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1892 -1925: The story of two women and of the fledging town of St John’s, Newfoundland
A Sudden Sun
What you need to know before your trail
In 1892, a fire sweeps through St. John’s, Newfoundland. Lily Hunt is 19 and her life is about to change for ever. She becomes an ardent supporter for the life which follows, the status of women and women’s rights.
Twenty years later, Lily’s daughter Grace is heavily involved with the campaign for women to have the vote. At first Grace doesn’t know about what role mother has played in this area, as the woman she knows now is not the woman who would have done this. So why did Lily change so much and become a whole other woman. A woman who has hidden or at least sheltered her past. But why?
Travel Guide
Newfoundland land in 1892:
The day of the fire:
“It had been hot all day for days and days in a row, not at all the usual St John’s Summer when cool breezes, fog, and rain could be expected to punctuate the warmer weather.”
The fire starts at O’Brien’s farm and new spreads when single man coming running to shout the warning. It swept downtown quickly.
Newfoundland at the turn of the century both before and after the fire is a village changing considerably. St John’s the capital, is a bustling town, where the woman read the Ladies Home Companion and the Water Lily, the official WCTU paper. Where woman must lead a secret life for they don’t have the freedoms that men do. Women want the vote, more independence and are full of “high ideals and good works”.
Young people have it no better. They can’t have a life, friends, ideas that are not approved and applauded by their parents.
The landscape, despite the social upheaval of the time and the destruction of the fire is one of nostalgia personified – horses and carriages, women in nice dresses, steamships heading up and down the river. A town in flux when the fire comes however.
Streetview Maps
A) Newfoundland - St John's - Queens Road
B) Newfoundland - St John's - Gower Street Church
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: A Sudden Sun
Author/Guide: Trudy Morgan-cole Destination: St John’s, Newfoundland Departure Time: 1892 – 1932
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