HEALTH

There were no doctors or nurses in Harricott. The doctor was in St. Mary's – Dr. McGrath. In order to contact him, you had to go to Didham's Hotel in Colinet. In the spring when the snow and ice melted, the roads were nothing but mud. There were no ploughs on the road. If you had to get the doctor to come in the winter, it took four horses to get him to Harricott: Danny Mahoney from St. Mary's to Riverhead, Don Boland to Dr. McGrath's cabin to the Backriver on Riverhead road, John McCormack from Backriver to Little Harbour and John Francis McDonald would drive him to Harricott and wait for him to drive back to the other waiting horses.

After a few years, Dr. McGrath had a nurse stationed at St. Joseph's. If you needed her you'd have to go and get her. In summer you had to go to Harricott Point and cross in a dory for her and bring her back. In winter you would get a loan of a horse and dommie bus, as they were called. This was some kind of a two-wheeled rig with a seat on it. There weren't many carriages then.

One winter, Pad Wall's mother was sick. They sent for the nurse but she couldn't get here because the mouth of the arm was full of slab ice. The arm wasn't fit to put a horse on, so Pad had to borrow a dog and sled and go get the pills. A short while after that the government put a nurse in the settlement. She was Barney Whelan from Torbay. She was here for a year or so before she went to St. Mary's and later became Barney Gibbons.

STORES

The government had a store for the settlement. Everything they sold was very cheap at that time because the government sold at cost price. They couldn't sell to outsiders because there were stores in Colinet and Salmonier. Eventually, the government turned it over to the settlers and they started a co-op and sold to the general public. By that time most of the settlers had quite a few hens producing eggs, so the co-op started a co-op marketing board and sold to other co-op stores in St. John's.

When Argentia started most of the settlers got work, so when they became self-supporting some left and returned to their old settlements. Four families settled in Whitbourne. By that time there were only two families left in the settlement. There are only three of the original names on Harricott Hill; one from Salmonier, one from St. John's and one from St. Mary's. The government then sold off the store, the buildings, staff house and the teachers' residences and school. The settlers that were still there sold their houses and land. So that ended the Settlement Hill...