The harbour
is the only one of any significance on this generally low-lying, exposed
coastline and , as the former name of French Island Harbour suggests, it
was frequented by French migratory fishing ships from at least the Nineteenth
century (P.A. Thornton: 1981, p.27). In October 1862 a Captain Hamilton,
aboard HMS Vesuvius, described Flower's Cove as "at this season of the
year, a great resort for the French fishing vessels" (JHA: 1863, App. P.
403).
Flower's
Cove remained an exclusively French fishing harbour until the arrival of
the families of "Skipper" Henry Whalen and John Carnell of Brigus and Catalina
respectively c.1850. By this time, most available settlement sites on both
sides of the Strait of Belle Isle were occupied by employees of such mercantile
enterprises as Bird and Company qv based at forteau qv Genge at Anchor
Point qv. In the early 1800s French Island Harbour was regarded by the
family of William Dredge, the first settler of Black Duck Cove qv, as their
particular fishing preserve, and Thornton (1979, p. 391) states that they
owned property rights along the shore. But their occupation of the site
seems to have been seasonal only, with no permanent dwellings erected:
thrie presence was not reported in census returns.
After
the 1870s there was no French fishery reports at Flower's cove and the
advent of the first settler at the site opened the floodgates of a mass
migration to Flower's Cove and Nameless Cove by Newfoundland
families. This migration was part of a general movement from older, established
settlements in Trinity and conception Bays to available sites on the Strait
of Belle Isle in the Nineteenth century (Thornton: 1979, pp. 91-92). The
census of 1857 reported eleven families (seventy people) at French Island
Harbour (proper), Flower's Cove and Nameless cove "at a time when most
communities on the Newfoundland side of the Strait of Belle Isle still
had only one family" (Thornton: 1979, p. 109). By 1871 St. Barnabas Church
had been consecrated for the Church of England congregation and by 1891
a Methodist chapel had been erected. A schoolhouse was also built in the
community between 1871 and 1874. In the latter year the Census recorded
268 people at Flower's Cove, Nameless Cove and french Island harbour.
Services
also came to Flower's Cove in the Twentieth century, which greatly contributed
to its growth and endurance as a regional centre. From 1907 to 1908 two
Deep Sea (Grenfell) Mission nursing stations were opened, one at Forteau
and one at Flower's Cove. At Flower's cove the station was supported by
"a poll tax of $1 per annum on every family over that long district" (Browne:
p. 351), since 1871 Flower's Cove had been the headquarters of a Church
of England mission on the Newfoundland side of the Strait of Belle Isle.
Flower's Cove has had the main post office in the area, merchants, restaurants,
a small hotel, a branch of the Bank of Nova Scotia (which opened in 1966),
regional headquarters for the Government of Newfoundland administrative
and social services, a marine services centre, a royal Canadian Mounted
Police (R.C.M.P) detachment and the canon J. T. Richards Memorial Central
High School, which at one time also served students from the coast of southern
Labrador. In 1982 the community also had a large elementary school serving
Grade Kingergarten to six, a Roman Catholic church, a dental clinic, medical
clinic and a nursing station run by the International Grenfell Association.
Yvonne Beaufield (n.d.), P.W. Browne (1909), W.T. Grenfell (1948), M.F. Howley (n.d.), Joe Kennedy (interview May, 1982), J.T. Richards (1953), E.R. Seary (1960), P.A. Thornton (1977; 1979; 1981), census (1857-1981), Fishing Communities of Newfoundland (1952), JHA (1863;1873), Sailing Directions Newfoundland (1980), Yearbook (1915), Newfoundland Historical Sociey (Flower's Cove; Lighthouses). Map D. JEMP
