Robert Lewis

Robert Lewis was born December 8th, 1913 in Sydney Mines, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

The town of Sydney Mines grew up around the rich coal fields of Sydney Harbor and one pit, Princess Colliery, operated continuously for 100 years, from 1875 to 1975. In that time, Princess produced 30 million tonnes of coal.

The first mining took place in 1766 along the exposed seams of the harbour cliffs. When the General Mining Association took over Cape Breton coal mining in 1827, the area was simply known as "The Mines."

By the turn of the century, Sydney Mines was one of the top coal producing communities in North America. Workers came from Italy, Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Austria, England, Scotland and Wales to work in the mines.

Many of the workmen imported by the General Mining Association were English or Scottish. I visited the town and found that the Lewis's are listed as English in the 1917 Sydney mines census for ward 3. The census lists them living at "new houses" and this would have been Guy Street and Cottage Street. They called these new homes miners cottages and this is how Cottage Street got its name.

They lived right on the Atlantic coast, breathtaking views of the sea contrasted with the darkness of a mining community. I stood there on streets that perhaps Bob played on, the Atlantic breeze in my face and I imagined that it was a hard life for the families who existed there, often owing all to "the company store" and for those that arrived in the Spring or Summer, a cold bitter Winter would await them.

I never knew this history of my Uncle Bob when he was alive, it would have been fascinating to hear of his childhood spent on the East coast of Canada.

There is a lesson there, talk to your relatives while you can.