Bits and Pieces
History of the Horwood Lumber Company Limited
(Horwood the company town) - Continued from March 14
The mill at Dog Bay (now Horwood) always made money for the company, even in the years the company lost money elsewhere. There was no shortage of work in Horwood. In the summer the men were kept busy sawing lumber and loading the boats, which would then take the lumber to market. In the winter the mill would be closed, but the men still would be working for the company in the woods cutting logs for the next summer's work. The company employed some women in the early days as caretakers of the company farm. In the spring the company would get some men to plow the ground on the farm, several women would be hired to set the seeds, which consisted mostly of potatoes, cabbage, carrot and turnip and they would weed the gardens during the summer and then harvest the crop in the fall. These vegetables would be used in the company's cookhouses at their logging camps during the winter logging season. After 1924 the company let the farm grow grass, which was then used to feed the horses.
Edwin Mews from St. John's was the first general manager of the mill from 1902 until his death in 1946 or 1947, and he was replaced by Peter Hoddinott who remained manager until the closure of the mill in 1954. Israel Dean was the millwright until his death in 1933 and he was replaced by Ned Barnes, a Horwood local, who remained as millwright until the mill closed. Bob Pike was the woods manager, but he resigned to take a position with the old A.N.D. Company, known as Abitibi-Price. Mr. Pike was replaced as woods manager by Aquilla Woolfrey who remained in that position until his death in 1930 and was replaced by Peter Hoddinott who, as mentioned before, went on to become general manager after the death of Mr. Mews.
To be continued in the March 28 issue of The Pilot.
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