According to folklore, our community was first settled by Joseph Newman and his wife Margaret(Donahue)Newman who settled here from Joe Batt’s Arm in 1866. Also according to folklore, our community got it’s name from a gentleman who came here from the New World Island area to cut timber and whose last name was Boyd. At one time Fairbanks was also called Boyd’s Cove until it was changed in 1935.
The community
of Boyd’s Cove was first settled in 1886 and was mainly a fishing-lumbering
settlement; by 1921 farming had become a major industry and was one of
the largest
producers of hay, turnip, potatoes
and cabbage in the Notre Dame Bay area. By the 1940's however, fishing
and lumbering had become the main sources of employment with farming playing
a smaller role in the working industry. Around this time there were two
church schools serving the community; one was a Roman Catholic school and
the other was an Anglican school. Both of these schools were one and two
rooms and served the community until 1969 when protestant high school students
were bussed to Gander Bay North and Roman Catholic high school students
were sent to Grand Falls; all the other students were bussed to Summerford.
The road connecting
Boyd’s Cove to Birchy Bay and Gander was built in the early 1960's and
gave people the opportunity to find work such as bus drivers, shopkeepers
and truck drivers;
the causeway over Reach Run connecting
Chapel Island, New World Island and Twillingate Island to the mainland
of Newfoundland was also built around this time. Also around this time,
people bought cars for the first time and brought them to the community.
Our community currently has an ambulance service, a bakery, two convenience stores, post office, the Beothuck Interpretation Centre, a restaurant and hotel/bar, fire hall and recreation center and a hairdresser; some people work at home-care while others work outside the community at seasonal jobs such as construction and road work. Even today people have to leave their families behind to find work.