The community of Lumsden, formerly known as Cat Harbour, is located on the Straight Shore of Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...

 near communities such as Musgrave Harbour

Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador

Musgrave Harbour is a Canadian town in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.-Geography:Located on the Kittiwake coast of the island of Newfoundland, the closest major centre is the town of Gander.-History:...

 and Newtown

Newtown, Newfoundland and Labrador

Newtown is a part of the Municipality of New-Wes-Valley, located at the North end of Bonavista Bay in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The approximate population is 400. Settlement in Newtown originated around 1850 when people relocated from nearby areas...

. Lumsden was formerly made up of two settlements, Lumsden North on the tip of a sandy peninsula and Lumsden South on the main road. Although the harbour in Lumsden is not ideal because it is not sheltered, Lumsden does have great fishing grounds.

History

Lumsden, then called Cat Harbour, was visited as early as the 18th century by French fishermen because of its good inshore fishing grounds. It was a part of the French Shore

French Shore

The French Treaty Shore resulted from the 1713 ratification of the Treaty of Utrecht. The provisions of the treaty allowed the French to fish in season along the north coast of Newfoundland between Cape Bonavista and Point Riche. This area had been frequented by fishermen from Brittany since the...

 until 1783. In 1836 census the population was recorded as 97 for Lumsden and Cape Freels combined. The population of Lumsden increased as the migratory fishery declined because people began to setlle permanently. The name was changed from Cat Harbour to Lumsden in 1917 after the Rev. James Lumsden. The economy in Lumsden was based on the Labrador fishery, inshore fishery, seal fishery, and woods work. There was also a small boat fishery which trucked the fish to the community of Valleyfield. The people of Lumsden were avid supporters of the Fisherman's Protective Union, a local council was formed in 1901 and a Union Store was built in 1912 and was open until 1932. The first highroad in Lumsden was built in 1952, a regional highschool was built ten years later in 1962. Eventually Lumsden North and South merged when the North settlement was vacated, and the town of Lumsden was incorporated in 1968.

Larry Parsons, the community's Mayor since May 2007, was killed in February 2008 following the sinking of a tugboat

Tugboat

A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...

 he was aboard.

Church history

The first people in Lumsden were Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 and Roman Catholic. The nearest missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 was Rev. Coster in Greenspond

Greenspond, Newfoundland and Labrador

Greenspond is one of the communities that comprise an area on the northeast coast of the Island of Newfoundland, called Bonavista North. These communities have a shared history in that they were settled by people from England, predominantly from the West Country - Dorset, Devon, Somerset and...

. He first visited Lumsden in June 1832 and he baptized eleven children. The Rev. Gilchrist visited Lumsden twice a year during his mission in Greenspond, and the Rev. Julian Moreton

Julian Moreton

The Reverend Julian Moreton was a Church of England clergyman and author who travelled from England to Newfoundland, Canada to be ordained as a missionary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts...

 also visited and recorded it in his journal and reports. The Methodist population began to increase in the 1850s and by the 20th century Methodism was dominant in Lumsden. The first Methodist church was built by 1898 but it burned down in 1915. The first Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...

in Newfoundland were in Lumsden North in 1917, started by a local merchant Wesley Howell. A school room was opened in 1859 with a Mr. Moses Davis as the teacher, a new school came in 1910.

Census information

	1845	1857	1869	1874
population	146	199	202	183
inhabited houses	18	26	28	26
families	-	30	34	30
Church of England	120	167	112	88
Roman Catholic	26	11	31	28
Wesleyan/Methodist	0	21	59	67
not attending school	-	-	65	112
can read and write	-	-	-	32
seamen/fishermen	55	54	39	32
merchants/traders	-	2	-	1
catching/curing fish	-	117	56	51
stores/barns/outhouses	-	17	20	29
fishing rooms in use	-	19	17	20
total boats	21	25	45	43
nets and seines	8	27	43	61
cod fish cured (qtls)	-	3700	-	2545
salmon (tes)	-	-	-	5
herring (brls)	-	-	-	20
vessels in seal fishery	-	1	1	1
men on board	-	6	7	8
tonnage	-	25	28	29
sealing nets	1	-	-
oil produced (Galls)	-	3554	-	2002
tons of hay	-	19.5	18	25.5
barrels of potatoes	200	734	711	374
barrels of turnip	-	-	2	26
cattle/cows	-	19	29	30
horses	-	3	1	5
swine/goats	-	6	29	16
butter produced (lbs)	-	172	-	570

Directory

• The earliest recorded people in Lumsden were the Gibbons, Goodyears, Grays, and Parsons who were from Harbour Grace and areas. Other names include Butt, Melindy, West, Whalen, and Wright.

• Lovell's Directory for 1871 describes Lumsden (Cat Harbour) as a small fishing settlement in the district of Fogo and Twillingate, distant from Greenspond by 15 miles in boat, with a population of 200. The names that are listed in the directory are:
• Stephen Andrews, Planter
• George Butt, Fisherman
• Roger Butt, Planter
• William Butt, Fisherman
• William Cannan, Planter
• Thomas Cribb, Fisherman
• Thomas Gibbons, Fisherman
• Matthew Gibbons, Planter
• Charles Goodyear, Fisherman
• John Goodyear, Fisherman
• John C Goodyear, Planter
• John Goodyear, Jr., Planter
• Richard Goodyear, Fisherman
• John Gray, Fisherman
• John Leary, Fisherman
• George Parsons, Fisherman
• George Parsons, Planter
• Jonathan Parsons, Fisherman
• William Parsons, Fisherman
• Francis Pike, Fisherman
• Henry Pinsent, Planter
• Joseph West, Fisherman
• Charles Wright, Fisherman

Interesting facts

• On an early French map Lumsden was named Hav. Dechire, or Wrecking Harbour.

• The Way Officer for Cat Harbour in the late 19th century was Henry Robbins.

• Members of the Outport Road Board for Cat Harbour in the 19th century include: Robbins, Gibbons, Smith, Butt, Parsons, Foley, and Norman.

External links

• http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/i/b/Rex-V-Gibbons/index.html
• Travel Central Newfoundland: Lumsden