316-page history of colourful Southern Shore town well worth the attention
By Craig Westcott/November 25, 2021
Did you know the first chief of police in St. John’s, Patrick O'Neill, was from Witless Bay?
Or there used to be a hotel at the end of Gallows Cove?
Or that one year, in 1938 to be exact, Ted Carey arranged to buy Christmas trees from local woodsmen which he loaded aboard a steamer at Bay Bulls for shipment to the United Sates?
Or what about all the couples from Witless Bay and other parts of the Shore who met, by happenstance or serendipity, while they working in the Boston States, as maids, labourers, and in other jobs and came back to resettle their lives here?
Or that in 1878, the parish priest and nuns kept people in the community from starving?
You can read about those, and seemingly hundreds of other inspiring, heartrending and just plain interesting stories in a new compendium of history and lore published by the Witless Bay Heritage Committee.
But you'll have to put in an order and wait a few weeks if you didn't buy your copy this past Saturday. The book launch at the Puffin Centre sold out its first full print run of 300 copies.
For Maureen Walsh and Bonnie Johnstone and the others behind it, the book may have been 16 years in the making, but it was well worth the wait. Its readers will no doubt agree.
"We tried to include just about the whole community in one way or another," said Walsh. "Some way or other we tried to involve everybody… And the thing was, it was spread out over 16 years, so we didn't rush it, we enjoyed it."
The work dates back to the formation of the Heritage Committee in 2004.
"The next year we talked about what we could start off with and it was suggested that we start talking with the seniors," Walsh recalled. "So, we started off and the first interview was in 2005 with a Mr. Leo Walsh.”
The project was aided by an annual grant of $1,000 a year over eight years from the Museum Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Heritage committee banked the money until it was ready to publish.
Walsh and four others –Bonnie Johnstone, Barry Norris, Mary Sobel and the late Marjorie Macdiarmid – spent 12 years interviewing people throughout Witless Bay. In 2017, Walsh and Johnston started transcribing the tapes and organizing the information.
"We were trying (to finish) for the Come Home Year in 2020 but then Covid happened," said Walsh. "But Covid worked to our advantage, because we used that year to refine everything."
Some seniors were shy about being interviewed, so in some cases, family members gathered the information for the committee members.
"They were shy and, oh my, we were shy," said Walsh. "And let me tell you, I am not very technically inclined. I remember one night we were sitting down having such a nice time with one of the seniors and I looked over and the tape recorder had gone off."
There was oodles of tape and notes compiled over the years, but Walsh said it didn't seem like work transcribing it all, because it was so interesting and so much fun.
"The two of us seemed to really work well together, so that made it easier too," Walsh said of the collaboration with Johnstone.
The range of material runs the breadth of the community – everything from anecdotes and details about the fishery and fishermen in Witless Bay to reminisces about the shops, church and family life. There are tales of garden parties, which drew contestants from as far as Shotts for the skeet shooting and tug of war contests, to the competition, which one year nearly came to blows, for the best trap berths, or fishing grounds off Ragged Beach and other places.
"It's so fascinating," Walsh said. "People come along and say to you, I didn't realize this happened, or that happened.’ I was speaking with a couple of young people while we were at the book and I mentioned something about the Sulmor Club, and they said, 'Why, was there a club in Witless Bay?' And I said, ‘Oh my God, there was a club in nearly every community on the Shore. But yes, it was a pretty fancy place and I had my wedding there and my 25th anniversary.’ They couldn't get over that there was a club in Witless Bay. Just little things, you know. There were taxis, there were buses, there were so many shops in every community. Now some communities don't even have a shop, and there are no buses anymore. It's a whole new different lifestyle."
Back then, people seemed to take hard times in stride, said Walsh. “Some of the older people we talked to didn't concentrate on what went wrong, or what was wrong in their lives, but a lot of it was the good times," she said.
Of all the stories in the book, the one that registers most for Walsh is about a Mrs. Clare Tobin who lived on Harbour Road in the late 1930s. "When people up the Southern Shore would come to Witless Bay to get what I guess we would call now social assistance, to see someone who looked after the dole, when they'd go down the north side of Witless Bay, Mrs. Tobin would be aware of the day they would be on the go and she would make sure she had either a big pot of stew or soup and ask them to come in for a meal, because most of them had to walk," said Walsh. "And that story really strikes me, the hospitality."
Walsh credit’s the book's graphic designer, Melanie Lethbridge, for making it look so good. “She was particular and kept us on our toes about the way things should be," said Walsh.
The pair left the final sign-off before printing to Lethbridge.
"So, when we went out to pick up the books and opened the box, it was the first time we saw it (the completed design) and we were just like two youngsters at Christmas," Walsh said.
Anyone wanting to order a copy can call Walsh at 689-5087, or Lucy Carew at 725-9533. Walsh doesn't expect the second printing will be finished until just after Christmas.
Since it’s out, the accolades for the project have been rolling in.
People like it, Walsh admitted. "But for us, myself and Bonnie and the people who did the interviews, we consider it a real privilege to be able to do something like that," Walsh said. "I thoroughly enjoyed it... And how am I going to put this; myself and my family have gone through a couple of very difficult tragic events in our lives and the people of Witless Bay and the surrounding areas – Tors Cove, Bay Bulls and Burnt Cove, where my husband is from – the support that we got was phenomenal and doing this book for me was a payback, a thank you, to get the good side of the community out. So, I was really glad to do this for personal reasons too."
While it is a relief to finally see the book published, Walsh admitted it's also left kind of a void, now that all the transcribing and editing is over.
"My daughter said to me, 'Mom, what are you going to do with yourself now,' and I said, 'Well, I've got to give it some thought.'"
