Peter Rupert | Aug 05, 2015


Arthur passed away on June 1st, 2015 at age 99. He was one of seven children born on Antoine Point in Sharbot lake. Arthur was a kind, humble man of many talents.

He was a master carpenter employed by the Allen Brothers Cottage & Livery business, located opposite the now

medical center. This was a thriving servicing business for fishermen and tourists at that time. Arthur moved on to

be the supervisor of a CPR bridge building team for many years. He also built homes and cottages in Sharbot Lake, Perth and Smiths Falls.

My father started coming to Sharbot Lake in 1938 with several fishing friends. We as a family started coming to Sharbot in 1946 and purchased Rupert Island, the small island just off the public beach in 1948. I was 12 years old when I met Arthur at the Allen Brothers location. At that time it was a very active place where you could rent cottages, boats, outboard motors, fishing guides, and purchase bait.

Being a young, impressionable city boy from Rochester, NY, Sharbot Lake with its steam engine trains, sawmill and a country store was a whole new world for me. Arthur was the man. He could do everything – repair boats, engines, fix minnow seines. As I watched him and asked questions, I was enthralled by what he could do. Arthur Antoine became my hero and lifelong friend.

In later years I visited him at his various residences and reminisced about his life in Sharbot Lake. One short story about Arthur goes like this. I asked him how he got to know the location of the deep shoals, which all fishermen desired to find to catch the big one. Arthur simply said, “Pete, my brother Fred and I simply took 25 feet of rope, tied a stone on it, and rowed around the lake, marking each one with sight lines on the shore.” Arthur was a master of all trades. He even mixed herbal plants for a medicine that he took when he was sick. That probably was the reason he lived to age 99.

Arthur Antoine will be missed by his family and his many friends. He was a kind and humble man of great integrity.

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