TOMMY PITTMAN:

Tommy was a lobster man who caught and packed his own lobsters in his own lobster factory - a very independent man. Canned lobster at that time was sold for $1.00 per pound. School children from Big Merasheen (now fifty to sixty-five years old) used to go into his canning factory on the way from school to get lobster bodies which were not used in canning. He always had 110 pots and used only a rowing dory to fish from the “Dirty Rocks" to the “Cross Point".

JACK HANN:

Jack came to Merasheen from Petite Forte after his father died and his mother married Mr. Din Walsh and fished there for most of his life. He married Kitty Movelle from Merasheen and sometime after her death married Theresa Leonard from lsle Valen. Jack owned the “Catherine Hann", a boat of 35 tons and the last of the Western Boats having been built in Merasheen in 1924. The Co-op store had its first premises in Jack's house, where a showcase with one box of tobacco was set up in the window. His was the first family of Hann’s in Merasheen, a family known to all of us. Jack died at 71 years of age.

PADDY HANN:

Paddy was born in Merasheen, August 21, 1910, the son of Jack Hann and Catherine (Movelle). He was involved in all phases of the fishery, including Cape St. Mary's, the Grand Banks, Labrador and the trap fishery in Merasheen spanning the era from sail to diesel power. Having a high school education. Paddy was certainly one of the outstanding leaders in Merasheen, being Past-President and Vice-President of Merasheen Fisheries Ltd., twenty—five years manager of the Merasheen Co-op, a member of local church and community organizations and in later years, Chairman of the Merasheen Community Council. For more than thirty years he was identified with the business life of our community.

Paddy married Mary Wilson and together they had a family of eleven children. When resettlement became inevitable Paddy finally had to give up the fight and reluctantly resettled in Marystown in 1968. Being a man who never believed that circumstances controlled his life, he immediately obtained a certificate in Marine Diesel at Burin District Vocational School at the age of 59. He was employed in the Marystown Shipyard and became Secretary of Local 20 of the Shipyard Workers Union. Paddy died April 17th, 1978.

He was certainly an individual who was actively involved in the life of his community and who sought to maintain that involvement in the new community of which he became a part in his later years. He was a staunch Christian who practiced his religion not only in his church going but also in his day to day life. An individual whose main hobby was reading, Paddy saw knowledge as the key to planned change and today would certainly be a firm believer in adult education, lifelong learning and community development. ln fact, when we look back on his life in Merasheen we all recognize him as a living force and a key community development worker in our community.