Storyline for Community Exhibit
Community History Panels for Grenfell Mission Shed
Final Storyline for Community History Panels for Grenfell Mission Shed/Battle Harbour Ferry Terminal.
Corrected text, posted Feb. 20, 2008
9 panels - Mission Wharf story has been put back indoors as part of the community history exhibit.
BATTLE HARBOUR
"Family Ties to this Place are Very Strong"
"My mother was born and raised on Gunning Island, Battle Harbour, so my family ties to this place are very strong. On my father's side of the family there are ties too, as my great, great, grandfather James Pole (Poole) was a servant with John Slade and Company during 1832. After his tenure with the company he struck out on his own and moved north of Spear Point and settled at a place called Boat's Cove and raised a large family there.
There are other ties, as when I was growing up at St. Lewis (Fox Harbour) during the 1950's, Battle Harbour was still flourishing and my grandfather traded with Baine Johnson & Co. and later the Earle Freighting Service. It was a treat for me as a young boy to go to Battle Harbour during the summer to visit the shop and see the tall masted schooners that were most often there.
During those years supplies at Fox Harbour were very scarce in the spring and as soon as the ice was out of the bay and open water permitted, the boats would go over from here to get essential food and other supplies. We had no post office or coastal steamer service at that time and would also have to go over for the mail, freight and passengers."
From "Catucto", by C. J. Poole, Breakwater Books, 1996
For two centuries Battle Harbour was the economic and social centre of the Southeastern Labrador coast. Mercantile saltfish premises first established there in the 1770s developed into a thriving community that was known as the "Capital of Labrador". The local population increased rapidly after 1820 when Newfoundland fishing schooners adopted Battle Harbour as their primary port of call. The level of activity at Battle Harbour resulted in community development that had a significant impact on the people of the Labrador coast. The community served as a regional centre with legal, religious, educational and health facilities.
The community's permanent residents were relocated under a government-sponsored resettlement program from 1965 to 1970. Families returned to Battle Harbour for the fishing season until the close of the cod fishery in 1992. A number of families still use the site as a seasonal home.
Information in this exhibit is based on "Mary's Harbour 1930-1985" by Celesta Acreman, local interviews and information collected by the Battle Harbour Historic Trust.
THE MOVE TO MARY'S HARBOUR
"They Had to Move from Battle Harbour, You See"
By 1868 there were about 300 people and a school at Battle Harbour. In 1893 the first hospital in Labrador was founded there by Dr. Wilfred Grenfell under the banner of the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen. Grenfell later founded the International Grenfell Association, known locally as the "Grenfell Mission," to operate his medical mission in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mary's Harbour was first settled in the fall of 1930 when the Mission moved its hospital staff and equipment here from Battle Harbour where the old hospital had just been destroyed by fire. Mr. Albert Spearing Sr. was a boy at the time. When asked if he remembered the fire, he replied,
"Oh, I suppose I do, I was in school then, 8 year old. We just got back from dinner, when the teacher told us the shop and hospital was on fire. She brought us all up where Ben Butt's house is now, and sat us down and we watched her burn. It was sad. They used the Bunkhouse for a shop then until they built a new one. Was a sad day. There wasn't much left at the hospital then."
Interview with Albert Spearing Sr., December 2007. Researcher: Diane Poole
The fire hastened the move to Mary's Harbour for the Grenfell Mission Hospital. The Mission had planned to move their hospital to Mary's Harbour even before the Battle Harbour buildings burned down. The new hospital was under construction and nearly completed at the time of the fire on November 4th. The hospital staff moved in to Mary's Harbour that same night. Hospital caretaker, Sam Acreman and his family followed on November 8th, and other families came soon after.
A number of homes under construction were quickly finished and nine families lived here that first winter. The hospital staff and much of their equipment had been moving to Hatter's Cove for the winter months and back to Battle Harbour for the summer fishing season for seven years. A decision was made to build a permanent hospital at Mary's Harbour, a more sheltered location and more accessible to the people in the area. Located on an island, Battle Harbour was difficult to get to in the spring and fall because of changing ice conditions.
SAM ACREMAN
"A Jack-of-All-Trades"
"My father worked for the Grenfell Mission for practically all his life. He went to work for Sir Wilfred when he was just a young man. And he served 44-45 years with the Grenfell Mission. Not much pay - $25.00 a month. That was his salary. But we lived on it. There was a family of ten of us one time, 10 children. We were never hungry. And he worked at the hospital he was, well a jack-of-all-trades, you call it. He was a carpenter, a repairman, he took the doctors and nurses around wherever they wanted to go... pick up patients and a bit of it all."
Excerpt from, "A Family Affair" by Gordon Acreman,
Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt, from the book Linking the Generations.
Samuel Acreman, affectionately known to everyone for miles around as "Uncle Sam", was in charge of outdoor work and caretaker of the Mary's Harbour Hospital from its beginning. He started work with the Grenfell Mission at the Battle Harbour Hospital until it was destroyed by fire and helped to build the Mary's Harbour Hospital. He worked at the Mary's Harbour Hospital until February 1951, when he was forced to retire because of an injury. He died two years later and his son Hughlett succeeded him. Hughlett's brother Gordon describes their father's work with the Mission at the time of the move to Mary's Harbour:
"They must have started the hospital in 1928 because it was ready for occupation in 1930. He would come up here and help out and go back to Battle Harbour when they needed him. They lived in tents while they were building the Mission Store [shed] down there. That was the first thing they built. They built a low part on the back that they used for a cookhouse. That part was used for the Clothing Store after they got that on the go.
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They had to move from Battle Harbour, you see, it was too hard to get off in the winter for the Doctors to travel to see people. They would do some travelling, the doctors; they would be gone all the time, up north and up the Straits. They had a Cottage Hospital up to Hatters Cove and there was 36 families up there most of the time in winter, Mother told me. They were from Fox Harbour [St. Lewis], Cape Charles, Battle Harbour, Trap Cove and Indian Cove…. We spent 7 years up there… Father moved up there with the Mission. Dr. M. [Dr. Moret]...said that Hatters Cove was too far from the fisherman and decided to find another place closer to the outside but on the mainland; he decided on Mary's Harbour. This place had it all, shelter, a river flowing into it, trees, close to Battle Harbour and the outside, and the bay for wood. A good harbour too."
Interview with Gordon Acreman, December 2007, Researcher: Diane Poole
THE GRENFELL MISSION
"Workin' With the Mission"
Hughlet Acreman took over as maintenance worker, and "jack-of-all-trades" with the Grenfell Mission when his father Sam retired: "My father and I both worked with the Grenfell Mission. You could say that I spent all my life there. I first took the boat in the summer when I was sixteen years old. Now, I used to work with them when I was big enough to lift a wheel barrow. You'd go down and wheel in freight, wheel in clothes, you know. You'd only get 10 cents an hour, anyway. Well, first when we came here, I was only five years old. When we growed up big enough … we used to go down and help, you know…I went to work part-time when I was sixteen, driving the boat, taking the nurse around, driving engines and all that stuff
…If the doctor was there and he was operating, well, we had to sterilize all day, keep everything sterilized…First when I went there the nurse was going to do Fox Harbour [St. Lewis]. Now that was about one hundred needles [immunizations] over there and she only had about a couple of dozen needles. And I'd do them up, she'd bring them up and I'd sterilize...I'd sharpen the top with a little stone. I still got the stone. Then I'd boil them and take them back to her. And from there she'd do her job. The tops would get blunt same as a trout hook…No throwing away needles then. If she had one broke or buckled, it was thrown away. But ordinary use, I sharpened them for years, I suppose."
Excerpt from, "Workin' With the Mission", by Hughlett Acreman,
Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt, from Linking the Generations
Gordon Acreman's wife Celesta was a nurse in Mary's Harbour.
"When my wife was down to the hospital nursing, we had no telephone, no nothing then. There was no communications at all with the outside world. We had a wireless station at Battle Harbour. If you wanted to connect with any other part of the world, you'd have to go to Battle Harbour and write off a telegram and it would be sent by wireless to St. John's and then it would be forwarded on to different areas…. And the wife there in the hospital, if somebody was real sick she needed advice from a doctor. She'd have to send somebody to Battle Harbour [by boat, 9 miles] with a telegram explaining the situation and wait until they'd get a telegram back from St. Anthony. So that's the way it was."
Excerpt from, "A Family Affair", by Gordon Acreman,
Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt, from the book, Linking the Generations
THE MISSION SHED
"Six Partridges for a Baby Bundle"
Construction of the Mary's Harbour Hospital, wharf and shed was started in 1929 and completed in November 1930. The men who worked on these buildings lived in boats and in the shed when it was ready. The hospital and the Mission Shed are still standing. The shed was used to store freight for the hospital and as the Mission Clothing Store. School was held in the Mission Shed for the first year.
"We didn't have a school but we used half of that store [shed] down by the Grenfell Wharf there. That was the first school in Mary's Harbour. I went to school there…Then the next summer I went to Battle Harbour and did public exams. First time ever there was public exams north of Red Bay, right from the Department in St. John's. I was the first one and the only one here to pass that year. Gracious, I was proud."
Excerpt from, "School Day Memories", by Eva Coish, Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt, from the book Linking the Generations
The Mission always had a supply of new and used clothing which was donated by friends of the organization in Canada and the United States. People brought in wood, rabbits, fish and berries for the hospital to use and were paid with money or clothing. Goods were difficult to obtain before Confederation with Canada and local residents had to pay duty on goods coming to the region from outside. The Mission Clothing Store was a big help.
Nurse Ruth May's duties included preparing clothes at the Mission Store: "We priced everything but took in no money. It was all paid for with supplies that could be used at the hospital. When I was there, for instance, we burned wood in the furnace, so we needed 100 cord of wood for the winter. People would bring the wood, Hughlett would measure it and they would be either paid money or given a slip for clothes or half and half. Most took some money and a slip, because there was no clothes to buy then, anyway.
We would do up Baby Bundles. If anyone was having a baby, the parents would bring in 4 ducks or 6 partridges for a Baby Bundle. That would consist of 6 diapers, a sweater set, some little shirts, 2 or 3 receiving blankets and a quilt. We would wait until the baby was born and we would do up a pink or blue set for a girl or boy."
Interview with Nurse Ruth May, December 2007, Researcher: Diane Poole
THE MISSION WHARF
"The Only Wharf in the Harbour"
The Grenfell Mission Shed and Wharf have been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Mary's Harbour. Originally built in 1930, when the Grenfell Mission moved the hospital to Mary's Harbour, the wharf was used for boats bringing in supplies and patients to and from the hospital.
"That was the only wharf in the harbour for a long time. It was built over a dozen times, my dear, the ice would heave it up in the winter. I knows me and John built it over one time, and your Grandfather and Uncle Chesley. But see maid, we only had old stuff we cut ourselves back then. They got it all done with good material now, so it should last I suppose. Everything that was brought in the harbour had to come over that wharf. And then you had to carry it around on the path on your back. We had our own wharf up where we lived, but not many had wharves. They had wharves outside, so no need for one here, people landed in the beaches then when they were moving up and out of the bay."
Interview with Gordon Acreman, Researcher: Diane Poole, December 15, 2007
In 1954 the first ambulance plane, operated by the International Grenfell Association, landed at the Mission Wharf with Dr. Gordon Thomas on board. Later on, Air Labrador used the Mission Wharf in the summer to tie up their float-planes. In winter the plane would land on the ice in the harbour and passengers would snowmobile out to meet it. Madeleine Acreman, the Air Labrador agent, operated the radio equipment from her living room. Madeleine's husband, Hughlett Acreman looked after the planes landing in Mary's Harbour. Nurse Ruth May remembers waiting for the harbour to freeze over so that the plane could land:
"In those days, the nurse at the hospital was the only health care provider from Henley Harbour to Snug Harbour. It was quite a responsibility. The radio telegraph was a great help to me, it helped being able to get patients in and out if you could. Remember there were no airstrips and the planes would land on the harbour. The problem in Mary's Harbour, was that the river would cut out the harbour and keep it from freezing til late in the fall and early in spring. And then there was the weather to contend with. I used to say the only thing I wanted for Christmas was the trees on the harbour, marking it for safe-landing for the planes. They needed 8 inches of blue ice to land a Beaver, so Hughlett would go out and check it and I would watch from the window to see if the trees went up or not."
Interview with Nurse Ruth May, December 2007, Researcher: Diane Poole
BATTLE HARBOUR CHURCH
"Celesta Gerber is Labrador Bride"
Anglican clergymen stationed at Battle Harbour travelled through the area to hold church services. Everyone in the region had to travel to St. James the Apostle Church in Battle Harbour to be married, baptised or confirmed.
"So then my wife, she was a nurse, she came here from the United States. Her name was Celesta Gerber. She went to George's Cove first, just for the summer…. She came down to seek her fortune and she did…we were together 54 years when she died. She came here to seek her fortune and she found her fortune. She found me."
Excerpt from "A Family Affair",by Gordon Acreman,
Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt, from the book Linking the Generations.
On November 18, 1942, Celesta Gerber and Gordon Acreman made the nine mile trip to Battle Harbour by boat, as every other young couple in the region did, to get married. Their wedding announcement was in a newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana:
"Celesta Gerber is Labrador Bride
Of local interest is the recent marriage of Miss Celesta Gerber, former office nurse for Dr. M. L. Habegger, to Gordon Acreman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Acreman of St. Mary's River, Labrador. The father of the bridegroom is connected with the Grenfell hospital where the bride has been a staff nurse since leaving Berne two years ago.
…The nuptial rites took place on November 18. They left St. Mary's River in the morning and travelled by boat, nine miles to Battle Harbor Church where the vows took place at 1:30 o'clock. They returned to St. Mary's River for a wedding supper where a three tier cake with all the fixings was served.
… At the present Mr. and Mrs. Acreman will reside with the bridegroom's parents at St. Mary's River. Their new home, now under construction will be completed in the spring. Mr. Acreman is a carpenter."
From "For the Love of Labrador", by Celesta Gerber Acreman, 1997
Celesta and Gordon's new home burned in the forest fire of 1945 which destroyed all but five buildings in Mary's Harbour. The hospital and Mission Shed survived the fire.
THE PRINCETON SCHOOL
"The Mission Did it All"
During the first winter in Mary's Harbour, school was held here in the Mission Shed. The Grenfell Mission built the Princeton School the following year. Funds were raised by the Mission from students and alumni of Princeton University to build a boarding school for orphans and children from the region. The Princeton School was later used as a church until the Mary's Harbour church was completed in 1961, and as a community hall until the mid-1980s.
"The Mission did it all, no school board then… there was two teachers I think, from Newfoundland here first…they would be sent all around, two months here and one month there. They would move out to Battle Harbour too, when people went. They had students board here too, but it seems like they stayed at the Hospital…. They had a lot of patients then too. I don't know where they put them all….You didn't have to be an orphan to come here for school, sometimes they just sent them here to go to school, because they wanted them to get an education."
Interview with Gordon Acreman, Researcher: Diane Poole, December 15, 2007
One of the teachers who taught at Princeton School was Redgeway Snook, from Trap Cove on Caribou Island near Battle Harbour. Teachers at that time were employed by the Church and the school year lasted for only as long as there was money to pay the teachers. Reg Snook taught in a number of small schools in the region, including at Battle Harbour. "I went to St. Anthony to take my grade eleven. I went away to be a teacher when I was seventeen years old [1942]. I went to St. John's for two summers. The minister of the day, Reverend Fudge, they had all to do with the schools: hiring teachers, paying teachers and looking after the schools [He] wanted me to go away….The buildings weren't heated very much. It was very terribly cold sometimes in the winter. We would spend half the day trying to keep the children warm and the other half trying to teach them something."
Excerpt from, "Teaching at Home" by Redgeway Snook,
Researcher: Deanne Stephens, from Linking the Generations
In 1954, Reg Snook built the first home on the east side of Mary's Harbour. He bought a shed from the Grenfell Mission for $300 and used the wood to build the house. He had to row across the harbour to school when he was teaching. Reg stopped teaching a few years later to work in the family fishing operation. He later operated a store in Mary's Harbour and served as Justice of the Peace in the community for 40 years.
RESETTLEMENT
"We Used to Bring Everything We Owned Back and Forth"
Battle Harbour was the service center for the whole region, even after the community of Mary's Harbour was established:
"Yes, Battle Harbour had it all, the biggest shop on the Labrador, at the time, the only hospital and church for a long time and the Rangers, and the Marconi Station…. People from everywhere would come to Battle Harbour, for one thing or another…everything stayed there for a long time. The majority of the people stayed until the late 50's, so everything was the same."
Interview with Jim Jones, December 2007, Researcher: Diane Poole
When Mary's Harbour was first settled there were no stores, so supplies had to be purchased at Battle Harbour. Most families spent their summer fishing in or near Battle Harbour and would stock their winter's food in the fall at the end of the fishing season. At that time there were no telephones, no planes and mail came only once a month by dogteam during the winter and by boat in the summer. If you wanted to send out a message anywhere the quickest way was to go to Battle Harbour nine miles away and send a Marconi telegram.
During the 1960s more families moved to Mary's Harbour under the province-wide resettlement program. They were paid by the government to build new homes in bigger communities where services would be centralized. Families came from Battle Harbour, Trap Cove, Matthew's Cove, Indian Cove and Henley Harbour. They lived in Mary's Harbour during the winter months and returned to their fishing communities each summer until the Cod Moratorium in 1992. By the fall of 1970 all of these smaller communities had become ghost towns during the winter.
Albert Spearing Sr. remembers moving house every summer back to Battle Harbour:
"Oh yes, we moved out until after the fishery closed ….Used to have to bring everything we owned back and forth. Everyone done that, took it all. Beds, feather mattresses, chairs, table and stove and pipes. More than once the stove filled up with water, going around Tilsey Point, I tell you. They would take their dogs too, and when they get close to shore, the dogs would jump over board. We'd put the old man in his rocking chair aboard the boat and he would be just as happy as sitting in the house."
Interview with Albert Spearing Sr., December 2007. Researcher: Diane Poole
Corrected text, posted Feb. 20, 2008
9 panels - Mission Wharf story has been put back indoors as part of the community history exhibit.
BATTLE HARBOUR
"Family Ties to this Place are Very Strong"
"My mother was born and raised on Gunning Island, Battle Harbour, so my family ties to this place are very strong. On my father's side of the family there are ties too, as my great, great, grandfather James Pole (Poole) was a servant with John Slade and Company during 1832. After his tenure with the company he struck out on his own and moved north of Spear Point and settled at a place called Boat's Cove and raised a large family there.
There are other ties, as when I was growing up at St. Lewis (Fox Harbour) during the 1950's, Battle Harbour was still flourishing and my grandfather traded with Baine Johnson & Co. and later the Earle Freighting Service. It was a treat for me as a young boy to go to Battle Harbour during the summer to visit the shop and see the tall masted schooners that were most often there.
During those years supplies at Fox Harbour were very scarce in the spring and as soon as the ice was out of the bay and open water permitted, the boats would go over from here to get essential food and other supplies. We had no post office or coastal steamer service at that time and would also have to go over for the mail, freight and passengers."
From "Catucto", by C. J. Poole, Breakwater Books, 1996
For two centuries Battle Harbour was the economic and social centre of the Southeastern Labrador coast. Mercantile saltfish premises first established there in the 1770s developed into a thriving community that was known as the "Capital of Labrador". The local population increased rapidly after 1820 when Newfoundland fishing schooners adopted Battle Harbour as their primary port of call. The level of activity at Battle Harbour resulted in community development that had a significant impact on the people of the Labrador coast. The community served as a regional centre with legal, religious, educational and health facilities.
The community's permanent residents were relocated under a government-sponsored resettlement program from 1965 to 1970. Families returned to Battle Harbour for the fishing season until the close of the cod fishery in 1992. A number of families still use the site as a seasonal home.
Information in this exhibit is based on "Mary's Harbour 1930-1985" by Celesta Acreman, local interviews and information collected by the Battle Harbour Historic Trust.
THE MOVE TO MARY'S HARBOUR
"They Had to Move from Battle Harbour, You See"
By 1868 there were about 300 people and a school at Battle Harbour. In 1893 the first hospital in Labrador was founded there by Dr. Wilfred Grenfell under the banner of the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen. Grenfell later founded the International Grenfell Association, known locally as the "Grenfell Mission," to operate his medical mission in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mary's Harbour was first settled in the fall of 1930 when the Mission moved its hospital staff and equipment here from Battle Harbour where the old hospital had just been destroyed by fire. Mr. Albert Spearing Sr. was a boy at the time. When asked if he remembered the fire, he replied,
"Oh, I suppose I do, I was in school then, 8 year old. We just got back from dinner, when the teacher told us the shop and hospital was on fire. She brought us all up where Ben Butt's house is now, and sat us down and we watched her burn. It was sad. They used the Bunkhouse for a shop then until they built a new one. Was a sad day. There wasn't much left at the hospital then."
Interview with Albert Spearing Sr., December 2007. Researcher: Diane Poole
The fire hastened the move to Mary's Harbour for the Grenfell Mission Hospital. The Mission had planned to move their hospital to Mary's Harbour even before the Battle Harbour buildings burned down. The new hospital was under construction and nearly completed at the time of the fire on November 4th. The hospital staff moved in to Mary's Harbour that same night. Hospital caretaker, Sam Acreman and his family followed on November 8th, and other families came soon after.
A number of homes under construction were quickly finished and nine families lived here that first winter. The hospital staff and much of their equipment had been moving to Hatter's Cove for the winter months and back to Battle Harbour for the summer fishing season for seven years. A decision was made to build a permanent hospital at Mary's Harbour, a more sheltered location and more accessible to the people in the area. Located on an island, Battle Harbour was difficult to get to in the spring and fall because of changing ice conditions.
SAM ACREMAN
"A Jack-of-All-Trades"
"My father worked for the Grenfell Mission for practically all his life. He went to work for Sir Wilfred when he was just a young man. And he served 44-45 years with the Grenfell Mission. Not much pay - $25.00 a month. That was his salary. But we lived on it. There was a family of ten of us one time, 10 children. We were never hungry. And he worked at the hospital he was, well a jack-of-all-trades, you call it. He was a carpenter, a repairman, he took the doctors and nurses around wherever they wanted to go... pick up patients and a bit of it all."
Excerpt from, "A Family Affair" by Gordon Acreman,
Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt, from the book Linking the Generations.
Samuel Acreman, affectionately known to everyone for miles around as "Uncle Sam", was in charge of outdoor work and caretaker of the Mary's Harbour Hospital from its beginning. He started work with the Grenfell Mission at the Battle Harbour Hospital until it was destroyed by fire and helped to build the Mary's Harbour Hospital. He worked at the Mary's Harbour Hospital until February 1951, when he was forced to retire because of an injury. He died two years later and his son Hughlett succeeded him. Hughlett's brother Gordon describes their father's work with the Mission at the time of the move to Mary's Harbour:
"They must have started the hospital in 1928 because it was ready for occupation in 1930. He would come up here and help out and go back to Battle Harbour when they needed him. They lived in tents while they were building the Mission Store [shed] down there. That was the first thing they built. They built a low part on the back that they used for a cookhouse. That part was used for the Clothing Store after they got that on the go.
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They had to move from Battle Harbour, you see, it was too hard to get off in the winter for the Doctors to travel to see people. They would do some travelling, the doctors; they would be gone all the time, up north and up the Straits. They had a Cottage Hospital up to Hatters Cove and there was 36 families up there most of the time in winter, Mother told me. They were from Fox Harbour [St. Lewis], Cape Charles, Battle Harbour, Trap Cove and Indian Cove…. We spent 7 years up there… Father moved up there with the Mission. Dr. M. [Dr. Moret]...said that Hatters Cove was too far from the fisherman and decided to find another place closer to the outside but on the mainland; he decided on Mary's Harbour. This place had it all, shelter, a river flowing into it, trees, close to Battle Harbour and the outside, and the bay for wood. A good harbour too."
Interview with Gordon Acreman, December 2007, Researcher: Diane Poole
THE GRENFELL MISSION
"Workin' With the Mission"
Hughlet Acreman took over as maintenance worker, and "jack-of-all-trades" with the Grenfell Mission when his father Sam retired: "My father and I both worked with the Grenfell Mission. You could say that I spent all my life there. I first took the boat in the summer when I was sixteen years old. Now, I used to work with them when I was big enough to lift a wheel barrow. You'd go down and wheel in freight, wheel in clothes, you know. You'd only get 10 cents an hour, anyway. Well, first when we came here, I was only five years old. When we growed up big enough … we used to go down and help, you know…I went to work part-time when I was sixteen, driving the boat, taking the nurse around, driving engines and all that stuff
…If the doctor was there and he was operating, well, we had to sterilize all day, keep everything sterilized…First when I went there the nurse was going to do Fox Harbour [St. Lewis]. Now that was about one hundred needles [immunizations] over there and she only had about a couple of dozen needles. And I'd do them up, she'd bring them up and I'd sterilize...I'd sharpen the top with a little stone. I still got the stone. Then I'd boil them and take them back to her. And from there she'd do her job. The tops would get blunt same as a trout hook…No throwing away needles then. If she had one broke or buckled, it was thrown away. But ordinary use, I sharpened them for years, I suppose."
Excerpt from, "Workin' With the Mission", by Hughlett Acreman,
Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt, from Linking the Generations
Gordon Acreman's wife Celesta was a nurse in Mary's Harbour.
"When my wife was down to the hospital nursing, we had no telephone, no nothing then. There was no communications at all with the outside world. We had a wireless station at Battle Harbour. If you wanted to connect with any other part of the world, you'd have to go to Battle Harbour and write off a telegram and it would be sent by wireless to St. John's and then it would be forwarded on to different areas…. And the wife there in the hospital, if somebody was real sick she needed advice from a doctor. She'd have to send somebody to Battle Harbour [by boat, 9 miles] with a telegram explaining the situation and wait until they'd get a telegram back from St. Anthony. So that's the way it was."
Excerpt from, "A Family Affair", by Gordon Acreman,
Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt, from the book, Linking the Generations
THE MISSION SHED
"Six Partridges for a Baby Bundle"
Construction of the Mary's Harbour Hospital, wharf and shed was started in 1929 and completed in November 1930. The men who worked on these buildings lived in boats and in the shed when it was ready. The hospital and the Mission Shed are still standing. The shed was used to store freight for the hospital and as the Mission Clothing Store. School was held in the Mission Shed for the first year.
"We didn't have a school but we used half of that store [shed] down by the Grenfell Wharf there. That was the first school in Mary's Harbour. I went to school there…Then the next summer I went to Battle Harbour and did public exams. First time ever there was public exams north of Red Bay, right from the Department in St. John's. I was the first one and the only one here to pass that year. Gracious, I was proud."
Excerpt from, "School Day Memories", by Eva Coish, Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt, from the book Linking the Generations
The Mission always had a supply of new and used clothing which was donated by friends of the organization in Canada and the United States. People brought in wood, rabbits, fish and berries for the hospital to use and were paid with money or clothing. Goods were difficult to obtain before Confederation with Canada and local residents had to pay duty on goods coming to the region from outside. The Mission Clothing Store was a big help.
Nurse Ruth May's duties included preparing clothes at the Mission Store: "We priced everything but took in no money. It was all paid for with supplies that could be used at the hospital. When I was there, for instance, we burned wood in the furnace, so we needed 100 cord of wood for the winter. People would bring the wood, Hughlett would measure it and they would be either paid money or given a slip for clothes or half and half. Most took some money and a slip, because there was no clothes to buy then, anyway.
We would do up Baby Bundles. If anyone was having a baby, the parents would bring in 4 ducks or 6 partridges for a Baby Bundle. That would consist of 6 diapers, a sweater set, some little shirts, 2 or 3 receiving blankets and a quilt. We would wait until the baby was born and we would do up a pink or blue set for a girl or boy."
Interview with Nurse Ruth May, December 2007, Researcher: Diane Poole
THE MISSION WHARF
"The Only Wharf in the Harbour"
The Grenfell Mission Shed and Wharf have been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Mary's Harbour. Originally built in 1930, when the Grenfell Mission moved the hospital to Mary's Harbour, the wharf was used for boats bringing in supplies and patients to and from the hospital.
"That was the only wharf in the harbour for a long time. It was built over a dozen times, my dear, the ice would heave it up in the winter. I knows me and John built it over one time, and your Grandfather and Uncle Chesley. But see maid, we only had old stuff we cut ourselves back then. They got it all done with good material now, so it should last I suppose. Everything that was brought in the harbour had to come over that wharf. And then you had to carry it around on the path on your back. We had our own wharf up where we lived, but not many had wharves. They had wharves outside, so no need for one here, people landed in the beaches then when they were moving up and out of the bay."
Interview with Gordon Acreman, Researcher: Diane Poole, December 15, 2007
In 1954 the first ambulance plane, operated by the International Grenfell Association, landed at the Mission Wharf with Dr. Gordon Thomas on board. Later on, Air Labrador used the Mission Wharf in the summer to tie up their float-planes. In winter the plane would land on the ice in the harbour and passengers would snowmobile out to meet it. Madeleine Acreman, the Air Labrador agent, operated the radio equipment from her living room. Madeleine's husband, Hughlett Acreman looked after the planes landing in Mary's Harbour. Nurse Ruth May remembers waiting for the harbour to freeze over so that the plane could land:
"In those days, the nurse at the hospital was the only health care provider from Henley Harbour to Snug Harbour. It was quite a responsibility. The radio telegraph was a great help to me, it helped being able to get patients in and out if you could. Remember there were no airstrips and the planes would land on the harbour. The problem in Mary's Harbour, was that the river would cut out the harbour and keep it from freezing til late in the fall and early in spring. And then there was the weather to contend with. I used to say the only thing I wanted for Christmas was the trees on the harbour, marking it for safe-landing for the planes. They needed 8 inches of blue ice to land a Beaver, so Hughlett would go out and check it and I would watch from the window to see if the trees went up or not."
Interview with Nurse Ruth May, December 2007, Researcher: Diane Poole
BATTLE HARBOUR CHURCH
"Celesta Gerber is Labrador Bride"
Anglican clergymen stationed at Battle Harbour travelled through the area to hold church services. Everyone in the region had to travel to St. James the Apostle Church in Battle Harbour to be married, baptised or confirmed.
"So then my wife, she was a nurse, she came here from the United States. Her name was Celesta Gerber. She went to George's Cove first, just for the summer…. She came down to seek her fortune and she did…we were together 54 years when she died. She came here to seek her fortune and she found her fortune. She found me."
Excerpt from "A Family Affair",by Gordon Acreman,
Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt, from the book Linking the Generations.
On November 18, 1942, Celesta Gerber and Gordon Acreman made the nine mile trip to Battle Harbour by boat, as every other young couple in the region did, to get married. Their wedding announcement was in a newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana:
"Celesta Gerber is Labrador Bride
Of local interest is the recent marriage of Miss Celesta Gerber, former office nurse for Dr. M. L. Habegger, to Gordon Acreman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Acreman of St. Mary's River, Labrador. The father of the bridegroom is connected with the Grenfell hospital where the bride has been a staff nurse since leaving Berne two years ago.
…The nuptial rites took place on November 18. They left St. Mary's River in the morning and travelled by boat, nine miles to Battle Harbor Church where the vows took place at 1:30 o'clock. They returned to St. Mary's River for a wedding supper where a three tier cake with all the fixings was served.
… At the present Mr. and Mrs. Acreman will reside with the bridegroom's parents at St. Mary's River. Their new home, now under construction will be completed in the spring. Mr. Acreman is a carpenter."
From "For the Love of Labrador", by Celesta Gerber Acreman, 1997
Celesta and Gordon's new home burned in the forest fire of 1945 which destroyed all but five buildings in Mary's Harbour. The hospital and Mission Shed survived the fire.
THE PRINCETON SCHOOL
"The Mission Did it All"
During the first winter in Mary's Harbour, school was held here in the Mission Shed. The Grenfell Mission built the Princeton School the following year. Funds were raised by the Mission from students and alumni of Princeton University to build a boarding school for orphans and children from the region. The Princeton School was later used as a church until the Mary's Harbour church was completed in 1961, and as a community hall until the mid-1980s.
"The Mission did it all, no school board then… there was two teachers I think, from Newfoundland here first…they would be sent all around, two months here and one month there. They would move out to Battle Harbour too, when people went. They had students board here too, but it seems like they stayed at the Hospital…. They had a lot of patients then too. I don't know where they put them all….You didn't have to be an orphan to come here for school, sometimes they just sent them here to go to school, because they wanted them to get an education."
Interview with Gordon Acreman, Researcher: Diane Poole, December 15, 2007
One of the teachers who taught at Princeton School was Redgeway Snook, from Trap Cove on Caribou Island near Battle Harbour. Teachers at that time were employed by the Church and the school year lasted for only as long as there was money to pay the teachers. Reg Snook taught in a number of small schools in the region, including at Battle Harbour. "I went to St. Anthony to take my grade eleven. I went away to be a teacher when I was seventeen years old [1942]. I went to St. John's for two summers. The minister of the day, Reverend Fudge, they had all to do with the schools: hiring teachers, paying teachers and looking after the schools [He] wanted me to go away….The buildings weren't heated very much. It was very terribly cold sometimes in the winter. We would spend half the day trying to keep the children warm and the other half trying to teach them something."
Excerpt from, "Teaching at Home" by Redgeway Snook,
Researcher: Deanne Stephens, from Linking the Generations
In 1954, Reg Snook built the first home on the east side of Mary's Harbour. He bought a shed from the Grenfell Mission for $300 and used the wood to build the house. He had to row across the harbour to school when he was teaching. Reg stopped teaching a few years later to work in the family fishing operation. He later operated a store in Mary's Harbour and served as Justice of the Peace in the community for 40 years.
RESETTLEMENT
"We Used to Bring Everything We Owned Back and Forth"
Battle Harbour was the service center for the whole region, even after the community of Mary's Harbour was established:
"Yes, Battle Harbour had it all, the biggest shop on the Labrador, at the time, the only hospital and church for a long time and the Rangers, and the Marconi Station…. People from everywhere would come to Battle Harbour, for one thing or another…everything stayed there for a long time. The majority of the people stayed until the late 50's, so everything was the same."
Interview with Jim Jones, December 2007, Researcher: Diane Poole
When Mary's Harbour was first settled there were no stores, so supplies had to be purchased at Battle Harbour. Most families spent their summer fishing in or near Battle Harbour and would stock their winter's food in the fall at the end of the fishing season. At that time there were no telephones, no planes and mail came only once a month by dogteam during the winter and by boat in the summer. If you wanted to send out a message anywhere the quickest way was to go to Battle Harbour nine miles away and send a Marconi telegram.
During the 1960s more families moved to Mary's Harbour under the province-wide resettlement program. They were paid by the government to build new homes in bigger communities where services would be centralized. Families came from Battle Harbour, Trap Cove, Matthew's Cove, Indian Cove and Henley Harbour. They lived in Mary's Harbour during the winter months and returned to their fishing communities each summer until the Cod Moratorium in 1992. By the fall of 1970 all of these smaller communities had become ghost towns during the winter.
Albert Spearing Sr. remembers moving house every summer back to Battle Harbour:
"Oh yes, we moved out until after the fishery closed ….Used to have to bring everything we owned back and forth. Everyone done that, took it all. Beds, feather mattresses, chairs, table and stove and pipes. More than once the stove filled up with water, going around Tilsey Point, I tell you. They would take their dogs too, and when they get close to shore, the dogs would jump over board. We'd put the old man in his rocking chair aboard the boat and he would be just as happy as sitting in the house."
Interview with Albert Spearing Sr., December 2007. Researcher: Diane Poole