Showing posts with label reidville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reidville. Show all posts

Monday, January 2, 2017

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Clifford Reid and the history of Reidville

Dale Jarvis (l) talks to Cliff Reid (r) about the land settlement patterns in Reidville

In August 2016, we conducted an oral history interview with Clifford Reid about the history of Reidville, near Deer Lake in the Humber Valley region.

In the interview, we talk about his family history; his grandparents William Thomas Reid and MaryAnn Major, the first settlers of Reidville; how Reidville and Junction Brook began; the development and locations of lots of land in the area,and about his memories of Reidville as a child in the 1950’s and 60’s. 

The interview contains a lot of great information about logging, sawmills, woods work, and the tramway railway constructed by the loggers and the Newfoundland Pulp and Paper company, as well as a great story about Cliff's aunt going into labour and giving birth in a canoe!

The recording is archived on Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative. Listen to it here!

Monday, August 22, 2016

#CollectiveMemories Roadtrip to Humber Valley - People, Places and Traditions

Discussing people, places, and traditions.
On Wednesday Dale and I headed back to Reidville, the community where we interviewed Clifford Reid, in order to do a second People, Places, and Traditions workshop. We ended up with a smaller crowd due to the size of the town.  This meant that the sixteen of us were able to sit around one big table and have a discussion about some of the town’s history and stories.
Writing on their index cards.
After discussing the people, places, and traditions in the community we handed out index cards for everyone to fill out. Everyone took a couple of cards and wrote out someone, some place, or some tradition which is important to the community. We then mapped the cards on the large map of the community.
The story of Dead Man's Woods.
What was great about this workshop was that the size of the group and the close-knit community meant it turned into a story telling session with people taking turns telling stories from their childhood. Russ Reid told many stories about Mr. Oxford and himself growing up and the trouble they would get into.  The stories ranged from antagonizing the bull in his pen to sneaking up to the lumber camps, there were stories about a child who fell into a well and survived, a woman who gave birth in a canoe on her way to Deer Lake, and almost everyone had a story about stealing apples or fruit from their neighbours’ yards.
Adding stories and memories to the map.
Impromptu story telling around the Reidville map.
Reidville is located on a river and the islands of the river were named as well as the beaches which served as swimming holes or trouting spots. One of the islands, named Grandmother’s Island, was where Mr. Oxford would collect the long grass which would be used in their psalm Sunday services in the school which doubled as a church.
Discussing the future of heritage in the Humber Valley region.
After the session in Reidville Dale and I headed to Deer Lake where we had quick supper, and a poke around the community and two of the local cemeteries before heading to the Grand Lake Centre of Economic Development for a meeting with the Humber Valley Heritage society. We met with four members of the heritage society to talk about the future of heritage in Humber Valley. These women were the people who invited us out to lead the workshops and do some interviews and they are interested in how they can use the information collected at workshops like these. The heritage society is interested in holding similar events around the Humber Valley region in order to work together to promote the heritage of the region. The first thing they plan to do is take the information located on the physical maps and store it digitally. The committee is very interested in using Google My Maps to make this material accessible to and also editable by community members. They want to create a map of the region in order to showcase the agricultural heritage of the region and increase the tourism to all the communities.

~Terra Barrett

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Workshops and Interviews on the West Coast

Sandra Wheeler, Crystal Braye, Terra Barrett, and Dale Jarvis.
Dale and I are out on the west coast of the province as part of the Collective Memories Project. Tuesday afternoon after a breakfast with folklorists Crystal Braye and Sandra Wheeler we headed to Reidville in the Humber Valley. We met with another folklorist Amanda-Marie Hillyard who is from the community and set up an interview with Clifford Reid, a local history buff and a descendant of the original Reid’s of Reidville. Following the interview Clifford took us on a tour of the town pointing out how the land was originally parceled out, the location of the old tram system, and where people would the leave the community to paddle their canoes to Deer Lake.
Dale Jarvis and Clifford Reid.
Clifford described how the community was settled by his grandfather and his uncles in the 1930s following one uncle’s move to Junction’s Brook across the river from the land that became Reidville. Clifford’s uncles and his grandfather moved to the area in order to work as loggers and farmers. The main work in the area was at the lumber camps feeding logs into the river system bound for the mill in Corner Brook. Clifford described the 20 mile tramway system which ran from Reidville to the lumber camps near Adie’s Lake (locally spelled Aides and pronounced Eddys) where the Humber River starts. This tramway was built by Bowater in order to bring supplies to the logging camps.
Adies Lake Tramway about 1940. Courtesy of Bowater's Wood Department.
Clifford also added his own memories of growing up in the community such as the best spots for swimming and trouting, going to school in the small community, and riding the horses that ran wild in the community in the summers. He also mentioned that with no church or graveyard no one died the community! Listen to the clip below to hear a story Clifford told about some mystery snoring heard by his uncle and friends at a woods camp in the winter.

In the evening we headed to Pasadena for a People, Places, and Traditions workshop where there were over 30 people in attendance. We had the group separate into smaller groups and cluster around three tables. One focused on people, one on places, and one on traditions. Each group wrote their thoughts and memories on index cards which they then placed on large maps of the community. They connected their index cards with a ribbon to the location where the people discussed live/lived, the important places in the community, and where traditions took place.
Dale telling a story.
People.
There were business owners, principles, farmers, crafters, heritage society members, and active church members were placed on the map while parks, community centres, and the concrete rock were mapped out. The concrete bottom is where locals would go swimming and it got its name for a rock on the bottom of the pond which is flat almost like poured concrete. There were traditions such as heading to the dump to watch the bears play, trapping rabbits, and taking part in festivals such as the winter carnival, the strawberry festival, and the Santa Claus parade.
Mapping memories.
Reviewing the maps.
After the mapping a couple of community members shared stories and memories stirred up by the session and one gentleman told of how his mother and him were planting potatoes in the field where the community centre now lies and she gave him her wedding ring to wear while she planted. He put the ring on, watered the potatoes and when they finished planting the garden went for a swim at concrete rock. He came home after swimming only to find he had lost the ring. His mother told him to tell all the boys who went trouting if they came across a ring in the belly of a fish it was her wedding band. Unfortunately to this day the ring is still missing. If you ever come across a ring while trouting in the area be sure to call the local heritage society to ask about this story!
The story of the ring and the trout.
~Terra Barrett

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

People, Places, and Traditions Tea

Dale and I are out on the West Coast this week doing some interviews, workshops, and meetings in Corner Brook, Pasadena, Reidville, and Deer Lake.  We are hosting a couple of People, Places and Traditions Workshops and invite everyone in the area to come out and talk about your community.

Tonight we will be in Pasadena from 6:30-9:30pm at Pasadena Hall and tomorrow afternoon we will be in Reidville in the Community Hall from 1:30-4:30pm. Drop by, have a cup of tea, and share some memories of your community!

~Terra Barrett