Pioneering family made indelible mark on pulp and paper town

This story was first printed in the Advertiser's Centennial Supplement in 2005 as part of Grand Falls-Windsor 100th anniversary, and then again in Grand Falls-Windsor: The Place and Its People.

It was the pioneering spirit of many of the early settlers of Grand Falls that provided the very foundations of our community, with families such as the Gardners braving the unknown to come to Central Newfoundland and build a new life for themselves.

James Gardner arrived in Grand Falls Oct. 1905 via train from Millertown with his 14-month old son, Bernard, in his arms.

James had been working in Millertown as a steam engineer in the sawmill operations and, because of his experience there, had come to Grand Falls to help get the steam plant for the A.N.D. Company paper mill running.

Construction of the mill was barely underway when the Gardners arrived in the town.

James' wife and daughter had also made the journey from Millertown on the train with him but both continued on to Norris Arm rather than stay in Grand Falls.

Ms. Gardner was expecting her third child and Norris Arm was the nearest community with a doctor at that time.

She was required to take a dog sled from Grand Falls to Norris Arm, as the train that linked Grand Falls to anywhere east of the new community had not yet been built. She joined her husband in Grand Falls approximately three weeks later following the birth of their new baby daughter, Anne, on Nov. 6.

James' father, Martin, was already in Grand Falls when his son and grandson arrived.
He was the postmaster at the time, in fact the first postmaster of the town, and was responsible for retrieving the mail from the train in Windsor and delivering it into Grand Falls.

"My father, Bernard, was the first baby to be brought into Grand Falls," revealed Jim Gardner. "He liked to say that he was in Grand Falls even before his mother was, because she had to go on to Norris Arm."

According to Christine Hanlon, Anne Gardner's (later to become Anne Hanlon) daughter-in-law, Anne was the first baptized baby to be registered with the Roman Catholic Church in Grand Falls.

Upon his arrival, James built a dwelling for the family to live in near what would be Centennial Field today.

"My father would get up every day and my grandmother would have fresh trout for breakfast," said Jim. "She would go outside and catch the trout from a brook that ran near the house. The brook is buried in now."

Although Jim's grandmother wasn't an educated woman herself, she ensured all of her children attended school.

"My grandfather was well-educated, though," said Jim. "He used to be out on the Grey Islands during the summer fishing. He'd go into Conche during the winter months. I guess he went to school there."

James worked hard in the steam plant and also cut wood during the winter months to help build new buildings in the town during the initial days he was there.

He and his wife went on to have an incredible total of 13 children and made several moves around town, living in a double house they shared with the Goodyear family on Second Avenue, then on Peronne Road and finally settling for good on what used to be Botwood Road (now Lincoln Road), according to Jim and Mrs. Hanlon.

They even made one enormous move across Canada to Vancouver at one point, with all 13 children in tow.

"My father didn't really want to go," said Jim. "They weren't up there for very long before they decided to come back to Grand Falls. My grandfather went back to work in the mill once he got back."

Jim's grandfather was also an avid vegetable gardener and spent a great deal of time maintaining his vegetables.

"If my grandfather wasn't working, he was in his garden," said Jim.

"He had a great big garden down on the summit going to Botwood. The company used to stop a train there and he would load up a boxcar with his vegetables in the fall of the year. Then the train would bring them up to Grand Falls where I guess they'd go into the stores to be sold.

"We used to go to Botwood when we were younger. It used to be a rough road down there. Sometimes it would take us two or three hours to get there, especially in the spring because of the mud. We would have to take an axe with us to cut boughs from the trees to put over the really muddy parts of the road so the truck wouldn't get stuck."

Jim's father, Bernard, went to work in the mill at the ripe age of 13.

"He started working as a water-nipper," said Jim. "He'd bring buckets of water around to the men who were working. After that, he went to work with the railway for a while but then he got into the mill and stayed there until he retired."

Bernard worked in the machine room at the A.N.D. Company mill, making paper. He eventually married Bridget Byrne and together they had six children, three boys and three girls.

"The first three of their children, including me, were born in Botwood," said Jim. "My father couldn't get a house in Grand Falls at the time because he wasn't considered a permanent employee of the mill, so we lived near Botwood."

Eventually however, Bernard did gain permanent employee status and the family moved to a house on Carmelite Road.

Jim has many recollections of his father's youth from the stories his father told him.
"I remember my father telling me that he and his friends would put a ski on the front of a motorcycle and go up in the woods with it during the winter to set rabbit slips."

Jim also had funny memories of an old outboard motor his father tinkered with.

"One day, he went up the river and the motor wouldn't start so he fired it into the river," he said. "A week later he went back, fished the motor out, and it started it up perfectly," said Jim.

he Gardner family is also attributed with taking some of the early photographs in Grand Falls, dating back as early as the 1920s.

"My Aunt Anne took a lot of the old pictures. She had piles of them and could tell you all about every picture and all the people who were in them," said Jim. "I guess she would have used one of those box cameras they had back then."

Mrs. Hanlon added, "She took pictures of everything and everyone. She was a very well-travelled woman, so many of her photos also include ones she took abroad."

Anne diligently wrote the date, place and names of her subjects on each photo she took to ensure she would not forget any details.

Since their arrival at Grand Falls in 1905, there have been seven generations of Gardners who have lived in the town, thanks to the adventuresome spirit their forefathers possessed.