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Authority record
Family · 1746-

The Leavitt family were merchants, shipowners and shipmasters, resident in Saint John, New Brunswick. Jonathan Leavitt (1746-1811) came to Saint John from New Hampshire in 1762 and was one of the first English-speaking inhabitants. He served as captain and pilot on vessels belonging to the firm of Simonds, Hazen and White prior to the American Revolution. Jonathan married Heprabeth Peabody and they had eight sons and two daughters. Jonathan's brothers Daniel and Francis joined him in Saint John where they were involved in the coastal trading as partners of Francis Peabody until 1810. Jonathan prospered as a shipowner and mariner and upon his death left a considerable estate.

Jonathan Leavitt's son, Thomas (ca. 1795-1850) continued the family business. He inherited a half-interest in the family home, ownership of four choice lots in Saint John, as well as a seventh part of a large landholding on the Miramichi River. In 1817, Thomas was admitted as a merchant freeman in the city of Saint John and from that time played an active role in the business life of New Brunswick. In 1822, he married Mary Ann Ketchum and they had four sons and three daughters.

In the 1830s and 1840s, Thomas acted as agent for the Liverpool Association of Underwriters along with a number of New York marine insurance companies. In 1835, he was appointed the US consul for Saint John. He was a founder of the City Bank (1837) and later, president of the Bank of New Brunswick. Thomas Leavitt died 24 October 1850.

Family · 1879-1954

George Chesley Harris (1879-1954), businessman, politician, was born in Grand Bank, Newfoundland, on 14 July 1879, the eldest son of Mary (Forsey) and Samuel Harris, a Grand Bank vessel owner, captain and merchant. On 11 June 1904, Harris married Charlotte (Lottie) Pitts Pratt (1884-1954), an artist and music instructor. Lottie and George had one child who died shortly after birth. They were, however, very close to the children of George's sister, Eleanor (Harris) Carr. George C. Harris died on 28 Jan. 1954. Wife Lottie died in the same year, on 8 Sept. 1954.

Harris was educated at the Methodist Academy, Grand Bank. Following graduation, he attended Mount Allison Academy and Commercial College in Sackville, New Brunswick, where he completed commercial courses. After his return to Newfoundland, he joined his father's mercantile firm, Samuel Harris Ltd., and managed a branch of the business in Marystown. An interesting aside: In 1881, George's father, Samuel Harris, had taken his 70-ton schooner, named George C. Harris in honour of his son, to the Grand Banks fishery, a venture which led eventually to the establishment of the successful fishing enterprise.

In 1914, George became the managing director of Samuel Harris Export Company. The Harris family was the most active of the Grand Banks merchants investing in the construction of fishing schooners. Between 1910 and 1920 the following schooners, commonly called the fleet of the "Generals" were built for the Harris' enterprises: Dorothy Louise (Allendale, N.S., 1910), General Maude (Shelburne, N.S., 1917), Roberta Ray (Grand Bank, 1917), Carl Tibbo (Grand Bank, 1918), General Byng (Marystown, 1918), General Currie (Grand Bank, 1918), General Smuts (Shelburne 1918), General Allenby (Grand Bank, 1918), General Horne (Shelburne, 1919), General Jacobs (Shelburne, 1919), General Knox (Marystown, 1919), General Plummer (Allendale, 1919), General Ironsides (Grand Bank, 1920), General Trenchard (Allendale, 1920), General Rawlinson (Marystown, 1920).

Under the direction of George Harris, the company quickly expanded to other communities on the Burin Peninsula, Hermitage (South Coast) and Change Islands (Notre Dame Bay). While initially this expansion was a successful move for the company, poor market conditions and new fishing regulations by the government soon proved that the rapid expansion had been unwise. In 1923, the firm declared bankruptcy, then considered the largest bankruptcy in the Dominion of Newfoundland. The firm was taken over by a consortium of creditors, including the Bank of Nova Scotia, who renamed it the Samuel Harris Export Company and appointed George Harris' brother-in-law and former bank manager, Percival Carr, as its managing director. In the 1930s, it was restructured as the Grand Bank Fisheries.

With the help of his brother-in law, Percy Carr, George did not lose the Harris home. He worked in another company created by his father, Western Marine Insurance Company, and, in time, became its president. George attributed the loss of the family export company to the fishing regulations introduced by the Squires-Coaker coalition government, rather than to international economic conditions. As a result, he entered politics and was elected to the House of Assembly in 1923 as a supporter of John R. Bennett's opposition Liberal-Labour-Progressive party, which - despite its name - represented a coalition of conservative and dissident interests. The following year, Albert E. Hickman, George's cousin, became prime minister of Newfoundland and George switched parties in order to support Hickman. Following political defeat in the 1924 election, Harris became a strong supporter of Confederation and acted as the chief returning officer (1949, 1953) for the federal riding of Burin-Burgeo. He also served on the boards of the local Methodist church and the Grand Bank hospital.

Wife Charlotte (Lottie) Pitts Pratt (1884-1954), an artist and music instructor, was the daughter of a Methodist minister, the Rev. John Pratt. Her brother, Edwin J. Pratt (1882-1964) became a renowned Canadian poet, professor and critic. Nephew, John Christopher Pratt (1935- ) is a painter and printmaker with an international reputation.

Lottie's family moved to various communities in Newfoundland due to her father's career in the ministry. She received her early education at St. John's (where she had musical training), Fortune and Bay Roberts. After Lottie married George, she taught piano and voice lessons in Grand Bank and sang in the Methodist choir and community concerts. Aside from music, Lottie was also an accomplished artist and gave many of her watercolour paintings to friends. Throughout her married life Lottie was involved with her church and charitable organizations. She hosted card games and tea parties to raise money for such organizations as the Frazer Guild and the Woman's Patriotic Association.

In 1908, four years following their marriage, Samuel Harris built a house for the couple as a wedding gift. A three-storeyed Queen Anne style dwelling, the Harris House became a Registered Heritage Structure in May 1993 and received a Sothcott Award for restoration in 1996.

Knight, William
Family · 1722-1843

William Knight (1722-1799) and his son Benjamin Knight (1767-1843) were shoremen from Marblehead, Massachusetts, who were involved in the deep sea cod fishery. In addition to owning several schooners, the family outfitted voyages from their waterfront chandlery, retailed provisions and dry goods to fishing families, and kept a flakeyard in Marblehead where they employed retired mariners to dry the cod from their vessels. William conducted the business until his death in 1799, when it passed to his son Benjamin, who operated it through to 1833.

Family · 1923-1984

Bruce Stacey was born in the Goulds in 1923. He spent a large part of his career as a Marine Aids Technician with the Canadian Coast and for many years carried out maintenance on their Lighthouses. In the mid 1980s Stacey was instrumental in starting a museum at the Coast Guard facilities on the South Side, St. John's in which he displayed the many artifacts he had collected while working there.

Stacey began his 57 year tenure with the scouting movement when he began as a Cub with the 6th St. John's Troop in the 1940s. As a scouter and member of the Provincial council he became involved in camps, training sessions, cuborees, jamborees etc. Bruce Stacey died in 1994.

Aileen (Mickey) Stacey was born in New York. Like her husband Bruce she was devoted to the scouting movement in Newfoundland. In 1972 she was appointed Assistant Provincial Commissioner for Beavers and was instrumental in the organization of the program in the province. She participated in many other scouting events and was involved in many jamborees both Provincially, Nationally and also attended a World jamboree in 1984. Mickey Stacey died in 1984.

Lyall Family
Family

Ernest Wilson Lyall, who is the author of; 'An Artic Man' was born in 1910 at Island Harbour on the Labrador Coast. One Year later his family moved to Port Burell, NMT. He joined the Hudsons Bay Company in 1927 and over the next nine years was posted in Cape Smith, Port Burwell Pond Inlet, and Artic Bay where he met his wife Nipisha. They lived in Fort Ross between 1937 and 1949 when they moved to Spence Bay. The Lyalls have lived there since raising eleven children. Ernie and Nipisha Lyall were presented with the Commissioners Award on August 8, 1979, to honor the roles that they had played as energetic, progressive leaders in their community.

O'Brien Family
Family

Thomas O'Brien was the first O'Brien to arrive at L'anse au Loup, Labrador from Bonavista, Bonavista Bay in the late 1850's. He married Margaret Hogan from St. John's and had four children. Following Margaret's death, Thomas married Elizabeth Ann Barney of L'anse au Loup and they had five children. The O'Brien family has since continued for many generations.