PUBLICATIONS

ISAAC C. MORRIS
1899 Visit to Bell Island
by Gail Hussey-Weir
Created January 2022; updated January 2026
Isaac C. Morris (1857-1937): St. John's businessman, politician, writer and public speaker. He was born in St. John's, where he operated a sail-making business and served on the Municipal Commission and the city Council. He was a prolific writer for the St. John's newspapers on the social and political issues of the day, and it was in this capacity that he became "one of the important people in Bell Island's history never to have lived there." There were no newspapers published on Bell Island in the first few decades of the iron ore operations, and no newspaper correspondents living on Bell Island to report on all the mining and other activity going on there. Morris liked to travel outside St. John's on summer weekends and holidays, visiting communities and chatting with locals about their history and culture. You might say he was an early folklorist because he would make note of who he met and what they told him. When he returned home, he would write up these experiences for publication in the St. John's periodicals. He visited Bell Island on at least 5 occasions between 1897 and 1911 and reported in The Daily News on the mining activity and social life, and changes he had observed over that time period. 
The following newspaper articles by I.C. Morris were published in The Daily News September 7, 8, 9 and 11, 1899. The series was entitled, "A Ramble on Bell Island." It describes Morris' second visit to Bell Island which occurred on Thursday, August 31, 1899. (You can read what little I found about his 1897 visit under "Publications" in the top menu, then "Morris>1897 Visit" in the drop down menu.)
A RAMBLE ON BELL ISLAND
by I.C. Morris
Part 1, published in The Daily News, Sept. 7, 1899, p. 4

Part 2, published in The Daily News, Sept. 8, 1899, p. 4





The drawing below of the first Scotia Pier and ore car tramway on Bell Island was done by Isaac Morris and then engraved by D. Carroll for publication in the Daily News, ​Sept. 8, 1899 to help readers of Morris' articles understand what he was talking about when he described the mining operations. The mining was all on the surface at this time and the "temporary connecting lines" at the top of the drawing brought the ore being mined to the main track from Scotia No. 1 and the other surface mining areas all along the Back of the Island. The terminus of the main track was just east of The Green. 
Part 3, published in The Daily News, Sept. 9, 1899, p. 4
Part 4, published in The Daily News, Sept. 11, 1899, p. 4