Merasheen history 1

Adapted from Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, pp 511-513

(incorporated 1963; pop. 1966, 271). Spread haphazardly around a snug harbour on the southwestern tip of Merasheen Island, the resettled community of Merasheen was once home to almost 400 people. While a local tradition holds that it was named after two Frenchmen (Mere and Jean) who discovered and settled the area in the 1600s, other sources suggest Merasheen was first known as Mer aux Chiens ("ocean of the seadogs or seals"). 

The English, Irish and Scottish began to settle permanently in Merasheen as early as the late 1700s and by 1836 there were already 188 people living in the community. Seary records a tradition that a "Pomeroy, from Ireland, settled at Merasheen about 1820,"while some of the oldest headstones in the graveyard indicate that families of Bests, Hennesseys, Movelles and Wards were also among the first settlers. Another community established in the early 1800s and located over a ridge to the north (on the site of an ancient graveyard) was named Little Merasheen. By 1857 there were 127 people living at Little Merasheen. Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s the two communities were enumerated as one, their combined population peaking at 380 by 1921. By this time additional family names at Merasheen included Connors, Ennis, Houlihan, Pittman and Wilson. The 1857 Census was the first to record the existence of a Roman Catholic church and school.

With a narrow rock-encumbered entrance and a 30-foot high promontory (named Soldier Point, presumably after a battle that occurred there between the English and French), Merasheen Harbour was suitable only for small vessels. The inshore cod fishery provided the main means of summer and fall income, with lobster being caught in spring and herring in the ice-free harbour throughout the winter. The cod was sold mostly to merchants at Harbour Buffett and Spencer’s Cove. But by 1939 residents of Merasheen were operating a general purpose co-operative through which half of the community's fish was sold. The co-operative also operated a small herring factory and a liver factory (which closed around 1950 due to lack of markets), and supplied members with vegetables from Prince Edward Island, coal from Nova Scotia, dry goods, lumber and salt.

By 1953 approximately one third of Merasheen's 348 residents were members of the co-operative society. But Alberto Wareham had also established a branch store in Merasheen by this time and was purchasing approximately half of the fish. By 1957 the Newfoundland government had provided a community salting and drying plant to replace the individually owned stages and flakes scattered around the harbour.

Operated by the local fishermen, the plant was equipped with cold storage space, pickling vats, dry storage and hand flakes for outdoor drying. An artificial dryer was also procured.

Merasheen was not connected by road to the other communities on the island, although, like the more central communities, including Best's Harbour, Broad Cove and Tacks Beach, it had a narrow footpath which ran by many of the beachside houses. The only medical services in the 1950s were provided by the hospital ship Lady Anderson, which visited the community once a month. Merasheen also had the first "trade school" in the region. Established by parish priest Monsignor Anthony Fyme in an attempt to lessen dependence on the fishery, the school trained students for careers in mechanics and other trades.
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s the population, predominantly Roman Catholic, declined slightly - to 291 by 1961. But the formation of a community council in 1963, the addition of a fourth room to the school, the processing of herring by Fishery Products and the provision of an electric power plant all seemed to give hope for the community's future. The majority of people, however, soon submitted a petition for resettlement and by 1965 the government centralization program was under way. Most of the residents moved to Freshwater, Jerseyside, Placentia, Point Verde and St. John's over the next couple of years. There were only five or six families left at Merasheen by 1968 and no teacher was allocated for that year. Within weeks the community, at one time among the most prosperous in Placentia Bay, was completely abandoned. But many families continued to fish out of Merasheen. With 40 to 60 fishermen there in the 1970s and 1980s, the provincial government spent more than $50,000 in repairing facilities which had fallen into disrepair.

In 1980 the first Merasheen reunion was organized by Loyola Pomroy and Bill Wilson. Held from July 23 to 27, the event was attended by approximately 400 people. The first reunion of a resettled community, it was so well patronized that by 1990 two more reunions had been held.

Sources: Vivian Hann (1978), Harold Horwood (1969), J.B. Jukes (1969), Adrian and Loretta Pomroy (interview, Dec. 1990), E.R. Seary (1977), DA (Aug. 1976), DN (July 28, 1980), Eastern Newfoundland Settlement Survey 1953: Merasheen (1953), E of C:N (1949), Evening Herald (Oct. 10, 1919), ET (July 20, 1985), Fishermen's Advocate (June 17, 1955), JHA (1854), Merasheen Reunion (1980), Monitor (Oct. 1980), Newfoundland Herald (July 26, 1980), Newfoundland Lifestyle (Oct. 1985), Centre for Newfoundland Studies (Merasheen), Newfoundland Historical Society (Merasheen), Stacey Collection.