The Midland Diary

This month I learned about the existence of a diary about the first settlers in Midland. It was made known to me on the Pasadena Come Home Year Facebook page by Cyril Rose. He was kind enough to send it to me. I've been busy reading it ever since. I got through the first half and this is what I learned so far:

1. A dog stole some bacon that was needed to feed the men working on the roads and homes.
2. Some bully beef was bad and most of the men got very sick, with food poisoning symptoms.
3. I found the exact date that my grandfather Andrew Whiffin arrived in Midland.
4. There were 25 families that were assigned/accepted for this resettlement program, and when 5 left to go somewhere else or back home, five more families were given the chance to come to midland.
5. At times some men were brought to Corner Brook to see a doctor.
6. Mr. Earle did a lot of visiting, to speak with the newcombers.
7. The person writing the diary had a good sense of humour.
8. There were complaints about mosquitoes from time to time.
9. The men were hard workers.
10. There was a lot of rainy weather which prevented work at times.
11. The men came first, followed by women and children.
12. There is a documented date for a first christening of a child in Midland.

Stay tuned as I will list many facts from the diary. It is indeed an exciting document.

Logging in the Maples

Mr. Pat Whelan told me this story about my father Albert Finlay and his brother Gerald Finlay.

One time Albert and Gerald had a contract to shoot wood down into the water, and it was a difficult job. It couldn't be done in the winter time because of the ice.So it needed the dry time of the year to be done safely.   It was down near Little Rapids Pond, close to Little Rapids Farm, a place called the Maples.  They got the contract from Bowaters to do the job, which involved shooting the logs down over the side of a hill, which was near a big cliff, a dangerous long cliff. They had a Clydesdale, a grey horse that weighed about 1800 pounds, named Major.

 As they were walking along the top of the cliff, Major slipped and went over the cliff, and the two men thought the poor horse was killed. Gerald said to his brother, " I can just imagine the Gerald S. Doyle newscast for tomorrow. Horse named Major falls to his death. Left to mourn Gerald and Albert Finlay!" They had quite a chuckle over the idea of such a newscast.  Later they walked down towards Corner Brook and met the horse coming up the shore, with his rig still attached, not a hair out of place!

Conversation With Mr. Pat Whelan

I decided to give Pat and Marguerite Whelan a call to find out how they were doing. I also wanted to pick their brains about life in Newfoundland many years ago.

Pat told me he can even remember the names of the horses that were here back when the first settlers came. Albert Antle drove Paddy and Wes Foote used Gerry who was an identical color or twin to Paddy. Jack and Jeff were two other identical horses.  Tom Bishop's father Jimmy Bishop drove Maggie who was a trotting horse and she was used to deliver groceries.

I asked him where the horse came from and he said there was someone in Stephenville Crossing who brought the horses down from teh mainland and sold them across the island.

Where does your family fit in to our community?

I've become aware in the past ten years that many streets are named after the first settlers of our community. Here are some names I will mention and you can leave a comment with the full details and I will add them. If these names were not the first, tell when they actually came to and where from.
Whiffin, Carroll, Bishop, Whalen, Walsh, Dykes, Bonnell, Caines, Rose, Bonia, Bennett, Pike-to name a few.

Here are some questions to help guide your information:
1. Who were the first, second, third and so on to come to the community or did all 25 families come at the same time?  It was written on Wikipedia that the 25 houses were ready for the new families. 
2. Who were these first 25 families? Dates of birth and which communities they hailed from would be helpful.  This will only be a compilation of statistics. I need to hear from one person in each family.
3. What are some stories of the first years of settlement? Have you written down what your parents or grandparents told you? Also, state if you give me permission to put it on this site. Also, if you have photos, please say that you give me permission to insert the photo on the site about your family.
4.Give details of number of children born, names of these children, who married whom, etc. All information is important in the writing of all of this down.

I thank you in advance for any help you can provide.  So far I've received no information, except for some phone numbers to call people to ask for details, which I plan on doing soon.

Stella Ryan- Midwife Extraordinaire

There may have been more midwives in our local area of South Brook, Midland and Pasadena but the one I've heard so many residents discuss is Mrs. Stella Ryan. Sometime she helped bring into this world all the children in a family.  I'm sure there are many families around like that. 

Mrs. Madeline Whiffin told me that her oldest brother George was the first child Stella born as a midwife.  My father Albert Finlay went for Mrs. Ryan on a horse.  I recall hearing him tell how fast he got that horse to go and how his bottom was sore by the time he brought her to our house.  That was in 1955.

I'm posting this as I would like to hear from anyone who has a story or fact to share.

How Pasadena, the Town, Came To Be

In the 1920s the loggers came
to South Brook, Newfoundland
About a hundred of them to
work for Bowaters Co. for winter work
The 1921 Census showed two familes
with six people total lived near the lake
A lot of stone existed so a quarry was started
to provide a supply of rock for the Deer Lake powerhouse
The population grew as men brought their families to live here
and built their homes to stay in the area

In 1933 a fellow named Leonard Earle
a St. John's business man wanted an area to farm
He bought 2500 acres and came to stay and named the area Pasadena
which means valley, valleytown or key of the big valley or crown of the valley in Ojibwa
He named it to honour his wife who once lived in Pasadena, California
 and it was the place where they had found wedded bliss
Men from Corner Brook came to build his house
and other men he brought with him cleared the land by hand and capstan
He grew potatoes and carrots which prospered
in the temperate climate of the humber valley

In 1936 the government of Commission had a plan
to relocate 25 families from decline of the fishery to Midland
Severely affected by the Depression they moved from many places,
Argentia, Clarkes Beach, Bell Island, Lamaline, Burin and Red Island
The land they cleared with one tractor provided to them,
two two acre lots of land were prepared to use as farmland for food for all
By September 1963 the houses were ready for the families arrival
without electricity or running water and bathrooms 30 feet back in the woods
Midland and Pasadena united in 1955 and was called the town of Pasadena-Midland
In 1969 it became a town and in 1986 South Brook joined, and all three became town of Pasadena

This is my condensation of the wikipedia article. The facts were taken from that piece of writing. www.wikipedia.com Search words: Pasadena Newfoundland

Are you a descendant of one of our first setters?

If you are a descendant of one of the first settlers, tell us about your family.

My grandfather Andrew Whiffin and my grandmother Elizabeth Slaney were married and then came to settle in Pasadena. Elizabeth was from St. Lawrence and Andrew was from Fox Harbour(help me out here,Larry, Wanda or Donna). They were one of the first families to settle in Pasadena, Newfoundland. Andrew was in the war and as a child I remember seeing a large picture of him in his uniform hung in their home. It now hangs in Madeline Whiffin's home, as her deceased husband Patrick Whiffin was the oldest son of Andrew and Elizabeth.

The Whiffin family grew to include Patrick(usually called Paddy, who married Madeline Murphy), Carmel(who married Henry Blackwood), Kathleen(who married William Byrne), Joan(who married my father, Albert Finlay), Andrew,Joan's twin brother, Elizabeth(who married Darryl Shears), Joseph(who married...?.....). Patrick and Madeline lived next door to my grandparents, to the right of their home. Albert and Joan Finlay built their house next door, to the left of my grandparents.