mostly for drinking and cooking. We had a (well and) pump but the water was really not that good, sandy and tasted like iron The cattle always went to the brook for water, unless it was very icy or stormy, and then Pop would carry it to them; of course we had to help. Con- sidering the chore of carrying the large number of gallons of Water cows need each day, farmers with a pond on their property were indeed fortunate; such were “John Arch’s pond”, Long Pond, and “the Bell pond”; muchlater, in 1937, these owners received extra compensation from the government (National Park) on account of the value of the expropriated ponds.

Later, wells were dug. These could be as deep as 30 feet, were dug by man-and-shovel-power, and were faced with stone, at any rate on the upper half of the excavation. The workmanship of such masonry on a well dug by John Watson Ross on the Bayshore Road was very fine; this well was filled in, and is now under the Parkview Development sub-division road. A Windlass and bucket were used to draw up the water, or a hand pump was installed. The well at the awkward ill- proportioned House (James Douglas) on Stanhope Farm must have been under the house or very close to it, as the Bovyers had a pump actually in the kitchen — such luxury, in the 1790 s.

Later still, wells were drilled, and these were usually deeper than the dug wells. Water from Stanhope wells is generally good, except for occasional salt-water intrusion along Covehead Bay, and the rarer strike of iron-containing water further inland, which may necessitate drilling another well. The water here is only moderately hard, with low to zero mineral and bacteriological counts. For one who had been drinking chlorinated sewage from the St. Lawrence in Montreal for 25 years, Stanhope well water tastes absolutely delicious.

Health

There is no mention of a doctor in the early days of our settlement. Mothers were helped to deliver their babies by neighbour women, and there was no health care save folk remedies, brought from the old country or learned from the Indians or Acadians. You lived or you died, and this was reflected in the high infant and child mortality, and deaths from epidemics of scarlet fever and diphtheria (membranous croup) and from tuberculosis. '

There were doctors in Charlotte Town at this time, headed by army surgeons caring for the garrison; with travelling conditions rather poor then, it is doubtful whether doctors did any visiting out this way, or whether patients from here got to consult them in town, even though the first road on St. John’s Island ran from Stanhope to Charlotte Town.

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