Work Through Time: Cape Breton Stories of Land & Sea

Early Settlement in Port Morien

The area of Port Morien has had several names. First Nations called it “noolektooch” or “place jammed with ice.” The Portuguese named it Baye de Mordienne, an appellation derived from the Portuguese “St. Martin,” and it is so listed on the 1660 Latin Creuxcius map.

In a census done by Le Roque in 1752, he notes, “The Baye de Mordienne is good only for raising cattle and for the cod fishery, though so far no fishing has been done…All the lands in this district are covered with fir with the exception of those to the north of the Baye de Mordienne which are common land (a reference perhaps to Long Beach). The settlers make nearly all their hay here and in Glace Bay.”

In 1765, the British cartographer, Samuel Holland, called the area Granby Bay. Soldiers built fortifications and occupied existing buildings in the 1770s in order to protect the coal which was being mined and sold illegally.

Around 1766, Morien was called Cow Bay. This was mentioned in dispatches to London by a British official. Legend has it that John Meloney, transporting cattle to the Sydney area from Louisbourg, lost a cow and found it a few days later grazing on the banks of a glorious bay. However, no evidence exists for this explanation. In 1895, an application was made to change the name to Port Morien, a contraction of “mordienne.”

From this area, the French supplied Louisbourg with coal as early as 1720 and the area was populated early. In 1752, seven Acadian families consisting of 66 people lived in Cow Bay. In 1786, Reverend Ranna Cossit found in the South Head area of Cow Bay, three men, two women and five children. By 1838, the Acadians had departed but the total population of the area was 187. Most of those would have settled in South Head and Wadden’s Cove, but a few Scottish settlers, as well as a few Irish, would have acquired land grants in Morien itself.

Morien Mining

By 1860, the population had risen to 713, the bulk of it in what is now known as Port Morien, but was known then as Cow Bay Mines. Men worked at the old French mine, the Blockhouse Mine, acquired by John Bourinot, a well-known merchant in Sydney, in 1859. His son Marshall was the manager. Financing for that mine came from Boston interests and later from the Belloni brothers of New York. The Bellonis bought Bourinot out in 1863 and opened a colliery on a large scale.

At its peak, the Blockhouse Mine employed 345 men and boys. It was, however, plagued over the years by problems: fluctuating markets caused to an extent by the revocation of the reciprocity treaty with the United States (1866) as well as the owners’ inability to enter Upper Canadian markets. It enjoyed its greatest success during the American Civil War.

The Belloni brothers expanded the mine in good years and in times of economic uncertainty and unforeseen expenditures they had to mortgage it. At one point they were forced to borrow $512,000 to keep the mine in operation. In 1873 when the great August Gale destroyed the largely exposed wharf it had to be repaired at a sum of $67,000 – a fortune in those days for the brothers who had to pay the bill. By the time they retired as operators of the mine, the Bellonis were left with very little capital. The mine ceased operations in 1888.

The Reverend’s Visit

In 1864, Reverend Richard Uniacke, who came to Cape Breton as a traveling missionary, accompanied Bishop Binney on a visit to Anglican congregations in the area. He stayed in Robert Belloni’s home and would have seen the view of the bay and the burgeoning settlement from the second floor window. He provides detailed information on the way in which the population was swelling as a result of the coal trade. In his sketch he reported that there were upwards of 30 vessels waiting to load coal at Archibald’s wharf – still under construction two years after the work had begun.

He was ecstatic about the technological changes occurring in Cape Breton. He noted, “instead of the thick woods of fir and pine trees which a few years ago crowned these heights, with scarce a log cottage to break the monotony of the view, the attention is not arrested by the crowded and daily increasing buildings of a town or large village.” He went on to say, “I could not help being struck with the mixture of approaching civilization and departing of wilderness of which America shows so many scenes.”

He found at Blockhouse a more settled community of miners’ houses and mine infrastructure. In fact, as many as 84 houses were constructed near the coal mine; many of which were transported to Glace Bay when the Blockhouse shut down.

Gowrie Mine

In addition to the Blockhouse Mine, Port Morien was home the Gowrie Mine. According to Stephen Hornsby, the Gowrie Mine was the most successful privately owned coal operation in Cape Breton in the nineteenth century, financed entirely by the Archibalds and without labour strife. While all other mines were owned and operated by British or American interests, the Gowrie Mine was under the sole direction of Blowers and T.D. Archibald of North Sydney.

T.D. and his brother acquired the coal lease for the Gowrie seam in 1861 and worked the mine until 1893, when it was sold by Charles Archibald, T.D.’s son. The new owner, the Dominion Coal Company, did not re-open the mine as the coalmines in Glace Bay and elsewhere were more profitable. It was replaced in 1899 by the North Atlantic Colliery, which operated until 1912.

Charles Archibald said of his workers that “they were a fine lot of men, and my relations with them, throughout the long period of thirty years during which I was in charge at Gowrie Colliery, were based on mutual respect and confidence.” He cites three factors behind the success of the operation: first, the caliber of the men; second, the character of the leading officials; and third, the confidence which existed between employers and employees.

In 1862, the Charles Archibald built the first substantial wharf in Port Morien, north of the extensive coal pier he had constructed. Government of Nova Scotia Session Papers for 1890 report that the wharf was “1,386 feet in length, and was originally about 44 feet in width with a depth at the out end of 20 feet at low water”. The cement block, which anchored the pier is still visible in the village. In 1874, the Dominion Government took over the wharf and it has been a public facility ever since.

This sketch of Port Morien mining history was provided to us by LeRoy Peach of the Port Morien Development Association. LeRoy Peach is a poet, retired educator, community activist and columnist from Port Morien. You can read more of his reflections on Cape Breton Island's history and culture in his weekly column in the Cape Breton Post.

© 2009 LeRoy Peach, Port Morien Development Association