BY MARVIN YOUDEN
SPECIAL TO THE GEORGIAN
In the midst of the Great Depression and during a time when Newfoundland was governed by a Commission of Government, 27 families from Fortune Bay were relocated to Lourdes on the Port au Port Peninsula in what became the first successful land settlement project in the province’s history.
This week, a commemorative sign will be unveiled at the site to recall the landmark program and focus on its importance in the heritage of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Half a dozen of the original settlers who are still living in the area are expected to be involved, along with local and provincial dignitaries.
Author Bill O’Gorman, whose book, The Never Forgotten Days, records details of the resettlement and whose forbear, John O’Gorman was its foreman, says there are a number of reasons why the project was a going concern, compared to an earlier unsuccessful attempt by government to resettle people.
“One of the reasons - perhaps the most important - has to do with the religion of the people,” he said. In the earlier attempt, the people were of different religious denominations, which resulted in a demand for duplication of services. In the Lourdes project, all of those who moved were Roman Catholic, and so the same need for services did not arise.
In fact, Mr. O’Gorman points out, two of the trustees were priests – Father O’Reilly, who later became Bishop O’Reilly and Father Kerwin, the parish priest at Fortune, who accompanied the people. The other trustee was Michael Abbott of Abbott and Haliburton. “It is a tribute to the French and Miq’maw peoples that the project went so well,” said Mr. O’Gorman. “You had English people moving into a predominately French area.”
The families moved in groups of five during a three-year period (1934-36) and stayed in the old parish hall while their homes were being built.
“It is also very interesting that each family had to pay the government back for the cost of the move,” said Mr. O’Gorman. That is quite different from what happens during modern resettlement efforts. Government usually pays upfront for the cost of the moves.
Among the well-known people whose families were in the move are Gerald Smith, former MHA for Port au Port and Senator Ethel Cochrane. Thinking about how the families have developed reminds Mr. O’Gorman of a quote his grandmother, Minnie Bungay made. “We might not have got much for ourselves but we got our children educated.”
The location of the resettlement project has already been named a municipal heritage site, and application has been also made for it to be named a provincial heritage site. Mr. O’Gorman hopes the commemorative event will help move that process along.
