Author Archives: Larry Dohey

“He was my only son. He has played the hero’s part…”

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

November 11 – Remembrance Day

NA 3106 Opening of the Newfoundland Memorial Park

Eli Abbot, 18, left Grand Falls by train with a group of friends arriving in St. John’s on February 20, 1916.  He went directly to the recruitment center  (CLB Armory) where he signed up to fight for “King and Country.”   Four days later he marched with his battalion to the waterfront in St. John’s where he boarded the S.S. Sicilian, the transport ship that would take him to Europe to fight.

Just one year later the Rev. W.T.D. Dunn, the Methodist Minister in Grand Falls, walked to the Abbott home in Grand Fall’s clutching a telegram to Mr. Charles Abbott. The telegram read:

I regret to inform you that the Records Office London today reports that number 2119 Private Eli Abbott  was killed in action  28 January

In the quiet of her home on March 4, 1917 his mother Annie Abbott wrote:

“He was my only son. He  has played the hero’s part and has put down his life for King and Country … I shall see him no longer on earth but trust to meet him again in the great beyond where there will be no more war where all will be peace and happiness…”

We will remember him and all those that served their country.

On Friday, 11 November 2016 at 10:55 a.m., Their Honours (Honourable Frank F. Fagan and Her Honour Patricia Fagan) will attend the Remembrance Day War Memorial Service at the National War Memorial, St. John’s  where His Honour will lay the first wreath. Her Honour will lay a wreath on behalf of the Women’s Patriotic Association. Following the Service, His Honour will take the Salute in front of the Court House on Water Street. At the conclusion of the parade, Their Honours will host a Reception at Government House for invited guests.

At 2:00 p.m., Their Honours will attend the Annual Service of Remembrance at the Caribou Memorial Veterans’ Pavilion.

At 8:00 p.m., Their Honours will attend the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra’s Masterwork’s #2, Honour, Reflect, Remember, at The Basilica of St. John the Baptist.

Recommended Archival Collection: Search the Archives: https://www.therooms.ca/collections-research/our-collections

Recommended Exhibit: The First World War had a profound impact on Newfoundland and Labrador. It involved thousands of our people in world-changing events overseas and dramatically altered life at home. Our “Great War” happened in the trenches and on the ocean, in the legislature and in the shops, by firesides and bedsides. This exhibition shares the thoughts, hopes, fears, and sacrifices of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who experienced those tumultuous years – through their treasured mementoes, their writings and their memories. – See more at: https://www.therooms.ca/exhibits/always/beaumont-hamel-and-the-trail-of-the-caribou#sthash.lv9JmCbn.dpuf

Recommended Book: Browne, Gary. Forget-Me-Not: Fallen Boy Soldiers: Royal Newfoundland Regiment World War One, St. John’s, DRC Publishing, 2010.

 

Tears for a mother and young wife – we remember

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

November 17, 1916 

Vincent Carew headstone, Belgium.

Vincent Carew headstone, Belgium.

On November 17, 1916 Vincent Carew of Cape Broyle, Newfoundland quietly enlisted to “fight for country and king.”  He was 23 years old and the father of two young children.

His wife Elizabeth, when she heard the news that he had signed up was distraught. She immediately wrote a letter to the Governor telling his officials that she had “two small children” and that she did not want her husband to go to war.  The governor’s secretary wrote back that there was nothing that he could do.

One month later on January 31 – Vincent Carew – marched with all of the other Newfoundland volunteers, from their make shift tents near Quidi Vidi to the S.S. Florizel – the troop ship that was waiting in St. John’s Harbour to carry them to the war zones of Europe.

Seven months later on July 10, 1917 he was killed in action in Belgium.

Those who survived, wondered about where their loved one’s had been buried in the fields of Europe. They often wrote to government officials asking for a photograph of the grave site.  Elizabeth Carew wrote and received the photograph of her husband’s grave site in 1922.

She wrote back to government officials “Received the photograph of the grave of Private Vincent Carew. Many Thanks.  Yours,  Bessie Carew.”

The headstone s located in the Bard Cottage Cemetery, Belgium.

Recommended Archival Collection: Search the Archives: https://www.therooms.ca/collections-research/our-collections

Recommended Exhibit: The First World War had a profound impact on Newfoundland and Labrador. It involved thousands of our people in world-changing events overseas and dramatically altered life at home. Our “Great War” happened in the trenches and on the ocean, in the legislature and in the shops, by firesides and bedsides. This exhibition shares the thoughts, hopes, fears, and sacrifices of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who experienced those tumultuous years – through their treasured mementoes, their writings and their memories. – See more at: https://www.therooms.ca/exhibits/always/beaumont-hamel-and-the-trail-of-the-caribou#sthash.lv9JmCbn.dpuf

Recommended Book: Browne, Gary. Forget-Me-Not: Fallen Boy Soldiers: Royal Newfoundland Regiment World War One, St. John’s, DRC Publishing, 2010.

 

Kneeling and prayers in the streets

Archival Moment

2 November

Photo Credit: The Basilica Cathedral bells, St. John’s, NL

The parishioners of the Roman Catholic Cathedral (now Basilica) in St. John’s were informed  at the end of every Sunday mass  in  November of 1902 that: 

“During the month of November the “De profundis bell” will be tolled at nine o’clock every evening for the Holy Souls.  All people who at the sound of the bell shall recite, on their knees (if possible) the Psalm De profundis with the verses and responses.”

The De Profundis is found in scripture – Psalm 130.

Upon hearing the sound of the church bell wherever Catholics were at 9:00 p.m. they would fall to their knees and recite Psalm 130.

The Roman Catholics in the town of St. John’s  were also informed that:

“Those who do not know the De profundis  may say instead an Our Father  and Hail Mary  for the repose of  the faithful departed.”  (Source: Basilica Cathedral Publication Book, October 26, 1902.

And there was no escaping the toll of the Cathedral (now Basilica) bells. It is said that the bells could be heard as far away as Torbay.

The De profundis  bell was not the only one that was sounded.

A beautiful and pious custom which prevailed in many countries was the “passing bell,” which was rung slowly when a death was imminent in the parish. When the sick person was near his end the solemn tones of the bell reminded the faithful of their Christian duty of praying for his happy death and for his eternal repose; and after his spirit had departed, the bell tolled out his age — one short stroke for each year.

A bell that continues to be sounded in St. John’s  is the Angelus Bell.  The Angelus, consists essentially in the reciting of certain prayers at the sound of a bell at fixed hours. At the Basilica Cathedral the angelus bell is struck at noon each day.

By tradition, the Catholic Church dedicates each month of the year to certain devotion. In November, it is the Holy Souls in Purgatory, described in Catholic theology as “those faithful Christians who have died and gone before us.” Praying for the dead, especially for those we have known, is a requirement of Christian charity.

New Word:  De profundis    (Latin) “out of the depths of misery or dejection” (from the first words of Psalm 130

Recommended Archival Collection: Search the online database at The Rooms for archival records and to view thousands of digital photographs. Search the Archives: https://www.therooms.ca/collections-research/our-collections

Recommended Song: Psalm 130

The First Giant Squid

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

October 25, 1873

 

On July 7, 2011 Canada Post launched the Glovers Harbour Squid stamp which features a 55-foot (16.8 metre) giant squid statue from Glovers Harbour.

 

On 25 October 1873 a fisherman, Theophilus Picot fishing off Bell Island in Conception Bay, had a battle with a giant squid. This battle resulted in the first giant squid specimen to be studied scientifically on land!

It was Alexander Murray, the first Director of the Geological Survey of Newfoundland who brought the story to the attention of the international scientific community.

A few weeks following the fisherman’s battle with the giant squid Mr.  Murray, wrote to Louis Agassiz, Professor of Zoology at Harvard University.  In the letter he explained that the fisherman Picot

 ” struck at it  (the squid, at the time he had no idea what it was)  with an oar or boat-hook, whereupon the creature’s fury seemed to be aroused, and it struck at the bottom of the boat with its beak, and immediately afterward threw its monstrous tentacles over the boat, which probably it might have dragged to the bottom had not Picot with great presence of mind severed one of the tentacles with his axe.”

Mr. Murray had more than a story he also included:

 “a couple of photographs of the said tentacle and a few of the small denticulated sucking cups.”

The reference to the  battle with the giant squid  first appeared the prestigious publication scientific journal ‘The American Naturalist’  8 (1874), 120-124. under the tile “Capture of a Gigantic Squid at Newfoundland.”

This was the first of the giant squid to be documented. Over the years their have been others. At the Rooms Provincial Museum a giant squid that was originally caught November 14, 1981 in Hare Bay, Bonavista Bay, is on display.  The last giant squid caught in Newfoundland waters was in Triton in 2004 and there was another found in Sandy Cove, Fogo Island, in 1982.

On July 7, 2011 Canada Post launched the Glovers Harbour Squid stamp which features a 55-foot (16.8 metre) giant squid statue from Glovers Harbour. It is a life-size replica of the World’s Largest Giant Squid (Guinness Book record) that was landed nearby on November 2, 1878.

Recommended Reading: Aldrich, F. A., and Brown, E. L. 1967. “The Giant Squid in Newfoundland,” The Newfoundland Quarterly. Vol. LXV No. 3. p. 4-8.

Recommended Archival Collection: Search the online database at The Rooms  for descriptions of our archival records and to view thousands of digital photographs. https://www.therooms.ca/collections-research/our-collections

Recommended Exhibit:  At the Rooms see the exhibit “Beneath the Sea”  this exhibit features a 29-foot-long giant squid,  which was found by a fisherman in Hare Bay, Nov 10, 1981.

 

 

The healing potential of the Pitcher Plant

October 20, 1891

Archival Moment

Floral NewfOn October 20, 1891 Henry Clift a well-known barrister from Harbour Grace,  in a letter in the St. John’s newspaper, The Evening Telegram,  mused about the potential of plants that grew in Newfoundland and wondered why the medical community in the colony were  not exploring their medicinal potential.  The letter sets Henry Clift apart as one of the first to see the potential of pharmaceutical drugs in Newfoundland flora.

The young lawyer was driven to write the letter because he was amused that residents of St. John’s and his home town Harbour Grace were buying up all of the concoctions that were being sold by the visiting Kickapoo Company. The Kickapoo was an Indian medicine show that employed American Indians, supposedly Kickapoo’s, to tour Newfoundland demonstrating Indian life, and selling their medicines. They has set up shop in the Star of the Sea Hall on Henry Street with good audiences and brisk sales of their products.

Clift in his letter to the Editor argued that before the arrival of the Europeans to Newfoundland,  “when our native Indians became sick how did they cure themselves … the  answer is surely by the plants and the roots, herbs, bark of trees etc. of our native land.:”

Clift continued that there was in fact historical proof that there was healing qualities in the roots and berries that were gown in the colony. He wrote that as far back as July and August 1863 the St. John’s newspaper, The Times, had reported that “a certain Lieutenant Hardy of the Royal Artillery showed that Surgeon Logan had cured eleven men of the Regiment of smallpox by the use of the roots of the Pitcher Plant or rather a due concoction thereof.”

He continued that we were not to stop with the medicinal and pharmacological potential of the Pitcher Plant but should also “dilate here on the virtue of the wild cherry bark, dogberry bark, and berry, sarsaparilla, snake root, bog bean and the root of our beautiful perfumed, N. odorata or pond lily, etc.”

The good lawyer was well read and was aware that Reverend A.C. Waghorne  an Anglican Missionary priest working in Newfoundland  “has done good work on the botany of our native land and it is high time that the medical botany thereof should be more attended to than it is, and that we should open up  a way of relief  to the poor and the sick and to help people out of their coffins.“ Wayhorne had published extensively on Newfoundland flora in the local papers.

The coffins that Clift was referring to were for those that were succumbing to the full fury of the diphtheria epidemic. The Board of Health for the Colony of Newfoundland in 1889 reported that 1,881 cases of diphtheria affecting 878 families and resulting in 350 deaths. For 1890 and 1891 the number of deaths was 133 and 140 respectively. By April, 1892, when diphtheria had all but disappeared from St. John’s, the number of deaths for the first three months of that year was 23. Clift reported that the “cautionary sick signal is hoisted” on many homes.

To eradicate such an epidemic Clift was  suggesting that the medical community should consider the medicinal value of plants like the Pitcher Plant for consideration in the medical arsenal.

The Pitcher Plant was declared the provincial flower of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1954, this strange plant appeared on the new Newfoundland penny in 1880. The Pitcher Plant, also called Sarracenis Purpurea, is found primarily in bogs and marshland throughout the province. It has one large wine-red flower with a red and gold centre and hollow pitcher-shaped leaves which are attached to the base of the stem. As an insectivorous plant, it feeds off the insects which become trapped inside the leaves when they fill with water.

Recommended Archival Collection:   Search the online database for descriptions  at The Rooms for archival records and to view thousands of digital photographs. Search the Archives: https://www.therooms.ca/collections-research/our-collections

Recommended Reading: Home Medicine: The Newfoundland Experience by John K. Crellin . Based on material from the Folklore Archives at Memorial University  Crellin looks at the interplay between mainstream physicians and alternative treatments, and the effect of folk beliefs on today’s self-care practices, Crellin examines how the advent of modern medicine has affected self-treatment.

 

A haunting evocative evening in the theatre

the-weir-flyerTHE WEIR

by Conor McPherson

A haunting evocative evening in the theatre

In a remote country pub in Ireland, newcomer Valerie arrives and becomes spellbound by an evening of ghostly stories told by the local bachelors who drink there. With a whiff of sexual tension in the air and the wind whistling outside, what starts out as blarney soon turns dark as the tales drift into the realm of the supernatural. Then, Valerie reveals a startling story of her own….

Conor McPherson’s The Weir is a haunting evocative evening in the theatre you will never forget. Tickets are available $30 at the LSPU Hall.

November 1 -5 at 8PM

MATINEE: Saturday, November 5 at 2:00pm

Book your ticket on line at http://rca.nf.ca/

All proceeds go towards “Team Broken Earth” and their work in rebuilding Haiti. Read More: http://www.brokenearth.ca/

 

Remembering and revitalizing the “rooms” of a fishing village.

Old Coast, New Coast: Petty Harbour, Newfoundland

Remembering and revitalizing the “rooms” of a fishing village.

The Rooms

The Rooms

Published October 14, 2016

Sitting on the edge of the dock, swinging their legs back and forth, children eagerly await the return of their fathers. The fishermen left at sunrise, guiding their small boats out to fertile inshore fishing grounds to pull in cod with handlines. Read More: https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/old-coast-new-coast-petty-harbour-newfoundland

Are you in my pew?

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

October 8, 1991

Basilica Cathedral Parish receipt for pew rent. Pew #28.

In the 1800’s because voluntary offerings in Sunday collections were unpredictable, pastors introduced pew rents to stabilize parish finances.  Originating in Germany, the pew rent system was common place in North America by the 1840’s. In the new churches it was used to secure a steady income from which the debt on new buildings could be paid.

Parishioners could literally “rent a pew”.  It was reserved for their use during one or all of the Sunday Masses and other devotions and events.  Typically in most churches a  brass plate  was inserted with  a card holder where the name of the family “renting” the pew  was inserted.

The pews were also in demand.  Every Sunday notices were read reminding parishioners if they had not paid their “pew rent” that they should pay immediately or forfeit the right to claim the pew!

The practice was so prevalent that for certain celebrations in St. John’s that the Archbishop of St. John’s had to make a special plea that the “pew holders”  in the Basilica Cathedral give up their pews for special occasions. For example when Pope Pius XI died in 1939, Archbishop Roche requested:

“Pew holders in the upper centre section are requested to give their pews on that day (February 19, 1939)  for the use of those who desire to attend the ceremony ….”

The same notice would go to pew holders when the  Basilica Cathdral hosted sacred  concerts.  One such notice read:

“On Wednesday Evening next at 8:00 o’clock a Sacred Oratorio will be held in the Cathedral on the occasion of the opening of the new organ. A small charge will be made for admission – the proceeds to go towards the expenses of the Organ which will be over eight thousand dollars. Pew holders will please understand that they must not expect to claim their pews on that occasion as they will be occupied by ticket holders.”

In some diocese the practise was so prevalent that regulations ensured that a proportion of pews (at least one sixth) always remained free to insure that the poor would have a seat in the church. The seats of renters who had not arrived before a certain point in the celebration were also regarded as free for occupation by others.

The idea  of “pew rents”  was  for some a great source of scandal, it was inevitable that it was the poor  that were edged out to perch on benches and stools at the back or middle of the church.

To an outsider the effect of rented pews in church could be off-putting.  A vistor to a church in Monmouthshire, Wales wrote in 1882:

“I did go once  (to the church) but the people were all shut in, and the folk in the pews  looked at me as if I had got in without paying: so after walking up and down several times, like a man in a station trying to get a seat when the train is full, I went home.”

In most churches in Newfoundland the idea of “pew rents” was allowed to fade away quietly. In place of pew rents for a particular pew, in some churches, a general pew  collection or second collection was held every Sunday. In the Basilica Cathedral Parish this general offering was seen by some parishioners as a way to hold on to the pew that they saw as “their family pew.”  To this very day older parishioners continue to sit in what was “their family pew.”

The pew collection, previously the pew rent, was officially ended by a decision of the Basilica Cathedral Parish Council on October 8, 1991.

Recommended Archival Collection: At the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese see “The Pew Rent Receipt Books” these books  identify the particular pew that was assigned to a family.

Recommended Reading:The English Anglian practice of pew renting, 1800-1969. Bennett, John Charles (2011) Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham, England.

“Firing for the school”

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

October 7, 1900

Photo Credit: The Rooms Provincial Archives. VA 118-18.4 Girls and women sitting behind stove, possibly in school room .(Note the coal bucket near the stove)

 

At the end of the mass on Sunday, October 7, 1900 the parish priest at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in St. John’s (now Basilica) took to the pulpit to make the usual announcements.  On this particular Sunday the priest also took great pains to explain because of the increase in the price of coal that the families of the children in the parish would have to take on some of the responsibility for “firing for the school”.

The priest told the congregation:

“Owing to the increase in the price of coal His Lordship the Bishop (Michael Francis Howley) wishes the parents of the children attending schools in the neighborhood of the city to understand that he cannot supply fuel as usual from the education money and they are expected to help provide firing for the school. “ (Source: Book of Publications, Sunday, October 7, 1900)

Until the 1950’s most rural schoolhouses in the province were outfitted with nothing but a small wood or coal -burning potbelly stove in the corner or center of the room.  It was up to the students to heat the classroom.

A common sight in small towns and villages was a child trudging off to school carrying a couple pieces of wood or small bucket of coal, his or her contribution to the day’s supply of fuel. The older boys took turns lighting the fire and during the cold winter mornings all the children would bundle around the stove until the temperature rose high enough to make it sufficiently warm to sit in their regular places.

Recommended Archival Collection:  At the Provincial Archives Division at The Rooms explore MG 365  three logbooks (1916-27, 1918-29 ,1947-54) which document the operation and administration of St. Mary’s School, Southside, St. John’s. The logbooks contain handwritten entries by teachers describing school activities, student performances and events affecting the operations of the school.

Search the Archives: : https://www.therooms.ca/collections-research/our-collections

Recommended Publication:  Schooling in a Fishing Society: Education and Economic Conditions inNewfoundland andLabrador 1836-1986 Volume 1 & 2 by Phillip McCann.St. John’s,  Newfoundland: Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER),MemorialUniversity of Newfoundland, 1994,   277 pp. and 329 pp.

Lost Phrase:  The expression “firing for the school” has fallen into disuse.  Have you seen the expression “firing for the school” in other sources?

The Parade Grounds now the site of The Rooms

Archival Moment

 September 8, 1898 

The Rooms, St. John's, NL the area was once known as the Parade Grounds.

The Rooms, St. John’s, NL the area was once known as the Parade Grounds.

In September of 1898 two factions in St. John’s were looking to control property in the town known as ‘The Parade Ground’.  The property, now the site of “The Rooms” was of interest to two groups, “the sports enthusiasts”   who wanted the grounds converted into sports fields and those that wanted to see a park established on the site.

Those supporting the concept of establishing sports fields on the Parade Grounds were well organized; they had the support of the local member of the House of Assembly and the support of the athletic clubs of the city.  Trumpeting the idea of a park were the neighboring residents.

In 1898 the Municipality St. John’s was expanding, there was a move away from the downtown core  (following the Great Fire of 1892)  two new neighborhoods that were emerging “the Cookstown and LeMarchant Road districts.”  These new neighborhoods many argued should have a park.  Writing under the pen name “Demos “  on September 8, 1898,  he  wrote that  there should be a park on the Parade Grounds, like Bannerman and Victoria  Parks.  A park:

“for the benefit of the people on the higher levels and the central part of the city, on the same footing  as a place of recreation, like Bannerman and Victoria Parks are for the welfare of the people of the East and West ends of the town. “

 Demos felt strongly that this new neighborhood should have a park for:

 “The aged, the infirm, and children under the care of servants, (that) cannot conveniently go to Bannerman and Victoria Parks, and are dependent, on the Parade Ground as a place of rest and recreation. This dependence will increase more and more with the spread of population in the Cookstown and LeMarchant Road districts.”

Demos, in his letter to the local newspaper argued that people were moving into the Parade Ground neighborhood because they had access to “ this open space”  that:

 “ formed a reason for the purchase or lease of the neighboring real estate and the building of their houses thereon by the residents of the locality, and their right of liberty of resort to the Parade  Ground at all times cannot in equity be infringed upon…. “  

The general sentiment in the neighborhood was that it would be rash to deed the Parade Grounds “to an irresponsible company of ball-players.”

The residents of the area had some definite ideas, they wanted nothing less than “the embellishment of the Parade Ground “they wanted a care taker for the grounds, the planting of grass, a few clumps of trees, winding walks and benches and seating area.”

It took some time  (118 years) but with the official opening of the Fortis Courtyard and Amphitheatre  at the Rooms on July 1, 2016  what were the Parade Grounds  are now  “the place of recreation”  originally  proposed  on September 8, 1898.

Explanation: Typically in the 19th  century  most people in Newfoundland  used a pen name when writing letters to the Editor.  “Demos “  is a  Greek term  – meaning for the populace of a democracy as a political unit.

Recommended Archival Collection: Search the online database for descriptions of our archival records and to view thousands of digital photographs. –  https://www.therooms.ca/collections-research/our-collections . In the search bar type “Parade Grounds”.