Noggin Cove

Noggin Cove is located on the south side of Sir Charles Hamilton Sound, just west of Carmanville. The community lies in the southern extremity of Noggin Cove, which takes it's name from a small cask used to hold run or butter. It may be that the Cove is named after Noggin Cove Island, about 5 km off its eastern point, which bears some resemblance to an overturned half-cask. There is also a local tradition that the first settler was a fisherman named Doyle from Tilting on Fogo Island. In the 1850's the Hamilton Sound area was being frequented by fishing crews from the north shore of Conception Bay, which may have provided a market for Doyle's trade.

Doyle is said to have lived on the western side of the cove for a few years before returning to Tilting. It is probably his family that was noted in the 1857 Census when Noggin Cove is recorded as having a population of six, all Roman Catholics. The next settlers recorded, in 1869, were Robert and Sarah Wheaton (and their 13 children) , who had been living on the east side of Gander Bay since the 1850's and may have used Noggin Cove for summer fishing premises for some years. It wasn't until the late 1870's that Noggin Cove was finally settled permanently - by a fisherman from Ochre Pit Cove, a community in Conception Bay which had strong ties with Indian Islands, about 12 km off Noggin Cove. Local tradition has it that the first settlers were two young fishermen, Levi Pennell and Charles White, and their wives. The Parsons and the Gillingham families also came from Ochre Pit Cove and were joined by Angells, Snows and Whites. In 1884 the population was 46, with a schooner having been built in the past year, and by 1911 there were 112 people. These early settlers were almost all Methodists and in the early years attended a Methodist church at Frederickton, before building their own school/chapel in the early 1900's.

While there was some early involvement in the Labrador fishery, most residents of Noggin Cove fished local waters for cod or participated in the summer fishery off Wadham Islands, at the eastern Entrance to Hamilton Sound. Most of the cod, lobster and herring caught was sold to Earle's and Roberts' at Change Islands. Over time, however, residents drew on logging for the bulk of their incomes, working sawmills in Gander Bay and, as the twentieth century progressed, cutting pulpwood. By 1935 the major specie fished commercially was lobster. In the 1940's a few families moved to Noggin Cove from Indian Islands and by 1945 the population was 195. A major forest fire in the area destroyed much of the useful timber, but in the 1990's woods work, carpentry and general labour remained the major sources of employment at Noggin Cove, with the few remaining fishermen selling their catches in Frederickton.

Above information taken from Encyclopedia of Newfoundland & Labrador