I’ve been trying to find the story of Constable John Nowlan, Little Bay’s first police officer. I don’t think I’ve been overly successful. However, in the attempt I have found the context of his arrival and I think it tells another, broader tale of the town.

There’s a lot happening in Little Bay, politically speaking, in 1879.

That summer the town was just one year old but it was already boasting a population of 1500 people. I just want you to think about that. 1500 people where there were 500 six months earlier and 0 six months before that.

And these people are not moving into existing infrastructure. The physical town is growing with the population. This is being accomplished by a combination of local construction and transportation from their other mine at Betts Cove. At the same time industrial operations related to the Little Bay mine are underway including a functional tramway and a loading wharf which is already involved in shipping ore internationally.

Newfoundland newspapers are pushing Little Bay’s reputation as a site of well paid work offering a promising future.

Many of the first 500 people to arrive are German but they’ve also recruited men from elsewhere including England and Australia. Newfoundland born men seeking work start rushing into an already culturally diverse environment and included among them are French speakers from the north shore. So you have a variety of dialects and at least three languages spoken.

Now this isn’t their first go at this whole thing. Betts Cove came first and it isn’t gone yet, just shrinking. And there are other projects in the works.

Baron Ellershausen and Adolph Guzman are the main men behind this effort. To understand their endeavours in Little Bay one must look at the nature of their relationship and the other projects they are involved in. The Baron is overseeing expansion. He is involved politically in getting the northern mining region better connected. You find him involving himself in and pushing for telegraph communication and railways. He is located in Little Bay in the summer of 1879 but his attention is to a broader project. Guzman sees to the local management, accompanies prospecting parties to confer on larger finds, and relative to this story, he is serving as Justice of the Peace. Yes, you read that right.

Little Bay’s Mine Manager Adolph Guzman is simultaneously the Justice of the Peace for the Government. Now keep in mind this place has its own currency. You’re paid in money you can only use at places also owned by your employer. And your employer is also the highest ranking government official present. Now just imagine the level of Company-Town power centralization involved in this. If you have legal concerns about your boss you can report about your boss to your boss. We’ll see how well that goes.

Now, all of this is being ran without any official policing whatsoever. The nearest Magistrate is Peyton in Twillingate and he’s about a thousand years old at this point and only has a few months left to live. His constables were stretched thin by serving a massive area. For context his office in Twillingate was the closest one for Fogo.

They don’t seem to have bothered much with the German system in the northern mining region as by all accounts it was working fairly well. Harvey’s writing on Betts Cove highlights the lack of criminal activity. And Little Bay, despite its rapid expansion, is noted by the House of Assembly to have had only six offences committed since the town’s inception the previous year. The Germans ran a tight ship but remember your boss pays you in a currency you can only use at his store, you go home to a house he rents to you, and oh yeah, he’s also the government. It’s hard to fight against that.

They may have been attempting to enforce justice on non-employees as well based on a false imprisonment charge laid against Guzman by one Teresa Brien later that year. At the same time there is massive hypocrisy in this class system. It’s a dry town but the upper class drink. Social tensions were rising as Guzman became a target for assault. The workers were likely already organizing as the mine would see its first strike very soon.

There are comments made in the House of Assembly later that hint to problems arising from someone cohabiting the roles of Mine Management and Justice of the Peace. I don’t know which issue exactly made this apparent but allow me to flail wildly at the blatant conflicts of interest involved.

That’s the context. It’s under those conditions that on March 27th, 1879 Governor Glover announces J.B. Blandford’s appointment as Little Bay’s first Magistrate. A job that also makes him Justice of the Peace. Glover’s decision is one he apparently neglected to tell anyone about. It landed like a fart in the House of Assembly.

The first letter written from Little Bay by Magistrate Blandford is dated June 26th, 1879 and he is first listed in the Almanac for the position in 1880. Constable Nowlan is first found listed then as well. Taken together I think it’s reasonable to place Constable John Nowlan’s arrival in Little Bay in mid June of 1879.

Blandford’s early reports mention a lack of accommodations for them. There is debate back in St. John’s over funding Little Bay’s Magistracy, no doubt partially due to the Governor circumnavigating the house with the appointment, but the constabulary would eventually be moved into the Little Bay Hotel with rooms paid.

The Almanacs list Nowlan as the town’s only constable from 1880 to 1883, however, this might be a matter of rank opposed to his being alone. Wells writes of a Constable Dee attached to the station but I’ve found no other reference to him. As Little Bay has two policemen later it’s my guess that both Constables Nowlan and Dee arrived with Blandford.

If so the trio walked into a scene. William Bonner is charged with assaulting Mr. Guzman that month and there’s a miner’s strike the following month. The next year the German’s start the process of selling the mine which ends up socially messy, and by December departing ships had problems with stowaways escaping low employment. It’s not until March of 1882 that we even see talk of Little Bay getting a proper police station and the miners were on strike again in May of 1883.

I can tell you little about John Nowlan either genealogically or personality-wise. He acts at lease once at the Public Hall, performing the role of the detective in Little Bay’s Music and Dramatic Club’s rendition of “Every Inch a Gentleman” on March 12th, 1883. Almost every other reference I have to him comes from Sergeant Wells after he showed up August 3rd that year. Nowlan was away on the French Shore at the time which again speaks to the incredible range they had to serve. Wells’ entries over the remainder of that year mention Nowlan handing over the contents of the station and highlight several arrests made. Wells does little character appraisal but judging by his criticism of later Constables that might be a good indicator of Nowlan’s character. My last reference to Constable John Nowlan in town comes from the Twillingate Sun in January of 1884 referring back to an incident the previous month. Short of emergency, I don’t think it likely he moved over the winter so I’d guess he left in the spring of 1884. He is absent from the Almanac that year.

In July the Evening Telegram recounts an incident in St. John’s in which a Constable Nowlan had to intervene against another officer who was drunk and acting aggressive. Perhaps this act of policing a bad cop hindered his career in the field as I’ve found no other mention of him.

That’s all I’ve got. 

Please reach out if you know more and as always, thanks for reading!

Sources

I’m listing the sources below which mention Nowlan specifically. The other’s referenced for his context are mostly named above but if you’re looking for something particular let me know.

• 1879, Aug – Magistrate Blandford requests police accommodations (Monthly report)
• 1880 – Constable Nowlan in Little Bay (Almanac)
• 1881 – Constable Nowlan in Little Bay (Almanac)
• 1882 – Constable Nowlan in Little Bay (Almanac)
• 1883 – Constable Nowlan in Little Bay (Almanac)
• 1883, March – Constable Nowlan plays a detective in a play (TS)
• 1883, Aug 3 – Constable Nowlan away at French Shore when Sergeant Wells arrives (Wells)
• 1883, Aug 9 – Constable Nowlan returned from the French Shore (Wells)
• 1883, Aug 10 – Nowlan hand’s over barracks furniture (Wells)
• 1883, Aug 11 – Nowlan took the keys to the lockup with him to Shoal Arm (Wells)
• 1883, Aug 14 – Nowlan off sick at Little Bay Hotel (Wells)
• 1883, Aug 16 – Nowlan hands off the station’s diary to Wells (Wells)
• 1883, Sept 29 – They arrest St. Clare (Wells)
• 1883, Dec 13 – Constable Nowlan charged John Foley with violating the license act (TS, Jan, 1884)
• 1884, July – Constable Nowlan in St. John’s (ET)

I’ve been busy for the last several months moving my research into a program called Obsidian. It’s how I’ve been able to draw so much context together in this piece. It’s like having an external brain and lets me see how things are connected a lot easier. Allow me to show it off by posting a picture of what I’ve done with it so far – each point represents a source list on a given topic, date, or name. They get bigger as more connections are made. I’m right impressed. Anyway, have a gander, luh!