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OF MINES AND MEN by Marjorie Taylor Morell. Published in 1981. 150 pages. Soft Cover with picture of miners. Illustrated with numerous black & white pictures.  The book depicts not only the world of coal mining in Minto but gives information on churches, schools, doctors, businesses and families up to the 1960s.

VERY HARD TO FIND BOOK

Book 2074    $54.95 plus $10.00 shipping and handling within North America.  Book shows  minor shelf and handling wear.  Interior in very good condition.

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Coal mining has played an important role in the Grand Lake area for many years. From 1805, records of coal and land development are fairly complete. From these records, a picture emerges of embattled farmers, political chicanery opportunism and general discontent among the people.

In 1823 one of the Acts of the session of the Legislature was the incorporation of the New Brunswick Mining Company with many leading citizen involved. The objective was to work the coal mines of Queens County. The residents petitioned against the act on the grounds that it would interfere with their private rights.

In 1834, the first of the Mining Leases were granted to Sypher, Robinson, Yeomans, Mrs. Beauchant, Fleming, McHugh, Dillon and the N. B. Coal Company. For the next number of years, licenses were granted, in many cases with no regard to the fact that farmers had been living on the land for a great many years.

The problem of moving coal to market was a serious one as roads were in very poor condition or nonexistent, thus woodboats were used to get the coal to Saint John. Some coal was hauled by horse and wagon through the Richibucto Road to Fredericton. It is said it was a common sight to see twenty or thirty teams hauling in a caravan along the road

The coming of the railroad in 1904 sparked the influx of new people to the young community of Minto. The opportunity for jobs brought workers from not only New Brunswick and the other provinces of Canada but from across the Atlantic Ocean. Eight Harben brothers and their father came from Wales. Alan Dick King was born in Scotland in 1889, and married Elizabeth Davie of Alloa, Scotland in Montreal in 1912. Dominic DeCarlo came from Italy. Joseph Paul Elias was born in Lebanon in 1884 and after coming to New Brunswick changed his surname to Paul. By 1916, the Minto Coal Company in its annual report listed among its employees 60 Italians, 43 Belgians, 25 French-speaking Canadians, 26 Germans and Austrians, 6 Russians and 40 English-speaking Canadians. Other mines employed men of these and various other ethnic groups, including Swiss, Spanish, Polish, Finns, Welsh, Scotch, Irish, English, Hungarian, Romanian, Czecho-Slovakian, French and one immigrant from Afghanistan.

1932 saw tragedy strike with the death of five members of the community in an old mine shaft and two fatalities in a mining accident.

"Of Mines and Men" by Marjorie Taylor Morell depicts not only the world of coal mining in Minto but gives information on churches, schools, doctors, businesses and families up to the 1960s along with many pictures