Rural Work Stories
Dr. Robert J. Morgan
Work outside urban areas has always brought Cape Bretoners close to the land and sea. Some older occupations, like blacksmithing, wooden boatbuilding and lighthouse keeping have now faded away. The first lighthouse in Cape Breton was built in 1734 – lights which went on to show thousands of people the way home. A lighthouse erected on St. Paul Island, just off the northeast coast of Cape Breton, in 1837, was continuously occupied for more than 160 years. In the reflections of Billy Budge, we get a glimpse of life on the island, its loneliness and lack of physical comfort, but work performed with a sense of duty and undertaken in the knowledge of the many lives saved.
Boatbuilding is of course synonymous with the Maritimes and in The Boats of Main-à-Dieu of Area, Mike Targett gives a succinct description of how small fishing boats were built in the past. He shows us that an eye for beauty was essential to working with wood in this manner. Although materials have changed and new technologies have been introduced, many of the collective traditions around boatbuilding and the fishing season remain vibrant – boats today are still given names, revealing how such work includes pride, connections and personal satisfaction in a successful build and a successful season.
The village blacksmith is likewise gone, but in his day he was at the centre of rural life, even into the twentieth century. Like boatbuilders, blacksmiths took great pride in their daily tasks, often shoeing as many as twenty horses a day. But as Hughie Beaton reveals in his interview, blacksmiths did more than that: they cut hair and even made coffins – all free of charge! Unlike today’s occupational specialization, in earlier times work was very much a multi-faceted affair.
An example of this modern specialization can be seen in Joe van de Hoogen’s description of his farm work. He was born in Holland and immigrated with his family to Rankinville after World War Two. At first he and his family raised chickens and pigs and planted a few small crops, in addition to raising dairy cows. But demand for the scientific raising of cows meant education and specialization were needed. Today he concentrates on only the dairy dimensions of the farm.
Before them all came the Mi’kmaq people who adjusted their working ways to the changing economy, making axe handles and barrels with perfect skill, forging eel spears and knives and weaving baskets of ash and maple. Many of their work stories have been preserved through prose and poetry, reifying the importance of alternative avenues for sharing history and culture. In the selection of poems on this site, we acquire a sense of Mi’kmaq work history through short but intense, contemplative glimpses into the past and its people, their connection to the land through their work and through time.
© C@P Society of Cape Breton County, 2009
