pioneer, 5 March 1927.
“With the passing of Fred W Ruggles on 25 January 1927 at Umitalla, Florida, another of our successful Islanders abroad has ended a long and busy life. Mr Ruggles was eighty-seven.”

“Mr Ruggles was born at Kildare Cape on 10 May 1840, the eldest son of Charles W Ruggles and Eliza Travers. He joined his father’s family in Nova Scotia at the age of fifteen, returning to the Island later with his bride, Mary R McPherson, of Milton, NS. He spent a number of years in Alberton and also in Summerside, where a few old friends will remember him.”

“He also spent some time in Cambridgeport, MA; then he went to Syracuse, Kansas and finally, on account of failing health, to Florida in 1921, where the end came after a short illness. He leaves a widow and five children namely, C F and Mrs G W Elliot in Umitala; Mrs W E Patton and B W of Kansas, and Chas E Ruggles, Boston, and also one sister, Mrs H E Weeks of New York City.”