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Excerpt from "The Story of a War Bride"
by Yvonne Wiseman

"......in September of 1946 we took up residence in Cormack, the area selected by the Government for those returning veterans who wished to take advantage of the Agricultural Resettlement Scheme. Each applicant was allocated 50 acres of land, 10 acres of which was cleared, plus a cow, a horse and some pigs, also some farm implements. But most importantly they were given a house to live in. They were built on part of the cleared land and close to whichever road we were on. So the whole settlement encompassed a very large area. Just two rooms were completed and it was up to us to finish the rest ourselves."

"It was a very generous plan. However as with so many plans they didn't always work out in practice. Farming is a precarious business at best, and weather is a big factor. Inexperience is another. The complete lack of any modern conveniences made things difficult. However, we set out with enthusiasm. We were young, in love and ready to conquer all!!"

"Preparations were made for the coming winter. John dug a well outside for our water supply. A good barn had been built for our livestock and we fitted it with stalls and got in a supply of hay and oats, etc. In the house we had the kitchen range which, as in Heart's Delight, was our only source of heat and the only means for cooking and heating water. We needed a good amount of wood and I learned how to use a bucksaw and differentiate between green and dry wood. Not things I had learnt whilst growing up in London."

"Getting used to handling animals was a first for me. I had always steered a wide berth of any horses or cows in a field, certain that I would be a target for butting horns or flying hoofs. But by the time we left Cormack I could harness a horse, milk the cow and catch those squealing rascally pigs."

"In our house the furnishings were sparse. Just the essentials for our two rooms. We walled off an area for the two kiddies. Our clothes were hung on nails, driven into the wall as we hadn't any closets. Personal washing and dishes, etc. was done in bowls and the washing I hung it on a line stretched across the room over the stove. Ironing was done with an old fashioned sad iron heated on the range. The oil lamps were in use again for lighting. It was all very primitive. The phrase ' being thrown in the deep end' aptly described our lifestyle there."

"So the winter advanced. I had thought Heart's Delight cold, but it was nothing compared to Cormack. The temperature dropped lower and lower and it became harder and harder to heat the house."

"To help out financially, a contract had been secured for the 'farmers' to cut birch wood for railway ties. So John used to get up at 5:30am to feed the horse, harness and attach the sleigh, ready for the day's work. After breakfast he took off, and I was left to cope with the usual (or unusual) chores of the day which included seeing to the cows and pigs in the barn and mainly trying to keep us warm. There were times when I came in from outside almost crying from the cold. I would put down the oven door and lodge my frozen feet on it. I can still recall the pain of them thawing out."

"For two months that winter the temperature never rose above zero Fahrenheit and dropped as low as 30 degrees below. Our well froze - it hadn't been dug deep enough. So we had to go down to a fast running brook a 1/4 mile away for our water supply. This entailed using the horse and sleigh and a big wooden barrel which we filled and hauled back home. The trouble was the water slopped over the movement and this in turn froze solid around the outside rim. We kept the barrel in the outside porch and for nearly two months all the water we used was chopped out in icy chunks and thawed on the stove."

"The kitchen was the only place that was warm and we stoked the fire at night to hold in some heat. We had plenty of bedding so that the kiddies and ourselves were warm at night in spite of the cold. Our baby son was still in 'nappies' and when changing him at night, I would put the soiled ones in a bucket. By morning they were frozen stiff. One morning when I was late retuning to the bedroom to make the bed, I found loose ice in the hot water bottle which was still under the bedding. That gives the idea of the cold in an unfinished house. We'd never heard of insulation then either. When washing the kitchen floor it was usual for the water to freeze from the draught under the outside door."

"Our food supplies we got from a small store in the "Camp" which was in the middle of the settlement. This involved us walking in, hauling Hazel and Roy on the sleigh, a distance of five miles there and back. We also had moose meat, frozen and bottled and my husband snared rabbits. I made our own bread and learned how to churn butter. A far cry from our present 'supermarket living'!"

"We had a fright one evening. I had lit the oil lamp which was on a wall bracket. We smelled smoke and to our horror, the ceiling above the lamp was starting to flame. Quickly John grabbed some water off the stove and threw it over the flames, dousing them. The result was a nasty mess on the floor and table, and a blackened hole in the Ten test ceiling. Thankfully nothing worse. I had turned the wick on too high and hadn't noticed it smoking. I was always very careful after that."

"Eventually the winter came to an end and it was time to prepare the land and put in our first crops. As I mentioned before, 10 acres of land had been cleared for use, but that didn't mean it was free of rocks and stones. Newfoundland is well named 'The Rock'! They literally grow there. It doesn't matter how many buckets are collected, there will be just as many again a few days later. However, John got some land plowed and we planted potatoes as our main crop with cabbage and other vegetables in lesser amounts."

"The weather warmed up and we could go out without our snowsuits and actually leave the outside door open! Water became water again instead of chunks of ice and washing could be hung outside to dry. Hazel explored her surroundings and Roy could enjoy the fresh air in his pram. We worked hard tending our plants, and attempting to make the house more livable inside. Everything was coming along well and we anticipated a good harvest of potatoes and a good return for our labours."

"Then came the 22nd of August. The temperature nose dived during the day and that night we had a hard frost. A sorry plight awaited us next morning. All our thriving potato plants were limp and black. When we eventually harvested them they were undersized and far from top quality standard. The frost had stunted their growth."

"Then a further misfortune befell us. Marketing the produce from the settlement had been arranged for St. John's. This involved shipping it by rail from Deer Lake, our nearest town. So what happened? The Newfoundland Rail went on strike and there was no other means of getting the produce across the Island. At the time there was no Trans-Canada Highway. That didn't come until many years later after Newfoundland became Canada's 10th Province. So our community of hard-working farmers had to truck the results of their labours into Corner Brook, over 40 miles away, and peddle their wares around stores and houses. It was a sorry end to the first year."

"Another sideline which had problems occurred about three years later. Some of the veterans built up a small herd of dairy cows and secured orders for the milk in Corner Brook. Trouble arose when the churns containing the milk got bounced around on the rough unpaved roads and caused milk to sour quickly."

"....Our second winter in Cormack was not so hard as the first. There were heavy snowfalls but the temperatures were slightly higher. We had worked on the house and now had a living room with an oil stove and some comfortable furniture. A bathroom of sorts was fitted with a chemical toilet. It seemed like a palace now. I was getting hardened to the life and our two children were older. When Spring finally came we prepared once more for planting with renewed hope and vigour. Remembering the frost damage of the previous year, we decided to go mainly for cabbages, thinking they would be safe from the vagaries of the weather. We put in a small amount of potatoes again plus other vegetables, like carrots. All went well until a day in September!"

"A hurricane, traveling up the east coast of the U.S. from the Caribbean decided to make a bee-line for Newfoundland, and in particular our settlement. It was frightening. Torrential rains and hurricane force winds. That night we expected our roof to be blown off at any moment and the house shook. We hoped the barn would stay put - thankfully it did, though others were not so lucky."

"When the storm passed, it left a scene of total devastation. Huge trees were uprooted, many across the main and side roads. Our driveway was partially blocked by a fallen tree. Several of the veterans sustained damage to their barns but the houses stood up very well. What really suffered were the crops. Our rows of 'safe' cabbages were blown right out of the ground and strewn around in a saturated mess. The rest, like the potatoes were salvageable. Just about all of us were badly hit, but thankfully, nobody was hurt during the storm. Scared out of our wits, definitely. Once again, our hard work had sustained a crippling blow, and to cap it all, our cow died."

"We salvaged some potatoes which were pretty good. Hazel and Roy helped us harvest them. Hazel was an energetic worker putting them in the buckets, but Roy had great fun taking then out again and lining them up inrows."

"We did some hard thinking as winter loomed ahead and came to the conclusion that we weren't cut out to be farmers. Our savings were badly eroded and we couldn't see any economic benefit by continuing and not much of a future for our children. We figured if we didn't get out then, we never would. Several of us were having misgivings. One of our neighbors, a bit of a wit, said he had thought of hanging himself, had even picked out the right tree, but he couldn't afford to buy the rope!"

"Winter set in early with heavy snowfalls, and one night we heard a knock on our door about midnight. It was one of the farmers from about 3 miles or so away and he needed help. His wife was expecting a baby and had gone into labour. He had heard I had been a nurse and thought I could see to the delivery. I told him I had never been a maternity nurse and all I knew about it was having had my own children. However, I said I would go back with him to see what I could do. The only doctor was in Deer Lake, 14 miles away, and the road was snow covered."

"On arrival at his home, I found that his wife was in a bad way and on examination, discovered it was going to be a breech birth. So I said he would have to fetch the doctor and I would hold the fort until they got back. Away he went in his truck and I hoped he wouldn't be too long."

"It was an hour and a half before he arrived back with the doctor. In the meantime I had managed to deliver the baby. How, I'll never really know.More by sheer luck than knowledge. Unfortunately the baby, a boy, was dead. The mother said that she hadn't felt a movement for a couple of days and wasn't surprised. It was just another strange experience to add to my married life."

"Early in 1949 we threw in the towel and decided to seek our fortune elsewhere......."

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