Eastport Peninsula Conclusion:
Cultural Preservation
The most important cultural event in the human history of any area is its
founding by a group of settlers from the outside. The pioneers establish both the
biological foundations (the gene pool) and the social and cultural character on
which the area subsequently grows and develops. The founding families possess the
human values including the organization of space to guide relations among
themselves and with the wider world. The norms, beliefs, customs and sets of values
derived from forbears provide the members of a group with a sense of identity and
the guidelines in trying to gain a livelihood and live a decent life. These norms,
beliefs and customs represent the elements of heritage drawn from history. To
preserve culture and heritage it is necessary to encourage communities to
perpetuate a host of historical activities and traditions, rituals and ceremonies
which are embedded in language (including dialect, folklore, storytelling,
literature and music), institutions (family, community and religious activities),
and the cultural landscape (historic buildings and architecture, settlement
patterns, land uses and spaces). These elements are the central features of culture
that need preservation and reproduction. Cultural heritage is said to be as
important to a group in maintaining its identity as memory is to an individual.
Until recently the Eastport Peninsula has been occupied almost exclusively by a
homogeneous cultural group whose ancestors came into the area between the 1780s and
1860s. The settlers were a common stock of migrants with a cultural ancestry
derived almost entirely from the English counties of Dorsetshire, Hampshire and
Somerset. The pioneers came mainly from among the servants and employees
transported to Newfoundland in the cod fishery by merchants and ship owners of
Poole. Those choosing to continue in the Newfoundland fishery as a way of life,
settled around the shores of convenient harbours near fishing grounds and created
communities of fishing families. In doing so it was necessary for them to make
numerous cultural adjustments and adaptations. Places such as Salvage and Barrow
Harbour were fundamentally different natural environments and work places from the
agricultural villages, market towns and manufacturing places of their English
homeland.
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"The Harbour", Salvage, 1981.
Places like Salvage had different natural environments and work places
than the English counties of Dorsetshire, Hampshire and Somerset.
Photo by Gordon Handcock, ©1981. Reproduced by permission of
Gordon Handcock.
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Making a living in Bonavista Bay in the cod fishery required a completely
new set of routines, skills, knowledge and outlooks from those needed back home in
and around the Blackmore Vale, the Somerset borderlands or the Hampshire New Forest
regions where the typical forms of employment might include being a
labourer in agriculture, a dairyman, a shepherd, a mason, a butcher, a quarryman or
a carter. In other words survival in the Newfoundland milieu demanded the
acquisition of a completely new set of skills and abilities. Early settlers
developed new strategies to sustain themselves, and their descendants subsequently
improved on these or adopted others to exploit natural resources and to cope with
the much more rigorous climatic and natural environmental conditions of
Newfoundland.
Early settlements such as Salvage, Barrow Harbour and Flat Island initially were
settled as inshore cod fishing stations but soon developed other economic functions
related to the seal fishery, the distant Labrador cod fishery, fall and winter wood
cutting activities and other pursuits such as boat building and subsistence
farming. From the outset these communities consisted of extended family units, or
kin groups, living in close proximity to each other. The extended families
functioned as socio-economic units both in making a living and in support of all
individuals within the kin group. Most kin groups were paternal which is why most
settlements can be strongly associated with specific surnames, and conversely
family names with specific outport communities. The attachment and bonding of
families with specific places helps explain why it is more common to ask a resident
"where do you belong?" rather than "where do you come from?" or
"where were you born?" On the Eastport Peninsula by predominance and association
one readily identifies Sandy Cove with the surnames Matchim and King, Happy
Adventure with Turners, Powells and Elliotts, Burnside with Oldfords and Ralphs,
and St. Chads with Hunters, Martins and Trokes. From the surname perspective Napier
evokes Sandy Cove, Bull and Crisby are most closely linked with Eastport, and
Heffern and Sturge belong to Salvage. Some surnames have spread into several
communities and are more closely linked to the peninsula as a whole rather than
with specific places. These families would include the surnames Brown, Burden,
Babstock, Dyke, Hapgood, Han(d)cock, Lane, Moss and Squire. Historically these
peninsular family names were affiliated at one time or another with Salvage. In
more recent times surname patterns and community associations have become more
complex as the Peninsula becomes increasingly integrated. While many of the
older, more historic surnames have weakened through out migration and lowering
numbers of births, many new family names have been introduced into the area
recently through in-migration, mostly because of retirees and elderly selecting
the Peninsula as a place of retirement.
"The Cottage", Eastport, 2000.
"The Cottage" is a farm house built by merchant James Burden of Salvage
from 1868 to 1870.
Photo by Gordon Handcock, ©2000. Reproduced by permission of
Gordon Handcock.
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While early settlers found it necessary to forge new ways of making a living
and to adopt new strategies of survival, they nonetheless retained and perpetuated
many of their former cultural traits and social customs particularly those related
to belief systems, language, folklore and habitual behaviour. The vernacular
dialects of Dorsetshire and adjacent counties from the 18th century have been well
preserved on the Peninsula particularly among the more elderly. These include such
traits such as the habitual dropping of the letter "h", before a vowel or adding
one on as in "Appy Hadventure", and the use of non-standard grammar, phrases,
vocabulary and pronunciation.
On the spiritual side families on the Eastport Peninsula tend to retain rituals
and traditions related to the tenets of English Protestantism. The churches and
schools formally represented the main public institutions around which community
life was focused. Clergymen and teachers once played very key roles in setting and
upholding social and moral standards though the most fundamental unit in
establishing behavioural and cultural norms was the family. Most families on the
Eastport Peninsula have a cultural legacy associated with the teachings of the
Anglican (Church of England) Church or with the United Church (formerly Methodism)-
which by ancestry links them also with the two major Christian denominations of
Wessex.
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St. Stephen's Church, Salvage, 1990.
Built from 1858 to 1862, this Anglican church is the oldest structure on the Eastport Peninsula.
Photo by Gordon Handcock, ©1990. Reproduced by permission of
Gordon Handcock.
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The Wessex settlers of the Eastport Peninsula brought with them and
practiced to a large degree values associated with English puritanism which
emphasized such notions as the strict observance of the Sabbath (Sunday), obedience
to parental, civil and religious authority, thriftiness, and frugality. Hard work
was regarded by most as an important virtue, and idleness and wastefulness were
generally detested. Methodism demanded a stricter moral code than Anglicanism and
forbade the use of alcohol, dancing and card playing. Wessex secular and folk
traditions, however, added new dimensions to the belief and behavioral systems. As
in their former English homeland, the people who settled in central Bonavista Bay
were much given to superstitious beliefs and inclined to be somewhat fatalistic
about life. At the same time they were, and are, inclined to be extremely good
humoured and sharp witted even in circumstances of difficulty.
© 2002, Gordon Handcock
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Numerous colleagues, relatives, friends, former students
and informants have shared in developing this paper. Their input has been an
important part of it. In particular I thank my colleague and friend Dr. Chesley
Sanger for helpful advice and encouragement. The paper draws liberally from an
earlier work by Dr. Alan Macpherson on the peopling of central Bonavista Bay.
Archaeologist Laurie Maclean generously shared information on the early Aboriginal
occupance of Bonavista Bay. The late Harold Squire's early history of Eastport was
a useful reference and Fred Pafford's computer compilation of Salvage parish
records was extremely helpful also. The transcripts of interviews with elderly
persons conducted by high school students of Kevin Major in the 1970s and printed
in the magazine STAGEHEAD constitute an extremely valuable source reference on
settlement origins and aspects of traditional life. Dr. Arthur S. Dyke's study
of the Eastport glacial-fluvial delta is an important document on the peninsula's
physical geography, also one with significant human relevance. Another important
source of information was provided by term papers completed by undergraduate
students for courses at Memorial University. Among these were Scott Hapgood on
Burnside; Audrey Matchim, Clar Matchim and Denise Edwards (three separate papers)
on Sandy Cove; Norma Powell on Happy Adventure; Winston Dyke on the Dyke Family
and Eastport; Mildred Powell (nee Dyke) on the Dyke Family and Clay Cove; Cheryl
Handcock on the Moss Family and Eastport and Sharon Handcock on Salvage.
Over the years many individuals have shared with me their
memories and personal knowledge on different aspects of local history. Notably
among these were my parents Norman and Isabelle Handcock, my wife's (Margaret's)
parents - Leander and Edith Hunter, Silas and Violet Dyke, A. Prince Dyke, Ches
Crisby, J. M. (Mac) Moss, Harold Squire, Harold and Belle Handcock, Wilfred and
Marion Handcock, Maxwell (Mac) Bradley, Fred Bradley, Peirce Bradley, Cleeves and
Fred Oldford, Augustus Oldford, Dorothy Rose (nee Oldford), Donald Powell, Mildred
Powell, Allister Powell, Phoebe Turner, Willis and May Turner, Neville Squire,
Alexander and Lizzie Mary Dunn, Eldon Moss, Gerald Hunter, Norman Bull, John W.
Bull, Colin Bull, Reg Bull, Llewellyn Crisby, Roy Dyke, Jacob and Gertie Dyke,
Bert C. Bull, Annie Lane, Roy Babstock (all three), Ephriam Brown, Gerald Brown,
Sidney Lane, Ray Troke, Richard (Dick) King, Clayton King, Gordon and Fred Brown,
Heber and Selby Moss, Charles Moss, Muriel Crisby, Jim Crisby, Claude Turner, Bill
Bradley, Pat Bradley, Greg Bradley, Kenneth and Irene Bradley, Agnes Squire, Bill
Lane, Gilbert Heffern, Stewart and June Sturge, Alph and Josie Handcock, Gilbert
and Sarah Turner, Greg Handcock, Ralph and Owen Turner, Lewis and Beatrice
Handcock, Katie and Martha Babstock, Anne Piercey, Gertie Handcock, Albert G. Hall,
Nigel Rusted, George and Sylvester Hiscock, Harold and Minnie Troke, Donald and
Dorothy Handcock, Thomas Hunter, Robert Martin, Thomas C. Turner, Harvey Turner,
Nelson Matchim, Edgar Napier, Calvin Ralph, Ivan Ralph, Samson Squire, Christine
Squire, Rex Vivian, Ray Penny, Moses Morgan, Newton Morgan, Bert Ralph, the Mosses
(Lew, Jim, Jack, Frank and Ralph), William (Bill) Samson, Henry Squire, Elizabeth
(Liz) Matchim, Andrew Brown and Marcus Moss. To those I have forgotten to mention
by name I offer my sincere apologies but I give my sincere thanks to all.
Gordon Handcock
