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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.
Payment is accepted
by credit card online through PayPal at https://www.paypal.com/
(rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca)
or cheque, or Canadian or International money order. Cash at own
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for more information.
**
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