Posts - Page 11 of 15 - The History of Little Bay

Little Bay’s Food Culture

In this piece I'll demonstrate how the food supply of the late 19th century town of Little Bay, Newfoundland was embedded in the larger colonial shipping system. Little Bay was a company town which grew out of a mining boom in Northern Newfoundland. It had a population that peaked at just over 2,200 making it one of the island’s largest centres. Between its founding in 1878 and its destruction by fire in 1903 it was the main copper producer in Newfoundland and one of the largest in the world. I ...

Post Office

The building was shabby: a cramped two-story thing. A notice posted on the door instructed the public that business would only be transacted out of a small side window. The Post Office was inside, sharing the space with the town’s surgery. The squat wooden hobble looked rundown but the appearance was deceiving, for while there was barely room to move inside, it could claim a telegraph. A symbol of modern progress, Little Bay’s telegraph machine was cutting-edge technology on the edge of the worl ...

Magistrate Blandford

I’d like to introduce you to somebody. His name was John Bennett Blandford. He was an Englishman who served as Little Bay’s first Magistrate and he was responsible for the largest public event in the town’s history. Newfoundland was a British colony and the Magistrate was a Justice of the Peace appointed by the Governor as a representative of the Crown. The court in St. John’s had started debating if Little Bay should be assigned a Magistrate in March of 1880 and had continued debating the ...

A Bell Named St. Patrick

Culture is made physical by the things we create. There is nothing quite like the history of an object. Artifacts connect us to a history that we can touch, see, and hear. Much of Little Bay’s physical history was lost to the fires but some historical objects are tucked away there still. They wait patiently to be rediscovered and explored. What follows is the history of such an object. Little Bay saw incredible growth immediately after it was founded in 1878 and by 1881 the Presbyterian Germans ...

Vessels of Little Bay

Little Bay was visited by a mixture of steamers and sailing vessels. Many of the steamers were the cutting edge of technology. They loaded up on ore for Swansea in Whales where they would unload it alongside ships from the other colonies. Little Bay was internationally connected to this colonial system. Ships came to Little Bay from Europe, Canada, and the United States. Altogether this kept the town well supplied with goods and information. Little Bay bustled with activity. There were church sh ...

The People of Little Bay

Newfoundland has a hidden history. In the last decades of the 19th century there was a mining boom in the Northern region which culminated at Little Bay after a copper discovery there in 1878. It dwarfed all previous finds and garnered the attention of the colonial world. I am rediscovering the story of that town. Called the el Dorado of Newfoundland and the gem of the island it quickly became one of Newfoundland’s largest 19th century communities. Founded by a German Baron and claiming advanced ...

St. Andrew’s

Little Bay was lively during the last decade of the 19th century. It could claim a unique culture with some unusual features, most notably were its openminded approach to religion and an odd contrast that was held there between alcohol and literacy. Explaining these features of Little Bay’s culture will require a deep dive into the experiences of its Presbyterian ministers - Archibald Gunn, William Scott Whittier, and James R. Fitzpatrick.The story of Little Bay’s Presbyterian church begins in E ...

Little Bay’s WWI vets

This list is unlikely exhaustive as I keep finding people to add while working on genealogies. They're spread out due to the exodus from Little Bay at the turn of the century. Many are found serving in the Canadian and American militaries. The two men pictured above are John Croak and Mayo Lind. I've done work on them both which can be found by clicking on their names.Little Bay's WW1 vetsBennett, Arthur (4116)Bouzane, Constantine (5290)Bouzane, Edward and three sonsBouzane, James (8016)Boyde, E ...

Little Bay Mine (1878-1903)

I’ve decided to explore the history of the Little Bay mine itself in this piece. However, I didn’t want to tell it from the perspective of the owners or managers and instead opted to focus on the experience of the mine from the point of view of the miners. It is perhaps an impossible task as their voices are little recorded but nevertheless I’ve done my best to showcase them here. Little Bay was its people and its people mined. Without the industry there was no town and while the Baron may have ...

St. Luke’s

In this article I'll explore St. Luke's, the Episcopalian (Church of England) church in Little Bay, and the influences upon it from other institutional powers represented in the town. The Episcopalian reverends were influenced by the Baron’s leadership despite his absence, the rising power of the town’s Temperance movement, and the popular interest taken in native artifacts found in the area. Taken together I believe these interactions demonstrate the unique culture of the town which I'll explo ...

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