There was a fish plant, so we came here to stay.

Anthony Wilson familyAnthony Wilson was a successful fisherman in Merasheen, Placentia Bay. He had a good house into which he had put his life savings.

He had a fishing stage and storage sheds and he was practically on top of some of the best fishing grounds in the bay.

Last October, Anthony Wilson took his wife and three children and left Merasheen for good. He had to; there was no school, no church, no store in which to buy his groceries, no merchant to buy his fish.

Anthony Wilson was not forced out of his home; he had the same right as any other person living in a democratic country - the right to live where he chose. He could have stayed on at Merasheen along with the other few who did not wish to go when the people from the department of community and social development received a petition for resettlement from the majority of the community.

But he didn’t.  He did not think it would be fair to ask his wife and family to be without neighbours or a store or a church. He thought his children should have a school and friends to play with.

But most of all he felt he should go because the CNR was cutting off its service to the island.

No, Anthony Wilson did not have to leave, and he will be the first to agree with the department of community and social development that he was not forced out of his home. But already it was October and his children weren’t in school, so he took the $2000 carat and moved to Fermeuse where there was a fish plant.

He was told that he could move into a government-built house and either rent it or take out a mortgage (Of course there were no houses yet but there would be). But he is an independent sort of man who pays as he goes. He thought it might be more prudent to try to get by with what he had.

He used his $2000 to buy a house. Of course it didn’t have running water or sewage like his house on Merasheen but not to worry, there were big plans for the fish plant, big expansion was on the way and it would only be a matter of time before the department of municipal affairs and supply got around to having a town plan off the drawing board and into affect.

The good life would come. After all, there was a fish plant. He had a choice, he could go to work in the fish plant, he could get to sea on a dragger, or, if he wished, he could continue to fish the inshore grounds in the old fashioned way in his quaint little 30-foot trap skiff.

But again, having had a belly-full of going to sea and being away from his family, and not caring for the idea of being stuck in a fish cutting line in the plant, he decided to keep his boat and fishing gear and stick to the inshore grounds. He would, after all, be able to sell to the plant and so would not need his fishing stages and stores.

Mr. Wilson says that the $2000 he received was not enough to cover the loss of his stage and other out-buildings much less the home he left behind. His new home in Renews. needs, most of all, running water and a sewage system but he can’t go digging holes in someone else’s property and he can’t afford to buy a pressure pump.

The town has no water system. This year was bad enough, he says, what with the poor fishery at all but if the plant closes and there is no place to sell his fish he will just have to leave his family again and go elsewhere to work. His property on Merasheen reverted to the crown automatically once he accepted the  $2000 settlement assistant cheque.

This newspaper article was from 1968, preserved in a Wilson family scrap book.  Thanks to Cecily (Wilson) Guiney for preserving it and making it available.

The Wilson family in the photo are Jimmy, mom Teresa (Lake), Cecily, Anthony and Amelda.

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