Long Cove, which was renamed Loreburn in 1912, is a resettled community located on the north shore of Southwest Arm. The community was first settled by Benjamin and Maria (Banton) Price and their family of Hant’s Harbour, Trinity Bay. All of their children were born at Hant’s Harbour: Jeremiah, November 16, 1846; Noah, September 8, 1848; Elizabeth, October 27, 1850; James, January 7, 1853; Corbett, September 17, 1855; Caroline, November 10, 1859; and, Absalom, July 1860. Before the Prices arrived, Loreburn was also used by the Dean family of Southport as a winter tilting location. Stephen Dean (of William and Ellen Dean) was born there in 1843. It appears that Benjamin Price was also attracted to the area by the abundance of wood and it is thought that he and his family began to overwinter seasonally at Loreburn in 1848. It is unlikely that the Price family settled there permanently until 1869 when, according to the 1921 census, James Price was born there to Jeremiah and Jane Price.The names of Benjamin and his son, Jeremiah, also appear on the 1873 voters list for Loreburn, as well as the 1884 voters list. The 1891 census shows a population of 25 in five families. The families were those of Benjamin Price and his four sons, Jeremiah, Noah, Corbett and Absalom.
In the early 1880s, Joseph King of Hant’s Harbour settled temporarily at Loreburn after he married Caroline Price, daughter of Benjamin and Maria. Joseph and Caroline later moved to Little Heart’s Ease where they raised their family. Joseph was a shipwright and he built several schooners at Southport for Captain Edmund Seward. Caleb Meadus, originally from Champneys, Trinity Bay, spent his early years with family members at Shoal Harbour. He was adopted as a youth by the family of John Avery (Sr.) of Southport. Caleb married Jane Price, daughter of Corbett and Mary, of Loreburn and moved there circa 1907. In 1921 there were six families with a population of 34 in the community. By 1930, Arthur Flight had married Annie, daughter of Caleb and Jane Meadus, and they settled at Loreburn and raised their family there.
According to the 1935 census the population of Loreburn was 46 in ten families. In 1945 the population peaked at 49 in ten families. Along with Prices, Meadus and Flights, there was now a family of Stoyles in the community. Francis Stoyles of Hillview had married Nita, daughter of Elijah and Naomi Price, and settled at Loreburn for a brief period.
Loreburn’s economy was primarily based around the inshore fishery and Caleb Meadus and his sons, Herbert and Calvert, were among the first fishermen in the province to experiment with the introduction of nylon gill nets (circa 1962). The Price family operated a water driven sawmill in the community for many years until the 1940s.
The only religious denomination at Loreburn was Methodist/United Church. They constructed their first church circa 1916-1920. In 1989 the pulpit from the church was re-erected in the United Church at Green’s Harbour, Trinity Bay.
By 1966 the population of Loreburn began to decline and there were only eight students enrolled at the school. With the declining population and the topography of the area making it difficult to construct a road from St. Jones’ Within to Loreburn, the remaining seven families of Prices, Meadus and Flights petitioned the provincial government to grant them resettlement status. In 1967 five families moved to St. Jones’ Within and two families moved to Little Heart’s Ease.
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Evening Herald, 1911-10-12, Page 4
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Note: This article is subject to further correction and revision.