NFLD-LAB-L Archives

From: "Alexander W PAYNE" <>
Subject: [NFLD-LAB] ANCHOR POINT
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 22:35:27 -0400

ANCHOR POINT (inc. 1974; pop. 1976, 329). Anchor Point is located in St. Barbe
Bay, south of Flower's Cove qv on the west side of the Great Northern Peninsula.
Heavy seas break on the entrance of the cove and the harbour entrance is
extremely narrow and concealed; off Anchor Point a ledge stretches westward
toward the Seal Islands. Despite the inability of the harbour to afford shelter
to more than a few small craft, this site was the first English settlement on
the French Shore because of its concealed harbour, its strategic position close
to the Labrador Coast and the annual seal migration, and because of its
proximity to the finest salmon rivers and brooks on the northwest coast.
Anchor Point was first settled by Robert Bartlett, a British seaman, and his
nephew Robert Genge, both from Yeovil, Somerset. They used the cove as a base
for fishing and fur hunting from Anchor Point to Bartlett's Harbour qv in the
late 1700s. Robert Bartlett eventually returned to England while Robert Genge
was joined by his brother Abram, who in turn "employed men from England
seasonally and sold his furs and fish products very profitably to American
vessels" (J.T. Richards: 1953). According to the evidence given by the
Honourable James Tobin to the Select Committee to Inquire into the Proposed
Cession of Fishing Privileges on the Coast of Newfoundland: "There is a case at
Anchor Point, Mr. Gauge [Genge], who has had a salmon post in possession of his
family over 90 years which has been recently taken from him by the French
(1847). . . . Mr. Gauge has a large fixed establishment at Anchor Point, which
has been in existence prior to the Declaration of Treaty (1783) and affords
strong proof of the right of British Subjects to settle on the Coast." (JHA:
1857).
By the 1820s Genge was the major local planter in the Strait of Belle Isle and
in 1823 he acquired a schooner in partnership with Joseph Bird and Company based
at Forteau (Transcript of Registry Newfoundland BT- 1007-483 quoted in Robert
Genge: 1973). After 1828 Genge became an independent "petty trader" and
controlled trapping and the salmon rivers along the entire shore from River of
Ponds qv to Boat Harbour qv (P.A. Thornton: 1977). Sealing was also important in
the early industry of Anchor Point as thousands of seals passed the community on
their annual migration. Taking advantage of this strategic position the Genges
invented the first
*seal frame qv to catch seals off the point. This bulk method of harvesting
seals was very successful: James Prendergast, the Superintendent of Fisheries,
reported in 1858 that "Mr. Genge, an English resident, took 400 seals this
spring in frames" (JLC: 1859).
By the 1850s Anchor Point was the established commercial centre for fur
trading and fishing stations on the St. Barbe Coast; in 1843 Captain Lock
reported in a letter to Earl Dundonall: "The fishings are carried on with profit
by five establishments . . . four, connected with Jersey, Poole and St. John's,
are in the bay; and the fifth, planted upon the Eastern Point, belongs to a Mr.
Grange [Genge], a wealthy colonist from Anchor Point, Newfoundland. About 400
employed" (JLC: 1849). Interference from the French, however, was a great
problem for the business at Anchor Point. The Genges repeatedly complained of
French incursions into their established commercial territory: in 1848 it was
reported that the French were netting a river "that had been in his [Genge's]
family for upwards a century" and that "after much opposition . . . he [Genge]
had to yield to the French one-half and upwards two-thirds of the produce of the
river. This year they had taken it from him altogether" (JLC: 1848). The problem
continued with further complaints and confrontations until the resolution of
French fishing rights in 1904. In 1873 it was reported that "A difficulty having
arisen at St. Barbe Bay, an old resident named Genge, who had fished the Western
Brook for many years, had been ordered by the commander of the French schooner
La Belette to discontinue doing so" (JLC: 1873).
Vice-Admiral Fanshawe in his Fishing Report also noted the comparatively
extensive cultivation of land and the raising of livestock in Anchor Point,
echoing an earlier report that:
"The ground about is very productive, it has excellent pasture land; Mr. Grange
[Genge] keeps six milck cows" (JLC:
1859). On his visit to Anchor Point in 1848 Bishop Edward Feild qv noted with
pleasure the development of the land by the industrious people stating that
"altogether the good things of both earth and sea appear to abound in this
locality, and to make it a fruitful and profitable settlement" (Edward Feild:
1851).
It was during this visit that Bishop Feild consecrated the first cemetery on
the Strait of Belle Isle at Anchor Point, and by 1849 a schoolhouse was built,
supported initially by the Society for the Propagation of the *Gospel qv.
Because of its isolation, Anchor Point (and other St. Barbe communities) had
difficulty retaining teachers and from 1850 to 1960, educational facilities
remained relatively poor (C.G. Head:
1963). In 1961 there was an elementary school in Anchor Point and high school
students were bussed to nearby Flowers Cove qv, and by 1981 all students
attended school there. With the building of St. Barnabas Church in Flowers Cove
in 1871 the Anchor Point congregation attended church there. Services were later
held in the school basement in Anchor Point. In the 1970s the first church at
Anchor Point was built.
The first recorded census of Anchor Point was taken in 1873: William Genge, his
wife and eight children, and Abraham Genge and his wife were living there (JLC:
1873). Many of the men employed by the Genge business at Anchor Point settled at
their fur stations, founding many communities in St. John Bay, St. Barbe Bay and
the Strait of Belle Isle, including Forteau qv and Flowers Cove which eventually
replaced Anchor Point as a commercial, educational and religious centre by the
1900s. Seal, salmon and fur eventually became less profitable and by the 1920s
cod, lobster and herring fishing had become increasingly important. The
population grew steadily from fifty-one in 1901 to 120 by 1935, and the labour
force followed the traditional subsistence cycle of spring and summer fishing
and winter woods work. Until 1957, when operations were sharply curtailed,
timber cutting for Bowaters was an important source of winter employment.
In 1980 a fish plant was operating seasonally for four months in two shifts on
the community stage supplied by resident and area fishermen in draggers and
longliners. The plant,
Port aux Basques, processed approximately 13,680 t (8,500,000 lbs) of cod and
scallops and employed about 100 people. In 1981 Anchor Point had three general
stores and a newly-opened Co-operative which was an extension of the store at
Flowers Cove. Edward Feild (1851), Robert Genge (1973), C.G. Head (1963), J.F.
Imray (1873), Joseph Kennedy (interview, Mar. 1981), Arthur Mauger (interview,
Mar. 1981), J.T. Richards (1953), P. A. Thornton (1977), Census (1874-1976), JHA
(1857; 1873), JLC (1849; 1856; 1857; 1859), Sailing Directions Newfoundland
(1980). Map D. JEMP


BARTLETTS HARBOUR (pop. 1976, 149). A fishing lobstering community located on a
rocky, shallow inlet on the north shore of St. John Bay on the St. Barbe coast.
According to Canon J.T. Richards (1953) Bartletts Harbour is named for Robert
Bartlett, from Yeovil, Somerset, who settled in Bartletts Harbour about 1800 to
hunt and fish. Bartlett sent to England for his nephews, Robert and Abram Genge,
and together they started a fishing-furring business, which they later moved
north to Anchor Point qv.
Bartletts Harbour was used as a salmon and furring station by agents of the
Genge family business for many years. The first recorded settlement had a
population of eight in 1891, all Roman Catholic. The population included one
merchant, one trader, two fishermen, and two families who ran a lobster factory
valued at $4,500. This lobster factory was the second largest on the St. Barbe
coast and employed twenty-nine men and ten women. Lobster fishing and
processing, supplemented by salmon fishing and canning, and some herring
fishing, remained the main industry of Bartletts Harbour. In 1921 the population
had increased to thirty-five, and four lobster factories were operating. By 1943
the first school in Bartletts Harbour was built, although it fell into disrepair
when no teacher could be obtained for eight years between 1943 and 1953. A
government survey in 1953 estimated that a quarter of the population were
illiterate and half were barely literate because of the difficulty in retaining
teachers. Bartletts Harbour was a regular port of call for coastal boats and
lumber
schooners, and by 1956 the community of 146 supported four sawmills, two salmon
canneries, and a post office. By 1966 the community had grown to 185, and some
families were evacuated to Port au Choix qv, Stephenville qv, and Avondale qv
under the Community Consolidation Programme. Nevertheless, by 1971 the
population had grown to 205. A fish plant which processed herring and cod was
the main industry of Bartletts Harbour in 1981. Robert Genge (1973), Gloria
Toope (interview, Oct. 1980), Census (1891-1976), Fishing Settlement Survey
(1952). Map D. JEMP

Northern Peninsula ~ Coordinator: Alexander (Sandy) Payne

http://www.huronweb.com/genweb/nfdata/main_098.ht

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• [NFLD-LAB] ANCHOR POINT by "Alexander W PAYNE" <>