Page Seven

Edward Cooper was another of the Lance Cove pioneers.  He arrived shortly after James Pitts;  there being some tradition to suggest that it was James Pitts who brought him there.  He built his home at the foot of the "Big Hill" and acquired the only remaining section of the waterfront property.  He died at the age of sixty-one years and is buried in the old cemetery.  Edward Cooper married Judith Hammond of Portugal Cove; they had two sons, Edward Junior, and James, and daughters, Elizabeth and Amy.  Elizabeth married Thomas Wilson, and Amy married Henry Bickford.  James married Julia Hiscock.  Edward died at an early age, leaving behind  his widow, Melina, and at least one son.  Mrs. Cooper, nee Knight,  took her little family and returned to her maiden home, supposedly Bay of Islands.  James, unfortunately, had no sons so that when he died in 1882, that old name was lost to Lance Cove.  His daughter, Elizabeth, however , introduced by marriage the name Bennett into Lance Cove.  She married Edward Bennett of the Beach settlement, and he came to occupy part of her father's property.  James is buried in the Church of England cemetery, and was one of the first to be buried there.

The Coopers were more interested in farming than they were in fishing, so that when George Rees arrived in Lance Cove, he was eventually able to acquire a portion of their waterfront property.¹⁴  The name Rees is of Welsh origin, but George's parents, Richard and Mary, belonged to Bristol where he was born, November 28th, 1772.  According to tradition George was a shipwright, skilled in his trade, and arrived in Lance Cove on board one of the Pitts's brigs in 1797, for the purpose of working in their shipyard.  All the Reeses in Newfoundland, until very recently,  are descendants of this man, and it is notable how many of them have inherited his artisan talents. The mining operations on Bell Island offered plenty of scope for the application of that particular gift and the Reeses were as much at home in the machine shops as their forefather was in his shipyard.  The only local lad to come up through the ranks to occupy the chief administrative position in this huge mining complex was a member of the Rees clan.

When George Rees arrived in Lance Cove, all the land adjacent to the waterfront had been occupied, so he staked out as his claim the land immediately to the north and extending almost to the opposite side of the island.  It was there that he built his first home.  This parcel of land sustained an excellent forest and the use to which it was put is illustrated by an old letter under his signature.  The letter is addressed to a Mr. Chancey of Mosquito and states simply: "Sir, I can let you have a stem for a schooner".  Mr. Chancey was a Pool merchant who had a business establishment at Carbonear, and presumably resided at Mosquito.

When George obtained a portion of the waterfront property from Edward Cooper, it was there that he built his second home, a two-story double house.  Judging by a photograph taken c. 1900, this house was quite a substantial and imposing structure.  The remains of its foundation, fireplaces and chimneys were not removed until c. 1940.