Michael Drohan was born in St. Mary's, St. Mary's Bay. At 93, he has a keen mind and a clear memory of Harricott, the way it used to be. He enjoys watching T.V. and gardening.

HARRICOTT HILL

The settlement of Harricott started in 1935, during the Depression years. There were 24 families here. The majority of the settlers came from Trinity and the others from the other side of Conception Bay. Most of the settlers were non-Catholic and had no Church or Pastor. It was hard on families to bring up their children. There was a minister who came from Whitbourne to have service at the school. After three or four years, there were nine families left in the settlement.

In the meantime, the government had a store here, a staff house, seven teachers' residences and a school. There was a small mill and workshop built on the beach of the store. So what is now Harricott Flats was all large red spruce trees. The government gave the settlers a tractor so they could cut all the trees and saw them in the mill and build a large barn. They sold some of the framing to the parish of Salmonier for the new school in old Harricott.

When they had all the trees cut and their barns built, the government gave the community four horses so that they could use them to clear their land. They also put four or five saws in the barn for the settlers' use. The government appointed one man to be in charge of them. He would milk the cows and deliver the milk to the stores so people could get it. In order to feed the horses and cows, the government would buy hay from the people in old Harricott or wherever they could get it, until the people could grow their own hay.

In the winter people would all go in the woods up the river and cut logs and haul them to the mill with the tractor and horses. In the spring they would saw them until they had enough to build barns and other buildings. When the settlers had enough hay for themselves, the government sold some of the cows and horses in the community barn. The hay that grew on the flats was shared among the settlers. Then they gave all the settlers a horse, a cow and three or four sheep. They also sold young pigs to anyone who could afford one. If you couldn't afford it, you could pay for it by doing community work on community land. The government surveyed all the land and gave all the settlers a determined number of acres around their houses.