Pay Day at the mine. Likely taken around 1886. My guess on the photographer is Otis Boyden. The house in the background was the home of the Lind family.

Mine Manager Andrew Whyte

I am going to tell you about Andrew Whyte, Little Bay’s third mine manager. I’d like to put his position in its proper context first so let's explore the mine manager job itself.Little Bay was a company town. It had a company store and the miners wer ...

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Selby Dow

Selby Allan Dow (1844-1893) Selby Dow (sometimes recorded as Dawe) was born in 1844 at Harbour Grace. He was the son of a doctor and likely educated as he was working as a bookkeeper between 1864 and 1871. He was first employed by the Mining Company ...

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Little Bay Mine cave-in

I was recently asked to put together signage for a Little Bay walking trail. Unsurprisingly, one of those signs was requested to cover the cave-in. If you’ve ever been to Little Bay you know the town hosts a sizeable hole in the ground from a fairly ...

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Betts Cove

Betts Cove was Little Bay's sister town as they were both founded by the same German Baron. They, along with Ellershouse in Nova Scotia, are the only communities I know to have been created by Baron Franz von Ellershausen. What follows is a timeline ...

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The Company Store

The Mining Company owned and operated stores in Little Bay. The stores were present immediately in 1878. There were two Company store locations. One at each of the main districts, namely the Bight and Loading Wharf. Miners were paid in a Company scri ...

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Cleary

Thomas and Josephine Cleary came to Newfoundland in 1820 from Ireland. Thomas worked as the keeper for the Amateur Theatre in St. John’s. This may explain his grandchildren’s later interest in performance. Our tale follows their second child, a boy n ...

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Stuckless

The Stuckless family came to Little Bay from Twillingate in 1883 or ‘84. They were members of the Church of England. Brothers Albert and William arrived with family including two possibly single mothers; Susanna and Emma Stuckless who I suspect were ...

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Kidston

This Little Bay research is a journey. It takes unexpected turns. It twists. Working on the Kidston family is a fun little example of that. Kidston is a name I’ve only recently gotten anywhere with. It was one lonely reference for a long time, only t ...

Mary (Sinnott) Foran and daughters Katherine, Polly and Bess

Sinnott

The Sinnotts came to Little Bay from Placentia to work as miners. They were Catholic. Peter was born in 1850 and David was born in 1851. The first record of the name associated with Little Bay is from July of 1880 when Little Bay’s mine manager, Adol ...

Thomas and Mary Ann Kennedy

Kennedy

The Kennedy family were present in Little Bay by 1879. They were Catholic. They came from the Avalon. The Kennedys largely left Little Bay after 1904, likely a result of the fires. Many returned to the east coast but some went to Glace Bay, Nova Scot ...