The Osbourne family moved to the mining region from the east coast at the start of the boom. They were composed of the families of brothers Richard and Thomas. It is likely that they arrived by schooner and families arriving together often traveled by their own ship. They appear in both of the Baron’s towns first arriving in Betts Cove before following the German mine managers to Little Bay when the new deposit was discovered there. This would indicate that they had earned the respect of management and had adapted well to the mining trade.

Thomas was involved with illegal rum in Little Bay during the hight of the Temperance Movement there. He was among those found drinking at the McLean’s sheeban house during a police raid in July of 1886. He would be called to testify as a witness in this case in January of the following year.

In 1887 a New Line Road from Little Bay to Hall’s Bay was ran and many took the opportunity to build homes in the new area referred to as The Valley. Richard’s son John was now a working teenager himself employed at the mine and he took the opportunity to move out of his parent’s home in the main settlement. His house was on the south side of the new road about a mile from the shore. The new homes were said to have a neat appearance with care taken for their maintenance and flowers planted outside.

John would fall on hard times the year following. In January of 1888 he was working underground when he slipped and fell nearly 60 feet to a hard landing. One of his legs was broken. This wound was treated by Little Bay’s popular doctor from Ceylon – Lewis Joseph. Only six months later John’s new home was caught up in the fire which swept over the new houses in The Valley. At work underground he was unaware of the blaze as it happened and would have ascended from that subterranean darkness to discovery he’d lost everything he’d acquired.

The family left Little Bay for greener pastures when mining operations slowed in the 1890s and set their sights for the lands of America. They boarded a steamer heading south and had arrived in the state of Massachusetts by 1895.

Sources:

• The image included was posted to Facebook by Elaine Carbone Garrison. It shows Richard and his wife Mary in the foreground surrounded by their children.
• 1876 – Richard married Mary in St. John’s (MyHeritage)
• 1881 – Birth of Michael to Richard and Mary (MyHeritage)
• 1882 – Thomas and George Osmond appear on the Voter’s List for Little Bay Bight
• 1886 – In July a miner named Thomas Osbourn was witnesses to the police bust of the McLean bootlegging operation (TS, April 2, 1887)
• 1887 – In January a miner named Thomas Osbourn was among those called to court as witnesses to the police raid on the McLean bootlegging operation (Wells)
• 1888 – In January John Osbourne was working underground when he fell about 60 feet and broke ons of his legs in a mining accident (TS)
• 1888 – A fire broke out on June 6th which took nearly 30 houses in a new area of Little Bay referred to as The Valley. John Osbourne’s house was one of those that burned down (DC)
• 1889 – Thomas Osbourn on the Voter’s List
• 1895 – Richard moves to Massachusetts  (MyHeritage)
• The MyHeritage site referred is ran by Jerah Eve Terry