LIFE IN MERASHEEN IN THE 1900'S

This assignment is a Social Studies project conducted in » January 1992 by Colleen Ennis and Danny Burke (Grade Five, Holy Family Elementary). The information consists of memoirs of their 85 year old grandfather, James Ennis, who enjoys telling stories about his life in Merasheen to anyone who will care to listen.

I was born at Merasheen in 1906 and lived there until 1959, when I left with my wife and family of six children to work for the Department of Fisheries in Long Harbour. I have lived in Long Harbour since then.

Merasheen is an island in Placentia Bay. Approximately 325 people lived there at its peak population. There were 65 families living in the community. The people made a living fishing for cod and lobsters. They used cod traps, trawls, handlines, and jiggers. Before 1915, men rowed and sailed to the fishing grounds a distance of about 9 miles. They would leave their homes at 1a.m., row to the fishing grounds, fish all day and return about 4 p.m. They would have to throw the fish upon their wharves, split it, wash it and salt it in the stages. Their day would end after dark.

In 1915 the first engine to power a fishing boat came to Merasheen. It certainly helped change the industry. The women and children washed the salted fish and spread it to dry on the flakes. This was how the fish were cured because there was no refrigeration in those days.

The women and children also worked in the gardens getting them ready to plant potatoes, cabbage, turnip and carrots to help provide food for the family. Fertilizer for the soil was offal from the fish as well as manure from the stables where sheep were kept.
Every family had a flock of 10-20 sheep. These animals provided wool from which yarn was made to knit stockings, sweaters, mittens and underwear for the family members. In the fall, a sheep was killed to provide meat for the winter. A cow or two provided families with milk. Butter from the milk was churned by hand. To feed these livestock.  Large meadows of hay had to be cut and dried. ‘The men cut the hay with a big scythe but the women and children had to dry the hay by spreading it when the weather was suitable. We children often had lots of fun playing in the huge hay piles.

Chicken and ducks provided eggs and meat for the families. At one time my parents had 36 ducks and 15 hens. These were fed with the few precious scraps from the kitchen table. Men snared rabbits and hunted wild ducks and turrs to help feed their families. Although we had no junk foods, we ate well and were quite healthy. Our biggest treat would be homemade bread and molasses. The molasses came in big puncheons. The merchant of the general store would have the supplies come by freighter from St. John's. My father would trade the fish he had caught for supplies he needed and could not provide for himself.

I had two sisters and three brothers. My oldest brother Bill fought in World War I. He died shortly after returning from France. It is believed that he was suffering a heart problem caused by the physical stress he had undergone during the war. My youngest sister Angela was a Franciscan nun. She joined the convent when she was 19 years old and she died at the age of 89 years. My brother Jack is still living and is enjoying life at the age of 94 years. My brother Louis and my sister May have both died. I am the baby of the family and I am enjoying good health at the age of 85.

As children, my brother Louis was the mischievous one. Once when I was about 6 years old, he set me adrift in a puncheon tub. My brother Jack rescued me. Louis rarely got his supper on Sundays because he most often disobeyed our parents and was sent to bed as punishment. Being sent to bed was the usual punishment in my family. Very rarely did either of my parents give us a spanking.

I began school when I was 6 years old. At that time, 1912, there was a two-room school in Merasheen. Maria Leonard was my teacher for my entire schooling. We wrote on a slate with a chalky rock and we brought a bottle of water and a cloth to clean our slates. In those days there was no such thing as grades or levels. We went as far as the fourth book then came primary, preliminary, and intermediate grades. After completing intermediate, if your father was rich enough, you would go to St. Bon's College in St. John's. I finished school after studying intermediate. One winter our parish priest Father Fyme tutored me along with three other boys in St. Kyran's, a community across the bay. While at school, I studied geometry, geography, grammar, literature, arithmetic, shorthand and religion. To test our knowledge, the teacher would have a group of 8 to 10 children gather around her in a semi-circle. If you failed to answer the question she asked, you had to take a place at the end of the line. There were, of course, some bully boys who misbehaved. These were given frequent “slappings~ with a-hardwood-slapper made perhaps from a pork barrel. Sometimes as punishment pupils were made sit on a stool in the corner of the room.

The smaller children sat on the benches while the bigger children sat in desks joined together perhaps 6 or 7. A pot-bellied stove in the middle of the room supplied heat. Coal was supplied as a source of fuel. This coal was shipped from North Sydney and parties were held to raise money to pay for the coal.

As children, we enjoyed sliding on our homemade slides down over the Big Meadow. Our fathers made those slides for us from the staves of pork barrels. We also had fun skating on the harbour. We had blades which hooked on over our boots. In summer we played football and sometimes used a pig's or bull's bladder as a ball. We spent many hours rolling an iron hoop from a barrel and guiding it with a wire. This was good exercise as well as fun. We played games and sang songs to go with the games such as ‘Farmer in the Dell’ and ‘This is the Way to London Town‘.

As a young boy, I particularly enjoyed curling up behind my father on the couch in the kitchen and listening to the men who were visiting our house tell ghost stories. I remember every one of them to this day even though they terrified me as a child.

Weddings in Merasheen were celebrated in the house of the bride or groom. Everyone in the harbour was invited to the party. The dance would be in the kitchen and the meal was served in the parlour, today's living room. Music for the dancing was provided by accordion, mouth organ and tin whistle. Small children often fell asleep at the wedding parties. Songs were sung and men drank rum which had been smuggled from St. Pierre.

During the twelve days of Christmas, mummers would be welcomed into every house. The mummers were people from the community who disguised themselves in old clothing and false faces. They came to the house, danced a jig, had a drink and left quickly to visit the next house.

Dances were held in the community at houses. Each house owner in turn would give his kitchen for the dance.

Cruising or visiting was an enjoyable way to spend Sunday afternoon. The annual garden party was a big event in August. This party was held to raise money for the church.

Of course, church was central to the lives of the people of Merasheen. Most of the people were of the Roman Catholic Faith but there were a few families of the Anglican Faith living there also. In 1924 Father Flemming became the first parish priest. Our church St. Joseph's had been built in 1916. When our priest became resident, we had daily Mass at 8 a.m. On Sundays, Mass was celebrated at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and recitation of the rosary were celebrated Sunday evenings. During the season of
Lent, everyone 7 years of age and over had to fast for the 40 days. This meant that they could eat only one full meal a day and two other light meals. The Stations of the Cross were part of every man, woman and child's lenten practice. Every day at noon the church bell rang and the Angelus was prayed in the school and in the community.

The people of Merasheen had to tend to each other's every need. When a baby was to be born, a group of women went to the home of the expectant mother and assisted her during the delivery. Some women went just to pray that everything would go smoothly. It mostly did. They were certainly women of faith. When anyone got sick and death seemed near, people from the community would sit all night with the dying person and care for him. When life ended, the burial preparations were carried out by the neighbours. This consisted of preparing the body, building the coffin and burying the deceased.

Because we were so far from medical attention, we had many home remedies which proved effective up until today. Flour and molasses were used to make a poultice to draw pus from a boil or wound. Burned flour spread on a scorched piece of cloth was often applied to heal a baby's sore bottom. One man was often called upon because he was believed to have the power to stop blood. He could also charm a tooth and stop the aching. Another man was quite skilled at setting broken bones. My Uncle Dick named him ‘the bone setter’.

Our houses did not have the comforts or conveniences like those of today. My house was a two storey house consisting of five bedrooms, a kitchen, a parlour, a pantry and porch. My father built this new house in 1915 with materials from another house he had bought and taken down. It was heated by a wood stove in the kitchen. We also had a three lamp oil stove used for baking in summer. Firewood and coal were used to heat our house. Light was provided from the kerosene lamp. We slept in feather beds and Mother made quilts to cover us and keep us warm. Hooked mats in many patterns and colours covered the wooden floors upstairs and down keeping it somewhat warm. Our drinking water was carried from a well in buckets. Winter mornings you would have to break the ice on the bucket to get water to boil for breakfast. In the porch there was a stand and an earthen basin where we would wash our face and hands. Baths were a rarity in those days but everyone was alike. There wasn't much antiperspirant in our day.

Merasheen saw many changes from its early days until it became a pawn in the government’s centralization scheme in the I960s. Today it no longer has permanent residents but many of her people have built summer cabins there and return each year to visit.Some fishermen still make their living fishing there.