PUBLICATIONS

ISAAC C. MORRIS
1911 Visit to Bell Island
by Gail Hussey-Weir
Created January 2022; updated February 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.
Morris' fifth visit to Bell Island seems to have taken place in April 1911. His write up on the visit was published in The Daily News about April 17th and 18th. My copies of the articles were photocopied from clippings found in a file on Morris in A&SC in MUN Library. The dates and page numbers were missing from the original clippings; my estimation of the dates of publication is from advertisements on the backs of the clippings. The first article, believed to have been published on April 17th, is entitled, "Rambling Notes for 1911. Chapter IV. Mostly about Kelligrews." The second article, believed to have been published on April 18th, is entitled, "Rambling Notes for 1911. Chapter V. Onboard the Othar - At Bell Island - A Chase for a Dinner."

Apologies for the messy nature of these images. At this time (February 2026), The Daily News for 1911 is not available on MUN's DAI website. If/when that year becomes available, I will replace the images with sharper ones.