Posts - Page 12 of 15 - The History of Little Bay

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 ...

Eliza Blandford

All that remains of the people I cover are scattered references. What follows is an attempt to use a few documents to tell a story and in so doing catch a glimpse of a person’s life. In this case the task is made more difficult by historical patriarchy and the fact that women’s lives were often so poorly documented. Eliza arrived with her family in 1880. Her father, John Bennet Blandford, had been appointed Magistrate. She was 15 years old the first time she saw Little Bay. As the Magistrate’ ...

Mining Money

If you were a miner working in Little Bay during the late 19th century you would have had a lot of places to spend your hard earned wages. In this piece I’m going to explore the financial side of the miner’s life by considering the movement of their money. First you’ll need some context. The German Baron Franz von Ellershausen created Little Bay pretty much from scratch in 1878. He built the town; mine, mind, and man. He oversaw the layout and picked its original residents, both the high cultur ...

Sergeant Thomas Wells

There was a new Sergeant in town. It was 1883. Sergeant Thomas Wells of the Newfoundland Constabulary arrived in Little Bay on August 3rd. He arrived during the town’s annual regatta but made no mention of it in his journals. He wasn’t there for that. He was a staunch and imposing man with a sense of moral superiority. Little Bay was messy and he was there to clean it up. He would have known coming in that the place was dangerous. The suddenly expanding mining town had attracted a rich assortm ...

Postmaster Richard Walsh

With the rise of digital resources, more and more people are researching their family histories. This has led to a surge of interest in Newfoundland history. Much of this interest comes from people looking to place an ancestor of theirs into their larger historical context. This local attention can give new life to our tourism industry. It is organized online on a handful of websites dedicated to sharing resources and methodologies. I’d like to recognize the efforts of the tireless community or ...

The Little Bay Pioneers

If you’ve ever seen the film The Grand Seduction you’ve probably wondered about historical Newfoundland cricket. I’ve been doing a little digging on it myself and as it turns out it was kind of a big deal! Cricket was the most popular sport in Newfoundland during the 19th century. It is recorded on the island as early as 1824 but the game took off in the last decades of that century. It had only a brief popularity in Newfoundland between 1880 and 1910 before being overtaken by soccer. I get th ...

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