Interview with Isabel MacIsaac

Q. Could you tell us something about how Inverness started, how it got going?

A. Well, you know there was no town or nothing here at the time Hussey came. He bought a place to start a business here. He was boarding at MacIsaac's my husband's father's place. He was a big man, Fred. There was old Hussey himself and then the son, Fred. They took a dredge when the harbour and they were sleeping on the dredge… anything Hussey, use to do was good. I believe he was here about a year or so when he opened the harbour here. He had a crowd working then. You could go with anything and he would buy it because he was keeping boarders and selling. We came one time with twenty two chickens to him and he bought the chickens. They were paid 25 cents a pair for the chickens. The people were getting so little money. It was a shame to be giving them away for such a price. He was boarding at MacIsaac's, a big shot you know. He had all kinds of money. Then he went away and everything just died out. This was before the mining started. They started the mine later on. When they opened the harbour twenty boats came in. It was such a novelty to get in the pond. Things looked bright for a while, but then everything died down. The Hussey's were the one's that opened up and started the mine. They opened one in Inverness and one at the Big River. People were getting work; you know there was nothing at all in Inverness at that time.

Q. Where did the miners come from?

A. They were all local people. Then there was miners coming from other places like Stellarton… a lot came from Stellarton and New Glasgow.

Q. What did you do for a living yourself?

A. Oh, I got married when I was only twenty one. My husband was working in a mine. I taught school for one year, grade 10. My other sister had grade 12. My daughter had grade 11, Annie Dixon, She's here now. She married a Dixon, but he died. They say she's a very good teacher. There were small schools what they used to call the Red Schools. A teacher was in each one of them up to grade 10, and then they went to normal. My daughter, Annie, she didn't go to normal. She went to the short courses, which is four weeks in Halifax. It was awful expensive. It cost two hundred dollars.

Q. Was there any hospitals in Inverness at this time?

A. The hospitals were built in and around that time. The memorial and St. Mary's were being built together. They were in competition, you know.

Q. Did most men work in the mines?

A. Oh yes, they worked in the mine. There was also fishing here, it was the farmers that were the fisherman, some miners did the fishing also. There was no freezing business then, they use to salt the fish.

Q. Where was the first mine located?

A. The first mine was at the Big River. It was run by William Penn Hussey. He was from the states.

Q. Where did the miners come from?

A. They came from the surrounding area. Some people came over from Belgium to work in the mines. The Dominion Coal Company ran the number one mine. At the end of the mines in the are the government took them over, they were subsidized by the government.

Q. How many men were employed by the mines?

A. When mining was at its peak there was around 700 on the payroll. There were ten hour shifts. Working conditions weren't very good. There was poor lighting conditions and everything was done by hand.. pick and shovel. The mines operated not too steady. Sometimes they worked one week and were off the next week.

Q. How did the workers that were laid off support themselves?

A. They would have to depend on the credit from the stores until they got to pay it back.

Q. When and why were the mines closed?

A. The mines were getting treacherous and they couldn't go any further.

Q. What did the workers do after the mines closed down?

A. Some of them went to New Waterford, some of them worked in #5 which opened 1941.