PEOPLE OF BELL ISLAND
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The People of Bell Island pages feature mini-biographies (in alphabetical order by last name) of some of the people who have lived and worked on Bell Island, or have had an impact on its history in some way. Much of the information comes from historical records and newspaper or magazine articles. Some will be from Census records and some from anecdotal accounts by people I have interviewed. It will always be a "work in progress," with information being added as it comes available. If you would like to add information for yourself or your family, or simply to have your parents or grandparents names added as a memorial to their life and work on Bell Island, get in touch by emailing:
historic.wabana@gmail.com
To view the other biographies, hover your cursor over the People of Bell Island button in the menu at the top of this page, then choose from the drop-down menu of alphabetical listings.
Bios below as of March 2022:
John Jackman (c.1750-1810)
Matthew Jackman (1814-1907)
Rev. Oliver Jackson (1887-1937)
Malina/Melina (nee Taylor) James (1852-1920): Matron of Dominion Staff House
Frederick F. Jardine (1879-1944)
Dr. William Edgar Jones (1873-1930)
historic.wabana@gmail.com
To view the other biographies, hover your cursor over the People of Bell Island button in the menu at the top of this page, then choose from the drop-down menu of alphabetical listings.
Bios below as of March 2022:
John Jackman (c.1750-1810)
Matthew Jackman (1814-1907)
Rev. Oliver Jackson (1887-1937)
Malina/Melina (nee Taylor) James (1852-1920): Matron of Dominion Staff House
Frederick F. Jardine (1879-1944)
Dr. William Edgar Jones (1873-1930)
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John Jackman (c.1750-1810): Fisherman. He was born County Kilkenny, Ireland and is said to have been the first Jackman to settle Bell Island. He died December 2, 1810 and is buried in a solitary grave on the north side of the Beach Hill before the hill makes a right turn just up from the ferry terminal. The inscription on his headstone reads: "Here lieth interred the remains of John Jackman late of the faire County Kilkenny Ireland who departed this life on the 2 day of December 1810 aged 60 years." |
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Matthew Jackman (1814-1907): Mailman/ferryman/farmer. He was the son of Mary Greene of County Wexford, Ireland, and Peter Jackman (d. 1868), and the grandson of John Jackman (c.1750-1810), fisherman, of County Kilkenny, Ireland (see his bio above). Matthew married Mary Power (1830-1891). He is listed in Lovell's Gazette of 1871 as a farmer. His death on March 22, 1907 was recorded in The Daily News: "For over 60 years, Matthew Jackman operated the ferry and mail service between Bell Island Beach and Portugal Cove, a route he served in his sailboat in all kinds of weather. He had many narrow escapes and some hard encounters with the sea, wind and ice in that period, but gave satisfaction to the travelling public and died esteemed by the whole community. His son, William, carried on as mail courier but the old black punt was now replaced by a steamer."
Sources: Royal Gazette, 1811; Newfoundland Will Books, Vol. 3, pp. 83-84, probate year 1868; Rev. John W. Hammond, The Beautiful Isles, 1979; Addison Bown, "Newspaper History of Bell Island," Vol. 1, p. 22.
Sources: Royal Gazette, 1811; Newfoundland Will Books, Vol. 3, pp. 83-84, probate year 1868; Rev. John W. Hammond, The Beautiful Isles, 1979; Addison Bown, "Newspaper History of Bell Island," Vol. 1, p. 22.
Rev. Oliver Jackson (1887-1937): Methodist and United Church Clergyman, Educator, Editor, Author and Social Reformer. He was born July 18, 1887 in Abergavenny, Wales, to Melinda Lythe and George Jackson. He served as a Methodist Lay Preacher in Wales before volunteering in 1911 for service in Newfoundland, where he became a probationer of the Newfoundland Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada. He served in Campbellton, NL, from 1911-13 and Clarke's Beach from 1913-15. From 1915-18, he studied at Wesleyan Theological College in Montreal, from which he received his Bachelor of Divinity degree. His ordination was at Gower Street Methodist Church in St. John's on July 3, 1918. On July 24, 1918, he married Rosalie Noseworthy, the daughter of Frank Noseworthy, a general dealer and Methodist Layman, of Clarke's Beach. He was posted to Brigus until 1923, also serving Cupids, then Freshwater, Conception Bay until 1928. He served the Bell Island-Portugal Cove United Church charge from 1928-1931. He became the United Church Conference's superintendent of missions in 1931 and retained that position, along with that of field secretary of Christian education, until his death in 1937. He drowned November 3, 1937 while visiting the Petites and Grand Bruit mission on the Southwest Coast of Newfoundland. He is buried in the General Protestant Cemetery in St. John's. Following his death, he was hailed as the "apostle of the outports." Three buildings were named in his honour: Jackson House at Western Bay, and Jackson United Church and Jackson Memorial School, both on Bell Island and both still standing in 2019. Source: Dictionary of Canadian Biography (where you can read the full biography).
The photo below is of Oliver and Rose Jackson and their children, c.1935. L-R: Georgina (known as Georgie), Rupert, Ivor (eldest son) and Francis Lindbergh (known as Lin). Photo courtesy of Andrea Morgan and Valerie Pippy.
The photo below is of Oliver and Rose Jackson and their children, c.1935. L-R: Georgina (known as Georgie), Rupert, Ivor (eldest son) and Francis Lindbergh (known as Lin). Photo courtesy of Andrea Morgan and Valerie Pippy.
Malina/Melina (nee Taylor) James (1852-1920): Matron of Dominion Staff House, 1913. She was born in 1852 in Carbonear? On June 1, 1872, she married Mark James, a sea captain, of Carbonear. They had six children. In 1895, Captain Mark James, age 49, drowned along with his crew when his ship, the Brigantine Cleo, after leaving Alicante, Spain, for Carbonear in November 1895, was lost at sea.
It is not clear when Malina James began working at the Dominion Staff House on Bell Island. When her son, Albert, married in 1902 in Portsmouth, NH, he gave his mother's residence as Carbonear and left the line for her occupation blank. The only reference I found for her on Bell Island was a note in the Daily News about a September 9, 1913 dinner, which was given at the Dominion Staff House for the championship football team, at which Mrs. Mark James was hostess. (Married and widowed women were rarely referred to by their Christian name in those times.)
The first Dominion Staff House was located near the Dominion Pier at the Front of Bell Island, where it was built shortly after Dominion Company purchased part of the Scotia Company's Wabana mining property in 1899. Malina James' husband died in 1895. Until more information is found as to when she started work there, we can only surmise that she may have been Dominion Company's first Staff House matron. The photo below left shows some of the Dominion Company's buildings at their pier in the first decade of their mining operations. I am guessing that the 3-storey building in the center background with the nearly-flat roof was the original Staff House. (Photo by Wm. B. Ford, courtesy of Brian Rees.) This Staff House was replaced in 1912 by a larger Staff House on the East Track close to Bennett Street, which was where the Company's new Main Office was built. Malina James would have only worked there was a few years as Margaret Stone was the Matron there starting about 1915 or 1916. The Directories for 1913-1919 did not list the matrons or domestic staff of the mining staff houses, however, she is listed in the 1913 Directory for Carbonear as being a homeowner on Water Street and "widow of Mark."
Malina James died in St. John's at age 68 on February 17, 1920, having moved there the previous November from her home in Carbonear. Her eldest son, Charles, was editor of the Evening Telegram at the time of her death. Her obituary in that news paper did not mention her having worked on Bell Island. She and her husband are buried in St. James Anglican Cemetery in Carbonear.
It is not clear when Malina James began working at the Dominion Staff House on Bell Island. When her son, Albert, married in 1902 in Portsmouth, NH, he gave his mother's residence as Carbonear and left the line for her occupation blank. The only reference I found for her on Bell Island was a note in the Daily News about a September 9, 1913 dinner, which was given at the Dominion Staff House for the championship football team, at which Mrs. Mark James was hostess. (Married and widowed women were rarely referred to by their Christian name in those times.)
The first Dominion Staff House was located near the Dominion Pier at the Front of Bell Island, where it was built shortly after Dominion Company purchased part of the Scotia Company's Wabana mining property in 1899. Malina James' husband died in 1895. Until more information is found as to when she started work there, we can only surmise that she may have been Dominion Company's first Staff House matron. The photo below left shows some of the Dominion Company's buildings at their pier in the first decade of their mining operations. I am guessing that the 3-storey building in the center background with the nearly-flat roof was the original Staff House. (Photo by Wm. B. Ford, courtesy of Brian Rees.) This Staff House was replaced in 1912 by a larger Staff House on the East Track close to Bennett Street, which was where the Company's new Main Office was built. Malina James would have only worked there was a few years as Margaret Stone was the Matron there starting about 1915 or 1916. The Directories for 1913-1919 did not list the matrons or domestic staff of the mining staff houses, however, she is listed in the 1913 Directory for Carbonear as being a homeowner on Water Street and "widow of Mark."
Malina James died in St. John's at age 68 on February 17, 1920, having moved there the previous November from her home in Carbonear. Her eldest son, Charles, was editor of the Evening Telegram at the time of her death. Her obituary in that news paper did not mention her having worked on Bell Island. She and her husband are buried in St. James Anglican Cemetery in Carbonear.
Frederick F. Jardine (1879-1944): Filing Clerk with DOSCO; Writer/Editor; Justice of the Peace. He was born in St. John's in 1879 to Mary (Koorner) and William Jardine. (William was the son of William Jardine, a brewmaster, who came to Newfoundland from Scotland and married ? Carney. Frederick's father, William, is said to have died suddenly while walking to the St. John's waterfront to embark with Captain Bob Bartlett and the explorer, Perry, on their voyage of discovery to the North Pole. In 1943, Frederick Jardine wrote, "I love and am deeply interested in every scrap and shred of this Colony's history. And I have a right to be. Though of immediate Scots descent on the paternal side, on the distaff side, I can trace back to Kirke's colony at Ferryland. John Kearney, my forebear, was one of the brave colonists who came out with Sir David Kirke in 1658 or 1659 from Roscommon, Ireland.") Frederick was educated at St. Bonaventure's College, St. John's. In 1907, he moved to Bell Island to work as a Filing Clerk with Dominion Company. He was appointed Justice of the Peace in March 1920. Over the years, he contributed writings on local history and lore to several publications. On January 31, 1910, he published a magazine, Red Hematite, as a souvenir of Wabana (no copy found). He was the editor of Newfoundland's first agricultural journal, Newfoundland Agricultural Magazine, launched in October 1921 (one copy at Memorial University Library). Two of his articles on Bell Island history are: "Fortieth Anniversary of Wabana Mines, Bell Island" in The Daily News year end review, 1934, and "Forty-Fourth Anniversary of Wabana Mines" in The Evening Telegram, Dec. 24, 1938. He was married twice, first to Mary Margaret (Maggie) McCourt (c.1880-c.1914, a piano teacher) in 1904, and second to Lucy Neary (1891-1979) in 1919. He died of heart failure March 12, 1944 and is buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery, Bell Island. Sources: Encyclopedia of NL; Addison Bown's "Newspaper History of Bell Island"; Ron Pumphrey's Who's Who & Why in St. John's, Mount Pearl, Paradise and Conception Bay South, V. 7, 1989-90; F.F. Jardine, "The Earles," in the Bay Roberts Guardian, Mar. 20, 1943; NL Census; Vital Records.
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Dr. William Edgar Jones (1873-1930): Physician; businessman, politician. He was born in Harbour Grace, January 23, 1873 to Ellen and Michael Jones. He was educated at St. Bonaventure's College, St. John's, and the University of Maryland, U.S.A. He married Theresa English (c.1875-????) of Mayo, Ireland in 1894 and began his medical practice that same year in Avondale, Nfld. In 1907, he opened a new drug store, Wabana Drug Store, on The Green, which was the center of business activity on Bell Island at the time. He had purchased the property on which he built his "up-to-date drug store" from William Keith Murphy, who had been appointed Postmaster at The Front. The property was freehold and already had a shop and five tenements on it, all occupied by miners and their families. In November 1907, he engaged 19-year-old Louis Lawton (see section K-L) to operate his drug store. It was common for those times that the physician in a community would also own the drug store, but there is no indication that Dr. Jones actually lived on Bell Island. The Business Directory of 1913 for Bell Island does not list him. It is possible that he may have visited Bell Island from his home base in Avondale to see patients.
The entry for Dr. Jones in The Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador states that "he and Louis Lawton formed the Wabana Drug Co. in 1913," which seems to indicate he still had an interest in it at that time. Louis Lawton Jr. believed that his father bought the drug store from Dr. Jones about 1921. |
In the Newfoundland General Election of 1919, Jones won the district of Harbour Main as a member of the Liberal-Progressive Party. He was unsuccessful in his bid for re-election as an independent candidate in 1923. He was a prominent member of the Newfoundland Medical Association and practiced in Avondale until his death on February 16, 1930 at the age of 57. He is buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery there.
Sources: Bell Island. Sources: Encyclopedia of NL; Addison Bown's "Newspaper History of Bell Island." |