The sign is easy to spot in front of Aunt Ethel's Kitchen and the Point Leamington Heritage Interpretation Centre. The information panels are the same on both sides of the sign.
The sign includes many photographs with explanatory captions. This historyboard includes images of at least three of my children's ancestors.
The following text is taken from the sign on site.
Settlement in the South West Arm of New Bay
New Bay is known to have been frequented by the prehistoric Maritime Archaic people, as well as by the Beothuk. By the 1700s South West Arm was also occasionally visited by European trappers and salmon-catchers. The Rowsell family of Fogo and Leading Tickles worked the brooks for one Matthew Ward. One day in 1789, Thomas Rowsell, a man with a reputation for cruelty toward the natives, was dipping salmon from his weir on South West Brook. Some natives, out of revenge, surprised him, killed him, and beheaded him. His brother, George Rowsell, a kinder man, lived for many years in peace with the natives.
While the salmon station continued in the Rowsell family for the next century, there were no year-round inhabitants in South West Arm until after Isaac Stuckless of Twillingate settled in the 1860s. The Stuckless families were followed by the family of John Cooper of Twillingate -- then by Harveys from Twillingate and the family of Joseph Baggs of Spaniard's Bay. Other early family names of South West Arm include Sharron, Andrews, Rowsell, Parmiter, Mugford, Hutchcraft, Roberts, Thompson, Feener, Woodworth and Walker.
The Point Leamington Lumber Company
J.W. Phillips began operating a water-turbine sawmill on South West Brook (subsequently known as Mill River) in the early 1870s, producing pine lumber. The mill was situated on the south side of the harbour, at a site Phillips named Point Leamington -- after his infant son, George Leamington Phillips. By 1911 the name Point Leamington was being applied to community formerly known as South West Arm, New Bay.
One interesting story from the early days of Point Leamington concerns J.W. Phillip's epic walk across the Island -- one of the most remarkable journeys in Newfoundland history. In March of 1875 Phillips had urgent business matters to attend in Toronto. Navigation was closed by ice on the northeast coast, so Phillips hired two Mi'kmaq guides and set out on March 12 to travel to Bay d'Espoir by dogteam and snowshoe. Unable to engage a boat on the south coast, he continued walking to St. John's -- where he was finally able to secure passage for Canada, 21 days after leaving Point Leamington.
Pulpwood
J.W. Phillips died in 1892. His son, George Leamington Phillips, ran the mill -- with assistance of long-time manager Arthur Hutchcraft -- until his death in 1902. Harry J. Crowe acquired the mill in 1907 and operated it until 1911.
Pine stands in the area were, by this time, largely cut out. Forest fires in 1907 and 1911 further endangered sawmilling. Meanwhile Crowe's Newfoundland Pulp and Pine Company, which owned several other sawmills in central Newfoundland, was an important player in bringing the Anglo-Newfoundland Development (AND) Company to Grand Falls. After 1911 woods work continued to be the lifeblood of Point Leamington. Cutting pulpwood for the AND Company was supplemented by small local sawmills.
This boom period lasted until 1918 when it was halted by yet another huge forest fire. By the end of this period more new arrivals had come to Point Leamington from the mining towns of Pilley's Island and Tilt Cove, including the Rice, Patey, and Saunders families.