Posts - Page 3 of 16 - The History of Little Bay

Eagen

The Eagen family was in Little Bay by 1882 and remained in town until at least 1904. John and Patrick Eagen worked as miners. John has a series of run-ins with the law due to public drinking. His wife was Ann. However, it is Patrick’s wife Catherine who presents us with the most interesting character from this clan. Foremost because she is one of the few examples I’ve found of female employment.While her husband worked underground at the Little Bay mine she was working as Little Bay's agent for ...

The El Dorado Trail Tour

As you may know the town of Little Bay has been working tirelessly for the past year to share its history with you. I hope you’ll explore the town's new heritage hiking trail - the El Dorado and support Little Bay by celebrating their first Heritage Day on August 12th.I can't take any credit for organizing events or building the hiking trail. Little Bay's Trail Committee and Heritage Society deserves much praise for all of that so make sure to give them the thanks and respect and everything. I h ...

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The fire of 1903

*Pictures included are: town before fire showing where it started (behind brown building above ridge on right), Rev. John J. Lynch, Rev. Arthur Pittman, Picture of town after fire for comparison.Sometimes I get lucky and find multiple firsthand accounts of an incident. In this case Rev. Arthur Pittman wrote of his experience in Diocesan Magazine and Rev. John J. Lynch gave an interview to the Evening Telegram. Obviously more would be better but just having a couple of eyewitnesses clears our vie ...

Education in Little Bay

To map out the education system in Little Bay we must first start, as we often do with Betts Cove. The mine at Betts Cove officially opened in 1875. However, census data from 1874 gives us a glimpse of the town just before that. It had a starting population of 26 people and of those 15 were under the age of 20. This suggests the need for a school. The total population number for Newfoundland in 1874 was 158958. The number of people who could read and write was 34005. This allows us to produce a ...

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1889 voter list

Austin, Peter - Little Bay Armstrong, Michael - Little Bay Atkins, George - Little Bay Aspell, John - Little Bay Bennett, James - Little Bay Burt, John - Little Bay Buddin, Henry - Woodford Cove, Little Bay Butler, William - Woodford Cove, Little Bay Brown, John - Wild Bight, Little Bay Byrne, Samuel - Indian Bight, Little Bay Boyle, Peter - Indian Bight, Little Bay Burke, Patrick - Indian Bight, Little Bay Burke, Harold - Indian Bight, Little Bay (25 years) Brown, J ...

Bayonne, New Jersey in Little Bay, Newfoundland

Consider this is an official request from Little Bay, Newfoundland to Bayonne, New Jersey to assist with rediscovering an old connection between the two communities. It concerns 30 men from Bayonne who lived in Newfoundland in the mid to late 1880s.While working on my piece about Little Bay’s driver, Walter Rollings, I tracked him to Bayonne. That was the first time I had encountered Bayonne in my work. I shared my article on Mr. Rollings to New Jersey’s genealogical pages hoping it would find i ...

The Cantwell suicides

Fair warning; this is a macabre and melancholy story.John Cantwell (1804-1889) was from Ballyhesan, County Waterford in Ireland. He moved to Newfoundland in 1824 when he was 20 years old. He settled and raised a family in Tizzard’s Harbour. There he earned a reputation as a respectable merchant.His sons; Nicholas, Edward, and Pierce worked to expand the family business and it was to that purpose that Nicholas built the schooner Hiberian in 1880. That was probably the last joyful time for the fam ...

Delouchrey

Spelling variations: DeLouchrey, Delouchery, Delucry, Deluchry, Deloughry, Deloughery, Deloughrey, Delouckry, Delucre, Delacour - those are the easy ones. They can also be found with a separation between with the first E and L or between the L and the O. It can further have an accent over the first E. And in one final twist a reference I found spelled it Peloughery. Needless to say this one has proven tedious to untangle! I write it as DeLouchrey as that was how Harold signed it in his military ...

McKinnon

Joseph Justis McKinnon (1849-1936) was known to his friends as Joe. He was the machinist who oversaw the hoist engine, pumps, and other surface equipment for the Little Bay mine. He was described as a hardworking and intelligent fellow.Joe had been born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to Scottish immigrant parents. He likely acquired his trade there before moving to Newfoundland with fellow Nova Scotians Joe Deluchery and John Stewart. I’d guess an arrival around 1880 when the British took over oper ...

Grey

Richard Grey (1823-1907) was an Irishman who worked the dressing floor of Little Bay’s mine as the right-hand-man to Walter Spinney. He was known for his wit and was a popular character among the working men (St. John’s Daily News, May 13, 1955).He is involved in Newfoundland mining very early with my first reference to him in Newfoundland connected to the Terra Nova operation near Baie Verte in 1860. He went from there to Tilt Cove before finding his way to Little Bay. I can't put him in town u ...

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