Businesses
Fox Harbour, at one time, was the home of many small family owned businesses which provided employment for family members as well as for a number of other residents.  According to archival records, in 1901 there were three lobster canneries here employing five men and four women.  The value of this factory was $60.00 while lobster traps being used were valued at $390.00.   During this season of 1901, reports tell us that sixty-five cases of lobster were packed.  According to local people who remember, one of these canneries was located at the neck and run by Pad King.  Mike Healey was the owner of another such cannery.  The packing of herring was another industry based on the fishery.  Herring with the gut removed was salted into barrels of 350-400 lbs each.  Several people were involved in this industry.  Jack Healey packed herring in his stage located on the turn near where Bernadette Murray now lives.  The Co-op also packed herring in John Riley's stage.  Michael King remembers his father, Denis King, taking a load of about 400 barrels of herring which belonged to Jack Healey and the Co-op, and bringing it to Harbor Buffett to be shipped on a large German steamer, anchored outside Harbor Buffett, near Come-by-Chance.  Other boatloads of herring were shipped out of Harbor Buffett on CN boats as well as in any available space on other ships.
The fishery itself was a business, the main business that touched everything else that went on in the Community.  Men such as the Healey brothers, owned one or more boats.  Crewmen for these fishing boats came not only from Fox Harbour and neighbouring communities, but from communities such as St. Josephs,  Petite Forte, and Marystown, on the other side of Placentia Bay.
In addition to those hired to work on the fishing boats, there was another spin-off industry the hiring of help, both male and female for chores around the house.  Girls were hired to help with the children.  They also had to prepare and serve meals, especially to the men working on the fishing boat who were being fed at the house, as the boat was being made ready for the Spring Voyage.
Young men or "chore", "shore" boys were hired, and in the words of Din Spurvey about working for Mike King, "...we came to our place of work in the morning, washed fish, cut hay, dried it, put it in the stable, planted vegetables, mainly cabbage and potatoes.  We worked from 6 a.m. till 9 p.m., as long as it was daylight.  On rainy days the chores were other tasks that needed doing such as wheeling clay from behind Din's house to fill in the breakwater, or bringing a load of boughs down from the hill to spread on the deck of the boat to keep the sun from cracking the wood....."
Because of the abundance of wood, businesses such as saw mills developed.  John Davis and Michael King operated a sawmill in the Sound, while Mike Healey and Jack Healey operated sawmills within the community.  Jack Healey's mill near Fox Harbour Pond, was powered by a water wheel using water dammed off for that purpose.  These mills made it possible for local men to earn a few extra dollars.  In 1929, according to Din Spurvey men would cut logs for snow fences or railroad ties which fetched $25.00 per hundred while saw logs sold for $10.00-15.00 per hundred.
The trader, a boat stocked with gas, kerosene, lube oil, clothing items, footwear as well as food supplies, was another well known business.  This business, while it did not belong to Fox Harbour, played an important part in the life of the community.  Merchants such as W.W. Wareham and Frank Wareham from Harbor Buffett and John Gilbert from Haystack stocked these vessels and sent them to supply the needs of fishing families around Placentia Bay.  Albert Gregory, Wilf Peach, Charlie Upshall and Mac Masters were well known crew members of these traders at one time or another.  Children, at that time, loved to get on board the trader for a few candy or perhaps a new pair of rubber boots.  Their parents, anxious to lay in a winter's supply of food simply overlooked the fact that food supplies, kerosene and gasoline were often carried in the same hold.  This meant a faint taste or smell of gas etc. was often discernable on flour, sugar etc., sacks of flour often had a hard moldy crust on the bottom from coming in contact with water in the hold of the boat.
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