Storyline Version 2, Feb. 25, 2008
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"
Situated on a small, near-shore island, Battle Harbour was the economic and social centre of south-eastern Labrador for two centuries. John Slade and Company established saltfish premises on Battle Island in the 1770's. The island's population increased rapidly after 1820 when Battle Harbour became the primary port of call for Newfoundland fishing schooners. The community grew to be the "Saltfish Capital of Labrador" with legal, religious, education and health facilities serving people all along the Labrador coast.
"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…
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
Battle Harbour's permanent residents were relocated under a government-sponsored resettlement program between 1965 and 1970. However, until the close of the cod fishery in 1992, people returned annually to fish. A number of families still have seasonal homes on Battle Island.
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
"…We Watched her Burn"
By 1868 Battle Harbour's approximately 300 people had a school and by 1893 it was the site of Labrador's first hospital. Originally established by Dr. Wilfred Grenfell as part of the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, Battle Harbour's hospital later became one of a series of medical facilities operated by the International Grenfell Association (IGA) serving Labrador and northern parts of the island of Newfoundland.
However, ice conditions made Battle Island a very difficult place to reach during the spring and fall. For its first seven years of operation the hospital staff moved each winter from Battle Harbour to Hatters Cove with most of their equipment. In 1928 the IGA, known locally as the Mission, decided to build a permanent hospital at St. Mary's River [Mary's Harbour], a sheltered location more accessible to the people it served. This new settlement was underway when fire destroyed Battle Harbour's hospital on November 8th, 1930.
Mr. Albert Spearing Sr. recalls the fire as a "sad day":
"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. "
Interview with Albert Spearing Sr., December 2007
Researcher: Diane Poole
The hospital staff moved to the partially completed hospital on the same night as the fire, followed a few days later by the Mission's caretaker, Sam Acreman and his family. Other homes under construction at the time were quickly finished and nine families lived in Mary's Harbour that first winter.
SAM ACREMAN
"A Jack-of-All-Trades"
Samuel Acreman was caretaker and groundskeeper of the Grenfell Mission hospital for 45 years. "Uncle Sam" moved from Battle Harbour to St. Mary's River [Mary's Harbour] when fire destroyed the original hospital in 1930. Gordon Acremen, one of Sam's sons, described his father's job as:
"My father worked for the Grenfell Mission for practically all his life…Not much pay - $25.00 a month. That was his salary. But we lived on it. There was a family of 10 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
Linking the Generations.
Gordon also recalled some of the challenges faced by his father and Battle Harbour's doctors before the Mission hospital moved to Mary's Harbour:
"They must have started the hospital in 1928 because it was ready for occupation in 1930. He [Father] would come up here [Marys Harbour] 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]…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 [by the Grenfell Mission] for the Clothing Store…
They had to move from Battle Harbour, you see, it was too hard to get off [the island] in the winter…They would do some travelling, the doctors; they would be gone all the time, up north and up the Straits [of Belle Isle]. They had a hospital up to Hatters Cove and there was 36 families up there most of the time in winter…They were from Fox Harbour [St. Lewis], Cape Charles, Battle Harbour, Trap Cove and Indian Cove.
Interview with Gordon Acreman, December 2007
Researcher: Diane Poole
THE GRENFELL MISSION
"Workin' With the Mission"
When Sam Acreman retired in 1951, his son Hughlett became a "jack-of-all-trades" with the International Grenfell Association (IGA), known locally as "the Mission".
"My father and I both worked with the Grenfell Mission. You could say that I spent all my life there…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…When we growed up big enough … we used to go down and help, you know…I went to work part-time when I was 16, 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 100 needles [immunizations] over there and she only had about a couple of dozen needles [sharps]…I'd sharpen the top with a little 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.
Excerpt from, "Workin' With the Mission" by Hughlett Acreman
Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt
Linking the Generations
Celesta Acreman was a nurse based in Mary's Harbour. Her husband Gordon remembers:
"When my wife was down to the hospital nursing…there was no communications at all with the outside world…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…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
Linking the Generations
THE MISSION SHED
"Six Partridges for a Baby Bundle"
The International Grenfell Association (IGA) started construction of what is now known as the Mary's Harbour hospital and the Grenfell Mission Shed and wharf in 1929. The community had no other buildings at that time so the workers lived either on their boats or in tents. Some men moved into the Mission Shed when it was finished in 1930. Since then this hospital storage building has been used for many different purposes. One year IGA used part of the building for a school.
"We didn't have a school but we used half of that store [the Mission 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
Linking the Generations
Part of the Mission Shed was also used for several years as a clothing store. New and used clothing were donated by IGA supporters from 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. There were no stores in Mary's Harbour at the time. Goods were difficult to obtain before Confederation with Canada and local residents had to pay duty on goods coming to the region from outside.
Nurse Ruth May recalls some of her duties at the Mission Clothing 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. 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. "
Interview with Gordon Acreman, December, 2007
Researcher: Diane Poole
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... 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"
Church of England clergymen stationed at Battle Harbour between 1857 and the early 1970's travelled throughout the area to hold church services as do their Anglican Church of Canada successors now stationed in Mary's Harbour. Prior to Battle Harbour's resettlement, everyone in the region had to travel to St. James the Apostle Church on Battle Island to be married, baptised or confirmed.
On November 18, 1942, Celesta Gerber and Gordon Acreman made the 9 mile trip from St. Mary's River [Mary's Harbour] to Battle Harbour by boat, as did every other young couple at that time who wanted to get married.
"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
Linking the Generations.
Their wedding announcement appeared in Celesta's hometown 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 Harbour 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 1945 forest fire which destroyed all but five buildings in Mary's Harbour- the hospital, the Grenfell Mission Shed and three others.
THE PRINCETON SCHOOL
"The Mission Did it All"
During Mary's Harbour first winter of 1930, school was held in the Grenfell Mission Shed. The International Grenfell Association (IGA) raised funds from students and alumni of Princeton University, New Jersey, USA to build a boarding school for 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 [IGA] 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, December 2007
Researcher: Diane Poole
Redgeway "Reg" Snook, from Trap Cove was one of the teachers who taught at Princeton School. He was employed by the Church and at that time the school year lasted only as long as there was money to pay the teachers.
"I went to St. Anthony to take my grade eleven. I went away to be a teacher when I was 17 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
Linking the Generations
In 1954 the Snook family moved to Mary's Harbour and Reg used recycled wood bought from the Grenfell Mission for $300 to build the first home on the east side of the harbour. While teaching at the Princeton School, Reg had to row across the harbour from home daily. Reg retired from teaching a few years later to work in the family fishing operation and to operate a store in Mary's Harbour. He also served as Justice of the Peace in the community for 40 years.
RESETTLEMENT
"We Used to Bring Everything We Owned Back and Forth"
When Mary's Harbour was first settled in 1930 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 up there in the fall with their winter provisions. There were no telephones or planes and the monthly mail came by dog team in winter and by boat in summer. The quickest way to get a message to the outside world was to travel the 9 miles to Battle Harbour and send a Marconi wireless station telegram.
"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..."
Interview with Jim Jones, December 2007
Researcher: Dianne Poole
During the 1960s more and more families took advantage of the financial incentives offered under the provincial government's resettlement program and moved from small fishing communities to larger centres. Families came from Battle Harbour, Trap Cove, Matthews Cove, Indian Cove and Henley Harbour and moved to Mary's Harbour to take advantage of centralized school, medical, post office and health services. Until the collapse of the cod fishery in 1992, these families wintered in Mary's Harbour and returned each summer to their fishing communities.
Albert Spearing Sr. remembers moving back and forth between Mary's Harbour and Battle Island:
"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 they would jump overboard. 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"
Situated on a small, near-shore island, Battle Harbour was the economic and social centre of south-eastern Labrador for two centuries. John Slade and Company established saltfish premises on Battle Island in the 1770's. The island's population increased rapidly after 1820 when Battle Harbour became the primary port of call for Newfoundland fishing schooners. The community grew to be the "Saltfish Capital of Labrador" with legal, religious, education and health facilities serving people all along the Labrador coast.
"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…
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
Battle Harbour's permanent residents were relocated under a government-sponsored resettlement program between 1965 and 1970. However, until the close of the cod fishery in 1992, people returned annually to fish. A number of families still have seasonal homes on Battle Island.
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
"…We Watched her Burn"
By 1868 Battle Harbour's approximately 300 people had a school and by 1893 it was the site of Labrador's first hospital. Originally established by Dr. Wilfred Grenfell as part of the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, Battle Harbour's hospital later became one of a series of medical facilities operated by the International Grenfell Association (IGA) serving Labrador and northern parts of the island of Newfoundland.
However, ice conditions made Battle Island a very difficult place to reach during the spring and fall. For its first seven years of operation the hospital staff moved each winter from Battle Harbour to Hatters Cove with most of their equipment. In 1928 the IGA, known locally as the Mission, decided to build a permanent hospital at St. Mary's River [Mary's Harbour], a sheltered location more accessible to the people it served. This new settlement was underway when fire destroyed Battle Harbour's hospital on November 8th, 1930.
Mr. Albert Spearing Sr. recalls the fire as a "sad day":
"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. "
Interview with Albert Spearing Sr., December 2007
Researcher: Diane Poole
The hospital staff moved to the partially completed hospital on the same night as the fire, followed a few days later by the Mission's caretaker, Sam Acreman and his family. Other homes under construction at the time were quickly finished and nine families lived in Mary's Harbour that first winter.
SAM ACREMAN
"A Jack-of-All-Trades"
Samuel Acreman was caretaker and groundskeeper of the Grenfell Mission hospital for 45 years. "Uncle Sam" moved from Battle Harbour to St. Mary's River [Mary's Harbour] when fire destroyed the original hospital in 1930. Gordon Acremen, one of Sam's sons, described his father's job as:
"My father worked for the Grenfell Mission for practically all his life…Not much pay - $25.00 a month. That was his salary. But we lived on it. There was a family of 10 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
Linking the Generations.
Gordon also recalled some of the challenges faced by his father and Battle Harbour's doctors before the Mission hospital moved to Mary's Harbour:
"They must have started the hospital in 1928 because it was ready for occupation in 1930. He [Father] would come up here [Marys Harbour] 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]…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 [by the Grenfell Mission] for the Clothing Store…
They had to move from Battle Harbour, you see, it was too hard to get off [the island] in the winter…They would do some travelling, the doctors; they would be gone all the time, up north and up the Straits [of Belle Isle]. They had a hospital up to Hatters Cove and there was 36 families up there most of the time in winter…They were from Fox Harbour [St. Lewis], Cape Charles, Battle Harbour, Trap Cove and Indian Cove.
Interview with Gordon Acreman, December 2007
Researcher: Diane Poole
THE GRENFELL MISSION
"Workin' With the Mission"
When Sam Acreman retired in 1951, his son Hughlett became a "jack-of-all-trades" with the International Grenfell Association (IGA), known locally as "the Mission".
"My father and I both worked with the Grenfell Mission. You could say that I spent all my life there…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…When we growed up big enough … we used to go down and help, you know…I went to work part-time when I was 16, 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 100 needles [immunizations] over there and she only had about a couple of dozen needles [sharps]…I'd sharpen the top with a little 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.
Excerpt from, "Workin' With the Mission" by Hughlett Acreman
Researcher: Bonnie Rumbolt
Linking the Generations
Celesta Acreman was a nurse based in Mary's Harbour. Her husband Gordon remembers:
"When my wife was down to the hospital nursing…there was no communications at all with the outside world…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…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
Linking the Generations
THE MISSION SHED
"Six Partridges for a Baby Bundle"
The International Grenfell Association (IGA) started construction of what is now known as the Mary's Harbour hospital and the Grenfell Mission Shed and wharf in 1929. The community had no other buildings at that time so the workers lived either on their boats or in tents. Some men moved into the Mission Shed when it was finished in 1930. Since then this hospital storage building has been used for many different purposes. One year IGA used part of the building for a school.
"We didn't have a school but we used half of that store [the Mission 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
Linking the Generations
Part of the Mission Shed was also used for several years as a clothing store. New and used clothing were donated by IGA supporters from 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. There were no stores in Mary's Harbour at the time. Goods were difficult to obtain before Confederation with Canada and local residents had to pay duty on goods coming to the region from outside.
Nurse Ruth May recalls some of her duties at the Mission Clothing 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. 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. "
Interview with Gordon Acreman, December, 2007
Researcher: Diane Poole
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... 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"
Church of England clergymen stationed at Battle Harbour between 1857 and the early 1970's travelled throughout the area to hold church services as do their Anglican Church of Canada successors now stationed in Mary's Harbour. Prior to Battle Harbour's resettlement, everyone in the region had to travel to St. James the Apostle Church on Battle Island to be married, baptised or confirmed.
On November 18, 1942, Celesta Gerber and Gordon Acreman made the 9 mile trip from St. Mary's River [Mary's Harbour] to Battle Harbour by boat, as did every other young couple at that time who wanted to get married.
"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
Linking the Generations.
Their wedding announcement appeared in Celesta's hometown 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 Harbour 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 1945 forest fire which destroyed all but five buildings in Mary's Harbour- the hospital, the Grenfell Mission Shed and three others.
THE PRINCETON SCHOOL
"The Mission Did it All"
During Mary's Harbour first winter of 1930, school was held in the Grenfell Mission Shed. The International Grenfell Association (IGA) raised funds from students and alumni of Princeton University, New Jersey, USA to build a boarding school for 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 [IGA] 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, December 2007
Researcher: Diane Poole
Redgeway "Reg" Snook, from Trap Cove was one of the teachers who taught at Princeton School. He was employed by the Church and at that time the school year lasted only as long as there was money to pay the teachers.
"I went to St. Anthony to take my grade eleven. I went away to be a teacher when I was 17 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
Linking the Generations
In 1954 the Snook family moved to Mary's Harbour and Reg used recycled wood bought from the Grenfell Mission for $300 to build the first home on the east side of the harbour. While teaching at the Princeton School, Reg had to row across the harbour from home daily. Reg retired from teaching a few years later to work in the family fishing operation and to operate a store in Mary's Harbour. He also served as Justice of the Peace in the community for 40 years.
RESETTLEMENT
"We Used to Bring Everything We Owned Back and Forth"
When Mary's Harbour was first settled in 1930 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 up there in the fall with their winter provisions. There were no telephones or planes and the monthly mail came by dog team in winter and by boat in summer. The quickest way to get a message to the outside world was to travel the 9 miles to Battle Harbour and send a Marconi wireless station telegram.
"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..."
Interview with Jim Jones, December 2007
Researcher: Dianne Poole
During the 1960s more and more families took advantage of the financial incentives offered under the provincial government's resettlement program and moved from small fishing communities to larger centres. Families came from Battle Harbour, Trap Cove, Matthews Cove, Indian Cove and Henley Harbour and moved to Mary's Harbour to take advantage of centralized school, medical, post office and health services. Until the collapse of the cod fishery in 1992, these families wintered in Mary's Harbour and returned each summer to their fishing communities.
Albert Spearing Sr. remembers moving back and forth between Mary's Harbour and Battle Island:
"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 they would jump overboard. 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