Stewart Harris
Almost forgotten
Almost forgotten
Published on October 2nd, 2009
Staff ~ Halifax News Net
By Joanne Oostveen - The Weekly News
Celebration to be held to remember Canadas 100,000 British Home Children
A celebration will be held next week in Cole Harbour to recognize an almost forgotten part of Canadian history. Between 1879 and 1948 approximately 100,000 British Home Children were shipped to Canada to work as farm labourers and domestic servants. Many of these children, aged four to 15, were scooped out of the British slums, poorhouses and the streets by well-meaning social organizations to give them a better life in Canada.
This year, the Nova Scotia government has declared October as the month of the British Home Children and one Cole Harbour man is doing his part to keep that heritage alive.
Melvin Harris, who is an active member of the British Home Children Descendents Assc., has helped organize a tree planting on Oct. 5 at 10 a.m. at the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm. "My father came to work at that farm as a nine-year-old boy in 1914 for the owner, Andrew Settle. And I grew up there too," said Harris.
Visitors to the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm may not know anything about these children, said Harris, and although Andrew Settle was good to his father there were many children in Canada who were not as fortunate.
Harris said his father had to be removed from his first Canadian home in Cape Breton because of unfit living conditions.
When the children first arrived in Nova Scotia they were housed in a distribution centre on the Bedford Highway called the Middlemore Home or the Fairview Home which was opened in 1898 at 50 Bedford Hwy, the site of the old Bayview Motor Inn.
"After 1924, the child emigration laws were changed," said Harris. "It is hard to believe that places such as distribution centres for children even existed in Canada."
But the Harris family story did have a happy ending.
Andrew Settle, the original owner of the present day heritage farm, never had any children. He loved Stuart Harris like a son, and left the farm to him upon his death.
"The Settle family looked after my father and thought a lot of him," he said. "So it is only right for me to plant a tree there."
There have been four or five reunions of the descendents in the Maritimes. "And everytime they get together they learn a little bit more about what life was like for these children," said Harris. People share memories, pictures and stories that paint a picture of a different time in this country. A time when children were brought to a new world and to a new life all on their own.
"Today, there is only one of the British Home Children alive that I know of in the Maritimes," said Harris. "But we as descendents have to keep the memory alive and teach the children today about the contributions they made to our community."
Harris invites everyone to attend the tree planting and is open to talking with anyone about his heritage.
His most recent accomplishment was to make sure that the street named in honour of his father, Stuart Harris was spelled correctly."They tell me they finally changed the name to Stuart Harris Drive," he said. "And that is a good thing because even the premier lives on that street."
joanneoostveen@accesswave.ca
For information, contact Melvin Harris of the British Home Children Descendents Assc. at MSHarris@ns.sympatico.ca.
Published on October 2nd, 2009
Staff ~ Halifax News Net
By Joanne Oostveen - The Weekly News
Celebration to be held to remember Canadas 100,000 British Home Children
A celebration will be held next week in Cole Harbour to recognize an almost forgotten part of Canadian history. Between 1879 and 1948 approximately 100,000 British Home Children were shipped to Canada to work as farm labourers and domestic servants. Many of these children, aged four to 15, were scooped out of the British slums, poorhouses and the streets by well-meaning social organizations to give them a better life in Canada.
This year, the Nova Scotia government has declared October as the month of the British Home Children and one Cole Harbour man is doing his part to keep that heritage alive.
Melvin Harris, who is an active member of the British Home Children Descendents Assc., has helped organize a tree planting on Oct. 5 at 10 a.m. at the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm. "My father came to work at that farm as a nine-year-old boy in 1914 for the owner, Andrew Settle. And I grew up there too," said Harris.
Visitors to the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm may not know anything about these children, said Harris, and although Andrew Settle was good to his father there were many children in Canada who were not as fortunate.
Harris said his father had to be removed from his first Canadian home in Cape Breton because of unfit living conditions.
When the children first arrived in Nova Scotia they were housed in a distribution centre on the Bedford Highway called the Middlemore Home or the Fairview Home which was opened in 1898 at 50 Bedford Hwy, the site of the old Bayview Motor Inn.
"After 1924, the child emigration laws were changed," said Harris. "It is hard to believe that places such as distribution centres for children even existed in Canada."
But the Harris family story did have a happy ending.
Andrew Settle, the original owner of the present day heritage farm, never had any children. He loved Stuart Harris like a son, and left the farm to him upon his death.
"The Settle family looked after my father and thought a lot of him," he said. "So it is only right for me to plant a tree there."
There have been four or five reunions of the descendents in the Maritimes. "And everytime they get together they learn a little bit more about what life was like for these children," said Harris. People share memories, pictures and stories that paint a picture of a different time in this country. A time when children were brought to a new world and to a new life all on their own.
"Today, there is only one of the British Home Children alive that I know of in the Maritimes," said Harris. "But we as descendents have to keep the memory alive and teach the children today about the contributions they made to our community."
Harris invites everyone to attend the tree planting and is open to talking with anyone about his heritage.
His most recent accomplishment was to make sure that the street named in honour of his father, Stuart Harris was spelled correctly."They tell me they finally changed the name to Stuart Harris Drive," he said. "And that is a good thing because even the premier lives on that street."
joanneoostveen@accesswave.ca
For information, contact Melvin Harris of the British Home Children Descendents Assc. at MSHarris@ns.sympatico.ca.
