The Labrador Garden Project: Annotated Bibliography and Research Notes

              The Labrador Garden Project:
Annotated Bibliography and Research Notes
(PANL VA 118­154.3)
The Agricultural History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador
Document prepared by Lisa Wilson, January 15th, 2015
Funding support from the Cultural Economic Development
Program, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
Table of Contents
Project Introduction ………….………………………………………….. 2
Annotated Bibliography
A: Moravian and Grenfell Missions in Labrador’s Agricultural History ……….. 3
B: General Information Related to Agriculture and/or Moravians ……….……. 16
Reference Material: Transcriptions and Quotes
A: Moravian Mission References …………………………………………………. 20
B: Grenfell Mission References ………………………………………………….... 34
C: Cartwright, Donald Smith and the Hudson’s Bay Company References …... 45
D: Settler and Contemporary References ……………………………………….. 49
Correspondence Notes (personal communications) .....……………... 53
List of Archival Sources …….…………………………………………… 55
1
Introduction:
The Labrador Garden Project
Throughout the fall and winter of 2014, the Agricultural History Society of
Newfoundland and Labrador embarked on a project relating to early agricultural
practices on the east coast of Labrador. In particular, this project aimed to explore the
nature of the agricultural endeavors practiced by Moravian missionaries starting in the
1770s, and how they impacted not only the immediate local diet (and people), but
coastal agriculture in general, over time. Areas of interest have included mission site
plans, designs of gardens and irrigation systems, seed lists, crop successes and
failures, soil building techniques, tools made and used, garden labour, food distribution
and storage, and importantly, how these factors and related knowledge may have
influenced or been transmitted to the Inuit population.
The research from this project has been divided into two primary categories or
eras. The first involves the Moravian mission settlements starting in the 1770s, the
second being the Grenfell voyages and missions from the 1890s to the mid­1900s.
It
should be noted that the Moravians missionaries continued on in Labrador until the
mid­1900s,
but this research focusses on their early practices. While emphasis has
indeed been placed on the Moravians, the Grenfell era is of utmost importance in
understanding the topic. Not only was the agricultural component of the Grenfell mission
likely informed by observing the Moravian gardens, but the overall impact of this
incentive has been a significant and lasting one in Labrador.
A smaller set of outcomes in the project are related to the agricultural efforts of
Captain George Cartwright (1760s­70s),
the Hudson’s Bay Company (Donald Smith,
1830s­60s),
and finally, the settler population of Labrador and their personal gardening
practices starting around the mid­19th
century, and moving towards a contemporary
setting.
The results of this work, some of which is included in this document, has mostly
come from archival texts and images, historical accounts found in publications, record
and journal transcriptions (representing the Moravian perspective), as well as
periodicals from the later Grenfell missions. The document included here consists of an
annotated bibliography of sources accessed, as well as a comprehensive list of material
in the form of transcribed quotations. This reference material is broken up into
sub­topics
and aims to operate as a research guide, and to summarize the history of
agriculture in Labrador, particularly on the coast, from the time of the first Moravian
settlement in Nain.
2
Annotated Bibliography
Section A:
Reference material specific to agricultural history in Labrador, with emphasis on
Moravian and Grenfell influences.
Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Agriculture. Vol. 48, Issue 3 (Oct., 1950): 71. (MUN
DAI)
Description of the St. Anthony gardening project. “At St. Anthony the greenhouse
supplies early cabbage plants to people all along the northeast coast. In summer our
gardens furnish vegetables to the institutions.” No author provided. Page numbers for this
issue begin at 66.
Baikie, Margaret. Labrador Memories: Reflections at Mulligan. Them Days,
1984. (CNS HN 110 N4 B35)
An entire issue of Them Days dedicated to the memories and reflections of a Labrador
woman during the mid­late
1800s. She remembers visiting with Lord Strathcona
(Donald Smith) and seeing his gardens.
Beckles, Willson. The Life of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal. Vol. 1. Boston
and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915. (CNS F 1033 S93 1915 v.1)
A dense volume on the life of Lord Strathcona and his relationship with the Hudson's
Bay Company. Includes letters, diaries, maps and illustrations. This book could be
viewed again to see if his “wonder farm” is mentioned. Recommended by Susan
Felsberg.
Bisbee, John B. Fonds: 1913­1914.
Non­Government
Records. The Rooms
Provincial Archives: St. John’s. (MG 735)
Handwritten journal kept by Bisbee, a volunteer with Grenfell, during a voyage along the
Labrador Coast during the years 1913 and 1914. Some observations centre on
interactions with Moravian Missionaries. He also kept photographic records of his
journeys in two separate photo albums. These are also in the archival holdings (see VA
72 and VA 73).
Blake, Edward. “Before Upper Churchill Came on Stream.” Them Days, Vol. 36,
No. 1, 2012: 11­12.
(CNS)
Short account of their family gardens from when he was growing up. Abundance and
types of vegetables and reference to lack of space in terms of vegetable storage, unless
they could have a “cellar or a root cellar in the bank.”
3
Blake, Sylvia. “We Grew Everything We Needed, Sheshatshiu.” Them Days, Vol.
32, No. 2, 2010: 23­27.
(CNS)
Article about how gardening was passed down the family line, and the success of these
household gardens. Information about what was grown, and how it was fertilized.
Borthwick, Jane. The Story of Moravian Missions in Greenland and Labrador by
H.L.L. London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1873. (CNS BV 2560 B6 c.2)
This book was written as a brief history of both missions in the 1870s, including detailed
information about the people involved in the missions, and information about the
'heathens' in both regions. Included is useful information about how the first mission
settlement was established, and how the subsequent missions came to be. Very brief
reference to the ability to grow in Labrador compared to Greenland. “H. L. L.” on the
publication is a psyeudonym for author Jane Borthwick. (Also see: The Moravians in
Labrador. Edinburgh, printed by J. Ritchie, 1833. An older version of the text The Story
of the Moravian Missions in Greenland and Labrador CNS BX8567N4M6.)
Brice­Bennett,
Carol. Hopedale: Three Ages of a Community in Northern
Labrador. St. John’s: Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland and
Labrador, 2003. (Shawyer Collection)
Text begins with history of Moravians in Labrador with Jens Haven leading early
missionary work in the 1770s (after his time doing similar work in Greenland). Detailed
overview of Moravian influence on the Hopedale population through the ages, as well as
information about agricultural practices, such as seed experiments, and transmission of
skills.
Budgell, Leonard. “Old Stone and Sod Houses,” Them Days, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1991:
59­63.
(CNS Periodicals)
Information about the houses in coastal Labrador. Includes an idea that the sod houses,
once fallen, helped nourish the soil that the Moravians used to grow their plants. (Sod
houses were once located where the mission gardens were later introduced).
Cartwright, George. “George Cartwright’s Garden – 1786.” Them Days, Vol.
32, No. 2, 2010: 28­31.
(CNS)
Reprinted from Cartwright’s journals that chronicle his attempts at gardening in the 18th
century. Successes and failures included. Them Days further cites Vol. 8, No. 1 for a
complete summary of his Labrador gardening experience.
Curtis, Harriot. “The Home Front.” Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Vol. 38, Issue 3
4
(Oct. 1940): 73. (MUN DAI)
A piece on gardening in Labrador intending to generate excitement by detailing
accomplishments. Begins with some popular slogans from the Grenfell campaign: “Fight
the War in the Cabbage Garden!” Discusses need to make garden practices more
wide­spread.
Curwen, Eliot. Fonds. Consists of personal journals detailing voyage to
Labrador. Non­Government
Records, The Rooms Provincial Museum and
Archives. (PANL File MG152)
Personal handwritten journal of Curwen during the second voyage of Dr. Grenfell along
the coast of Labrador (dated: May 27th – Nov.18th 1893). Difficult to read, but fascinating
for its descriptions of people, landscapes, communities, and various encounters.
Curwen was a medical missionary who kept a notebook on various aspects of this trip
and put together two photograph albums, also held in the fonds (Series VA 152).
Community Information of Coastal Labrador, 1994. (CNS FF 1042 L225)
Unpublished community inventory of the coast with descriptions of each place and the
people who live there, notable historic incidents, and socio­economic
details.
Communities were also assessed for their infrastructure and whether or not the
residents participate in subsistence agriculture.
Decks Awash. The Garden of Labrador. Vol. 03, No. 02 (April 1974): 38. (DAI via
PAB)
Short write­up
credits Lord Strathcona for bringing gardening to the North West River
area, now known as the “Garden of Labrador.” No author provided.
­­­­­­­­­­.
A Labrador Family Farm. Vol. 10, No. 02 (April 1981):13­15.
(DAI via PAB)
A feature article on the farming operation run by Susan and Hans Felsberg in Happy
Valley (Mud Lake). They discuss the careful planning required to farm in the region.
Includes information about Susan’s background in nursing.
Electric Scotland. Lord Strathcona. Web Resource.
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/lord_strathcona.htm
Historic profile on Lord Strathcona (Donald Smith) including information about his time
in Labrador and how he would import seeds from Scotland for his garden.
Felsberg, Susan. Labrador Agriculture: The Early Roots. Circumpolar Conference
paper, 2007.
5
Conference paper, provided by Felsberg, which provides an overview of the different
missions, phases, and agricultural movements in Labrador. Touches on the Moravians,
Cartwright, Donald Smith, the Grenfell Mission, and contemporary examples.
Fereira, Oswald A. Agriculture in Labrador: Background Paper to an Agricultural
Plan. Department of Rural, Agricultural and Northern Development, May
1980. (Shawyer Collection)
Maps and writing on the topic of agricultural policy and planning in Labrador. It includes
a breakdown of natural resources in the region, and in­depth
descriptions of various
agricultural practices from commercial farming to hydroponics and greenhouses.
Gale, I.C. (Ed.) “North Wind: Spring Fever.” Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Vol. 34,
Issue 1 (April, 1936): 22a­22d.
(MUN DAI)
Short piece advertising Grenfell’s garden campaign based on stories told by Grenfell
himself. Offers anecdotes for why gardening practices were introduced (disease
prevention), and advice for how to start your own garden. Ends with the plea: “Please
Join the Garden Campaign!” This piece is within an insert provided by the “Crew of Grenfell
Juniors,” Vol. 1, Issue 11.
Goudie, Elizabeth. Woman of Labrador. Toronto: Peter Martin Associates, 1973.
(Shawyer Collection)
Detailed diaries on the life of a trapper’s wife in Northern Labrador. Excellent source
however primarily focusses on the 1920s onwards. See pages 61 & 89.
Goudie, Joseph (foreword). Alluring Labrador: A Journey Through Labrador.
Happy Valley­Goose
Bay: Them Days Magazine, 1980. (Shawyer Collection)
Travel guide very specific to the era, beginning with the history of Labrador in general,
and then going into historical accounts about how specific communities were settled.
There are brief references to gardening practices.
Grenfell, Wilfred T. A Labrador Doctor: The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason
Grenfell. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919. (Shawyer
Collection)
Grenfell’s personal reflections on life as a doctor servicing northern Newfoundland and
Labrador. Includes personal family history, young life, and extensive experiences as a
doctor. Specific references to observations around agriculture exist throughout the text.
Grenfell, Wilfred T. “Labrador.” The Geographical Journal, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Apr.,
1911), pp. 407­418.
(Online via MUN)
6
Speech written by Grenfell for the Royal Geographical Society on some of his
observations over the 20 years he had been working in Labrador. Some of the
information he covers includes the geography, climate, wild food sources, and
conditions for growing vegetables (with a comparison between the coastal area and
inland Labrador).
Grenfell, Wilfred T. “Dr. Grenfell’s Log.” Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Vol. 13,
Issue 4 (Jan. 1917): 139­44.
(MUN DAI)
Included in this highly detailed summary of all activities undertaken by Dr. Grenfell
during this period, are some of his personal observations of gardening practices. In
particular he mentions Mrs. Bailey and her work at the outpost in Forteau. Note: There
are photographs of Bailey in the Rooms Grenfell collection.
Grenfell, Wilfred T. Promotional Pamphlets for the Grenfell Mission.
Non­Government
Records, The Rooms Provincial Museum and Archives.
(PANL File MG 63.2140)
File folder of ephemera published by the Grenfell Mission to promote their activities in
Northern Newfoundland and along the Labrador coast for fundraising purposes.
Hanrahan, Maura. “Tracing Social Change Among the Labrador Inuit: What Does
the Nutrition Literature Tell Us?” The Nunatsiavummiut Experience:
Settlement, Subsistence, and Change Among the Labrador Inuit. Eds.
David C. Natcher, Lawrence Felt, and Andrea Procter. Winnipeg: University
of Manitoba Press, 2012: 121­38.
Article in anthology on how the introduction of European food has impacted the
traditional food systems of Labrador Inuit communities over time.
Haven, Jens. Letter to Governor John Byron from Jens Haven, 1770.
Non­Government
Records. The Rooms Provincial Archives: St. John’s. (MG
251)
An eight­page
letter written by Jens Haven addressed to "The Rt. Hon. John Byron,
Governor and Commander in Chief in and over the Island of Newfoundland and the
Coast of Labrador, 13 September 1770." The letter detailed Haven's arrival in Henley
Harbour, Labrador and details his interactions with the Inuit. In the letter, he claims land
at Esquimaux Bay in the name the Moravian Church.
Hudson's Bay Company. HBC Heritage. Our History: People: Governors. Web
Resource.
http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritage/history/people/governors/donaldsmith
7
Website hosted by the Hudson's Bay Company featuring important historical accounts
and profiles, including a section on former Governors. A write up on the life and
accomplishments of Donald Smith can be found here, with information about his
“wonder farm” in Rigolet, Labrador. There is also a photograph of the house he once
lived in.
Hussey, Greta. Our Life on Lear’s Room, Labrador. Flanker Press: St. John’s,
1981.
Personal reflections of Hussey’s time spent going up to “the Labrador” with her
seasonal fisherman father. Excellent descriptions of the lifestyle she lived/witnessed,
and includes some information about gardening practices.
Hutton, Samuel King. A Shepherd in the Snow: The Life Story of Walter Perrett of
Labrador. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1936. (MUN DAI)
Written by a doctor who was brought to the coast by the Moravian Mission, this book
contains a good description of gardens, as well as having attitudes around the success
of these gardens. For instance, Okak is referred to as a paradise due to the sight of the
thriving gardens.
Hutton, Samuel King. An Eskimo Village. London: Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1929. (MUN DAI)
Observations made by Hutton of Inuit villages and lifestyles from a distinctly Moravian
perspective. Provides a historic background of growing in Labrador by early
missionaries, compared to how it operated during his time.
Jarvis, Dale G. Converting the Landscape: Changes to the Land in Moravian
Labrador. Corner Brook: Sir WIlfred Grenfell College, Interdisciplinary
Conference: Order and Chaos, 1996. (MUN internet resources)
Conference paper detailing the arrival of missionaries in Nain, and the changes that
were made to the land in terms of the settlement that they encouraged (enforced) where
they built the mission. Some specific references to pleasure versus vegetable gardens,
and their importance to the Moravians.
King, Joan. “My Years in Labrador,” Them Days, Vol. 36, No. 4, 2012: 8. (CNS)
1960s account of trying to grow a garden in Postville. Anecdote about Gaze Seed Co.
and “hot caps.” The result was a good crop of cabbages.
Ryerson, Knowles A. “Health and Happiness in Labrador.” Among the Deep Sea
Fishers. Vol. 27, Issue 1 (April, 1929): 14­16.
(MUN DAI)
8
Ryerson, who was in charge of foreign plant introduction for the US Department of
Agriculture, describes conditions for growing in Labrador. In his article he writes about
the Grenfell garden campaign and its positive impact on residents, despite seeming like
an inhospitable location to grow vegetables. Includes information about types of crops,
climate, land/soil, and who maintains the gardens.
La Trobe, Benjamin. With the Harmony to Labrador: Notes of a Visit to the
Moravian Mission Stations on the North­East
Coast of Labrador, 1752­1786.
1888. (MUN internet resources)
Details a visit to each mission station along the coast, including prejudiced observations
of the Inuit population. Not overly helpful in terms of descriptions of grounds and
gardens, but some interesting interactions are detailed, illuminating attitudes of
prejudice (which is presumed to exist but is less explicit in other texts). There is a
statement of interest about Inuit gardening practices, as detailed in the attached notes.
Learning, Forward. “Gardening and Boat Building, Reminiscences of Paradise,
Labrador.” Them Days, Vol. 27., No. 3., Spring, 2002: 57­67.
(CNS)
This useful personal account has been photocopied for reference purposes.
Luther, Eva. “Gardening at St. Lewis and Spotted Island,” Them Days, Vol. 36, No.
1, 2012: 58­9.
(CNS)
Description of gardening in the area beginning in 1978. Types of vegetables grown,
building of the soil, and some background in IGA/hospital influence on gardens.
Includes a photograph and a handwritten seed list. Also refers to the Mission magazine
Among the Deep Sea Fishers, for their reports on the work done by the P. and S.
students and doctors with gardening.
Merrick, Elliott. Northern Nurse. Halifax: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1994. (Shawyer
Collection)
Contains references to Hudson's Bay Company and Grenfell’s operations with specific
mention to agricultural practices. The text revolves around the life of an Australian
Nurse named Kate Austen who lived in Labrador in the 1920s­30s.
Montague, John. “Interview with Isaac (Ike) Rich, 1973, North West River,” Them
Days, Vol. 23, No. 4, Summer 1998: 51­64.
(CNS)
Interview with fur trapper starting from his early experience of catching his first fox in
1914. Makes mention of how there was no gardening in his family in that area, and the
few families that did garden, started in the 1930s. Credits Dr. Paddon (with the IGA) for
introducing the practice.
9
Muir, Ethel Gordon. Black Duck Cove, Straits of Belle Isle, Nfld. Among the Deep
Sea Fishers. Vol. 20, Issue 3­4
(Jan. 1923): 137­38.
Reflections of a teacher who operated her own schoolhouse in Labrador starting in
1909. Opens with her belief in the importance of gardens and how she would encourage
others to garden. She includes a list and description of the tools they used, and how she
would enlist the children for help in the garden.
Natcher, David C., Felt, Lawrence, and Procter, Andrea (Eds.) The
Nunatsiavummiut Experience: Settlement, Subsistence, and Change
Among the Labrador Inuit. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2012.
(JSTOR via MUN)
Anthology that discusses the history of subsistence living for the Labrador Inuit,
particularly as the diet has undergone significant change post­contact.
At times
archeological, and other times statistical, it provides a research­based
overview of this
topic. One particularly useful essay by Maura Hanrahan, offers a history of the Moravian
missions and the direct implication of the food that they introduced See pages 121­138.
O’Brien, Patricia (Ed). The Grenfell Obsession: An Anthology. St. John’s: Creative
Publishers, 1992. (Shawyer Collection)
A collection of essays and photographs detailing many different facets of the Grenfell
Mission. Touches on diseases and challenges faced by Labradorians, and some of the
people connected to the Grenfell Mission including Dr. Paddon. The infamous
“cabbages” photograph featuring Dr. Grenfell is featured along with information on the
gardening campaigns of the 1920s­30s,
and how it came into being. See pages 124­27.
Omohundro, John. Rough Food: The Seasons of Subsistence in Northern
Newfoundland. St. John’s: Social and Economic Studies No. 54, ISER,
Memorial University, 1994. (Shawyer Collection—photocopy)
Overview of foodways practices on the GNP. Includes a section in the chapter Decline
and Persistence, on how the missionaries provided guidance and support around
agricultural skills in Labrador, with specific reference to the Moravians. It then moves
onto a history of Grenfell’s efforts in the region. Excellent summary of Grenfell’s
agricultural initiatives, including the greenhouses.
Paddon, Anthony. “Ellis Michelin: Labrador's First Full­Time
Gardener and
Farmer, 1914­1984.”
Them Days, Vol. 10, No. 1, Sept., 1984: 22­27.
Dr. Paddon of the IGA writes about a gardener employed by the mission. There is a
good description of his farming practices along with references to Jim Tucker.
10
Paddon, Harry MD. The Mission Stations: Emily Beaver Chamberlain Memorial
Hospital, North West River, Labrador. Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Vol. 15,
Issue 3 (Oct. 1917): 104­05.
(MUN DAI)
A letter to the editor written by Dr. Paddon (of the Grenfell Mission) detailing activities at
the mission stations on the Labrador coast. Includes struggles met by the community
and donations he and his family have made. Also mentions their garden which is
“dog­proof”
and their hopes for increased land cultivation.
Pardy, Elsie. “There’s Always Something to Do.” Them Days, Vol. 36, No. 4, 2012:
61­62.
(CNS Periodicals)
1940s account of attending the Lockwood Mission school in Cartwright. School food and
farm described.
Peacock, Dr. F.W. The Moravian Mission in Labrador 1752—1979. Doctoral thesis.
St. John’s: Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1981. (CNS BX 8567 N4
P4 1981)
Thesis focusses on the more religious history of the Moravians and their settlement and
missionary work. It has one section on the social and cultural change for the Inuit,
through this contact, but doesn't discuss agriculture. There are a few references to early
attitudes around agriculture here, as well as a brief description of one Moravian farm
site.
Peacock, F.W. Rev. “The Moravian Church in Labrador: 1727­1970s.
Includes A.
Perrault's reminiscences.” Them Days, Vol. 1., No. 3, 1976: 3­12.
(CNS
Periodicals)
Article by Reverence Peacock mostly focussing on the role of the church and
community governance.
Perrett, Rev. W. W. “A Year’s Life and Work at One of Our Labrador Mission
Stations.” Moravian Missions, Nov. 1918: 82­84.
(MUN DAI)
Short article by a Moravian reverend that summarizes the activities of the Hopedale
mission over the course of a year. There is a section that goes over the garden bounty
of that summer, and how much food was distributed to the “Eskimos.”
Plant, Dorothy A. “Lasting Lure.” Among the Deep Sea Fishers, VOL. 58, Issue 4
(Jan. 1961): 102­104.
(DAI via PAB)
Secretary for the Grenfell Labrador Medical Mission writes on some of the work that has
been done on the coast. Mentions on page 102 that the Grenfell Mission and the
11
Moravian Mission “work closely together in the northern Labrador stations.” She then
discusses her own trips and observations.
Roberts, Sheila. Rain Drizzle Fog: The Joys and Sorrows of Newfoundland
Weather, Portugal Cove—St. Phillips: Boulder Publications, 2014.
A title focussing on the weather of Newfoundland and Labrador, including some
historical accounts on the connection between weather and the ability to grow food in
this climate.
Rollmann, Hans. “Nunak: A Labrador Inuk in 18th­Century
London, 1769­1788.”
Them Days, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2014: 10­14.
Focusses on the fate of young Inuit who were taken to Europe and the vulnerability of
the community to smallpox and other communicable diseases. Not relevant to
agriculture necessarily, but offers information about the relationship between the
Moravians and the Inuit, and explores the impact of this connection.
Rollmann, Hans Ed. “Moravian Beginnings in Labrador: Papers from a
Symposium held in Makkovik and Hopedale.” An Occasional Publication of
Newfoundland and Labrador Studies, No. 2: 2009. (CNS BX 8567 N4 M56
2009 c.2.)
Introduction of this collection of papers includes an excellent concise summary of
Moravians in Labrador. It has a description of the settlements and the situation around
trade that evolved.
Rollmann, Hans. Labrador Through Moravian Eyes: 250 Years of Art,
Photographs and Records. St. John’s: Special Celebrations Corporation of
Newfoundland and Labrador Inc., 2002. (Shawyer Collection)
Predominantly consisting of the photographs taken by Moravian Missionaries, the book
begins with a detailed account of the history of such missionaries on the Labrador
coast. It is very detailed with specific dates and missionary names. Direct references to
Moravian gardens are included.
Rollmann, Hans. Religion, Society & Culture in Newfoundland and Labrador:
Moravians. Website: http://www.mun.ca/rels/morav/index.html
Accessible online, this site includes a collection of observations regarding several of the
missions in the early 1860s, mostly from one particular voyage (re: Reichel). There is
information about the stations and the land around each station, including vegetation,
descriptions of religious services, information on specific residents of the community,
12
their personal hardships etc. Also a good source for information for population numbers,
number of houses, number of families.
Rompkey, Ronald (Ed). Jessie Luther: At the Grenfell Mission. Montreal and
Kingston: McGill­Queen’s
University Press, 2001. (Shawyer Collection)
Diaries written by Luther between 1906­1910.
She had been enlisted by Grenfell to
come to St. Anthony to teach handicraft textile skills to the women in the community.
She helped create the hooked mat movement. Much of the information is centered on
the GNP and Grenfell’s activities there, rather than Labrador, but there are still
important references to gardening, including a complete chapter on the Moravian
missions from her personal observations in 1910.
Rompkey, Ronald (Ed.). Labrador Odyssey: The Journal and Photographs of Eliot
Curwen on the Second Voyage of Wilfred Grenfell, 1893. Montreal and
Kingston: McGill­Queen’s
University Press, 1996. (Shawyer Collection)
Great source of information based on the observations of Dr. Curwen, colleague of Dr.
Grenfell. The photographs are mostly portraits of families and their abodes (i.e. exterior
and interiors of tilts). Also includes reports written by Dr. Grenfell on the social
conditions they witnessed, and the overall lack of fresh food access. Journals detail a
visit to the Moravian Mission in Hopedale including information about the extensive
gardens.
Rudkowski, Clarice Blake. “We Lived on the South Side.” Them Days, Vol. 32, No.
1, 2008: 39­45.
(CNS Periodicals)
Family reminiscences on life spent in North West River and Sheshatshiu. Includes
valuable references to gardening.
Rudkowski, Edward. “Grandma and Grandpa, 50 Years Together.” Them Days,
Vol. 13 No. 4, June 1988: 54­61.
(CNS Periodicals)
Life reflections that include family gardening practices in the Happy Valley area.
Information goes back to the early 1900s.
Saunders, Doris. “Plants and Gardening.” Them Days, Vol. 8, No. 1, Sept.,1982:
4­16.
(CNS Periodicals)
Saunders begins this article with entries from Cartwright’s journals and writings from the
1780s about his gardening practices in Labrador. The article then goes on to offer
personal anecdotes and reflections from gardeners from many different communities.
These compiled writings are excellent but haven’t been transcribed because they are
too plentiful.
13
Saunders, Doris. “Hopedale Moravian Mission—1782­1982.”
Them Days, Vol. 8,
No. 1, Sept., 1982: 17­21.
(CNS Periodicals)
Here Saunders provides a summary of activities related to the Hopedale mission
station.
Sears, Fred C. “The 1933 Labrador Garden Campaign.” Among the Deep Sea
Fishers 32, no. 1 (1934): 8­12.
(MUN DAI)
This article, written by Sears, a horticulturalist who began the gardening program in
1928, details the developments of this campaign. Some of the information includes
successes of current gardens, challenges faced by some citizens, and garden
competitions. Best overview of Grenfell campaign available. His essay has been
reprinted in O’Brien’s work: The Grenfell Obsession: An Anthology.
Smith, Archibald Alex George. Grenfell’s Work in Northern Newfoundland and
Labrador, With Special Reference to Grenfell. Doctoral Thesis. Curling,
Newfoundland: (1970) The Department of Church History of Pine Hill
Divinity Hall, 1970. (PANL File MG63.2098)
A thesis on many aspects of Grenfell’s work including brief mentions of how he
encouraged coastal people to grow gardens and pick berries. Emphasis is on religious
and spiritual life of Grenfell. The author is from the St. Anthony area, b.1916.
Sniffen, Stewart B. MD. “The Traveling Labrador Healthy Unit.” Among the Deep
Sea Fishers. Vol. 20, Issue 3­4
(Jan. 1923): 109­114.
(MUN DAI)
Comprehensive overview of the health conditions and all related factors as seen on the
Labrador coast at the time of publication. There is a section on agriculture and not only
its historic connection to Moravian practices, but it’s enduring need.
Sweeney, Lucy. “William’s Harbor Labrador.” Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Vol.
20, Issue 2­4
(Jan. 1923): 135­36.
(DAI via PAB)
Personal reflections on keeping seeds and how the children of William’s Harbor made
their own small gardens.
Stedman, Joan. “Nursing at Cartwright.” Them Days, Vol. 18, No. 1, 1992: 3­17.
(CNS Periodicals)
From the diary of a nurse working in Labrador for the IGA. Descriptive writing includes
information about the grounds, gardens, and who maintained the various mission
components.
14
Stopp, Marianne P. Ed. The New Papers of Captain George Cartwright. Montreal
and Kingston: McGill­Queen’s
University Press, 2008. (Viewed source
online)
Transcribed and annotated by Stopp, this book is comprised of Cartwright’s journals
from 16 years spent on the coast between 1760 and 1776. Information includes “...how
to build a house in a sub­arctic
climate, the best methods of sealing, trapping, and
salmon fishing, as well as merchant rivalries and trade with Aboriginal groups.”
Taber, Ralph Graham. “In Rugged Labrador.” Outing Vol. 27, No. 1 (Oct. 1895):
16­23.
(MUN DAI)
See pages 18­19
for details about Moravian gardening practices in Hebron. It’s a good
observational record that includes information about fertilizers as well as how to protect
plants from frost. Close to a step­by­step
guide for the growing process.
Townsend, Charles Wendell (Ed). Captain Cartwright and His Labrador Journal.
Boston: Dana Estes & Company Publishers, 1911. (Shawyer Collection)
Highly relevant source detailing all aspects of early voyages to Labrador made by
Captain George Cartwright. His accounts include many references to his gardening
experiences. This book contains perhaps the earliest written references to agriculture,
aside from what the Moravians were documenting during a similar time period. See
pages 55, 56, 94, 176, 196, 227, 295, 339, 340, 358­361.
Also see Them Days Vol. 32,
No. 2, 2010, as they have published excerpts from Cartwright’s diaries with direct
reference to his vegetable gardens, successes and challenges.
Whiteley, William H. “The Moravian Missionaries and the Labrador Eskimos in the
Eighteenth Century.” Church History, Vol. 35, No. 1, Cambridge University
Press. (Mar., 1966): 76­92.
(Online via MUN)
Historic survey or early mission attempts of the Moravians, and then details around
Haven’s successful settlement. Offers concise history with one reference to mission
gardens.
Whiteley, William H. Records of the Moravian Mission in Labrador. St. John’s:
Memorial University: 1971. (CNS BX 8565 M611 c.2)
Document serves as an inventory of all archival records help on microfilm in the MUN
collections. Brief description of each record or collection of records. Could be helpful in
finding specific information about mission settlement services and how work/food was
distributed. Some diaries are in this inventory, as well as annual reports that included
details on weather, living conditions, and successes/failures of gardens. Six packets are
included that have this information (see pg. 19 of inventory).The associated microfilm
15
can be found in the CNS: microfilm 690 v.1—v.92. Also see microfilm 512 for Moravian
paper records.
The Moravians in Labrador. Edinburgh: William Oliphant and Son, 1835. (CNS
Microfilm CIHM NO.38364)
Descriptive writing around the details of settlement, including endeavors and
challenges. There is also specific reference to attempts at transmitting skills to the
native population, including house­building
and gardening. Greater emphasis though, is
on the spiritual impact of the Moravians.
Section B: Reference material with general information about agriculture in
Newfoundland and Labrador, and/or general history.
Arendt, Beatrix. “Caribou to Cod: Moravian Missionary Influence on Inuit
Subsistence Strategies.” Historical Archeology: Environmental and
Economic Archeologies of Missions, Colonies, and Plantations, Vol. 44, No.
3 (2010): 81­101.
(JSTOR via MUN)
Impact of Moravian missionary presence on hunting, fishing and settlement for the
coastal population in Labrador. Includes intentions of Moravians plus overall effect in
regards to spiritual/social/cultural factors. See list of references at the end of the article.
Budgel, Richard and Stavely, Michael. The Labrador Boundary. Happy
Valley­Goose
Bay: Labrador Institute of Northern Studies, Memorial
University, 1987. (Shawyer Collection)
An essay on the joining of Newfoundland and Labrador, with a concise overview of
Labrador’s history including information about Cartwright and the Moravian Mission.
Cadigan, Sean. “The Role of Agriculture in Outport Self­Sufficiency,”
The
Resilient Outport, St. John’s: Memorial University, 2002. (CNS HC 117 N4
R469 2002)
Article in anthology about government policy around agriculture in Newfoundland and its
impact on farming practices. It’s ties to the fishery are also laid out, as well as
information on the Great Depression and how it influenced practices and policies
around such practices.
Chaulk Murray, Hilda. More Than Fifty Percent: Woman’s Life in Newfoundland
16
Outport 1900­1950.
St. John’s: Memorial University of Newfoundland,
Folklore and Language Publication, 1979. (Shawyer Collection)
An overview of the life and work of women living in Newfoundland outports during the
early to mid twentieth century. Topics include home, child care, livelihood, and larger
roles in the community setting. References to gardening practices include how to
fertilize with fish remains, types of vegetables grown, variety of seed, and specific
gardening duties. See pages 18­21.
Chaulk Murray, Hilda. Of Boats on the Collar: How It Was in One Newfoundland
Fishing Community. St. John’s: Flanker Press, 2007. (Shawyer Collection)
This book details the outport life in Elliston and surrounding area. It includes
information, photographs, and diagrams arounds the fishery, boats and boat building,
and fisheries architecture. Gardening is also referred to, as it was important in
day­to­day
life in this community.
Felt, Lawrence F. and Peter R. Sinclair (Eds). Living on the Edge: The Great
Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. Social and Economic Paper, No. 21,
ISER, Memorial University, 1995. (CNS HC 117 N4 L58 1995)
Overview of contemporary gardening practices in communities on the GNP. Mostly
focuses on post­confederation
conditions and access to food of all kinds, including
self­sufficient
acts such as hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry.
Gordon, Henry. The Labrador Parson: Journal of the Reverend Henry Gordon
1915­1925.
Edited by F. Burnham Gill. St. John’s: Provincial Archives of
Newfoundland and Labrador, 1972. (Shawyer Collection)
Personal diaries of a parson who tended to the ministry in Sandwich Bay, located in
Cartwright. Part of his work involved extensive travels in Labrador, mostly by dog team.
These journals detail the kinds of hardships and challenges he witnessed and
experienced. It does not cover what he learned in terms of subsistence.
Gosling, William Gilbert. Labrador: It's Discovery, Exploration and Development.
London: A. Rivers, 1910. (Online via MUN)
Available on “Our Roots: Canada's Local Histories Online” website. Historic overview of
Labrador's different moments of “discovery” by voyagers including early Norse visits,
Cabot in 1497, and ending with the Moravian settlements.
Houghton, Frank L. “The Strathcona Line.” Among the Deep Sea Fishers, Vol. 64,
Issue 2 (July 1966): 35­36.
(MUN DAI)
17
This article is on the history of the steamers that were being used by the Grenfell
Mission. The piece came out upon the launch of the Strathcona III. It is most interesting
for the story of how this line is named after Donald Smith for his early contributions to
the Grenfell Mission, showing the interconnection between these different groups (HBC
and Grenfell).
Hutton, Samuel King. By Patience and the Word: The Story of Moravian Missions.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1935. (MUN DAI)
Book chronicles early mission work with a few brief references to gardening. This
account is largely from an ecclesiastical perspective.
Kelleo, Josephina. Taipsumane: A Collection of Labrador Stories. Nain:
Torngasok Cultural Centre, 1984. (Shawyer Collection)
Folk drawings accompanied by brief descriptions of the traditional way of life among
Inuit in Labrador. Includes information on traditional dress, knowledge, and customs, as
well as how things have changed since the author’s childhood. Traditional language is
represented, as well as syllabics.
Loder, Millicent Blake. Daughter of Labrador. Harry Cuff Publications, St. John’s:
Harry Cuff Publications, 1989. (Shawyer Collection)
Detailing the life of a health pioneer in Labrador, who was from Rigolet. She chronicles
many experiences in terms of helping the people who needed medical attention. While
there are no references to farming she does describe Moravian buildings/settlements.
Moravian Mission. The Moravian Mission in Labrador: The Story of Over 200
Years Service Among the Inuit and Settlers of Northern Labrador, 1971.
(CNS BX 8567 N4 M57 1982)
Booklet offering a concise history of Moravian settlement and mission activities in
Labrador (organized according to specific communities). It does not have any
information about agricultural attempts, but does briefly touch on dealings with the
Hudson's Bay Company. It is written in English and Inuktitut. Booklet somewhat works
to justify presence saying that the Moravians protected Inuit form contact/trade that
could have decimated the population (like on the Southern Coast).
Paddon, W. A. Labrador Doctor: My Life with the Grenfell Mission. Toronto:
James Lorimer & Company, Publishers, 1989. (Shawyer Collection)
Details the working life of Dr. Harry Paddon of the Grenfell Mission, who began his work
in Labrador in 1912 and saw much need for his medical support and expertise. Not a
major source of information on agriculture but includes details about diet, malnutrition,
18
mission work, family history, and descriptions of communities. Page 12 offers his role as
an advocate of gardening in Labrador, while page 74 has information about the mission
farm in St. Anthony. From other sources, it is clear that Dr. Paddon was an active and
respected doctor in the region.
Pope, Peter E. Fish Into Wine: The Newfoundland Plantation in the Seventeenth
Century. Chapel Hill and Williamsburg: University of North Carolina,
Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2004.
(Shawyer Collection—photocopy)
Article on the early fishery settlements in Newfoundland with direct references to
agricultural practices of the time. This work is a good companion to Labrador specific
publications as it offers a point of comparison for what would be introduced north. See
page 344 for gardens near St. John’s in 1677.
Richards, J.T. Snapshots of Grenfell. St. John’s: Creative Publishers,1989.
(Shawyer Collection)
Details the early relationship between canon Richards and Dr. Grenfell, as they
encountered each other on the Northern Peninsula in 1892. Richards was in charge of
the parsonage at Flower’s Cove. This publication covers information about the work he
accomplished, as well as Grenfell’s mission. No references to Grenfell’s agricultural
initiatives.
Rollmann, Hans. The Moravians in Labrador: Christoph Brasen (1738­1774),
Paper
document, St. John’s: Memorial University, 1997. (CNS BV 2560 R65 1997
c.1).
Short paper about the life of a missionary, Brasen, who arrived with Haven in 1771,
helping set up Nain as first superintendent, but died in a boating accident soon later.
Rompkey, Ronald. Grenfell of Labrador: A Biography. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1991. (Shawyer Collection)
This book is a cohesive history of Grenfell’s early voyages and later missions. It
discusses the complex relationship between Moravian missionaries and Grenfell
Mission, as well as all hurdles the mission faced. No direct mention of agriculture. See
page 51 for details around health issues/poverty in Labrador at the time of the early
Grenfell Mission.
Stopp, Marianne P. “Eighteenth Century Labrador Inuit in England.” Arctic. Vol.
62, No. 1, (March 2009): 45 – 64. (Available online:
http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic62­1­45.
pdf)
19
An article on the Inuit individuals who were brought to England and offers summaries
of/from the documentation that went along with these voyages. It also details some of
the tragic circumstances that occurred from such cultural exchange experiences.
Them Days: Stories of Early Labrador, various issues. (CNS Periodicals)
Searched these issues but no direct gardening anecdotes:
Vol. 33, No. 3, 2009; Vol. 23, No. 1, Fall, 1997; Vol. 13, No. 2, March 1998; Vol. 14, No.
3, April, 1989; Vol. 14, No. 2, Jan., 1989; Vol. 12, No. 2, Dec. 1986; Vol. 10, No. 4,
June, 1985; Vol. 11, No. 1, Sept., 1985; Vol. 11, No. 2, Dec., 1985; Vol. 9, No. 2, Dec.,
1983; Vol. 7, No. 2, 1981; Vol. 6, No. 3, 1981.
Tizzard, Aubrey M. On Sloping Ground. St. John’s: Memorial University, Folklore
and Language Publication, 1984. (Shawyer Collection)
Excellent source of information on all facets of traditional gardening/farming practices in
fishing settlements in Notre Dame Bay. It is as much of a family history, as it is a review
of traditional activities that would have been shared with the wider community. It is
localized to Newfoundland with no reference to gardening in Labrador.
Williamson, H. Anthony. “The Moravian Mission and Its Impact on the Labrador
Eskimo.” Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1964): 32­36.
(JSTOR via MUN)
General overview of the Moravian mission work in Labrador including the amount of
land acquired, specific dates for when missions began and when they closed, when and
why the Moravians handed over trade management to the Hudson's Bay Company.
Also includes information on the nature of the mission stations, how they operated, and
how they aided the Inuit.
Reference Material: Transcriptions and Quotes
A: Moravian Mission
Haven, Jens. Letter to Governor John Byron from Jens Haven, 1770.
Non­Government
Records. The Rooms Provincial Archives: St. John’s. (MG 251)
“We have made some little sketches of the coast of Labrador, especially where we are
to fix our habitation but as they are very imperfect and poor we are ashamed to send
them to you before we can be able to explain them by word of mouth to you.
We have had many agreeable conversations with the Esquimaux and they
willingly agreed to let us take their 12 miles square of their land on their coast wherever
we pleased and every tribe of them wished that we would come and live with them.
20
They made us a present of that land for a small present which we gave to them (or as
they said sold it to us) and we could never do the Esquimaux greater displeasure than
telling them if they did not behave well we would not come and live with them and that
kept them in order. They never did us the least harm but only one of them cut of a small
rope of little or no value and that he was obliged to bring back again.”
Hanrahan, Maura. “Tracing Social Change Among the Labrador Inuit: What Does
the Nutrition Literature Tell Us?” The Nunatsiavummiut Experience: Settlement,
Subsistence, and Change Among the Labrador Inuit. Eds. David C. Natcher,
Lawrence Felt, and Andrea Procter. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press
(2012): 121­38.
"The Inuit household economy remained relatively intact in the early Moravian era. The
missionaries effect on Inuit food consumption would have been somewhat limited, given
that the majority of Inuit continued their version of seasonal transhumance. It is likely
that the diets of the missionaries and their families changed the most, since they had
left an agrarian society ... in Europe. Their attempts to engage in farming—building
small kitchen gardens at the mission stations­­met
with limited success in this
geophysical environment. Indeed, in September 1876 a missionary's child died "of a
complaint which is new in Labrador as far as we know; it appears to be a form of
scurvy."
But change was occurring, albeit slowly, through the adaptation phase, partly as
a result of periods of food shortage, such as the 1845 famine. Some Inuit went inland
for trout and died there of starvation. Inuit began consuming foodstuffs imported by the
Moravian missionaries and eating the vegetables cultivated by the missionaries,
although the Europeans did not necessarily encourage the practice....
Samuel King Hutton, one of the only two physicians ever hired by the Moravian
missions, worked at the Okak hospital from 1903 to 1908. Hutton's description of the
Inuit in a 1909 monograph shows that pre contact foods remained important, especially
the seal, followed by caribou. Inuit also ate walrus, bears, foxes, and sea birds, as well
as tiny snow bunting. Trout and cod were not preserved in salt, which was the European
practice at the time. Sculpin tails, mussels, and sea urchins were also consumed­all
of
this in marked contrast to the preferred Moravian diet of grains, domesticated meats,
and vegetables from their kitchen gardens (127­28).”
Whiteley, William H. “The Moravian Missionaries and the Labrador Eskimos in the
Eighteenth Century.” Church History, Vol. 35, No. 1, Cambridge University
Press. (Mar., 1966): 76­92.
(Re: 1771) “The Conference of Moravian Elders wisely advised the missionaries to
trade with the Eskimos at fair rates, and not to borrow from them or accustom them to
21
gifts. No liquor or fire­arms
were to be supplied the natives and the missionaries were to
try to keep them away from the around around the Strait of Belle Isle. The missionaries
were to live off the country as much as possible (80).”
(Re: 1773) “In February 1773 Jens Haven and two other missionaries travelled with an
Eskimo party forty­two
miles to secure the blubber and fins of a stranded whale. After a
hard sledge journey of ten days, they returned to Nain tired, hungry, lousy, and
frostbitten. They had not been able to get any blubber but had made use of the
opportunity to make close contact with the natives and preach to them in the igloos
where all were confined by bad weather. In the spring and summer the Moravians built
boats for sale to the Eskimos and made valiant attempts to cultivate a mission garden
(82).”
“At the close of the eighteenth century, there were at Nain, Okak, and Hopedale 26
missionaries and a total of 228 resident Eskimos under pastoral care, of whom 110
were baptized. The Moravians made the Eskimos implements for fishing and gardening,
constructed boats for their use, and aided them in building substantial houses. In
addition the Brethren utilized every expedient to lessen their dependence on European
supplies. Since most of the missionaries came from the artisan and working classes,
they were accustomed to a simple style of living and did not look down on manual
labour (88).”
“The missionaries were accustomed to a simple standard of living, and possessed
manual skills which helped the mission households reduce their dependence on
imported European goods. In addition, the Moravian tradition of communal living
enabled the missionaries to pool effectively their resources and training them the
isolation of Labrador and labour together with remarkably little friction (90).”
Bisbee, John B. Fonds, 1913­1914.
Non­Government
Records. The Rooms
Provincial Archives: St. John’s. (MG 735) (Re: Visits to the Moravian stations
along the coast)
“August 1914, Hopedale.
Hopedale is the most southerly Moravian Post on the Labrador coast and it is here that
one gets their first real glimpse of the Eskimo. The wonderful Moravian gardens.”
Budgell, Leonard. “Old Stone and Sod Houses.” Them Days, Vol. 16, No.3, April
1991: 59­63.
“...I had seen old pictures of the Mission which showed sod houses where the Mission
gardens were in my time. Doubtless the sod contributed much of the soil that I found
22
there and which still nourished dozens of big Iceland poppies planted long ago by the
Moravian Missionaries. I transplanted many of these pretty flowers into two cold frames
and had a nice display of colour from seed that was originally planted nearly a hundred
years before (62).”
Rompkey, Ronald (Ed). Jessie Luther: At the Grenfell Mission. Montreal and
Kingston: McGill­Queen’s
University Press, 2001. (Re: Chapter 5: Moravian
Missions and Eskimos)
“16th­31st
August, 1910—Hopedale. Mrs. Lenz brought out some Eskimo motto cards,
postcards and a few deerskin articles which the passengers snapped up at once. She
then led us along a walk bordered by trees, through a kitchen garden where lettuce,
potatoes, rhubarb, turnips and even cauliflower were flourishing, then through a gate in
the picket fence to another lovely spot with trees, shrubs and walks leading to seats
beside them. There was even a little tea­house,
and in one place, a seat and table were
raised by rock and sand to a height overlooking the sea and hills (266).”
Borthwick, Jane. The Story of Moravian Missions in Greenland and Labrador by
H.L.L. London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1873.
“The warm season, though very short is warm—the thermometer at times rising to
eighty­six
degrees. Thus plants and vegetables can be raised beyond what is possible
in Greenland; and some trees of the hardy pine species, in sheltered situations, stand
the winter frosts, and grow high enough to be of use for building purposes. Hares,
foxes, and other animals are numerous, whose skins are valuable as articles or trade.
Large herds of reindeer roam over the land; there also roams the polar bear, whose
immense strength and ferocity make him when pressed by hunger an object of real
terror to the Esquimaux, or indeed to anyone who comes in his way (103).”
“The Bishop and Count Zinzendorf readily entered into Erhardt's views and wishes,
consulting with Matthew Stach. Application was made to the Hudson Bay Company “for
permission to preach the gospel to the savages in the neighbourhood of their factories.”
This was refused. Three English merchants, however, unconnected with the Company,
fitted out a vessel for trade with Labrador, engaged Erhardt as supercargo, and willingly
agreed to take out a party of missionaries. Four Moravian Brethren volunteered to go
and be left on the coast. They took with them a wooden house, ready to set up,
furniture, a boat, etc. The Hope and her passengers reached the south­east
coast of
Labrador in the end of July 1752 (107).” (This continues as an account of how Erhardt
and five sailors had gone ashore and never returned...)
Rollmann, Hans Ed. “Moravian Beginnings in Labrador: Papers from a
23
Symposium held in Makkovik and Hopedale.” An Occasional Publication of
Newfoundland and Labrador Studies, No. 2: 2009. (Re: Publication introduction)
“At its height, during the nineteenth century, each major settlement had a large,
sometimes two­storey
communal mission house and church in German architectural
style with a nearby graveyard. The mission stations also included workshops, provision
houses, store buildings, including a blubber yard, boat houses, and a saw mill, as well
as extensive vegetable and flower gardens. Until 1908, Moravian familiars and single
brothers lived and shared their chores under one roof in the large communal dwelling
houses, while Inuit families and individuals settled on mission property in sod and
eventually wooden houses during the winter. Some people found employment in the
extensive gardens of the missions and in other capacities, such as logging operations
and building projects. From the beginning, trade, not always profitable and the most
troubled link between European missionaries and the Inuit, was part of the Moravian
experience in Labrador but was relinquished in 1926 to the Hudson's Bay Company
(15).”
The Moravians in Labrador. Edinburgh: William Oliphant and Son, 1835.
“When the century closed, after three years labour, the missionaries at the three
different stations and the pleasure of numbering two hundred and twenty­eight
resident
Esquimaux under their care, of whom one hundred and ten were baptized. This involved
them in various other avocations. They had not only to instruct them in matters of
religion, but to teach them habits of industry and of economy; and to show them the
example, they induced them to build, and assisted them in building, substantial houses;
they made them tools for working and implements for fishing and gardening, which last
process they had to superintend and to direct. Besides, they erected and kept in repair
their own dwellings, cultivated their own gardens, fabricated tools for themselves, and
used every exertion to lessen the demand for, or supply the deficiency of their European
food (185).”
Peacock, Dr. F.W. The Moravian Mission in Labrador 1752—1979. Doctoral thesis.
St. John’s: Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1981.
Terra de Labrador according to early Moravian authority signified the "land capable of
cultivation." However the Reverend L.T. Reichel, a Moravian leader, who visited the
coast of Labrador in the year 1877, in his report described the coast saying "…it is a
land of rocks and swamps, agriculture is impossible." Jens Haven, pioneer of the
permanent Moravian settlement in Labrador says of the site at Nain as being "…even
and capable of cultivation."
24
"Professor Hind, in his "Explorations in Labrador" volume 2, page 140 (1863), says "The
head of Hamilton Inlet may be termed the garden of the Atlantic Coast of Labrador… At
Rigolette there are about seven acres under crop, and the farm boasts of twelve cows,
a bull, some sheep, pigs and hens (31)."
La Trobe, Benjamin. With the Harmony to Labrador: Notes of a Visit to the
Moravian Mission Stations on the North­East
Coast of Labrador, 1752­1786.
1888. (Re: visiting the Inuit in their own dwellings in Ramah, 1888.)
“Do my readers want to know about the gardens? There are none. Gardening is no
employment for the Eskimos; the severity of the climate and their migratory habits forbid
it. Nor do they seem to have much taste for flowers, though they see them in the
missionaries gardens. They appreciate the vegetables grown there, but they do not care
for the trouble of raising them for themselves (41).”
Rompkey, Ronald (Ed.). Labrador Odyssey: The Journal and Photographs of Eliot
Curwen on the Second Voyage of Wilfred Grenfell, 1893. Montreal and Kingston:
McGill­Queen’s
University Press, 1996. (Re: Hopedale Moravian Mission)
“After dinner I was shown the gardens and was as surprised as delighted with what I
saw. Each missry. had his garden and grows vegetables chiefly but at one end has one
or two beds of flowers in full bloom; the gardens so rich & in such order made me think I
was in England again, for who expects to see Polemonium Richardsoni, poppy,
nemophila, iris, mignonette, stock, agrostemma & pansy flourish in north Labrador?
The large vegetable gardens were full of rhubarb just passing off, celery,
cucumber, cauliflower, beet & carrot coming on, and lettuce, kohlrabi, cabbage, curly
cabbage, spinach & parsley in good condition. We had great present of rhubarb &
lettuce, there being far more than the families cd. consume; at one time the N.F.
fishermen used to rob the gardens but of late years ­“
since Salvation Army men came
down” ­the
gardens have not been touched. After examining all the premises I was
taken to see “the greatest work of all “; this was the view of the houses in which the
people now live as seen from the grass­covered
ruins of the old heathen Esquimaux
huts of 150 yrs. ago 100­101).”
­Eliot
Curwen, Tuesday, August 24, 1893
Rollmann, Hans. Labrador Through Moravian Eyes: 250 Years of Art,
Photographs and Records. St. John’s: Special Celebrations Corporation of
Newfoundland and Labrador Inc., 2002.
(Re: Mission in 1771) “Large vegetable and smaller flower gardens with garden houses
for each missionary or family, a stable for goats, a recreational forest, landscaped
grounds, and wooden walkways were part of most settlements, as were nearby
graveyards (10).”
25
(Re: Hopedale in 1861) “...Behind these buildings is a piece of rising ground, planted
with firs and larch, and bounded by steep rocks. The ground, which has been cleared by
the felling of trees suited for building, is cultivated as a garden, in which potatoes,
cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuces, and radishes are grown, and succeed very well. ­Quoting
Levin Theodore Reichel’s “Report of the Visitation of the Mission in Labrador,”
Periodical Accounts, Vol. 24, 256­66.
(24).
Brice­Bennett,
Carol. Hopedale: Three Ages of a Community in Northern
Labrador. St. John’s: Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland and Labrador,
2003.
“Southern traders also introduced card games to Inuit in 1846. This new form of
entertainment was readily adopted, despite opposition from missionaries who
disapproved of gambling and considered playing cards a vice. The adoption of another
pastime, however, gained the Moravians’ approval. As early as 1839, Hoffenthal Inuit
began following their example by cultivating small gardens near their homes that
contained a few hardy vegetables and flowers. Experiments in growing root crops,
which usually matured during the relatively short summer, prospered and provided food
which became favoured additions to the Inuit and Moravian diet. Inuit learned gardening
skills by being hired to work in the extensive mission gardens, where a wide variety of
edible plants were grown (72).
(Re: Two page spread called “Gardening in Northern Labrador”) “Every mission station
included an extensive area devoted to gardens for growing vegetables that were highly
valued on the dining table of Moravian families. Individual missionaries tended their own
garden plots containing hardy root crops such as cabbage, turnip, carrot, onion, and
potato, as well as various other edible plants, and beds of flowers. At Hoffenthal, a park
with walking paths decorated by flowers was created in addition to the vegetable plots,
and was an area enjoyed for relaxation by resident missionary and visitors to the
community (80).”
Omohundro, John. Rough Food: The Seasons of Subsistence in Northern
Newfoundland. St. John’s: Social and Economic Studies No. 54, ISER,
Memorial University, 1994. (Pg. 115­16)
“Missionaries were persistent promoters of food production. Their residence in the
outports taught them that a diversified approach to subsistence was essential to the
inhabitants’ well­being.
During the nineteenth century the Moravians in Labrador
attempted to spread the techniques of agriculture among their trade partners and
parishioners, the Inuit and Naskapi. The Moravians were hoping to “civilize” the natives
26
by agriculture as much as to improve their diet. Their efforts failed because the natives
ordinarily ate few vegetables and neither the climate nor the technological expertise
were adequate. The Grenfell medical mission in northern Newfoundland and Labrador,
operating out of St. Anthony beginning in the 1890s, was somewhat more successful in
spreading cultivation, because it more realistically concentrated on kitchen gardens. Sir
Wilfred Grenfell was an enthusiastic proponent of self­sufficiency
so that both the
natives and white settlers might achieve a more balanced diet and become less
dependent upon merchants (115­16).”
Hutton, Samuel King. A Shepherd in the Snow: The Life Story of Walter Perrett of
Labrador. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1936. (Re: A Moravian account of
being in Labrador)
“The potatoes, turnips, and cabbages, though doing their best in the cold soil,
would not be of eatable size until well on in September, and the only fresh vegetable
food, eked out with sparing hand, was the lettuce so carefully grown in window boxes or
under glass in frames, and carried to the shelter of the house or covered with coarse
sacking against the night frosts. No night is safe from frosts in Labrador; snow might fall
in August; and the growing of fresh vegetable food was a tribute to the faith and skill of
missionaries who had been good gardeners in warmer lands, and who had carried their
faith and skill to the unlikely land of Labrador. “Unlikely” would seem to be a proper
word to describe the bare and frozen surroundings of the Labrador gardens; and yet by
that skill and care, and by a boundless belief in God that he would let them see the fruit
of their toil, the end of the summer always brought potatoes and turnips and cabbages
of eatable size­a
welcome if short­lived
change from the dried and tinned vegetables
that are the housewife's material for her cookery during nine or ten months of the
Labrador year. One of the missionaries said to me, “We always speak of Okak as a
paradise.” “And why?” “'Because the gardens are so good!” I have seen those gardens
and lived beside them; I have even had the tilling of one, poor gardener.
Settling down as I was; and I wonder still at the patience and faith that have gone
to the making of those gardens. Under the steep hillside they lie, with the swamp below
them. The earth is but shallow; but such as it is, much of it has been gathered in
baskets and wheelbarrows years and years ago, and fed each autumn with seaweed
from the beach. Those gardens speak of times that are past; but every year they yield
crops that are an astonishment to the stranger. True enough, the potatoes are small,
and the cabbages do not often come up to the catalogue picture, but the poor things
have had less than three months of doubtful weather and sunshine in which to take root
and grow to maturity. It was a cold soil into which they were planted from the window
boxes, and the night frosts are ever ready to nip the young shoots. So evening by
evening the widows of the village earned a trifle by covering the potato plants with
27
sheets of coarse sacking, and evening by evening the missionary looked at the
thermometer that hung outside his window; for if the reading of it made him think that a
night frost was likely, down he would go, good man, to cover each tiny struggling
cabbage with an empty tin. Such was gardening in Labrador; and if the thought is
almost comical, remember that it is by the care for such small things that the
missionaries have kept their health, and by the care of health it has been possible for a
man to look back on four­and­forty
years of life in the hard climate of the northernmost
part of the coast. Perrett was the son of a gardener; perhaps he had inherited his
father's magic touch; and the gardens flourished under his care (35­8).”
Rollmann, Hans. Religion, Society & Culture in Newfoundland and Labrador:
Moravians. Website: http://www.mun.ca/rels/morav/index.html
Re: Lives and Narratives of Labrador Missionaries:
http://www.mun.ca/rels/morav/lives.html
Levin Theodor Reichel: Report of the Visitation of the Mission in Labrador, 1861:
Hopedale
“At the time of our arrival at this Mission­station
the weather was very warm, the
thermometer being then, and remaining for a long time afterwards, at 77 degrees in the
shade. We found the mosquitoes exceedingly troublesome. The first appearance of the
settlement, together with the features of the surrounding country, reminded me in many
respects of the highest regions of the Giants Mountains of Germany. The Mission­house
is a large structure of two stories, built in 1853 by Br. Kruth. The upper story is occupied
by the families of the Brn. Kruth, Elsner and Beyer; the lower, besides the rooms
inhabited by Br. Schott and his family, contains several apartments for common use.
Adjoining is the former dwelling­house,
built in 1782, now used for various domestic
purposes, and containing a carpenter's and smith's shop; from this you enter the old
church built in 1784, now in a very dilapidated condition. A new one is in course of
erection, of which, however, only the lower part of stone is as yet completed. Two
Esquimaux, superintended by Br. Kruth, are at present engaged on the wooden portion
of the edifice. It will, when finished, be a great improvement on the old structure. Behind
these buildings is a piece of rising ground, planted with firs and larch, and bounded by
steep rocks. The ground, which has been cleared by the felling of trees suited for
building, is cultivated as a garden, in which potatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuces,
and radishes are grown, and succeed very well. In the few warm weeks of summer
vegetation proceeds most rapidly. At the time of my visit provisions of various kinds
were more plentiful than usual, especially various kinds of fish, seabirds, and game.
Sometimes there is great scarcity, and consequent distress in winter.”
Nain
28
“The Mission­house,
76 feet by 32, is very commodious and well built. It is constructed
of deal, from the native fir of Labrador, cut into planks and put together by the
Missionaries, assisted by the Esquimaux. I saw here, not infrequently, firs and larches
of 40 feet in height, and farther inland some 60 feet high. Br. Freitag showed me a block
of deal two feet in diameter, which, according to his calculation, must have been 317
years in growing. In this climate the growth of timber is of course very slow. In the
neighbourhood of the station timber for building can no longer be procured, but wood for
fuel is still abundant. Near the house, on rising ground, is a large well­cultivated
garden, which at this time of the year furnishes vegetables of all kinds in abundance,
except peas and beans, which do not succeed here. From the garden a gravel walk
leads for a considerable distance into the wood. The air is /269/ generally clear and
bracing, and it would be very pleasant to wander over hill and dale were it not for the
mosquitoes. They are even worse here than at Hopedale.”
Hebron
“September 19th, the Brn. Erdmann, Ribbach, Tappe, and Sperling came to take us on
shore, where we were received by the whole congregation with the singing of hymns
and thanksgiving. Br. Sperling's room had been prepared for my reception, and I was in
every way made comfortable. In the afternoon we held a solemn love­feast.
The snow
storms and fogs which accompanied the north and north­east
winds for several days
after our arrival, showed plainly that it was high time for us to be here. Later in the year
it would scarcely have been possible for us to reach Hebron. I saw this station only in its
winter dress, for on the 20th the ground was covered with snow a foot deep, which
remained unmelted. Cabbages and turnips and other vegetables had to be dug from
under the snow. The summer here is very short. At the beginning of July large masses
of snow had still lain round the house and garden, and floating ice encumbered the bay;
and now, the whole landscape was again white, and ice was forming on the sea. We
had but one fine day.”
http://www.mun.ca/rels/morav/texts/reichel2.html
Re: Report of the Visitation 1867
Hopedale
“The gardens took us by surprise, as vegetation in them was more advanced than we
had anticipated: during our stay they improved very perceptibly with the warm weather
and occasional heavy rain. Salad and cucumbers in the forcing frames require great
care and trouble, which are, however, well repaid. In the little larch plantation stretching
away in the direction of Ship­hill
I found the trees considerably grown, and the ground
copiously sprinkled with pretty flowers, among which the Linnaea was particularly
striking.
29
Native houses, built without any regularity amongst the rocks, line the road to the
burial­ground;
they are forty in number, and there are besides three houses of settlers,
and one guest­house
for the use of visiting members and officials of the Hudson's Bay
Company on their occasional trips past this place. The dwellings are much better than I
found them fifteen years ago. You see no more genuine Eskimo huts, with windows of
seal­bladder.
European block­houses
are now substituted for the former hovels, some
of them having a bed of carrots and cabbages on the roof of the porch out of reach of
the dogs. Most have glass windows, an iron stove in the centre, curtains to the beds, on
which blankets now take the place of reindeer­skins.
The walls are papered with bright
colours and adorned with pictures, and each house has its clock, mirror, and
petroleum­lamp.”
Zoar
“Zoar was entirely new to me, having been commenced as one of the consequences of
my visit in 1861. The station lies on a small, narrow inlet of the peninsula formed by the
Takpangayok Bay, which bears the name Kikkertaujaluk­kangerdlunga,
or the bay of
the great peninsula. The beauty of the situation is very striking. On landing, you follow a
footpath up a slight ascent to the Eskimo village, in which the houses are all built in a
line, and numbered. At the last house, which was Br. Elsner's first home here, a
gravel­walk
begins, leading past a pretty wood of fir and alder trees, in which you see
the high willow­weed,
with its red flowers, and small white Alpine plants in abundance.
The whole is a park­like
picture. To the left there is the bay with many boats of the
Eskimos. About 150 yards along this path you pass in front of the church, and stand
before the mission­premises,
at the corner of which the English flag is hoisted. Just
outside the mission­house
are two flower­beds,
in which with the thermometer at 80
degrees Fahrenheit hardy flowers, as china­asters,
stocks, mignonette, were thriving
beautifully.
The house was too small to accommodate so large an influx of guests, and the
garden­house
proved a welcome resort for some meals and for conferences. A passage
from the second storey of the missionaries' dwelling leads into the neat little church, for
which we had brought a small organ. Both buildings are mainly the work of Br. Elsner.
Nearer the landing­place
are the store­buildings.
The garden was in a flourishing
condition, providing very good potatoes and salad for our table.”
Nain
“The swamp behind the houses has been drained and leveled, and now forms a field,
which is sown with oats and barley. When we saw it the crop looked promising, but it is
not likely that it will ripen. Here a sledge­trip
was improvised for my wife, which quite
sufficed to illustrate some of the drawbacks connected with this mode of travelling,
especially when the dogs follow the bent of their semi­wolfish
nature, and attack one
another, instead of doing their duty as draught­animals.
The Eskimo is ready and skillful
30
in hitting the chief transgressor with his long whip and restoring order to his team. The
gardens looked well, but late potatoes were already on the 30th injured by frost.”
Ramah
“The present mission­house,
which was put up in a single day, and has since 1871
been the residence of Br. and Sr. Weitz, resembles at first sight a large booth at a fair: it
is twenty feet long by thirteen broad, nine feet high in front, and only five at the back.
This room served as church, also, until another house was transferred hither from
Nachvak and located to the left of the mission­house,
the intervening space forming
accommodation, when needful, for an unmarried missionary. The little church, which is
also used as a school room by Nicoline, Gottlob's daughter, is exceedingly plain and
primitive. Planks resting on blocks of wood, serve as benches, and opening out from the
porch is the carpenter's shop.
In front of the house is a small garden, which naturally produces much less than
those further south, and close to the entrance the bell is hung, now unfortunately of little
use, as it is cracked, and requires replacing by a new one. About 200 yards to the rear
of the buildings is the burial­ground,
fifteen yards square, marked by four posts: at each
corner is a grave; three of those whose remains there await Judgment­day
were
members of Philip's family, who was for some years a useful helper here, and now lives
at Hebron. To the left of the mission­premises
is the Eskimo village, consisting of five
tents in the summer: adjoining are the four winter­huts
of sods, now standing empty,
and likely to require considerable repairs before they again become uninhabitable. Upon
the side of the Ship­hill
are storehouses of the Eskimos, built of slate, and the powder
magazine, to reach which you have to cross by stepping­stones
a little stream, which, in
the spring, forms a torrent with a fine waterfall. The missionary's pantry or meat­safe,
invaluable for preserving their supplies of reindeer­flesh
in the summer, is a cave,
which retains some of the winter­snow,
but has the drawback that it becomes
inaccessible, when there is a swell landwards.”
http://www.mun.ca/rels/morav/texts/Lundberg.html
Memoirs of John Lundberg, Missionary in Labrador 1856­58
"The winter set in so early, that we were obliged to get in a part of our crop of
vegetables, when the ground was already covered with snow. It was particularly trying
to fell a quantity of wood under such circumstances, as we were obliged to do.
However, our Saviour made all toil easy to me, insufficient for His service as I felt myself
to be. He also enabled me to devote my only leisure time in the mornings and evenings
to the learning of the Esquimaux language, means for the acquisition of which were at
that time very slender. I was also enabled to love the Esquimaux heartily, and to pray
for their eternal welfare.”
31
Perrett, Rev. W. W. “A Year’s Life and Work at One of Our Labrador Mission
Stations.” Moravian Missions, Nov. 1918: 82­84.
“The weather having been propitious during the summer we were able to gather an
exceptionally heavy crop of swedes, turnips, carrots, and various varieties of cabbage
from our small garden. Not only had we ample supply for the coming winter, but we
were also able to dispose of about 6 pounds worth to the Eskimos. Although they have
no leaning towards agriculture, the natives are very partial to turnips, either raw or
boiled. The summer had been favourable to them too, as they been able to gather a
bounteous harvest from the sea. High prices being paid for dried salt cod the majority of
our people were well able to close their accounts—some even had a good surplus to
expend for necessities of the coming winter (82­4).”
Hutton, Samuel King. An Eskimo Village. London: Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1929.
“And another thing those four young men had brought—a parcel of garden seeds.
“Surely,” said they, “this land of Labrador is not all rocks and ice; there must be soil
there, and maybe the good God will cause His sunshine to shine even there, and
maybe He will cause our garden seeds to grow. We will take seeds—lettuce and turnips
and cabbages!” Strange act of faith and common sense! Sure enough, they found soil
upon the sloping hillside, and there they planted seeds. I almost think they planted them
on the very first day, so as to make the most of the bleak, short summer; for very soon,
we read, the seeds began to grow. But, alas, the night frost came and nipped the tender
shoots; and so the first planting of a garden on the barren Labrador was a failure.
But this act of faith, this planting of a garden in so unpromising a land was a good
example for later comers. Nowadays every mission station has its garden, and you may
see, if you have the good fortune to be there, potatoes and cabbages and lettuce and
turnips all flourishing with amazing hardihood. True, you might also see the aged
Eskimo widows earning an honest wage by covering the potato plants with sacks in the
cool of the evening, and uncovering them again when the morning sun begins to shine,
you might see the grave and bearded missionary putting empty tins over his cabbage
shoots, for the plants must be nursed if they are to escape the frosts (28­9).”
Taber, Ralph Graham. “In Rugged Labrador,” Outing Vol. 27, No. 1 (Oct. 1895):
16­23.
The method of caring for the plants pursued at Hebron, 59 degrees north latitude is as
unique as it is laborious, and is a eulogy on German perseverance.
The post is located in an exposed and very barren spot, and the soil used is
gathered a little in a place and brought, sometimes from considerable distances, to the
mission gardens. Fertilizers are a scarce commodity, and all possible substances, from
32
kelp to capelin, are pressed into service to enrich the ground. The plants are sprouted
within doors, and when the weather moderates sufficiently to admit of safely
transplanting to the outer air, they are carefully placed into tiers of boxes, covered with
glass frames, and having a southern exposure. When the sun shines these cases are
covered with canvas. When the wind blows, the canvas is supplemented with wooden
frames and these held firmly in place by piling heavy rocks upon them. As the season
advances, the hardier plants are transplanted to mother earth (18).”
Jarvis, Dale G. Converting the Landscape: Changes to the Land in Moravian
Labrador. Corner Brook: Sir WIlfred Grenfell College, Interdisciplinary
Conference: Order and Chaos, 1996.
“Existing separate from the pleasure gardens were the vegetable gardens. In 1864
entomologist and zoologist Alpheus Pakard, travelling along the Labrador coast, was
impressed by “Hopedale’s protected gardens” which featured rhubarb, potatoes,
cabbages and turnips, as well as a large greenhouse for tomatoes, lettuce and flowers
(Pringle 191). Some missionaries, like Walter Perrett, had special talents for raising
plants in unlikely habitats (Pringle 212). Sidney Dicker was born in Okak after the
Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918­1919,
remembers the mission garden in Nain.
Quoting: “There was quite a little garden there. it had a little blue house in the
middle where they used to keep their rakes and shovels and wheelbarrows for looking
after their vegetables, like they growed chives they used to call it. Like grass but it was
onion tasting, you know. And rhubarbs. This what we’ve got outside the house came
from the minister...these blue flowers came from the mission house, …”
Considerable work went into the creation of these gardens. Sidney Dickens
remembers: Okak missionaries had their rhubarb, lots of it. But rhubarb and other
introduced species did not initially grow well in Labrador. The missionaries
circumvented this problem in some locations by importing soil from England for use in
the gardens. Mission ships bringing supplies from Europe would bring topsoil as ballast,
and unload their cargo of earth once they reached Labrador communities such as Nain.
…Where the landscape didn’t suit the needs of the Moravians, it was altered, reordered
until it did so (46­7).”
33
B: Grenfell Mission
Rompkey, Ronald (Ed.). Labrador Odyssey: The Journal and Photographs of Eliot
Curwen on the Second Voyage of Wilfred Grenfell, 1893. Montreal and Kingston:
McGill­Queen’s
University Press, 1996.
“We find everywhere the terrible lack of fresh food severely telling on the resident
population. The fish, and occasional fowl, stave off partially the worst dangers, but an
almost entire lack of any vegetables whatever is severely felt. Very short summers, and
all hands then busy at the fishing, is against gardening, yet in places already I have
seen a Labrador­grown
potato (quote from Dr. Grenfell’s Report to the MDSF, 15­19
July, 1893 (66).”
Paddon, W.A. Labrador Doctor: My Life with the Grenfell Mission. Toronto: James
Lorimer & Company, Publishers, 1989.
“Perhaps the biggest single loss was of children, through malnutrition. Accordingly,
wherever Father travelled, he spread the word about the use of cod­liver
oil to prevent
or cure rickets; berries and vegetables to prevent deaths from scurvy; and brown flour,
dried peas and beans to prevent perhaps the most common disease of all, beriberi.
Father also preached the benefits of gardening, and re­introduced
cattle and poultry to
North West River (12).”
Grenfell, Wilfred T. A Labrador Doctor: The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason
Grenfell. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919.
“I happened to be in the gardens at Nain, when a northerly air made it feel chilly and the
thermometer stood only a little above freezing. A troop of Eskimo women came out to
cover up the potatoes. Every row of potatoes is covered with arched sticks and long
strips of canvas along them. A huge roll of sacking is kept near each row and the whole
is drawn over and the potatoes are tucked in bed for the night (91).”
O’Brien, Patricia (Ed). The Grenfell Obsession: An Anthology. St. John’s: Creative
Publishers, 1992.
“In a small motor boat we were visiting the villages along that shore, journeying inside
the ice­floes
which were just loosening their grip on the land. An old fisherman
welcomed us warmly. He was in sore distress. The fishing season was just opening;
there was endless work to be done; and his two big sons of twenty and twenty­two
years old were lying on the floor paralyzed and only able to move their heads! “What
can you do, Doctor? Can they be saved?” cried the old man. “Cabbages!” was my
34
answer. He looked at me almost in anger. “Cabbages,” I repeated. The two young men
were suffering from beriberi, due to lack of vitamins. Already on the coast I had seen
deaths from blackleg scurvy—three grown men in one family. What could have saved
them? “Cabbages,” or “potatoes, eaten in their skins.” They had no cabbages, and the
few potatoes which the merchant had allowed them they had chipped raw, fed the peels
to the chickens, and ruined the remainder by long boiling.” (Quoting Dr. Grenfell)
(124­5).”
Grenfell, Wilfred T. Labrador. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Apr.,
1911),
pp. 407­418.
“At the mill at the mouth of the Hamilton river we have seen growing fields of last and
barley that have made us, coming in from weeks on the outer coast, almost believe we
were at home in England, where with roads marked by the tracks of horses and carts,
with hedges around fields, and frogs croaking in the ditches, it is almost impossible for
one only acquainted with the conditions of the outside coast to believe one's senses.
Potatoes cannot be grown remuneratively on the outside coast. Only because it is
impossible otherwise to get them has it been thought world while to expend even the
cheap labour of the Eskimo women raising them. They have then to be planted in raised
beds with a fencing of lattice­work
overhead which can be covered at a moment's notice
with layers of sacking to ward off the occasional frosts of July and August. We have
secured this year from the Agricultural Department at Washington some polar alfalfa,
which, as it grows well in both northern Siberia and Tibet, should succeed in Labrador, if
only it can once friend sufficient holding ground for its roots (411).”
Goudie, Elizabeth. Woman of Labrador. Toronto: Peter Martin Associates, 1973.
(Re: Chapter: Settled life in Mud Lake)
“We had gardens in the summer. We grew potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets and
turnips. We bought our plants from the Grenfell Mission where they were grown in a
greenhouse. One year I had good cabbage; a few weighed eight pounds. As the years
moved on, we did a lot better for ourselves. Our garden in the summer helped a lot
(89).”
Stedman, Joan. “Nursing at Cartwright.” Them Days: Vol. 18, No. 1, Oct. 1992:
3­17.
(Re: Grenfell Mission Hospital, Cartwright Bay, 1952­53)
“Miss Seaman must have green fingers for there are lovely flowers flourishing all over
the place, truly Danish fashion, and she’s organized a large kitchen garden with 10
pound cabbages in it, lettuce, beets, carrots and turnips that would make you envious.
35
There are six pigs fattening nicely, fifteen hens and thirty pullets. These last live indoors
in a huge shed and I believe the doctor looks after them (11).”
Blake, Marion Crane. “Family Reflections: Our Ways Are Fading.” Them Days:
Vol. 18, No. 1, Oct. 1992. (Re: Speaking of life in Sheshatshiu, 1915­)
“Pa strolled about the garden puffing on his pipe. He noticed Ma’s flower garden fence
needed a fresh coat of paint. Ma was a good hand at growing things. He wandered over
to the rhubarb patch and noted that she had watered it with her wash water (61).”
Pardy, Elsie. “There’s Always Something to Do.” Them Days: Vol. 36, No. 4, 2012:
53­64.
(Re: Grenfell Mission boarding schools)
“We went to Lockwood school in Cartwright in September. The Mission boat would
come around and pick up the children. Sometimes we’d get home in December
depending on the weather and the ice.
Everybody had their own bed at the boarding school. There was a section for the
girls, a different section for the boys. There was a big girls’ room and a little girls’ room.
Oh, it was really organized. The meals were good, we were well­fed
with healthy food.
The mission had its own farm. They used to have pigs, chickens, lots of homegrown
vegetables. Mickey Bird was the farmer; he lived there too, right on the Mission (62­3).”
Sniffen, Stewart B. MD. “The Traveling Labrador Healthy Unit.” Among the Deep
Sea Fishers. Vol. 20, Issue 3­4
(Jan. 1923): 109­114.
(Re: Grenfell Mission)
“Agriculture: You can't make farmers out of fishermen overnight, yet an attempt was
made to stimulate their interest in producing vegetables to add variety to their diet. That
it is possible to raise substantial crops on the Labrador has been well demonstrated by
the Moravian missionaries.
Our best card in convincing the men that a garden was worth the trouble was to
tell of other families who had benefited by one. The Campbells, a Scotch family at
Square Islands, had several large, flourishing gardens in the bay where their winter
homes were located. These gardens were well started before it was time for them to
come out to the coast for the summer's fishing and the women went back often enough
during the season to take care of them. They told us that it was a short season, but that
the long hours of daylight made the vegetables grow fast. They had lettuce during the
summer and had raised enough vegetables (three barrels of potatoes and one barrel of
turnip greens, which were salted down) the summer before to last until spring. Aside
from these vegetables, they had picked partridge berries and blackberries to supply
them until June, had made "spruce boil" through the winter, eaten the livers of the duck,
porcupine, bear, partridge, rabbit and seal they had killed in the winter, had cod livers
quite often during the summer, and had taken cod liver oil "every second day" all winter.
36
They also ate the skins and eyes of their potatoes and had oatmeal and cornmeal
instead of all white flour. Therefore we were not surprised to find that the Campbells had
five very healthy children. On the other hand, five children belonging to another family in
the same settlement were in wretched condition. One was crippled with "bad legs," one
fainted frequently and another had rickets. They had only had oleomargarine, white
flour, molasses and a little beef and pork for their winter supplies. Their social history
reads:
"No garden, therefore no potatoes or cultivated leafy vegetables.
"No wild greens or berries picked.
"No cod livers or cod liver oil.
"No bird or animal livers.
"No 'Spruce Boil.'
"All white flour."
It was a great surprise to the second family when we told them that all their
suffering came from not using food that it was possible for them to obtain. We also
made use of concrete examples in demonstrating the value of whole wheat flour and
fruit. One man at West St. Modeste had followed Dr. Grenfell's advice as to brown flour,
cornmeal and rolled oats, and could chop wood nearly all day on a breakfast of these,
whereas before, when he had breakfasted on white bread, he had had to "mug up"
again in the middle of the morning. He also gained weight on whole wheat, cornmeal
and rolled oats, where he had been thin and sickly before. Another example was two
little girls in White Bay who alone were healthy in a family with beriberi. These girls had
eaten the raw potato skins the mother had thrown out (111­12).”
Sweeney, Lucy. “William’s Harbor Labrador.” Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Vol.
20, Issue 2­4
(Jan. 1923): 135­36.
“Some of the supplies were rather slow in reaching William's Harbor, but among the
things that I had taken with me were the garden seeds. The children took great pleasure
in making their little garden. They loosened the soil with their fingers, made the little
trenches with a stick, and planted lettuce, beets and mustard. They dragged some posts
around and made a fence to keep the dogs out. The lettuce came up nicely, but the
beets had so many setbacks that they amounted to nothing. Toothbrushes and
toothpaste were splendid and were used carefully. I had several dozen samples so had
a supply for the summer, and some to leave behind.
Dry milk for the midmorning lunches was a great help. If there was any left, and I
planned there should be, it was taken down to little Harold, who was too young to come
37
to school. He liked the milk warmed, and used to come out to see me on my way to the
schoolhouse. He would look at the can I mixed it in, and shyly say, "Ha'ld can 'ave a cup
of tay, p'haps? (135­6).”
Muir, Ethel Gordon. Black Duck Cove, Straits of Belle Isle, Nfld. Among the Deep
Sea Fishers. Vol. 20, Issue 3­4
(Jan. 1923): 137­38.
“This year I have had the pleasure of teaching in my own schoolhouse. The bedrooms
and kitchen are not completed so I am boarding with the same family with whom I made
my home last summer. Since coming to the Labrador in the summer of 1909, I have
continually preached, not only the importance, but the imperative duty of each and
every person on the coast to grow potatoes, cabbage, or any other vegetable which can
be coaxed or forced to grow In this decidedly un­agricultural
country. Never, however,
until the present year have I, myself, had an opportunity to follow my, undoubtedly, good
advice. Now, with my own house nearing completion, I have begun to work for my
garden. By bribing my school children with biscuits and candy, I was able to form a
really efficient corps for the clearing of land. As I knew nothing of the methods that
should be employed in the process, I willingly took in any suggestions offered, and
although "crude" and "primitive" are probably the mildest adjectives that an expert would
apply to our methods, they certainly accomplished what we desired, and I think that no
one today could find a single remaining root or stump in our garden, which is about forty
feet in length and twenty in breadth. The implements for our work were mattock, ax and
rope. The strongest boys would hack and pick at the roots of the trees and then, when
we had our rope securely fastened around the stump, all the children who could secure
a hold would pull on the rope until the stump finally yielded to their united strength. The
teacher was supposed to be rendering valuable assistance, but this supposition was a
false one as her aid was far more of the moral than of the physical variety. Once only
did we have to call upon the men for help, and that was for the removal of two ancient
firs which were entirely too weighty for the strength of the children. The work of the men
in the cause Is, however, yet to come, as fencing In our school garden, of which we are
all immensely proud, although it contains as yet not a single seed of anything which we
desire to grow therein.
This brings me to that which Is the end and aim of my letter, namely: an urgent
request for seed, and for seed not in any small quantity, but for a large amount of this
longed for commodity. First: I want grass seed— the very best that can be
obtained—and I want about a barrelful of this. My people at Black Duck Cove are now
keeping, or strenuously endeavoring to keep, cattle. They go ten miles or more and
cross a large lake In order to bring back a little wild hay. They have put in a little grass
seed near the settlement, but this should be increased twenty fold and this the people
38
cannot afford. Then, as I mean to have a hayfield in connection with my school, I want
good grass seed myself.
For my garden, I want just what experience has proved it to be possible to grow
at Black Duck Cove namely: potatoes, cabbage, rhubarb, lettuce and radishes. The
people tell me that the best cabbage known on the coast is the drumhead; but as I have
never previously heard of this variety I shall be thankful for any really good cabbage
seed.
Hoping that some philanthropically disposed readers of our magazine may be
moved to respond to my appeal, I earnestly beseech such to send contributions of the
seed mentioned to the New York office, 156 Fifth Avenue, stating that such
contributions are to be sent this fall to Black Duck Cove, Strait of Belle Isle, addressed
to me. September, 1922 (137­38).”
Curtis, Harriot. “The Home Front.” Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Vol. 38, Issue 3
(Oct. 1940): 73.
"Fight the War in the Cabbage Garden!" "Why spend your money on dog­food,
when
there is plenty to be caught in the sea.?" Slogans like these announced a public meeting
in St. Anthony on the first of June, called to promote a campaign for bigger and better
gardens.
Gardening is no joke on our coast, where the land is covered with a low scrub
growth, and is either full of rocks or very marshy. But the Government had sent out a
call for more land clearing, and it was essential that there should be more production, to
cut down the importation of food, and to ensure a more adequate diet for the people,
many of whom will have little money for food this winter, as their only cash "crop", the
fishery, has been a failure, especially in our district. There have always been gardens,
but never enough, so this very practical effort could well be a real contribution toward
Newfoundland's share in the war effort on the Home Front.
The whole population set to work on their old gardens, and cleared, fenced and
planted new land, the Mission offered good vegetable seeds to all who asked for them,
fertilizer from our compost heaps, and land to anyone who had none on which to work.
Two hundred and fifty families from all along the shore came in for the seeds, and many
a new garden was cultivated this summer on Mission land. The Public Welfare
Committee had procured several hundred barrels of seed potatoes, which the people
could acquire by promising to return an equal quantity and a little more from their fall
crop, and the Mission sold many thousand seedling cabbages which had been sown in
the greenhouse several weeks before outdoor planting was possible. A hot sunny July
brought every thing along well, and our annual agricultural and food show at the end of
September will be the best ever.
For many years some of our women have been putting up salmon, garden
39
produce and berries, but it seemed important to make this practice much more
widespread, so we organized through our Community Club a series of demonstrations
in which the members worked in teams of eight, putting up in Mason jars, by the
water­bath
method, which they could use at home, first salmon, and then garden
greens. We met in the kitchen of the Grenfell School, and every woman went through
every step of the process. The Club bought wholesale and sold to the members at cost
many gross of preserving jars, and many who had never before done any canning
became greatly interested and set to work to stock their larders for the winter. We
distributed many recipes and pamphlets about canning, and are using a gift of money to
buy utensils which may be borrowed by the women for use in their own homes, if they
have not the proper equipment themselves. In the summer we put up sea­foods,
garden
produce and wild berries, and in winter rabbits, birds and seal meat. We know that this
winter our community will be better provided than ever before with the kind of food that
is available to all able to work for it. This is a very conscious patriotic gesture, as well as
a valuable community effort, and our group is only one of many all over the country who
are trying to do their bit for the Empire (73).”
Paddon, Harry MD. The Mission Stations: Emily Beaver Chamberlain Memorial
Hospital, North West River, Labrador. Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Vol. 15,
Issue 3 (Oct. 1917): 104­05.
(Re: Letter update from Dr. Paddon, Forteau)
“We have a dog­proof
chicken­pen
and a small garden established at North West River
and hope to steadily bring more and more land under cultivation. The people seem
disposed to follow our example both as regards poultry and more energetic agriculture.
A few of them grow a small quantity of vegetables, but when a man takes it as a
personal insult if his garden requires weeding, it cannot be wondered at if the population
is not in a position to become vegetarian at a moment's notice. We have "tumbled right
into it" at Indian Harbor and, as my two prospective assistants are very properly
"otherwise engaged," this will be the last time I shall trouble you till the fall.
Yours very sincerely, Harry L. Paddon. Indian Harbor Hospital, Labrador, July 13, 1917
(105).”
Grenfell, Wilfred T. Dr. Grenfell’s Log. Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Vol. 13, Issue
4 (Jan. 1917): 139­44.
“We brought her, and so on our return trip we again took the useful Pennsylvania home
with 2,700 good sticks of wood. Beautiful weather had again favored us, and that same
night we sat down to tea with Sister Bailey in her lonely little outpost at Forteau. Among
the hundred and one things she had to tell us of her winter's work, she spoke with
infinite gratitude of some help she had been able to give in good food to some of her
poorest visitors and neighbors, through a fund generously provided by a lady in Proctor,
40
Vermont. That gift to improve the diet of deserving families unable to obtain it otherwise
had been wisely administered, and had been a no mean message of love to the
recipients, while all had given, where possible, some labor, or other return. Then the
garden of this little station was a great surprise; everything was far in advance of St.
Anthony. Potatoes were in flower and cabbages heading up. As a matter of fact, with
the great Labrador Hinterland, instead of an Arctic ocean in front and a frigid gulf
behind, as we have at St. Anthony, it is a much warmer place.
But, besides her garden, Sister Bailey had for us a most beautiful show of
artificial flowers grown under her own hands with the help of some of the women of the
place, some of whom she had been instructing in yet another way to earn in idle hours
what means so much to the children and to themselves. Mrs. Wakefield, wife of our
colleague, who has now gone to the front with the First Newfoundland Regiment, had
gone through here before us, and taken half of Miss Bailey's products away to try to
start a market for them in Canada. They are made of the best materials, and I sincerely
wish to commend these flowers to our friends. The material itself is the least part of the
cost in producing these life­like
ornaments and decorations. If this industry could be
made self­supporting
it would be of great use along our coast, where capital is small
and labor plentiful.
Harrington hospital was our next objective, but on the way down we picked up a
few sick cases—one man so ill that we took him with us. He was most uncomplaining
and grateful, a real pleasure to have on board, where he recovered enough for us to be
able to return him to his crew on our return journey (139).” ­Dr.
Grenfell
Ryerson, Knowles A. Health and Happiness in Labrador. Among the Deep Sea
Fishers. Vol. 27, Issue 1 (April, 1929): 14­16.
(Re: Reprint from the Bulletin of the
Garden Club of America, January, 1929.
“Gardens in Labrador? Rock gardens perhaps, you say, with emphasis on the rocks!
Yet on this long and rugged coastline, playground of the winter winds and icy sea spray,
the garden—vegetable and flower—is finding its place. Labrador recalls a summer
fishing paradise to some, a wintry desolation to others. To the greatest number,
however, not only in the United States and Canada, but also in the British Isles, it is the
theatre in which has been enacted one of the most thrilling episodes in the march of
western civilization. The record written the past thirty­five
years in achievement by Dr.
Wilfred T. Grenfell and his associates in terms of healthier and stronger bodies, brighter
and more enlightened minds, happier and more hopeful spirits. Is one of the brightest in
humanitarian endeavor of our time.
So vivid has been the appeal to the imagination of red­blooded
and adventurous
youth that each summer sees groups from many college halls sailing northward for an
opportunity to vie with each other digging, sailing or building, as the need may be. The
41
designation as one of Dr. Grenfell's "Wops" Is a coveted honor which many now
cherish. The lure is equally felt by older “boys" and each summer finds prominent
surgeons, dentists and oculists packing equipment and hying northward to add their
services to the resident staff. …
While the passing years have seen obstacles to healthful living overcome one by
one, problems still remain. Modern hospitals and trained specialists provide treatment
and care for the sick throughout the hundreds of miles of rocky coast, but the basic
causes of much of the ill health are yet to be abolished. Under­nourishment
and a
limited, unbalanced diet together, are back of much of the distress in Labrador. For the
lack of simple green vegetables and their health­giving
vitamins families are scourged
with beriberi, rickets and other nutritional diseases. How to grow our common lowly
garden vegetables under the extremes of Labrador soil and climate has long been a
problem that has claimed serious attention. Around some of the medical stations such
crops as potatoes and cabbages have been grown in favorable seasons; further north
the Moravian missionaries have also been successful in a limited way. Although soil is
not abundant along the entire coast, many of the inlets where settlements nestle have
small but adequate patches of ground. So far the fisher folk have not had the
information, the proper seed or equipment to make the most of their meagre plots.
Shortness of growing season — frozen ground almost to the first of July and early frosts
in September, sometimes earlier, is a condition to blast the enthusiasm of most any
stout­hearted
gardener anywhere.
The elimination of nutritional troubles and their attendant train of complicated
problems, medical, economic and social, however, is one of the principal studies
centering attention now. The magnitude of the problem is proving to be the measure of
its challenge and of the ringing response which it strikes In the hearts of those who
enjoy a hard task for the fun of its doing. This is evidenced In the following record of
achievement.
Variety selection of vegetables has long been carried on at stations in northern
countries in order to secure types which mature in the shortest possible time, but even
with these types the Labrador season has proved too uncertain and short for general
outdoor planting. It has remained for the cold frame and the greenhouse to point the
way which promises success in the long battle for a life­giving
diet. Experiments by Dr.
Grenfell and his assistants have demonstrated that four weeks and even longer can be
saved when seedlings are started under glass in the early spring. The plants are of
good size with well developed root systems when planted in the open. This gain in time
Is sufficient to permit maturing of such crops as cabbage, carrots, lettuce and radishes
before early fall frosts. The long hours of summer sunlight and warmth make
phenomenal growth possible.
At St. Anthony, the main station in the Labrador chain, cold frames have long
42
been used to supply vegetables for the hospital. Here various experiments have been
tried that have Indicated in which direction progress lay. A small greenhouse gave
splendid results. It remained, however, until this year, when a large and regularly
equipped greenhouse was erected and used, for the full benefits to be demonstrated.
Through the generosity of Garden Club women of Greenwich, Connecticut, this
greenhouse was made possible. For the first time patients at the hospital and the
children at the orphanage had all the greens in the way of lettuces and cabbage that
they required; tomatoes, spinach and radishes added variety to the daily fare. Hundreds
of young plants were grown for transplanting in the open.
Nor was the demonstration limited to the essential vegetables. Flower seedlings
were also raised, so that window boxes in hospital ward, orphanage, school and home
have blossomed with clarkias, stocks and other bright annuals—spots of brightness in
the lives of little folk and grown­up
alike. Other hardier flowering plants such as fuchsias
and geraniums were wintered over in the glasshouse. The results of the year with this
greenhouse have more than fulfilled the hopes held. In order to prepare for the work of
the new house one of the boys of St. Anthony was sent to the Truro Agricultural College
for special training. Miss Fellowes, a graduate from Swanley Agricultural College,
England, has come out to Labrador as a volunteer In the garden work and is, in
addition, educating one of the boys as a gardener. With such trained personnel and with
adequate facilities real progress can be made.
Of course, the ultimate effort of all the many activities in Labrador is to teach the
people to help themselves. In the gardening work this means the teaching of the
elementary principles in the more important centers and demonstrating what can be
done even under rigorous local conditions. At these centers seedlings would be grown
under glass and distributed for planting at cost when the planting season arrived. Such
a program of training and distribution promises far­reaching
results. After all, the
prevention of disease and human misery is always more desirable than measures taken
in alleviation after the damage is done. What are the prospects for the immediate
future? The success of the past year has already fired the imagination of women
interested in gardening on both sides of the Atlantic. This nutritional problem is one
which women especially appreciate, and to those women appreciating gardens this
enterprise has evidently presented a double appeal.
Through the Interest and activity of Mrs. J. Rich Steers of the Rye Garden Club,
several other Garden Clubs have made possible small greenhouses at Battle Harbor
and Northwest River, and, in addition, tuition for two boys at the Truro Agricultural
College to prepare them to operate the greenhouse activities. To round out the desired
plan and put it in operation, the stations at Cartwright and Harrington await the time
when greenhouses and accompanying equipment can be provided for them and annual
upkeep and operation assured. With five such centers of instruction and distribution of
43
seedlings, the inhabitants of a large part of the Northland would have the means at
hand to provide themselves with the proper diet to ward off causes of the misery
marking past years.
As a further aid in solving the gardening problems of the Labrador, Professor F.
C. Sears of the Horticultural Department of the Massachusetts Agricultural College
spent the past summer making a first­hand
study of soil and climatic conditions and
outlined experiments with a view to determining ways and means for adding still further
to the gardening possibilities.
To us in the United States, in our comfortable homes, surrounded by our bright
and ever cheerful gardens, life stripped of such color for almost the entire year is hard to
visualize. Modern transportation brings to our tables a wide choice of vegetables to
tempt our all­too­frequently
jaded appetites, and we are apt to turn scornfully from such
plebeian and humble vegetables as cabbage, turnips and carrots. Humble though they
may be, their availability on the Labrador coast is of vital concern, since it means
healthier, happier folk. It Is not luxuries that are to be striven for in Labrador, but the
mere necessities for building up healthy bodies essential to effectively meet the
demands of the strenuous life of the country (15­16).”
(Knowles A. Ryerson: In charge
Office of Foreign Plant Introduction, United States Department of Agriculture.)
Grenfell, Wilfred T. Promotional Pamphlets for the Grenfell Mission.
Non­Government
Records, The Rooms Provincial Museum and Archives.
(PANL File MG 63.2140)
“In the years which have followed, our staff and volunteer helpers have had
ever­increasing
opportunities for service on the Labrador. Today, through the
cooperation of friends throughout the world, we maintain over a thousand miles of
coastline, icebound for many months each year—five hospitals, four nursing stations,
two boarding schools, one day school, one children’s home, two hospital ships, one
supply schooner, clothing distribution, industrial and agricultural efforts at all centres.”
Smith, Archibald Alex George. Grenfell’s Work in Northern Newfoundland and
Labrador, With Special Reference to Grenfell. Doctoral Thesis. Curling,
Newfoundland: (1970) The Department of Church History of Pine Hill
Divinity Hall, 1970.
“The people’s diet consisted mostly of fish, bread and molasses. There were few
vegetables grown due to the nature of the soil and the short summer season. Fruit, such
as oranges, apples and grapes were almost unknown. When the writer was a boy the
only time he saw an apple was on Christmas morning, and we considered ourselves
very fortunate indeed if this rare delicacy was in our stocking. When Grenfell arrived on
the coast, he encouraged people to grow vegetables where the soil was fertile, and to
44
pick and preserve partridge berries, blue­berries,
and bake­apples
which have always
grown in abundance in many parts of the province (14­15).”
Paddon, Anthony. “Ellis Michelin: Labrador's First Full­Time
Gardener and
Farmer.” Them Days, Vol. 10, No. 1, Sept., 1984: 22­27.
“Ellis was born in Sabaskachu in 1914. Upon leaving school he went to work for the
International Grenfell Association, hereafter IGA, in 1929 but was sent to St. John's,
Newfoundland thereafter because he showed marked ability in gardening and a good
understanding of cattle. He was to spend that summer learning more about farming, and
the following summer he went to St. Anthony to work with Jim Tucker, chief gardener
with IGA for many years. Here Ellis got a good knowledge of greenhouse practice, for
IGA was trying to spread home­gardening
among people who were generally short of
fresh produce in Newfoundland and Labrador, and he learnt to grow thousands upon
thousands of healthy little cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli and other vegetables, which
we sold or gave away to people who could set them in their own gardens. This meant
earlier and larger vegetables in our short summer and better nutrition all year. Ellis
learnt a good deal about greenhouse and garden pests, their life cycles and how to
discourage them (22).”
C: Cartwright and HBC/Donald Smith
Merrick, Elliott. Northern Nurse. Halifax: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1994.
“It had always been custom to do things by hand here. Back in the 1880s when the
Hudson's Bay Company used to raise oats on a level piece of ground that the Indians
had cleared for a campsite, the plow was drawn by a long line of men heaving on a rope
(102).”
Townsend, Charles Wendell (Ed). Captain Cartwright and His Labrador Journal.
Boston: Dana Estes & Company Publishers, 1911.
“Sunday, December 16, 1770
A fortnight ago, I placed a box of earth near the top of the stove and sowed some seeds
in it; there are now cucumbers, mustard, cresses, and onion coming up. A fine day and
at noon the mercury stood at 5 degrees (55­6).”
“Sunday, September 15, 1771
In the morning I read prayers to my family; in the afternoon I went to the lower garden,
and gathered some green peas and ripe currants (94).”
45
“Sunday, July 30, 1775
...We set up the frame of the fishermen’s house, packed five tierces of fish, (a puncheon
contains two tierces and a half; a hogshead, on and a quarter) and caught two hundred
and three fish; also, had a spot of ground dug, sowed some radish and turnip seeds,
and set some cabbage­plants
which I had brought from Charles Harbour (176).”
“Thursday, April 18, 1776
I sowed some mustard, cresses, and onions in a tub, and hung it up in the kitchen.
It rained all day, but cleared in the evening (196).”
“Tuesday, June 2, 1778
Some more of the garden was dug, and we sowed some radishes, onions, turnips,
mustard and cresses. I then went to a large pond which lies under the south end of that
ridge, and empties into Eagle River; on the north side of which, I found three large
beaver­houses
(227).”
(Re: Paradise in Labrador, where he arrived at noon on Sept. 11th, 1783.)
“...In the evening the Esquimaux which we had seen at Spotted Island, arrived here in a
small shallop and a whaling­boat,
and pitched their tents among my houses: which now
consist of a dwelling­house
and store­house
in one, sixty feet by twenty five, and two
stories high; a house for the servants, thirty feet by seventeen; three salmon­houses,
ninety feet by twenty each; and a smith’s shop, sixteen feet by twelve. On the south side
of the dwelling­house,
we found a tolerable large garden; with plenty of cabbages,
turnips, lettuces, pease, and other things in full perfection (295).”
“Labrador is a large peninsula, joined at the isthmus to Canada, which, together with
Hudson's Bay, bounds it on the east; on the north are Hudson's Straits; the Atlantic
Ocean on the east; and the Straits of Belle Isle, and the Gulph of St. Laurence on the
south.
The face of the whole country, at least all those parts we are at present
acquainted with, are very hilly; and in most parts mountainous. The south coast has
great appearance of fertility from the sea, but a close inspection discovers the soil to be
poor, and the verdure to consist only of coarse plants, which are well adapted to the
support and nourishment of deer and goats, but do not appear proper for horses, kine,
or sheep. There is no doubt but cultivation would produce good grass of different kinds,
and that grazing farms might be established; they would however be attended with too
much trouble and expense to have them on a large scale; as it would be difficult to
fence against the white­bears
and wolves, and all kinds of cattle must be housed for
nine months in the year. Corn might possibly be raised about the heads of the deepest
46
bays, and in the interior parts of the country; but the few experiments which I made in
my gardens failed of success; for the ears were singed by the frost before the grain
ripened (339­40).”
“Notwithstanding the many disadvantages, which that country labours under, from
poverty of oil, short summers, long winters, and severe frosts, yet I am clear, that art
and good management are capable of making great improvements; and if the
observations which I made on the effects of certain manures, in that country and
Newfoundland, can be of any use in England, I shall think my time well bestowed in
communicating them.
In one garden which I made, where the ground was a collection of sheer, find
gravel, without a particle of soil that I could perceive, the first crop was, what I thought, a
very fair one; but at the end of summer, I had a quantity of rotten seaweed dug in. The
following summer, to prevent the ground being so much dried up as it had been the
preceding one, I transplanted cabbages, cauliflowers, and lettuces, when very young,
and carefully covered the whole of the ground between them, with fresh sea­weed,
which had a most excellent effect; for, by that means, there was a constant moisture
preserved, and the plants arrived at great perfection.
In another garden, where the soil was hot, find sand, the first year’s crop was
nothing to boast of; but, as I carried on a great salmon fishery at that place, I fallowed
part of it the following summer, and covered it with the entrails of the salmon, which
contain abundance of fat; in the course of three years, by manuring it in that manner,
the sand was absolutely become too strong and adhesive (358).”
“My garden at Isthmus Bay, which the reader would observe, produced excellent crops
the first year, by being manured with seaweed and offals of fish; and also by mixing a
greater portion of the barren sand that lay underneath, among the peat soil on the
surface, it has since, I have been informed brought everything to a degree of perfection,
which had never been seen in that part of the world, in any former year.
Hence it appears to me, that nothing can effectively improve and alter the nature
of hot, barren sand, as unctuous, animal manures; since, by binding it, the moisture is
retained much longer; and more food is obtained for the plants which are grown upon it
(360­61).”
Fereira, Oswald A. Agriculture in Labrador: Background Paper to an Agricultural
Plan. Department of Rural, Agricultural and Northern Development, May
1980.
“Early attempts at commercial farming were begun in the mid­nineteenth
century at
North West River by Lord Strathcona during his term as manager at the Hudson's Bay
47
Company Post. Later, the International Grenfell Association demonstrated that it was
possible to raise cattle, hogs, poultry, grow hot house tomatoes and substantial
quantities of potatoes, turnips , carrots and green peas. Even today, residents of North
West River remember flourishing gardens now replaced by houses. This may explain
the continued popularity of ‘backyard gardening’ in North West River, even today (16).”
Hudson's Bay Company. HBC Heritage. Our History: People: Governors. Web
Resource.
http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritage/history/people/governors/donaldsmith
“His time in Labrador cemented Smith’s personality: cold, calculating, self­sufficient
and
ambitious. He established a farm at North West River that astonished visitors. He
sowed grain, potatoes, pumpkins and peas, grew more tender fruits and vegetables in a
greenhouse and raised cattle, poultry and sheep. Under his stewardship the area’s
fur­trade
profits grew. But Smith also diversified HBC’s business, establishing a salmon
fishery, exporting seal oil and sending out rock samples for testing. His conviction that
the region would eventually prove rich in minerals was prophetic. In 1863 he was made
Chief Factor and the following year decide to take his first furlough in 26 years.”
Electric Scotland. Lord Strathcona (profile). Web Resource.
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/lord_strathcona.htm
“He imported from the north of Scotland cows, sheep, horses, poultry, and garden and
farm seeds, fertilized his land with fish, and, short as the summer was, grew crops and
flowers which filled the Indians, fishermen, and his own colleagues and visitors with
astonishment. Plants which would not mature in the open air he grew under glass.
Labrador had an area nearly five times that of Great Britain, and not in all that vast
country could there be found a farm like that of Donald Smith’s.”
Bisbee, John B. Fonds: 1913­1914.
Non­Government
Records. The Rooms
Provincial Archives: St. John’s. (Re: A visit to the Donald Smith Grounds circa
1860, Cartwright)
“Along the coast, the first time one really feels as though he were in the north is at
Cartwright where he meets the first Hudson Bay Station. Also he can see the old house
where George Cartwright lived, and the grave where he is buried. He was the first white
man who came and lived among and traded with the natives of this shore.
At Rigolet is another Hudson Bay Post and the old Strathcona house in which the
founder of the Hudson Bay Company lived. He was a Scotchman named Donald Smith
later created Lord Strathcona. He was there in 1860 and spent about 13 years on this
coast. During this time he ran away with his colleague’s wife. Sometime after that his
colleague got another wife…”
48
Baikie, Margaret. Labrador Memories: Reflections at Mulligan. Them Days,
1984.
“The next spring Mother was very sick. We were afraid she would die and we had to get
ready for going down the bay to our salmon fishing place. ...Mother had seen Mr. Smith
and he had given her medicine and told her what to do. Little Maggie Smith asked
Helen and I to have tea with her, down in her little Indian tent she called it. She gave us
cocoa and milk and current cakes. She spread a cloth on the ground and we sat
around. … After our tea we went back to the house. Mr. Smith asked us to go and see
his garden. It was the first flower garden I ever saw, and such beautiful flowers of all
sorts. He said he was busy all the spring, digging and planting carrots, cabbages,
onions, cauliflowers and other things and he had lost his gold ring. It had a white stone
in it and three letters. The letters were D.A.S., Donald Alexander Smith. I was sorry
about his ring (15­16).”
D: Settler and Contemporary Labrador
Goudie, Elizabeth. Woman of Labrador. Toronto: Peter Martin Associates, 1973.
(Re: Chapter: Life on Labrador’s North Coast)
“I tried growing a garden when I was up there but it is only in July and August that you
are clear of frost. I sowed on June 15 and went out to Davis Inlet for July and August. I
had a few turnips and cabbage when we came back in September but they had grown
only about six inches high. They were very strong little plants, not big enough to eat yet
but very bushy and clustered together. They were really tasty and nice to eat later on.
The turnips grew only to about the size of a small rubber ball. We did not have many
that size. We left that summer because Jim got a job with the Hudson's Bay Company in
Davis Inlet building a chapel for the Indians. The company wanted a place for the
Indians to worship when their priest came around in the summer (61).”
King, Joan. “Family Reflections, My Years in Labrador.” Them Days: Vol. 36, No.
4, 2012: 8. (Re: Gardening memories, 1957)
“I can remember people coming in on the boat into Postville one year I was there. I’d
been trying to make a little bit of a garden, and I sent to Gaze Seed for what they call
hot caps. They were made from a sort of very dense wax paper, shaped like a crown, to
protect your plants. I had grown cabbage plants from the kitchen table, and I had these
hot caps in the garden. I saw these people out there, and I said to myself, “Cheeky
49
people, out in the garden, having a snoop around!” But it turned out that they were from
the Gaze shop, either worked for the shop or were of the Gaze Seed family. “Oh,” he
said. “We saw the hot caps and had to come have a look to have a see.” My dad was
there at the time; that was the summer he was out visiting. ...But yes, that man
recognized Gaze Seeds’ hot caps. I don’t suppose those things exist anymore, but they
certainly kept those cabbages safe from those late frosts. I had some lovely cabbages
growing in Postville. Really tasted good, nice and sweet (8).”
Montague, John. “Interview with Isaac (Ike) Rich, 1973, North West River,” Them
Days, Vol. 23, No. 4, Summer 1998: 51­64.
Re: John was a trapper, with memories
of that life starting in 1914. North West River 1973).
“J: You didn’t feel like you wanted meat in the hot summer, you only wanted the fish.
Comin’ towards fall, again, you feel like you wanted meat then.
I: The time of the year come for that.
J: We never used to have no gardens them times, not in my day. My father never had
no gardens. But there was some people, three or four families, they’d have a garden,
old Mrs. Blake and different ones, but we never had any.
I: Never went in for it big, not just then. ‘Twas only in the 1930s, I think, they start
growin’ stuff a lot around here.
J: I think old Dr. Paddon got people interested in stuff like that.
I: Anyway you was almost too busy then, you was off in the wint