Four generations of men in our family worked at the Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Mill in Newfoundland. It started with the construction of the mill and my husband's great grandfather, James Smith, who left his home in Old Shop, Trinity Bay to work in Corner Brook in 1923.
Ernest (Ern) Smith, James's son, worked at the paper-making process in the early days of the mill beginning in 1925. He worked there until an industrial accident made it impossible for him to continue.
Then Ern's son, Melvin, worked at the mill after he served on the cargo vessel, the Corner Brook, for a number of years. The vessel delivered newsprint to markets in the United States. At the mill, Melvin worked in the steam plant, and eventually became foreman there.
Rick, my husband worked in the paper mill for one summer during the years he attended university. He learned a valuable lesson; he did not want to work at the mill for the rest of his life.
The mill was an important part of the history of the Smith family, providing a livelihood for decades beginning in the 1920s, and again in the 1950s until Melvin's retirement thirty-five years later.
However, this mill had a huge impact on Ern Smith's life in another way as well. The industrial accident which took the life of one of his co-workers so affected Ern that he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder which was undiagnosed and misunderstood at the time. Ern witnessed the man's death. His daughter, Marie, tells the stories her mother, Bessie, told her. Ern had trouble sleeping or woke covered in sweat, had nightmares, flashbacks and could not concentrate. He could not return to work at that mill.
There was an insurance policy on Ern's life while he worked at the mill but, as far as we know, nothing to help when he could not return to work there after he witnessed the horrible death of his co-worker. His family struggled financially until he started to work as a relief officer in the town during the Depression. That job was not easy either, seeing people in his community starving or sick.
In addition, the pipes in the mill were covered with asbestos. When there was a problem, the plumbers beat the asbestos off the pipes to work on them. Obviously the asbestos fibers went into the air and Melvin was constantly around them. Today when asbestos is removed from older buildings, the workers are well protected with masks and protective clothing. How many mill workers, especially plumbers, died from lung cancer, as did Melvin?
The mill has been a major source of employment for ninety years in Corner Brook. Our family is one of the many Newfoundland families whose history was linked to and shaped by the production of paper.
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